And frankly, public opinion was not on Ruth's side anyway. One reporter suggested that Ruth's bad behavior had actually hurt the team more than his home runs had helped. And Boston's working class was not very sympathetic to a man earning $10,000 a year. Oh, and most of the Red Sox team agreed with the sale at the time anyway. So, everyone seemed to be on board with this, but the Socks then began to suffer injuries and slumps, and none of Fris's other trades seemed to be working out the way they used to, and the team played under 500 in 1920. While in New York, the babe was tearing up the American League, batting 376 and hitting an incredible 54 home runs. The next year, 1921, the Yankees won their very first pennant. And that's when Fris sold fan favorite Harry Hooper, and even his most ardent supporters were starting to question his abilities and his motives.
And while some research facilities were approved, larger firms were prevented from building in Lexington, thanks to people like activist Jacqueline Brooks Davidson, who once called Gerald Blakeley's firm Cabbat, Cabbat, and Grabbit. And throughout the 1950s,60s, and 70s and onward, Lexington, using historic districts and zoning laws, continued to reject smaller lot sizes for their new houses, even at the cost of increasing individual homeowners tax burden. And as I've mentioned, the stunning prosperity that Gerald Blakeley's new fangled industrial parks put a lot more cars on the road. And despite numerous widening projects over the years, including the one that just a few years ago was finally finished between Needam and Denim, there's really no option for those folks working around Route 128, but to use their cars because there's no mass transit alternatives. But let's not be so quick to blame either Callahan or Blakeley for the traffic.
Right. Exactly. So what this does is it kind of clears the slate for us to do actual compression work and have a salary schedule that allows us to do the compression work. So like let's say next year um we have some dollars and we want to continue to have compression be in the forefront. We'll have a schedule that we can say all right uh it will cost this much to move everybody one increment up and then the new people starting and the the existing people will at least be spaced out. It would take a dedication from the meet and confer team to think about compression every year. It's not something that could happen automatically. I think it needs to be a discussion because the team might say because of the dollars that we have, we're just going to raise everybody's schedule. If you raise everybody's schedule after we fix compression, then compression still stays fixed.
Our original timeline was to implement the detectors at many high school campuses as possible by the end of the school year and remaining and the remaining high schools at the beginning of the 2526 school year. We have since expedited that roll out based on some of the things that have happened in the last couple weeks with support from our vendor and other community partners so that all high school campuses will be fully trained and have detectors operational on their campuses before the end of the school year. We've already rolled them out at Canyon Valley uh high school uh on April 25th. Desert Ridge High, Highland High, Mosquite High, their first day detectors on campus will be Monday, May 5th. And Campo Vvery High, Gilbert Classical Academy, and Gilbert High will be on their campuses and rolled out on May 7th. I'd like to thank our high school administrators, security personnel, teachers, support staff, and the vendor and school specialties for making this happen on this expedited timeline.
Those questions bubbled until 1923. when Harry Fris exhausted from his battles with Ban Johnson and his team in last place sold the Red Sox for $1.5 million. It was then say Stout and Johnson that he turned his attention to a new musical Noette that was not doing well in its pre- Broadway road tour in 1924. FZ used the money to help overhaul the show with new stars and a new script and two new songs. The snappy T for two and I Want to Be Happy and the revised Noette was a big hit held over in Chicago for more than a year before coming a smash on Broadway. So, it was the timing of Fris's sale of the floundering Red Sox, his legal battles, the seemingly one-sided deals with Rupert, and the initial disaster that was no known Nette, which all came together in the mind of the public, thanks in no small part to still loyal Johnson supporters who vilified Fris.
Remember, Callahan wanted wider roads from the beginning and even had to use the subtrafuge of a sidewalk to get a right of way for six lanes up north. Callahan also wanted a train to run down the median strip of Route 128, but that feature was cut when the government wouldn't pay for the extra land required. Finally, both Callahan and Blakeley expected that the full 1948 master highway plan would be built as proposed, including the god-awful inner beltway, as well as the Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast Expressways, which would carry traffic radially in and out of Boston to Route 128, excuse me. But for many reasons, most having to do with community activism and environmental concerns. Now, only 93, the Mass Turnpike route uh and the Southeast Expressway were ever built, meaning those roadways and the central artery, both elevated and depressed, need to take up the slack for the unbuilt pieces.
