Malden School Committee 03/02/2026

001Good evening everyone. We're going to call the Malden School Committee meeting to order. The time is 6:00 p.m. Today is Monday, March 2nd, 2026. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, April 6th at 6 PM here in the chamber. Tonight's agenda will consist of the following. We'll first pledge allegiance to our flag. We'll then have a moment of silence for our veterans. We'll then take attendance to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to gather and then we'll get into this evening's agenda. Now, the agenda consists of the following. First up is the approval of the January 28th special meeting minutes, followed by the approval of the February 2nd school committee meeting minutes. Uh from there, we'll take a look at the February 18th special meeting minutes. And then finally, we'll

002see if there's any questions about the February warrants. After that, we'll go to public comment. It will be an opportunity for members of the public to address the school committee. We'll only ask that you state your name and address for the record. Uh each speaker will be allowed three minutes. Public comment will be open for 15 minutes. Then after that, everyone, we'll go to our school superintendent uh for his report of which there are three specific items. First is uh where we are with district improvement and midyear data review. We'll also take a look at the strategic plan and stakeholder survey results. And then finally, we'll get an update on where we are with the special education program review. After that, everyone, we'll go to subcommittee reports where we'll hear from Miss Fatura regarding uh

003our finances. Then after that, there will be three motions we'll take a look at. Uh the first one is from Mr. Piaza and Mr. Bernard regarding the Proposition 2 and a half uh resolution. After that, we'll go over to Misspataphora for a potential 2025 2026 calendar amendment. And then after that, we'll stay with Miss Spataphora for a look see at the M Malden School Committee policy uh funding proposals and applications. Then after that everyone, we'll take comments from the members regarding personal privilege to see what's going on in their respective schools and wards. Then we will entertain a motion to go into executive session. Pending the outcome of that, we will take a look at the February 2nd, 2026 school committee meeting minutes and the uh February 18th, 2026 special meeting minutes from executive session.

004We'll come back out here and we'll move adjournment. I just want to let the members know we may have one of our members coming in remotely which if that's the case uh by rule we'll vote everything um by roll call. So are there any questions from the team? No questions. U Mr. Piaza, you have a initial question. I do have a question about the agenda. I'm wondering about there's approval of the February 12, 2nd, and February 18th meeting minutes both on the consent agenda and then also on executive session. >> And so I'm confused about how those are different. And I'm new here. So, >> uh, let me go to our vice chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the first set of minutes that are going to be up top under um approval under

005the consent agenda, those are minutes that relate to the special meeting. So it says special meeting >> um and then the regular school committee meeting minutes and then another special meeting we had, >> right? >> And then under executive session, those minutes are specifically to what was spoken in executive session and they get approved in executive session. >> Uh the executive session from those meetings got it. >> Good test. >> Yeah, Mr. All right, seeing no other questions, let's uh salute our flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I would ask everyone to please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of all those who have fought

006for our country and continue to do so around the world today. Thank you. All right, we'll now take attendance. >> Mr. Drum >> here. >> Mr. McCarthy >> here. >> Miss Bataphora here. Miss Mlin >> here. >> Miss Hordy >> here. >> Mr. Piaza >> here. >> Mr. Bernard. >> Miss Rosyberg. Superintendent Sipple >> here. >> Mayor Christensen >> here. >> Student Representative Dutali. All >> right. So, we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together. And I do want to say at the outset that I along with the rest of the committee are appreciative to Miss Betaphor, who was filling in for our clerk, Miss Langston, who couldn't be here tonight. So, appreciate that. Uh, so let's take a look at these minutes, everyone. Let's take them one at a time. January

00728th. Any questions, queries, quums? Miss Beta for >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we did not receive these minutes within the 48hour um time requirement per um our policy BEDG, I would like to make a motion to table um all the minutes in tonight's session. >> Okay. Motion's made, seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Any questions everyone? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. Minutes are tabled. How about these warrants? Any questions on those? Motion to place on file Mr. Drum. Seconded by Miss Rose Zyberg. Any questions on those? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. That carries unanimously. All right, everyone. We're now at public comment. Anybody wishing to address the school committee can do so now. >> Okay.

008>> Good evening. >> Hi, my name is Molly Maxwell and I live at 30 Wheeler Street. I'm here today to share my family's experience with special education in Malden. I've been a special education teacher for over 17 years and I've worked across the full range of placements from private else placements to full inclusion. I know what appropriate services look like and I know what legally compliant practices look like. My son August Auggie was enrolled last year as a kindergarten student at the Lynen School. August has an IEP and was placed in an inclusion classroom with access to shared PAR support. He worked hard and finished a year on grade level in reading and math. His teachers and ESPs were never the issue. The problems have always come from special education administrators. What we experienced with

009the team chair and program manager at Lynen is unlike anything I have experienced in my career. This included illegal removal of special education and services without signed consent, predetermination of services and attempted denial of LRE. And that's only what I can prove with physical documentation without even touching on repeated unprofessionalism and lack of decorum. The breaking point came when we met to discuss first grade support. When we arrived at the IEP table, it was clear that what was recommended for my son wasn't a team-based or data-driven decision, but rather a predetermined label placed on him for convenience and unwillingness to provide him support in his least restrictive environment. The school had collected zero data to support a change from full inclusion to fully subsparate programming. They then ignored the independent observation by our advocate and

010a letter from our developmental pediatrician. They made it clear Auggie can enter first grade highly restricted and subsparate with zero inclusion or have no support at all because quote they don't do paras in shared pairs in first grade. These individuals then actively hid and misrepresented other district programming which we only learned about from other parents. Students in Malden should have equal access to appropriate support and not at the expense of their basic rights. It appears that the special education administration in Malden operates with a pattern. First, they hope that parents are unaware of their rights or the IEP process. If parents push back, they fatigue parents logistically, emotionally, or financially with multiple meetings, hostile interactions, or the need to hire costly support. When both of these tactics fail, they resort to BSE mediation, which often

011results in good outcomes, but is legally shrouded in secrecy, preventing us from sharing with others what our child received, effectively silencing us thereafter. This is where we ended up, and as a result, all I can tell you is that August is now at the Forest Sale School. This attempt to silence me has failed. I will not stop advocating not just for my child, but for all students in Balden. We were fortunate to be able to pay for an advocate, but that should never be the price of a free and appropriate public education. My son has no more right to this than any other student, but we only succeeded because we were able to financially persevere. I know others are not so lucky. >> I'm sorry, we have you at three minutes. Do you have much

012more to go? >> I have like one sentence. >> Okay, take it away. I am advocating for an overhaul of our special education department to one that follows legal procedures, avoids predetermination, and treats parents as equal members of a team and with respect. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now, >> Lonnie Little John, 127 Emerald Street. My daughter's learning assistance My daughter's learning assistance class at the high school was out of compliance in the fall. Because of the amount of students in this class of students with IEPs, an ESP should have been required to be assigned to the class, but it was not. They were not. I made this known to the appropriate staff and then an ESP was placed in her class. I trusted that

013the issue was resolved, at least for my daughter's class, and hopefully for all other classes out of compliance. I trusted that this issue would stay resolved. I officially learned today that there is no longer an ESP in that class, which still has over the amount of students required to have an ESP. I do not know how long this ESP has been moved out of the class. I am frustrated and mentally exhausted from 14 years of having to stay on top of my children's special education needs so that their legally binding services would be fulfilled. Now is not the time to go into details, but I will tell you that over the 14 years my children have been on IEPs in this district, there have been multiple times their legally binding services have been out of

014compliance. This has been a recurring problem for at least 14 years. And I want to point out that I usually address this privately, but over the years the issues still occur. How many other students over the years have had their legally binding services out of compliance? How many students rights have not been followed, including those students whose caregivers may not be fully aware of their students rights? Who is advocating for them? >> Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now? Anybody online? >> So, for those that are participating via Teams, if you'd like to participate in public comment, please use the raise hand feature and I will activate your microphone and uh give you your three minutes to speak. Okay. I don't see anybody. Oh, wait. I think there

015might have been one >> online. >> Is there one up? >> Yep. >> Okay. Uh, tell that person. We're going to come to them right after you. Good evening. >> Good evening. My name is Michelle Cox. I live at 57 C View Avenue in here in Walden. I am a single mother of an eight-year-old son. His name is Ali. Um who is currently in an out of district placement um through the Malden public school system. Um my son has multiple Sorry, I'm reading off my screen and it keeps moving. My son has multiple disabilities including complete blindness and non-verbal autism. His needs are comp complex and highly specialized. It's very obvious both legally and from a common sense perspective that no traditional school system could have met his needs in district. That is not Malden's

016fault. Few if any districts would have been able to accommodate this. What has been incredibly difficult was the drawn out process of securing an appropriate out of placement out of district placement. Although it was clear he required a specialized setting, we endured months of delay and were ultimately forced into mediation to reach an outcome that was obvious from the beginning. During that time, I feared for his safety every single day. He cannot he cannot tell me if something is wrong and he cannot advocate for himself. As a single mother, the stress of this process was overwhelming. I lost my job because of the time and energy required to fight for a safe and appropriate placement. It created serious financial and physical strain. I had to hire an advocate at my own expense just to ensure

017that my voice was heard. And I'm still paying for that support currently to continue to navigate through this process. The behavior I experienced in team meetings from Malden represent representatives and administration was at times deeply unprofessional. I was told they did not want to hear from me, only from the staff. I was met with condensation and made to feel belittled. I left meetings in tears often. The outofd district school team actually apologized for me for the way that the meeting was conducted and for the Malden administrative administrators. It was honestly embarrassing for Malden. I also have to say that throughout this process it has often felt actually sorry I'm going to skip to the next part. I had been nervous to speak about this publicly because I feared that it would make things worse for

018my son and I. But when I heard the special education department was being reviewed, I felt I had a responsibility to share my experience up to the present. And if my son, whose disabilities are very obvious and severe, had to struggle, we had to struggle through this process. I cannot imagine how children with less visible but equally important needs are navigating this system. This is not about the blame for not having a place for my son. It's about the family, how families are treated and how decisions are handled. When the outcome is clear, parents should not have to lose their jobs, drain savings, fear retaliation, or feel silence when advocating for their children's safeties. Our children deserve timely decisions. Parents deserve professionalism and respect. We can and must do better. Thank you. >> Thank you.

