001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Malden School Committee meeting for Monday, June 9th, 2025. The time is 6:04 p.m. This evening's agenda will be as follows. As always, we'll pledge allegiance to our flag. We'll then have a moment of silence for our veterans. Our clerk will then take attendance to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together. From there, we'll get into this evening's agenda. Uh the first matter will be the approval of minutes as we always do. These minutes are from May 5th, 2025. From there, we'll go to public comment. Uh we're going to have 15 minutes of public comment, three minutes per speaker. If there's uh something that we miss you, please feel free to reach out by email or call, and we'll do our very best to
002get back to you with whatever questions that you may have. After that, uh we'll go to the superintendent. His report will consist of figuring out where to go forward in the school year 2026 and beyond. And within that, he'll talk about the entry plan findings, the strategy for improvement, school improvement plans, which we always do around this time, and then finally visioning for the future. The other item within the superintendent's report is health curriculum adoption process and recommendation. Now after the superintendent uh we'll hear from our chairs in the subcommittee reports and discussion which we have two uh first is the budget and second is negotiations of which Miss Batteraphor will speak to both. After that, we'll go into our consent agenda, which is the warrants from the month of May. And then uh after
003that, we'll entertain a series of motions and resolutions. The first will be from Mr. Drum regarding a fairway school cafeteria dedication. Uh Miss Horty is going to speak about the admission of non-resident students. Uh then we'll go to Miss Bataphora who also is going to be speaking about the assignment of students to schools. And then to my left to your right uh Mr. Bernard will talk about the health curriculum adoption which the superintendent will touch upon in his report. And then back to Miss Spataphora on facility rental rates for our schools. and we'll stay with Miss Batterfor to talk about next year's budget and then we'll stay with her one more time on the school improvement plans. Now after that everyone we'll take points of personal privilege as we always do and then we will
004go into executive session for four reasons. Uh the first is we will take up the minutes from May 5th. Uh and then item number two is to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining. Um and this has to do with Maltin versus the supervisor of public records. Uh and then after that item three is to discuss collective bargaining strategy as it relates to SEIU local 888. And then finally uh we will discuss collective bargaining strategy as it relates to the Malden Education Association units A, B, and C. Uh from executive session, we'll come back out. We do not anticipate any votes from executive session. So we would simply adjourn until our next meeting which is not scheduled but we do anticipate coming back uh mid to late June uh to discuss the superintendent's evaluation. So
005that um I would just check your calendars because we do anticipate us coming back together for that purpose and any others that may arise at that time. So, are there any questions of the members? All right, hearing none, let's pledge allegiance to our flag first. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing if you would just for a moment of silence. for all those who have fought for our country and continue to do so today. Thank you. Let's ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together. Mayor Christensen here. Mr. Drum here. Mr. McCarthy here. Miss Baphora here. Miss Mlin here. Miss Hordy here. Mr.
006Gray here. Mr. Bernard here. Miss Roseberg here. Superintendent Sipple here. So we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to legally come together. Let's take a look at these minutes now. May 5th. Any questions on those? You've all had a chance to review them. Motion by Miss Fatforest, seconded by Mr. Drum. Any questions, queries, qualms, concerns? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. The minutes of May 5th, 2025 are adopted unanimously. Okay. Public comment. Uh, so again, this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the school committee. We only ask that you state your name and address for the record. Uh again, we'll do three minutes per speaker and we'll have public comment available for 15 minutes. We're also going to uh toggle back
007and forth between in person and those who might be attending our meeting remotely. So, with that being said, public comment is now open. Sorry, I was a little eager. Uh Bonnie Little John, 127 Emerald Street. I respectfully ask and would appreciate it if you could consider having the budget public forum on a day prior to the day of the school committee meeting with the expected voting. I feel having the forum the same day as the vote would not allow time to digest the concerns that the public has brought to the committee. It would leave time for you to possibly ask for more thought and clarifications before your vote. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now. Okay, welcome aboard. Hi. Um, good evening. Uh, my name is
008Nicole Chelman. Uh, my address is 77 Exchange Street and I am a member of the MEA. to the members of the Malden School Committee and Superintendent Sipple. Whereas the Malden Education Association and the Malden School Committee has been negotiating successor contract agreements for all three bargaining units since January 2025. Whereas the final scheduled bargaining session of the school year between the Malden Education Association and Malden School Committee is set for June 18, 2025, nine days from now. Whereas the contracts of each bargaining unit within the Malden Education Association are set to expire on August 31st, 2025. Whereas since fiscal year 2008, the city of Malden has been dramatically divesting in public education despite significant increase in increases in state aid over the same period. Whereas fiscal year 2025 is on pace to become the fourth
009time since 2012 that Malden will have spent less than the legal minimum on its public schools. Whereas the Malden school committee does not need to wait for or abide by mayor's by the mayor's funding recommendations. If the school committee passes the budget the Malden public schools need, the community can lobby the mayor and city council to fully fund our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now. I'm Liza Blackman, 77 Exchange Street. I am a member of the MEA. Um whereas the stated core values of the Balden public schools are inclusion and collaboration, embracing growth and doing right by our students. We the undersigned over 400 members of the Maltton Education Association demand that the Malden School Committee settle a fair contract with the educators of
010Malden immediately. The Malden Education Association demands a contract that includes safe and welcoming schools for a diverse workforce, class sizes that meet educator needs and allow students to thrive, professional respect and individual and union rights, paid family leave policies that align with the private sector and allow Malden educators to care for themselves and their families as they do the students in the Malden public schools. competitive compensation to recruit and retain highquality educators. A fair contract with the MEA is within reach and well within the city of Malden's means to fund. Over the same divestment period since fiscal year 2008, Malden has accumulated 27 million in free cash, a 1,025% increase. But the Malden School Committee needs to share our sense of urgency to reverse the destructive trends that jeopardize the education of Maldin students. The
011Malden Education Association hereby calls upon the school committee to settle a fair contract before the end of the school year and the expiration of our current agreement. All right. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now. Uh good evening. My name is Ross Baldridge. teach eighth grade civics at the Salem Wood School. I am speaking here tonight as both an eighth grade civics teacher in the Malden public schools and also as a concerned citizen. We are living through dangerous and a dangerous and disturbing period in American history and watching people be stripped of their constitutional rights. So, I am here to ask that you commit yourself, the committee, and the Malden public schools to ensuring that we have safe school zones as it relates to the enforcement of this administration's illegal
012policies and actions. Specifically, the educators of the Malden Public Schools need to know that you will stand behind us in protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our community. We need to know that should ICE agents masked or unmasked attempt to enter our school building, for example, as we are entering or exiting the building and a staff member denies them access to the building, that you not only do not discipline that employee, but support them publicly and if need be in the courts for upholding the district policy as it relates to ICE. The attacks on our community do not end, however, with those who come from immigrant immigrant backgrounds. That is why we are here also requesting that you protect members of the LGBTQ plus community, specifically members of the transgender community whose existence
013is currently being threatened by the administration. We ask that the new contract include language that protects their rights within the workplace. Since the school committee already has a Malden safe school zone policy, we are simply asking that we work together and formalize our shared values and priorities into the contract for the sake of our staff, our students, and families. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee? Hi, my name is Heather Cochran. Um, the address is 77 Exchange Street in Malden. I am an intensive learning program teacher at the ELC. Tonight, I want to talk about the importance of class sizes. Needless to say, research has shown the multiple benefits of smaller classes. Advocacy for these classes is nothing you new. Yet, I am standing here in the wake of classroom cuts at
014the ELC. In the fall, we will lose three of our current classrooms. However, the students keep coming because children turn three year round. No one locks the doors when the classrooms are full. Limits and capacities are numbers on paper that look far different in reality. And so, while there are undoubtedly classes throughout the district that are not at capacity, they may in fact still have too many students. Yes, my students have highly complex needs and require smaller class sizes due to the nature of the instruction. However, this does not negate the benefits of smaller classes for all students and educators. When teachers have the advantage of fewer students in their classrooms, they can teach the children in front of them and tailor the instruction to those individuals. How often are students who seem perhaps better
015behaved or seem to maybe be at a quote higher level overlooked because they don't appear to have the same needs as other children in their classrooms? More often than anyone, including all of us, would like to admit. No student ever should be overlooked. And all children have needs. Malden educators are amazing. I know many who would take any number of students and still have those students succeed. But what is the cost and who will bear it? What student teacher ratio would you like your child to have? Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now? Let me just check on the uh clock. How we doing? Okay, so we got another probably five, seven minutes. Good evening, school committee members, Mayor Christensen, and Dr. Sipple. My name is Kevin Miles,
016and I live at 23 McCormick Street here in Malden. If it ain't broke, why fix it? The MEA is asking the school committee to withdraw a a proposal that would change a longlasting a longstanding practice of that the MEA and school committee share the union president's salary. This would very much damage our Okay. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee can do so now. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Sonia Miller. I'm an ESL teacher at the Lenman Steam Academy. I'm speaking tonight to the need for stronger, longer paid family leave policies that align with the private sector and allow Malden educators to care for themselves and their families as they do the students of M public schools. I could talk about my own chronic medical issues as a lifelong epileptic, my recent
017diagnosis as a type two diabetic, and my occasional issues with severe acute back pain, but my own personal medical issues do not illustrate the need for better paid family leave as much as those of my colleague and dear friend Connie Egan. She's unable to be here tonight. She's finally retiring, though not in the way that she had hoped. I'm sharing her story with permission. I will not list the many chronic conditions Connie lives with on a daily basis or how despite all she continued to show up every day to work. When we first met, I pushed her in her wheelchair wherever she needed to go. She transitioned in and out of a walker over the years, always enthusiastic to teach, always willing to help, and always inval with invaluable insight. She showed up every day
018until she could not. And if you know Connie, you know she is the original Energizer Bunny. Coming to the realization that she needed to truly take time to care for herself was a moment of significant change for her. She used her few remaining sick days. Like many of us with chronic conditions, our sick days do not tend to pile up. And in her last year as an educator, she quickly ran out of sick days when she needed them most. She applied for FMLA. And after she had tapped all of her resources, she spent the last several months leading up to her retirement on unsick unpaid unpaid sick leave. Because she no longer has an income, because she still has to care for herself, attend countless appointments with specialists, obtain labs, receive imaging, all while still
019having to pay for her mortgage, her utilities, pay for food for every dayto-day expense. She found herself in a situation we all hope we never have to find ourselves in. She was forced to sell her house to pay for her medical bills and her own daily needs. Her situation is one that longer paid medical leave could have avoided. Her situation is one that 12 full weeks of paid medical leave could prevent for other mold education workers. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee? Good evening. Hi, my name is Kim Foley. I live in Wakefield. I am in the ILP room instruct uh intensive instruction. Throughout my tenure as an educational assistant, I have consistently needed to supplement my income with additional jobs to make ends meet. Conversations with colleagues
020have revealed that this is a widespread experience with many facing substantial financial challenges. The general consensus is that achieving home ownership requires sharing living expenses with roommates. Yet, even this arrangement often necessitates reliance on food pantries and heating assistance programs. This year has been particularly enlightening for me. As my husband's injury forced us to rely solely on my income, highlighting the difficulties of prioritizing essential expenses, this experience has made it clear that the issue at hand is not one of discretionary spending, but rather a fundamental question of whether to allocate limited resources towards essential expenses such as heating or food. It is essential that wages be sufficient to cover basic living expenses. We find ourselves stretched so tightly for money that any additional financial crisis could can put us in dire straits. This is unacceptable.
