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A meeting of the Quincy School Committee was held on Wednesday, May
3, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of Historic City Hall. Superintendent Kevin Mulvey called the roll
and present were Mayor Thomas P. Koch, School Committee Chair, and School
Committee Members Mr. Paul Bregoli, Mrs. Tina Cahill, Mr. Douglas Gutro, Mrs.
Kathryn Hubley, Mrs. Emily Lebo, and Mr. Frank Santoro, Vice Chair.
Also present were:
Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Erin Perkins, Ms.
Lauren Abbott, Ms. Kim Connolly, Ms. Allison Cox, Mr. Michael Draicchio, Mr.
Keith Ford, Mr. Dan Gilbert, Ms. Kerriann Hart, Ms. Sara Levine, Mr. James
Mullaney, Ms. Maura Papile, Ms. Madeline Roy, Mr. Keith Segalla, Mr. Larry
Taglieri; and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.
A moment of silence was observed former Quincy Public Schools employees
who passed away recently: Constance
Ryan, a school nurse for four years and David To, English Learners educator
for 20 years at Quincy High School.
Mr. Santoro read the following
statement into the record: Pursuant to the Open Meeting Law, any person
may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit
the meeting through any medium.
Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions
are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are
deemed acknowledged and permissible.
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Regular Meeting
Vice-Chair Presiding
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Mrs. Hubley made a motion to
approve the minute of the Regular Meeting for April 5, 2023. Mrs. Lebo seconded the motion and on a
voice vote, the ayes have it.
Mrs. Cahill made a motion to
approve the minutes of the Executive Session for April 5, 2023. Mr. Gutro seconded the motion and on a
voice vote, the ayes have it.
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Approval of
Minutes
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Mrs. Lebo made a motion to take the
Agenda out of order and move to the Superintendent’s Report. Mrs. Hubley seconded the motion and on a
roll call vote, the ayes have it. 7-0.
Superintendent Mulvey recognized the 128 members of the Class of 2023 National Honor Society
from North Quincy High School and Quincy High School. All of these
students merit special recognition for maintaining their academic performance
during the challenges of the last few years. The students are
accompanied by their advisors Lauren Abbott and Kerriann Hart and Principal
Dan Gilbert from North Quincy High School and advisor Sara Levine and
Principal Keith Ford from Quincy High School.
From Quincy High School: Amira Aitsaid, Onuchi Olamba, Sarah Alberione, Zaila Alves, Jason Au-Duong, Matt
Bartkus, Madeline Baryza, Victoria Bentley, Jayda Berry, Kayla Blatcher,
Marissa Cakuli, Caroline Campbell, Audrey Capone, Vanessa Chan, Aliciana
Charbonier, Kenny Chen, Charles Coffey, Rebekah Dang, Catharine Demopoulos,
Xingwen Deng, Mary Doherty, Jouri Elsadek, Kloee Gora, Kaitlym Gough, Brandon
Hibbard, Huy Ho, Paige Holleman, Bonnie Huang, Sophia Huang, Ronak
Jahangirian, Sarah Kabay, Alexandria Kane, Brianna Keddy, Shubham Kumar, Aden
Le, Tiffany Le, Josephine Leung, Ruby Levine, Tess Louzan, Meidong Ma,
Deekshita Madhalam, William McCoy, Yu Fan Mei, Ariel Nguyen, Casey Nguyen,
Dante Nguyen, Emily Nguyen, Katherine Nguyen, Lena Nguyen, Lillian Nguyen,
Nhi Nguyen, Sophia Nguyen, Tranh Nhu, Delia Nichol, Thomas O’Neil, Angela
Pham, Kelly Phu, Dheeraj Aravind Prakash Viswanath, Victoria Rak, Jamie Sansouci,
Annika Schmitt, Elham Shah, Sadeq Shareef, Reese Smith, Max Spendlove, Sam
Spendlove, Brynn Toler, Caroline Tracey, Anna Tran, Katrina Tran, Steven
Tran, Samuel Traynor, Kaitlyn Vo, Almona Vojkollari, Skyla Whelan, William
Wismar, Anna Zheng
From North Quincy High School: Nathan
Caldwell, Anson (Yuet Tang) Chan, Helen Chen, Jessica Chen, Justin Chen,
Vanessa Chen, Anthony Cheung, Erica Cheung, Ava Coffey, Dominique Dang,
Julian De Jesus, Maya Egan, Nicholas Enbar-Salo, Urangoo Enkhjargal, Linda
Gao, Ashna Guha, Ira Habiba, Sue (Van) Hoang, Megan Huang, Elton Huynh, Katie
Jiang, Michaela Lam, Kayla Lew, Alex Li, Ivan Li, Jason Li, Hedy Lin, Keyi
Lin, Amy Lu, Melanie Moy, Nicholas Moy, Grant Murphy, Catherine (Cate)
Murray, Mollie Nelson, Sophie Nerine, Isaac Ng, Mia Pecevich, John (Jack)
Pickering, Madeline Power, Alexander Stankov, Maxwell Toomey, Antonie Tran,
Lily Tran, Kaitlyn Vu, Stella Wong, Isabelle Wu, Josie Wu, Sophia Xie, Amy
Zheng, Ciney (Zixi) Zheng, Elaina Zou
After a brief recess, School Committee
reconvened and returned to the order of the agenda.
