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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 06/09/2020Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday, June 09, 2020 Virtual via GoToWebinar Approved 07-07-20 '4 ii-n I ICr An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held via GoToWebtrlarnwas, i�alleAtw, 12 order by Chair Kiera O'Neil at 7:31 p.m. Members Present via Roll Call: Kiera O'Neil, Chair Lynn Cavicchi , Vice Chair Linda Fernando Lauren Scher Jenn Walsh Members Absent: None Administration Present: Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Edward Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Retiree Celebration: Superintendent Teresa Murphy and Chair Kiera O'Neil took this time to honor our retirees for the 2019-20 school year. We have had a recent tradition to honor retirees with refreshments and a presentation of gifts at a school committee meeting. Tonight we have invited retirees to attend the meeting remotely. Superintendent individually honored each retiree and virtually presented their gift which will be hand delivered prior to the end of the school year. Teresa also honored those staff members that retired mid -year. Chair O'Neil added her remarks thanking all those that served our students for so many years. Consideration of COVID-19 Resolution: (taken out of order awaiting start of Public Hearing) MA Association of School Committees proposed a resolution to be signed by all local school committees requesting that the State provide funding to our districts in support of the added cost incurred due to COVID-19. Chair O'Neil read the resolution to the committee. This letter will be sent to Governor Baker, MA Secretary of Education Peyser, MA Commissioner of Education Riley, Senate President Spilka, MA House Speaker DeLeo, Senator Feeney, Representative Barrows and Town Manager Dumas Motion to approve the COVID-19 Resolution by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Discussion: Linda Fernando is very happy to see this being done. We know there will be a lot of new expenses in order to reopen in the fall. Teresa noted that we have put out bids for PPE masks. The lowest response received was significantly higher than we anticipated. This is just one example of what we can expect to see. Roll Call: Lynn Cavicchi Yes Jenn Walsh Yes Kiera O'Neil Yes Linda Fernando Yes Lauren Scher Yes Motion Carries 5 - 0 Page 1 of 5 Approved 07-07-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday, June 09, 2020 Virtual via GoToWebinar Public Hearing on FY21 Budget 8:00 pm: Chair O'Neil opened the Public Hearing and turned it over to Assistant Superintendent Ed Donoghue who reviewed the proposed budget including recent cuts that were made due to the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic decreases assume a drop of 10% instate funding. This resulted in a school budget decrease of $582,000. The budget is set to meet all student needs and support our district improvement plan. Salary and Wages represent the largest portion of our budget annually. We propose 3 FTE increases: A new technology staff member to support the increased use of chromebooks and two kindergarten teachers to support the spike in kindergarten enrollment. Special Education costs are up due to increase tuitions and increase in outplacement needs. One note is that there are significant COVID related expenses that are not included in the budget. Examples would be PPEs, sanitizes, wipes, etc. The overall budget is up approximately 2% from last year. Superintendent Murphy reviewed the staffing for next year. Teresa reiterated the proposed staffing requests for a technology technician and two kindergarten teachers. Our original budget proposed a 4.5 FTE reduction some due to attrition. Superintendent takes reductions very seriously. These reductions are primarily due to continued enrollment reductions and follow other reductions that occurred in past years. Once the pandemic and budget concerns hit, the district went back and cut 6 further positions. This is to account for the projected 10% cut in state aid. The overall net change is a reduction of 7.5 FTEs. Positions cut: 2 special education district wide; 2 world language secondary level; 2 social studies secondary level; 1 1/2 paras; an off team math teacher and two elementary teachers. Comments by School Committee: Lauren Scher: Are the prepayments for Special Education factored into the budget? Yes, they are and we anticipate paying these soon. Can any of the reserves be used for COVID expenses? We plan on purchasing some items with FY20 money. We are also looking for grants available from state. We do report monthly COVID expenses to the town. How will the budget process play out? Ed is hopeful that there will be Federal funding that floats down through the state and town. We probably won't know this until the fall. We are comfortable that we can manage the 10% reduction proposed by the State. If there is a larger reduction from the state, we need to re look at everything as that would have a big impact. Ed is comfortable with the plans we currently have with the town. lenn Walsh: She appreciates all the efforts and hard work that everyone put into making all of the last minute changes to the budget. Lynn Cavicchi: Would grants be stable or do we feel there will be reductions? Ed plans on a 10% reduction in