019All right, let's go online. >> Hi, Carrie. I just um turned on your mic. You are free for public comment. We just need you to state your name and address for the record. >> Good evening. My name is Kerianne, 168 Madison Street. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, >> we can. >> Okay, thank you. Um my son Nicholas is um a ninth grader at Malden High. This was his first year. He transitioned from the Salem Wood. Um, he's severely autistic. He also has been on an IEP since he was three at the early learning center. This year has been nothing short of a nightmare for my son. Um, in November when progress reports went out. It's when I got my first clue. I did not see the occupational therapist on there and I did

020not see behavioral therapist on there. And I did question it and I was informed that Malden High does not have an occupational therapist and hasn't in some time and Malden High was currently looking for a behavioral therapist which they have recently um filled that role. I have met the behavioral therapist but it's still it's not good enough that he is not receiving his occupational therapy. Um his last day of speech with the speech pathologist is leaving on Friday. I have reached out to find out who is taking her place. I want to make sure his speech isn't interrupted and I was told that they're doing everything to make sure that they're going to have somebody pick up where this one is leaving off. Um, my son has regressed so much in the past eight months

021and every day, literally every day, I'm crying that I feel like I'm just sending him out to the wolves because can't keep him home because he needs routine. But this is super frustrating and it's heartbreaking that I'm not the only mother that there's so many varieties. It looks like it's everywhere. middle school, elementary school. Um, we definitely, our children do not deserve this. I mean, I went to Malden High and to sit here and say that 30 years ago it was a better school than it is now, something's wrong. We're not doing something right. So, I'm super frustrated and I'm really interested in to hear what what's happening with special ed and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Seeing no others, uh we do have a couple of letters that have

022been submitted. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. >> Uh dear Miss Langston and members of the school committee, I cannot attend tonight's meeting, but would like to submit the following comment. Thank you. My name is Rachel Running and I live at 51 Belleville Street. I'm a Lynen parent of two middle schoolers. I write in strong support of the Proposition 2 and a half override resolution on the agenda today and I urge every school committee member to vote favorably on the resolution. A strong, safe public school system requires a fully funded government. If Malden has to cut city services such as fire, police, DPW, library, and city hall staff, our schools will be less safe and our children and school staff will have fewer resources and support. If the override does not pass, the

023sub subsequent cuts would lead to a weakening of Malden public schools for this and future generations. Malden is not alone. Many cities and towns have been seeking overrides in recent years after decades under the restrictive Proposition 2 and a half law. Our students deserve fully funded schools, robust after school programs, a well staffed library, open doors at the teen center, quick response time from firefighters and police officers when there is an emergency, and so much more. They deserve to live in a community that supports each child's growth and potential. Please use your voice and position to support this resolution. Thank you. >> Okay. Next to the members of the Malden School Committee, I write tonight in support of the resolution on the Proposition 2 and a half override proposed by school committee members Peter Piaza

024and Keith Bernard. The upcoming March 31st vote is a critical one for our community in its future. It asks voters to support an override to close our city's budget gap and avoid dozens of layoffs. It's important for our parents and educators to hear from the school committee about this as many voters are still learning about this special election. You have the opportunity opportunity to help them understand what's at stake. Our schools are the biggest part of the city budget. Compared to 2019, Malden now invests 20 million more per year of our local funds in our schools who have badly needed this support. This increase is alongside millions more in investments from the state as part of the Student Opportunity Act. Our schools must have the resources they need for the teachers, reading specialists, par profofessionals,

025spe special education, and English language learner personnel in enrichment and activities our kids need to thrive. And I strongly support investing in our schools. However, a flawed local contribution calculation in our state's chapter 70 school funding formula has meant that Malden has had to put in more than its fair share. We have to stretch every year to meet the state's required minimum school spending which has gone up twice as fast as the two and a half maximum property tax increase. This rise is required local this rise in required local school spending has been a major cause of the city's budget gap alongside rapid inflation. We are now at risk of losing 50 to 60 positions in the city if the override does not pass across every other city department. a 15% reduction in city services

026and the estimates for FY27 school funding from the state which will only give us the minimum increase of 500,000 are making the situation even worse. I wholeheartedly agree that the proposed override is in the best interest of our city and our schools. It is essential for continuing to fund increased school investments each year. In addition to In addition to great schools, kids need parks, public safety, public health, a library, a recreation department, and safe streets and sidewalks. If we want more from Malden for the next few years than simply doing the minimum and trying to dig ourselves out of a financial hole, I think I read that wrong. If we want more from Malden for the next few years than simply doing the minimum and trying to dig ourselves out of a financial hole, then

027supporting this override is the path we must choose. As both an elected official and a parent of two Malden public school students, I urge you to support this resolution and get as engaged as possible with the issue in the weeks ahead. Respectfully, City Councelor Carrie McDonald, 33 Pier Street, Malden. >> Okay. And one more. I'm having technical difficulties here. Yeah. No worries. Okay. Well, we look for that letter. We'll move forward and we'll read it when we find it. Um, let's go to our school superintendent right now for his report. >> Well, good evening, Mr. Chair, vice chair, members of the committee, and members of the public here and online. want to thank you for this opportunity to give a report on several things that are occurring in the district. Um before I enter into

028the uh the main uh items that I want to um speak about tonight though, just have two uh special announcements I'd like to make. First of all, last month on February 2nd, we announced that one of our own um had received a statewide recognition, and that would be uh none other than Erin Craraven, who is our director of school counseling. She has been recognized by the Massachusetts Association of School Counselors, um the Massachusetts School Counseling Association, I think is the proper name, as a statewide administrator of the year. And um she wasn't able to join us uh last month. um we wanted to make sure that we um recognized her and honored her for representing us so well statewide and for all more importantly for all the amazing work that she's done for uh our

029students here in Malden for many many years and so um if the chair would be avmenable we have a certificate for her and would love to present that to her um tonight school committee will be in a brief recess Are you Just ask. One, two, three. All right, everyone. We're back. We're going to go back to Miss Baphor. We found those communications. >> Yeah, please. Let's read this one first, right? >> Yep. All right, >> let me start the clock. Hold on. >> Apologies as I had to dig through all this clerk material amongst my own stuff. >> Okay, take it away. >> Greetings. Please read this into the record and add to the permanent file of this meeting. Bruce Freriedman, 8 Marvin Street, Malden, Mass. This body should not take an official position regarding

030the proposed Proposition 2 and a half special ballot questions. The city of Malden must fund the schools at a level required by the state. This is not a choice is not negotiable and as this body recently found out, there are ramifications and penalties when the schools are not funded at levels at least at the minimums dictated by the state. No monies can be stripped from the schools if the Prop 2 and a half fails. This fear-mongering should and must stop. Your chair, the mayor, is a 100% responsible to you, to the city, and to all the residents and taxpayers to provide a comprehensive plan regardless of the outcome of the Prop 2 and a half vote this month. He has failed to outline specific cuts to the budget that must be reviewed and approved by

031the city council. He has failed to provide anything of substance besides a $1,500 contribution to the yes for Malden war chest. Any discussions about cutting the police, fire department, public works employees, the library, or other services must start with the mayor, and he has chosen to be vague and instill fear instead of having the transparent and truthful conversations. If this body is truly interested in securing funding and preserving the educational opportunities of the children of Malden, it should start with a resolution to dismiss the lawsuits that it and the city has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars on and then began and then begin settlement and healing with the families it has hurt. The ongoing litigation will continue to toll against the school's budget. The Massachusetts Court of Appeals clearly indicated on February 12th of

032this year that Malden has no right to initiate these lawsuits. The first one of which was filed by this school district on July 1st, 2021, almost 5 years ago. >> Gez, I wish you hadn't found that letter. >> All right, let's see what else we have. >> And then I believe we had one person online that was having difficulty raising their hand. Yep. And if they would still like to speak, I'm going to turn on their microphone. All right, your mic has been activated. >> Miss Lahan, >> counselor. Councelor Lahan. I think I saw No, I have it enabled, but she still is not having um the ability to turn it on on her side. >> All right, let's uh let's move forward then. >> Apologies. >> Unless um >> is it still still saying

033she's muted? It does, but I have, if you see where where it says disable, >> right? >> I already have done that. So, when I do allow mic, it still doesn't do anything on her end. >> She says, "Thanks for trying." Yep. >> Sorry, Miss Lahan. Please send it um written to the committee and we will absolutely attach it to the record for um with everything else from this evening. Okay. >> Very good. All right. Uh now, superintendent, we're going to go with your report, right? >> Yes, sir. Uh the other item I wanted to um mention tonight u that many of you probably received a notification about is that I have appointed Michael Sapin as the next principal of Malvin High School effective July 1st. And um there is an announcement about um him

034and his background on the district website that I encourage everyone to to look at where he's a very experienced principal um with a lot of uh a lot of very positive uh expertise in working in urban schools and we're we're really delighted to bring him on the team here in Malden Public Schools. So, just wanted to to share that tonight and I do uh hope that he'll be able to join us um at our next meeting so that the entire committee will have a chance to meet him. All right. Um Madame Vice Chair, can I borrow the control? All right. Here we are. Um, just want to start by just reminding everyone of the core values that guide our work, include and collaborate. Um, to make sure that the decisions we're making are being made

035and and in the interest of those that we serve and that they have a a voice in those decisions. We embrace growth, meaning that uh we acknowledge that first of all, all of our students have the potential to do amazing things and we're not um concerned by where they are today as much as where we where they have the potential to go. And the lastly to do right by all kids, those that um have someone to advocate for them and those who do not yet because uh all of us are stronger as we work together. So three uh things I want to speak to tonight and each of them uh relates to one of the goals that the committee approved for me uh in November. Um first is we'll be looking at uh district improvement

036um specifically mid-year data in literacy, math achievement and also in student attendance. Um we'll be um talking about stakeholder survey results that are going to be informing metrics that we'll be uh considering as we develop our strategic plan. And then lastly, I'll provide an update on the special education program review um that is underway. The district improvement and mid-year data, the specific uh um the specific information we're going to be looking at tonight uh relates to uh literacy um in kindergarten through 8th grade and also 9 through 12. The measures that we are um going to be talking about tonight are Dibbles, I Ready, and EXL for K8 and then uh for ELA and math in high school. And then as a special treat, just as we heard from a team at uh the first

037grade team at Salemwood last month, tonight we're going to get to hear from the fourth grade team in BBE who recorded a very brief video to share about the work that they're doing at BB school and um Dr. Murphy is in the audience tonight to answer questions that may come up related to that. Um and then we'll also be looking up talking about student attendance um chronic absenteeism over the last few years. Uh the the official chronic absenteeism data that we get from the state and then also year-to- date how things are how things are progressing. Um and we'll hear specific uh actions that are being uh taken to address student attendance and improve student attendance. Again, the goals um for that you approved from um from last for this year uh are the development

038of five-year strategic plan, uh the implementation of our district strategy for improvement, a special education program review, and then my participation in um year two of the new superintendent induction program. And so the first thing we'll be talking about tonight, this mid-year data relates to that strategy for improvement. And for that purpose, I'm going to invite assistant superintendent for teaching and learning KL Bassin to come up. But I do want to preface before she speaks that there is a she's only going to speak for a few minutes tonight. Um, and she won't get into a great deal of detail with the uh, midear data, but there is a 20 minute video um, for anyone who would like that's already on our the school committee page um, for tonight's meeting um, that has much more detail

039looking at all of these uh, the data that are listed here um, that she's going to summarize very briefly tonight. So, Miss Bissy Can you hear me? All right. Thank you, Dr. Sipple. Good evening, everyone. Um, as the committee knows, we submitted a video, a memo recording with analysis of our midyear assessment data. Um, but ultimately the purpose of all of this is really in the spirit of continuous improvement. What can we learn from this data to celebrate what's working, to spread those practices, and to really lean into our areas of growth so that we can continue to do right by all kids. And ultimately that is so as you see on the next slide so that all of our students can engage with our instructional vision right which is that students are known and

040valued and feel like they belong so they have grade level work with the right level of support and that students are doing um heavy lifting right they're working together to enjoy their work to make sense of difficult problems to take risks ask questions and consider the ideas of others and so really everything we do is in service of this experience in our classroom Um, so as you go to the next slide, you'll see that we went into detail in the video um of all of our results, but I'll just give a few headlines here. Um, in foundational literacy, so this is really looking at our students phonics skills. Um, we're seeing whether we're seeing average progress or above average progress in all grades, our students are actually making gap closing progress this year. Uh, which

