Request/Meeting Note Summary:

FHS BLOCKS Preschool Program has not had a teacher since September 18th which has enormous effects on children and they are not being taught curriculum and not equitable compared to other programs. Would like information on what is going to be done moving forward with this as there is not a substitute, only a paraprofessional and two aides in the classroom. 

Response:

Follow-up message to member(s) of the Framingham School Committee: As a follow-up to the public comment portions of the last meeting, both the early and late agenda items, I am linking a Q&A Document that Christina Shea prepared in response to questions that she has been fielding from some families (largely FHS staff) of the students in the preschool program housed in Room F104 at FHS.

As of Monday, November 6, 2023, an experienced, licensed early educator, has accepted the position as a long term substitute teacher in F104. 

It should be noted that Rosie Alvarez is currently on leave from BLOCKS and Christina is holding her place at this time, in addition to her responsibilities as our Early Education Manager for the District, until Rosie returns to BLOCKS following her leave.

Below are high level bullet points for your awareness so that comments made during the last public meeting are contextualized:

• The BLOCKS/Little Explorers staff are aware that the classroom teacher is out on leave until January 4, 2024.

• We have been and will continue to staff the preschool classroom with a campus aide/substitute teacher to cover the classroom teacher’s responsibilities and support the students and paraprofessionals in the classroom.

• Jannine, BLOCKS Department Head has sent this week's lesson plans and curriculum to the teaching staff:

  • ALL ABOUT ME

• FALL

• Our Pre-K SEB coach has also been teaching SecondStep; a social emotional lesson once a week in addition to the planned curriculum. 

• There was a comment about the Long-Term Substitute Preschool Teacher job posting so I have provided a copy of that job description here for your reference: TalentEd Hire

As of Monday, November 6, 2023, an experienced, licensed early educator, has accepted the position as a long term substitute teacher in F104. 

Request/Meeting Note Summary:

Safety concerns with traffic around McCarthy school around Flagg Drive and Normandy and crossing guard parks the car at foot of driveway blocking a two way exit even when school asked them not to. Gave a letter that he wrote to the Traffic Commission. Asked if could divert the budget to traffic control. 

Response:

The Executive Director of Finance and Operations and the Director of Safety and Security have been working collaboratively with the Framingham Police Department and the McCarthy School Administration to devise a plan that will alleviate the significant amount of cars on Flagg Drive waiting to pick their student up. We are working through logistics and hope to have the plan set in place before the end of the month.

Request/Meeting Note Summary:

Students wellbeing and safety at McCarthy due to behavioral issues. Where are the consequences and actions for these behaviors? There is zero accountability and there needs to be action.

Response:

The Executive Director of Student Supports provided a detailed report to the Framingham School Committee during their meeting on November 1, 2023 on this topic. You can view the PDF of that presentation online: Code of Character, Conduct, and Support and Student Behaviors.

Request/Meeting Note Summary:

Questions about lack of transportation due to living within the 2 mile radius of school, long walk and often not safe, here to see if you can help me and other parents who are in need of this help.  

Response:

The Executive Director of Finance and Operations and the FPS Transportation Director worked with the family who attended the meeting, through the interpreter present at the meeting, to assist the family with completing the transportation request paperwork and the District is doing their best to help the family, and others, who do not have transportation and who do not meet the eligibility requirements. Once more buses can be added to the fleet by NRT, we will continue to add ineligible student riders to the buses as space allows.

Request/Meeting Note Summary:

Lead in water at Brophy, lack of transparency and communication to staff on this, when told it was safe to drink no communication about what issue was, what had been done to resolve, how going to ensure safety of water going forward, and what will be done to provide testing of students to see if elevated levels of lead will be detected. Should share this information.

Response:

On September 12, 2023, it was brought to the attention of the District administration that a staff member at Brophy Elementary School conducted a water sample from a classroom sink. More specifically, we received an email at 9:14 PM, stating, “My husband is a scientist and read an article about the lead levels at Brophy. He bought me a test kit you send away to have water tested in a laboratory, Simple Lab SimpleLab (gosimplelab.com). On Sept 1, I took a sample from the water bottle filler kids use in my class. I just got the results back today. The lead levels that came out back are 84 ppb. If this is accurate, this is dangerously high. (Flint, Michigan had levels of 20 ppb) We just gave the kids tons of water due to high heat and now I am very concerned. How should I proceed?” The FTA demanded “immediate attention.”

In an abundance of caution, the District, immediately following the receipt of the staff concern at 9:14 PM on September 12, 2023 isolated or shut off water supply to all drinking fountains and water filling stations within the Brophy Elementary School effective the next day September 13, 2023. As of the morning of September 13, 2023 the District provided bottled water to all Brophy staff and students at a cost of $1,019.12 and worked closely with both the Framingham Water Department and the Framingham Department of Public Health. Multiple staff from the Buildings and Grounds Department and staff from the Finance and Operations office ceased all other work to attend to the claim.

The District worked closely with Principal John Gibbons on school-based communications from

the moment that the District was notified and the Superintendent of Schools, Assistant

Superintendent for PreK-12 Education, and the Executive Director of Student Supports all

attended the September 13, 2023 Brophy PTO meeting that same evening to speak with

families and to answer questions about this matter.

In addition to standard operating practices, like water flushing in all of our systems, the District

also contracted with an outside vendor to conduct water sampling and testing at 11 schools

following the concern that was raised to our attention at a cost of $3,800.

After a collaborative testing effort with the City’s Department of Public Works and the

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), Brophy’s water lead and copper levels

were determined to be well below the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level of

15 parts per billion (ppb).

We continue our flushing program across the District; we sample and we test two schools per

year under the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) water testing program and

in cooperation with the Framingham Water Department and within DEP guidelines and are

considering expanding that effort to exceed state testing requirements. The more recent test done several weeks ago that caused us to shut down bubblers and provide bottled water was not initiated by the District. The most recent test we conducted, with results at 2.63ppb and 0.309ppb, was done following the proper chain of command and we had the sample tested by the MWRA Department of Laboratory Services.

We encourage the FTA to urge its members to reach out directly to their building administrator who can then reach out to the Department of Buildings and Grounds for proper testing rather than conducting their own laboratory experiments.

Request/Meeting Notes:

Request for continued progress to be made for the instructional spaces that do not have air conditioning, hopes for the District to have a long term plan to provide equitable learning environments in all of the schools and the FTA is happy to collect data or do anything helpful for this advocacy.

Response:

Message to member(s) of the Framingham Teachers Association (FTA): The early days in September and most of June are, as you know from your years of experience, always a challenge, especially in a district now with 70% of its schools with air conditioning and 30% without. As you know from your first hand experience as an occasional attendee of the working group ("The Extreme Heat Task Force") that was assembled a couple of years ago, we have been working over the years to add air conditioning units (both window and floor units) to the maximum capacity that our electrical service will allow in our older buildings in order to provide a number of cooldown spaces, especially on those several extraordinarily hot days that we encounter every year. Though not ideal, it is the only practical short-term solution to the phasing of the multi-million dollar capital expense of full scale central air conditioning like the two-year project currently underway at McCarthy Elementary School.