School Committee — 2026-09-15

Agenda

1. NOTE
2. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE (0:01)
3. PUBLIC COMMENT (0:48)
4. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT (26:32)
5. Report: First Week of School Update (14:58)
6. Report: Enrollment Updates (17:47)
7. Report: DPW Summer Work (18:45)
8. CONSENT AGENDA (35:45)
9. Warrants FY27 School - S27013 - $505,580.10 FY27 Officials - S27014 - $117.00 FY27 September Debit Card - S27015 - $1,430.00 FY27 August High School Student Activity Wire - S27016 - $4,721.25 (36:00)
10. Meeting Minutes: August 18, 2026 (1:32:37)
11. MHS Field Trip Date Change (36:19)
12. Policy JF: Admissions (36:24)
13. SUBCOMMITTEES (COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE) (37:09)
14. Finance and Facilities - Margaret Driscoll/Melissa Holleran (37:20)
15. Vote: Monthly Budget Summary/Revolving Accounts (37:27)
16. Educational Programs and Personnel - Jen Razi-Thomas/Sheri Leo (40:36)
17. Report: Concussion Report (40:45)
18. Policy and Planning - Matt Hartman/Margaret Driscoll (58:28)
19. Report: Strategic Plan (58:40)
20. Vote: Protect Act Policy (1:25:40)
21. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE CHAIR (1:32:28)
22. Report: Superintendent Goals (1:33:06)
23. Report: Student Advisory Committee Reps - SC designees (1:38:49)
24. Report: Rolling Agenda (1:39:12)
25. Report: Outreach (1:39:32)
26. ADJOURN (1:40:08)

Transcript

▶ 0:01 Good evening. Welcome to the Melrose School Committee meeting of Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. This meeting is being broadcast and recorded on MMTV. Ms. O'Connor, could you please call the role? Ms. Driscoll? Here. May Gregoritis? Is... Sorry, Mr. Hartman? Here. Ms. Holleran? Here. Mr. Kelley? Here. Ms. Leo? Here. Ms. Rosy Thomas? Here. Okay, that is six members present, one absent. That is a quorum. Could you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment.

▶ 0:54 If anybody would like to comment before the school committee, please use that sign-up form, and you are welcome to address us for up to three minutes, and we will not respond. Okay, first up we have Paula Terenzi Byrne. You're welcome to address the school committee for three minutes. Thank you. So, good evening, members of the school committee. My name is Paula Terenzi Byrne. I am the director of the Dance Complex and a longtime renter of the Melrose Middle School Auditorium. I've rented this beautiful space for my dance recitals for my students, many which are Melrose residents. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the decision to close the auditorium to outside rentals from April 1st through June 30th.

▶ 1:54 Despite reaching out to multiple departments and officials, I still haven't received a clear explanation. I also want to raise another concern that has added to the confusion. I have been told that the school committee is not in charge of the auditorium. If this is true, then I have to ask, do you have any interest in the revenue that is being lost? Right now, no one seems to know who is making the decisions. I have had to book through the DPW. The DPW told me the decision comes from the school department. The school theater department told me they have nothing to do with it. And after speaking with Mr. Ken Kelley, he tells me that there is opportunity for rental. So I requested four June dates, only to be told the school has reserved all of

▶ 2:40 them, and that I could rent any time before April 1st or after June 30th. Every weekend for three months. Really? Yet no one could show me a calendar demonstrating that every weekend is booked. So who actually makes the decisions? Who is responsible for closing the auditorium to outside renters for three months? My question is simple: why? Why close the auditorium during one of the busiest rental seasons and give up potentially tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, especially while Melrose is facing financial challenges and passing it on to the residents? We absolutely respect that school events come first. That has never been its question. Rental revenue also helps support the building in

▶ 3:26 unexpected costs, like the air condition failure during my recital last June. Is it fixed? And if not, where is the money coming from now that rental revenue is going to be eliminated? I thank you for your time and your service and your willingness to listen to me, and I truly hope that we can find a solution that supports both the school and the community it serves. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Next up we have Phil Wallace. And you are welcome to address this with me for up to three minutes. Thank you. Appreciate it. How you doing? My name is Phil Wallace. Me and my wife, we run the Step Up the Dance competition, and we've had the pleasure and the privilege of renting Melrose High School Auditorium for the last

▶ 4:18 20 years. In that time, over those 20 years, we have paid $387,000 for the rental fees. Okay. We've hired, trained, and paid hundreds of Melrose students to work our events through the years, making signs, placing signs in the auditorium, seating the people that come in and out, staffing the auditorium doors, opening up the award boxes, everything from putting the trophies on stage, decorating the stage, papering the cafeteria windows, running video cable wires, counting students award pins, entering criteria into their laptops, making announcements, assisting with playing the music, just to name a few. We have also run fundraisers for the middle school and high school during our time of rental, and it's been a pleasure, by the way.

▶ 5:28 Also, we've hosted bake sales for the town, and our Melrose customers will not travel out of the city to come to our events. So would you please consider renting the auditorium this coming year and then so on? Thank you very much. I'm going to leave this now. I know I have a little over here. I guess in case we have what I said already. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for your help. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next up we have Madison. You're welcome to address the committee for three minutes. Hi, everybody. My name is Madison Agiba, and I'm a junior at Melrose High School. For some of us, a stage is more than just a place to perform. It becomes a place that feels like home. For me, this stage has been that place.

▶ 6:20 For the past four years, this beautiful theater has been where I have had incredible opportunities to dance, sing in chorus concerts, and perform in theater productions. I've grown up on this stage, and tonight I am here because I hope other young dancers can continue to experience what this stage has meant to me. As a junior in high school, I realize just how lucky I have been for a theater like this. It is more than just a beautiful space. It is a place filled with memories of excitement, nervousness, laughter, hard work, friendships, and moments that I know that I'll carry with me long after high school. Being able to dance, sing, and act here over the past four years has been an amazing honor. And although I know there will be many stages in my future, I

▶ 7:06 also know that there will only ever be one that feels like home. That is why I'm asking you to reconsider allowing dance studios to continue using the stage for their recitals. I know firsthand how meaningful it is to have the opportunity to perform here, and I believe other young dancers deserve the chance to create those same memories. We are incredibly fortunate to have this theater right here in our community. Let's not limit the memories that can be made here. Let's continue to open these doors, share the stage, and give young dancers the opportunity to experience the same sense of pride, confidence, and belonging that I've experienced. So tonight, I'm asking you to keep the stage open for our dance

▶ 7:47 community, give these dancers the opportunity to perform here, to create memories here, and to one day look back and say, just as I can, "This was my home stage." Please reconsider. Let's keep the curtains open for them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up we have Ms. Downing. You're welcome to address the committee for three minutes. Hello. My name's Jessie Downing. I've been a Melrose resident since 2021. I've shared my concern with Mr. Kelley previously, and I wanted to share it with the entire committee. My oldest child started kindergarten in Melrose Public Schools last week. I'd like to bring your attention to the issue that on-time education stations registrations are not currently honored in the elementary school

▶ 8:40 hardship appeals process, and families are denied the opportunity to access safe, financially feasible after-school care in a timely manner if they pursue a hardship placement appeal. With Melrose's ranked choice system of elementary school placement, its appeals process, and the lack of lead time before EdStation's registrations, I anticipated the possibility of receiving my family's second or third choice school. In light of my family's current extenuating medical circumstances, I proactively reached out to EdStation's leadership about their policies on May 18th and May 26th prior to kindergarten placements. I inquired about contingency plans, the possibility of registering for two schools

▶ 9:20 simultaneously, the option to register on time for my first choice school while awaiting the appeal decision, or placing my daughter on the wait list as soon as our top choice school's three-hour registration period ended. I was explicitly informed that none of these alternatives were possible, and I was told that my only option was to register my daughter at her initial third choice school during its on-time three-hour registration period. I ultimately did that. It was disheartening that none of these potential solutions were taken into account. When we received our third choice school placement on May 29th, I immediately pursued the official appeals process. I wrote a letter outlining the hardship along with four physicians' letters of

▶ 10:02 supporting medical documentation to the MPS superintendent and registrar. While the appeal was ultimately successful on June 22nd, our family is now without necessary after-school care for my daughter. She was only added to the wait list on the day she was approved to enter the school, June 22nd. Her original on-time EdStation's registration was not honored. Consequently, she's number 20 on the wait list. The EdStation's leadership was unsympathetic. The superintendent did not respond to my email regarding the situation, and the registrar merely asked if I wanted to switch back to the third choice school where there was an available EdStation slot. I declined. It has been a discouraging, stressful introduction to MPS, to say the least.