021We need a living wage that lets us put our focus on our children and not on how we are going to survive financially. Okay. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee? Okay, we have enough for probably one more. Okay. Okay. Now, if we missed anyone, you can always reach out to us via email or call us or however you communicate with us and we'll try to get back to you as quickly as we can. Please. My name is Chris Jordano. I live at 19 Street in Malden and have been working at Malden High School for 15 years. I'm here before you today to voice my concern about the persistent issue of underststaffing at Maltton High School, its relationship to our shared concern about student overenrollment in directed studies, and how the budget impacts these
022issues. And I think the mayor's concerns over the lower assessed tax values compared to other gateway communities will really be highlighted by some of the numbers I'd like to share. Based on the most recent DESIE data from school year 2024, Maltton High School had a student teacher ratio of 16 to1 with 118.3 teachers. Most high schools in Massachusetts, however, fell between 10:1 and 13.1:1 student teacher ratios. For some comparables, if we had LOL High School's or Chelsea High School student teacher ratio of 14.5 to1, we would need to hire 12.3 more teachers at Maltton High School. If we had River Haveril or Everett High School teacher ratio of 13.4 to1, we would need to hire 23 more teachers at Maltton High School alone. If we had Melrose or Holio's student teacher ratio of 12.3 to1,
023we would need to hire 35.6 6 more teachers. If we had Somerville's student teacher ratio of 10.3 to1, we would need to hire 65.5 teachers. If we had Medford's student teacher ratio of 9.3 to1, we would need to hire 85.2 teachers at Molton High School alone. The chronic understaffing that we have been experiencing at Molton High School plays a major part in why there are so many students enrolled in directed studies. There are simply not enough teachers to provide options for our students to fill their schedules with. The school has understandably poured its limited resources into making sure students can meet their mandatory graduation requirements. But that means that there are fewer elective courses in our core content areas available to students and there is insufficient staffing of elective subjects to meet the requirements placed
024upon these students. The most direct way to fix the issue of too many students in being in directed studies is to increase the budget and hire more teachers. Raising the revenue to make that happen is difficult, but our children are worth it. Anybody else wishing to address the school committee? All right, we're going to close it there. Do you want to just wrap with these two? So, we'll we'll we'll finish with you two. Okay. And then uh we'll get back to our regularly scheduled meeting. Thank you. Good. Good evening. My name is Karen Hill and this is Lisa Keane, 77 Exchange Street. We are the team chairs at the Early Learning Center. We're here tonight to speak on our concerns regarding the proposed elimination of the early childhood program manager position and tonight's proposed budget.
025We understand the district is facing budget restrictions and cuts are being made. That being said, we're here to highlight how critical the program manager position is to our program and how disruptive it would be to our school to lose this. The following is a list of responsibilities overseen by program managers at the ELC. Conducting transition planning conference meetings as children move out of early intervention and into the district's special education evaluation process. creating and sending out initial evaluation consent forms for identified areas of need for children aging out of early intervention or referred by parents. Overseeing student placements into classrooms and programs. Ensuring compliance with the 30 and 45day evaluation timelines and ensuring that services are in place by the child's third birthday. Reviewing and signing IEPs. As of today, Lisa and I have chaired
026366 meetings. By the end of the year, we'll be close to 375, which is comparable to the volume at Malden High School, which has a program manager and two team chairs. conducting staff evaluations in Vector, overseeing the statemandated indicator 7 process for inca incoming and outgoing special education students, hiring staff for the extended school year program, participating in student classroom placement for upcoming school year, and the program manager works a longer year and would support summer hiring for the upcoming school year and anything else that comes up that needs to be addressed in the summer. In addition, given that the ELC is undergoing programmatic changes, including the change to our half-day schedule and that there has been a finding from DESIE that will need an action plan, having a program manager dedicated to the ELC
027to support the students youngest learners and their families will be so important. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. All right. Thank you everyone. We're going to close public comment and just reiterate what we said during the public hearing on the budget, which is that we're doing all that we can with what we have. I get the sense this is us verse them. It's not that. Believe me, when we're using 8 million of the 25 or 27 million that someone mentioned at the podium tonight just to balance our operating budget in two years, we'll be out of business. So, we have to figure out what to do. And that's what we intend to do after this budget process is over. uh we are going to give it everything we have to find a
028path forward because our efforts at the state and they have their own problems is not going to work. Uh they have indicated to us that they do plan to look at chapter 70 through a study committee but we need help now and so we're on our own. We're going to have to work together. Believe me, we love to spend but you can't spend what you don't have. And uh if you think it's bad here, you know, a town north of us just laid off dozens of teachers. You know, we're not there yet. But if we don't find a path forward, we will be there. And so, it's going to take all of us and it's especially going to take the people outside this room. Uh because again, there we don't see any help coming from
029Washington or the state. So again, um I know it's not what you want to hear. It's not what we want to hear. We love to invest. We love to spend. If we had it, we'll spend it. But the reality is we are using onethird of our reserves which are intended to be for emergencies. Uh a sinkhole, uh a grant that we depend on that all of a sudden is cut. Uh streets and sidewalks. That's what that money is intended for. But because of what you're doing, we are utilizing onethird of those reserves to keep us in business next fiscal year. And again, at that run rate, if nothing changes, you know, one to two years, we'll be out of reserves and then I really don't want to think of what happens next. So, I would
030just ask for your indulgence. Let's get through this budget process and then let's get to work. All right. Now, over to our school superintendent. Two arrows. Oh, it is the wrong slice. Thank you whoever said that. April, June, you know. really the wrong slides. You've seen those before though. Many of you have seen those before. You have to just cancel. There we go. Yay. We transitioned from Zoom to Teams and we're still experiencing some growing pains. So, thank you for bearing with us everyone and good evening members of the committee. Mayor Christensen. Um it's really good to be with you here tonight. Um going to um get this down here. We're going to uh um talk about a few things tonight. U just in general an umbrella topic of conversation tonight is going to be
031charting our path forward in uh SY26 and beyond um which I'll speak more about in a moment. And then also there's been a process over the last uh several months to um al adopt or select a curriculum aligned with the uh updated Massachusetts frameworks for health and we have a recommendation for that that we'll be sharing this evening as well. Um our core values are including and collaborate, embracing growth and doing right by all kids. You'll see uh as we move through these uh this report tonight many ways that um that we have gone about this work and continue to go about this work in an inclusive and collaborative way embracing the growth uh the opportunity and possibility of growth of our educators of our students and our community and with a commitment to doing
032right by all kids. So, charting my path forward, uh, we'll be looking at just a a final endofear recap of the findings from my entry into the school district. Uh, I was just commenting to a couple of members a little while ago that this is my anniversary just about. I think my uh final interview and appointment was well not a little end of May and then I think June 6th was the the first school committee meeting was when I was officially officially appointed, I believe. So, it's kind of cool. Good to be here. Um, we'll also be uh sharing our strategy for improvement this coming year. I'll be sharing at a very high level and then I'll be inviting assistant superintendent Bassine and all of our school principles to talk uh very briefly about the
033school improvement plans at each of our schools. And then I'll be speaking about visioning for the future. Some uh areas of interest that uh definitely I heard loud and clear from many members of our community that we need to continue dialogue about and study together in the coming year. And I'll highlight those items as well as well as sharing a little bit about the goals that you set for me back in November and how uh how things have gone. So I will that this will all be in this this section of charting our path forward. For those of you who uh aren't don't remember or aren't familiar, uh the my entry plan this past year, last summer after I was appointed and even before uh beginning in June even, uh I really endeavored to immerse
034myself in the community here in Malden to meet as many people as I could to begin meeting with each of the school committee members with the mayor uh as well as as many other members of the community uh as I could with our principles. um in no August through November, two phases concurrently uh were listening to learn spending time listening to educators. Uh I conducted listening sessions at each of our seven schools in the fall as well as had town hall meetings with our parents and caregivers across the city and online to really hear people's ideas of what they loved about Malden Public Schools and also the things that they saw in urgent need of attention and their dreams for the longer term. I also spent a lot of time in classrooms and at schools.
035And I I hope all of the educators here tonight can remember the day that I came to their room. And if any of you don't remember me coming to your room, please let me know because I've got four days left and I want to make sure that I keep my promise of getting to every classroom this year. Um I think we think that I've I've I've managed to do that. Um, and it's been a joy to see all of our educators hard at work with our students. Um, all of the the diverse uh learning environments that we have and all the hard work going on across all seven of our schools to do right by our students. Starting in December, we began to compile that data uh and look at trends that were coming from
036the listening sessions that I had. We began to also uh use surveys to confirm that we were hearing the right the right message from our community um both and from our educators. Um and then we began sharing feedback uh seeking feedback rather from both uh from all members of our community as I shared what I had heard what we had heard um as a district leadership in the in the winter. And now here we are time to think about next year. And we've been spending the last several uh weeks and months um preparing for next year both in terms of our uh improvement planning, school improvement planning and also in terms of the budget for next year to make sure that it's aligned with those priorities. And that's what we'll be talking about more tonight.
