School Committee — 2019-10-15

Agenda

1. Superintendent's Update (5 minutes) (29:53)
2. Cafeteria Report (31:16)
3. Personnel Report (31:34)
4. Monthly Budget Summary (31:37)
5. Warrants (31:40)
6. Appointment of the Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs (15 minutes) vote required (33:08)
7. YRBS Presentation (30 minutes) (36:08)
8. Approval of District Officers (5 minutes) vote required (1:31:02)
9. Technology Plan Update (15 minutes) (1:32:20)
10. Review of Revolving Accounts (30 minutes) (1:36:12)
11. Disposition of Surplus Material (5 minutes) vote required (1:44:22)
12. No New Business
13. Committee Action Items for SMART Goals (10 minutes) vote required (1:52:13)
14. Superintendent's Goals (10 minutes) vote required (1:56:03)
15. Revised Liaison Position: Communications (5 minutes) vote required (2:05:45)
16. Liaison Reports (5 minutes) (2:06:32)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE MELROSE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES● OCTOBER 15, 2019 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176

(ID # 7507) Announcements - Superintendent Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)

(ID # 7501) Consent Cafeteria Report Adopted

(ID # 7500) Consent Personnel Report Adopted

(ID # 7499) Consent Monthly Budget Summary Adopted

(ID # 7498) Consent Warrants Adopted City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 10/23/2019 3:59 PM Minutes Melrose School Committee October 15, 2019

(ID # 7514) Educational Programs and Personnel Appointment of the Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs (15 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7497) Educational Programs and Personnel YRBS Presentation (30 minutes)

(ID # 7518) Educational Programs and Personnel Approval of District Officers (5 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7502) Finance and Facilities Technology Plan Update (15 minutes)

(ID # 7503) Finance and Facilities Review of Revolving Accounts (30 minutes)

(ID # 7521) Finance and Facilities Disposition of Surplus Material (5 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7509) Policy and Planning No New Business

(ID # 7504) Announcements - Chair Committee Action Items for SMART Goals (10 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7505) Announcements - Chair Superintendent's Goals (10 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7510) Announcements - Chair Revised Liaison Position: Communications (5 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7506) 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 2 Updated 10/23/2019 3:59 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 Good evening one and all welcome to the meeting of the Melrose School Committee for this 15th day of October in the year 2019. For the record let me state that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast locally on MMTV on its government channel. As is our custom let us stand as we are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you very much. First up this evening is our continuing school committee spotlight series and tonight the spotlight shines on Melrose High School. Mr. Merrill please. Good evening and thank you for having us. I'm going to make room in a moment and hand it over to the senior English teachers. So I'll introduce them. Tanya P. Stearns, Jen O'Sullivan, Amy Marisolo and Ariel Gillette who's new to us this year and working into to this veteran staff of senior ELA teachers at the high school.

▶ 1:26 So two years ago the senior ELA teachers came to us with an idea that's kind of been thought about for a long time which we wanted to spotlight tonight called the Senior Capstone Project. So we made a transition last year. We were going to wait a little and we decided as a group that we were going to go forward and put it right into play last year and we're so happy we did. transition from a traditional senior paper to what we're calling the senior capstone project which really focuses around more voice and choice and what students are researching how they do it and most importantly how they present their work to their teacher and also their peers and other people in our school community i think it's a great example of what personalized learning can

▶ 2:18 look like especially as a culminating project at the high school level certainly at melrose high school um i'm not sure if any of you were able to see this but we all did on the opening day miss taymor decided to do a little series kind of like ted talks where some staff members in the district were able to go up and talk about what personalized learning means to them in their teaching so far through this journey we've been on and it was really powerful if you heard from some of our elementary teachers at the beginning it was outstanding and then as what it looks like at the high school level and we at the end watched one of the examples of the capstone it was a video done by one of our students which we're going to see in a little bit

▶ 3:04 and it was it was really great to see as a district what personalized learning starts to look like at the kindergarten level as students get to middle school and certainly into high school and what it looks like when they're 18 years old or so so i'm going to hand it over at this time to our senior ela team and they're going to walk you through kind of the process and then we're going to see an example in a few minutes thank you so much for having us everyone tonight as mr merrill mentioned for many years we had a culminating project for all of our seniors it was a senior research paper and while it was a very valuable exercise for students in terms of having them look closely at a literary text and learn key research skills one of the main things

▶ 3:54 it was lacking was that student choice and voice and also having some kind of authentic final product it was driven by student passion and our desire to move toward the capstone is really part of embracing melrose high school's transition into more personalized learning as a model for our pedagogy at the high school and we feel that this project has allowed students to truly embrace a passion that they have to look forward to college and career what they would like to study and pursue in the future to design a project and a product that allows them to share what they have learned with the community and have more of a real authentic community impact yes and as the most recent college graduate of my more experienced colleagues it's a nice way of saying it i was just

▶ 4:43 going to say what a nice way of saying it yes i can say that even when i graduated four and a half years ago colleges are moving towards the direction where research papers are definitely still relevant but the ability to present something you've worked on and to have an independently motivated authentic passion that you can research and set up in your own way is a much more useful skill right now in addition to the fact that it is so much more authentic for our students now so currently students are exploring their topics choosing a subject mentor working on a proposal and learning about the research process in coordination with our library media specialist tom sky quarter two starts with them after having done the proposal

▶ 5:32 then starting what we call a field work and field work is a broad term it can be anything from doing scientific research experiments like somebody last year tested spot pond water for what their end product is going to be it can be working on time spent doing whatever they're interested in if they're creating a song they can do the musical part of it if they're creating a film they can start putting together pieces of that film so the field work is separate from research and the research component is more academic and the field work is more applying the skills and it's combined so it's a sort of symbiotic process both the research and the field work and it feeds each other. In quarter three students are actually finishing whatever product they have designed as

▶ 6:25 Jennifer mentioned students produce a wide variety of products for some students that product is actually an experience so for instance last year we we had a student who organized an evening with a guest speaker to speak on domestic violence. And she organized all of that herself, coordinated the speaker, brought in people to watch the presentation. We also had a student who organized a play production for elementary school students who didn't have any access to theater and drama in their own schools. We also have students who actually designed a product. So we had students who made a documentary the history of the fellows conservation land and so their product was that documentary and all students at the end of the third quarter we have a two-week period where our seniors are during

▶ 7:13 their english classes doing a slide presentation about their research question how they investigated it their academic work their field work and addressing what was the community impact of their senior capstone and all of you of course have seen the learning comments so students are actually up there on that stage in the learning commons almost all of them in front of the largest group of people they've ever presented to which many students in their feedback told us was such a valuable but terrifying experience but in the long run they really felt that they had that confidence moving on to college because they had done that large presentation in front of a more significant audience this yep this student's final product is a result of her countless hours of

▶ 8:04 research time spent editing and collaborating with her mentor mr d benedetto our video production teacher about something that she is so very passionate about i'm extremely proud and and overjoyed to share my joy of finding out this year. I documented maybe because I never wanted to get the experience that I had when I was there. I find interest in building and capturing the moment so I can always look back. My research question is, how has photo and video changed over time, and how has it changed the way society documents travel? Personally, for me, documenting travel is a lifestyle. I want to inspire people with my content and my coverage, and I want to make sure that my videos feel inspired

▶ 8:54 and wanting to go explore while we live. Film and photography are both something that interests me the most. The industry is always growing and improving, which is an amazing thing. Cameras enable you to capture a specific moment in time and cherish it forever. And that is definitely a factor that is really used in making videos for people to watch. And this is how I started my passion. The first photograph ever taken was a picture of a street in the buildings. If you look closely, there's a man in his shoes collage in the bottom left. This was the first photograph ever taken. The camera used to take the photo was called the Daguerreotype camera. The man behind the camera's name was Louis Daguerre. The camera was introduced in September of 1839. It was constructed using

▶ 9:47 wood and sliding boxes in curved plates. It was used in studios where portability was not an issue. Although the camera build looks complicated, this is the grammar of each side of the camera. Fast forward 50 years later, the first ever Kodak camera was released in 1889 by George Eastman. Kodak's slogan, you press the button, we do the rest, was made by a inventor, George Eastman. George Eastman believed in making photography a middle-class world and making it possible for anyone to take pictures. In this video, it shows George Eastman showing his camera to people in 1922. He stands with a man named Will Hayes. Will Hayes was the first president of the Motion Pictures Producers Network. The next camera was called a semi-correct. It was invented in 1923 by George Easton.

▶ 10:44 The camera was shot using the camera itself. If it weren't for this portable camera, documenting travel and photo and video could have been very different today. As time continued on, VHS cameras were released in 1982 by JVC and so on. This is the first ever video recorded on a VHS camera in 1984. The invention of this type of camera was a huge step because now motion pictures include in color. Although the quality of this camera may not be the best, digital cameras changed the game forever. Heading more closer to the current day, in August of 1997, the world's first electronic digital camera was released. It was called the Sony Narco. This video shown here is the commercial for the Sony camera.

▶ 11:43 The camera was a huge hit to the public, because we could both take photo with it. It was also very cool. This is what it looked like. You can see it's clearly bulky, but for that time period, definitely a step in the right direction. All of those cameras I just talked about brought us to where we are today. Interesting, it shows. This is Sam Colder. Sam Colder is one of the biggest video creators on the platform today. With a staggering 1.3 million followers, he travels the world adopting his howl. Today not only do we have insanely talented video creators, but we have the iPhone and the evolution of technology to get credited. A lot of video creators today, including myself, use a DSLR camera.

