School Committee Meeting - November 17, 2025

Sorry, good evening everyone and welcome to this November 17th meeting of the Sonerville School Committee. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting of the School Committee will be conducted by hybrid participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. With that, Dr. Carmona, will you please call the roll?

Through the Chair, Ms. Piton. Dr. Ackman? Here. Mr. Green? Here. Mr. Biton? Here. President Davis? Here. Mayor Ballantyne? Here. Dr. Phillips? Here. Chair Kripchen? Here. We have quorum.

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

So this week, or coming up next week actually, we are having our annual Thanksgiving pep rally. There will be some traditional Highlander games. Like the three-legged race and the Highlander football race which it's like you race to put on a set of football gear. and then there's also a raffle which all the proceeds of will be going towards Helping the food drive at the school and the winners of the raffle will get two Celtics tickets. Oh yeah and student leaders are organizing the entire thing. Myself and the other class officers are

I'm going to be running the pep rally. We're also doing all the planning and take it to Marley.

So in addition to a lot of cool events like that, there have also been a lot of successful fundraisers. Notably, their junior class recently had a very successful Thanksgiving pie fundraiser. We sold over 200 pies and the proceeds will go to the junior class. Many also like many other programs such as sports teams have been able to have fundraisers and bake sales that have been also very successful. And back to Aiden.

Recently, we also had our music department take a field trip to see the Boston Symphony and they are also in the process of raising money for a Future music department trip where the department will go to Chicago for... Do you know? Okay, yeah, they'll be going to Chicago.

Yeah, so something that has happened very recently, we're in the middle of a transition from the fall to winter sports seasons. I believe pretty much every sports team was able to compete in the playoffs, which is very good for a school. notably the cross-country team was the Greater Boston League champions and even they went on to States which was very really really great for them yeah but I think Every team had a very strong season, notably also football and soccer. So yeah, that's it from us.

Great. Thank you so much for that report. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Yes, thank you. Ms. Barish.

Through you, do you know if members of the public can buy raffle tickets to support the food drive and potentially win Celtics tickets?

So the plan originally was for it to be for students and staff, but I'm sure we could amend that for families to also buy a ticket, or if you just want to give your student some money to buy some raffle tickets. but yeah we'll be announcing it during the pep rally so probably not

If there is nothing further from our students, thank you again. That brings us to approval of minutes. We have one set of minutes to approve. I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the minutes from October 20th, 2025.

I have a motion by Mr. Biton, seconded by Dr. Ackman. If there is no discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. There is no public comment this evening, so that brings us to the report of the superintendent. Dr. Pomona.

Through the chairs, so thank you Marlee and Aiden for your rapport and it's great to know that the high school is engaged in all kind of fun and community activities so thank you for sharing and we'll see you next time. So our presentation this evening is centered on student wellness and social-emotional learning. And often when we talk about educating our young children, We always think about academics, but we know that the landscape is a little bit more complex than that. We also know that learning is shaped by everything that happens in a child's life. Social pressures, emotional needs, financial stability, and many other factors that affect how students learn and grow. One issue that impacts far too many of our students and their families is housing instability.

And I wanted to share that this Wednesday I will be at the State House to represent the district in support of a bill that would promote stabilization of rent across the city of Somerville. We know that housing instability is known to lower academic achievement, increase absenteeism, and creates long-term challenges in educational growth. Within our district, we have identified about 65 students who are homeless or experiencing housing insecurity. Class 20 and accompanying youth determined to be homeless, and 31 students on our prevention list that are most likely to become homeless. So this is a real issue for us in Somerville. So speaking in support of this bill reflects the district's ongoing efforts to promote equity and strengthen community stability. So a copy of that bill is in your packets this evening.

And so we certainly hope that this legislation is going to move forward. I also want to thank Senator Julian Cyr, Representative Richard Haggerty, and the Joint Committee on Housing for taking steps to provide stability for most of our vulnerable students here in Somerville. So tonight we focus on another aspect of student wellness and social-emotional learning for our students. And we know that while academic achievement is important, true success comes from nurturing the whole child, supporting their emotional well-being, social skills, and sense of belonging. We know that that has been one of the goals and one of the core values of this school committee for decades. We know that a student who feels emotionally confident is more likely to thrive in school.

When a student struggles academically, it is quite possible that they may also be dealing with social-emotional challenges. And that's why it is so important for us to look at the whole picture when supporting our students' growth. And now, our Director of Student Services, Liz Doncaster, is here this evening. She will present the findings from our three-year growth plan for social-emotional learning and discuss how we address many of the challenges our students encounter in their everyday lives. So welcome Liz to the chair, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, Chair. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Yes, my name is Liz Doncaster. I'm the Director of Student Services. And in Student Services, next slide, we take care of things like the Superintendent said. All things social emotional development, mental and behavior health, physical well-being, and we take care and support the whole child across all schools. This connects to the strategic plan with the priority number three, wellness and joy. Next slide. So I came before this body three years ago and I talked about my social emotional growth plan that was a three-year plan that I had five initiatives that we wanted to Implement over time. And we have done that. And so tonight I want to talk about each one individually and give you some data and see how they are doing. The first one is our SEL curriculum. We knew when we came back from COVID that we needed a new updated SEL curriculum, so we put together a

We reviewed 30 curriculums and we actually came back around to the new updated version of Second Step. And the reason why we liked this updated version of Second Step is because it had more modern topics, it put students in small groups, did a lot of turn and talk, did a lot of We also liked it because it was very user-friendly. and it had a one hour online onboarding for new teachers. So we could onboard a new teacher anytime during the school year, keeping it cost effective and consistent. It also included six explicit bullying lessons which we have permanently moved to October to coincide with National Anti-Bullying Month. and this year we had our unity day which we will have now and every October which I gave you the orange t-shirts for and that was really great to see all the orange across the city on that day we took a lot of pictures it was a great day

This is also going to be supported, and I'll talk about this a little bit further in the presentation by our SEL specialists, but we also got, which I worked hard for, to get an SEL block in our K-8 schools, a set-aside time to explicitly teach We want to bring social emotional skills to our students. The second initiative was restorative justice. We're actually in our fourth year of implementation of restorative justice practices district-wide, and basically those are our community circles in every school. And I can say every school because the high school this year and last year added. On to their third period, 15 more minutes for circle practice. So every high school student gets to be sit in circle for one period at least a week, which is a big win for us. We also have a lot. We have Cynthia Massillon up at the high school who now has her certificate from Suffolk University who is running peer circles. So peers are running their own circles, community circles for their friends.

We also in the K-8 we have weekly SEL and RJ block time built into the schedule so circles are happening on the daily or at least weekly. and what we're really excited about is our SEL specialists who are trained in restorative justice all three levels. This summer we worked on putting our own internal circle keeper training together. So this keeps our restorative practices sustainable and consistent when we train our staff every year. So now we have our own train the trainer model. The third initiative is the role which I think is the most important part of this is we have SEL specialists in every building. The SEL specialists, like I said, are trained in all three levels of restorative justice by Suffolk University. They're also trained in the second step management online portal, so they can tell in their school exactly What teacher is on what lesson in second step?

And so then they can support teachers who may need a little push to do more lessons or they're always in the building. for ongoing support and they also have a voice on the ILT so they can have a voice in in planning professional development for their building. And then we did a lot of work this year, last year and the year before on the behavior response system. We had to come up with a clear behavior response chart that showed the responsibilities of what is the teacher responsible for in Tier 1 in the classroom as far as behavior, when can the teacher reach out and have somebody come to support the classroom, and when is it appropriate for the student to leave the classroom based on behavior. So we did a lot of training around this. We actually got a group together, APs, Deans. We worked out the schedule. We trained out the schedule. And what this does, the schedule, the chart, the system, I should say, and it creates consistency across the district.

