Graham, Bears tout School Committee, City Council achievements in 2024

How’s the city doing? Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn on Feb. 5 she delivered her annual State of the City address in City Hall before about 75 state and local officials as well as City Hall employees and residents.

And overall, she touted Medford’s achievements over the past year, touching on dozens of subjects during her speech, ranging from affordable housing and development in Medford Square to opening up pedestrian paths along the Mystic River waterfront and giving the Wellington area a little more attention.

City Council President Zac Bears and School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Graham were also on Wednesday night’s agenda, both given time to praise the accomplishments of their respective teams over the last year.

Graham pointed to accomplishments like welcoming Dr. Suzanne Galusi as the new superintendent, starting work to expand the school day and fix the high school schedule “that hasn’t worked since our high school and vocational school merged nearly seven years ago.”

She also touted successes like settling contracts with Kids Corner staff, cafeteria workers, who got a 20% increase, administrators, administrative assistants and paraprofessionals that included a 26% pay increase for kindergarten aides and a 4% increase across the board for all paras.

Graham said over the last year the district, along with School Committee members, helped to create a more stable foundation “and a stable foundation has never been as crucial as it is today.”

While Bears praised the collaborative effort to get a $7.5 million override passed aimed at benefiting the schools and road repairs, Graham said the money was being managed wisely through newly created policies as well as a new capital planning processes.

A few highlights of the capital planning processes include the new inclusive playground at the McGlynn Elementary School, addressing HVAC issues at several schools, replacing the freight elevator motor at the high school and fixing the drainage issue at Brooks Field.

“Medford stood up and said, ‘no more, no more cuts to our schools … no more doing less with less, no more to a DPW without staff,” Bears said.

Graham said the repairs were examples of what proactive maintenance should look like, and there is still much to do.

On the council side, Bears said in its first weeks of 2025 the body approved the first ever two-year plan, established a new structure aimed at getting more substantive work done and implemented new public engagement tactics — and he said it worked.

“I’m proud to say that this term has been the most productive City Council term,” he said.

Bears said there are three major responsibilities of the council: reviewing the budget, updating city zoning ordinances and legislation for the passage of city ordinances.

“And this year we’re also working on a fourth, updating the city charter,” he said.

Bears said the hours of outreach and work to modernize the document that Lungo-Koehn said was only two pages long and clearly indicated the mayor was and always would be a man, was already bearing fruit and he couldn’t wait to vote yes on the new charter in the fall.

Bears said the last 12 months also saw the development of nine ordinances, the adoption of over a dozen state laws and the establishment of the first ever stabilization fund for the city.

“And I know there is much more to come in 2025,” he said.

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