School Committee Meeting - August 25, 2025

All right, good evening, everyone. It is now 7 o'clock, so we are ready to start this meeting. Thank you. All right 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. de Spiton,

We'll come back. We know she's online, but we'll come back to hear her.

Dr. Ackman.

Yes.

Mr. Green. Here. Mr. Biton. Here. President Davis. Here. Mayor Ballantyne. Ms. Barish? Here. Dr. Phillips? Here. Chair Krepchin? Here. We have quorum.

Okay, well we know she's here and we have a quorum.

We have a quorum.

My apologies, my mic wasn't on. Spanishly, please introduce yourself. Okay, Portuguese, would you please introduce yourself?

Chair, sorry to interrupt. Look, Laura says she can't hear anything either. Okay.

Give us a moment. Having some technical difficulties.

My name is Brianna Toole and I will be your Spanish interpreter for tonight.

That was Spanish. Okay, Portuguese, will you please introduce yourself?

Good evening, my name is Vanusa Teixeira and I will be your Portuguese interpreter for tonight. Boa noite, meu nome é Vanusa Teixeira, eu sou intérprete de português essa noite. Para ouvir a reunião, clique no ícone do globo na parte inferior da sua tela e selecione português.

Thank you. And Haitian Creole?

Good evening, everybody. My name is Angie Supri. I'll be your Haitian Creole interpreter for tonight. Okay, with that, we will start with approval of some minutes.

I will entertain a motion.

Move to approve the June 16th minutes.

I have a motion by Dr. Ackman. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. all opposed motion carries that brings us to public comment i will read our instructions for public comment and then i will list three people in a row so you'll know who is coming up next Welcome and thank you to those who have signed up for public comment. Speakers will be allowed three minutes to present their material. However, the chair may limit comments to two minutes based on the number of individuals signed up to speak. We have seven people signed up. I will give you each three minutes should you decide to use it all. 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 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 in writing for inclusion in the public record. So with that, I have Sabrina Vahid, followed by Arwa Ramadan, and then Sakshi Hasdir. So Sabrina, if you want to come to the podium. It's right here. And if you want to pull that down. Perfect. Slow it down.

Hi. My name is Sabrina Vade. Hi, my name is Sabrina Vade. I am a rising eighth grader at Winter Hill at Edge Rally. When I first found out about the Breakthrough Program, I knew... Hold on a moment.

We might be having a technical difficulty. We were having trouble hearing with the sound. Hold on a second. Sorry about that.

Should I start over?

We'll start it. We'll reset it. Sorry about that.

Scott.

Hi, my name is Sabrina Vade. I am a rising 8th grader at Winter Hill at Edge Raleigh. When I first found out about the Breakthrough Program, I immediately wanted to join after hearing about the great college opportunities there are. This program also helped me gain more confidence to talk to new people and be more outgoing. I've met some amazing people at this program and made great friends over the last two years. I sincerely hope Somerville will find a way to keep Breakthrough going. I cherish the memories I've had so far and I hope that they will continue until I graduate. For example, one of the projects I am really proud of is the solar oven I made in science class with my classmates Faith and Arianne. and the Teaching Fellows. It allowed me to apply science to a real-life project, and I learned a lot from this project that will help the concepts I might learn in the school year. I hope Somerville will consider reinstating the program.

Thank you. All right, next I have Arwa Ramadan followed by Sakshi Hastir and then Joe Bouzon.

Hi everyone, my name is Arwa Ramadan for those who don't know me. I'm going into 8th grade and this was my second year of Breakthrough. When I first joined, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know who I'd meet or how it would go, but I ended up finding something way better than I imagined. Breakthrough became more than just a summer program for me. It became a second home. I made real friendships and I learned so much. I felt like I was part of something that actually mattered. This place gave me confident support and memories I'll never forget. Every day here made me feel like I was growing, not just as a student, but as a person. I've walked away from this summer with a different mindset than how I walked in, and I know I'll carry that forever with me. Something I really liked about Breakthrough was how real everything felt. Like, people were actually themselves here. No one was trying too hard to be perfect or act like they had it all figured out. We were just learning and growing up together. It made it easier to speak up, to ask questions, to mess up and not feel weird about it.

That kind of environment doesn't happen everywhere and I feel lucky I got to be a part of it. I wish we had more time together. It's hard to say goodbye, especially knowing this is the last summer. But even though Breakthrough is ending, the impact it had on everyone isn't ending. The connections, the lessons, the laughs, those will stay forever. To Kim, thank you for everything she's done for us. Even though things were uncertain, she never gave up on us. She showed up, she supported us, and we always felt that, and we're so incredibly thankful for her. And to the teachers, thank them for their time, their energy, and their patience. They made the summer fun and meaningful, and I'm really glad that I got to learn from them. Thank you to everyone who made Breakthrough feel like home. I'll be grateful for it.

Thank you. Next, I have Sakshi Hastir, followed by Joe Buzan, followed by Jaidis Vaid. Sakshi?

Good evening members of the school committee. My name is Sakshia Steer. I have lived in Somerville my entire life. I am the first in my family to go to college in the US. In high school, I was in the top 10% of my class, and in college, was on the Dean's List last semester. While grades and prestige are not accurate measures of success, these facts are important because Breakthrough got me here. I joined the inaugural class of Breakthrough in 2018. I was doing well academically, but Breakthrough offered me a support system and a community that I would have for years. They taught me to accept who I am and opened me up to new opportunities. They taught me real-world skills, including creating a resume, writing a check, helping me practice for the SATs, and making sure my college writing was perfect. So perfect, I got into Tufts University, the college I currently attend. I recently served as a teaching fellow this summer.

I taught the children of Somerville, and I could see them for the brilliant, creative, wonderful people that they are. They care about Breakthrough. They are leaders. They are the success of Breakthrough. I graduated from the program last year in 2024. The program is six years long and it was shut down after seven years. Did you ever ask me or anyone else what Breakthrough did for us? Did you ask my parents or their parents? Did you ask these children what it did? If you needed results, you can just look at me and you can look at them. We are the results of this program. As a reminder, your job is to invest in all of our students. So please reflect on your position, your power, and the effect it has on those who don't have as much. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, I have Joe Buzan, Jaidees Fayed, followed by Jeremiah Hill. Joe?

All right, good evening, everyone. Pleasure to be here with you today. Thanks, Pryor, for organizing all of this. And before I do that, I want to set my trusty alarm here. Set an alarm for two minutes. Keeps me accountable. Essentially, my name is Joe Buzon. As mentioned, I live at 85 Concord Ave, Somerville, 02143, Apartment 1. Come on, visit. So, essentially, I'm here as a proud father. First and foremost, I'm in first generation, and I'm a long life native of Somerville. Went to a Genziano, back then it was Lincoln Park. Proud graduate of SHS, and I'm also a proud father. I have two children, a rising freshman, hard to believe, and a rising junior, both going to be at SHS where I went. having that wonderful opportunity in that building, new building that is, right?

Through this quick two-minute speech, this testimonial, you're gonna hear the word opportunity. As you can tell, I myself is very diverse. First generation Filipino. My parents are from the Philippines. I was born here. I lost my vision at the age of 16. I had a lot of opportunities, social workers, Resources, the community school systems. I share that because now it's important for Luca and Ethan had the benefit of all that with Breakthrough. What did we do during the summer? I could tell you what I did. A whole lot of screen time. It wasn't screen time back then. Or I played in the park. Not much structure. Not much organization. But Breakthrough brought all of that and then some. Academically. socially and everything in between. My sons themselves has various abilities. And it was kind of a bridge. Breakthrough was a bridge through academics. As you all know, probably, there's science class. There's TFs that you have just heard from.

There was mentors. My son just recently created Thank you. Thank you. I started with how proud I was, and there's my alarm. I end with how disappointed I am. In the sense that I just look, like many of us, for transparency, for communication. I never got a text or an email saying that Breakthrough was gonna be gone. I was disappointed. on various fronts. Luca was going to be here today. He created a petition around advocacy all my life since I became blind professionally and personally. I do that daily. So in closing, I say, what happened? But I'm a positive person, and it's infectious. If breakthrough was not meeting your expectations, how can we hold them to that? I just heard from my new friends.

I'm taking that line from her. And how can we work together in partnership to strengthen this collaboration? and how can I help? How can we help each other and help the students that you just heard from? Thanks so much and I will pass it to the next person.

Thank you. Jadais Vahid, followed by Jeremiah Hill, followed by Priya Kumar.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Jaydeep Vaid and I reside at 34 Marshall Street. I'm a long time Somerville resident and I'm a proud parent of a teenager who joined Breakthrough two years ago. So with the help of the teachers and leaders at Breakthrough Somerville, she has made amazing improvement. Somerville kids deserve opportunities like Breakthrough that focus on academics and STEM subjects. It's a pathway to college. Why wouldn't you embrace that? When learning about Somerville's decision on Breakthrough, the responding email I received from the superintendent stated it's ineffective I simply don't buy that. You've just heard some convincing arguments from some aspiring Somerville students.

If we actually spoke to the parents and the students of Breakthrough Somerville, you would recognize the effectiveness of the program. Did you actually have a constructive dialogue with the parents? I've spoken to the parents and they were blindsided. And in that email response I also received The superintendent stating that he's working on new ideas and solutions. Well, what do we, can you show me some facts? Like, what is it? It seems like it's just rhetoric. Like, show me the proof. What are the alternatives? You can't just discontinue a program, leave kids in the dark, and have nothing for them to look forward to.

It seems to me like it was an impulsive decision and what Somerville and the superintendent is doing is abandoning the young learners of Somerville. Why would you cancel a great program for Somerville's aspiring youth and not have a replacement plan in place. I want the superintendent and the leaders here today to be part of the solution, and the solution is right under our nose. Be an integral part of Breakthrough Somerville. Somerville will be a better school district because of programs like this. This close knit community deserves better. Please do the right thing and reinstate the program. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, I have Jeremiah Hill, followed by Priya Kumar.

Before I begin my time, could I ask about the procedure for submitting written comment to the record?

Yes, you can send it. E. Garcia at somerville.ma.us.gov K-12, thank you, at k12.somerville.com E. Garcia at k12.somerville.ma.us. Thank you for checking.

Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jeremiah Hill. I live at 11 Rose Street in Ward 2, and I am the foster parent of a rising 8th grader who did her second year of breakthrough. This year she couldn't be here tonight. I'm speaking both for us and for her. And honestly, there's not a lot that I can add to what's already been said. Others here have have spoken very precisely and very eloquently about the situation and about what we can do about it, but I do want to add just a couple of things. In terms of efficacy,

I can tell you that the child in my care this summer learned math, learned civics, learned in her mock trial class how to advocate for herself. How the justice system works, how to... How to explore this world of the law that she was already interested in before starting Breakthrough and now has a more concrete idea of what that looks like and what she can do to get there and what she might do in that world. In terms of social and emotional supports, I can tell you that she has expanded her friend group that has a home base there, that she has come home at the end of the summer more able to communicate about about herself and her relationships with others than we have ever seen. And that she's also learned about how to handle conflict with other students.

When she had an issue with another student, The Breakthrough staff were there as guides and mentors to say, here's how you work this out. And the kids were able to work it out. My neighbor Jay said something about the vagueness of the rhetoric surrounding a potential notional replacement for breakthrough, and I want to reiterate what he already said, that we have a solution. there is a program that is effective that does great things for these kids that already exists that should come back that needs to come back and The sons and daughters of Somerville deserve that and a whole lot more.

Thank you very much.

Good evening my name is My name is Priyadoshini Kumar, and I live in Ward 7 of Somerville at 34 C. Marshall Street. I am the parent of Sabrina Bay, who attends Winter Hill School at Pedgerly. I am frustrated and angered about Somerville Public Schools' unilateral decision to sunset The Bates Group Program has been instrumental in fostering confidence and academic growth in my child. Since joining the program, Sabrina has transformed into a conscientious, responsible, and driven young person. She learned so many new skills and has a renewed sense of passion for learning.

I find it suspect that the school district decided to cancel this program without any input from the constituents of this city. Why was this done? In an email response sent to my husband, Dr. Carmona claimed, there are other providers who can offer a more enhanced and yes, more cost-effective services to the students across all grades. Who are these other providers? And when will this be implemented? Right now, if you cancel Breakthrough, you are abandoning the students who are midway through A six year program and there is nothing in place for this coming school year. Dr. Carmona also wrote, we are changing providers, not eliminating a service.

Our priority is now to identify a new provider who will best complement the progress of our students the students have made through Breakthrough and continue that academic and social learning more effectively. From this statement, it is clear the school district has no plan in place for the near future. They claim they were merely in the process of identifying a new provider. If the statement were to be truthful, I put it to you that it is not. because there is no other plan. Furthermore, Dr. Carmona wrote, the decision to conclude the relationship with Breakthrough was not made lightly. Still after the district completed an evaluation of academic programs and services for more than a year, they identified several factors that indicated a need for change. including program effectiveness, sustainability, and budget implications.

If this claim were true, where is the data? Where is the evidence of the lack of program effectiveness and sustainability? I strongly oppose this arbitrary unilateral decision made by the school district. I would like to remind everyone here that Massachusetts is a democratic state regardless of our federal politics. and these authoritarian practices have no place in this city.

Thank you all for being here. That concludes public comment and brings us to the report of the superintendent. Dr. Carbana?

Thank you, Chair, through the Chair. So first of all, thank you for families and the students who came. Your impassioned plea to think about the decisions that we make are not taken lightly, so thank you for your feedback. So I want to welcome everyone to the first school committee meeting of the new academic year. Everyone enjoy a restful summer with the loved ones and is ready to start the new school year. with a laser focus on our shared priorities, academic excellence, wellness and joy, equity and access, and family engagement. As we look ahead, I would like to take a few moments to revisit all the wonderful things that took place in our schools during the summer months. I am pleased to report that more than 1,700 Somerville students participated in the summer programming this year. Summer programming served a broad spectrum of students with many interests, from robotics and 3D printing

At East Somerville, for example, the calculus project provided students in 7th to 12th grade with an opportunity to preview math content for the upcoming This year we had almost 60 students enrolled in the calculus project and those students are now fully equipped for the rigors of the upcoming school year. Earlier this month, the Adventure Summer Program's Olympic Day at West Somerville neighborhood was a success. This is a five-week theme-based activity camp for students up to grade six. Part of the adventure program is a leadership and training opportunity for grades 7, 8, and 9 who work with the children and learn leadership skills so they can become counselors in the near future.

And of course, many of the camp counselors are students from Somerville High School, so you can see how our summer programming is beneficial to students from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. At the high school, the students could select from week-long summer sessions in CTE focused on graphic design, culinary arts, cosmetology, carpentry, and more. As I reflect on the richness of our summer programming, I also want to acknowledge the sunsetting of our partnership with Breakthrough. As part of our ongoing evaluation of programs, the district made the decision during the 23-24 school year to phase out our relationship This decision follows a multi-year programmatic assessment as well as various fiscal constraints including the elimination of ESSER funds. We recognize and appreciate Breakthrough's mission and the strong relationship they have built with many of our students.

At the same time, our evaluation identifies several factors that inform this transition. including a reduction in service hours, limited services for high school students, challenges in measuring academic outcomes, and a significant higher cost per student compared to other out-of-school time programming. While we will continue to make improvements on communication, we are confident that the decision to sunset Breakthrough is the right one at this point. We're also excited about continuing the work of college and career readiness for historically undeserved students and will announce the result of the current RFP process in the fall. We have already received a lot of interest and are committed to providing consistent, equitable, and effective support for middle and high school students, both during the school year and in the summer. So please stay tuned. for a full report from the out-of-school time department at the September 29 meeting.

So switching gears right now, I'm happy to know that while our students were engaged in enrichment programming, we continue to work with our city partners to improve our school buildings across the district. Making progress in our efforts to ensure welcoming and inclusive environments for our students and staff. In your packets, you will find a memo detailing many of the facility projects. Just to name a few highlights. At the Argenciano, the City's Infrastructure and Asset Management Department, also known as IAM, led by Director Rich Reich, who is present here, Make great progress in opening up a new classroom for 5th grade students. IAM worked closely with Principal Soto, Vice Principal Candelora, and our Facilities, Safety, and Transportation Coordinator, Danielle Barry.

Also at the Argentiano, IAM, working in close consultation with our director of food services, Lauren Mancini, and our chief of staff, Amara Anosike, added a new production kitchen. Helping us to improve on providing delicious and healthy meals for our K-8 students across the district. At the Winter Hill, IAM led efforts to construct a new accessibility ramp and parking space on Bonaire Street. The Public Space and Urban Forestry Department will plant a new tree in the planter area this fall. These departments worked in collaboration with our chief of staff, Amara Anosike, and with Principal Gosling to make Winter Hill at Edgerly a more welcoming for all our students and staff. To close things out for the summer facility projects, I want to say a huge thank you to DPW for extensive repairs, maintenance, and deep cleaning projects across our schools, even while programming continues through the summer.

DPW replaced boilers, completed extensive plumbing work, and worked overtime during the summer months to get our schools ready for our students and staff. Thank you to Commissioner Latham, Facilities Supervisor Mike Bowler, and Building Superintendent Matt Bennett from the City for your great efforts. Also, thank you to Director Reich, and also Director Ralph Henry and Facilities Manager Kevin Hatcher from IAM for getting our buildings ready for our school this year. So thank you. And looking ahead on facility updates, the city will be developing a memo for the next school committee meeting to update the community on the MSBA school building project for the Winter Hill and potentially for the Brown School. So I am pleased to share that my team has worked throughout the summer with the city to ensure that we are making progress to secure state funding for a new school.

I understand that Director Reich is here tonight to discuss the MSBA designer selection panel, which is an important step in the process, and I look forward to hearing from him in order to improve and to move this project forward. Also later tonight, I know we will be discussing potential use of the Cummins School for a warming center. I look forward to a thoughtful discussion that acknowledges the community need while balancing the need of the district to ensure our spaces are being preserved for use should the need arise. My commitment to our students, families, and staff is to ensure we are effectively managing our spaces to the best of our ability. That means having a strategy for a swing space, and gaining a deeper understanding of the status of the Cummings School as a viable space for the future in our district. I welcome the continued collaboration with our city partners to make that happen. And again, we'll hear from our city partners in a minute.

Right now, I'm gonna pass the microphone to Dr. Jessica Boston-Davis for the back to school celebration.

Thank you, Superintendent Carmona. I'm thrilled to say the summer, we're moving past the summer and back to school. We're very thrilled about that. And so just to give you a recap of the last week as we welcome in our new school year. Last week we had a back to school fair held by the SFLC which was very successful despite the rain and more than 1,000 members of our community plus 100 hosts and vendors were there to celebrate and welcome back families. It was really amazing. My kids had a great time. Parents were able to learn more about their schools. Meet with their school principals and some teachers. And our students were able to play games and visit the fire truck, which my kids were very thrilled about.

Last week we also welcomed back our amazing administrators and 70 new SPS staff members. So very, very excited to welcome them into the district and welcome our admin team back. We also started the year with some new admin appointments and so we will have the later meeting later in the school year with personnel to introduce all Administrators, but of note for this body right now, the appointment of Isabel Barrows to the interim principal role at the Capuano and our newly hired chief communications officer, Darrell Nash. So we're very excited to welcome them in. Last week. And we also this week have an all-staff convocation planned for Wednesday afternoon. So schools are preparing cheers and it's a little friendly competition. The principals We're texting each other getting ready for it, so we're looking forward to that on Wednesday.

and so we have a lot to cover on tonight's agenda so we do not have any formal district presentations however at the September 8th meeting I will share with you my first academic update There's a lot there around our new curriculum rollout, around a lot of the initiatives we have in place, and, and this is a preview because you'll see it later in the meeting, a summary of all the grants We did a lot of work on grants this summer and we received a lot, so we're very excited. I will give an overview of that in our next meeting in my academic update. And then I did want to share one quick preview that will enhance our work and I'll share more at our next meeting at the academic update. that our district was accepted for the Federation for Children with Special Needs Apple Institute into the 2026 cohort. So APPLE stands for Advancing Parent Professional Leadership in Education.