We also had to involve, we realized when we were doing that there were too many Behavior codes in Aspen. There's something like over 100 behavior codes. So it was watering down the data. So we worked with Tech and DESE to carve out in the low 20s conduct codes that are more specific. Like for instance, I think there were seven or eight codes for fighting. So it just was very subjective on what you would pick as a code. So now we've whittled down those codes and it makes the data that we get that we are getting more clear and concise. For instance, we did get data out of last year, disruptive behavior in the classroom was our biggest conduct referral, class cuts, and leaving class. So with this information, the high school is now working with their teachers and doing some professional development around Tier 1 interventions, behavior management in the classroom, because they realize those are behaviors coming out of the classroom, so let's

Work with teachers to give them more tools to manage behavior within the classroom. So this is a few behaviors. So district-wide, our contract referrals are down 23%. Are you with me? Next slide, sorry, Erika. And across the K-8s there, it's down 18%. And this is big to me, to have those go down that much within a year. And our final initiative was the Social Emotional Behavior Response Team, Behavior Support Team. We still don't know what to call this, but it's a very effective team. It has Kevin Van Horn, who's a BCBA, an RBT, and a social worker. Buildings refer to this team when they've done a lot of Tier 1, Tier 2 interventions. So we have people coming to the classroom to support the classroom, but we don't believe the student needs an evaluation. There's that gray area in between. So this team comes in.

and Kevin does a great job of taking the time to observe gather data and then from the data make a behavior plan and then take the time to Explain the behavior plan, train the behavior plan to the adults in the class, and then stick around to watch how they do it. And that has resulted in the 31 cases that we had last year, 88% of them referred students decreased in interfering behavior. So that's a big win for us. But we are seeing and still continue to see that team gets pulled to schools for grades K through 2. So our early young kids are showing some challenging behaviors still in our classrooms. As always, we have our embedded health services, Riverside Home for Little Wanderers, Neighborhood Clinicians. Neighborhood Clinicians is our There's no barriers there, they don't take insurance, and they have multilingual support. So last year we covered, these teams covered 200 students in individual therapy.

where parents didn't have to drive them, didn't have to make appointments. The individual therapy comes to the building and that's very important to us. We also re-upped our three-year contract with the teen center at the high school Very important relationship between the city and ourselves and we have supported 792 mental health visits last year in SY 25 in that building. So I wanted to talk a little bit more about some other supports in place. So we've had, Nadia's here, she's my manager of social workers. She's here to support me, which is so nice. We've had a social worker in every building since 2022. Just to give you an example of the numbers that they cover, last year they had 261 individual students supported and 298 in groups. and what she gave me which I uh data she looked into I said you know let's look at the data and she looked at the data and found that our safety assessments have dropped

74% since SY 23. And what a safety assessment is, is when a student is considering or verbalizing harming themselves and other or they They verbalize a threat, we immediately do a safety assessment. So that is down 74%. We also this year brought in a second full-time prevention and intervention specialist dedicated to the high school. We've been wanting that because the high school takes up a lot of time with education and reactive activities. actions around a lot mostly around vaping and other other issues so now we have a second so Kristen Strelitz who's been with us for years can now she's freed up to do some proactive education at the k-8 level which is where it all begins for us Our supervisors of attendance are my eyes and ears of the community. They are out every day knocking on doors.

They did 700 home visits last year, and they usually bring somebody who has knowledge of the student, usually the social worker, will go with them or a dean. Somebody who knows the child will be there with them. Our mediation program, you know I double the staff there. So last year they... They support 660 students, and Janine and I, who runs the program, wanted to tell me that more kids are coming to my office saying, Miss Dye, I need help. Can I mediate with a friend? So they're actually self-referring themselves at this point. And she's done a great job of continuing to train middle school and high school peers, peer mediators. We do that every year. And then we have those circle trainers at the high school, and we added a few more bilingual adjustment counselors. So again, this results in positive data for us. Our attendance rate remains above the state average and is continuing to climb while our chronic absenteeism rate

went down by six percent and it continues to decrease and our students increasingly seek support proactively and our behavior referrals have gone down. Mike.

Okay.

It's got stuck on my screen. Can you get the next screen? So yes. So there's three proactive measures that I want to talk about because moving forward, we're teaming up with BCH, Boston Children's Hospital. We are teaming up on... Sorry. They're looking at the MTSS, the multi-tiered system of supports, and the crosswalks between academics and SEL and mental health. So they're doing a pilot program for universal screeners. They're doing surveys, trying to figure out where the holes are in our interventions. When it comes to, like the superintendent says, so many times when a student is maybe not doing well academically, it has something to do with maybe we're not supporting them social and emotional enough. So they're looking for those holes. They'll have a lot of data for us at the end of the school year. and then we are doing a little bit of a dive into bullying versus peer conflict. We have, I think there is a,

A disconnect between the definition of peer conflict and the definition of bullying. I think students and parents, we have to do some work there communicating that definition The data shows last year we had 79 bullying investigations and 25 of them came out to be bullying. So that's a third of the reported investigations. And if it's 25 students, that's less than 1%. It does seem like it's a bigger issue because it's an emotional issue and we have a lot of parents coming to us, but I think we need to do some more communication around the difference between What is developmentally appropriate peer conflict versus bullying? and lastly I wanted to talk about 504 accommodation plans. Since I took this role from Richmond-Lillard, our 504 accommodation plans have tripled. And so the responsibility of a 504 accommodation plan lies on the counselor in our buildings.

So this year we're getting together and we're putting a working group together to talk about roles, responsibilities, protocols and procedures. And I want to look at an online management program because right now we have our counsellors Managing these accommodation plans with which teachers are legally obliged to implement the accommodations and I just I just feel like that's too much on their shoulders so hopefully out of this working group will come up with a plan to make that a more supported with district effort versus the individual councillor in each building. In summary, our department continues to strengthen SEL, restorative practices, mental health supports, and behavior systems. We are committed to aligning academic and social emotional supports, maintaining student safety and well-being, and continuously improving through data-driven approaches. Thank you.

Yes, Ms. Barish, and then Dr. Ackman, and then Mr. Green.

Through you, it's always nice to see you. It's been a while. Welcome. This is a terrific presentation, and the Data is obviously really promising, so awesome. It's great when we implement things and they seem to work. I was curious about... I think on one of the slides it said something about having a bilingual adjustment counselor and it was just below a line that was talking about Peer Circle Keepers. And it occurred to me, I just wondered, do we have multilingual peer circle keepers? Do we have students who are able to facilitate circles for their multilingual peers?

I will check on that and get back to you I'm sure Cynthia Massalon is running those she's an AP at the high school I would assume that that would come naturally to her to put that in there but I will find out and I'll email you back with that that's that would thank good question thanks I like that question.

Thank you for presenting. This is really wonderful and really important work. More than anything else, maybe this is me getting up on a soapbox, but I want to say in a time when we're anticipating tightening budgets, I want to stand very firm in my support of the work you do and that it is worth It is worth the investment and I personally you know should budgets tighten we'll be working very hard to protect and continue to support the work as you protect and continue to support all our students but our vulnerable students as they're figuring out who they are as they're engaging and you know having those difficult growing conversations and learning to be like, you know, complete people.

And you get me. You get it. Thank you very much for your support. You get it. I love it. Mr. Green and Mr. Bichon.

