Agenda for the August 24 Regular Meeting of the Medford School Committee

The Fifteenth Regular Meeting of the Medford School Committee

Date/Time

Monday, August 24, 2026

Regular Meeting: 5:00 p.m.

Location

Please be advised that there will be a Regular Meeting of the Medford School Committee held via remote participation only. This meeting is being recorded.

This meeting can be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel or via Medford Community Media on your local cable channel (Comcast Channel 9, 8 or 22 and Verizon Channel 43, 45 or 47). Participants can log in by using the link below.

Agenda

Agenda for the August 24, 2026 Fifteenth Regular Meeting of the Medford School Committee

Zoom Link

https://mps02155-org.zoom.us/s/98308033909?pwd=5G3mucyyIhdwuAQaqPQ3RByROrFFf0.1

Questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing: medfordsc@medford.k12.ma.us

Those submitting questions or comments must include the following information:

1. Your first and last name
2. Your Medford street address
3. Your question or comment

Agenda

I. Roll Call of Members and Student Representatives

II. Salute the Flag

III. Consent Agenda

• Approval of Bills and Payrolls
• Approval of Donations
  • Cummings Foundation $35,000 Donation for CCSR
• Approval of Meeting Minutes
  • Regular Meeting - July 20, 2026

IV. Report of Subcommittees

V. Report of the Superintendent

1. Recognition of Joan Bowen, Director of Student Services Retirement - Dr. Suzanne B. Galusi, Superintendent
2. MPS Wellness Policy - Dr. Suzanne B. Galusi, Superintendent and Jennifer Silva, Director of Health Services
3. Roberts HVAC Schematic Design Approval - Mr. Ken Lord, Chief Operations Officer
4. FY27 Capital Projects Adjustments - Mr. Ken Lord, Chief Operations Officer

VI. Presentations of the Student Advisory Council

Presentations of the Public (not to begin before 7:00 pm)

“Regular Meetings of the School Committee include this ‘Presentations of the Public’ agenda item to give any resident the opportunity to place a presentation before the School Committee. A resident may only present once at any meeting.

These presentations are an opportunity for the public to make a presentation to the Committee but are not opportunities for dialog with the Committee. If one or more members of the Committee wishes to have a conversation about the topic presented, a member may request that the item be added to a subsequent Regular Meeting.

The details for submitting a presentation can be found within the policy BEDH, Public Comment and Presentations of the Public”

Pursuant to policy BEDH, Public Comment and Presentations of the Public - any resident in the audience may be given permission to speak once on any item on the agenda for up to three (3) minutes. The speaker is expected to keep their comments to the item on the agenda. The speaker must begin their comments by providing their full name and full Medford street address where they reside. A welcoming, inclusive community is both a value of the School Committee and an aspirational goal. We ask for your help in achieving this goal and value your perspective. Employees of the Medford Public Schools are exempt from the residency requirement of this policy. The voice of our employees is welcomed on all matters before this body. When a non-Medford-resident employee is participating in public comment or submitting a presentation of the public they will include their home address and identify themselves as an employee of the Medford Public Schools.

A welcoming inclusive community is both a value of the School Committee and an aspirational goal. We ask for your help in achieving this goal and value your perspective.

VIII. Continued Business

2026-06   Offered by  Member Ruseau

Be it resolved that all members shall submit their recommended amendments to the Rules of the School Committee to the Secretary of the School Committee no later than February 23, 2026. The Secretary shall compile these submissions and prepare:

1. A summary of all proposed changes, and
2. A draft revised set of Rules incorporating the suggested amendments.

Both items shall be presented for review and discussion at the School Committee meeting on March 2, 2026, where the Committee shall consider each rule in order, deliberate on the proposed changes, and vote on amendments as appropriate, with the goal of adopting a complete and updated set of Rules at the meeting on March 16, 2026.

Dates Submitted: January 29, 2026
Date Requested to be on the Agenda: February 9, 2026

IX. New Business

2026-20    Offered by Member Reinfeld

WHEREAS regular standardized assessment is an essential feature of public schools’ accountability profile and a contributor to a district’s understanding of student learning;

WHEREAS scheduling of test administration and preparation has a direct impact on instructional time and curriculum decisions across the district; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED that the subcommittee for curriculum and instruction will meet with the Assistant Superintendent for Academics & Instruction to receive and discuss her report on the assessment landscape across the district.

Date Submitted: August 14, 2026
Date Requested to be on Agenda: August 24, 2026

2026-21     Offered by Member Reinfeld

Resolution in Support of E-Bike Safety Education

Whereas Medford Public Schools wishes to encourage safe, active transportation to and
from school, defined here as human-powered mobility, such as biking or walking;

Whereas the Commonwealth’s Special Commission on Micromobility’s January 2026 report cites statewide increases in e-bike, scooter, and e-moto commuting, an estimated 23% annual increase in related injuries since 2017 with more than one third of those injuries occurring in children 14 and younger;

Whereas Massachusetts’ Safe Routes to School program has created resources for schools to educate students and community members in matters of pedestrian, bike, and e-bike safety; now, therefore, be it

Resolved that Medford Public Schools will provide students, families, and staff with educational information about laws, regulations, and recommended safety practices for bikes, e-bikes, and other micromobility devices within the first month of school.