Um, if we don't raise everybody's schedule and we do different types of things, it could uh, you know, affect compression. So, there's multiple ways once these schedules are fixed for us to keep addressing compression um as the group determines any dollars on the table. Vanessa, can I just to for my clarification, I know Kelly's next on the list, but um one of the goals in creating a salary schedule that's consistent is that in the system, we have a salary schedule for some teachers and then what's called a tiered salary schedule. And then in that tiered salary schedule, it's not complete. So there are gaps and it's really by employee, right? So one employee might be on tier schedule row N. And this is the attempt to put everyone on the same schedule. What appears on the placement schedule is only 10 years. But the schedule then would go beyond row K.
This is a very involved process with many different moving parts. The first few days of a roll out on our campus will take more time for students to enter the school, but this will decrease as students and staff become more familiar with the process. And we apprec appreciate everyone's patience and support as we implement the weapons detectors. And lastly, to everyone and anyone who is listening, if you own a firearm, please do all you can do to lock up your weapons. Please make sure children do not have access to your weapon. We must keep our students, our staff, and our community safe. Mr. Thompson, that concludes my report for this evening. Thank you, Dr. McCord. Agenda item number seven, request to speak to governing board. Can we have the admonition read, please? Yes. Request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-431.02H. The governing board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body.
But according to S and Johnson, no Nette wasn't even on the radar screen when Fris sold the babe back in December of 1919. But whatever Fris's motives, the question still remains. Since that sale of Babe Ruth, the Socks, it was 86 years before they got and won a World Series. Was the team cursed? Was it a curse that East Boston's Tony Kigliro shown here in his first major league at bat in which he did what Red Sox fans? That's right, he homered. He was badly beamed during the great pennet race of 1967. Would the Socks have beaten Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals for even one game had he been healthy? What about the near misses of 1972 and 1974? Would they have been victories with a healthy Tony C in the lineup? What would the Socks have been like in the 1960s if a talented prospect named Harry Aanis had not tragically died early at a died at a very early age?
So, we built it and they came. You knew at some point I was going to have to say that. We've talked about how back in the 1950s, the northern section of Route 128 was being widened even as the southern portion was being built. And as a result, more traffic flowed along the highway. So interchanges such as the Route 1, Route 128 interchange would need to be wider and have longer ramps. So, as I prepare to wrap things up, I've got this remarkable photograph which shows several things to help bring our story full circle. First of all, running alongside the red arrow is the uh original ad hoc Route 128 running along Salem Street here in Lynfield. Circled in yellow is the house on Monroe Street in which Warren Falls, our sleepless Northeast graduate, tried to sleep but couldn't and took those photos of the Route One overpass circled in blue, which we can see is once again being upgraded by all those extra cars, trucks, and vehicles that now number up to a quarter of a million a day.
And Vanessa, make sure I'm I'm saying this correctly, but it would go beyond row K. it could go up to row AA for instance, right? So depending on the amount of time that someone's in the district, that's the schedule that everyone would be on. And so then in future years, if there's a 2% increase or a 5% increase, that's the schedule that gets adjusted. So then the placement is still those first rows, K A through K. Um, and that should match for current teachers on that row and then placement for new teachers. So that's kind of I think where Daniel was getting about how does this help if we have someone who comes in on as a first year teacher in the district on RO K and there's a tenure teacher on RO K. How does that help that person? So does that that help?
After an open call to the public, individual board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the governing board, may ask staff to review a matter, or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. However, members of the governing board shall not discuss or take legal action on the issues raised during an open call to the public if the matters are prop if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. During an open call, the governing board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against school personnel or anyone connected to the district as it may impact due process rights. Please contact the Office of Talent Management if you have any specific concerns about any individual employee. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. We've got a number of individuals that have requested to speak to the governing board tonight. Our first request is from Mike M.
When the Socks picked up Ferguson Jenkins, he was one of the winningest pitchers in the game. Was it a curse that during his two years here he barely pitched 500? And anyone want to talk about Jeff Bagwell or what would we do with Willie McGee? They were bad trades and missed opportunities. But I want to point out there have been a lot of good trades, too. Maybe some MIT grad student can quantify it all for us. You know, line up all the trades and the sales, the socks, and every other team has made. While it's a sure bet that the Yankees would rise above the median, I'm not sure that most teams, including the Red Sox, wouldn't lay pretty much in the middle. But as for curse, I make it a habit to never question anyone's religion or their superstitions. My own opinion is sometimes, like the bumper sticker says, and I'll clean it up for the youngsters, stuff happens.