It's a partnership with DESE, and we applied with our CPAC. And so the goal is really to continue to enhance our collaboration with one another and to work towards goals together. that can help improve outcomes for students with disabilities in our district. So we're very, very excited. We'll have more details on that as well in the academic update. And so on that note, with the superintendent's approval, this concludes the district report.

Thank you for those amazing reports. Thanks to Mr. Raish and Commissioner Latham for the great prep work that they put in the packets. I really appreciate all of it. I have two questions on the what IAM was doing over summer vacation document. First one, is about the new Argentiano classroom. First of all, thanks to President Davis and Member Biton Thanks to you guys and the Joint Building Subcommittee, this project went from not even contemplating being happened anytime soon to being just about done. Many thanks to you and the committee. My question on this one is to the district. Where's that fifth grade classroom going to be for the month of September while it's being built?

And then my second question to Mr. Raish is really, can you say more about this building management system, I believe that's what it's called, that you've just put in place?

Yes, so thank you for the question. I know that Principal Soto has been working in direct collaboration with Mr. Reich. So we are aware that there is a delay, and so she has planned already to integrate the classes, because this is a class that usually grows, the MLE student group, so they will be integrated with the other teachers in the regular classroom.

Good evening Madam Chair, thank you. For the record, my name is Yasmin Radassi, Legislative Liaison with IGA in the Mayor's Office. I just wanted, we have Director Ralph Henry here that can answer some of your questions, but just wanted to flag that we submitted an item to City Council for this week's meeting with the same attachment so that it could be sent to the School Building Facilities Maintenance Joint Committee so that it can be discussed with both members of SBFM that are here and with council members that are on that committee. So just wanted to flag a more in-depth conversation can happen in SBFM. Just don't want to duplicate a conversation here Rich, sorry, Director Raish's team is here to speak mostly on the Cummings School item and the MSBA designer selection. I know Commissioner Lathan would be really happy to join for the SPFM Good evening.

Through the Chair, I'm Ralph Henry, Director of Capital Projects, and just to address Got a question. What is a building management system? So we often refer to it as a BMS. So generally when you build... Office buildings, schools, whatever they may be, there's a computerized system that helps the building operators see how the building is functioning with temperatures in the office spaces or classrooms, things of that nature. Are there any alarms? Has the boiler shown any issues or the cooling system during the cooling season? So it's really a set of eyes and ears for someone to sit at a console and be able to look In real time at how a building is functioning.

We're wrapping up enhancing at the John F. Kennedy School that BMS system. and just to give you a little history Somerville has been under contract with a company called Honeywell and that system has been here for quite a long time and it's a proprietary system and it's really We've seen better days, so now what we're doing is putting in a more open protocol system that any vendor can work on in service and provide any additional support to it. Where under Honeywell you are lock, stock, and barrel, stuck working with them and them only. They're great. A valuable tool for the DPW to work from. And just to give you an example, the high school has a system that monitors

Several thousand points in that building that Superintendent Rubin has mentioned Kevin Hatcher. Kevin helps monitor that system along with the DPW staff to troubleshoot and look at how that building is operating. As you know, the high school is 400 square feet. There's a lot of different classrooms and auditoriums and things of that nature. that we monitor. So it's a very valuable tool.

Great. Thank you. Did you want to follow up, sir? Thanks for that. I really appreciate it. Just a quick follow up. Who monitors the system? Is it just capital project staff? Do the school staff also see it or is it really just

It's a combination between capital and the Department of Public Works.

Thank you. Ms. Barish?

Thank you. I was curious about the solar panels that were installed at the high school and that are, I guess, now operational. Could someone tell me what 330.65 megawatt hours, maybe, if I'm guessing correctly what those letters mean? Can you just tell me what that means in layperson's words? What can that do?

Again, through the chair, I had a funny feeling that Dana was going to come back and invite me. I would have to get back to you on that. But that system does supplement any electrical usage at the school itself. So we're not selling it back to the grid. That is coming right into the building and supplementing Whatever we may need on any given demand day and very important during the summer under the cooling standpoint the high school uses quite a bit of energy.

Mr. Biton.

Thank you, Chair, through you. My question is about the production kitchen at the Argentiano. I am so excited about this. Our students have been clamoring for it and I can't wait to see what our culinary experts are able to produce. I see the date for the Opening, oh boy, I just had it in front of me, hang on. I think it said, or I guess my question is is it open? Is our kitchen now fully operational? If not, what is the timeline for that? And when do we expect to be able to produce all of our meals in this new asset?

Through the chair, it is fully functional.

Yay. All right. If there's nothing, well, yeah, Mr. Green and then Ms. Barish.

Sure, and this isn't necessarily a question I need to answer right now. I doubt you can answer right now, but just to keep it on everyone's agendas and be sure we're not going to fall behind the eight ball. We know that some of our schools in the coming years need roof work and boiler work and like fairly major projects. Wind Queen's put an update on the city's thinking about how to tackle those things at a time when we don't have spare seats so we can't like close school down so The sooner we can get ahead of knowing what our plan is for those large projects, the better we can make accommodations.

Through the Chair, I appreciate the feedback. We're not really prepared to get into too much of that depth tonight, but that's coming further on down the line.

Through the chair, if I can just add, I think there's actually an item in the SBFM committee box on this that we're planning to have a whole discussion on. I know we've discussed it in the past. So happy to engage fully on that conversation, just not what we came prepared to speak on tonight.

Ms. Barish. Thank you. Through you, I saw in the DPW memo that They are preparing the boilers at the Brown and I'm just wondering if those boilers are in fact ready for heating season and if not, when they will be ready?

Through the Chair, so like I said, Commissioner Lathan is not here tonight. We were planning on a full presentation of this at the SBFM meeting. Sounds like Director Raish might have an answer, but just again, want to flag that this will be discussed in SBFM. depending on when it gets put on the agenda but really want to make sure that we're not duplicating conversations here and then bringing staff again to answer the same questions before a different audience. Thank you.

D.P.W. did let me know today, through the Chair, Richard Reich, Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management, in our weekly check-in with D.P.W., they did mention that The Brown boiler was on track to be online for heating season this year, so there's no plan or need to bring in a temporary boiler.

Great. That is important as we think about winter. Yep, Mr. Ruchon?

Thank you, Chair. Through you, just for everyone's reference, our first meeting of the School Building Facilities and Maintenance Subcommittee will be on September 15th.

Thank you for that reminder. Okay, with that, I think that brings us to some personnel reports. Dr. Carmona, did you want to highlight anything on those?

Yes, I know you received a lengthy because of the nature of the hiring that happens during the summer and also, as you know, folks retire during that time of the year or make decisions to transition to something else. I'm just going to highlight a couple of things. So we have Nancy Egan-Trikomi. She is a skilled teacher. For 34 years, have been in our system. She is retired. We also want to share again with the community the resignation from Principal Caravallo of the Capuano. So that's also another change in leadership of the district. We have some promotions. We have Kayla Coleman. She's an AFAS grade one teacher. Provisional to permanent, we have Gina Natali, she also is a paraprofessional who moved to become a teacher at the Capuano.

Nicole Brunley, she also moved from being a principal clerk to head clerk. Belkisosa, she's a skilled teacher and she was a prior program, a program coordinator. And Cody Turgeon, she is going from a Winterhill from paraprofessional to teacher. and also we have you as Dr. Jessica Boston-Davis mentioned we have our chief of communications has been in full working full-time since the beginning of the summer and also Our K-12 supervisor of health and physical education is already also working at his post. We also have in August, we have some retirements. Mary Foreman, you're familiar with her. She has been in the system for 27 years. She is the principal of the high school and she will be retiring. We also have some other resignations, Kathleen Baylor,

She was in the district with us for four years and she was the director of early childhood she was Strong support for the program that we continue to have multiple successful stories around the early childhood program. and we have Caitlin Kelly. She's also a wellness coordinator. She was with us for 11 years and I believe now she's working with the city. We have some promotions as well. And Isabel Barros, as Dr. Jessica Boston-Davis mentioned, she was the assistant principal of the Winter Hill. Now she is the principal of the Capuano. Sampel Bayou, he is the Dean of Students at the Healy now. He was a teacher. He actually was a counselor and then moved to being a dean. Elizabeth Dignan, she moved from being a paraprofessional to a teacher. She's at Kennedy.

Kelly Lopez, she's a lead teacher to assistant site director. Maria Henriquez, lead teacher to assistant site director also at the Winter Hill, and Julie Phillips, principal to cleric at the high school. We have a few new hires as well. We hire about 44 new staff in August. And the category of those hires were accounts payable, payroll coordinator, Speech and Language Pathology, Substance Abuse Counselor, OST Assistant Director, Plumbing Instructor, Cosmetology Instructor. So the list is quite long. and also just so you know we hired 233 staff during the summer for school programming. So this is the time or just about the time in which HR winds down a little bit but they have been extremely busy so a big kudos to the team for not only working on all the implications of the SEU contract but continue to

Higher, Onboard, and Support Retention Strategies in our district. So that's the extent of my report.

Exciting. Thank you. Are there any questions on the personnel report? All right. Seeing none, that brings us to some reports of subcommittees. I will entertain a motion.

I move to accept the June 18, 2025 Finance and Facilities Report and the July 15, 2025 Rules Management Report.

Second. I have a motion by Dr. Phillips, seconded by Dr. Ackman. If there is no discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to new business. We have a resolution in support of welcoming week. This was brought to us straight from the mayor, who couldn't be here this evening. It's in your packet. It's tonight for a first reading, so it'll be on our agenda again at our next meeting. I know Ms. Pitone had some thoughts on an additional section to this resolution. I don't know if Ms. Pitone would like to speak to that now. Okay, I'm going to give Ms. Pitone a few seconds if there are any other questions. Mr. Green.

This may very well be what Mr. Tom was going to say, but we have passed a number of resolutions and policy changes, and the same way the city... Correctly, once we reaffirm its historical commitment to this, we should have a clause that states our history on this front as well.

So that is exactly what Ms. Pitone brought to us. There's an extra whereas. I don't have the exact language in front of me, but that is essentially what Ms. Pitone brought in addition. Yep, Dr. Phillips.