Date Submitted: August 18, 2026
Date Requested to be on Agenda: August 24, 2026

2026-22     Offered by Member Graham

Whereas, the Medford Be it Resolved that the Medford School Committee thanks the following members of the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee for their service through the Feasibility Study Phase of the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Project:

Voting Members

• Emily Lazzaro
• Joan Bowen
• Marissa Desmond

Non-Voting Members

• John McLaughlin

Effective as of this meeting, the Medford School Committee welcomes the following new
members:

Voting Members

• Liz Mullane, City Council Representative
• Tracy Keene, Community Member
• Jen Belanger, Teacher and Community Member

Non-Voting members

• Kim Clinton, Assistant Superintendent for Special Education & Student Services

Date Submitted: August 20, 2026
Date Requested to be on Agenda: August 24, 2026

2026-23     Offered by Member Graham & Member Ruseau

A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE E-RATE PROGRAM

Whereas the E-Rate program, created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and operating since 1997, lowers the cost of broadband internet access and internal network connections that schools and libraries purchase through discounts ranging from 20 to 90 percent scaled to the share of low-income students a district serves;

Whereas E-Rate today supports more than 100,000 schools and roughly 11,000 libraries nationwide, delivering approximately $3 billion in discounts every year, under an annual spending cap, a competitive bidding requirement, and regular audit and oversight;

Whereas the Medford Public Schools receive approximately $278,330 each year in E-Rate support, which carries our networking, instruction, our state-mandated online assessments, our student information and special education systems, and our daily communication with families;

Whereas connectivity in a public school is no longer an enrichment or a convenience but the floor on which everything else stands, and a district that loses it does not return to some earlier way of teaching; it simply loses the capacity to do the work; Whereas on June 25, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 26-41), opening WC Docket No. 26-133, which asks, among many other questions, whether the E-Rate program should be narrowed, reoriented, or discontinued;

Whereas Commissioner Anna Gomez, dissenting in part from that Notice, observed that E-Rate is the largest source of technology funding for the nation's libraries and the third largest for education, and that more than ninety-seven percent of surveyed schools and libraries consider E-Rate funding essential to their operations;

Whereas eliminating or curtailing E-Rate would not reduce our dependence on the network by a single classroom; it would only move the cost onto municipal budgets already stretched past their limits, forcing districts to choose between the network and the educators who teach on it;

Whereas the discount structure means the districts serving the highest-need students receive the deepest discounts, and therefore stand to lose the most, so that a reduction in E-Rate is not felt evenly but falls hardest on the children with the fewest alternatives at home;

Whereas the Medford School Committee has no funding authority, cannot raise taxes, and has no effect on the revenues we are allocated from City, State, and Federal sources to execute on the authority we do have;

Whereas our mission is to provide a caring educational partnership of school, family, and community in pursuit of providing the very best education our children deserve for them, and for the future of our world;

Whereas the Commission's proceeding is open to public comment and the Commission must consider the record before it, so that our silence in that record would itself be a decision;

Whereas the Medford School Committee, as the democratically elected body with exclusive local control of public schools, must press on the City, State, and Federal governments to supply us with the revenues we need to meet our obligations, now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the Medford School Committee:

1. affirms that the E-Rate program is essential to the operation of the Medford Public Schools, and joins the #SaveOurERate campaign of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and its partners in urging the Federal Communications Commission to preserve and fully fund E-Rate
2. directs the Superintendent to file a comment on behalf of the Medford Public Schools in WC Docket No. 26-133 through the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System before the close of the comment period, stating the district's annual E-Rate funding and the specific services that funding supports, and to attach an official copy of this resolution to that filing
3. directs the Superintendent to transmit official copies of this resolution to Chairman Brendan Carr, Commissioner Anna Gomez, and Commissioner Olivia Trusty of the Federal Communications Commission
4. directs the Superintendent to transmit official copies of this resolution to the following: Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Edward Markey, Congresswoman Katherine Clark, State Senator Patricia Jehlen, State Representative Paul Donato, State Representative Sean Garballey, State Representative Christine Barber
5. directs the Superintendent to transmit an official copy of this resolution to the Medford City Council in accordance with Medford School Committee rules
6. directs the Superintendent to transmit an official copy of this resolution to the Mayor of Medford
7. directs the Superintendent to transmit an official copy of this resolution to the Board of Trustees of the Medford Public Library and to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, and encourages every school committee in the Commonwealth to adopt a resolution of like effect
   1. Passed and adopted by the Medford School Committee this _____ day of _____________ 2026.

IX. Reports Requested

X. Next Regular Meeting

• September 14, 2026 - Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall in addition to Zoom

XII. Adjournment