037Maldin's strengths were loud and clear and I've shared that these were some of the very strengths that drew me to Maldin to apply for this role in the first place. And the wonderful thing was again and again and again in in town hall after town hall and school visit after school visit and classroom after classroom. I saw these strengths on full display. diverse and talented students, engaged parents and caregivers, committed educators and leaders, and a very supportive city and community. Also, across all of those engagements and all of those conversations and all of those visits, um these areas for collective action rose to the surface. the need to affirm high expectations for all students. The need to adapt our instruction to meet diverse needs and make sure that our staff had the both the the
038training and also the resources to make that happen. To ensure fair access to opportunities regardless of which school our student uh students attended or which classes they may have been assigned when they met when they reached the high school. uh nurturing a strong workforce and then finally building strength and stability and I skipped one partnering with families effectively and I'll speak very briefly about I've spoken about those several times over the course of the last three months in March, April and May. What I want to get to tonight is our strategy for improvement for next year. And uh one of the the the very very um my favorite days of each month for the last year has been usually the third Thursday. Uh each month the uh all of the district administration um the assistant
039superintendent and our directors at at the district level in all the various content areas, our program managers for special education and all of our principles and all of our assistant principles. some 42 people in all. We gathered together for our Malden leadership team uh meeting and one thing that we've been working on all year long and and in earnest since January um has been our strategy for improvement for next year. We have two priorities districtwide. One is to ensure that our students in the classrooms in every classroom are doing the heavy lifting that they're really engaged intellectually in curiosity in dialogue with one another and investigating uh ideas and really um enjoying learning and that it's very evident that they are. We have a whole set of uh instructional u look fors that we've that
040we've developed in a collaborative way and we've shared with teachers to be able to see whether that's happening and how we can support it happening more. And then another priority uh involves something called multi-tered systems of support uh or frequently in education speak MTSS which really talks about how well we're organizing our schools and our system to make sure that students get the support they need um in the regular classroom and then as they if they need more support to identify them, give them that support and then be able to make sure that they're on their way. And specifically for next year, our priority is making sure that students are reading well who are reading well below grade level receive intervention that they need to make sure they have the phonics skills that they need
041to be able to uh enter middle school and then high school um with the skills that they need to be successful because our system isn't designed to do that well enough yet. And then we have our school priorities which are in our school of improvement plans. So at this time I'm going to invite assistant superintendent uh Ko Ko Bassin up to come and speak and lead us through the process that kind of developed these strategies and then also um she'll in turn invite each of our principles to come up as well. Thank you Dr. Cibil. Um and good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee tonight. As you know, in your packets, you have um a school improvement plan from each of our Malden schools. And as the superintendent said, these represent
042months of collaborative work planning for the upcoming school year with an eye towards doing right by all kids. I'll provide a few minutes of context as to how these plans are developed and then I'll introduce our wonderful principles to share very brief overviews of their individual school plans. So, as you know, per school committee policy and mass general law, school improvement plans must be written based on a review of school and district data. And as you know, we meet regularly within our central office principles, assistant principles, and house principles. And together in these meetings, we have reviewed assessment data as well as data from classroom observations to develop a district-wide priority around students doing the heavy lifting, which as the superintendent said means that when we walk into a classroom, we're excited to see students
043actively reading, writing, speaking, asking questions to one another, bouncing ideas off of others, and dare I say, enjoying learning. And we want to see this across content areas whether in English language arts, social studies, arts, electives, math, and science. So based on this data review, as the superintendent said, we also identified phonics intervention as an area of need for our K through8 buildings. So on the next slide, you'll see that within our district priorities, each school led an inclusive process over the past few months to develop a schoolspecific plan for next year. And as you can see from the timeline that we have here, uh the process that each school used to develop their plan included multiple rounds of educator input, family input, some student focus groups, and school council review. And as you've likely
044noticed in reviewing our plans, our school improvement plan template was slightly modified from last year to fit our current priorities and though the components remain consistent with Mass General Law and School Committee policy. And just to note some of the jargon in the plans, we do have, as the superintendent said, a component referred to as the MTSS priority. You'll see this on the next slide. So again, as you know, students receive grade level work in their core classes. But outside of our core classes, we have intervention blocks where students can receive support on the basic skills that they may need help with. Um, and that's what a multi-tiered system is. Um, so for next year, all of our schools will have an MTSS or multi-tered system of support priority focused on supporting students in grades
045K through eight who need help with phonics skills during their intervention block. So, because of our consistent template and because we work so collaboratively as a district to develop these plans, you'll see a lot of common elements in our school improvement plans. We've aligned our growth targets to what's expected from the state accountability system and you'll see consistent focus on our district priorities around professional development and the progress monitoring that we use. So, we're excited to be rowing in the same direction as a district. But you'll also hear about some school specific strategies to carry out the district-wide area focus. We're excited to see these areas of difference as well. and we hope to learn from what each of our schools try over the upcoming year to consider successful practices that we could then scale
046across the district. So we'll start by introducing to you our school improvement plans from our K through8 buildings. Um and let me start by introducing Dr. Kerianne Murphy. Hi. Thanks for having me. Um so I'm here to talk a little bit about the BB SIP uh or school improvement plan. We have as you heard three key priorities. The first academic priority is to have the students more actively engaged in their learning for more of the time. And to do that, we're all going to be focusing on our professional development and our inclassroom coaching for teachers so that we can help build the structures that are necessary for them to be able to support our students in having these dialogues and increasing our student engagement. for our MTSS priority or um our intervention priority. We do
047have um schedules that will allow us to have an intervention block specifically for literacy to address students in small groups with a walk-to-learn model. We were able to pilot that model this year and saw some tremendous results. So, we're looking to expand it grades two to eight um for next year. Our attendance priority is in line with the state's priority to bring us back to precoid attendance for chronic absenteeism. So, we are implementing a weekly monitoring system. We have a flowchart to help us be consistent in our follow-through for students that are out um and improve our communication with families and around what supports are available to help ensure that students are able to get to school on time. Dr. Stall. Hi. Thank you for having me. Um, as you heard from assistant superintendent and
048Dr. Murphy, a lot of the themes are going to be very much the same. Um, so our academic priority is really to activate the thinking among the students so that we can see them doing the majority of the the work in the classrooms with the reading and the writing. We're also focusing on a coaching model. Um, we really worked hard on establishing especially our ELA coaching model this year. We hope to build on that and branch on that and really focusing in on planning for all of the students and not just planning kind of one overall lesson. Making sure we're activating all of the students in whatever access points they need for the work. Our intervention priority um we actually took a little bit of a split. We have the foundational um reading at all
049the grade levels K to 8. Our upper grades were interested in making sure that we also had a lot of comprehension work because they felt like as the kids got older and older they wanted to incorporate excuse me the comprehension that goes with it. Our ILP classrooms also it was very important that they individualized the interventions to the specific needs of the students in their classrooms starting with the foundational reading but also focusing on the social skills and and that kind of element. Our attendance priorities u much like Dr. Murphy said we're trying to get back down to our prepandemic le levels. We are targeting 12% for our chronic attendance rate. Um, right now we broke it down and kind of really looked at the data and we really want to focus in on our
050special education population. So, we set ourselves a specific target with 15% uh as our special education population and actually 10% for our multi- language learners. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wy Forestdale. Thank you. Good evening, superintendent, Mr. Chairman, members. Uh I wrote it down so I don't talk too long. Um our academic priority this year is to ensure that all students are actively thinking, engaged, and joyful uh during their class periods with a special emphasis on designing appropriate scaffolds and supports in all of our lessons in order to meet the needs of our wide range of learners both on IEPs and multilingual learners. Our MTSS priority, similarly, is creating and supporting the targeted literacy intervention block for all students, making sure phonics instruction is provided to those well below grade level. One of our
051elementary teams this year with our extraordinary literacy coach, Kathleen Bracken, has actually been piloting an intervention like this. Uh, and so we're excited to be able to extend it to the other teams in the building. And last but not least, our attendance priority uh numbers wise is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 10% over the course of the year, which this year we are on track to do that by 5%. We're hoping for another 10 next year. But in spirit, uh it's about making sure we foster a sense of belonging both for our students and for our families and we make and maintain meaningful connections that will make school a place where they want to be and want to come to and would miss. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Lyndon, good evening and thank
052you. Um, so as you see, our our academic priority is educators will actively uh involve students in meaningful thinking um for the majority of instructional time. So this is academic discourse seeing students talking thinking in class um having great conversations about subject. Um so we we are training all of our teachers and administrators in UFly and this will the our our PD time will be used um for training and planning time to incorporate this into our lessons. Um MTSS priority students will receive our receive support at their level during the literacy and intervention blocks. So, we've worked really hard on developing a schedule that allows us to have um an inter intervention block where students who um are far below grade level, middle school students far below or that are below grade level, our ELELs
053and our students with disabilities will have exactly what they need for instruction. um in attendance. We are trying to go back to precoid and our goal is to um decre to reduce our chronic absenteeism um for all students to 14%. And our first line um to help our students and families will be our teachers and we're working really hard to build those relationships with our teachers and families. We have uh central office administrators and building administrators that will be working in and on ways to target students and interventions for attendance. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Van Wyn. Salemwood. Good evening. Um, like my colleagues before me, we at Salemwood are excited to share our school improvement plan with you. for our academic priority of ensuring that our students do the heavy lifting. We want our
054students to take ownership of their learning through reading, writing, and thinking. We are investing heavily in providing our staff with ongoing PD that ensures they are implementing strategies into lessons daily. Our leadership team will have consistent learning walks with feedback and next steps for MTSS. We want to ensure that all our students, especially our MLS and students with disabilities who are below grade level, will receive targeted ongoing interventions. And lastly, for attendance, we want to continue to work with our families and staff to ensure that our students are here every day on time and eager for learning. Thank you for your time and support. Thank you. want to invite Miss Tamara Lawrence, principal of Early Learning Center. And thank you, Miss Lawrence. Hi. Um, good evening. Um, so at the ELC, we are educating our
055youngest learners and the three so our SIP was reviewed and made adjustments with our um leadership team and our school council. Our three priorities are of course is to increase our literacy skills and readiness skills as well as our numeracy skills. How how are we going to do that? By aligning our current curriculums um while providing innovation um through dynamic programming that our fabulous teachers and staff have been doing already. Um so that's one and two. Number three is um because we are educating our youngest learners um attendance is on the parents. We pretty have pretty good attendance um barring sickness. Um so we're going to be focusing on develop um reinstituting our PBS um and ensuring that we identify a quality cell curriculum that is developmentally developmentally appropriate for our students. Thank you, Miss
056Lawrence. And last but not least, Malden High School, Mr. Mr. Angelo Thank you so much. Uh we're in line with the other school. A little bit different at the high school obviously. So our academic priority is really around students spending the majority of the lesson reading, speaking, writing, or thinking. Uh we're going to as an administrative team, we're going to up our game as far as classroom observations. We're going to get through the classes, make sure that we have common um strategies amongst all classes to improve these work towards our priority. Uh we are committing to daily walkthroughs as the administrative team uh with progress checks to asssure that we're aligned. Our MTSS priority is around our multil- language learners. Uh really prioritize ML experience to promote academic growth and most importantly language acquisition. Um,
057the biggest step that we're taking this upcoming year is we're implementing a co-eing model with our ELA classes where we'll have a multi- language learning uh, teacher in with our ELA classes to help support our goal of language acquisition. In our chronic absenteeism, we're trying to get it down like the rest. We are going to establish attendance portal for easy reporting attendance. The high school is a little different in the sense that we have daily attendance and class attendance. And we're going to be focusing on both uh having monthly faculty meeting updates, creating um templates for all staff to help assure that our assigned administrator with the help administrative team can stay on top of both daily and class attendance. Thank you. Thank you. So, um, I want to just thank all the principles and
058not just the seven principles, but also the teams and the educators and the families that they represent. Um, this really has been a a very dynamic and collaborative effort throughout the last several months and um, we'll keep getting better at it. Um, and that that's that's definitely a part of it. And again, a lot of these priorities that we talked about are about high expectations for all. They're about meeting diverse needs and they're also about making sure that there's fair access to opportunity in our schools. There were these five other uh topics uh of areas of interest that really really really uh were uh strongly communicated throughout the fall. Um that I also want to acknowledge and I want the uh all of the parents and the educators that shared about these things and other
059things to know that these have not been lost in the focus on the priorities that we've shared about tonight. One is about advanced learners. Uh I heard from many especially uh many parents and caregivers about a concern that their students not be bored, that their students not be uh feel like they're spinning their wheels in a class. And really doing heavy lifting, all students doing heavy lifting is going to go a long way towards meeting those needs. But there are situations where even more differentiation is needed. And this is an area that we'll be spending some time um having conversations um this coming this coming year and studying this this issue more. Preschool and early learning is another um we as you know we're a part of a Commonwealth preschool partnership initiative. Um, we are
060hoping that that funding is going to continue to really look at a communitywide effort to make sure that we have preschool opportunities for all of our students and also to continue to enhance the quality of the early learning center here that we offer directly in our district. Digital literacy and computer science. Um just really looking at this is you know continues to be uh an area that our students need to be prepared for the future whether it's artificial intelligence or coding or you name it our students need to have that skill set also and they need to be need to be very skilled and be able to know what's true what's not and what to believe and what not to believe and how to how to engage in um with the internet in a safe
061way um and in a competent and effective way. Two other areas are just expanding access in the performing arts. Uh we want to make sure that students at all of our K8 schools have access to coral music, instrumental music, theater, uh all of the performing arts. Um and it should not be dependent on which school you attend. And we want to make sure that there's a pipelines of talent and preparation for students to have a even more uh diverse experience in these areas when they get to the high school. And that is more and more students are a part of this because there's so much talent in our district. And then lastly, high school and post-secary success. Uh as Mr. Mr. Angelo can attest and many of the high school educators do, I spend a
062lot of time at the high school as a former high school principal. I love Malden High School and our our goal will continue to be to make sure that the the school prepares not just the high school but the students as they are moving towards the high school and through the high school and then beyond that they are really prepared to be successful in the broadest range of post-secary opportunities possible. So, I just want to transition really uh quickly into a self assessment on the goals that the committee approved for me last November. Um, one goal that you approved for me was that by late spring, the district will have broad agreement from key stakeholder groups about the district's most critical needs for improvement, the strategies and goals to address those those needs, and measures
063that will be used to assess progress. Certainly in the school improvement plans that you heard uh presented tonight, a lot of these elements are there. Uh as I shared my entry plan back last summer and the entry findings that I've been sharing about over the last several months, um we have consistently been identifying these these areas for critical need um that were really framing our strategy for improvement, but also driving the budget decisions that we've made also. And we're still we have a long way to go. Broad agreement is a high bar and um it's hard to keep everybody happy in a diverse community like Maldin. Um but we are really trying to listen as much as we can to as many stakeholders as possible to get that to achieve that broad agreement as we
064move forward. So that was goal number one. Goal number two is maintaining a focus on con uh continuous instruction during the transition. Continuous improvement during the transition. There's a word missing there. I apologize for that. But the uh but basically we spent a lot of time in the fall developing a common vision for effective instruction. We spent a lot of time making sure that we were aligned and and calibrated in terms of what that looked like and worked with the district leadership team to ensure that meaningful improvement was underway at all those levels. And as you can see, those various actions were were very very much um aligned to make sure that that that has been taking place as we had hoped it would. And then lastly, uh I've had to go back to school
065as it were um to the new superintendent induction program. Um we've had monthly meetings I together with some 25 to 30 other superintendents from across the Commonwealth and um I've been uh I can report to you as a committee that I've been very faithful in um doing all of my homework and making sure that I had um participated actively in all of those sessions and it's actually I must confess it's actually been very very helpful and useful. So with that uh Mr. Mr. Chair, I'm going to invite um Assistant Superintendent Bassine back up one more time to talk about the health curriculum unless you'd like to pause. Yeah, let's pause. Okay, super assistant superintendent Bassine, hold tight. Any questions of our superintendent so far? And if there be no objection, I think what we should
066do at this point in talking with our vice chair is let's um act on those school improvement plans while they're fresh in our mind. Chair here, objection. Chair, do you have objection to voting? Question. Are we going to do that first and then question? Hold on. Let me let me let me turn on your mic. Uh one sec. Go right ahead. Can you just tell me the order again? Sorry. You're under student rep. Hold on, please. Can you just say the order again? Like, should we be doing questions first and then take the vote? Yes. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, let's first take any questions of what the superintendent has said so far and then from there we'll take a look at the school improvement plans. Any questions, queries, qualms? Let's go to Miss Horty.
067Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Dr. Sipple, should I be asking you questions or should I be asking principles questions because I have some specific questions about some of the plans? Let's start with our superintendent. Okay. Um overall, uh this is a concern that I've had. I voiced it here and I'm going to voice it again and I voiced it to you personally in our meetings and I would be remiss if I didn't mention it especially after reviewing um some of the most recent test scores. I share your concern as I imagine the teachers are concerned and the um other administrators are concerned about um ELA writing, reading, speaking and listening. But I would say that I think I'm a little bit disappointed that I heard no mention of math in here. Um there is writing,
068thinking, and speaking in math. So I appreciate that aspect of it. But I think my bigger concern is the fact that when I looked at some of the um math, I was shocked. um having students in the district and knowing their own struggles with math as a specific area of need. Also knowing the support that students get um for reading, writing, comprehension, it just seems very unbalanced at this point. Um I'm wondering as a district clearly this was the focus. I'm wondering what the plan is for math going forward. And then I have other attendance questions. Would you like me to stop right there? Let's do that. Thank you. Um, so I think I'll I'll start and then I'll invite um, assistant superintendent Bassine also to chime in. Um, so I think the first thing
069that I would just want to clarify is when we talk about that academic priority and we talk about doing heavy lifting, that isn't only in literacy. That's in every class and in every subject. And definitely um in mathematics um lessons it's essential that students actually be doing be engaged in that thinking and talking about their understanding and not watching someone else do the thinking for them. Um so I think that and we have at each of the Kate buildings a math coach. Um, and we also have administrators who will be in working together with those coaches to make sure that it's not only in reading or language arts that that heavy lifting is happening, but also in math. Um because if those if that heavy lifting isn't happening and if those habits of of of
070thinking and really and reasoning and and and having dialogue about their understanding of mathematics isn't established early in the year, then it's really easy for students to take a step back and allow others to do the thinking for them or allow the teacher to do the thinking for them. So I just wanted to clarify that. First of all, I I I strongly agree with you that math needs to be a focus as well and it definitely will be in that in that respect. I think as far as the uh the MTSS priority, there will be uh interventions that happen for mathematics also that perhaps uh assistant superintendent Bassine could speak to. Um but we we felt like we needed to have a focus in order to make sure that we were making getting traction on
071this this issue which incidentally will help students in math also if they're able to read well. Um because a lot of times uh we whether it's at the high school level or the middle school level or even the elementary level a lot of times where students get tripped up is when they have to apply the mathematic concept to a real life situation which in as we many of us experienced comes often in word problems um where they and if they aren't they don't have the skill to be able to read that those um prompts s well then they are they get tripped up right away. Um so I again from a from a district-wide for the for next year uh the the focus on foundational literacy is definitely in MTSS but it's not the only
072thing that will be happening with respect to MTSS. Okay. Um can I I don't know missine did you have something you want to add? Come on up. If you could, I'd like you to tell us a little bit more about how that might be incorporated. The way that Dr. Sibil was mentioning the way that it might be incorporated in, you know, I'm sitting here listening to you and I work in a school. I know exa I know your jargon. I know exactly what you're talking about. But the people the parents that are logging into this that are sitting in the audience they they're like what you I'd like you to say this to me in such a way that like I don't know educational lingo. Sure. Um so answering the question of how will we
073provide intervention for students in math? Yeah. Great. So we have time built into our math blocks to provide intervention support. So in addition to our core instruction, so teaching the grade level standards and recognizing there might be some students who need additional support with things that come from below grade level. And so our curriculum which is called Eureka Squared um comes with an intervention program and an assessment. So students will take that assessment. It will actually say here are the skills you need um to catch up on. Um and what's new for next year is actually um Eureka Squared is coming out with a program called Catalyst which we have purchased which actually not just tells us your students need help with these specific skills but actually here are some modules or here are some
074lessons that these students can do to build that skill. And so in our math blocks when we um sort of decided how long they should be we included time to do some of those catchup skills in addition to the core instruction. Um, but those modules, those that sort of catch up work can also take place during these intervention blocks that we've built into our schedule. And what's great about these is they're not grade specific. They just say, "These are the skills you need." So, we could actually look at a student and say, "Wow, you're on grade level, but these might be some above grade level skills you could use, and we can use that curriculum to support them as well." Um so this idea that every student could get what they need using the curriculum
075that we um have have purchased and the additional resources that we're providing for our educators and we think you know curriculum is not just a magic wand right but you have this curriculum in the hands of our very skilled and committed educators and we really think that that can make a big impact um for our students. So Eureka math though is for K to8 schools correct? So can you tell me a little bit about how this would play out at Malden High? Sure. Um and um Mr. Mr. Angela can speak to this. One of the um real big priorities for next year at the high school and we've just been working with our math um some of our math leaders around this is really thinking about um we're looking at the um interim assessments that
076our students take um that tell us whether they're sort of making progress. Um and we're looking at doing some summer work to really look at those assessments and make plans for how we'll respond based on how students perform on those. Um, we're also really investing um in something we call a lesson study template. We have a number of math teachers coming in over the summer getting stipens to do this work with us and also to give us feedback on that protocol where we'll bring our math department together, look at some of our lessons and say, "How might a student be successful with this lesson? What do we need to plan in advance to address things that they might struggle with?" Um and so using that our hope is that as we bring our department together
077um to anticipate what students may need um that that will help us in providing that to students during the lesson. Um and so you know really grateful to some of our math leaders and our math coach at the high school level um for a lot of their thinking around this um and some of the work that our really committed educators are doing over the summer to practice this to work with us on it and make sure that the protocol is perfected before the year starts. I'm interested to see how that plays out for students because I think that there's a wide range of students at the high school in math with very um well looking at the scores and own personal experiences it seems as though there's a a significant math need but at varying
078levels um and without something like Eureka that can be very targeted I I like your work is cut out for you I guess is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. at the high school the curriculum used is Carnegie learning um and they have a supplemental program called mafia which helps student build skills linked to that curriculum um and I think one of the questions is there also then we also have excel we have a lot of different programs and I think one of the things I've heard from educators is how do we we have a lot of different tools but how do we actually make sense of using them together um and so I think that's another piece too of um trying to what I've heard from our educators is you know how can we
079really align these together and help us you know have everyone rowing in the same direction or all the tools rowing in the same direction. That makes sense. Especially if everyone from K to 8 is going to be on the same path. It would be nice if once they came together, they were then continuing on the same trajectory. Um I did have a couple questions about attendance. Should I ask those? Okay. So there's like a K to8 attendance question and then a Malden High attendance question if that's all right. I noticed um and everybody's sip. Thank you so much principles for doing this by the way. Um I noticed that obviously everyone wants to reduce their chronic absentee rate. Um, but it seems as though everyone is going to be going about it in a slightly
080different way. And I wondered if there was any thinking along the lines of everyone sort of having a streamlined version of, you know, an attendance group that meets every week that consists of, you know, an assistant principal, a counselor, a, you know, something along those lines. Is that what people are doing? Um, and if not, what else are they doing? And also, why would we be doing different things? So, that's my K to8 question. And then the question about the high school attendance is um I'd like to know a little bit more about the attendance portal that's coming up. I'd also like to know and understand a little bit better about the threshold for parent notification for any absences, whether it be class absences or full day absences. Um, as well as the communication back
081and forth from the high school about that. Right. Thank you. Um, first I'm going to I'll invite Mr. Mrantel and Miss McDonald, Assistant Superintendent McDonald to come up. I think assistant superintendent McDonald can speak um to the attendance team idea that you were asking about member Horty and then Mr. Mr. Angel obviously can speak to the high school. So we have been developing an attendance playbook and the principles kind of pick some of the stuff to put into their tips about it but we have consistently been meeting as a team with administrators and our attendance officers and all of the K to8s are really going to expand that next year. I think one of the things is you have five different lovely great principles who put things in their own words, but we are really
082going to be working on um two things. Really expanding that attendance team to include your guidance counselors, your social workers, um teachers, people sort of more on the ground level. Um so I I think all of that is somehow should be reflected in their sips. And the other thing is that, you know, research says that teachers are really the first line of defense and parents want to hear from teachers more than anyone else. So most of our SIPs have something along the lines where we're going to do I know the high school has it and some of the other ones that we're going to they're going to interp in incorporate into their um monthly staff meetings reviewing the attendance. So it's a it's a work in progress because it's the first year we're doing an
083attendance goal. So, we're just going to work through it and the schools, they know their culture of their building and how it will work best to start um that process. So, okay, we have similar themes and similar things going on um but they're tailored by each principal for the building. Okay. And and specifically to the high school, as you all know, we break it down into four houses. within that house is what assistant superintendent McDonald just talked about was the house team which consists of the house principal, the school counselor and the social worker. Uh and they really kind of dig down into the and they and they different levels of attendance concerns right approaching um chronic near chronic past chronic and the outreach uh that happens as we're getting closer. One of the things
084with this portal that you just mentioned, we're trying to do is create an easier way for our classroom teachers uh to focus on the students that they're concerned around classroom attendance. I have um appointed Mr. debates. Our Holland our Holland House principal is going to oversee the work that we're doing specifically around attendance as I said before to school which what is what the state looks at right and what we look at is the kids that are coming they come to school on time but are missing multiple classes during the day really honing down and finding the individual student finding the story behind that and finding a way to kind of reassess and re-engage the students. In fact, I had a meeting with four students today fall under that uh heading uh with the assistance