▶ 12:39 DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. This is my camera. It's a DSLR. It's super light, normal, and hits insanely photos and videos where I write them. So to answer the initial question, how has photo and video changed over time, and how and how has it changed the way society documents travel? I think it's changed drastically over time through the makers of all different kinds of cameras leading up to this point. The evolution of cameras have changed the way we as a society document travel because the creators were always looking to make a better, faster, more portable camera. Video creators make capture travel from a vlog or a cinematic sequence, and today's camera made it possible. During the process of making this video,

▶ 13:30 I reached out to one of my favorite YouTube video creators. His name is Zay Solis, and this is his message to you. Hi, Maggie. It's Zay Solis. I'm here to talk to your school about how I got into film and photography and how I became a film photographer. How I got into film and photography was I used to film videos on my little iPod all the time, little iPod sessions. And my mom actually got a camera, and I kind of needed it too much, so I kind of picked that up and started filming a little bit of stuff here and there. And I kind of just took the camera program, to be honest with you, and I started making my own little videos. I'm actually a YouTube creator myself. I've traveled to numerous places around the world to see so many different cultures and stuff,

▶ 14:03 And it's crazy that I started filming videos on iPod Touch and now I use a camera to make professional videos and I get to travel all these places. So when I started on a little iPod Touch, it turned into now a career for me. And to be able to visit all these places and stuff is crazy. I don't have a bunch of time to change. Super lucky and very fortunate and super thankful for the job I do now. Well, I'm going to clap. So, next steps. So, we take surveys from the students in March at the end, and they give us feedback. Last year, the feedback helped us develop the schedule for this year. We changed some dates on when things are due, changed some things around. We'll do it again this year. And also, we'll have more examples of things to actually to show and inspire kids what

▶ 15:04 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: their own potential is. So that's our next step, is just collecting all the different examples of, you know, every senior has to do this. So it's just going to be a trove of treasures. Terrific. Well, thank you very, very much. That was very illuminating. Any comments or questions from the committee? Ms. Driscoll, please. I just want to thank you for thinking outside the box, for really aligning with what the district is trying to do and doing it in your own excellent way. I would have expected no less, but it's really superb. I have one question and that is for Maggie's video did you preview her script or was that in a portion of the year-long capstone and it sounds like so everybody has a piece of it and everybody's vested in

▶ 16:25 ensuring that Maggie is successful and that all the students are successful except that they really own the project it sounds like they really drive the project. So fantastic engagement in student learning. Any further comments? Mr. Sellem please. That was wonderful and I'm really excited to see that students can demonstrate growth and mastery in other ways than simply you know a typed out report. I'm curious if you had mentioned that students are presenting at the learning commons their presentation right and how it's a key part of their growth or their journey on this and I can I can attest in the business world I give presentations on a regular basis I'm curious though was when when Ms. Doyle came

▶ 17:21 to the learning commons for this or did she in fact did she just present this and that was it or did she present this and have some conversation some public discourse with that as well she practiced it first gave us an overview of what we were about to see sure and then as you can see she integrated all the questions a lot of kids don't like to speak speak in front of a lot of people so she improvised and i thought it was actually a really great tactic for her and then she did accept there were a bunch of questions afterwards as well so um she handled that as well and as an example of student work how does this compare to the overall body is this pretty representative or can you speak to that yeah I mean we had all kinds of

▶ 18:11 different things so I mean something that was not I had a kid who we vamped an engine of an old car of Saab he made a Saab run again that hadn't run for years so just to give you an idea that it's just a big range and so I mean And maybe as a step going forward, we can take pieces of all these different things, make our own video to show all the possibilities. But right now, it's just the first year. So we're still just collecting all this information. And we tell kids, I mean, all kinds of questioning and all kinds of things happen in the classroom. Like, can I do this? Can I do that? And well, let's present it. Let's talk to your mentor, find out. So the whole process is, I don't know if that's answering the question, but it's all part

▶ 18:58 of it. It's, as representative, it's just, everything is so different. This is one we could bring in, like I couldn't bring the Saab in. I was fortunate enough, I probably saw two-thirds of them. It's a really powerful spell. This is fantastic, and I think the possibilities are endless. Thank you so much for taking on this work. Any further comments or questions? Seeing none, thank you all very much. Thank you for your presentation tonight. Thank you for the work you do every day with our students. Much appreciated. Next up on our agenda, report of the student representatives. Mr. Selm, would you like to introduce this? So we have Grace and Julia with us. And they will be participating in the youth behavior risk survey portion of tonight's

▶ 21:33 agenda. Terrific. met with the full student council body not just the reps on Thursday and it looks to be a very interesting year very productive here terrific so it's miss Donahue and miss Foley if I got this right well welcome thanks for being with us thanks for thanks for being student representatives all right moving on next up is the public comment a portion of our meeting this is the portion of our meeting when members of the public are afforded the opportunity to address the committee on matters that are before the committee this evening or otherwise within the jurisdiction or authority of the committee members of the public are generally afforded five minutes to address the committee all of that said

▶ 22:18 without objection the public comment portion of our period is now open are there any members of the public who wish to address the committee mr. Moroz good welcome I have a few comments on some of the agenda items tonight first the SMART goals for the school committee they feel fairly limited in terms of what you're looking to accomplish you know the first one is basically you know control your new electorate officials the second one is oh we're going to talk about the budget the third one is superintendent evaluation the fourth one is what you call regular outreach which we've seen year after year after year before that it basically means what you want to tell people and push into people's minds

▶ 23:18 rather than receive information from the public about what you could be doing differently the schools to be doing differently everything is a push nothing is a is a let things in and then with the equity and social justice one again we hear it all the time when you use the word for all students when you really aren't looking at all students you're trying to make that frame of all students as some wonderfully politically correct statement but it's clear that you don't see beyond some students to all students in many different categories I think that for some SMART goals things that actually attempting to do something new and different and improve the district rather than continue more of the same would be helpful here I want to jump next to the

▶ 24:07 superintendent's goals you know she tries to match them toward the the school committee's goals but I gotta say the superintendent's been here for a lot of years we need to be improving our district not just keeping a status quo you know the professional practice goal really is to hire and train a new finance person for the business office you know that's not anything improving the district we need to get somebody to be part of the job what you got to improve on and evaluate her on something to improve the district not on some basic function of hiring somebody and having them do their job the district improvement goal it's almost like training administrators the student outcome goal you're talking about it's a really cynical approach to the education

▶ 25:03 system that the superintendent latches on to one small piece of one thing desi put out back in January talking about that MCAS is trying to give a little bit of an emphasis to the 25% of students in the state who are performing on MCAS, the bottom 25%, to try to raise the achievement level floor, it doesn't say that we should ignore all of the students and just do something for that. It's a cynical interpretation of what Desi put out there, and it seems far too easy that the superintendent has latched onto that. You know, saying that they're going to look at data of the 25%, we've been hearing that they've been looking at data for year after year after year. We never see what comes of that data, we never see the results of it, and the truth is is

▶ 25:50 that a hundred percent of our students deserve an education to reach their potential a hundred percent of the time you don't just say oh we're going to not look at 75% of the students if you're not don't make them come to school let them do something more worthwhile and valuable for them then come to school and sit there while you're worrying about 25% of the students you know this stuff I'm not telling you anything you don't know but when you codify these things in superintendent's goals and then she just has to match this low level threshold of a goal that really is nothing that's not a goal you as a school committee need to lead the superintendent you're the you're the true leaders of this district you need to pull her up to a higher level to have

▶ 26:33 her perform something into the idea that we only have to look at a couple little practice goals a year because I would be too much to do otherwise you know we see all the time that administrators aren't here forever right and if we spend all time working on one or two items a year and then after three years somebody's gone well there's a whole host of items that they haven't ever addressed or made better in their schools or in their districts that don't get done we're talking here about pace of change and quality of change and we aren't seeing it coming out of this type of a goal setting process out of this type of superintendent goal process it's so limited the issue of equity that you raise equity would

▶ 27:20 would mean that the schools at a core stop discriminating against children based on their age. That the schools say, hey, we're going to look at who you are, what you're good at, what you're capable of doing in math or science or social studies, and give you an appropriate curriculum instruction for your level of achievement that you've had already and your level of interest. Age discrimination is probably the largest equity problem have, because if we actually treated kids according to who they are, what they've achieved, what they're capable of doing, if we meet the aspirations of Chapter 69, Section 1, that basically say that we're going to help all children develop to their individual potential,

▶ 28:03 and that each child in the state can have a meaningful experience in the classroom, that's what we're looking to do in our education system. That's what equity is. If you don't look at the age discrimination that's rampant throughout the Melrose schools, as well as many others, you'll actually solve a lot of problems. You won't be looking at somebody's race, you won't be looking at somebody's age, you won't be looking at somebody's religion, you'll be looking at who somebody is, what they've shown they're capable of doing, and where they are next in their zone of proximal development to give them an optimal level of struggle, so that they can achieve those personal qualities, skills, and characteristics that are going to be more meaningful for

▶ 28:44 them as an adult than just what level of academic knowledge they've attained. Thank you, Mr. Morales, that's more than five minutes. Thank you, I just want to one close statement. It's the challenge that you give a student over the 13 years that they're here that develop them into the person that they need to become. It's not what you show them academically or anything else. that end in in closing the you know i think it was over four years ago superintendent tamor came here and talked about this you know aspiration for her about competency-based education there's a couple little improvements but it's fallen flat we're still discriminating by age we're still putting kids into classrooms not based on who they are we're not moving them forward

