School Committee Meeting - December 15, 2025

Meeting the school committee will be conducted by a hybrid participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive records. and local cable access government channels.

Dr. Carmona, please follow up. Ms. Pitone? Dr. Ackman? Mr. Green, Mr. Biton, President Davis, Mayor Ballantyne, Barish, Dr. Phillips, Chair Krepchin, Chair Corum,

We will start with a moment of silence.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we will start with the report from our student. Yeah, great.

Thank you so much. It's so great to see everyone this evening, although it's really cold outside. We're happy to be here. Last full week before break and like the weeks leading up to this week have been pretty calm. We don't have that many updates but we're just a lot of students and a lot of teachers and staff are ready to go on break. I know I am but We just have a couple of updates we wanted to share regarding our meeting that we're going to be having with the school committee. That's going to be coming up and we have some agenda items that we just wanted to briefly go over. which we will go into detail during that meeting but we as school committee members we came together and we made a list of ideas that we or the most important ideas that we wanted to bring up to the school committee and just some things we wanted to focus on for the rest of the school year. So a big thing that came up throughout the school and like what a lot of school committee members brought up was clubs.

which we previously talked about at these school meetings school committee meetings as well but there's definitely been a lot of issues I would say about club funding and like which clubs get funding and like how to prioritize The clubs that get funding and the clubs that aren't official at the high school. But we're trying to create a system this year where we recognize clubs for the work they're doing and we're even trying to plan like an award show or something for the clubs and like awarding clubs on like um what they do over the year for example it could be like Most members in a club or like most engagement and we just really want to recognize clubs for the amazing work they're doing because a lot of students and the clubs are running often go unrecognized and unnoticed so you really want to foster a school culture everyone feels like

their accomplishments are being seen um yeah so that's a little bit about the clubs and then we also want to talk about x-plug because there's been a lot of um We've had discussions about like X block during the day and like if we should keep the schedule the way it is or if like we've seen a lot of students skipping X block and if it is the best time to keep X block and we also want to make sure that there are enough teacher supports at our school because that's something that you've seen come up among our teachers and just ensuring that maybe we can create a system where x block also benefits both students and teachers. So it doesn't impact students' learnings and their student learning and their experiences.

and then we also brought this up previously but something a lot of school committee members brought up was school curriculum specifically through electives and if there was any way we could try to create more inclusive electives that include more cultures and are more comprehensive regarding that aspect and then yeah that was a lot of ideas but I think Peyton has some more to share

Hi, I'm Peyton. This is my first meeting that I'm coming to, but I'm really happy to be here and to meet all of you. So seeing more about like the clubs things that Babako was talking about. Another thing we're really gonna be trying to talk about and focus on is like bringing more attention to the arts. and like our art clubs and activities because something that I know like me and my peers have noticed is that a lot of the time the like sports events and stuff can be like A lot of people show up to them and people know when they're happening. Whereas stuff like art shows and concerts, there's just less information about. Like for example, we have upcoming this week, the Windsor Art Show.

but a lot of people weren't aware about it just because like we don't like have super great information about when events are and stuff like that so we're gonna be talking about How to like inform people more that this stuff is going on, especially because I think it's really important that we are emphasizing arts and stuff, especially considering we have so many art classes at our school. So it's like, I think students want to have their work be appreciated and shown to other students for motivation. And then something else we're gonna be talking about at our meeting is, like reflecting on the ballot question three from that was approved in November which basically was saying that the city should like divest or like not be

Using contracts with companies that are sustaining the Israel's occupation in Palestine and the school like we source our Chromebooks from HP which they have made A lot of technology that's been used to hurt a lot of people. So I think it's important that we're upholding the values that we talk about at our school. standing up for like what's right and stuff um and i also just like uh i think it's like important to follow up considering that this is something that recently happened so yeah um

and that's that's what i had in my notes okay thank you for that uh dr ackman thank you to the chair to to the both of you thank you for your thoughts i'm curious both in the support I would like to hear more about like additional supports for teachers can be pretty broad if you have some sense of what they need you don't have to have it right now I you know we have this meeting and I'd like to hear about during the meeting and then I'm sort of Curious when it comes to art shows and art showcases, do you feel like I think I'm going to phrase this well that like the school publicizes everything the same it's just the way other people publicize it is is inequitable or that you know your school is actually giving more attention to sports presentations performances than they are to art presentations performances does that make sense

um like talking about that um with the arts things um like something that i specifically noticed today in the morning announcements like for example um there was no mention of the Arjo, but there is like frequently mentions about like sports games that happen and things like that. Also like I mean for example at our pep rallies and stuff we have a lot of like sport events and stuff that people can partake in but we don't have a lot of those creative opportunities like as much being like publicized I guess is what I'm trying to say

Also just adding on to that I think a lot of times for pep rallies or like the morning announcements students in leadership positions are the ones deciding like what gets put in and So we have the communications club, which runs the morning announcements. And then our class officers are the ones planning and running the pep rallies. So when you don't have students who We are engaging like different art programs or different art electives inside of that leadership group. It's often difficult to bring that awareness to the different electives and just like arts in general at our school because the majority of students in those positions are more focused on like the sports aspect or what they believe like the majority of students at Somerville High School would be interested in. which is why our pep rally kind of surrounds like the fall sports and like celebrating sports achievements as compared to other extra curricular activities.

and then sorry also in regards to um teacher supports i feel like we definitely want to narrow that down but i think just in general what we've been seeing is that a lot of teachers um have become really overwhelmed is the amount of work That they're expected to do especially regarding like having more supports for students. So we were thinking maybe we could have a more Aboff, Aboff, of Teachers rather than like meeting after school because a lot of times students don't really utilize x block as they're supposed to but having that block in the day is

That's really beneficial and could really support teachers who don't have the time to stay after school but they still want to meet with their students and make sure they get the help they need.

Thank you, Chair, through you. First, Peyton, welcome. Glad you're here. I just wanted to thank you both for sharing the agenda for our upcoming meeting in advance. It is a great practice, helps us I just wanted to thank you for that. That's it.

I also just wanted to mention for my colleagues that are on Instagram that I saw that the class of 2026 has started posting their whenever a student has decided where they're going to go to college they post a cute thing about the college and a and they're really fun to see so if anyone's on Instagram it's like class of 2026 I'll have to look up exactly what the what it's called but it's fun to follow I've done it in past years so I just wanted to let everyone know Is there anything else for our students? All right, seeing nothing, the next on our agenda is award and citations, but if no one objects, I'm gonna do that out of order so that we can do the public comment. or for the superintendent before we do the awards, because I think that makes more sense. All right, so that brings us to public comment. We have one person signed up online. So I will read our instructions. Welcome and thank you to those who've signed up for public comment. Speakers will be allowed three minutes to present their material.

However, the chair may limit to two minutes based on the number of individuals signed up to speak. You will just have three minutes since there's just one person. Speakers should begin their comments by stating their name and address or in the case of district employees their role within the district. The chair of the meeting after a warning reserves the right to terminate speech which is not constitutionally protected because it constitutes true threats that are likely to provoke a violent reaction and cause a breach of the peace or incitement to imminent lawless conduct or which contains obscenities. Public comment is not a discussion, debate, or dialogue between the public and the committee. Members of the committee will not reply to public comment in the course of the meeting, though individual members may follow up, and items from public comment may be taken up in future meetings. The school committee will not hear personal complaints of school personnel nor against any member of the school community in public session. Individuals may address topics on the agenda or items within the school committee's scope of responsibility, such as the district budget, goals and policies, or role of the superintendent. the public is encouraged to submit comments in writing for inclusion in the public record so with that jess adams the floor is yours

Hi, thank you so much. My name is Jessica Adams. I live at 3 Porter Street in Somerville. I have three kids at the Kennedy School. They are All wonderful kids in a multi-ethnic household with IEPs and 504s and we are just so appreciative of the work that the school committee has done since we have been here and since we've started giving public comment and being super active as How much as we can within this realm and also thanks to Dr. Carmona for his vision of equity within the district. Seeing the effects of that with you know different grade level different Thank you. Thank you.

In looking at tonight's agenda for the school committee, I was really overwhelmed kind of with gratitude to see that The discussion of equity is continuing. It's really wonderful to see that we're going to be having the school committee and SPS partnering I did see that we are I'm explicitly going to be addressing race, ethnicity, different social barriers that have I've been there with regards to whole child teaching and learning, equitable access to programming, as well as equitable resource allocation. And I was just really hoping to bring to the school committee's attention

you know just kind of the same thing I always do that it would be truly wonderful to see a big focus on disabilities both visible and invisible adhering to child find Finding new and innovative ways to find kids that may have disabilities and serve them before they wind up needing referrals through the full IEP evaluation process because by serving our most vulnerable populations. We are truly serving anyone and I do have one ask of the school committee and superintendent and Mr. Arellano is and that is that we please find a way to get involved with the and many more. Thank you.

With our OTs giving input to the city and the designers, but it would be truly wonderful to get multiple perspectives. from those who are closest to the issues of the systemic inequities regarding not only ethnicity but ability as well. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes public comment. We will do a quick approval of minutes. I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve the minutes for November 3rd, 2025.

Second. Unless there are any questions, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to the report of the superintendent, Dr. Carmona.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. First, I wanted to thank both Peyton and Bhavika for coming in here tonight. Peyton, welcome. Thank you also for shedding some light into the dynamics that you're noticing, the imbalances as to how do we advertise sports versus arts. I think that that's... Very critical eye, and I welcome the challenge for the community. So before we get going, I just wanted to I acknowledge and honor our departing colleagues, Mayor Ballantyne, Eleanor Barish, Dr. Sarah Phillips, and Chair Krepchin. They have been true partners to our schools. and I wanted to recognize their commitment and their efforts to make sure that the time the energy and the vision that they bring is realized in our district so I am truly

I'm honored to be here to celebrate their gifts and their legacy in our district. Thank you for the hard work. And with that, I'm also going to start just a few reflections as our calendar year comes to an end. This season brings many traditions and celebrations, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and others. and they reflect in part the universe and the diverse cultures and backgrounds of our students and families in Somerville. So this time of the year is often one of reflection and togetherness. And at the same time, the events of this weekend have been difficult and the violence and anger we see in the world can feel overwhelming. Still, the holidays remind us of our shared humanity and our ability to care for one another. Across our community, these traditions center on light, generosity, and hope.

and they offer a chance to pause, support one another, and find moments of comfort even when the world feels unsettled. And as the season continues, we encourage our community to stay strong, to treat one another with kindness and respect, and to remember that we are here to support each other and to keep our schools safe and welcoming. And speaking of staff, I also want to extend my deep appreciation to our teachers, staff, and school leaders. Their dedication and care throughout the year allow our students to feel safe, challenged, and supported. And please remember that we have our holiday break will begin on Tuesday the 23rd and we will be for a break until December the 24th. And the school will be closed from December 24 to January 2. And we will resume the school on the 5th.

