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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 05/03/2022Approved 06-07-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar `CCEIVED OFFICE An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in person anQwum� wTU0s(9-y25 May 3, 2022. The open meeting session was called to order by Chair Kiera O'Neil at 6:01 g T ID TTS Members Present: Administration Present: Kiera O'Neil, Chair Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Lynn Cavicchi, Vice Chair Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Linda Fernando Ed Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Lauren Scher Jenn Walsh Members Absent: ***All members in person -Roll call vote not required *** Public Speak: David Martin, 99 Samoset Avenue. Mr. Martin spoke on his strong opposition to Article 20 scheduled for Town Meeting. This article is the citizens petition regarding divisive concepts. Communications: None Administrative Reports: Superintendent Teresa Murphy announced that Mansfield High School has been ranked as a top school by US News and World Report. Both our tiered focus monitoring reviews (Special Education and English Language Learners) were completed and on both we had NO corrective action. Congratulations to our district and thank you to those who worked on the review. Teresa took this time to congratulate outgoing member Linda Fernando on her 9 years of service on the School Committee. Linda has chosen not to re -run for the upcoming election. Teresa and Kiera spoke and presented Linda with farewell gifts. High School Representative Report: Karine Ayoub gave her final presentation prior to graduating. Students are currently in the middle of standardized testing including the difficult AP exams. MHS has two reverse half days ahead to facilitate grade 10 MCAS testing. The one Act Play was performed in competition. Mansfield did not make it to the next round but four students received acting awards. The spring play is coming up this weekend. The Student Services Corp. is raising money for Ukraine refugees. Seniors are approaching the last days of school. Prom is May 14th at Gillette. Students are looking forward to working with our new principal, Mr. Booth in the fall. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the open meeting minutes dated 4-26-22 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Motion to approve the executive session meeting minutes dated 4-26-22 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Page 1 of 7 Approved O6-07-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Motion Carries 5 - 0 Motion to approve town -wide budget sub minutes dated 4-27-22 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Old Business: Subcommittee Updates: CIP: The Committee met and voted on the final list of CIP items that are going forward to town meeting. Facilities: Met last week to discuss the following- There is still a need for summer help; the boiler project is moving forward as planned; a long list of projects were completed over April vacation; there is still an open custodian position. Also discussed were the Welcome Windows. Other districts have heard about our success and have come to our schools to see how we have implemented these entrances. New Business: Consideration of job descriptions: Transportation Manager: Assistant Superintendent Donoghue reviewed the position and the details of the job description. Lynn Cavicchi asked if the bus routing system currently in place (Transfinder) has the option to let parents find real time bus locations. This is an added feature to Transfinder that we can choose to use in the future. Mansfield will not be using it for next school year; Ed doesn't see the need and indicated that it is not commonly used. Lynn thought it would be helpful to parents when there are delays. It may reduce the number of calls to the school or the need to send out messages to parents. Lauren Scher asked about the role of the transportation Manager and if that person would be busy 12 months of the year. Ed indicated that there is a lot to do and efforts do continue throughout the year. However, there are other efforts within the district that this person can assist with if there are slow weeks. Motion to approve the Transportation Manager Job Description by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Director of Learning: Superintendent Murphy reviewed the current job description for Director of Digitial Learning and noted that the actual job responsibilities has expanded quite a bit. Julia Greenstine currently works in this role. Superintendent Murphy reviewed the suggested changes. All agreed on the actual description but had varying thoughts on the title. Chair Kiera O'Neil felt that technology or digital should still be in the title. Vice Chair Lynn Cavicchi thought that assessment appeared to be a big part of the role. Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly noted that the role started by reviewing all of the tools. Now we want to focus on the learning and select those tools that we want to use. Lynn asked if we also needed to review the job descriptions for the instructional coaches. Teresa felt that we are ok with those position descriptions as is. It was agreed to move forward with the title of "Director of Instruction and Assessment" Motion to approve the revised Director of Instruction and Assessment job Description by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Page 2 of 7 Approved 06-07-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Release of Executive Session Minutes: Chair O'Neil announced the release of executive session minutes from the 2016-2017 school year. No vote is required. 