085of one of my classroom teachers and then creating ways that is really simplistic for our faculty to report to house offices, our house offices to go back and then send that outreach uh to caregivers. We have meetings quite often with families and caregivers of the students that we think are really attendance issues. We have them quite often right up and through the last day of the school. We had several today. So that's really the work that we're going to be focusing on really kind of nail down on the overarching theme that assistant assistant superintendent McDonald just talked about. So um the attendance portal will be something that maybe is going to be through new technology we're using or so we're trying we're going to try to work with technology to find a way that it's
086really we can increase the communication because our biggest ally around uh attendance as you know is the caregivers and the family and we want to increase that communication that relationship. Okay. And I do think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I know that um when a student is absent, a robocall goes out. But one of the things we're trying to do systemwide is, you know, once they get to two, a phone call home from a P from a teacher or someone personalizing say, "Hey, you know, we really missed your student today. We want to get them back in so that doesn't start to get to the 10, 11, like really like two, three, we're calling." So that's sort of part of our goal for next year. And I think as a parent of a high
087school student, if I know that my student has entered the building, is in the building, and then they're not there for a couple classes or even one class, I'm not always finding out about it, but I want to know. Yes. Yeah. And I have I have a meeting with a parent who's like, "No, no, I drop them off every day." And I'm like, "Well, I guess what I'm saying is I don't want to wait as as a parent. I don't want to find out that my child has missed 10 ELA classes 100%. I want to find out when they've missed two or Yes. But you get the idea. We're also that communication also comes at the teacher level as well and our teachers since we've increased the technology for easier outreach to caregivers. Uh it's
088been a goal of ours at the high school for the last few years and we have a couple high school teachers sitting here now. It has improved uh for all reasons not just attendance. The other piece is we implemented a new policy back a new procedure back in November around taming tardies in the hallways. Uh and we saw a stark decrease in uh de uh um tardiness to school and with no students in the hallways, a fewer students in the hallways. It kind of stood out if kids were in the hallways. Uh so we're going to refine and redirect that again in the fall, continue on with that. We did see a a pretty significant um improvement around that as well. I heard about that. I hope so. I heard it worked well. Keep it
089up. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Angelo. And Miss McDonald, Mr. Please talk. Um, no, you're great. you you just talked about everything that I have on my notes in front of me and I just want to um echo Miss Hordes and honestly my personal disappointment in not seeing anything related to math or numeracy in this presentation and when digging deep into these sips looking at instructional priority very few actually mention anything that has to do with math and as somebody that works in finance that had amazing teachers that grew that passion for me to understand numeracy. I I just wanted to note the only presentation that was put before us was the ELC that said numerousy and that is truly where it starts at that age. But we cannot forget it and I just
090feel like what was put before us in addition to noting the reduction in a STEM director um highlights that we don't value math or at least that's what it says by the presentation. Now whether we do whether we're what we're looking at at paper is different from the classroom but I think it's a disservice that we are not talking about it and putting it out there for our parents to know that we are teaching both numeracy and literacy in the classroom. Um, I also want to just highlight I would have loved to have seen the names of the parents and teachers and community members that sit on the student councils that put in the work from September until June meeting every month. And I think there was a few items that Miss Hordy talked about
091when it we talk about um across the district and we have some amazing um parents on our our school council at BB that have been talking about this districtwide school council that would meet because a lot of the topics that we're talking about it's in every single school chronic absenteeism are are multi-tered MTSS um So, I really hope that when uh the time comes in September and we're coming back together that we think about what we can do across the district together. Um because so many the theme in every single school. Um and then just lastly, um I laugh because literally I have a voicemail on my phone that from Mr. from Angelo that says your child's been marked absent today. Um, and I think I and I just want to highlight I know Miss
092Rose Eyeberg is doing some work down in policy in regards to um our absenteeism and just how we can make sure that even when students are out of the classroom um that we are making sure that there's a way for them to get the work done. We know that there's times when we can't help but have 14 absences. You know, life happens. Help, you know. Um, so I just wanted to obviously we want those chronic skippers to have a reason to come to school, right? Maybe it's because they love math. We're not highlighting it. Um, but thank you for all of this work and Oh, there's more lights. I was going to make the motion because I own this, but I will that's my Thank you, Vice Chair, for the feedback. Miss Roseberg. Thank you,
093Mr. Chair. Um, was definitely going to be pointing out we do actually we have an attendance policy JH. I just like people to sort of take a look at that hearing some of the information that's going on and there's always the thing to remind people that we set policy but then procedure gets turned over um to admin um and it does look like hearing where you're going with this that we will be I'll get ready policy we'll be meeting again um because it looks like we should be updating it which I think we should be doing um probably anyways um pointing that out and then I was was glad to hear that catalyst list is a program that where kids who are doing um above grade level get that differentiated um the lesson plan that
094they need that that that um we do constantly hear about our advanced learners. Um I just was trying to figure out which year we did it. We actually have I wanted to um follow up. You had mentioned about that looking into it. It's been a concern for a long time. We went and um to make things more equitable, we spent an amazing amount of time and energy. Um there was months and months and many hours because I was on that um group that met to make it district-wide for advanced learners rather than concentrating it on the gifted intelligent program that had been at Lynen. So here I'm concerned honestly a little bit. I'd like to I don't know if you probably don't have the information now, but there is actually an honors pathway that was
095created that's in the handbook. Um I don't know how much fidelity to that is where kids are in that. I'd like to um continue that conversation because um it was a very lengthy process to try to um get to that point and try to at least put something in place. If it's not working, uh would like to hear that as well. And I also did note that ELC did mention numerousy. So, thank you, Principal Lawrence. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have questions before we take a look at these plans? All right. Hearing none. So, I would like to make a motion to accept the school improvement plans for uh 2526 or 26 school year. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Any remaining questions, queries, qualms, concerns? Hearing none. All those in favor say
096I. I. Anybody here opposed? The eyes have it. That carries unanimously. All right. Superintendent, do we still have to take up uh health curricul? So, yeah. And this will be brief. I promise assistant superintendent Bassine if you could come back and I want to acknowledge uh director of health wellness and athletics Mr. Charlie Conifrey in the back who has been a part of this guiding this process also. Especially the state adopted new comprehensive health and physical education frame curriculum frameworks. So this fall we assembled a group of health educators to review our current curriculum and its alignment to the new standards. their review based on with addition to uh additional family input that we received led us as a district to begin an additional um selection and adoption process for a new health curriculum. Um
097and I want to echo the superintendent's uh thanks and acknowledgement to director of athletics physical education and health Mr. Charlie Conifrey uh who's here tonight for his leadership of this work. So, when districts set out to select and adopt a new curriculum, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has an implement Massachusetts process that they recommend districts use. Um, and I'm proud to say that we followed this process very carefully, um, with the steps outlined on this slide. And I'll just highlight for you a few, um, elements of this process, um, which included multiple points of family input to launch the process. We conducted, in addition, a district-wide family survey. Um, and we held Zoom sessions to further process the feedback we received to garner family input as to what was mattering most to families
098as we set out to select a new curriculum. With that family input in mind, we reviewed the Department of Education's health curriculum guide and selected two of the highest rated curriculum from their guide to pilot in all of our grade levels, K through 12. Um, and these were the health smart curriculum and the Michigan model. After notifying families, we conducted week-long pilots of both curricula across our grades spams in early April. And in conducting that pilot, we actually reviewed student survey input from over a thousand students uh, commenting on their preferences among the curricula. We engaged educator input from all of our health educators and we held additional family sessions to review the curriculum materials from both piloted curricula. Our health educators also used the department of education's curate curriculum rubric to review both the
099health smart and the Michigan model. So you might be asking what were the results from all of this effort. As you can see here from the checks uh health smart came out ahead of Michigan model in most domains. Uh both curricula allow us to be consistent with our school committee wellness policies. Our health educators and our families had a strong preference for health smart. um both based on sort of the engagement of the engagingness of the activities. Um through our own internal review, we also found greater alignment to the department of education's curator or curriculum rubric. Um and although what both were in budget, uh the health smart was more affordable. Interestingly, when you look at our surveys, again, over a thousand students took these surveys across multiple domains. Our students actually rated their experience
100with the two curricula pretty comparably after the pilot. Um well, health smart was like 3.9 out of four and Michigan model was 3.5 out of four. Um but as I mentioned, families had a strong preference for health smart. And you know, when we really looked into this, we started to think what would be at the root of this. Um and we we came to the hypothesis that you know in our health educators, regardless of what curriculum is in hand, strive to make activities engaging and meaningful for students. Um and so we thought that that that might be a reason um why the student survey results were more comparable. So following the Department of Education's process for curriculum adoption with consistent and meaningful family, student, educator input, um it is the superintendent's recommendation that we adopt
101HealthSmart in grades K through 12 for a health program next year. if adopted by this committee. Uh the quote we received for purchase of curriculum does include ongoing professional development for our educators on this new curriculum. Um we've also begun to participate in the Department of Education's professional development on implementation of the new standards. Um, and just a reminder, uh, part of our due diligence with both of these curricula pilots was confirming that with the new curriculum, we will continue to adhere to our school committee policies regarding wellness, uh, parental consent and opt out, as well as our exemption policies. So, thank you for your time. I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay, let's take some questions of the committee. Any questions? Did you want to add anything, Superintendent? No, I just want to thank
102Assistant Superintendent Bassine and Director Conifrey and all the health educators who collaborated over the last uh few months to um thoughtfully review the options and get input from our families and from students and from the educators themselves to to make this recommendation possible. and um we're excited to be able to move forward so that these materials are in our educators hands and our students hands next year. Okay, first up, Miss Horty. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quick question. You mentioned um parental opt out. Sorry, mouthful. Um, opt out of health, opt out of a week's worth of lessons, opt out of a topic's worth of lessons. Is it a passive out opt out? What's the procedure? Who are parents reaching out to? Any and all of those that you can answer, please. You covered that quick.
