School Committee Meeting - October 5, 2026

If we get a quorum of our members present. If we got a quorum of our member around the horseshoe. Well I'm four, there's six here. We got, that's quorum. Solid. All right, we good? All right. Thank you so much to everyone who is here at 631 p.m. I'm going to call this October 6th. Nope. Yep, October 5th. October 5 school committee meeting to order. Superintendent can you call the roll?

Through the chair, Council Davis Rep. Biton? Rep. Lippens? Here. Rep. Eldridge? Rep Green?

Sure.

Dr. Stellman? Mayor Wilson? Present. Vice Chair Biton? I'm here. And Chair Dr. Ackman?

Present

With seven present, we have quorum.

All right, I'm going to read the thing I'm supposed to read. Welcome to this October 5th, 2026... Meeting of the Somerville School Committee pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2025. This meeting of the school committee will be conducted via hybrid participation. We'll post an audio recording, video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access channels. We have called the roll so we're going to take a moment of silence and salute to the flag.

of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice. All right. We have our student reps here, but Ben I know that Laura is coming would you like us to we have a celebration that is going to be underway that might be comprehensive so I mean, we'll joyfully be comprehensive. So we're going to do that and then we will kick it over the student rep. That's all right? Okay, you're not in a huge hurry. Fantastic. Well, we're glad that you get to be here for this amazing celebration. So in the order of the agenda, we have called items to order. We're going to go over student advisory

Committee Representatives right now to the best of my understanding there is no one for public comment online or in person um so we get to jump to one of my favorite evenings of the year uh new administrative staff and Professional Teacher Status Personnel, and with that I will turn it over for the district report to the superintendent.

Thank you through the chair. And now I'm going to call our chief of personnel, Karen Woods, to the podium. She's gonna give us a presentation around The introduction of our amazing educators and so I'll let her do the work of presenting her department work.

Good evening, thank you through you chair. My name is Karen Woods and I have the pleasure and honor serving as the Chief Personnel Officer for the Somerville Public Schools. We are here as a personnel team and we're gonna lead you through kind of several movements of the evening if you will So I'm going to let the team introduce themselves.

Hi, good evening. I'm Mariana MacDonald. I am the Director of Human Resources.

Good evening everyone. Chris Glynn, Director of Educator Development.

All right. And thank you, I share the sentiment Chair Ackman that this is one of the most exciting nights particularly for our team where we get to introduce new team members and celebrate our amazing educators. So we are going to start with introducing 18 new administrators to the Somerville Public Schools. Of these 18, exactly half, so nine of the 18 were previously Somerville Public Schools employees who are taking on new roles in the district this year. Five were teachers last year, who are stepping into administrator roles for the first time and we are thrilled, thank you! We are thrilled to introduce them today. So as I said, we're honored and humbled to be introducing our new cohort of administrators. So we're gonna start right away in our schools from the Argenziano Please join me in welcoming Jeff Lappin, the new Special Education Department Coordinator at the Urgenziano.

Jeff joins us with experience as a paraprofessional, science teacher, school adjustment counselor, supervisor of therapeutic and clinical services, special education coordinator and director and was most recently the Director of Student Services in the Medway Public Schools. Welcome, Jeff!

There's going to be a lot of people. OK, next up from the East Somerville, please join me in welcoming Jasmine Guevara-Alvarez, the new assistant principal of the East Somerville Community School. Jasmine brings experience as a paraprofessional, social worker, educational consultant, adjunct professor and was most recently a high school advisor in the Brookline Public Schools. And we're thrilled to have her.

Now from the Healy School, Please welcome Sheila Jacobo Ahmed. Sheila is the new assistant principal at The Healy School. Sheila brings more than a decade of experience in counseling, social work and school leadership, and most recently, the assistant principal of the Southside Middle School. Her background in school I'm sorry, her background in school social work shapes her commitment to strong instruction student well-being and meaningful partnerships with families and staff. Welcome Shield

Please join me in welcoming Nathan Hostin, the new Special Education Department Coordinator at The Healy and the Winter Hill. Nathan comes to Somerville with experience as a special education teacher, supervisor, MTSS coach and was most recently the assistant principal for student support at the Brooke Charter School in Boston.

Okay, we move to the West. Please join me in welcoming our very own Lindsay Weaver, the new assistant principal at the West Somerville Neighborhood School. Lindsay has been a teacher in the Somerville Public Schools for the last 13 years with experience teaching grades 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8 most recently in the Newcomer Academy at the Winter Hill. And she has held many leadership positions throughout her tenure in SPS

From Next Wave Full Circle, please welcome Jennifer Long. Jennifer is the new Special Education Department Coordinator at Next Wave and Full Circle, Brown School also, and specialized programs at Somerville High School. Jen joined the Somerville Public School last year and brings prior experience as a special education teacher and team chair. Congratulations.

Also from Next Wave and Full Circle, please join me in welcoming our very own Pat Mello the new Interim Assistant Principal at Next Wave & Full Circle. Pat is starting his 10th year in the Somerville Public Schools, most recently serving as the Dean of Students at The Healy School. Pat has also been a career advisor at SCALE for the past eight years and it is also significant to note that Pat was a scholarship recipient in our very first cohort of the Administrator Licensure Pathway of the Somerville Educator Leadership Model during the 22-23 school year. Congratulations!

Patrick was also a student in my government and politics class at Somerville High School. We're staying at Next Wave in full circle. Sorry, I'm very proud. Please join me in welcoming our very own Jack Haverty. Jack is now serving as the interim principal of the Next Wave and Full Circle schools. Jack has served as the AP and Special Ed department coordinator at Next Wave in Full Circle for the last 10 years. Prior to that, he was a special educator An ELA teacher and a physics teacher at Cambridge, Rindge, and Latin. And we are very happy he's here with us.

Thank you.

Oh, Mariana, sorry. She's not? Okay, you go. Now we go to Somerville High School and it's Patricia Brady. Please join me in welcoming Patricia, but Patricia is not here right now. So she is the new department chair for multilingual learner education at Somerville High School. Patricia brings experience as an ESL and ELA teacher A university instructor and researcher, an SEI coach, and most recently was the supervisor of humanities at Lawrence High School.

Moving on, also at Somerville High School please join me in welcoming although she couldn't be here tonight our very own Beth O'Connor the new assistant principal of The Elm Community at Somerville High. Beth has been a teacher in the Somerville Public Schools for the last 13 years, serving as a social studies teacher and dean of students at Somervill High School, an ESL instructor at scale, and has held many leadership positions throughout her tenure. Additionally, Beth was also a scholarship recipient in cohort three of the Administrator Licensure Pathway of the Somerville Educator Leadership Model during the 24-25 school year and congratulations to Beth.

Okay, we're moving to central office and district-wide administrators. And first up is Christopher Bruno. Chris, please come on up. Chris is our new payroll operations and analytics manager. Chris brings experience as an ELA teacher for eight years, and for the last four years has served as the Dean of Operations and Strategic Initiatives for Spark Academy in Lawrence, and we are thrilled to have him.

So from central office also, please welcome Jennifer Ochoa. Jennifer is the new Director of Basic Needs and Housing Support Services. Jen is starting her seventh year in the Somerville Public Schools, and brings experience as a family liaison, a social worker, and board member for The Wellcome Project. Congratulations, Jennifer.

Please join me in welcoming our very own Antonella Doramo, the new Assistant Director of Multilingual Learner Education. I'm still gonna share with you a little bit about Antonella. Antoneella just completed her fourth year as the Multilingual Learner Education Curriculum and Instruction Specialist in SPS. She's also an adjunct professor at Boston University, and has prior experience as an SEI dual language and ESL teacher. Congratulations, Antonella!

Okay please join me in welcoming Amelia Gorman the new director of early education and care Amelia joins us with experience as a teacher, inclusion specialist, special education director, principal and was most recently an instructional coach and MTSS coordinator for the Boston Public Schools. And we're happy she's here.

Next on the list is Stephanie Lugo. Please join me in welcoming our very own Stephanie Luggo, Stephanie is the new Assistant Director of Student Services. Stephanie has served as the assistant principal at the East Somerville Community Schools for the last three years, and prior to that joining SPS, Stephanie was a bilingual school guidance counselor in Lynn and Salem. Congratulations.

Please join me in welcoming our very own Margaret DiPasquale as our new Director of Student Services. Margaret may be new to the central office team, but she is starting her 27th year in the Somerville Public Schools. She has spent the last 14 serving as the principal of Next Wave and Full Circle, and was a math teacher counselor at Full Circle for 12 years prior to that. Little did Margaret know when she completed her student teaching at Next Wave 28 years ago that this is where her journey would bring her today. Congratulations, Margaret.

Okay, please join us in welcoming Dr. Michelle Shannon Director of Equity and Excellence Michelle brings extensive experience in educational leadership, equity and instructional excellence having served as a teacher social worker school and district leader adjunct lecturer and Leadership Development Facilitator. Most recently, she served as director of the Deeper Learning Institute at Harvard.

So welcome.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Meekerly Sannin. Mika Lee is the new Chief Strategy and Operations Officer. Mika joins us with experience as a science teacher, curriculum and instruction leader, principal, leadership development consultant and most recently, the Executive Director of the Boston Prep Charter Public Schools. Congratulations.

And with that... We just want to reiterate that we are humbled and honored to welcome these new administrators to the Somerville Public Schools. Okay, shall I move us on to the second motion? Movement if you will. All right wonderful okay so now we're going to turn our attention to a celebration of educators that have earned professional status in the Somerville Public Schools. This is a really huge milestone for our educators who are celebrating, it really means that these educators have chosen the Somerville Public Schools and the Somerville Public Schools has chosen them. And so we are deeply excited and honored to welcome these administrators, to welcome our educators. So please, to start us off I'm gonna ask Linda Soto, the principal of the Genziano School to come on up.

Just a few logistical things, when you come up please stand to be recognized by the committee and if you face this way you'll have the camera and then after your statement is read turn around and I will be there with a camera and you'll take a picture all right okay all right so Glenda thank you

Good evening and thank you for having us tonight. I'm more than thrilled to be here to recognize the staff members in our building that have gained professional status, and I would like to call Natalie Howe We are pleased to recommend Ms. Natalie Howe for professional status. Ms. Howe creates a warm, nurturing and inclusive classroom environment for all students to feel safe, valued and supported to take risks in their learning. She thoughtfully differentiates instruction using scaffolded materials and multi-sensory strategies so every child can access content and demonstrate understanding. Her engaging centers, real-world experiences and consistent routines foster independence, collaboration, and self regulation. Ms. Howe is a dedicated and dependable professional who brings positivity, care, and collaboration to her work each day.

