School Committee Meeting - November 3, 2025

It is seven o'clock and we do have a quorum, so we will get started. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this November 3rd 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 will post an audio recording, audio-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 government channels. Dr. Carmona, will you please call the roll?

Through the Chair, Ms. Piton. Dr. Ackman, Mr. Green, Mr. Biton, President Davis, Mayor Ballantyne, Ms. Barish?

Here.

Dr. Phillips?

Here.

Chair Krepchin? Here. We have quorum.

All right. We will start with a moment of silence and a salute to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we will start with the report of our student advisors. Good evening.

Starting off, we have some new school spirit related things that happened in the past two weeks. First off was our first spirit week of the year, our homecoming spirit week. We had exceptional turnout in terms of people dressing up and sticking to the themes. We didn't have any disciplinary issues as opposed to past years. Even staff this year were very enthused to take part. The next thing that week was our homecoming dance. We had about 500 students. Just a little over 500 students attending the dance and it went very well. That's about all I can say.

In other news, we also had some fundraisers surrounding Halloween. The special education program had boo bags for sale in the School Store, where they had bags of candy and you could get one for about four bucks. The junior class officers also were selling Boo for Your Boos, which were a new fundraiser where if you bought a boo on the Thursday before Halloween, People dressed up in inflatable costumes would show up to your class and it's like a singing Valentine except they sing a spooky song. and finally we had a senior costume contest on Halloween and that also had exceptional turnout in comparison to previous years where

Both staff and students, there were nearly double. compared to last year who dressed up and because of that we will also be introducing a teacher costume contest next year.

Excellent. Yeah, that's very exciting. And moving on to a little bit about Somerville STEM Week successes. So basically, I remember a couple I mentioned how on October 15th Somerville High School students were going to be co-leading climate introductory like climate lessons with fifth graders and that actually happened a couple weeks ago. and I just want to emphasize how it was just amazing. It was a great success. We had two high schoolers at each of the middle slash elementary schools co-leading climate change lessons with the fifth grade teachers. I was like one of the students co-leading these lessons and like just being able to see the fifth graders being so interested and like curious and learning more about climate change was such a wonderful experience.

and some of our high schoolers who were actually co-leading these lessons were new to climate education and didn't have that much experience but they expressed how Much of a joy it was to dive into climate change on such a local level and to really motivate students in our area. So yeah that was a great success that we had and there was also so that was like the first week of STEM lessons and then the week after that we were we would we had like Students from Lesley, Harvard, different colleges come and share more in-depth climate change lessons specifically about storm drains in Somerville because we have been experiencing some flooding in the past. So we're really trying to localize climate change so students can see how it does directly impact their own communities and isn't such a distant issue.

And if you are a parent of a Somerville High student, you may have heard that the PTSA is starting their annual holiday gift card drive earlier this year to help combat the fact that Many SHS students will be losing SNAP benefits and facing food insecurity. And then an update for the Greater Boston Regional Student Advisory Council that I brought up last meeting. We had a online meeting this morning where we began to explore Community Dialogues where student leaders will present topics to their communities across Massachusetts. and there'll be like small town halls and they'll gather public input or input and they will

Analyze that data and bring it to the state's student advisory council where the chairwoman of the council will be informed and and present her case to the rest of the Board of Education.

Okay, thank you so much for that. I have a couple of questions and comments. Dr. Ackman, Mr. Green, Ms. Pitone, and then Ms. Barish. Dr. Ackman.

Thank you to the chair. Thank you both for sharing. Exciting in many different fronts. I'm curious I will try and phrase this I think this is the to the district although I'd like to know if you know you've had any communications my understanding is one of like our areas of growth and that we're focusing on our middle grades curricula and sort of middle grades experiences and I While door knocking this weekend, I sort of had this realization. I'm wondering if The current Somerville high students who are very recent Somerville middle school students are at all part of that conversation and if not if there's a way especially because I hear that you are going into I mean you said fifth grade not technically middle grades but that you're going in and and Helping to educate them. I'm sure they're loving it because like you know that's cool in so many ways um so i'm just curious if that's sort of part of the dialogue around um figuring out ways to you know really support our middle grade students

Thank you to the chair. Yes, as we think about re-envisioning our middle grades experience, having conversations with students will absolutely be a part of that. High School students will absolutely be a part of that. In terms of the STEM week, and I really have to thank you so much for bringing this to life in this space and also thanks to Jason Behrens and all of his leadership around I'm advancing this I'll say he like many of our curriculum leaders is very very focused on keeping I know that he very strongly believes that our young people should be leading a lot of our conversations and decision making. So I think that specific example really is kind of the vision of a leader who really believes deeply in that. But absolutely, as we're engaging in more throughout our course of our school year this year,

We will be engaging in more conversations around strengthening, building off strong foundations, but really how we're thinking about our middle grades experience, and absolutely students will be centered in that.

Mr. Green?

Yes, thank you. I guess the next question is also the district was pulled off of the report. I know that So I'm saying every school's PTA is correctly doing some sort of fundraising drive around SNAP benefits. And I know that there's been some communication about how to how we can amplify that is there any intentions on the church part to maybe put out something that lists all the fundraisers so that we could Share all of them and therefore help all the schools who are raising money, especially people who would want to give but don't know where.

Yeah, so I was going to start my report with recognizing the efforts that are happening district-wide around that. I also have to mentioned that this was something that happened really overnight and it was a grassroot decision across the board. There was a question about how do we make sure that we organize all our efforts and so there is an An effort to do that through SFLC but I just also wanted to acknowledge the fact that we were waiting until the last minute if you will to see if those SNAP services were going to be extended. But I know that there are very thoughtful conversations about how do we do with the balances that we have from different schools and how do we supply the needs across the district. So very thoughtful conversation through SFLC. and I will share more as those final outcomes come out.

But I know that there is an intention about making sure that if I have collected more than you do, how can we help each other? So that's part of the design.

And then just to follow up, how are we helping to let people in the public know if they have money to help the most effective way to help?

Yes, so I know that, again, part of what I was going to share today was, you know, providing some information through our website, but I know that we will be reaching out to the families again through SFLC to let them know.

Great, thank you.

Ms. Pitone, and then Ms. Barish. Thank you through you chair. Thank you so much for coming and giving us such a comprehensive share of everything from the I am curious, so there seems to be a shift. I think about a few years ago and there was a time and you may have not been part of the high school where they had to cancel a homecoming dance because there wasn't enough attendance. How would you as students, how do you see this? How do you kind of assess the shift in culture? What do you think that the I know some of it might be a reflection of just students are getting older and the kids who were in the

High School during the pandemic or have now since graduated and we all know that was incredibly hard and challenging so I just curious about what your thoughts are about this sort of more engaged higher spirit culture that you're seeing right now.

Yeah, I definitely think it has to do with the fact that older kids are phasing out of the school and graduating. The semi-formal in the past two years has not happened, which was in part because of usually the older grades. The class of 2025 and the class of 2024, they were not able to hold theirs, I believe. I think the shift is in part because of just the class or Principal Kirsten is encouraging a lot more like student involvement and student leadership. Like especially myself as a class officer, I feel like we are putting more time into school spirit specifically and less on fundraising for dances.

because in the past a lot of the focus has just been on getting enough funds to actually hold these but now a lot more of the focus is on can we do something that's enjoyable for students that we think students will buy into. and we can worry about the fundraising from other sources instead because also in the past a lot of fundraising has come directly from the students which is not exactly helpful because those are the people we're trying to We have a GoFundMe running where anyone can donate. And we also are holding tomorrow an Election Day bake sale. Actually, all of the grades are holding an Election Day bake sale outside of the West. I think a lot of it is principal Kirsten's drive to have more student leadership and student

like independence and how the student leaders operate so it's more that the advisors are there to guide and not to set like this is what you can do and this is what you need to do or whatever yeah do you have any thoughts Thanks for watching!

Yeah, thank you, Aiden. I just wanted to add on to that. I think that this year, specifically, we've definitely seen a shift in the student leadership that Aiden was talking about. because we've had like a bunch of different initiatives including remodeling our Highlander habits to be more student-led and student-focused so We have this new program as well where current juniors and seniors are peer mentors for new freshmen. So they leave circles, like restorative justice circles, and they're just like someone who can be there for the upcoming freshmen or the new freshmen and within those like peer leader groups students were able to have a decision to

and many more. Like Spirit was in our school because students definitely know what's best and what's going to motivate their peers. So I think what Aiden was mentioning about Principal Kirsten's drive to encourage students to take this type of leadership and like providing students with these opportunities to take leaderships within their own school and directly influence what their peers will be like seeing and like the norms that are established in classrooms is really important for this type of culture and like just having these norms set in place allows us to do more fun things and like have all these fun events where everyone understands and has this like mutual respect so we can like move on to doing more enjoyable events in the future.

One last thing is I think we're starting to focus like that idea of student leadership a lot like younger or not a lot younger because it's only four grades but the When I came to the high school I had no clue that there were like all the class office stuff and I'm pretty sure it was like maybe two people who ran unopposed and the other two positions were not filled but Last year we had like the most competitive student elections we had in years where there were like 13 sophomores running for four spots and people were very involved and excited for the student election and then this year we also had like Babaka said with the peer mentor program and like this Somewhat of an orientation for the ninth grade students, which we hadn't previously had as much.

And also, we have freshman class officers now. So I think it's that getting the student leadership in ninth grade sets up the grades for more spirit later on because they feel like, oh, I can actually make... The school a little bit more how I want to be something like that.

How wonderful. Did you want to follow up?

I just want to follow up through you thank you for sharing that this is sort of kind of the most comprehensive that I've heard I mean I've definitely heard bits and pieces and I don't know at some point the school committee could kind of have a more I mean you've covered a lot of things but I'd love to hear a little more about this sort of student voice student culture shift that we're seeing whether it's at the high school or at within like the middle grades I mean like like you said you know now you guys seniors juniors sophomores freshmen seeing that I know this is a kind of a direction that we're going in as a district and we've been working on this I don't know what the timing is I don't know right the right forum but I I love hearing about this and I love getting this kind of information out into the ether and into the public so thank you for that and I don't know if there's

anything written up on the website or but anyway this is just such exciting and good work and it's so grassroots and whatever we can do to expand this and get this word out there would be really valuable.

So not so much as a response, but building on the conversation that Babica and Aydin had earlier on, when I came in, they suggested having more meaningful interactions in which their voices can be heard. So we just had a quick conversation about having all the leaders of the high school meet with us in a more regular basis just to not only Do the reporting, but advocacy at other levels. So I'm definitely all for that. Student voice and empowerment and agency is part of our, I had Ms. Barish, Mr. Green, and then Dr. Phillips.

Thank you. Through you to Aiden, the, I might get this wrong, Greater Boston Student Advisory Council?

Pretty close, it's a long name.

Okay, you know what I'm talking about. Great, thank you. I'm just curious, you were talking about community dialogues. Will the leaders at each school decide what the topic of that conversation is, or is the topic the same across all schools?

I hope that makes sense. Currently, it's a little up in the air. I myself am not quite sure exactly what we do as a council. All I know is that it has existed for actually many decades, apparently. Its membership has been small, though. It's less than 50 schools, I think, across Massachusetts. Some of them are actually private schools, and this program is run by the DESC, so that's why it's a little strange. But from what I understand, there are three groups that each regional council is split up to, or three committees. There is emotional health, there is bullying, and there's nutrition. Our school currently is in the emotional health committee, and what we are focusing on this year is analyzing data about student mental health and student sleep.

and our next step I think is just getting community input beyond just the numbers and We have yet to plan from there.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure I heard you right. Did you say that the focus is on mental health and sleep? Okay, thanks.

Mr. Green and then Dr. Phillips.

I just wanted to, I think, echo and double down on Mr. Patone's request. These are like we were having a conversation for the last couple meetings now about these kind of long-term plays which we believe will over time improve outcomes but are kind of hard to put on a chart right now and I firmly believe that like expanding student Boyce, Hispanic Student Power is a key one of them. So I would love if before the end of the year, or at some point soonish, we could get a A presentation on the active steps our schools are doing to improve and enhance student voice and student engagement so we can be able to know about our long-term plays for improving outcomes.

