Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 11/14/2023�- Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 1,4��{rr2,0,,23 In Person & Virtual Meeting usin Go7idlN�iiYi� T(JJpp4pp` 3 C!_LRKS/�OFFICE An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was ftfY� ff- iJsOn Ad Vir?hlly on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. The open meeting session was called to order by �f pirr hynn Cavicchi at 6:31 p.m. r:.n C [1.4� `�SACHIY' : T TS Members Present: Administration Present: Lynn Cavicchi (Chair) Teresa Murphy, Superintendent Jenn Walsh (Vice Chair) Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Steve Schoonveld Ed Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Jenifer Sellon Members Absent: Vivian Webster Public Speak; None Administrative Reports: Superintendent Teresa Murphy reflected on Krista Sylvain's six years as director of Roland Green. She has accomplished quite a bit including creating a new schedule, bringing professional development to a new level, extending the school year through the summer for our special education students, creating a new system for arrivals and dismissals reducing issues with neighborhood traffic, and updating the playground. We wish her the best as she moves on to her new role as Director of Special Education at Old Colony Vocational Technical High School. Teresa then announced Kris Delaplain as the interim director for the remainder of 2023-24. Kris was a former principal and assistant principal in other districts. In Canton she was the student services coordinator. Most recently she has taught for 2 years at Roland Green rounding out her extensive experience. Congratulations to Ms. Delaplain. Chair Cavicchi noted the improvement in Roland Green since the district created the full time Director position. Teresa also announced that U.S. News and World Report named Jordan/Jackson a 2024 Best Elementary School Badge and Qualters Middle School a 2024 Best Middle School Badge. J/J was ranked 169 out of 1563 MA schools and QMS was ranked 96 out of 1040 MA middle schools. This is in addition to an award given to Mansfield High School earlier in the year. High School Representative Report: Andrew Fleischmann and C.J. Moussette were present this evening. They reported on the progress students are making with the new student ID and Cellphone policies. Everyone is getting used to these new routines. The high school completed their spirit week, homecoming dance and pep rally with great student engagement. Chair Cavicchi and Vice Chair Walsh commended Andrew on his efforts with Project 351. While at last week's MASC conference, they met up with other members of this organization who had great praise for Andrew. Project 351 represents the 351 communities in MA. Each district nominates one member to lead and participate in service projects. Additionally, students participated in PSATs, career planning and/or college prep work during the 1/2 day last month. Girls soccer has made it to the final 4 and will play this week. The marching band finished 2nd in their division at MetLife Stadium in N.J. The drama club will be performing their fall production in December. Page 1 of 6 Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 14, 2023 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Approval of Minutes: Date 1st 2nd Discuss Y N Vote Roll Call 10-10-23 Open W JS Y 4-0 10-24-23 Open JW JS N 4-0 10-10-23 Executive W S N 4-0 On the 10-10-24 minutes remove mistaken reference to Lynn Cavicchi. Committee Updates: CIP Subcommittee: Met to discuss the items that will be on the Special Fall Town Meeting. Will need to start looking ahead to new 5-year plan. Audit Subcommittee: Discussed start of own audit process and review the electric department audit results. Next meeting is in December. Gifts: Thank you to Mansfield Women of Today who contributed $500 to the Special Education Department for use at their discretion. Subcommittee Updates: The town -wide budget subcommittee met last week for a brief update on progress. Next budget subcommittee meeting for us is on 11/21/23. Time will be set for 5:30 or 6:00. Old Business: None New Business: Update to World Travel club trip in 2025: Lisa Buron and Russ Booth updated the committee on the high level of demand for this trip. The max 40 students signed up in the first hour; there are 26 additional students on a waiting list. We have had enough interest that we can add a second bus. Students will be split between the two buses. Only Mansfield students will be on these buses. There is a slight possibility that each bus will have a different set of flights and stay at a different hotel. However, students will have ample opportunity to be together for most of the daily activities. This is different than the Greece trip where EF tours did not permit us to have a second bus. These decisions are based on the popularity the trips. Going forward we will keep this in mind when planning trips given the recent student interest. There is no price change and all other itinerary items remain the same. The number of chaperones will be increased and Lisa has already secured interested staff. Consideration of CIP Five