She works closely with colleagues across the district, building strong relationships and contributing to a cohesive supportive learning community. Her kindness professionalism and deep commitment to her students and school community make her highly deserving of a professional status at the Argentiano School. Congratulations. Just FYI, she opens up the building with me at 6.15. Next I would like to call Margaret Simeone We are pleased to support Ms. Margaret Simeone for professional status in Somerville Public Schools. Over the years, Ms. Simeoni has consistently demonstrated the instructional expertise, collaborative leadership and reflective practice that make her an exemplary teacher

Ms. Simeone is a dedicated and thoughtful educator who consistently reflects on her students' needs and how to support them while maintaining high expectations that encourage perseverance. Most importantly, Ms. Simeone creates a classroom environment where students feel safe, supported and confident to take academic risks. Ms.Simeone is a deeply valued member of our school community, a tremendous asset to Somerville Public Schools and we're so happy she chose Argentianos. School. I would like for Isabel Barros to join us to read one last poem.

Up next is Alyssa Mione, who's a Capuano Cub but now at the Argentiano. We are pleased to offer our strong support for Alyssa Mioni, speech and language pathologist at the then Capuano now Argenziano for professional teacher status. Alyssa is a highly skilled and knowledgeable clinician who consistently demonstrates expertise and evaluating student needs in designing effective individualized intervention. Her work reflects a deep understanding of speech and language development, and she thoughtfully tailors her approach to meet each student where they are, ensuring meaningful progress across settings. Alyssa has an exceptional ability to truly understand her students including their strengths areas of need and learning profiles she uses this insight to drive her instruction in therapy Above all, Alyssa is respectful, kind and deeply committed to her students and their families. She builds positive supportive relationships that create a safe and encouraging environment for learning and growth. Her dedication expertise in collaborative spirit

make her a tremendous asset to the school community. Congratulations!

Thank you so much. I would like to pass the microphone to Christopher Ames, principal of the Benjamin G Brown School.

Good evening. It's my pleasure to call Mark Cervello to the podium. Mark Cervelo is a dedicated educator at the Benjamin G. Brown School, an educator who pours his energy and passion into teaching. Mark is a key member of our ILT and has been integral in the composition and carrying out of our school improvement plan. On top of that, Mark consistently shows that he is always ready to assist any teacher or administrator who might need a hand. Mark marries the art of science and Mark marries the art and science of teaching by using solid pedagogical methods in the classroom, and in preparation for lessons while also showing great skill in how he builds relationships and trust with students and families. For me, it's a joy to work with Mark as he is always eager to talk shop get feedback and adjust approaches for the maximum benefit of students.

Mark is an incredible teacher and person who absolutely deserves this recognition and praise and I would like to call Amelia Gorman, Head of Early Childhood Education to the mic please.

I am pleased to invite Noraly O'Neill up to the podium, please. We are thrilled to recommend Noraly for professional status as an exemplary board-certified behavior analyst. Noraly brings exceptional expertise in designing, implementing and monitoring individualized behavior and learning plans for preschool children. She conducts thorough assessments, develops measurable goals and creates practical developmentally appropriate strategies. Her generosity, patience and collaborative spirit makes her colleagues naturally turn to her for guidance and support. Congratulations to Nirali on achieving this important professional milestone SPS is fortunate to have such a skilled, compassionate and collaborative professional in our community. And we look forward to her continued contributions in the years ahead.

And next, I'm thrilled to invite Elizabeth Dean up. We are thrilled to invite Elizabeth Dean. We're wholeheartedly recommending her also for professional teacher status as an exemplary speech language pathologist. Over the past three years, Liz has not only met our district's standards but has greatly enriched SPS and the broader early childhood community. Working within Somerville's early ed system, she has demonstrated deep expertise in supporting children with diverse speech language and communication needs. Guided by a strong understanding of child development and a heartfelt commitment to each student's growth. Her dedication, reliability and collegial spirit make her a deeply valued member of SPS. And we're so fortunate to have her on our team.

Congrats to Liz on this well-deserved professional milestone. SPS is so lucky to have you and we look forward to your continued contributions and the lasting impact that you are surely to bring to students, families, and colleagues.

Thanks, Luke.

Oh, next I am excited to invite Principal Mace Diaz.

Good evening. I have two introductions today, and these are very special to me as we started our journey here in Somerville together. So they hold a very special place in my heart, Invite Sam Jensen to the podium please. Ms. Jensen is a wonderful teacher and the East Somerville Community School is lucky to have her as a sixth grade ELA teacher she creates a classroom environment with high academic expectations while ensuring her students feel valued and encouraged to grow She's a thoughtful and collaborative colleague who works closely with her team and families to help students succeed. Ms. Jensen is committed to build strong relationships with our students, and consistently goes above and beyond for her community. In addition to her classroom work, she actively supports our school-wide initiatives and is a valued member of the PBIS team. Ms. Johnson truly embodies the Phoenix Rice values of resilience, inclusivity, safety, and excellence in all the work that she does.

Thank you Ms. Johnson for continuing to help our community and rise every day And our next is Angelica Peace. I am so grateful to have Angelica as a member of our reading team here at the Somerville Community Schools and in the district. She has contributed so much to the team, and to the school overall during her time in Somerville. She collaborates greatly with both her reading team and a classroom teacher. I am delighted to welcome Angelica to professional teaching.

Status in Somerville Public Schools. and, sorry. And I would like to invite next to the podium Sarah Wall, the principal at the Healy.

Hi, everyone. I am very excited to invite up to the podium Mr. Ghaly Armira We are thrilled to support Mr. Armira for professional teacher status in Somerville Public Schools Over the years, Mr.Armira has been a vibrant and deeply valued member of the Healy community His genuine warmth and kindness create an inclusive classroom environment where students feel valued, respected and empowered to take risks in their learning. As a multilingual Latino educator, Mr. Armira serves as a powerful role model for our diverse student population, particularly Latino students who benefit from seeing themselves reflected in their teachers. We are fortunate to have Mr. Armira as a part of our community and look forward to his continued success in Somerville Public Schools. Congratulations on achieving professional teacher status, golly!

We're going to hold this up.

All right, and next I would like to call up Addie Downs. Addie Downs is an absolute ray of sunshine at the Healy School. Her pre-K classroom is such a joyful space full of warmth, learning and laughter. She builds strong trusting relationships with students and families, creating a true team approach to supporting her students. As a result, her students grow their skills in truly impressive ways. Students in her classroom navigate the room with confidence and independence. They feel like true partners. Ms. Downs also knows how to build a strong supportive community outside of the classroom, She has spearheaded and then collaborated closely with Healy families and outside partners to launch Healy's own free food market, to better serve our community in a time of need. She's also a leader among her colleagues who trust her to support them as our building's union representative.

All of that in her first three years as a lead classroom teacher, I cannot wait to see what Addie does next!

Nass.

And now it is my pleasure to introduce a fellow fan of Addie Downs, Steve Marshall! The principal of the JFK Kennedy School.

Good evening, everybody. I'm super excited to invite Abby Smith up to the podium. Hi. Congratulations to Abby Smith on achieving professional teacher status. As a valued member of our instructional leadership team, Abby brings an essential middle school perspective that strengthens our collective work and deepens our understanding of student needs. She leads common planning time with a clear commitment to keeping the work student-centered, ensuring that collaboration always translates into stronger learning experiences. Abby is unwavering in her push for student excellence. She engages and challenges students to express themselves, think critically, and take ownership of their learning. Her classroom reflects her belief that all students can meet high expectations with the right support and encouragement.

We are truly grateful that Abby has joined The Kennedy School, and we proudly celebrate this well-earned milestone in her career. Congratulations! Next, next, next.

I am thrilled to be here tonight. This group of educators that receive professional teacher status are exactly the kind of youthful, positive energy and talent you want coming into this school. We're really lucky to have them. So I'll start by asking Hannah Kaplan Hartlub to come up. This is written by Ms. McDevitt, or Ms. Spinelli. Sorry, McDevit's here. I support Hannah Kaplan Hartlob's advancement to professional status During her time at Somerville High School, Ms. Kaplan has consistently demonstrated the skills, professionalism and commitment to student learning that exemplify an effective educator Ms. Kaplan creates a classroom environment that is both rigorous and supportive, encouraging students to think critically and take ownership of their learning. Her lesson planning reflects a clear alignment to standards thoughtful scaffolding, and a commitment to meeting the diverse needs of all learners.

In addition to a strong instructional practice Ms. Kaplan is a collaborative and reflective member of our school community She actively seeks feedback, contributes meaningfully to team discussions and demonstrates a willingness to grow professionally. Her ability to build positive relationships with students families and colleagues has made a noticeable impact on school culture. I am certain Hannah Kaplan Hartlub will continue to be an asset to our school community and to the students and families she serves. I would now like to welcome up Jovita aka Vida Solorio-Fielder. Again, written by your supervisor. I just want to say aye. It's Megan here in spirit. I wholeheartedly support Vita Solorio-Fielder for professional status

Throughout her time at SHS, Ms. Sf has demonstrated a deep commitment to student success particularly in her work supporting incoming 9th grade students during the critical transition into high school Ms. Saff excels at building meaningful, trusting relationships with freshmen helping students feel welcomed supported and confident as they begin their high school journey Her ability to create a positive, structured classroom environment lays a strong foundation for both academic achievement and social emotional growth. Beyond the classroom, Ms. Sf is an active and valued contributor to the school community. Ms.Sf brings a consistently positive and collaborative presence to both the department and the broader school community her attitude and energy meaningfully impacts staff morale and Student Engagement, and she will continue to influence students and colleagues at Somerville High positively. I'd now like to call up Maggie Tercevich.

Constantine is here in spirit. Maggie is a special education math teacher at Somerville High School who has taught both geometry and algebra one across a variety of settings, including co-taught inclusion and resource classes. As a case manager, she works closely with students and their families providing support throughout the IEP process and across their educational experience. One of Maggie's greatest strengths is her ability to build strong, meaningful relationships with both students and colleagues. She consistently contributes to a positive collaborative team environment and is always willing to support others and lend a hand where needed. She's an active member of the broader school community, enthusiastically participating in school events and activities including Somerville Staff Holiday Show. We are incredibly grateful for Maggie's dedication to her students, her colleagues and the Somerville High School community. Her commitment, compassion and willingness to contribute make her a valued and appreciated member of our school community. Congratulations.

We are expecting one more, but I don't think we made it. Oh, there he is. Matt. Great. Sorry. I want to call up Megan McDevitt who was our Assistant CTE Director and our Director of Work-Based Learning to present this to Matt.

