Malden School Committee 4/7/25

001recording in progress. Recording stopped. recording in progress. Welcome to the Malden School Committee meeting. Today is Monday, April 7th, 2025. The time is 6:00 p.m. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, May 5th here at 6:00 p.m. This evening's agenda will consist of the following. First, pledge allegiance to our flag. We'll then have a moment of silence for our members of the armed services. Uh we will then segue over to ward one school committee member Mike Drum for a special moment of silence. We will then take attendance to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together and then we'll dive into the agenda which consists of the following. Approval of the regular session minutes of March 3rd, 2025 followed by public comment and then we'll go over to our

002school superintendent where he's going to discuss three items. First is the out of state field trip Canoby Lake Park. We're going to revisit the entry findings and then finally there'll be an update on closing opportunity gaps. Then from there we'll hear from the chairs of our subcommittees. Uh Miss Spataphora will give an update on negotiations as well as budget. Miss Horty will talk about where we are with the Shore Educational Collaborative. And then finally, Miss Rose Zyberg to my right to your left will talk about what's happening in policy and procedure. from there that we anticipate taking a vote regarding school choice as well as the assistant superintendent/director of student services contract. Then we'll open it up to the members for personal privilege and then from there we'll entertain a motion to go into executive

003session for the following four reasons. Uh the first is to approve the executive session minutes of March 3rd, 2025. Number two is to discuss an open meeting law complaint dated March 24, 2025 filed by Bruce Freriedman against the Malden School Committee. Item number three is to review and discuss the release of executive session minutes from March 4th, 2024, April 1st, 2024, May 6th, 2024, May 29th, 2024, June 6th, 2024, July 11th, 2024, August 12th, 2024, September 9th, 2024, October 10th, 2024, November 4th, 2024, December December 2nd, 2024, January 6, 2025, January 13, 2025, February 3rd, 2025, and March 3rd, 2025. And then the final item is to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with the Malden Education Association units A, B, and C. So, there are any questions? will then come back

004out and adjourn. Any questions of the members? Hearing none, let's pledge allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This is where we take a moment to honor all those who have fought for our country and continue to do so today. Thank you. Please remain standing for a special moment of silence in which Mr. Drum will lead the school committee. Now, I'd like to take a moment for Mr. RX member, Mr. John Freyo. Uh, his wife passed away earlier this week, Judy. So, I'd like a moment of silence for her, please. Thank you. Okay, we'll now take attendance. Mayor Christensen here. Mr. Drum here. Mr. McCarthy here. Miss

005Bataphora here. Miss Mlin here. Miss Hardy here. Mr. Gray here. Mr. Bernard here. Miss Roseberg here. Superintendent Sipple here. Right. So, we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together tonight. Please be advised all the votes will be done by roll call since we have one of our members, Mr. Gray, participating via Zoom. All right, everyone. So, let's take a look at these minutes from March 3rd. Any questions? If not, we'll entertain a motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Drum. It's been seconded by Mr. Bernard. Any remaining questions? If not, we'll have the clerk call the role. Mayor Christensen, yes. Mr. Drum, yes. Mr. McCarthy, yes. Miss Bataphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hardy, yes. Mr. Gray, yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Rosyberg, yes. Okay, that carries unanimously. Now down to public comment.

006This 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. Public comment is no more than three minutes per speaker and we are making available up to 15 minutes. Anybody wishing to address the school committee can do so now. Good evening. Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Donna Tul. I live at 130 Adam Street in Malden. Um, I am an ESP for the integrated kindergarten at BB. I wanted to briefly talk about um the school lunches. Um, and some of the things I see while I'm on lunch duty. Um, my pediatrician once told me that our stomachs are the size of our fist. And I think about all of our students at our schools and especially the kindergarten

007children that I'm in charge of at lunch and the portions of the food that we give out. um the portions are the same whether they are in kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade and sometimes I feel like that is questionable. Our older students complain that they're not getting enough food whereas when I am doing lunch duty with kindergarten the amount of food that I'm throwing out is ridiculous. Um they take a few bites. They may not like all the options. Um and it's it's sad to see something being thrown away. Um, the other thing that I'm concerned about besides the portion of the food is some of the things that we're feeding the kids. Um, they may not be things that our students are always have a taste for. Um, the children like

008to have a lot of things like the bento boxes, they love the pizza, they love the burgers. Um, pasta is a big thing. Um, but sometimes when they do the cold options, there's a salad that has buffalo chicken on it and that may be the only thing that's left by the time kindergarten gets up there. And I know my students aren't going to eat spicy chicken. Um, or they'll have a yogurt parfait that has the yogurt in it and some frozen fruit on top that they don't eat that. And to make it a parfait, they put Lucky Charms on it in which they only eat the marshmallows. um because that's what kids do. Um so I was hoping that maybe we could revisit maybe some of the choices um for the meals, not necessarily the

009company, but maybe some of the choices that are given, especially to our younger students. Um because I know some of the older students are really appreciative of some of the things that we're seeing lately. Um I'm not sure how we do that, but I just thought the committee needed to know what was going on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the committee can do so now, please? Good evening. Hi, everybody. Peter Piaza. Uh, I live at One Manley Terrace in Malden. Uh, I have a four-year-old at the ELC and an 8-year-old at Salemwood. Uh I uh just want to take the opportunity on today the first day of National Library Week to bring up the importance and the value of school libraries um for all students. Of course, literacy is

010an is a major topic in the education policy conversation today and the research clearly shows uh improved literacy outcomes for all students in schools that have fully staffed libraries. Um even if so even if it's not possible financially to have a certified librarian in in all schools in Malden even some creative choices such as offering library as an exploratory in the K to8s for example might open up libraries um as a place of access and and and enjoyment of reading for students in in Malden. So I just wanted to uh put that in front of the body for your for your consideration. Thank you. Okay, we're going to check online. There we go. So, I do have one person online who would like to speak. I'm going to turn on the mic to uh Miss

011Lahan. If you could just state your name and address for the record. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um my name is Amanda Lahan. I live at 83 Bloomer Street. I am of course also the Ward 3 city counselor and a parent to a BB sixth grader. Um, I'm actually just here tonight really simply to say thanks to all of you. You probably remember back in September, I came in with a group of other parents and caregivers and members of our school site council really asking for your help to address a couple of programmatic gaps that had arisen at BB due to some vacant staff positions in particular for world language and band. Um, I can't imagine how difficult it must be to fill these highly specialized

012positions in music and language. And I think most of us knew that these positions had been open for a long time and were, you know, honestly hoping that we could get them filled maybe by the next school year. So I just want to come back and share how pleasantly surprised we were when Dr. Sipple emailed our site council just a few weeks after we came before you in September and shared with us that our high school band teacher, Miss Foley, was actually going to be offering a program for BB's middle schoolers, basically starting right away. Not only that, it's offered after school, um, which addresses another pain point for a lot of families, which is just wanting more afterchool enrichment, especially for those middle schoolers. So, I just wanted to come back and say thanks

013for that. And I also wanted to additionally point out that we've got a new drama program. That's not even something that we had asked for. Um, but it's something families have been wishing for for many, many years. And we are going to have a couple of shows in the beginning of June that I'd love to invite you all to. That's going to be June 3rd and 5th at 5:00 p.m. Want to shout out Miss Hullbrook who had so much demand for that program, she actually expanded it to 2 days per week so that nobody would be turned away. Um, and then last but not least, earlier this month, Miss Valencia joined the BB school faculty as our new Spanish language exploratory teacher. So, we actually now have world language in during the school day for