Dr. Phelps

Thanks through you, Chair. Just a friendly reminder that we have a policy on our files, JIB, Student Involvement and Decision Making, that sets forth how often the school committee is supposed to meet with the student advisory committee and what we're supposed to do. and what support the superintendent might authorize for the student advisory committee. So as we think about how to work more closely with our great student leaders, that's a great policy that can be shaping how we interact.

It's also a part of our state law.

OK.

If there is nothing further, we will quickly approve some minutes. I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve the minutes from September 8, September 29, and October 6, 2025.

Second. If there is no discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to public comment. We have two people signed up. I will read our... Guidelines, and then I will call up our two public commenters. Welcome and thank you to those who have signed up for public comments. Speakers will be allowed three minutes to present their material. However, the chair may limit to two minutes based on the number of individuals signed up to speak. Since we have two, you will have your full three minutes if you so choose. Speakers should begin their comments by stating their name and address or in the case of district employees their role within the district. The chair of the meeting, after a warning, reserves the right to terminate speech which is not constitutionally protected because it constitutes true threats that are likely to provoke a violent reaction and cause a breach of the peace or incitement to imminent lawless conduct or which contains obscenities. Public comment is not a discussion, debate or dialogue between the public and the committee. Members of the committee will not reply to public comment in the course of the meeting, though individual members may follow up and items from public comment may be taken up in future meetings.

The school committee will not hear personal complaints of school personnel nor against any member of the school community in public session. Individuals may address topics on the agenda or items within the school committee's scope of responsibility, such as the district budget, goals, and policies, or role of the superintendent. The public is encouraged to submit comments and writing for inclusion in the public record. So with that I have Abby Hare followed by Anna Feingold. Abby the floor is yours.

Hi, everyone. I'm Abby Hare. I live at 13A Quincy, and I'm a parent of students at East and Capuano. As you prepare to hear the latest facilities report, I urge you to find out what DPW and ISD need to fix the following issues. First, the rodent situation, which while it's improved, still is problematic at both the schools I mentioned. What are the barriers to getting our schools pest free? I'm not sure how tenable it is to expect teachers to submit a three-room-one request. A, it's one more thing that they need to remember to do. And in what other profession do employees have to take the burden on themselves of making sure they have a safe work environment? Second, Capuano has been without hot water this entire school year. This is a health and hygiene concern, not to mention uncomfortable as the weather gets colder

Please find out exactly what DPW needs to ensure that plumbing issues like this can get fixed in a more timely manner and then take action to make that happen. Finally, I'm concerned about the custodial staffing at East. Despite 750 kids in the building, there's only one custodian. I encourage you to dig into why. Is DPW having trouble hiring additional staff? Does there need to be a budget adjustment for a second position allocated to East? Once you know why, please take steps to fix this inequitable staffing. Thank you.

Next, I have Abby Feingold. I'm sorry, Anna Feingold. Anna, the floor is yours.

Good evening. My name is Anna Feingold. I'm a resident of Ward 1. I live at 95 Franklin in East Somerville. My child is at East in the neighborhood school. I actually want to spend my time most of it talking about special education needs in the district and the district's initiatives with regard to special education I was on the zoom for the meeting a couple weeks ago when that was the topic and I was not in a position where I could unmute so I'll just offer my comment on that now. The main thing that I want to share is that this is not just a CPAC issue. I am not part of CPAC my child does not have an IEP as a non-CPAC parent I heard at the end of the last school year as I know that we all did the story after story after story revealing heartbreaking, pervasive, and fundamental failures to provide needed and required special education services to all of our students.

As a non-CPAC parent, that's not okay with me for that to be the status quo in our district. And as a non-CPAC parent, I felt very strongly that that needed to change and I think there are many non-CPAC family and community members that heard those stories and felt the same way. I think there are many of us that see this as a very straightforward equity issue. As an SPS parent, I do not evaluate the quality of school in our district based on how well my child learns. I base it on how well all of our children can learn and I don't think I'm alone in that perspective. I think that there are many of us who heard those stories and shared those concerns and they are looking to the committee and to the district to see how you are going to respond. A robust inclusion model is critical for equity reasons. It is critical so that all students have an equal opportunity to learn. I believe it's critical from a moral standpoint. and it's important because when all children get the services that they deserve it's better for everyone.

I also care about this because I think all of our kids as well as my very neurotypical learner deserve a system that models inclusion well, that models inclusion walking the walk and not just talking the talk. One of the reasons my husband and I wanted our child in public school is because we believe a fundamental part of his education is learning how to be a good community member, learning how to be and what a system looks like where we are all different and we all deserve to be here and we all deserve an equal opportunity to thrive and we're all committed to that mutual thriving so I think CPAC and non-CPAC There are many of us that heard those stories at the end of the last school year and we are looking to you to carry the work forward in a meaningful way. On the topic of rats, I will just share that my first grader completely unprompted within the last week informed me that when they have snack in their classroom, it is very important that they don't drop crumbs because we don't want any creepy crawlies in there.

So I will just echo the pleas for no more creepy crawlies.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

That brings us to the report of the superintendent, Dr. Carmona.

Thank you, thank you everyone and I just want to start tonight my report by First of all, acknowledging the stress, the pain and the anguish that some of our families are experiencing as a result of the ending of the Food Assistance Program, the SNAP, or the ending of the freezing. One of the things that we need to recognize is that both it is a significant challenge and it is something that impacts our families. Significantly we have had an inflationary period for a while and now this on top of that really is compounding the challenge. I also want to acknowledge the resilience of our families and so thus Those two things that we need to hold in the same space. As Aiden shared in his report, the high school has raised some funds, also our PTA,

Our SFLC, our local partners have really rallied to support our families. We are really proud of those efforts, and I know that SFLC, in partnership with the Food for Free will be making another food market available in November and also The Healy will have a food market available in December and hopefully moving forward for the rest of the year. And that's thanks to a generous member of the community that seeks to remain unknown. I'm thrilled to have such an outpour of support for our community. I think that defines us. And I also want to recognize that This is not easy. We will be continuing to open our doors to support students with breakfast in the morning and lunch. Obviously lunch is free.

We have our participation in breakfast continues to be low, so we want to remind families that our doors are open in the morning. and so hopefully it doesn't impact the arrival but we want to make sure the families come in early in the morning to have access to breakfast. We also will be as I said providing some other open markets, food markets. And in regards to the food markets, we will be having an adjustment. Tomorrow, usually we do have a food market at the east and at the west, but because of election, it's going to be moved to Thursday, 2.30 on Thursday. and that will be posted on our website. As I said on Monday, on Friday in my email to the community, that this is the time when we come together as a community. This is what defines us. And again, the support that we have had from SFLC,

From our PTAs and from our local community members is one thing that really makes us really proud. So I just wanted to recognize those efforts from community members. That is in regards to that opening.

I don't know if...

So I also, I know that we are at the heels of our election and so tomorrow our city will elect our next mayor who will take office early in 2026. And before we cast our ballots, I want to take a moment to express our heartfelt thanks to Mayor Ballantyne for her incredible dedication to the young people of Somerville and her unwavering support for education across our city. So throughout her two terms, she has been a true champion for our schools, and we are deeply grateful for her guidance, not just as a mayor, but also as an SPS parent, a volunteer, and a community A committee community leader. I know that we will have a chance to properly honor her at a future meeting, but it feels appropriate today on the eve of Election Day to recognize the Mayor for all she has done for the students and families of Somerville. So she's not here today, but thank you, Mayor, for your support.

And of course, with the election right here in our calendar, a quick reminder to families that schools will be closed tomorrow. And I know we sent a message Yesterday, and so hopefully everyone is aware that school is not in session tomorrow. So one person in our schools that who doesn't always get enough recognition is the school nurse and yet their role is Paramount in the functioning of our schools. So every day our nurses handle emergencies, give students their medications, and care for their health needs, all with warmth, kindness, and a steady hand. They truly make a difference in our students' lives. I'm pleased to welcome Liz Quarantello this evening. Liz is our Director of Health Services and she's here to give us a department update. So Liz, please join us for this update.

Hi, I'm Liz Corratello, Director of School Health Services, also known as the Nurse Manager. And without further ado, I will go right into my presentation. So what is happening in school health? What goes on in the nurse's office? We're going to talk a little bit about the number of kids that we see and the type of issues that we see. A little very brief update in infectious disease because it's only been two months of school so far so we don't have a ton of statistics. Some staff changes. Some really significant changes at the state level in 105 CMR 210, which is what Governs the delegation of medications in school so it primarily affects field trips but the changes are big and they're going to have a big impact on us and then of course goals for the year.

Next. So last year we had about 46,000 visits to the school nurse. We tend to see about 5,000 kids a month. Of course, in months where there are holidays or vacations, we see fewer, but we always see a lot of children. The majority of our visits are for what you would expect, first aid, injuries, illness, All types of emergencies. We've already called EMS almost 10 times this year, if you can believe it. It's been an interesting start to the year. We have given several EpiPens already and have broken bones, potential overdoses. It's all happening. And then of course the other big thing we do is we give medications, mostly prescription medications for children who need them during the school day.

and also treatments insulin for diabetics, catheterization. We have children with cancer. We have children with all kinds of issues. And the nurses see them all. We also did 2,500 vision and hearing screenings last year. Many of those children were referred for further evaluation. The school nurses helped children get glasses. Oftentimes what happens is kids have glasses, they lose them, MassHealth takes forever to replace them, but we have a really good partnership with Eye Associates of Somerville who will see our kids. and help them get glasses for $25. So they've been a wonderful support to us. We have many children with special health care needs and so the nurses really for those kids have to go above and beyond and make plans for those kids. What will happen if their blood sugar is high or low?

How will that impact whether they can do standardized testing? What about children who have mobility issues? Is the field trip proposed appropriate for all children? So there's just many components to being a school nurse. And then of course every year we train hundreds of staff members in how to administer epinephrine. We have what is called stock epinephrine at every school, meaning that there's a cabinet by the cafeteria with epi pens because we've had, I think, really concerned parents who wanted to know, well, what if the nurse is not available? Is there somebody else who could step in and help my child? None of them have ever been used, but they are available and we train our staff. We also train our staff who are taking children with life-threatening allergies on field trips because of course we don't have nurses to go on every field trip. The district has hundreds of field trips so we need other people who can help us do that for these kids.

Next please. All right, infectious disease. So I have to say one of the greatest joys so far this year is that we are not keeping track of COVID. People don't have to report it to us. It's become a respiratory illness like any other. and this you know is just I don't know it's it's a relief I think that we have finally sort of moved past the pandemic phase and We occasionally hear about cases, but it's nothing like it was several years ago. However, normal childhood diseases are returning because people don't wear masks anymore. So we've had hand, foot, and mouth disease in many schools, very common childhood illness. We have many children who have already had colds and will continue to have them because little children get sick all the time. And I think when we were wearing masks we forgot that people just, you know, in school, close together, children get sick.

and we've had of course throughout this year already. One of the sort of We have seen more families requesting religious exemptions to vaccines. Remember, this is post-COVID. Of course, we had families who didn't want the COVID vaccine during the pandemic, but this is families who don't want to have normal childhood vaccines like mumps, measles, rubella, polio. and all of the other things that we know vaccines can prevent. I would say last year we had eight families, this year we have 24. It is a significant increase. and that's just the reality these days. That's what we're dealing with. However, I will say that during the COVID years, Families couldn't get their kids in to get their routine vaccines. Now we've really caught up with that.

Most of our children are fully immunized Our immunization rates are excellent. They're over 95% in most of our schools. So there is that. That is positive. And next. Staff changes. So we had a nurse retire this year and we had a nurse resign. So we were down two nurses. We hired one over the summer and we have a new one starting next week, thank goodness, because it's very tough when we don't have a full-time nurse in every school. It means our float nurses are just constantly filling in and subs and it's not ideal for anybody. But soon that's going to change. And I wanted to recognize our health coordinator, Kayla Centeno, and our health assistant, Kelly Morales, do a phenomenal job reviewing all the records of incoming students. They help them find health insurance if they don't have insurance.