I am going to have a conversation about reflection and about goals, but I want to make sure that the time is right to acknowledge also our members of their school committees.

I think it's fine to do the strategic plan report and then do the members' offers so that our staff don't have to stay.

Thank you. So as is tradition during the holidays, we always do New Year celebrations. This is not a New Year celebration, but this is a goal-setting conversation. We're taking stock of where we are. at this time of the year through our strategic plan. So I'm gonna welcome Amara Anosike, our chief of staff, and also Sam Elijin to Tell us a little bit about, give us the pulse of where we are at this time of the year with our goals and specifically our multiple visions for the future of our students in the district. Mrs. Anosike.

Thank you, Dr. Carmona and through the chair. Good evening, everyone. It's great to see everyone. As you mentioned, my name is Amara Anosike. I'm the chief of staff and strategy and I'm here with. Hi, Sam Elegyne, director of data. So this is our inaugural update of the strategic plan, our progress update. We're very excited to share all the things that we've been able to do as a community. and where we still need some progress. The content in this presentation was put together from staff from across the district and leaders from across the district who engaged their staff, families, and students to provide the information that we're about to share. It's not an exhaustive list but it is a strong summary of where things are and we're very grateful to Dr. Carmona and Dr. Jess Boston-Davis for their leadership as we've all worked with Students, families, and staff to get to where we are in terms of the implementation.

So it's going to be a simple presentation. Can you go back to the agenda? We're going to just do a quick reminder of what our mission is and what the vision is for the district. We will provide a progress on goals. We'll talk a little bit about the family listening sessions that we've launched in the implementation of this work, and then finally we'll go to next steps. Next slide, please. So our vision. We envision a student-centered learning community where every student honoring their unique strengths and background is empowered to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally through tailored supports and equitable access to opportunity. Our primary mission is to cultivate inspired learners who are equipped to make a positive impact on the world, and we achieve this by fostering rigorous and joyful learning environments.

where students families and staff and community partners collaborate with a shared commitment to academic excellence and well-being. Next slide. All right.

So let's start by diving into our first priority area of academic excellence. As you'll recall, our focus here is to promote equitable outcomes and enable targeted supports based on need by focusing on quality curriculum, instructional rigor, multi-tiered systems of support with an emphasis on strengthening supports for multilingual learners, and our students with disabilities. Next slide, please. All right, awesome. So here we have some information about the action steps for our academic excellence priority area, as well as some accompanying data. I just want to clarify before we begin that done that you see here on on the slides means that all the systems are in place but the work is always ongoing. So to start out with some of the action steps that we have completed, those include hiring a full-time MTSS specialist to help align and strengthen our systems across our schools.

The implementation of Sunday Systems, which is a multisensory reading program, which also is tied in with training that's being given to our special educators and ESL educators. We also have principal meetings at least once per month, which help to drive improved practice through instructional rounds. We have our common planning time initiative, which gives educators important time to collaborate and plan for their students' needs. and we have our ongoing partnership with the Lynch Leadership Academy which provides professional development for all of our principals, assistant principals, as well as other administrators and helps to build their capacity as instructional leaders. Some of the actions that are in progress include the ongoing curriculum rollouts that are happening throughout our Pre-K through 8 schools, as well as professional development that's being given to all of our educators tied to the high quality instructional materials being rolled out. We have a partnership with the Learning Acceleration Network and ELA and our district illustrative math curriculum and this includes walkthroughs at each of our schools.

We also have our ongoing partnership with the Boston Children's Hospital to really strengthen our universal screeners and our Tier 2 supports for students. And we're also currently launching a middle grades experience working group. So in addition to the different actions that we've taken, we also have several indicators and information that we could share along with that. So in terms of our curriculum, we're giving training on the different curricula that have been rolled out, such as illustrative mathematics, wit and wisdom, foundations, and fish tank. and this is happening through common planning time as well as full-day professional development sessions. For common planning time, all the CPT leaders have been trained through either the Harvard Grad School of Education, Research for Better Teaching, or internal modules, in some cases trained on several of these. And in terms of assessment, we're starting to see positive progress and growth on things like DIBELS and iReady, as well as the MCAS data that we also reviewed together back in October.

Next slide, please. So just to dive a little bit deeper into the data and the information that we're using to really inform our progress on the plan, we start here with this data from a partnership that we have with the nonprofit education consulting group called TNTP as part of their learning acceleration network. So the focus of this partnership is on strong implementation of our fish tank curriculum with a special focus on our multilingual learners. So our strategy has really been to use this instructional data effectively to drive continuous improvement cycles at the system and classroom level and to also use this information to progress monitor and make adjustments as needed. So the data on this slide was gathered by a team of administrators, educator coaches, and CPT leaders as they did walkthroughs through classrooms that are implementing Fishtank in middle grade classrooms.

So they went through and basically used a rubric to determine how each class was doing in terms of reading and listening comprehension, which is that RLC acronym that you see here on the slides, and the core actions that are identified by TNTP and DESE. So the data that came from these walkthroughs, we can see here on this chart a comparison of data from the first round of observations for the school year, from school year 24-25, and from this current school year. So looking at that first pair of bars at the top, we could see that for RLC core action one, which is about whether the lesson focused on high quality texts, that yes, 93% of the time, we did see that lessons were focused on high quality texts. which is a positive sign that means that everyone is using this new curriculum that we have. And then when we look at that next pair of bars which are focused on RLC Core Action 2, We see that 80% of classrooms were somewhat, mostly, or fully engaging in tasks that integrate standards and build comprehension of texts.

and lastly if you look at that last bottom pair of graphs we can see that we're continuing to work to shift the thinking back to students and currently about 33 percent of classrooms are mostly or fully structuring lessons and ways that do make students responsible for doing the thinking in the classroom. So compared to beginning of year last year, our first year of fish tank implementation, we're definitely moving in the right direction and we expect to see this data shift to mostly and yes as the year progresses on. Next slide please. Awesome. So this slide here shows some DIBELS assessment data from school year 23-24. School Year 24-25 and School Year 25-26. So DIBELS is an assessment of foundational reading skills such as things like phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, et cetera. So on the chart on this slide, you'll see the red boxes that are highlighting the comparison of student placements at the beginning of the year test period across each of the school years.

So the main takeaway here is that in grades one through three, we've seen a higher proportion of students starting the year at or above grade level each year. So in school year 23-24, you can see 54% of students started the year at or above grade level. The following year that went up to 57% and this year that went up to 60% of students starting the year at or above grade level. So this is a positive sign. This means that our students are coming into the year on track and Our goal is to keep them on track and keep them improving as the year goes on. All right, next slide, please. Thank you. Oh, perfect. So here we have some I-Ready data. And as a reminder, I-Ready is a formative reading and math assessment that students in grades three through eight take in the fall, winter, and spring each year. So the data represented here is the beginning of year test period, or that fall period, where students are assessed on reading and math. And this, again, is showing data for the past three school years, so school year 23-24,

2425 and 2526. So similar to what we saw on the previous slide around the dibbles, we can see that more students started this current school year mid or above or early on grade level, which is a positive sign. So in this case, 46% of students started the year mid or above or early on grade level for reading and 30% for math. I also want to note that here on these charts, that gray that you see that says one grade level below, so because the IRE assessments taken at the beginning of the school year, before students have really started to receive Next slide, please.

Thank you. So our second major priority area is equity and access. And here we're focused on addressing persistent gaps, deploying resources based on need, diversifying the workforce and expanding access to programming like out-of-school time, CTE, and scale. And we're also hoping to continue to ensure access to welcoming facilities. Next slide, please. In terms of action steps, we have a brand new production kitchen out of the AFA in terms of the facility. We have a new classroom at the Argenziano. and we also have an accessibility ramp that was added at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School at Edgerly. There are a lot of other facility work that's happening but these are some major highlights in terms of things that have been able to be accomplished.

We've also executed with obviously the committee an MOU for the Cummings School on use for that school and in that MOU there is language around Planning for a district-wide swing space. We have conducted annual walkthroughs at every single building with the city departments including DPW, ISD, and IAM. We have onboarded a new facilities coordinator. We've also continued to conduct our annual diversity and recruitment fair and have seen increased engagement and participation year over year. We have strategic partnerships with local universities. An example is the Huggsy Student Teacher Program. We have increased enrollment and attendance at out-of-school time activities, scale, and CTE.

Some of the new programmings at scale include high school equivalency programming, Bridge to College, we added an ESOL certified nursing assistant and early childhood one as well. We've also added a facilities maintenance and HVAC program and pre-apprenticeship program. Other matters that are in progress include our coordination with the city around the MSBA project for the Winter Hill building project and potentially the Brown School. We are exploring options for hiring international candidates. We are also creating alternative pathways to licensure. including through our programming with SCALE paraprofessional pipeline and have launched and or will be launching and Inclusive Practices Working Group with educators, administrators, parents and caregivers.

Some key indicators include a 22% increase in community school enrollment since SY 23-24. A 26% increase in out-of-school time club enrollment since SY 24-25. A 35% increase in scale enrollment since SY 23-24. and with the CTE program we saw a 28% increase since SY 22-23, a 5.4% increase in ML students that are participating, and we've had 48 high school seniors participate in the affiliation program which is when they get to work full-time and they're connected with an organization outside of the school and also 37 students in the co-op program which is very similar except for they're being paid for their work.

And I'll pass it on to Sam. All right, so our next priority area is wellness and joy. And as a reminder, we are committed to investing in student and staff well-being by implementing quality SEL curriculum, leveraging teams towards prevention, Expanding clubs and OST offerings with a focus on community building and celebrating our educators. All right, so here we have some information around wellness and joy, starting with some of the action steps that have been completed to date. So we have fully implemented our second step pre-K through eight curriculum. We have an SEL specialist in each of our Pre-K through 8 schools supporting with all SEL programming. Each school now has an SEL block in their schedule to allow for that programming. We've also created a social emotional behavioral support team to respond to students' needs. We added two full-time prevention and intervention specialists across the district. We've expanded the mediation program.