041really pleased to report. And in particular, I want to shout out our kindergarten students and their educators. At midy year this year, our kindergarten students had their highest mid-year scores that we've seen in three years. Um, so that's really exciting um uh to to see that. When we look at our reading benchmarks and our math benchmarks in our K through8 buildings, uh we see in grades one through eight overall as a district in both ELA and math, we see statistically significant progress. And we also see that statistically significant progress for our students with disabilities in both English language arts and in math. So we're really pleased to report on that in both of these areas in English language arts and math and our K through8s. There's specific grade levels and student demographic groups where we're

042seeing stronger or less strong examples of growth. And we're really working we're leaning into that. Um, we spent a a full day in January to do data analysis with all of our educators. And whether we're looking through professional development, tutoring, or other interventions, we're really leaning in there uh to address our areas of growth. Um, as I mentioned again in the video memo, at a high level at the high school, we've also been analyzing our mid-year literacy and math data and taking steps to improve our results. In English language arts, our focus is really heavily on curriculum adoption, but also doing some mid-year coaching. And in math, we've invested in specific professional development opportunities that both take place during our department meetings. But we've also been able to offer a stipen to math educators and

043their co-teers. So there's uh if they have a co-teer for students with disabilities to stay after school to participate in additional professional learning and analysis of student data. So this we're really excited to be able to offer that um and are seeing some results from there. And you know, of course, at the end of this presentation, I'm more than happy to take any questions uh on this work. Uh but before that, uh we want to honor our commitment to really uplift examples of strong educator practice. And last meeting, you heard from the Salemwood team. This month, we really want to spotlight uh the growth that we've seen with students from the BB fourth grade team. And we invite you to hear from these educators and sharing some of the great practices that they've used to

044drive student growth. I think having the scheduled time every other week is great to be able to meet as a full team, especially with our ML teachers and with the literacy coach and with all the help so that we can work together to make our groups really find the right spot for each student um and really kind of dive into the data together. So, I think that a big part of it is just being able to kind of brainstorm collectively as a group, bring up areas that we're concerned about. Um, jumping ideas off of each other. I think we're we're good about thinking outside of the box and kind of like we've discussed these same concerns year after year. So, we're not making enough of a dent in that. And I think that this really

045gives us a place to kind of like how can we rethink what we're doing. I think especially as a first year teacher, it's great to have designated time to collaborate as a team and to kind of hear what they've done in the past and see where I can like make some changes. We started um walk intervention last year um and it has really allowed us to look at every single student, see where they're at, make sure that they are in a group that is meeting their needs. And I think that's really allowed students to um grow incredibly. Um we are, you know, meet when we meet, we work on grouping kids. We make changes to groups. We make changes to what um different teachers are teaching and it's really helped us to meet almost everyone's

046needs. Um, the ML students are able to be in a small group. They're able to take more risks in a comfortable setting. And having that data every six weeks and checking back in on them, checking to see if they can move within a different group is very helpful. They're working in smaller groups in my in um intervention block, but each group is working on a novel. They are they come in each day, they know the expectations, they know the routines, and they get right to work. And then I meet with one of them each day, and we work on a specific skill. And just seeing how they're excited to read the books, they're highinterest books. Um, they're excited to talk about them after. They'll talk to the other groups and say, "Oh, have you read

047my book yet?" So, I think it really the fact that they're enjoying reading again is really lovely to see. I mean, I think we've also had some really big gains with our students who started out um well below grade level. Um we've had a couple of ML students who have really just taken the youthly information they've been given and they're practicing it and they've jumped, you know, multiple levels. I think the confidence that they gain because they're making huge gains is really showing in the classroom in other areas as well that when we're working within the regular reading curriculum, they have a lot more confidence to raise their hands and try answers. Yay. I just wanted to point out don't go anywhere just yet. Um but we please don't go anywhere. Um but the some

048of the things that they mentioned uh were very similar to what the first grade teachers from Salemwood mentioned last month in the video we saw. From a structural standpoint, there is a PD block that they have uh advant the access to and that they're using in addition to any time on their own prep that they want to use. But we we've created this time in their schedule separate from their prep or that they're using to collaborate and to look at their students work and to plan these interventions that are having such uh such promising results. And um want to thank Dr. Murphy and Miss Bassine and everyone who's been a part of supporting them in realizing the vision and I think one thing that I'm also am aware of from Dr. Murphy and from Miss

049Bassine is that some of the intervention blocks that we've been implementing this year a lot of it was they were the ones who first piloted some of those practices I believe at BB. Yeah. So with that I'm going to just pause Mr. Mr. Chair and see if there are any questions regard regarding the academic data. >> Any questions from the team. Let's go to Miss Mlin. Then we'll go to Miss Rose Zyberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh thank you for that report. Um you did mention that there were certain demographics that are not making the progress or not reaching the goals. Can you share with us um any additional information about that? whether um they're elellls, whether they're students of color or lowinccome, what particular demographic are are we seeing? >> Um thank you

050for that question and I think it's a complex question. The good news is that there's not one student group that across the board is scoring consistently below every other student group on every single assessment. Um and so it really requires a more nuanced response. Um in the video we break it down um for each assessment. You can see the responses by student group. So we break it down by racial uh demographic groups as well as English learners and students with disabilities. Um I will say that um the performance of our English learners really varies from assessment to assessment. Um but we do see in both the I Ready and Il and our K through8s are students with disabilities are making statistically significant progress across our district. Um so that's at the whole district level. And

051then as we break it down, excuse me, the point of the the point of the data analysis though for us is really to look in and say, how can we help students make even more progress, right? And so that's when we break down by grade level, we break down by school. We really try to get down, you know, ideally down to the student level to say, okay, well, you're here. Let's get farther, right? Let's let's um let's push every student um based on where they are. And so when you continue with that analysis, um when do you think that you'll have that that work completed so we know what kind of supports we need to put in place um for these students so that they can catch up? >> So that analysis was presented in

052the video. So we have that we have that for the school committee and happy to share refer back to those slides if that's helpful. Um and in our January professional development day, our educators were actually able to review um this uh this data to make plans for individual students. So those plans are in place. Um and some of what you heard in the video was um the educators referring to changing up some of the groups. Um so students maybe additional students being added to an intervention group or the focus of that group shifting a bit to meet uh the needs of the students in that group. So those plans are are well underway um and being implemented now to support students. >> Okay. So they are being implemented as we speak. And is there a

053time frame that we would come back and revisit to see how we're doing? >> Um sure. We tend to give we give the I Ready, the Dibbles, um and the LL data at the beginning of the year, the middle of year, and the end of year. So we have on a um sort of three times a year. Um we just analyzed our midyear data um which is what we're reporting on now. uh end of year data we t typically get in June. Um so that might be analyzed after that meeting. But what's most important is that educators are constantly looking at the performance of students using sort of formative data in class, right? So you don't just wait um till till the mid mid year. That's a helpful confirmation and be able to step back

054and look at trends. But for example, in our literacy intervention groups, we do sort of a progress monitoring. we call it a probe, but sort of a mini assessment, very short um every few weeks um to see how students are doing and if they're responding to the work um to the intervention that we're providing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Rose Zyberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Question with the uh use of the terms just if you can help clarify the significant growth um terminology and then average progress, the difference between those two. >> Sure. Um that's a great question. And so you're referring to in our Dibbles data, we talk about average progress and above average progress. And with I Ready and EXL, we're referring we talk about statistically significant growth. So

055some of that is just the terminology that you use with the assessment. Um with Dibbles, um we actually have access to a data set that's national. Um so the Dibbles assessment says, um compared to students who started the year, you know, in in at a particular benchmark, right? what would it look like to make average progress by mid year? Um, and that by but by average progress I mean progress which is gap closing. So on average across uh the nation are our students making a certain level of progress. It's really important to note for Malden is that we actually give um our fall assessment a little later than national recommendations just because we start school right um in in September whereas or late August whereas you know we're nationwide Louisiana they start in early August

056right so we're giving it a little later and we actually give um our midyear assessment significantly before is recommended because in Massachusetts we give the access test in January So our midyear when we're saying that students are making average progress from fall to winter, that's actually only representing about two and a half months of school. Um so it's pretty incredible to see that our students in all grades are either making average progress or above average progress by this time of year. And then the the definition for significant growth is that to do with percentiles, what you're looking different times you come and present to that. Is that sticks with that? >> Yes. So we look at the um the the size and we look at what is statistically significant for growth. So depending on how

057big the size of the population is a tiny growth might actually just be you know um might actually just represent flat prog not actually represent progress. Um so it really depends for each grade level based on the number of students who took the assessment. >> Okay. Thank you. Um for I Ready the assessment there's been a correlation study. So for I Ready assessment is correl improvement on I Ready is correlated with improvement um on MCCAST. Um the EXL assessment has not had a correlation study take place yet. So we'd like to one assumes that when you um when you see students make progress you would also see that on MCCAST but that hasn't been sort of formally studied through a research paper. Next we'll hear from Mr. Piaza followed by Mr. Piaza. >> Thank you

058Mr. Chair. Uh thank you so much for the details in this presentation. Um do we is it okay if we go back a slide because I just have a question that I I want to just check my own understanding. First of all, it's great to see all the progress on the reading side of things where I want to zoom in just on what is the third bullet point. Oh, wait. How come this one's different? >> I think there there may be a discrepancy in the what the printed version. >> Yeah, >> I think there was an error on the printed version. So, this is >> Oh, okay. >> Right. Because um Yeah. Okay. the the I I was zeroing in on on the one that's on the printed version that's not on this slide. Um

059but maybe since we're here already, I'll I'll um uh still ask if that's okay, >> please. >> Um Right. So, what I'm reading is grades in grades one through eight, English learners and Hispanic students obviously using the language of Jessie. >> Yeah, that was the piece. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> I I was just gonna ask for more clarification about that statement. It sounds like you may have already more clarification about that statement which is why it was removed from the current. >> Yeah, the the that statement that he's referring to there was a there was a a typographical error honestly where that it stated that those groups had made >> prog those were groups that we are still looking to make progress with. >> Yes. Right. And so this was exactly the core of

060my question. Are we making progress with those groups across the board? um and because I wasn't sure if I was interpreting the statement here accurately as it was written. But anyway, it sounds like there was a there was um an issue with the language and that there's more details in the video. But anyway, this is a long way of me asking now. Uh it's similar Mlin asked a very similar question about if we know um you know, if I if I had an English language learner uh in my house who was in grade two, I would want to know are grade two English language learners making progress? I'd want to know both grade level and student subgroup. And so I'm just wondering if you can say anything even just in general about what the data

061tells us about subgroups at at each grade level if that makes sense. >> Sure. Um so are you asking specifically? >> Yeah. So now I'm asking essentially like for all the data in which case maybe what I'll do is um is check out the video. I I I I I wanted to know if English learners and Hispanic students were making progress across the board, every single grade, all the English language learners are making progress. That's how I interpreted this bullet point. But I think what we learned here here is that I was making too much of a bullet point that um eventually was cleared out of the presentation. So >> no. So remember, you weren't making too much. There was just there was an error in that in on that page, >> right? that Miss