I can totally live with it if we want to just go normal, two readings, pass it. But this has nothing controversial in it. It's going to come back to us in two weeks again. saying the same thing plus the paragraph that Ms. Pitone suggested. I'm wondering if we're all okay just waiving the rules and passing it tonight.

So that is exactly what Ms. Pitone brought to us.

There's an extra whereas. I don't have the exact language in front of me, but that is essentially what Ms. Pitone brought in addition. Mr. Green?

I can totally live with it if we want to just go normal, two readings.

Which I'm sure I'm fine with. And it seems, if this were, If the week of September 1st were the welcoming week, I would be like, yeah, let's go ahead and amend the rules to get it done. Our next meeting is in time to still have the resolution done for the week. And we don't have to force Mr. Patel to write it. We don't have to do in-horseshoe editing, which is the worst. I'd rather just wait to vote on our next meeting.

I think that's fine, Mr. Biton.

Thank you, Chair. Through you, I co-sign with what my colleagues have said, fully support the resolution as written With the addition that Ms. Pitone proposed, and I'll note in my conversation with the mayor this morning, she indicated that a second reading would not jeopardize the importance or the efficacy of the resolution. So I agree with my colleagues that we can wait.

Okay. Yes, Ms. Barish.

I'm just curious, and maybe this is something I should send to the mayor, but I think it says the week of September 12th, and it's just odd to talk about the week of Friday. I don't know if that means... I don't know.

I don't know what that means. I don't know, but I'm happy to ask as chair and see if that's really the intended date and why before our next meeting. Thanks. Okay, with that, that will be on our agenda for our next meeting. So that brings us to the Cummings School Warming Center. I know our city folks wanted to do some framing here, so.

Thank you Madam Chair. For the record again, my name is Yasmin Radassi, Legislative Liaison with Intergovernmental Affairs in the Mayor's Office. I'm here to speak on the Warming Centre item tonight. First, I wanted to thank the committee for your approval on using the Cummings for a warming center last winter. The administration is so glad that the school committee saw the value in this last year. Tonight I'm joined by Director William Fisher, Director of Emergency Management, and Director Rich Raich, Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management. Director Fisher will be able to give an overview of the Warming Centre operations from the winter and highlight some of the key successes from its operation last year. Director Fisher will also be able to outline his work on developing a continuity, Continuity of Operations Plan. The administration is committing to developing this comprehensive plan that outlines a procedure to maintain critical educational and support functions in the event A SPS building is damaged and cannot be occupied.

In addition to this continuity of operations plan, Director Raish is here to talk about some of the work that's being performed by AAM to ensure larger scale preventative We are working with maintenance measures across school buildings to extend useful life and prevent emergencies before they occur. As you know, DPW and IAM both submitted documents outlining their department's school readiness efforts over the summer. And as I said earlier, these documents will be also introduced as a City Council item to be discussed in the Joint Facilities Committee. I want to acknowledge that there is a draft MOU that was shared with this committee tonight. The City has not had adequate time to discuss and fully vet all the provisions in that draft. but we are committed to continue to work with schools to finalize a draft for review and with that being said I'm happy to turn it over to Director Fisher so that he can explain more about the emergency planning process. Thank you.

Thank you. Through the chair, thank you guys for having me here. It's a pleasure to speak in front of the school committee for the first time. I've been with the city of Somerville for just about a year now, so I did have the experience last year with the Warming Center. So first of all, I just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Mayor Ballantyne, City Council, School Committee, City Staff, and the entire community of Somerville. Together you guys recognized a critical human need and responded with compassion, dignity, and collaboration. Your unwavering commitment ensured that many had a warm, safe place to stay. Warm nutritious food to eat and we're connected with essential services and laid the foundation for an even stronger response for winters to come. As part of the process, using emergency management philosophies and best practices, when the warming centre ended, we conducted a comprehensive after-action assessment.

As part of that assessment, we conducted several surveys. The surveys went out to the clients of the warming center while they were still present. also went out to the staff from the vendor that was hired to provide the services at the warming center, the city staff, and then to the community at large. In addition to those surveys, which were sent out for comment, we conducted a listening session at the Somerville High School. Thank you again for letting us use the facilities for that. where we just invited people to come in and share their experiences, whatever they were, so we could just listen, take the time to have the community come in and share their experiences, the good, the bad, so that we can make sure that we understand Everything that happened with the Warming Center from a lot of different lenses and then look forward to collaboratively putting forward a corrective action plan.

That after action report and improvement plan is in the final stages of being completed. It should be completed soon and will be presented to the city council, school committee, and the community at large once it's completed. Excited to get that completed and that'll have a lot of details. But one thing I'd like to share tonight is as part of the surveys we've handed out, the clients at the Warming Center provided comments. Three stuck out to me in particular. So the first one is people were kind, non-judgmental workers. I am pregnant and I did ask for Department of Transitional Assistance help in person, but they failed to place me. I was scared. But I believe I'll be okay. I do believe this place has helped the homeless in need. The next one is, I experienced a roof over my head so that I was able to rest enough and have the energy to face the day. and finally, probably the most impactful one I read.

Personally, Somerville Warming Center came in clutch in a time of need for me during the peak time of homelessness. I was battling mental trauma, legal issues in stalking from a past toxic relationship that triggered a lapse in my recovery from alcoholism. As I was experiencing difficulties at other shelters, Somerville Warming Center welcomed me with open arms, pointed me in the right direction to navigate The resources in the city and even at capacity gave me clothing and a ride to an alternative safe environment. This was definitely beneficial for me in each and every way. Obviously, I share those because I want you guys to see the impact of the good work you all were involved in. Anything we do from my perspective, because again, I look at things from an emergency management lens, It's collaborative.

It takes a lot of people and a lot of people with skills and knowledge and abilities to come together to bridge that gap and figure out how best to handle the situation. And this was no different. And so some statistics from the warming center. Excuse me. The warming center averaged about 32 clients per night. We also averaged three pets. We had a German Shepherd there that we had to get a crate from the Boston Animal Rescue League that they donated because we didn't have anything big enough for this animal. And the total overnight stays were 3,692. I want to put that in perspective. Think back to this last winter. Was it the worst winter we've ever had? I don't think so. But there were many days when it was close to zero or less. The wind was whipping. The snow was blowing around. I didn't want to go outside to clean up my car. Never mind have to spend the night outside.

And so I take great pride and you all should take great pride in the work you did to help these folks have a warm place to stay. They were provided warm meals, a cot, a blanket, a pillow, hygiene kits, socks which were a huge commodity I've heard that before, but even I was a little surprised how much of a commodity it was. Pushing socks. And I can see that. Imagine being on the cold with no socks. Emergency Narcan. On-site licensed clinical staff. Transportation to, from, to alternate areas. Entry into shelter waitlists and assistance in navigating those lists. Mobile Clinical Services, Health Screening and Tests, Personalized Referrals, Resources to Community Services, and then stuff like basic things we take for granted, entertainment, enrichment, games, TV, etc. And then the community came together and provided holiday treats around the holidays.

So they were able to get a nice treat during that time. So again, as I shared, that plan is going to be finalized soon. and I'm excited to share it. There are some things in it that we need to improve on but nothing that we can't handle and we've decided based on the input Holistically from this after action report that at this time, the Cummings Warming Center is the best facility to fit the needs and reach those goals. that we did last year, but probably better because we've identified ways we can bridge those gaps and do this better moving forward. So that's my report on the warming center and my case to keep it there because we really appreciate it and it meant a lot of good.

Thank you so much and I just wanted to let my colleagues know that in the packet it didn't get it until late in the day is a draft from our lawyers that our lawyers have been working with the city on an MOU which I know we all discussed last year when we gave permission to use the Cummings. So I just wanted everyone to know that that draft is in there. It is long. I don't expect everyone has read it yet. We're not expected to vote on that. It is still being worked on. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that. Yes, Andre, Sarah, Eleanor.

Thank you. The chair, the city made allusions to a plan for students and I just want to remind people that we voted on this motion Last fall, so almost a year ago now. One of the clauses we put in was, quote, the city shall commit to creating and making public specific plans that outline the work necessary, scope, capacity, time, cost, to host students in the event of emergency. I never saw that last year. And while I am eager to support doing this again this year, and I am confident that lives were saved this year, We would not be doing our due diligence, our responsibility to students at Somerville if we do not hold the city to that. So it is my hope that before NYU is brought to us for execution, that plan can be made public.

So through the chair. So a couple things about that. I appreciate the question. Thank you. I assure you, myself and my deputy director, Lauren Mahoney, Care as much if not more about continuity of operations. It's a huge part of emergency management. When we think of emergency management, we think of a lot of different aspects from planning, to exercising, to training, to relationships, collaboration. But one of the big pieces is if we cannot have that continuity, The way that we shape our emergency management process and response is based on critical infrastructure. What people need and depend on and sometimes take for granted in their daily life and if it's interrupted, how are we best able to bridge that gap and return them or return those services they need? School education is absolutely a critical service, and we must make sure it's maintained. And so we are absolutely poised to continue moving forward on that.

And as a matter of fact, I'm going to grab the actual language for you. Let's see. As part of my budget proposal for this year to the City Council and the Mayor, I put forth My goal two, because it's an important piece of emergency management. Goal two says to develop, finalize, and begin implementation of a comprehensive city and Business Continuity of Operations Plan. This plan will identify essential city functions, critical personnel, Alternate facilities and recovery strategies. It will include input from all city departments and will be validated through at least one tabletop exercise. So that's the goal stated for the year. And that was outside of any of this process.

that because we understand how important it is so I want you I want to put forth the message that this process is happening parallel anyways and we were heading that way But I've been here a year and I don't say that because I'm making excuses. The reason I say that is I try to look at things broadly and then bring them in. So what have we done so far? that were ready to handle this situation and other situations. One of the things was we formed the Somerville Emergency Management Group, of which three members of the school are invited members of that group, and several participate. Because why? Because the schools are important and they're critical infrastructure within the city of Somerville. And we recognize that right from the start. This group meets monthly. And basically the stated goal of this group is to put forth emergency management planning, training, exercise, and recovery.