014our middle schoolers. So again, really responsive to the parents that came out and just wanted to commend all the work that you do to listen to our community. I know I speak for a lot of the folks who came out that night in saying that we feel very seen and supported and that you're making a big difference in the lives of these kids who are going to have art and language now for the first time. Um kind of no matter what they do in their life, I know that's going to be a benefit to them. And because a lot of them came with us that night, you taught them a lot about civic engagement, too. So again, just thank you. Um, and thank you especially for having a Zoom option for the busy working parents

015tonight. It's very, very appreciated. Okay, on that note, we should probably close public comment. Seriously, there's no one else, right? Okay, we're going to we are going to close public comment. Yeah. All right. Uh, thank you very much. So, now everyone, let's shift over to our superintendent for his report. Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor and uh, members of the committee and members of the public who are here and those who are watching online. I want to thank you for being here tonight and thank you for the opportunity to share um, some highlights. um on three three important notes. Uh the first is a more of a technical thing that um per school district policy uh out of state field trips need to be approved by the committee and we have all five of our K8

016schools uh planning to take their um their students to Canopy Lake this June. And um in the the supporting documents you have the dates of those trips, the number of students uh who are anticipating having that exciting opportunity and having a lot of fun. Um but it does require a school committee u approval and so just wanted to bring that before you to request that. Okay, questions of our superintendent. Any motions? Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Mr. Bernard to approve. All right, let's uh take some questions. Let's go to Miss Horty first. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I was just wondering about the return time for BB and Ferryway. Member Hordy, you want to say more? Oh, sorry. I apologize. You're not all looking at this. Um what's listed here is uh BB departs

017from school at 8:45 and arrives back at 3:30 and Ferryway departs from school at 8 and arrives back at 3:30 whereas the three other schools return either at 2:15, 2:30 or 2:45. And I thought we were all on the same schedule. So, I just wondered if there was a I mean I I'm wondering if this might be another transportation issue at the other end if they're coming in at 3:30. It's um Thank you for the question. Um I that all this information was provided by each school and so I'm not aware that that there was a a transportation barrier that required this return time. I was just thinking about any sort of special transportation that might be needed because that's really only the only transportation we provide at this point. So, assistant superintendent Bassine um

018collated these requests. Correct. Do you do you have any additional detail? You want to come come up? Thank you. Hi. Hi. Um I'm happy to look more into the details of the requests but those are they may also be specific to the days that they are um arranging. So you can see BB's on the 10th fairways on um the 6th whereas the other other schools are on the 9th or 11th and have sort of different timings as well. So some of it is just in terms of the coordination with the park in terms of having students enter and exit right so they have sure uh the need to coordinate in advance to um purchase the tickets. just wanted to make sure that we didn't have any sort of confusion at the other end where someone

019might be waiting for something or I mean obviously this is going to be clearly communicated to the parents. I'm not concerned about that. Um but this stuck out to me as long time before you guys were here when we had weird different schedules in every K to8 and I saidoo I better point this out in case this is like a relic or something like that. So thank you much appreciate it. Anybody else? Miss B forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I I'm just going to piggy back off of Miss Hordes because that was my main question is how are we working with our NRT transportation for our special needs kids that will be arriving late um or later than their normal scheduled pickup time because that's going to now require two runs. if we have

020students that would be on that bus um that would have a normal 215 pickup, but now these students are arriving later. Um um we'll definitely look into that. Make sure that that's not a problem. Assistant Superintendent McDonald is giving me a signal that we're we're going to be all set, but um I'll get that in writing, please. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else hearing? None. Clerk will call the RO. Yes. Mr. McCarthy. Yes. Miss Battleora. Yes. Miss Mlin. Yes. Miss Hardy. Yes. Mr. Gray. Yes. Mr. Bernard. Yes. Miss Rosberg. Yes. Okay, that carries unanimously. Back to our school superintendent. All right. Thank you again. Um, as far as uh revisiting our entry findings, I thought it would be helpful just to share um what I've been hearing or some highlights from what I've been hearing

021from parents and caregivers and our staff over the course of the year that have informed and given more texture to these these entry findings that um that I've shared with you last month. Um, and again the I don't want to overlook the strengths that we have. U Oh, I'm sorry. Let me pull up the slides. That would be helpful. The vice chair gave me permission to share and I'm not sharing. All right, here we go. All right. Again, the uh entry findings that there were the areas of strength uh for Malden, our diverse students, our engaged parents and caregivers, our um our committed ed and talented educators and leaders and our supportive city and and and community. We also identified six areas of uh for collective action and these are informed by all of the

022feedback that I received from again from parents, caregivers uh at the town hall meetings that I conducted over the course of the fall. um and also the listening sessions I conducted with staff last fall and a parent and caregiver survey we uh administered in December and a uh staff survey that we administered in January. So there were multiple um sources of data for this in addition to my observations in all the classrooms that I've that I've seen our work with our administrators um and obviously consultation with with you and with many other people that I've met over the course of the year. And then more recently u we uh have had a series of feedback sessions. There was one at the fairyway in February, also in February, one at Malden High School. Um, and then

023more recently, uh, we had a virtual, uh, feedback session, um, uh, on Zoom. And, um, in addition to sharing these these findings with you all. And in each of those, I had the opportunity again just to to make sure that we had heard correctly and that there were other ideas or other nuances to the to these areas for action to make sure that we were um we were on the right path. So they are affirming high expectations for all, adapting instruction to meet diverse needs, ensuring fair access to opportunities for all of our students, partnering with families effectively, nurturing a strong workforce, and building strength and stability. And I'm just going to say just a few things about each of these again tonight. So the first is high expectations for all. And again, what we

024mean by that is that we're not um we're not lowering our expectations for any child or any youth. That every single one of them is capable of achieving great things. And we want to make sure that we're by maintaining those high expectations, we're giving them the opportunity to achieve and to go off uh after high school and do whatever they put the put their mind to. And if they choose to go to college, we want to make sure they have the skills to be able to thrive and to and to graduate from college and to go on and do whatever they would like to do after that. And if they choose not to go to college, that's okay. But it will not be because we didn't prepare them or that we didn't think that they

025were capable of doing it. So you see two uh examples of uh feedback that I received over the course of this past year. one uh from from one of our feedback sessions, an idea that got four stars u from those who participated that high expectations can result in high performance with support, the right resources and accommodations when necessary. Our future depends on it. And then for our caregivers survey, uh there was a an idea this idea of curriculum and academic excellence that rigorous d and diverse curriculum that prepares students for the future and success. 93% of the parents and caregivers who responded to the survey um felt that that was important or extremely important going forward. So a lot of residents on high expectations, which is good. We're we're we're this is Malden and we

026we want high high good things for our our students and and we're on the same page there. Next, we have uh meeting diverse needs. And again, we have a uh as you are all aware and we've talked about and we'll be hearing a little bit more about tonight um in the closing the achievement gap uh portion of the presentation. We have a large number of our students who are uh learning English as their second language that we refer to as multilingual learners. Um about 30% of our students across the district. uh we have a significant percentage of our students who have been identified with a disability and we have the obligation to make sure that they have access and have all the supports that they need to succeed. Um and we also have students who

027are coming into a grade level into a class already with a lot under their belt and are ready for more and that's another theme that we heard about over the course of the year in this feedback session. One thought that one of our participants shared was, "It is crucial that our teachers differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students, especially students with disabilities. This will allow us to close the achievement gap and prepare students for better opportunities." And again, that was a four-star um response, meaning that the other participants in the feedback sessions uh saw that that response and said they really truly agreed with it. the staff survey that we conducted with all of our uh teachers and educators back in January. Um, one of the uh ideas that I had heard in