▶ 29:25 based on what they've accomplished and what they're ready to learn you know why don't we go back to the four years ago superintendent's goals and why don't we try to get that one accomplished before we start looking at whether the superintendent can train a finance person or get her administrators to look at data or anything else thank you thank you mr morose are there any other members of the public who wish to address the committee seeing none and without objection the public comment period is now closed and that brings us to the announcements of the superintendent of schools madam superintendent thank you mr o'connell uh really what i have tonight is a public service announcement or an ad i don't know what it is

▶ 30:01 We still need paras in the district. We were in a meeting today, Ms. White-Lambright and I, and Ms. Farrell, and we are still struggling to find paraprofessionals. So I just wanted to make the committee know that we're about five short right now, Patty, and if anybody out there is interested in working for the schools, please contact my office. Very good. Any comments or questions? Ms. McAndrew, please. Thank you. add i think we're still also looking for crossing guards yes marianne says yes and drivers yes okay he has to he's calling you're not me thank you superintendent mr so thank you sir uh the five paras uh that you're looking to hire uh just out of curiosity where uh lincoln middle school high

▶ 30:58 school any further comments or questions seeing none Thank You superintendent much appreciated and that brings us to our consent agenda which this evening consists of the following items the school committee special meeting minutes for September 14 2019 the school committee regular meeting minutes for September 24 2019 the cafeteria report the personnel report the monthly budget summary and the warrants as follows FY 20 September debit card s 2 0 0 0 7 the amount of $300 FY 20 school s 2 0 0 0 8 in the amount of two hundred thirty one thousand five hundred and fifty three dollars and sixty four cents FY 20 September high school wire s two zero zero zero nine in the amount of seventeen thousand seven hundred and six dollars and six cents and last but not least fy

▶ 32:02 twenty September meals tax s two zero zero one zero in the amount of sixty seven dollars and forty one cents are there any items which any member of the committee wished to remove from the consent agenda mr. Obrimski could we pull the special meeting minutes and that will go to the announcements of the chair Mayor Infurna and that will likewise go to the announcements of the chair any other requests seeing none is there a motion to approve the balance of the consent agenda made by Miss Driscoll seconded by Mr. Selm all those in favor and that passes with six in favor and one absent and that brings us to the work of our subcommittees first up this evening educational programs and personnel with Mr. Selm. Thank you and welcome to tonight's educational

▶ 33:08 programs and personnel portion of the meeting. First up is the appointment of the Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs. This does require a vote. Madam Superintendent would you like to make your introduction? Thank you Mr. Selm. As we all know Ms. Farrell is retiring at the end of this week and we We began a search for her replacement last summer, and I'm very pleased to recommend Leah DiLorenzo-Sicor as the Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs. Leah has quite a bit of financial experience, having worked 20 years in Weymouth in a variety of positions, most recently as the finance manager for the Weymouth Public Schools. She is a certified school business manager and has a bachelor's in business administration

▶ 34:04 and is currently enrolled in a master's program in business administration. Our projected date of start is October 28th. In accordance with Mass General Laws Chapter 21, Section 41, the school committee is responsible for appointing, awarding the contract, and I am recommending a three-year contract to the school committee thank you madam superintendent for purposes of discussion I'd like to invite a motion please motion made by mr. school second by miss McAndrew discussion miss McAndrew please I would just add that that I had the pleasure of serving on the search committee for this position and I'm really excited to welcome Leah and look forward to to working with her so thank you any further comment or discussion seeing none all in favor all opposed abstain

▶ 35:10 motion passes five four one absent one abstain thank you everyone and congratulations leah we look forward to it and just a moment of uh point of privilege uh what no go ahead i'm waiting for you to do it i i just want to thank uh miss farrell for her time uh before this committee uh in the last few years what yeah you give away the store here i'm just waiting to see you i i just want to thank you for your time on uh i'll let individual committee members do that but i think i i i think i can speak for all of us that we appreciate the work that you've put into it next up on the agenda is the youth behavior risk youth risk behavior survey madam superintendent would you like to invite mr. Kinney up computer just for

▶ 36:15 background information two years ago the Middlesex League superintendents joined forces and applied for a grant from Lahey Clinic, which they have given us two years in a row now, so that we could take the youth risk survey, computerize it, and hire a top-notch data analysis company. Previously we all hired our own data analysis companies, and as some of you may know from past experience the results were often less than reliable so jsi john snow incorporated is a very well respected health data analysis corporation i think across the country if i'm correct right so we really are excited by the work they've been able to do for us for two years and at a recent meeting of the middlesex league superintendent our goal is to continue to work

▶ 37:22 with jsi in 2021 when we continue when we do the next yrbs so with that i will give you mr mckinney uh thank you so much for doing say more uh mayor from on the committee i'm privileged to be here tonight uh and i want to give you a summary of some of our findings it's not so much a summary I'm sorry if you don't have one of those mics they can't record you for the TV perhaps using the microphone at the very end of this table here next to okay thank you all is this is this okay great and and sorry just cue mr. Merrill and he will move the slides forward for you thank you so much as superintendent a more said my name is Alec McKinney I'm with JSI John Snow Inc we're a public health research and consulting firm

▶ 38:24 we've been engaged with the Middlesex League set school districts that some Middlesex County per se but it's the 12 districts that are part of the Middlesex League and I will I want to applaud Melrose for being part of that league you know the CDC the Centers for Disease Control Prevention requires that all states do the youth risk behavior survey and they do a statewide sample but that often does not give you the comparative data nor the comprehensive information that you need to actually act so the the the Middlesex League has taken upon themselves to invest in a collective strategy whether you can compare a regional average rather than using a state average we can have a Middlesex league average and therefore have a bit better comparative data to

▶ 39:11 see where you rank against both your peers as well as the state overall so we use the CDC survey you can go to the next side thank you we use the CDC survey which is a standard survey nationally but we have tailored it to some extent to to add to give the opportunity for every district to add in a handful of questions that are unique to your district or something that you're interested in. The six areas that we're looking at are unintentional injury and violence, mental health, substance use, sexual behavior and HIV, and nutritional and physical activity. You know, to the extent that, before I get going, to the extent that any of this information may be startling or concerning to you, I just want you to know that Melrose is not necessarily

▶ 39:54 unique in a lot of this data. is information that is captured across all the district and it's something that all districts are grappling with and so you know there are some statistics here that that you might be you know that that might be concerning to you but you know again these are issues that that are really really across across the state and across the country so here the shape here on the screen is the map the Middlesex League as you probably know your geography but I do Melrose is to the east sort of centrally but to the far east with where that circle is. JSI developed the survey of course using the CDC as a template. We then administered the survey with each of the districts and then have done standard

▶ 40:40 analysis and reporting through individual district reports which you should have as well as a regional report that gives a sense of where Melrose fits into the region. There were roughly 900 high school students surveyed and roughly 500 middle school students. We looked very carefully at the distribution by grade, by gender, as well as by race, ethnicity and to the extent possible that allows you to give a sense of how the data compares across the different cohorts. I'm going to go through some of the key findings in each of the six areas, but again, this is just a smattering of the information is there and just give you a flavor of what we found so within the area of risk factors and unintentional injury a lot

▶ 41:30 of the questions are related to driving helmet use while riding a bike as well as skateboarding or using a scooter and compared to the Middlesex League Melrose students had a similar rates for taking off you know talking the phone while driving drinking while driving so in some cases there were there were not a whole lot of differences between it the data in this particular area 11.8 percent of of students and high school students report driving while using marijuana compared to thirteen point six so it's you know comparable slightly less for Milrose when you look at helmet use thirty nine point three percent of those students said reported wearing a helmet when riding a bike compared to 28.7 so

▶ 42:18 actually that's a sort of a positive view we also looked at bullying and sexual violence Melrose students were more likely to report being bullied on school property 14.6 percent versus 13.0 again just slightly more relatively comparable but slightly more than the Middlesex average 13.8 reported being electronically bullied and then the middle school students were less likely to be to physically fight on on school property than the Middlesex League so again these are comparable to the Middlesex League and in some cases slightly higher somewhat lower we also looked at bullying and sexual violence among school students Melrose falls in the third quintile if you look at the shade of the darker the shade the higher the rate Melrose falls into the third

▶ 43:12 quintile with respect to the percentage reporting sexual violence in the past 12 months four point six percent and similar rates for sexual dating violence again four point six percent versus four point eight percent in the league where possible if you just go back quickly we have in the report you'll see that we the Commonwealth findings as well in addition to the regional findings mental health and suicide one of the most I think one of the more important findings in the survey we look at a series of questions looking at sad and blue and how stressed students are and then look at to the extent that students have thought about suicide have actually a plan for suicide and attempted suicide and so there's a whole series of questions they get at that students fall

▶ 44:09 in the second highest quintile across districts of students reporting they have a plan to commit suicide and sort of prior to that in the continue among the school districts Melrose high schools were among those most likely to report feeling sad and hopelessness and stressed as I said there's sort of a continue with the questions here so twenty eight point nine percent felt sad or hopeless twelve point five seriously considered attempting suicide a nine point nine met had a plan three point two attempted and thirteen point two wanted to do something sort of personally hurt themselves so this is sort of a an indication of a sort of a continuum of issues around mental health and and then of course suicide on the middle school Melrose middle school

▶ 45:02 students for slightly less likely report suicidal ideation and the on the continuums they identified school demands and expectations as some of the leading issues around stress substance use alcohol is the most reported substance abuse followed by electronic vaping products marijuana cigarettes and prescription drugs this graph shows the middle six percentages of anyone who has ever tried any of these substances on the right and then on the left is the Melrose numbers and the distribution is the same across the board vaping has become an absolute rage across the district and has certainly quickly risen to the number two position but alcohol is and continues to be the leading substance of use as far as yeah next slide thank you you know specifically in