This team now includes 80 middle and high school students. Last school year in June of 2025, we also had our first annual staff recognition ceremony, which was a really great success. We had a chance to really gather as a community and celebrate our staff and our educators in the district and for their service. We've also expanded club offerings at many of our schools and we have community circles which are being held in every school on a daily or weekly basis. So some of the actions that are still ongoing include the internal tier one restorative justice circle keeper trainings, which are happening as we speak, right? Which has included 66 new staff members who have been trained and 55 students that have been trained. and we're also working to develop an educator showcase through the district instructional leadership team which would allow us to identify and highlight educators who demonstrate exceptional leadership and academic excellence through model classrooms and peer observations.

So discuss some of the data that we see on the right-hand side, some of the key indicators that show our progress in this area. Starting with conduct incidents, we've seen a decrease across the district, so an 18% decrease across our pre-K through 8 schools. and a 23% decrease at the high school. In terms of our chronic absenteeism, we've seen about a five percentage point decrease from school year 23-24 to school year 24-25. In terms of our attendance rate, we're seeing that go up. As of last week, we had a 94.6% attendance rate compared to an end-of-year attendance rate of 92.8 last year. and in terms of our conditions for learning data, 92% of students say that they feel their school values the diversity of their school community and 73% of students said that they enjoy going to their school.

Next slide please. So family and community engagement is our fourth priority area and here we're focused on creating clear, accessible, and streamlined communication channels with families, more opportunities for engagement, and Strengthening Community Partnerships. And we were supposed to talk about all the pictures you see and we forgot, but this is at the Get Ready for School Fair in August. It was well attended and you'll see some data on the next slide on what folks thought in terms of feedback. Black, as coordinated by our SFLC department. So in terms of the things that we have been able to do as a district, and we are saying we are doing, but we are, like I said at the beginning, representing So many people across the district, including students, families, and staff who've all been able to do this together. So we've updated the multilingual process information sheets

for SPS enrollment, and also enrollment in our community schools to make it a lot more simpler and easier to understand for all families. We've implemented Arbiter, which is a new streamlined platform for OST clubs registration. We established direct channels of communication with PTAs. C-PAC, MLPAC, Padres Latinos, and the Asian Family Network, the Somerville Asian Family Network. We also started collecting differentiated feedback from families for each SFLC office. In progress, we hope to expand the use of Arbiter as a single point of entry for families to register for after school and summer programs.

We're in the development phase of new communication platforms and publications for broad messaging, including SPS in print, a newspaper, and an SPS podcast. We're also expanding use of video to deliver district messaging on curriculum enhancements and the state of our schools. Key indicators, in terms of enrollment info sessions and the data we've been gathering, we've received 94% positive feedback. 25% of our families come into the TAB building in person for in-person support. In terms of enrollment feedback, we just started collecting that in November. Out of the 40 responses, an average of 95% satisfaction rate. and we've had 235 registrations for out of school time clubs through Arbiter.

So another slide for family and community engagement. Yep, this is the right one. So we have coordinated our second Get Ready for School Fair. We've advocated for secured funding to support additional food resources. We regularly table at monthly markets for community partners to share key resources with families. We have collaborated with PTAs to distribute grocery gift cards to families impacted by food insecurity. We've partnered with Food for Free and the Healy Community to launch a third monthly food market. And we've strengthened our partnerships with the Growing Center, with folks like Elizabeth Peabodyhouse and others. We've launched the first of five family listening sessions and developed a kindergarten transition roadmap.

In terms of progress, we're continuing to develop opportunities for focused family and community engagement, such as curriculum workshops, Bilingualism and the Brain workshops. We've opened up channels of engagement. For instance, Dr. Carmona attends all the monthly food markets and gets to engage with families face to face. District leaders also join the family listening sessions and get to learn a lot from families in that setting, including department heads and other educators. District leaders also are now beginning to attend the monthly PTA meetings. We've launched a parent-teacher conference working group, and we're grateful that the Care Card program will return in January.

In terms of key indicators, over 1,000 attendees attended the Get Ready for School Fair in August, along with 47 community partners, and we got a 92% positive feedback rating. An average of 294 families attend our food markets each month. We will have some data from the school tours that are happening, so we're excited to gather data from that to see how folks feel those are going. So I'm gonna pass it over to Sam.

So in addition to all that that we just outlined for all of our priority areas, we're also continuing to implement the strategic plan in a variety of ways. One of those ways being school improvement plans, which you'll hear updates about in the spring. We also have ongoing professional development for staff across the district in a range of areas and we have progress monitoring on all the initiatives and curricula that we've discussed already here today. We also continue to value data as a means to drive our decision making. This shows up through our continuous use of data systems like Open Architects, which is a new data dashboard tool that houses and visualizes a wealth of student information that we use to drive our decisions. We also have things like these, our bi-annual progress updates to the school committee and the community at large about how we're doing in terms of the strategic plan. and we're also committed to continuing to engage families, staff, students and community partners through means like the listening sessions that Amara had just mentioned, through updates to our SPS website,

and through collaborative working groups like the Middle Grades Experience or the Inclusive Practices. Next slide please. And speaking of listening sessions, so we're continuing to create meaningful opportunities to engage families as partners in this work through listening sessions where they can share ideas and thoughts around the strategic plan and progress or improvements that still need to be made. So we had our first listening session in November which was focused on special education and we have additional ones coming up soon. So you can see we have another special education session on January 30th. We have two out of school time sessions on January 14th and on February 10th. and we have a multilingual learner education session on January 28th. Next slide please. And so with all of that being said, we also just want to take a moment to say thank you again to all the students, family, staff, and community partners who participated

In a listening session, a focus group, root cause analysis session, strategy session, and or completed a survey, your voice, experience, and expertise has been invaluable to the development and implementation of this strategic plan. and we also want to say thank you to all the staff who contributed to tonight's presentation and through their work and their efforts and this includes folks like Ruth Santos and Tina Liu from the SFLC Darrell Nash, our Communications Director, the Superintendent's Executive Team, Jim Hatchie, the Director of CTE, Jocelyn Marte, the Director of Scale, Rosanna Parabello and Adriana Garriguet, our director and assistant director of OST, and Kaylee Gallitano, our director of equity and excellence. And thank you to all of you for being here with us at City Hall or listening on Zoom or through the live stream. Thank you.

I will take questions from my colleagues and also just want to say thanks for staying for this to our student reps and if you guys have any questions or comments please feel free to raise your hand just like anyone else around the horseshoe so with that questions from my colleagues yes Dr. Phillips and then Mr. Green

Thanks too, Chair. Um... I've been working in and around schools for a long time and I've learned there are a lot of different ways to get to improvement but the tack that this district is taking of really like going deep into the fundamentals and Thank you for taking that work on and doing it so very well. Thank you.

Actually, building on that, I could not agree more with Dr. Phillips that I really appreciate that we are taking the deep work approach as opposed to the perhaps flashing new objects and shiny toys approach. Which actually wasn't meant to be as gargantuan as it sounds. And I know that oftentimes that work, one, has lagging indicators, so I appreciate the short-term indicators that we have. And because, you know, academic improvement comes to be a lagging indicator there, the story comes to be a lagging indicator. So my question is really, what are we doing, I'm gonna start with staff, but for staff and families and students, for them to see,

How this work, see what we're trying to do as a whole. How their work fits into that. and creating the feed loops so that people who are doing the work can feed in the better feedback into how it's fitting into our plan and what we're moving forward.

I could take a stab at that and I just want to make sure I understand fully the question through the chair. Are you saying how are we sharing this not just in this room but with families and getting their ongoing feedback around the work? and staff and stuff okay it's through various mechanisms I would say the family listening sessions is this is why we're doing them so we're getting to do deep work and and we didn't want it to be so Broad, that we're talking about the whole plan in a family listening session. So we thought, what should we prioritize? Well, based on our priorities and the data, we're seeing that there are some We also saw in the entry plan data

that folks have they they love out of school time programming but they have also a lot of areas where we can shift based on updated information from the community and so that's why we're doing those family listening sessions I think we're working with Daryl and Communications on how we are making this more accessible on the website and that's and I think that there are structures like the working groups where we'll be asking questions and getting I don't know if other folks want to chime in to talk about the different ways that we're doing it, but I would say it's multifaceted.

Just a quick follow-up, just to get a specific. So the family listening sessions, do people, when they're advertised, know that they are part of a larger plan? Is it discussed in the learning session? So do people know that there's actually a method to the madness?

Through the chair, I would say yes. In the invitation itself, it says in furtherance of the strategic plan and in the data that we received from families at the outset, We've also kept in touch with families that did the root cause analysis sessions and we've been giving them updates on where we are with the plan and that's something that we will continue to do.

Are there other questions from my colleagues? I'll give everyone a moment because I know it was a lot.

This is a question. Will we get a copy of this? Because I don't currently have them. It's there now. Great. I didn't see it. I was looking for it just now and I didn't see it. Okay, because I'm sure there was a lot of data there, and I am sure that with a chance to sit down and really dig into it, I'll have questions for myself and Gene, but I don't have them yet.

I just wanted to say thank you as well. I love seeing the I was one of the student leaders who was, um, I'm trained to run the restorative justice circles and I love seeing how balanced our school community is so I just want to say thank you for presenting and I really enjoyed being able to be here and listen to it. Thank you so much for that.

Mr. Green?

Do the student reps have access to the folder? And if not, can we get it to them or get them the presentation so that they can also dig in and do what they want with it?

Seems like that would be easy enough to have the students be able to access the Google folder the same as, yeah.

Ms. Pitone? Through you, I'm sure Ms. Garcia can handle this. And I think, actually, we're switching out of not having executive session in our packets online, correct, on the Google Drive, so it's a non-issue? Okay, forget it.

Also, just to build on Mr. Green's question about communication, I know you guys mentioned it here and that Darrell mentioned it when he did his presentation, but it seems like the SPS in print and SPS podcast are potentially great ways for user-friendly ways to talk about all of these great things. So I just wanted to point that out too because I'm excited to see that. Okay. If there are no further questions, thank you again for the presentation. Dr. Carmona, is there more to your report?