▶ 10:47 I'm frustrated that preparation and timeliness on my part have been met with inflexibility by EdStation's leadership, and I'm disappointed in how MPS administration has overlooked this annually inevitable situation with no mitigation strategy. My disillusionment is intensified in light of EdStation's 3:30 PM pickup option becoming a lottery this year, with plans to eliminate it altogether next year in the name of optimizing staffing and resources. I've been in touch with EdStation's leadership repeatedly over the summer, and there has been no increased staffing nor wait list movement. I am pregnant, and I have had to begin my parental leave approximately a month early because I'm unable to work because I need to pick up my daughter at the 2:20

▶ 11:29 PM dismissal. It would be cost-prohibitive for my family to hire outside help for school pickup and in-home after-school care. My two asks of the school committee are to, one, please place my daughter at the top of the Winthrop EdStation's waiting list, and to, two, rectify this issue prior to the 2027 kindergarten and EdStation's registration. Otherwise, it will continue to burden conscientious families in need of after-school care. One potential straightforward solution would be to look at the- You're a good deal over three minutes. If you could wrap up, please. One potential straightforward solution would be to look at the average number of hardship appeals and reserve that many spaces at each EdStation site.

▶ 12:09 Alternatively, an improved schedule for kindergarten enrollment would be sending out assignments, offering a designated appeals process, and then opening Ed's registration. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to discussing further. Thank you very much. And finally, we have Ms. Comeau. You're welcome to address the committee for up to three minutes. I need a booster seat. Good evening. My name is Renee Comeau. I'm a Melrose school parent, an involved member of the Melrose community, and a very proud dance mom. Dance has been a huge part of my daughter Charlotte's life for many years, and honestly, so has this auditorium at the middle school. Charlotte has danced with Paula Tranzi Dance Complex for the past three years, but

▶ 12:57 even before that, I sat in the same auditorium watching her perform recitals with another local Melrose dance studio. I've literally watched her grow up on the stage from a little girl excited to put on her costume and dance under the lights to the beautiful dancer she is today. These dancers work toward recital all year, and being able to perform on the stage in their own community means so much to the dancers and families. And we are so lucky to have this auditorium. It is truly one of the nicest and largest venues in our area for dance recitals. It is a beautiful professional stage that can accommodate hundreds of dancers and their families, and there really aren't many comparable spaces nearby.

▶ 13:38 For years, Paula's and several other dance studios have been able to use this auditorium for their recitals. I'd really like to understand what has changed and why a three-month closure or blackout is now necessary when this has worked in previous years. And if some blackout dates are necessary, could we find a compromise instead of closing the auditorium to outside organizations for the entire spring recital season? Maybe a limited number of weekends could remain available, a lottery or application process could be used, or organizations could pay a higher rental fee if additional costs are part of the concern. I completely understand that Melrose students and school programming come first,

▶ 14:19 but I really hope we can find a way for our schools and community to continue sharing this space. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. There are so many families at Paula's, as well as families from other local dance studios and art organizations who value having the space available for our children. I'm simply asking you not to close the door on something that has meant so much to many Melrose families. Please reconsider the three-month closure and work with the organizations affected to find a solution that allows our children to continue performing here in their own community. Thank you. Thank you very much for addressing the committee. Is there anybody else in the room who would like to take the opportunity to address

▶ 14:58 us? Okay, a motion by unanimous consent to close public comment, and we're now moving into announcements of the superintendent, and she has several of them for us tonight. Superintendent Berman, take it away. I do. So just wanted to give a brief report on the first week of school update. So we are-- just finished day eight for most of our students. It has been, from my perspective, a very positive start to the school year based on feedback from students, families, and our educators. I was able to visit every elementary school classroom other than the kindergartners the first day of school, which was really great. Saw students already establishing routines and making new friends, and it was just

▶ 15:42 great to see the energy back in our schools. I'm slowly making my way across the secondary campus. It seems like it should be easier because I'm right there, but I think sometimes because I'm right there, it makes it a little bit harder. But it has been really nice to see the students and the staff back in our classrooms and learning. We certainly have classrooms that are staffed. Again, thank you to the override. Our student-teacher ratio is much lower than our past couple of years, which you'll also see in the enrollment report. We have our sports, our marching band, our color guard, and other competitive activities all underway. So certainly once that day's over, it's still a lot of activities going on, a lot of students doing what they love.

▶ 16:28 And then our after-school clubs and activities, especially at the secondary level, are getting started and getting established and getting their leadership in place. So our teachers are continuing to engage in professional development and collaboration as we implement our new curriculum, which is exciting and also a challenge. And then just EdStation's also underway in all schools. We have 805 students currently enrolled in EdStation's, and our morning program has 92 students enrolled. Currently, we have a wait list. We have 12 students on the wait list at Winthrop that we're waiting for some staff, and it's also some space issues. We're hoping to have that rectified as quickly as possible. And we have seven students at Horace Mann who are asking for a

▶ 17:18 3:30 pickup that we're having some difficulty staffing and accommodating. We have offered a 5:30 slot to all seven of those families in order to help accommodate their needs. And in terms of the morning session, like I mentioned, everything's all up and running at all the schools. We do not have any schools on a morning wait list, and we've been able to accommodate all the families who want an early drop-off. So lots of good positive energy and good things going on that I hope continue. Okay. Any questions about the first week of school update? Okay. Moving on. Enrollment update. The central admin office continues to be pretty busy, to be honest with you, with some withdrawals and some continued registration.

▶ 18:08 This is the time when we find out that students may have moved, and now the family may not have done the formal withdrawal process. So they're coming in and meeting with the registrar to do some of that. We also have some students who continue to register. We are in line with all of our predictions. Our class sizes are all within our expectations. And there is a report in the packet, and again, happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay. Any questions about enrollment? Okay. Okay. No enrollment questions. I did my count to ten wait time. Okay, so moving on. We have our DPW very, very highly detailed memo. And I would just like to start by thanking the entire DPW staff for their hard work

▶ 19:00 and their collaboration with the school department leadership during the spring and all throughout the summer months. As we know, some of this work would not have occurred had we not had a successful override. Many of the improvements in our school buildings are a direct correlation to the additional funding and some free cash allocation that we received. Elena Paregas-Ellis, our Director of Public Works, Jim Troupe, our Deputy Director of Administration and Finance, and Scott Enos, the Facilities Manager, led the charge throughout the summer. The three of them provided a very detailed memo for you for the packet. So they completed many summer projects. I'd also like to mention we did have summer programming, and our summer education

▶ 19:44 stations in the building. So we were at the Lincoln this year. And I just had a little brain cramp there. They were at the Lincoln and at the middle school. So we had lots of work being done, but we had to pause during those periods to be able to do that. So they did work in the other buildings. But as you'll see, anything from waxing the floors to office moves, general cleanouts, general maintenance of bathrooms, updates of those water filling stations that certainly are used all day long. Inspections of the gym, leecher, fire alarms, kitchens, elevators, our labs, our science labs, painting projects, asbestos removal, gym floor refinishing, window shades, lighting, roof repairs. It just goes on and on.

▶ 20:33 One of the things that I did just want to highlight, which is directly from the memo, which is for the public and anyone watching and anyone here that may not have the packet in front of them, just some of the great pictures that were in that memo. So I just have a few slides to share with you. So the MHS lobby is now very bright. It's white. Prior to that, it was all brick. So you can still see on the second and third floors, it still remains brick in that corridor, but that hallway is now very bright white, and it's such a nice, welcoming environment. Horace Mann, we had some accessibility upgrades, and that was due to the ADA accessibility project that was funded through the FY26 Massachusetts Office on

▶ 21:19 Disability. So it was called a MOD grant. And we were able to put in some compliant railings, some push button door openers, specifically at the Horace Mann, a stage lift during installation. Also, the Hoover and Winthrop also have the push button doors now, so that we can open those. And it's just obviously ADA compliance is very important and want to highlight that great work that was done there. Lincoln School playground map, just prepping some surfaces to make sure that we could make it fun for our students when they're outside. Accessible parking at the Franklin. The secondary campus also got a number of upgrades, many of them due to safety. So the steps that come down in the courtyard off of Melrose Street, those

▶ 22:13 were regraded in some ways so that they get very slippery. Handrails were replaced, different pieces there. The wall outside also on Melrose Street was completely taken down and put back up in a nice modern feel. We had some settling repairs on our new front sidewalks. So that's right in front of the middle school and that fire lane in front of the cabbage patch. And then one of the big projects that's going on is we did our first phase of our MHS bathrooms project. So, about half of the work was done this summer, and half of the work will be done next summer. So, we really went down to the studs on everything, removed everything, all new plumbing, all new fixtures, all new tile, and it looks really great and modern and

▶ 23:04 it represents our school colors as well, which is a nice added addition. I think that's it. So just wanted to highlight and give you some images of the great work was done, and certainly appreciate our collaboration and partnership from the city side and from DPW and helping us to support all of those projects. Great. Any questions about the DPW work? Ms. Driscoll? Thank you so much. Just want to highlight the safety work in the concrete. That has been a problem since the school was pretty much built, as you know. So that is really huge, and I think it's just a quality existence, and very positive. One other thing I wanted to mention, because it's not glamorous, but not only is it required, but it's critical to safety, is the AHERA asbestos

▶ 23:55 replacements. And I know you have to be very careful with that. You can't have people around, certainly children. And I always appreciate when I see that asbestos projects are done, because someday we'll get there and every little bit counts. So that's really helpful. And can I just amplify the bathrooms? That's amazing. Yes. Thank you. Great. Great job. Any other questions or comments? Ms. Leo? So you mentioned, Superintendent, at the beginning that a good number of these projects were related to the override funding. Mm-hmm. There are a lot of things in this memo. A lot of work was done. Mm-hmm. Any featured projects that you want to lift up that were specifically as a result of the investment of the override?