07/21/16 01/10/17 09/12/16 02/07/17 10/04/16 02/28/17 10/18/16 03/28/17 11/15/16 04/11/17 11/21/16 04/25/17 12/12/16 05/11/16 12/20/16 05/16/17 06/14/17 06/06/17 06/01/17. SEPACAnnual Update: Dawn Low and Christine Gaze provided an overview of the organization and an update on the current school year. SEPAC is mandated by state law. Currently there are 9 parents involved. This year, five business meetings were held. Some of the topics covered this year were transitional programming when students turn 22, building resilience in your child, Tiered Focus Monitoring process, Mansfield Problem Oriented Police program, and basic rights. Ms. Low and Ms. Gaze were very pleased with the new dyslexia program. Parents appreciated the ability to meet virtually for IEP and SEPAC meetings as many parents have difficulty getting babysitters. Masks were difficult for many of the students on IEPs. It was also noted that parents are having a very difficult time accessing supports outside of Mansfield Public Schools as many have ' been limited or even eliminated since COVID. Consideration of New Standards Based Curriculum for Roland Green: Superintendent Murphy noted that in 2019, Roland Green Director Krista DeMello began process to review the current curriculum and propose changes. COVID caused a pause in this effort but it was resumed again this school year. Director DeMello presented her recommendations for "Tools of the Mind" which is aligned with the MA Curriculum Frameworks. Lauren Scher cited a 2008 study that occurred in a city -based school where successes were limited. Krista noted that the curriculum would have been brand new around that time and our setting is likely very different than that in the study. In preschool, the model should be centered around play and exposure where students learn about self -advocacy, role play, fun and play skills. Lauren noted that it is important to pilot and measure for success. Linda Fernando asked about the shelf -life (how long will we be able to use Page 3 of 7 Approved 06-09-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar this program.) Krista indicated that we hope to use this program for some time but there are always new programs being offered so we will keep options opened. What she likes about this program is that there is a great deal of professional development offered. Lynn Cavicchi asked how Krista intends to get the word out to parents. Krista will present information at orientations and curriculum nights. Lynn also asked when professional development would occur. Krista hopes to use the last week of school since Roland Green students do not attend that week. Motion to approve the new standards -based curriculum for Roland Green by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Dyslexia Screening Recommendation: Special Education Director Jim Leonard and Director of Learning Julia Greenstine presented. Guidance was issued by DESE in April 2021 encouraging school districts to research and select an evidence based universal screening instrument. The tool we are choosing will be used to screen PK - grade 8 students. We are currently in year one of a three-year plan. The district has identified key personnel and roles, implemented a communication plan, configured data, developed a plan for professional development and started the roll out of the tool. Lynn Cavicchi asked why this is now being pursued by the state. Julia noted that historically, it has been difficult to identify dyslexia. The new tools will aid in identification early so that students do not go too long without support. The tool allows us to cast a wider net and identify more students than we have in the past. Lynn asked why the testing ended in 81h grade. We are extending the program into 81h grade to assess new enrollments. Our goal is that all students will be screened by the time they enter high school. Over time, there should be very few students screening positive in the later school years. Has the state provided funding? Jim: Not yet but we are hoping that they will in the future. Kiera asked for confirmation on where we are in the roll out. We are at the end of year one and in year two we will work towards full implementation. Do we have money in the budget for this? Jim- yes, we did account for the program. Linda Fernando is pleased with the "train the trainer" model which allows us to easily share information among our staff. She likes that we will pick up students at a young age. Lauren Scher asked that we consider the appropriate monitoring of the program to be sure everyone gets trained and implementation goes smoothly. Will we use PD half days for this training? Mike noted that we will hope to do so. This would have been a good example of needing a Y2 day of PD in the spring which is always hard to schedule. Data and Assessment Year one Update: Page 4 of 7 Approved 06-07-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Director of Learning Julia Greenstine presented by reviewing the first -year implementation plan that occurred in 21-22. Our current data was validated and uploaded, initial professional development was completed, and pilots began. The new system interfaces very well with Aspen with nightly feeds between the two systems allowing us quick access to information. Those teachers who have piloted with us think that the information will be extremely helpful in assessing out students and our curriculum delivery. Next year, implementation and training will continue with a greater focus on reporting and analysis. Lauren asked if there was any concern with over testing our students. Julia did not feel that would be an issue. The testing already happens; we are now learning better ways to