I'm really glad I get to follow up Dr. Ackman because I think my question builds off that. I think, and I'm not sure if it's, to you, or the superintendent, or perhaps to both. But two, it was only two, maybe three years ago, when we were first coming out of the lockdown phase of the pandemic, There was a lot of talk about behavior incidents, particularly at the high school. Understandably, kids have just gone through generational level trauma. We're figuring out how to act in society again. Over the three years since, we have seen a steady decline in these behaviors, and we've seen it without, we've seen it as we adapt the policies and keep them in our values, policies that met students with compassion, with respect,

We didn't go the way some other districts may go towards increasing the coding of disciplinary practices, and we see that our strategies are working. That said, when we were seeing more incidents, we also had a lot of talk about it. It was a very lively topic in the community. So in keeping with Dr. Aboff's, I think I fully correctly believe that this is an investment worth maintaining even if budgets get tightened. My question is twofold. I guess it's only one fold. What can we do to tell the story of these last three years for the public and for the wider community so they understand that

We are able to address the challenges in ways that are keeping with our values and will continue to be keeping with our values and what do we do that works in a way that's clear for the community as a whole.

That's a good question. I know we have an online presence. We have a website, and then we have a great communication department in Darrell. So I would look to the superintendent on how we sort of, I don't want to say advertise, or just let the community know the hard work that we've done. And I should say, and I failed to say it in my presentation, this is just not me. This is my assistant director, the manager of social workers, and especially at the building-based level, the deans, the adjustment counselors, the counselors, the social workers who are on the front line every day in classrooms with teachers implementing the SEL, the SEL specialists. It takes a village. It really does of a support team to get these results that we've gotten in the past three years.

Through the chair, so thank you for the question and I totally want to echo the comment from Dr. Ackman is that we definitely value the investment around social emotional and I hope we can continue that. Despite the potential shortfalls that might be in the horizon. Yes, that idea of what is story and how do we tell the story, it is critical. I think the numbers speak for themselves. I also know that there are narratives that sometimes take hold of the social media sphere and so that also One experience of one child or one family is one too many and those are hard to manage especially when we know that as Sometimes this notion of like what is conflict versus what is bullying is something that often we know that children are coming in with a

A system that is a little bit less mature to manage conflict and so part of that is the pandemic part of that is we are coming back again to I want to emphasize what matters most in terms of our academic development. What I mean by that is that it's not just academics, it's also social-emotional. The question is a good one. It is one I know that if I would have had a principal... The principal of the high school, Alicia, Kirsten, she would have told us the story of the What is possible at the high school right now as a result of less conflicts that are taking place? So it's a great question. It's one that hopefully we can tell it through social media as well as Having advocates out in the community to share the story.

But it is one that we will continue to reinforce.

I had Mr. Biton and then Dr. Phillips.

Thank you, Chair, through you. I'm so grateful for the conversation that has preceded my comment here. Particularly Dr. Ackman's elevation of the support that she and I share for The great work that you and the rest of your department do. No, it's you collective. And I do want to hold that in In parallel, I guess, with what Dr. Carmona just stated around one child's undergoing a crisis being one too many, that we need to be there I'm paraphrasing inexpertly what you just said, so I'll let what you said stand, but it resonated with me.

And so the one number that jumped out at me most dramatically from your presentation was the 74% drop in safety assessments since 2022-2023. Sorry?

SY 23, yeah. Yeah, right, exactly.

Three years. And every single one of those incidents is not only a student whose life potentially has been It's a whole classroom that is improved. and benefits from that intervention. So I really do think that storytelling is a key piece of this and something that we need to continue to think about how we carry forward. Question, entirely unrelated. Can you talk a little bit about Restorative Recess. I hear from my own eighth grader about restorative recess and When I asked him what restorative recess was, he said, and this was just unprompted, I just said, what is it?

And he said, it's just what they call detention now. And I don't think that's true. So I would love to be able to respond to him and others who ask me those sorts of questions.

Let me just start by saying restorative recess is not happening in every building. It is something they are trying in the building you are speaking about. Thank you. And it is... Instead of going to recess, they sit in circle and are supposed to talk about what was the conflict, where it began, and how they can get to know each other better as students, as peers. So they can find some common ground. So it's meant to be restorative in the fact that it's meant to rebuild the damage, rebuild community. But it's not happening in all our schools. And I would say that's more like a pilot that I'm keeping an eye on. I'm going to put it that way. Is that OK?

Thank you so much for this. Are you warmed up now? I'm finally warmed up. I'm still shivering. No, it's cold in here. But thank you for this great presentation. It is clear you are doing an awful lot of work with your team and it is having some really promising impacts. you know I'm always interested in the intersection of our SEL work and our equity work and I'm wondering could we get the data in here disaggregated by race ethnicity English language status and special education status I think we would have a

The attendance and the discipline data?

Yeah. That can be done. We have a much more powerful story to tell if we were able to see those drops all across the board.

I will be happy to get that to you. I have 10 minutes of presentation, so you can only fit in some.

Ms. Pitone and then Ms. Barish. Thank you through you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. There is a lot of content here. and this work that you've been doing over the last three years I'm looking forward to I guess there's more of a comment that I'm looking forward to seeing kind of what the next stage of the plan is and I don't know if that's something that we will see in this school year or whether or not that would be something we see next school year but as well as I know how complicated it is to track SEL data. because it is it there's a lot of pieces and you also you know you don't want to track referrals if you need you don't want people to feel like they shouldn't have referrals if they need the referral you know there's all complexities there because it's really more about

you know how students are engaging and how are they feeling and there's this link to academics and I don't know what that's gonna look like as we move forward it's like it's the same way I appreciate Dr. Phillips bringing up you know How do we disaggregate this data? How do we look at the data around social emotional work that we're doing in the relationship to our student academics. So it's something like kind of forward thinking. I did have one quick question. And that's something, like I said, I'm sure you have all these seeds in your mind already. It's exciting to hear about the re-upping of Second Step and the training that you're doing and the fact that you can get new teachers trained immediately. That's huge. or as quickly as possible at least to get them up to speed. I know a one hour training is not going to be the whole thing. I am curious, so now we've introduced an SEL block that's one time per week?

In most K-8s it's on Wednesdays, yes. and that's for explicit teaching but you know you should a teacher should bring all that content into the other content areas and weave it in you know yeah but there's going to be like a lesson yes there's going to be an explicit lesson everybody that they go throughout through the year yes um

and this is led by the classroom teachers, correct? Yes. And so I just want to clarify that the SEL specialist is tracking that because that information is

They have to update it so when you finish a lesson you hit you know lesson submitted so then that then that shows up on the dashboard that you finish that lesson and you finish that unit so we are we do have a way to track

Each individual teacher at each classroom.

And I appreciate the talk around The academic and social emotional crosswalk because we know when we came back from COVID, we swung towards social emotional. We all knew we needed that. and then we realized we were we needed to pay more attention to academics and we're kind of swinging that way now and I would love to work on finding that sweet spot between the over in the lacrosse walk between SEL and academics and how we can I believe we do a pretty good job but it's always worth looking at and I think that our Partnership with Boston Children's Hospital and the MTSS and the surveys they're doing and the screeners that they're doing and the data they're collecting. I do think they're going to give us hopefully some good data at the end of the school year.

Thank you, and this is not directly related, so if someone else has a comment or question, they can go first. I'm just thinking about student support and the press release from the city about a million dollars that's going toward Hunger Relief, Food Insecurity, Carrot Cards, and School Markets were mentioned. I'm not sure if you were planning on talking about those later.

That would be Ruth Santos in SFLC. She loves coming to present. She'll present to you.

No, I guess I just wanted to say this is wonderful. I was curious about whether you know if the amount of money that is being Committed to Carrot Cards will restore what families became accustomed to last year. And either way, should parents who are feeling under particular stress, I mean food security stress, reach out to their liaisons?