▶ 46:01 the data high school students one in two reported lifetime use of alcohol one in four reported current use one in five reported binge drinking so the data allows us to look at sort of a continuum of use and middle school students reported you know pretty comparable or less likely to drink alcohol and use some of these other substances in general Melrose students were more likely to report recent use of substance use substances alcohol electronic vaping marijuana and cigarettes compared to the to the Middlesex League so slightly but not dramatically more 31 versus 28 when it comes to alcohol 26.9 versus 24.3 when it comes to e-cigarettes, so sort of comparable data. Tobacco use and marijuana use, there are numerous questions on the survey in this regard, 4.2%

▶ 47:03 reported current smokers, 42.9% ever using vaping products, 35% reported they ever used marijuana. are some of the statistics and in general male roses statistics are higher slightly higher than the Middlesex League we also look at sexual and reproductive health behaviors and you know compared to the Middlesex League there's in some cases they were higher in some cases lower any sexual encounter slightly more likely to report high school students were more slightly more LIKELY TO REPORT THAT DRINKING AND USING DRUGS BEFORE THEIR LAST SEXUAL INTERCOURSE AGAINST SLIGHTLY HIGHER AND THEN CURRENT SEXUAL ACTIVITY SLIGHTLY HIGHER IN MALE ROWS AND NOT USING ANY METHOD OF CONTRACEPTION AGAINST SLIGHTLY HIGHER THAN THE MIDDLE SEX AVERAGE.

▶ 48:04 SO DEFINITELY ISSUES TO THINK ABOUT AND TO WORK ON. forgive the double negative here but less likely not to use a condom so that's a good thing so compared to the Middlesex League so that was a positive finding and then Melrose students were more likely to report risky sexual behaviors compared to other students in the league although the numbers are very small slightly less likely that's like more likely finally nutrition and physical activity compared to students in league Melrose high school students had comparable rates of not eating breakfast and all seven of days of the week not eating fruits and vegetables not in veg fruits not eating vegetables So, but there is a significant finding

▶ 49:07 that we're not as likely to be physically active. So 14.9% reported that they were not physically active compared to 12.1% in the Middlesex League. So, next slide, thanks. So again, this is very quick. It's a ton of data in the survey. We looked across age and grades. There's at least the possibility to look at comparisons across race, ethnicity, all the numbers. There's not a whole lot of power in those statistics because the numbers are relatively small in Melrose, but there is that ability. Unintentional injuries is an area that can be looked at. Exposure to bullying, substance use for sure. Next slide. Mental health is something that we found across the Middlesex lead schools as something that really needs to be looked at.

▶ 50:05 And in some cases, Melrose were higher than Middlesex rate. So in our regional and district reports, there's a full summary of the findings. But these are just some of the things that we found. So I'm happy to take questions on our approach. And I believe Mr. Fogarty is going to help with sort of facilitating questions. Thank you very much. So if I may, questions about the statistics or numbers in this report? Mr. McKinney will answer. About our approach or? Questions about Melrose plans, specific plans? Superintendent, that was? Ms. Whiteland-Bright, Mr. Merrill, and Mr. Fogarty can answer, because obviously Mr. McKinney would not be familiar with our curriculum or our plans. A couple of things that I want to say about using JSI and this, again, we are pleased,

▶ 51:14 we feel the analysis is a much more reliable analysis than we've seen in the past. My next steps would be to be able to do more longitudinal comparisons, but that's a negotiation between the Middlesex League superintendents and JSI. Again, YRBS is an every other year survey. For many years on off years, Melrose did the PRIDE. Kathy Gravera, the substance abuse counselor for the city and I just came to an agreement that with the grant that she has available, we will buy the pride again. And we will give it in the late winter, spring of 2020. The reason why we like to use these two surveys alternatively, YRBS questions the students, the pride questions the parents. And one of the concerns that we have is the disconnect between what our kids know and what our parents think they know.

▶ 52:17 and I think that when we plan going forward in conjunction with our city partners having that information about parents knowledge or lack of lack of knowledge is a very important factor in whatever plans we make I don't know Alex if you want to talk about how our rate of participation was compared to other communities or if there's anything else significant that when people look at the Middlesex report they should have in their mind as far as the participation rates there was I mean the Melrose participation rates in particular were high and certainly adequate for some really strong results a thousand almost a thousand high school students is a you know very a good number across the all of the districts we had more than 10,000 students which is a you know again

▶ 53:15 provides really robust analysis you know the key areas that we found here in Melrose but certainly across the district were around the tremendous stress that students feel and the impacts that that has on on them with respect to you know feeling sad and blue or stressed and you know negative thoughts of suicide those were some of the key findings certainly the substance use of the vaping in particular the increase in vaping over the past few years has certainly reflected in our data and then I mean those are really the two leading issues that we found across the board there's certainly other important findings but those are the two leading ones pretty much I mean I there were certainly some there were higher than others but the the range was you

▶ 54:23 know within sort of five percentage points across many of the figures any comments or questions from the committee mr. O'Connell thank you very much Madam Chair and I'll start with a math question I think the superintendent used a phrase longitudinal comparison and when I look at the Melrose specific report I'm particularly interested in seeing where we were in 2017 and where we are in 2019 am I wrong from a statistic standpoint to be interested in that is that not enough time to really begin to draw conclusions is is there more data that's out there or is it just a matter of me and my colleagues getting the past reports and and presenting the data ourselves I guess I have two points on that you know certainly you know data is informative regardless but it's you

▶ 55:29 You know, and so a longitudinal analysis looking at last year would certainly help, but I think some of these things don't change quickly, and I think typically three to five years with three data points is sort of what we look at from a statistical perspective. So having two data points is not going to be quite as informative. Now if you see a large change, well then, and you can track that change back to interventions that you think could have had an impact, well, then you can make some correlations between that. So I think it's certainly valuable, but I think we'd like to, you know, typically we'd like to see more than just a two-point trend. The other thing I would just say is that a lot of this information is high in its own

▶ 56:16 right. You know, let me just use an example. You know, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, the three leading causes of death amongst adults, and they always are and always have been, and in some cases they go up and sometimes it goes down, but they are still the leading killers, you know what I mean? So you know, I think the data can be used regardless of the longitudinal analysis to identify really what you should be focusing on. Great. I'm glad I asked that question. May I ask a follow-up, Madam Chair? Yes. of the increases we saw or we see in this report is the dramatic increase in vaping and I noted that that was particularly in the middle school and I'm wondering if that's what you've seen across Middlesex and or otherwise in

▶ 57:07 your experience and preparing these types of reports the rates are always higher in high school but the the rate of acquisition of youth a young young at younger age is is is quite new and it exceeds that which we see with respect to tobacco and cigarettes so a lot of the vaping products are being used much earlier than then let's say tobacco and so you know they're certainly lower but the the rate by which vaping products have been entered you know that been being used by by middle school students is pretty much you know without precedent at least to tobacco use thank you for that and just one final comment madam chair I think this is all enormously helpful it is every time we do this in particularly your presentation tonight thank you for being

▶ 58:12 here i think what would also be helpful madam chair is if we could have follow-ups and i know we're going to hear from our staff tonight but beyond the staff assembled if we could hear going forward from our school wellness advisory committee our substance abuse prevention coalition the superintendent mentioned miss guevara our substance abuse prevention coordinator I think everyone all of those folks are going to need some time to digest this but if this is going to have any real meaning for us I think it would be helpful for us again in the weeks ahead to hear from these groups that are addressing this on a regular basis within their areas of expertise so I So I would just offer that as a suggestion for all of us going forward.

▶ 59:06 Thank you. Noted. Mr. Obronski. What's the time frame of when the YRBS is given to the students? Is it the same across the region, you know, choose what month to give it? A vast majority of districts administer the survey in the spring between April, in April and May. there are some districts that administer in the fall but there are thoughts that students don't have a chance and but in October to have settled themselves into a rhythm and into school into a sort of a school structure and so the idea is to wait until the spring that's when the state does it and that's when we've done it here in the Middlesex League it takes about 20 minutes it's a hundred and hundred odd questions the skip patterns that we've been we've developed because

▶ 1:00:04 Jennifer McAndrew: of the electronic survey allow us to do it more quickly with less burden although I will thank the students I hope you took the survey and it is not a trivial task so I mean I really want to thank the students for doing it when did vaping first appear on the survey do you know it was certainly their last time I'd have to look back I think e-cigarettes started probably I would guess five to six years ago on the survey thank you miss McAndrew thank you thank you so much for being here it's really helpful I also really appreciate having the the report and the league report where if folks are interested at home or watching you can see you can look at the answer distribution for the different questions too and look at as mr. O'Connell

▶ 1:00:57 mentioned the 2017 numbers I have a couple of questions and just in a comment more for our administrator team I think are my questions oh okay are we just doing if we can keep just a survey at this particular time okay then I'll wait okay any further questions with regards to the numbers on this document this Donna you yes I do have a question so the survey I was wondering one thing that I found that was left off of it that I think would be data that would be important would be information about eating disorders or like regarding mental health and nutrition I thought that it would be included in that I don't remember seeing it on the survey and it wasn't in the report it's not a standard part of the core but that is a great great thought I I'll have to see

▶ 1:01:54 if other districts have added that question but you certainly have the opportunity to add eight to ten questions to to this district specific so we can certainly to extent that this happens in the coming years let me just explain so the CDC the Center for Disease Control sets the questions and And then working with JSI, every district was allowed to add eight to ten questions that were important to them. Our questions are driven by our community partners. So for example, the Substance Abuse Coalition, Moros Against Violence, they need us to add certain questions to the survey, because the information from those questions helps them when they apply for grants. So we so we could add it, but we'd have to look at what we have to drop as well.

