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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 12/13/2022Approved 01-10-23 \ Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in person and virtually on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. The open meeting session was called to order by Vice Chair Lyme Cavicchi at 6:07 p.m. Members Present: Administration Present: Lynn Cavicchi, Vice Chair Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools C Lauren Scher vZE Jenn Walsh Ed Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Fina ce/ 0 3 atf`As� Vivian Webster nx» rn Members Absent: — Kiera O'Neil, Chair U)rn _n D o All attendees in person / Roll Call votes not required. " Cp r m Vice Chair Cavicchi called for a motion to enter into Executive Session 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 Motion to enter into executive session by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher at 6:07 p.m. Roll Call Vote: Jenn Walsh aye Lauren Scher aye Vivian Webster aye Lynn Cavicchi aye Motion Carries 4 - 0 The committee returned to Open Session at 6:41 p.m. Public Speak: None Communications: None Administrative Reports: Superintendent Teresa Murphy updated the School Committee on the following: • TBA Architecture firm has completed several days of walkthroughs of our buildings. Next steps will be for them to review all of the data, ask questions and then provide us with a draft report in February and a final report late spring. • Colleen Sullivan's class created Veteran's Day cards that were delivered to a local Veteran's Home. She read a letter of thanks from the Program Coordinator at the Quigley Memorial Long -Term Care Center. Page 1 of 6 Approved 61-10-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar • Athletic Director Tim Selmon and his Administrative Assistant Carrie Ciccarelli attended a conference "Addressing Hate in School Sports." It provided very valuable information. Assistant Superintendent Edward Donoghue provided the FY23 Quarter 1 Financial Update. To date finances are trending well. The second quarter may provide further insight. Lynn asked if Ed will provide the tad Quarter update in February. Approval of Warrant: Motion to approve the warrant memo dated 11-14-22 by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 Goods & Salary & Goods & Salary & Services Wages Services Wages 23013S 2023-8 230016S 2023.9 104-22 10.14.22 10-18-22 10-28-22 General Fund 591,040.32 1,700,809.27 364,056.67 1,700,148.12 Medicare - 3,690,60 - 2,465.60 Capital 92,096.73 - 6,133.20 - Revolving 7,054.28 70,727.62 906.15 70,675.90 Food Service 46,718.26 26,646.29 59,255.76 26,188.56 Gifts 296.41 - 1,877.41 - Student Activity - - - 6,160.00 Grants 17,494.64 63,953.76 9,931.14 63,793.09 Prior Year 160,556.24 - 7,662.82 - 915,2%88 1,866,827.54 449,823.15 1,869,431.26 Approval of Minutes: Date lst 2nd Discuss Vote Roll Call (n/a)/comments YIN Open Meeting I 1 -0 1 -22 Jenn Lauren None 4-0 Walsh Scher Open Meeting 01-15-22 Jenn Lauren None 4-0 Walsh Scher Open Meeting I 1-15-22 Jenn Lauren None 3-0-1 Lauren Scher abstained; did not attend Walsh Scher meeting. Gifts: • Personal Best Karate studio ran a tuition -based program during CHAMPS after school. CHAMPS has donated to profits for this program to the playground project ($245) • The O'Keefe Giving Fund has donated $50 to QMS for use as they see fit. It was added to the gift account. Page 2 of 6 Approved 01-10-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar QMS PAC donated $1249 to QMS for start up funds for a Model Building Club. The amount will be split between a stipend and supplies. PAC also donated $295 to QMS for flexible seating and break activities in the ALC room. Thank you to all. Old Business: NONE New Business• Consideration offield trips: MHS Percussion to Trumbull, CT and MHS Percussion to Dayton, OH for competitions Justin DeJoy presented the details of each trip. Percussion consists of 38 members grades 9 - 12. This trip is a full day (Saturday) consisting of travel to CT, rehearsing, performing and being judged. The cost breakdown was provided which included donations from Band Parents. Students will be required to pay $64 each. The Ohio trip is the WGI Championships. This trip will occur during April vacation so no school will be missed. Students will travel by coach bus and follow a tight itinerary based on the WGI schedule. Per student cost is approximately $704 plus an additional $200 for snacks, food or shopping at the WGI store. There was some confusion on the total cost listed in the document and the cost brought forward tonight. It was noted that between the initial proposal and tonight's meeting the cost had changed to $684 plus the $200. Jenn Walsh excused herself from the table to speak with Justin DeJoy as the Band Parent President. There are several fundraisers that will be used to help offset the cost including the Gillette concession stand, Krispy Kreme donut sale and Hilliard Candy sales. The band parents also have a separate account to help support the financial needs of families. Lynn Cavicchi asked if families sign a waiver to share this economic information. The information is kept within the band program so there was no waiver. However, Teresa will reach out to Andy to see if a signed waiver is needed. Lynn Cavicchi is concerned about the overall performing arts trips each year and the cost to families. The Committee needs to see an overall plan. Teresa Murphy noted that Department Chair Sheila Newton has recently provided a list of trips for this year. Next year the list will be provided in the spring for the following year. Teresa also emphasized that the Band Parents have provided a sizeable donation to the students this year to help offset costs. This is due to the loss of trips over the last two years. Motion to approve the MHS Percussion day trip to Trumbull, CT by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 3 - 0 - 1 (Jenn Walsh abstained due to her position as Band Parent President) Motion to approve the MHS Percussion overnight trip to Dayton, OH by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 3 - 0 - 1 (Jenn Walsh abstained due to her position as Band Parent President) MA State Seal of Biliteracy Overview: MHS Principal Russ Booth and Department Chair Carolina DiBiase presented the Committee with information on this program which will start this spring. This will be open to any student who Page 3 of 6 Approved 01-10-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar demonstrates proficiency in English and any other language. For the first year it will be offered only to Senior but then the program will expand. There are 3 online exams for writing, reading and speaking. Students will receive a seal on their diploma. Additionally, it is a great opportunity for our English Learners to be recognized for their other language skills. The Committee was pleased to see this moving forward. 