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Home My WebLink AboutSchool Comm. 12/08/2020Approved 12-15-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 08, 2020 ) Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar = rI C F An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held virtually on Tuesday, &�ember-'08, : 1 2020. The open meeting session was called to order by Chair Kiera O'Neil at 5:32 p.m. Members Present: Administration Present: Kiera O'Neil Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Lynn Cavicchi Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent(Teaching/Learning) Lauren Scher Edward Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Jenn Walsh Linda Fernando Members Absent: None ***All votes taken by roll call vote *** Roll Call: Kiera O'Neil aye Lynn Cavicchi aye Jenn Walsh aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Kiera O'Neil asked for a motion to enter into Executive Session pursuant to M.G.L. Chapter 30A, Section 21 for the Following Purpose: Under Exception No. 4: To discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices, or strategies with respect thereto, and reconvene in open session. Motion to enter into executive session by Linda Fernando / Lauren Scher Roll Call Vote: Lauren Scher aye Linda Fernando aye Kiera O'Neil aye Jenn Walsh aye Lynn Cavicchi aye Motion Carries 5 - 0 Return to Open Meeting at 6:04 pm. Public Speak: Public Speak is open for 15 minutes for anyone who has registered via GoToWebinar. None Communications: None Administrative Reports: Superintendent Teresa Murphy provided an update on the DDos cyberattack. This was a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic on our server. This attack is like a intentional traffic jam on a highway. These attacks are becoming more prevalent in public schools. We will subscribe to anew Comcast ongoing support service. She understands Page 1 of 5 Approved 12-15-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 08, 2020 Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar the frustration that our staff and students experienced during the outage. Ms. Murphy thanked our technology department for their hard work and resolution. Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly gave a brief update on the Robinson half day model feasibility study. As a reminder, the district received two simultaneous letters, one from a group of Robinson staff members and another from a group of parents who all wanted the elementary students to be in school 5 half days per week rather in the proposed hybrid model. Note that this letter was received in early October, right before we were planning to bring students into the building. In November, a team was created to review the proposal and work through key factors such as schedules, time on learning, mid -day arrivals and dismissals, space availability, cleaning, transportation and food services. A survey was recently sent out to parents to gain a better sense of the needs of the entire Robinson population. At the 12/15/20 School Committee meeting, we will present our findings to the committee for review. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve Open Meeting Minutes dated 11-17-20 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Roll Call Vote: Lauren Scher aye Linda Fernando aye Kiera O'Neil aye Jenn Walsh aye Lynn Cavicchi aye Motion Passes: 5 - 0 Old Business: Committee Updates: Audit: Committee met to review the draft audit results. There were no negative findings for the school department. CIP: No update Budget: Met last week to view the initial budget. The group will meet with Town Budget groups tomorrow. Facilities: No update Policy: Working through many policies and will meet with Teresa next week. Returning and Learning: Discussed the surveys sent out to parents, current status of hybrid learning and the need for substitutes. New Business: Presentation of McLean Hospital Partnership: Special Education Director Jim Leonard presented information on the new arrangement we have with McLean Hospital. The district planned this solution as part of the Student Opportunities Act request last year. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, SOA money was never approved. The district was able to budget for this year due to the overwhelming desire to move this forward. Page 2 of 5 Approved 12-15-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 08, 2020 Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Questions/Answers: How are you identifying student needs when they are virtual remote? Remote teachers have access to all the same evaluation tools and conversations. We feel we have been able to identify student need. Are you also working with social services? Our primary relationship is with McLean. We are in the first phase of assessing how this will work. Going forward we will broaden our services. Are parents aware that this is coming? How have you communicated? We have sent information home to parents through principal newsletters. Do we have a model for year 2? Will it be similar? Currently we are looking to operate under the same model but we will start looking ahead for changes in the future. Consideration of paraprofessional MOU., Teresa Murphy provided an update of the new MOU. Included are PPEs for employees, safe area for mask breaks and eating lunch, payroll items for COVID exposure or positive tests (will mimic the teacher MOU), sick time use for staff who quarantine for outside school exposure. Teresa noted that all of these were already in place but the paraprofessionals wanted to make sure that everything is in writing. Motion to approve the paraprofessional MOU by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Roll Call Vote: Lynn Cavicchi aye Jenn Walsh aye Kiera O'Neil aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Motion Passes: 5-0 Consideration of Student Activities Procedural Manual. Assistant Superintendent Ed Donoghue provided an update on changes to the manual. The audit review document was added along with some other changes that came out of the external audit. Motion to approve the Student Activities Procedural Manual by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Discussion: Lauren requested that the use of the word Quicken is changed to indicate an accounting software package so we do not need to change the manual if the software changes. Roll Call Vote: Lynn Cavicchi aye Jenn Walsh aye Kiera O'Neil aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Motion Passes: 5-0 Page 3 of 5 Approved 12-15-20 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 08, 2020 Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Consideration of Policy: Lynn Cavicchi reviewed the modifications to the policy. Code Title Notes Action Motion Motion Disc Vote Order 1 2 Y N JLCEA COMFORT CARE NO CHANGE Review LF LS N 5-0 Lynn C. Jenn W. Kiera 0. Linda F. Lauren S. JLCEC LIFETHREATENING Revise LF JW N 5-0 Lauren S. ALLERGY POLICY Linda F. Kiera 0. Jenn W. Lynn C. JLCEC- LIFE THREATENING Revise LF JW N 5-0 Lynn C. R ALLERGY PLAN Jenn W. Kiera 0. Linda F. Lauren S. New School Committee Business: School Committee Goals were discussed. Members agreed that the goals presented on 11-17-20 would be effective. Lauren asked that the committee follow up on the status of these goals on a regular basis. A review of goals will be completed once every other month. Motion to approve the 2020-2021 School Committee Goals by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh. Roll Call vote: Lynn Cavicchi aye Jenn Walsh aye Kiera O'Neil aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Motion Passes: 5-0 Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting_ None Documents Referenced: McLean Hospital Partnership presentation Student Activity Procedural Manual Motion to adjourn: At 6:55 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Roll Call vote: Lynn Cavicchi aye Page 4 of 5 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 08, 2020 Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Jenn Walsh aye Kiera O'Neil aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Motion Carries 5 - 0 Approved 12-15-20 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 5 of 5