001Good evening everyone. We're going to call this special meeting of the Malden School Committee to order. The time is 6:03 p.m. Today is Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, February 2nd at 6:00 p.m. here in the chamber. This evening's agenda will consist of the following. First, we will pledge allegiance to our flag. We'll then take a moment of silence for those who have served our country and continue to do so. We will then take attendance to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together. And then we will get into the agenda which consists of one item, the Northeast Metro Tech School Committee vacancy interviews of which there are two, Leonard Ayino and Sean Salazar. Uh from there we will deliberate. We expect to deliberate
002and then after that we will move adjournment. So are there any questions of the team hearing? None. Please rise and let's 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. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of all those who have fought for our country and continue to do so today. Thank you. We'll now have our clerk call the role. Mayor Christensen here. Councelor Lennahan here. Mr. Drum here. Mr. McCarthy. Miss Bataphora here. Miss Mlin here. Miss Horty here. Mr. Piaza here. Mr. Bernard, Miss Rosyberg. So, we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to gather. We're now going to go to Miss Bataphor to introduce the
003topic on why we're gathered here tonight. And before I do, I just want to uh thank her uh for her hard work on this. I know it's had different uh variations here when it was first introduced, and I appreciate your efforts to get us to this point. So with that being said, let's go to Miss Fetta forward to get sort of a pretext as to why we're here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Please excuse me. This frog in my throat. So um due to the unfortunate passing of um Mr. James Holland, he was the school committee representative to the Northeast Metro Tech Regional Vocational School for Malden. Um and he had served uh since being elected in 2024. um due to his passing this left a vacancy in this seat. um the contract that this city
004um all the cities actually have with the northeast um I'm going to call it the voke just to be a little bit easier um just for those um that are not familiar reads that any vacancy um occurring among the members of the initial committee appointed under subsection one um shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment. If a vacancy occurs among the members elected by a member town under subsection I, the school committee members of the and the selectmen from the town involved acting jointly shall appoint a member to serve until the next annual town election or in the case of the town of Sus until its next regular bianual election at which election a successor shall be elected to serve for the balance of the ex unexpired term if any. If
005a vacancy occurs among the members elected by a city us under subsection I, the local school committee members and the members of the city council from the city involved acting jointly shall appoint a member to serve until the next regular bianual city election at which election a successor shall be elected to serve for the balance of the unexpired term if any. Now, that then kind of raised a question of, okay, well, what does that that procedure look like? um in in conjunction with our city council. And in our school committee policy, we have a policy for something very similar. Um that the school committee will work um in conjunction with the mayor, who is also our chair. and the president of the city council acting on behalf of um on behalf of the city council
006would then meet in joint convention to choose a school committee man for the unexpired term. Um so that is the policy that we are following um for this particular um vacancy. It's in the school in the city council meeting back in December I think it was or November um it it was really stressed that we just wanted a procedure to to be followed. So, um we found that this was um the most straightforward way and um are really excited that we had applicants interested in in serving the students of Malden. Um and I think And how long was the posting up? The posting was up for two weeks. I believe it was 12 days. um in I believe it was 12 days. Okay. All right, everyone. So, there you have the context. Any questions before
007we begin begin? If not, if I may, Mr. Chair, and I just want to um for the record, um member McCarthy is not in attendance with us as he is, um employed by the Metro Tech Regional Vocational School. Therefore, he is abstaining from these um proceedings. And um member Bernard is just stuck in some traffic and should be with us soon, but I think everybody is um working a little bit slower with the amount of snow on the ground. So good. All right. So if there are no questions, did you have one, Miss Mlin? Please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just for a point of clarification, um can we know what the interim term is or when that expires? Sure. So the um last election took place in 2024 in this position is a 4-year
008term. So the next election will be from 2028. So uh approximately two years left in this um and then at that point it will be um to the voters of Malden to choose um whom they deem fit. Very good. Thank you Miss Mlin. All right. So let's do this. So we're first going to hear from Mr. Ayavino. So if you would step forward, we're going to allow each candidate a three minute opening statement and then we'll open it up to questions. So let me just You want to get the time? So just one second, Mr. Let's do it. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh ladies and gentlemen of the school committee and madame uh president madame representative of the Malden city council uh you have my resume, you have my uh letter of intention. So