year Plan CFY25 - FY29): Assistant Superintendent Donoghue reviewed the items approved at the last town meeting and indicated that it will be an extremely busy summer with facilities projects at each school. The facilities department is already working through project plans and preparing to go out for bids. Jenifer Sellon asked for an update on the MHS elevators. Ed: This was approved at town meeting last spring. However, that did not give us enough time to hire a contractor and get the work done Page 2 of 6 Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 14, 2023 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar over the summer. We will use the same contractor for both the QMS and MHS; work will be done over the summer. Steve Schoonveld suggested that pieces of the old gym floor are used as gifts for athletic alumni. Ed: We have considered this but need to determine the impact of the asbestos under the floor. Facilities Director Matt Jacques highlighted some of our recent work. The MHS boiler is complete and is working extremely well and efficiently; Eight univentilators were replaced and the MHS generator was installed which gives us piece of mind in a power outage. He then presented the 5-year CIP plan. He noted that it is very difficult to project fully because some of our projects are determined by immediate need. This plan is a best -case scenario of what we would like to accomplish over the next 5 years. He reviewed some of the big -ticket items and those that have changed since our last 5-year plan. Questions/Answers: Steve Schoonveld asked if there were any lingering projects that had been approved but not completed. There is money left over from the univentilator project. Matt will now replace a ninth unit noting that money allocated for a specific project cannot be used for any other project. How do all these projects fit in with the educational space study? Are we making repairs to schools that will be replaced soon? Superintendent Murphy noted that the CIP items represent imminent needs while the space study is at least 5 - 10 years out. It is hard to say if there will be overlap but we cannot hold off on some of these projects. Steve asked if Matt would prioritize the FY25 items. These were set as follows: 1. J/J Chiller 2. J/J roof replacement 3. District wide paving 4. Special Education Mini Bus 5. District -wide lighting upgrades 6. District -wide HVAC rooftop replacements Jenn Walsh noted that the CIP planning and completion of work has improved tremendously under the watch of current leadership as compared to prior administrations. It is great to see projects getting completed. Jenifer Sellon asked for clarification on the word district -wide. This is a generic placeholder for items that need to get done across the district. We prioritize as the need arrives. It does not indicate that the work will be done everywhere in the district all at once. Lynn Cavicchi asked for a status update on MSBA. Matt Jacques attended a meeting just today where they announced the reopening of these projects. However, it seems like the MSBA is moving away from approving boiler projects. We are happy that we got our projects approved already. We will be working toward a Statement of Interest for roof projects. It should be noted that we have received funds for 3 of the last 5 years. It is unlikely that we will bump up to the top of the list again but we will try. Lynn then asked why are we prioritizing the J/J roof over Robinson where we had leaks earlier this year. Matt clarified that the leaks were from an internal pipe drain above the ceiling tiles not from the roof. Outside inspections of our roof indicated immediate repair was needed for J/1 while the Robinson had at least 5 years of life left. Lynn also asked if all items from Page 3 of 6 Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 14, 2023 In Person &Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar prior years were accounted for in this plan or did we lose some items? Matt said that all projects are either moved forward, completed under the operating budget or grant money. Lynn addressed textbooks and technology which often bounce back and for the between the operating budget and capital. Ed and Teresa discussed the history behind this, that often the town will recommend moving items to capital in order to help balance the budget. There was discussion as to whether to earmark a spot for textbooks in the 5-year plan. Teresa noted as a general rule we try to keep them in the operating budget. Ed noted that switching back and forth makes it difficult to compare budgets from one year to another. At a minimum, Lynn suggested notifying the CIP committee that there may be last minute changes for textbooks. Presentation of Mansfield Public Schools Vision Drams Moved to next meeting. Presentation of2023 District MCASAssessment; Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly, Director of Instruction and Assessment, Julia Greenstine, Principal Russ Booth (MHS), Principal Dave McGovern (QMS) and Assistant Principal Denise DaGraca (J/J) Mr. Connolly opened the presentation by stating that the team hopes to highlight our