They've even gone on field trips to see what local where the best place is to apply. So whether it's the MassHealth office in Charlestown or at CHA at Somerville Hospital, they've actually visited them, talked to people there so that they can tell families what to expect. So I just want to recognize them for always going above and beyond in addition to doing all of our vision and hearing screenings. And this year for the first time we're having four health career students from the high school Help screen our elementary age children. So that's been a wonderful boon to us. It's been great to have those health career students getting some real life practice. And that's just been a highlight of us so far this fall. And next. All right, medications at school. So the regulation that we have to follow sets out everything about medications in school.

So it's not like giving medications at home. Very regulated. And now the state has decided that we can delegate emergency medications like seizure medications The state would like all staff who accept this responsibility to take an hour-long course online. In addition to a training that we do with them and a competency test. So I just want to say this is really time consuming and I think we're going to have to figure out How it's going to work for our district because I'm not sure that everybody has that extra time in their schedule to take that on. So it's sort of a mixed blessing. and I don't know too whether that might present some contractual issues because an hour-long training that's a lot.

Next. All right, some of our goals. We'd like to expand CPR training. Paraprofessionals have been asking for CPR training for several years. and we really want to help them get their CPR certification so I'm working with two schools right now to figure out the schedule. Of course we always want to increase the number of students who get classes after failing their vision screening and the state has set a goal for us because we receive a grant from MDPH of making sure that especially students who are learning English or who are homeless get what they need. And then finally, I think we really need to consider how we do medications for out of school time. I know that there's such a big push to increase out of school time programs for our children. But one of the things that comes with that is making sure that it is safe to do so.

and making sure that our OST programs have protocols if they are not school sponsored and that our school sponsored programs have the time for their staff to be trained. So that's where it's at.

Okay, thank you so much for that. I will take questions, comments from my colleagues. Mr. Green?

First of all, thank you for the presentation. And more importantly, thank you for your work. And particularly the work around open book insurance, open book glasses, all these things that we know are preconditions for anyone to learn anything, right? Chronically sick kids without access to Medicare, medicine, aren't learning. Kids who can't see the board aren't learning. And to that end, I would love to get more data on the depth of the problem. As you mentioned, one of your goals is to help more students who fail vision screening get classes. I'm curious to know, how many students are we talking about? And because, ultimately speaking, if it's 10 students, I'm going to move to put some money in next year's budget just to pay for them. But if it's 500 students, do we need a more systematic answer?

And, you know, I think it really is about thinking about what are the things that we need to do to fill in the, and we shouldn't, like let's be clear, these things should not be school responsibility, but they are because that's the only place where government seems to be intervening. So what are the kinds of things we're gonna need to do to create a floor where every student at least is able to come in and possibly learn So you have anything you ask about the depth of some of these problems would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, so of the 430 who did not pass their vision screening last year, about 60% of them did end up getting glasses. So about 40% did not. And there's a whole host of reasons for that. So about Twitter students? Yes, about.

And to your point, it may not solely be about money. No, not solely about money. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay, other questions or comments? Yep, Mr. Green.

I'm obviously devastated to hear that Somerville is following the national trend in giving up even in small amounts The massive health benefits of vaccination. And I would love to think about if there are ways in which we need to be upping our vaccine education For families to understand that, A, again, no mainstream religion in the world actually forbids vaccination. And two, Every fear you've heard about the down syndrome vaccinations, come from either whole cloth or studies were withdrawn because they were proven to be factually untrue. So is there something we could be doing more to actually educate people on the realities of vaccines?

So I think it's a very complicated problem and I think in order to educate people they have to be willing to listen and I think there are so many competing sources of information out there that we are Swimming Upstream Against. And I think that's just a hugely difficult problem. And for our local practices too, I think if you are a practice that accepts federal funding, You cannot say that you're going to kick someone out of your practice because they refuse to be vaccinated. You have to work with them. and so I think there's so much education that goes on one-on-one by medical providers and I think that tends to be the most effective and significant I think that Big Campaigns. I don't know that that's within our scope, but I hear you. Mr. Biton?

Thank you, Chair, for you. First of all, Nurse Liz, I'm going to call you Nurse Liz because that's how I first met you. I want to thank you for the presentation tonight. Thank you. I have a question about this State Regulation Change 105 CMR 210. Is this change... effective now and what options are we considering for I mean, yes, it's effective now, but

The requirement for training was announced after school started. The fact that they decided to require their own training is something that has caused a lot of consternation among nurse managers. and others throughout the state because of course we've already done so much of our training and they're saying we don't have to go back and redo it but we do have to consider it going forward so for next year and probably for the spring and trying to figure out field trips, how it will impact those. because you know I think for us it's hard to get staff to come down and do the the test the return demonstration and we really believe that practicing

Administering an EpiPen or practicing administering nasal seizure medication is critical that you really have to have the chance to practice it in order to be willing to do it and we have to make sure that you can demonstrate that you can do it appropriately and properly. But we have a hard time getting staff to find the time to come down to do that. We used to do all of our presentations in person, but principals have told us it's so hard to find the time because they have so many other required things that they need to do during PD, especially before the children come back. So it's been hard for us to get that time so we've sent out slides hoping that people review them on their own time, do the test. So this just adds like one more layer of Training to an already very crowded schedule. So I think our big concern is how do we find the time for that? And I don't know.

I don't know. Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair, for you. Thanks, that's really helpful. And I wonder, You mentioned the other nurse managers across the state that are also dealing with this late hit and As experience grows in this area, I hope we can learn from our counterparts across the state.

Yeah, right. No, me too. I think we're exchanging ideas and sharing our concerns at the state level too. Yeah, thank you.

All right. If there are no further questions from my colleagues, thank you again for being here.

Thank you, Liz. And yeah, every minute that we have to celebrate our unsung heroes is a great minute. So really, our nurses are Some of the best members of the community and they have a significant role not only just to support students who need health support but also they and I often join other teams that provide multiple benefits to the instruction. So thank you, Liz. I'm gonna switch gears a little bit and I'm gonna bring our director of MLE student services. I just wanted to highlight the fact that the work that we do supporting our students who speak different languages, the multiplicity of languages that we speak in our district as well as The diversity is a strength and I wanted to highlight it from that perspective that it's not a deficit but a strength and I know that You might be familiar with the increase in numbers that we have in our district.

I think that since 2021, I think we have the largest increase of our MLE students And with that also comes efforts to make sure that they receive professional development as well as resources that help us deliver on the instruction that is needed. Having said that, we also are working on making sure the trajectory of our data improves. Our access on MCAS data still hasn't gotten to the place where it needs to be, so we will be talking about that in a minute. But I am really excited to have our director of multilingual learners, Paulina Metropolis, here. And she's going to report on our MLE population and some of the work that is happening to improve the outcomes for them. So welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Paulina Metropolis, and I'm the director of the Multilingual Learner Education Department. I'd like to begin by thanking the school committee and the superintendent for the opportunity to share updates from our department. Our agenda this evening includes an overview of current enrollment trends for multilingual learners, a brief analysis of ACCESS interim data, and a summary of action steps our department is taking in collaboration with school and district colleagues. I hope to end this presentation by addressing any questions you may have. Next slide, please. As always, we begin with our foundational value of shared responsibility for all students. This slide may look familiar as it was presented in last month's special education update to the school committee. These are our core beliefs that we hold as a district and share with all staff. We believe in the abilities of all of our diverse learners.

We believe that every student can succeed with grade-level curriculum. We believe in using data to guide our decisions and promote equitable outcomes for all our students. Next slide, please. Here is a brief snapshot of our multilingual learner enrollment data comparing the number of multilingual learners at the end of last school year in June with the current enrollment as of October 24th. As shown in the graph, we had 1,123 pre-K to 12th grade multilingual learners in Somerville at the end of school year 24-25. Over the summer, taking into account students that exited ML status, graduated, withdrew, and new enrollments through October 24, Our total multilingual learner enrollment has now reached 1,196 pre-K through 12th grade students.

In line with the statewide trend of decreased newcomer enrollment, we have seen a decline in our newcomer students compared with last year. Newcomers are defined as having been in the US for less than three years. However, we continue to welcome a steady flow of multilingual learners who are not newcomers, transferring in from neighboring districts or other states, which contributes to the overall increase in our total multilingual learner enrollment. With fewer newcomers and more students that have been in the U.S. for multiple years, the majority of our multilingual learners, nearly 80%, are now in general education classrooms. This enrollment data helps guide our department's action steps and informs our collaboration with school and district teams. Next slide please.

I know we're all familiar with MCAS accountability data and the persistent gaps among our student subgroups. On this slide, I want to share some additional data points because we all know MCAS is just one data point. It doesn't give us the full picture of the academic progress of our multilingual learners across the district. This slide shows how multilingual learners in Somerville are performing on the ACCESS test. which measures annual progress in English language proficiency. The top dark blue line represents the percentage of students who are meeting their progress targets each year. While the bottom light blue line represents the percentage of students meeting the benchmark for English proficiency to exit their ML status. My analysis of this access data over time is that not enough of our multilingual learners in Somerville are meeting their progress targets year over year. It is important to note, however, that like any measure, this data is not complete.

It only includes students with two or more annual access scores, which means it excludes our youngest learners in kindergarten and first grade, and students in grades two through 12 who have been in Massachusetts for less than two years. You may notice an outlier in 2022 in the top dark blue line. While it appears to be a strong percentage, it reflects an incomplete data set. Very few students took access in 2021 because the test was not required during COVID-19 and remote learning. So the 2022 data is based on a small sample of students who took the test both in 2021 and 2022 and met their target. Looking at the percentages from 2023 to 2025, we see a consistent pattern that highlights the urgency of this data. This is actionable information and it pertains specifically to multilingual learners who have been in our district for more than two years.

On the next few slides, I'll share some more recent district data that suggests we're moving in the right direction. Next slide please. Here we see the DIBELS data for multilingual learners, comparing last fall to this fall. There is a slight increase in the percentage of students performing at or above grade level, which is encouraging. However, significant gaps remain between multilingual learners and students who are not identified as multilingual learners, highlighting that we still have work to do to ensure that all students are meeting grade level benchmarks. Next slide, please. Similarly, this slide shows I-Ready ELA data for multilingual learners comparing last fall to this fall. We also see a slight increase in the percentage of students performing at or above grade level, which is positive. Though it also still highlights that continued support is needed to help all multilingual learners reach grade level benchmarks.

Next slide, please. And lastly, on this slide, you can see I-Ready math data for multilingual learners, which also shows a slight increase in the percentage of students performing at or above grade level. Overall, the data I've shared along with other data we've reviewed continues to highlight the persistent achievement gaps for multilingual learners that must be addressed. For the remainder of this presentation, I'll outline the action steps our department is taking in response. As a district, we are collectively responsible for the progress and outcomes of all of our multilingual learners. I believe deeply in the incredible potential of every multilingual learner to succeed. What motivates me every day is the sincere belief that we're taking the right steps forward as a district. As a department, are committed to collaborating closely with educators and administrators across the district to ensure that all students have access to high quality curriculum and instruction.

Our theory of action is grounded in the belief that when we support the implementation of high-quality curriculum, strengthen instructional practices, and provide data based interventions, we will see meaningful growth in both language and content development. This progress will be reflected in MCAS access and other interim data sources. I'd like to highlight how the department is advancing the work in three areas. Curriculum, collaboration, instructional practices, and data-based interventions. Next slide, please. I'm really encouraged by the progress our district has made in adopting high quality curriculum and instruction materials. To me, this represents an important step toward improving outcomes for all of our students. Our department's role is to collaborate and ensure that the implementation of these curricula is effective and meaningful for multilingual learners.

There's strong research showing how critical the quality of instructional materials is to student learning. In connecting with other multilingual learner directors in Massachusetts, they've shared how adopting high-quality instructional materials has had a positive outcome for their multilingual learners, and I'm confident we'll see similar results here in time. On this slide, you can see examples of how the Multilingual Learner Department is partnering with Gen Ed Curriculum and Instruction to support implementation of a new curriculum. We're excited to continue building on this collaborative work. Next slide, please. Improving the quality of instruction for multilingual learners across the district has been a central priority in our department. When it comes to instruction, shared responsibility means that every class, every educator, and every instructional leader plays a role in each student's language learning journey.