▶ 24:38 I just couldn't quite tell how much is regular or already planned and how much was due to the additional investment. I would say that many of the major projects that we mentioned. Right. So all of the outside work that was done at the high school or on the secondary campus, all of the bathroom projects. Certainly, I would look to Ken Kelley and also Mayor Gregoraitis. I'm sure I have the list somewhere in my email, but I don't have the exact answers for all of them off the top of my head. And so. Mr. Kelley? Yeah. No, I think that's accurate. And just also supplementing, so we've had the benefit of our state legislative representatives getting some earmarked funding, so that was incorporated in there, too. But there's been a significant investment in some

▶ 25:18 deferred maintenance that's welcomed at both the school and city side. Any other questions or comments? Ms. Dorothy Thomas. Yeah, I'd like to thank the student who painted the map of the United States, repainted it in the Lincoln playground, because we used to live over there and it was just lovely to look at all the states and memorize it and learn it and walk over it and point it. And so I'm so glad someone is so invested in the community as a student who painted it. So I would love to thank them directly if I could get the student's name, not here in open public. And then every year, I'm astounded at the level of detail of these engineers, right? So our director has a mind of an engineer, and the rest of her team does, too, and

▶ 26:05 they're keeping track of so... I can't imagine their punch lists. It's staggering. But the pictures really tell the story in a lovely way, and I appreciate becoming more ADA compliant. I just appreciate that we're not going to sink into the swamp over there at the middle school ,, so it's great work. Thank you to all the DPW people. Any other questions or comments? I believe the superintendent has two other items she wants to address. I do. So following up, just wanted to give a quick update to the committee and the public as well on the Winthrop playground update. So, the good news is that we remain very close to our estimated completion time for this project. You may have noticed we actually had a slight delay based on some of

▶ 26:50 the information that we have provided in the past. We did have some unexpected costs due to some tariffs. The playground equipment is actually coming from Canada, and therefore, with some additional tariffs to the total of $40,000. We have been able to collaborate with the company. And the company basically helped mitigate the full cost, and they split it with us. So, this was an unknown cost to us, unpredicted cost, to begin with, on the city side. And certainly, we always thank the partnership of the city side in moving so quickly to get a new playground in place, but then having this additional $20,000 as well. But we are on track. We are expecting delivery on Monday, so that's really exciting.

▶ 27:40 And then installation will follow shortly thereafter. Playground installation will happen while students are in session. We need to get this done as quickly as possible to have a playground for students. But also, we need to beat any type of early frost or anything else that we could get in our New England winter. So, that will be happening. Certainly, the children will be playing in another place. It will ensure safety, all of those kind of pieces. We'll work with Dr. Tracy on that. A new fence will also be installed on the backside, so that is good news as well. And that entire fence will be upgraded, not just the panels that were damaged. And just final inspection of the new structure and the

▶ 28:24 surrounding areas will certainly occur before we officially open it to our students. So, we're looking forward to that. Okay. Any questions about the Winthrop playground? Okay. And then the last issue that you'd like to raise. Sure. Just wanted to address something that has been on a few people's minds over the last couple of days. So, I want to provide a Minga update. So, just take a few minutes to address, recently rolled out Minga, which is our new digital pass system at the secondary level. And it's designed for students to use whenever they leave the classroom. So, I just want to provide a little bit of context on this. It's a digital system that was introduced to replace any previous methods that we

▶ 29:09 use. So, traditionally, we used to use a three-ring binder, and if you were going to the bathroom, or the nurse, or the main office, or wherever, you would sign out. So Carey Berman would sign out at 9:23, and I would come say, "I'm going to wherever." And then I'd come back and check the box and say, "I'm back" at 10 o'clock, whatever it was. We also moved to a QR code or a Google Form, so students may go in and fill out a quick thing. So, I type my name in and say I'm going, and then when I come back and check the box. So, we have used a system like that to account for students who are moving in and out of our classroom. So, I want to emphasize that the primary goal of this system is student safety.

▶ 29:57 So, in the event of an emergency, having a real time digital pass system helps us quickly and accurately determine any student that's out of a classroom at any given time. So, that would ensure that we can locate and account for everyone very swiftly. So now it's like a one-stop shop. So if, God forbid, there was an emergency, we could pull up and say, "Three students are out of this classroom, six students are out of this classroom, three," whatever it may be. However, I just want to acknowledge that the roll-out of this system did not go as expected. I'll take ownership for that. I'm definitely disappointed how the information was initially shared. My team and I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of days reflecting on

▶ 30:42 how we could have handled this differently. I certainly apologize for any miscommunication or ambiguous language that was used, via email too, whether it was staff, students, or families. The language that was used in the emails, I don't believe it fully or accurately represented the true intent or function of the digital pass system that we have purchased and are utilizing. So, to address these concerns directly, Mr. Merrill did send an updated communication to all families this afternoon. It outlines the purpose of the system and hopefully clarifies what it is, and just importantly, what it is not. My hope is that the additional communication provides clarity and highlights our bottom line, which is the safety and wellbeing of our

▶ 31:32 students. So, I just want to thank everyone because I do appreciate the feedback we have. Certainly, we need to use that. Feedback's really critical, so that we can move forward and potentially do things differently if there's a next time, but also reflect on how we need to fix things. So, I do appreciate anyone who shared their thoughts and their feedback and any concerns with us. So, moving forward, we're on a forward path at this point. Hopefully, with clearer information in the hands of our community, I'm hopeful we can successfully implement this system together to keep our schools safe. So, I'm happy to answer any direct questions. Any questions about Minga? Ms. Rosie Thomas. Thank you for clarifying all that, Superintendent Berman. I really appreciate it.

▶ 32:21 And I did find Mr. Merrill's email today quite helpful. I've also looked on social media, and I think people who work in high schools understand that there needs to be a pass system of some sort. I just want to ask you, are we trying to restrict student bathroom use? Never. Are we trying to track the number of minutes that people are in the bathroom? No. Okay. Nope. Can students or parents opt out of the system? No. For safety issues, right? Yep. All students have to sign in and out of the classroom when they're leaving, because it just becomes a safety issue. Right now, we have it so that there's a weekly email- Mm-hmm ... going to families, letting them know the amount of time. I haven't seen it because I'm not on the user side-

▶ 33:13 Mm-hmm ... but the amount of time that their student may be out of the classroom- Yeah ... for whatever reason. They can opt out of receiving those updates, certainly. But the students, when they leave the classroom, are still going to have to use the system to account for not being in the classroom. And you do it through your Chromebook? Yes. Yep. Not through your phone? Correct. Not through your phone. No one's downloading any apps. There's no tracking piece. So Carey Berman can leave and say she's going to the third floor bathroom and actually go to the first floor bathroom. Yeah. And it's never going to know. It's just going to know that Carey Berman's out of the classroom. Yep. And it's the responsibility, just like if you were writing it on a piece of paper-

▶ 33:53 Yep ... to say where you're going and not lie. So if an emergency happens, you still don't know where the kid is in the building. At the end of the day, we don't know, but we do know who is out of the classroom, and we do know their intended end game. Yeah. And you know how many minutes they've been gone. Correct. Okay. Correct. And so the only other question that I have that you and I have already spoken about is whether this is a useful system for all kids versus kids who really need more supervision and more close intervention, tier two, tier three type of interventions. Mm-hmm. And you've kind of already answered that you have to know where everyone is in the building to the best of your ability.

▶ 34:35 So even though you won't know where they are, you'll know that they're out- Correct ... of the classroom. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions about Minga? Ms. Leo. Thank you very much for the clarifications. And Mr. Merrill's communication helped a lot as well to clarify, as we've just discussed. Have you gotten any feedback from teachers on their experience? Are you adjusting anything? And is it possible in a bunch of months we can get an update on how it's going so we have a sense once implementation's complete? Yep. Update, definitely. I, being in my role, have not at this moment in time, on day eight, gotten feedback from teachers. But I am sure that the high school and middle school administration

▶ 35:21 have some anecdotal evidence, and certainly, we could do a quick survey and see how things are going and report out at a future date. Sure. Thank you. Great. You're welcome. Anyone else? If not, that concludes the announcements to the superintendent. Okay. Right now, we're moving to our consent agenda. First up, we have the warrants. FY27 schools S27013 in the amount of $505,580.10. FY27 officials, S27014 in the amount of $117. FY27 September debit card, S27015 in the amount of $1,430. FY27 August high school student activity wire, S27016 in the amount of $4,721.25. All right. And then we have the meeting minutes of August 18th, 2026. We have the MHS field trip date change, and we have the policy JF

▶ 36:30 admissions. Would anybody like to pull anything from the consent agenda? Mr. Hartman? I'll pull the meeting minutes. Okay. Mr. Hartman's pulled the meeting minutes. Those will move to the announcements of the chair. Does anybody else want to pull anything from the consent agenda? Okay. Anybody like to make a motion? Mr. Hartman? Move to approve the consent agenda. Okay. Mr. Hartman moves to approve the consent agenda, seconded by Ms. Rosie Thomas. All in favor? Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. So we will come back and do the meeting minutes at the conclusion of our meeting. Next up we have our subcommittees, starting with finance and facilities. Thank you so much. In finance facilities this evening, we have one item,

▶ 37:26 the monthly budget summary and revolving accounts. Mr. Kelley, superintendent. Sure. Thanks so much. Yeah. So you have the year-to-date budget report, and you'll see that we are now ... A couple things to consider. We've got our first bigger payrolls of the school year. We have staff back in the buildings, which is wonderful, and that means our bigger weekly and biweekly payrolls. We do run two siloed payroll systems, and so we have the bigger payrolls are starting to show in the year-to-date budget report. We are encumbering our bigger groups such as the teachers, paraprofessionals now. We're encumbering salaries. And then our next phase will be to move into encumbering tuitions, our bigger items, and go from there.