So that's the way it is done and in fact when I spoke to because I wanted to see what is the First acknowledgement of the contribution of the city towards that. I was reminded that liaisons actually manage that on a regular basis. Any requests for food? And even I think that amount is not going to be enough to address all the needs of families. There is significant need. Even just as you said, the market, food markets, we were actually short to provide all the food that we often provide. It's going to be great but it's also we have to kind of make sure that it's managed to support the needs in a way that allows us to make that a little bit sustainable for now. So it's a great contribution. I don't know how much. I mean, I haven't spoken to Ruth to see what is the message, but when I talk to individual

Family Liaisons, they said, yeah, we just manage that on a daily basis. We know who are the families that need it the most and we engage with them. But it's great news. I wanted to recognize that the mayor provided that financing to support our families.

I just wanted to ask a quick question and then I'll call on Mr. Green. I'm curious about your talking about the differences between bullying and peer conflict. and I think to your point education around that is important and I'm just curious if you have any thoughts on how to do that education.

Well, I'll give you an example. Courtney Goslin of Winter Hill, on a parent curriculum night, she actually did a presentation on the actual definition. and gave examples of what it would look like. And she really felt like that gave, really informed her parents and things have shifted A little bit in the building this year. So that's one way to do it. We can talk about it with parents whenever parent teacher conferences or whenever they're invited in. Maybe I could have principals think about putting something in their newsletters. We can have... We can do circles with students about, ask them, you know, what is their, what do they perceive as bullying and are we doing right by them in explaining it in a way that they understand it so they understand the difference between peer conflict and bullying. and so on and so forth. Circles with students would be a great way to figure that out. But yeah, that's the few ways I've seen it done and I wanna do it. And we're just having conversations about it

It does seem like it's a very emotional issue for a lot of parents and students, and then when it boils down to actual data, we only had 25 cases of bullying this year, which is, like I said again, less than 1% of the school population. So we're always looking at that. It's always a challenge. So I will continue to think about that. Thank you for the question.

Yeah, I want to build on Dr. Carmona and Ms. Barish's point about food insecurity. I think we're seeing, you know, between the snap cuts of the Big Better Bill, obviously the shutdown, Kami, one AI bubble from popping from depression. We're seeing across the region just a stunning increase in the number of families, including families who six months ago or a year ago would not have defined themselves as even being financially strapped who are now facing food insecurity. And so I am wondering if this is perhaps a time when we should be Thinking more systemically about practically putting innovation out in student and family hands because I think I would be shocked if there are not families who This is a new experience and didn't even think that there are resources they could access in our schools that could help.

So I just wanted to make sure we're doing everything we can to get that message out to families who are facing unprecedented times, as we keep saying.

Thank you through the chair and I know this is a bit of a tangent but something that I've been thinking about I remember the superintendent mentioned that the uptake of school breakfast has not been Strong, and I think about that food and my understanding of how the program works is it has to be for students, but I don't know if there are grant programs or any way that we can bring families in to like somehow you know encourage families to come eat nutritious food and you know make it available if parents want to come in in that early window you know it may not be possible for many reasons logistical safety but it is also a way of bringing people into our buildings and people who may not otherwise feel welcome in certain ways and so

It was just a thought and I probably should have just sent it to an email, but I'm saying it now.

Do you want to follow up? I just imagine I totally understand the need but I just imagined I mean running a morning breakfast in schools is a full-time chaos management is like I, you know, been in the schools for so many years and just having, making sure the kids get their lunch, get their breakfast, and go back into the classroom. And having adults into the space, I find that, It just gives me a little bit of my blood pressure rises, but I welcome creative ideas to that and we definitely should not stop thinking. But I would not be burdening our and other building leaders with another logistical challenge. We do have to continue to ask how do we increase that participation for our students, but let's keep up the good ideas.

I did, I know that

Several years ago, I'm not even trying to remember how many, pre-pandemic, we were looking to expand Breakfast After the Bell, and that feels like something that might be worth revisiting now. In a world of universal breakfast, let's universalize it and it may be worth revisiting, expanding Breakfast After the Bell for families and students so that we know that they're at least getting access to that meal.

Parrish,

I appreciate Dr. Carmona's concerns around logistics and safety and whatnot and inviting adults to participate in breakfast. I wonder if... Assuming that the Capuano school functions the way it did 10 years ago when I last had children there, I wonder if that might be a unique opportunity, not necessarily for parents to partake, but maybe younger siblings, because at least when my kids were there you know parents could come in and sit with their child for 15 20 30 minutes before the children went to their classrooms often bringing Younger siblings with them. So beyond the federal rules that might prohibit adults from eating the food, I wonder if it might be okay to serve it to those younger siblings.

And since they're all there anyway, perhaps that's a special case.

Thank you, Chair, through you. Just a quick question. If you can follow up with school by school data around bullying and sort of

where are we getting the requests from and yeah I can do that that'd be great email I can get that to you by school investigations by school thank you okay

If there are no further questions, thank you again for your presentation.

So before I conclude my remarks this evening, in your packet you will find the annual weather preparedness memo for your review, And this memo outlines our preparation for the arrival of winter and how we respond to weather emergencies across the district. Hopefully you have a better understanding of how we make a decision around Esnode and things of that nature. And I also wanted to wish happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate the holiday and please make sure you enjoy time with family and friends and also a reminder that schools close early on the 26th. We will have no school on the 27th and 28th, and we will be resuming the school on the 1st of December, which is a Monday. And with that, that's the end of my report.

So the youth health survey is not happening? Is that correct?

That is correct. We didn't have the city list. The city was not available for that presentation. Is that correct?

I have some data from it I can speak to, but I wouldn't know.

Do we think they'll come another time or is this our only opportunity?

So we have reached out multiple times and we, I mean we, I acknowledge that we actually had to adjust the schedule twice because we had a couple of things that had to be adjusted for the multiple things that needed to be decided that require a vote. and so we moved that meeting with them and so the last time that we invited them they were not available so I am assuming that that's part of the logistical I am confident that we will be able to have them back here at some point.

Okay. Dr. Phillips? Thanks to you. When whoever reaches out to them plans to, could you just say that their presentation looks rockin' and we would love to hear them talk about it. My real question is to the superintendent and team, is there any changes to our snow inclement weather plans that we should know about?

No, not, I mean, it's the same information as this is done in collaboration. I mean, we have a new person at the city level that is emergency preparedness, which he seems to be more systematic, and so I think we haven't sat down just to... He has more data, actually, than I have seen before, so I'm hoping that we will be better informed than just looking at the snowflakes coming down and making a decision the day before.

Mr. Green and Ms. Patel.

I actually thank you for that question and answer. We've noticed over the last several years, thanks to climate change, that we had not in the last several years gotten the level of snow we've gotten in past years. I would love if at some point in the future we could get the city's perspective on What, if anything, is the trend that we should continue to expect? And what, if anything, that does to change our snow plans on the macro level? In terms of like... You know, does that change what we need to do in terms of equipment, in terms of like the ever-present issue of like sure we can snow maybe over but the clock like all the parking stuff and all the other stuff that went into snow citizens in the past

In a world where we might not be seeing as much as we did, does any of that change? And I'd love to know if the city is even thinking about that stuff or if we're going to take the lead on that as well.

Through the chair, I wonder, so the question is more related to how we interact with the city in terms of some of the The expectations around snow parking, because I know that Mr. Biton has a and City Council President Davis, you work in a committee also that actually helps us inform some of the facilities needs. And so I wonder that might be a place where we can have that conversation.

Sure, we can draft an order to discuss it there.