That planning portion would include something like a comprehensive, I'm sorry, continuity of operations plan. It also is the very same group that we meet together, we plan together, we train together, and if there's an emergency, those are the people that are going to make up the Emergency Operations Center that work together to facilitate Whatever we're trying to accomplish to respond to and recover from the emergency. The best example I have for that unfortunately is to think with COVID. We put together groups that met under that type of a framework to resolve issues. So why do I bring this up? I bring this up because this is the start. If, God forbid, something were to happen in one of the schools right now, while we don't have a formal plan, this is where we would go with the schools and the stakeholders in the city that already work together in emergency management capacity to solve the issue. and we would look at it and use that practice.

So we had to get that structure going first. We also had to update the city's comprehensive emergency management plan and get the buildings to the point where they had things such as Exit Maps, and exit strategies for there. So it's a lot of work to be done, but we're getting there, and we are going to be putting together a framework for how this process is going to work. So in order to meet this goal of having this continuity of operations plan, We're going to have to meet with the stakeholders and the subject matter experts that know what we need to know. We want to ensure that any type of a plan is making sure first we create the objectives and goals we're trying to accomplish and that any resolution meets those goals and includes accessibility and equity. We can't just look for a site and grab it.

So we've got to figure out what we're looking for, what is the ideal goal, and what is the criteria for a facility if it ends up being what we call a swing space. And we also want to identify the process from the minute it happens how this process is going to work and who's going to be involved. So that's going to involve planning meetings. where we bring everyone together and we talk about it. And I get to hear from you or the other people in the school department or DPW or buildings or whatever and they bring in their ideas based on best practices and what I understand from a continuity of operations plan. I did these when I worked for the state before I came to Somerville and so I'm poison ready to do it now. So, rest assured, I hear through the chair, I hear the councilor's frustration. I'd be frustrated too. Care very much about this. We need to make sure this is in place. And so the kids know that if something were to happen, their school is going to continue. So that's what I'll say on that.

Want to follow up?

Through you, a couple things. I just want to be clear because I think it was the most important thing this committee asked for a year ago. If, God forbid, something were to happen to our buildings right now, the plan that we asked for a year ago still doesn't exist.

To the Chair, that is correct.

I also just wanted to highlight in response to the question that in previous displacements the entire city has come together to work to find alternative spaces no matter what. and that we're committed to finding those alternative spaces and making sure that students' education is not interrupted. So just because there is no formal plan on paper does not mean that we would not make every effort to make sure that the interruption to students' education is mitigated. Thank you.

I have Sarah, Eleanor, and Eliron.

Thank you for that and thank you for this great presentation. Thanks for the great work at the Warming Center. You guys did phenomenal last year. I want to come back to the point that my colleague, Mr. Green, made. point out that the motion approving the warming center requiring the city to create and make public specific plans that outline the work necessary, scope, capacity, time, cost to host students in the event of an emergency was made on September 9th, 2024 at the last school building subcommittee of last school year in, what was that, May, June? In June of 2025, I asked for an update on progress on this MOU and progress on this emergency plan for the start of this school year. I want to call my colleagues' attention to the draft MOU in the packet, Section 7. Let's look at Section 7 right there, because it says that the city, and maybe I'm interpreting it wrong.

Please tell me if I'm wrong. It says that the city is going to make this emergency... Facilities Plan that we requested in September of 2024. And then if they haven't done it within 12 months of signing this MOU, which is already one year late, Then we can take that into account when determining whether or not to renew this MOU for an additional term. That is way too long because our school year starts on Wednesday. And you know what? Our buildings have a history of failing. Let's talk about the Winter Hill. We had to close, what, two years before the end of the school year. Yes, we have come together in an emergency in the past, We are doing our best to make sure that the city doesn't have to do that in the future, and it seems like you're fighting us at every turn. I need this committee to know that I will not be in support of this MOU or any MOU unless the timeline for giving us the emergency plan that we need to make sure that our children are safe in the case of an accident

is done either in time for us to sign this MOU or certainly before 12 months. So just want to call everyone's attention to section seven needs a ton of revision before I feel comfortable signing it. What I really want is this emergency plan at least for the 25-26 school year which starts on Wednesday?

Through the chair, thank you. I did wanna say, I know when we met, when the SBFM met in June, I had said that we were reaching out to schools to start to draft this MOU. Unfortunately, the hope had been that we would have a draft earlier by around May, June, and unfortunately we didn't receive this draft document from SPS until a few weeks ago. That being said, I did want to highlight something that you said, which was making sure that we're maintaining our buildings and preventing them from getting to a place where they cause displacement. I'm not sure when, but at some point. I know Director Raish is here to talk a little bit about that and how we can keep it from getting to the point where we'll need these emergency displacement spaces. So just wanted to call that to attention.

Thank you. Sarah, did you want to follow up?

Thank you for that. I know our lawyers did not get back to you. Quickly on the MOU, I'm not talking about the MOU, even though I'm referring to Section 7. I'm referring to the emergency plan that we asked for in September of 2024 for our buildings, giving you an additional 12 months from signing this MOU, which no one is prepared to do today, is unacceptable. That needs to change.

Sorry, just really quickly through the chair. As I said, the city has not vetted the proposal that's in front of you right now, so that we are not comfortable with signing that either as it stands right now. Just wanted to make that clear.

Thank you. I have Eleanor, Leron, and then Andre.

Eleanor? Thanks. I was just curious, Director Fischer said that there are school representatives in the Somerville Emergency Management Group, and I was just curious if someone can share who those people are.

Yeah, I can absolutely share that. So, Amara, Ruben, Danielle Berry, and Liz Doncaster. I'm sorry, Laura, Ruben, and who? Danielle Berry and Liz Doncaster.

Thank you. I have Liron and then Andre.

Thank you, Chair, through you. To Director Fischer, thank you for the From the Heart presentation of the real, benefits that we've been able to provide that means a lot to me as a school committee member that what we were able to provide in terms of a building that We are not currently able to use to put into terrific use and save lives and help people is a tremendous boon to our community. No doubt there may be students who are also making use of this. who may benefit from it. So that's not lost on me either. There may be some interaction directly with our purview.

But I keep coming, every time I'm looking at you, sir, I'm noticing the wildcat that is right on the podium right there. Right on the podium that you're standing in front of. There's a reason that is center in this room. The Wildcats at the Winter Hill were displaced in what was it, May 2023? and by George, it is everything we can do to center those students In the work that we continue to do, in addition to the other students in our district, the students are central to our mission on school committees. So I have to keep laser focused on that.

To that point, when the city first came to us and asked us for the use of this building, we very intentionally came together and put together this motion. It started off as a sentence or two. that said, here you go, and we decided We needed a little more. And so it turned into quite a robust paragraph, which those at home won't see right now, but it starts with the phrase provided. provided that the city and the school committee first reach agreement which is what my colleagues have been harping on and we do not have that agreement again we have a draft of an agreement that neither party seems comfortable signing right now. I haven't looked at it, right?

It just came into our box today. We are a far way off. And Director Fischer, you mentioned a few, in responding to an earlier question, you indicated that The planning process may take time and I will concede that. I think that's true. but I think I could be wrong on this my colleagues can correct me if there was an earlier incident I think today is the first time we're hearing that it that the language that we had approved last year has A problem that we can't meet the terms of this motion. Again, I'll concede if that's the case, but a year

and for the administration to come to us at this point asking for something else to then point out the terms of this motion were Imprudent. It feels, I have to say as a member of this body, it feels dismissive to what we very intentionally put in place when we allocated this resource. Now again, I'm not saying I'm not willing to provide it again because there are lives at stake, but we are an integral part of the city. The school committee stands as I think in ready to partner with the city to accomplish our mutual goals but the way I think we've been treated over this

Period is not as a partner, but as something less. So that gives me concern about moving forward. in this partnership because it really needs to be a partnership. So just raising those concerns and putting that in context. So again, thank you for the great work. and I'll step back.

Thank you. Through the chair, thank you for your comments and your nice words. I hear your frustration, I do. And I can't speak to the MOU, especially the previous one, and now that's, you know, through the mayor's office, IGA and law. But again, I can only speak from my perspective. And again, I understand. I've been hearing everything you guys are saying and how you were told one thing and now here we are 12 months later. But again, from my perspective, just for whatever it's worth, at that point I was just ramping up my program and I'm at a point now where we can move forward with this and we can make some meaningful plans together. Now, I just want to make something clear for context. Us having a plan doesn't mean that I go back to my office, get on my computer and type a plan. I understand the framework. I understand the best practices in emergency management. But the plan is largely going to be written by the schools because they're the subject matter experts.

They know what these students need and they know how to meet those needs. As far as the infrastructure for the buildings, that would be DPW, you know, the infrastructure department. And you know, multitudes of other departments Don't think this is something we can just go back and write. I would think the schools, if I just went and wrote a plan and said, here you go, here's your plan, you'd be like, this doesn't make any sense. You didn't involve me, and this is not what I need. So I need those subject matter experts to tell me How to meet those needs appropriately, accessibly, equitably for every student. And so that's why this planning process is going to take some time. But I have full confidence that we will get there. And if somebody says, well, what's the timeline? I don't know, because I don't know what we're even necessarily getting into. When I talk about that, I mean the specifics of it. We haven't been able to look at, I haven't been able to talk to you guys about the needs yet, because I was doing other things and getting ramped up.

as well as you know what we even have facilities that may meet those needs because we haven't identified what those needs are yet and so I hear your frustration and I would share it but what I'm saying is from my perspective We're here now and we have the ability We've set certain things in place that I needed to get done ahead of time. I wasn't involved in this process directly a year ago. I wasn't. But now I am, and we're ready to move forward collaboratively and get this problem solved.

Gregory, should you want to also comment? And then I'll take Mr. Green.

Through the Chair, another thing to remember and consider is that while Director Fischer was onboarding and getting up to speed and pulling together the resources that he needs to then work on the continuity of operations plan. That is more directly referenced in the prior MOU or lack thereof, the motion that would be the basis of the MOU. It's important to remember that in that span of time, IAM in very close collaboration with the superintendent's office was continuing to lower the risk of an Emergency at the other schools. We have been diligently reviewing, investigating, stress testing, bringing in mechanical engineers, envelope engineers.