▶ 38:12 But we do stress, the business office will tell you that's my favorite word, encumbrance, so- ... we're doing that right now. That's in progress. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you have on the FY27 budget report. Ms. Leo. Just a clarifying question, Mr. Kelley. When we look at the percent used, you can see the encumbrance, see isn't it two, on the curriculum director line at 112%. Can you just describe for us what's happening there? Sure. That's part of our process right now. So as part of our moving from FY26 to FY27, that's just an encumbrance where it's now going to be encumbered to a different department. So there's two things going on in this report right now. You've got our DESE chart of accounts, and then you've got our budget line items,

▶ 38:59 and right now that's just something that's encumbered to the wrong line in UNIS. Ah. So as we go through our process, that'll end of October, beginning of November, should sort itself out. Great. Thank you for looking. Thanks. Any other questions on the budget report? Seeing none on the revolving accounts. Sure. Thanks so much. So yes, revolving accounts are a critical piece of our budget. This is the revenues that we raise through different fees and tuitions as we go throughout the school year. And you'll see that a lot of our revolving accounts right now are in deficit as far as we haven't collected that money yet. Just as a reminder for those that may not be aware, three of our revolving accounts we pay salaries from.

▶ 39:42 So, those are ongoing throughout the year. We collect revenue, and then we pay through payroll the staff that are associated with those revolving accounts. And we work our way through the year collecting revenue, and ultimately the goal is to have those with positive fund balances on June 30. So I'd be happy to answer any questions you have on our revolving funds. Questions on revolving funds? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to approve both of those reports, made by Mr. Kelley, seconded by Mr. Hartman. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor? Opposed? That motion carries unanimously, and that concludes finance facilities. Okay, moving on to education programs and personnel. Good evening. Welcome to educational

▶ 40:41 programs and personnel. And tonight we have one item on our agenda. It is our annual concussion report, which we are legally bound to review once a year. And we're going to look at the number of concussions that happened last year and discuss them with Mr. Fogarty. Thank you for being here tonight to inform our discussion. There's no need for a vote on this. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Good evening. Do you want to just give us an overview, and then we'll- Sure ... open up questions? This tracking of concussions and reporting out on it has been going on since 2014. And last year we had eight concussions. And that's diagnosed by a doctor, not by a coach, not by the athletic trainer. That is medical personnel who make those decisions.

▶ 41:31 So that's body-to-body contact, that's body-to-ground contact. That's an object-to-the-body contact. And at this age, a lot of the ones that we see are actually the body and the ground that cause that type of damage, if you will, or injury. Thank you. Anything you want to add, Superintendent Berman? No. I think last year was the first year that I presented this. Certainly, we had a much higher amount last year. It becomes kind of a challenge because of student confidentiality. It's really difficult because we can't say, like, "Oh, there were three female athletes and five male athletes," or, "Two happened in soccer, and one happened..." We can't really specify, which makes it hard because I know there's a lot of

▶ 42:19 questions, and we want to know, are we doing things differently? I think we are monitoring it very closely, right? We have the concussion protocols. All of our educators, our guidance staff is working with students if they do have concussions. Our trainer is certainly ... Students have to be cleared. Mm-hmm. That's the other piece. So it's not like, "Oh, I feel better. I don't have a concussion anymore." Nope. They actually have to go back to the doctor and get the information to then bring to the trainer, who then gives to the coach. I think that's the protocol. Correct me if I'm wrong. But it's hard to say why there were so many last year and so few this year. I think you see the variability, though, in this report

▶ 43:00 throughout the years. As few as four in 2020, kind of probably not the best year to use. However, there were four. 2019 there were eight. But this seems like a low number. And I think Mr. Fogarty and I had a conversation earlier today. We're averaging 11 a year. And this is for all of our students and all of our athletes. So, I don't know if there's anything else you want to add, but- Well, clubs and activities are also included in this. Yep. So band, whatnot. Safety's paramount with what we do, and we try to keep all of our coaches, the medical staff, the athletic trainer, and the nurses are in concert with one another. If something happens in the classroom, they bounce things off. "This happened earlier in the day.

▶ 43:47 Please check on him when he shows up at the event later." So we're working together with it. At this level, typically about 300,000 concussions occur in the high school age in a given year. Two-thirds of those are during games, which leaves about a third at practices. Practices are very structured. We try to use our best practices as educators to put people in situations where they're going to be successful. And that includes professional development. They're going to trainings. They're learning from programs around here that open up workshops or clinics, things like that. So constantly, we're trying to get better at what we do. And part of that, a huge part of that, is the safety component.

▶ 44:35 So With that, it comes back to the game, where two-thirds of these are happening, and you have less controls over that. Mm-hmm. There's a stronger effort, greater forces, greater speed usually. So it's not shocking. That's not a huge revelation right there, but it's factual. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions, comments from the committee? Mr. Hartman, go ahead. Thank you, and thank you for continuing to pay close attention to this. I think we had a large discussion last year, and to Ms. Berman's point, 21 was a much higher number than previous years. Certainly alarming to a number of members to see that come forward that way. I think just so I understand some of the process around the concussion, while we

▶ 45:20 have the advantage of your time tonight, around the concussion protocol and how we learn about these. These are not necessarily concussions that are diagnosed even on the night of an incident, right? This is something where a student reports from their doctor that they've received a concussion, and that's how we find out about it. Is that correct? Sometimes it could happen during a practice, and right away it's seen or it's heard. You hear that hit, and questions start happening. But whoever's on site will take first command of that. If the athletic trainer's there, it's that person. If not, it starts at the head coach. And from there, the student may exhibit symptoms right away, and then you take action. It dictates where you go through questioning.

▶ 46:08 Mm-hmm. Student may go home and feel worse at night, and then that parent may take them to the doctor that evening or in the morning, and then we find out later. Mm-hmm. So it happens in a lot of ways. Yeah. Most recently I found out through a guidance counselor that a student had a concussion. Mm-hmm. Right. So- It wasn't reported to the coach, wasn't reported to the trainer. Yeah. It happened somewhere else. Right. So yeah, I'm trying to think about what information we have access to, which from your reporting is sometimes somewhat limited from what you're saying. We see the number eight at the end of the day. Correct. And it seems like, is there always an incident report that's associated with that

▶ 46:56 when you get a concussion report, or is it documented on the night of an incident that you think a concussion might be coming? If the athletic trainer were to see that student, yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. So take scrupulous notes at all injuries, all situations. Could be a hand got cut off, somebody with cleats may have stepped on that. Something as significant as a potential concussion, obviously there's going to be more detail- Mm-hmm ... to that type of injury. Okay. Yeah. Because I think one of the things I'm most concerned about learning more about is multiple concussions with students, which is the most dangerous situation for sure, that students could be having repeated concussions. And I don't know if there's any way that we can track that better to understand

▶ 47:40 with the information we have access to, without exposing student information, but to have a better understanding of when we're seeing multiple concussions happen. And what is our protocol around that if a student has a second concussion or a third concussion? So going back to Ms. Berman's speaking about once the doctor's cleared, part of that protocol is coming back five more days or five more workouts to get that student ready to play. Mm-hmm. All right? So anybody has that initial concussion, we're aware of that. Happens again, maybe the next season, then there's going to be more time involved. There's going to be more conversation with doctors. That doctor's going to probably step in and have more to say about something like

▶ 48:27 that. But once that clearance comes from the doctor, we take more time to evaluate and make sure that that person is coming back with the skills that they need to be successful. Mm-hmm. So the athletic trainer would have that information. A coach may not if they're not coaching season to season. I'm not familiar with any of repeated ones within a same season. Mm-hmm. Okay. I'll just conclude then I think with, I think it might be helpful just if there's ways of relaying the information to the committee that don't identify students, of course, but maybe reflect certain areas of concern, if there are concerning patterns that come out of the concussion analysis with the information that you have certainly access to, to understand if there...

