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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 04/09/2024Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in person and virtually on Tuesday, April 09, 2024. The open meeting session was called to order by Vice Chair Jenn Walsh at 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Administration Present: Lynn Cavicchi (Chair) Teresa Murphy, Superintendent (at 7:10 pm) Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Jenn Walsh (Vice Chair) Ed Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Jenifer Sellon Steve Schoonveld Vivian Webster , Members Absent: None } Public Speak: None } _, cJ Administrative Reports: > w Superintendent Teresa Murphy updated the committee on both the QMS Principal and`12olam' Green Director searches. Currently Kris Delaplain is serving as the interim director, interviews have started and we hope to have a candidate for you at the next meeting. For the QMS principal, we have created a large team of individuals which includes several QMS staff members, parents, administrators. Applications have been received and the district will start to narrow down candidates. Soon, the district will post for Jessica Davis' replacement as Assistant Director of Special Education for Elementary students. Assistant Superintendent Michael Connolly reported that DESE has notified us of yet another Civil Rights Review. DESE has audited/reviewed our district several times over the last three years each requiring significant work by our staff. It is another example of DESE expecting more and more froth districts. The collection of data is due to DESE on September 20, 2024 but we hope to complete before the start of school. The committee was provided a list of indicators that we must support. Approval of Minutes: Date 1st end Discuss YN Vote Roll Call 03-26-24 Open JS VW 4-0 o -26-24 Exec Session* JS VW 4-0 03-27-24 Tri-Board Meeting JS VW 4-0 04-03-24 Select Board Meeting JS VW 4-0 *Not to be released Gif & The Mansfield Youth Softball program has pulled their request while they work with the vendor on the cost structure. Page 1 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Committee Updates / Old Business: Budget: Chair Jenn Walsh reviewed last week's meeting and noted another budget meeting is scheduled for 4/10/24. Starting to look at 3 - 5 year projections which look challenging. Insurance benefits will be a big hit for the budget and the state is not looking for any increase in school funding. Needs Assessment: The first meeting of this committee was held to discuss timeframes, procedures and guidelines. New Business: Best Buddies Presentation and Field Trip request has been moved to the 4-23-24 meeting. Consideration of CHAMPS Fee Increases (Extended Day and Summer Institute): Assistant Superintendent Ed Donoghue, who worked c►osely with CHAMPS Director Scott Sanchez, presented details of the current and proposed fee structures. These fees have already been reviewed by the Budget Subcommittee and are the first increases since 2019-20. Capacity due to space remains limited. The Mansfield YMCA provides additional child care options for parents. We are able to transport those students to and from school. The district took into consideration the increasing cost of supplies and food as well as rates in other districts which are higher than ours. Questions/Answers: Jenn Walsh: In the budget subcommittee meeting, Ed provided details on the snack price increases. Is that information available for tonight? Ed reviewed this information but handouts were not available. Steve Schoonveld worked through the numbers and broke down the number of families and the amount of increase per family. He noted that if a family did both before and after care each day then $40 increase over $160 is a 25% increase (affects 56 families.) Is the committee comfortable with this increase? Jenn Walsh asked if the committee could get a per hour rate. Ed did a few quick calculations and determined that the rate is approximately $8 per hour. Our prices have always been low and it is a very convenient solution for parents who do not need to worry about transportation and can do the dropoff/pickup right at the schools. Will the increase in fees allow us to build upon our programs? Teresa noted that it helps to cover expenses. Due to limited space, we cannot expand but we can improve what we do have. Steve noted that we need to use more of the revolving accounts. Ed agrees and is actively working with Director Sanchez. Superintendent Murphy noted that it is very difficult to find staff as they work a split shift each day. They report early in the morning; leave and then return back mid- afternoon. Regarding the summer program, the district noted that we are back to pre-covid registration numbers which is great news. Teresa recognized that increasing fees is always a difficult decision for the committee. She has reviewed the breakdowns provided and is in support of Ed's request. Page 2 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Motion to approve an increase in the extended day fee as provided by Jenifer Sellon / Vivian Webster 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day