We have been looking at the heating, cooling systems, the envelope, the roofs. It's been a very slow and deliberate process because we need to do this under winter conditions, looking at it from the outside while it's heating. We have to do it under summer conditions when it's cooling and looking at the outside to see where things are escaping. We've been, as that data is coming in, we've been developing a long term capital investment program so that we forestall what happened to the Winter Hill at any of the other schools. In a few minutes, we're going to be talking about the next steps for the MSBA process. Someone pointed out the Wildcat. I know this Wildcat is here. I look at it every time I'm in the chambers. It is of the utmost professional importance to me that I and IAM don't let that happen again.

and I am is not going to rest until we open the doors of a new school and I will personally take this and put it in my office as a trophy. So I say that and I understand why the motion was phrased the way it was a year ago when we identified the Cummings as the best location for the warming center. and that is still the case. We've got other options that are far worse. I understand the need of the school committee to protect its resource and use this as a leverage point to get a continuity of operations plan and understand where the students will go. in the case of another emergency. Work has been progressing to forestall that sort of emergency. Bill and his team are now working on the continuity of operations

I think we we need to understand that perhaps in two weeks you're not going to see exactly what you want to see but this is a vital life-saving Asset to the city and the city is also committed to the students in various forms and with various efforts. So I just want to give that perspective.

So, respectfully, What I just heard, and I want to be clear, it was the first time I've really heard real emotion behind the city's understanding of the failure it did in regards to the community. So I want to acknowledge that, first of all. And I want to acknowledge that what I've heard you're saying, to be blunt, is your job. You've committed to doing your job. And there's only so much credit I can give you for that. I can hear that it takes a long time for the city to develop a continuity of service plan. I can hear that. That seems reasonable. I want you to do a good job, not a job on a compliance basis. And the time to say that was a year ago. or nine months ago or six months ago.

The time to start was a year ago or nine months ago or six months ago. The fact that you didn't say that a year ago when we were discussing this revolution, the fact that you didn't start a year ago, to Mr. Pitone's point, speaks to a lack of respect for this body. This is going to be a theme I'm going to be coming to a lot this year because what we're not going to do as we start our new school year is the city is not going to continue with the tendency to blame us for its not getting its job done. Congratulations, you got the MOU today. You knew you wanted an emergency plan a year ago. That's on you guys. and you're not going to blame my superintendent and my staff for that not happening. I appreciate that you're working with the staff on Doing your job ensures our schools work. That doesn't eliminate your responsibility to keep your end of a bargain.

And I'm not blaming any individual. I understand that you all come in, you all follow orders, but this is an administration failure. And it's an insult to ask us to not care. We are thrilled, we were thrilled a year ago to do things that save lives. We are not thrilled to have the city once again not live up to its obligations in this part. It's out of a deal. Because that is what's happened here. The city did not live up to its deal. Before I'm with Dr. Phillips on this, before I can agree to another deal, I need some trust rebuilds here, because I feel lied to and dismissed. Again. Let me clear that out. I feel lied to and dismissed. Again. Be better.

So thank you for the comments and I appreciate that. Again, I understand your frustration, I really do. There's no reason you guys don't know the level of which I appreciate the frustration, but I do. So at this point, I just want to reiterate I was not party to that original agreement and I'm here now and I am party to whatever agreement we have now as far as I mean party to it I was employed here but I mean I was just starting to get onboarded So I'm ready to move forward and get this work done either way. So understand that. This work is going to get done regardless because it needs to get done. It's important to me as much as it's important to you. but I think that it's also important to remember that these people are depending on us to not be out in the cold and the best I can do right now is explain what I've explained already and I won't

you know continue using up the time just repeating myself but that we are ready to go and we will get this plan done with the collaboration of everyone involved so this is the best plan it could be and it makes the most difference if it needs to be implemented in the future. So I understand your frustration. I hear it. and, you know, from my perspective alone, I mean no disrespect to this body. I have the utmost respect for this and what you guys do for the students and the sea and I am here to make this move forward and get this plan done.

Thank you, Chair, through you. Director Fischer, I just want to be clear. I'm not holding you personally or professionally responsible for what happened a year ago. As you said, you were onboarding. I think as my colleague Mr. Green pointed out you know I think there's We need to rebuild some trust here between our organizations. You know, one thing I hope we're going to be talking about, we haven't set the agenda yet for the school building facilities maintenance subcommittee in just about two weeks, is

The plan for displaced students in this current school year, the 25-26 school year, I understand there is no plan as we speak today. It's something that was put in as an order last spring. Understanding that we may not have a full contingency plan or swing space built out and ready by the time this MOU is executed, obviously that's absurd. A plan is not the concerted will of every department in the city. It is not goodwill.

is a specific set of procedures that we have in place right it is foresight and in the Event that something terrible happens at one of our buildings which despite and in spite of the incredible efforts of our your leadership and The hard work of all of your staff, it may still happen as I'm sure as director of emergency management. Yes. You know, despite the best efforts, these things may and will happen. So, it is incumbent upon us, and we would not be doing our job if we did not insist that we have a plan and not just a promise. So,

I would expect that if it's not you, whoever's at that meeting in a couple weeks comes with a lot more than goodwill. Because we are at a place where we need to rebuild trust and we're going to need you know the blood sweat and tears to get us there and it it's not just going to be uh goodwill which i think we all have with one another um thanks

Thank you through the chair for your comments. I appreciate that. And I heard everything you said. I want to make sure that when we deliver something, it's going to be functional and it's going to meet the needs of the students. So again, it does take time. One of the things we were... I think it's some of the memos back and forth we talked about was and I used it as you know the wording I used when I first started talking was we would be getting a framework to you so what I mean by that is it's think of it like a strategic plan where we are now and the benchmarks to get us to the completed plan. That's something we can turn around. I'm not comfortable giving a timeline right now, but that's something we can turn around a lot quicker. And I think that might assist with some, Trust in the fact that it would show you the benchmarks for the process and what's expected of the process. And that's something we would do anyways as part of the process.

Dr. Ackman? Thank you to the chair. I appreciate everything my colleagues have said. I just want to be very clear. I have a family member who needed to stay at the warming center last winter, found it, you know, I echoed everything that you said about it and so it hits me hard and personally and I want to elevate the value. that said your colleague mentioned that you know the city is committed to doing whatever it can should one of our buildings fail and Mr. Raish noted and we do appreciate how proactive they've been to try and maintain our building so something like what happened at the Winterhill building does not happen again. That said,

We kind of got lucky with that building in that Tufts was available and the students weren't there and so it was a unique period of time and so I just want to say for practical purposes like Those of us who went through it, we know that's not an option right now. Tufts has students there and will, for everything, save about three weeks at the end of our school year. I think for us, it's our own self in truly wanting to do right, truly wanting to support you, but also understanding what our responsibilities are. As the school committee members to our students, which I know my colleagues have echoed. But, you know, remembering what did bail us out last time and fully knowing that that's not an option right now is, I will say for me, one of

The urgent reasons that it's like very hard to kind of get beyond this without like knowing because you know to be blunt I'm worried that we're screwed and I would like Some evidence that we're not.

Thank you for your comments and sharing the story. Again, you know, for the reasons you said, you know, how important the warming center is, and I believe everyone in the room shares that sentiment. That's very clear. We're going to be doing this regardless as far as getting this plan going. Again, it's important. It's a huge piece. And where I started out this conversation is that we start out with an all-hazards approach to emergency management. In other words, we create a structure to handle everything, meaning Form a collaborative team, work together, plan all that stuff. That's where this whole process started. I'm starting from square one. And then we start working on specific issues. Like what if we have a tornado? What if we have a hurricane? Like the specific stuff in the schools or the continuity is more global, but the continuity for the schools is a specific plan. So we're absolutely going to do that. What I will say to that, and again, I say this because I see your frustration and I see you're looking for trust.

But what I will say to that after what you shared, through the show, what you shared, as well as the stuff I've shared tonight and the setting them in the room is, when you guys make this decision, If you're going to hold somebody accountable if this doesn't happen moving forward, hold me accountable. Don't hold these people that are out in the cold accountable. That's all I'll say about that.

Sorry to keep going on this one. Mr. Raj, Mr. DC, I know you guys were here when we passed that motion in September of 2024. So at one point, you knew everything that was in it, right? And I screw up all the time. Left and right. I screw up all the time. And the main thing that I do when I screw up is I say, I'm sorry. And here's how I'm going to do better next time. When I called you on not having this MOU and not having a plan in June, I didn't get a, oh, I'm sorry, I got a lot of talk. No, I haven't heard an, I'm sorry, here's what I'm gonna do to fix it. I totally get why you could have lost the ball because you were doing 80 million more important things and yet somehow you lost the ball and I think a basic I'm sorry would go a long way. Another thing I would say, if you hadn't dropped the ball, and I apologize if I've got that wrong, what I tell my kid all the time is if you're going to miss a deadline, tell people in advance. Right?

We're getting this missed deadline a year late with a year extension to continue. I know, and none of us want that. So I say all that. The last thing I want to say is I totally appreciate wanting to have a great emergency plan. And I know that when the Winter Hill School failed, Jeff turned it around in a week and found us a new building for 500 kids. I don't think that's the exact enrollment in the Winter Hill, I apologize. On average, we have about 500 kids per school. I think what we are looking for, and Body, correct me if I'm wrong, we want to walk into the 25-26 school year knowing that if we need to put 500 kids somewhere on Thursday, we know where we're going to put them. I don't need the best plan for this year. I need an MVP, a minimum viable product for this year. I totally get why you want to create a very good plan, and I'd encourage us to do that for the 26-27 school year, but to get my...

Me on board with this MOU to make me feel comfortable walking into this school year. I wanna know what are we gonna do if we have to put 500 kids somewhere tomorrow or Thursday? I'll stop talking, thanks.