Yes. I just wanted to thank again Sam El-Ejem as well as Mara Nozike. And I just wanted to point out a couple of things. One is None of this is possible without the willingness and the commitment from our educators. We know that whatever happens If a student is fully engaged, has a sense of belonging, and is learning, we know that for the most part that experience is a great experience. So we know that we also have embarked on a significant work around high quality instructional materials and that is not a light touch. To do that in literacy and to do that in math and to do that in science, and social emotional programs. So I just, from being in the classroom, I know how difficult and how cynical one can be As a teacher, when someone says to you, well, there's a new program, there's this, there's that, and it's a really high toll on the educators.

So I have to say that Somerville has been embraced in collaboration with our SEU partners. That's just a heavy lift that I wanted to highlight because that might be missed in this process. And I also wanted to say that We have made significant progress, and I think I heard something from Dr. Phillips around the fundamentals of moving forward. My challenge is that we're still moving at a pace that is not transformational, and I'm hoping that the scale of the change is coming. but we still have some gaps that we need to address but I thank you for your trust and for the idea that we will continue to charge the course but changing this Making these changes at a district level is something that is rare.

We see that in a small, one school, two schools, but doing at a scale of a district, That is our charge, I believe, and I think that with Somerville the way Somerville is, I think we'll be able to do it. So thank you for your trust, but I also wanted to recognize that the heavy lift happens in the classroom. Thanks. That is my report. Then there is the personal report, but I don't know if you wanted to do it now or after.

We can go back and do the awards and citations and then we'll finish with the rest of the agenda. So awards and citations, I'm not actually sure who wrote all of them and who wants to present them. Okay, sounds good. Why don't we hope we have it in order here. I am first, so.

it's up to you how you want to do the chair just up to you how you want to do it sometimes we have somebody else host the meeting while you stand with the sure person so if you guys want to try to do that I think that's a little nicer

Allana Kreption Whereas Allana Kreption has been a dedicated member of the Somerville School Committee, serving in leadership for the majority of her five and a half years, including two and a half years as chair and two and a half years as vice chair and throughout her whereas throughout her tenure Elana has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the students and families of Somerville Public Schools, ensuring that every decision reflects the values of equity, inclusion, and excellence. and whereas Ilana served on the negotiating committee that provided first in the state parental leave benefits setting a new standard for educator support and whereas under her tenure the district saw substantial increases in funding each year strengthening resources and opportunities for all students And whereas Alana's child has been enrolled in Somerville Public Schools throughout her service and will graduate in 2026, giving her a deeply personal perspective on the importance of strong public education.

And whereas Alana has generously given her time as a volunteer reading buddy at the Argenziano School fostering literacy and a love of learning among young students, and whereas Ilana has extended her care beyond the classroom by delivering meals to elderly neighbors who face mobility challenges, exemplifying her commitment to community and compassion, And whereas Alana, as an accomplished artist, has consistently supported charitable causes by donating her handcrafted jewelry, blending creativity with generosity to benefit those in need, And whereas Alana's leadership has been marked by thoughtful deliberation, a collaborative spirit, and steadfast focus on what is best for students, families, educators, Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Somerville School Committee publicly acknowledges the extraordinary contributions of Alana Krepchin and expresses its deepest gratitude for her years of service and wishes her continued success in all future endeavors.

and be it resolved that this well-earned resolution be included in the minutes of tonight's meeting and that a framed copy be presented to Ilana Krepchin.

Are we saying nice things? Yeah, Andre.

We're definitely saying nice things. Stay at the podium. This is where we shower you with love and praise. So a lot of you have heard this before, but probably most of you haven't. When Alana first got elected to the school committee, I was fully prepared to I was like, wait, we got today an independent jewelry maker who graduated from Hampshire College and went to school in Newton. I was like, oh, she's going to be just the most pretentious. and nothing could have been further from the truth. Alana Corruption is, as we all know, incredibly grounded and incredibly accessible and incredibly committed to making real progress.

you know with going in with those locations I find myself you know six years later you know proud proud to have been a colleague with you and proud to say that you become my dearest friends in the world You know, I think, you know, those two and a half years when you were vice chair, obviously, I was chairing, to say... that I couldn't have asked for a better partner and things like the COVID reopening the negotiations with the like um Somerville will never fully know how blessed they've been to have you these last six years. You know, it's not goodbye for me because I'm still going to be bothering you every day.

I will never find the proper words to give you all the things you deserve for everything you've done these last six years.

Emily? Thank you. I wrote this. I realized it was wrong. Now that I'm looking at it, it's been six and a half years, not five and a half. I apologize for that. I will go in and Turn it into a six on your plaque. That's on me. As this indicates, nothing you have done has been done in a traditional way. You came on at a non-traditional time. Did two and a half years, you know, supportive leadership, two and a half years of leadership. Nothing according to our schedule and, because that you've sort of modeled a leadership style that I think every single person who has come across it has benefited from.

Your humility, your thoughtfulness, your willingness to truly try and see every perspective and take it into account Man, the world would be a better place if every leader had that. And I am so thankful to have been present under your leadership for that. And I humbly will do my best to carry that forward.

Liran. You can go, then Laura will go.

Thank you. Through you, Ilana. You've been chair since I've been a school committee member. It's going to be weird to have a different leader at the helm. And I personally will miss you and your contributions. I appreciate the time you have given to me as I've come to this body to learn. You've given freely and generously. You've listened. and you've imparted your wisdom to me which I've needed and I really value all the conversations

that we've had and I'll continue to hold them with me as I continue on. So thank you.

Laura. Thank you, through you, Alana. First of all, I just want to say thankful. I thank you. I'm so grateful for your work and your leadership. I want to say that Alana, for those who don't know her, is somewhat of a reluctant leader, but never reluctant to serve. And I think that's really kind of at the heart of it for me. Your quiet leader, your gift to this work, your dedication. The countless times, I think Dr. Ackman spoke to this, but the countless times I've had conversations with you, and you would have some point of view and immediately say but

Maybe this other point of view that I'm hearing in the community or hearing from other people I must consider that and I must always put on the lens that can like I see it in a different way and that is a gift that not everyone has and so there's so much balance in your perspective um you're what i call a true steward to the work you are not looking for your name to brand anything you are not looking for allocate You are looking to serve us all as a body and I really think that has been your gift in your leadership is not to lead with like a strong arm but lead with open arms. and trying to bring us all together forward. There's probably lots more I can say. And I do consider you a friend and a colleague, which, you know, is complicated. And I look forward to your sage advice as we continue forward. Or that you won't answer my calls, I don't know.

because you're done with the work but um again uh just ending with this idea of you as such a reluctant leader it wasn't what you asked for it wasn't what you wanted but you were never reluctant to serve this body you were never reluctant to serve our students and our Educators and I'm just so grateful for your efforts and thank you for your collaboration.

I just want to say for the record that anyone is welcome to call me.

All right, Eleanor. Thank you, through you, in addition to all the lovely things my colleagues have said, I will just add that you have been patient with my many phone calls and text messages and I I appreciate your sense of humor as well because this can be obviously difficult and slow and challenging and you often find A way to lighten it with a laugh, so... I have appreciated that as well and I want to reiterate I think the selflessness with which you do this work with which you serve the community in so many ways is Absolutely something that I've admired for a long time. Thank you.

I'll call on myself and I was remembering I don't know if you remember like seven years ago we sat at block 11 with Jocelyn and talked about running for school committee and like What was it all about? And what were we going to do? And here we are, six, and for you, six and a half years later, and you figured it all out. One of the things that I appreciate most about you as a leader is that you are just unflappable. No matter who is coming to shut down this meeting or who we are going to negotiate with for what, You kind of always enter calm and chill. And you're like, look, I don't know what people are going to do. I don't control my members. And you're just really effective. Because you're just kind of like straight, no bones about it, just like, here's where I'm at. And I really appreciate that. And I appreciate all the times you have stood up here with people hurling things at you.

and just been kind, calm, unflappable. I want to hear what you have to say and thank you for saying it. I appreciate that about you. Thank you. Mayor.

So thank you for acknowledging me. I would, you know, echo everything that everybody else said, but you and I are in history books. It was certainly an honor to be able to be an all-female leadership President then, Judy Pineda, Neufeld, yourself and myself. And that actually matters because I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and also young people. students in our school system and said really that's that's never happened and we're not sure when it's gonna happen again but I just you know want to say it was an honor To be able to do that with you, Alana and I go back a really long way to preschool days when our kids were little.

And should I share? So she says to me, she goes, why would you ever run for political office? That is like the silliest thing ever. So fast forward. I called her when she announced. I said, I just want to repeat back your words to you. And I stand by that statement.

President Davis.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Boy yeah, that's a good question, Madam Mayor. Through the chair to Ms. Krepchin, I just want to say thank you for serving. You too have been the chair since I became a school committee member, though. I haven't had the benefit of working with you for as long as my colleagues here, but I have appreciated your leadership. Before, I became a member of this body just to see the work that all of you do, and particularly through your leadership. and as someone who is very much now learning what it means to be willing to step up and lead a body like this and for you to have been willing to do it for as long as you have it's even more meaningful now to me than than it was just seeing seeing anybody step up so thank you for that and and good luck we'll see you around thank you um all right well thank you all uh got a little teary um

I'm not even sure what to say. Like I said, anyone is welcome to call me anytime. It can be about school committee or it cannot, but I'm happy to give any advice moving forward. I'm proud of the work that we've all done together. As Laura mentioned, I was a reluctant leader. It's not really in my nature, but somebody had to do it, so I did it. To Sarah's point, standing up there with lots of people yelling at you is not fun. But again, somebody had to do it, so I just... You know, gritted my teeth and somehow made it through. Not my favorite moments of being school committee chair, but we did it together, made it through.

and you know I'm really excited about where the district is going seeing that strategic plan tonight makes me feel like I'm leaving at a time when the the district is really going in the right direction so I'm excited and proud of that and happy to have all of you thank you I realized after I did it that maybe it wasn't the best plan in the world, but I'll be alright. I can do it. Alright, it is time for us to celebrate Dr. Sarah Phillips.