▶ 49:15 I think one of our questions is always, are there certain sports that are dangerous for our students? And are we doing everything we can to protect our students? Simply seeing an overall number is not enough for us to interpret where to focus our attention. So if there are ways of saying, "This sport is a red category because it has a high level of concussions happening year after year after year," I think that's information that would be helpful to the committee without exposing student information. And we can look at that on a more annual basis to see in a year like '21, this sport was red. In a year where there's only eight, it was very yellow, very green, because we just really didn't see much happening with the

▶ 49:51 concussions. That is a non-numeric way of displaying information in a way that could help us understand better what's going on. So just one suggestion there if we want to-- I think the committee, judging from previous conversations, wants to lean in a little more to understand this. So that's my suggestion. I can tell you this, if you're comparing two sports where both genders are offered- Mm-hmm ... say soccer, basketball, tennis, females are more likely to be concussed than a male. Mm-hmm. All sports that you can compare as the same. Mm-hmm. So. Yeah. Thank you. That information would be very helpful. Any other questions or comments from anyone on the committee? Yes, Ms. Driscoll, go ahead.

▶ 50:29 Sure. So I think now that you have the trainer, are you finding that-- We have gone through a period where we didn't have a trainer. I looked hard for a trainer, and that was tough to get back. Do you feel that there is added value with having a trainer? Absolutely. Okay. Can you describe a little bit, you touched on it, but in the protocol. So those 18 months were 18 of the worst months of my life. So to have someone competent to be in there every day, approachable and knowledgeable, and able to share that with people, it's invaluable. So. That's helpful. Thank you. And I did have one question in section C in the report. It's the second question down, and it says, "Please indicate whether report of head injury forms are required to be submitted

▶ 51:23 for all students, or only for students who participate in extracurricular athletics and school sports." And it's marked unknown. So I just wondered if you could talk about that a little bit. It's below the enter how many report of head injury forms, and then the next question is how many of the report of head injury forms received were the result of extracurricular, and then it says, "Please indicate whether report of head injury forms are required to be submitted." So if it happens in a sport, to get back, yes, it is required. If it were, say, an intramural program or a club activity, there is not paperwork required to come back to that. Okay, so it's marked unknown because it's a mix? It is a mix, yes.

▶ 52:33 I would say yes to that. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Driscoll. Any other questions or comments? Just one clarifying question. It's more like you could get a concussion falling off the stage, working in the theater, being part of a big production. You could get a concussion walking down the hall, roughhousing with your friends, and all of those would be included in these numbers, right? If they were reported to you. No. These numbers are reported through the activity themselves. Any co-curricular activity or athletics. Okay. So if you take all the concussions that occur in that building, whether riding a bike, falling out of bed, things like that, those aren't included here. Okay. It's things that happened under our watch.

▶ 53:29 Okay. That's what's included here. All right. And the numbers are very comparable. So that number is usually around 10. There's usually about 10 students that are not involved in our athletics or activities- Yeah ... that are concussed each year. It's a very similar number. Okay, interesting. Did you have a follow-up question from that, Mr. Miller? Yeah, I just want to understand that point a little bit better. So we receive a report from the student's family about a concussion after they've seen a doctor. But walk me through that as if the incident happened, and what you receive and when you receive it, just so I really understand. There's a crash on the field, student goes home, might see a doctor.

▶ 54:12 How is that transmitted, and what do you receive to correlate that that is related to that activity? So if we're talking, Guidance is heavily involved in this. Usually, lights become a problem. The phones become a problem. So any type of modification needed for that student is shared with the people that are directly involved with that student. So any medical documentation that that student may have received at the doctor's office, at the emergency room, typically accompanies that student to school, and is shared with the coach, the athletic trainer, or teachers that may have to make modifications for that student. No, I think I'm trying to understand how we differentiate between concussions that

▶ 54:59 happen in the activity versus ones that don't, because we're not diagnosing concussions at the activity, right? We're diagnosing them because a doctor tells us it's a concussion. Yep. Who's telling us that it's related to the activity? If we- The doctor. The doctor. So we're getting information- Usually, the notes that I typically see, a skiing accident, a bicycle accident- Yep ... football game, gymnastics. Something like that. But we might not have a record of the incident because it could've been a small incident on the field that the coach shouldn't even notice, right, in the moment. Then it wasn't diagnosed. So it has to be diagnosed for the- No. What I'm saying is the coach on the field, sorry to interrupt, coach on the

▶ 55:43 field has a lot going on. The kid falls, doesn't even notice. Two days later, he comes in with a note from the doctor saying he got a concussion because he played soccer. Is that how it happens sometimes? Yes. So we don't have a knowledge of exactly what happened in the incident to go back to. That's what I'm trying to understand. No, that student walks away at the end of that practice, the end of that game- Right ... not sure. Okay. And sometimes those symptoms don't come on until later as well. Right. That's all I'm trying to clarify- Sure ... is how these incidents arise and how we may not know much of anything at the school level- Correct ... until we receive the report. Thank you. That's not just concussions. Sprained ankles, the adrenaline's going, the hurt

▶ 56:20 knee, the hip, the back, whatever, the adrenaline is going, and it's usually after that adrenaline relaxes a little bit, subsides, that they may feel a little different- Right ... sometime later. I see that Mayor Jen wants to- I was- ... lend a word. Go ahead ... as- Maybe as a mom of a football player. I don't know. As the parent of a 11-year-old, I think we were in the, I can disclose my own child's privacy, we were in the 21, the number 21. It happened. There was no obvious sign- Yep ... that anything had happened. There was symptoms upon return home. We sought medical attention. As the parent, I reported it to Mr. Fogarty, to Guidance, and then I will just want to really say how impressed I was

▶ 57:00 with the school response, how coordinated it was, both from the athletic department- Mm ... the school nurse, teachers, Guidance. So I do think our response is really well done. But yeah, we're never going to know. We obviously can't be in the business of diagnosing- Right ... medical situations. So I know you're largely reliant on reporting, but once you get a report, I think we do really leap into action. And the level of restriction in terms of being cleared to go back is very robust. Thank you so much. Thank you, and thank you for your patience. Sure. I'm just trying to work through, understand exactly what we have access to and what we don't. Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately, the decision to play a sport is really based on the child and

▶ 57:38 the family. Because they know the ins and outs of the medical incidents that they've had. Mr. Fogarty, you have the last word. Sure. And playing sports, these injuries, it's inherent. Mm-hmm. Somebody's going to get hurt at some point, and we do everything we can to minimize. That's job security on our end. We need these students to compete, to fill those rosters, to go out and have a product, and for them to have those rewarding experiences. So we want them healthy. We want them out there. But at the same time, you got to create those safe spaces where you can minimize any type of situation. Well, thank you all. Thank you for coming in and discussing this with us. And without any further comments, we're done with this part of our agenda.

▶ 58:25 Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Fogarty. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes education programs and personnel. We're now moving on to policy and planning. Good evening, everybody. This is the policy and planning subcommittee, and we have a few items on the agenda tonight. We will kick off our discussion tonight with updates on our strategic plan. If folks will remember at our meeting in July, I believe, since I was not here in August, we discussed a little bit about the direction we're headed with our strategic planning. And we asked Superintendent Berman to come back in September after having worked with her team to review the closeout of the previous three-year plan, evaluate some of the progress steps that we've had, and point out

▶ 59:26 where we might go for a one-year plan. And that's what she's produced in the packet tonight. I think we have a lot to talk about in that packet. There's a lot of information in there about where we've been over the last three years, and where Ms. Berman, and I see Ms. Acevedo at the table as well, to help us through this dialogue, that we'll learn more about the direction they see for the next year. And then I think we'll have more to talk about as a committee around how we want to plan out for a longer-term strategic planning process. And we'll talk about that after Ms. Berman takes the lead on this with Ms. Acevedo about where we are right now. Sure. So I'm just going to take some highlights from the memo.

▶ 1:00:06 So the memo highlights the strategic plan, and I'll just take some brief highlights from there. But certainly, we had discussed about a potential proposed extension of the plan that expired in June 2026. So as you all know, there have been quite a bit of turnover in leadership, although I will say that in the central admin office, I guess I could say, our leadership team in many ways has stayed consistent with the players, just in some different roles. And I'd like to give us a little pat on the back because even without a consistent leader in the superintendent's chair, we did make a lot of progress. And I do attribute that to the leadership, but more importantly, the educators who are working with our children every single day.

▶ 1:00:55 So, we were all rowing in the right direction, and we did make some good progress. So I think that's really important to highlight. The leadership team did take some time during our summit event in August and really look at what was accomplished. We worked in teams of elementary and secondary and broke it down to find out what was accomplished and what was the evidence to demonstrate that there was growth, or that we met or partially met those objectives. I will say it's now being part of the NESS applause and looking more at the superintendent's role, I think I would propose a different way to format, I guess is what I'm thinking of, for our strategic plan for next year. But this year, we are taking what we have and trying to move it

▶ 1:01:55 forward. So, with that, we identified our areas of need. And I think as I had mentioned before, taking objective three and embedding it into some of our other objectives really felt like the right thing to do. I remember I was part of the team for objective three when we did it, and I struggled with it at that time because I felt like it really was embedded in all of the other objectives. But to a couple people at that time, we were bringing the new civics class on as a requirement. There were some other pieces that we were trying to lean into, and there was this feeling like it needed to be a standalone objective. I personally never felt like it was a good standalone objective. I felt like it really should be embedded. It's embedded in the curriculum, right?