2022 District MCASAssessment Overview: Principal Presenters; Russ Booth, David McGovern, John Nieratko Director of Instruction and Assessment Julia Greenstine. The presentation was divided into two sections (JJ&QMS / MHS) Questions/Answers Grades 5 - 8 Lauren asked if some of our low grades reflect the topics not covered due to time lost during COVID. Dave McGovern noted that there is some evidence in the low geometry scores as we did not get as much exposure as we would have liked. However, overall there is no massive gap in content and our scores show some stability from the prior year. John Nieratko noted a similar hit to geometry scores at the J/J level. We don't typically applaud ourselves for "stability" over "growth" but given the nature of learning during 2020 and 2021 we feel that we are on a positive track to rebound. Lauren also noted that it looks like grades 4 and 7 got hit the hardest with declining scores. John noted that for grade 4 there is a big shift to writing skills. Dave noted a similar reasoning for grades 7 which is very heavy on writing. As a whole grade 7 students were impacted hard by COVID closures. It is a year where students enter the grade as elementary students and leave the grade as young adults. It was very difficult on these students in particular. However, he is seeing that learning is catching up in grade 8. Vivian Webster asked what interventions are put in place for students who fail or receive a low grade. Dave noted that the school does not wait for MCAS scores to start interventions. These supports start at the very beginning of the year based on prior history. There are multi -tiered supports available. John noted the same. For example, J/J offers academic services where students are closely monitored in small groups. Lynn Cavicchi asked if the principals are working together to ensure that students are successfully transitioning from one school to another. Dave noted that his already working with High School Guidance Chair, Tina Kariyodanes on students who are entering the high school. She asked if DESE is doing vacation week academics this year. Dave noted limited success with students. Elementary students appeared to have fun during these two weeks of learning but once students reached middle school, they were not happy to be giving up vacation time and learning was very minimal. Questions/Answers Grades 9,10 Lauren Scher expressed concern over the math grades for low income families. She hears that, in Mansfield, many parents are helping with homework or hire tutors. Not all families have the capacity to help or maybe work many hours and cannot be home. Private tutoring is beyond the financial means of some. Page 4 of 6 Approved 01-10-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Dave McGovern agrees with Lynn's concerns. He is working closely with John Nieratko to review the grade 5 to grade 6 transition and to see if more low-income students can be placed in higher level courses. John Nieratko noted that our low-income students are out performing the state, in comparable categories. Russ Booth is working with department chairs and the progression of students from one grade to another. He would like to see more students challenge themselves. One factor he is researching are the group of students who override a teacher recommendation for a class. How successful are these students? Did the rise to the challenge or did they struggle which would indicate that these students should have accepted the teacher recommendation. Jenn Walsh and Lynn Cavicchi are pleased to see some flexibility in the rigid course progression in the high school. Summary Questions: Lauren asked if next year the presentation could include additional information regarding accountability. Teresa Murphy noted that we could probably speak to this in February after more information is released on the DESE site. The Committee also asked if Julia could come back in the spring and talk more about IlluminateED. Lynn asked why the columns for socio-economic information is blank. Julia noted that this is one category that is not reported in Aspen so we were unable to report. Teresa noted that we will post this information on our website once some of the minor cleanup items are complete FY24 Budget Presentation. Tonight, is the initial presentation of the School Budget. The District is asking that the committee vote on the budget total so that it may be presented to the Town Manager. In January, The District will come back and present the budget in more detail. Then, during the months of January, February and March the Town and School will work together toward a budget amount to be presented at town meeting. We are essentially requesting level services. One of the key changes is the ending of most ESSR grants. The services supported by these grants are crucial to the school so we are moving these items to the operating budget. The overall budget increase is 4.17% over FY23 with a total budget of $59,090,994. Lauren Scher asked why there was a reduction at QMS. Teresa noted that it was mostly due to the textbook replacement cycle. This happens to be a year where we do not have significant replacement needs. Lynn Cavicchi noted the importance of level services on behalf of our students and we need to emphasize this as we move forward with the budget. Motion to approve the Mansfield Public Schools Proposed FY24 Total Budget of $59,090,994 by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 School Committee Business: None Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting Documents Referenced: Page 5 of 6 Approved 01-10-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 13, 2022 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Field Trips Seal of Biliteracy 2022 MCAS Presentation FY24 Budget Presentation Motion to adjourn: At 9:25 p.m., Lyme Cavicchi asked for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Je1m Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4-0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6