▶ 1:02:45 But I think it is an important question. So thank you. Any further questions with regards to the statistics and the numbers of the report? Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. McKinney, for coming and giving this presentation. We will shift now to plans for MOHOS specifically at this time. Any questions or comments? Or did you have an introduction? So, we have Ms. White-Lambright, who is the Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personal Services, as well as a member of the Wellness Advisory Committee. Mr. Fogarty, who is the Director of Health, Wellness, and PE. And Mr. Merrill, the high school principal, to talk about what they are thinking about in terms of this report. LET ME JUST SAY IN CLOSING, IF YOU DON'T MIND, SUPERINTENDENT TAMER, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR

▶ 1:03:47 YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS. YOUR LEADERSHIP AS PART OF THE LEAGUE IS REALLY, AT LEAST ON MY PART, NOT MISSED. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. MCKINNEY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. GOOD LUCK, EVERYBODY. AND JUST TO YOUR POINT, SUPERINTENDENT, WE ARE HAPPY TO LOOK AT THE TREND DATA AND TO YOUR QUESTIONS. You know, it's only two points, but we can easily track or create some type of report that allows you to look at change this year versus last year. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McAndrew, would you like to lead us off with regards to questions Melrose-specific? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm sure we all have questions about many of the areas highlighted around what Melrose

▶ 1:04:41 Jennifer McAndrew: will is doing will do in response and will change or not change I guess I I just had a couple of areas I want to highlight in particular so on I think the the questions around hopelessness and sad and stress that were highlighted is one of the survey findings also one of the areas where Melrose was higher than average and also an area if you look in the supplemental report where up from 2017 so I but one of the things that I also noted in the questions was that Melrose students reported very high rates compared to average of having a trusted adult in their life who they can talk to which seems like a hopeful sign on that front and so I guess I'm just wondering given that is there how our parents getting involved in this conversation around with the district

▶ 1:05:41 around hopelessness and sad and stress and suicidal ideation and is that an opening given those two findings to think about that community topic last year the substance abuse and prevention coalition they brought in Lynn Lyons to address the stress and she's a tremendous resource and you know regionally she has quite a following and that was a good first step for us looking at this information we as a group thought that we could use a little mental health overhaul in this August we brought in a group from the outside we did a mental health 101 and we educated everybody at the high school level in in some of the middle school that were able to make it about mental health and statistics and things like that follow that up with a nan project for any staff that was willing to uh sit through

▶ 1:06:39 the two-hour presentation on our first half day in september and then the nan project is going to come back and visit with students in november and also talk about this topic so when that happens guidance counselors will be in the room with the class with the nan project and with the wellness teacher so those are some first steps that we've done some other things you know there's additional staffing around we have two new assistant principals at the elementary level we have two part-time adjustment counselors through the safe steps grant at the elementary level we have the addition additional guidance counselor at the high school we have an additional 0.2 school psychologist at the high school um this new resource officer at the middle school

▶ 1:07:21 he's been there three years and with their summer camps that's only going to build in relationships so that's that's something new we're very proud to have tinker on campus and crowd favorite every day and then we also have the additional new nurse going back and forth between middle school and high school so many of these things are being addressed and it does take time but uh we're very grateful to have those new staff members in place we're grateful to have partnering up with the man project and uh you know sharing some of this i think you know part the other piece we i think we've done a lot of work around supporting our staff training our staff looking for how to wisely use our resources within the district to support

▶ 1:08:04 students but when we step back and do look at that big picture it's not just about what we're doing in the school it is about that partnership with the community and certainly partnership with parents it's always a challenge whenever we have different types of presentations to have parents you know we'll put things together and we'll get some parents we'll get some groups but i do think that's an important component of thinking of that bigger picture of how do we really affect change for our students it's it's all of the things that Mr. Fogarty talked about those are good pieces that we have in place but it is that larger picture so that's certainly a topic we could explore further about parent

▶ 1:09:00 presentations and my thought is also more around clear parent resources so So although in the moment, kind of going to some presentation some evening, you know, we might get some people. But I think it's about, again, being clear with parents and community when they have a question, when they can get help, who can they get help from. clear about the staff as resources and then being able to access that because it's it's not it's not always convenient at that time you go to that workshop it's it's the oh my gosh I need some help and making sure that people know how to access that so along the same lines three years ago the city signed up for the interface resource and they give us statistics every year and I will tell

▶ 1:10:09 you the staff at the schools are phenomenal about connecting families to interface actually most of the referrals to interface come from school personnel to families I'm not sure that's as well advertised as it it would be in the city whether it's something that goes into the local newspapers or up on the I don't know where it is on the mayor's website it's been on the blog and just recently someone reblogged it onto we did it on the page so i think that's a resource that you know when you talk about when patty talks about community resources um you know it's um the unfortunate truth of the matter is and quite frankly i just had this conversation this morning with um some elementary school staff because i was present for a child in crisis there are not enough child and youth

▶ 1:11:00 psychiatric mental health services available in this state i'm not even going to talk about this country all right and our experience has been we 9-1-1 a kid to a hospital and the kid gets sent home because the truth of the matter is if you if you can declare yourself safe in that moment they will send you home and this is this this is a horrific issue for for not just educators but obviously for families for children for extended families who have gone through this with young people or even old people doesn't matter how old you are so this is beyond the schools this goes way beyond us we do SOS screening at the middle school you know as Patty and Steven said we brought in the NAN project when we had a suicide in the

▶ 1:11:57 district a couple of years ago we did extensive work with kids and staff we trained staff at the high school in SOS I will tell you the bonus about our kids Our kids go to an adult, and you picked up on that. I cannot tell you how many times our kids have come forward to an adult and said, I gotta tell you about my friend. And that's a valuable moment, and I'm glad our kids are doing that. It does not relieve the underlying problem, and that's the conversation with the parents about the underlying problem. So, but this is probably one of the most serious issues facing this country right now, mental health in young people. Help for a Friend, that's one of the topics that the Student Action Board of the Meadows

▶ 1:12:46 Jennifer McAndrew: and Lanskins Violence Youth, they'll speak to freshman seminars, and that's one of their whole class lessons is how do you support that friend? What type of help, what direction do you send them, who do you speak to? So amongst other things, there's a lot of action student to student as well as adult to student. Thank you. I'll just do one other one and then I'll stop hogging all the time. Thank you. So in the summary and in the report it was mentioned that 33% of Melrose High School students reported having unsafe sex and that we had higher sexting or texting about sexual activity rates um and then in the this the detailed report on the questions um where students are asked about what they're taught in school about hiv and birth control it did seem like our

▶ 1:13:48 Jennifer McAndrew: rates are i know those weren't in the summary but are pretty low compared to the district so i wonder if and i'm not saying there's necessarily a causal relationship there are a lot of factors that lead to those that kind of decision making but i'm wondering if i know we're i think we're in the middle of a wellness curriculum review and if we're looking at our comprehensive sex ed curriculum um and and sort of how that's going i guess in the context of now having these findings so the wellness review we're very excited for that we'll be back in a couple weeks to talk more about that specifically but when you pair the wellness review you look at the curriculum top to bottom K to 12, and now you take this bit of information that we have, there's a lot to digest, but

▶ 1:14:37 there's a lot that we can see and make some quick hits, quick wins, and then there's some things that will take a little more time. So I would also remind the committee, if you're not aware of it, the state has undertaken a rewriting of the comprehensive health framework for the first time since 1999. and so we're anticipating that'll be released around the same time that we finish the wellness review great thank you that topic um you know sexual education is a 10th grade class wellness too so it is covered but again we'll uncover more of that as we get into that review process Ms. Driscoll. Thank you and thank you for being here tonight after a very long day. One thing that I found somewhat curious and more than a little disappointing is the high

▶ 1:15:30 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: school responses to the questions how wrong do your parents feel it would be for you to have one or two drinks of an alcoholic beverage nearly every day and the same for smoking marijuana and if I'm reading this correctly and if I'm not please let me know that there was not as that the students do not perceive that parents feel that these activities are very wrong or wrong they see that they see that there is an issue but they don't seem to have the same urgency or concern as they might with respect to tobacco and prescription drugs. So my question is because it appears that alcohol use is the number one substance being illegal substance being used by our students, if students don't perceive that their parents

▶ 1:16:36 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: have a very negative feeling about this that would signal to me that we as a community of families have more work to do and i want to know if you interpreted that the same way that i did and if i've interpreted it wrong what might be a better interpretation i think you're spot on i mean we're with these kids eight hours of the day so where they are the rest of that time you know that's that's between the families you know we're fortunate when they stay involved in whether it's the arts band drama after school athletics any of our programming it's great where you can have eyes on them for the next three hours in the afternoons um but then they go home at some point or they're off with their friends somewhere it is a community problem with that being said um

▶ 1:17:26 the things we've talked about we're in uncharted territory we have a casino four miles away we didn't have that before they've extended out extended hours for drinking um you know there's more restaurants in town there's a lot more access for students and we have to do a better job just holding that line in expressing the importance of what age means and appropriate behaviors are things like that but again we're we're packed into eight hours and they got to get a little bit of math and english and a couple of things in there too and one of the things that mr fogan and i have talked a lot about just in the past week was and i think we're certainly in the same as other districts across the country never mind the middlesex league is we've had such