▶ 1:02:44 In terms of those pieces, it's embedded in the teaching and learning. So I just felt like we should really take that global engagement and embed it for the next year into strategic objective one and two. So our academic knowledge and skills, and with that, all of our high-quality instructional materials, and our rigorous grade-level instruction. We should be incorporating critical thinking, historical analysis, media literacy, global literature, taking different perspectives all of the pieces that are really pronounced in three. And similarly, taking those pieces and embedding it into objective two. It literally has the same exact language. "Uplifting diverse families and developing empathy are the foundational behaviors

▶ 1:03:34 of global citizenship." So I think that we can tie those together. I think they dovetail very nicely, and I think my goal is to make a clear strategic plan for this year and moving forward so that our staff knows where we're headed, our students know where we're headed, and our families know where we're headed in clear, plain, concise language, and that we understand the objective. So I do think there's a piece we can add in here a little bit, and we talked about it as a leadership team to ensure that we have some evidence, but what are the actual outcomes? So we had talked about some of the pieces that had been used as evidence in the past couple of years through some other leaders, and how we felt like we could

▶ 1:04:22 bring some of that back as specific evidence and specific growth, and really tie it to our story. So I did ask Melanie Acevedo to join us as well, just as the teaching and learning expert, and I felt like it was only fair because we have an objective, and Ken Kelley was already here, that Melanie should also join us at the table. So I think, hopefully it's clear where we're headed and what we're doing. And again, everything falls under those ABCs, our accountability, our belonging, our consistency as well, and I think we'll continue to use that language as well. But we need to get our new curriculum implemented. We need to continue to care for our children. We need to have high expectations.

▶ 1:05:07 We need to give them diverse perspectives, and teach them to become independent thinkers. And it's kind of all wrapped up into there. And then, of course, Ken Kelley, I don't want to forget about you. Ensuring that we're sustaining our finance and operations, and stabilizing that given our override and using data-informed decision making for all of our decisions about personnel, curriculum, any of our expenditures. So that's the overview, and I'm certainly happy to answer any questions that may be specific, or if you need more information, I'm happy to try to provide that as well. Mr. Kelley, I saw your hand. Yeah, sure. This is more of a comment, in general, that I certainly appreciate what you said around clear, plain, and concise language.

▶ 1:05:57 Oftentimes, we've maybe in the past received materials that you have to take out Google to say, "What does this word mean?" Because I'm not a professional educator, so anything like that that can just really make things easier to get through, I certainly appreciate. I think it goes back to some of your stuff that you talked about when you were first hired of your ABCs. So I just wanted to make a comment that that's something that I appreciate the district, because it makes us understand what's coming across, and I think it makes it easier for families as well. Thank you. Other members? Ms. Leo. Thank you. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of reducing the strategic objectives from five to four so there's not overlap and redundancy when I was

▶ 1:06:42 thinking about clarity there. I just wanted to get a little bit of feedback about this idea of the diverse worldviews and rigorous instruction. It seems critically important as you described, that it's part of high-quality instruction. But it might make sense to add a little bit there in the evidence or in the language to make sure that reflects our community values and what deep learning looks like, because there are lots of ways to learn deeply, and our beliefs are part of our strategic plan. And so thinking through the importance of civic education, for example. The civic experiences that students have here are incredible, and making sure that we are lifting that up and not taking a spotlight.

▶ 1:07:25 I don't think that you are at all. I think that you've spoken really clearly about that, but sometimes we need to be able to refer to the plan. So just embedding as in objective two, that language was already embedded there. Finding a little way to just recognize diversity of perspectives and problem-solving is one way we think about instruction. Yeah. And I'll just respond to that too, because I know you'd given me a little preview on that, which I appreciate. And one of the things that is in there as some evidence is our instructional walkthroughs that we'll be establishing this year and our areas of focus, and I can certainly share those, but number one is focused on that kind of sense of belonging.

▶ 1:08:08 So the learning environment creates a welcoming and supportive space for all students, and we would be looking for evidence as we're going through our walkthroughs on that. Number two is teacher and student interactions reinforce inclusivity and value unique experiences related to background, identity, language, ideas, and perspectives. So I think it's a little side step to that- Yeah ... and these were chosen by the leadership team for our look force. And so those will be our areas of focus as we do these non-evaluative walkthroughs. So I think it, again, kind of dovetails nicely into the language that you are hoping to get in there. I kind of feel like it's there, but behind the scenes a little bit.

▶ 1:08:48 Thank you. You're welcome. I really appreciate that, and just lifting that up. That absolutely addresses the exact thing I was talking about. That clearly our administrators and our leaders are still thinking about what was objective three in everything they do, which is really important. Thanks. Yes, Mr. Sciacca. Thank you. So just a point of clarification relative to our work here, we are voting on this plan? We don't have it listed for a vote. I think it would be appropriate at some point for the committee to vote, whether at this meeting or a subsequent meeting. For next meeting. Okay, yeah. So for next meeting then just for feedback, presuming that will be, I won't make a motion. I would love to see, first of all, I agree with all of you or those who spoke,

▶ 1:09:30 that I like the fact that most of this I can understand as a non-educator, and that's super helpful because it has not always been that way, and I think that was articulated well earlier, so I just wanted to amplify that. Of course, you know my favorite area is finance and operations, no surprise to anybody. So I, of course, appreciate what Mr. Kelley has done with the budget and so forth. I did notice that that recommended focus areas for '26, '27, were to continue strengthening and maintain proactive community budget workshops, and then maintain transparent fiscal management, and so forth. And I would love to see a recommended focus area around something that I think you're already focusing on, so I don't think it's radically different.

▶ 1:10:19 Which is, and we talked a little bit about in the subcommittee, Mr. Hartman, about our community relations and our boosters and our donations, and really working hard. We have the override from our community, but there is so much more that the community gives to us. And I want to ensure, number one, that we are following our donations policy. We have no thresholds right now. The body may choose to do that, but right now, there are no thresholds, so presumably, even something that would be a very small dollar amount would need to come before the committee. And I wouldn't expect the community to know all of that, but just in terms of showing fidelity to the policy manual that we have, I'd love to understand something like, I'll just propose a little language so you

▶ 1:11:07 can hear what I'm thinking is, that by June 30th, that the district in collaboration with the community and the school committee, explore, revise, and propose an updated donations protocol to the committee for policy revision consideration. So it's really that process of understanding where the donations come from. And I'm sure, Mr. Kelley, you would have much more if you had six hours to speak with us about this. To help us understand what those donations are, because I'm thinking of all the athletic, not necessarily equipment, but different kinds of supports that are provided in co-curricular activities and on and on. And I'm not asking for donations of tissue boxes. Like please, I- You know, we'll be reasonable if that would be expected.

▶ 1:12:02 So, just to get a handle on what are the kinds of things. Occasionally we'll see things like furniture or computer equipment or things like that. So those are always so helpful to me to see how generous this community is. So, I'll pass that along for future consideration, please. Thank you. I think we've started some of that work actually- Yeah ... because we just created a Google form to share with all the principals to ensure that anything that comes through the PTO, and it's shared with all of leadership. So we're starting to do that because going back to we have to quarterly report out on those things. So we want to make sure that we're doing that. We put it on our calendars to get that memo out.

▶ 1:12:42 We have the timestamp for the Google. So I think we're on the same page with that and understanding that there's a need for that. So that can be one of our pieces that we work towards. So thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. I'd love to see that memorialized. That would be super helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Rossi-Thomas. Thank you so much. So, I appreciate first of all, that you put the key accomplishments down on the left column, because there was a lot of great work that's been done in the last year or two to get us ready to take the next step in the strategic plan. And it's a reminder to all of us that it starts with our beliefs and values and our mission. Then we create the plan, and now this will be our roadmap for a year, and then

▶ 1:13:26 we'll build it out further. So thank you, first of all, the three of you in particular, Ms. Acevedo, Mr. Kelley, and Ms. Berman, for all the work that you've done thus far for helping us stay on our map, for clarifying the map, and then also I look forward to a robust discussion that's community-based for our next five-year plan. I would love to see a very skill-based portrait of a graduate created because the one that we have currently is big and it's fluffy, but it's not really skill-based. It's more like, "This is what I would love all of our kids to get to someday." But I'd like it to be a little bit more concrete than what it is right now, even though it's a lovely hope. And then I also hope after we go through this community process of creating a

▶ 1:14:21 strategic plan, that we have at least one objective that really focuses on culture, belonging, and community. And I've already talked to you about that, but I know we don't need that for this year, but I hope that's what we'll get to, so it doesn't feel like we're slipping that in through the other objectives. Yeah. And I think we can do some assessment of that this year, right? Mm-hmm. And ensure that what is needed from that- Mm-hmm ... whether it's certain groups or populations or whatever else, right, that may not feel that sense of belonging. Mm-hmm. Where do we target an objective or a goal if that's an area of need? So I'd love to try to assess that through this year so that we can develop that as

▶ 1:15:03 well if needed for our next plan. And I just also want to say as a general comment, because since this is our first back to school meeting, that I've heard a lot of very good-- Besides the Minga thing, I've heard a lot of really good things about the back to school culture in all the buildings, and parents are quite happy, and students seem to be quite happy, and certainly students are noticing that there are fewer students in a classroom, which is at the secondary level. So I think there was a lot of good work that was done last year, as well as the override was successful, and hopefully we can really continue to build to make our district even better. So thank you. Thank you. Other comments from members?