028the listening sessions and I brought back to them uh in the survey to to see if we had heard correctly was this idea of the need for increased support and resources available to students learning English. 83% of the teachers uh and educators who responded to the survey felt that that was important or extremely important. Um and so this is uh just some samples of how meeting diverse needs is um has you know been confirmed as something that we're we're really going to be working on together going forward. The third area is fair access for all. Um, and this refers to both making sure that we have uh opportunities, equitable opportunities across all of our K8 schools. Since the students don't go to the same school for those grade levels, we want to make sure that

029they have equitable opportunities u regardless of which school they attend, which we heard a little bit about tonight. Um and then the other uh issue is also making sure that within Malden High School or within each of the K8 schools or even at the early learning center that students have uh what they need to make sure that they can access our core instruction and everything else that we offer. So in our one of our feedback sessions uh a participant shared I think this is important so that every student has the same opportunities regardless of what school they go to. And again, this was a fourst star uh response. Um actually, you saw most of the most of those who responded thought five stars, but there were enough three stars that it didn't get the the

030five-star rating. Um and then on the staff survey, equity and program offerings across schools, attention to class sizes, case loads, program elective offerings across schools. 77% of the educators uh felt that this was important or extremely important for our work going forward. Partnering with families um we need a single method of communication for families. This was a comment that one parent registered in the feedback session um which 3.6 six. See, there was a lot of a lot of uh you know, agreement with that, but it was definitely on the high end. And then in our staff survey in January, our our educators, they also said um that a consistent method to communicate with all parents and tap the assets of our broader community was something that was very important. 60% of educators felt that was

031important or extremely important. And I want to pause before I go on to the next area for collective action to talk about something that will be supporting that effort very soon. And that is Parent Square. Parent Square is a an online uh platform that our district will be using to support um district communications with families, school communication with families, classroom teacher uh messages to their classes. Um and then also individual educators will be able to message individual parents and caregivers also through the same platform. Um, currently we have a platform that a lot of our elementary schools use called Class Dojo. Um, that teachers have to load themselves. Um, they have to put all their students in um, each year. Um, and if a student checks out, they have to take them out of the

032class and if the student comes in, they have to put the new one in um, manually. Um, this parent square is a system that will be synced with Aspen. So that that's all done for the teachers. And the other very very um amazing feature that this system has apart from lots of very user-friendly templates for educators to use to get messages out is that uh it translates into many languages into the language of preference for the parent or caregiver automatically and then when the parent responds to a message it translate that message back into English so that the educator can can understand it. Um, parents do not need to use an app in order to use the system. They could uh set it. They could set their preferences. So, they just receive text messages and

033respond from their phone. Um, they can use a computer or they can use an app on their phone if they choose to. And our educators will be able to use their um schoolisssued computers. They don't have to install the app on their phones if they if they would choose not to. Um some just a couple of highlights about implementation. We shared this news with our educators just a few days ago. Um the we have training this month for what we're calling early adopters. uh some teachers from each school and an administrator from each school who are just going to come to central office and learn how the system works so that they can then in turn facilitate in-person training for the rest of the teachers and staff at their respective schools in May. We want

034to make sure that everyone's very comfortable with this before um before they're they have to use it. And they'll have access to Class Dojo and uh Talking Points and the other um apps and and platforms that they're using currently until the end of this year. Um we'll be introducing this platform to families um in May. Um, and we're uh fully expecting that families will be able to start receiving their uh messages from the district and from their respective schools before school starts in August. So, I just wanted to share this with you. Um, our educators uh were have who as they've heard about this have been very excited and um and I tr I trust that parents will be as well. Two more two more items. um nurturing a strong workforce. Um language capacity and

035diversity are paramount. Connection is the foundation of everything we do. Um this was a four-star uh thought that was that was shared that a lot of people resonated with. I will say that um recently our assistant superintendent of human resources Sarah Mclofflin was at a job fair I believe in Brooklyn um that it was hosted by the um Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity and Education that we're a member of um and that's really geared towards in diversifying the workforce of of educators in the Commonwealth and and in our case making sure that we take every opportunity to to cultivate a diverse workforce course here in Malden staffing. Another theme was from our staff survey. Our educators um shared they felt uh the need for prioritizing recruitment and hiring of staff for high needs roles to ensure

036these positions are fully staffed and the need for increased staffing in various roles including substitutes. 91% of educators uh felt that this was important or extremely important when we surveyed them in January. And um as you're aware, we are out and we're recruiting for next year. Um and this is to make sure that we don't have these high needs very critical roles vacant um at the start of next school year. And then the last area for collective action I'll share um is related to strength and stability. Um there was a a parent who shared that uh school needs to be a welcoming place for kids to learn because the environment plays a key role in education. A very had a lot of agreement from other parents and caregivers who were participating in that in that

037uh in the town hall. And then in our caregivers survey, there was a strong agreement that we need to continue um investing in infrastructure including updated classrooms, labs, and outdoor spaces. Um we of course are blessed with really good facilities to a great extent in Malden. Yet over the longer term, we want to make sure that we are taking continuing to take care of them um so that they serve us well into the future. um as I know a lot of and that the partnership of the city on that score is extremely important. Right. I think I'm going to stop there. Um and just um before I invite assistant superintendent Basin to come up to share about closing opportunity gaps. Just see if there might be any questions. Mr. Mayor, questions of the team. Any

038questions of what they just heard? Let's go to Mr. Mr. Bernard first. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just a just a quick thing. I'm assuming that with the adoption of uh parents where when you say end of the year, it's the end of this school year. Correct. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that because uh I'm sure we will have some people that will uh concentrate on on the not the words versus the intent. So, if we can uh so uh thank you for that and uh I'm all set. Thank you, Mr. Bernard. Any uh anybody else? Any questions? All right, let's move it forward. All right, assistant Superintendent Bassin will come and uh share about a um first of all a summary of a report that we presented to the Department of Elementary and Secondary

039Education last week um as a part of our an annual progress um report on closing achievement uh opportunity gaps and she'll share some other highlights from that in terms of that's going to inform our work going forward. Thank you. Good evening and this will be just as fun as a trip to Canopy Lake Park. Um, so I promise I'm here to overview the content of our Desi progress report that we submitted last week, which focuses on how at the K through eight level, we're working to support all of our students within our district using highquality instructional materials in literacy. So, I'd like to show you what some of our midyear data showed and really preview for you what you will see in school improvement plans from our principles later this spring in terms of addressing

040these trends as we plan for next year. I want to assure you that we are also working to address this data this year in real time. Um, as a full district leadership team, which includes our central office team, our principles, and our APS, we have reviewed all of this data that I'll show you in our regular meetings. And our building leaders have made mid-year plans to address the data using their PD days in January or PD half days in January, February, March, um, as well as in their coaching cycles. Um, but today's presentation and the DESIE report that we submitted is on how we're using this data to plan for next year. So what did the data show? First, we looked at progress measures for core instruction in K through8 English language arts. And this

041graph shows data from I Ready, an adaptive assessment that measures students reading comprehension. So if you see here, the blue shows endofear proficiency from last year and the orange is our projected endofear proficiency at the end of this year based on our midyear results. And in this data, any change that's less than 2 or 3% is not really significant. Um, so what you see here is actually most of the difference between those blue and orange bars is about 2 or 3%. Right? So what the trend here is that our data is pretty stable. And in fact, if you look at the far right column, that's actually the average of all of our grades. And you can see that that is exactly the same average as last year. So this data is very stable. I want