▶ 1:18:14 a focus on vaping over the past two years and i think we talked about needing to kind of refocus back to alcohol and THC as well but just as you stated you know vaping is is a craze across the Commonwealth but it doesn't even come close to alcohol and I think we need to on our end refocus a little bit but it certainly takes a village and in the community and in families play play a huge a huge role in that and i think and i had a recently had a parent family coffee about vaping and we got into substances as a whole and and then in our conversations kind of even talking about community events uh that support that um but i think it's the message we send it's the message i send as an adult in the community along with everyone else thank you and i know you'll continue

▶ 1:19:20 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: in those efforts to improve some of that to the extent that you possibly can. On the positive side, if I may, just real quickly, I did find it very heartening that according to the survey Melrose did rank better with respect to number one, studying things you're not interested in, and I feel like that is speaking to our competency-based education and the fact that in light of the presentation that we had to open our evening, it's really reflective of the good work you're doing in professional development and the fact that all of your folks are working really hard to find ways to continue to engage and really up the engagement of all students not just certain students so i thank you for that i also think that

▶ 1:20:19 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: the fact that we appeared to be a little bit better compared to the middle sex league and the getting up early to go to school is one data point reflective of our initiative to start school earlier so I appreciate all the work from later well I get up early so it's starting you know having that extra time in the morning and you know students seem to be less stressed around that so I think if as we look at data points and as we're you know started still sort of in in the infancy of starting school later based on the 2015 initiative i think this is one data point that in a professional survey that speaks to improvement there and positive results so i thank you for that thank you ms donahue please yes so last spring i believe we had some sort of i think it was like i think

▶ 1:21:25 it was a state mandated thing where all of the high school students or at least the sophomores met with their guidance counselors or someone to talk about same risk behavior like you know practices and I was just wondering I don't I do remember someone saying that it was coming from the state and Massachusetts was having all the schools do that but was there any relation between that and the data we heard about today or is there any sort of like those are run independently what you're speaking of is called the expert so we do that in the middle school in eighth grade and then we follow it up again in the high school in 10th grade and it's just it's a quick screening you know how long did that take you 15

▶ 1:22:09 minutes 15 minutes you sat down one-on-one with a counselor they're trained in taking this inventory and then depending how you answer those questions you go back to class or you'll speak to someone else so that's done it at two grade levels and you know just an opportunity to look for something that might be going wrong with someone give someone an opportunity to talk about given situation so was that also was that more about like taking action against or students report risky behavior was it about like data collection it's action for that individual student it's not data collection grace it's we're required by state law to give that and then if we think a child is at risk, to refer that child to the substance abuse counselor.

▶ 1:22:59 So it's about an intervention. If a student scores at a certain point, we're required to at least set up an intervention. What happens after that intervention is set up is up to the child and his or her parents. Great question. Mr. Abramski, please. Question. This is on the topic of the YRBS, but it's a little different from what we've been talking about. the survey results saying 60% of the kids did not eat breakfast on all seven days and that's pretty much on track with the entire league but so we say like kids don't eat breakfast well nobody eats well my curiosity is why they're crossing the street to Dunkin Donuts but that's beside the point but are they like they understood my reasoning for asking this question are

▶ 1:23:56 they understanding the questions in some respect how's the question being asked that's that that's a very good question because if they they're interpreting the question as you sit down and have a bowl of cereal at home no I didn't eat breakfast what I did was go to Dunkin Donuts when I got to the building that's my point I don't know that's a very good question can I just I just speak to that same thing I was curious about like well I have a protein bar that's breakfast Yeah, that's breakfast, but I don't have a, you know, AIDS and something or whatever. I thought the same thing, so I think that's a good point to kind of pursue further to see what that data looks like. And are we asking the right question?

▶ 1:24:40 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Right. Thank you. Ms. Driscoll, did you have a follow-up? Just if my personal experience, with kids in my 20s, I noticed a distinct difference between elementary school, middle school, and high school. by the time they got to high school they didn't eat breakfast they were just trying to figure out what day it was and and get moving and they just couldn't they couldn't breakfast but but they ate a big they ate a big lunch so it's also like when they're hungry because i found with boys and girls they were hungry at different times so i think that kind of information and completely anecdotally was for me sort of based on the student themselves and whether they were kind of ready to eat food thank you so I recently I can't don't ask me where I was it's some meeting

▶ 1:25:28 across the state last week and there was a conversation about this very talk about about kids being hungry and it was an urban school who decided to have food available all day so that when kids were hungry they could obtain food for the the very reason that Ms. Driscoll's talking about. Kids have different eating patterns, things like that. And I don't know what the cost would be, and I don't know how we would do it. But it's something worth thinking about, that in between classes, that you go down and you grab a granola bar or an apple, because kids who are hungry don't focus, so. Any further questions or comments? was wondering if they're in the data that was taken was there a way to see

▶ 1:26:28 discrepancies between age groups and they're like what they reported was there a way to say like 12th graders do more of this versus eighth graders I believe I believe the data was divided only by middle school or high school I do not believe it was broken down necessarily by grades miss white would you like to I was just wondering if there was a correlation between like getting older and the amount of stress that students reported feeling because I think that as you get older and you are taking classes in school definitely the looming thought of college becomes more cause of stress and so I was just wondering I don't know I thinks that it may lead to students feeling less anonymous if they have to put their grade in but most of us seniors did not

▶ 1:27:36 take it in 2017 because they were on internship at the time so that's an an interesting point to think about when you're thinking about the two data sets from 2017 to 2019. Like if the survey were to include ages, it might also help for substance abuse treatment and intervention, because social norms might be different for ninth graders versus 12th graders. Well said, Ms. Foley, thank you. I would like to also just acknowledge a couple of our Wellness Advisory Council members that were joining us today. Oh, this is Dr. Wilkley. And Maureen Busby is on our School Wellness Advisory. And Maureen has been an active member of helping us to discuss the issues of vaping along with training, have the opportunity to come in and train our paraprofessionals i'm always looking for

▶ 1:28:51 Gail Infurna: opportunities in a wide range so we appreciate that and dr alan wolf was here earlier and dr wolf is the school district's school physician who's also a member of the school wellness advisory council and has worked with us in helping to dissect this information and figure out which way to go with pieces and also to help us develop those additional time questions and lots of lively conversations about that so i just wanted to mention and appreciate their support mayor Infurna thank you just a quick one um and while maureen is here tonight i gave a tour of city hall to the french exchange students today and went into the health department and maureen just kind of nod yes or no if i didn't hear it all right because there were a lot of kids

▶ 1:29:47 Gail Infurna: and i wasn't listening to everything but she engaged them in a conversation about vaping and cigarette smoking and i believe from what i kind of got from it vaping wasn't a big thing at all they really didn't know too much about vaping at all over and this was a urban village outside of paris i just thought it was kind of interesting that they really didn't have really much of a clue i don't believe that what you were sort of talking about um so it's kind of interesting they were high school kids you know and here we are right yeah yeah they have more of the tobacco mr merrill can tell you that's always an interesting adjustment when they come here they walk outside and they light up and not realizing that you can't smoke on school property

▶ 1:30:32 uh-huh yeah well tomorrow morning we have the German students very good with unless there is any further comments or suggestions I will thank our administrators for coming and discussing this and look forward to their continuing this discussion in two weeks for the wellness thank you thanks thanks for all you do thank you for all you do and last but not least with regards to uh one moment please and last but not least with regards to uh ep and p tonight we have one more uh final document on uh the agenda the approval of district officers uh updated uh madam superintendent so uh as you know this has sort of been like a rolling agenda item um because we were in the process of hiring nurses and jenna hood has recently been hired

▶ 1:31:34 for the hoover school and i believe she started today so i just need your approval for her as a school nurse under chapter 71. motion to approve second motion made by mayor Infurna seconded by miss driscoll any discussion all in favor motion passes unanimously with one absent and that concludes the EP&P portion of tonight's program thank you Mr. Selim that brings us to finance and facilities with Ms. McAndrew and I think we'll take this opportunity to thank our student representatives for being with us great input comments much appreciated we'll look forward to seeing you next time thank you thank you thank you and good evening everyone um for finance and facilities tonight we have three agenda items the technology plan update the review of our revolving accounts

▶ 1:32:39 Jennifer McAndrew: and the disposition of surplus material first up we'll do the technology plan this is on for an update to the committee from the superintendent not a vote and I'll just note that we are approaching the end of the five-year plan represented here and I'll turn it over to the superintendent to give us some updates thank you I would not say we're approaching I would say it's done over and I'm presenting it to you tonight really so that we can close it out so it's interesting it's just amazing how fast this has gone we started this five years ago Sun Associates were brought in the Alderman supported a technology audit of the city and the school side and we came up with what then was a sound plan Jeff Sun had done similar

▶ 1:33:39 endeavors with many school systems technology went faster than the plan that's the bottom line never thinking that by 2020 we would have converted to Chrome BYOD Google ad never mind being all the other software programs that we use on a regular basis that every purchase we made of textbook would come with a digital copy so as far as the Technology Committee is concerned there is no place left to go on this so what we are seeking to do is as you know in the new contract we sort of reinvented the Technology Committee we broadened it so that we had wider representation from all levels mr. Ellis serves on it within the contract it says he will be there and he we had our first meeting last week and we want to give the Technology Committee a chance to rethink what are

▶ 1:34:39 the next steps for Melrose having pretty much fulfilled this plan we now have three digital literacy specialists we've returned 1.5 library media specialists we have the academic facilitator at the high school we have very strong talented LMS's at the middle in the high school and we built out the Learning Commons with all its technology so I think we have exceeded what we envisioned in 2015 thank you are there any questions from the committee so what can we expect for next steps that's up to the technology to decide what they want to do to present and how they want to go about it okay and the chromebooks met for the first time and the Chromebook initiative and other new initiatives that you