To truly improve outcomes for our multilingual learners, we must ensure that all educators are equipped with the tools, to support language development and make content accessible for all students. Next slide, please. Along these lines, our department has focused on identifying high-quality instructional practices that support multilingual learners and in providing training for educators and administrators to implement these practices effectively. This slide shows an overview of the steps we've taken to build capacity across the district over the last two years. We began by developing our instructional guide in school year 23-24 and have continued to strengthen capacity by offering ongoing professional learning opportunities. Next slide, please.

Our instructional guide, called the MLE Equity in Action Guide, is a department developed tool that outlines high quality instructional practices for multilingual learners. To create this guide, we synthesize insights from national and state guidance, current research in the field of multilingual learner education, and our own district data. Our goal was to provide educators with a focused set of high-impact practices that are most essential for multilingual learners ensuring that all students have access to rigorous high quality learning experience and can participate meaningfully in every lesson. Next slide please. Developing the MLE Equity in Action Guide and sharing it with instructional leaders was the first step. Our next step was to develop a training course to make the content accessible to as many educators as possible.

The course includes a series of training videos for each instructional indicator and after each one educators apply what they've learned in a lesson plan from their own grade level and content area. We're thrilled to share that approximately 110 SPS educators have completed the course last year during the initial launch, and the feedback has been positive. Our goal is for all educators to receive this training. To support that, we've partnered with Educator Development to make this course a required training for all Year 3 educators. Currently, there are 54 Year 3 educators set to begin the course this month and will open up the course for remaining educators to enroll in the winter and spring. In addition to the course, we developed a deep dive tool designed for instructional leaders. This tool outlines the various ways these high quality practices look like in the classroom, and we're using this tool to support school leaders in supporting the educators in their school.

and lastly, in addition to our district level work on curriculum and instruction, we're implementing a targeted reading intervention for middle school students this year. This action was informed by our access data which showed that reading scores were lower than the other domains and that middle school multilingual learners represented an urgent priority. We've trained 10 teachers to provide targeted reading intervention to approximately 50 multilingual learners during X block. We look forward to monitoring student progress throughout the year and tracking gains, which will help inform plans to expand the intervention in future years. In closing, last slide. I believe in our district teams and I believe we're headed in the right direction. With a shared commitment to supporting multilingual learners through high quality curriculum, effective instruction, and targeted interventions, I'm confident we'll begin to see meaningful progress from our students.

I want to thank you all for your time and support and would love to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Ms. Barish? And then Ms. Pitone?

Thank you. And then Ms. Turin? Through you, thanks for this presentation. And thanks for being here with us this evening. I'm curious about... Sort of turnover, you mentioned that we have more multilingual learners this year despite having fewer newcomers. Yes. of the 1,123 students who were here in the last school year are still here this year. Does that make sense? How many do you think we lost from year to year? And is that sort of a typical? Do you typically see a particular rate?

There are multiple factors that go into it. A typical rate, for example, is our students that have exited. So we generally tend to lose about 10% of students because they've exited EL status. All the students that were 12th graders, So we can do some of those kind of like set calculations. And then we could look at, I don't know off the top of my head number of students that were withdrawn, but I think it's like fairly consistent. The biggest dip has been in newcomer enrollment I would say. We're about half where we were last year at this time.

Sorry, I guess what I was particularly thinking about is the number of students who have withdrawn, who have left the district to go to a different district or...

Yeah, yeah. Happy to get those numbers. I don't know off the top of my head, but we could definitely pull them.

I'm just curious because I'm sure that impacts I mean that impacts these numbers too you know it's not necessarily those 1196 students obviously don't include all of the 1123 who were here last year and I know that you spoke to that somewhat but I'm just curious about sort of what the breakdown looks like yeah

Thank you through you to Miss Metropolis. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing all this information. I had a question about How you partner your department partners with building leadership in terms of understanding and assessing this adoption of these high quality MLE practices? Part of the question is about how do we get everyone to do the training, which clearly it is very exciting that it sounds like we're requiring all of our third years to do this. which is incredibly exciting but obviously we have lots of teachers that have lots more than three years of experience so one piece is about how do we encourage or is there consideration maybe just this is the district of who we require to get this and the second piece is about how do we How does your department partner with the building leadership to help with understanding and assessing how much we've adopted these practices?

Yeah, great question. So I think a couple ways in our ongoing work and partnering with school leaders, I think it's something always referred to. So in our learning walks, We're always assessing, do we see these practices? To what extent do we see the practices? Are there particular grade levels where we see The practice is more at play so for me in particular it's working you know with each school and working with the principals at the school and What do they see in their classrooms every day? And then I'd say through district leadership as well, through ongoing conversations, through principals' walkthroughs, always kind of referring back to what are the high-quality practices we want to see for multilingual learners. So trying to make it embedded into our current structures as much as possible.

And then I don't know if you guys want to respond to Laura's other question about PD and how Looking forward how we sort of encourage other teachers to get it.

Yeah, so part of the response I always think about, we have been doing this for a while, so second language acquisition has been something that has been happening for quite We know that everything helps students, but if you look at The idea of Joan Hutt is what is impactful. There are a few practices that are identifiable. And I think that if you look at one of the graphs that and the rest of it is about objectives and lessons and then language scaffolds and what are the structures. One of the things that we have done with the work with the Lynch Academy was reset those expectations for principals and for administrators. How do we actually make sure that when we walk into classrooms, we provide feedback to teachers around that?

We have intensified our support for providing feedback to teachers to make sure that those practices are not only just in the paper, but also reflect the work that happens on a daily basis. Is it perfect? No. I think that there is a lot of work that has to happen. I know that Paulina is also working with Ildefonso to identify what is the cross-fitting that happens between special education and MLE instruction. One of the things that I do regularly in my business is also looking at what are the access challenges that our students have, whether it's a second language acquisition, is it neurodiversity, or is it a learning challenge that a student has. That's one of the lenses that we use is access. How do kids access? And we know that we still have some area to growth. I think the thing that I've seen with the new instructional materials is that A lot of those tools are given to teachers in the lesson plans.

It's like how do you create a scaffold for the lesson? But this is an area of progress. I do think that we need to grow as a community and be... More fluid in how we put these things in practice. But the work that happens through the instructional materials, the work that happens through the leadership, the work that happens through the collaboration between Emily and Special Education, is all geared towards making sure that these practices become habits and we're working on that.

Mr. Green and then Dr. Phillips.

Sure, my question has more to do with changing languages in the district. I am Scoomy's representative to the cast board and in that role I learned today that when they are doing their current Grant required parent outreach surveys, and they're translating it into languages. Unsurprisingly, the most common languages are Portuguese and Spanish. But the third most common language to translate to this year is Amharic, which I didn't know the language until today. To be perfectly honest, it is the lingua franca of Ethiopia, followed by Nepalese, which was a surprise. And then coming in fifth, I wonder if we're seeing similar kinds of changes in the dynamics of languages spoken in the district and what that might what that might mean for changes in practices and

Sure, I could just speak for what I've seen in multilingual learner enrollment data. We've definitely seen an increase of our Arabic speaking students. Sometimes when I look at the data, Arabic will surpass Haitian Creole or Haitian Creole will surpass Arabic in terms of languages. I think it's a great question. I think as our population shifts, I think we do need to look at structures and what's available in what languages. I know we have the language line that we're able to connect with families in all languages. It's a great point, though.

Thanks through you, Chair. Thank you for a great presentation. As always, you really just got me thinking, so this is really just a wondering. Could you tell me a little bit about how the practices and the equity in action guide are being lifted up by our literacy and math coaches or just how they're working together?

I love that question. Yeah, I think it's a great question. So I think part of the collaboration, like that first part, part of the collaboration with the curriculum teams is meeting with Paula and with Kathleen, the two curriculum coordinators, to really norm and ensure that what we're seeing in terms of practices for multilingual learners, how are we bringing those practices together, When we're meeting with math coaches and we're meeting with literacy coaches so we have done a crosswalk of the tool with what are we seeing in literacy so I think you know in short I think the answer is collaboration that we really want to bring the practices together because there's some research out there that doesn't include multilingual learners so what we're doing is we're bringing that to the table and we're saying here are practices for multilingual learners what does it mean for the literacy practices we have in place what do we need to adjust So I think everything in collaboration and I'm excited about the work.

Yes, following up on my last question. I think the other half of my question would be, are we working with early childhood providers, So in part, we just want to know what's coming down the pipeline so we can be ready. And just also because that's how we create a more seamless transition to language fluency, which I think is our goal.

Yeah. For the languages, I would say I can't fully speak to it, but I would say yes, SFLC and the early childhood department, yes, they are. And I think Ruth would probably be better suited to answer that question, but I would say yes.

Thank you, Chair, through you, Director Metropoulos. Thank you, as always, for a fantastic presentation. I was especially buoyed by the Incremental changes we're seeing in the I-Ready data that you presented. I know it's just a snapshot, doesn't speak to any student on any particular day. So in any case, it recalled for me the difficult trends we've been seeing on the MCAS scores over the last I guess I'm hoping that the iReady data represents the leading edge of maybe a reversal of that trend. I'm wondering

You indicated in your presentation that your theory of action is that we should hopefully see this reflected in the new test scores. Speak to how you will, I guess, look at and adapt to data as you receive them on the fly as new testing data come out.

Yeah, thank you for that question. I am excited that we do have, I mean, it goes without saying that we do have the I-Ready data and the DIBELS data, and we didn't. So I just want to acknowledge that. I think it's really important that we have this data and that we can actually see this. I do think it is promising. I know Sam Elagine had shared how you know they're the fall i-ready data kind of for the district and then last year in the fall i-ready data you know the district snapshot is also seeing that growth so I do think it's promising that you know though it's on a smaller percentage the ML um is also mirroring kind of that increment so it's not like we're going in reverse or anything so I think that is really positive and I think it's important since we do get these data points three times a year is that that we are able to monitor to ensure that students are We want to see a smaller number of students that are three or more grade levels below. We want to see more students on core.

As we know, I-ready and DIBELS data is not necessarily normed on multilingual learners, so it's important to keep that into account, that yes, it's important data for us, but it's not the be-all, end-all. But I do think we need to look at it. I think it's important that all our students are included in the data and we look to see where the progress is and what shifts we need to make.

Just one follow up. Thank you, Chair. One thing that I thought was particularly helpful in the MCAS data was tracking former ML students. and I think that would be really interesting to see for these other tests just as another indicator because also you know the students who sort of shift out of ML status We hopefully are setting them up for success in their other coursework, so that would just be a great indicator.

Absolutely, I love that idea. I haven't pulled the data for iReady and DIBELS to see what it looks like for former English learners. I will do that when I go home because now I'm really curious. Thank you for that idea.

Okay, that's right. Thank you. Through the chair, and feel free to tell me if this is too in the weeds, but I've had multiple conversations with multilingual educators who specifically the subtest of the DIBELS The focus is on nonsense words, and I do know that, you know, they're like... they see it as not like a for lack of a better way my words putting it like not a valid assessment for their students or the students they're serving and I'm just like I'm happy that we're using Dibbles but I know that Dibbles is like a battery and you can't you know you can't get a score like by pulling it out and I'm just sort of

you know I'm curious sort of your take on on how we're serving our students when like we know or I should say I've heard from the educators that that that sub component is you know not as you you know as you mentioned it's not normed on multilingual students but I think you get what I'm asking yeah totally yeah um

Yes, I think from all the components, kind of the nonsense one is a little bit silly. We look more at like the oral, the ORF, for Oral Reading Fluency. So I think there are components within DIBELS that are more important and that we look at more deeply with our ESL teachers and we're tracking. and I think when it comes to practice too what we get out there is also like practicing with nonsense words doesn't make sense for a multilingual learner because the whole point of learning language is connect language to meaning and nonsense words don't have meaning so absolutely that's something where continuing to get out there because at one point folks you know it was oh yeah you do nonsense words but now we're trying to like combat that whatever that was previous practice.

If there are no further questions, thank you again for your presentation. Thank you. Since we have Mr. Hatchie here, so before we continue with the superintendent's report, we will take up the first reading of file JFAAA about the CTE program admissions policy so that Mr. Hatchie can go home.

