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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 12/07/2021Mansfield School Committee Meeting Approved 12-I4-21 Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 % In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar RECEIVED r rCt �., -WKS OFFICE An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in person M *Wlly oA\T&*sa®y, December 07, 2021. The open meeting session was called to order by Vice Chair Lynn Cavicchi at 6:02p.m. t'lA?t, S FiEI_D A_'H TT�, Members Present: Administration Present: Kiera O'Neil,Chair Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools (arrived 7:04 pm) Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Lynn Cavicchi, Vice Chair Ed Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Linda Fernando Lauren Scher Jenn Walsh (arrived 8:20 pm) Members Absent: None Motion to Enter Executive Session: Lynn Cavicchi 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. 3. To discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares. At 6:04 p.m., Motion to leave the open meeting; enter into executive session and return to open meeting by Linda Fernando / Lauren Scher Roll Call Vote: Lynn Cavicchi aye Linda Fernando aye Lauren Scher aye Motion Carries 3 - 0 Return to Open Meeting at 6:40 p.m. Public Speak: None Communications: None Administrative Reports: Superintendent Teresa Murphy recognized 3rd grade student Belmond Schwartz for his efforts collecting food for Our Daily Bread food pantry. Teresa read from the WCVB news article as well as an email from Belmond's mother praising his teachers. Belmond was given a special gift and a certificate for his accomplishment. Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly gave an update on the Equity Audit which we have tagged as "Every Student, Every Day." The district is working with Mass Insight and we have completed the following steps: We gathered all of the information requested by Mass Insight and they have been reviewing the data. We are starting the Stakeholder Engagement phase where Page 1 of 6 Approved 12-14-21 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar surveys will be sent to parents, staff, MHS students, school leaders and community members. Currently the leadership team is reviewing the survey drafts and providing feedback. We anticipate the surveys will start being sent out in January. We will publicize this in many ways to increase the response rate. It is expected that the survey will be reproduced in 10 different languages. The following phases will take place after the surveys are completed. • Focus Groups will be established and will review survey data • Analysis and final report from Mass Insight • Mass Insight presentation to School Committee and Community (May 2022) • Develop strategic plan from results of report (Fall 2022) Linda Fernando asked how we are measuring our success with integrating these ideas into our district. Mr. Connolly reported that we are not there yet but will examine different methods of measures. Lauren Scher asked about the focus groups. It is great to get volunteers but we likely will get the same small responsers. It would be great to hear from a variety of sources and recommended we reach out to a diverse group. Teresa noted that this is already in the works. We have various community groups that we have already tagged for participation and others to whom we will reach out. It is very important to us that we hear as many voices and opinions as possible. Assistant Superintendent Edward Donoghue provided an update of the first quarter FY22 financials. The district financials are where we expect having spent approximately 24.6% of the budget. MHS High School Representative Report: Students were not available for tonight's meeting. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve Open Meeting Minutes dated 11-16-21 by Linda Fernando / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 3 - 0 Motion to approve Executive Session Meeting Minutes dated 11-16-21 by Linda Fernando /Lauren Scher Motion Carries 3 - 0 Kiera O'Neil arrived 7:04 pm. Gifts: We have received a very generous donation from Mansfield resident Bruce Bouck. Bruce runs a conditioning camp every summer and a portion of his proceeds is donated to the MHS science program. This year his $1000 donation will be used to fund new biology and environmental science equipment. We are grateful to Bruce and his longtime support. Old Business: Audit: The committee met to review the completed audit. The final audit was presented to the Select Board and happily there were no concerns with the school department. Budget: The subcommittee met last week to review fees and to hear the initial budget presentation. The group also met with FinCom liaisons to provide them with a high level budget plan. At the next Page 2 of 6 Approved 12-14-21 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar meeting (January 5, 2022), the committee will review the special education stabilization fund and the Town Budget Subcommittee roles and responsibilities. New Business: Consideration offield Trip, Tim Ketterer and Sheila Newton presented a request for Percussion to attend the WGI competition in Trumbull, CT. Tim reviewed the goals of the session and plans for travel and COVID precautions. Masks are required at all times and regular cleaning will take place between events. Lynn asked about cancellation fees if a student, multiple students cannot attend or if the trip is cancelled due to snow or other concern. Tim stated that some of the cost would