062Passine caught before before we came here tonight. And so I'm I'm grateful for that. But what I would also say though is that I think there is an issue with the the number of students we have here in Maldin. um some of the language we're using in terms of like whether we can students in a in a given demographic group within a given grade level to the degree to which we can compare them to national norms or national um you know more about this than than I do probably Mr. fiatza but there's just we just have to be careful when we use that terminology because the sample size is very small. >> This and this is exactly my concern when there when sample size is large then it's more likely to get significant to see

063significant differences in the positive or the negative direction and and and thankfully we're seeing that in the positive direction. But when the sample size is small because we're talking about English learners in grade two and now we've narrowed the the the the population of students twice, right? Then we may not see uh a signal in the data if we're only looking at statistical significance. But yet the growth of those students still really matters to us, right? Even if the end size of the group is small, we still care about whether or not those students, right, are making growth. And so and so that's that's what I wanted to get a better sense of like these these these small populations of students though it doesn't rise to the level of statistical significance still something just from

064an equity standpoint to be to to be aware of and I realize that there's pro there's other ways for me to get that information but >> yeah I think it's a great question and so I think for that very reason in the video we look at the student group the demographic groups sort of across the district but we don't break it down to second grade English learners Right. >> Because to your point, like when you start breaking down to that, it's really hard to say what is a statistically significant change. where I think what I think is a meaningful analysis is that's when I think it's actually more meaningful what we do with our professional development day in January and what we continue to do through our PD blocks with our educators is to just

065say let's look at our students in my like in my class >> and what can do and I think is more useful than looking at some of this trend analysis on is actually saying for the student what skills do they need to learn and where skills might be lagging right and what support can we provide so I think that to your point I I think I might be saying the same thing which is that at some level >> we can look at trends across the district to start to say at a systemic level where might we be unaware that we're underserving a particular group right how can we build our system stronger but once you get to a smaller sample size you really want to look at the individual student and say what do they

066need to grow >> right >> and I think that's that's where I excel is more useful a lot of this analysis by student group we have to do ourselves they don't provide to us and I think it's because they their focus is what is the list of skills students need >> kid by kid. >> That that helps clarify and I appreciate that. Essentially, uh my I I'm I'm just trying to make meaning of data when they're small small sample size and I I I appreciate you talking about how to kind of work with the grade level teams on PD days to do that. So, thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Over to Miss >> Hardy. Um I was just thinking about this when Peter was talking about um individualized growth if I understand how I

067excel and dibbles and other of these tests run because I'm familiar with them. Could you just give two two parts to this question? One. Could you just give those of us who do not spend all day listening to people with the timer and the kids reading and then it dings and they get point, you know, like I know what that is, but could you tell everyone a little bit about the difference between like literacy skills and what's happening on the math tests? And then I had a question about individualized student results, but go go first. Great. Um, so we assess foundational literacy skills with dibbles. Um, and so this is a test of essentially to make it really brief, students phonic skills. Um, so at the kindergarten level, we might see if students know the

068names of letters and the sounds that they make. And as students get older, we start looking to see if they can break down words into their sounds, right? And they can decode unfamiliar words. Um, and then as you get even older, we start looking at sort of the fluency. So like how quickly can they actually read those? Are they saying t dog or they saying, "Oh, dog. I've got that." Um, with the reading benchmarks, we look at the I Ready. And this is a comprehension test. So similar to ones you may have taken on the SAT, just scale it back to younger grades. You might read a passage and you might answer questions about what some of the words in the passage mean, um, or what sort of the main idea of the passage might

069be. And then Il is a math assessment. Um, and what's interesting is that, you know, in first grade, you're assessed on your first grade skills. Um, if if any parents are out there or caregivers looking at reports, if you have a third grader to be on grade level at the beginning of third grade, you would want to get a 300. At the middle of third grade, you'd want to get a 350. And at the end of third grade, 399 or 400. Right? So, it sort of shows your progress relative to grade level skills. Um, in first grade you're assessed on the first grade skills. In second grade you're assessed on the first and second grade skills and so forth. So our seventh and eighth graders are taking a much longer assessment. And it's adaptive which

070means that as you start to make errors the test sort of will cut you off eventually. Um, and so we do this is I mentioned in the video we do see some limitations to the assessment. There is some testing fatigue as the students get older and the test gets much longer. Um, and there is some misalignment between the order in which we teach our skills in Malden and with our state standards, um, and the order that they're assessed on, which is a national test, right? And so, if you can imagine like I got a 350, but some of the standards that are covered I might have that might be assessed later for the later in the year piece, we might have already taught, but some of the standards that I Excel expects to be ac

071assessed in the fall haven't been taught yet. So, there's a little bit of misalignment there. Uh my other question is and maybe this is a difference between a K to8 school and a high and and a high school parent. Um I I don't know where any of this information is about my own students. I would love to know how they're progressing or not progressing and how I can support them and their teachers in that path. I I heard from one of my students that they did really great on ELA, but I don't have anything to to show me that. So, I don't know if that's something that again that I'm missing that's in Parent Square. What's a way for parents to access that if they want to know? >> That's a great question. Thank you

072for prompting me for this. Um, we have sent home for elementary school students, we've sent home the reports through parent square and for high school students this year as well. So, with midyear report cards, um, parents received um, a code that sort of allows them to log in to see their uh, to see their responses or their scores. Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Horty. Anyone else? Okay, s back to you for the second part. Right. All >> right. I'm going to invite Thank you, Miss Bine. invite Assistant Superintendent Pam McDonald to come up and to um speak about our chronic absenteeism data and specific initiatives that we're um embarking on to or continuing to address our student attendance within the district. >> Sorry, >> that's good. See what we >> There we go. There we

073go. So, tonight I'm going to talk about our year-to- date chronic absentee rates, um the attendance playbook that we have put in place to address this and also some new um work that we're doing with the rise network and some on track initiatives. So, before we look too deeply, I do want to clarify what year-to- date chronic absentee means. So, for a full year, it is 10% of the year. So, for a full year out of 180 days, that's 18. Year to date, it is how many days we've been in school. So, if we were in school a 100 days, it would be 10. It is also the students individual days. So, if we had a student that came two months ago and has been here 40 days or so, then it's out of that

07440 days their chronic absenteeism. So, um we have a lot of the students that are chronically absent at this moment in time. We can still if they not absent anymore, we can try to get them back on track. So, we're hopeful that these numbers look good and we can make them look even better. Um, so with that in mind, let's look at the high school uh the non- high school grades 1 through 8. Um, on the left in the full ski full full scale full full school year, sorry, 24 25, Malden students in grades 1 through eight sorry started declining chronic absenteeism and we got three out of our four points on accountability at the um one through eight grade. Um, and we are looking even better for the 25 26 year. Um, and we

075are down to 14%. So, we're very excited about that. Um, that's down about 3% from where we were last year. Um, we do not have any comparisons midyear because they're just not published. So, we only have our data right now. Um, if you're looking at the high school, 2425 was not a great year. Um, we went up as did our peer districts. However, this year we're doing much better um and we're down to 26% um for our year-to- date chronic absenteeism. So, when we look closer at this data, it's always good to look at um our subgroups and when we looked through our grades one through eight. Um uh one thing I want to note is that there are some students that may be in more than one group. For instance, if you are a

076student with a disability and you're low income and you're Hispanic and Latino, you would be represented separately in each group. Um, for the school year 2425 in grades 1 through 8, all student groups experienced a slight drop in their chronic absenteeism. And this year, that trend continues with all with nearly all of our subgroups um also dropping in their chron chronic absenteeism. And I do want to highlight that our students with disabilities that was one of our highest is seeing some really good improvement in their absenteeism. Um so for grades 9 through 12, we're seeing similar trends. Um um our absentee rate is dropping across almost all groups um and not as much in Hispanic and Latino, but um in the rest of the groups, we do see a um dip in the absenteeism rate

077across the board. I want to talk a little bit about the attendance playbook. Um so we've developed this and we worked with the principles on it. It is um you know data shows that um you have to have a comprehensive plan and that's what we have this year. um across the district administrators and teachers are following the same sort of playbook we call it. Um it supports students from tier one which is what everyone gets to TS3 which tier three which is intensive supports. Um communication is one of the key focuses on this. Um we're also really looking to teachers this year to help. Um, we know that the day the student comes back, how they are treated, how what how much paid how much we pay attention to them, if we say they're missed

078and we give them some extra love and attention, it makes them want to be in school more. So, we're really working on those types of things. We're also doing lots of outreach, especially at tier 2 and tier three with families. Um, when we get to tier three, we are having um the attendance officer. We're referring to outside agencies to get the help they need. Um, schools this year have attendance teams that are comprised a little different at each school, but they meet every week to go through the data to see which kids are trending one way or the other. It's usually it's almost it's always the principal, assistant principles, guidance counselors, nurse, teacher. It's a variety, but they're working really hard to put all of those supports in place. And lastly, I want to talk

079about the RISE network that we have joined. We were able to get some grant funding and we're really working with our ninth graders as well as our eighth graders to start sort of this culture of being on track. What does it mean to be on track as a ninth grader? I think one thing that all of the data shows is that if you are on track and you get to be a sophomore on time, your path is much easier and much um more clear towards graduation. So these two went out uh this fly went out to ninth grade families. Um it also went home to eighth grade families um a right after they all came up and visited. Um we are starting an ontrack campaign at the high school. We have all starting in January.

080Every single ninth grade teacher meets after school and they do it's called a kids blitz. It's a specific protocol that has data specific points to talk about kids um and so that we can who's on track and who's not. And this is the data that we're looking at. We also are starting um this week, we're a little behind because of our few snow days, but we're starting this week to outreach to start an on track, well, we're calling um an on-track promotion academy for kids that are in jeopardy of not being promoted to 10th grade. So, we have a promotion academy or the ontrack academy um that is starting in the next week or so with these students to make sure that they get across that finish line. It's um kind of modeled after our

081graduation academy. And then we're in the process of expanding this to the eighth grade where we're going to have eighth grade teams meet for kids that are in jeopardy of not passing. We are just in the process of putting those teams together. Um and then later on in the spring we're going to have a we're calling it um um get aheadmies for our eighth graders. Um and we're really trying to give them some of the skills they need to go from 8th grade to 9th grade. That's a tough transition for some of our kids. And we also have um coming out of this work is we're calling it Summerbridge, which is a new um program for eighth graders that are at risk um going into ninth grade that'll really look at some other skills like

082soft skills around organizations, study skills, um and also a little bit of fun to engage them more back into the classroom. So that's what I have tonight. >> Thank you, Miss McDonald. Don't go anywhere. on that please. Questions from the team. Miss Pedaphor. Thank you, Mr. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Assistant Superintendent McDonald. Uh, just a quick question. Um, zeroing in on those students with disabilities in the 9 through 12 group, a drop minimal. I'm just curious with that demographic of students, um, do we dive deeper into the reason behind the absenteeism? Um, is it are we looking at if it's due to the disability? Um, and I know that Desi doesn't care. >> No, they don't >> about that, >> but for our own benefit to be able to help

083those students. Um obviously we want to help everybody but we do have a demographic that deal with No. So I that's the that's the idea behind the attendance teams to look at each case individual and and and see what they need. Do they what kind of services do they need? What supports do we need to put in place for them? What is it what is the barrier for them to get into the building and trying to work with those families on more of an individual basis when they're getting up to that chronic absenteeism. We're also really looking at getting in a little bit earlier, you know, two days, three days, and and seeing what we can do to support kids. Um, so that's the idea around those attendance teams to give them more individualized support.