MCAS results, be transparent on where we stand and show you what our plans are for growth. He showed a slide indicating the variables that we have had to work with due to the pandemic making it difficult to compare results from year to year. We are finally on track to record historical information. Overall the state reports continuous academic recovery from the pandemic but we still sit behind scores of 2019. Pandemic loss is a national concern but within the state of MA we are seeing improvements in our schools. Tests were administered in math, science and ELA. Each administrator reviewed scores by grade, subject and year, compared, as best as possible, those scores to 2019, to last year and to the state. Scores displayed are anything equal to or above Meets Expectations. There are some areas where we are performing better than in 2019 such as: Grade 5 ELA Grade 6 ELA Grade 5 Math Grade 6 Math Grade 8 Math In almost all areas, our change from 2019 to 2023 was better than state averages. Data was then drilled down further into subgroups of EL students, Students with Disabilities, Low Income and High needs students. Each chart showed where students improved, remained statistically the same or improved since 2019. Each category was compared to the same group at the state level showing where we outperformed the state. Regarding the 8d, grade science test, Dave McGovern noted there are a few factors in play. First, DESE has recognized some of the limitations of the exam and is planning a complete revamp in the upcoming year. Second, the 8th graders that took the exam are the first group to have fully learned under the new cyclical science curriculum modules. Third, by the time students take the science exams they have test burnout. They have completed math and ELA exams and they are approaching the end of the school year. Page 4 of 6 Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 14, 2023 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Each administrator then went through their observations, areas of strength and areas of opportunity (actions being taken.) Julia Greenstine then went through some of the overall performance levels along with district reporting which now is available to our staff, greatly improving their ability to reach out to certain students. It was noted that teachers can also look to see how their prior students performed. This allows a teacher to see whether their methods worked or they need to reconfigure some of their lessons. Questions / Answers: Steve: There appears to be an error in the number of students for the high school; total numbers differ between math and ela. Julia and Russ will look into this. Do we ever follow a student all the way from grade 3 to grade 10 to see how they perform? What tools are available for this? It would appear to be a better assessment than comparing this year's 3rd graders to last year's 3rd graders. Julia noted that we are working towards some of those reviews and trends. Steve followed up with comparisons to other districts stating that comparing to the state is not valuable. Can we compare to other Hock schools? Mr Connolly noted that on the DESE website we are compared to DART schools. These represent schools with similar backgrounds to our own. These comparisons are made based on size of district, size of subgroups and other socio-economic indicators. Lastly, Steve asked what targets we have set. Julia noted that the state gave each district targets that we must meet. Lynn suggested that these targets are included in the presentation moving forward. She noted that there is a significant improvement in high school science testing which shows that the cumulative learning has paid off. We shouldn't be overly concerned with middle school science scores. School Committee Business: The practice of school committee goals was discussed referring back to goals created in 2020. This is an effort encouraged by MASC. Typically, the school committee sets just a few goals. Chair Cavicchi asked the committee to provide thoughts on goals to Diane Nugent by end of day Tuesday, November 28rs to be included on the next agenda. Upcoming meeting dates were reviewed. Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: Jenn Walsh reported that she and Lynn attended last week's MASC annual conference. Mr. Connolly and Ms. Cavicchi presented as part of a panel on Diversity and Equity projects. Jenn was very pleased with the panel and realized how fortunate we are in Mansfield to have tackled this effort already. Many districts are just starting this process. She also heard high praise from the Special Education vendor table where we were complimented on our unified sports seasons. Documents Referenced: World Travel Club update letter Minutes CIP 5-year plan MCAS Assessment Overview School Committee Goals 20-21 Page 5 of 6 Approved 12-05-23 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 14, 2023 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Motion to adjourn: At 8:47p.m., Lynn Cavicchi asked for a motion to adjourn. Motion made by by Steve Schoonveld / jenn Walsh. Motion carries 4 - 0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6