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Superintendent’s
Report
Class of 2023
National
Honor Society
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Student
Tyler Lam spoke in support of recognizing Lunar New Year as a Quincy Public
Schools holiday. Parents Bartholemew
Jae, Kate Campbell, Esther Lee, Scott
Alessandro, Erin McCoy, Courtney Perdios, Truc Lai, Albert Lee, also spoke in
favor of Lunar New Year being recognized as a holiday.
Ms.
Owens read letters submitted to the School Committee Open Forum email account
from parents and community members:
Susan Chinsen, Man Cheuk Lam, Mai Du, Grace Young-Jae, Kristin Perry,
Samson Lee, Heather McDuffus, Andrea So, Thuy Leung, Andrea Reiff, Ben Hires,
Annie Trieu, Kim Gillis, Jessica King, and City Councillor At-Large Nina Liang.
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Open Forum
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Mr. Gutro made a motion to take the agenda out
of order and move to Old Business Item A.
The motion was seconded by Mrs. Lebo and on a roll call vote, the ayes
have it, 7-0.
Mr. Bregoli reviewed that the 2023-2034 Quincy Public
Schools School Year Calendar is on the agenda for vote.
Mr. Gutro made a motion to approve the
2023-2024 QPS School Year Calendar as presented. Mrs. Hubley seconded the motion.
On the motion, Mr. Gutro asked for clarification about the
changes between this year’s calendar and last year. Ms. Owens clarified that Election Day is a
no school day and that a list of cultural and religious holidays was added to
the calendar.
Mr. Gutro said that the city has welcomed immigrant groups
from all over the world without previously creating additional holidays. The changes to this year’s calendar
indicate that all cultures and religions are treated equitably. If holidays are established, there needs to
be a process for re-evaluating demographics.
Creating an additional school holiday would create a hardship for
parents who would be required to work that day. Mr. Gutro asked how we can ensure schools
respect these dates in terms of scheduling, Superintendent Mulvey said that
he will work with school principals and the Athletic Director to ensure
compliance.
Mrs. Hubley thanked Mr. Gutro for his thoughtful words,
supports the calendar format.
Mrs. Cahill noted that the first day of the Lunar New Year
is a Saturday in 2024, so should not be a consideration for the next school
year. Mrs. Cahill is concerned that
students have missed school due to COVID over the last few years.
Mrs. Lebo thanked Mr. Gutro, his words reflected her
thoughts. The City is supportive of
the many cultures, does not agree with singling out a particular culture in
contrast to others.
Mayor Koch asked for clarification on which school districts
observe Lunar New Year, Brookline observes when the date falls during the
week. Mayor Koch suggested adopting
the calendar as is for next year and conduct a calendar survey of parents to
determine the wishes of the community.
Mr. Santoro
apologized to the students and parents who attended the Policy Subcommittee
where there was no discussion, the parents who will have to call in for an
excused absence, and the students who will have to choose between attending
school and observing this holiday. Mr.
Santoro thanked student Angela Chen for organizing petition with 1200
signatures.
Mr. Santoro
asked for someone to make a motion to amend the calendar to include Friday,
February 9 as a holiday. Seeing none,
the Superintendent called the roll on the original motion.
On a roll
call vote, the ayes have it 6-1. Mr.
Santoro voted NO.
School Committee
moved back to the Superintendent’s Report.
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Old Business
2023-2024 School Year
Calendar
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A preliminary schedule for
elementary, middle, and high school concerts was shared with School
Committee. The schedule will be updated as additional dates are
scheduled. Calendar invitations will be sent to School Committee to attend
events as their schedules permit.
Superintendent Mulvey reviewed
recent Quincy Public Schools events: Last Friday, over 700
students from Point Webster, South~West, and Central Middle Schools were
recognized by the Boston Celtics/Arbella Insurance Foundation for high
performance on the All-Star Program writing and art contests and perfect
attendance. Thanks to Executive Director Keith Segalla who coordinated the
program with principals Christine Barrett, Rick DeCristofaro, and Courtney
Mitchell and the school staffs.