Matt is an experienced HVAC and refrigeration instructor at Somerville High School in the Career and Technical Education Department. Matt is passionate about teaching HVac and refrigerations students The technical skills and work ethic necessary for success in the construction industry. He does a wonderful job of bridging the gap between theory in the classroom, and hands-on skill in the shop area. Matt is dedicated to providing a positive learning environment that emphasizes safety, critical thinking and real-world application of HVAC and refrigeration skills to promote positive student learning outcomes. Matt goes the extra mile to engage his students creating a lasting appreciation for learning through his enthusiasm in the trade and support. Congratulations, Matt on earning your teaching status Your professional teaching status in the Somerville Public Schools.

I would now like to call up Courtney Gosselin, the principal of The Winter Hill Community Innovation School.

Good evening everyone and at this time I'd like to Abigail Lee to the podium. Abigail Lee is a tireless, conscientious and dedicated educator. She began her career at Somerville Public Schools as a special education teacher at the East Somervill Community School where she worked for two years and then came to Winter Hill this past year as a fourth grade teacher. We are very fortunate to have her join our Wildcat team. In her first year at Winter Hill, Ms. Lee got to know her students, learn the general education curriculum and built strong relationships with her colleagues. Her classroom is a warm, welcoming environment for all students to learn. It is evident in her words and actions that she values all students and what they bring to the community She constantly looks for ways to engage her students and bring their learning to life. Throughout the year, she proudly displays all of her student's academic work in the hallway outside her classroom for everyone to see and admire.

She has had a positive impact on our fourth grade and our school community. A huge Wildcat roar to miss leave from all of us here at Winter Hill. Okay, at this time I would like to call Director of Special Education, Ildefonso Arellano.

Good evening, everyone. I would like to call Andrew Grimnick up here. We are pleased to offer our full support for Andrew as he becomes eligible for professional teacher status in Somerville Public Schools. Over the past three years, Andrew has demonstrated a strong commitment to our students and school community through his work as a board certified behavioral analyst. He is highly collaborative, consistently partnering with school teams to develop and implement effective supports, and he regularly goes above and beyond to meet students' needs. Andrew is responsive to district-wide priorities and has shown a willingness to step in and support our specialized programs, particularly when staffing needs arise. His flexibility professionalism and student centered approach make him A valued member of our team. Congratulations Andrew!

And I would like to call Laura Wally It is a pleasure to recognize Laura Wally as she earns her professional status. Laura began her work in the AIM program as a board-certified behavioral analyst and stepped into the role of AIM Program Director bringing a deep understanding of our students' needs and a strong commitment to supporting both students and staff. Laura collaborates thoughtfully with staff, families, and colleagues and is a strong advocate for our most vulnerable students. She approaches challenges with care and a focus on solutions, helping staff feel supported while keeping students' learning and well-being at the center of her work. Laura has played an important role in expanding and strengthening the AIM program, her leadership has helped guide planning support Staff through transitions and build greater consistency across classrooms.

As the program grows, she continues to focus on the quality of instruction, individualized supports and meaningful opportunities for students to participate in their school communities. We are grateful for Laura's dedication and leadership and look forward to their continued contributions to the AIM program and Somerville Public Schools. Congratulations Laura!

Thank you.

And I would like to introduce Dr. Jessica Boston Davis, the Assistant Superintendent for Academics.

Thank you and good evening. I am so excited just to do this overall, but very excited to welcome up Mei Chao. My fashion icon. I am thrilled to write this statement of support for Mae Chow as she reaches professional administrator status. May brings tremendous passion and expertise to visual arts education, consistently advocating for high quality arts experiences and meaningful learning opportunities for our students. As a long-serving art educator in Somerville, she brings a deep understanding of our community and a strong dedication to our students. Mae understands that access to the arts is deeply connected to equity and to creating rich experiences for every student.

She is also a true cheerleader for her staff, always eager to celebrate and showcase the successes of educators and students. Her leadership is a valuable asset to our district and I am proud to support her attainment of professional administrator status. Congratulations! Thank you. Thank you, congrats! And now let me welcome up Tanya Connor. You know I'm so excited. I am thrilled to write this statement of support for Tanya Connor as she reaches professional administrator status. Tanya is a trusted, respected and exceptional leader

whose work will have a lasting impact on our students of Somerville. One thing that is clear about Tanya's leadership, is that she has not lost the strengths that made her an award-winning teacher and educator during her nearly 10 years in the SHS English Department. She brings that same ability to listen, Ask thoughtful questions, facilitate impactful learning sessions and bring people together through her leadership today. Tanya brings deep knowledge of effective pedagogical practices and uses the library to advance students' literacy, critical thinking, and digital citizenship. She has provided strategic leadership in leading new district initiatives including an expansion of digital literacy and computer science. What I admire most about Tanya's leadership is her unwavering commitment to our students.

She consistently centers them in her decision making and keeps them at the heart of her work. I am proud to support Tanya's attainment of professional administrator status and look forward to her continued impact on the students in our district. Congratulations! And now I'm going to pass it back to Karen, Chris and Mariana.

Thank you so much, everyone. At the end of each year that educators and administrators are eligible for professional status we ask their supervisors to think deeply and I'm proud to say that everyone here today has done just Congratulations again. At this time, we would also just like to recognize the names of educators who earned professional status but were not able to join us tonight. Siobhan Aberdale, Robert Allen, A.J. Barilaro Apologies if I mispronounced. Tori Bauer, Shelby Benham, Ariana Benson Foley, Kate Briggs, Gary Bunker, Christine Campbell, Marie Clevering, Jen Hayward, Karen Coleman

Matthew Landry, Sandra Arose, Kayla Shute, Amina Shaikh and Jacob Stefano-Shachter. Congrats to all of them as well! And with that, Chair Ackman and members of the school committee we present you the educators and administrators who have earned professional status in the Somerville Public Schools.

Thank you. That was beautiful and meaningful. My hands hurt from clapping, my cheeks hurt from smiling. And thank you for those who have been in schools all day for being here to let us celebrate this with you. We are going to take a... Brief five-ish minute recess to ply you with sugar and celebrate you in person. Thank you so much

Student Reps who've already been here for an hour and deserve their Chance to present to us so one two three four five we have quorum Superintendent with your blessing we are going to pause your report to go to the report of our student representatives. Ben, Laura do you have a?

Go for it. Okay, so to start off my name is Laura Vansley. I'm a junior and student representative for the high school. This is my first meeting so pretty exciting. To start off we had freshman elections This happened last week. We got our new set of class officers. We also had some pretty major events for our sports teams. The cross-country team was in the Boston Globe, for their success it was very exciting clubs have been up and running robotics has been flourishing a lot of new participants and I think in general we have had a lot The participation in clubs this year, so that's pretty exciting to see. Our homecoming theme and date has been selected for this year. It's Meet Me at Midnight. Very fun. SATs have been going on.

The seniors have just taken their SATs last week and PSATs are coming up for sophomores and juniors to take as well. Progress reports are going in either today or tomorrow, I think tomorrow. We're getting some good check-ins on our grades and then for us as student representatives we've been continuing to focus on middle school representation because that is a big issue right now and we need to like crack down on that. We know that the west has some form of student government though we want to like kind of strengthen that and then other schools like the Kennedy for example have no student representation so we have to start from scratch with those but Ben can go a little bit more in depth on that

Thank you. My name is Benjamin Murray. I'm a sophomore at Somerville High School. This is my, I'm so happy to be a school committee representative this year and this is my third school committee meeting but my first one where I actually get to be up here speaking. So yeah, it's been a great week at Sonoma Public Schools. The class officers have been continuing to raise funds for our upcoming homecoming and which The theme has just been announced and later semi-formal, much later in the year. The class of 2029 held a bake sale on Wednesday afternoon As Lara stated, following the club fair from last week a lot of clubs have had their first meetings such as Newspaper Club and Branding & Marketing Club and Red Cross Club just to name a couple. and the robotics in theater have been having their first daily meetings which has had a lot of success.

Somerville High School will be hosting its college fair on Thursday And as I'm sure everyone's aware, there was a little bit of miscommunication last Wednesday that led people to believe that the Somerville Music and Theatre Department's funding had been cut. And although this only lasted a couple hours and we appreciate Somerville Public Schools for clearing it up so quickly, it's led many Somervill students and parents to wonder what lead to this happening and if it actually means anything. and yeah, I know this is in the agenda so it'd be great to learn about that. And as school committee reps we are continuing to talk to our peers about how Somerville Public School can be improved and we're continuing to reach out to the middle schools to see if we can have some representation from younger grades. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks to each of you. I would like to give my colleagues a chance to ask student reps. Rep Green?

Through you, I just want to say how exciting it is here that the Student Advisory Committee has really taken on helping us develop middle school student voice structures. And I just wanna know if there's anything we as a body or individuals can do to help advance our work? and if you don't have an answer right now that's an open offer.

Rep Green is wearing a mask so what I think I heard you say is we are asking the students if there's items they think they need from us in order to support their work?

Yes. Materially or... As a body, as individuals, whatever it may be.

So. yeah I can't think of anything right now but I can definitely check in with the other representatives that's a really nice suggestion that we'll probably be taking up on thank you so much

it's an open offer so whenever or whatever just let us know thank you thank you uh reputon thank you chair through you uh ben laura

Really excited to have you both here. Thank you for engaging in this, and I'm really excited to see what you contribute throughout I know that one of the things that Student reps bring is they bring sort of a perspective from their peers and you talk amongst yourselves about what you want to emphasize during this school year. Last school year we had A number of initiatives that students brought to us. You have some of the same representatives in your group, and I'm really excited to see what you bring to us It's really hard to solve a problem in a year So I really encourage you to think about how to take progress from last year to the next level.

And I think a lot of us around the horseshoe here will be very willing partners to amplify your work, to engage in it. And as my colleagues said we're really excited to have you participate on our subcommittees and here in the regular meetings so thanks again.

All right. I echo what my colleague said, thank you. We hope you enjoyed the celebration and You know, at least got a cupcake. We welcome any input you have. I will say it is not instinctual for me to look that way so don't hesitate to shoot your hand up as we are Anything we're discussing for your feedback. All right, thank you. We are now moving back to report of the superintendent. We're moving on to discussing the music theater arts after school stipend. I have a brief comment before the superintendent's update. Just like many caregivers, representatives of the Somerville School Committee were surprised by last week's messages about cuts to after-school music programming.