042to note that we have a population of students that does change from year to year. Actually about 15% of our students enroll after October 1st. So the fact that this data is stable and not downward trend is actually a measure of progress um and speaks to the hard work that our educators do in supporting our newly arrived students. And although it's not shown in this graph, when we disagregate this data by specific student group, we actually see some growth from populations such as our L's, our students who are starting the furthest behind and in some grade levels are students with disabilities. So that's good news. However, we also need to face the fact, right, that year to year just under 40% of our students are proficient in reading. And we need to push ourselves to

043do better than that. So, what can we do next year to address this? After reviewing the staff survey data from our educators and a lot of spirited discussion among our principles, APs, and central office staff, we really came to the following ideas. The first is that we are exposing our students to complex grade level text and we're excited about that and want to continue that. And as we look to next year, our educators are asking us for support in helping every student in class engage with that complex text and show their understanding through speaking and writing. Another way of describing that is to say, how do we help our students do the heavy lifting, right? Particularly our students with disabilities and our multilingual learners as we engage with these complex texts. We are committed to

044providing that support that our educators are asking for. Each of our K through8 schools is working collaboratively with their staff to build a school improvement plan that prioritizes professional learning and coaching to support our educators to adapt those high-quality materials to support all of our students. And in service of those plans, we are also looking at some operational work uh to support our core instruction. The first is really working hard to make sure that those crucial roles for ESL and special education educators don't stay vacant but instead are filled. And the second is designing schedules so that students can receive services without missing core instruction. So in one sentence, our priority for students next year is doing the heavy lift and our school improvement plans will leverage professional learning and scheduling to get there. As

045we know, investment in this core instruction is crucial. But we also know that part of the reason students may struggle with our reading comprehension assessments has to do with their foundational reading skills, right? Their phonics, their fluency. So, we also want to look at the state of foundational reading within our program. So, we took a look at the reports from our Dibbles assessment. So, just to step back, what does Dibbles measure? So imagine seeing the word cat. In order to read that word, first you have to recognize that there are you have to break it down or segment it into several sounds and you have to know the names of those sounds, right? So c. Then you have to blend those sounds together. Cat, cat, right? And be able to pull those together fast enough,

046right? To actually recognize a word and understand that word in the context of whatever sentence you were reading. That's what dibbles measures in our grades K through three. So we looked at our D dibbles results again in these younger grades and we found that actually we are slightly ahead of last year's midyear results which is great news. It means more students are learning these foundational phonics skills. And then we disagregated the data to find out more who is being successful in our program and who needs more support. And that's what you see here on this graph. Blue is last year, orange is this year. And the students are grouped. You sort of see those four clusters on the graph based on the skills that they had when they started the year. So on the far

047left, you see the percent of students who started the year above benchmark. So above grade level in phonics. And as you see here, right, like uh 74% of those students made sufficient progress by mid year. That's great. That's what Dibble says is is good work. Similarly, students who started the year at benchmark, right? 77% of these students are making sufficient progress by midyear. So that's also good news. That's above what Dibble says you should expect to see. So now let's look at the next column, which is the percent of students who started the year below benchmark. only 33% or 31% of those students made sufficient progress by midyear. And now let's look at the students who started the year well below benchmark. Only 10% of these students made sufficient progress by midyear. The reason I've

048included last year's results, the blue, is so that you can see that that this is a trend over time. It's not just a blip this year. This is a pattern. So the headline is that when our students come in with grade level phonics skills, they make a ton of progress in our program. And we think that's because of the skilled hard work of our educators to explicitly teach phonics as part of our grade level core curriculum. However, for our students who do not come into our program with grade level phonics skills, right, these two groups on the side here as a school system, we are not providing the intervention support to help these students catch up. And who are these young people in the below or well below bucket? We further disagregated that data and

049we saw only 8% of the young people who are well below benchmark are general education English-speaking students without a disability. Let me say that a different way. 92% of these students who are well below benchmark are students with disabilities, English learners or dy identified students. So as a system it is very clear who we are leaving behind and not yet teaching how to read. And I want to be very clear this is not because of any one educator or any one school. As a matter of fact I can think of many many educators who have already identified this and are trying so hard to address the needs of students in their classes. Right? Tutoring this student, pulling this student, working with this student. Our educators are working very hard to provide classroombased solutions. But what

050we see here in this trend is a systemwide challenge that we need to address with a systemwide solution, right? How can we support our students who are starting the year well below benchmark and acknowledging that this data is where our students are in grades K through three? What can we do for our older students who after leaving third grade still need foundational reading skills? So this was the question we've been engaging with as a Malden leadership team, our central office, our principles, and our assistant principles. And so as we head into next year, all of our school improvement plans will have a section specifically where schools are making plans to improve foundational reading skills instruction, not just for students at the elementary grades, but for our students in grades K through eight. From a scheduling

051standpoint, this involves creating a dedicated literacy intervention block in our K through8 schedules. So we to be clear, we will continue to teach foundational skills in grades K through three as part of our core curriculum. But on top of that, every student in grades K through eight will get a literacy intervention block which can address the below grade level foundational skills that they may need help with or continue to push their grade level or above grade level skills. We're also responding to our educators request for more training on how to use the phononics program that we've adopted to support students who are coming in well below level. Another root cause that we've looked at from a scheduling standpoint is that for our English learners and our students with disabilities, many times they are pulled actually

052from literacy intervention block to get their services. And so again, right, our educators have flagged this in our listening sessions and we're glad to be able to address this by starting with our scheduling work by looking at the service needs of our students so that literacy intervention block does not conflict with being pulled for speech or OT or for your language um acquisition time. So in one sentence, how will we address the trends that we see? We will do so through a dedicated literacy intervention block for below grade level foundational skills, strategic scheduling around the needs of our LS and students with disabilities, and responding to our educators request for more training on supporting our students with lagging phonics skills. So, as we reported to Desessie, as we implement our high- quality instructional materials, the

053two headlines that really come to mind as we think about school improvement planning for next year are improving the quality of core instruction through heavy lifting, right? A focus on heavy lifting and enhancing our literacy intervention blocks in grades K through eight. All of this through professional learning and strategic scheduling. Thank you for the opportunity to present what I feel is riveting data. Um, and I'm happy to take any questions the committee may have. questions of the members. If I might just from the uh chair, has Desi responded? Um they have not. We submit Do they typically or So we submit it on April 1st, which is the deadline statewide for submission of progress reports. Typically, you hear back if the report does not meet Desi's expectations. They send it back for revision and then

054they post the plan uh the reports publicly on their website. Um we took advantage of Desi's office hours in advance of the deadline to receive proactive feedback on our submission. Um and uh got positive feedback. Um so our hope is that um the response will be favorable. Okay, let's go to Miss Hoody and then Miss Sper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, couple questions. Um, dedicated literacy time, how as a lay person, how am I as a parent also going to understand what that means? What that looks like? How is that different than the literacy coach maybe pushing into the classroom and doing something with students? How does this fall into line? because I believe we started a new curriculum last year. Um, and also was the idea that we have a new ELA curriculum taken

055into account with some of the scoring because, you know, obviously that's a huge change for staff to implement this new curriculum that they're only a year and some into. So did is there I mean I'm not sure how you would like mathematically account for that but I just want to put that out as something that might impact this in some way too. Absolutely. So this does not involve a change in curriculum. Okay. This involves continuing to use the resources we have and investing more training and support for educators to implement that curriculum. Okay. In our literacy blocks, think about two hours, we have about 90 minutes for grade level work. So that is like reading texts in K through three doing phonics. Then you have about 30 minutes for the lagging skills in phonics that