Thank you. So as most of you are aware, the DESE has made significant changes to the admissions requirements for career technical education, and we are fortunate enough to have our admissions policy renewed. I believe in November 21. So this policy that we're looking at now was a newer version. So with that being said, I'll just go over a couple quick things on the changes that we're proposing and then we'll go from there. So the state now requires that all CTE vocational schools move to a lottery-based admissions process. In return, sending middle school districts must follow strict guidelines to ensure access and equity in admissions to CTE vocational schools.

After review, the SHS team believes we can eliminate the lottery requirement for Ryza 9th grade students and instead accept all Ryza 9th grade students into the exploratory program. We will maintain our lottery process for program selection slash 10th grade. As you all know, our exploratory program runs all of ninth grade. So the key reasons for eliminating the lottery at the ninth grade, we can accommodate projected enrollment for all rise in ninth grade students in the upcoming years. Historically, we have 80 to 90% of the incoming freshmen that have enrolled in CTE leaving space for additional students if needed. Removing the lottery and application barriers support open access and equity for all students.

If for some reason enrollment increases, we have the ability to add additional rotations Demand. I can go over pages. or line for line of my red lines. No, I'm not gonna do that. So I could go over some of the major changes if I know most of you have or they have the red lines.

Everyone should have it and also just so my colleagues are aware we are just doing a first reading because we did get an extension on the DESE requirement so we don't have to we can discuss it tonight with Mr. Hatch here but we will vote on it at our next meeting. Dr. Phillips.

I just have a couple clarifying questions. Is that okay to ask now? Go for it. One of them was about homeschool students and so where it says in the policy that if you're homeschooled you can apply to participate in CTE Full-time. Does that mean you're then choosing to go to Somerville High and CTE or you can be homeschooled and do CTE too?

Yeah, so that means you would be in Somerville High School and CTE.

Yep, another question. Go ahead. Sorry, one more clarifying question. Thanks for that. Where we're talking about homeless students, and it says, you know, we're committed to providing educational opportunities to students experiencing homelessness. Please call... That's just, if you need help, please call. There's no change in your weight in the lottery if you're homeless, nothing. Correct.

Yep.

Other questions? Ms. Pitone?

Thank you, through you. I just wanted to thank for posting the redlined. I know it might seem really annoying, but for us, then we have There was a suggestion from the superintendent's office.

Thank you, and thank you for being here. Through the chair, I think this may be to the district. I assume our lawyers have seen this and are confident that it's legally compliant with the new DESE policy.

So yeah, so we are in a different category, if you will, in terms of the requirements, the policy. Ours is relatively a light lift. But there's nothing that we will be seeking for approval without the review of our council.

Mr. Green and then Mr. Bertone.

I am pretty certain when this came before rules we were we were sure it would go it had gone by or would go by lawyers before it was submitted um but as we said it's actually we already were in compliance so this is really just checking some boxes um Oh, I see.

Oh yeah, go ahead.

On that note, just as a note, you can see our deliberations on this in the rules packet.

Thank you. Mr. Biton?

Thank you, Chair, through you and following up on the conversation we had at the Rules Subcommittee. One thing we talked about there was accounting for Non-residents who are eligible to Somerville Public Schools because their parent works in the district, is that reflected in this policy?

Yeah, so I did do some more research on it at one of my MAVA vocational meetings, which is Mass. Association for Vocational Administrators. I spoke with several superintendents about this, and they recommended not to include that specific language about CTE admissions for the staff members' children. as those provisions are typically covered under the teacher's contract as the district allows the students to attend. So if the students attend, then they have access to all the programs at Somerville High School.

Ms. Barish?

Yeah, I just wanted to confirm that I read the language in the CBA and it says that any teacher's child who is attending Somerville Public Schools is entitled to Anything that a resident student would be entitled to. I did look at the language and it does in fact cover it.

Are there more questions? If there are not more questions, then this will be on our agenda for a vote at our next meeting. But if you have more questions for Mr. Hatchey, let's get them to him ahead of time so that he doesn't have to be here when we vote on it at our next meeting.

Yes?

Okay, great.

Thank you for your time.

Have a good evening.

Thank you, Chair, for adjusting the order of our themes. And thank you, Mr. Hatch, I know you have a long ride home. So right now, I'd like to shift our attention to facilities. For our final department report of this evening. So to start, I'd like to offer an MSBA update to bring the committee up to speed on the status of the Winterhill CAG the CAG who convened last week to discuss the findings from the recent school building survey. The next step in the process will be to deliberate over the findings before the CAG Before the CAG makes its official recommendation to the mayor, which is expected at the meeting on November 24. In the meantime,

The design team on the future school building has been hired in anticipation for the project, and an educational leadership team is in place, so we are prepared to move forward with this much anticipated project. Now as for our facilities report, we have completed our annual school walkthroughs, a collaborative effort led by Danielle Barry. our facilities safety and transportation coordinator, and Amara Anosike, our chief of staff and strategy, along with the city staff. So these walkthroughs give us a close look at the condition of our buildings, helping us ensure they remain safe and welcoming for our students and will prepare for the school year ahead. During this process, we were able to identify and prioritize work that needs attention, while also celebrating areas where progress has been made in keeping our schools safe and secure across the district.

So with that, I will turn it over to Amara and Danielle for their report.

Good evening, everyone. As Dr. Carmona mentioned, my name is Amara Anasike.

I'm the Chief of Staff and Strategy, and I'm here with... Hi, I'm Danielle Barry, the Facility Safety and Transportation Coordinator for the district.

We're super excited to provide an update and I'm really excited for you guys to meet Danielle in this capacity. She's been doing an amazing job and a lot of work. And so, yeah, next slide. So tonight we'll be introducing her role and all the work that she's been doing. We'll talk about a few highlights and areas for progress. We'll provide a summary of the annual walkthroughs. We'll discuss road mitigation strategies and where we are with that. Scott, and that'll be it we'll answer questions.

Thanks, Amara. Just a few quick notes on my new role before we get into our facilities update. My work is guided by the district's strategic plan, ensuring access to safe, welcoming, and inclusive schools that support teaching and learning. A major focus has been shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach across facilities, safety and transportation. Building systems, tools, and partnerships to prevent issues before they arise. One example is the Facilities Cheat Sheet for School Admin, which provides district-wide guidance and city links all in one place. This helps streamline communication, standardized responses, and reduce duplication of effort. Last fall we started conducting comprehensive walkthroughs of all our school facilities in collaboration with school principals and city partners from IAM and DPW. This year ISD joined along.

These help identify immediate and long-term needs such as maintenance, safety, rodent mitigation, and capital planning. Throughout the year, I'm boots on the ground visiting schools weekly to stay ahead of emerging issues and coordinate closely with district and city partners when needs occur. I attend regular meetings with city staff and I also staff key public meetings like CAG and the School Building Facilities Maintenance Committee. Facilities and safety often go hand in hand. I work closely with Student Services Director Liz Doncaster to support fire and lockdown drills and coordinate crossing guards to maintain daily safety and preparedness. Before stepping into this district-wide role, I spent five years in the special education office as the transportation coordinator. I'm also a proud Somerville High School graduate that makes this work especially meaningful. Next slide, please. As I mentioned previously, we conducted the walkthroughs at school facilities in September.

The purpose of the walkthroughs was to observe and assess current facility needs, identify potential solutions and prioritize maintenance and repair efforts. Next slide, please. Here are a few highlights from our walkthroughs, starting with IAM. Over the next three years, several major projects are needed, including roof replacements at the West, Haley, and Kennedy. Chiller replacements and new building management systems at the West and Haley and unit ventilator replacements to improve air quality. At the Haley, we noted the need for acoustic treatments in the cafetorium and a classroom conversion project in room 208. At the Winter Hill at Edgeley, the building is at maximum electrical capacity.

Adding a new transformer would allow HVAC expansions into key spaces like the cafeteria and the gymnasium. At the east, we observed loose or damaged cement tile on the exterior of the building that poses a safety risk. Little projects acted quickly, hiring a contractor to inspect, remove, and replace compromised tiles with temporary plywood until a permanent solution is implemented. Finally, at Somerville High School, an exterior terracotta tile fell from the back of the building on Medford Street side on September 23rd. A full inspection is underway with the original installers as well as a third-party drone assessment. Once completed, the City will produce a report with findings and recommendations just to note To the committee, this was not discovered during the actual walkthrough at Somerville High School. Next slide.

The DPW continues as an essential partner, working tirelessly across plumbing, electrical, safety, custodial, and general maintenance needs. During our walkthroughs, we identified several needs that have already been completed or are in progress, including such things as water filter replacements, carpet replacements, and the lack of hot water in roughly 10% of the Capuano. A new circulating pump has been ordered and this is due to be completed by the end of this week. Next slide please. We were grateful to have Colin and Alicia from ISD join our walkthroughs this year to strengthen rodent mitigation efforts. Their recommendations including installing or replacing door sweeps to eliminate access points and adding P-stone around building perimeters to prohibit road and burrows.

They also recommended that SPS work to ensure that all food is stored in sealed containers. We continue to collaborate with PSOF to improve outdoor play areas across the district. Next slide, please. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. For instance, at the east, the rubber playground surface for kindergarteners needs repair or replacement for safety. At the Agenziana, we've recommended removing the inclusive orbit, which has become unsafe due to welding issues. Next slide, please.

Thank you Danielle and with that that concludes the summary of the walkthroughs and I just wanted to quickly highlight some of The strengths we've seen in the facilities realm over the past year and a half or so. I would start by saying that the sheer volume of completed projects has been really impressive. on the fact that the AFA production kitchen is all set and ready and we'll be serving chili very soon, which is very exciting for Director Mancini. Winterhill Accessibility Grant, the AFA classroom, and then all of the work that DPW does to make sure that the kids can come back to school after the summer. Also I would say our partnership with the city has improved. We are meeting regularly with them. There were some challenges with

you know access to the pool at the Kennedy and and doors and and that has been smoothed out um we are meeting with director uh Bill Fisher around a swing space plan, as you all know, that came out of the result of the MOU. And just DPW has been really helpful. We've had some flooding issues at the TAB, and they helped us move all of our curriculum materials. from a spot to a safer spot. They're just seriously on the phone with them all the time handling various challenges across the different schools. So we're grateful. Next slide. Rounding out, I would say doing the annual walkthroughs consistently and coming up with a shared plan on how to tackle it and also reporting it out to you guys as a practice that we've started and added

We are also doing, Danielle will be doing monthly walkthroughs and is at the schools day in and day out checking in on things when we see different 311s go through. attending regular meetings. Obviously, everything with the MSBA process has been on target. We work very closely with Director Raish and others at the city on that. And then I just want to give kudos to Danielle who just hit the ground running. It's been so helpful to have somebody who knows all the schools, all the principals, all the buildings. It does actually have some facilities background in her work as a hotel manager in the past. So, yeah, next slide.

As Amara mentioned, we've made great progress but there are still clear opportunities for growth. One key focus is enhancing systems facilities tracking and transparency. We want to improve how we collect, share, and communicate facilities data, especially around 311 requests. Having real-time access to the 311 dashboard would strengthen collaboration with the city and give schools clearer visibility into reported issues and their status. We're also working with Capital Projects and DPW to establish a regular cadence for preventative maintenance for our gyms, playgrounds, roofs, boilers, chillers, and building management systems. Another area we're committed to improving is rodent mitigation, which I'll expand on in the next slide. Lastly, there is a need for additional and more appropriate space at the TAB building, where central office and scale are housed.

Leveraging the TAB building will help support the growth of scale and provide much needed room for family facing departments like enrollment and SFLC, benefiting both SPS and the broader community. Next slide, please. Rodent activity continues to be a challenge in Somerville and other dense urban environments. There are many factors that contribute to this, but our goal is to continue to partner with the city to make some progress. Many investments have been made, but there is no doubt that more needs to be done. In partnership with the City, we've invested in Big Belly Trash and Recycling Receptacles at Next Way Full Circle The East, Argenziano, and Capuano. We've also added A24 rodent traps, repaired doors to eliminate entry points, and budgeted for sealed storage containers across schools.