009I'm ready for your questions if you have any questions. Okay, let's open it up to questions from the team. Any questions? Uh let's go to Councelor Lahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, thank you so much for being here tonight and for submitting such a thorough um, resume. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about how you think your background and your professional experience will contribute to this role um, and serving the the regional board and our community specifically. Well, I think that um when you're a member of a school committee, in order to be a good member of a school committee, you really have to have a passion for what you're doing. You need to have an honest concern for the well-being of the youngsters that are in your concern. And in
010this case, that would be the obviously the students in Wakefield. Um you have to be able to see the big picture. I've been a member of the Malden School Committee. I served for 16 years. I'm aware of what my duties are, what the duties and responsibilities of a school committee person are, and I think I can carry that forward for the remainder of Jim's term. Um, my intention is not to seek re-election. It's just to finish uh uh Jim's term. Jim is a personal friend and and I would consider an honor to to you know to fill this vacancy. Um I'm a person who likes to work collaboratively. I like to reach consensus. Um, I understand that on any given issue at any given time there's going to be disagreement and that's fine. As long
011as you can agree to disagree in an agreeable way, that's that's important. Um, you need a vision for the future and all of that is important, but what's really important is you have to be a good steward of the taxpayers's dollars. We all know what the cost of groceries and everything else is. So it's important to that that's that's paramount. May I ask a follow-up please? So thank you for that. Um I wanted to also ask one of the things that came up in our personnel committee meeting in discussing this position um was a sense from the council that we sometimes don't um know always what's going on with this body and that we'd love to have a little more collaboration. You spoke of having collaboration. Do you have ideas of how um in this
012role, if you were to get this position, you could foster more um two-way communication or collaboration among this body and other stakeholders such as the Malden School Committee or the city council or um just residents of the city? Just wanting to have a little bit more information about what goes on at the VOE and what this specific um role is doing would be it's something that I heard from my colleagues is something that they would love to see more of. Certainly. Yes. Um, it would be incumbent upon the person, me or whoever is selected for this position to make sure that any information pertinent to what goes on in the Malden School Committee is available. Um, I could certainly be a part of of the Malden School Committee if you needed a um an updated
013report to know what's going on. Uh, the progress curriculum um going whatever is needed, I could certainly provide that anybody that that's very important. It has to be part of the discussion. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, let's next go to Miss Horty. Then we'll go to Miss Mlin and then Miss Rose Dyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, thanks for being here. Um, due to the recent change in the admission process for Voke Tech schools, there seems to be a lot of moving parts for that, especially with such a larger Voke Tech school that pulls in 12 different communities. Can you tell us how you're going to be the voice for Malden students to make sure that they're guaranteed fair admission? Well, as my understanding is there's going to be a lottery um
014very similar to the way the youngsters lottery in the uh middle se uh the Mystic Valley Charter School. So, I will look at that policy very very carefully and I will adhere to it. I know it's it's very tempting when somebody comes to you and said, "Gee, do you think you can help me?" And as much as you want to help somebody, if the policy says, "No, it's a strict lottery system," then it has to be that way. It can't vary because once it varies, it's no longer a program. It's no longer a good system. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Mlin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, good evening, Miss Javina. Thanks for being here this evening and for your interest. Um, I believe it's important for the members of the Vogue school committee to
015gather data on local employment trends and skill gaps to meet uh with the evolving needs of employers today. And so my question is, how can a vocational school committee assess the alignment of its programs with workforce demands and what significance do you believe industry partners hold in this evaluation? Well, I think industry partners hold a very important position and the students who come out of the Northeast Voke School um they're in a unique position because they've had an opportunity to be ex exposed to not just because it's a comprehensive high school and they can take college level courses and they can enter a four-year college if they so choose, but they also have an ability to be exposed to the various career offerings there and they're going to receive training that's I would say it's
016apprentice level training. It's going to put them in goodstead to um seek job opportunity in what is an everchanging global job experience. Um I think that it's important um for and this is where the community can come in. I think the community would serve any community that's interested in wanting to maintain open guidance of communication and find out exactly what's going on. Um that's where this liaison role would come in. If if I may um just in addition to that um how can we make certain that these programs are inclusive and um responsive to students with diverse learning needs and cultural backgrounds? Well, I I that's very important because the new school um with its increased capacity up to 1600 students is going to provide for an ability to to uh make more inclusive the
017school to also make sure that the um the special ed programs where you have some youngsters who have academic deficiencies are well taken care of and their programs are monitored. you have an administrative staff in any school that would would monitor such situations and make sure that the uh IEPs the 504 plans are being met. Okay. Thank you. Okay, Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for for being here. Mr. Ivino, uh my question is school districts are working to create and implement policies that address the use of AI and technology in schools. What are your thoughts on this both from a teacher and student perspective, including the use of cell phones inside school buildings? I'm very much opposed to the use of cell phones in school buildings. I think that they're
018a distraction, an unnecessary distraction. If a student is in need to reach communications with the home, the school administrative office can handle that. The nurs's office can handle that. Other guidance department could handle that. Um, what was the other part of your question, please? the use of AI, artificial intelligence. That's a that's a really open-ended question and I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. The United States Congress hasn't does not have a good answer for that among other things, but they certainly don't have a policy regulating the use of AI. Um, good question and I don't have an answer for you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Piaza. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Mr. Iino, thank you for your interest in serving uh students and families in Malden. I have a question that builds
019off um a topic uh raised by my colleague. Um given um technological innovation uh that we've seen lately, especially the way that AI is replacing uh work formerly conducted by human beings. Why is a vocational education important um in these times? And what is it about your background and experience that prepares you to guide um a vocational school during times of such change? Well, I think the the issue is guiding a school. I've had uh approximately 35 and a half years of experience in the Malden public schools as a teacher and administrator, 16 years on the Malden School Committee. You have to have a passion. You have to have a concern. Um, you also have administrative staff and you have department chairs and you have curriculum directors and coordinators and it's incumbent upon the administration
020to make sure that those those people in charge of delivering the curriculum are current with it and making sure that the standards state standards are being followed. Mr. No, that's great. All right. Thank you. Uh let's see other questions maybe just from the chair Mr. Iino when you think of the vote you think careerbound how do you ensure that the programming there benefits both careerbound and collegebound again that's where your administration comes in Mr. requirement. Uh the administration has to be very very cautious and careful. Uh we have state standards that we have to meet and it's up to your and we here in Malden have directors, we have curriculum coordinators that those are the people they really make sure that the rubber hits the road. Yeah. Kids have one opportunity as freshman, sophomores, juniors,
021whether first grade, kindergarten, and you have to make sure that that experience is the best that those students are going to have. Very good. I don't see any other lights, so we're going to have you step back and we'll bring up the next candidate, Sean Salazar. Good evening. Good evening. Uh, one second. We're just going to set the clock. Okay, three minutes. Okay. Good evening, Mayor Christensen, Vice Chair Spataphora, members of the school committee, and city council president Lanahan. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'm grateful for the chance to be considered for this interim appointment, and I want to be clear about why I believe my experience aligns well with what Northeast Metro Tech and the city of Malden need at this moment. Um, I'm hoping that uh there's a document
022I shared earlier today um that sort of goes over my resume and how I sort of see my resume fitting specifically into the role of a school committee member, especially in an intern position. Um, but to go over a few things, I'm a Desi licensed career vocational technical education instructor in hospitality management and culinary arts. And for more than six years, I've worked directly with the chapter 74 frameworks. On a daily basis, I see how governance decisions translate into real outcomes for students. Whether that is access to programs, support services, or workforce readiness after graduation. Before entering vac education, I spent over 20 years in leadership roles in the hospitality industry and large-scale operations, including serving as director of banquetss at the Hines Convention Center. In my different roles, I oversaw budgeted operations of up
023to $13 million and managed more than 200 union employees. My experience has grounded me in fiscal oversight, labor relations, facilities management, and accountability, the same core areas a regional school committee is responsible for at the policy level. I also bring governance experience through union leadership including contract negotiations which has reinforced the importance of role clarity, collaboration and process. I understand the difference between oversight and management and I take that distinction seriously. Northeast Metro Tech is in a period of transition with a new building, evolving programs, and high expectations from sending communities like Malden. If appointed, my approach would be to listen first, respect decisions already made, and contribute thoughtfully and professionally. My focus would be on stability, informed oversight, and ensuring Malden students continue to be well served during this transition. Thank you. All right,
024thank you. Same thing. Let's open it up to questions from the team. Uh let's go to President Lahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much for coming in and for your statement. Um, so in since you addressed a little bit of the previous question that I had asked the last candidate of how your professional experience would inform the role, I'm going to skip to my second question about how you might improve the communication since that was something that was pretty central for our council discussions. Just wanting to have a little bit more of that collaboration among this role and the voke um and the various bodies, elected bodies in Malden and constituencies including the families that send kids to the voke. Definitely. And I've given this a lot of thought as I thought about
025applying for this interim position. Um it's to me has to be sort of a listening tour at first. You know, I'd love to meet with Mayor Christensen. I'd love to meet with you as well um as members of the city council and the school committee to get all of that shareholder input input. Nothing I can do at that committee level would be done without Malden in mind. And I can't do that without Maldin in mind, without having the stakeholders um such as yourselves, but more importantly also the students, the students families, staff at the school, administration at the school. I really want to talk to everyone, listen to everyone so that I'm coming in with multi- um multi-perspectives, right? I deal day-to-day with the how our frameworks are supposed to be taught. we have a
026lot of leeway in the curriculum development that we build, but there's also, you know, there's a lot of other people that have, you know, policies or procedures or priorities that they want to see met. So, again, it's a collaborative experience, and I would definitely reach out to every organization, um, both here within city council chambers, um, the city, students, and everyone else because I I c I can't do that job without knowing what that importance is to everybody. Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Miss Mlin, she'll be followed by Miss Rose Zyber. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, and thank you, uh, Mr. Salazar for being here this evening and for your interest um, in this role. Um, and so to repeat my um, questions that I I posed to Mr. IO um I believe it's
027important for members of the ves school committee to gather data on local employment trends and skill gaps to meet with the evolving needs of employers. So my question is how can a vocational school committee assess the alignment of its programs with workforce demands and what significance do you believe industry partners hold in this evaluation? Great. Thank you. Well, first of all, um before the chapter 74 frameworks are developed for each program, there is input from industry. There's input from educators, the input from family. There's a lot of input right up front. Um and that input can't stop once those frameworks are in place. Um we need to be able to engage everyone. Um you know, could you repeat the second part of your question? I'm sorry. Sure. Lost my friend for a minute. No, that's
028okay. Um what significance do you believe industry partners holds on this evaluation? That's something that I do every day. Um per uh the advisory councils that each program have to have have required um union representatives, former students and industry leaders in those program advisory committees. So it's very much about getting all of that input from the program advisory committees. I have a lot of people within the hospitality industry that I keep bringing in to add to my program that I teach as well. So, it's vital to know a what the demand is for the jobs out there. How do you know how those demands are? You've got to talk to the cities. You've got to talk to the different local organizations um that help to facilitate interviews for students, right? There's a lot of different
029people that can help us make sure that what we're teaching and what we're offering as programs is what's needed out there. Um, currently in Everett where I teach, we're combining the hospitality management programs and the culinary arts programs because the need of a all of the above strategy to run a food and beverage business needs to be there. It's not just about the culinary production. It's not just about the management. So, it's taking what's going on out in industry right now and adapting each program that some programs may not survive because the jobs aren't there for our students to go to. But I also don't want to limit um one of the things we as teachers of CTE really push back against in academic world is our kids are considered the non-olbound kids. But that's
030not true. It's an all of the above. So it's getting you know secondary higher you know higher education higher learning um universities colleges also to be involved to see what they can continue on the education. So it's multiaceted. Again, I think there's so many stakeholders that need to be involved, but you're not going to have a program where there's no future for this child. Um, communities like Everett, communities like Malden, um, we have a lot of working poor. We've got a lot of immigrant communities. Success doesn't look like it did when I was going through high school and college or any of you. Success now is above and beyond above and all strategy. So it's not just going into the workforce, it's who's going on to college, who's going on to the military, and how
031those learning experiences that we have in the classroom can be translated. Okay. And just my followup um was um additionally, how can we make certain that these programs are inclusive and responsive to students with diverse learning needs and cultural backgrounds given that we are in such a diverse uh city of Malt? Yeah. I mean, I'm going to take back to my um my experience as a teacher. You've got to understand the background of your students first and foremost. You've got to understand the background of the Senate communities. Um I am a co-chair of our gender sexuality alliance. So, I have a very, you know, I have an affinity to helping out those students that are underrepresented in these larger bodies and in these larger organizations. Um so, it would be definitely a priority. Um I
032would love to hear from more ideas of other people of how we can actually do that from an admissions process. We are really kind of hamstrung with what we can do. I mean even this year they've put down even more regulations of how we can accept students and they're not taking into consideration attendance. They're not taking into consideration into discipline. Right? Are those the right things to do? I'm not sure. But we've got to go through and figure out are we losing good people? Are we not being culturally sensitive? Are we losing um students that this would be really important for their success? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Miss Mlin. Next up will be Miss Rose Zyberg. We'll then go to Mr. Piaza and then we'll go to Miss Hoy. Thank you,
033Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Salazar for coming in. Same question that I posed to uh Mr. Aino. School districts are working to create and implement policies that address the use of AI and technology in the schools. What are your thoughts on this both from a teacher and student perspective, including the use of cell phones inside school buildings? I will say our CT department is leading Everett High School in our no cell phone policy altogether. I start my classes with put them away, put them in a bag. I don't want to see them. Cell phones don't have a place in our classrooms. It's becoming a p an epidemic really of students learning losing learning time because they're so engrossed in their phones. Um so I think especially when it comes to safety in some of these
034programs having a phone in a carpentry shop definitely is a big safety issue. Having a phone in the kitchen for colonite definitely a big safety issue. So I'm definitely not for integrating phones of any sort into the classroom. AI is a different story. Um, I've battled personally and professionally with how I handle AI as a teacher. My biggest thing with my students is AI is okay, but you've it's the inputs that you put into it. If you put thought and you put clarity and you're putting your own original ideas into something that can help turn it into more of a coherent plan, you know, there are places for it, but it needs to be taught like you would teach any resource, right? People don't go to encyclopedias anymore, right? But there needs to be taught
035as part of the whole education process that AI is part of it. As a professional, I use AI pretty often. You know, I have lesson plans that I've had for years. I've have ideas that I have that I'll put in and say, "Here's the lesson I want to do. Here's the pieces I want to include." And AI helps me come up with a more coherent strategy. You're not going to live by AI, though, right? It takes someone with a brain. It takes someone with passion. it takes someone to look at what's coming out of the AI and adapting it and really going through with a fine tooth comb to see, you know, does this make sense to what I'm doing? So, I think AI is tricky. I think AI in the classroom is tricky. Um,
036I think from the academic standpoint though, it needs to be taught as a resource to be used because it's not going away anytime soon. I do have fears about how it does affect the workplace and especially a lot of the trades that we're doing. But that's the good thing about trade. You can't really AI that away. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Piaza. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Salazar. Um, you your the the statement that you just ended on is a good transition into the question that I was going to ask, which is about um, you know, and it's the same question that I asked Mr. Iv, you know, in an economy that's becoming rapidly reshaped by AI and other technological changes. Why is vocational education important today? And what is it about your
037background and experience that's prepared you to guide a vocational school during times of great change? Great. Um, again, like I said, you can't replace a human being doing a physical trade with AI. Um, sorry, repeat the question again. Yeah. I know I had a lot in there. No, it's okay. So uh so why is why is um vocational education important in the era of AI which you've you've you've you've addressed and then what is it about your background um and uh experiences that prepares you to lead a vocational school to help lead a vocational school? Yeah. I mean again my background is I I worked in hospitality management for 20 years. I've I've managed union employees. I started from the bottom up. I was a you know I was a banquet server in high school.
038I worked as a host in in a restaurant in high school. um understanding the chapter 74 frameworks and again how the classroom should look but it isn't my role 100% as a school committee member to sort of impose that down but having a knowledge of what these teachers are supposed to be teaching and the importance of transferring those skills into actually doing work. I think that's the one thing that I find really um exciting about vocational education is it is work-based learning. What I'm teaching my kids right now is a skill that whether they go into this career field or not, they do it as a part-time job. It is directly applied to doing something whether it's physical or something creative. It's um you know, vocation has become my p passion. I never planned on
039becoming a teacher. Um I was sort of looking for something as I turned 40 that would be less hard on my body as food and beverage management was very hard. But now I f I fell in love with it. I think vocational education more so than even when I was growing up, it was for the bad kids. It was the kids not going to college. That's not what it is anymore. It is a strategy to success. And we as the, you know, the adults in the room need to be really making sure that the word is out there that we're not undermining. We don't think of less of you. What we're trying to do is create skills that you're going to actually use out in the workforce. And hopefully, again, you know, AI won't be
040taking these jobs away. Maybe they will someday. I hope hopefully not within my lifetime, but it's important and it really is passionate to me. You know, vocational education is something that for all students is an experience. Yeah, appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Horty. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Chair. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Thank you. Um, I'm going to ask you a little bit of a different version of the same question. um due to the change in the admission process for the vocational technical schools throughout the state obviously. Um how do you feel like you're going to be able to represent the Malden students that because clearly only a small portion are going to be able to go because I mean that's always the way it is but the lottery system has changed that. Um, how
041do you feel like you'll be able to handle all of the pieces of that? Because that's taking place this year. It is. I mean, a lot of it won't be up to me. A lot of it has to be up to the administration to execute. Um, I need to dig down even as an educator myself as we go through the lottery process. We've had different lottery versions at every high school of how we've done it. Some of it has worked, some of it hasn't. You know, right now we've got a lot of um a lot of students that may not necessarily have picked the program that they wanted. It wasn't their first choice, but because of the lottery system, now they're in it, and they're questioning sort of why am I in this program? So,
042it's also clarifying upfront that if you're going for something, you need to know specifically what you want, what program you want. And we really need to make sure that we're providing all of the information to the families and the students about what that application process is because it can seem simple. Yeah, it's a lottery. Great. Throw your name in. But what goes into that lottery? And again, I need to dig down a little bit deeper into the actual minutia of it. Um, it's just something that's really become a topic of conversation in our staff meetings later lately. So definitely want to I I will be digging down more into that. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other lights, let me just ask the same question and it gets forgotten that there
043are students at the VO who are collegebound. How do you balance the needs of collegebound versus careerbound? I don't think it's a different need to be quite honest. I think it's the same support systems. you need the academic programs and you need the skills and the work-based learning. Um, both go on to college. There are great college level programs for culinary arts. That's what I graduated from. For hospitality management, that's what I graduated from. So, it's about providing the support to the student that there are multiple pathways for you. It's not just one or the other. You could do maybe a year working in the industry and then decide to go further your education in college. So, again, it's not about picking and choosing which ones we do. The support systems need to be all
044the same. And this needs to be student driven of what their view of success is, which is definitely, you know, handinhand with the guidance department, handinhand with the program teachers, handinhand with the academic teachers. It's going to take all of us, no matter what, whether you're going to college or into the workforce, you're really going to need to know the same things. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. There you have it, everyone. So what's the pleasure of this committee? We'll entertain any motions for consideration. Well, we could just please, Mrs. Spaphor, I I just wasn't sure if any of the members wanted like five minutes just to digest. Sure. um any of of those questions to to think or um or if we are ready
045just to roll right in. Do the members want to recess or are we ready to discuss? All right. Hearing none on we'll entertain any uh motions of the body and if none can hold it over. If if if there's well um I'd like to make a motion um to recommend Mr. Aino to the appointment of um the Northeast Metro Tech Regional Vocational School. I guess for purposes of discussion as well. Um just from my my own standpoint um both candidates are extremely extremely um qualified for this position. It's actually quite awkward to be sitting here as a school committee member because this isn't the norm. We usually allow our our peers to you know through an election um to choose. I guess my vision that I'm seeing um that Mr. Ayabino has is he does
046have the experience to hit the ground running um in just with a position a seat that has been open for so long. I personally want to see someone there tomorrow um representing the kids immediately. Um so well let's see if there's a second and seconded by Mr. Drum. So, it's properly before us now. Any questions, queries, qualms on that? Uh, Mr. Bernard, um, I think my only um concern is, and this is no disrespect to to Mr. I know cuz I I you know he has certainly gone and done years of service and and he is wellversed in in uh you know the procedures of the system here. Um it's that the nature of vocational studies is changing. Uh we had what three questions on AI that I just heard. Um, and not to go
047and say that, you know, don't no one can do this. I just heard uh I just think that um Mr. Salazar had some some very intelligent, thoughtful answers. Um, and I apologize because I only kind of heard part of what Mr. Ayavina went and said. I just want to make sure that um you know I would assume that um that Mr. Salazar once this term is done that he may go and run again and we're kind again I always like to go and think in terms of what's now what's going to be in five years what's going to be in 10. I don't know if he's looking to go and stay there for 10, but that being said, um we want to make sure that that we've got someone in there that's going to go
048and be have that ability to kind of go and be thoughtful, think as things going into the future. Very much that same way. Okay, Mr. Piaza, and then over to Council Lahan. Yeah. Um so a as as you mentioned uh Miss Vice Chair, we're we're lucky, right, to have so uh to have two applicants that are so uh obviously qualified for for the position. Um when I uh when I look at both the application materials and also, you know, reflecting on the um the answers that we just heard, for one thing, I'd like to kind of second some of the the comments made by member Bernard. Uh I I uh I want to highlight a few pieces that in my mind distinguish the two candidates uh from each other. One of those is that uh
049in Mr. Salazar's answers, I heard reference to the chapter 74 um standards and frameworks frequently throughout uh the responses to a variety of questions. And I and I I love me a standard. I mean, that's why I'm sitting here, right? I love I love some state standards. And when when when we think about um you know the types of uh the types of learning experiences that students are have but also the types of um instructional responsibilities that are on our teachers it comes from the standards and I and I and I just got the sense from Mr. Salazar that there's not only a a deep knowledge of those standards but he lives them in his day-to-day life um as a teacher at Everett um high school. So, so, so that's that's one issue is just
050knowledge of vocational standards specifically. Uh, another another issue is that or another another distinguishing factor. I think it's like proximity to students, right? Mr. Salazar is in a room with students every day of his professional life. And I think having that experience is just so important when you're thinking about highlevel policy. We always want policy to be student centered, right? And I know and this is why I say at the beginning that um that we have two qualified applicants. Mr. Ayavino has spent his entire career with students. And so so it's you know there's there's there's a similarity there. But when you think about um when you think about just the day-to-day work that Mr. Salazar does with students that distinguishes the two candidates for me. And then there's one last piece um that I
051want to add. uh this was woven into I think the response to um Miss Mlin's question about uh equity but I might be misremembering it but uh Mr. Zeler said that uh he uh co-chairs and please correct me if this wrong the the gender and sexuality alliance. And I think that spaces like vocational schools are often um I mean really in all educational settings uh gender non-conforming students or students from uh uh students from different uh backgrounds aren't always welcome. And I think we have somebody here who works with students in order to make more inclusive learning environments. And I think that that's really important given um the kind of challenges we see today. So very good. Thank you, Councelor Lahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I want to echo a lot of what uh
052Mr. Piaza just said, a lot of what I had intended to say kind of took the words right out of my mouth. I think um as you said, we have we have a benefit of having two very qualified candidates here, both of whom took a lot of time to explain their background and answer our questions. Um, some of the things that stood out to me about Mr. Iavino's resume, of course, the the depth of experience working not just as an elected official, but in education, um, student mentoring, faculty development, and working on school culture. Those are things that we would be very lucky to have in a position like this. I thought you very thoughtfully answered the questions that I posed to you. Um, but the things that really stood out to me about Mr.
053Salazar, which would prompt me to lean towards supporting his candidacy for this role. Again, as Mr. Piaza said, some of the things about just the student development and being in the industry, having that ed education onhands education experience in a vocational setting right now, um, and having worked in the trades, I think, is is important. I I would like to echo Mr. Bernard's question about what your intent is in in terms of this position, whether um because I I don't unless I missed it, I don't think you addressed whether your intent is to fill the interim or whether you'd be interested in running um after this. So, I would like to get an answer to that because Mr. Ayavino was pretty upfront about that. So, if you wouldn't mind coming back and answering that, I
054think it's important for us to know. It would be my intent, yes, to to continue on and to run for that position. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Um, but I, you know, I also do want to come back to this AI question because I know all of you know this because I've been here bothering all of you about it as a constituent. Um, but I think it is critically important and I, you know, I come from a family, I'm pretty much the only one in my family who doesn't work in a trade and didn't go to vocational school and I'm married to someone who's in a labor union where AI is being very affected. most of the labor unions are and a lot of the students that are going to