103So, now I'm trying to balance that school. there is opticalation related to our sexual health units. Um and parents have the opportunity to opt out. It's an active opt out of those particular units. School committee policy also has the exemption which is if you have, you know, a personal uh objection to or just a desire for your student not to participate in particular units and um you also have the right to exempt your student from that. from a a procedural um standpoint from uh the sexual health opt out that would be a letter sent home at the beginning of the year notifying uh when those units would take place and a response to that letter to opt out. Um from a content objective um standpoint um what we plan to do with the new curriculum
104is there's actually builtin uh family me or caregiver messages that we can provide. Um so at the beginning of the year the new curric health smart does allow us to share with families in advance. here's an overview of the year. Um so parents could express that. Um and then in addition on a monthly basis or on a unit byunit basis sort of the opportunity to continue to um share with families topics that would be covered um just at a greater level of detail um so that um there's also that opportunity at that time. One quick follow-up question. Um something that we've had success with in our district is parents who choose to opt their children out of the sexual health lesson. we have offered to share some of the lessons with them so that they
105could then share it as a family as another option um for their own comfort as well as for the comfort maybe of their student. Is that something that's available with this and is that something that has been discussed or thought about? Absolutely. It's a great idea. And we actually invited um our curriculum reps from the pilots we were uh curriculum pilots we were considering to actually speak to families at one of our family sessions. And um HealthSmart reps did share. Not only is that an option um but they also have um sort of um they have a different version of the curriculum that um if families are objecting to a sexual health curriculum, they may prefer a different version of that curriculum that speaks to perhaps abstinence only. Right? So they that that those materials
106may be something that we share with families as well. So they actually have multiple um methods for um sharing those or multiple um types of materials that we could share with families. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions, Miss Pedaphor. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Um just a quick question in regards to so family input from listening sessions. What did that look like? Do we have numbers? Um I I will say I was on one of them. So um but I'm just curious. And then also in previous years we've always had um a school committee member participate in curriculum adoption. So I was just curious because I wasn't. So I just wasn't sure if any of us participated. I know Miss Rosberg participated in um I think the ELA curriculum at one point. You didn't. Oh, Miss
107Mlin. Sorry. Um sorry, I just wasn't sure if any one of us participated in the health curriculum adoption. One second, Mr. Gray. Let me get you on so everybody can hear you. Mr. Gray, just a quick note. Um I think was either last year or the year before, I did participate in the curriculum adoption process. Thank you. Okay. Superintendent, what say you? So, it's a welcome idea. Um, it wasn't a part of our scope and sequence of the the um the timeline for curriculum adoption. Um, and I wasn't aware that there was a policy requirement um, necessarily, but we did think that this was enough of a shift in the the content of our health curriculum to align with the new state frameworks that it was appropriate to bring it before you all tonight. And
108I will definitely take that into mind as we consider future adoptions going forward because there will be more. Thank you. And just in regards to that family input, what did that look like? Was it um strictly caregivers? Was it students in the classrooms? Um sure. Um we had a variety of different listening sessions. Um and with the listening sessions, we typically gathered, you know, between 20 25 families at a time. So these were families and caregivers of students. Um, in addition, we took the we included questions in our district family survey, which I believe was around 15% of the district um responded and gave us input as to the um qualities and attributes of the health new health curriculum that would be most important to them. Um, and so we reviewed those trends in the
109aggregate as well as sort of the line by line uh responses from families to make sure we're casting as wide a net as possible. Um and then we did hold a session where families were able to come in and actually review curriculum materials with us. Um we translated those mater took it upon ourselves to translate those materials um into major languages. Um and we were able to send those out and get feedback. More families actually requested those materials and attended the session. So we were able to engage with many families in that regard. From the student standpoint, we surveyed students. We gave students the opportunity to give us in uh take a survey after they participated in the curriculum pilot and we had over a thousand students fill out that survey in grades K through
11012. Um so we reviewed those. It was across um six different questions um that were sort of similar in content but varied for developmental appropriateness around did you find this engaging? Did you find it interesting? Was the content accurate? Did it provide you things you wanted to know? Um and again as I said it's really interesting to read the student responses. um they were very insightful. Um but again in terms of the overall qualities the curriculums the curricula came out um more similar than we had seen from the families um and from the educators and I think part of that is just because of the skill that our educators bring to delivering curricula. They um that's our hypothesis at least. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you Mr. Bapor. Any others? Okay. Hearing none. Motion.
111Yes. Um, Mr. Chair, I'd like to make the motion to go and uh adopt the health curriculum as presented tonight. Second. Second. Seconded by Mr. McCarthy. So everyone, this is another item under motions and resolutions I would uh think we'd want to address now while it's fresh in our minds. Any objection to that? Chair has none. All right. So any final questions, queries, qualms, concerns of the school committee. We um roll call this please. Mr. Drum Mr. Drum. Yes. Mccarthy. Uh yes. Miss Bataphora. Yes. Miss Mlin. Yes. Miss Hardy. Yes. Mr. Gray. Yes. Mr. Bernard. Yes. Miss Rosyberg? Yes. Mayor Christensen? Yes. Okay. That carries unanimously. That concludes the superintendent report. Thank you very much. Now we'll move to subcommittee reports and discussions. Let's take up this uh proposed budget. As always, we'll defer to
112the chair, Miss Spaphor. Whoa, I got a new job. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Careful. No, I don't want it. I don't want it. You're good. Um, thank you. So the taking off my glasses, but I have to read here. Um, so the budget process started back in January, specifically January 9th, where the district um started working with principles, administrators, and starting to assemble the budget requests of um each school as well as um the overall district needs. the budget that was we had a public hearing at five o'clock today. Uh that budget um or that meeting was to discuss the 98 million dollar budget um that we are hoping to approve the proposal. That's an increase of um approximately 5.7% in comparison to last year. Our FY26 budget maintains the current overall staffing levels. Um
113on June 3rd, this the district, myself, superintendent and finance um manager Miss Merz did present um our proposed budget to the city council um finance committee. They echoed um graciously the work that was put into it, but also um the need to figure something out. um finance um committee chair Mr. McDonald has been working um with us in many meetings behind the scenes meeting with state legislators also advocating for um fixing that chapter 70 funding but also you know I want to highlight one thing that I've learned throughout this whole process too is um the free cash and I was speaking with um Chuck ran again and his exact words were, "We have enough for maybe next year." You said one to two years. He told me next year. Um because there is approximately 10
114million left. Um so I'd like to say that um the future is bleak right now, but I'm amazed at what um truthfully with Miss Martz does behind the scenes to make sure that um we are doing what we can with every last penny. Um just some other additional highlights, our um largest sources, our largest increases in this B budget come from out of district tuitions um as well as bed transportation. um out of district tuitions a lot of times you know um our not consortium um what's the word I'm looking for collaborives thank you that's why I looked at you because I knew you were the liaison um the state sets those tuitions and we have we have to pay them um and they have gone up drastically um as well as sped transportation um
115we have said time and time again that sometimes it feels like a monopoly in who we're working with and we really don't have any other choice but to you know use who we use. Um and then lastly our largest portion or line item is our salaries at um 81%. So, you know, it's it's tough. Um, but again, I want to commend that there are um no reduction in staff due to this budget um this year. And hopefully further down you'll see I have a proposal for facility rental rates that are going up. Um because we haven't looked at those in quite a while and we need to really start to think out of the box and how we can um bring in revenue whether it's Yeah. whether it's state, federal, local, private, whatever it may
116be. Okay, there you have it. Um, so any what was the vote of the committee? So this voted out unanimously from the subcommittee, right? They have it. Questions of the committee? Any questions? Mr. Bernard, just um really more of a statement. Um we I think this whole year we've been well aware and we've been advert you know been very vocal with trying to go and find what we can um for external funding sources. Um, you know, I I put forward a resolution back at the beginning of the school year to go and and ask the uh to go and ask our legislators to go and and work on the formula, also go and work on that on some of those funding things. uh we've gone and asked our populace and you know not just the
117families but you know everyone to go and you know weigh in on that make sure that they're calling their people calling their representatives in in the state house calling their representatives at the national level um and I think it's very clear with the current state of what's going on in the nation that uh right Now, yes, we are absolutely on our own. And I think that uh one of the things that I've gone and seen time and time again is that and I hit it every time every time that I've gone and run for reelection, it's people say I am proud to have gotten the education that I've gotten here. So, I hate to say it, but it's time that we need to go and have people outside of this space stepping up and being
118ready to go and uh help us go and support these kids because they certainly deserve it. Our teachers deserve it. Um, and I know that it is very sobering to go and hear all this stuff, but I think that we need to um, you know, We need to go and think that you know this is going to be our future in the next 20 years, next 50 years, uh next couple centuries. hopefully that we go we're able to go in and show that we were able to go and as a town, as a city, actually make those investments and and that we were able to go and go out to the neighborhoods and say, "Hey, it's going to require everyone going and and putting in however they have to." Okay. Thank you very much. Anybody
119else? Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. um because this came up in public hearing and then also tonight I would just like to hear um the concern that people expressed about the ELC program manager position not being in um this budget. What is the plan to have those responsibilities? Who will be um handling those just to answer people's questions. Okay. Vice Chair, what do you want to superintendent? So thank you for the question. Um um Mr. Zyberg. So, we uh and I may ask assistant superintendent McDonald to help me with this because she has more history than I do. Um but I do recall that last year we only had one team chair and we did have uh a vacancy in that position this year for with with some uh outside support. Um and
120then but this year we had two full-time team chairs. Um so at this at this point we held off on filling the position or on on instituting the position, reinstituting the position for next year. Um but we'll certainly study it closely to make sure that um that the program is doesn't suffer in any way because of that. Do you want to add to that? Yeah. So we um previously had one team chair. This year we have two. And technically um we have um a retiree who is helping out as program manager this year part-time. And um the team of program managers feels that they can support it um and take on some of those roles. We have to sit down and look at that more closely. But um given the extra team chair, I think
121we might be able to support it in that way. Okay, Mr. Rose Zyberg, does that answer your question? Okay, over to Miss Hoy. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Um, Miss Vice Chair, I just want to clarify something. Yes, I am on the budget committee, but I want to make sure that this is that we're phrasing this properly. Um, you mentioned before that we are not losing any positions within the district. Correct. Budgetarily. Budgetarily. Is anyone in this district losing their job or are they being right budgetarily or are they being reassigned to a different position? Uh I know there's movement of teachers educators. Okay. Um to meet the needs of the district. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that because I think they they're a little different. Well, they're definitely different. Yeah. And I I just want
122to make sure that we're saying that. Okay. Anything else, Miss? All right. Very good. Any other questions? Uh, Miss Rose by Rose Zyberg for a second time. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just would like the actual dollar amount on what our local contribution will be because I see like we get the chapter 70 funding. So, I'm trying to dig more into this. So, but so what is our actual out of pocket dollar amount local contribution? I I apologize it's in here. I looked through I couldn't find it. Can you tell us what the city is giving us? We're going to be meeting spending at 130 million. I don't have the exact figures, but the school budget is about 98 million. and the rest is coming from the city. So about 30 32 I think it
123was maybe chapter 70 versus city contribution. Is that what you were getting at what the split is between I know we're meeting net school spending at 130 million. I mean I'd like that information at some point. Okay. I if I may, I think Miss Meritz and Miss Resburg in our February school committee meeting. Um we actually presented that information because when the state allocates the chapter 70 funding, they also tell us or tell the city what it's expected, what its share is expected for that coming fiscal year. And so I we can pull that up. Anything else, Mr. Rosenberg? Okay. Any other questions, queries, qualms, concerns. Okay. Hearing none. Motion by Miss Spataphora. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Bernard. All right. Let's take up any remaining questions. Anybody have remaining questions? Okay, clerk