The City of Somerville fully funded the district's FY27 budget requests, including significantly increasing the budgets for the specific music and theater after-school stipends in question here. So to be absolutely clear funding for these stipends was not cut It was increased by 44.2% as I'm told in the FY27 budget. This is because music, theater and arts are essential pieces of Somerville Public School students' education. This committee remains committed to supporting these opportunities All students participate. On behalf of the body, I want to extend our appreciation to our educators, union partners, caregivers and district leadership who work together to reach a resolution. I'm now going to invite Dr. Carmona to comment and expand on the points

Thank you. Through the chair. So I want to begin by acknowledging the frustration and conflicting communication from the district over the past week, and for that I truly, truly apologize. I want to provide some additional clarity, reassurance and transparency about where things stand right now. There are three things that I want The communication and the systems that we are putting together in place moving forward. So let's talk about the funding first, As you all know, during the budget cycle we created a budget that was a level service budget to respond to some of the challenges that we face in collaboration with Actually the school committee, the mayor's office and different department directors. We created a level service budget to make sure that we establish continuity of services across all departments

And on the work that our CFO, Dr. Bobby Barretta did was an amazing work that was based on the idea of clarity, transparency and accountability So with that, there are things that come up. When we're creating a new budget and separating different cost drivers That's one of the things that happens, and that's one thing actually was done in this process. The high school had a Big budget that was broken down into very specific streams. We actually separated CTE, separated the high school, separated Stipend section. So we were very clear about the accountability as well as determine what metrics that we use to make sure that the monies that we are separating for every department are clear And our commitment was always to make sure that we maintain the continuity of services for all departments, especially for our departments in art and music and performing arts.

And so with that, I can reassure you that we had a significant increase. We went from $230,000 to $306,000. That's a 33% increase for stipends. Now, that resulted in when you look at the actual category of stipends for art music and performing arts. That resulted in $14,000 as an increase so we went from 33 thousand to 47 So that is very clear. If you look at the intention we have was to create clarity, transparency and also support our most precious Value assets that we have in our district as supporting the arts. We also actually, if you look at our investments from 2023 to 2026 we always invested in arts and music The non-personal budget was $50,000 every year.

50,000 for three years and in 2027 we set aside 65,000 that was a 30% increase both for the arts and the music So at all points in our system, we have been transparent. We have been clear of our commitment to fund our arts as well as our extracurricular programs that we have for music and performing arts. and yet there is a gap, is that right? So this fall we saw an increase in student participation in these programs. Now that's good news if you ask me And the number of students that joined was actually something that was not processed in a manner that allow us to have a clear communication with the different departments. But this increased participation created additional staffing needs that were not fully anticipated during our initial planning process earlier this year.

And as the school began and educators started working through the increased amount of student participation, there was confusion about whether additional staffing resources would be available. But I want to be clear There was never a decision to eliminate or reduce our after-school programming for the arts and arts programming in any way. Now, we have now confirmed that the staffing is necessary to safely and effectively operate these programs. And we also determined that all these positions will be funded. So that's on the side of the funding piece. Now, on the communication piece I acknowledge we did not communicate clearly enough internally as these staffing needs emerged That resulted in our educators receiving information that did not fully reflect the district's plans and subsequently families received conflicting messages.

On Thursday, I personally met with the members of the Music and Performing Arts Department where we were able to clarify any programmatic needs We confirmed the necessary funding and also moved forward with programming. As a result, all planned music and performing arts commitments towards students will move forward as we originally planned them. And finally, addressing the systems. We know that this is not just a matter of something that needs to be resolved for this particular issue but also what are the implications for the work moving forward? And there are three things that we, as we're looking at this issue, were the three things have greater implications for the work that we do. So first, we're working on making sure that we create clear processes for approving and communication and sharing how stipend positions are shared.

The second one is we're working to clarify district-wide budgeting processes and systems, and share them with the budget managers or budget owners. And third one, in addition we're working to ensure that we tighten up our systems to make sure that staff and all our educators as well as managers understand how programming and funding questions should be escalated and ensure that decisions affecting students and families are confirmed before they are communicated externally. Here the headline is very clear. We had an increase in our students joining different programs, it's really exciting but moving forward we need to make sure that the three systems I just described are aligned and working together. We are really excited to see that our students, and as Ben said a minute ago there is great participation in most of our school after-school programming.

We're proud of that, and again we are committed to making sure that continuity of inclusion as well as expanding programs continues. So thank you to our educators, our families, our students for their patience and their continued support as we continue to build these programs. With that I'm passing that to the chair I'm going to continue with my support. So we're going back again to the work that was presented by our chief of personnel, Karen Woods. And I just also wanted to say that it is great to celebrate our new educators. I heard things like High expectations, great commitments, bringing new energy into the district. We are defined by our new employees, our new leaders. They are really the greatest and most important elements or the ingredients in

In this equation of teaching and learning so we're really proud to have a space in which we celebrate that. And with that I'm gonna bring again our chief of personnel to bring some greater understanding of our efforts to diversify Stavin.

Okay, well thank you again. We really appreciate the opportunity to have the time and space to celebrate our educators and to welcome our new administrators and new team members and to share some updates from our team as well so here we are for movement three in order to be able to do just that. So, we always like to begin our updates kind of grounding in our strategy which includes kind of these five big buckets of work. So recruitment, hiring and onboarding, retention, development and support, and advancement in recognition. And all the work that we do together touches on one or multiple parts of this strategy So just very quickly, recruitment which includes our annual career fair, pipeline development and partnerships, student teachers, and also protecting our brand if you will. Somerville Public Schools has a great reputation Think that's one of the best recruitment strategies we can have.

Moving on for hiring and onboarding, this includes our annual training for our hiring administrators which we take very seriously each year. We always talk with our administrators about How hiring is the most important thing that we do because having amazing educators in front of our students is the best thing that can do for them. Also, we have a focus on onboarding, a smooth onboarding process in our HR department moving on to retention this one's really hard to define because it's basically everything that we do in order to make sure that we have a positive culture building a culture of support and respect for all of our staff collecting and responding to feedback really you know taking that process seriously providing opportunities for growth but this bucket I wish there could be a size to show You know, the amount of work that falls into that bucket.

And then continuing on development and support which includes ongoing targeted professional development and structured systems for collaboration and educator leadership and lastly, advancement and recognition which includes systematized ways of recognizing the amazing staff that we have in the district. Which often then leads back to hiring because as you saw tonight We often have staff and educators who move roles throughout the district, and we really love to retain all that talent. and have people move through the system so we recognize and then advance those amazing staff. So it's really a cycle, it's not linear even though its depicted linearly. All right, so we like to just kind of ground in that that's the teamwork that we do. So here now we're going to share some of our data from this year. So we hired for 149 vacancies

So these were the positions that were hired for this school year. The largest portion of those, of that pie chart is reassignment so that means that's in our opinion wonderful People are staying within the organization, right? And so you saw some of those reassignments here tonight. Some people moved from one school to another or one role to another but that biggest hunk is reassignments. Let's just take a bit of a deeper look into our resignations, which is the next largest chunk So our resignations, we had 26 total. That is actually a very low number and of those 26, 13 were teachers, six were paraprofessionals, two were administrators and we had five other non-union positions, those were things like building substitutes in a mediator and things like that. But you can see the percent of each group that represents so 13 teacher resignations is 2% approximately of the entire teaching staff.

Approximately 4% of the paraprofessionals, two and a half percent of the administrators, and 2.7% of our non-union staff So overall, our resignations are very low which leads to a high retention rate year over year. But let's focus in a little bit more on those that were really new to the district. So new hire snapshots. Where it says 97 new SPS staff, that means actually new to the district. If you're like wait, you just said 149! So if you take the 149 and subtract The reassignments and the temporary staff that were hired to cover leaves of absences, that's how you end up with the 97. And so when we look at these 97 staff across the district, 63 teachers, one nurse, nine paraprofessionals, two administrative assistants, nine administrators and 12 staff in other roles.

These are the staff that we really try to support, wrap our arms around collectively make sure we visit in the first month of school see how everyone's doing and that's part of again, that strategy of retention making sure people know that there is other folks out there to support them across the district. I do just want to note quickly while we have two brand new administrative assistants, we also had four internal reassignments. and it's just particular of note some people move schools, some people moved roles within schools but more exciting kind of retaining that talent in the district just as we described with the administrators earlier. All right, so looking at our new teachers. So these are our new educators and this graph is showing us the retention in the first three years

So if you look at the 23-24 data, so we started with 76 new educators in 23- 24 and after three years we have retained 36 of those educators. And that's who We celebrate it tonight in addition with some administrators who earn professional status as well. So then, in 24-25 that represents a two year retention and then for 25-26 one year retention and then 26-27 we just hired 63 new educators so we will report on that next year. So when you look at our average retention rate for each of these groups, so we have an average retention after one year of 84%, after two years of 69%. after three years of 51%. And really that 51% reflects a high standard of excellence that we hold in the Somerville Public Schools.

and our job as a personnel team along with all of our administrators in the district you know is to make sure we have the most effective educators working with our students each and every day and again so excited that we were able to celebrate those educators that earned their professional status tonight. And the last part I wanted to say, and that was in addition to the new educators we have a very high overall retention rate. So this year it was 91%, but overall it's always somewhere in the 90s. A little bit of information about our staff diversification that we would like to share with you. So the data that you see here, the numbers for the graphs are on the right. So this data shows that staff identifying as Asian, Black or African American Hispanic or Latino, Multiracial, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander have all increased from 2025 to 2026. And so we are continuing

to make progress toward our goal of having our staff reflect our student demographic data. And lastly, we just want to share with you some highlights that are happening in our department. Pass it to Mariana.

Thank you. So one of the biggest highlights is that thanks to your generosity, We were able to add a new position in our department, and we're pleased to welcome Josephine Rizzo to be our substitute coordinator. And she will be the fifth member of our tiny HR department. and we're very excited to have her. Thank you.

And a couple in terms of retention, development and recognition are ongoing partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education with their teacher residency program and Boston College Donovan Scholar Partnership. It continues to flourish, We're kind of the model district, I'm going to say. They love working with us and we them. It has resulted in 10 teacher hires over the past three years Three of whom have been recognized by their colleagues as Rising Star Award recipients. So really just amazing staff coming out of these partnerships, which is exactly what we wanted to have happen. Additionally, through the Barr Grant Strengthening School Leadership we are continuing our work with Boston College Lynch Leadership Academy giving our assistant principals another round of instructional leadership, professional learning as a group.

Especially you saw there's a lot of new assistant principals this year so we're really building that team out and building out our bench of hopefully future principals and we are also pushing some of that work into our K-8 coaching program which is expanded and we're super excited about the new hires we've brought in, and our existing hires who have chosen to stay in those roles. So lots of really great things happening in our development sort of buckets and last but not least, staff recognition. Rising star.