056we did not learn in prior grade levels. So right now the teacher has students for those two hours. And during that 30 minutes of below grade level skills, that teacher is now like, "Okay, you ready? I'm gonna work with you on this and I'm going to work with you on and they're probably gesturing in even more of a frenetic way than I am. Right? What we're doing for next year's in many cases and schools are planning specifically around this. But to give you one example, one of our schools is saying, "Let's take that 30 minutes. Let's actually make that its own block and now every student can walk in a carousel and they can be grouped with other students at their same level. So instead of that one teacher saying, "Wow, I've got this group

057of kids in my class who need this first grade skill and this group of kids who need a different first grade skill and I'm trying to handle all of them." That teacher can actually work with a small group who all need that same foundational skill. So it's a lot easier to catch kids up because we're putting kids sort of mixing up the groups so that teachers can work with kids and really see them progress over time. So that's one of the creative solutions one of our schools is working on. So really thinking about those 90 minutes where students are doing grade level work that's working right but it's the 30 minutes where the students are working on the below grade level skills right in phonics where I think the teachers are saying I'm really like

058tackling a lot of needs can we have some more support with that and that's where the professional development is coming in you know trying to get our phonics trainers to come back and say okay we learned how to use this curriculum but what does this mean for a student who's many years behind um and trying to use our resources effectively um so that we can um really make those groups small and help our students make a lot of progress. And if I'm a third grader who is not in the small group, let's say working on phonics, I am then working on grade level material that's been assigned to me. I'm reading a passage and answering questions like e like something along those lines. Is that how that's working? Okay. I have to say I'm like

059chuckling a little bit. Um because when you're talking about the smaller groups focusing on like very specific needs, it like hearkens back to the 80s of reading groups which I think there is a really like there's a valuable piece in that to know that you're within a group of students who are working on the same thing and like building your skills together. And I think it's really it can be a really positive experience when we have students that are supporting each other and like it's also a really great opportunity for them to see each other's growth and to praise each other. So I'm actually really glad to hear that you're doing that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Paphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so the the dedicated literacy intervention time, it says grades K through

060eight, what are we doing for our high school students? That's a great question. So this report focused on grades K through eight. So that's why that was the focus of this presentation. Um, but happy to uh come back and present on the high school data. Okay. So was this specific set then only K through eight? I'm And how does it relate to the student opportunity act plan that we approved last year for three years? Is this just a small piece of what we approved that we're reporting on or does it encompass everything that um was presented last year? Going to ask Miss Bind to Sure. As part of the student opportunity act plan, we had to report on the implementation of two of the evidence-based programs that we uh incorporated into that plan. So the

061reporting was on what we selected last year as a district which was the K through8 um highquality instructional material implementation and literacy. Um and then we also did some reporting on um allocation of funds to summer programming. Um so but the real heart here of our report was on the literacy implementation in K through eight. Um but happy to bring um some high school related data um and speak to that um in an upcoming meeting. Yeah, that would be fantastic. just because I'm looking at what we approved last year and we did dig down into some high school stuff um as well as um well you did say middle school so the the summer credit recovery program and so on and so forth but um I'm just curious and I know the superintendent's going to

062probably give me the side eye because I've mentioned this often. How come we're not targeting anything around mathematics? So, and I asked that I'm sorry because we do talk about it in our plan that we submitted um and analyzing and using I Ready and so I'm just curious. So if I'm not mistaken, I believe that the data and we can um similarly to the high school data, we could also bring data on mathematics specifically, Miss Bataphora. And that I believe it's the um the platform we use for that. It's okay. It's okay. Too many eyes. I ready. Um but we can bring that data also um because that's certainly and we have um evidence-based instructional materials that we've been implementing in mathematics also. Absolutely. It is hugely important uh to our work as a district

063and all of our school improvement plans um have targets for ELA and math. Um and you know as a result the analysis in our meetings and our action planning is on both of those subjects. The reason that lit was the focus of this presentation. It just relates to the progress reporting that we submitted on April 1st. Um but more than happy to speak to those trends as well. Thank you. So we haven't surpris submitted any progress report on mathematics. No, because that was what Jesse required in this particular report was the focus on the implement the evidence-based program which is our high quality instructional materials in ELA. But more than happy to speak. There were other components of the plan that we submitted last year which include math which include the summer the summer programming

064and more than happy to speak to those as well. This is just the focus of this progress report that we submitted. Okay. Yeah, that would be wonderful. I'd love to see um where we're at with everything in that plan. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other lights. Appreciate the presentation. Thank you. soup. Anything else? That's what I have for this evening. So, I really appreciate the committee's uh attention and interest and support. Thank you. Please. I'm sorry. Just one more question. It pertains actually going back to your entry findings. Um I just curious how um educators responded to having that single platform being rolled out rather than kind of we've had so many multiple different um apps and whatnot um over the years. So just curious what the response was to that was there

065like yay like one thing we're all on the same page. Well, I I know this was uh actually something that we did even touch on in in negotiations and when I made the comment that educators would not need to load their classes themselves into the platform, but it would be synced with Aspen among some folks in the audience there was a like a expression of relief in their in their face. um and um and then the idea of being able to communicate more easily um through translation with all the multiple languages we have in our district. Uh similarly, there was a lot of uh enthusiasm around that. Um in the conversations I've had with individual educators, but also in in settings like that where I've shared about it more publicly. And um I'm assuming as

066we roll this out, we're going to offer some like I don't want to call it training to parents, but yeah, like this is our new platform. We're going to do a twohour webinar. hopefully maybe not two hours, but um just you know getting to know the platform and and how to you know reach your students teachers and so on and so forth because I know having multiple platforms sometimes I have a teacher that might use one and some prefer to just use email or just pick up the phone and call. So I think just having that for us caregivers. Yes. And the the the platform itself has u many resources that parents can access independently. But then we'll also have um probably virtual. It's the best way to to more most convenient way for many

067people to access it. opportunities for parents to learn the basics of the platform and set their preferences so they can decide whether they want to get the messages um in in one language or another and whether they want to use the app or or not. And the uh the when a message is is sent either from the teacher or from the school or from the superintendent um it goes to uh their email inbox if they've chosen that preference. and or it can go as a text message that they'll open up a link and or it can go to the app. Um they really have um a lot of control on what is most useful for them to receive messages and communication from the district. Fantastic. Thank you. Yeah. So just from the um chair missed

068just reminded me on on parent square what's the term of the agreement? It is uh we we are onboarding this year and it goes through next school year I believe. And then what happens after that? Then there'll be renewal terms that we'll have to revisit each year. And how were you able to finance this? I'm I'm assuming with some of the ones we're not using was used to finance this. Yeah, there were there were uh expenses that had been identified previously that were not encumbered and that those funds were available. Okay. All right. Very good. I I will say that it's uh it's very reasonable priced for what we're getting from it. Do other districts around here use it? Many oh um many districts many districts and I the district that I came from uh

069where I was administrator before uh uses it uh the district where I happen to reside as a parent also uses it. Okay. So it's very it's a it's a very popular platform. Yeah. Okay. Very good. We'll keep us posted. Let's now go to subcommittee reports. Let's hear from Miss Bataphora first. This is on negotiations followed by budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I will keep all of these brief. Um negotiations, we've had four sessions thus far with the Molden Education Association. And just the very last meeting we had um was our final meeting to submit any new proposals, both sides. So all um all proposals are now out on the table. Um we have had some um acceptances on both sides, some counters on both sides, some rejections on both sides, but we're moving along.