▶ 1:15:47 Seeing none, I'll just say a few words. First off, thank you for putting this together. I think it's really to everybody's point, very accessible. That is a real skill to have, to put that into a way that's accessible and something we can really tackle. I do want to raise up, particularly around Mr. School's comments, that we've started the path a little bit, I think through a couple of recent things that have happened with-- I know Mr. Kelley had taken a look at all the student activity accounts. That was a very deep dive process, I'm sure. That's reflective of the work that's gone into our finance and operations side of things. In addition, we've started the work on the policy for booster clubs and

▶ 1:16:29 started to look at that and started a process around that, which I hope that we start to hear more of soon. We're going to hear some more updates on that soon. But, I think we're taking a look at those things in the appropriate way and balancing the policy with the operational work and making sure that we're diving deep to understand those questions about the particular donations and how things are being handled at the district level. Trying to make clear expectations out of it too, for everybody involved. So I just wanted to raise that up, and I appreciate the point as well that could be a useful highlight to both highlight the work that's already happening, but also set ourselves to have something to look back on in the future.

▶ 1:17:08 I agree with some of the comments around how we can incorporate maybe potentially some more language around global inclusion, particularly critical thinking, I think was a piece that is hard to document sometimes, but something that's really important. And whether it's part of this document or whether it's part of the future, I love the idea of a portrait. What is our student portrait that we would love to see at the end of four years of high school and however many years before that in the Melrose Public Schools? But as we paint that portrait, I think critical thinking skills is a really important aspect that's reflected only in objective three right now. That certainly, I think is in the other objectives, as you mentioned,

▶ 1:17:45 superintendent. But how we highlight that, how we document those sorts of things is going to be important as we look at the longer-term strategic planning process. Because I think to your point, Ms. Rossi-Thomas, the skill-based world is out there. We need to identify how we're thinking about skills. We have a lot of documented test scores and things. Those aren't necessarily the things that employers look for, that people outside of colleges necessarily look for. So we've got to think about those things too as we create that portrait. Certainly, those are important elements and very important in many circumstances, but we've got to think about the whole picture of what students should be when they graduate from our school.

▶ 1:18:25 So I appreciate that commentary as well. I think at this point, the only thing I'd want to move on to on strategic planning is we talked about a little bit of school committee process and where we fall in this process. Ms. Berman has come through with her one-year plan. We can bring it up in a future meeting if we want to vote on it, if she makes any changes in the meantime. But in terms of what is the role of the school committee in that longer-term strategic planning process? So whether it's a three-year, which is I think typically been a cycle, or a five-year, we still have to make that decision or the request for the superintendent, so that she knows what to look forward to. But also, we had talked about whether there would be a planning session for us and

▶ 1:19:05 whether that's an opportunity. So at this point, I open it up to the floor if members want to commit to an idea. I think a planning session would be very helpful for us, and we can move forward with that, look for support on that. But, I also respect that people's schedules are very tight. It will be hard, though, I think, to have a kind of in-depth planning session in the evening meeting in the middle of the week. Just, I think we would have to think about a weekend time to get together on that. So with that, I'll open it up to comments from members about where they would like to go with that so that we can have committee input on this process as well. Mr. School. Thank you. So, in other strategic plans, there were an

▶ 1:19:45 hour and a half or two-hour training session, and I found them very valuable because strategic planning is not something that I do in my day job all the time. And I think most of us do them in three-year increments or whatever we do. And having those reminders, certainly strategic plans theory, if you will, changes. So I just think having somebody help us understand who does what and in what order gives us also the opportunity to create that kind of timeline that gets us to the end whenever we want that end to be and lets us know who does what and sort of how those things happen. So I found it helpful, and I think find it helpful again. Okay, great. Other opinions or thoughts from members? Ms. Leo?

▶ 1:20:33 Yeah, I'll just chime in to say I agree. I have not been part of the previous process, but it sounds like it would be really helpful. And I think it's something that as a school committee, we can engage and provide support and kind of governance advice on. And that feels like the right touch. I would love to be part of that if we decide that's where we want to go. Okay. Yes, Ms. Soloren. And as a new committee member, just I think, yes, it would be helpful. My only hesitation would be does this delay us in implementing the strategic plan and moving forward, or is this just for talking about the multi-year in the future? The discussion that I think people have been kicking around is really for the

▶ 1:21:23 longer-term plan. Okay. So this piece here, I think, is on a separate track for the current school year. And then we would work to build a bigger plan beyond that for the future years, which would take longer than a number of months probably, with Superintendent Berman and her team, really digging deep on some things, connecting with all the buildings, connecting with the staff, and figuring out what is their direction on things, and of course, regularly reporting back to the committee about progress and when we start to see things come together. Okay, great. Thank you. Any other thoughts? So I think maybe the next step then is that I'll work with Chair Kelley on maybe picking some dates in October-ish to think about.

▶ 1:22:06 Perhaps on a weekend where maybe two hours of time we could block out to have the committee gather and have some session on our strategic planning process and what we want to get out of it, and maybe think about highlight areas for the superintendent to consider in her process as she gets back with her team through the months that we had talked about previously. Previously, just to put a large arc on the picture, we had had some activities identified in the fall. This would be one of them tonight. And then through the fall, the school committee, we had talked about a school committee meeting in this session. And then the superintendent having time with her team to develop plans and ideas, feedback, and do that through the winter.

▶ 1:22:51 And then sometime in the early to midwinter would be when we would see a more formalized larger plan. I think we're still working out some of the specifics around those dates, but that's kind of the larger arc picture. Is that fair at this point for everyone to understand? Great. So if nothing more on strategic planning, we can move on to the next topic. Can I just say one thing really quickly? Oh, go ahead. Just because Melanie, I just appreciate you being here. And I just wanted to make sure that I covered everything and that I didn't miss anything that you want to highlight, because there's been a lot of work done. There has. And you were part of a lot of these discussions. So I just want to make sure there's nothing. Do you want to say anything?

▶ 1:23:32 I think just one of the things that I know Superintendent Berman and I have been working on probably for the past year now is really bringing back those instructional rounds, instructional walkthroughs, and seeing what's happening in classrooms. I think her and I try to be as visible as humanly possible, given everything that we do. But really having a purposeful kind of meaning of going into classrooms and having our five instructional focuses that we have shared with staff, that have gone out, that principals are re-sharing with staff, so that it's not a surprise, right? These are the things we're looking for and these are the things we're tracking. Several of our previous leaders have said things that get tracked, get done.

▶ 1:24:14 And so I think that this is one of those goals that Superintendent Berman and I both share in wanting to have a more purposeful walkthrough structure and this plan building into the next one. That's going to give us feedback to really think about that. We're also part of a district review this year that's coming in the fall. So they're also going to be giving us-- This is a DESE district review, so they're also going to be giving us some feedback about things that they perceive as going well and things that we can kind of look at as next steps. So that's also going to be part of our planning process moving forward. And that will be great data for us. And I think the ultimate goal is right now

▶ 1:24:58 looking at, these are non-evaluative walkthroughs, but with the leadership team. But I think eventually the ultimate goal is to make sure we have educators on those teams as well, so that they can see what's happening in other classrooms and across the district, whether it's vertical or horizontal alignment, and really have their voice be present on our teams to ensure that we're doing a good job for teaching and learning. Thank you. So thank you, Melanie. Thank you. Ms. Asmar. Thank you. So with that, I think we'll move on to the final item in policy and planning. Unfortunately, I think this is the second time tonight we're going to hear about impacts of the current administration on the operations of Melrose Public Schools.

▶ 1:25:43 Which again, is taking up our time. And we have a responsibility to our students, so we're going to learn more about how we are complying with state law here and also setting up protections for our students and our educators as they work in the buildings to do what their job is, which is to educate our students. Okay. You want to start? You want me to start? Sure. I can just kick it off that, as you'll see in the policy, that on August 5th, Governor Maura Healey signed into law this PROTECT Act, and it's now law in Massachusetts that we need to adhere to. It came down the pipeline fairly quickly, and I think because of our summer meetings, I think it was like we were supposed to have this voted and accepted on,

▶ 1:26:31 I want to say September 1st, without looking at all of the things. So, thank you to Attorney Linquist, who we did receive a model policy, and some procedures that we have developed because the procedures need to be part of this as it's written. So we wanted to make sure we give it to you in its entirety, in hopes that you could skip potentially that one step of review and then voting. And that's up to you guys to adjust our bylaws, I believe. Again, this is why I have Attorney Linquist here at the table. But certainly it is modeled after what was provided to us. We made it fit for Melrose. I would say the model policy was definitely for a much, much bigger district, so we had to pare it down a little bit.