084>> That's the tier two, tier two and tier three. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, and then I'm just I know we're talking about absenteeism, but I'm just curious if we've seen um any change in tardiness due to the removal of home room um at the high school level where students were coming in should have been in by 7:45, but class wasn't realistically starting till 7:55 and now they have to be in their class in a seat first period 7:50 7:45. So I just wasn't sure if we've seen um difficulties. >> I honestly I I don't know. I know we take attendance two ways. We take it for the day and by period um but I can look into the tardiness. I don't we also did a huge initiative last year taming the tardiness that I think

085sort of changed a little bit of the culture of being late. So I think that that helped but I can't I don't we haven't dug into that data. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Horty. >> Hi. Um, I was just wondering about something. Um, I'm not sure how this works in Malden. I know that this is an a concern where I work as well. When we talk about seventh and eighth grade students that are not meeting grade level requirements and or in some cases failing seventh and eighth grade, even if it's just some classes, um it obviously then increases absenteeism. Um is there already or will this build? It's not credit in seventh and eighth grade. I know, but um because I was I know at the high school there's credit remediation, so

086I I don't mean that. But is there a way to get these students the academic support that they need over the summer in a different mean a a different means so that they then can feel confident upon nth grade entry because I think those two things are like very connected. >> 100%. So we um the eighth grade um get ahead academy is going to be more of a lit and numeracy based skills as well as some project based so they learn some um long-term planning organizational skills and then um >> is there an EF component >> a what >> will there be an EF component executive functioning skills >> yes yes exactly that's what I mean by you know study skills and all of that and then the other thing is we are sort of

087looking at we do do for uh sixth seventh and eighth graders that have not met the bar for academics or credit recovery what we saw was the kids that came to the high school were not seeing success in ninth grade that went through our eighth grade credit recovery because they were still lacking under underlying skills. So the that grade um eight get ahead academy that we're planning for the later spring as well as the summerbridge program that we're planning for eighth graders is sort of our pilot program to do something different with them. It is going to be a little bit more project based which helps with some executive functioning. It's going to be more literacy, more numeracy. Um, and then we're going to try to do some fun things, maybe a college visit or

088something like that to get them re-engaged. I think a lot of these kids that are struggling really need to have a chance to have a little more fun back at school and build those underlying skills. >> So, we're hopeful that, you know, it's going to be new and we're going to try it and we're hoping it's going to be great and we'll see. But that that is exactly the problem we're trying to address with these programs. >> I love this. I'm so glad you're doing it. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Horty. Uh, seeing no others. Just one from the chair. Miss McDonald, >> you chose 2018 2019 to begin this analysis. Why? >> Um, I think we just went back five years before the pandemic and then sort of after the pandemic. >> And

089you left out 2020 2021. I presume because of co >> we don't Yeah. how when we weren't here there was no real attendance to look at >> the 2025 2026 is that year yet to date. >> Yes. So that is um every student what their attendance rate to this moment. >> Could you send me back those charts without 2018 2019 2022 2023 and just give me the last three years. >> Yeah. And could you also include in that when we restructured the administrative model at the K8s >> when we went to an extra? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I'd have to look back what they Yes. But when we added >> I'd like to see if there's some correlation between that and the numbers going down at the K8s. All right. So if you could get

090that to me at your leisure. Yep. >> I would appreciate it. >> Okay. >> We'll supply that to the whole committee, >> please. Yeah. Thank you, Miss McDonald. >> Thank you. >> All right. I know it seems like we've barely gotten into this report, but the rest will go quickly, I assure you. Um, this next uh section has to do with the strategic plan development. Um, in January, we presented the set of strategic priorities um for the strategic plan, which is the first goal. Um we presented the priorities. We talked about metrics that possible metrics that we would be looking at and uh the process through which we were going to be determining strategies like the strategies you heard from Miss McDonald just now and the strategy you heard previously from uh Miss Bassine um

091what we're going to do to actually get the results that we're seeking. So those uh strategic priorities for the plan that uh I presented to you in January again were first of all high expectations with support to meet diverse needs for all students, fair access to opportunity across all schools and across all student groups. deep partnerships both with our families and caregivers, but also with the city and with the the wider community. A strong wellsupported workforce and financial and operational sustainability which are both uh supporting priorities to make everything else possible. One potential source of metrics that we've been spending time looking at uh have to do with surveys in which we're getting um perceptions and feedback from caregivers and also from our instructional staff. Um these surveys were administered um in December and January

092the last two years. Um, one thing that has been encouraging has been that in for both caregivers and for our instructional staff, the number of respondents has increased from last year to this year. And the percentage of recipients uh who who were given the opportunity to respond to the survey has also grown. 10% 11% may not seem like a lot, but 690 is a lot of people and um it's better than 278. So, we're we're excited. We're moving in the right direction at least. Um and then for instructional staff, it's been a significant um although not as great of an increase from last year to this year, but these are all of our teachers, our um our education support professionals, all of our administrators. um they and all all the other non-classroom um instructional staff

093as well have responded to these surveys. The sur the questions that we're looking at for high expectations with uh with support to meet diverse needs. Questions we're looking at from caregivers and from staff perceptions are, do they think we have high expectations for all students? And are the resources and support there? Are they adequate to meet the diverse needs in the building? For fair access, asking questions, programs aligned. Are their programs aligned to their children's strengths and interests? And is there the instruction that we're providing that our teachers are providing? Do they believe that it respects students cultures and identities for deep partnerships for parents? Do they feel comfortable talking with the staff in their school? And do they perceive that the staff in the school care about their ideas and their perceptions about their

094children and what they need? Strong and wellsupported workforce. Do our teachers, do our educators feel that they belong at their school? And is the school committed to helping them improve? And then financial and operational sustainability. Are parents or educators alike, are they satisfied with the facilities, with the equipment that their children uh are benefiting from each and every day? and our in our educators, are they happy with the instructional materials that they're using to support our students? So, these are just examples of questions. Um and what we've been doing um has been to look at these results u to this point we've really been zeroing in on the the feedback that we've been getting from our educators both in our principal meetings in our Malden leadership um team meeting which is all the assistant principles

095all the principles all the directors in the district the program managers we've looked at this data for all of our schools and then by school and then the instructional leadership teams in each in each building are also looking at the data for their own educators to find out how they're experiencing how they're feeling supported and what we can do better. Um, I believe Miss Bassina is convening a district-wide instructional leadership team meeting this week, a virtual meeting where representatives from across all the schools will be talking about this together because as we plan our our um school improvement plans for next year, we want to be tracking with the degree to which our our teachers uh are feeling supported by what we've been doing this year. And our next next stage of this will be

096looking at the caregiver data by school um as well. And so I'm going to pause there. Um the uh in the interest of time, I'll have a lot more information for you about what these baseline metrics might look like for these different for these different questions. Um but they've already been the the school teams the principles have already been very engaged in looking at their own schools data to just to see especially in those questions we had responses from 2025 and 2026 to see um whether teachers are feeling more supported than they did last year for example or whether they're feeling professional development is meeting their needs more than last year. Um those are the kinds of things that we're we're really digging into um that could become metrics for um in addition to all

097the other data that we look at um together. I'll pause there for a moment. Let's proceed. Okay. Thank you, sir. on the special education program review. I just wanted to give you an update because we do expect to bring forward um a a report to the committee in April. There are two parts um to the program review. Uh one is an external review um that is in um involves it's involving community engagement, on-site visits, review of data, and a synthesis report. And then we're also supplementing that complementing that with an internal compliance review um which is underway. So uh again this is the third uh of the goals that you approved for me back in the fall. And I believe a lot of this I shared with you um last time, but I just wanted

098to reiterate that because some of the dates of these um efforts have shifted um in light of the weather and other a couple of other complications. But we have focus groups that are going to be meeting shortly um both with our special education parent advisory committee and with caregivers with staff from across the district in various roles and a stakeholder survey that was uh sent just before the February vacation and um that so that that has all been underway. This week we have uh the um consultant from Empower Ed. They're going to be here in the district um Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And they'll be visiting uh classrooms in every one of our buildings, both general education and special education classrooms. snapshot information uh observations of no more than five minutes in length to get

099into as many classrooms as possible to see if they can identify patterns and themes across the district. the data review. Uh these are the various uh data that we've asked them to look at. All of which are um very very relevant to the um local education agency determination that DESIE does for us as far as our compliance with special education um and also analysis of staffing and resource allocation and those comprehensive findings we're um expecting from them with recommendations by the 1 of April. So, it's a very a very aggressive um and ambitious timeline. And then finally, um in addition to the comprehensive program review components being conducted with Empower Ed, district staff is in the process of compiling the compliance data listed below. um on this slide uh the services and IEPS whether they're

100um in compliance for each service students are are entitled to special education staff lensure the percentage of with lensure or whether they're on a waiver in each program and each building the evaluation timelines um and these are for students for initial and for their three-year evaluations whether those are being done within the required uh timeline that um required under the law. And then instructional group size review um which is whether we're in compliance based on the instructional groupings um that um that is in place depending on the program. So, this is all work that uh Miss McDonald and um the team chairs across the across the district and the program managers are all um coordinating in in compliation with our our um all of the case um the case liaison at each building um who

101are responsible for monitoring those IEPs. And I think that's what I've the last one. So we'll stop there. Questions from the team. Miss Hardy, >> Dr. Simple. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McDonald. >> Question for both of you. When I'm looking through the tasks, for lack of better term, for the special ed review, um I'm seeing a glaring missing piece. Um and it's definitely been brought by my brought to my attention by public comment tonight. I'm not seeing anywhere in here that anyone from this outside organization is sitting in on an annual meeting or a three-year evaluation. Is that happening and it's not captured here or that just that's a big hole? >> If I have parent volunteers, we could absolutely ask them to do that. Um Because I think can I sorry can I

102just interrupt you for a second? I think that it's it's a little bit I'm I'm a little bit takenback by this because I'm sitting here looking at all of these and saying to myself this is great great we've got parents and we've got teachers that are going to be observed and we're going to go through all the data review but there is one whole faction of employees that are not getting an observation. And if that if we're going to do this and really do this, right, and really look at all aspects of it, someone should be sitting in on a team meeting. >> So, >> and they mean annual meetings, three-year evaluations. >> So, I I um I I hear the concern. Um I think that it's I would imagine um and it's the first

103time that I've I've heard this specifically. um mentioned with regards to this uh as far as an outside observer sitting in on an IEP for the purpose of a district review, I'm not sure that I would recommend that. Um, I do think that there are ways that concerns about team meetings or concerns about the way that we train our staff who are responsible for facilitating team meetings could be captured in a number of other venues or other ways aspects of this of this program review. principally through the survey, which does allow for open-ended responses that where such data like that could be um shared. And then also um even though they're not large, we do have focus groups including one with the special education parent advisory council um who are um very in touch with

104parents across the district. And I would encourage any parents that that focus group has not yet um happened. Um if they have concerns that they want to make sure do not get missed in this process. Um I mean obviously let me know and Miss McDonald, but but beyond that I think the special education pro uh parent advisory council those members will be a part of a special a of a focus group with the with the consultant and they would be able to bring those um those concerns forward also. >> Okay. But I just feel like it's a moment for an observation that we're missing. I mean, I can I can see the only thing is I think if you have an outsider in a team meeting, it changes the dynamic in a way that I'm