The Quincy High School History
Bowl team has returned from a successful weekend at the National Competition
in Washington, D.C. The competition included 95 varsity teams and 54 JV teams
from 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Seniors Yu Fan Mei, Dheeraj
Prakash, and Liam McCoy, and Freshman Eddie Giza were
excited to bring the team back to the competition for the first time since
2018. With a record of 7/10, the Quincy
High School team earned the Varsity Afternoon Group Champion award. Eddie
Giza, the Massachusetts Junior Varsity History Bee Champion, also
participated in the Junior Varsity National History Bee on Sunday.
Thank you to Quincy High School History Teacher James Ikeda for working with
the students throughout the season.
Superintendent Mulvey then
reviewed upcoming Quincy Public Schools and City of Quincy events:
- Quincy
High School Fashion Show, Thursday, May 4 at 7:00 pm in the Lloyd Hill
Auditorium
- Cleaner
Greener Quincy, Saturday, May 6 from 9:00 am to noon at school and park
sites throughout the city
- ELPAC
Meeting, Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 pm on Zoom
- Quincy
Multicultural Festival, Saturday, May 13 from noon to 4:00 pm at Fore
River Field
- Swing on
the Common, Saturday, May 13 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on the Hancock Adams
Common
- QPS
Robotics Challenge for Grades 5-8, Saturday, May 20 at Quincy High
School beginning at 9:00 am
- Montclair
Elementary School May Festival, Saturday, May 20, from 10:00 am to 4:00
pm
- QPS
Community Fitness Night for students in Kindergarten through Grade 5,
Tuesday, May 23 at 6:00 pm at Veterans Memorial Stadium
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Superintendent’s
Report
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Mrs. Lebo made a motion to approve the revision
of School Committee Policy Book 5.2.3 Emergency
Closings. Mrs. Hubley seconded the
motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it 7-0.
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Old Business
Revision to
Policy Book
Section 5.2.3
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Assistant
Superintendent Erin Perkins and Senior Director of Student Support Services
Madeline Roy presented an overview of the 2023 Quincy Public Schools Summer
Programs. Thanks to Mayor Koch and
School Committee for fully funding this robust summer program to provide
important academic and social-emotional support and enrichment for our
students. Elementary school programs
that will run for four weeks in July include Bridge to Reading &
Mathematics (academic support, by invitation) and Quest for Learning
(enrichment activities in the humanities and STEM). For middle school, programs include Summer
Boost (academic support for essential prerequisite skills, by invitation);
Hands-On Math (enrichment); Summer STEM Academy (enrichment); and a possible
two-week drama program (still in planning stages). For high school students, the Summer
Pathways to Success provide the opportunity for credit recovery; Ladders 2
Success for Grade 8 students transitioning to high school; Summer YouthWorks
to provide workplace experience in public, private, and non-profit
organizations within Quincy; and Early College High School Pathway Summer
Institute (free tuition, fees, textbooks, and materials).
For
students with disabilities, the Learning Center Pre-Kindergarten program will
be at the Della Chiesa Early Childhood Center and for Grades K-12 at
South~West Middle School. Transitional
Kindergarten students are invited to a continuation of the program at Clifford
Marshall, along with the Language Development program for Grades 1-8. English Learners have the opportunity to
participate in Camp Can Do (emerging EL students in elementary school) and
SWELL Academy for middle school students, focused on Science and Social
Studies with local history and natural resources as the focus.
Social-Emotional
learning is embedded in all programs through guidance staff support, Calm
Classroom, BOKS, and confidence boosts and peer connections. Quincy Public Schools is partnering with
Quincy Asian Resources and Walker Therapeutics on the Living Out Loud groups
for middle and high school students.
The Summer Feeding program will be serving lunch for the months of
July and August at Parker, Snug Harbor, Montclair, and Lincoln Hancock
Elementary Schools and the Ward 2 Clubhouse.
Staffing
for the summer programs is underway, facilitators have been selected and
educators are encouraged to apply for positions. Summer program information will begin to be
shared with families in the QPS Community Notices email blast; schools are sending
invitations for the selected students.
Mr.
Bregoli asked which businesses are participating in the YouthWorks
program. Mr. Segalla said the YMCA,
the City of Quincy, Stop & Shop, Shaws, the Quincy Art Association,
Quincy College, the Chamber of Commerce and we are looking to recruit additional
partners.
Mr.
Gutro asked about the demand and funding for the Summer programs. Ms. Perkins said that families are very
interested in the programs, we began the staffing process earlier this year. ESSER funding is being used for the program
costs. Mr. Gutro asked about programs
that had low enrollment and were discontinued. Ms. Perkins said the high school EL and
Bridge to High School programs had low interest.
Mrs.
Hubley asked about how parents will be informed. Ms. Perkins said the information will be
posted online on Friday and signup will begin on May 8. Invitation-based programs will be sent out
next week; Special Education program invitations have gone out.
Mrs.
Lebo suggested considering literacy supports for students in their native
languages, even for younger students.
As students become fluent in English, they may be losing their
bilingual skills.