And so we really are kind of aligning these updates with the strategy in terms of recruitment, onboarding, development support and then recognition. So we have several annual events to recognize the amazing staff that we have here in Somerville, this being one of them. We hosted our second annual staff recognition ceremony in June where we were able to honor many, many educators across and staff not just educators, staff in lots of different roles across the district. And one thing that we thought about this year that is new, is that we really want to make sure that we're honoring and recognizing and lifting up other members of the community We have on the calendar, well one of these days already passed so we celebrated in September IT Professionals Day and then coming up in the next couple of months

Crossing Guard Appreciation Day, School Lunch Hero Day, school nurse day just to name a few but we just wanted to make sure that to recognize that all of these people and all of these staff are really important members of the school and district community, so that we have an outlet to recognize them as well. and so with that we would love to answer any questions that you might have and again thank you for this opportunity to share a little bit about our personnel updates and to highlight the amazing staff of the Somerville Public Schools.

Thank you. I would like to be sure the members of the body have those dates, I will speak for the Healy and that we have amazing people beyond our educator staff and support staff who I want to be sure recognize so thank you uh we're going to counterclockwise so rep Lippens, Rep Green and we'll see what's next

Thank you, Through You Chair. Thank you for this excellent presentation. I love that we are hiring more educators of color that represent our community. That's amazing. I notice on the pie chart with the vacancies we have, I think it's 23 leave of absence coverage. So am I correct that these are the people that cover maternity leaves? Yes, correct. I was wondering what the relationship between our... Teachers that cover leave of absence and the substitute coordinator role, if there's any overlap. And I'm specifically asking because if an educator takes a four month or two months or three months especially in our upper grades Thank you so much for joining us.

are those educators that are covering because it is a pretty good perspective.

Absolutely. Through you, Chair? Okay. Thank you so much for the question. Several things actually come to mind as you say that, so the first I will actually ask Chris to speak about the peer supporter system and then I'll talk a little bit more on the HR side as well

Yes, since they're not... So we partner everyone with a peer supporter if they're a long-term sub of any kind. essentially a mentor. We do that with all of our first year educators, but if you're coming into a new building or a new department and you've been with us, but you're going to a new place, you need someone. You need a go-to person who can get you through with the curriculum Help you figure out how things work in a certain department or building. So that's definitely like the first layer and then they are all invited into our professional learning catalog choices, a lot of folks will enroll in those things And then they participate in their department PD experiences oftentimes. They're always invited into those late day PDs, even if they're not required to attend by contract.

And just to add, as a personnel team we meet about every three weeks and one of the things that we look at is the leaves and who's covering the leave. Usually, each year we hire a few elementary teachers mostly and that's because of licensure. That can actually fill multiple leaves instead of trying to hire for three months and three months and that has been very effective because they are more ingrained in the community, they feel more closely connected and they already know our systems and curriculum to your point. and so that has been one effective method that we have. And we have a few long-term substitutes right now that are in positions, that are going to be ending and the principals are a great resource to reach out and say these people are rock stars can we make sure that we find other you know and then as we find out about leaves it's like a puzzle right piecing together the dates and the required licensure um that that we can put together

To your specific question about the substitute coordinator role, so that is a brand new role and so I'm sure that person will have some overlap. Is there anything you want to add about the Substitute Coordinator role as it relates to long term subs?

What usually happens too is that the principal might talk to Josephine and say, do you have any per diem substitutes that are licensed in such-and-such a subject? Do you have any substitutes that would like to work long term? And Josephine will have a list of, you know, substitutes she can provide to the principal. They still go through the interview process with the substitute, but at least they have options.

And just to name, so kind of the strategy around making sure our long-term substitutes can be successful in their roles is from hiring, recruitment, hiring and then development. That's how we work together.

Yeah, I wanted to second Rep. Lippens' comments about diversifying our staff and um given that that is let's say perhaps less popular in our society than it would have been when we adopted this goal pre-pandemic i also want to highlight a couple things about it just for people's understanding one You'll note that it was a gradual process. We do not want to see high turnover, we are not trying to force teachers out but it's been a gradual And as we can attest from just listening to today's professional status, and particularly when it comes to our new administrators for whom we all heard their resumes and their backgrounds and heard just how impressive their backgrounds are. We've been able to do it without any sacrifice of quality. I just wanted to make sure people hear that because there is definitely this nasty undercurrent in our discourse as a society these days

That suggests that diversification and quality hiring are at odds. I think we've proven pretty emphatically tonight those things are not only not at odds, they're able to support each other.

Thank you, Chair through you I also want to build on this point but with a question because you know I am really pleased to see The progression of how our staff are more and more every year reflecting the diversity of our student population. What strategies have been most effective in driving that trend and can you talk a little bit about what your plans are as we move forward?

Sure. Through you, Chair. Thank you. So we have reflected on this as a team and I think there are many different kind of specific strategies we can point to. First to name the commitment to the school committee We repeat and make sure that the policy is included in our annual training every year. and we kind of really hold that up as something that the HR team will do a careful review of all the recommendation for hires to make sure that the policy is being adhered to. and so you know deliberate interview and hiring practices but really I think the most important thing to note are the values that we hold as a leadership team and as a district

and realizing that the culture that we build in kind of that big bucket of retention you know through Offering affinity spaces for staff in offering you know the different intentional mentor pairings and The other ways that we make sure we're trying to set staff up for success. We think is probably our greatest contributor

I can also add one thing about, you know as an example. I think a lot of our partner organizations like HUGSE and Boston College are doing a tremendous amount of outreach for students coming into their programs and as we partner with them, we are the beneficiary of their recruitment work as well. So it sort of like works in tandem.

Thank you. I'm going to call on myself and just to give credit to Director McDonald for how much investment she gave in helping us shape that diversity policy, which I think has I hope you believe that it has influenced the work we do, but thank you for that. All right, last chance for round one. All right, Rep Lippens.

Thank you through your chair. Every time I walk at the high school and I am introduced to a staff member it turns out they're like a former student and which speaks so highly to like a district that you know we want to come you know our students stay here and they want to back and give back I've met like literally so many. I would love a statistic Just for us to really elevate how many of our students come back and teach and work for Somerville Public Schools. And you don't have to tell me now unless you know it.

You got one.

One third of your presenters. I would love that too.

We will report back.

Every year at orientation someone gets up and they're like, oh hi you were my student. Like that happens every year so we could probably pull the data.

All right, thank you so much.

All right, thank you through the chair. Now I'm going to have Rosanna Parabello come and present the summer program that we, the Summer Overview The presentation of the Summer Overview Program, so really excited to have you here. I know there was a lot of celebrations, a lot new programs for kids and There's always, always a celebration of students' both growth and enjoyment during those days.

Good evening. Thank you for having us. My name is Rosanna Parabello, and I am the director of out-of-school time programming. It's great to be back tonight and sharing information regarding what our Somerville students have been up to this past summer. Joining me is our summer programs coordinator, James Mandart who has helped compile some data and information to also share tonight. Next slide. This evening we will share updates regarding our summer programs in regards to planning, data and attendance, some highlights of memorable moments, and of course some key takeaways for future planning. Next slide. The planning for such an extensive summer program takes half a year to execute. Each year we start to plan earlier. It is a team effort encompassing myself and the OST department, city partners, Summer Promise Department directors

The Summer Program Coordinator, the School Health Department, Food Services, Program Directors DPW, Partnering Community Organizations and the list goes on. It involves coordination and communication that starts with a timeline, meetings, sharing documents, hiring and training. then of course on-site management on the day to day and data collection to monitor progress in preparing for the following year. Could almost be the same amount of work as starting up a school year packed into five or six week program This year we also shared more space with community organizations. We continue to build strong relationships with different organizations and programs within Somerville, to offer our students many hands-on learning experiences either improving skills or expanding skills and knowledge.

Areas of focus included STEM, middle school topics such as career exploration and social emotional learning. High school experience with working first jobs, music and art, physical activity, enrichment, and of course providing the essential service to our Somerville working parents. Full day experience to our youngest. I will now hand it over to Mr. James Mandart to get into the data of our internal programs Thank you Rosanna

Hello everybody, yes again I'm James Mandart. I'm happy to see everybody. It's one of my favorite times of the year is to give you a quick little preview of what happened over the summertime so We have just some images here spread out from a bunch of our programs and to look at some of our information this is the best sort of snapshot I could give you without having a slide be completely filled with everything hence the one page or two-page memo that you all have but You can see our total enrollment for this year is 1,881 and there's a little bit of an asterisk next to that number just because the previous two years that I did this position we... Did the total enrollments based off of internal programs and only a few external programs that were partnerships. So those previous two years, We're just kind of compiled differently. For this 1881 number you see, this is every single outside and inside program that were being run in our schools this summer 26 total programs, 14 of them were internal and 12 of them are external.

Next slide please and just figured I'd give a few program shoutouts out of the 26 programs that we have in total. Starting with our spell program, Developing our students reading and writing and speaking and listening skills through theme-based learning. They also partnered with many outside vendors to help elevate that student experience. and also partnered with some programs like Middle School Robotics, which we'll get to in just a moment. But great program that happened at Argentiano. And to make it different from last year, our spell program was elementary spell program at the Arzindiano and then we had middle school and high school was at the high school. But this summer we kept it all in one building and it went very well. Then we have our Summer Explore Kindergartners program, which ran out of the cap. Thank you. Gave opportunities to children with little-to-no pre-K experience. So they had a really great program there, developed me

including developmentally appropriate academic learning, playtime art and physical movement. And then middle grades robotics we heard about it briefly from our student representatives how it's going at the high school well they really explode over the summertime Doing two out of the four weeks in the high school with middle schoolers. And then, the other two weeks they are in different programs in the district with their high school students helping teach those kids the different sort of skills of robotics while also helping address some of the other skills for that specific program that they're visiting. Next slide, which I think is our... Oh, perfect. A few highlights and areas of improvement. We had Arbiter Sports for registration and student information across all of our internal programs, whereas last year was kind of like a little bit of a rollout system trying it out. We want to use that for everybody. Elementary summer sessions expanded to serve grades two through four.

Expansion of sharing spaces in the community for the Elizabeth Peabody House and Parks and Rec, just for some. Some areas for improvement, continuing to attract more educators and students to be in academic support programs. Continuing the coordination efforts in regards to sharing spaces for all of our programs. And then, of course, always improving and increasing any sort of family resources and surveys Thank you. We have one more slide of a video, which is some highlights from summer programming.

Thank you

Thanks for watching!

What did you say?

Thanks for watching!

What a cheerful end, thank you. Questions from my colleagues? All right, I guess we're going Lippens and Green and Biton again. Sorry, we'll start Pitone, Lippins, Green, Biton.