This year ISD joined our school walkthroughs as I mentioned and conducted comprehensive inspections at the Capuano and the East identifying critical recommendations. We've also emphasized the importance of school administrators entering 311 requests. And for clarification, teachers do not enter the 311s, just the school admin. When Ronin activity is observed, allowing ISD, DPW, and myself to track trends and respond where the need is greatest. Moving forward, we'll continue implementing ISD's recommendations district-wide. We're also reinforcing use of rodent activity logbooks at each school's front desk and holding our pest control vendor accountable, but documenting every action taken during their visit. These collective steps strengthen our data, improve accountability, and will hopefully help to create cleaner, safer environments for our students and staff.

Next slide please.

So we just wanted to thank folks obviously in this room for your shared advocacy and attention to this important issue, but also to the mayor and our city partners. These are the folks at the city that we work with every single day on these issues. Alicia, Colin, Commissioner Lathan, Kevin at the high school, Ken, Matt Bennett, Mike Bowler, Ralph, and Rich, we're really grateful to all of you for your partnership and work on all of these issues.

All right, thank you so much. I'm sure there will be questions, comments. I just wanted to quickly say that I was at the Argenziano recently and I walked by the new classroom and I didn't even notice that it hadn't always been there. It was quite amazing how seamless it was. Yeah. Okay. Dr. Phillips.

Thanks to you, Chair. I just want to thank you both for your work. You've really transformed relationships that were not always so strong into very strong collaborative ones. This is all you guys, so thank you. And thank you for corralling those of us on the school building committee so that we can push district priorities forward. Thank you very much.

Dr. Ackman and then Ms. Pichot.

Thank you um through the chair uh thank you both for being here thank you for your great work I echo my colleagues sentiments as the person who represents East Somerville and the three schools that have By my understanding, the most rodent sightings, especially by students in the district. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. It's great to hear about these sealable containers. I would love to understand how they're being put into practice, especially because like, you know it's it as a former preschool and elementary school teacher it is not the easiest thing in the world to like get little kids to You know, keep things clean and I don't think that's something we should be asking of them. I also am curious in these Walkthroughs with ISD. I just don't know enough about the city's structure.

I know we have a rat czar. I don't know if the rat czar is housed in ISD. So when you say ISD walkthroughs, is the rat czar part of that? And if not, that I really like them to be. I'll stop there. Thank you.

Chair, Colin Ziegler is the RAT Tsar, so he was in attendance at all of the walkthroughs. What I would say about the sealable containers is that it's It seems that there is that practice going on at all of the schools. Some schools are doing it more consistently than others, but I do want to stress that we completely agree that that is not the The main focus of what we're seeing and the main contributor and it's not a we don't want to provide an cause an undue burden on our educators in any way and so it's just one of many strategies that came up and that we're looking at.

I would like to just understand in practice though like I'm glad that we have them and that we're providing them but like in practice what does it Look Like, these sealed containers that we're providing as part of rota mitigation for our classroom educator, for our child.

just plastic bins so they're in almost every classroom so they just look like

Yeah, like a Rubbermaid, Tupperware. Sorry, but like how, like is it part of snack time? Is you put your stuff in, you take your stuff out, like built into the cycle of a student's day? What does it look like? And if there isn't a consistent plan, that's fine, but I would love to hear about one implemented next time because, like, if we're looking to do it again we're not we're looking to not put undue burden on our students and our educators we know the routinization really helps with things like that i would love to hear some like you know you have them like because there's so many things that like we give with good intent and if there's not a system for it you know it doesn't that's it you're less likely to get the result you're looking for. So if you don't have it, that's okay.

But I do hope next time you present to hear sort of about not just here's the bin, but like how we think you should use it. How is that going? and things like that for our educators and our students and their families.

I have Ms. Pitone and then Mr. Green and then Mr. Pitone. Thank you through you chair to the team thank you so much for being here I just want to compliment this you're continuing to increase the strategic view of facilities management and at the same time putting in some really like a systemic approach to monitoring which is huge as well as Dr. Phillips mentioned the partnership with the city and it seems like it's it's strong and it continues to build so I want to thank you for that and also just having the additional capacity in the district through the coordinator role I think that's been huge so just wanted to compliment all that you might not be ready to i actually i'm gonna ask a different question um

I was surprised there was nothing on here about the Brown the building I'm just curious in terms of are there things that are coming up you know in terms of the the building itself and I know we've done a bunch of work around putting in you know a boiler So I'm just curious, because it is our oldest building, and I'm always concerned about the risks associated with that. It doesn't mean I'm sure it exists, but...

So I believe that information is in the memo, but the boiler at the Brown is complete and up and running.

Mr. Green?

All right, through you. Again, thanks, my colleagues, thanks, and recognize that May not feel sexy and glamorous to people who have not been paying attention. This represents real progress in a multi-year struggle to Systematize and routinize what should be systematic and routine building things. So I want to start off with that huge thanks. I did want to echo my colleague Dr. Ackman's concerns about the bins. It is a sustainable long-term solution. It does feel to me to be somewhat victim blaming. Kids, you're the reason we have rats. And I don't think that's our intention, but kids are going to eat. And they're going to have crumbs. And it can't be that the only way to not have rats is to not have crumbs. So I want to call my colleagues concerned about that not being a sustainable solution. And I want to ask about the water at the Capuano.

I appreciate that it's getting fixed. and it's the first week of November like 10% of the building not having access to hot water shouldn't be something that requires to be like a walkthrough to identify like how did it go two months before I got

So just to clarify, the walkthroughs were done the first and second weeks of September. So it was... Initially they were replacing faucets and valves to try to pinpoint exactly where the issue was and now they are on a larger scale, replacing the circulator for the hot water. And it was only in roughly 10% of the building.

I appreciate that in that social context. I guess I still want to know there's ways that we can have. Because 10% of the building is not having hot water. It's still a pretty big deal. If one room of an apartment didn't have hot water, you'd call a landlord the next day. So like, how do we speed up The realization that this isn't just a, oh, sometimes these happen, like a real systemic problem. How do we speed up that learning curve?

Through the chair, I would also add that right away you can put in a 311 and that goes straight to the city departments and the Palmer. So I need to go back, but my understanding was that They were aware of this issue and on the walkthrough it was also reiterated. So the walkthrough is not the only way that we find out about maintenance issues. It's just a really good way for us The City and all the various departments that are there to say this needs to be prioritized and we let Our principals speak directly to those folks as well and let them know how it's impacting their daily operations. But walkthroughs are just one strategy in terms of raising needs. 311 system is there. We're also always around and getting calls and texts and and so I do want to clarify that.

I have Mr. Biton and then Dr. Ackman and then Ms. Biton.

Through you, Chair. If they have a follow-up to that, I'm happy to yield.

Do you have a follow-up or a new question?

I don't mean to overcomplicate things. I don't have a follow-up. If you do, I will yield. Okay. Thank you, Chair, through you. Sort of saddened to see the removal of this inclusive Fitt equipment in the playground at Argentiano. Obviously, if it's a safety issue, we need to deal with that. Can you speak to what the longer term plan is around replacing that equipment with another inclusive feature or have those conversations gotten that far yet?

The focus is mitigating the safety risk right away, and we will be in discussions with PSOF and folks at the city about what to replace it with, and I recognize that it will be a loss, but we've had kiddos get injured and hurt on it. So that's why, yeah.

Thank you, Chair. I would just request in those conversations that to the greatest extent possible we look at other inclusive features. Obviously safety is the number one paramount concern. But making sure our playground equipment is accessible to all students is also a priority.

Thank you. Thank you. Through the chair, one of the things that I realized that we didn't see in this presentation is, again, this is back to sort of systematizing things. When a teacher sees a building issue, what happens and I want to be clear like I want you to tell me but my hope is if I walk into any classroom in this district I ask the teacher and they would say the same thing and so I want to know like how that's being communicated as well

Through you, Chair. So we have advised school principals to inform their staff to have them send an email with the school building issue To the principal, the AP, and Cece, the school's building secretary, so that way one of the three of them can enter the 3-1-1 into the system.

How is that going?

From what I understand so far since I've been in this role, it seems to be very systematic across the district. And the other way that they can do it is sometimes a staff member may go directly to the secretary, which is also fine.

Ms. Piton?

Thank you through you. Thank you for the reminder about the memo. I'd like to ask that the memo, it was in last meeting's packet, and so I hadn't revisited it again. So if we can have it added to this meeting's packet, that would be great. Obviously, there's many, many things on here. Someone had actually sent me a picture of the foundation cracks at the Brown School. Speak to that and because I know the memo is just a laundry list so we don't have every single action plan but that one is just very visible and I'm just curious what you know about it and what the plans are.

Through the Chair, that is being monitored by IAM and Capital Projects, so I really would defer to them on the current status of those cracks, but I do know that they're periodically reviewing those. In terms of the Brown school condition overall, we do know that there is a decision that may be made around the MSBA process. There's also the swing space strategy that meetings that we are a part of I think that is a significant concern for the district that we're well aware of but doesn't necessarily neatly fit into the walkthrough process that we have and would require A much broader systematic process with partners beyond this department of facilities maintenance.

Yeah, through you to I guess Mr. Biton and Mr. Davis. I don't know if I would think that a follow-up with the building facilities management about the cracks at the Brown School would be valuable and I guess I'm making the request that we include that as an order unless the I would like to hear more about you know it's stable We're monitoring it this way. We're watching for leaks, whatever, just so that it creates some confidence that we understand what the scope of the problem is and what the plan's for. I think that's the right form for this question. Thank you.

So the cracks are scary. And they have a little spring in between the cracks that Correct. And so that's the first thing. Every time I go into that building, I look at that. I do not know how to read that. It's basically a little gauge that determines how the crack has expanded or not. But that's one thing that we have brought up to the attention and said, look, that doesn't look pretty. And they have assured us that that's been monitored. That's a good question as to what's the degree of monitoring and how do we assess the The millisecond move of those little markers, that's a good point. And again, we have trusted that that is the ongoing

I am very curious because I have not received a report on that particular measure.

I agree with you in terms of how it's monitored, but also questions about structural integrity and why are they not concerned or concerned about it and what their plan is for it because regardless of what the decision gets made by the mayor and the MSBA building committee We are going to be in that school for many years and we need that school to be up and running and as safe as possible either for just the next seven years or for the next beyond. So, thank you.

So I just have a quick question about custodians because it came up in public comment and I know that they work for the DPW not for us but do you have any insight into how many custodians are at the east how many have been in the past if if there's any Do you guys know? It sounds like there's only one, but it is a big school. Has there been more than one in the past?

So through you, Chair, I believe there is one daytime custodian and two PM custodians.

It might be through you, it might be worthwhile to just get a memo or report in terms of the level of custodial staffing in all of our buildings and what they're, you know, concerns or plans about that because as we know we have buildings that have 250 people and we have a building that has you know 700 plus and so I would imagine there be more or less needs I agree, that would be very helpful. Ms. Barish.

Thank you. I was just thinking it might be also helpful to include in that memo sort of How staffing decisions about our buildings are made and sort of what that decision process looks like because obviously they're not district employees but they're working in district buildings and so It might be complicated to make any changes, but it would be helpful to know who is in charge of making those changes.

If there are no further questions, then I think we can let you both go. Thank you again for being here.

That concludes the superintendent's report.

Okay, that brings us to reports of a subcommittee. I will entertain a motion.

I move to accept the report of the Rules Management Subcommittee Meeting for October 20th, 2025.

Second. Motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Dr. Phillips. If there is no discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to the out-of-school budget approval. Dr. Carmona, do you want to give us a quick framing of where we are?

Yeah, so I think the last conversation we had as a committee was to, we proposed two options. There was an option in which there was a $20 increase and a $15 increase. We reviewed this with the team. We discussed the alternatives and we continue to feel that I have gotten some feedback from many of you as to could we just Keep these increases to the full-paying accounts. We did some of the math around that and realized that the amount of removing the actual The accounts that are on a sliding scale or the non-paying accounts obviously that we were not charging them. Removing them, it will just only amount to $10,000 increase so I think that

My recommendation would be just to have the $20 increase only for the full paying accounts and the other accounts that are in a sliding scale will not have any increases. So that continues to be the case, and the reason why also we think is important to actually do a $20 increase versus a $15 increase is that Again, we have a current deficit right now, and we need to address it. And also, we know that there are some capacity that has to be increased in the out of school time, We need to also do some better accounting that might require an accounts receivable person as well as other adjustments that need to be done for both the safety of the program as well as Okay, Mr. Green and then Ms. Pitone.