▶ 1:27:20 And so I will kick it off to Attorney Linquist. Yes. So these model policies came down August 21st, and we didn't have a meeting since then, hence the little bit of delay in getting it in place. I will say that starting with last year, maybe even the year before, we started training on a very similar process for all of our administrators, so this is not going to be new to our administrative team in that whenever a civil law enforcement officer came to school, they were supposed to immediately contact central administration to see what was next, and training just on our confidentiality, student confidentiality. So this just kind of codifies it and puts it in writing and makes it a school committee policy. But what is before you today that you'll be voting on

▶ 1:28:09 is the policy, and then the policy requires procedures, and it sets forth in the policy what those procedures need to contain. And then what you'll see attached just for your information are the procedures that the superintendent is in charge of and can change as needed depending on the needs of the district. So basically what this does is that there has to be a judicial warrant or court order before they can have access to any student or to any piece of our property. And again, we've been doing this since the beginning because there is a difference between a civil enforcement order and a judicial order. And under Massachusetts law has always protected students in that way. So, I'm happy to answer any questions

▶ 1:29:07 that you may have. Thank you, Ms. Linquist. Ms. Leo. Just a clarifying question based on what you were just describing. So it sounds like these procedures were already in place, essentially, but this law just codifies them again. Am I hearing that? So we put in place once we started to hear that federal officers were coming onto school property. We put in place our own procedure following- Local ... Yes, just in Melrose. And what this does is just the governor came down and said she wants all districts in the Commonwealth to do this. So we feel like we were ahead of the game a little bit because we were already kind of doing this. But this is just very clear. We're going to train all of our staff and administrators on exactly, again, exactly

▶ 1:29:57 what they should do if someone were to come in. I can say we haven't had this in our schools in Melrose during the school day. But we are ready if it does happen. Thank you. Yes, Ms. Rosie Thomas. I just want to say that in extraordinary times, i.e. the pandemic, we can totally get rid of our usual protocol of reviewing policies two or three times before we vote on them. So it's perfectly fine given the need to act quickly to suspend the usual rules and just go to a vote, which I would be happy to propose. Comments from members before we have a motion? Yes, Ms. Driscoll. Just a notation that this did come to us also from MASC and their policy update in August. So that was very helpful to get a pre-read, and so I don't think this is a

▶ 1:30:55 surprise to anyone. And I know I did, I'm sure others did, have every faith that you folks were taking care of this and protecting our students as you always do, and I'm really grateful for that. Thank you. Yes, I agree with members as well. I appreciate how much time has gone into drafting this policy as well to make sure it's compliant. But also knowing that we've already had these practices in place is reassuring, to know that we've had that forethought and just certainly want to express that this is not a pressure that we should be feeling, but it is a pressure that we are feeling. And I think what we see continuously is our teams putting our students at the front, and doing what's right for them.

▶ 1:31:43 So with that, I think if there is a motion, we'd have to consider two motions, one to suspend our rules, if that's the will of the committee, on adopting policy, and then a second vote we would have to have to adopt the policy. So let me take up that first one first, if there is a motion. Motion to suspend the usual rules around policy votes. Ms. Rossi Thomas moves, seconded by Ms. Leo. All those in favor, or discussion? Unanimous approval of suspending the rules. So now we would move to adopting the policy, if that's the will of the committee, if there's a motion. Mr. Kelley moves. Motion to approve. Seconded by Ms. Holleran. All those in favor, any discussion? All right. Unanimously approves the policy enforcing on the PROTECT Act.

▶ 1:32:28 That concludes policy and planning. Okay, we've now concluded our subcommittee work. We're going to move into announcements to the chair. I'm going to start with the meeting minutes of August 18th, 2026, which were removed from the consent agenda. Would anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to approve. Okay. A motion to approve by Ms. Rossi Thomas, seconded by Ms. Holleran. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, that passes with four in favor and three abstentions. Okay, moving on to superintendent's goals. Just for everybody's context, the superintendent has put in her proposed goals for this meeting, and it's the intention to schedule a vote at our next meeting.

▶ 1:33:33 So this is for everybody to have a review, provide any feedback, suggestions, et cetera, to the superintendent. So this is informational, and then we'll ideally schedule a vote at our next meeting in September. Any questions, concerns? Superintendent, did you want to make any comments about your goals? Nope, trying to align them with the strategic plan, and make them really-- These feel like the important things that need to be done at this moment in time, and I just wanted to highlight that, and so they feel right to me. Any questions or feedback? Ms. Driscoll. Thank you. I really appreciate the district improvement goal one, especially. I wanted to give you a little relief or suggestion for some relief, that the superintendent will

▶ 1:34:33 maintain long-term fiscal stability if the federal government makes many decisions that are unpleasant at best. I don't think you should be charged with long-term fiscal stability, so I hope you'll modify that language so you're not putting some pressure on yourself. That's true. That's true. So many things we don't control. Anyway, unfortunately. So I appreciate that. And then, just I would love to learn more, and maybe it belongs in here, about how you tie the resources that we have to our strategic plan and to our outcomes. Because when we vote the budget, it's always helpful to know, and you speak to it. I'm just thinking something to where I can go back and reflect on it later and maybe ask, say, in a budget report or something, "Oh, we spent this money to do

▶ 1:35:20 this. How is that going?" Because it sets the table for the budget in the next year. Now, Mr. Kelley and the superintendent are recommending X because last year we experienced Y. So that would be really helpful. And just in the action steps, I would love to see something that Mr. Kelley was speaking to earlier, and we talked about, that explanatory language. I love to hear the story. It's helpful to receive the numbers, like in the budget report, but I love to see how it impacts students in there. So whether it's a budget memo, whether it's some kind of informative document that helps us also be able to amplify the messages that we all share around sound fiscal practices, good governance, and budgetary management. So it gives us the opportunity to share those things with

▶ 1:36:15 the community, rightfully as... So I would add those for your consideration, superintendent. I think you're doing a beautiful job in this work, by the way. Great. Thank you. Anybody else have any feedback at this point? And if not, we will-- Oh, Ms. Leo. Yes. I had a question on the student learning goal, just asking for a little more context. I really appreciate both the how, the walkthroughs and the work that will be done, as well as the what, the ultimate achievement of, I imagine it's like two percentage points reduction in the achievement gap. I think that's terrific to be focusing on subgroups. The context I'm asking for is how large is the achievement gap right now? How significant is a two percentage point reduction?

▶ 1:37:05 That would just be helpful. If not now, we can talk about that maybe at the next meeting. But it helps to kind of size the goal because this could either be really big and meaty or kind of reasonable and incremental. It's hard to tell. Yeah. As a former special educator, I will say I always try to make attainable goals. That's just how we always had to write them, so measurable, attainable. Certainly, we would reflect on those mid-year to see if they need to be changed in any way, shape, or form. I will say that unfortunately, our subgroup data is going in the wrong direction. So I think we need it going back in the other direction. So I would say that it is, I'm hopeful, attainable, but putting in new curriculum, sometimes things go the other direction until you

▶ 1:37:54 can get back on track, right? So, we probably with new curriculum, at both the elementary with the reading, with that whole piece with UFLI in K through 2, and then certainly a new curriculum, K through 11, essentially. It takes a long time to see things change, usually three to five years. So, we are hopeful with our targeted interventions that we are going to see some changes in our subgroups this year. So I'm hopeful it's attainable. Thank you. Okay, any other questions? Mr. Harbin. Just briefly, I appreciate the second district improvement goal. Obviously, we spent some time talking about it, but I think it just reflects to the community how important and how time-consuming that can be, and how much

▶ 1:38:46 involvement and feedback that's going to take through that process. So I just wanted to acknowledge that as one of the key pieces here. Okay. All right. We will see the goals at the next meeting. I can actually do the student reps one. The administration at the high school is working on identifying students, and hopefully by maybe our next meeting, we'll have student reps. And then again, we'll be looking for volunteers who might be willing to help coordinate and guide our student reps. Any questions there? Okay, we've got the rolling agenda, which is our scheduled meetings for the remainder of the year that we've identified our topics and agendas. And then let's go into outreach reports. Does anybody have anything they'd like to speak to?

▶ 1:39:35 Ms. Leo. So we are ready for the new school year with office hours. We are going to be posting them on the school committee webpage. And the upcoming next office hours will be Saturday 9:26 at La Cucara. And then we are trying something new this fall, adding Thursday virtual, second Thursday of the month virtual office hour, as well as last Saturday of the month in person to see if we can be more accessible to more families and stakeholders in different avenues. So we will have that posted, so hopefully that will be available to folks. So look for that soon. Great. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn made by Mr. Harbin, second by Ms. Rossi Thomas. All in favor? Any opposed?

▶ 1:40:24 That passes unanimously. We are adjourned.

Original documents

• Agenda (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal