Malden School Committee 01/12/2026

001Good evening everyone. Happy new year. And I would first like to welcome our newest member to the board, Peter Piaza. Welcome. And we look forward to working with you. [applause] Now, we never got that round of applause when we joined. So, hats off to you. So, glad to see you all. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, February 2nd at 6 PM here in the chamber. Uh this evening's agenda will consist of the following. As always, we'll pledge allegiance to our flag. We'll then take a moment of silence for our veterans. We'll call the role to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to gather and then we'll get into this evening's agenda which consists of the following. First, under the consent agenda, we'll take a look at the minutes from

002December 8th, 2025, as well as the minutes from January 5th. We'll also see if there will be a motion to approve the warrants from December 2025. From there, we'll go to public comment. We will have 15 minutes of public comment, three minutes per speaker. We only ask that you state your name and address for the record. After that, we'll go to our school superintendent where he is going to give an update on strategic planning. After him, we'll go to motions of resolutions of which there are four. Uh first will be a discussion of the NRT contract. Uh we'll then also assign this year's subcommittees. We'll then take up a donation to Coral Arts at Malden High School and then we'll entertain the calendar for school year 2027. After that, everyone, we'll take points of personal

003privilege and then we will entertain a motion to go into executive session for two reasons. uh first is we'll take a look at the minutes from December 8th, 2025 and then we will discuss contract negotiations with non-UN personnel specifically uh the BB school most site coordinator. We then will come back from executive session of where we may act on this item when we return. But either way, from there we will move adjournment again until February 2nd. Is there any questions, everyone? >> All right. Hearing none, let's rise and 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'd ask everyone to please remain standing for a moment of silence

004in honor of all those who have fought for our country and continue to do so today. Thank you. All right, we'll now have our clerk call the role. Mayor Christensen >> here. >> Mr. Drum >> here. >> Miss McCarthy >> here. >> Miss Bataphora >> here. >> Miss Mlin. >> Miss Hordie >> here. >> Mr. Piaza >> here. >> Mr. Bernard >> here. >> Miss Rose Zyberg >> here. >> Superintendent >> here. >> Donnie is here. She's coming in via I am unable to promote her to >> okay we'll keep working on that but uh for everyone here Miss Mlin is in attendance via uh remote. All right so with us having a member coming in remotely we'll take roll calls on all of the motions as the uh law calls us to do. Let's

005do this. So the consent agenda uh let's take these separately. First, the December 8th, 2025 minutes. Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Any discussion on those? >> Uh, let's go to Miss Horty. >> Just a Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple small clerical things I wanted to address. Um, in public comment section two, I think it's supposed to be Mr. not Ms. >> Okay. And I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, if anyone knows, um, Miss Jessica Gold Boots is gold hyphenated capital Boots, right? >> If anyone know, I just want to make sure that that's correct for the record. >> I know it's hard when people just give our names. We want to make sure that they're spelled properly and we address everybody. Those are the things that I

006found in here. Please, if anyone else has anything, let me know. >> Anybody else? >> Okay, so noted. Let's uh call the roll. >> Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Spataphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Hordy, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> yes. >> Miss Rosyberg, >> yes. >> Mayor Christensen, >> yes. That carries unanimously. All right, everyone. Next up, January 6th. I strike that. January 5th, 2026. Any motions? >> Motion by Mr. Bernard, seconded by Miss Spataphora. Any questions, queries, qualms about those minutes. >> Hearing none. Let's call the role. >> Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Miss McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Hordy, >> yes. >> Mr. Pza, >> yes.

007>> Mr. Mr. Bernard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosyberg. Mayor Christensen. >> Yes. That carries unanimously. Next up, >> yes. >> Motion to approve the warrants from December 2025. Motion by Miss Spataphora, seconded by Mr. Bernard. You've had a chance to look those over. Any questions, queries, qualms, concerns? Hearing none. [clears throat] >> Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Miss McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Baphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Hardy, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> yes. >> Miss Rose Zyberg, >> yes. >> Mayor Christensen, >> yes. It carries unanimously. All right, everyone. Let's go to public comment. Again, this is an opportunity for members of the community to address the school committee. We only ask that you state your name and address for the record and

008we will allocate three minutes per speaker. Let's do this. Who wants to kick off the new year? Sure. >> For those participating via teams, please use the raise hand function and I can call upon you um when I see a hand up. >> Good evening. >> Hi. Uh let us just set the clock. Take it away. >> Okay. So my name is Dr. Liz Tanag Banana, 31 Grace Street. Good evening members of the school committee. I'm here tonight to share once again the concerns from the BB regarding course mojo. After some frustrating experiences with district leaders recently, I'm coming back to the school committee and mayor to ask for your help again. I am calling on the district to halt plans for expanding the use of the program. In November, I came here and raised

009concerns that course mojo implementation is hindering teacher student relationships and is stunting the development of student voice. Course mojo should not be used as tier one instruction. Research shows how it weakens critical thinking and cognitive skill development. It's frustrated students and most importantly impeded the learning of marginalized groups. I had hoped that we would find a way to course correct. That has not happened and I am even more concerned. The use of course mojo has been described as a pilot, but this does not seem to be accurate. We are halfway through the year and not only do we not have metrics to measure whether course mojo has been effective. We have no plans to measure its effectiveness and no control group to compare the metrics to. The district did not use I Ready data to

010inform them of who to invite into the pilot or who can exit the pilot. There is no measure of success. There is no threshold that will determine whether or not the pilot continues. Nothing about this describes a pilot program. to distract from the lack of a cohesive plan. I was tone poloiced for asking about district leaders research skills at a recent meeting last week. When I asked about the strategy for the future, I was told that we're keeping it for the year and possibly expanding to even more grades and classes next year. That is not acceptable. The district needs to halt any plans for the expansion of course mojo until the results of this pilot are thoroughly communicated to caregivers so that students and families can decide whether they would like to opt in to

011this program. It is not okay to force any students into so-called pilot programs without their consent or the caregivers's knowledge and consent. In these Orwellian times when our country is a wash in misinformation, language matters. The last thing we need is Maldin's district leaders reframing Course Mojo as a pilot with an AI powered student tutor providing feedback. A chatbot can't tutor. Educators do that. AI blurbs aren't feedback. The chatbot cannot provide targeted ways to support students writing. Only educators do that. Lastly, you invite caregivers to something you call a forum. However, at the event, families are demoralized into using a QR code to write comments. That is not a forum. There is no free exchange of ideas happening whatsoever. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now?

012Anybody online? All right. We're going to go online and then we'll come back inside. So, I'm going to call on I can't see a full name here. I'm gonna Thank you, Caitlyn Peele Sloan. I'm going to allow Mike if you can test that out. Can you hear us and speak? >> Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, my name is Caitlyn Pielloone, 69 Columbia Street, and I just wanted to amplify Dr. Tonuk Manua's concerns about the course mojo project. Um, I have been honored to serve on the district's AI uh, task force working group where we're kind of feeling out policies and guidance for the district. And it it just really flies in the face of having that process to hear that some district leadership are doubling down on this project

013that um you know it's expressed as a pilot but there's no way to assess the outcome and they seem to already have prejudged that they need to expand it. And everything I've heard reported from families who are being exposed to this product right now um are that students uh work kind of disappears into the black box of course mojo. The their their responses are not tracked and the teacher can't see what they're writing and that's just an incredibly concerning um feature that I don't want our kids exposed to. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now. Good evening. Um my name is Amanda Lahan. I'm a W three resident and a city counselor. I reside at 83 Bloomer Street. I'm also here tonight as a BB

014parent to express my concerns over the generative AI tool, Course Mojo, that's being used in my daughter's seventh grade ELA classroom. Um, I am also hoping that we can pause its implementation. So, I want to start by stating that I actually do use Gen AI tools professionally. I understand their place in our society. I know they have vast potential for efficiency and automation and that they also present risks around privacy, ethics, racial bias, and potential for misuse. But tonight, I'm focused solely on our children and the predatory tech companies that legally cannot access them unless we as adults open that door. I'm concerned that instead of proactively evaluating the safety and the necess the educational necessity of tools like course mojo, we've opted instead into this pilot simply because it appeared within software that were

015already contracted to use or that the software company has provided some type of training in course mojo um because they stand to gain from data mining our students. And unfortunately, my child seems to have had the misfortune of being randomly selected for a program that I feel is now harming them. So, my daughter's 12 and she actually won't turn 13, which is the FTC's age of consent for data collection until late this summer. Yet, she is automatically enrolled into this pilot without myself having advanced notice or having given permission for that. I don't know why she was selected. I don't have any data on what it's measuring on her. Um, her other assessments show that she's reading and writing well above grade level. Yet, that does not seem to be what Course Mojo is actually

016providing her to work on. Now, I'm not an educator, but I have not seen a lot I have not seen a lot of evidence that it's modulating rigor based on individual student level, based on my child's experience. Um, I only know the grade level that she works at and what it's providing to her. When I've had the opportunity to observe the tool when she's brought her Chromebook home, I've been disturbed by what I've seen. Setting aside the fact that it is another screenbased module when our kids are asking for more real books. Um, what what's disturbed me is that I see the bot interrupting the kids when they're working, which if you're neurode divergent or neurotypical is a lot. It's interrupting them. It's giving them a hard time when they're trying to focus. My daughter

017loves to write and I've actually had to reach the point where I've advised her to actually use Google Docs instead because she just can't get through her assignments any other way. It interrupts so many times or it gets caught almost in a loop where it contradicts itself and then you have to give it like a garbage answer just to get it to move on. So, it's not even giving you the accurate answer to to get the the right um solution. >> Council, you're at three minutes. Are you wrapping up? >> I am wrapping up. So my ask tonight is just that we put a stop to plans to expand the pilot and look more critically at future curricula that we're considering adopting and also that we allow people to opt in, not automatically enroll our

018kids in pilots like this. Thank you. >> Got it. All right. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now, please? >> Good evening. My name is Shelene Title. I live in Ward 5. I'm a Lynden parent. Um, I've actually had a great experience with ELA, um, with my middle school child. Um, he's in a literacy bo block where he reads actual books um, with his peers and we were able to work with the teacher to um, replace the I Ready homework with uh, reading time. Um, it seems really arbitrary and unfair to me that um, if I was at BB, I might be having a child who's using course mojo instead. So, I wanted to come to support um the other parents who are having issues um and to ask you to

019please put a stop to the pilot or um yeah, put a stop to the pilot because you shouldn't have to be um city council president or you know a PhD in education and you know have the uh I guess courage because it it is tough to come up here you know um as a parent and complain. Um, and I think everybody should have the opportunity to be asked, do you want to continue with this pilot or not? Um, and to say, uh, we've been trying this for half a year, and do you want to continue with it or not? Um, I also just want to underscore I was kind of tiptoeing around last summer and saying, uh, I I have concerns about AI. I don't know if anyone else does. And I think just since

020last summer, it's become really clear that everyone has concerns. um people associate it with misinformation, with slop, with deep fakes. Um and so I would just ask that we take that in mind um as we consider more curriculums for um next year. So thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you. All right. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now. >> Hello. Good evening. I'm >> Josie Mo. I'm live at 33 East Border Road. Um, many of you know me and probably know why I'm here. I just want to add my voice to the previous commenters and uh demanding that there's no continuation and certainly not an expansion of any pilot programs involving AI tools in our schools without a new paradigm for how these pilots are run. Um, I'd like to

021remind everyone that there's a very strong coalition of parents, students, and teachers who want a complete prohibition on generative AI tools, chatbot based tools, LLM based tools in the schools altogether. Um, that was made clear by an open letter signed by about 150 of your constituents that I know you've all received. Um, at the very least, if these pilots are to continue, the software must be tested exclusively on classes composed of students who along with their parents and guardians have affirmatively chosen to interact with these AI tools. Uh, they must opt in and give affirmed consent and opt out is ownorous for the parents, confusing to teachers, embarrassing for the students, and all around sloppy to implement. Um, I'd also like to just add that in Massachusetts, we live in an internationally renowned center of

022technological, educational, and medical research that many of us have worked in. There are experts right now testing the effects of AI on students and learning. Firstly, I would suggest waiting until more of that research is completed before we add it to our schools. But above all, I would say that those studies would never be conducted, just like no study on medical treatments or new drugs would ever be conducted using participants, especially minor children, who hadn't intentionally and affirmatively elected to be part of the study. It's no more ethical to test an unproven technology on our children in the classroom without there having chosen to be part of what is at its core an experiment. >> Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the committee? Okay. All right. We're going to close that portion of the

023meeting. We'll now hear from our school superintendent. Good evening and good evening everyone. Happy new year. Welcome member Piaza. Welcome back everyone else. Um so uh thank you for the opportunity to share tonight an update regarding strategic planning and um I know later we'll also be talking about the calendar for next year. Um as I do you have the >> Yeah. All right. Thank you for bearing with us with our technological challenges. Um so uh tonight's uh report we're going to be talking about uh strategic planning update and um I'll to give a brief uh explanation about the changes for next year's school calendar also um that have a lot to do with the falling of certain holidays next year. As always, I just want to remind us of the core values that guide uh

024our work as a district, including and collaborating. Um embracing growth and doing right by all kids. Uh all of us um each of us rather is strong alone, but we're much stronger um acting together. In November, you all approved five goals uh for for me for this year. uh the development of a five-year strategic plan, the implementation of um our district strategy for improvement, which has already been underway since uh last summer, uh special education program review, and uh my participation in the new superintendent induction program for my own um professional practice. Um tonight we're going to be focused on the development of a five-year strategic plan. And in particular, um by January 2026, which is right now, um my charge was to present an outline of a strategic plan for the committee um consideration

025um and feedback. Um not um just want to clarify I'm not seeking approval of any document tonight, but I'm providing an outline to you to get your feedback and um questions that I can take back with my team over the next several weeks. And that uh outline will contain high level strategic goals that we'll be calling priorities. Um just that term goal can get confused with uh the four goals that I have for the year and a lot of other goals that we have. So we'll refer to them as priorities. Potential metrics for monitoring progress and I want to stress the word potential. Um a planning timeline for the spring and opportunities for stakeholder input and involvement. So since the beginning of the year, uh we have been uh when I say we, um my

026my cabinet and I have been really looking at the entry findings that I presented to you last June and beginning to connect the dots between those entry findings and what a strategic plan would look like over the next few years. Um which is what I'm sharing with you tonight. Phase two of the plan from now through the spring is going to be further development of that plan and getting community feedback on its elements. And then we'll be finalizing a plan that comp plan content and design at the end of the at the end of the spring as we move into the summer. So those entry findings that I was referencing, I just want to re remind us what those uh the highlights of those findings were. First of all, uh we have four huge sources

027of strength in our community, diverse and talented students, engaged parents and caregivers, committed educators and leaders, and an extremely supportive city and community. Overall, we also over the course of last year identified six areas for collective action. Affirming high expectations for all students, adapting instruction to meet diverse needs, ensuring fair access to opportunities, partnering with families effectively, nurturing a strong workforce, and building strength and stability. And I want to um just mention that you'll notice that th those first two areas for collective action will be represented in the first priority in the strategic plan. Um fair access will be represented in the second, partnering with families and wider community in the third and then the strong workforce and uh strength and stability in the fourth and fifth which you'll see in a moment. There were

028also five other areas that uh were not a part of those areas for collective action that we began uh really acting upon last year that uh represented uh areas that there was a need for wider consensus building and um um more more longer term planning. And these uh areas included uh how we're serving advanced learners, our preschool and early learning, our digital literacy and computer science. And when we first conceived of this in the entry findings, uh artificial intelligence wasn't even really um on our radar as a as an issue. Um obviously with our AI and learning working group, it's very much um on our radar now. uh expanding access in the performing arts and then lastly high school and post-secary success. So the the basic uh plan uh outline is structured in uh will

029be structured with three major components. um the priorities uh what we're trying to achieve metrics uh how we will measure progress or what things we'll be looking for to see whether we're making progress and then strategies and I would say within the strategies um it's not only what we will do to get there but also when and that will be um in terms of over the course of five years when will these things likely take place and to what degree um because we We will not build Rome in a day. Um there will be things that will need to be deferred um um at the outset or the I should say that the um we'll we'll get started on several things and a lot of things but there'll be some things that will be uh

030prioritized towards the beginning of the plan and others that we'll need to um we'll need to wait. So those strategic priorities uh are represented both in this graphic and then listed down the side. And as I uh foreshadowed a few minutes ago, high expectations with support to meet diverse needs is the first strategic priority. Fair access to opportunity. Second, deep partnerships. The third strong and supported workforce and then financial and operational stability sustainability rather. and those are um supporting priorities for for the other three. I'm going to speak in a little bit more detail about each of these priorities at this time. So this um priority one high expectations with support to meet diverse needs. This is the core of everything that we do and everything that we are working on and it will be

031our first and top priority going forward to deliver rigorous, engaging and inclusive instruction in each classroom that ensures every student meets or exceeds grade level expectations and at the end of their time with us graduates prepared for post-secondary success and this should include students with disabilities, multilingual learners, advanced learners and those who need social emotional support of any kind. Potential metrics and I just want to stress there will be a need uh as we um enter into into the development of the plan to kind of narrow down on certain metrics. That does not mean that other metrics aren't important. Um but if we measure everything or if we prioritize everything then we're uh we'll get lost. And so there will be a need to to narrow down on certain metrics that were that will give

032us at least a um a bell weather of whether we're we're making the progress that we want to be making um and we're we're getting to the to the destination we want to get to. Certainly um uh in the current uh with the current uh accountability uh system that we have in our state, the percentage of students meeting state benchmarks and literacy, math and science um it will continue to be important. So that's one potential metric that we might use to ground our progress. Another is percentage of graduates meeting mass core requirements with a minimum target GPA. And the reason I mentioned the minimum target GPA is because our graduation requirements are already aligned with Mass Core. But if they are not meeting those requirements with a a minimum GPA of some level, their options

033with that diploma having met those requirements will be very limited. Um, and so you know what we we'll we'll talk there'll be a lot of more time to talk about that going forward, but really getting a good sense of what percentage of our students are meeting mass core requirements with, for example, a C average GPA or a B average GPA. What is that now? Um, and what do we want it to look like over the course of um, five years? understanding that there are lots of challenges um with grading policies and and a lot of other um considerations but but definitely students options are limited if they finish high school without a certain GPA in conjunction with having met mass core requirements and then graduation and post-secary rates u you know certainly it's a very

034very important that we see uh that the the percentage of our students who are graduating on time is increasing um each year, but we also want to be attentive to post-secary enrollment. Um, college isn't for everyone, but we want to make sure that all of our students are prepared for that opportunity and um that when they do uh metriculate to university that they are able to persist to a second year that they're able to complete a degree within um within a certain time frame so that they we will know that we prepared them well for that opportunity. And there are other post-secondary uh measures in terms of um post graduation surveys and other other measures that can um get at whether students if they did not attend or did not enroll in a university have

035engaged in some other life plan whether it be the military or the workforce or trade school or whatever it might be. But this um this this issue of of really taking stock of what our students are doing after they've left us and being u being responsible and taking responsibility for those students success and for the preparation they receive from us um during K12 um is is I think very very important on this one. Um potential strategies. Again, this is just potential strategies. Um continue and deepening uh our work with educators around evaluative feedback and collaborative planning. We had an outstanding professional development day today. Outstanding professional development day at all of our schools. Um that was very collaborative. Uh teachers, every school that I visited, I visited five of the seven. Um the the energy

036was very very uh positive and um the I know the initial feedback that we've gotten from our educators was also extremely positive and it was even more positive than the November PD which was already very positive. So I'll share more with you about that later. Um, but that basically to to to really develop a culture where we're we're working with our educators to have shared responsibility for outcomes and shared responsibility for instruction and being in each other's classrooms and collaborating around planning um in a way that's not punitive, that's not mere merely evaluative, but is really collaborative and and um um there's a the real coaching and a shared dialogue around how do we help all of our students succeed? implementing timely and responsive tiered interventions. Evaluating the assessment tools that we use to benchmark

037student achievement is another uh area that is a potential strategy. Um no assessment system is perfect, but we want to be really be thoughtful about the assessment tools that we're using and whether they're um they're the best on offer at this time. um further developing professional development on topics such as the differentiated of of of material. And you'll see in the links to current efforts that there are a lot of these things that are that are underway. Um but this these potential strategies um envision what they might look like further further developed. So that's the first priority. The second priority is fair access to opportunity. And in this you might say, well, how is that different from the high expectations and the and meeting diverse needs? This just speaks to creating and refining systems and

038structures and programs to ensure opportunities are accessible to all of our students um in addition to uh and complementing that core instruction that all of our students um should be receiving through priority one. So exploratory and elective course enrollment data um is um one example that we would see to what extent are all of our students uh do they have access to certain elective opportunities and exploratory opportunities. AP and early college participation. This is uh these are both programs at the high school level that give students an opportunity to get a head start on college through taking college level coursework with their teacher and taking an exam at the end of the year or actually taking college level work uh dual enroll dually enrolled with uh Bunker Hill Community College in high school. And we

039want to make sure that that opportunity is being afforded to students across all groups. Special education inclusion and special ed education achievement. Um the percentage of our students with a disability who are included in the regular uh program in regular classrooms and um whether they regardless of the degree to which they're included, how are they achieving their goals? how are they achieving relative to um state benchmarks? Uh access to a wide range of performing arts and then digital literacy and skills assessments. um digital literacy in general um the the regardless of how one feels about AI or how one feels about particular technologies in the classroom, I think our state has a framework that that envisions that all students would have the um preparedness to um to be able to engage in an information economy

040when they finish school. um such that they have those advantages and are able to engage and have the skills to be able to compete with whomever wherever um in the 21st century. Um so one potential metric might be uh certain assessments that would be developmentally appropriate that would be contextualized within uh projects that students are doing within uh their other classes. um to be able to see to what degree students are um have those those digital literacy skills and understand how to use those tools. potential strategies um where we'll speak more about this in a moment but is the strategic allocation of resources on an annual basis increasing accessibility of advanced courses and dual enrollment implementing uh ideas and recommendations from our special education program review which will be happening this term and then developing

041a digital learning scope and sequence um aligned with DESIE guidance. Um, this is another potential strategy. And again, I want to stress that these are not all things that are going to happen in any way this spring. Um, and some of these things will not even happen next year. They'll be something that will take longer to to develop. Deep partnerships constitutes priority three. Um to foster trust and collaboration with families, caregivers in the community through transparent communication, authentic engagement, and meaningful partnerships. Potential metrics in this area would include enrollment and attendance trends and that would be in terms of the really effectively partnering with families to make sure students are in school every day. um students sense of belonging. To what extent is that uh really really robust and and um powerful in our the

042the data we get from our students? Caregiver satisfaction with school and district services, participation rates in family engagement events and advisory groups, and then early learning engagement. Um, we have a partnership that's funded by the uh by the Commonwealth called the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative. And a part of that is work that we're currently doing with several preschools in the city uh to try to expand access of preschool to as many four-year-olds as possible. Um it's a very limited grant and we don't have nearly as many students in the city in involved with preschool as we would like, but that's that's uh within the confines or the constraints of the funding that we receive and the funding that um that Desi provides. Um we're we're you doing as as well as we can. Um but

043definitely wanting to see more engagement for early learning within the the limits that we have is is uh is something that we we want to achieve and that we think working with other community partners that would be possible. Um other potential strategies in this area are just in improving our engagement with current families, developing outreach and welcome efforts for new and prospective families. um of particular interest in this area um is um we're really working with parents and caregivers who are um future high school parents, future high school families. Um as you know uh many of us know the Northeast Vocational uh has a brand new building that it's putting the final touches on um and that will be opening this coming fall. Um, and we want to make sure that if that's an excellent

044opportunity for students that they know about it, that they are able to access it, but let them never feel like they have to go up the up the road to Northeast to get an excellent high school education. Um, we want to make sure that every family knows um is fully informed of what the opportunities are here in Malden and those opportunities continue to improve each year. Next, strong and wellsupported workforce to recruit, develop, and retain a diverse and talented team through competitive compensation, professional growth, and a collaborative culture. Potential metrics in this area include educator perceptions of professional culture, percentage of teachers reporting they receive valuable feedback in their instructional practice, employee satisfaction and retention rates, and the percentage of employees who feel involved in decisions in their schools. Um potential strategies here include inre

045improving engagement I'm sorry sustaining but competitive compensation and benefits u continuing early proactive recruitment and hiring each year which is something that we found a lot of success with last year. Um maintaining alignment of professional development with instructional priorities. Strengthening our mentoring structures for our newer teachers. developing stronger pipelines for recruitment, including with our local teacher education programs and also continuing uh engaging employees regarding decisions that impact them. Priority five, [snorts] this um I know is near and dear to the hearts of several people on the committee, mine included. Fiscal and operational sustainability, managing resources strategically and sustainably to deliver highquality instruction and safe learning environments. Um, first of all, we need to make obviously have balanced budgets that meet our net school spending requirements, that fund our priorities, and that equitably allocate resources across

046schools according to their enrollment. um that long-term facility and technology investment plans would be in place with annual benchmarks and um for potential strategies in this area to continue to get uh engage in collaborative proactive planning between the committee the administration to inform the annual budget development process to adjust fiscal investments in response to changes in enrollment programmatic needs and available resources and to partner with city state and philanthropic entities. ities to expand sources of funding for our programs and this will be even more critical with the uncertainties at the federal level. All right. So to kind of just kind of uh foreshadow what we will be moving into in this the coming months that at least there will be a collaborative groups working on each of these strategic priorities and in the case of

047priority one we'll really be uh making use of a lot of structures we already have. Um our principles meet regularly. We have a Malden leadership team that includes all the administrators in in the district that um meets um um on a monthly basis. We have our school instructional leadership teams, grade level teams. Um and then with regards to our um community and school committee feedback, you can anticipate that on March 2nd, April 6th, May 4th, I'll be coming back to you with updates um regarding the work that's happening. And then also uh we'll be having u gatherings of community and caregivers to get their feedback and input on various um parts of the plan along with engaging with our school councils and our advisory councils as well, the special education uh parent advisory committee as

048well as our English learners um our district PTO etc. And then um in April and May um refining metrics based on that feedback, based on your feedback um to have a a a near near final draft to bring before you before the end of the of the spring. And that's what we will be um anticipating and that's what we'll be endeavoring to do. So with that um Mr. Chair, I'll turn it over to you for questions of the team. Any questions? Miss >> Horty, Mr. Chair, >> Dr. Seo, question for you. Sorry, it's a long presentation. I got to go back. Um, two questions. I know that these are potential metrics, so I know they're not set in stone. I just wanted to give you my two cents. um [laughter] for our priority number one

049for high expectations to support um diverse needs. I appreciate the idea of the mass core requirements working with what we've developed or are developing through policy between what we already have and what's going to be expected of the state as well as graduation and post-secary. That that seems to make the most sense to me. I'm I just want to caution you on the state benchmark testing. I would even I think even um I testing and other things like that we may get a better understanding of. I think that students over time have had such a bad taste in their mouth about me MCCAST and I think there's a feeling that now that it doesn't count the effort isn't at the same level. So, I I would like us to just think about that when we're

050looking at that as a testing. I mean, we could obviously compare it with the other testing that we have and the other information, but I would kind of put that like as a second tier. Um, I know that's not exactly what you were looking for, but I wanted to >> No, I appreciate the feedback and I I just I think there is a I think an important distinction between um grades with respect to MCCAST with um between grades three through eight >> and high school. Um >> there just there just is and and I mean I've I've I've heard of folks at the state level >> in in the wake of question two um kind of ask out loud what a next what what will come next as far as assessment and as you know

051with the graduation council and everything else there's a a lot of conversation about that. >> I also think that there's as someone who works in a middle school I think that there's a lot of eighth grade burnout. We ask eighth graders to take four MCCAST tests. >> Um, >> I don't know why we do that. I don't know why we started doing that to them. It just doesn't feel right or fair. And my the eighth graders that I work with, I know, are not always thrilled at that. So, by the time they get to the last one, they're kind of out of steam. [laughter] Um, so, but I do agree with you. I think we get good results from especially from our third to sixth graders. Um, but I just think if we're looking at

052it from the bigger picture. Um, I had another question. Um, under priority two >> yes >> for sorry I'm not sure I have to like double check what I wrote here under the metric for special education inclusion and achievement um how are we so if that's the metric what's the first part I'm not I'm not explaining this very well >> um >> so what for understand what I'm saying >> for so for students disabilities under this under the state um regulations. There there are various things that the state looks at to assess the >> the compliance and the effectiveness of our programs. And they one metric is both for preschool age students and then for students in grades K through 12, if they have an IEP, the percentage of those students who were participating um

053the majority of their time in the regular school day. Um, that's something just as a just as a general criterion. >> Um, that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with a student who might need more specialized services and be in a substantially separate environment. It just but it does overall the district is considered to be um making progress or moving in the right direction if a certain percentage of its students are in a general ed. So, like an inclusion percentage, correct? >> Okay, that's right. >> Sorry, I don't think I understood that properly the first time. Um, can I and can I just make two more quick comments? Um, >> then we're going to get to um let's see, Mr. Bernard and then Mr. Piaza. >> I'll be quick, I promise. Um, I I'm think

054it's really important. I know we've talked about attendance trends previously. I think we've talked at open meeting, we've talked at other times about it. I think it's really important that we focus on where the gap is and who the identified people are. It feels like there's not enough identified people within the district who have a very specific thing that they're doing almost on a daily basis to address attendance. Um, and I love the idea I always love the idea of a partnership with surrounding colleges and universities to bring teachers and student teachers. We had programs like that in the past I that were directly funneling student teachers in. Um I don't know what happened. I don't know why it's not there, but I think that's really important for us to continue. I know we also

055have the grow your own program at the high school and I think we just need to tap into how we're making that a bigger circle between that program, colleges and universities and back to us. >> Thank you. Over to Mr. Bernard. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just real quickly cuz uh in uh I had a question about the the Commonwealth preschool partnership initiative. Uh what are we doing for um outreach to our various parent groups? Um one of the things that kind of popped into my head was are we reaching out to we keep talking about our diverse communities. do we what's our strategy for kind of reaching out to those communities because uh in the past uh certainly during my first term I certainly got calls from people saying I have a kid

056therefore I want to get them into the school system and they didn't they could not get them into uh you know uh the early learning center and they did they couldn't understand why when they were going to they were very active and wanted to go and their kids into a jump start. >> Yeah. So, I mean, I think there's probably a large a longer conversation that we need to have about preschool just in general. Um, but the the early learning center, our our preschool program, it's the reason it's funded by Desi, the reason it exists is essentially as a to provide services for students with disabilities. And then we have some tuition slots in order to provide an inclusion setting for those same students. Um the funding that the only funding we receive from DESIE

057is a a per pupil amount which is um much it's a fraction of what we receive for our K12 students and it is only for those students who are receiving at least two hours of special education service each week for the so it's it's by by by its nature it's it's a it's rather limited in its in its capacity. Um what I would say though is that the partnership is intended to work with other preschools in the city. Um and I believe there's five five preschools that we work with and around having a standard level of quality and curriculum and professional development for the the instructors in those programs. so that whether a student goes to our early learning center or one of the other five programs, there's a a similar experience that they might

058have. Um, and you know, the the Commonwealth, the state, you know, if it wants to really improve and expand the impact of preschool, um, it's going to require a lot more funding. >> Um, thank you. And then just uh one other qu more of a comment. Uh, I do appreciate um I'm really excited to go and see that you guys are are uh doing uh postgraduation surveys and whatnot because there's been several times in the past where we've been looking at a program. We've been looking at uh you know certain things and that would have been a critical metric to have and past administrations [clears throat] have not been able to provide that not necessarily due to issues with the school leadership but just because it wasn't a thing that we were necessarily thinking of.

059So uh I appreciate that there's there's some things going on with that and I look forward to going and seeing results. >> Thank you. Over to Mr. Piaza. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you um superintendent for the um very detailed presentation. Um a few uh quick uh questions, comments. Um I want to piggyback on what uh member shared about the uh measures connected to priority area number one. This is both sort of comment and question. I'm wondering about considering when I look at these metrics I see um I see uh percentage of proficiency or above right but I'm wondering about two things looking at uh including growth measures as um indicators there for priority number one uh but and and also whether it's growth or proficiency rates uh looking at student uh data

060disagregated according to the especially the high need subgroups that um uh that we serve in Malden. Um uh so that was one point of feedback uh that occurred to me while I was listening to your presentation. Uh I have uh I have two other points. One about uh priority number three. Um so we talked about quantitative measures when it comes to priority area number one. Now, in priority area three, we have sense of belonging, right? As an indicator, which um I know from my work in schools is is critically important, right? If you don't feel a sense of belonging, then you're not you're not you're not ready to learn. You're not you're not um the academic learning is much harder. Um and I was just wondering, and I'll I'll pause here if there's um if

061the district has existing measures for sense of belonging or how we how we imagine getting at that particular indicator. potential metric. First of all, >> y [snorts] if I could, Mr. Piaza, kind of go back just on the MCAST, please. >> Growth. Absolutely. >> Absolutely. Um growth not it's not just about static who is >> benchmark or not. Um it's the growth is is critical because there's so much that we celebrate every day based on the growth that students are making even if they haven't yet crossed that threshold into being considered um you know meeting standard. >> Um so to total um resonance there and then disegregation as well. Um, in the interest of some brevity, I didn't have all of that on here, but um, we are extremely when we say meeting diverse needs,

062we have to look at the diverse populations and how those diverse populations are actually performing um, with respect to the to the whole. Um on the uh sense of belonging, I I'm not uh aware of a uh consistent measure of sense of belonging that we are using across the district yet. Um I know there are um we have access to some tools that have um surveys um the survey tool that we're using currently um has some um templates for this kind of thing for students. Um so um more to come on that. >> Got it. Great. Uh the I appreciate the the your responses there. Um my last question about the uh about the plan is about the collaborative groups and you talked a little bit about how that would look for priority area number

063one uh which I heard but please correct me if this is wrong about uh leveraging existing groups the principles that meet the ILTs at each school. Uh just broadly I I I'd love to hear about how the collaborative groups might work for the other priority areas. >> That's a great that's a great question. The the there within those groups um th those folks who have it's their job to do this kind of planning on a regular basis. um the rather than I mean they're they're they're on a month-to-month basis already focused on a lot of priority one but for some of these other other things that are more long-term for example on special education with priority two um another one of my goals is the the the implementation of a special ed program review and

064we have an audit also that the school committee called upon the administration to implement this coming spring. And so that will involve focus groups that will involve collaborative work um between administration, educators, parent focus groups um to inform that. Um and so things along those lines um maybe not as intensive as in the case of special education, but um for example um with the our workforce, our assistant superintendent of human resources, uh Sarah Mclofflin would be working with our labor partners and with um administrators and um really fleshing out what some of these metrics might might be. And we have some of these surveys that were uh that are um described here are surveys that we already have in place that we're actually in the process of administering now. >> Um that we will be

065able to retool and tweak depending on the metrics that we we develop. >> Super helpful. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Over to uh Miss Battle for She'll be followed by Miss Rose Zyberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Give me one second to jump back through here. Um, just on priority one, we talk about graduation, excuse me, and post-secary enrollments. Um I'm just curious how are we going to get garner information when it comes to um career because I don't want to discount the students that make that choice to not enter postsecary education um because career is still success in in all of our eyes. So, I'm just curious how we're going to implement that in a college and career readiness plan and then garner that information. So, thank you for that question, Madam Vice

066Chair. [laughter] Um, I'm not totally sure yet on the enrollment side. I do know that we have access on the post-secary enrollment side um to something that I don't think that we've really made um extensive use of which is something called the um oh my goodness the clearing house national student clearing house that I believe more than 95% of colleges in the country are participate in and we're able to link our graduates with enrollment and whether they've uh when they enrolled, how soon after graduation, whether they persisted to a second year, whether they graduated with a degree within two or four years. Um and that's that's very very very um important data. And if we look in the aggregate especially, we can see some trends that we really want to to turn around. Um, on

067the career side, um, I I know that there could be some, um, compelling models out there of people who've been able to get that response rate either by using um, might be an effective use of social media to to keep in touch with um, graduates and what what they're up to. I mean, certainly a lot of these things are voluntary after they leave us, right? Um, and so nothing's perfect, but um I I I know that there are um districts that have um have built more of a of a read on how their students are doing postgraduation um even if they haven't um gone to uh college or university. >> Thank you. I don't know if that you know if we can look at adding alternate email addresses into for like our seniors to say,

068"Okay, because we're going to lose our Malden." Yes. >> Yes. I should say we do have a survey that we administer with for our students with disabilities as that's something that we are required to do. Um and it's we've actually I think our response rate increased this last year if I'm not mistaken. >> By about 20% assistant McDonald um So that doesn't mean that that's necessarily the model that would be effective for everyone, but um but we do have um some models even internally to look at for that. And then just lastly, when we talk about our our deep partnerships, I just don't want to discount and I don't think you meant it for it to come across this way, but when we say like we want we want people to look at Malden public

069schools, we want them to send our kids here, but I also don't want to discount what vocational schooling offers. So when we say like we have a vote right up the street, but we want them to come here, well, we're not offering vocational schooling. We're not offering chapter 74 vocational education. Correct. >> So, I just I just I don't know. It just it bit me a little bit in in >> Thank you. Thank you for being honest. I will say having been in the Commonwealth now for uh eight and a half years that I have anecdotally met many young people who went to a vocational program not because they wanted to become a plumber or an electrician but because of a perception that the school had certain other qualities that they thought they could not

070get in in their regular high school. And um I just want to make sure students who are choosing that are choosing it for the reasons you're describing and not for other reasons that we have a lot more control over. >> Sure. Um and then just lastly, um when we talk about the plan development and community feedback, I'm just curious how much of this, so this is obviously our our fiveyear plan. Would you say it's fiveyear? Not three year. Um, how much of this information can our school site councils utilize when developing their SIPs on a yearly basis? I mean, I guess I'm asking a question that is almost answered like I'm hopeful that they are going to garn and we're going to get that information back from them as well and work collaboratively. But I

071guess my question is how collaboratively >> I would anticipate for this for this year especially that similar to last year that our school improvement plan templates would focus on priority one and then on attendance as well which would be related to priority three. um some of these other um these other issues that are much more structural across the district and not necessarily school specific, whether it be our workforce or the overall financial sustainability of our system or how we design the special ed program across all of our schools. Um certainly we'll be able to get feedback from school councils or um parents in in general, but they may not have as um relevant of a formal role in informing those particular plans or it might not be as contextually um relevant to the school plan

072process that they that they're already engaged in. >> Thank you. Over to Miss Roseberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um just a couple of comments and then a quick question. Um on priority five, while I am all in favor of preparing balanced annual budgets, I would like us to continue working our efforts with the city, with the state on chapter 70 funding so we actually at some point will actually be able to spend more than the bare minimum, which is what net school spending is. They set the minimum. I'd like us to be able to be a city that can actually spend more on our schools. Just putting that there. Um, and priority one, I just want to thank you for I I I'm glad to see about the percentage of graduates meeting requirements with

073the minimum target GPA. I know you have been at our meetings. We've been bringing that up as to what is it really showing. So, I appreciate that you included that in there knowing that that will also um jump into what our competency requirements are going to end up being. Um, so just thank you for including that. And then just quick questions on can we clarify with um CPPI which I'm I'm a little bit familiar with. Is that geared towards helping the staff working with the students or is there direct one-on-one work done with students with people and also for the um groups that are currently being um receiving this? Are they all center-based or there any that are I'm there must be EEC licensed um like are there any other EEC licensed home organizations home

074um groups that are receiving CPPI? >> Sure. There are Thanks for the question. >> Thank you. um and assistant superintendent McDonald is much more um familiar with those details than I am, but I think in general we they're not homebased um caregivers um to my understanding that are that are involved. Um, and I I don't know if that's true across the state, but for our particular grant, the the the entities that are written into the grant um to participate in that professional learning and curriculum development um are all preschools. >> They have to have they have to be a classroom based >> and you apply basically per classroom for the grant funding. and it is professional development, it is materials, it is we do provide some services. Um, a lot of these preschools have a

075lot more hours than we do and families need that. So, it allows some of our families to be serviced in those preschools. Um, which is much more convenient for some families. It also we are doing all of the same a lot of the same curriculum. So, when the kids they're all going to end up with us, well, not all of them, but most of them will end up with us in kindergarten so that we're all on the same page when they show up. They have the same rigor, the same curriculum, the same um trajectory of development. >> Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? [snorts] >> Just a question from the chair. Uh is there a cost to pull this together and if so, what? >> That's a really good question, Mr. Chair. Um the idea

076first of all is I believe found [snorts] on that priority five to um to adjust our fiscal investments in response to changes in enrollment programmatic needs and available resources. So we could have um a strategic plan with certain aspirations that may have to be on hold until the funding environment improves. >> I'm talking about the plan itself. >> Um >> do we have a consultant coming in to help us do this or is this being done internally? So we have uh there's actually a consultant that the that the district retained before I arrived and um she proono to this point has just been informally consulting and um for this purpose for there was an RFP that was developed back in believe in 2023 um and she has been um very very helpful because she had

077done some work with the previous administration. This is has very little continuity to be honest with what was done under the prior administration. But she uh there is no additional cost for the planning itself. Um unless no additional no additional cost in except for uh things that we already have funding um that is available to us. for example, potentially to um pay stipens to some educators to to do some afterchool planning um or participate in meetings like the AI working group that we have educators involved in, but no significant um cost outlay for the planning itself. >> Okay. >> Um for this for the special education program review, that's that's a little bit different. But but overall for the plan itself and the development of the plan I don't have um envision of of a

078need for significant fund. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right everyone. Uh let's see now let's take a look at these motions and resolutions. So Miss Baphor, you first want to discuss the NRT contract. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. And I just want to um let u Mr. Piaza know that normally motions and resol resolutions is not the Jen's battle for show. It just so happened that there's just a lot of stuff with my name tonight. So um an RT contract. Um, so back in June of 2023, we entered into a contract with NRT to provide transportation in and outside of district for our special education students. That contract um, as was our previous contract that we entered into back in 2018, a three-year contract with two one-year optional extensions. Um, so with the

079three-year contract coming to an end, we have the option to do a one-year extension um to if the committee so chooses um if um for a multitude of reasons. I would say if we were interested in just having another year and possibly looking around if we are um absolutely happy let's just keep the ball rolling or >> I presume you're recommending >> I am not actually making a recommendation tonight. Okay. Um I I >> only because I would like a little bit more information. it kind of came to me and um we haven't had a a chance to meet internally but I do have some questions only because the student enrollment data has just come out on uh DESIE and it shows an a decrease in enrollment and I'm just wondering how much that affects

080our transportation >> and what is built into the NRT contract does have a a 26 27 um financial data based on students and um I believe it was um the amount [snorts] of buses and vans. So I was just I haven't had a chance to meet with um Miss Martz and the superintendent. Um >> so is this moreformational? How did this end up here? >> Well, it's moreformational. It was coming out because I mean we don't like to push too far up to the end of contracts. This contract is going to end in June. So, if the committee decides not to, this is essentially the time that we need to really, we probably should have done it actually a couple months back. >> Um, we have always utilized the one-year extension. And I'm not saying

081that we shouldn't. I'm just think um we may want to table and just get some more information before we make that decision at a February meeting. >> Okay. All right. team. Uh why don't you start preparing to vote on this in at the February meeting? Okay. So, between now and then, start doing your due diligence on it. All right. Uh so, we need a mo do we need a motion at table or just hold? >> I mean, I'll make a motion, >> please. >> So, motion to table until uh February 2nd meeting. >> All right. That was seconded by Mr. Bernard. Uh any questions on that, everyone? Okay. Hearing none. Uh, let's call the role. Oh, wait. I think uh does Miss Mlin have a question? >> She does. I'm so sorry, Miss Mlin. >>

082That's quite all right. So, my question is for the February meeting, are we going to have additional information about contract pricing? Um, if we're going to send it out to bid, what what are we voting on in February exactly? whether or not to extend one year or not, that's what I anticipate happening. So, Miss Mlin, what I would suggest is between now and then uh to speak with Miss Spataphor andor Miss Mertz to answer any questions that you may have about it. And then when we get to the February meeting, we can uh discuss it further and and potentially take a vote on uh what we should do going forward. Okay, understood. Thank you. >> Okay, please. >> I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, if I may, Miss Mlin, I believe um our clerk did send out

083the contract to the members today. So, you should have a contract that was uh the most recent that has um the extension in it along with um the financial information um that we'd be required to pay. And then I just want to be clear when it comes to our transportation contract, we don't go out to bid necessarily. It's actually one of the contracts that is exempt from chapter 30b um Massachusetts general law in regards to um procurement of services. And um in the past, I'm not saying that we don't that we don't go out to bid. um we don't have to if a vendor presents an extremely good price um that we are happy with the price and the services. So I just I I just wanted to be clear on that um that we

084don't and in in years past we actually did not go out to bid. Uh the vendor um said we are going to offer you this. it was substantially lower than um other providers um and included the ability to provide transportation for the amount of students needed which is is fairly high. >> Okay, so we have the motion, we have the second. Let's do this. Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Horty, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosyberg, Mayor Christensen, >> yes. That carries unanimously. All right. Next up, uh, let's take a look at these subcommittee assignments. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so just some background. The chair and I, um, start

085working on subcommittee assignments. Um a couple months back I think everybody um I had reached out to I had asked what your interests were. Um and then along with that in in meeting we were looking at the subcommittee names and what they entail. Um along with um actually I'm going to back up even further for those watching. So the the school committee has um standing subcommittees and those are subcommittees that are in our rules that we have um and it pertains to the the role of a school committee member. We focus on budget, we focus on policy um we focus on technology um but then we also have ad hoc committees and that's at the needs of the committee. We've had ad hoc committees that um focused on um equity and opportunity uh calendar. So

086when looking at these subcommittees, we realize that a few of the subcommittees um for instance budget. Well, we don't strictly handle a budget. We handle finance. We look at everything that en encompasses the the spending of the district. So, um you'll see that um there is going to be a recommendation and I will be making a motion to suspend um I'm drawing a blank docket rules. Um to make some name changes this evening. Uh one is policy and procedure. We talk a lot about um establishing policy, creating policy, amending policy. the procedural part really lies in the hands of the superintendent and his um cabinet and um those that report into him. um technology and student services. The student services part is really gets really iffy um in what we're doing. Um so really that

087subcommittee is has been focusing on technology in the classroom and I guess inadvertently it is supporting the student services in technology but student services in such a broad term. So having it um attached to a subcommittee um I think student services can fall under many different scopes policy finance um and then lastly ad hoc subcommittees the implementation of a new subcommittee um called teaching and learning about six years ago seven years ago when I first came on to um the committee. We did have an academic subcommittee at one time that um was dissolved. So, we thought it would be really great um and also speaking with the superintendent, having an assistant superintendent of teaching and learning to really dive into especially because there's a lot of cross when it comes to we're talking about um

088technology in the classroom with curriculum. Um so what you see other than your assignments based on your interests is also some um some minor changes in in names um as well as um just some overviews on what that subcommittee um would be doing. >> Okay. Questions of the team? Any questions? If not, you want to make a motion, right? >> Yes. So, I have I have five motions to make this go smoothly, but sounds like >> Mr. Rose Zyberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, and looking at the Thank you for sending the um background info, too. So looking at the um policy and procedure um the current definition for procedure um is actually school committee procedures. So where would that go? So it's not procedures that happen in schools. It says it's it's jurisdiction

089pertaining to district policy manual school department regulations and school committee procedures. >> Most of our procedures are actually policy. So just >> the way that we act is ingrained in the policy. >> Okay. >> So >> I guess >> just to be sure. So just we all know that it's not just us doing policy that is you know what the graduation requirements going to be with this. It is also will be the policies technically our policy will our procedures will become our policy. >> Y >> and most of like our our rule book are procedures that are essentially came out of our policy. So just to be sure that we all understand that that that will still be part of policy um would be in that um and just putting it out with um with

090after hearing the presentation from the superintendent. Um I've got to look back which one you were saying for priorities. Oh, fair access to opportunity priority two. So, and then I look at dissolving equity and opportunity and just putting it out there if it's worth a discussion or not because where that's a priority, maybe we do still want to keep something along those lines going. >> So, I think when Oh, I have my notes in front of me and I have that noted. Um, when we were working in equity and opportunity, we found that most of the stuff fell under policy. Um, and that was we kind of I don't want to say it was a sticky situation, but I think we all recall who are sitting up here um when the AEAP program it was

091work being worked on in equity and opportunity. However, it was it was a curriculum. It was it was p it was policies. Yep. >> So, it kind of got a little um it got difficult. So I think moving equitable almost ingraining it in policy that every school is going to do X Y and Z. Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Roseberg. Miss Mlin. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um uh Miss Patter. I didn't realize that you were going to have five motions and I don't know if I perhaps um should have waited to bring up some of uh the comments um with each of the motions but I'll I'll present it now. So um firstly you know due to my my work responsibilities I won't be able to serve on the sick bank

092and so you know um this term and unfortunately I'll have to respectfully um decline that assignment. Um, so I just wanted to be on record with that. But to echo what um, Miss Rose Zyberg um, was discussing um, about the equity and opportunity. Um, I I also had concerns about that. Um, and and some of the proposed uh, subcommittee changes. Um, I do think that some of those do warrant a discussion with the full committee. Um, specifically around the dissolution of student services, um, equity and opportunity, I just want to make sure that we're structuring Malden Public Schools that truly aligns and reflects the needs of all of the students. Um, and when I think about student services, it's really about access and support, which includes, you know, yes, our advanced learners, but our special

093education learners, mental health, wraparound services. Um, all of that work really aligns with equity and opportunity. And I think we're just doing um our students a disservice by not having some sort of committee that will address the needs of our most vulnerable learners. Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Uh Miss Bataphor, I think everybody has had this for some time, right? Have you not? >> Friday. Okay. All right. Miss Betaphor. >> Um >> I mean Miss Mlin, are you asking us to hold this over then until the next meeting? And if so, uh will you be in attendance to further discuss? >> Oh, absolutely. I'll be um in attendance. I mean, unfortunately, I had surgery last month. My husband's unwell um this weekend, so I'm not able to be there in person, but I

094I'm certainly will be there on the 26th um if we want to put it on the docket um or for the February meeting. I just think that it warrants a discussion um from the full committee um >> about what's important to us. Um you know, equity and opportunity is something that's at the core of my being. >> Yeah. It just is. It's never met since its existence. So, but we just want to make sure that based on what you've said that, you know, we afford an opportunity to do this uh in person. So, I don't think it would be held uh the 26th. We'll take a look at it. Most likely it would probably be February 2nd. But what I would encourage you to do, Miss Mlin, as well as anybody else here tonight, uh

095is to uh contact us, you know, between now and then to further discuss to see if we can figure out a path forward, but I know Miss Betaphor has done a lot of work on this. Um so, you know, let's try to nail this down at the February meeting. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I and I appreciate that and I certainly respect that. Um, you know, I just just in, you know, it was stated that some of the committees overlap and I and I do see that, but I just think that >> it's important that equity and opportunity is a standalone um committee. >> Got it. >> Thank you. >> So, Miss Mlin, I can guarantee that you'll share that committee. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. All right. Uh, let's hold this over then. Um, Miss Pedaphor,

096uh, was there a motion? There wasn't a motion to approve, right? >> No. So, motion to table, Miss Spaphor, seconded by, uh, Miss Rose Eyeberg, >> I I I figured we we're going to take it up in February. Do you want to ask that now, >> please? Yeah, sure. >> Um, I don't know. I know there are five different steps. I don't know if there are parts of it that we could actually act on tonight rather than hold everything over. >> No, we're going to hold it over. pieces. >> Yeah, I think we hold it over based on Miss Mlin's concerns, which I didn't fully get all of them. So, I want to have a chance for her to be able to express that between now and February 2nd. >> And with that understanding then,

097do we hold to what our old assignments were? >> Those still I don't know what the I mean, because we're all new. So, poor Peter. [laughter] >> Yep. >> So, the old ones will hold for now. Okay. Thank you. All right, let's call the roll. >> Uh, you seconded by Miss Rosyberg. Okay. Motion to table. Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Miss Rose Zyberg. >> Mr. Jimmy, >> Miss McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora. >> No. Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Hordie, >> no. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> no. >> Mr. Rosyberg, >> Mayor Christensen, >> no. What do you have? >> And five. Yes. >> All right. So, five to four. That will carry over until February 2nd. Okay. All right. Next up, let's take a look at this

098uh donation to Coral Arts. Let's see what's going on here. >> Donation. Well, uh, so on January 5th, we, um, were honored to have the Maldsen Chorus, the Malden High School Chorus, Coral Arts Society perform at the inaugural ceremony. And not only um was the community impressed and elected officials impressed, but clearly our mayor was impressed who has made a generous donation to uh the Malden High School Coral Arts Society in the amount of $100. So, um I would like to make a motion that we accept this donation >> seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Any questions? Okay. Uh let's call the role. Mr. Drum, >> yes. >> Miss McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Horty, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> yes.

099>> Mr. Rosyberg, >> Mayor Christian, >> yes. That carries unanimously. Next up, proposed calendar. Miss Fedaphor. >> Thank you again. So, Superintendent Sipple um in collaboration with um the uh MEA president and the union has developed the 2026 2027 school year calendar that you have all received in your packet as well as emailed to you. Um, and not that we don't always work with our union, but specifically this year because the contract does state that our um educators will not start um the work year um prior to the Monday before Labor Day. However, um this coming Labor Day in September is a little bit later. It falls on the 7th. Um, and had we had started school the Monday um, before that, it would have been the 31st of August um, with then the next

100day off because of the state primary. Um, therefore, the proposed start date for the 2026 27 um, calendar year start date for educators will be August 24th. The start date for students in 1 through 12 will be August 26th. And the start day for our prek and kindergarten will be September 2nd. And if you um you're looking at the calendar, I wish I had shared it. Um for those at home, I'll make sure that um this gets up as soon as it's approved. Um students will um go to school the 26th, 27th, 28th, so 3 days. Um come back to school the following Monday. have September 1st off for the state primary, come back to school Wednesday, Thursday, have the Friday off before Labor Day as we always have and then Labor Day. So, it

101is it's a little bit of a jumbo jumble, but if we hadn't done it this way, we would have been getting out of school really late in June. We would have really pushed up to an um without snow days, I believe the 21st of June, 22nd of June. So then factor in five snow days into that and we could have been potentially looking at rolling up close to that July one date and nobody wants to be students, educators, anybody. Um so I I really appreciate the work that was put into um working collaboratively with our teachers union. Um and I would like to make a motion that we ex adopt. I do have a question from >> please >> my chair. Um just in regards to um the January dates we have Martin Luther King

102Day off and then the following Monday professional development day similar to what we had today a PD day and then next week um Martin Luther King Day. I I'm just curious. I feel like those back-toback Monday offs after parents have had their kids over winter break, it could get a little I'm not saying we don't love our kids, but just to come back to school for a couple weeks to then have a couple Mondays off. I don't know if there's any possibility of pushing that PD up a week to like February 1st to break up those, you know, Martin Luther King Day Junior holiday and then two weeks later a PD day and then two weeks later we're going out on on February vacation. >> So I um don't have my notes in front of

103me. We looked at a lot of different options. um for the PD days. We definitely wanted to make sure that it was scheduled not um abuing the winter break um that people would have a chance to come back and then like we did today. They had a full week of school under their belts and then they were able to come and really focus on professional development and it was not vacation, it was professional development. Um, as far as those two dates, um, having having a little bit of of time between the winter vacation and then those two dates and then having two more full weeks before the February break. I think that was the the idea was to have two full weeks after the winter break and then two full weeks before the February break.

104So, I think that was the rationale. >> Okay. I just know January we do do our access testing and that's coming into play. So, I I was just curious about just this kind of break, but um it was just a a suggestion that I felt would benefit students as well. >> Great questions from the team. Miss Horty. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Vice Chair, I had the same question. Why are we not having any PD in March, which is well known as the longest month in school ever? Um I know we have limited PD days. I also know that the MCCAST window opens then, but January feels a little crowded already. >> So, the the rationale partly is that we have mid-year data that we're able to access and to dig into with our teams

105and make adjustments and make tweaks to so that that training is actually informing and supporting the instruction going on for the second half of the year. Whereas if we delayed it until March, the certainly it could impact instruction going on in the fall. >> But um but there would be a limited more limited benefit to the instructioning for the rest of this this school year if we waited until March to do it. >> And I think especially um you mentioned the testing window that that does open in March. um any adjustments we're able to make um in training that's relevant um and providing it in January, we would have um just more time to put it into place and implement it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else questions, queries, qualms, concerns? If not,

106you making the motion? Motion by Miss Spataphor. It's been seconded by Mr. Bernard. Any final questions? Clerk will call the role. >> Mr. Drum. >> Mr. McCarthy? >> Yes. >> Miss Bataphora? >> Yes. >> Miss Mlin? >> Yes. >> Miss Hordie? >> Yes. >> Mr. Piaza? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bernard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ozyberg? >> Yes. >> Mayor Christensen? >> Yes. That carries unanimously. All right. Next up, personal privilege left to right. Mr. Drum. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, real quick, the uh Ferryway School PTO and school site council meeting will be tomorrow night, 6 o'clock on Google Meets. If you go to the Ferryway School PTO web page, you'll see the connection there. Uh, Thursday of this week, which is the 15th, Fairway is having a uh talent show and I believe

107there's several jud judges on this committee if I'm not mistaken. So, I look forward to seeing you there that night and the kids are really excited about this. Um, Principal Stall asked me to let parents know we'd love to have you to come. Um, you can't get into the it's it was shut off as of Friday, so no more no more active participants. So, anybody that's in it is already scheduled in it and they'll be there on Thursday. And then last but not least, uh starting uh February 20th, yeah, February, January 20th to February 13th, they're having a paper drive for the fairway school. So, napkins, uh anything they can use for uh to help uh kids having parties or movie nights or whatever. Paper, any kind of paper products, please feel free to bring

108it to the PTO in the office. Uh there is no school Monday because it's again we just discussed it Martin Luther King Day. And last but not least I want to wish my wife a happy anniversary which is this Wednesday. So thank you Mr. Chairman and oh welcome Peter. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh just press your light if you want to speak. Uh Mr. Piaza. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. Appreciate the reminder. Uh so a few updates from the Salemwood school. Uh we just mentioned it a minute ago. Access testing for multilingual learners in WEDA levels one through four will begin on Tuesday, January 12th. That'll run through Friday, February 13th. Uh Miss Van, Principal Van asked me uh to thank families in advance for ensuring that students get to bed early uh ahead of

109their testing, come to school on time, and do their very best on access testing on their scheduled day. Uh a few updates uh about events from the Salemwood FTO, the family teacher organization as we call it. January 14th, uh the FTO is having its monthly meeting. That's at 6 PM. Anybody who's interested in joining can email MPS as in Malden Public Schools. PTO. So PTO is in the email, but FTO is what we call it. That's just what it is. mps.salemwood. ptogmail.com if you're interested in getting involved. January 16th, the FTO has a movie night for grades 1 through 4. January 20th is the cosplay social with Malden Cosplay. That's grades seven and 8, 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the um the middle school cafeteria. Uh, and then finally at Salem Wood, January 23rd, grades

110seven and eight have their dance from 6 to 8:00 PM. >> Thank you. What was the date uh the cause? >> January 20th. All right. Very good. Anybody else? All right. Let's go. Uh, let's see. Miss Rose Zyberg. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> We'll go to Miss Horty. >> Thank you. over at the Lynden this Thursday and Friday. This is a new thing for them. They are putting up a set of oneact plays. It's their one act play showcase. Um you can get tickets on Facebook and on Parent Square. There will be no tickets at the door. So please please um you know show a lot of support for them. Um student tickets are $5, adults are $7. Again you can get it on Facebook and Parent Square. Doors will open at 6:30 and

111your tickets will be at will call. STG will be selling candygrams that you can send out to um the different students and there will also be concessions or sales. So again, doors at 6:30, no tickets at the door. They are getting ready for their next stuffy sleepover, which is when the kids bring their stuffed animals to the school um and they get to sleep over in the school building. That's going to be Saturday, January 31st. That's for K to4 students. It's a free event and that's going to be from 1 to 3. students bring in their stuffed animal and then they get to make a craft. Typically they um get a shoe box and get to decorate that to make like a little bed so that their stuffy can be nice and comfortable for the

112weekend. Um so they are looking for donations of shoe boxes, fabrics, any kind of materials that you can think kids might be able to use in order to decorate those shoe boxes. Um after that when they they make the shoe boxes the stuffies then go into the uh shoe boxes. they get a story read to them and the stuffed animals then um are returned on Monday. Be looking for forms that are going to be going out for that um event pretty soon. Um February 2nd is going to kick off their readathon. The theme this year is read around the world. Be watching for information on spirit days that will be during that readathon. February 4th is their book character day. They knew that one already. So you get to dress as your favorite book character.

113February 4th we will be walking to school again. So, the walk to school event, some of you do it all of the time. Um, meet at 7:35 at Steve's Corner, which is the one of the usual spots, but they are changing it this time. Um, the other location for meetings is at Eli's garage, which is right where is the corner of Beach and Salem. They're seeing if that might be easier for some folks to get there. So, again, that's meeting at 7:35 to give time for everybody to get to school. Um, and just on a very personal, I want to give a shout out to W 8 resident, Lynden alum, and Men High alum, Harrison Zyberg, who right now, I'm sorry, honey, I didn't make it home in time. Um, his one act play that

114he wrote called Exit is getting a cold read done tonight by a theater group um on Long Island. Um, just thank you for everybody who worked on him getting his English language arts skills going. Um, he he's done a lot of work. This is the second time he's had this um this show go up, so it's exciting for him. Um and I'm sorry I didn't make it home, but break a leg. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Horty. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh the Forsill PTO is sponsoring the Winterball Dance for students in grade three and four on Friday, January 28th at 6 PM. It is a drop off and pickup event. Um everyone else has already mentioned the district-wide events. Um, but a shout out should go to the ELLL team and access testing

115leaders, especially uh Forestdale Zone, Miss Hovveny Hovven Shin, I think I said that right. I'm sorry if I didn't, who has been preparing and organizing and getting everything together to to get that started tomorrow. And I have to mention how fortunate we are to have a a hero principal in our district and Mr. Wye. For those of you who don't know, Mr. will die. Literally went into a burning building and rescued his neighbor's pets. So, big shout out to him because I I know it's it's there's only certain people in the world who can do that and we're lucky that he works with us. >> Thank you, Miss Mlin. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh just quickly, um Bell of the Ball is back. Um accepting referrals now. Um Bell of the Ball is for

116junior and senior prom goers who may not otherwise be able to afford the expense of prom. Um they will set you up with a gown, shoes, accessories. Um your personal shopper. Um the date uh for the red carpet is uh April 11th. However, there is an early referral incentive. So, if you get your referral in by January 30th, you're able to pick your um your time um for April 11th, whether it be morning, midday, or afternoon. Um all students need a referral. You can certainly reach out to me. I'll send the flyer to um the counselors and faculty at Malden High School. Um and happy new year, everyone. And welcome, Peter. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Bettaphor. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh things are quiet in BB at the moment, so I have more

117districtwide information. And the first is uh there is a current open seat on the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School School Committee. And if you are a Malden resident and interested in um applying, the school committee along with the city council will be conducting interviews and selecting um a candidate. The application process, all resumeumés and letter of interest has to be returned to the clerk of the school committee, Miss Langston sitting here next to me, a langston moldenps.org or by Friday, January 16th at 400 p.m. and then interviews and a formal vote will select a candidate for appointment on Monday, January 26 at 6 p.m. here in city council chambers. Um, in addition, we have the Molden CPAC uh, invites families, educators, and community members to attend Pathways to Friendship, a special presentation by Phoebe Goodman

118and Jonathan Spiler Spiller from the Ark of Massachusetts. And that is Thursday, January 15th at 6:00 PM at the Lynen School and on Zoom. In addition, the CPAC is um holding their um board election. So, if you're interested in being on the special education parent advisory committee, there are numerous positions open that you can um nominate yourself for or be nominated for, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and advisory board members. And those nominations are also due January 15th. Um, it you can email CPAC Malden, so sep.com. And the uh election date and time will be January 29th at 6:30 p.m. here at city hall room 105 and also on teams. And I think that is all I have. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Batter. Just two comments from the chair. First, this Sunday, January 18th,

119from 3 to 6:00 p.m. will be the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, which will be held at the Emanuel Baptist Church, located at the corner of Hillside Avenue and Eastern Avenue. All are welcome to attend. It's uh one of my favorite events of the year, and um I hope you'll all attend. Uh secondly, uh I do want to remind everyone, and I'll be doing this leading up to the vote, but March 31st will be a day that will determine where we go moving forward. So that will be the date of the special election to determine whether or not we are willing to increase our taxes. Uh, and that will be from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. So, it's regular election hours and locations. They'll be held at every ward in every precinct. I would

120encourage everyone leading up to that to go on at www.c cityofmalden.org/override. That has become our repository of everything that members need to know about this important vote. So again, March 31st, 2026, which is a Tuesday, from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. And again, I don't think I need to restate the importance, but from the formula to us just being notified that our summer jobs program for our youth is going to be reduced 36%. to us losing roughly $850,000 from the community mitigation fund that we were getting from Encore. The beat goes on. You know, we have alerted our delegation. I believe they're doing all that they can, but unfortunately and ultimately this will come down to us. So again, please get informed. I respect anyone that cannot support this, but I just want everyone to

121be informed before they make their decision. So, city of malden.org/override. Uh, with that being said, we'll now entertain a motion to go into executive session. Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Mr. Bernard. Clerk will call the role. Mr. Dummy, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarthy, >> yes. >> Miss Bataphora, >> yes. >> Miss Mlin, >> yes. >> Miss Wordy, >> yes. >> Mr. Piaza, >> yes. >> Mr. Bernard, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosyberg, >> yes. >> Mayor Christensen, >> yes. School committee will now be in executive session. All right, everyone. The school committee is back. We'll entertain any motions from the members. Miss Bataphor. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to make a motion that we approve uh 3% cola retro July 1, 1225 for the BB site coordinator. >> Second. >> Most >> motion

122>> most BB site coordinator >> seconded by Mr. Drum. Any discussion? >> Clerk will call the role. >> Mr. Drum. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCarthy. >> Yes. >> Miss Bataphora. Yes, Miss Mlin. Miss Hordy. >> Yes, >> Mr. Piaza. >> Yes, >> Mr. Bernard. >> Yes, >> Mr. Rosyberg. Mayor Christensen. >> Yes. That carries unanimously. >> Now we'll entertain a motion to Oh, motion by Mr. Drum, second by Mr. McCarthy. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. Go Pittsburgh. >> Hereby a journey.