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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm Minutes 09/10/2013Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday. September 10, 2013 Town Hall. Room 3B & C An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held at the Town Hall on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. After returning from Executive Session the Open Session meeting was reopened and called to order by Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil at 7:40 Pm. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 Members Present — roll call vote to re -open the Open Meeting: Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, Chairperson; yes Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. Vice Chairman yes Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi yes Mrs. Linda Fernando yes Mr. Michael Trowbridge Not Present Also Present: Mrs. Brenda Hodges, Superintendent of Schools Mr. Edward Vozzella, Director of Finance SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Personnel Mrs. Hodges gave the Committee an update of the HR interviews that she and Town Manager, Mr. Bill Ross have been conducting. They have narrowed down the search to 2 individuals. The Town and Schools have not shared this position before and look forward to working together to put this position in place. Ms. Rayna Freedman and two of her former students, Miss Lulu Cavicchi and Marco Villella, helped introduce what STEM is in the classroom to the Committee. Ms. Freedman informed the Committee that last year she had been asked by Bridgewater State University to do a presentation for a Tri County Collaborative that includes Mansfield, Norton and Foxboro. Part of what is being presented was included in that presentation. Upon investigation, STEM education is thriving in our school., not only in grades 3,4 & 5 but across the board in the arts, music, PE and Health. Stem education builds on the idea that innovation is coupled with science, technology, engineering and math. Stem brings innovation problem solving, creative expression into 21st Century learning. Students, Lulu Cavicchi and Marco Villella, spoke about the process they followed for their inventions and the purpose of their inventions. Mrs. Hodges noted that we are working diligently to initiate a STEM Program within our schools. Mrs. Hodges wanted the parents to be aware that we are committed to strengthening a strong initiative School Resource Officer: Mrs. Hodges introduced Mansfield Police Officer, Anthony Lattanzio, as our new School — 1 — Resource Officer. Mrs. Hodges wanted to thank Chief Sellon for is assistance in making this opportunity available to us. Officer Lattanzio stated that he was excited about his new role and was looking forward to working with the children of the district and felt that APPROVAL OF WARRANTS Warrants Warrant Ps Dates Amount Salary & Wages 2013 -23 08/02/13 795,173.99 Salary &Wages 2013 -24 08/01/13 754,347.49 Salary & Wages 2013 -25 08/15/13 744,397.90 Salary & Wages 2013 -26 08/29/13 741, 611.43 Salary & Wages 2014 -1 07/05/13 118,181.43 Salary & Wages 2014 -2 07/19/13 246,080.70 Salary & Wages 2014 -3 08/02/13 305,327.63 Goods & Services 2014 -1002 08/06/13 259,096.04 Salary & Wages 2014-4 08/16/13 363,851.68 Goods & Services 2014-1004 08/20/13 334,761.49 Salary & Wages 2014 - 5 08/30/13 244,238.29 $ 4,907,068.07 Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil called for a motion to approve the warrants. A motion was made to approve the warrants l St by Mrs. Linda Fernando, 2nd by Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi. A roll call vote of Mrs. Fernando, yes; Mrs. Cavicchi, yes; Mr. Smith, yes. Motion U.C. 3-0-1 Mrs. O'Neil abstained. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Executive Session Minutes of August 13, 2013 Executive Session Minutes of August 13, 2013, were tabled. Motion U.C. 4 — 0 School Committee Minutes of August 13.2013 The School Committee Minutes of August 13, 2013 were approved. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the minutes. A motion was made to approve the minutes of August 13, 2013,18t by Mrs. Linda Fernando, 2nd by Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. Motion U.C. 4 — 0 12— OLD BUSINESS Transportation Update: Mr. Ed Vozzella noted that there are 2,954 students riding the bus and congratulated Mary Neville and Patti Lincoln for their coordination and hard work in making it all work. In our community z out of 3 students ride the bus of which half of those students are paying and the other half are over the 2 mile limit, in grades K — 6 or on free or reduced lunch, so it is a 50 / 50 split. We try every year to have the parents come in early to sign up for the bus to alleviate the problem of having to redo all of the bus routes but most of the people sign up and come in a few weeks before school begins with the largest majority on the week before the opening. The bus routes are still in flux due to the late sign ups but should be sorted out by next week. We have new busses this year that have a new feature that has an alarm at the back of the bus that sounds once the bus is turned off and the driver tries to