First of all, I thank you for your I think correct suggestion that we only raise the top scale and don't adjust the slide for now. I would ask, I asked about this earlier today, Presumably, I hope there's not many, but there might be some number of current full ride payers who have actually gone through the process of being, of going through the process, will qualify for a lesser payment. And I would be willing to raise the top end by more than $20 if we also allow people who may not have applied in the past to apply for financial aid if that $20 or $25 or whatever is a burden. I assume you haven't done that math because you couldn't, because you couldn't nominate students, that is. But it was a nice thing about it as a possibility is not only raising it at the top, but perhaps raising it by more if we allow people to reapply.

Again, I hope there's not many, but there might be some people who are currently paying $160,000 who should have been paying less in the first place and probably can't afford $180,000.

Thank you through you so just to clarify thank you for the memo and thank you like you said of rethinking about wow is it really valuable you know the total amount of dollars that we would add by increasing the amount for The families that are on a siting scale would be worth it. So there's a second bullet in the additional information. This is where it was suggested to add all those dollar amounts. It sounds like none of that will happen. Is it what your proposal is? I just wanted to clarify that. I also do know that in reference to Mr. Green's thoughts about families that might not be able to absorb the $20 cost. I do know that I think there's going to be communications with the families according to what The SFLC was speaking about that there's going to be this opportunity if people do have a concern that they can request and say, you know, this $20 is a hardship for me. I think they're going to address it, but I don't know if they're going to do it. I don't know what the manner is. But thank you for this.

I know this is really hard, and I'm fully in support of your recommendation. We do want to learn it. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve the option one $20 increase for the weekly cost for community schools for only the full paying families.

Second. I wanted to highlight the fact that SFLC was adamant to not make any adjustments until at least we have Close to three months to basically share the concerns and address the community. I know we have already received individual concerns from from parents and we are responding to them as they come but you're right a full communication process will be underway as soon as we come to a conclusion

I had an opportunity to talk to lots of constituents about this in the past week or so, and in general, people that have spoken to me are good with it. a mom of three children two of whom were in kindergarten and that's important because there really isn't that much out of school time for kindergarten beyond community schools for her going to twenty dollars a week is a huge burden I sent her to SFLC but that might be something in our communication you know you have multiple children it's a much bigger burden on this family than and other families comparatively. But the real thing I wanted to talk about is at work we're trying to price a new offering and so I've been doing lots of research on market research and one of the questions that I think we have with community schools is like, what is the right pricing for community schools? And we can try to get that by looking at comparables, like what do you pay if you send your kid to the Y? What do you pay Elizabeth Peabody?

But another way to look at what people will pay for something is to ask them to pay for it so I wonder if it's possible to in addition I guess this is maybe a friendly amendment but I'm not sure if it's possible Just open up at option 2. I'd like to donate more weekly to make sure community schools is solvent for the future and just see what number we get to on average to help us think about, oh, actually? Our community is happy to pay about this much. Moving forward.

Ms. Barish. Thank you. Through you, I talked to several people about this, and for the most part, similarly, people said, I think it's really important that we are paying our staff more than we have been in the past and I totally support this and similarly I heard from a family with three kids who said Their kids are no longer in after school, but they said if this had happened when their kids were in the program, it would have been really hard on them because $60 a week is a lot more than $20 a week. Additionally, across the board, people talk to me about how important the communications plan around this is. Not just transparency about why this situation exists, but how folks can request waivers or reduced fees. There was also some confusion and I think

I don't know if confusion is the right word. Maybe misunderstanding. And I think the spreadsheets that we looked at last time May have added to my own confusion, under expenses we have contracted services listed. But it's my understanding that the contracted services are from a separate budget line. They are not part of the revolving account. Is that true? I feel like I looked at last year's budget and there's an item for contracted services or are we in fact paying for the free out-of-school time programming from The same account, that revolving account that people are paying into with their tuitions.

There is a double dip in on how we pay for some of those services that we provide to both And so, if I may,

There was a question of is tuition subsidizing free programming, which I guess the answer is no, but it was a little bit confusing because we said, in that presentation that making some of the getting rid of some of trimming sorry I think was the word that was used trimming some of that free programming would alleviate some of the stress on the revolving account. But I think because there's going to be a transfer. It sounds like we're not going for that option, at least that's not the option that has been moved, but I think that Clear communication around how that free programming is funding may be important and I also was wondering if it makes sense to institute a pay what you can

Um, option for those free out of school time programs. because we do have a line item in the budget for it but I think similarly that there are a lot of people in the district who would be willing to pay 10 or 15 dollars a week for some of that programming and it may while it doesn't take pressure off of the revolving account it does it would help the district overall

Absolutely. I think there are multiple things that we need to address. That's one of those. Just to clarify though, Community schools also get services to community schools. They do field trips, they bring some other services into the offerings that they do. But we also pay for some of those services to other programming that happens through our financing. So there is that. The crossing of those accountings is complicated, but I totally agree that we, in some degree, finance some of those free services throughout our out-of-school-time account. So we do have to have some clarity about that. We need to strengthen those lines. And there are more things that we're planning on revising as part of this process, but that's one of those. You're right, absolutely.

I agree with the need to have some clarity around those funding sources.

Dr. Ackman? Thank you. Through the chair, as always I appreciate My colleague member Barish has really thoughtful engagement on it. I am cautious about the possibility of Pay what you can for free. My understanding, and I haven't read the research in a while, is there's a decent amount of evidence that adding that while well-intentioned often discourages people of who need it the most from um from doing it as opposed to like can you pay a little more for what you already pay for my understanding is that doesn't have the same effect so i It's one of those that is objectively a great idea and reality may end up like deterring people who we are trying to get to use it from using it so I would I would be cautious there and really do appreciate all your other thoughts and suggestions

I have Mr. Pitone and then Ms. Pitone.

Thank you, Chair, through you. One thing that I some feedback that I received around this topic was I guess concern around how the financial aid decisions are communicated. In particular, The parent that I heard from really didn't understand how decisions are made. That financial aid process had a number of factors included, but it wasn't clear how they were weighted, perhaps, and I think

One way we can, in addition to being proactive about reaching out to families and letting them know that financial aid is available, and also just let them know how we make those decisions in as clear a way as we can.

I just really want to understand what is the fixing. So part of this, there's a lot of confidentiality. Like I get emails also saying, listen, I work in the district. I don't want to be characterized as such and such. Can we help me without any, you know, labeling myself? And so there is a lot of, and so on. Is the qualification meets the criteria of a certain sliding scale or how do we communicate that to the entire community?

Is it communicated what the qualifications are? Is that well communicated?

Well, I mean, I could always hypothesize that the well is questionable.

I'm guessing that maybe part of it Not about this person or that person getting it, but what are the, so you make less than X amount of money, you're getting certain state services, like what are the, I have no idea, what are we looking at to say you qualify or don't qualify for the sliding scale?

And I know through the chair, I know that we asked for evidence of, I don't know what is the actual metric that we used, but we know we asked for an indication of your ability to pay or not. But that's a good question, and I will have to find out what's the rub there. Did you want to follow up? Okay. Ms. Pitone.

Thank you. Through you, I want to thank Mr. Pitone for bringing that up. Having more transparency. I think it's that, is there a model? Is there not a model? Is it case by case? Obviously, in an ideal world, transparency is better, but I'm sure that we have to everybody's financial situation is different you know depending on the number of kids you have where you live like so it may not be easy to just put you know salary requirements and saying we can map it up so we trust I mean I think I trust you to do that I do want to just to comment on one Just to clarify, I didn't say it in the motion, but this starts in January, correct? So just if we can update the motion to say that this changes in January. I also wanted to reference Dr. Phillips' idea about are there opportunities to request if anybody wants to add more add more to their payment but I don't want to add it to the motion I trust I want to give you guys the discretion to decide if you want to do that

I know we use that pretty extensively at least at some schools for fundraising for the big field trips so often you know people will pay their tuition for the big field trip to go to D.C. or wherever they go and then they'll add whatever they can add. I don't know if that will work for this model so I trust the superintendent's office to decide whether or not they want to add that but I think it was a thoughtful idea from Dr. Phillips but I don't want to add it to the motion so hopefully we can Vote on it.

All right, with that, yes, Dr. Phillips.

Sorry, I did get a lot of feedback about community schools, and since I won't be here for much longer, just wanted to share one tidbit about the enrollment criteria, I guess. that there is now a like were you part of the program last year it's right no longer first come first serve which is great but one of the criteria is did you um Did you participate in the program last year? And for some families who talked to me, getting shut out of the program because you know we're trying to do it equitably then meant that they didn't meet the criteria for were you part of it last year so they could never find their way into the program so just something to consider as we're thinking about this program further

Mr. Green. If we're also part of doing Australian feedback, So I was targeted with my outreach on this question primarily to families who live in the Mystics. And what I heard, one of the things I heard was covered actually in your... In your revision, it's like an equivalent increase for a $10 person It's actually a bigger deal for them and doesn't raise us any money. So I'm glad we got ahead of that. But the other thing I heard was a lot of people who still think of community schools as being not for them, as being for privileged working families, I'll say. And that's not relevant to the combination of force now,

But I did want to put that out there as something we should think about. And for any question we as a school community should ask, if we are still even with this increase, only in combo with other subsidized programs, again, the Y and EPH both ran a loss. Who is the target audience for community schools and what are we doing to actually make sure that target audience is being met?

Thank you. Through the chair, I will volunteer myself. I won't do that to any of my colleagues. But I will say, given that communication is such a strong piece and knowing that when you're working on internal communications things, while there are a lot of brilliant people working on it, There can be a feedback loop. I'm happy to look at anything you have and give that parent perspective. I surmise colleagues as well who would but like I will gladly volunteer just to aid in that and make sure that like as a parent when you're reading it

what is intended to be communicated hopefully is actually being communicated okay with that we have a motion by Ms. Pitone seconded by Mr. Bitone all in favor all opposed Motion carries. That brings us to the MASC conference resolutions. We discussed those last time. Mr. Green is going to be our representative with Ms. Pitone as our alternate. Is there any further feedback on the resolutions? If there are none, we will move on to the competency determination.

Dr. Boston-Davis. Thank you, Chair. So in your packet you have the first draft of the competency determination policy. As a reminder, every school district in the Commonwealth needs to pass a competency determination policy. Now that MCAS can no longer be used. And so this is a draft that we created based on the criteria that was shared over the last couple of meetings. That's also on the first page of the memo. and it was in collaboration with many admin at both the high school and both at Somerville High School and at Full Circle. along with several district-wide admin including Paula O'Sullivan including Paulina Metropolis, Ildefonso Arellano.

So a number of people have seen and kind of combed through this along with me and given their comments. We also I have great colleagues in other districts and so we've looked at a number of other policies that have already been passed. or are in their final drafting phases and borrowed language where we thought was appropriate or took language from other districts that we think and made it I just share that to tell you An iterative and collaborative process and with that being said we're happy to take all feedback and make the revisions necessary to pass this. Final point, I did email a couple of members, but this is an official school committee policy.

I know that question was raised at our last meeting, just like... Our graduation criteria is, so this will be, I reached out to our council on this, this will be an official school committee policy.

So this is our first reading this evening. We'll have this on the agenda again next time. I have Ms. Pitone, Dr. Ackman, and then Dr. Phillips.

Thank you through you to Dr. Boston-Davis. Thank you for sharing this and letting us know the process of how you got here. I just want to understand, I'll just use an example of U.S. history. It's like satisfactory completing the coursework basically means a student passes the class. And then starting with class of 2028, in addition to passing a class, either have to pass a final assessment which means like a final because you can pass a class without passing a final or a capstone or a benchmark assessment you know there's lots of options I just wanted I'm going to make sure I understood there's sort of this next level of requirements that you're adding started in 2028 that kind of bolsters the results as opposed to just, you know, someone gets a D in the class and they're fine. So if you could just speak to that, make sure I understand it correctly. Thank you to the chair.