Dr. Sarah Phillips School Committee Ward 3. Whereas Dr. Sarah Phillips has faithfully served as a member of the Somerville School Committee since 2020 representing Ward 3 for three two-year terms and Dr. Phillips has served as vice chair of the school committee, chair of finance and facilities subcommittee, and chair of educational programs subcommittee, and has served on the rules subcommittee. the special policing subcommittee and the school buildings finance and maintenance committee and as a chair of finance and facilities Dr. Phillips collaborated closely with city leadership during the most difficult budget season in more than a decade working creatively to address a budget shortfall and to avoid potential losses in staff and student services and whereas while leading the superintendent evaluation evaluation process Dr. Phillips held both the superintendent and the school committee accountable for clear goals and outcomes and whereas to strengthen accountability and transparency in school building maintenance

Dr. Phillips successfully advocated for the establishment of the first joint committee of the city council and school committee dedicated to school building facilities and maintenance and whereas during the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Phillips played a leadership role in bringing students safely back to in-person learning and Dr. Phillips has been a fierce advocate for students and educators in addressing concerns related to policing in schools and the impact of school safety policies on students and whereas Dr. Phillips consistently led with an equity lens, providing a clear voice on issues of inequity and fostering a culture of continuous improvement for both educators and students, Whereas Dr. Phillips contributed significantly to the efforts of the school committee through her collaborative and analytical approach and through her experience as an education researcher, parent, and community member,

with a focus on evidence-based practice and whereas during her tenure on the school committee Dr. Phillips generously shared her extensive professional knowledge of Public Education Policy and Programming, including expertise in out-of-school time, offering best practice perspectives from across the Commonwealth and beyond, and encourage learning from other districts, Now, therefore, it be it resolved that the Somerville School Committee hereby publicly acknowledges and expresses its deepest appreciation to Dr. Sarah Phillips, for her dedicated service and leadership and wishes her continued success in all of her future endeavors and be it further resolved that this resolution be entered into the permanent records of the Somerville School Committee and that a framed copy Be presented to Dr. Phillips in recognition of her exemplary service.

All right, thank you. Who wants to start? Mr. Biton.

Thank you, Chair, through you, Sarah. I'll start. I don't have the words. So I might as well go first. I'm not going to have them in five minutes. Watching you react to the resolution before you really cemented for me what I've long admired about you. that you can simultaneously be supremely confident and expert and an expert communicator and hold that with just an absurd humbleness. I was watching you chuckle through the accolades. I think it was,

Sort of laughing it off, you deserve every word written on that resolution. This body will be profoundly different without you on it. And I have been Quietly trying to glean as much as I can from you while I've been serving with you because your approach, your demeanor, your warmth, Your confidence are all things that I think are

Integral to a really well-rounded school committee member, and so I just thank you for everything you've done and your service, and I'll miss you.

Dr. Phillips, you are brilliant. Your intelligence, the way you approach the work has always impressed me and the way you, I hope this comes out the way it's intended, jump feet first. into complicated things engage your colleagues in debate are never hesitant to share your opinion and your perspective I think is a model for how we should all, you know, engage in debate. You think about it, as Mr. Biton said, like you go about it confidently.

and you move forward and there's no you know you you model disagreeing respectively respectfully like engaging respectfully while still being confident in one's your own perspective. I think that is something that I hope we all take forward as we you know continue and probably engage in more complicated things that as we move the work forward. So thank you for modeling that for me, for each of us. And I'm sad for our loss and happy for your family. Thank you.

Thank you through you. Before you even ran for school committee, it took me a little while. A few gears had to shift to remember. But she reached out to me, wanted to have coffee. I think we met at Block. already was advocating for school care members to understand their authority. No, this is a compliment. And to assert that... Perhaps how I'm full of myself, too. Keep going. No, that's not being full of yourself. Like, a school committee, it's very easy, and, you know, when you... Engage with school committees in other districts. It's very easy to kind of sit back and kind of let everything go and not necessarily acknowledge that we do as a body have not only an authority but we have a responsibility to do this work.

and to take on what is our responsibility and represent our constituents in the movement of the district in partnership with the superintendent and administrators. and I really felt like you know I'm just reflecting now of like you know you always wanted to do this work and I'm so thankful that you got to do this work when I was here and I had an opportunity to learn from you. It's something I think about is that you're very brave and you forced us as a body to be better. You've many times put forward motions that you really were unsure of where they were gonna go. It's really easy to put forward a motion that everybody's gonna be like, yay, it's unanimous, but you put forward so many motions that were just helping us in our process and respecting the process the body had instead of kind of spinning as a group or talking to ourselves.

I really appreciate that your dedication to the process your bravery to just put things forward which regardless if the motion passed or not always moved us forward It always, you know, if it didn't pass, it just made us decide that we're not going to do this, we're going to do something else. So I really respect that. And overall, you, I think, raise the bar of this body. and the work that we do and I'm extremely thankful and grateful for your service. I am so bittersweet that you're leaving because it's great for you and I hope to in the future see how you get engaged whether as an advocate or an elected official and enter any capacity because you I know in the long term you can't let that go and so let me always know whether no matter what I'm doing how I can partner with you to continue to bring you to this work so thank you

In some ways, Mr. Tolan took the words out of my mouth. I was actually going to talk about how You raised the bar. You required all of us to be better than we were before. And ultimately speaking, I think that's why there are seven of us, right? I hope that um well not about but you know sometimes we like it the hard way um and In doing so and making us and raising the bar and requiring us to be better, requiring us to Come prepared, do the work, have thought it through. You have made this body better. This is why I hate going close to the last because there's really nothing to say. But I appreciate that. I appreciate...

that, you know, when we agreed, you elevated the argument. When we disagreed, you forced me to elevate my arguments. And that's really all you can ask for in a colleague. I hope that that energy remains as you are enjoying your family.

Thank you, Madam Chair, through you to Dr. Phillips. I think we first crossed paths when we were working with this organization called Progress Together for Somerville. I had been involved for a bit, and as with just about any organization in Somerville, when folks want to step up and get involved, there's always going to be impressive people and smart people. And I distinctly remember, I think we were on a phone call, a conference call, which we had back then, on our phones. and I remember just sort of the here comes this new person that I had already heard you know good things about it's just clearly from the outset whip smart had ideas I just remember sort of sitting back and thinking like okay great cool cool and I was thinking about this earlier today like it's notable when in this city with so many smart good people that are always involved things when like I specifically remember thinking wow Okay, cool.

And so when I heard that you were running for the school committee, of course I was thrilled. And I'm very, very lucky to, I consider myself very fortunate to have served with you, well, Technically not, right? To have had our meetings at the same time on the same Zoom calls on the school building facilities and maintenance committee and seeing that Just one example of that intellect and expertise and commitment that you bring to this job and I just know how fortunate the city is to have had you. I too learned from you and I hope I can I want to provide something to this body in my odd role here as the good member from ward four noted. But just thank you for all of that service. After your day as elected official, you'll continue to be involved in organizations like that one or others, and I have no doubt that you will, and I look forward to seeing what you do.

Thank you.

It's been a pleasure, and why am I crying now? Just getting a head start. You know a number of people in the room have talked about how smart you are and your expertise and I admire your expertise but but Also the way you put your expertise in the service of the district and ultimately the students that we serve. and the way that you never at least I can't think of an occasion when you have come across as condescending or better than despite all of this expertise and Smartness and Confidence and

and I have appreciated that so thank you and like everyone else I look forward to seeing how you continue to serve Somerville because I know you will.

Thank you. So I echo everything that was said. You have this strong ability to analyze situations and break them down into really manageable steps. and you always seem to balance everything really efficiently and effectively and just you know a really seamless way you know it's for me that's Absolutely skills and your abilities that I totally admire and it made the district better so thank you for sharing yourself with us and Obviously your family for sharing you with us.

So I guess I'm going last as chair. Thank you. Echo what everyone said. I've really appreciated having you as my vice. I'm a little sad that because of how this all worked out we never got to see what you would have done as chair because I think you would have done great things as well. You are always willing to think through complicated problems and I always appreciated having coffee hours together at the Argenziano because it's more fun to answer questions with somebody else. So I really appreciated that and I'm sure I'll see you and we can hang out together in all of our free time now that we won't be on the school committee together anymore. So thank you again.

Oh, thank you all. Sorry, I'm just like in tears now, but it's been an honor and a pleasure to work with you. I'm not going to be in office, but I'm still happy to work with you. So just give me a call whenever you need something done. Maybe if it just doesn't take as much time as this, everyone will be good. And I'm psyched to see where you go next because this district is going places.

All right, it is time for Eleanor to cry even more now. Ms. Barish, it is your turn. Me too, I'm with you.

So I'm going to take advantage of our priorities to say my works before I read the resolution. It is no secret that I'm an Eleanor Barish fanboy. I've made it abundantly clear that I am not happy to see you leave this body. And in part, that's because You know, as I mentioned before, there's a reason in seven of us, and that's because we bring skills. And you bring skills to the body that, frankly, have always been my strong suit. And you bring... As everyone knows here, an incredible attention to detail. An incredible attention to making sure that all of the small things are taken care of properly. And like, but not in a pedantic way.

In a way that truly understands that these details matter to real students and real families. It has been a pleasure and a joy watching you work through It's difficult and complicated things with thoroughness and with real student-centeredness. I know we served on what, two different negotiating committees together? And to say your ability to keep focused on what matters, no matter how I think really

held both the negotiating teams together and on point, remembering that the point is not winning or losing, get into a place where the staff and the students at Somerville Public Schools thrive. It has been a joy and a pleasure working with you I'm going to miss you, except the fact that I'm going to be calling you all the time, so... Whereas Eleanor Barish has represented Somerville's Ward 6 on the school committee since 2020, and whereas during that time she has served in a number of key roles, including negotiating several union contracts, Sharon, the completion of the work of the Special Policing Subcommittee, representing the school committee on the district's wellness working group, and serving five consecutive years as chair...

Chair of the Rules Subcommittee, and whereas her negotiations led to contracts that set state and national benchmarks on issues like paraeducator pay, family leave, and most recently special education inclusion efforts, And whereas her efforts on the Policing and Wellness Subcommittee have led to policies that serve as a model for other jurisdictions in terms of equality and justice, And whereas her tenure on the rules included both the adoption of the policies needed for a smooth COVID reopening and the district's most thorough review of the policy manual in over 15 years, And whereas in everything she has done, Ms. Barish's work has been marked by attention to detail, an open-minded and willingness to learn, a selfless commitment to service, and an unshakable commitment to keeping the most vulnerable residents' needs foremost. And whereas, in doing so, Ms. Barish has done a measurable good for the students, families, and staff of Somerville Public Schools, advancing our values of equity, economic excellence, and the education of the whole child.