055graduate from the VO will be affected in some way by the impacts of AI in one way or another. And I just loved your answer not just about how phones and AI are affecting the classroom now. I agreed across the board with everything that you said. Um, but also just having a thoughtful response to how we're going to equip students for what they're going to encounter in the workforce as this affects the industries that they're going to um, be going into. It it is the reality that we need to be thinking about that. Um, and then just the last two things I would say is that I thought you had great answers to identifying the key stakeholder groups and how to engage with them in the community because again just to underscore that is something
056that the council had really wanted to hear, you know, a um thoughtful answer to and also just understanding those new lottery requirements. Um, I know a couple of us had questions about that. So, I thought that was great that you were able to weigh the benefits and the drawbacks of that and demonstrate a thoughtful understanding of it. So, I would be supporting Mr. Salazar's candidacy tonight and I thank you for the opportunity to be here and represent the council. Mr. Dormy, thank you Mr. Chairman. Uh both gentlemen, thank you. Um I'm a product of a a Voke, Catholic one, but still a Voke. uh my three youngests also attended the hook and one is in the trades the other two they are in a different way but each gentleman brings their own unique perspective to
057it and while my children were in the book I was also on the parent advisory group to bring up what Miss Mlin had brought earlier they helped decide policy and see where the studies are going I mean at one point we had to get they literally got rid of the electronics in the vote because it jobs weren't there anymore and they leaned more heavily on programming. So with the you're being one voice out of 13 communities and Malden has always been strong with the Vulcan and going forward I I'm leaning towards more only because of the fact he's been doing this. He's been a teacher, he's been an admin, he's been a school committee member. uh he's not afraid to speak what's on his mind and I'm not taking anything away from Mr. Salazar because
058he's basically done the same thing but I just think I'm looking at more experience with Lenny than I am with him. So I mean it's it's a tough they're both very good candidates and uh um it's going to be a tough choice to me. I'm still really not sure but I I think we got to work it out for us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any other um members? If I might just from the chair, both presentations tonight were excellent. You made uh Malden proud. I think from where I come from, it's just that I have a lot of experience serving alongside Mr. Ryabino as a member of the school committee and that was after him serving in the Malta public schools for decades. So, and he was there for both the good times
059and the bad times. He was the vice chair actually for several years uh with us. So, to me, we're filling a vacancy. Remember that. And so, to me, it would make sense to have someone of Mr. Ayavino's caliber to fill the vacancy. Uh Sean Salazar has already indicated tonight he intends to run for full term. I think we ought to give the entire community uh that opportunity to do that. I mean, based on what Mr. Salazar said tonight, he has my vote, but I think right now we just want to get through filling the vacancy. So, that would be from where I come from. Again, I wish we could vote for both because they were really that good. But um for me the edge is just having served with Lenny and knowing the kind of
060person he is. That's what would earn my vote for him. Uh seeing no other lights, the motion's been made. It's been seconded. Uh so why don't we take this up first? So let's have the clerk call the role. Yeah. It's to uh have Mr. Aino fill the remaining time on the vacancy. Did you have a question? I I just want to um one, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, we'll cross that bridge. Okay. I I just I I'm I'm always confused when we do these votes because if a a tie fails Yeah. Correct. We'll cross that bridge. Okay. Okay. I'm just uh Yeah. All right, Madam Clerk. Oh yeah, there is nine. You know what? Because Mr. McCarthy, that's what I was thinking. There's nine of us normally and then with um council president, but
061okay. Madame clerk, go right ahead. Mayor Christensen, Lenny Ayino. Mr. Drum. Council Lahan. Mr. Salazar. Miss Vataphora. Mr. Aino. Miss Mlin. Mr. Salazar. Miss Hordy. Mr. Salazar, Mr. Piaza, Mr. Mr. Ozyberg. So, what's the vote? So, the vote is Oh, sorry, Mr. Bernard. I know. Sorry. And again, no disrespect to Mr. I respect him and his years of service. Mr. I apologize, Mr. Bernard. I'm out of I'm out of schedule here. Um, so it still would pass would would not pass. And the vote is it was 623. Six to three. Okay. All right. So now let's entertain another motion. Actually, I think uh Mr. Salazar, why don't we do this everyone? If this We should have said name. We should. I know. I know, right? But let's um now that that's happened, let's just make
062it unanimous. All right. Is there a motion uh to make it unanimous for Mr. Sal? So, Miss Bapor, seconded by Miss Roseberg. All right. So, uh Madame Clerk, let's go around again. This would be for Sean Salazar. Mayor Gresensson. Yes. Councelor Lahan. Yes. Mr. Drum. Yes. Miss Faphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hardy, yes. Mr. Piaza, yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Roseberg. Okay. So, that carries unanimously. All right. So, welcome. Uh, the next step, Miss Bapor. Next step would be to notify our city clerk. Okay. Um, and I I'm assuming she will work with you on the swearing in and and getting you um situated with um the other members of the Northeast Metrop. Thank you. Very good. Uh motion to adjourn. Motion by Miss Roseberg, seconded by Mr. Drum. I think second by Miss
063Horty. She's already All right. Miss Horty. Miss Horty seconded it. All right. Let's call the role. Mayor Christensen. Yes, Mr. Drum. Yes, Mr. McCarthy. Miss Bataphora. Yes, Miss Mlin. Yes, Miss Hordy. Yes, Mr. Piaza. Yes, Mr. Bernard. Yes, Mr. Rosberg. President Lan. Yes. Yes. All right. The school committee is hereby adjourned. Thank you.