124will call the role. Mr. Drum. Yes. Mr. McCarthy. Miss Faphora. Yes. Miss Mlin. Yes. Miss Horty. Yes. Mr. Gray. Yes. Mr. Bernard. Yes. Mr. Ozyberg. Yes. Mayor Christensen? Yes. So that carries unanimously. All right. Next order business is let's find out where we are with negotiations. Miss Bataphora. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I'm going to start with this to say we started negotiations with um our SEIU Local 888. Um that union represents custodians, clerical, and cafeteria. Um we've had one meeting thus far and will be meeting again in two weeks. Those are closed door sessions. Um, so we are off to the races. We continue to bargain with the MEA units A, B, and C. Um, our next meeting is tomorrow, June 11th, at 3:30 p.m. at the Malden High School Gallery. We have reached
125some TAs. Um, and if you were here earlier, you heard from many of our union members. Oh, tenative agreements. Sorry. No. Oh, did I? June 10th. I'm a day ahead of myself here. Tomorrow, June 10th at 3:30 and TAS mean tenative agreements. Um, my bad. Uh, which is fantastic. There is work to be done. Um, and again, if you are watching from home, we have um the honor of having many of our educators in the audience today that have been sitting across the table from us and working collaboratively. Um, so thank you for all of the work that you've done. Um again you can follow uh negotiation updates on the school committee page which we have a new website so I don't it is maldenps.org district information school committee negotiation updates. I think I got
126that correct. Um and that has um all of our uh packages thus far and after our meeting um the most latest package will be um uploaded as well. Any questions of Miss Battle for All right. Thank you. Now on to motions and resolutions. Ferryway cafeteria dedication. Mr. Drum. Oh, do we have to act on this? Okay. All right. Stand by everyone. I skipped an item in the agenda. Consent agenda. May 2025 warrants. I didn't think we had to act on it, but we have to have a motion to place on file. All right. Okay. So, let's take a look here. One second. And you're making that motion? So, Miss Spataphor is making the motion to place these on file. Is there a second for purposes of discussion? Seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Any uh questions on
127those hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. That carries unanimously. Is there any objection to Mr. McCarthy being recorded on the vote of next year's school budget? Yeah. Yeah. So, any objection to Mr. McCarthy voting as he was not present during the vote? Chair has none. Uh, Mr. McCarthy. Uh, yes. Okay. Madame Clerk, you have Mr. McCathy's vote. Okay. Very good. Now back to Mr. Drum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, this was something that we thought was uh done a while ago, but apparently it wasn't. And speaking with Miss Rose Zyberg, we found out that to do a dedication to any building in the district, we need the superintendent. Uh, okay. So, thank you, M. Rosyberg for that. So basically what it is in 2020 uh a
128wellrespected administrator and teacher Paul Abear passed away and the his co-workers at the ferryway would like to dedicate the cafeteria to him where he always used to hang out with the students and talk to him and he was he was a good guy. If anybody that knew Paul knows what I'm talking about. I've had many conversations because I had three kids with him. They passed. Um, so it worked well. So I just want to they just want to make a motion. I know uh Erin Bennett, one of the vice principles is carrying it for the school and Mr. Connor is taking it at the other end to get a plaque of some sort made for the dedication. So we just like to get the superintendent's approval on this so they can move forward. So I'd
129like I guess I need a move. I just found out. So I'd like to make a motion to All right. So motion by Mr. Drum. It's been seconded by Mr. Bernard. Everybody clear on what's happening here? Any questions about it? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Did you have a question? Mr. Ros, did Thank you, Mr. Chair. Did the policy as it is? I can look it up. I think it's FG naming facilities. Yeah. Policy FG. It's supposed to get referred to policy and procedure. So, all right. Then I'll make the motion to refer it to policy and procedure. Okay. And I promise a quick turnar around on that. Second. Second. Yeah. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Anybody opposed? The eyes have it. That carries unanimously. Thank you. All
130right. Very good. Now, let's hear from Miss Horty about the admission of non-resident students. Uh, last meeting we discussed the proposed policy, JFAB. I think that's how you say admission of non-resident students that pertained to 12th grade students at Malden High who relocated from the city of Malden and wish to finish the school year within the district. Um, I'm motioning to send that back to the policy committee for further review. Why? Why? Uh, because I think that there are pieces of that policy that were not properly Well, not properly. That's not fair. Um, were not thoroughly discussed. We voted on that, did we not? We did, but I don't think that was what we were Mr. Rosberg, I I need your help on this one. Well, let's first uh Miss Horty, let's first you made
131the motion to do it, right? Okay. Was it seconded for purposes of discussion? Are you seconded by Miss Spaphor? So now the motion has been made so it's properly before us. Let's have some conversation about it. U Miss Rose Zyberg will go to you and then we'll hop over to Miss Betaphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I was not here last last month's meeting um to be present to discuss all of this. I did look over the minutes and everything. Um, and the responses are true to what we discussed in the meeting. We looked at different things with financial implications and things like that. Um, that said, I do always want everybody to feel that we support their concerns. I don't mind it going back to policy. It might I mean, Mr. Bernard was trying
132to get a policy change, which we kept bouncing back and forth. It doesn't mean that we will change it or bring it back, but to have another goaround and maybe to provide more information to so that you feel solid with where we came from. I'm quite happy to do that and did note in the notes as well another reason to possibly send it back to us. Um, Miss Bataphor had asked for clarification what the cutoff is for student to stay, for example, if they move the summer before 12th grade. Mr. McCarthy responded saying they'll be allowed to stay if they move the summer before. Miss Bataphor asked the subcommittee consider clarifying this in the policy. So if we have that alone would send it back to us as well to to just um get in
133some fine details. So Okay. Thank you. And I'm just fine if it comes back. Got it. All right. Very good. Other comments? Uh Mrs. Paphora. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I just want to go on the record and say because we had this discussion that I don't support sending it back down to policy. um the discussion that was had on stage here in regards to why it came before us the way it was and I think it discounts the members that sit in that subcommittee that did the work to say well I don't think you did it right. Um we also have a policy in regards to I believe if it's turned down it doesn't come back before the the committee for six months. Um, I I just sitting here talking about budgets and how
134much money we do not have to then potentially even consider. I just don't know where it ends. And I mean, it's in the meeting minutes. I said the same thing last month. So, I just for the record I am not in favor of sending it back to policy. All right, let's hear from some other members. Any questions, queries, qualms, concerns? Okay, anybody new? If not, we'll go to Miss Rose Zerg. Just be in I'm committed to making committee members feel comfortable, at least know why we made decisions. Um so I'm happy to get additional material from what we talked about. I mean our minutes are there but also can dig a little deeper just on my own and go over with um the assistant supers sort of the impact because that factors in is that
135a lot of the financial part um comes into play. There are different deadlines for when people have to be how people are counted when they're in school. there's different dates and things and I can get that and then get that to um to Miss Horty if we end up not sending it back. All right. Thank you, Miss Rose Eyeberg. Any other members? Uh just from my vantage point, I I agree respectfully. I felt like we had a pretty good discussion on this at our last meeting and um consciously knew what we were doing with it and now to go back a meeting later. I too have a similar feeling just where does it end? What is the point? And so um you know I too will be voting no. Now, if the member comes in
136with something new or if the chair has something new, of course, we'll, you know, can be proposed and referred. But to take a matter that we just got done debating, discussing uh and and doing it again, I I I just don't know what that means for everything else we do. I mean, at some point, you have to let what you decide happen. and then determine, you know, six months from now, a year from now, you know, is something off about what we did during that vote. So, that's where I'm coming from. Uh, Miss Rose Zyberg, and then we'll, uh, see if we can move this along. Um, absolutely. Um just wanted to double check where u Miss Bataphora had asked for us to clarify the policy um about um when cut offs are required to
137go back to policy. You could do that via email or a phone call or that would be have to go back to policy to do that. That's what I'm saying. Are we okay with that? She's just ask her for clarification. I mean you can look that up and let her know and clarifying it in the policy. It's not in that's what I'm saying if you need to change the policy. So, are we good with not clarifying it? We could file a new policy. I think Miss Fat, I don't want to speak for you, was just wondering. I mean, I know that's what I'm saying. She said would should like us to consider clarifying that in the policy, which would mean would have to go to policy to clarify. Okay. So, I mean, I guess it
138says currently enrolled 12th graders. So, that would be someone that is in 12th grade that moves. So, I guess I don't need that clarifying date. Okay. I just want to make sure that you were good with it, too. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, anybody else? Okay. So, Miss Hy, you moved it. It was seconded by Miss Rose Zyberg. Uh, let's call the RO. Mr. Mr. McCarthy, Miss Baphora, no. Miss Mlin, no. Miss Hordie, yes. Mr. Gray, no. Mr. Bernard, no. Mr. Rosyberg, Mayor Christensen, no. So that's seven to two. I just want to clarify for the record as well that Miss Fat seconded the motion for purpose of discussion. No, I thought it was it was Miss Roseberg. Oh, did you? I guess I did. Yeah, I guess I just threw my hand out so we can
139talk about it. So, you're going to Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call um that a parent in the district um had a student that was already enrolled um in school and was enrolling a kindergartener, right? That kindergartenner was getting placed at a different school than the um older child. Um so, looking at the policy that we had just passed, there was nothing that really talked about siblings of those that are already um in the district. And I just think um it just we've always kept siblings together. It just made no sense to me that we would have a newly enrolling kindergartenner be at um a different school than you know a sibling. So, um, first, because things would go down into policy to be worked, I'd like to make a motion that we suspend
140docket rules so we can take it, um, up on the stage this evening. All right. Uh, Miss Rose Zyberg, second that move. Okay. Seconded by Miss Roseberg. Suspend the rules. So, this is just to suspend the rules. Okay. We're at our last meeting. We probably want to address this beforehand. Um, any questions on this is just suspending the docker rules, then we'll take up the motion. Any questions on that? Uh, hearing none. Let's have the uh clerk call the role to suspend docker rules. Mr. Dummy, yes. Mr. McCarthy, yes. Miss Baphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hardy, yes. Mr. Gray, yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Rose Zyberg, yes. Mayor Christensen, yes. So that carries unanimously. Now the motion is so everybody has the policy or should have had the policy in front of them. Um
141and time is of the essence because we do have people that are enrolling right now that are um you know have students that are already in the district maybe enrolling kindergarteners now. So we just want to make sure that they're being placed together. Um, so the wording in the policy, and it's highlighted in yellow, says, "Additionally, students who have siblings already enrolled in any of the K through8 Malden public schools will be given the choice of being placed in the same school of their sibling or the school in their designated attendance area. if enrolled prior to July one of the upcoming year. Um that date of July one was chosen because we really do need to know um where our students are going so we can effectively manage classroom sizes and know that um you
142know who's going where. So um All right, there's the motion. Is there a second to it? Seconded by Miss Roseberg. Everybody clear on what we're doing here? You've you've had the information. You've seen it. Okay. Let's have the uh clerk call the role. Mr. Drum. Yes. Mr. McCarthy. Yes. Miss Faphora? Yes. Miss Mlin? Yes. Miss Hardy? Yes. Mr. Gray? Yes. Mr. Bernard? Yes. Mr. Rosyberg? Mayor Christensen? Yes. So that carries unanimously. We addressed item number four, which was the health curriculum adoption. And now we're at Malden Public School facility rental rates. Mataphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, within budget, we have uh realized that the rental fees had not been updated in over 10 years approximately. And of course, with everything else, um costs have gone up, um including salaries of our custodians, um you
143know, garbage disposal costs. So, uh, this new, um, facility rental fee, um, proposal came before the budget subcommittee. It passed unanimously. Um, the fees are com they're similar to our surrounding districts that rent out their cafeterias, gymnasiums, um, auditoriums, which, um, you know, Jenkins is in high demand for a lot of dance recital. Um the we brought up the hourly um custodian rate to actually match their um salaries because we were pretty much paying out of pocket because it was lower than what our um custodians were making. And then we additionally added um that all facility rentals exceeding 500 attendees shall incur an additional $250 fee for garbage removal. We've never had that before and have found that um we do have some higher um occupancy rentals that um met the needs of having additional
144um dumpster calls. So um when would this take effect? This would take effect July 1. And what was the vote? The vote was unanimous out of budget sub. All right. Uh let's get it up properly before So you're making the motion I presume. Is there a second to it for purposes of discussion? So, Mr. Drum seconded it. Uh, so now it's up before us. Any questions about this? Let's go to Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, curious. I know some groups who have tried to rent the courtyard and for the high school. I don't see that on this. I'm just curious if So, I can only change fees as budget chair. I cannot establish change policy to what we rent. We actually rent. Yes. So I can only work with the the fees.