It's a great question, and I know that just so, I mean, that is a question that I hear constantly from our educators, the issue of parking, and I know that that often is something that comes up and is often unresolved. So anything that could be done to improve that, that would be great.

and related to that in past years I know we've heard an issue when there's snow and certain playgrounds and the city doesn't want to plow the playgrounds and I don't remember where we've left that in past years or if it's ever been resolved, but I guess I just wanted to flag it again to try and prevent it from becoming a thing again this year.

Continues to be a source of contention. Luckily, the high school is not at that level anymore because we couldn't treat it. That would have voided the warranty at the high school, but we are beyond that, so now the pavers have been cured, so that's not an issue. but places like the Hilly or the West, no not the West, but I know the Hilly that has that rubberized surface, cannot be shoveled. And unfortunately, students cannot be there with a certain amount of snow, which is very impactful for kids. But we haven't found a solution, so I think this is a question as to like...

I was just gonna say, maybe this is another...

Is there a different product?

Subcommittee. Mr. Davis?

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Through you two, whomever, and you all may be able to answer this, and I don't because I'm the new guy here. The scenario you're talking about with not being able to shovel those rubberized services, does that... Are you saying that keeps the school closed?

It doesn't keep the school closed, it keeps the playgrounds from being used.

I think there's a couple different conversations here. So as we think about how to frame the one or multiple items for our committee, We'll kind of think about those two things. But if I understand it through you, Madam Chair, to the good representative from Ward 4, One of the questions is sort of overall, what are the factors that are impacted by snow days that might change or we might need to be thinking about changing? As we look at climate change and whether there's any opportunity there for efficiencies or otherwise, just to understand that better. Do I understand that request correctly? Okay, I see a thumbs up, so thank you.

Yes, there were two different questions. Sort of his question reminded me of my question, but it is not exactly related. Did you have a new question, Laura? Okay, so Ms. Barish, did you want to follow up? I'll come back to you.

Thank you. Through you. Acknowledging Mr. Green's point that maybe snow isn't going to be such a factor in the near future, I just want to flag the fact that the Kennedy Playground redesign project is Moving forward and so as we're thinking of as we as the people who make decisions about playground design are thinking about that just a reminder that that is something that should be taken into account is how How the playground will be or will not be available for use in winter months.

Mr. Pitone, then Dr. Ackman, and then I'll come back to Ms. Pitone.

Thank you, Chair, through you. I just want to add to this conversation that Climate change may produce situations especially here in the Northeast where there's more moisture in the air which may lead to Bigger and more frequent snowstorms, even if we have warmer weather overall. So there's some complexities around that. And I think... It's far beyond us as a city or a school committee to predict that, but we're going to have snow in New England. For decades to come, how that presents itself is anyone's guess, but I do think it's wise for us to start planning around it.

Thank you. Through the chair as possibly an attempt to follow up from both Ms. Barish and Mr. Biton. Only because I know someone who is part of engineering, one of the things I've learned about our playgrounds is times when things aren't getting repaired, it is my understanding those who are more involved with buildings can tell me if I'm wrong that you know it could be that The climbing structure, the spinny thing, whatever it was at the time was the best price for whatever the unit was. But that the pieces to repair are either like nearly impossible to come by or incredibly expensive.

And I say that only because as we were considering the Kennedy playground renovation, I hope that those I think we're part of it but you know who who make the choices about the equipment that goes in we don't just look at the price points In installation, we consider if there's some sort of maintenance package, and then if like what the long-term repair costs like almost kind of when you're like buying a car like what you should be doing uh I just bought a car, so deeply enmeshed in it. But only because I've seen our kids, not be able to access things on their playgrounds for months and months at a time for this so you know as an attempt to if we are spending this money and investing

Time and Energy, you know, it could be that the item is a little bit more expensive off the top or that we pay extra for like a maintenance or repair package, but I think it will be... you know better for us in the long run and certainly for the students we're looking to serve if we take that into consideration

agreed but that is primarily a city decision not a school committee decision because the playgrounds belong to the city much like our buildings but um we have a representative here from the city council so our you know Soapboxing is still a good idea. I just wanted to point out that we don't actually pay for the playgrounds.

Ms. Paton. Thank you. Through you, I may have answered my own question. I was surprised by the retitling because it used to be called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. I don't know if there's a reason why it's changed. is that what they're changing calling it now statewide it's only important because we compare our data to state data and just so everyone knows it also includes several specific questions so the bulk of it is the same thing that goes across the state and then we've added information that we think is valuable so it's the same thing they just

Through the chair, I'm not quite sure of the answer. This is part of the reason why we wanted, but we noticed the same thing and did investigation on our team while we were reviewing the presentation. so we googled we noticed that across the state they're using this language like the school district youth health survey So we know that it's at least statewide. We were not able to tell whether this is the new iteration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey or if it is something new. So that's something that we'll have to connect back with the city on, but we also noticed that as well.

I'm guessing it's the same thing only because it has like the same years and but we'll learn when hopefully percent but I really would I'm looking forward to that presentation as well this is always really an informative process for the school committee

If there are no more questions.

Oh, yes, sorry. Thank you. Only vague and maybe not that helpful, but I think the Trump administration's executive orders around gender ideology seem to profoundly impact the YRBS. in January and so I think this is our state proactively as part of their defense of our students kind of changing the name and owning sorry the original items

Thank you for that. Okay. There was more to your report? Or are we, the calendar first draft?

Yeah, so that was, yeah.

Thank you to the chair. So we do not have a first. Sorry, hold on. Hold up.

Just one more question. Yeah, I apologize. This is really quick. We usually get access to more data than just the presentation. I guess it should be available online, the link to more data, and you can ask the city about that. Thank you.

Thank you. That's okay. That's great. Through the chair, we do not yet have the draft of the 2017 We were ambitious and started working on it and realized that we needed to talk with a few more people on our team before putting that out for approval of dates so we hope to have that ready by the next That's why it appeared on the agenda but didn't make it into the packet tonight.

That concludes your report. Is there anything you'd like to tell us about Omni personnel report for November?

Yes, there are a few things that I want us to share. So we have a few retirements after 38 years of service. Jackie Lawrence, special education teacher at the Capuano School and the former SEU president, has decided to retire effective of June 30, 2026. We also have hired a new nurse at the Healy School, a paraprofessional for the Argentinian School, and assistant site director for OST at the East Somerville School. And also Crystal Legaski, former Kennedy School Secretary, was promoted to Accounts Payable Specialist in the Finance Office at Central Office. So that's the report.

Thank you for that. Are there any questions about the personnel report? Okay, seeing none, that brings us to some reports of subcommittees. I will entertain a motion.

I move to accept the report of the joint school building facilities and maintenance subcommittee meeting for October 20th, 2025. Second.

I have a motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Dr. Phillips. Yes, Ms. Barish.

I just wondered if Mr. Biton could clarify it said in, or Mr. Davis, either one, or anyone else on the committee. It said that the mayor will be a continued voice on the MSBA school building committee and I was just hoping for clarification does that mean that Katiana Ballantyne will serve on the committee after she's mayor or that whoever has the title of mayor will continue to serve on that committee?

It's the latter.

That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Thanks for clarifying.

Okay, if there's no further discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. There is another subcommittee to approve. Yeah.

I saw on the agenda, forgive me if we spoke about this already and I missed it, the draft FY26, or school year 26, 27.

That's what Dr. Boston Davis just spoke to. I apologize. It's not ready yet. Made it on the agenda, but it's not here. No problem. Okay, another subcommittee to approve.

I move to accept the school committee meeting for the finance and facilities subcommittee meeting report from November 5th.