And that's even with the uh with the pandemic. Ironically, many towns along Route 128 still experience gridlock, the very thing the highway was built to eliminate as frustrated drivers turn off the overcrowded highway onto many of the same two-lane streets that had once been designated as the old circumferential route. Proposed interchange improvements have been met with great resistance by communities that would see have seen hundreds dozens, excuse me, of homes and businesses taken. This was the 2002 proposal for the I93 Route 128 interchange. It would have taken 77 homes and carved out large chunks of several businesses and it was quickly pulled off the table. It took a few years. a preferred alternative was the outcome from the task force that was convened as a result of that opposition. Uh when contacted the mass BT DPW representative said said to me quote the project is dormant at this time and not likely to move forward for the foreseeable future.
Well well how that helps that person is you've you've um recruited a tenure teacher and we've retained a tenure teacher and they're both on K. and they're on the same schedule. Does that make sense? But if I'm a 10ear teacher and I'm sitting on B, now I'll be sitting on K in this adjustment. That's what the adjustment means. So that a tenure teacher is is making what if someone gets placed on a 10-year schedule because they have 10 years or more of experience, it means that that 10-year teacher isn't getting penalized for not for being frozen on a on B or a two-year, you know, when they came in and they're on a B um and didn't get continue to get placed higher through the course of the years. This creates a schedule that we can alleviate those frozen years and get those teachers up to where they would be and give them credit for the Kraton service just like we're giving credit to the person coming in from the outside that has 10 years of experience.
Uh Mike, if you would make your way up to the podium. And for you and any anybody else that's commenting tonight, um this screen up here will have uh a running clock on it as well as uh a colored red, yellow, and green uh green, yellow, and red visual on it to help you. Thank you. Uh today I want to talk to you. I watched the presentation uh at a p from a past meeting regarding the expansion of gifted services uh within GPS by Brent Gardner. Um I was very impressed. Uh my children have gone to school in GPS um though they are not currently in GPS. Um and I was very happy to see that you guys are looking at expanding gifted services. However, I felt that the presentation was on one side of gifted services and that leaned heavily on the uh high achieving side of giftedness.
And then other times you bring that bad stuff on yourself. In 1945, the Red Sox were pressured into giving a try out to three outstanding Negro League players, Sam Jethro, Marvin Williams, and Jackie Robinson. None of them were signed, of course, and it wasn't until 1958 that the Red Sox would become the last team in the majors to integrate with the immortal Pumpsy Green. Now, who knows what impact Jackie or other Negro League players could have had on the Red Sox, who always seemed to be one hit, one strike, or one impact player away in those years between 1946 and 1960. Perhaps we wouldn't be here talking about some silly old curse. But then I never would have had my musical either, which I'm proud to say was and still I think remains the most successful in the history of Boston's Lyric Stage. This is a promotional shot from the musical.
So unfortunately one of the worst interchanges in the country will remain it remain as such for quite a long time once heretical concepts such as smart growth as evidenced by projects in Somerville, Westwood and other places may or may not guide the future of 128. A lot of work from home motivated mostly by the pandemic is certainly helping the issue, but there's still sprawl, pollution, and time loss behind the wheel as we wait to see what solutions uh can be uh created for this highway. In the meantime, if you have to drive Route 128, I suggest buying some books on tape because traffic won't be getting easier anytime soon. Uh, this book, which again came out in 2003, would not make for a very good book on tape, but it is filled with other two over 200 images, many of which have never been published uh before.
Does that make sense? That does. And uh Hey, Vanessa, good morning. Thank you for taking time away from your vacation to provide this information to us. We appreciate it. Um and thank you to the compression committee. I do just want to say the ones in blue are what came out of the compression committee. So it's our job to look at those numbers and decide kind of the final say. I just want to make sure everyone's clear on that. Um then well let me Yes, exactly. So what happened last year was that the um meet and confer team said we and we and district said we need um we need a committee work for this and and then they sent 200,000 to the committee for the committee to work on the compression um based on some uh criteria from meet and confer where we looked at certain groups first.
Uh gift giftedness is very much a spectrum and many children while being gifted are not not necessarily high achieving like many people would would think. Um they don't score 100% on everything. Uh they are very smart, they are very intelligent, but they learn differently, they score differently on tests. Um, and my kids especially are both 2e gifted. Um, so they are twice as twice exceptional. Um, my kids are currently in grades uh 2 and three. They at their time at GPS, they were in kindergarten through 2 grade depending on the child. At that time they went to five different schools at GPS. Um, that was due to the district sending them to different schools uh saying that they needed to go to this school for this program or this school for this program. None of those programs were for giftedness, unfortunately. Uh no matter the amount of testing we did, that just wasn't the focus.