145So if we have we find that um this is something that interests then um I would actually advise our um chair of public of our facilities subcommittee to have a meeting to discuss that going forward. Other questions of the team? Let's go to Mr. Bernard. Uh just something well I I understand that that that we need to go and get the cost here. Um then we need to go and match that. Is there any um is there any fear that raising the cost will go and cause people to maybe not use the facilities? So we did uh make sure that we were comparable but still lower than the surrounding areas. So maybe we would be the choice of rental. Um but you know also getting us out of a very low just making sure that
146we had that in our brains. And just, you know, to to clarify, these rentals um a lot of times pay for like the resurfacing of our gym floors, painting, like the maintenance of the facilities itself that we're renting out. Making sure that if we're renting out Jenkins that the money is going back to say lighting or media equipment, stuff like that. Yeah. Again, it's really just kind of going get it out also in the public that you know there was it was it was a thoughtful decision to go and raise the prices but also thoughtful to make sure that we're still kind of attractive. Absolutely. And specifically, you know, our our main rentals do come from Malden Youth and we acknowledge that. We obviously don't want to price out the kids that are playing in
147basketball leagues and um you know soccer, whatever it may be. We want to make it affordable um and don't want them to use you know Medford's gym over by any means. Yeah. I don't want to go over to Medford for basketball game. I like I like going to Ferryway. Okay. Thank you Mr. Bernard. Um Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you Mr. Chair, just wanted to just double check the custodial rate. Would that cover them for like I'm assuming that's going to make them overtime hours. That's exactly what it is. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Uh any other questions? Just uh if I might from the chair, and I think you stated this before, back to what Mr. Bernard was talking about. Uh the the nonprofits, the Maldenbased groups were left untouched. a slight increase. Okay. Not
148untouched but not uh major by any um by any means. Got it. And uh in word was not word but they were notified or the groups were notified. So we can't notify until it passes. Um I do know Miss Martz was holding on to any reservation requests also and not taking anything because we kind of wanted to not commit to anything that while we were working on this. Um, but I'm assuming that our major renters, um, most of them have actually already rented out. Um, and how many public how many meets did you hold? Um, two. Two. Two. Yeah. just from where I sit when I was chair of the budget subcommittee on the school committee many many many decades ago um I got tweaked because there wasn't a notice sent directly to the user
149saying hey this is what we're looking at this is what we're doing and um you know we invite your input um that may come your way just be mindful of that it's not an exact science But that's what I went through. But it sounds like you have thought of this by minimizing the impact to the youth groups, the users from here, Malden neighborhood basketball league. Yeah. Etc. Okay. Did you want to add something, Miss Mertz? Or in case you had any questions. Okay. All right. I think uh Miss Bataphor has said it all. Um please. When will the new rates take effect? July one. July one. So, do we have any reservations after July 1? We've held off on reservations for next year until we figured out what happens here. So, we don't want to
150go back to renters and send them different communications. All right. Very good. Any other questions? All right. Hearing none. Um, the motion was made, right? Second by Mr. Mr. Drum. Drum. Yeah. All right. There you have it, everyone. Uh, let's let's Do a roll call. Mr. Drum, yes. Mr. McCarthy, yes. Miss Faphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hardy, yes. Mr. Gray, yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Rose Zyberg, Mayor Christensen, yes. So, that carries unanimously. Now, we're down to personal privilege because we acted on the school improvement plans up top. So, let's go left to right. Mr. Drum. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, first off, uh, the eighth grade crossing over will be this Thursday, June 12th at 9:00. Uh, the doors will open at 8:30, so the parents will be able to come in and
151get seats in the gym. Um, Principal Stall would like to uh just thank the PTO for the past year for everything they've done. uh they've done a great job and uh he just wants to send out his appreciation. Also, there is a let me find it. There is a summer camp opportunity for all of Malden's children. Uh it's Camp Aazi Village if I'm pronouncing it correctly. It's in Maine. They're offering four sessions, two fiveday or two 12-day sessions. And other than the $25 application fee, it's free to any student who can who wants to attend or can attend uh with a free scholarship to get the scholarship. Basically, all you have to do is just uh notify your school. They'll take it from there and go with that. So, it's uh it's open to uh
152age 8 to 17 and any information you can get from the individual schools. Uh just to congratulate Gina Hayes uh who was uh made or named um Massachusetts Crossing God of the Year out of the entire state. That's pretty cool. And she's from the fairy waist. That's even better for me. So I like that. So congratulations to Gina. Uh happy Father's Day to everybody who's a father and those that are filling in for fathers. And uh thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Germany. Over to Mr. Gray. M. Thank you, Mr. This year, Ward 6 counselor Winslow will be hosting July 4th celebration at Trafton Park on July 4th from 9:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. See you all there and a happy 4th of July. Thank you, Mr. Bernard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh just
153a couple uh updates from Salemwood. Uh this Friday, June 13th at 9:00 p.m. uh 9 a.m. Uh there's the grade 8 moving on ceremony. Um and just a reminder that the same day is the last day of school and that there is an 11:00 a.m. dismissal. Um don't forget to pick up your kids. You have them for the rest of the summer. Um also on behalf of Ms. in uh she wanted to go and let me uh she asked me to go and share uh on behalf of the Salemwood staff, teachers and ad admins uh administrations uh a hearty thank you to the students and families for a wonderful 2024 2025 school year. Uh thank you for entrusting them with providing uh a uh providing uh the kids and their families and caregivers with the
154academic, social, and uh care and love each and every day. Um and there's a hope that the summer is just a wonderful time for all of you. Um and then just on a personal note, uh even though it was yesterday, I'm going to wish my wife a happy birthday. Uh because you know she should go and have a more than just a weekend. So got it. All right. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Bernard. Uh Miss Batter. Uh let's see. Wait a second here. Miss Hoody. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [Laughter] Um this Thursday, the 12th, right? The 12th. Yes. Sorry, just clarifying my date. Um, the eighth grade moving on ceremony will be happening at Forestdale at 5:00 pm. I will be there. You should join us if you are familiar with an eighth grader who
155is moving on. Uh, Mr. Wy and I will be there to welcome or to say goodbye and farewell to the eighth graders and welcome them to high school. Um, I would also like to announce that on July 4th, Ari Taylor, W 5 city council, and myself will be sponsoring a uh picnic at the Forestdale Field. We're looking forward to seeing you all there. Please keep your eyes and ears open for flyers with more information and activities. And most importantly, have a great summer, everybody, and enjoy your time off. All right, very good. Over to Miss Mlin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, from the high school, um, Principal Master Angelo says, "Congratulations to the graduates of the class of 2025. And there are quite a few, well, four of our educators who are retiring." And I'm
156certain to not get these names correct. Um, David Kamishian, Julie Molain, Geneviva Mativa, and Meen Vana. And from the ELC, uh, thank you to all the families that came out on Saturday for the ELC color fun event. We had a great time frolicking in the rain. It was a wonderful end to the PTO year. anyone looking to participate in the ELCPTO, please contact them via the Facebook page. And um Principal Lawrence also says, "Thank you to all the families for a wonderful school year and have an amazing summer." And I wanted to um thank the BBPTO who invited me out to their end of the uh school year bash last Friday. Um we had lots of fun. It was a great turnout and I served pizza all night long. So, um, everyone have a great
157summer, a fun, safe summer, and, uh, we'll see you in the fall. Okay. Thank you. Now over to Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the Lynden, their field day was officially moved, so it will be the 11th. It won't be tomorrow, it's the 11th. They also have on the 11th at 8:30 will be a pride flag raising ceremony. On the 12th, also at 8:30, they will be having their Junth flag raising. On the 12th, their eighth grade moving on ceremony is at 11 o'clock and then their semiformal dance will be at six o'clock. It's from 6:00 to 8. Their PTO is looking for additional members and nominations. You can please check in with them. Um they're trying to grow that organization. Um I did want to thank Miss Mlin for including me in
158um inviting me to join her with a tour she had set up with some students to go through the high school which was a fantastic day um fantastic morning. um to see what's going on up there. Um congratulations also needs to go out to Principal Garcia. He was recognized by the state house with the Latino Educators Shine 2025 award. Congratulations for all of his hard work on that. Um also congratulations to all of our graduates. Um I want to say thank you to Principal Lawrence for all of the work that she's been doing at the ELC. Thank you for the PTO for doing the um color run color fun. Um, and thank you, Phoebe, because I still have all the color in my hair. Um, that will come out, I think, in a few more
159washes. Um, and just yes, happy summer for everybody. Have a safe and um fun summer. Okay, very good. Now to Miss Papor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, just a few items out of the BB. On June 12th, we'll have our eighth grade moving up ceremony at 1000 a.m. Also on June 12th is the eighth grade dance 5:30 p.m. So, just a reminder, students will need to be in school in order to attend the ceremony and the afterchool dance. Um, and on June 11th, we will recognize the kindergarten celebration of learning at 1:30 p.m. Our CPAC is hosting a know your rights um webinar. It's online 6 PM on June 11th. You can find that link on the CPACS Facebook page and I also believe a connected robocall whatever we're doing nowadays is going out to
160caregivers as well. Um July 4th celebration at Ambridge Park 10 a.m. sponsored by Counselor Lahan and the Ward 3 Association. So come have a hot dog, hamburger, bounce on a bouncy house. Um, don't forget to empty your backpacks on Friday. You don't want to find a random sandwich in September. And just as a public announcement, I have officially pulled my papers for W three school committee. So, I look forward to getting signatures from W three residents to be on the ballot again um this year. And happy birthday to my daughter tomorrow. And um just a reminder as the chair stated, keep your calendars open. We are going to be coming back here. So as we say, see you in the fall. We will see each other in a couple weeks. Very good. Thank you, Miss
161Betaphor. And as you know, I rarely speak at personal privilege because if I did, I'd be here all night on the on the great things that are happening in our city. I know we have many challenges, but believe me, on a daily basis, I see some really great things happening. And that was the case uh this past month. I've often wondered why the Malden High School play production club is so good. And now I think I know why. Because these uh plays that have been put on in the elementary schools have been nothing short of spectacular. I actually asked uh Mr. Weldai at the Farsdale if some of these students were actually ninth or tth graders. They were that good. Um and um so I would encourage you I think with everyone else to keep
162that going. I think that's part of the afterchool clubs or that we're doing because it's it's impressive. All right. Uh so thank you everyone. Now we'll entertain a motion to go into executive. Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Miss Hardy. Clerk will call the role. Mr. Dummy, yes. Miss McCarthy, yes. Miss Fataphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hardy, yes. Mr. Gray, yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Rose Zyberg, Mayor Christensen, yes. That carries unanimously. School committee will now be in executive session.