Second. Motion by Dr. Phillips, seconded by Ms. Barish. If there is no discussion on that, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Okay, that brings us to competency determination. Dr. Boston Davis.

Thank you through the chair. In your packet, you'll see an updated or revised draft of the competency determination drafted policy. I'm happy to talk you through some of the recommended changes and they're also tracked with red under they're in red and they're underlined and anything that was on the draft that I presented at our last meeting is struck through. So I added on page two, I'll start talking through some of the revisions. I added just kind of an overview definition that was also that provides some background it was in the background of the kind of title or cover page When I added those, I added two sentences at the end of that paragraph.

The second to last sentence, which says while assessments may be used to measure student mastery, it is not the intent of the Somerville Public Schools to create or institute any additional high-stakes testing mechanisms. The intention behind that was based on the feedback in the discussion where we said we are not intending to replace one high-stakes test with another. And so I hope that captures that sentiment. And then the final sentence says when possible, various measures should be used to demonstrate mastery. Also, that came up in discussion from the committee, hoping to just name that We hope that students are able to demonstrate mastery in more than just an assessment, and so when possible, that's named. Below that on page two, in the middle of page two, I added a definition of an equivalent course.

There was feedback from a constituent asking for the definition of that. and that also helped so I talked through through that with some of our building administrators and it helped to clarify other parts of the policy as well so just when you see throughout the policy the naming of The required courses or an equivalent course, this definition aims to provide more clarity there. At the end of page two, you'll notice a strikethrough in the bottom bullet. It says, satisfactorily completing coursework shall mean a student earns full credit in a course with a final grade of 60 or higher. and then you see struck through and by meeting a the school attendance standard for that course that was also feedback from a constituent hoping that attendance was not completed with

This the course the Successfully completing a course. And so I did, per the recommendation of the constituent, I'm bringing it forward to you, struck through. That said, I do want to be clear that Per the Somerville High School attendance policy, Attendance is included somewhat in successfully completing a course in many ways. In fact, in talking to the The high school administration, that clause was a bit redundant. So a student, and this policy is in the handbook. Five unexcused absences, a student cannot earn a grade of higher than a 59.

So they would not successfully complete coursework if they did not meet the school attendance standard. To be clear, that is talking about unexcused absences that does not include a number, a host of reasons why a student's absence may be Excuse, including that related to a student's disability, including that for a student who is hospitalized or any other reason, a whole host of reasons. And in fact, You may already know this, but our high school team does a really tremendous job ensuring that they connect with every single student and ensure that sometimes they learn why something may have happened and they end up excusing absences. I did want to be clear that although we're striking through that language or this recommendation to you is to strike through that language, attendance is still a factor in successfully completing coursework.

Turning to page three. Member Barish, via email, recommended shifting the language, and you'll see that multiple times throughout the drafted policy. where you'll see the strikethrough you'll see that twice on page three striking through their time of and adding instead to read from the end of the sentence. So they have as many opportunities as possible to demonstrate mastery before they would become eligible for graduation. that appears a couple of more times on page four and then you'll notice on page four in efforts to clarify that if a student under the This section for students with disabilities, this is now the second half of page four.

In order to clarify that if a student based on their disabilities require a modified, an alternative method to demonstrate mastery that they will be Granted that so I just shifted the language there and recommending a shift to language to just make that piece more clear it reads and this is the third bullet under A department shall develop an alternative method for demonstrating mastery for an individual student if the student's disability and accommodations require this. and then the final addition or revision that just again to clarify around late enrolling students that the competency determination review will happen at time of course registration.

Thank you for that. Are there other questions? Yes, Mr. Davis.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Through you to the Assistant Superintendent, just a quick question, clarification really on the first paragraph. This may have been in the earlier draft that I just didn't think of the question at the time, so forgive me if that's the case. And this is primarily just to have the right answer if and when somebody asks me. The statement that, you know, following the ballot question, MCAS can no longer be used to determine competency determination, is that accurate? Because my understanding is some towns are... deciding to just use it anyways. Maybe that's wrong, but I just want to make sure I'm clear on is it that it's not a state requirement but towns or cities can use it or it's that it can't be.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there's a couple of answers. and I'm going to just name that in the many meetings that I've been in with other superintendents, assistant superintendents, I think a lot of people are learning and so there are different levels of understanding across the state. My understanding is that the MCAS cannot be used for competency determination. However, unless on rare cases which are indicated in this policy for example if a student is enrolling from another district and they have passed the MCAS that may be used in rare situations however MCAS can be used under a local graduation requirement. So a district can choose to use MCAS as a local high school graduation requirement which Kind of is the same.

And so that is how I've seen them being written into policies. But it's my understanding based on the language of the law that we cannot use MCAS for

I just wanted to clarify, are we voting on this tonight?

This needs to be passed by December. We need to have our policy uploaded to the state by December 31st.

Oh, so by the end of December.

By the end of December, yes.

So we don't have to vote on it tonight unless... You don't have to vote on it, but you know.

I just noticed something that I would make a suggestion around. So I just didn't know if you want me to email you or if you want to just say it now and maybe we can vote on it.

Whatever your preference is, I'm happy to capture notes in the same way that I did last time.

May I? Okay. I just noticed at the beginning, I'm on the wrong view here. The final sentence of the new paragraph, the overview paragraph, where it says when possible various measures should be used to demonstrate mastery. And I feel like Measures are what the person assessing it uses, not the person demonstrating it. So could it say various measures should be used to assess mastery or various activities should be used to demonstrate mastery? Does that make sense? Okay, and then I also just wanted to recommend cross-referencing the attendance policy within the footer of this policy when it's finalized so that people can easily find that.

I move to approve this policy with Ms. Barish's friendly amendments.

Second.

I have a motion by Dr. Phillips, seconded by Mr. Biton. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, oh, yes, please.

Sorry, are we voting on an amendment to the policy?

We're voting on the policy with the amendment.

Okay, I heard a couple different variations there. Which one are we...

To put it in order, per school committee rules, so-called administrative edits, the administration can just do. Okay, so conceptually we're comfortable. The actual wording can be fixed by the administration. Very well, okay, thank you.

Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you again for all your work on this, Dr. Ross and Davis. Okay. We have a Somerville Public Schools Policy Manual up for a second reading, JFAAA, the CTE program admissions policy. So I will entertain a motion for that.

Move to approve.

Second. I have a motion by Mr. Green, seconded by Dr. Ackman. Is there any further discussion on this policy? Seeing none, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to the second reading of policy manual sections H and L. I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve policy manual sections H and L.

Motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Mr. Biton. Ms. Barish.

Yeah, I just want to... Just want to revisit Mr. Green's request to restore the language about teachers' rights that were in... I'm just going to have to open it because I don't remember. In... There it is. Policy HB. I don't think we actually had any conversation about it, so I just wanted to have that conversation? Do we want to reintroduce or do we want to maintain this language? Employees shall have the right of self-organization, etc. It's in the memo that I put in the packet.

Thank you.

So I am perfectly fine with using Ms. Barish's proposed language. To be clear, I think this is not so much about changing the content of our practices or behavior, but 10 years in school could have taught me that people can read into things. And so I don't want to give any impression that our commitment to the rights of our teachers has in any way shape or form changed as we clean up things. And so acknowledging those in writing the policy Somewhere still makes sense to me, and I think Ms. Barish, as always, has done a great job of threading efficiency and thoroughness. So, so moved.

Okay, so... I guess the motion would be to accept H&L including the reintroduction of the employee rights language as in the memo.

Great, thank you for that. All right, so now we have that motion on the table. Is there any further discussion? Yes, please.

So I'm assuming that there's no contradiction or conflict with the language in the CBA, is that right?