Therefore, be it resolved that the Somerville School Committee does hereby publicly and proudly express its deep gratitude to Elmer Barish for her unwavering commitment to Somerville Public Schools, its students, staff, and families. And be it further resolved that this resolution be entered into the minutes of tonight's meeting and that a framed copy be presented to the Lord Barish.

All right, who wants to start? Sarah. I can start. As I was preparing for tonight, I was thinking back to when we first started. And I think we had gone like, We had two or three meetings without you saying anything, really. I think you were a little scared. And then we had a meeting where you just busted out. Like, it was the end. We were almost about to approve this policy, and you were like... and I would just like to point out that this is not the most inclusive language and not the language that this community typically uses to talk about itself and I recommend that we revise this and this and this and I was like yes that is a woman who leads with equity and I was so proud of that day and you haven't stopped leading with equity ever since I think your skills at Negotiating Challenging Conversations are unparalleled on this committee.

And I got to watch that firsthand in the policing subcommittee, where I was like chomping at the bit, and Glenda was going, and you were just like, OK, everyone. Let's get through this together and you did and you got us to what is now like the one of the most progressive policing policies in the country and I appreciate you for all of your hard work for the past six years.

I'll go next. I just want to say that I love that you're wearing your I Love Rules t-shirt here for your last meeting. I just want to point that out because it's amazing and so true. I've known you for I don't know how many years. You and I both served together on PTA Boards before we were on the school committee together. So I feel like I've known you for quite a long time. You've always been one of the hardest working people I know. and you put that work to improve our district and to improve outcomes for our students in a real and meaningful way and you are always willing to Jump in and read those long documents and find those typos and read the minutes and make sure that they really were reflecting what happened in a way that

is meaningful and took a lot of time and dedication and it's really quite amazing and like I said to Sarah I'm looking forward to us having more time so we can hang out together outside of school committee so again thank you All right, I believe Laura was gonna go next and then Emily. I'll take this.

Thank you, through you. Eleanor. Ms. Barish, I really appreciate so many of the dualities you come at this work with, is that you come at it very humbly, but you're incredibly tenacious. and nothing gets by you and there hasn't been a meeting where you haven't brought up something and I was like yeah like there's always something that you know I think I've been doing this for a long time and things that I've missed and I love that about you. You bring your heart and your mind to this work and you're Emotional connection to your heart really shows in the quality of what you do and that is a gift. and not everybody can do that and so I just want to acknowledge that and the other duality for me is that you're so kind you really are At the same time, you're also a critical thinker.

So being kind doesn't mean that you're quiet and you just go, oh, let's make everyone happy. You don't want to make people happy. You want to do the right thing, and you want to do the good work. So that critical thinking challenges the district, it challenges the body, but no one is ever hurt by it because you're so kind in the way you present the work and present your point of view. I think these dualities that you carry are huge gifts and I know as you move from this specific body into your future work you know always keep that in your heart and you know I know you're humble but also you're amazing and I see sometimes think that you don't always see that and I just want to say that explicitly about how talented you are and um but being unassuming and kindness is kind of a gift that Thank you. Thank you.

I'm not going to be as eloquent as Ms. Pitone. I agree with everything that everyone said. To say I admire you is an understatement. have an artistic eye not just detail-oriented that you know you you bring to the work that you do you know you focus on health you've you know everything you've done around food security around healthy food for our district I think that is something that hasn't been acknowledged yet but is really You've done a lot to improve outcomes for kids academically, social, emotionally, but also when it comes to nutrition. I...

I really am going to miss, as Dr. Phillips said, your brilliant, thoughtful perspectives, your calling us in to make sure that we are being inclusive. Yeah, it is a loss. And as I am happy for you, I feel our loss.

Thank you, Chair. Eleanor, you and I came up as leaders in PTA. Like Alana did as well. And I always felt like I was kind of in the presence of like PTA superstar when I was with you. You gave me a ride one time and I was like oh this is like amazing I've got a ride from Eleanor. I will never forget when I was watching It was the Memorial Day Parade and you were marching as the brown bear and I don't want to brag, but the bear left the parade route to come and give me a hug and it was you. And again, I felt like a superstar. Our colleagues have talked about your kindness.

I have felt that like just so keenly that you know when a kind word is needed. Your attention to detail, I think is a related skill. You have like the eye of where surgically, you know, what the word is that we need to focus on and change it. You know when a kind word needs to be said. Your ability to be diplomatic and negotiate I think hinge on that skill. Boy, I wish I could package that up and bring that with me because that is just a wonderful thing to have and I really value you for it. So thank you. Thanks for your service.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would echo everything that's said, but I won't repeat it, but I certainly sign on to all of that. I'll note that I've had the great fortune of having you, Ms. Barish, as my elected representative for a number of years. Going back to my time on the Brown School PTA when you were our elected leader. And then you became my elected school committee representative and my colleague representing the good people of Ward 6. And I can't tell you how many times I had folks come to me with some issue and I said, I know. Just the person that you should talk to about that. Now I'm on the school committee, and I don't feel like I could just pass folklore anymore. But thankfully, I've learned from you, as I have from all the rest of you as well. I've been very fortunate to have such good representation as a citizen of Ward 6. and as a citizen of that school community.

And I'm very, very sorry to see you go, but you live right around the corner. So if I got questions, believe you me, you're the first call I'm making. Thank you.

Thank you so I will you know ditto to everything that was said but I will say I too I noticed your attention to detail. I mean it's just unmatched in a very positive way because you're incredibly organized on that detail. and you bring, regardless of what the point is, you brought positivity but a tremendous amount of grace. to how you handled yourself and how you gave feedback so thank you for modeling that for all of us.

Thank you again.

I'll say a couple words. Somehow I'm not weeping, so I might as well. It has really been... I'll start crying, don't worry. It has been an honor to serve Somerville and Ward 6, and it has been such a privilege to have all of you as colleagues. and to learn from all of you and to learn from the district staff that I've had the privilege of working with and to talk about grace I mean I feel that all of you have shown me so much grace in this time and and Patience as I learned to speak up and have that confidence. And in those, I guess you might see them as few, but there are moments that I remember very clearly The moments when I haven't been kind and I haven't shown grace.

So I thank you all for all of that. and like some of my colleagues have said I can't wait to see how the district continues to build because I think where we are is really amazing and the leadership we have with us now is amazing and I'm not going anywhere so you've all got my phone number I mean the whole city has my phone number and my address so Find me. And if you're looking for us, we'll be playing Boggle, finding words. That's what we do. Thank you, everyone.

All right, and next up, Madam Mayor.

They are beautiful. Madam Mayor, I'm going to take... Mr. Green's lead and lead with a few words of my own before I read this resolution. I've had the pleasure of knowing you since your first run for Alderman in Ward 7. I've gotten to know you, we've ridden the train together, had a lot of long talks, and I think one of the things that I got to know about you first was your family. and your children and how important they are to you.

And I've gotten to know a little bit your daughters. and how impressive they are, I think learning from your example. And I just want to say on just a personal note, you've always taken the time to walk with me, to listen to me, to try to tell me I'm wrong when I am, and to cultivate my leadership and I've really valued our relationship and I will continue to. And so it's really my honor to read this to you today. The Honorable Mayor Katiana Ballantyne.

Whereas Mayor Katiana Ballantyne was sworn in as mayor on January 3, 2022, and has faithfully and honorably served as mayor for four years, 2022-2025. And, whereas drawing on more than 30 years of leadership spanning government, nonprofit, and international business, As well as her experience as a parent and community advocate, Mayor Ballantyne championed inclusive leadership and worked to build opportunity and equity for all residents. And whereas Mayor Ballantyne made historic investments in Somerville Public Schools, increasing the SPS budget by 34% since taking office, including a record-setting 10% increase for the 2022-2023 school year which has resulted in strengthened core academics, expanded social service and mental health support, and investments in the school workforce.

And whereas, through her leadership, Mayor Ballantyne has strengthened the relationship between city government, families, schools, and community stakeholders, consistent with the values of public service and community collaboration. and whereas prior to becoming mayor, Mayor Ballantyne served eight years 2014-2021 on City Council representing Ward 7 including two years as Council President during which time she was an engaged participant in school committee meetings. and whereas Mayor Ballantyne has lived in Somerville since 1993 where she started her family and raised two daughters who attended the Somerville Public Schools. And whereas Mayor Ballantyne's years of public service and vision, dedication, and tireless advocacy have left a lasting, positive impact on the City of Somerville, its schools, and its people,

Now therefore be it resolved that the Somerville School Committee does hereby publicly and proudly express its deepest gratitude to the Honorable Mayor Katiana Ballantyne for her wavering, for her unwavering Commitment to Somerville Public Schools, its students, staff, and families, and be it further resolved that this resolution be entered into the minutes of tonight's meeting and that a framed copy be presented to the Honorable Mayor Katiana Ballantyne.

Mr. Green?

So, um, Katina Ballantyne was the first politician to ever knock my door. I thought it was 2011, your first run?

Yeah, it was 2011. Ward 7.

Yes. I was a Ward 7 resident at the time. I was the first one to ever knock my door. You did it twice. I did vote for you. But more importantly, the election day. So again, this is the first time I've ever cared about a Somerville election because no Somerville elected ever reached out to me before. and the day of the election I was headed to work at the time I was in Davis Square and I ran into you. I was like, I'm going to go figure out the work. I would love to have something I can use to talk to people about you. And you literally gave me the button off your jacket. which I didn't want to work and didn't want to vote for you. And I say all of this because at every step

When I was first on the chair of this body was your first year as council president. And every stage of our careers together You have been... Welcoming and warm and talking about equity before it hit buzzword anywhere, including Somerville. When you first became mayor, I had become chair again. And then Superintendent Skipper and I had a conversation with you during the transition time where we asked for two things from you. We asked that when we were negotiating contracts or planning budgets, you would always be straight with us.

And that we were going to need a new internal school. Four years later. I can say that you were always straight with our finances and the budget and never did I feel in the case of any negotiation or any discussion on our budget that you were being anything other than a forthright partner. and we are well on the way to getting into a new school. So, thank you. You know, I know that There have always been times in any relationship between a mayor and a school committee or a city council where there are tough conversations and tough battles, but I've always felt that agree or disagree, win or lose, it's never been a question that your heart, your passion,

Your commitment is to those vulnerable. And with that commitment, The fights, the disagreements, the arguments, debates, those are all going to be healthy and productive because it's about how do we get to the right goal. For the 14 years now that I've been paying attention to civil politics, you have been a constant. You have been... A leader you have been someone to look up to and respect and I thank you and I cannot wait to see what you do next because I don't believe you're gonna go away.