105not sure that you >> I don't know. I mean, I'm open to anything because I >> I agree with you. And I also think that I'm trying to say this without sounding like a terrible person, so excuse me if I do because that's not my intention. You should sweat a little. I Oh, >> you should sweat a little when someone's coming in to observe you. You should be extra prepared. You should be on your best behavior. You should be doing all of those things every day, but we're not asking for someone to not have notification that someone's coming in, you know, like you said that because the parents would have to be in agreement. >> Um I I don't know. I I just think it's it's and I don't know your structures of observation as

106well. like I don't know how your team chairs or your program managers are observed by other members of the special ed staff. I can ask you more questions about this in detail. I'm just saying and we can talk about this at another time in more detail, but I'm saying looking at this and listening to public comment today and other days and hearing about how folks have not felt heard >> during their meeting, I am deeply troubled by that and deeply upset. I did not get into this business to do that. >> I take my job and my role very seriously. I don't say this often, but I have children with disabilities and I have sat on a table and felt that way as well. So, I apologize that any parent has felt like that and

107we have lots of there's lots of issues with anything. I do think that we have some great great teachers. I think we have great team cheers. I think we have >> great program managers that work hard. I think they're down to next to nothing as far as admin support. I think that we haven't had anyone at the high school all year. I could go on and on. >> I I'm going to say I again I did not take this job to not do right by children and I am very upset today and tonight. And I am I take this role very serious and I promise that I will do my best to change things. What do you >> That's all I can do. >> We have other lights. Do you >> Thank you. >> We're

108going to go to Miss Rose Zyberg and then we'll go over to Mr. Piaza. Uh before we do, uh based on what Miss Horty said, I presume you or someone here has gone over to these families that testified tonight to get their contact information. >> I I know both of them. >> Okay. Yeah. >> All right. All right. Let's go to Miss Rose Zyberg and then Mr. Piaza. >> This should be an easy one, I hope. Um I've been getting questions. I know people when they filled out the survey could indicate that they wanted to be part of the audit team and they've been asking because they haven't heard anything yet if they are on or off that and are wondering what the timeline is. >> I believe that the focus group, correct me if

109I'm wrong, Tesla groups went out today. We again they were supposed to we had you know couple snow days there and a couple other things. So I believe test they go out they so it all went out today. We um we were actually able to get most parents. We could add a second focus group to get every parent that wanted to be in if you would like us to do that. Um do that because I think that we could manage if we did one more get all parents that wanted to be in the focus group which I'm happy to do. Um we originally picked it so that it was a representation of um across grade levels across schools. We wanted to make sure we had ILP out of district program man um different programs inclusion

110someone with reading services. So and then if there were two in the same category test just randomly picked one out of the two. >> Do you know how many people who had applied did not get in? >> I believe there was around I don't know six or eight. So with that, we could definitely add a second focus group which would allow us to get all of them. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Piaza. >> I just had a question about the survey metrics that had a question about the survey metrics that we use. >> Stand stand by Mr. Pa. >> Yep. >> Great. I think we're on. Yeah, I just had a question about the survey metrics that we use. Uh, of course, we saw caregivers and instructional staff on there. I'm just wondering about district

111openness, appetite, ability. You see where this is going properly to survey students or if not to survey them to somehow gather student feedback through focus groups or some other way of bringing their voice into the mix on the um on the improvement priorities that you've um been working on. that is on the horizon. Um I will say last year um especially for high school students, not only for high school students, but especially for high school students, we when last year when we were doing a lot of work to um take a step back from the high school schedule and planning potential changes to the high school schedule, we had a survey that was um conducted that included staff, parents, and uh caregivers and students. students and we had hundreds of students participate in that survey

112and their voice was very important in that process. Um and um so as as it was in the survey that we conducted for the in the high school principal search um so we don't have specific plans to share with you tonight but that is definitely something that um student voice and student perspective is definitely something that I think is very important for us to to take note of. >> Great. Appreciate that. Miss Spaphor, you get the final word and then we're going to move on the rest of the docket. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to rewind for a second. Stay right there because I am going to get to special education, but strate strategic priorities. Um, we did have a different presentation than what you presented. So, I am going to >> speak

113to something that was in the original presentation. >> Sure. >> Um, and that was uh fair access to opportunity in the staff survey results. Our school improvement plan centers the needs of multilingual students and students with disabilities. Only 45% of our educators agreed with that. So, as we as we talk about special education and we're looking at our audits and doing rights by students, if 45% of our educators, less than half say our school improvement plan centers on the needs of these students, what are we doing to change that? >> So, So, as I mentioned earlier, that's one of many, many metrics that the principles that the principles with the directors and the program managers with the assistant principles as well, they're looking at this data by school um to make sure that across the

114board that all of our improvement plans are meeting teachers needs and meeting student needs. And um that's one that definitely we're digging into to understand how they read that question and why they why they perceive that that's not the case because um you know I mean we can say from an administrative standpoint that we could see a lot of ways where we are centering the needs of those students. But if teachers aren't perceiving that or if they're not aware of all of those um those measures that are being put in place, then we need to do two things. Make sure that they're involved and make sure that what their vision of what that what that should look like is is happening and also that they're fully included and informed about the things that are happening

115that they might not be a aware of. >> And then on to the program review. And I I I will give credit what credit's due because Miss McDonald has been on the phone with me numerous times asking me what exactly do you want to see? And obviously I've always said everything. I want to see it all. Um but with that being said, the empower ed people are spending no more than five minutes in length and op observations. I mean what can you gather in five minutes? >> I I I will say they have a checklist. Um they did do it and I can show it to you. They did did um we've had we've worked with them a little bit in the past at the ELC and they did it for us at the ELC

116to see sort of some metrics that were in place there back when um Principal Lawrence was here and you'd be surprised when you have a real um strict protocol of what you're looking for um how much you can get and I'm happy to share that old data with you was three years ago maybe now. So it they have very specific sort of look fors to see, you know, um if it's team teaching, what's going on, who's where, and that type of thing. Our sen is set up, um what does the room look like? You know, where are kids sitting? How are people circulating? Things like that. >> And then um just because we've we've spoken about really diving into the the service grids. Yep. >> And making sure that we're following those. and to Miss

117Hord's having somebody sit in on the IEP meeting. I will say I'm a little hesitant because we all know and we all do it when we're in front of people. We act a certain way. Um so I think if we want to get true results, I think maybe we should be doing immediate surveys with those caregivers after IEP meetings to find out how that went. Did they feel supported? Um and and maybe you know because unfortunately as someone stated they have been quiet thus far um so maybe they're anonymous surveys um I don't know how we do that but I think getting at it immediately after that meeting >> so in my prior disc district we did two things we handed out it was a survey as well as a link to sign up or

118the email for CPAC to sign up right on so you can sign up >> that before I I have two I don't know why we haven't done it, but we in this day and age with the Google form, we could give them a QR code on the way out the door and they could absolutely fill it out on the way out the door. >> Yeah. Um QR codes on IEPs, I mean something that we can get feedback on on how we're doing. Um and then just lastly, um on the the survey that ended on the I believe it was the 25th, do we have a a percentage of respondents on that survey? >> Honestly, I've not I did not look. I can look and get that information for you. A little >> Thank you. That's

119all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Bataphor. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, everybody. Let's stay with Miss Bataphor. Let's get an update on the finance subcommittee. >> Hold on. I'm back. >> Too much stuff. >> Uh, stand by. While you're doing that, soup, that was a lot. I just wanted to thank everyone for your attention tonight. And uh I did want to make one comment that the um one other metric that you did not mention, Miss Bataphor, from our survey was that I think less than half of the teachers that were surveyed were aware of what was in the school improvement plan. And so again, the need to educate, make sure that people know what we're doing, and then also making sure that they see their what they perceive should be in

120that in those plans is is super important. But I want just want to thank everyone for your patience and for your engagement. We covered a lot of ground tonight. So, thank you, >> Mr. Baphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, really quick, um I love saying this, the finance subcommittee because we changed the name. Um met for the first time with new members on February 23rd. Um and I want to say thank you because these um members all came together remotely. We we did a flop really quick because there was a blizzard happening. So, um thank you to all that. Um we we even got to witness Miss Rose Zyberg lose power in the middle of the meeting um and had a like flashlight just so she could participate. But um that meeting really just discussed

121some finance policy that was um that was not aligning with Massachusetts general law. You'll kind of see that down in motions and resolutions. Um, Miss Herz, Miss Merz, I'm sorry, took us through our year-to- date expenditures. Um, and then just, uh, very brief over view on what FY2627 um, looks like just because we're still in the very early stages of that. Um and administration is now working um you know with principles to look at um the school needs positions that are going to be need needed to be filled due to retirements just our our basic housekeeping. Um but we will be meeting again this month before really um hitting the ground running essentially April one. Questions of the chair hearing? None. Proposition 2 and a half resolution. Mr. Piaza. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, yes.

122So, I would like to um uh say a little bit about the background uh if that's all right that led to the uh Proposition 2 and a half override resolution uh that member Bernard and I are offering uh for our discussion tonight. Uh this is my first time doing this sort of thing, so I I prepared some remarks. Uh so I I I thank you in advance for bearing with me on that. This responds though to some of the concerns that we heard in in public comment. So I think you'll find that it aligns with um with uh with uh with concerns that have been raised here and also just in the general public conversation about this. So um of course we're facing the uh March 31st vote for the Proposition 2 and a half

123override. Uh and we at the school committee are in a very unique position, right? Because although city services across all departments will be affected by the city budget, we're schools are the only one that have an elected body that is in that that um uh that is in charge of making decisions about that aspect of the city budget. And given what's at stake for MPS students and families, I felt it's important uh for us to take up this issue as as a school committee. Specifically, in conversations about the override, I've heard the potentially common misconception that if we don't pass the override, schools might not be affected by budget cuts. And of course, we heard that in public comment tonight. I think this this concern is both inaccurate and misleading. Of course, the state determines

124how much money a city needs to spend on its schools and then the city pays a portion of that. The state chips in the rest. Until 2025, Malden spent more than what was required by the state, but it hasn't since then. We are facing budgetary constraints as a city that are unprecedented in recent times. And the state formula, which determines our contribution, is spitting out higher and higher numbers to the point that our city revenue can't keep pace. We outline the details of the budget gap in the full resolution. Uh but I'll give one quick example. This also came up in public comment. In the preliminary budget re released a few weeks ago from the state department of elementary and secondary ed, we learned that Malden will be uh required to inre increase local school

125funding by about $4 million this year. Yet state aid will increase only by about a half a million dollars. That's just a portion of the gap that our schools are facing. So with these formulas run a muck, there's no guarantee that the city will be able to continue meeting its school its school spending requirements. This notion that the schools are immune to budget cuts, I think is a misleading notion. Uh we're in unprecedented times and this is not even something this is not the argument that I'm making. This argument has been made publicly by um by our chief strategy and innovation officer. We may not meet those minimum spending requirements. We don't know how the budget's going to play out without an override, but it seems reasonable that some key positions or programs might get