It's based on Mass General Law, so I can't imagine there would be if you'd be more comfortable with us confirming that.

Basically the language just affirms that we recognize collective bargaining rights. So I think, yeah, as you said, it's a national law and it basically affirms that we as a district believe in collective bargaining and we'll continue to do so.

How about if we add to the motion except where it contradicts collective bargaining agreement? How's that? Great. Then we can change it if needed.

All right. If there is no further discussion, All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to an MSBA update. Do we have any updates there?

Yes, through the chair. The work at the project of the MSBA construction of the Winterhill, and possibly the Brown continues. I know that the CAG recently met to finalize the recommendation to the mayor. I know that Andre Green is also probably more adept to provide an in-depth assessment of what's happening there so there's two fronts is the work of the CAG as well as the work of the program designer Perkins Isman has actually Not acknowledged, but has created and has convened an educational leadership team to address the programmatic needs of that building. And in that convening, we have the building principals,

Both Principal Gosling and Principal Ames, as well as Rich Wright, a member of that team, the OPMs, myself, We have Dr. Boston-Davis as well, and any department head that actually has to do with any programmatic decisions for our students in our district. Again, the work is taking two tracks. One, the work of the CAG, and again, Mr. Green probably could provide us a little bit of an update on that one. And the second one is the work that the designer that was selected by the process that we embark on with the MSBA. Perkins Isman is working on a team I also wanted to share that we will be convening two listening sessions for both educators as well as parents in January. We don't have that date yet. They're organizing that with us.

To make sure that we capture the feedback from families as well as educators in our district. So that's a big part of what the building construction team will do, but they are informed through the work that happens in our district. So I don't know if, Andre, you want to share some of the work that the CAG team has provided.

Sure, and I'll follow up by sending the draft recommendation memo to members after this meeting and the district can put it in our packet as well. But it looks as if... The CAG is circling around recommending a larger school at the Sycamore as recommendations of the mayor. I think the memo's about explaining the whys and in some degrees addressing some of the concerns. I think It would behoove us once the CAG makes a draft recommendation, which may be as soon as next week. I think it would behoove us as a school committee. It's one of the reasons I'm making sure you get the draft so you can start thinking about it.

to comment on it, either in the form of a motion collectively or in some other way if we can't come to a collective agreement. I think, speaking for myself, I think the primary reason this is my vote in the larger building is that it's the option that gives us The most flexibility as a district going forward and more seats is always good. As I think there's a lot that we as a body will have to do over the next several years both to sell any new building and what projects to be a Thank you.

Thank you. For the first time, perhaps, since building at Capuano, to think, Proactively, kind of reactively as to a vision to what we could do with our buildings. And so I look forward to this body and our successful members having a conversation with the community as to the possibilities and opportunities that I had. And so yeah, I will send that memo out to everyone in the morning. And if people have questions, comments, or thoughts they want to ensure I hear before Monday's meeting, please reach out to me.

Thanks.

Thank you, Chair, through you. Thank you, Mr. Green, for that distillation of what has been a very complex process with lots of data and different perspectives. One thing in just tuning in recently to conversations happening at the CAG, I thought I heard a request from several members of the CAG 4 school committee As a whole to weigh in on on some aspect of what the recommendation would be is that is can you speak a little bit about through your chair to What that request is and how you interpret that?

Sure. Yeah, I think there was definitely some back and forth, particularly I'm going to be shamelessly casual and call him Matthew because I can't remember the last name off the top of my head, over whether or not the school committee would make a formal recommendation to the recommending body. We've had conversations in this horseshoe about pros and cons. I've relayed those. It is certainly my opinion that without doing A process like the majority of the work together feedback and data and all these things was done by the CAG and I said In last week's meeting, had I been mayor when a decision was made on how to structure this recommendation, I would have tasked the school committee with doing it.

and we would have done the public process and they were gathering on stuff. That was not the choice the mayor made. I think all the rationale was in the CAG. Certainly I think if we... I feel strongly that there is a right answer we should give the CAG. I would not be opposed to doing that. I don't know that I think I don't know that I think that is the right path, as I mentioned. But if members disagree, that's certainly something we could do. and we need to constantly make our own recommendations to the mayor. But I would... My read on the conversations we had

both in this horseshoe with the district is that, as I said to the body, We are confident as a district that whatever building the city gives us at the end, we can make a world-class educational opportunity for our students. and that for the combinations we had in Ron's horseshoe, it was not clear to me there was a consensus academically as to what the best option is. but the factors we considered were and we shared that and I know that Ms. Delanara shared the presentation from the district's perspective. So that's where I think we left it. Again, if this body really wants to make a declarative statement, that is our right.

Just quickly on timeline, the mayor is still The current mayor is still thinking she will make a decision before the end of the year. Is that a correct understanding?

Yes, my understanding is that Mayor Ballantyne in some consultation with Mayor-elect Wilson is still planning to make a final recommendation this calendar year.

And the MSBA then has to approve that?

Yes.

Recommendation. Okay. Dr. Phillips.

Thanks to you Chair. One thing that kept coming up for me as I listened to what sounded like, from the words, a very intense CAG meeting was getting some clarity on who has what power when in the process. I think all of us, right, have had constituents go on and on and on about something that at the end of the day we have no power over. And as I listen to the meeting, as I listen to Nikki and Amara very diplomatically trying to explain who had the power, it made me... I have a sense that like none of us are really clear on who has what power in this process and so I'm wondering if our comms folks maybe with folks who are managing this on the city side could just come up with a one pager so we're all clear what's the school committee's power what's the building committee's power what's the CAG's power what's the mayor's power through each phase of this Thanks.

So this came up at our last building committee meeting where some of us asked the building committee to create that timeline and identify those additional points. I would argue, and I will argue actually, that if we do not get that by our next building committee meeting which is December 1st, that I would suggest that school committee just go ahead and bite the bullet and ask our lawyers to produce a memo ourselves. Obviously, I'd rather the city pay for that work than us pay for that work, but if they're not going to do it, I think... We said I'd definitely do it, and I would agree entirely that that lease would lay out for everyone's benefit.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I wanted to clarify. I didn't quite understand through you to Mr. Green something about a December 1st meeting. Is that a CAG meeting? Is that an MSBA meeting? and what are, I did not quite understand what. The building committee. Yeah, so the school building, like the new building committee. Yeah.

and that what are you saying on December 1st you need to so at our last meeting to dr phillips point several members of the building committee also asked for just like a one pager laying out what decisions are made when by who What are the contingencies? And if we don't get it by the next meeting, or plan to get it, I would just recommend that we pay our lawyers to do it.

Thank you. It's been very confusing because the parts have been moving. Obviously the current mayor is not going to continue and there's a mayor-elect and they're all saying that they're going to confer. I think that's the language that has been used. my understanding is you know the CAG is going to make their recommendation which is not necessarily a full-blown recommendation it's you know As Mr. Green said, it's kind of moving towards a larger building. I also understand that the city staff, which basically is Director Raish and the finance director.