Before School Current Rates $50 $55 $60 $65 Proposed Rates $55 $60 $65 $70 After School 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day Current Rates $75 $95 $105 $115 Proposed Rates $85 $100 $115 $130 Before & After 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day Current Rates $115 $130 $145 $160 Proposed Rates $140 $160 $180 $200 Motion Carries 4 - 0 Motion to approve a flat rate of $135/week for the CHAMPS Summer Institute by Jenifer Sellon / Vivian Webster Motion Carries 4 - 0 Consideration of School Choice for 2024-25: Superintendent Murphy reviewed the school choice process that was first discussed at the last meeting. She proposes offering the following: 5 spots for grade 6,10 spots for grade 9 and 10 spots for grade 10. If Filled this would bring out total school choice enrollment to 47 for the next school year. Teresa also reviewed the upcoming timeline of when applications are due, when the lottery will be held and what commitments we need from families for registration. Questions/Answers: Jenifer Sellon asked how this impacts our budget. Do we incur a greater impact on the budget with the incoming students? Ed reported that we receive $5000 per student and all special education costs from the sending district. We do not provide transportation so there is no financial impact to transportation. Vivian Webster asked if school choice is a revenue generator. No, money receives covers student services. Can we provide a count of how many students receive special education services? We should not provide this due to student privacy. Lynn Cavicchi arrived at 7:10 pm. Steve Schoonveld asked if we get fully refunded for special education costs. Yes, the sending district covers all these costs. Steve noted that bringing in school choice students helps with our declining enrollment. Motion to approve open spots of 5 for grade 6, 10 for grade 9 and 10 for grade 10 for the 2024-25 School year by sjenifer Sellon / Vivian Webster Page 3 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Motion Carries 5- 0 Discussion of Revolving Finds: Assistant Superintendent Donoghue provided a summary sheet listing each revolving account, the starting balance in July, actual and pending expenses along with a projected balances for fiscal year end June 30, 2024. He indicated that we oversee and manage these funds per MA General Law. Ed also provided a first draft of a revolving accounts manual which will dig deeper into each account, providing a description, how revenue is generated and where expenses are spent. Updated balances will be provided throughout the year. Steve Schoonveld noted that these revolving accounts are similar to the town enterprise funds. We can use the money to support that particular fund ONLY. The funds cannot be used for anything else and cannot be used to help the budget. He stated that all of our accounts are on the up and up. The goal each year is to spend these accounts down by 85% and we are very close to that at 82.6%. Ed noted that there are some high accounts, some impacted by COVID. An example of spending down an account would be for minor district projects that would support the area in question. Steve agreed noting this is not "our money" and Mansfield Public Schools is correctly managing these funds. Some high balances may indicate moneys collected up front and then used throughout the year. Steve is happy with the new document. Jenn Walsh and Jenifer Sellon thanked Deb Scott for her hard work in putting together this manual on such short notice. Lynn Cavicchi suggested that along with the descriptions, the district provide more detail on the usage of the funds. There are funds collected for lost and damaged chromebooks but very little charged against it for expenses. Why do we still charge? Ed will speak to Technology Director Lori Letendre. What kind of expenses are charged against the student parking fund? Primarily maintenance on the parking lot. For example, a light was broken and needed to be replaced. What is our intention with the adult education fund since we do not currently provide adult education. Teresa noted that she still is hopeful in creating some adult education programs and would like to hold on to that fund for now. Ed noted that if needed we can roll this into something else if it remains inactive. Lynn asked for short term and long term plans for CHAMPS programming including the operating cost margins and plans for investments back to the program. Ed will review and will also review Little Hornets to make sure we are not losing money on the program. Lynn noted that she is also seeking information about food services projections. Ed noted that we are looking at a walls -in cooler/freezer at MHS to replace the one original to the building, making improvements to the serving line, replacing a dishwasher machine at Robinson. These are high ticket items that can be applied back to the revolving account. How do we get reimbursed for student meals; is it state or federal funds? The money is federal grant money that is dispersed to each state. Then this money is sent to us by the state. Steve asked why the balance is so high in food services. Ed explained that our breakfast and lunch