070Um the next meeting will be held this week right here in council chambers on April 10th. And I forgot to put my date. I'm pretty sure it's 3:30 p.m. Thank you. Um, and also all proposals. We have uh a web page for anybody looking to follow along and it has um our proposals um our responses um the union's contracts if anybody's interested in diving deep into um that excitement. Um and that's maldinps.org org backschool-committ backnegotiations-updates. Um, that's where we're at. I know it's a lot, but um, also there is a uh, Malden School Committee Facebook page that will be sharing all of the agendas and information for that as well for anybody looking to follow. questions. Okay. Budget. Budget. Um so follows negotiations because um the MEA presented some financial proposals last meeting. I mean

071there's been some financial ties to many proposals over the past um six weeks or so, but I think a big chunk of that came in our last meeting. So, um, as far as our fiscal year 2526 budget goes, um, I will say we're a little bit slower than we have been in the past because we are taking into account, um, that we are in the middle of bargaining. So, um, a lot of what we would plan out is tied to these proposals. We did have a budget subcommittee meeting on April 2nd um just to talk about really um key drivers and our our the increase to our budget this year. A few of them being our out of district tuitions are rising. Our special education transportation um costs, special education um contracted services. So that

072would be our um if we're working with say Easter Seals, our speech and language that come in schools. And then um a fairly large chunk um is our short and long-term substitutes. Um, and I just want to highlight this too and and encourage people to follow along as we're in this process because fiscal year 2425 we budgeted um 400,000 for substitutes um short and long-term. As of our last budget subcommittee meeting, our actual was at 581,000 and our finance director or manager, uh, Miss Martz, is projecting we could hit 700,000. So, how do we plan to address that? um increase our budget, but also um you know, I think short and long-term sub it's going to happen. People need to take time off. People call in sick. People have outside lives. Um, but also I

073think we're building um the morale in our schools that might not have been there for a while that people want to come to work. Um, but also I I'm pretty sure the um the city has in really great employee resources. Um and that is building upon making sure there are mental health resources to address um you know our our educators and make sure that um they a want to be here and that they can be here. So um but that is you know it's a big chunk. It's it's almost doubled um in our our budget. So thankfully I say thankfully um you know We have an amazing finance manager that is working. I will say we have increased our in it was a vote of this school committee. We have increased our substitute pay so

074we could be um competitive with area district. So that was we knew that was going to come at a cost um because we unfortunately prior to that um there were more kids sitting in maybe an auditorium because we couldn't have a teacher in that classroom. So now we have those substitutes in the classroom and it comes with a cost. Um so those are some you know key drivers to the budget. We are still, I hate to say early on because we are in April, but again, so much of this is tied to uh negotiations right now, but the budget subcommittee and I might add the cabinet is working with um the school administration right now through their needs and um as we see what um our enrollment looks like, how many teachers we're going to

075need, all of that is coming in right now. So while we might not be meeting every you know week in budget subcommittee the work is being done um you know by our cabinet and making sure that every um te is crossed and I is dotted. So there you have it for budget. Okay. Any questions of the chair? Hearing none. Let's go to Miss Hoy. This is about the shore educational collaborative. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um, I'm not sure how familiar people are with Shore, but it is an educational collaborative that Malden um, sits on the board. I'm the representative there. Their mission is to educate and enrich and inspire children and adults with disabilities to reach their full potential. Um, I've got a little bit of a quarterly newsletter. So, this goes back a little

076bit, but I want to tell you a couple of the things that they have happening um over there that have been really uh successful and some things that are new. Um, they have some folks that work there that that are called city connect coordinators that work uh kind of like family resource coordinators that we might have here in the district. um and they have been way back in December especially were working with uh parents and caregivers to make sure that the students had activities and things like that over December break as well as obviously February break. Um they've been hosting coffee hours and a couple other things like that to help people uh find appropriate things to keep the kids busy which I think is always something that caregivers are looking for um during that

077out of school time. a program that just begun in January that I know that the uh that that Shore is very excited about and I was also very interested in um learning more about is they have uh participated with a program called Bloom Board. I want to make sure I say that right. Um what they're doing right now is the staff at Shore, the teachers and the administrators are mentoring um they refer to them as pair professionals there and instructional support aids. Um they're mentoring them as they begin um a bachelor degree program for special education. Um and this is designed as we know everybody kind of sees the writing on the wall in terms of education. and there are less folks going into the field and things like that. This is um Shor's way

078of growing their own. So, people that are already on staff there um are participating in the program. I cannot remember the amount of people in the cohort at this time. I would say it's probably about 10. Um it's a really great opportunity though for anybody who is interested. I know they even had more people initially apply than ended up there. Um but there's a lot of excitement around it and a lot of positive feelings. So, we're hoping it goes as well as everyone is anticipating. Um, another really interesting project that they have done lately is with um, uh, they've partnered with something called citizen schools that focuses a lot on project based learning. And people for people who aren't familiar with that, it's exactly what you think it is. It's instead of necessarily like sitting

079down and reading and answering questions like we were talking about before, it's much more hands-on learning. Um, and through citizen schools, they've been able to do a lot of kind of different activities that focus on community support and giving back to the community and not just learning. Um, you know, obviously there's hands-on science projects and things like that, but this is um an opportunity I one example is that the students were um making kind of like treat bags for animals in animal shelters and things like that. So that's clearly, you know, a personal interest of some students and I I know that it's a collaborative experience. So they're working with um citizen schools when they come in as well to learn kind of more about what the students are interested in and guide their work

080um together. One of the other uh things that's been really great is there is a um adult arm at Shore Collaborative and most recently they've had um been able to welcome some of the adult services to work with some of the younger students too. So it's been a really nice um way to incorporate everybody's interests together. Um they most recently had their first ever winter concert actually which I was shocked that they hadn't had one before but very excited that they were able to. Um, and they also made it eligible for people to watch the closed feed. So, in other words, if you couldn't be there, it was, you know, it was easily accessible. So, um, they've got some really interesting things going on there. I'm looking forward to see what they've got coming up

081this spring and I'll share with you all when I know more. Thank you. Thanks. Any questions of Miss Hoy? Seeing none, over to you, Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. um be speaking about from the um recent meeting we had with policy and procedure which was um March 24th and we discussed a number of different topics. The uh first one we talked about the attendance policy had been brought to our attention um through a parent that they had raised an issue that what the policy was had not been implemented in in the case and they were looking for guidance on that. So other than just reaffirming that you know we our commitment to meeting parents expectations and that we do believe that our policies should be followed um we also started looking at the

082policy and in particular with the appeals process that um is in place. Um but we so we'll be taking a further look at that to see if we do need to review it. Um and also to just be sure that the messaging that we are are doing a better job or doing the right job with getting our policies and implementation of how that can happen um out to the schools to make sure that that level of communication is in place. Um so that when parents are reading policies we know that everybody's on the same page because we don't want parents saying well wait there's this policy um that we have not made aware enough in um through the administration um down to the teacher level of what's supposed to be happening. So we will be

083working on that as well as just reviewing the policy overall. Uh we also looked at assignment plans with the superintendent and assistant supers have been doing a amazing amount of work on um that policy does need to be updated. Um and we have been looking at where students who are entering the system will be placed and there are amazing maps, detailed maps. Um I just got an updated one where we'll be able to look at um when the people enter the system. Um it will be clearer and made public with how what school you pretty much will go to. We now are looking at the issues though further of if there are already siblings in a different school and going through all those little details as well as just the language that has to be

084on every policy when you are establishing something like this. Um also looking at school admissions. Um, we have been continuing looking at if we want to update a policy that would potentially allow students who are in the 12th grade um, who move out of a district to be able to finish out their remainder of their school year here in Malden rather than have to switch. Um, again, that checking on a lot of language, again, the stuff that has to be included um, for legal purposes and all so that um, it's all all squared away. Um and then our last one which is on um tonight which I'd like some more that's on for discussion um before we can send it for a vote that we've been working on for a while. It's um a potential