Thank you, through the chair to the team. Thank you so much for sharing this and ending on such a nice positive good energy note. My question there's just reference to spaces and I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. I know some of our spaces have worked on it over the summer so I can understand there's some constraints but anything you could share would be helpful.

Sure, so it's always a challenge but I feel like each year we learn from the summer before. Communication is really important What we discovered from this past summer with some new programs that are using the building. It could be programs that aren't used to being in a school setting and a lot of our programs are more academic focused or programs just used to living in schools so it's a different climate that some programs have to get used to. So moving into next year we were discussing having Explaining more, having some more things put in writing for the actual instructors using this space because we do contracts on a broader base like facility agreements but sometimes it doesn't trickle down to just

those bookshelves are covered for a reason don't touch them like things like that so we discussed doing a walkthrough and how things should be how they look when they start in what they should look like when they finish doing a little more on-site communication with the actual folks sharing the space.

Thank you, Rep Lippens.

Thank you through you, Chair. This is a glow and a grow. So a glow is I have multiple children so I actually really appreciate Arbiter Sports because It fills in the information so I'm not typing it per kid. So that is awesome and I appreciate everything being on one, you know, I can just check boxes. I also want to follow up about the sharing of space so with kids in different like programs when there's multiple programs and you're trying to like pick your child up early or or even just like where to go so it would be a suggestion I guess. I agree with that because it was hard to kind of figure out which daughter write program there are so many programs, I don't know which staff is is what. So that's just like you've already highlighted it for an area of improvement and would love to partner if you need any support from the school committee on that I'd happy to help because well thank you.

Thank you, Rep Green.

Thank you. Through you, I think to the administration, obviously it is fantastic that every summer participation in summer programming grows. You know, I think speaking for myself The orchestra program this summer was the only summer program my daughter actively wanted to do. So I obviously think that you're doing something right there, but I would love to over time really dig deep into I think two or three questions. How do we decide what programs to add, expand? How do you decide if a program is a good one And what are we looking to get out of these programs on a more strategic level as how they support our larger educational programming model?

that I want to capture the three categories that you described?

So how do we decide what programs to add or subtract? Um... How do we measure their success aside from enrollment numbers? And what are we hoping to do with them on a strategic level as far as fitting into our larger strategic planning?

Thank you to the chair. I'm going to turn back to you both in terms of the first two, in terms how programs have been added and if any programs have I don't know if there are any programs that have been offloaded since James, you've been kind of leading summer. And then you've also done some kind of quality programming review so if you can speak to that would be great for the first two points.

I could speak to it for the internal side at least because that's what i deal with mostly in terms of how do we know it's a good program it's something i've been trying to work on for the last two summers is a Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us today. What types of programs they are, the types of students that their meeting and what is it that they're working on. But I want to make sure that the families are enjoying the time that their students are spending with us and that their kids are telling them that they are enjoying as well so It's something that we have to work on to just get more responses because this year specifically, we didn't get enough.

But for programs that joined us or left I don't believe in my three years for internal programs we've had any leave but for external

Right, so for external programs we've expanded with sharing space so that Somerville organizations can come in and offer programming. that do not have a space or other spaces being used and that has increased the participation rate in those programs because they are in the schools. and then in terms of the academic programs I know that particular departments do evaluate their own programs like the summer session, elementary, high school They collect their own data and track academic improvements, and what they're adding or taking away. I know that the CTE program in its first year had a lower enrollment and we've seen that increase the past couple of years with actual wait lists to get into those CTE programs. The ninth grade transition program also increased in participation rates

Yeah, and that's really all I know about those programs because most of my work is with the external programs. And I'm working on coordinating and making sure everybody's has what they need to run their programs in the summer.

one more thing to add too actually that Rosanna just reminded me of there were three programs from the last summer that had um more participation and from when I was speaking with the directors they were showing some more interest in expanding that program so CTE was one of them Having it be longer of a program because kids were getting super interested in that one. The robotics program, as I mentioned earlier is one week at the high school next week is in another program Next week is in a high school. Then the other program, or other week is another program and I was talking with Jason Behrens about making the program at the high school a bit longer and having kind of different cohorts Kids, middle schoolers staying in the high school for longer but also giving opportunities for those high schoolers to get out into other programs. And then the music program actually

is only about two weeks and though it's amazing they can teach kids music in two weeks having that be a little bit longer they showed some more interest in because more kids wanted to sign up and if they could have the option to teach them a little longer that'd be great too so something that Rosanna I need to discuss

Thank you. Thank you for that context. I'd like to add a response to this question based off Question 3, which is if I'm recalling correctly how Do our summer programs tie into our larger strategic planning and strategic goals of our district? And I would say there's a lot of tie-in. and there are areas that we can strengthen. So if I'll give a couple of examples, I'll build off of the shout outs that were listed. Spell has had several very strong summers in a row. We have Amazing educators that are leading the program. We have active engagement, there's been a concerted effort as mentioned to expand Let me just back up and say, SPEL is a summer program ELL for our multilingual learners. So during the morning session there's a lot of language development and in the afternoon there's much more enrichment

Looking to make sure I got that right. And over the past few summers, there's been a concerted effort to expand even the enrichment. It's not lost upon me that we have had such gains in our access numbers with that really dedicated programming that happens also in the summer. So that's one example. Another example is Summer Explore, as we think about our youngest members of our community and having access to high quality The success we see with that and it's really amazing that we have such a robust early childhood department. that's able to provide this, again ties directly into our strategy. I'll say this as an area to strengthen summer session which has been traditionally funded through Title One funds and that is a more Academic support for grades this year was expanded for grades two through four.

I'll say we do as an academic kind of curriculum department heads, Data dive several times during the year based on our assessment calendars and it always comes up how can we expand this depending especially in relation to the grades that we notice trends um and One is we've traditionally funded it through Title I funding, and so that's depending on the availability. The second is that we also... Most often have staff that have led that, and that can be a barrier to some programming in that we don't always have staff who are working over the summer. Totally okay. We've been able to kind of maneuver that barrier a bit by making sure that paraprofessionals can be lead teachers in the summer programs, We've also at times expanded to opening to other districts, but that can be a barrier as well.

I'm gonna also just say because I see the personnel team here that as we think about our larger district strategy, our summer programming also ties into a lot of what our personnel team described. James Mandart has received one of our scholarships that Karen described earlier for educator leadership. He's an incredible educator, an incredible leader. He has a scholarship funded by our district and he is leading in the capacity of I'm sorry to put you on the spot but here you are So I kind of have to do that. But that's an example, but it's not just James. James is amazing and it's no just him. Our directors are different programs. I'm thinking about Lindsey Weaver who has now assumed the role as assistant principal but she supported and led with Spell. I'm thinking of another instructional coach who led with spell, who's also incredible. And so it doesn't necessarily have to be people who are moving in different We have a lot of leadership roles as we think about the strategy in our district.

It's really great to be able to exercise your leadership in a space where you're not overlapping too much with the school year. So that's another part. Now, where we can strengthen is A lot of the programs that we've described are often connected to people's passions and interests, and that's awesome. And I wonder if there are any areas that we might think hmm maybe we have a lot of this and we can expand that. That's a mapping activity that I personally, perhaps the OST team has thought through but We can continue to think throughout a district level, but we have a lot of people with interests and passions who are leading really amazing work. And we can continue thinking about if there are any other ways to support.

Rep. Pitone asked my question already, so I'm going to get out of line

Hello, and thank you to the chair. It's really uplifting to see this and to just Be cognizant of how important it is to fill the summer up from an equity perspective for kids who The question I have is, I don't quite remember when we did this, but I feel like it was about a year ago. We had at the East Somerville Community School, A review with parents and families around how OST was going, and I recall that there were some questions around Accessibility for Students with Disabilities. And I'm just wondering what the follow-up, do you...

Maybe you weren't there. At some point, there was feedback from several parents, quite a few parents around... Having more OST opportunities that I'm expanded for students who needed more accessibility. So you may not have an answer for that, but so Leave it out and just make a note of it because it did come up, but I would love to hear.

If there were any changes. We definitely, I don't recall having any concerns this past summer on families not being able to access a program that they needed or wanted. In terms of special needs, but I can dive deeper and see where that came from or someone else on my team knows about this conversation.

I'll take a deeper look when I get into my computer here, but I'll find the notes that I took from them and just pass it along. It wasn't something huge, but it seemed... Yeah, it seemed very important. Thank you.

Thank You. All right Rep Biton and then Rep Pitone?

Thank you, Chair, through you. This is a little bit of a sideways question not about everything that you presented which was fantastic. I went into my email and I searched for the word summer. And the first thing that came up was summer reading, which is something I've gotten some questions on in the last year so I'm wondering if Maybe not to put you on the spot, but if we could have an update about the direction our summer reading program is going. I know that there was a compiled list at one point. if that is something that was continued resource that is going out. So either now or later would love to hear, thank you.

Through the chair, thank for that. Just a point of clarification, a list for students to read or like an actual program for reading?

So through you chair, in the past the summer reading was offered as somewhat of a menu for every grade level across the district. I don't know how often it was updated or, you know, how exactly what the mechanism for distribution was but I heard From some families, and I recall from my own family that we didn't receive it this past year. So just curious if there's something changing there.

Thank you. Yes, I do recall in the past a list of texts recommended reading for over the summer. Let me talk to my team and we can get an update either To the full committee, I can do a separate email or we can do more extensive presentation and programs. So happy to do any of all those or all of those.

Whatever is appropriate. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Rep Pitone?

Thank you, through you to the team. I had office hours this weekend and I just happened speak with a couple parents and one of the things they asked about was opportunities to register earlier And we had a nice conversation about access and that we have some families that are planning in January, and we have families like it's June. What are my kids going to do? So we know, at least I know it's complicated and we don't necessarily want to create programming only for certain people who have a certain socioeconomic position but I just at least wanted to put it out there because the question came to me and clearly you do a lot of work in a short period of time. And to have an early registration will require starting this work earlier in the school year.

And there's a lot of logistics, all these things but I just wanted to put it out there because people had asked me about it and I do understand that conundrum for some families that they're doing their plans in January and they're like, am I gonna sign my kid up for private programs? Am I going to assign my kid out for the public school program? I'd rather have them be in their school or whatever it is they're looking for. So again, I know this is not a need from everybody in our community but I thought at least name it.

I think I will build on Rip Pitone that even if earlier registration isn't possible, like the earlier publication of especially of dates and date windows and things like that. would also be lovely.

