Meeting Recap: 11/17/25

Hello all, it’s time for another school committee meeting recap! This meeting was entirely on Zoom due to a conflict at City Hall. Thanks especially to the Mustang Moment students for their flexibility. But more on that later. As well as a call to action to provide input on a proposed restructuring of the elementary/middle school transition. (That was me not burying the lede.) As always, observations and opinions are entirely my own. 

Agenda | Recording | Transcript

We started with consent agenda approval; the highlight of this was a $13,251.18 donation from the Medford Educational Foundation for teacher grants—some cool projects afoot in the schools!

And speaking of cool, several Andrews Middle School students shared their experience with Spirit Week, culminating in Group Costume Day on Oct 31. One can only wonder if they would have showed up in said costumes had the meeting been held in City Hall. Regardless, great job to the presenters and thanks for showing us how you and your teachers embraced the year’s theme of belonging with crayons, candy, and a certain sequential pairing of numbers that shall not be named. 

We took Item VI (Presentations by Student Representatives) out of order to hear an update and proposed next steps for improving the end-of-day transportation crush at Medford High School. While focused mostly on the railings to manage student lines, the presentation and comments also touched on coordination with MBTA, signage, and the possibility of a late bus. Very thoughtful discussion (including a comment about the equity issues at play by assistant principal and council advisor Sheila Freitas-Haley); I look forward to seeing what comes of the follow up. 

The next agenda item was a presentation by Mr. Chad Fallon, director of Career & Technical Education. He walked us through the grants procured (and applied for, everyone cross your fingers!) to support and expand vocational offerings at the high school through professional development, alignment with academic classes, new programs, uniforms, and enhancements to culinary, cosmetology, and tv/film. For those curious, revenue and donations total around $254k, while these grants are bringing in another $542k plus $404k on a delayed FY25 grant. Member Graham noted how nice it was to see all that info in one place while Member Branley gave an enthusiastic shoutout and thank you to Mr. Fallon. Hear hear!

If you caught my Facebook post yesterday, you’ll know I was very excited to hear the results of the space utilization study, which will inform how we manage uneven distribution of students across schools. Dr. Galusi reviewed the background and short term changes (as well as the floated long term solutions) before diving into the architects’ analysis and options for moving forward. They ranged from expected (keep the current configuration but rethink elementary school spaces) to out of the box (combining middle school and programs for preK/K at the McGlynn and moving elementary programs to the Andrews) but the most intriguing and/or viable option seemed to be making our elementary schools K-4, McGlynn Middle 5-6, and Andrews 7-8. (Thank goodness no one suggested a 6-7 combo, lest we provoke the aforementioned chaos-inducing phrase.) 

Anyway, the key point here is that we intend to task the, uh, task force with exploring this potential solution over the next 6 months and provide a recommendation to the school committee for intended implementation in the 2027-28 school year. But before we do that, we will open the idea up to public comment focused around things they want the task force to include in their exploration and recommendation. Committee members (and one member of the public) raised some of those in this meeting but expect more at the December 1 meeting, which all stakeholders are encouraged to attend. (A communication will go out from the district soon.)

From here, it was smooth sailing through two resolutions offered by Member Intoppa. First up, a directive for the distinct to proactively provide information to caregivers and families about the 504 process. Second, guidance for improving student engagement in the voting and voting registration process. These both passed unanimously following brief discussion.

Finally, it was time for condolences and a reminder about the December 1 meeting. I will note here that we also have a strategic and capital planning subcommittee meeting on November 20 (aka this Thursday) to begin this year’s updates to the capital plan. That will also be on Zoom, but unlike tonight’s meeting, that was always the plan. See you there, maybe!