be absorbed by the student and some of the cost would be absorbed by the Boosters. Motion to approve the Percussion trip to Trumbull, CT in February 2022 by Linda Fernando / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 SmartBoard Refresh; Lori Letendre and Julia Greenstine presented a proposal to swap out all of our old SmartBoards with new technology. Currently in our district we operate 200 old version boards and 47 new boards. The new technology is significant including High Definition LED displays, advanced touch accuracy, ambient light sensors to adapt to classroom settings, the ability to connect to student devices for more interactivity, on board browsers allowing teachers to walk up and use. Lori explained why we would move in this direction. Many of our devices are over 10 years old, there is an uptick in tickets related to the older boards, and teachers rely heavily on their use. The new boards eliminate the need for projectors and bulbs, eliminate shadows when a teacher stands near the projector, improves student interactivity and provides many technical advances. Julia Greenstine and her team will assist with the setup of multiple layers of professional development for all staff. The new boards will be leased for 5 years. While the technology budget will go up, each school's budget will decrease since there will not be the need for repair, maintenance or replacement parts. Lori is working with a company that will be able to supply and replace all of the boards over the summer but we need to move forward quickly to secure materials. Old SmartBoards will be collected and the district will try to go through the state auction to sell. If not, there are other methods to sell or donate. Lauren Scher asked if these were more or less energy efficient. They are more efficient. How will we ensure that the SmartBoards work if they are installed over the summer but teachers don't try them until September? Lori's staff will work closely with the vendor to test each unit. Additionally the vendor will provide us support. Can we use ESSER funds to pay for these? Per Ed we probably cannot use any grants. He feels comfortable with our budget that we can move forward as this is a net neutral impact. Ed praised Lori for the idea and how quickly she pursued the logistics with the vendor. Linda Fernando asked Lori to explain the subscriptions. Does each teacher have their own? Yes, each teacher has a web based subscription. The first year is free. We will include this cost in future budgets. Will there be any damage to walls or ceilings when the old projectors are removed? Minimal and we are working with facilities. Are we sure we can get all of the equipment for the summer? The vendor is confident they can complete the work if we commit soon. Page 3 of 6 Approved I2-14-21 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Kiera O'Neil asked for further details on the lease. It is a 5 year lease with equal payments per year and a $1 buyout at the end of the lease. Will those teachers who already have the new boards also get subscriptions? Yes, they are currently using their one free year and then will the district will start paying for their annual subscriptions. Lynn Cavicchi is amazed with the technology department's efforts in getting SmartBoards into our schools over the years. She also appreciates the amount of parent fundraising that took place to help fund the purchase of many SmartBoards. Are there any hidden costs that we need to consider? There could be disposal fees if we cannot sell or donate the old products. Lynn noted that professional development costs and facilities costs for repairs should also be included. Lynn also noted that if there are any hidden offsets (savings) we should mark that as well. Teresa noted that we recently donated all of our unneeded chromebook carts to a district who was in great need of them. The Committee was very pleased with the plan and presentation. The district will move forward with including this in the budget. FY23 Fees: Assistant Superintendent Ed Donoghue presented proposed changes to district fees for next year. Tonight will be a discussion only and next week the fees will be approved along with the budget. A summary of changes: Little Hornets per Week Roland Green per week ExistingProposed Fee Fee $285 $315 $300 $330 $325 $385 MHS Evening School Resident per course MHS Evening School Non -Resident per course MHS PSAT Exam MHS Athletics: Hockey MHS Athletics: Gymnastics MHS Athletics: Swimming MHS E-Sports (per season) MHS Extra Curricular: Jazz Ensemble MHS Extra Curricular: Color Guard, Percussion MHS Extra Curricular: Theater (per play) CHAMPS Summer Institute $250 $275 $250 $275 $450 $475 $210 $235 $260 $285 $30 $35 $150 $300 $150 $200 $150 $200 n/a $200 $50 $75 $50 $100 $50 $100 $110 $125 $120 $135 $130 $145 Page 4 of 6 Approved 12-14-21. Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Questions/Answers: Kiera asked Ed to compare our preschool fees to other local private schools. Our fees are definitely lower but we also want to continue to encourage peer mentors to our program. Teresa also noted that we area 4 day program only. How many nonresidents attend evening school? Teresa noted that the vast majority are Mansfield students. Occasionally a non-resident will take a credit recovery course. What courses are offered? Math, ELA, Social Studies and Science. Lynn asked about the family cap for fees. Is it a cap just for athletics or does it include performing arts as well. Ed will confirm that it is one overall cap per family. Lynn also noted that some increases do appear higher but understands that in those cases we had not raised fees for some time and she also recognizes the need to pay rent for facilities. Lauren Scher does not feel comfortable with the 100% increase in hockey; she feels it is too much of an increase. She is also concerned with the $200 E-Sports fee. Is that due to a rental? Yes, the cost for the facility use is $20,000 per season. Lauren asked that we monitor this and if response drops then we should reconsider the offering. Teresa noted that this rental is similar to hockey or gymnastics and noted that E-sports offers activities to students who previously may not have been engaged with the MHS community at all. School Choice Presentation and Initial Discussion., Superintendent Murphy and Doctor Rayna Freedman presented some background information on school choice. Discussed were the definition and rules regarding school choice; why school choice is used by districts, sample feedback from other districts and recommendations for use in Mansfield. Historically Mansfield has not been a school choice district. However our enrollment numbers at the secondary level are declining and we need to consider our ability to maintain our curriculum offerings and staff. The district is recommending that we open school choice for 50 spots in both grade 09 and grade 10 for the 2022-23 school year. Further openings can be discussed in upcoming years. Jenn Walsh arrived at 8:20 during the presentation. Teresa would like to provide further information to the district through a Lunch & Learn session for parents, a discussion with all staff across the district. Teresa is interested in hearing from everyone. She is asking the School Committee to vote at the end of January as to whether to pursue. We would then start to market ourselves and begin enrollment. Teresa knows there are questions and wants to make sure everyone has the opportunity become educated. Kiera asked if Dr. Freedman had heard any negative feedback from districts. Rayna indicated that most of the feedback was very positive noting that they work toward one school community regardless of where students live. There were a couple of issues such a school choice student who became valedictorian and a star quarterback from Pop Warner who did not start for the high school team because of a school choice student. She did note that Mansfield has strong academic, sports and performing arts programs which are very attractive to others. We have the opportunity to build up some great programs. Kiera noted that based on our district setup we do not have multiple middle schools feeding into a single high school so would that create a problem? It should not as we find students meet entire new groups of students each year. Linda Fernando noted that it would be like any student who moves into the district. We would register and enroll in the same Page 5 of 6 Approved 12-14-21 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 07, 2021 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar manner. Lauren Scher was concerned with our MCAS results. The district has emphasized how well our students do when they start in our elementary schools and stay in Mansfield until High School. We may find that with the additional Flux of students our results would be impacted and we would need to allow for extra help. Linda Fernando asked if we open up grades 9 and 10, would a staff member be able to enroll their student in another grade. No, only grades that are open are eligible for school choice students. Staff cannot receive preferential treatment unless the School Committee set policy allowing an option for staff. Teresa does not recommend this due the high enrollment numbers at the elementary level. We can't guarantee open spots. Same would hold true for siblings. If a sibling is not in the grade offered, then they cannot attend. Lynn Cavicchi asked if the districts who currently offer school choice are at capacity/needed a lottery? Norton, is not near capacity; not sure about other districts. Also questioned were the number of students who leave Mansfield for other school choice districts. What grades? Rayna will get back to the committee with that information. Lynn asked about a situation where a student moves out of Mansfield. Currently we allow a student to stay to finish their school year or in the case of a senior allow the student to stay the one year. How does school choice impact this? We would need to review this. We are not allowed to give any preferential treatment of one student over another. We would still allow a senior to finish up their career in Mansfield per policy but siblings in other grades would only be allowed to choice in if we have the grade open. Linda Fernando asked if we would receive additional money above the $5000 per student for Special Education costs. Yes, sending schools are responsible for special education costs through the state cherry sheets. Lauren Scher asked if there was any chance that the state tuition would increase. Rayna noted that there had been discussions to raise the amount but COVID derailed any plans. School Committee Business: None Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: Documents Referenced: Field Trip MHS Percussion FY23 Fees SmartBoard presentation School Choice presentation Motion to adjourn: At 8:50 p.m., Motion to adjourn by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6 The School Committee did not meet a quorum at the November 30, 2021 Student Advisory Meeting. No Minutes were taken for this meeting.