126cut in our schools. That's why it's misleading, but it's also that's why it's um excuse me, inaccurate. It's also misleading to focus only on the school budget in this conversation. Malden public schools children and their families are would be affected by other city budget cuts. We think of every we think of all of these as individual departments. But in the life of a family in Malden, they're all they're all connected. And of course, students experience outside of school play a big role in preparing them to learn and grow in school. On a basic level, if a student experienced an emergency in their home, they might very understandably be distracted in school. And so I want to minimize those emergencies by ensuring we have a fully funded fire department. On a more academic side of things,

127it's important to note that our K8s have that none of our K8s have fully open libraries staffed by a certified librarian. And that's even when we meet the minimum spending requirements, which kind of highlights the flaws in that number. So, especially when K8s don't have functional libraries, I think it's important that students have access to books, staff, and programming at the Malden Public Library. And I don't want to see those services cut. This is my last little piece. The policy manual for this body states that the most crucial and that's quoted priority of our decision-making should be and this is again quoting the optimal learning of excuse me the optimal learning of the children enrolled in our public schools. It doesn't specifically require us to focus on the schools themselves. It's the optimal learning of

128the children enrolled in our schools. And I'm per personally confident that the override is uh in service of exactly those optimal learning conditions. And so with that with that at state for our students, I wanted us to um to open the discussion. >> So you're making the motion. >> I'm making the motion. >> Let's see if there's a second for purposes of discussion. >> Seconded by Miss Horty. All right. Discussion on the motion, everyone. >> Let's see we have here. Miss Rose Zyberg and then we'll go to Miss Spetta. >> Mr. share. Um, I struggle with saying this, but I did not read the resolution because I did not get this resolution until three around 3:00 today and I was in front of my classroom teaching. So, I have not read it. I look forward

129to reading it. I don't know where we're going to go with this. Um, I I potentially feel like I need to abstain because I can't vote on something that I haven't seen. I understand all these concerns and have been up obviously on um, you know, what's going on with the override and everything. Um, but I just can't in good faith vote on something that I haven't read. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Faphor. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so I uh am in agreement with Mr. Ozyberg and Mr. Piaza speaks of policy. We do have a policy that states that items will be to the members to give us time to review and read through and be able to um look at digest be able to make amendments to stuff on uh the stage. So

130um for that um I know there's a motion for discussion. I'd like to make a motion to table. >> Okay, >> please. Uh I emailed the full text of the resolution on February 27th at 8:45 a.m. Now, I don't know why it didn't get to the rest of our body, but out of an abundance of caution related to open meeting laws, I did not reach out to our members directly. I sent that to the clerk. Sure. Thank you. Anybody else? >> Okay. Uh, let me just go Miss Miss Rose Zyberg. >> I just wanted to say I'm not I I don't know what happened. I just know that's when I received it. So, I do the same thing. I sit there and I go through um the superintendent's office when I'm if there's a document

131missing. So, I was trying to get this >> because I, you know, saw the agenda, I'm like, well, wait, what is this? Where is it? And I didn't I I don't know what happened. And I apologize, Mr. the because um I do want to read it. >> Okay. I just Yeah. Just to say it's no no discredit to anything with um how things went down. I don't know where it went ary. >> Okay. Anybody else? Mr. Piaza, >> I I will just just before we vote on this motion, uh I'd like to say that this is the last opportunity for the school committee to speak on this important issue before the March 31st vote. Uh and I understand that there is some kind of problem with the um with the sharing of the materials ahead

132of time. Uh, but I wonder given the importance of what's at stake here for our students, we're here and I'm happy to answer any questions or concerns about the motion. The motion itself is short and I'm happy to walk through the key port the key points of the motion given that we're here right now. But I worry that by passing on this issue right now, we're sending a message to the community about whether or not this money is important for our students. And I personally believe it's very important for our students. >> This won't be our last opportunity, Mr. Piaza, because I'm going to call a special meeting to make sure that we do act on it. >> Okay. >> I'm a little surprised tonight that we're going down this road. I mean, we all

133know what the issue is. I mean, if we honestly need more time, then we'll provide it and have a special meeting uh within the next week or two to act upon it. >> So, there was a motion made by Miss Fatfor. It was seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Let's call the RO. >> Can we clarify >> to table? And this is specifically the table with the the promise essentially of a special meeting. >> Well, one thing I've learned to promise never to promise, but it will be my intent to have a special meeting. Okay. >> As soon as possible to act upon this most important resolution. Motion was made by Miss Spaphora, seconded by Mr. McCarthy to table Mr. Piaza, Mr. Bernard's resolve. Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora, yes.

134Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Hardy, >> no. >> Mr. Piaza, >> no. >> Mr. Bernard, Miss Rose Zyberg, Mayor Christensen. >> No. What do we have this for? >> Passes 53. >> Okay, it passes 53. Everybody, uh, be prepared to have a special meeting in the next week or so on this topic. All right, next up, let's take a look at this uh, calendar. Miss Spatteror. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to turn this over to the superintendent because I agreed to sponsor it just to get it onto the um docket. However, um the superintendent has the information pertaining to this. Well, good evening again. Um and I I um just want to acknowledge that I hope that whatever occurred with the resolution didn't occur with this memo. also. But, um, if that

135were the case, then we'll figure that out and get to the bottom of it. Um but um the uh this is on our website for anyone watching who would like to see um but the uh would like to read it. But there is a memorandum that I have submitted to the committee with a recommendation that we close our prek through 8th grade schools on Tuesday March 31st um which is the date of the special election. Um we generally uh do uh on the primary election, state primary election and our November general elections, we do uh adjust our plan our school calendars around those election dates because um six out of our seven school buildings are used as polling places. Um the March 31st special election was not on the horizon when the calendar for this

136year was planned. Um, and I since it the date was set by the city council, um, I have, as I've shared in the memo, I've u spent a good deal of time consulting with the chair and vice chair, with our principles, with district administrators, with our um, police chief, and also with the president of the MEA um, just to get perspectives on whether we can um, safely operate schools that day. Um the schools and the number of um precincts that are voting in each of the buildings are are detailed in the memorandum. Um but I did uh specifically let me take us one more step back. Um that the school committee policy um for um emergency closings um does countenance um the superintendent being able to um close schools due to an actual occurrence or

137imminent possibility of an emergency condition that would make operation of schools difficult or dangerous. However, the um we did get some guidance from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that a special election might not constitute an emergency per se. Meanwhile, the um Department of Elementary and Secondary Education advised that the district could close schools for this purpose and then make up the day as it would u an emergency closure for for weather. Um, I've walked all the schools and um with the principles and I've also followed up with visits with um the police department. Um and um there are schools that u particularly those schools where the access to the building that's required an election um does involve the public walking through the main lobby of the school where the office is located where our

138students and staff also have to access throughout the day. Um those buildings in particular uh I'm most concerned about. Um, and the there are a host of logistical challenges also that involve students needing to eat in alternate locations rather than the cafeteria in those buildings where those um polling places have been designated as in the cafeteria. Um, but in all six um schools uh there, you know, there's there is access to the building while students are there. um in two of our schools um that that access is much much um more restricted. um specifically the early learning center and Salemwood. um early learning center. They're they're the public only enter through one one door um adjacent to the gymnasium where the polling place is located and the rest of the building um with uh police

139monitoring is mostly it's basically not accessible and they did conduct a preliminary election there last fall um safely. um Salemwood, it's not that simple. Um but they don't have to use the main lobby of the school to access the polling place at Salemwood. Um but given the the impact across the district, u my recommendation was to um just take all the prek through 8th grade um schools and to not have school that day and instead um use um push that day of school to the end of the year. the high school would not be affected because there is no polling place at the high school. That's my recommendation, but um I totally submit it to the committee for your deliberation because it's your call. >> Thank you. Uh questions or motions, Mr. McCarthy? >> Uh

140thank you, Mr. Chair. Just really quick. So, this is going to be tacked on into June, correct? As an extra as an extra day. Yes. >> Um >> can I just clarify? So there there is a a sample calendar >> um for the prek through 8s. >> So they we've we've had four snow days um already. >> Yep. >> Um we have we have five emergency closure days built into our calendar, >> right? And so we would um essentially be using one of those five days for to close schools for the 31st and then have that the last day of school be the 23rd, which is what was already on the calendar with five snow days. >> Okay. Um, >> member McCarthy, I'm sorry, one one more qualifi clarification and that is that Salemwood school

141had a a closure an emergency true emergency closure last October due to a power outage that um made it impossible for them to conduct school that day. Um, we I would if the committee were to approve this this calendar uh amendment, I would be um seeking a waiver from the state um so that Salemwood would not have to would would be able to end their school year on the same day as everyone else. um without that waiver, they would have still have to do one more um half day on the the 24th, I believe, but that's to be determined depending on the committee's >> decision. Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Rosyberg. >> Chair, um I had sent an email um Dr. Simple just if you can explain how um the lack of

142impact on our out of district students um if we were to close schools. Yeah, and this is um out of my depth with this to some extent. I'll rely on Miss McDonald to speak to this. Um the question is we have we have a a number of students who are in out of district placements. Yes. >> And they um their calendars are determined by the the schools in which they're placed. They don't follow our calendar necessarily, Miss McDonald. >> So they they follow their own calendar at the beginning of the school year. We give an RT the calendar for Lighthouse, Compass, Melmach, every program and whatever days they have, they go. Um, they might have school on regular election days, so they still go. Some of them go during school vacations because they're a year-

143round program. So, NRT just follows whatever their year- round calendar is. So, it would not affect them in any way. >> Okay, that was the the main question was just not knowing I didn't know if we canled if that means transportation gets changed in any way. So for those students, it will not if it goes to a a closing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up, Mr. Piazer and then we'll go to Miss Hoy. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh you answered my question because I was going to ask about Salem Wood. So now I have a follow-up question, which is if we apply for the waiver, when do we expect even ballpark figure to hear back about whether or not that waiver is granted? I know parents are planning for camps and so on

144and so forth and and trying to just align their schedules accordingly. >> Um I I wouldn't I mean I would get on the phone with the associate commissioner tomorrow and and find out um the exact process for that, but I I would think it would be pretty quickly. >> Okay, that's great. Thank you, >> Miss Hordy. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two clarifying questions, Dr. Sele. one. The last day of school is the 23rd >> of June for K to8 schools >> currently. >> I if we agree to what you correct your proposal and the last day of school for Molden High is the 22nd. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um if we don't agree >> to your proposal or the body is split or something like that, what's the alternative? Then uh I would go

145back to our principles to develop plans to make sure that those buildings are as safe as humanly possible in spite of the disruption. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Mapor. >> Thank you, Mr. Shear. And I just wanted to assure you, superintendent, you said, you know, you didn't hope that this was going to be the same thing with the previous resolution, but these were all posted um online in a timely manner Thursday afternoon, so the public was able to see it as well. >> Okay. >> Um I just >> I'm relieved to hear that. Thank you. I just want to go on the record and just say how disappointed I am that the school committee was not consulted during meetings of the city council on how this would affect our students. A date was chosen without

146thinking about um our side about parents that will have to take days off. Um I know it's too late for that at this moment because the date has already chosen but I just wanted to state >> the disappointment. Um additionally student learning time says um 603 CMR27 says that we may the school committee. So I know you said you will get on the phone with Desi but that application has to come from the school committee. So, >> thank you for the clarification >> when we move forward. And then additionally, um I understand the safety aspect of it. I'm not in support of it. I think um I think we could keep schools open. Um Lel has 14,000 students. They're going to be open tomorrow for a special election for a state senator. Um, so whether