We did receive this feedback, and we did start earlier this summer. But unlike private camps and other programs that certain families can sign up for and others can't, Thank you so much for joining us. programs that are able to open up registration but then have a later Date where they're able to cancel because of another program. Some of the programs were into June, where they allowed families to switch if they were recommended or in another program That is something we're constantly working on. Difficult with a lot of referral programs also. We have to wait for these lists, and we do a lot of work with SFLC.

And they do a lots of individual conversations with families and ensuring that these students get what they need but the piece on the timeline we did just or on the topic of OST for after school, we did create a timeline for seasons of registration that was passed out During the August back to school night. So I think we're all like working in the same direction and updating the website We just had a revamp of that as well, so we could definitely do something around summer as well Thank you.

All right, with no further questions we'll thank you for your time and your awesome presentation

Now we're going to the last part of the report which is a, we had a district review that was shared with us by the Department of Ed and I'm just gonna get into that review for a minute. And I will provide a general understanding of what the review is, what are the strengths that have identified for our district and also what are areas of growth that we have to identify. and many more. A research company to say, hey let's do a review whether it is in specialized education or MLE. And this one was a general review around kind of the quality of programming that we have in Somerville. and so there was a lot of preparation actually my friend Erica here was instrumental in making sure that we created focus groups, visits

discussions and it was a very robust work that happened by a company that was basically outsourced through the work, The American Institute for Research. And they were actually very thorough in their work. Next slide. And so in general, basically Again they did classroom observations. They did focus groups. They actually met with department heads and this was Pretty much a thorough assessment of all our schools, and as you see they identify the strong foundation that is in place. We have shared that with you That's the message that I share with the community. We actually have built a strong foundation and that's pretty much the headline for us, We have a strong system. The strategic direction is in place. We have created some systems that you have funded in years past around not only

Instructional support, but also the fact that we have built academics as well as social emotional. Those are things that anyone can see from close and afar, as well our commitment to equity that shows up in many places. So a strong direction, strong foundation and obviously we're working on the consistency across the board. Next slide So again, this is what was affirmed by our reviewers. We are building leadership coherence and that's something that as you know from the beginning of the school year we outline for everyone. There's a clear Investment in Education that shows up in different places, especially in our professional development. And there is a greater sense across the community that students feel that they belong and our consistent work around family and community support. SFLC is instrumental in this work,

It also is a testament of the investments that we have done throughout the years. Next slide. And now we come to a place where we need to think about what are some of the things that we have to do as a collective. There are some places in which instruction was identified as needed to be more rigorous, There were places in which there was a stand and deliver type of instruction that was a question around our systems for academic rigor. There's also the question around MTSS and how consistent the work is. We have done a lot of work over several years, but we still continue to Thank you very much. Alignment across the board.

We have, we work with Boston Children's Hospital to create a system of MTSS and we had three different schools that actually were leading some of that work but that work continues to be expanded throughout the district and the work that Michelle Shannon, Dr. Shannon is doing is around building that system of operations around MTSS As you know, this is the biggest area of work that we have right now moving from data to action That's the work that We had done throughout the year. It's the Work that we do when we meet we get together during the old team but it's basically how do we actually create a The structures to move the work around data, to impact. And that's one thing that again consistently we if you walk into every building that is the language and also the practices that you see Student and Family Communication.

I was actually very interested by the fact that there were some feedback we got from families around how much support do they get around understanding Thank you very much. There is a lot of work that we need to do around that, and I do feel that there is great collaboration that we can do with our partners, with SEU, to build the systems that we have for not only family communication but I believe it's family empowerment. and then the work around financial planning as you know Dr. Barretta has been very clear about the work we created our first When they interview our finance department, these pieces were just been built. Our dashboard, finance dashboard, our system of

Transparency, around a year the finance book that we are creating and also the budgeting software. That's one thing that actually is again wasn't in place but was outlined as they were coming and understanding our areas of need and our areas strength. Next slide. And so again, our response has been concentrated on these three buckets For us, equity and academic excellence go hand in hand. And that consistency around rigorous instruction and rigorous learning is one of the ones We know it's tied up to the implementation of high quality instructional materials and is something that It continues to be built. It's like never we get to the point in which we have reached that proficiency because you have new teachers, you have no challenges, you

But that continues to be for us the biggest area of support. Academic rigor and quality of instruction happens, and it doesn't happen overnight. That again is tied up with a piece around MTSS. How do we build these systems of support in every classroom so kids' needs are targeted in a systematic way? The second piece around that is how do we make sure that our students who need extra supports are getting those in the district. More specifically, our students with special needs. That continues to be an area of growth. Our MLE students have actually made greater gains this year, in the last two years MCAS as well as the ACCESS data shows that

But our specialized instruction and support for implementation of classroom instruction that is modified The response to the needs of students is an area in which we're working. That's the biggest part of our professional education packet, Both Dr. Jenna Ruffo as well as with our educators making sure that's the greatest area of improvement for us And then the last one is around making sure that we have a strong system of finances that allows us to continue the work. And as I mentioned before, Dr. Barrera has really charged that course and the piece around clarity accountability and also

making sure that we have a sustainable financial system is critical for us and that's basically it Well, you know, through the chair. The headline here is good just to be clear. There's a lot of strengths that we have as a district and I just don't want you Even when I talked to the folks at the Institute and the Department of Ed, they were very complimentary of the strengths. But of course we got to call out the things that we need to do better. That's our emphasis. We're actually working on those three things that before they came in, we identified as areas of needs for us. Again, they won't happen overnight but we are building around that and that's the work. Thank you.

we'll go let's see Mayor Wilson hasn't spoken yet then Rep Green, then Rep. Biton and then we'll try again

Thanks, Chair. I want to thank the superintendent for he talked about the long-term financial planning. That's a big thing and that's happening. I can report our finance team has met with CFO Beretta and that is, that's a really good development. That's going to pay dividends for us for years to come so thank you so much for that I really appreciate that partnership.

Thank You Rep Cream

Two things, both procedural. The first actually is also about the budget and I want to thank CFO Beretta. I think we heard from the new I think the fact that we are hiring finance people who have backgrounds in the classroom and building leadership matters, it shows. What we are seeing is a process that is moving more towards, away from... We've always been good at bookkeeping as a district. but I think moving more towards actually budget and financial strategy in the last year or two has been a really positive move even as We've seen some recently. There have been some learning curves for you as a district when we're asking not just the central office, but all of our leadership to be more strategic in budgeting and thinking about that.

So we know there'll be some learning curve there, but it's been a positive change. and I was talking with MASC in recent weeks There is something the school committee still has to do. I wasn't aware because we've never had to do it before, but because the budget has passed by school committee and the budget submitted City Council and then ultimately passed by city council didn't match up, we have to revote the cost centers for discrepancy. So I'm going to be putting a proposal before finance, and then we'll bring it back to the committee. But if we are going to have our procedures, that's how all stages of the game. The second thing is gone from my head now, so I'll come back when it comes back.

All right, we'll go to Rep Biton.

Thank you, Chair. Through you, thank you to the superintendent for providing this excellent summary. As you were speaking I Googled to find the district review report for members of the public who may be interested. I googled DESE district review report, and then you can search by district. The report was released in August. So just breadcrumbs for everyone. I want to just dovetail off of Superintendent through your chair what you stated about this being a good news story. You know, I think absolutely there's a strong foundation You pointed to it of our district strengths and there's always going to be areas for improvement. And what I find most reassuring is that the areas for growth that are

highlighted in your summary. We're not a surprise to me. These are areas that I think we know we want to continue to make improvements in, so that's all actually very reassuring and I think continue to lay a strong foundation and build upon it, and improve across our district. So I'm really excited to dig into the report. I may have questions in the future but I like this CliffsNotes version very well so thank you for that.

So thank you for highlighting the fact that it's in our Department of Ed website, has been there since August. They finished it in March but again they needed to double check on the validity of the document It will be in our website by the end of this week or early next week. There's access to that for the public.

Thank you. We're going to go with Dr. Stellman and then Rep Green again.

Thank you, through the chair. I agree with a lot of the things I just said. I think the question I have is as you reflect on On this review, where are the parts that you are really focusing when I say you? Dr. Carmona and your team are focusing on as a priority, and where are the overlaps between things that you're already going to prioritize and what you're seeing in the district review And where are some of the things that are in the district review that you would like to improve on but actually aren't yet in the goals and priorities? That may be too much of a... Question to ask at this moment, or to expect a full answer at this point.

But I'm mostly interested in that second part is where As your team reflects on this district review and some of that may not be in your goals and priorities, will you pivot? And what might you make of that?

Yeah, thank you for the question. I think again we were very clear about some of the gaps that we had and I think that The team and the educators have been clear about sharing what are some of the things that they see as the next area of growth for us. I don't see any surprises, to be honest, in the entire document. I think that as far as how are we leveraging some of the strengths that we have to get to an ideal outcome in some of these categories is a different question. But we are working in different fronts. I mean, the question around data and how every school and every building is actually looking at the data asking the question How do I differentiate instruction based on the needs of the student in front of me? And doing that while you're having new instructional materials is not an easy thing to do.

So that I anticipate is going to take quite some time for our educators to actually build the muscle of knowing the programs very well and then being able to say, now I can actually respond to the needs of the baby in front of me. So that's a complicated process, and I anticipate that being taken quite some time. And these actually overlaps with the question around differentiation and creating instructional practices to support our students with special needs. The more you know, the better you do. Is that right? And so I think that is something we anticipate as a challenge. Something we anticipate it's going to take some time and we're getting some support from the experts in the field to do that work so to me that's another challenge that I think is if I may are you I didn't know you were looking at me. You were going to chime in, but is that they identify as places in which we seem to need to have a stronger

Instructional priorities that reflect the need of students in the 21st century. And so there were some places in which that came as a surprise to me, You know, the stand and deliver instructional practices that I thought were somewhat outdated. There is some of that that were identified. And so that to me has been also part of the conversation with our school leaders like How do we inspect what we need to do and how tight is that support and supervision for folks? You know, the MTSS is also another overlap that I think there's a systems question around the MTA says and resource question as well. And so as every Bill then has their MTSS models. It's not as easy to replicate the

The resources in every building because they actually are utilized differently depending on the needs of a student. So if I have a psychologist who joins my MTSS meeting, you might not have it in the next building because that time overlap. and so that is an area in which we need to see how we actually maximize the resources in every building. But there's a lot of overlap in that one

Thank you. All right, we'll go to Rep Lippens for the first time and then Rep Green.