▶ 1:35:38 Jennifer McAndrew: mentioned will all be considered as part of that yes today we were onboarding the high school two weeks ago we onboarded the middle school and I haven't heard anything back we had some lessons learned from onboarding the middle school that we incorporated for the high school and as I said it was a very quiet a day I would have heard if there was otherwise thank you any other questions or comments on this seeing none our next item is review of the revolving accounts and just for a bit of background in past months and weeks committee members have interested in seeing more information in the packet about revolving funds and what they are and making sure that the public understands them and that we

▶ 1:36:34 have an opportunity to discuss it so that was sort of the impetus behind adding this agenda item as we did to FNF for this week I guess I'll turn it over to the superintendent and maybe miss Farrell we're going to report out on ten revolving accounts again reminding the school committee there's a difference between student activity accounts which can only be used for those activities that are directly tied to something the students are doing in revolving accounts which can roll over from year to year many of which of these revolving accounts quite frankly make money for the district and supplement the budget so with that I will give it to miss Farrell so as mr. Andrews had mentioned this is a conversation piece that comes up quite often especially during the

▶ 1:37:26 budget season as to how we are able to support the budget for all those extra things beyond what the city can provide on the first page we talked a little bit about what is a revolving fund so we have a collection of funds that are brought into the city in a variety of ways as you can see some of this is from tuitions some of this is from state appropriations and they go into the fund they are able to be used from year to year and so that's what helps support us because with our budget come June 30 that's the end of where that money can be used so this does help support some of those things that linger from one year to the other and it's an ongoing stream of money I'm not saying it's an endless stream of money because it's very dependent on where the monies are

▶ 1:38:15 coming from if it's state money you know that varies from year to year with what's available if it's tuitions and fees again that's all about participation so although it is varying from year to year we kind of look at trends as to the average amount that we can expect from year to year and kind of use that as our benchmark. On the front page, the list that you have really is just a copy of what you see in the actual budget document with a list of the accounts. A little more explanation about where the money comes from and how it's being used, what the account numbers are, etc. On the second page of your packet, there is, again, a little more detail to some of those accounts, again, telling you where the revenue is coming from, where

▶ 1:39:06 it is going to support the program that, let's say it's for elementary instrumental lessons. That money is collected for those that participate in that program, and that helps to pay for the staffing that we need to hire to give the lessons. Athletic fees, same kind of an idea. To participate, there's a fee that is turned around to then pay for coaches, supplies, materials, buses, all the things that fall into that category. I think the third page of this packet is the one that is of most interest to people. It gives you a look at these accounts with three benchmarks. So usually the year closes on June 30, and so that's a number that we usually start from. So you can see your balances at the end of 18, 19, and then where we are currently this

▶ 1:40:02 year. Big changes in these numbers. Some high numbers, some very low numbers, some negative numbers, and I'd like to speak to that piece. So if you want to look at the circuit breaker, for example, you'll notice that we're at a negative $112,000 on June 30. just a record of time the actual deposit from the state came on July 3rd so if you had done it a week later you would have had a different number if you look at the second to the bottom one it says negative seven thousand nine eighty six that's because we're already hitting that account to pay for a teacher's salary where this is money that we get from the cable company and they've just change the regulations on that so that that money is really only going to be

▶ 1:40:54 coming in maybe once a year which is fine because we can put that money in later on if we feel a need to get some money earlier the city can ask for portions of that money but again that's why you're going to see some negative numbers because from time to time we have to use the account but that money hasn't been received as of yet in the end we're always going to be within our range of dollars that are provided to us but it does fluctuate extremely if you look at something like education stations now there's a million three in there it's the beginning of the year we've started collecting tuitions but we also have to start paying out custodial staffing supplies materials so again these numbers fluctuate every single day but I know that people really wanted to

▶ 1:41:44 get a look at what the numbers look like so you have it here and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you are there any questions or comments from the committee mr. Selm hi and thank you miss Farrell I understand that the balances were given as of June 30th I'm I'm a little confused as to why the education stations balance at the end of the school year was so high. I thought that was a break even. No, over the course of years, that program has provided a lot of extra money, of which we've been able to, if you think about it, the last couple of years, we've been taking about $300,000 to $400,000 as an offset, because it has, over the years had that much money in it. But forgive me if I'm wrong,

▶ 1:42:43 but the education stations runs throughout the school year, correct? Correct. And so the salaries and fees and building upkeep, maintenance, custodial services, et cetera, should all have been paid out by the end of the month of June. Right, that's new tuitions for the next school year that have already started to go into that account. Parents start paying ahead in April for the next year. Excellent, okay. Okay. That's a piece that was missing. Thank you very much. Okay, yeah, yeah. And the other thing is don't forget that we will take the $450,000 offset out of that as the year goes by. Sure. And that'll diminish it. Any other, okay. Mayor Infurna. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mary Ann, for this.

▶ 1:43:37 Gail Infurna: is really um very easy to read and pretty self-explanatory i just have a suggestion where you have the definitions of the different accounts and i can't remember if this was put into the budget or not but that sheet of paper would be nice to have in the budget i think because it really yes yeah with the with the definitions it's very easy to read to understand so i think it would be a nice page to have in the budget for next year sure i'll make sure the new person is i got it i know that folder too thank you any other questions or comments from the committee on this thank you i think this is very helpful and hopefully something we'll continue to do thank you um our next item is the disposition of surplus items and this does require um a vote um to declare certain

▶ 1:44:33 Jennifer McAndrew: items to be surplus in order that they can be um uh sold so um for purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve so moved made by chairman o'connell second by ms driscoll um any comments about this no it's our annual garage sale great um how can people find out about it if they want to buy a filing cabinet from the high school paper for the not this week but for the next two weeks leading up to the event and we'll have it on the district website and so on great thank you and when it's in the newspaper is it under the legal notices for some reason i think it's it goes under the legal notices just so that for people looking at it to know where to find it yeah yeah for people yeah for for purposes of people looking for it okay i know a lot of people don't really read those notices

▶ 1:45:30 Jennifer McAndrew: i do and you know that's where they would find it great thank you any other comments all in favor and that passes uh six in favor and one absent um hold on that concludes our formal business for FNF but we do have an informal agenda item with the permission of the chair I just want to as I know everyone does and we'll chime in I want to thank you so much for all that you have done with this committee and for the school district over the course of your career with the Melrose Public Schools I know you're going to be sad not to come to these school committee meetings that you could still come as an interested member of the public um we've really i speaking for myself i really enjoyed working with you over these past

▶ 1:46:25 two years and i really appreciate your service to the district as an assistant principal principal of melrose high school and now as the director of finance so thank you so much thank you i've enjoyed working with everyone here thank you and we have a token of our appreciation those are pretty thank you very much you're welcome they're beautiful i've enjoyed um working in the melrose public schools as you said i've been able to work in a lot of different positions i think um you know the pleasure of working with families and children first and you know is is is the best part of the job um and then just having such a great staff and everybody in all departments are always supportive and so um you know it's been a joy to get up and

▶ 1:47:15 Gail Infurna: come to work every day but i am going to enjoy the next part mayor Infurna thank you very much i certainly will echo um ms mcandrew's words and just want to wish you the best um it's been a pleasure seeing you through the ranks of various positions here in your how many years have you been here 20 that's what i kind of thought to my head it was about 20 years um so um so i want to wish you the best on that and thank you i was talking to a city hall employee today who said that you taught her in high school down in marshfield i did not to put any sort of you know significance on any sort of age span here but uh it was an employee it wasn't another child so um kind of neat when she told me that story and and um hopefully you have great plans for

▶ 1:48:08 retirement maybe our paths will cross again as we both enter retirement and hopefully travels are in both our um agendas as we pass in this next journey so thank you for all that you've done chairman o'connell thank you madam chair um i think we would be remiss uh miss farrell if we didn't uh take a moment to note the integral role that you played in assembling assessing and disseminating the financial information that allowed our community to make a very well-informed decision on the recent property tax override that was a huge accomplishment on your part and we're grateful for that also I feel we should note that you played a likewise integral role in our recent teacher contract negotiations often

▶ 1:49:05 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: under great pressure with fiercely competing interests and very limited time frames and with great success ultimately for all concerned and ultimately still for our students and our community so we're certainly better for uh your two decades of service and uh we're we're very very grateful for your service thank you mr school um i just want to say that i think that um you've You've always put students first when you were in your role as assistant principal. In your role now, it was clear that you enjoyed working with students and you enjoyed working with staff, and I think bringing that philosophy into the role of director of finance and operations has been integral to your success in that role and our benefit by virtue of your success so

▶ 1:50:09 thank you for keeping students in the forefront working hard every day always showing up with 150 when you drive down the fellsway at 6 30 there's your car so you have left nothing on the table you have given everything and we're very grateful mr abramski i'd just like to mention again and thank you so much for all of your work with the override recently and preparing all the budgets and I know it was a daunting task and a lot of work and I just I hope you enjoy your time and immensely it's well deserved thank you so much thank you very much and that concludes FNF for this evening thank you thank you miss McAndrew and that brings us to the announcements of the chair first up we have two items from the consent agenda the first is the school