manage and assess the information. Mike Connolly noted that it allows us to focus on formative assessments throughout the year and to use our time more effectively. Linda was impressed with the spontaneous responses that the teachers will see. Can we use this tool to see if there are areas of our curriculum delivery that may be weak? Absolutely, this gives us that flexibility. For example, if every student in a particular grade takes the same test, and most students struggle with answering the same question, that would trigger a notification to us. We can assess whether it is an issue with the curriculum ; or the actual way in which the test question was asked. Lynn praised the district for having come this far with our assessment capabilities. No School Committee vote required. Town WarrantArticles Article 3: Enter into a transportation contract for a period in excess of 3 years. Assistant Superintendent Ed Donoghue noted that we are putting out a bid for a new bus contract and we hope that we can frame it as a 3 year plus 1 year plus 1 year options. Motion to support article 3 Entering into a transportation contract for a period in excess of 3 years by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Article 4 Enter into a School Technology Contract in Excess of 3 years (for SmartBoards) As discussed at prior meetings, Mansfield will work with a vendor to lease brand new SmartBoards to be installed over the summer. Technology contracts will likely be an annual motion at fall meeting as there will always be ongoing technology leases needed. Motion to support article 4 Entering into a technology contract in excess of 3 years to support our SmartBoard upgrades and Chromebook leases by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Article 11: Capital Improvement Spending Ed reviewed the three items which are: Page 5 of 7 Approved 06-07-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar District wide paving and concrete $250,000 Roland Green Chair Lift $50,000 MHS Replacement of HVAC Unit for Main office $40,000 Move to support article 11 in support of Capital Spending for Mansfield Public Schools by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Article 15: Raise, appropriate, borrow or transfer funds to Special Education Reserve Fund Suggested motion: Move to support article 15 in support of funding the Special Education Reserve fund THIS ARTICLE WILL NOT APPEAR BEFORE TOWN MEETING. No vote needed. Article 20: Citizens Petition on Divisive Concepts Teresa presented an update on this article. She reviewed the origins, along with legal opinions from both town and school attorneys. Notably: The article is unconstitutionally vague in that it is not adequately defined. Town meeting does not have authority to null and void Mansfield Public Schools Contracts. A student could use this article to behave in a certain way with our disciplinary repercussions. Academic standards are determined by the State Board of Education and any attempt to limit curriculum of Mansfield Public Schools is invalid. The language in the article could not be enforced without first moving forward with negotiations of collective bargaining agreements. Town Meeting may not infringe on the legal authority assigned to the Mansfield School Committee. If passed, article 20 would likely lead to litigation against the Town and/or School Committee. Motion to request that this petition is removed from consideration at town meeting for the legal reasons as identified by the office of School Counsel by Lynn Cavicchi / Jenn Walsh Discussion Chair O'Neil wanted to make clear that we are not voting for or against the article; we are asking that the Town of Mansfield remove this article from Town Meeting based on legal advice. Lauren Scher stated that all issues have been covered and she had nothing to add. Linda Fernando thanked all who have reviewed the petition especially Andrew Waugh, our school attorney. Kiera O'Neil emphasized that the town does not have any jurisdiction over contracts that are between the schools and the committee. Lynn Cavicchi noted that this petition crosses too many lines of authority and there is no mechanism for the schools to enforce any of the petition restrictions. Town meeting is not the forum for setting school policy. Motion to request the removal of the petition carries 5 - 0. Page 6 of 7 Approved 064)7-22 Minutes for Tuesday, May 03, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Lynn Cavicchi asked that we send this in writing to the Select Board prior to their article review on 5-4-22. i School Committee Business: Discussed upcoming meetings and confirmed that Teresa's evaluation will occur on 6-21-22. As a member of the school committee for most of the year, Linda Fernando may evaluate Teresa on anything that occurred prior to May 11th. Any new member may if they choose evaluate Teresa but only on activity between May 11th and June 1. At the end of July, MA Insight should be ready to present their findings on the Diversity and Equity audit. There is NO meeting on May 17th or May 24to. A brief meeting will be scheduled for May 19th prior to town meeting for a reorganization and any last-minute votes needed on town meeting articles. Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meetine: Documents Referenced: Presentation on Dyslexia Screening Presentation on Data and Assessment Presentation on new Roland Green curriculum Presentation on Article 20 Article listing for town meeting Motion to adjourn: At 8:26 p.m., Kiera O'Neil asked for a motion to adjourn Motion to adjourn by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5-0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent & School Committee Page 7 of 7