participation is way up, increasing reimbursements from the state. Reimbursement rates were increased during COVID. He noted that five years ago, we had to supplant the food services account from the budget as we were losing money at the time and reached zero in the account. There are a lot of variables that go into the balances each year. Steve noted that we should bring our food Page 4 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar services infrastructure to CIP going forward. There was a discussion among the committee members as to the best approach to take. Ed recommended that if we have revolving funds available then we should use these funds rather than go to CIP. Steve thought it would still be important for the town to know about our infrastructure needs. Teresa provided an overview of the process for the walls -in freezer. When we ordered the equipment, Ed was involved as was our Director of Facilities and our HVAC staff member. They will coordinate the installation with the availability of our own staff. Matt Jacques or our HVAC person will manage this effort. Matt will already be spread very thin this summer with the number of large projects in the district. Again, Steve indicated that we should go to the committee first so that the committee can decide what and how to fund. We should go to the CIP committee in June with all the money we are spending on infrastructure. Lynn agreed that we may not always go to CIP with these requests but the committee does need to be aware of all capital spending. Consideration of the Revised FY25 BudgetAmount for2024-25: Assistant Superintendent Donoghue reviewed the new budget slides updated for new assumptions and dollar reductions as dictated by the Town of Mansfield. The new budget is now $59,857,143. The slides highlight our initial budget of $61,548,680 to provide level services and the reductions made in the way of salary reductions via attrition and reduction in force. Services and supplies have been reduced with technology and books shifted to capital outlay. Our new budget represents a 4.13% increase. Teresa discussed the FY staffing updates. She started by reminding members that these numbers represent people. These cuts are staff members that are well liked and respected by the district, peers, students and community. Five positions will be reduced by a reduction in force. Three retirement positions will not be filled and two positions will be cut because the need no longer exists. (These are open positions that were not filled.) There is one additional FTE and that is for a District EL staff member that was funded last year by grants related to newcomer families. Although most of the newcomer families have moved to other districts, we still have many English Learner students arriving here in Mansfield. Additionally, DES will now require that we screen and support English Learners at the preschool level. The number of students who need BOTH special education services and EL services is also on the rise. In addition, there are nine staff members who will be shifting their position, location or grade level There are a lot of moving parts especially at the secondary level. At the elementary schools, the district has already slowly reduced staff as enrollments declined. Note that we are still keeping class sizes low next year and only one grade will lose a classroom. At QMS we will still have reasonable class sizes which will be lower than this year due to reduced enrollment. Teresa is working with the middle school staff to build a new class block where extra help and enrichment programs can be offered to our students. This provides the benefit of not having to pull students out of core classes. The specifics were ratified today by the QMS staff and will be moving forward. At MHS there were some reductions in the past but what we see now is some sections of a course may have very few students. Our changes mean a reduction in the number of these sections. We will continue to offer high quality programming. Questions/Answers: Page 5 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Steve asked for details of the $488,000 loss of revolving funds availability and noted a difficult trend for the future as we hit the funding cliff. How does NESDEC determine future enrollments? The review data provided by the district along with Mansfield birth rates, building permits and home sales. They also look at MA state trends. Jenifer Sellon asked if the retirement figure is net of those being filled. Yes, net reduction will be 3 positions. Steve appreciates the information on class sizes and approves of a new QMS block to prevent students from getting pulled from the core coursework. At the high school will students have difficulty obtaining courses? All students will receive their core course needs. What might change is access to some of the elective courses. Students choose their courses with backup requests for those cases where we cannot accommodate a request. Steve asked, what if all students want to take calculus and there are not enough teachers. Can we accommodate based on interest? Typically no because we are still restricted based on the number of teachers and classrooms available