085change to JFAA which is a residency policy um that it I will actually turn it over to uh Mr. Bernard if he's okay with that. I'm throwing it to you hot here um because he brought it to us that there's um lists in column A and column B of different things that you need to prove residency in the city and Mr. Bernard had brought to us an issue um that we felt we needed to look at so we did um so the potential change is to allow if u right now we do not allow cell phones um a cell phone bill um is proof of residency um so In a nutshell, it would be to be able to include that. Um, but I would like Mr. Bernard just to you brought it to us, so

086you have a lot um the background on that. Okay, Mr. Bernard. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and uh thank you, Miss Roseberg. Um I just part of the reason that I wanted to go and change the policy is that I'd been approached by um some people that were trying to enroll their children in the schools. They uh they were trying to go and get their landlord to go and send send a letter, but they had a cell phone bill that showed their address. they had ID and it was not acceptable to uh the the student enrollment center and uh I felt this was kind of a unfair simply because there's a number of um parents and people that are and caregivers that um they may not have a physical telephone, they may only have a a

087mobile. Um, I know that the intent is to go and make sure that um when someone goes and has this to go and prove that they live in that location. Um, and certainly I would not go and advise going and accepting a cell phone bill that has a PO box, but it should go and show the address that they're at. That's that's the whole purpose here. Um, but also I think in this day and age there there are a lot of people that are going um strictly to streaming, strictly to mobile for all of their services. They may not have a cable bill or they may go and have an internet only bill. And I think we need to kind of uh adjust with the times. And if we have a brand new parent, if

088we have a that is coming in and trying to get their kids into uh the ELC or into kindergarten and they don't know what the processes are because this is their first child and they have the cell phone bill that we try to go and accommodate them because ultimately that's our job. making sure that we go and we get these kids educated and make it easier for someone to go and let us take their kid to without going in and uh putting unnecessary barriers. And just to clarify, you're not asking us to vote tonight on this? This is an update. When when might this come our way? At the May meeting. Yeah, that's what we're looking at. This is purely if anyone has any any questions or wants to go and think about it and

089bring questions in May. And just so I'm clear, you're asking that the cell phone bill would replace something that's already existing in the policy or the way that I'm the way that I'm thinking of is it's in we include it. So if someone has a landline, yes, we are of course we're going to take that. You're showing us that you live where you live. It's just if someone doesn't have that, we have an apartment dweller um that they may go and say, "I'm only going to use my my mobile phone." And it shows that they only live in apartment 3 down on Lisbon Street. That they can then go and we can say, "Yes, we can see that you live there and we've got a letter from your landlord or you showed us a copy

090of the lease and you have ID." Yes, absolutely. We're going to go and take that as proof. Did you look at other districts standby? Um, I I haven't, but I believe Ms. Rose Zyberg, did you did you look at that yet? I did not. I can certainly go in uh take a look at that. I can't imagine in this day and age that we don't have that, but I don't want to go and Yeah. But be uh I think that at the very least we can uh I'm happy to go and set a trend. Yeah. Yeah. But but I but I can certainly go in and uh ask around and see if we if we've got other districts that accept that. All right. So everybody uh that's May. We should expect that. Um Miss Roseberg,

091are you done? I'm going to open it up to just wanted to add on that one of the things that we talked about. So now if somebody does come with the cell phone bill, if that is really the only thing that they have, um then they need to schedule somebody has to go out and actually, you know, go to the location. So it it delays getting the kid into school. if we focus on what's the best interest for the student um is why we're we're doing this because that sort of delay um could be there. Okay. Very good. Uh Miss uh Spaphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know I've spoken with the chair of policy in regards to this and I know this is only open for discussion, but I will say I'm hesitant about

092including this in the evidence of residency because a cell phone bill isn't tied to a residence. I can go into T-Mobile and say I live at this residence um or Verizon or wherever it may be, but it's not necessarily tied to a residence. So whereas the list um that they have to provide something column A, column B, the the column A list. Um if they don't have one of those, then we're still sending somebody out to that residence anyhow um to check. So I I would just be hesitant as it's not like a excise tax bill, a water bill. And I understand that especially when you're new um to a home, you may not have these things turned on or maybe um you know, you're registering because you're moving next week, so not everything's But

093I just it it just seems like it's going to put a lot of work on our attendance officer that goes out to check stuff and I just would be cautious, okay, for the district. All right. Very good. Well, we have some time, so everybody should start looking into this and thinking about it. And superintendent, we will ask you for your position, you know, when that time comes. Um, Miss Rosber, back to the um the uh assignment plan that you spoke of. I'm not sure if that was the correct term, but you mentioned it was required. Is that every year or every five years we need to reassess how we assign students? The one if um policy JCJCA, which is the one that we have on, um speaks about the need to look at enrollment at

094like the Lincoln, which we know does no longer exist. Okay. Yeah. So, um yes, we should be definitely updated. Yeah, I guess so. Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. Uh there you have it, everyone. Are there any questions? If not, um, let's take a look at these motions. So, Miss Bataphor is first going to bring up the school choice vote. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, this is a vote that we take every year. I don't know why I took my glasses off. I can't see. Um, and that's because Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 76, Section 1, uh, section 12B, requires all districts to accept incoming school choice students unless the school committee votes not to participate. So, if we don't take this vote, which we do every year, we would then be opening up our

095district to be a school choice, meaning we would allow in any student from outside of Malden that wants to come here the ability to come here. Okay. Um, we have never voted um yes in the past. We have always voted no. Um I for a merit of reasons um space financial constraints. So it would be my recommendation that this body votes no um as well for the upcoming fiscal 2526 year. All right. Motion's made second by seconded by Mr. McCarthy. Everybody clear? So a yes vote is to accept no vote is not to participate. Okay, let's have the uh clerk call the role. Mayor Christensen, no. Mr. Drum. Mr. McCarthy, Miss Bataphor, no. Miss Mlin, no. Miss Hardy, no. Mr. Gray, no. Mr. Bernard, no. Miss Rosberg, okay, that carries unanimously. Now, the assistant superintendent

096director of student services contract, Miss Betaphora. Thank you again, Mr. Chair. So, this is just a little housekeeping because we voted this in executive session in our last meeting. Um, and we always vote and then notify um the employee before we take it to a floor vote. So, uh, this vote did pass unanimously in executive session, and that would be a motion to approve the contract for the assistant superintendent of student services from July 1, 2025 till June 30th, 2028. Okay. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Drum. Any questions? Hearing none, clerk will call the role. Mayor Christensen. Yes. Mr. Drum. Yes. Mr. McCarthy, yes. Miss Fataphora, yes. Miss Mlin, yes. Miss Hordy, yes. Mr. Gray, excuse me. Yes. Mr. Bernard, yes. Miss Rosberg, yes. Okay, that carries unanimously. We're now down to personal

097privilege left to right. Mr. Drum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, tomorrow night, April 8th, the PTO and school site council meeting will be at 6 o'clock for the Ferryway PTO. Uh it'll be on Google Meets, but if you go to their website, it'll have the link for you. Uh teacher appreciation craft night is April 17th, and that's from 5 to 6:30 at the cafeteria at the Ferryway School. May 1st, get your appetites ready, folks. It's the international food night. That will be at 5:00 in the Ferryway cafeteria. It's a great turnout and there's some fantastic food that people bring in. You'll have a great time. So, come on down. Uh, April 15th and 17th. I got to go to this now because Oh, April 17th and uh 15th there is going to be the Ferryway

098players are putting on a uh performing a play written by the arts arts teacher at the Ferryway School. It's uh 6:30 on the 15th, 5:30 on the 17th. that is that runs in conjunction with the appreciation craft night, but where that goes from 5:00 to 6:30, then it's extended 6:30 to uh whenever they finish for the uh play. Uh half day on Friday, April 18th, no school April 21st through the 25th, April vacation. And MCCAST starts May 9th. Grade five is May 9th and 10th. Grades 6 and 7th are the May 13th and 14th. Grades three and eight are 14th and 15th. Grade four are 15th and 16th. Say that backwards. I dare you. Uh oh yeah. Last but not least, happy birthday to my wife because today is her birthday and I'm here working.

