The sixteenth School Committee meeting of the academic year was held on May 4th, 2020.
Superintendent Edouard-Vincent's Updates
General
Congratulations to Maria Rocha. She received a HERlead fellowship. Read more about this organization here. From the website "Since 2011, the HERlead Fellowship has trained, mentored, and inspired over 340 high school girls from across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico to become the next generation of female leaders. Through the training and mentoring received in the HERlead Fellowship, young women are empowered and equipped with the leadership skills they need to effect global progress, invest in their communities, and begin their individual leadership journeys."
23 Medford High School students have received the coveted Seal of Bi-literacy this school year.
Jaclyn Madigan, a Medford High school senior, was named a National Honor Society Scholar. She was selected for demonstrating a strong commitment to the four pillars of the National Honor Society: scholarship, service, leadership, and character.
COVID-19 Related Updates
Students needing tech support from the district can reach out to techsupport@medford.k12.ma.us. A member of the district technology team will respond and assist.
The Andrews and McGlynn middle schools will hold virtual open houses for incoming 6th-grade students later this week.
The Brooks and Columbus school teacher parade was an excellent time for all!
Thanks to the Cummings Foundation for its generous $1,000 donation to the school supply drive organized by members of the Citywide Elementary Alliance, Board of Health, Medford Recreation, and residents like Kathleen McGlynn Brady. Our first distribution was done at our meal distribution site at the McGlynn complex and was gone in a matter of hours, and several additional distributions will occur. If you are interested in supporting this cause, let me know, and I will connect you to the right folks to put your donation to good use.
Technology and Infrastructure Updates
Mr. Alan Arena provided an update on several internet attacks on Medford Public Schools from earlier in the year and our internet infrastructure.
Regarding the attacks, the team identified the source of the attacks, and local law enforcement is involved. The attacks all came through the Guest WiFi at the high school. Working with our service provider, Mr. Arena has been able to install several safeguards to prevent future attacks.
Regarding our internet infrastructure, Mr. Arena responded to questions about whether our current internet is equipped to handle a 1 to 1 Chromebook ratio. He stated the bandwidth right now is not oversubscribed, but that if we doubled the load, we should expect to see issues. He also cited outdated equipment, such as old desktops, as another factor that slows down access. We currently have nearly 1200 computers that are still running on Windows 7 and are at the end of life. These machines were in daily use before school closure. He noted that our cabling infrastructure is also not designed for Gigabit speeds. He listed several recommendations for the committee to consider when thinking about future budgets and highlighted that many of these projects might be eligible for grant reimbursement.
Other Meeting Agenda Items
Superintendent Edouard-Vincent provided a recommendation to appoint Brooks Elementary School principal as our new Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Schools. She will replace Diane Caldwell, who is retiring on June 30th of this year. The search for a new principal for Brooks Elementary will begin immediately. The committee unanimously supported this recommendation. Congratulations to Suzanne Galusi!
We approved a donation from Gamble Volleyball Group to the Columbus Elementary School for $1,220 to benefit the school community there. Dr. Kathy Kay, Columbus School Principal, announced that the money would be used to purchase supermarket gift cards for Columbus families.
Your call to action: Stay home, and wash your hands! Reach out to me (jennygraham4sc@gmail.com) if you have questions or an issue you'd like to discuss. Please also share this blog with friends and neighbors who want to be informed about our schools. Subscribing to the newsletter will ensure you receive these updates as I post them.