147they're bringing in additional police details, um, I just think that as much as I feel for parents that are now we're disrupting, we're disrupting. And again, this goes back to not being included in something from the very beginning. um their ability to go to work that day. Um, so while I understand I'm not in support of this, >> if I might from the chair respectfully to the vice chair, you were at those meetings when they were discussing those dates and I do not recall. No, not saying you were, but you were at the subcommittee meetings where these dates were being discussed. And I don't recall any input from you at those meetings. Tell me if I'm wrong. >> I wasn't at the one where they changed the date. >> Okay. Maybe not one specifically, but

148you were watching this unfold, right? And then I was in meetings with you and the superintendent advocating for making changes to this schedule trying to make movements saying, "Okay, let's move people out of a cafeteria and into a gym." Nobody wanted to move. The next day we had a meeting and all of a sudden we were closing schools. So I have been advocating for this. >> Okay. Be that as it may, my fellow colleagues, I've always said it's better to be safe than sorry. The schools must be closed from my vantage point. God forbid, something happened in this crazy world that we live in today. We would never forgive ourselves. So, I know it's difficult and it's challenging, but it must be done. So I would ask someone to make that motion and second it

149so we can move forward here. Is there a motion on the superintendent's recommendation? >> Miss Rose Zyberg. >> Um I just wanted to um express I feel the same frustration in a lot of ways. um misspora um in hopes that something you easier in some ways but um also knowing that there's a lot of you know what's the best way to use sites that people are used to going to to vote this so there was a lot that went into it but I wish that we had had a bigger voice in it um as well and just so that people know out there in the public that this is not something that is under our control. I found out when I said um I had a meeting with um Dr. Sipin. I said well you

150know I remember voting one time up in the gym at Lynen and found out well that was actually a no no. We should not have been able to do that because council actually sets not only the dates and the schools and the locations but even down to the room. So if it says cafeteria you need to be in the cafeteria. So there's not at this point that sort of wiggle room to try to be like well what if we this what if we that. Um unfortunately that has sailed. Um, and I I went back a lot back and forth a lot trying to think what um because I I've been in the schools when we had voting when obviously that was up in the gym everything went well. But with the um current issues that

151are going on right now in the district um particularly I talked to um some parents at um the Lynden and there are people who are on um extra levels of concern with allowing strangers into the building um unbedded and um my heart went to them um just saying I I hear you. Um and that is factoring into my vote tonight that um particularly what people are going through and the concerns that they expressed to me. >> Okay. So any uh motions? Mr. Piaza, >> I'm sorry to not make a motion. I'm going to ask a clarifying question. Uh now I'm I'm uh asking about the um what uh vice chair Satapora said about how school committee would need to apply for that waiver. can't come directly from the superintendent and I'm wondering if that's part

152and parcel of the motion that we're about to consider or if that's something that we should consider in a separate motion. >> I think first we take up the motion at hand which is whether or not we believe schools should be closed by 31st. >> Got it. >> Any other questions, queries, squams, concerns? If not, we'll entertain a motion to support the superintendent's recommendation or not. Let's see. Miss Mlin. Motion is made by Miss Mlin, seconded by Mr. Piaza. Any further discussion on the motion? Okay, let's do this. >> Mr. Drum. >> Mr. McCarthy. Miss Bataphora. No. Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Horty, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, Miss Rosyberg, Mayor Christensen. >> Yes. >> That passes 53. >> Okay. Now, Mr. Piaza, you had a question about the

153Let me see if the soup can answer that. So tonight I I will I defer to Miss Spataphora because um seems like it would be a a natural extension of the decision to change the calendar that a waiver would be needed for the one school anyway. >> Okay. or or it would need to be taken up as a part of the agenda for the special meeting. Mr. Chair, >> yeah, why don't you just do this? You said you were going to call over there tomorrow to get a sense. >> Why don't we do that and then you can come back to us. >> Very good. >> All right. And let us know what we need to do, if anything. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. Next up, Miss Spataphor Molton School Committee policy.

154So, this is just a financial policy that we came across in finance subcommittee that doesn't align with Massachusetts general law. Um, it's in regards to accepting um grants and the approval. So, uh the approval by the school committee. So, I just uh make a motion to send it to policy for review. >> Seconded by Mr. Rosyberg. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anybody opposed. >> The eyes have it. That carries unanimously. Personal privilege left to right. Mr. Drum. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh March 10th is going to be a busy day at the fairway. From 3:30 to 5:00, the parent teacher conference uh will be held at 5:00. There will be an inschool meeting of the PTO. Uh when you get there, they'll let you know where because also that same night

155they also doing the parent teacher conference, they're making up the black history celebration that was supposed to be held in February is going to be held at night also and that will be from 6:00 to 7:30. Um on the 12th is the annual uh fairway PTO annual fundraiser. Uh it's $20. It gets you uh the paint. It gets you a drink. It gets you a slice of pizza. There's a QR code if you go on to the uh Ferryway site. You have to register before you go. Children are allowed, but you must have a parent with you. The children will not be allowed in, excuse me, without a parent. Uh on the 13th, the pastry fundraiser orders are due in. And last but not least, on March 26, there will be a K through three

156dance held at the Ferryway. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Very good. Thank you. Next up, Mr. Piaza. >> Uh, a few events, uh, at the Salem Wood. Also on March 10th, parent teacher conferences uh, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Please enter through the K4 lower level entrance. Uh, for those, it's also read across America week. Uh, and the family teacher organization uh, at the Salemwood invites all Salemwood Sharks to a reading challenge. Flyers have been sent home. students log their meetings every day and then pass them into their teachers by Friday. Um, a classroom that has both 100% participants and the most reading minutes will receive a pizza party. The teacher of that winning class will receive $25 in Scholastic dollars. Um, the reading challenge goes from March 2nd to March 6th, so happening this

157week. Um, and we also have a few additional events. The snow date for friendship bingo is going to be March 9th. Uh the book fair um at the Salem Wood is March 9th through the 13th. We have a cookie decorating workshop for grades seven and 8 on March 19th from 2:45 to 4 p.m. Uh on March 23rd, there's a meeting of the junior FTO volunteers. These are student volunteers uh with the family teacher organization. The Family Teacher Organization has its monthly meeting March 25th at 6 PM. That happens on Google Meets. Uh though it feels far away, we have Springfest on March 27th from grades that's grades K through 4, 5:30 to 7 p.m. >> Very good. Thank you. Uh anybody to my right, Miss Roseberg? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um for the Lynden

158Steam Academy on March 4th, it is word Wednesday. I think this is I can't wait to see pictures from this. you dress like a noun, a person, place, or thing, and you can use your creativity to come up with what that means for you. Um, I think it's really a fun idea. Uh, fifth graders are hosting a dance for grades 3, four, and five, and that's on March 6th. That's from 6 to 8. Um, tickets will be $5. That's available at the door. Snacks will be available to be purchased, and that is to um help defay costs for a field trip that they have coming up. on March 9th kicks off the PTO book fair. They are looking for guest readers during that week. Um so if caregivers are interested in going into the classroom

159and reading, please get in touch with your child's teacher. There also will be shopping hours for that um on the 11th during teacher conferences which will be from 3 to 5:30. Um there's a movie night that is planned on the 20th. They're still in the process of that one. That is also fifth grade hosting again and that will be for grades K to 4. So, look for more information on that one coming up. Um, this one went out of order. Um, but March 10th, I didn't get this at first. It's Mario Day and you can wear gamer character t-shirts. It's because if you look at March, M A R, and then the 10th, it spells out Mario. Um, yeah, when you see it, you get it. So, it's like Mario Day and then you look

160at you're like, oh. So, it's Mario Day. So, wear gamer character t-shirts. I thought that was kind of fun. um the Model UN who had competed um the last month when we we um met um at that event, they actually did a team one best negotiators. Um they do have one coming up again um another competition March 21st which will be held at Northeastern. Good luck to all of them. I think it's fantastic program they have going there. Um the cast is set for Cinderella. Um be watching for information on that. um they will be looking for caregivers to sign up for um any kind of backstage wear, costumeuming, things like that um with help that and that will be um going out soon. And that's it. Thank you. >> All right. Very good. Miss

161Mlin. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um this is from Principal Rock at the ELC. Um important information. Kindergarten registration is coming up. Um will your child be turning five on or before August 31st? Are you getting excited for your child to start kindergarten next year? To make the transition to kindergarten easier, the learning center um has three specific dates that they want to engage with the the caretakers. So, the first one will be tomorrow, March 3rd, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The next engagement is Wednesday, March 11th, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. And then the final session will be on March 18th from 1 to 300 p.m. Um there's also and I can link it. There's a hyperlink for uh registration. So I can certainly uh put that on social media as

162well. And from the high school, it's junior varieties this weekend on the 6th and the 7th at uh 7 p.m. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Hodi. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. From Mr. will die. Wednesday, March 11th, our parent caregiver conferences or teacher caregiver conferences. If you haven't already heard from your child's teacher, please reach out to Mr. Wy in the office and he can get you connected. Quarter 3 progress reports are coming out on March 12th. A huge thank you to Paul Meyers from the DPW and his crew. Eric Rubin from public facilities and his crew and their and the stellar custodial staff of Forestdale, Rich Dave Henry for making sure school was safe, accessible, and walkable for students coming back from the epic snowstorm. Rock the Walk has just begun. The PTO's

163biggest fundraiser of the year is starting now. For more information, please check out the Forestdale PTO Facebook page and make sure you're hooked up to their newsletter. If you need any help, please reach out to the main office. And I also encourage you all to attend Junior Varieties this weekend. I believe it's the longest running variety show of a high school in the country. Is that correct? Um, students have been practicing for a very long time. It's 100% worth it. >> Miss Spapar. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, at BB, we have the BB teachers versus Malden PD basketball um fundraiser tomorrow night from um 6 to 7:30, I believe. Doors open at 5:45. Uh all proceeds go to benefit the sixth grade field trip to Nature's Classroom. It's the first time that they are

164going since I think my oldest was at BB, which was many moons ago. show. Um, as a reminder, the Black History Month celebration was postponed due to um, our storm. So, Tuesday, March 10th at the Ferryway, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Your favorite vice chair is going to be the MC. So, make sure you come out. uh caregiver conferences will be March 12th for the BB 3:30 to 5:00 pm. And then I would just like to offer on behalf of the entire committee our condolences to our welcome center director, Miss Joan Federico, on the loss of her husband. We send our thoughts and sympathies to her today. >> Very good. Thank you. And I'll just end as I have been during the past several months. If you have an opportunity, please log on to city ofmalden.org/override.

165That is where all the information is about what is coming up for this special election on Tuesday, March 31st. If there are any questions after you review it, please let me know. But very important that we review the information and make the most informed decision that we can. This is a pivotal moment for our city. But if I know it like I think I do, we will we will meet the moment. Executive session minutes. Motion to table. >> Motion to table. >> Miss Bataphor, seconded by Miss Mlin. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. >> Motion table. >> Motion to adjourn by Miss Bataphor, seconded by Mr. Drum. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. School committee is hereby

166adjourned.