Thank you so much for that great presentation. I appreciate the categories and I always think like when you present All the glows sometimes and the challenges. Sometimes you kind of leave with the challenges I love that we're having a conversation about MTSS one of the things and maybe not tonight I'd like to learn more about as we think about I'm not looking for answers tonight. Like to think about, because as you said every school right now has different approaches and different resources. So how are we as a district defining MTSS? And then, how are communicating this to families? This is something that I've heard from Thank you so much for joining us.

victims approach to this and again I'm not maybe looking for answers tonight but just you know if you can get back to me appreciate it

So I'd note then, as far as clarity goes MTSS stands for multi-tiered systems of support which is something I want to make sure we're always naming our acronyms. I also wanted to note that I'm pretty sure Dr. Beretta's work that he did with us in the district was on multi-tiered systems of support and you know I presume superintendent assistant superintendent have more but uh happy to find that presentation and share it because it was very Comprehensive and thoughtful, and gave in my opinion a great overview. I don't want to cut off either of you if you wanna...

Thank you to the chair. Great thought partnership, Rep Lippens. I also We shared a presentation at the end of last year as we were thinking through some of the areas that we're looking to improve for multi-tiered systems of support. It happened at the same time as Special Education Department presented a larger presentation on their department review. So that was like, the big presentation and I did a little MTSS 10 minute you know yeah bonus to that but I think that does tee up very well the your final question Rep. Lippens was what is our systems-wide strategy around this and I think one thing that came out in our Presentation last year was that there are great systems in place and those happen depending on the school. This is what the superintendent just Describe.

So Amy Candelora, who's the assistant principal at Argenziano School presented with me and she shared a wonderful framework for communicating with families at AFA. And so this is actually, so to your question around building off the strategy and building off of some of Dr. Beretta's work part of our strategy as a district was embedding making sure that there is Even though MTSS is all that we do, the systems of support for schools like all we do there does need to be Someone, a captain of the ship ensuring that we're all moving in the same direction and enter Dr. Michelle Shannon so our because this very beautifully fits with as we think about equity and advancing excellence through academics.

and Dr. Shannon has extensive experience so this is uh you kind of overseeing um in leading and facilitating around MTSS and child study team is under her Thank you. All of the answers but I can guarantee she's got some good initial thinking given her first few months in the role.

Thank you, I appreciate that. And I'm just thinking also on how do we ensure funding from our perspective of just making sure that we continue this fine work? Thank you.

I just wanted to close the circle. Rep. Biton's question was my question about how do we make sure people have access to the full document? and to follow up, I would love it if sometime in November or December we could revisit this. Have you had the time to read the full document? See if there are more questions or comments. Before we start next year's budgeting process, because I do believe almost all of these recommendations have budget implications.

Some light reading for us? That's great. I appreciate that, thank you. Superintendent?

That concludes the report of this sprint.

Okay, we're moving on to Roman numeral five reports from subcommittees. Do I have a motion to approve the educational programs report from May 29th?

So moved.

All right. I have a motion by Rep Biton, seconded by Rep Pitone. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Unfinished Business, MSBA.

Through the chair, yes. Last week we met with the MSBA team, the FAS which is the Facility Assessments Subcommittee And they had, the mayor was there, myself, our team, principals of the Benjamin Brown as well as the Winter Hill community. and one of the things that we got some feedback around was the multiple Efforts that we had at the same time, I thought it was a great question as to all of the different things that we were trying to accomplish in this concept. And that was just giving me a pause, just to make sure that we actually are vetting all the things that we're trying to do with this new facility. But that was something that I think

Even when I spoke to the principals, they were thinking about making sure that we're trying to create a building that addresses multiple needs as well has some great advantages around technology, around transitions to a higher school as well that has three different specific breakdowns of the and all the other developmentally appropriate stages of students. And so that was cited as a question for us in terms of just reflect on all the many things They also have multiple questions around the access into the facility because it's a very complex building and I think that those were well The architectural firm, Perkins and Isman was really good at providing those answers but they had some great questions that you know

forces us to think about how much are we offering in terms of the complexity of this facility. But it was a great meeting and we received some good comments around, the feedback was positive for us.

Repita. Thank you, through your chair to the superintendent thank you for that update I'm curious was there a Any reconsideration or it was just a pause point? So for example, I know we're planning the developmentally Age groupings, developmentally appropriate age groupings. I know we also were looking at doing some district-wide spaces so I'm curious if there was any rethinking of that or are we still full steam ahead with the plan?

Great question. It's interesting because on the age groupings, I did have a conversation with the principals They had some interesting responses. I don't want to jump into any speculation around changing direction, but they did have some very logical questions that We have to reflect about, so I think I need to find the best forum to bring that Understanding and that reflection because I don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction on something that was pointed out. But I think it was a valid argument, but that's one of the things that came up as a discussion.

Okay, so we'll hear more at some point.

Thank you. All right, we are on to new business. Sure, we are not on to new business.

We're still talking about MASC. This month and the next month we will also be conducting some focus groups to make sure that we gather feedback from educators

that's kind of the next phase of the work that we'll be doing thanks thank you through you um trackman to this superintendent one thing that has come up multiple times and it might not be relevant but i'm just gonna and many more. I think one of the things that we're trying to bring it up relative to the high school is the complexity of entrances For lack of a better word, after school or on the weekends make more modular access to areas. And so as we're looking at this new building in Sycamore Street I know we were considering having multiple entrances and exits because we want to have developmentally appropriate

I just wanted to flag that because i know it's been challenging and we haven't necessarily solved that problem at the high school but i want to make sure that that's in the conversation at the sycamore street site because The goal of wanting our younger kids to not necessarily access the building with their older kids is fantastic, but we have to think about security and this is going to be a community resource. We have to thing about how it can be utilized with those different egresses and entrances. Okay. Ariel?

Yeah, just to respond to that. That's the one thing that we stated from the beginning because that is the complaint I get from the high school and The MSBA, the building committee is very clear about the challenges we face in creating the high school.

All right. We're done with unfinished business? Groovy. All right, now on to new business. MASC Conference Delegate and Resolution. I'm not gonna lie, have not reviewed this at all. We have to appoint delegates to MASC. Got it, and then they will make recommendations on the resolutions?

Yeah, we normally do the resolutions as a second reading thing. So we could appoint someone this meeting and give any recommendations to that person at our next meeting.

That's right because early November is MASC which is next month. Neat. Okay. Is there anyone who is interested in being a delegate on our behalf to MASC? Buehler, Emma, Dr. Stellman. Great do we have an alternate? I'll be the alternate. Great. I think I just appoint them. So, I as the chair of the Somerville School Committee am appointing Dr. Sellman as Rep for MASC, and Rep Pitone as our alternate. Thank you both for your service. Let me know if there's a, yes Repatone?

Through you Chair just to add on to the process that Representative Green was speaking about. So for all you members, please read the resolutions and come back next meeting with your thoughts. Usually it boils down to we let you represent us. This is what we're thinking, but you do your best job. That's usually what it boils downs to unless Rep Green has been the representative several times Yep.

Yeah, so normally we have to vote to give them instructions, which we can do at our next meeting or whatever. Historically, we as a body Deferred to the delegate's judgment. That is not something we have to do. I know that there are oftentimes delegates from other cities or towns who come with more or less... Strict instructions, sometimes it's as strict as you can't vote for this resolution under any circumstances. Sometimes it's we like it but if it gets amended or doesn't get amended in these ways we don't want you to vote for it and those kinds of things. I think we have been relatively successful and, frankly, relatively influential in the Delegate Assembly by deferring to our delegates. But that is – but we as the body have options basically to get whatever we want.

Green. All right, we're going to go. Okay, Reputon?

Just to follow up, the brass tacks is if you don't really like something in the resolution say I don't like this. If you think there's language that should be different share that with us as the delegate and the alternate. You have the full breadth of opportunity. We don't have to accept these the way they are and what happens in the MASC meeting is people make amendments, you know they put up their hand, they suggest things so just to get an idea of how this operates. So that was just an addition thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Through you I just want to point out one of the previously approved resolutions Back in 2023, these come up every few years for reauthorization. There is an item here regarding investigations and recommendations for Transportation Bidding Procedures. This one interested me and when I was reading it over the summer, I inquired to MASC about whether the state auditor had taken action to conduct the investigation that this resolution requests and I did not get a definitive answer from MASC so if anyone has any insight into Whether that has happened, I'm still seeking that information.

And I think that would influence whether I would support this or not but I think this is a really interesting and important one I don't know. I just really have for a long time been frustrated by this general sphere and want to see where it goes.

Alright, thank you. Great so that will be on our October 19th agenda and yes please have read the resolutions and we will Discuss it then. All right, fall office hours. Is this to you Vice Chair?

I do have an update here.

Fire away.

Eldridge has accepted the charge to organize us. So I'm grateful for her, she's not here tonight.

No, she had a family emergency so she was unable to make it.

Right? I know Rep. Pitone had shared with her the document that helps us, sort of the standard operating procedure so I expect Rep. Eldridge will be in touch with us to provide The information about fall office hours. So, information pending.

Thank you. Appreciate you letting us know. All right. On to field trips. Do I have a motion?

I move to approve the field trip. For November 13th, 2026 for 27 students from the West Somerville Neighborhood School Chorus to travel to the Dunkin' Donuts Center In Providence, Rhode Island to perform at the Providence Bruins game. Huzzah! Travel via bus. Student cost $25.

All right, I have a motion by Rep. Biton seconded by Rep Green Any discussion? All those in favor aye all opposed any abstentions thank you All right, community or calendar items from my colleagues. Rep Lippens?

Ward 3, Wednesday night. I will be there. There'll be pizza. Yes, and community and conversation at the high school. I'm looking at Mr. Mayor. And I believe it starts at... 6 o'clock. All right, hope to see you there. Thank you.

Yes, that is a good reminder that East Somerville is having ours on October 13th also at 6 o'clock at the East Somerville Community School I'm pretty sure. Anyone else? Mayor Wilson.

Chair, speaking of the Neighborhood Connect meetings. Last week there was a really cool thing that happened where a teacher at The West put an offer out to the class if they went to that meeting and attended that, they'd receive extra credit We love seeing that. Give us a heads up if that happens, if you could teachers so we can order more pizza. They showed up hungry? Good for them. The pizza went quickly. So we are happy to order more pizzas if it means more middle grades and high school age kids Thank you, that's a great tip for our civics in action.

All right, with that we're moving on to our upcoming meeting. So our next meeting I assume we will be expecting Director Parabello back to talk about OST, right? No? Yes, Dr. Shannon and then facilities update always an interesting time to talk about how our buildings are doing we look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks Vice Chair, do we have condolences?

We do. The school committee offers our deepest condolences to the families to the family of Robert Bob Paul Nomnum, father of Jennifer LaGreca. Somerville Public School Supervisor of Attendance of the Student Services Department.

We are adjourned.