for the schedule. However, we do monitor these high -volume requests. Teresa noted that principals will be informing staff tomorrow of cuts. Lynn appreciates the amount of thought put into these difficult decisions and appreciated the analysis of enrollments. The budget still supports interventionists which was deemed important by both the district and the committee. Jenifer Sellon appreciates the work that went into this process by all including the budget subcommittee but noted her sadness that we have to make cuts. Motion to approve the reductions to the FY25 Budget for a total budget of $59,857,143 by Jenn Walsh / Jenifer Sellon Steve asked if we could simplify the motion to approving the new budget amount. The motion on the table remained as is. Motion Carries 5- 0 Consideration of Warrant Articles for the 2024 Spring Town Meeting Steve would like to hold off on voting until the actual motions are released by the town manager. After some discussion it was agreed to move the vote to May and at that time vote on those items related to schools #2, #7, and #11. A vote will be taken on the CIP items in "Other" below. Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting One of the items on this warrant is CIP. Last night the CIP committee approved of the requests presented by the school. These items will go forward to town meeting. They are: • $80,000 for Schematic submission and supporting documents for a J/J Chiller replacement • $125,000 to replace and upgrade scheduled obsolete computers in two computer labs as well as obsolete computers throughout the district. • $375,000 for the purchase of district wide text books in support of new or upgraded curriculum. Additionally, there is the ongoing lease for smartboard purchases. Note: need to verify that this is also listed in the motions for spring town meeting. Page 6 of 8 Approved 04-23-24 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar Lynn asked that the budget and CIP teams work together to provide clarity on what will actually be part of capital each year. Guidelines of textbooks will be helpful as these seem to be on/off CIP at random. Jenn Walsh agrees. Steve noted that it is not just school items that cone and go from CIP. Motion to approve CIP items for town meeting ($80,000 for J/J Chiller replacement, $125,000 for technology and $375,000 for textbooks) by Jenn Walsh / Jenifer Sellon Motion Carries 5- 0 School Committee Business: Consideration of Establishing a School NeedsAssessmentAd Hoc Subcommittee: Will there be work that will take place on our own to prepare for the town needs assessment? The committee members agreed that it will be needed so will move forward with establishing our own subcommittee. Jenn Walsh thought this was smart planning so that school related issues can be addressed and then brought to the larger committee. The charge of the committee was reviewed. Steve agreed as it allows us to bring feedback to/from the school committee members. Each year we can determine if the subcommittee needs to continue. Steve asked if the documented 5-year financial plan is enough time for these projects. It was decided to start with a 5-year plan and expand as needed. The approval of this committee and its charge will be reflected in policy BDE-R. Motion to approve the new School Needs Ad -hoc subcommittee as presented and to make changes to policy BDE-R by Jenn Walsh / Jenifer Sellon Motion Carries 5- 0 Consideration of a letter to the MA State Delegation Regarding State Budget Fundin. Chair Cavicchi asked the committee if they had any thoughts on putting a letter together. Steve noted that for years we have heard that the state is going to modify the formula to improve funding but it has never happened. The formula is broken. For example, Mansfield's Southeast Regional Vocational School assessment is up 40% but only up 20% for other districts. Vivian, Jenn and Jenifer all support a letter. Motion to approve sending a letter related to budget funding to our state representatives by Jenn Walsh / Jenifer Sellon Steve asked if the draft will come back to the committee for final vote. Chair Cavicchi noted that we probably do not have time for that to happen but will determine if possible. Motion Carries 5- 0 Lynn will start a draft. If any members would like to provide input please let Diane know by noon of Friday. She noted that the recalculation of low income impacts all districts as well as the increase in inflation. Documents Referenced: DESE Civil Rights Audit Information Minutes CHAMPS Fee information School Choice information Revolving Accounts information Page 7 of 8 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, April 09, 2024 In Person & Virtual Meeting using GoToWebinar FY25 Budget Presentation Town Meeting Articles CIP list and associated green sheets Draft of subcommittee charge Motion to adjourn: At 8:57 p.m., Chair Lynn Cavicchi called for a motion to adjourn Motion to adjourn by Tenn Walsh / Jenifer Sellon. Roll Call Vote: Steve Schoonveld aye Vivian Webster aye Lynn Cavicchi aye jenn Walsh aye Jenifer Sellon aye Motion Carries 5 - 0 Approved 04-23-24 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent & School Committee Page 8 of 8