▶ 1:51:24 committee special meeting minutes for September 14th 2019 is there a motion to approve so moved made by miss McAndrew seconded by mr. Selm any discussion seeing none all those in favor opposed abstentions thank you and that passes with five in favor one absent and one abstaining next from the consent agenda again the school committee regular meeting minutes for September 24 2019 is there a motion to approve so moved made by Miss Driscoll seconded by Miss McAndrew discussion seeing none all those in favor opposed abstentions and that passes with five in favor one absent and one abstention thank you all for that and that brings us to the regular announcements of the school committee chair first up committee action items for smart goals I would

▶ 1:52:24 suggest that we take these one by one first up the proposed action items for school committee smart goal number one these action items were prepared by Miss Driscoll and myself and I would note that I am remiss in not having affixed to them a completion date or schedule and what I would like to suggest by way of amendment would leave of the committee is that we for each of these four action steps that we have a completion date of November slash December and mr. school if you feel otherwise I'd be interested to hear that so with that change again with completion dates for November slash December is there a mode for purposes of discussions or motion to approve made by Ms. McAndrew, seconded by Ms. DeSelm. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in

▶ 1:53:31 favor? And that passes with six in favor and one absent. And that brings us to the proposed action items for SMART goal number two. And my recollection is that that these were prepared um by miss mcandrew and mr selm and so we'll certainly provide time for them to speak to those if they wish but for purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve made by miss mcandrew seconded by mr obramsky discussion seeing none all those in favor and that passes with six in favor and one absent that brings us to the proposed action items for school committee smart goal number three again i would like to suggest that we add to these a completion date of november slash december i would add that for each of the six proposed

▶ 1:54:42 action items for purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve so move made by mr. Obrimsky seconded by miss McAndrew any discussion seeing none all those in favor and that passes with six in favor and one absent that brings us to the proposed action items for smart goal number four these were prepared by Miss McAndrew for purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve so moved by Miss Driscoll seconded by Mr. Obramski any discussion seeing none all those in favor and that passes with six in favor and one absent that brings us to the final set of proposed action items for SMART goal number five. These were prepared by Ms. Driscoll and Ms. Razzi-Thomas. For purposes of discussion, is there a motion to approve?

▶ 1:55:47 So moved. Paid by Ms. DeSelm. Second. Seconded by Ms. McAndrew. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? And that passes with six in favor and one absent. Thank you all very much for your work and for your patience with regard to all of that. Next up, under announcements of the chair, the superintendent's goals. Madam Superintendent. Thank you. So as we had discussed at the retreat, we were going to go down the road of the pilot of the new superintendent's evaluation rubric and protocols. I was sharing with a couple of the members before the meeting that this turned out to be a little bit more challenging than I anticipated to do it on two counts. First of all, of course, I align my goals with yours.

▶ 1:56:40 So there isn't always a clear correspondence between your goals and the new superintendent's rubric. So that was a little bit tricky. And because of the proposal in the new pilot in the new pilot that I include four to six indicators. And again, there wasn't that clear one-to-one correlation. Sometimes I felt like I was stretching on the indicator. But at the end, you know, it's one of those documents that you write and rewrite. I think it got as tight as we could get it. So on top of it all, it's similar to all evaluations and goal setting no matter what level of an educator, I have to have a professional practice goal, a student outcome goal, and then the district improvement goals, at least two, and then four to six indicators.

▶ 1:57:38 So the first one, again, is the professional practice goal is we all try to collaborate together on how to use this new instrument more effectively and to see if it is something that we can be comfortable with going forward an interesting piece of this new process is you could do two year goals I chose not to I think because it's a pilot one year goal is sufficient to give feedback on to the process and what difference this might have made compared to previous years and how the setup was those years so again I think that my key actions pretty much track your key actions on student outcome goal this is in in my head related to two things that we're doing on the school not only on your goals but on the district on the

▶ 1:58:36 strategy overview the move to the lowest 25% is an attempt to not think of kids in categories right now when we do MCAS and we approach MCAS we think of kids in categories I understand the accountability system still holds it but the accountability systems new measure is how much progress you make with your lowest 25% so as I'm discussing this with the principals and with the directors we're talking about what advantage does it give us to think about all learners by taking the labels off if you're no longer saying well my special ed kids aren't doing well or my ELL kids are not doing well and my disadvantaged youth kids are not doing well if you have to focus on your lowest 25% you You really have to think outside of the box about personalized learning and how do I target

▶ 1:59:37 each of these students so I can help them achieve. There is also the theory by Dessie that a rising tide lifts all boats and that if we become adept at thinking about individual students and their needs, we will then begin to extend those that thinking across the range of students so this is also an equity issue because it you're now thinking about all students and what they need as opposed to focusing on I just have to get up my sped kids well my ELL kids will be fine whatever it is we have we have a tendency with MCAS remediation to hone in on whoever we think is pulling down the score and i think john recognizes that but by talking about your lowest 25 percent you're talking about any student that may not be

▶ 2:00:35 making the level of achievement we want as opposed to focusing on that subcategory so i tried to create a a goal here using mcast data and ewis meeting with the principals to set student improvement goals and action steps principal's mid-year assessment towards the goal and district common assessments and data team track individual student progress in my meetings with the principal and i remember one of you raising this about you know you weren't you you didn't have a clear understanding what the principal's goals were and what their action steps were and that rang in my head when i wrote this i have already met with all of them and have talked about this about how are How are you going to create a student improvement goal that focuses on the lowest 25% yet incorporates

▶ 2:01:24 our work in personalized learning and the power that can have in student achievement? My concern is I don't want drill and kill because we're trying to prepare for a test. I want to think about how do we give a kid a deeper learning experience. So that was the student outcome goal. improvement goal was the new director of finance and again conversations we have resonate one of the things that I heard the committee say about and it's again it tracks your goals this is an opportunity to work with a new person with a new set of eyes on what do our reports look like can we revamp our reports to reflect more accurately or more specifically the information you are seeking which you have laid out in your goals so this is not just about

▶ 2:02:19 onboarding her it's about working with her closely and working with the committee closely to create the kinds of reports we're going to want going forward and the last one was the responsive inclusive environment you know that we've had this in the strategic overview for a couple of years now which you and as I discussed with you is this is a topic that is becoming more in the forefront across the state competency-based education prefer personalized learning in of itself if you talk to the people in the field it's about equity it's about access to deeper learning opportunities it's about every kid having a chance to have those quite frankly privileged opportunities that only some of our children have I have been talking to our staff about it for a

▶ 2:03:19 couple of years we're talking about doing a analysis of our high school course courses to see what the representation looks like Amy Jackson I have had a conversation about when we get that information how do we think about increasing access for kids who are not being in honors classes who are not in AP classes how do we think about the fact that students in college prep courses often feel that they're being dumped in with all those other kids and how do we take that stigma off these are real issues that we have within the high school in the middle school to some degree and so this goal is focused on how do we how do we do more I don't know what the word I want is I think really the hard conversations around this work how do we begin to get the data that we

▶ 2:04:22 can have the hard conversations about this work with staff they may not even be conscious of the directions in which they are they are steering kids when they do recommendations or parents may not be conscious of the fact that our AP courses have no prereqs if you want your kids to take a AP course and that child is willing to do the work we're going to welcome that child in so how do we begin to open those opportunities for children and again it's based on interest it's based on a desire to challenge yourself it's a bait it's based on our desire to to provide kids with not just necessarily accelerated courses but deeper learning and this is very much tied to the conversations you will hear out of the new commissioner

▶ 2:05:09 so these are the goals i wrote for this year i certainly welcome feedback and anything else you may want to offer great thank you superintendent uh for purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve so made by mr. so seconded by mr. Abrams key discussion seeing none all those in favor and that passes with six in favor and one absent pardon me and one abstention so that passes with five in favor one absent and one abstention Thank You mr. and that brings us to our next agenda item which is the revised liaison position the committee will recall that we discussed this at our last meeting and it was requested that I submit a document to the packet we have that document before us this evening for

▶ 2:06:16 purposes of discussion is there a motion to approve so moved made by mr. Driscoll seconded by Mr. Obremski. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? And that passes with six in favor and one absent. Thank you all very much for that. And that brings us to our liaison reports. Do we have any liaison reports this evening? Mr. Sellin. Some upcoming Human Rights Commission dates. First and foremost, the annual potluck international welcome reception will be postponed until the spring this year the international welcome reception typically happens at the lincoln every year right um instead uh on uh november 2nd uh gotv weekend for most uh politicians in melrose it seems um diwali will happen and so the human rights commission invites you individually including

▶ 2:07:25 the superintendent to come and experience diwali with the community additionally in november there will also be on the 20th transgender day of remembrance held at the uu church co-sponsored by the melrose human rights commission details forthcoming very good thank you mr selma any further liaison reports i would just note uh that we do have the melrose alliance against violence uh annual walk and candlelight vigil coming up this sunday october 20th at 4 p.m at the melrose veterans memorial middle school the school committee traditionally does participate in that and we will be fielding a group for that so all who can be there are urged to attend and participate anything further madam mayor i'd just like to um

▶ 2:08:28 Gail Infurna: thank the um morris high school band students as um this evening they had the city-wide band program that's why i was a little late and um and i think i got a little easy by having too much fresh air out there marching with the kids when i first came in but uh it was a great program we learned to count to eight several times and held our instruments up and marched along the field it was really kind of fun the kids the little kids were great the high school band kids were great teaching them and helping them along it was really a nice program so i just want to extend that the kids were great doing it terrific thank you for that I'll help in one another very good any further final comments seeing none is

▶ 2:09:14 there a motion to adjourn made by mr. Obramski seconded by miss Driscoll discussion seeing none all those in favor that passes with six in favor and one absent we are adjourned

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