Through the Chair, I was not here during that, I just started in February, but if an apology is required on behalf of the administration then I'll happily say I apologize and again want to reinforce that We are committed to working with the school committee moving forward. If communication hasn't been as strong or hasn't been up to standards in the past, then we're committed to Coming back and sharing preventative maintenance efforts that we're conducting on school buildings going forward. Making sure that we're collaborating with you on this and hearing what you want to see in this MOU. and we want to make sure that we are working together to make sure that there is a minimal disruption on school education. We're willing to be partners in that so I hope that we can do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Can I ask to you, for you, what is being asked of us today?

Nothing is being asked of us today. This will be on our agenda again at our next meeting. with the idea that there will be a finalized MOU that our lawyers are comfortable with and the city is comfortable with. Thank you. Okay. If there is nothing further, as mentioned, this will be on our agenda again in two weeks. If as you read through that draft MOU you have specific questions, bring them to me and I'll figure out how to best coordinate that. Okay, that brings us to the MSBA designer selection panel.

Mr. Raich, do you want to give us a quick?

No, you want to continue to berate me? Yeah, yeah, that's on brand. To the chair. So as I think everyone knows through the jointly meeting facilities committees, We are in the module that the MSBA refers to as forming the project team. We have hired an owner's project manager, PMA, which is essentially staff augmentation for IAM capital projects. As we manage this project. They are the same firm that we had for the high school. They do excellent work and we're happy to have them back on board. The next step is to hire the designer, the architect and the various mechanical engineers that will design the new building. The MSBA has a very prescriptive process.

There is a designer selection panel, a DSP, which I think also shares an acronym with some computer thing. We have already put out the request for proposals. We have received six. which shows a little bit of the interest that Somerville gives the community. The design community in the greater Boston area. There have been some recent other districts that only received one or two proposals and had to go back out. Out of the gate we got six. So we're starting the review of that. There's a formal process with the MSBA. There is a 13-member designer selection panel, VSP. Somerville only gets three seats on that panel. The MSBA fills the other 10 seats.

So the three individuals from Somerville have to really understand the community's priorities for the school that we're designing. The MSBA rules prescribe for our case that of those three seats, one is the mayor or the mayor's designee. I will serve as the mayor's designee. The second is the superintendent of the district, so Dr. Carmona will be on it. I will say that I will also be leveraging my staff to help me review the six proposals and rank them. I suspect that Dr. Carmona will also. The third member that we get to put on there is selected by the school committee.

and so I do need immediate consideration on this because we're already in the process of, we have the six proposals, we're reviewing them right now, The first meeting with the MSBA and the other 10 members that they put on there is on September 9th. and at that meeting we will rank the six and shortlist three that will be brought back for a subsequent interview on September 23rd. and then at the meeting at December 23rd, the selected firm will be chosen from those three. It is a fairly heavy lift. These proposals are thick. They touch on a lot of different aspects that are priorities to

The City and the District in terms of educational program, in terms of the net zero goals that we have for the building, in terms of the spaces and the additional amenities that we are looking to put into this building. We have convened our school building committee. The school building committee has met twice. And at the last one, Because the test school building committee is very involved and we have some members of it that are very interested in this and have started reviewing those The school building committee, one member volunteered to be the school committee's designated person, and that's Courtney Koslow. She is a Winterhill parent.

She also works in the construction field, primarily doing affordable housing, but she understands construction. and she is a very strong advocate for environmental goals in building construction. And as a matter of fact, it also serves on It's one of those committees that has like too many words to remember, but environment's one of them. and so she has expertise in that area in the net zero buildings. So her resume is in your packet along with the explanation of the MSBEA process, and my hope is that we could have the school committee consider Courtney as their representative on the designer selection panel.

Mr. Green.

So let me start off by saying that Courtney is absolutely the right person for this job, and I would strongly encourage us to appoint her. That said, in the spirit of wanting to start the school year on the right foot procedurally, It is problematic that we were given this information with no time to actually do a process or actually deliberate or actually start our judgment on behalf of the district. I want to extremely request that your team look at the timeline over the next several years minimum and give this body a memo pointing out when our input and our approval is needed of things so that we are not in a situation where for some reason Courtney was not the right person We didn't have a chance to think it through, deliberate, and actually exercise our judgment.

I'm hoping that we can start this new year with a new spirit of respect towards this body being an actual co-equal part of government and act accordingly.

Through the chair I will absolutely commit to that. I would also like to point out that it was out of no disrespect for this body. We are, as we have stated repeatedly, Moving through the MSBA process as quickly as we can. And these dates for the designer selection panel meetings did not become available to us until after the body went into recess for the summer.

So I respect that.

I understand that. And that's why I'm asking, even if you don't know when exactly you will need a decision by, if we know The rough list and checklist of places where you want decision points. We can work to be proactive. Even if we didn't know you were going to have a meeting, you knew this committee was the next step and it was going to happen at some point in the rules of short notice, we could have been discussing it before the break.

Thank you, Chair. Through you. Just a point of clarification. I do not see Ms. Koslow's CV in our... My apologies.

I emailed it to you. I'll make sure that Ms. Garcia puts it in the packet.

Oh, thank you. Excellent. I will take a look. That said, when I first heard that we would need to appoint a representative with deep knowledge of construction, to review architectural proposals. My first thought was Courtney Koslow. who as you mentioned is serving on the school building committee, is a Winter Hill parent, and is deeply committed in our community on a range of topics. When I heard that she had put her name forward Everything snapped into place for me. I will happily support her without a careful review of her CV because I know that she would be a boon to this and represent our interests.

Ms. Pitone?

This is Laura Pitone speaking through the chair. I hope my timing is correct because we're having challenges with Zoom and I'm accessing this meeting remotely and I'm watching it via cable so I am many minutes behind but I just wanted to Put in my high level of support for Courtney Koslow. She's a resident of Ward 5. I've known her for many years. and have so appreciated her thoughtfulness her commitment and her professionalism and I think she would be a great asset and I appreciate the building committee bringing her forward so I'm fully in support I understand that the timing might not be may not want to write on it vote on it right now but I just wanted to say that and also apologize that I'm not

Participating directly in this meeting because I'm working on a delay because of the Zoom challenges and thank my colleagues and constituents for their patience. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Pitone. Mr. Green?

I appreciate Mr. Pitone's concern about timing, but I don't think we have a choice. We don't have time. So I'm gonna go ahead and move to nominate Courtney Kozloff to be the school committee representative to The selection panel, DSP.

Second.

I have a motion by Mr. Green, seconded by Mr. Biton. If there is no further discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you to Courtney for serving this important role. I'm going to go back for a minute because we apparently forgot to accept the rules subcommittee when we did the subcommittees. We just did the finance. So if we could have... I'm pretty sure Sarah said both. Okay, we did do them both. Ms. Garcia wanted to double check with me. Okay, thank you. That brings us to a policy manual. Ms. Barish, do you want to give us the...

Sure. Update on that? Yes. So in the packet is a revision to file JCA controlled student choice. I want to be clear that this is a Sort of temporary or interim correction of the policy that has been in the manual but not Thank you. Thank you. We are bringing it to you out of rules with the understanding that the work on this policy is not done. It will continue as As Mr. Green might want to talk more about. Okay, Mr. Green?

Sorry, I certainly didn't mean to interrupt you there. I apologize. I was just going to go on and say that we did agree in those recent round of negotiation to create a, and I cannot remember, forgive me, there are legal differences between working group, task force, subcommittee, I can't remember which one this one landed as. But that will be something that will be being selected in January with the new school committee to work on this very issue. So yes, to echo Mr. Barish's point, this is just to make sure that while that work is being done, we are in compliance with our own policies.

And I just wanted to thank Mr. Biton for working closely with Ms. Rodriguez at the Enrollment Center to I think there's a lot to put into language how this process works. In addition to describe it, it describes the way the process works and I think it is It's beneficial to families in the city to actually have access to a realistic and transparent description of how this works.

Okay, Mr. Biton.

Thank you to Ms. Barish for that and Mr. Green. This honestly was a collective work that Ms. Pitone also participated in when she was on the Rules Management Subcommittee. I also just want to mention that We introduced hopefully greater clarity and definition of terms such as what is a proximity school? in the revised policy. So I think, again, we're going to be doing a lot more work on this in the upcoming term, but this provides a fair degree of concise and updated language that reflect our current practice. So, appreciation.

If there are no further comments, this will be on our agenda at our next meeting for a second reading. That brings us to some grants. I will entertain a motion.

I move to accept. I'm sorry.

Wait. Field trip. I missed the field trip. Thank you. Field trip. I'll entertain a motion to approve a field trip.

I move to approve a field trip from September 17 to September 19, 2025 for 66 grade students from the Argenziano School to visit Nature's Classroom in Groton, Massachusetts. We will travel by bus. The student cost will be $310, but the PTA will fund all students unable to pay.

I have a motion by Dr. Phillips, seconded by Dr. Ackman. Mr. Biton?

Just kudos to the PTA for stepping up, and thanks.

All right. Yeah. Mr. Green?

This is a long-term request, I think, through you, probably to the district, but we've had a lot of talk over the last couple years of this concept of field trip equity. I confess that I'm still not sure what that means, But it does seem to me that one of the things it could mean is that we could take this school year to collect data on the field trips offered, their cost, and how the costs were covered. just so we can at least begin to understand what we're trying to talk about, even if I don't know the definition of what the goal is yet.

Thank you, Councilor Green. This conversation has happened outside of the families actually have in some cases copy you and then ask me also to think about what is the equity component around that so there's that layer as well as also what is the district indoors if you will or not in or just kind of recommended field trips that are related to the curriculum. There is some work at this moment in terms of making sure that Both the alignment of the field trips as well as the funding is looked into in a more comprehensive way. So I know that Dr. Jessica Boston-Davis is working with her department about identifying what are possible field trips that we recommend as not that we will be paid for them, but we will have to find a mechanism to do that.

or a mechanism to discuss what are some of the ways in which funding has to be reflective on the needs of the students. But we are embarking on that process is through the lens of instruction and I know that there was a question at some point as to What are some of the instructional components on some field trips? So we are working on that. I don't know if we have any updates on the process.