Thank you for that question. And I should have framed it in this way. We wrote the policy as broad as possible. That is what all of the other districts that I've seen, every single other district, followed the guidance from DESE and wrote it as broad as possible. We do not intend, just to be very clear, of making a final exam, so essentially another The only way that a student will pass the competency determination. But that said, we felt it very important to write the policy as broad as possible. to allow for a combination of things what I've heard from a number of department chairs is a really creative thought process they're working on it together at Somerville High School, around a series of benchmark assessments that include different projects, so assessments beyond just a test as an assessment.

So the policy is written based on the guidance from DESE. And so yes, it could mean any of those things. That said, the intention, in practice, we do not intend to We solely use an assessment for example as the only way a student can pass a certain course.

Thank you. So just for my clarity, totally understand that there's like lots of options, but it sounds like there will be something else the student has to do besides get a D in a class to pass it. I just wanted to make sure I understood that. It's going to be different for different classes, but that's true then.

That is correct. Our proposal is to begin that with the class of 2028, but that is exactly correct. Passing the course more satisfactorily. Let me use the language of the policy and of the guidance. Satisfactorily completing the coursework and then demonstrating mastery currently with a passing grade but later demonstrating mastery with this hopefully beautiful like capstone Project which is something that they're working on which likely will be a series of benchmark assessments and assessments just again to be clear not just meaning a kind of a written exam.

and just quickly this is super helpful because I was really struggling to understand how this was different than just passing classes so thank you for illuminating that to me.

Thank you through the chair thank you for this it's very comprehensive it's very thoughtful this is my own thing that like I have been kicking around because you know that the MCRAS standards have this core set of skills and knowledge aligned with 10th grade standards, but we expect kids to be in school through 12th grade. So to me, I see this as our opportunity to show those juniors and seniors that we still have high standards for them, we still have expectations for them. I am surmising and I'm happy to hear if I'm wrong that the 10th grade standards piece has is a policy piece that comes from DESE and that's why we're doing it but I'm curious if there was any consideration to you know us us setting a competency bar higher than 10th grade or it at least

expanding on and if not like you know the thing with MCAS like How do we show our students that we are still invested in them, invested in their learning, once they've passed their competency determination? And if I'm misreading it also, please let me know.

Great question. So the competency determination policy really should be measuring up to 10th grade standards. That's the way the guidance is written. That's the intention of the state. That said, I would say our My quick response and I'll think about it a bit is that our graduation requirements go beyond 10th grade math, 10th grade English. and so I think that would be our kind of demonstration that you need more than just the knowledge of these 10th grade to graduate here but the language of the competency determination and I can I had Dr. Phillips and then Mr. Green.

Thanks to you, Chair. You answered my original question when you responded to Ms. Pitone. But in the process, you said something really great that was very Somerville, I feel like. You were like, it's not our intention to replace one high-stakes test with another. and I feel like that's an important value statement that I would love to see somehow written into this policy.

Mr. Green?

Actually, my comment goes nicely on that. I really appreciate, as someone who's worked on these issues for years, the prominence of portfolios and capstone projects. In this policy, I'm hoping we see more of that from the state as well. But to that end, it does feel like there are, and there should be, Caveat, let's say, for when capstone projects either aren't possible or aren't advisable. but I would love it if we can to make it clear that our hope is whenever possible the competency assessment is some piece of work and not

Other questions or feedback? Yes, Ms. Barish.

I guess it's sort of a general question. I shared some language feedback with Dr. Boston-Davis. Is that sort of... A good way to inform this process as we think of things just send them to you directly or something else.

Thank you for the question. That is very helpful for me if I have it in an email. I will be sharing the questions and the recommendations with that That team that's convened that I named some of the members on it just to get their reactions and to see what that would look like in practice and so in that same time I will show them the tracked changes with recommendations for shift of language. My guess is that most people, especially as it relates to the language, will be will be you know kind of totally fine with recommendations. I wonder the further conversations around you know naming whenever possible can the companies C. Determination be a piece of work that is not an exam. That is something that I think does align with the values that I've heard, to your point.

Phillips, but I would like to get a full reaction from that team and be able to share that with you all while also drafting the language based on your recommendation.

Thank you, Chair, through you. And just building on this conversation around assessment through exams or capstone projects or multiple different options, I do want to acknowledge that people demonstrate their knowledge in different ways and there are some students who for whom Exams are a more comfortable or natural expression of what they know. and for whom that may be the most viable option for expressing their competency. And I do think it's important to have that as an option in an array of options. So I appreciate seeing that in here.

Thank you for that feedback that is absolutely something that came up in the conversation so there were certainly department chairs that said pretty much the exact same thing so they felt it is important and I will you know kind of bring all of this language in the conversation forward for reaction okay great with that this will be on our agenda again for our next meeting

That brings us to the shore collaborative report, which is in our packet. Did you want to highlight anything for us, Dr. Ackman?

I brought brochures. If anyone has questions about the Shore Collaborative, I'm happy to answer them. It's been around for 50 years. My understanding is we're founding members. Yeah.

I noticed in the document that was shared in the packet that Some organization offered haircuts at an event earlier in the year, and I wondered who offers the haircuts and whether that might be an opportunity for our cosmetology program in the future. Bring that to them. Thank you. Okay?

Nothing else on that? That brings us to a policy manual. Ms. Barish?

Thank you. So we already talked about the CTE program admissions policy. Additionally, in the packet are Sections H and L. In our last rules meeting, we also moved A, B, and C out of rules, but I don't have clean versions of those manual sections yet, so I didn't think it was reasonable to put them on the agenda. I will get those as soon as I can. H and L are pretty short, pretty simple sections. So I just kind of want to describe what's here because I'm only going to be here for another couple months, but as long as I'm here, I think this is how I will

So I just want to explain what's in the folder. There's a clean version of each section, section H and section L. And then there's a with changes version, which includes draft notes from Alicia Mallon, that's who we're working with at MASC, and shows the changes that have been made. I'm just gonna walk through those changes. I have it written out here. I got legal input today. I didn't want to share a memo without that input so I can ask Ms. Garcia to add this. I'm going to move this document that I'm reading from right now to the packet just so that it's more accessible for you as you're thinking about this for the next meeting. Just pulled from the rules report, but I'm just going to kind of read through it. So policy H negotiations and HA negotiation goals.

Ms. Malin recommended taking one of the versions of HA and removing H. Members opted to keep the Somerville version and bring over the MGL references from the MASC reference policy. Negotiations Legal Status Ms. Mallon distinguished the Somerville version from the MASC version in that ours is from the employee's perspective while the MASC version addresses negotiations from the committee's perspective. Ms. Mellon recommended adopting the MASC version, noting that the rights enumerated in the Somerville version are still binding and they are covered in Section G or in MGL or maybe both. Mr. Green suggested referencing in this policy where those employee rights can be found in the policy manual. Our Section G does not appear to contain that language. So I'm presenting a question to everyone. Do we want to restore this language to the policy or is the MGL reference adequate?

and I've included the language in this memo that I'll share. H.F., School Committee Negotiating Agents. Ms. Mallon recommended discussing this with our council. I reached out to Mr. Sumners. He recommends a small language change in Section 1. and changing they at the start of each bullet point to the negotiator and I include the specific language change here too I don't think it makes sense necessarily read it out loud because you're probably not looking at the policy And then we're already at Section L. LA, Education Agency Relations Goals, The members accepted Ms. Mellon's suggested grammatical updates. LB, Relations with other schools and school districts. Members accepted Ms. Mellon's suggestions of keeping the Somerville version but updating the MGL references. LBC, and I'm looking at Dr. Phillips, relations with not public schools.

Ms. Mallon noted that the MASC version is more succinct, but that the Somerville version is more recent. Members opted to leave the Somerville version in place as is. Dr. Phillips worked very hard on that. And LDA student teaching and internships. Members opted to keep the Somerville version with MASC updates. It's all pretty straightforward. Other sections will be a bit more involved and complicated. And there will be more to say about it. And I won't read it all in the public meeting. I will just provide a memo. and discuss or elaborate upon any points that folks have questions about. And if people have suggestions about better different ways to do this I'm all ears.

Thank you for that. Are there any questions? Yes, Dr. Phillips?

Sorry, lots of comments from me tonight. Just wanted to thank you and the committee for a whole lot of work and some very clear communications.

Yeah, sorry, Ms. Pitone and then Mr. Reed. Through the chair, I just want to add to the thanks and I very much appreciate the report and the... Thank you for creating nice, succinct but comprehensive reports that can align the changes and that's very valuable. Thank you.

First, I just want to make clear that all things should go to Ms. Barish. Mr. Pitone and I may have supported, but this has been a process organized, structured, and led by Ms. Barish for quite some time. So I want to make sure that that credit goes where credit is due. I have said before, and I say this as a prior rules chair, that Ms. Barish may be the best rules committee chair some of the most school meetings I've ever had, and this process is proof of that. And the one substantive thing I want to say is, as the person who did suggest, that we want to make sure there's a reference to the policy manual to where Those playwrights are. The reason for that is just perception matters. And if we take those rights out of the mail entirely, people who Maybe there's time. I only hear that as us taking employee rights out of the policy manual. And I don't think that's the look we particularly want.

So if we can't put them somewhere, then I would say we should put them back in the policy. But they should be somewhere.

Okay. Mr. Breachon?

Or Ms. Barish, do you want to respond before I call on Mr. Pitone? Oh, if Mr. Pitone doesn't mind. Thank you for the thanks. Ms. Mallon is doing the real heavy lifting. Yeah, but they get paid for that, so I don't care. It's true. She is getting paid. And I... Wish that this process was going to be over before I'm gone, but it doesn't look possible.

Thank you, Chair, through you. I also want to extend my appreciation to Ms. Barish. This has been... An exciting process, I think, as far as exciting as a comprehensive rules overview can be. I just wanted to request that when the final clean version gets put together, that it includes either the revised date at the bottom or reviewed if we kept If we made no changes, just to indicate that this was reviewed per our new rules revision policy. Thanks.

All right, if there's nothing further, this will be on our agenda at our next meeting for second reading. That brings us to some donations. I will entertain a motion.

I move that we accept with gratitude the following donations of instruments from Arnold Johnson of Somerville, Massachusetts at a value of $800 for the music department. A monetary donation from Bristol Myers Squibb from Lawrenceville, New Jersey of $15,000 for the science department to support science curriculum pilot in grades six to eight and the STEM Week activities in the fifth grade, and tools from Dale Engineering of Bedford, Massachusetts, $9,237 to the CTE Advanced Manufacturing Shop.

I have a motion by Dr. Phillips, seconded by Mr. Biton. If there is no discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to items from committee members.

Yes, Ms. Pitone. Thank you, through you. I hosted office hours on Saturday and one thing that came up that I found somewhat interesting was a question about transportation for schools and access in the context of A single school versus two different schools. And I'm not dictating or requesting something specific but At some point, if we are thinking about equity and access and we are looking at this idea of whether there's going to be a larger school or two different schools, Transportation may want to be part of the conversation. I mean, just because Somerville has never had transportation holistically, I'm just curious about maybe where that might fit into conversations. I don't have an answer here, but it's just something that came up in office hours and I wanted to throw it out there.

Okay. Any other items from committee members? All right. Oh, yes, Mr. Pichon.

Yeah, thank you, Chair, through you. Just want to mention that I will be hosting my own office hours this Thursday. I'm just pulling up the date. Sorry. Thursday morning at the West Somerville neighborhood school at drop-off uh November 6th uh from 8 to 9 30. so just folks there great all right uh do we have any condolences this evening

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Just as a reference, I think all the office hours are now listed on our Somerville School Committee page, like on the bottom. So if anybody's curious about what other office hours are available, they should check that out for all the dates.

Thank you for that reminder, Ms. Barish. And thanks to Ms. Garcia.

Always, always thanks to Ms. Garcia. Okay, I believe we do not have any condolences, is that true? All right, then we are adjourned. Good night, everyone.