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Happy teacher appreciation day/week, and happy national nurse’s week as well! Last night’s meeting was fairly short; you can find the agenda her e and the video here . We approved the recommendation to retain Medford’s status as a “no choice” district (i.e., limit enrollment to those in town) and a number of budget transfers. The only question there was in regards to the sound system in the McGlynn auditorium. Member Graham provided an update on the MSBA high school building

It's been a whirlwind these last few days, but here's my (unofficial) recap from our April 14 meeting. Commentary, as always, is mine alone and does not speak for the committee. You can find the agenda here and the recordings (in two parts!) here and here . Transcripts should be available here . After a long executive session, we publicly voted to approve a motion related to security as well as the new teachers’ contract, highlights of which can be found here: https://www.m

Following the approval of the consent agenda (consisting entirely of past meeting minutes) we witnessed the awarding of a governor’s commendation to Andrews Principal Jennifer Skane for her response to February’s fire in a first floor bathroom. Dr. Galusi shared information about the searches for the open positions of Assistant Superintendent of Academics (the role she held prior to her appointment as Interim Superintendent) and Director of English Language Learners (Paul Tei

There’s not a lot to recap this time around. Building on the budget meetings held earlier this month, the committee approved the district’s recommendation of $87,583,290 for our municipal budget request for fiscal year 2026. Budget analyst Gerry McCue shared the adjustments to funds, new spending, and savings. There was very little commentary from the committee and none from the public. Highlights included appreciation for the continued cleaning up of accounts and fund tracki

I don’t usually recap our committee of the whole meetings, but given that it was the first public meeting of the budget season, I thought I’d make an exception. The slides will be posted to the website later this week, but here’s the link to the recording. Notes and opinions [with commentary in brackets] are entirely my own and do not represent any official position of the committee. We started off by authorizing the Superintendent to submit applications to enter the Roberts

Agenda | Recording Following the approval of the consent agenda, Assistant Superintendent Cushing made three presentations to the committee. First, with head of World Languages Vilma Bibeau, a proposal for a student exchange pilot program with a school in Italy. Second, and updated job description for the Director of Facilities and a new one for the new position Assistant Director of Facilities. Finally, with MVTHS principal Chad Fallon, an update on the MSBA’s review of the

First meeting with our interim superintendent. Consent agenda includes a donation, several grants, and the usual minutes, bills, and payroll. Dr. Galusi began her update with a statement of appreciation for the opportunity to serve. Then, following an update on the district’s response to recent executive orders, she walked us through her transition plan, talking about her goals, guiding philosophy, and key areas of focus (including specific action plans). This was followed b

It was a short meeting tonight, as most of the agenda items were to set things in motion for future action. The consent agenda included the usual bills and payrolls plus the acceptance of two donations (for musical instruments and conference registrations). We severed the marching band’s field trip request to confirm that it was for approval rather than funding. Later in the meeting, we voted to direct the Rules and Policy subcommittee to draft a policy for such approvals and

This was a remarkably short meeting but you’d never know it from my recap. I decided you all would appreciate a bit more detail about the override spending, although you should watch the video if you really want the nitty gritty. That’s here. Views and commentary are all my own, thoroughly unofficial. 1. Coming out of executive session, we approved the contract for our incoming interim superintendent. (She’ll be in the position through June 30, 2026.) 2. Consent agenda appr

Final meeting (and recap) of the year. The themes of the evening were celebration and capital planning. Agenda here. Video here. English transcript here. 1. The meeting opened with an orchestral presentation by the high school orchestra and the middle school cello choir. 2. First order of business was the consent agenda which passed without fanfare. 3. Superintendent’s update included upcoming transitions, gratitude for holiday donations and the Music Drives Us grant given t

Agenda | Video 1. Commendations for the Medford rowing team 2. Consent agenda approved 3. Approval of minutes from DEI subcommittee + discussion of the timeline for creating and hiring a school-based DEI director position (to be continued in an upcoming meeting) 4. Approval of minutes from strategic planning subcommittee 5. Superintendent’s update & comments - Thanksgiving, fundraisers & food drives, football victory & season accomplishments, marching band tree & wreath sale

Agenda | Video 1. Consent agenda approved 2. Superintendent updates - Election Day actions and outcomes, Veterans Day activities, MSBA visits, UnboundedEd visits, digitalization of yearbooks, new assistance dog, upcoming middle & high school drama club performances, safe firearms storage, Thanksgiving 3. Before and After School Programs report - enrollment & waitlist numbers, other in-town programs, plans for grades 4-5 program at the Andrews (this was paused due to lack of b

Nice thing about Zoom meetings is I can more easily take notes on my computer. Here’s my summary of tonight’s meeting. Please be sure to vote tomorrow if you haven’t already and please be kind to yourself and the people around you as you move through the post-election world. Agenda | Video 1. Consent agenda - approved with amendment to correct a vote tally in the October 28 special meeting 2. Superintendent’s updates - Election Day notes; Jumpstart Read for the Record Day at

Only a few updates, and very little news, from this week’s meeting. Read on for summaries of and time-stamped video links to the reports about lead/water testing in the schools and district-wide busing. No fancy placard for the post, just a photo of me reminding you to vote before or on November 5! The big news of the night was that chambers got itself an audio upgrade so everything was a little slow as we got used to the new microphones and system for managing who was speaki

There’s a lot of good information out there about the proposed overrides (and plenty of misinformation as well) but I wanted to add my 2.5 (haha?) cents to the conversation now that the 1-page info sheet about school funding is out. (Disclaimer: I was among the volunteers who pulled this content together.) Brevity is not my modus operandi, but here’s as short and sweet as I could make it: Question 7 - This one’s for anyone horrified by the cuts proposed in May 2023 and/or fru

1. Consent agenda approval - nothing exceptional here 2. Superintendent updates including sports, marching band, Brooks Fall Fest, McGlynn playground ribbon cutting, and holidays 3. Communities That Care youth survey results presented by Assistant Superintendent Peter Cushing, Director of Counseling & Behavioral Health Stacey Schulman, and Catherine Dhingra, the City’s new(ish) Manager of Prevention & Outreach - This is a biannual anonymous survey for middle and high school s

After a long executive session and some technical issues involving a frozen feed, the Medford School Committee convened its second meeting of the new school year. Unofficial summary below, presented (as always) from my own personal perspective. Agenda | Recording 1. Consent agenda, including a $50k grant for cybersecurity - all approved after some clarification about the lighting upgrades to the Missituk & Brooks schools 2. Superintendent updates - Curriculum nights, bus tra

And we’re back! Last night’s meeting ran just under 3 hours and included a large number of approvals, updates, and discussion. Of particular note to parents in attendance, we confirmed that bus routes have NOT changed but that much work is needed to meet the needs of families. Other topics of conversation included overcrowding in the schools and the practicality of capital planning around environmental sustainability. Read on for details. Agenda here, recording on YouTube 1.

Hello all. We had a special meeting last night to, among other things, pass the $77.75 million dollar budget presented to us by the district leadership team (spoiler alert: it passed). Read on for details: 1. Coming out of executive session, we ratified agreements with two bargaining units—custodians and administrative assistance. Thanks to everyone who worked on these and congratulations to everyone who can sleep easier knowing these are in place for the next three years. 2

Short meeting this week, but not the last. We’re still trying to find a day for that final budget vote, some time between city council approval of the budget and the end of the fiscal year. To schedule that, we need a quorum of school committee members, enough time after the city council’s vote for the administration to definitively prepare the detailed budget for the approved amount, and a long enough lead time to post the agenda in compliance with open meeting law. But on t