I'm happy to update thank you for the question point received and yes so we have and I'm looking at my colleague Gigi Silvera who's here who's really helped we've compiled the data from last year and we're starting to look through the exact lenses that you've you've shared it's something that we're still analyzing and there's a lot there but thanks building off of great work from Erica Garcia and Gigi and We've been able to start that analysis process. We plan on sharing that with our principal team to make sense together of where we're going, who's going on trips, where are we going, how much they cost, all of those complex components. And as Dr. Carmona mentioned, we are also creating by grade level at least one recommended field trip to attend. there's complexity as you know with you know requiring a trip given the logistics

and many many complex logistics but we are able to support schools in attending field trips one per grade level that is related to a curricular unit either in science, math, ELA, or social studies. So that's something that we are actively working on right now and perhaps is ready to go, but we'll work on that with the principal team in early September. So that process is underway is a short way to answer the question.

and just to remind anyone watching at home, we only have to approve field trips when they are overnight or out of state. So there's lots of field trips that are happening in the district. They don't necessarily come to us. So it would also be helpful at some point for us to get a sense of sort of everything that's happening. And so we truly understand, you know, when we hear from a parent that this school doesn't go on any field trips, is that really true? You know, how true is that would be helpful. Mr. Green?

I just want to thank Dr. Austin Davis and to reiterate that I don't think any of us know what good looks like yet, but having the day to play with may help us figure out my questions to ask, so thank you.

Okay, if there is nothing further, we have a field trip. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Now that brings us to an acceptance of grants. I'll entertain a motion.

I move to accept the following Federal entitlement and continuation grants and all state continuation grants awarded to Somerville Public Schools listed below. Private grants from BU Consortium, an SFLC grant in the amount of $3,500, and a UNIDOS grant in the amount of $5,639.50, a Nellie Mae grant, Navigating Now, District Support for College and Career Readiness for $100,000, Harvard Mentor Program, Districtwide Grant for $6,000, a Barr Foundation Grant, Strengthening School Leadership, Driving Instructional Improvement for $200,000. and the state grants. Coordinated Family Community Engagement, SFLC grant for $371,477.

Commonwealth School Health Districtwide Grant for $85,500 Partnership for Reading Success Massachusetts Prism Grant for $338,000, High Equivalency Test Centers Scale Grant for $11,268, MassHire MetroNorth Scale Grant $33,500, Commonwealth Preschool Grant for Early Childhood Programming for $1,000,000, Computer Science Engage Grant district-wide for $23,500, a Revolving Grant for Friends of Scale $43,720.15 and a federal grant, secondary and post-secondary program improvement and equipment for CTE in the amount of $5,000.

Second. I have a motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Dr. Ackman. I have Dr. Ackman and then Mr. Green.

Thank you. Through the chair. Amazing. Thank you. What I will say is one of my largest fears when Superintendent Skipper left was that Her passion for finding grant funds to support the amazing work would not... I am just so thrilled to have that be unfounded so I just like kudos is an understatement and just want to share deep appreciation for going after this these funds to help our students

Mr. Green.

Echoing Dr. Ackman's thanks and appreciation and Again, in the spirit of building good foundations, this is $2.1 million. And what it's going to be, I think we all expect it to be a tight couple of budgets. It is super helpful to our planning if we can get some detail as to how that money is going to get spent. Not necessarily now, but in a future finance subcommittee meeting. And in general, if we are going to do our interim CFO to develop systems to make grant spending transparent in a way that's historically not been for us in the district. That'd be fantastic. And again, $2.1 million is $2.1 million and it's extraordinary, so thank you.

and also related to that I think it would be helpful to understand if these grants obviously one never knows but if we think these grants are a one-off or if we think there's something that may continue year over year without having a crystal ball obviously. Dr. Phillips.

Thanks, Surya Chair. Bobby and I just talked about making finance meetings more, like making an all-funds budget pop more at our Finance Committee meeting, so I would expect more on grants. Could I get like a 30-second blurb on what is our Nellie Mae grant all about? What's our Bar Foundation grant all about?

Absolutely. Absolutely, and I will have more details in the academic update at the next meeting. So the Nellie Mae Grant, Navigating Now, that was a district support grant, so they reached out to Somerville and said, we have a grant for up to $100,000 to support districts during this tough time. Is there any area that you think you could use some support in? And at the same time, our College and Career Readiness Department experienced a cut from the Boston University College Corps program. who were our college they were part-time college advisors that helped and I may be slightly messing the name up I will have the formal name in front of me on September 8th but they were

you know we had three or four counselors through our partnership with BU and because of their funding cuts we lost all except for one part-time So, you know, at the same kind of recognizing the director of that department, Melanie Kessler, just shared that with me, and we had this opportunity to apply for a grant. We worked together to Secure Funding that will help with things like the college counseling, like college tours. So some of the things that we received from that program, we were able to write into the grant. with a specific focus on first generation students and students who are underrepresented in higher ed. So that's a high level, we can have more detail including if you're curious, although this may come through finance, The Bar Foundation Grant. Very excited. Bar Foundation's Strengthening School Leadership, Driving Instructional Improvement.

This was a very competitive grant, and my team and I, we spent a So this is a really unique opportunity where I'll say It continues the work that we have really I think through Dr. Carmona's theory of action, through his strategic plan around How are we strengthening the principals and their teams to be the instructional leaders of schools? And it is open, it was open in that for the RFP The request for proposals asking for people to share what they would do with the grant funding. It was open in that it just required us to think about how we strengthen school leaders and

people maybe not in the principal seat but people who are should be or are or ought to be instructional leaders in school all with the goal of driving instructional outcomes so we already in Somerville Public Schools had a partnership with Lynch Leadership Academy. We already were thinking about how do we expand our work. Lynch Leadership Academy is out of Boston College and they've been currently coaching and working closely with our principals team. We've been thinking how do we expand that to assistant principals, department heads, Teacher Leaders. How do we expand that great work? And so this grant helps us do that. It requires a collaborative team, so this is something that We're still working on in fact I have a revision that is needed for our grant proposal right in front of me but we're still working on what that will look like but we have channels like our incredible district instructional leadership team which is already a team of

Half educators and half administrators that work together to solve problems of practice around instruction in our district. The actual grant called for teams like that to come together and use data to analyze Our strengths and our areas for growth and then make a plan of action partnering with Lynch Leadership Academy. So it worked out perfectly. Long statement short, it will continue our leadership development work with the Centering Academic Instructional Leadership. And now we have a grant to help fund it. So we were thinking about how we pay for things like this and considering all the cuts. That was long-winded. I thought I wasn't going to have a lot to say without the notes in front of me, but we're very excited. A lot of work went into many of these grants this summer, so that's highlight. All right.

I have to really say a couple of things and I think Dr. Ackman mentioned a reference to The work that was done before. None of these grants really happen in isolation and it requires a lot of heavy lifting. I know that most of them come through Dr. Jessica Boston's desk and so she has done an amazing job coordinating these efforts. I know that SCALE also and the work that is happening with CTE and the finance team. So I think that the good news is that Somerville is also, when I talked to the commissioner about the CPPI grant, Somerville is perceived as a place where for grants actually can work in a collaborative way and so that there is that

The ground is primed for collaboration, so I feel that the feedback has been positive from the folks that actually have granted the grants. And it just doesn't happen in isolation. And I could start naming names, I'm afraid that I will miss some people who contribute heavily to this, but our finance team, our HR department, and big kudos to... Jessica Boston Davis here who does a lot of the work and I just don't want to miss that opportunity to highlight the work that is happening.

Okay, we need to vote on the motion. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to MSBA update which I'm assuming we've already covered. I don't think there's anything else for this meeting, correct? Okay, so items from committee members.

Can I just say something? I am really, and I don't know Courtney, I was part of the meeting the day we had the conversation. She's very thoughtful and I don't know how someone in his or her right mind wants to contribute so do so much there's a lot of work we have I mean these are piles of applications so I am I am really impressed with that I just wanted to Thank you for having made a choice of something. I just bump into this relationship and I'm seeing how much he cares about the Winter Hill and about the district in general. as well as her ability to be able to reflect in regards to the construction, the content itself. So I'm really excited about working with someone who knows more than I do about the content and also who is interested in the community as well.

Okay, that brings us to items from committee members. Before I forget, I meant to mention this earlier. The team has decided to not have simultaneous interpretation at our meetings. because we have yet to have a single person make use of it. Am I correct? So it will be available with 48 hours notice moving forward, but it won't be at every meeting. So I just wanted to make sure to let people know.

We didn't come to that conclusion lightly. That was done in collaboration with CFLC and also when we looked into different communities around here. Here, or in Massachusetts, that is usually the kind of the system is like you ask for the translation and then is available upon request.

Mr. Rink?

This isn't actually on now. I think, having seen the numbers for a while, I'm not surprised, although it's always unfortunate. But it is about another accessibility issue. In particular, tonight's public comment made me think of two changes to our procedures that I would like us to consider. One is that it was obvious that our Standard timekeeping mechanisms don't work for people who may be visually impaired. So I just to think about that going forward. And I know why we have the policy that the school committee doesn't respond and why we don't clap or any of those things. And as a rule, we have that policy of support. I do wonder if we can make an exception for when students speak to us. Because regardless of content,

It takes a lot of courage for a student to come before this body and share their thoughts. And if we could consider Make a norm that we applaud for every student that's public comment. I think that would be something we should consider as a way of perhaps further encouraging and supporting student civic engagement. I recognize I've not thought that through, so I'm not saying we should necessarily bring it forward for a vote, but perhaps that's something that if rules committee ever gets a moment to breathe, they can think through.

Okay, something to think about. Are there other items from committee members? Seeing none, I believe we have condolences this evening, Dr. Phillips. We do.

The school committee extends its deepest condolences to the family of Thomas Gallaghani, retired Somerville High School headmaster, Claudia Issa Wernick da Cruz, sister of ESL specialist, Bridget Moran Travers, retired paraprofessional at Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center, Ramona Catesuca Santiago, sister of Manuel Manny Santiago, technology specialist at ESCS and Capuano School. and Catherine Santiago, former executive assistant to the superintendent and chief of staff, daughter of Roxana Reyes, former paraprofessional at the Michael E. Capuano School, and finally Angelina and Angela Grassi, grandmother of John Breslin, Director of Technology.

All right, with that we are adjourned. Have a good day. Have a good first day of school on Wednesday, everyone.