Thank you Mr. Green.

Mayor Ballantyne, you are a feminist icon. Certainly of the city, certainly for me. You have led, and as long as I've known you, you've talked about gender equity you've talked about it as far as schools as far as the city goes as far as your administration goes both in the work that you did and the staff you hired and to your point you you know ushered in all female leaders or elected leaders For the bodies that represent this city, which is something that I certainly hold in my heart as a moment of pride.

I want to thank you for what you have done and how you have lived the stated values of the city by who you've helped and how you've helped. I will say I use my city-sponsored TPAS almost every day to get to work, so personally I appreciate it. But, you know, that's a great example of like the transit equity that you have ushered in in this city. I am thankful to have served on a body alongside you in multiple capacities. You will be missed. Thank you, Dr. Ackman.

Laura? First, Mayor Ballantyne, thank you. Your commitment to our city, I think Mr. Green stated it, the most vulnerable residents to our schools, is so clear in the work that you do. Equity is always at the center and I've always you know when people ask me I say her values are so aligned with what this community wants and you make hard decisions you have made hard decisions all this time with that perspective and I'm so grateful for that and I when things are going on I'm always thinking well she's gonna she's gonna go in in the direction that is what this city really needs from an equity standpoint and I just I can't say enough to that and that's not always the case with leadership

I can't minimize the fact that every budget season you're like here I'm gonna give you this and although we're always asking for more and the contracts were always asking for more you always started out with look here it is um I never felt like you were giving us a short shrift and obviously we we negotiated and we worked beyond what we needed but You just always started out with a great offer right and that sometimes got minimized in the community and I just want to name that because I think that was amazing. You always gave me your time when I needed it. When we were struggling around buildings and challenges, occasionally I would have the opportunity to give The mayor arrived home and we would sit in my car and talk talk talk talk talk about the next steps and even though we might in some cases not always agree on the next steps Again, I never questioned your values. I never questioned your desire to have the best facilities for our students.

So I'm grateful for that. Lastly, you've been so brave, putting your neck out in so many ways, particularly with our federal administration. I just can't not name that because your leadership around our sanctuary city status you know provided you know kind of a A light for us as a school committee to make our own decisions about how to push back on decisions we felt weren't good for kids the same way you made decisions that weren't good for our you know to to fight against decisions that weren't good for our community so I don't know, I'm just thankful for your leadership and your collaboration and wish you all the best moving forward. Thank you, Ms. Pitone.

Thank you, Mayor Ballantyne. I want to echo that I admire your commitment to the most vulnerable residents of Somerville. I think I remember that you were a regular volunteer at the East Somerville School Backpack Program. and you know over and over again you have shown that commitment to the residents in Somerville who are often not heard often underserved and I've appreciated that and I thank you and I hope we can work together in the future when neither of us is serving in this capacity. Thank you.

Thanks through you, Chair. I appreciate so much about you, Mayor Ballantyne. I think originally, when I didn't have a lot of friends on the school committee, you reached out to me and you took me for a walk. and you taught me all sorts of things you probably just thought we were building a relationship but there were like a bazillion nuggets you would just drop them and I just pick them up and save them for later and I appreciate that We've had a lot of really long late night talks and you have always made time for them. When I've said, I gotta talk to you about this thing, you'll be like, ugh. Okay, call me and we'll talk and we'll talk and we'll talk and we'll get to this place where we both understand each other and we've figured out the right thing to do. And I appreciate your ability. To listen, to take that in, and then to come out with something better than anyone has thought of before. You do that better than anyone I've seen in city government.

and lastly I appreciate your commitment to our kids in our schools you've been unwavering in that you've given this school department the biggest budget increase it has ever seen Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Through you too, Madam Mayor. I had the opportunity or the privilege to thank you for your service at the City Council meeting Thursday night. I echo what my colleagues here have said. I'll focus on a personal note. I, too, had the pleasure of lots of car rides home. I had the pleasure. Well, listen, no, but it was mutual. And it's no joke. I mean, the things that we spoke about, the things we talked about, and I think During a lot of that time you served on this body as well, and I can remember talking about issues related to the school committee, and so I hope now in my role, As the president of the council and a member of this body to learn from your example and sort of live up to that example of being really, as one of my colleagues noted, a really active member of this body.

The first time I spoke in this room was actually representing Progress Together for Somerville just as a constituent to come and advocate for a higher school budget. Well, I said I wasn't going to repeat what was said. I will repeat this one thing because beyond everything else, and there's plenty, to look at where the school district's budget is now compared to what it was when you came into office, compared to what it was when I was standing there It's really extraordinary that we've been able to do that. And so I thank you for that, for your commitment to the schools when my kids were in the schools. And it's... It really means a lot and I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. So that leaves me. Thank you and I echo what all my colleagues said. I've been reflecting on how long I've known you and you talking about that conversation years ago when I Sort of cheekily and sort of not cheekily made that comment about you running for office and I've been reflecting on you know you as an inspiration and that Even though I said those words then, maybe you planted a seed in my head that serving the community is important and you can do great things to do it. So maybe there's a trajectory there even though it took many more years before I did it and was reluctant at the time I did it and all of those things. You've been a great thought partner. Like my colleague said, you're always willing to pick up the phone. You're always willing to talk. The increase in budget has been amazing. And I know that there was a lot of

you know there's always more right there's always more that could be done there's always more money we want there's always that but the budget has increased significantly and that matters in the day-to-day running of the schools and so really appreciate that and you and you picking up the phone and hopefully you'll come play boggle with Eleanor and I when we're when we're no longer serving so again thank you and yeah and then I'll let mayor speak

Sorry, through the chair. Madam Mayor, I sat next to you when we selected our superintendent, and I was proud of this body in that moment, and I was proud of you because the first thing you said to me was, We chose him, we better support him. And I think you have demonstrated that with every choice you've made for our school. So thank you for supporting our superintendent and the district.

Thank you. I've been 20 in June. I'm in my 26th year, a few of you always hear me say this, as a parent of a child in the Somerville Public Schools. It's changed a lot. And the engagement, not only from the school district and putting the resources to that in order that The school district is able to engage with parents and make them feel part of a community and The part that I've played in the last four years to be able to intensify that I think is really important.

So as some of you know, I come from a family of immigrants and I can't say that I necessarily felt that my parents but in particular that my mom felt that she could be a part of a community. I don't know it's the times but there certainly were biases and came from very modest means so they were never able to participate in anything. and the only thing they participated in was my high school graduation which was wonderful you know that they that they were uh there for that um

So I can't help but think when we have a majority low-income district or have students who come from other opportunities, yeah, I project a little bit. I think of... of, um, My experiences so to be able to make parents feel comfortable regardless of where they come from that they feel a part of the school district is really was really important to me. And the other thing is when you have parents who are constantly working and you're What is the society and the community that we want to live in? And the values that I espise, that you all espise, is that there is a family that's hugging them.

and even if it's your new family that you've created, your school family. So giving opportunities as Somerville is changing. and as you see those big buildings going up that our students have the opportunity to be a part of that whether it's in internships or whether it's in tours or whether it's that the employees are coming into the to the school districts and giving the wow factor to the kids that they realize that they get a glimpse of something that might plant a seed. That helps them beyond the current times, I guess, that we're living at.

It's been an honor to be mayor of Somerville. Thank you for saying, I'm not sure that I always understood that it was visible. where you said that I was trying to affect the most vulnerable. So thank you for saying that. Because it didn't always feel like that to me. I appreciate all the work that you've done, that the school committees before you all, before us have done to make that progress that I have seen over the last 26 years. has been great. So have a great 2026. and beyond. And I know that our school district is in good hands.

Thank you.

All right with that let's take a brief recess for some cupcakes.

Seems like the thing to do.

Thanks for watching!

Thank you for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Thank you. We have most everyone.

All right, so that brings us to the personnel report for December. Is there anything you wanna highlight for us?

Yes, and before I jump into that, I have to respond to the accolades and comments that I never deliver. I just wanted to say to the entire body that as your service concludes, I simply want to say thank you. Thank you for your trust, thank you for your commitment to the work, and also thank you for believing in every student in our district. I really appreciate the fact that you also trusted me as I was coming into my first gig as a superintendent and you saw something in my work that Allow me to be in this space. So I really thank for making that possible. So thanks. Okay, so with that, I'm going to switch to the personal report. And let me start with a few retirements.

And I wanted to wish Jerry Fullerton and Liz Doncaster, our Director of Student Services, and Say that again? I know. I'm Jerry Fullerton. She's a pre-K paraprofessional at Capuano, 27 years of service, at least 23 years of service. We are really excited that they have come to a place where they deserve to transition to something else. So please join me on thanking them for their years of service. We're in the process of revising the director of student services position and we are thinking about how that reflects our current needs as a district. That is that. We also have to say goodbye to Brenda LeBlanc-Jaster. She's actually moving on to a leadership opportunity that came up, and so we wish her the best in her transition.

We also continue to fill all our parental leaves that come up and so HR is always busy making sure that that takes place. I also have to recognize Yesenia Reales. She has moved into a special education in Para de Capuano and she will be leaving community schools to take on this new opportunity. and we also are very excited in drum roll to welcome Lovette Jacobs as the new electrical instructor for CTE. And I have to read all her bio because it's very impressive. And this is Jim Hatch. He gave me this right up. We're pleased to welcome Lovette Jacobs, an electrician with IBEW Local 103 in Boston for over eight years, to the Somerville High School CTE team,

She is a strong advocate for women's advancement in construction, equity for minorities, and expanded access to career opportunities for inner-city residents. Lobette brings both professional electrical expertise and deep commitment to the community impact. Growing up in the inner city Dorchesters specifically, Lovette takes pride in giving back and being a leader within her community. She is actively involved in union leadership, serving on the local 103 Women's Committee, renew, reach out, and engage new electrical workers, and as an acting vice president of the Electrical Workers' Minority Caucus. With extensive experience working across residential and commercial projects throughout Greater Boston, Lovett is dedicated to mentoring apprentices, Promoting safety and compliance and guiding young people to our alternative high-skill and well-paying career pathways in the electrical trades. So I'm really excited.