this as well. Hopefully the new grants being discussed can help to make up for some of this loss. New grants have not been factored in to the budget. Can you review the CARES act? Ed said the town is eligible for $2.1 million to cover technology, materials, cleaning, overtime related to COVID. Some of this money is earmarked for the schools. DESE issued purchasing guidance: are there any additional grants offered as part of that guidance? No, we were prepared for those items and we believe that it would be covered as part of the existing CARES funds. Page 2 of 5 Approved 07-07-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday, June 09, 2020 Virtual via GoToWebinar In terms of capital, is it just books and technology? Ed confirmed. We had some reduction since we do not need to purchase the chromebooks in the fall. From the initial budget request in December, the reductions made through March were about $300,000, correct? Ed stated it was approximately $350,000 in cuts prior to COVID with an additional $582,000 after COVID. Will the schools draw down on the revolving funds? Yes, though there will be lower incoming fees. We did end up with a negative balance in food services which needs to be brought to zero at the end of the fiscal year. Kiera O'Neil commented on the reductions and though unfortunate, our cuts are not as deep as other districts mostly due to the strong town -wide financial decisions made in the past. Public Hearine Comments: None Public Speak: None New Business: Consideration of Student Opportunities Act. The new deadline to submit this is June 18th. Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly identified that there are equity gaps in our district despite the significant progress we have made. Some of those areas are students of color, EL students, low economic status and special education. He reviewed a proposal that was submitted by the principals on how to use the proposed funding from this act. $114,000 has been allocated to Mansfield but with COVID, we believe there could be reductions in this amount. The State identified several high yield programs (Core instruction, targeted student support, training and development of staff, creating student success). Proposals took into affect input from many sources including administration, staff, school committee, school councils, and parents. Propose a community partnership with McLean Hospital to support mental health and chronic absenteeism which contribute to lower MCAS scores. This would target QMS and MHS students. Propose supplementary math support across all major sub groups in grades 1 - 5. These supports include contracted services for after school, summer and pull out services. Provide more inclusive programs for students. Seek service providers to train our staff and purchase new curriculum materials including literacy in all grade levels. Provide supplemental support for English Language Learners (after school, summer, etc) Help economically disadvantaged students by providing additional funds for the Backpack Buddy Programs. This program provides nutritional meals to students. Committee members addressed sustainability and whether or not we could keep these going forward. Motion to approve the Student Opportunities Act by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Discussion: none Roll Call: Page 3 of 5 Approved 07-07-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday, June 09, 2020 Virtual via GoToWebinar I Lynn Cavicchi Yes Jenn Walsh Yes Kiera O'Neil Yes Linda Fernando Yes Lauren Scher Yes Motion Carries 5 - 0 Consideration of Town Economic Relief MOU., FinCom proposed a revised document to discuss how the town would manage COVID related financial issues. Each board is being asked to approve the proposal. It has been rewritten as an MOU rather than a policy. Lauren Scher feels that there a lot of unknowns but the revised proposal is improved. We need to keep our town fiscally sound but the efforts will go beyond what is documented here. Linda Fernando asked if Select Board has approved. No, they will approve tomorrow. Linda is happy with it as an MOU which is better than the original policy. She is concerned about it pigeonholing us but feels that it will be A Jenn Walsh feels it is a step in the right direction but questions whether we really need it. Lynn Cavicchi echos the opinions of others. She understands the intention which is good but not sure the MOU is required. However, what is documented is ok if it makes the boards comfortable. Motion to support the FY20-21 Town of Economic Relief MOU by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Discussion: None Roll Call: Lynn Cavicchi Yes Jenn Walsh Yes Kiera O'Neil Yes Linda Fernando Yes Lauren Scher Yes Motion Carries 5 - 0 New School Committee Business: None Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: None Documents Referenced: Retirement list for 2020 FY21 Proposed Budget Town MOU SOA submission COVID-19 Resolution Page 4 of 5 Approved 07-07-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday, June 09, 2020 Virtual via GoToWebinar Motion to adjourn: At 9:20 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by Jenn Walsh / Linda Fernando Roll Call vote: Lauren Scher Yes Linda Fernando Yes KieraO'Neil Yes Jenn Walsh Yes Lynn Cavicchi Yes Motion Carries 5 - 0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 5 of 5