Ed Bean.

at being thank you are going to make their recommendation so the mayor's going to have these two inputs and I think um we have a choice as a school committee to say whether or not we want to have an opinion or not and it's up to the school committee to decide about that opinion and many more. I think it could be a unanimous something or it could be we voted on whatever motion one of our members put forward that they wanted to put forward and that we had this type of vote on it. It would be in our best interest to assert whatever authority that we want to assert in this process. It's input to the mayor. you know makes them there makes their recommendation to the building committee who makes the final decision and I would really encourage us as a body to not be silent on this topic

We may or may not get to a unanimous choice on this, but I do think that I would recommend to the chair that this is on the agenda for next meeting, which would be December 2nd, and that members want to think about what they might... It's the first, thank you. Monday the first. And members want to think about what they may or may not feel comfortable bringing forward and that we actually deliberate on this topic. and again it's not our final decision it's going to go to all these inputs are going to go to the mayor and then the mayor is going to make their recommendation then it's going to go to the building committee so that's my recommendation i the chair and the superintendent can confer on that idea

Could I just ask a question? I know that my understanding is that the CAG was tasked with providing, the scope of the task was to determine the location as well as the size, is that right? Well, that was actually what was in the statement when we originally, when the mayor came and said, this is the CAG. The CAG has, their scope of the work is twofold. One is to make a decision as to where is the recommendation, a recommendation to the mayor as to where was the location, Trump or Sycamore. or at their option which we don't think that that was their explore and the third one was do we either we combine or we keep it separate though that is the scope of what was outlined for the CAG because I know that the SBC will be making the determination about the programmatic design.

and that's with the input of like all I mean it could be as small as a 20 or a 70 group that's the size of the of the SBC. or the educational leadership team that is informing the SBC. So that's my understanding of that and that ultimately that decision MSBA will approve Depending on the scope of the project, they will say, yes, we'll contribute our share of what we said we're going to pay, or that's your choice and you pay out of your own pocket, whatever extension of the project that is within that project. that is not within the scope of what MSBA will approve. I just wanted to ask the question of, There was a question that I had for you, which was, what are we deciding the scope of a recommendation based on the recommendation of the CAG or a recommendation based on the SBC's recommendation?

I understand we won't have the SBC's recommendation at this point. So the thought was Well, I think we're going to have the CAG recommendation by that point. And the school committee can weigh in and say, we support the CAG recommendation. We support this part of it. We don't support that. whatever the school committee as a body decides to deliberate on and to either endorse or not to we may decide to not to support anything because we can't come to any agreement but I do think that we should include time to deliberate based on the inputs that we do have to provide either some kind of formal information to the mayor so the mayor is making a decision and actually hearing formally from the school committee.

No, it sounds like the recommendation here is just to have an agenda item for our December 1st meeting that is CAG recommendation and vote or something along those. I'll figure out what the agenda item is. but basically we would have the CAG recommendation and what would be before us is to decide if we want to endorse it, if we don't want to endorse it, if we want to endorse a piece of it, whatever that motion is would be, but it'll be on the agenda for December 1st. Did someone else have their hand up?

I apologize when we were discussing sections H and L there was one other language change in the memo that we didn't discuss it all I just I don't know what the appropriate process is to like introduce a new motion much just introduce a new motion okay I move to accept the language recommended by Mr. Sumner's legal advisor for policy HF which would B, to negotiate in good faith with recognized bargaining units to arrive at mutually satisfactory agreement on wages, hours, and working conditions of employees represented by the units and other mandatory subjects of bargaining. and changing they at the start of each bullet point to the negotiator.

I have a motion by Ms. Barish, seconded by Dr. Phillips. If there is no discussion, all in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, as always, for your thoroughness.

Thank you to you all for your grace.

Okay, so we completed the MSBA update. That brings us to October bill rolls. I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve the October bill rolls.

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

I move to approve the following field trips. On January 4th, 2026, 31 students from Somerville High School chorus, We'll travel to the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island to perform at the Providence Bruins game. Travel via bus. Student cost, $20. On January 22nd, 2026, 12 students from Next Wave Full Circle will travel to Pat's Peak in New Hampshire, travel via Van, student cost $25. And on February 26, 2026, 12 students from Next Way Full Circle will travel to Pat Topek in New Hampshire, travel via van, student cost $25. Second.

Motion by Mr. Biton, seconded by Dr. Ackman. Ms. Barish.

Thank you. In the field trip request for Pat's Peak, I noticed something that I haven't noticed before. It says that... Students can complete chores around school to work off the $25. again I had never seen it before and I thought oh that's interesting and different and how do I feel about that like that some students might have to do chores around the building to pay for the field trip while other students families can afford to pay for the field trip and also are there any collective bargaining agreement like problems with Depending on what the job is, if it's a job that some of our staff members do, like I hate to pick apart the idea but I guess that's my job.

I certainly don't think that it should prevent the field trip from happening, but this aspect maybe deserves some consideration and discussion.

Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will look into that and get back to you with an update from the school. I agree with your wonderings and I need to learn more from the school on that.

Thank you through the chair I appreciate Ms. Barish's curiosity about that topic I also I don't know what our policy is but it is really nice to have the forms in our packets we don't have for a form for the something I'm not gonna I I support approving it but the other trip because in there there's always a line about what accommodations will be made for students who cannot pay and I think that's something that the school committee has been very I don't know if we need to put that in our policy or if we want to just make that request that in the future that we just continue to get the copies of all the field trip forms.

unless people disagree with me yeah I just wanted to clarify that my I guess misgivings about some students working to pay for this I think that a group fundraiser like if if Students who are working at the Reef Fair, some of that money goes to support this field trip. I have no problem with fundraising. It's just the idea of certain students doing certain chores to pay for a specific field trip felt

If everyone got a free field trip for doing it, I love that idea. That sounds amazing. But I would be really nervous about creating two tiers of students, one who has to do service and one who can opt out of it because their parents have more money. So I think that's a conversation I just ask you to have with the administration. Like I said, if they want to make every student have to do hours of service, I'm here for that as much as we don't violate some collective bargaining agreement or rule I'm aware of, but two tiers does not feel like the right spirit for me.

Thank you, Chair, through you. To Ms. Pitone's point, I've said before, and I appreciate her bringing it up, That it's helpful having information on items that we are planning to vote on, even if it's a field trip or a grant or just something to I think is always helpful. So appreciate having these here tonight. Thanks.

Okay. Dr. Boston-Davis will get back to us on that. And if there are no further questions and if people are comfortable doing it, all in favor of motion. All opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to some acceptance of grants. I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve Three state grants from Mass Cultural to the Capuano School in the amount of $5,000, from Mass Cultural to the Winter Hill School in the amount of $5,000, and from Mass Cultural to Somerville High School in the amount of $5,000.

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

Thank you. Through the Chair, it is my understanding that the Commissioner of Education of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is heading to our district, or has plans to, I know these things can change. Care to share how this came about? This is pretty exciting.

Yeah, you know, I always get the memos, the update from the commissioner, and as he's always showcasing different districts, and I feel that there's so much to showcase, so I did advocate it for a visit. I feel that CTE and the East have two amazing programs and the high school and the East have amazing programs and I feel like that's something to celebrate. So we reach out to them and they said of course we'll come and visit and so that's where we are. Well the idea is to actually Have them come and see the dual language program, probably interview, talk to kids. I just wanted to have kids actually to have some voice and agency in a conversation with the commissioner. and then have the commissioner visit the high school or vice versa. I think the high school is switching the direction of the start of the meeting. It was just mainly that.

I know that every time he visits there is some kind of publicity around that and I feel that there is a good story to tell here and I feel that that often he actually goes over the MCAS data and visited schools that actually have gone beyond the pre-pandemic numbers. And so I said, you know, that should not be the only reason why he visited school. So I, you know... We tried to do that. So that's the reason for that. And I invited a couple of folks to join us for that.

Thank you. I think that's a big deal. And I'm very proud. And I appreciate you doing that advocacy work on behalf of our programs.

Any other items from committee members? If there are none, we are adjourned. Oh, condolences, thank you. Yes, before we adjourn, condolences, yes.

The school committee extends its deepest condolences to the family of Maria A. Parabello, mother of Rosanna Parabello, director of Out of School Time.

Now we are adjourned.

Good night everyone.