We know that we try to be competitive when it comes to CTE and also having a woman in the field who is an electrician. and also someone who carried her own way and is a leader is just what we need. So congratulations to our district. And we continue to fill parental leaves of absence vacancies with qualified teachers. So at the west, we have a grade five teacher, Shalom Krinsky. Kennedy, and also at the Kennedy, we have Jeff Turney, and at the Healy, we have a speech and language pathologist, May Hughley, and also Lil Wash, a Grapevine teacher at the Healy. and we continue to hire substitute teachers and hire athletic coaches in basketball, swimming, tennis and ice hockey. So with that, I conclude my report.

Are there any questions on the report? I just want to say hearing that news about the new electrical teacher as one of the last things I'm doing on school committee is very exciting.

So thank you for that update.

Okay, that concludes your report. We have a couple of, no, just one subcommittee report to approve. I will entertain a motion.

I move to accept the report of the joint school building facilities and maintenance subcommittee meeting for December 8th, 2025.

I have a motion by Barish, seconded by Mr. Biton. If there is no discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. But did you have a question?

I just wanted to bring up a topic for that committee, if that's okay right now. We had identified through a constituent about The janitorial staffing for the city, I don't know if it belongs in the building committee because it's not actually a physical building, but Ms. Anosike had suggested going through the building committee, so... If you want to confer with your colleague, City Council, Mr. Biton, and decide whether or not it fits there or bounce it back to the district.

We'll look into it. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, do we have any updates on the MSBA?

Not specific to the MSBA. Not specifically on the MSBA. I know that the CAGs continue to deliberate on their final decision, so I don't know if Andrea will share anything on the... Is there anything on the CAG that we should...

Okay. Still...

All I can share is that the ELT continues to meet. ELT or LT? Is the leadership... ELT, correct. Educational leadership team. We continue to meet with them to... Identify the strengths and the needs of the district. So they have done an in-depth assessment about the special needs, the MLA needs. and we continue to have those conversations with both the designer team, OPM for the city as well as central office educators and we will be doing a visit with at different buildings as well as have

Meet with educators and parents and so that process is taking place right now.

That brings us to the Special Education Stabilization Fund. Dr. Carmona, do you want to give us some context on that?

Yes. I'm going to recuse myself from this item.

Yes, I basically want to share with you that, as you know, Circle Breaker is One of the things that happens with this particular allocation is that on the last quarter of 2024 We received that circuit breaker fund, came in around July 7, 2024, so that was fiscal year 25. Those monies basically were not spent, and so that ended up, when we had a conversation with the city, and this, you know, Ed Bean, city CFO, we had the conversation about the best practice, so that money actually was free cash, and so best practice is to make sure that we account for the to create a fund that would allow us to have some

The ability to respond to eventualities when it comes to special education. We all know that, I mean, transportation can go from three to six to 8% to 10%. We do not have a buffer to respond to that. It is best practice to do that, to have those kind of funds. Many other districts do it. and is within the actual municipal finance law is a good practice. So in having that conversation with the CFO of the city, We agreed that we could create a fund to support the challenge of managing both out of district as well as transportation costs. So out of that is the proposal that you have in front of you.

and again we know that those costs for out of the out of school district as well as transportation are very variable and they can change significantly and so having a buffer to give us some ability to respond in case we have an unpredictable cost I think is a sound option.

Are there any other questions and or I will entertain a motion. Ms. Pitone.

Thank you. Through the chair to the superintendent. How does this fund get funded? So we're voting to establish an account, basically. Is that my understanding? Where does the money come from? It's Circuit Breaker money. Oh, so that's what you're going to use for the Circuit Breaker money?

That's my understanding. Correct. It's about $430,000 that came from Circuit Breaker.

Okay, so usually...

Reimbursement.

manage it just within our basic budget and you're saying let's we're going to create a fund to put it in every year now

Well, it's not an every year thing. This happened to be monies that came at the end of the cycle in quarter Circle Breaker is given to us in different allotments and it came basically in July 2024. which actually counted for the fiscal year 25. And we were under the assumption that that was, because usually it's retroactive, it's paved. We have a year to use the funds, but it came in 2024, so we were supposed to use it in 2025, but at the end of 2025, We realize, actually the city realized that we have that Essex fund on Circle Breakers, so the option is just to turn that into free cash. Back to the city. Correct, back to the city, and so we are...

Very glad that the city came and said, hey, I know this is a concern that you have, and so let's turn this into a stabilization fund.

So in other words, if we don't do this, this money becomes free cash?

Free cash, correct.

Mr. Biton, did you have a question?

Yes. Thank you. Through you, there have been times when we had extra or we had funds that we allocated to prepay tuitions or other expenses for out of district placements or other related expenses. Is there a reason we're not looking at that approach here with these funds or is the timing not right?

Again, that money was supposed to be spent, we actually ran out of the The contractual obligation of using those funds, we cannot touch them because the state gives them to us to use them up to a year. And it was beyond that. And so that money basically become free cash. But this is just to remember that Circle Breaker is a reimbursement. We pay for all the expenses. We actually are going to be more consistent about Well, it's actually a percentage. They only fund up to 70% of the reimbursable amount. So we always have to account for the full amount up front.

but what we're trying to do is to make because sometimes you can salaries and services come out of that for special education but um we just want to make sure that it's all uh you know out of a school time Out-of-District Placement, and Transportation, just to make sure it's a cleaner accounting system.

Thank you. Can I make a motion? Please do. I move that the school committee Sorry, I move that the school committee moves that the city vote to accept the provisions of Mass General Law C4013E to establish a special education reserve fund To be utilized in upcoming fiscal years to pay, without further appropriation, for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs of special education and recovery high school programs out of district tuition or transportation, and provided further that the balance in such reserve fund shall not exceed two percent of the annual net school spending of the school district and that funds shall only be distributed from the reserve funds after a majority vote of the school committee and a majority vote of the city council.

I have a motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Dr. Phillips. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to... First reading of the policy, which are huge, that's all of A, B, and C. I will suggest that the future chair Think about having a second and third reading given that by the time you do the second reading it will be four new members in the room. but that will be at the discretion of the new chair so people can certainly ask questions here for this first reading but since the second reading will be a totally different school committee and also flag for the new members before that first meeting that they should give themselves time to look in the packet at this because it's a huge amount of reading. Did I skip something? Oh, I did, and I skipped. All right, well, we'll finish the policy. Thank you for pointing that out.

So we'll finish the policy one, and then we'll go back and do B. Yes, we will do that. Thank you for pointing that out. We will go back and do that after. So if there are any questions or some context.

I just wanted to let everyone know I'm not sure if you saw that I did put a summary in the packet just sort of super brief what was I confess I did not go through these with a fine-tooth comb and make sure that all the changes have been made it made as we Stated them, but I do think that Alicia Mallon from the MASC, who's been running that part of this process, she's... Awesome and super attentive and if anything appears to be amiss just let her know and she'll fix it.

Yes, Ms. Pitone.

Besides the high gratitude that I have for Ms. Barish and the Rules Committee, this has been Yeoman's work to do this work. In respect of that, as colleagues go through these changes, there are minutes for every meeting and there are on the Google Drive. so you can you know just search by the topic and if you want to get into more detail it's really amazing that you made that summary but I'm sure there'll be some things that I have questions about that I want to see really what the dialogue was about so I'm just encouraging my members that and maybe the future members out in the ether that are listening that the minutes are available to see the specific topics and why decisions were made as they were so thank you yes I also

I'm not sure how to deal with this but I have more comprehensive notes that were not the report that I produced because you didn't need all of the details necessarily so like they're in my google drive maybe I can share those with the next chair so that they have access to them so that if there are more nitty-gritty questions and you can also always ask Alicia Mallon at MASC because I think she took pretty close notes too.

Or they can call you.

Or call me. Ms. Pitone. Through you, I guess this is a question about as Old members roll off, and if they do have things on the Google Drive that they want to share with the new members, maybe Ms. Garcia can look into how we can administer that. So when the old members roll off and say, for example, Ms. Barish has all these notes from the meeting minutes from the rules, if she wanted to share with a new member, I mean, technically, when they're gone, then the new member comes on. You understand my question? So if you can look into that. I don't know if other colleagues have stuff like that they'd want to share, but if you could look into that and maybe just email the members and tell them what they can do to potentially create continuity of content, that would be great. Thank you.

Alright, if there are no other questions on that, that will be on the next agenda. and my apologies we need to go back to B which is the superintendent contract. I will entertain a motion.

I move to authorize the chair to sign the superintendent's contract.

I have a motion by Dr. Ackman, seconded by Mr. Biton. If there is no discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries, but it looks like Dr. Phillips has a question.

Just wanted to thank the superintendent for his service to Somerville for the past two, maybe three years. I'm not sure how many it has been. Two and a half. We are really lucky to have you. You are taking this district with your team to new heights so thank you.

And I promise I was not intending to skip that item. Okay, that brings us to items from committee members, if anyone has any. Yes, Mr. Biton.

Thank you, Chair, as I hurriedly try to pull up my notes from the School Building Facilities and Maintenance Subcommittee through you, Chair. One item that came up as I believe it's mentioned in the report is In the resolution that we passed last year regarding building Building zero carbon buildings in the future and thinking about climate change in the context of our facilities. Sait had raised this question about how the reports

will be coming to the city council and to the school committee about That was an item in the resolution. The liaison reminded us that this is an item that is actually in the SEU agreement. and apparently that and I don't recall this clause so our negotiators May be able to speak to this, but that agreement apparently names an MOU that's needed that McFarland. There's a lot of work between the SEU and Somerville Public Schools that will

Allow for that or enable that the transmission of a report on an annual basis about the healthfulness of our buildings. So this is just to request that maybe at some future meeting we could have an update on that process or Certainly to make sure that by July we have the first of those reports as requested in that resolution.

Mr. Green, did you want to comment or respond?

Just to build on that, part of the requirement is also that as we're supposed to have a minus rating by state law, we've never had an official MOU between The city and the schools around these issues, which we're supposed to have. So step one is to get that MOU done, which should be passed first. We should take on in the spring.

Okay.

Are there any other items from committee members? Seeing none, Dr. Phillips, do we have condolences?

We do.

The school committee would like to extend its deepest condolences to the family of Dr. Kim Phan Vo, mother of Francesca Nguyen Vo Brokman, Kennedy Family Liaison.

All right, we are adjourned. Thanks again, everyone.