open the door, mandating that the driver must go to the back of the bus to turn off the alarm. This feature ensures that no child will be left on the bus unattended NEW BUSINESS Opening of Schools: The Superintendent shared that the we had a very smooth opening of school. The principals had ( prepared updates on each of their schools for the Committee and were available at the meeting for any questions. Mrs. Cavicchi asked when the NEASC Report would be coming. MHS Principal, Michael Connolly, noted that they had been told that they would receive the report late summer or early fall. Mr. Connolly did say that he had called and had spoken to a secretary and she thought they would get it close to the end of September. Once we do receive the report, we have 10 days to respond to it and then NEASC does their final vote at which time we then get it back and are able to make it public. Mrs. O'Neil asked if we were getting a good number of kids attending the freshman orientation. Mr. Connolly noted that the auditorium was full and that there were only 75 schedules left over out of 348 freshmen. We have received good feedback regarding the student panel that is there to help out for those that needed help. District Enrollments / Class sizes Mr. Ed Vozzella stated that last year we had 4,528 students and this year we have 4,378. Our forecast for this year was 4,376, so we came within 2 students of our predicted enrollment for this year. We still experienced the 40 student drop from 8th grade to 9th grade, which has gone down in the past few years. The Kindergarten was down by 6 students. Mrs. O'Neil thought that the class sizes were very nice. Mrs. Hodges added that there were a few classes at the Jordan Jackson that they we would like to be smaller, but overall we are very pleased with our class sizes. PARCC Field Testing: Mansfield was one of the very fortunate districts that was selected for the PARCC Field Testing. 13- Mrs. Hodges explained that we have been notified that the Jordan /Jackson, QMS and the high school will be tested. Some of the PARCC testing will be in ELA and some will be in Mathematics with some at the end of the year as well as a combination of prior to and end of the year testing. We will receive notification in a few months what our options will be. We may be able to exempt some of our students from the MCAS testing, however, if we exempt students we have to exempt students by the whole grade in that school. The Superintendent noted as an example, at the J/J we are testing 2 classes in Mathematics and 3 classrooms in ELA. There will be 5 sections within a grade, but now when we determine are we going to exempt students, we have to exempt the whole grade, we can't just exempt those classrooms. So, we have to make a decision once we get more information as to which way we are going to go because no one will have any data within that grade level, it's not just within those classes. The classes are being selected randomly, we do not have any information on that but hope to in the near future. Principals Teresa Murphy, Kathy Podesky and Zeff Gianetti spoke to the upcoming testing and the preparation of the online testing component. We, along with others in the state, are piloting these exams and they will let us know when it will become implemented. Mansfield STEM Program: Kathy Podesky spoke to the School Committee about the STEM initiative that the Mansfield Schools are implementing K -8. They plan to make the parents aware of the STEM initiative at each of the Curriculum Nights. Mrs. Hodges will be working with Mrs. Podesky, as the Curriculum Coordinator to initiate the STEM Program. Teacher Evaluation Training: Mrs. Hodges updated the Committee on the progress of the Teacher Evaluation Modals. Our first professional day was held on September 3rd and will continue on the half day on September 25th. We have until October 15th to present this information to our teachers. We are on board with our meeting the training and timeline with our teachers. This is a huge undertaking for everyone, but we'll get there. Field Trip Approvals ( if needed) : The Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the QMS 8th grade to attend the production of A Christmas Carol on Tuesday, November 26, 2013, at the Trinity Rep in Providence, RI. A motion was made 1st by Mrs. Linda Fernando, 2nd by Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi to approve the field trip to the Trinity Rep in Rhode Island. Motion U.C. 4 — 0 — Mr. Trowbridge was not at meeting SCHOOL COMMITTEE NEW BUSINESS —4— OTHER Motion to adjourn: Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to adjourn the School Committee Meeting of September 10, 2013, at 9:55 rM for the sole purpose of adjourning. A motion was made to close the meeting 1't by Linda Fernando 2 1d by Lynn Cavicchi. A Roll call vote to close; Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi, yes; Mrs. Linda Fernando, yes; Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, yes; and Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. Motion U.C. 4 — 0 Mr. Trowbridge was not in attendance. Respectfully submitted, Mary O. Jackson Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee -5-