099I just want to say that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. All right. Over to Mr. Bernard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um just some announcements from the Salemwood. Um, on Friday, April 18th, uh, kindergarten with grade 8 is having their FTO uh, coin drive. Each class is collecting coins. The home room with the most money wins a pizza party. So, uh, throw a couple quarters into the buckets and help the kids out because everyone enjoys pizza. Uh, from K to grade three, there's going to be a FTO uh, movie night. Uh uh I don't have a date on this. So I'm going to ask people to go and just contact the the uh school and find out when that is. There is a $5 cost per person and they will go and allow

100people to go and pre-order pizzas. Just call them to go and get the date. Uh on Wednesday, April 6, April 16th, sorry. uh they're having their uh school school council at 5:00 pm and that's going to be virtual. And then on Friday, April 18th, there's 11:00 a.m. dismissal. And of course the 21st to the 25th is April vacation. And I just want to go and take just two seconds. Um we had a a well-beloved member of our community that happened to go and and pass suddenly a few weeks ago. And uh I would be remiss if we didn't go and just go and mention in passing about uh Jeff Taylor and please keep the Taylor family in in your thoughts and uh if there's anyone that would like to go and kind of help them

101out just to go and help defay cost there's a uh site out there I believe and uh call uh we love the Taylor family and uh you know feel free to go and and join a meal train or to if you've got a couple extra dollars uh throw it at them just so that they can help defay some of the expenses that are involved with that. And uh thank you. Thank you. Go to Miss Rose Zyberg. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um some congratulations going out to some students at Lynen who participated in their model UN. Um and this is a group that has been raising money and everything to actually fund all of their activities. Two students at a recent one they bought um best position paper Amy Tan and Mayaan who representing the UK

102and then two other students Nina Latard and Enki Chen got best negotiators. They also were representing the UK and their topic was protection of cultural artifacts. And then Ezra Co and Desmond Bourgeois uh were best delegates and they were representing Sri Lanka and their topic was green jobs and developing countries. They do have ongoing competitions will be coming up. There's one on May 2nd um that they're excited about. I just think they've done a great job um with with all of that. Um, coming up, multi multicultural night is this Friday from 6:00 to 8. They said they were able to get lots of different sponsors this time with lots of fantastic food options. Performances will be 6:00 to 7:00 and then 7 to 8 will be the shared food portion. They also have some craft

103tables and activities um out there that night. Spirit week will be April 14th. Uh May 1st, principal appreciation. On May 2nd, they're bringing Mad Science to the school. They'll be doing three different assemblies. Um they're doing it sort of as a break in between um MCCAST testing. Um I don't have the date on this. I would have to get back be looking for the I didn't write down the date. Um the will be from a sixth to eighth grade dance. um the eighth grade is going to be hosting with a tropical theme and that is going to be raising funds for um the end of year 8 eighth grade activities and teacher appreciation week is May 5th through 9th and uh they wanted me to give a special um note that there's a mom who

104started a brand new coffee business and she had offered to come and free of charge she's going to be um setting up different coffee stations for the teachers on a couple of the days um to be thanking our teachers that week and that's what like that. All right. Very good. Uh, Miss Hoody. Thank you, Mr. Chair from Principal Well's desk. Uh, the next PTO meeting is Wednesday, April 9th at 7 p.m. Uh, those meetings are held on Google Meet. So, please check the PTO Facebook page for the link and any other information. A picture day is this Wednesday, April 9th. Um, information is available in your parent lifeouch portal, but please feel free to call the office if there's any confusion or you need any assistance. On Tuesday, April 15 or yeah, April 15th at

1058:15, uh, join the literacy coach, Kathleen Bracken, for the next Title One morning caregiver breakfast. The topic is supporting students with literacy at home, right on time given your presentation. Um, save the date. The drama club's spring production of The Little Mermaid will be May 21st and May 22nd. I hope to see you all there because I will absolutely be there. Um, and lastly, but certainly not least, congratulations to the Forestdale community, the PTO, um, for a very successful Rock the Walk fundraiser this past Friday. Um, the students were really hustling out there and their as were their families. They raised over $20,000 for the building. Um we had a great time. Uh Miss Spataphora, Mayor Christensen and I were all there together walking and enjoying. There was so much excitement. Um they the kids

106got to do their walk, participate in some music with DJ Zeke and um have dinner and it was it was a really great event and I'm very impressed with all their work. They deserve to celebrate all that hard work. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Bataphor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that acknowledgement, even though I peeled out because I wore heels to the walk the rock. I don't know what I was thinking, but um so some announcements coming out of the BB. We start ELA MCCAST testing. So, just a reminder, we got rid of MCCAST for graduation requirements, but it is still a very important assessment that we use to make sure that we are on track with our learning. So, get a good night's rest. Um, have a good breakfast. But ELA grades seven

107and 8 is on April 8th. And math MCCAST grades 3, five, and six is going to be April 29th and April 30th. On April 14th, BB is hosting a listening session for the current grade six families. And this is about middle school transitioning. This will be online and you can find the link to that um either if you're on Class Dojo or on um the BB school social media pages, but that starts at 5:00 p.m. Report cards will be coming home as we have now entered our fourth quarter. So look for those report cards on April 15th. Um, obviously school spring break is coming up and in the middle of that, April 23rd is administrative professionals day. So, a big thank you to all of our clerical staff in the district that go above and

108beyond to make sure that we stay running smoothly. Tomorrow night, uh, Malden CPAC will meet and they are hosting an informative session with Dr. Joseph Malddo on understanding school and neurossychological assessments. I really encourage all parents. I think sometimes CPAC may uh be the assumption that you go if you are a special needs parent. But I think specifically for this topic before we were special needs parents. We were just parents and we did not know how testing worked and you never know what's going to happen in life. So, I encourage all caregivers to um participate in CPAC because you never know. Um you never know what tomorrow brings. Um Malden Wreck, go to their page right now. We have signups for Max Singleton Basketball League, which is amazing. Um that is in conjunction with our

109Malden Police Department. They coach it. Is such a fun fun league. as well as April vacation. We have open gym Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I did not put the location, but I'm pretty certain it's Salemwood. Um 325 p.m. And that's all I have. All right. Very good. We'll now entertain a motion to go into executive session. Motion by Mr. Drum, seconded by Mr. Bernard. Clerk will call the role. Mayor Christensen? Yes. Mr. Drum? Yes. Mr. McCarthy? Yes, Miss Baphora. Yes, Miss Mlin. Yes, Miss Hardy. Yes, Mr. Gray. Yes, Mr. Bernard. Yes, Miss Rosberg. Yes. Okay, that carries unanimously. We'll now go into executive session. Recording stopped. recording in progress. The Malden School Committee is back in session. Do I have any motions? Motion to adjurnn by made by Miss Hordy, seconded by Mr. Bernard. All

110those in favor say I. All those opposed. The eyes have it. School committee is hereby adjourned.