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New Business
2023 QPS Summer
Programs
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Superintendent
Mulvey reviewed that the NEASC report for Quincy High School was shared with
School Committee. Ms. Perkins thanked
the Quincy High School Steering Committee for the work done to prepare for
the NEASC Assessment process, beginning with the self-analysis and report,
followed by the Collaborative Conference (visit by NEASC and interviews of
students, staff, parents, administrators).
The next steps are for the Quincy High School staff to develop an
improvement plan and work through that over the next two years. The three priorities were to (1) develop a
vision for the graduate; (2) creating a formal tiered intervention process;
and (3) updating/aligning curriculum maps.
Mr.
Santoro said that this requires a tremendous amount of work for already busy
staff and administrators, asked about North Quincy High School, which is
scheduled for 2024.
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New Business
QHS NEASC
Report
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Mr. Bregoli made a motion for Superintendent
Kevin Mulvey to serve as the Quincy Public Schools representative on the
South Shore Educational Collaborative Board for the 2023-2024 school
year. Mrs. Lebo seconded the motion
and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it, 7-0.
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New Business
SSEC Board
Representative
(VOTE)
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Quincy
Public Schools will partner with the 18 Foundation for a grant to benefit
Mathematics instruction in Grades 5-6 at South~West and Point Webster Middle
Schools for three years, beginning next school year. The grant will
fund the licenses for the online ST Mathematics program and has a value of
$32,000 for the 2023-24 school year.
Mrs. Cahill made a motion for Quincy
Public Schools to accept the grant of licenses for the online ST Mathematics
program for Grades 5 & 6 students at Point Webster and South~West Middle
Schools valued at $32,000.00. Mr.
Gutro seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it,
7-0.
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New Business
Curriculum
Grant for
ST Mathematics
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Mr. Gutro made a motion to refer the QPS
Emergency Response Plans to the Facilities, Security & Transportation
Subcommittee for review. Mrs. Cahill
seconded the motion, and on a voice vote, the ayes have it.
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New Business
Referral to Facilities
Subcommittee
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Mrs. Hubley made a motion to approve the
Out of State/One Day Travel of Broad Meadows Middle School Grade 8 to Canobie
Lake Park, Salem, New Hampshire on June 15, 2023. Mrs. Lebo seconded the motion and on a
voice vote, the ayes have it.
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New Business
Out of State
Travel/
One Day
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Mr. Bregoli noted that there is an Ordinance that precludes
that ice cream trucks cannot be near schools as this is a danger to students. Superintendent Mulvey said principals can
notify Mr. Draicchio and/or the School Resource Officers. The Licensing Board can be notified as
well.
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Additional
Business
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Mr.
Santoro noted that Regular School Committee meetings are scheduled for May
17, 2023 and June 14, 2023 at 6:30 pm at the Coddington Building. Upcoming Subcommittee meetings include the FY2024
Budget & Finance Subcommittee on Wednesday, May 22, 2023 at 6:00 pm,
followed by Facilities, Security & Transportation.
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Communications
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Mayor
Koch reviewed the Quarterly Budget & Finance Subcommittee
meeting held on April 26, 2023, where Director of Business James Mullaney reviewed
the 3rd Quarter of FY2023, ended March 31, 2023 and the warrant
process.
Mrs. Lebo reviewed the Teaching
& Learning Subcommittee meeting held on April 26, 2023, where a review of
the Mentor Program, Kids Voting, and the ST Mathematics grant opportunity
were presented.
Mr. Bregoli reviewed the Policy
Subcommittee meeting held on April 26, 2023 where the 2023-2024 QPS School
Year Calendar was discussed.
As there were no corrections, the
minutes of the April 26, 2023 Quarterly Budget & Finance, Teaching &
Learning, and Policy Subcommittee meetings were accepted as presented.
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Reports of
Subcommittees
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Mrs. Cahill made a
motion to move to Executive Session for the Purpose of Contract Negotiations
at 8:40 pm. Mr. Gutro seconded the
motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it, 7-0.
School Committee will return to Regular Session to discuss
New Business, Item G.
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Executive
Session
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School
Committee returned to the Regular Meeting at 9:15 pm and opened New Business,
Item G. Mayor
Koch, Mr. Bregoli, and Mr. Gutro did not return to the Regular Meeting.
Mrs.
Lebo made a motion to approve the Memorandum of Agreement between the Quincy
School Committee and the SEIU Local 888 Quincy Paraprofessionals Union for September
1, 2023 through August 31, 2025. Mrs.
Hubley seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it, 4-0Â.
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New Business (Resumed)
MOA Approval:
SEIU Local 888
Quincy
Paraprofessionals
Union
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Mrs.
Hubley made a motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 9:20 p.m., which was
seconded by Mrs. Lebo. On a voice
vote, the ayes have it.
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Adjournment
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