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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm Minutes 4/8/2014Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday. April 8.2014 Town Hall, Room 3 A & B An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee Budget Meeting was held at the Town Hall on Tuesday, April 8.2014. The Open Session 2015 Budget Meeting was opened and called to order by Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil at 7:00 PM. Motion U.C. 5 - 0 Members Present - roll call vote to re -open the Open Meeting: Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi Mrs. Linda Fernando Mr. Michael Trowbridge Also Present: Chairperson; yes Vice Chairman yes yes yes Mrs. Brenda Hodges, Superintendent of Schools Mr. Edward Vozzella, Director of Finance no - not present at this meeting FY 2015 BUDGET HEARING Mr. Edward Vozzella, Director of Finance and Operations, gave a PowerPoint presentation to the School Committee of the FY 2015 School Budget. Mr. Vozzella gave the breakdown of the budget with a consolidated spreadsheet of fiscal years 2013, 2014 & 2015. The presentation outlined the FY 15 budget adjustments made to arrive at a balanced budget with the town. Mr. Vozzella also reviewed the revised FTE's and projected class sizes for FY 15. The Budget will be on the main page of the website. Motion to adiourn Budget Hearing: Chairman, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to adjourn the FY 2015 Budget Hearing of April 8, 2014 at 7:30 PM for the sole purpose of adjourning. A motion was made to close the hearing 15t by Mr. Michael Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Linda Fernando. A Roll call vote to close: Mr. Michael Trowbridge, yes; Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi, yes; Mrs. Linda Fernando, yes; Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, yes. Motion U. C. 4 - 0 Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. did not attend this meeting. Pledge of Allegiance: Mr. Trowbridge asked second grader, Cody Nieratko, to lead those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. Superintendent's Report — 1 — Personnel • None Spotlight on Students: Robinson Elementary Second grade students Robinson Elementary School Principal, Mr. John Nieratko, introduced students from the 2nd grade classes of Mrs. McHugh and Mrs. Kent's classes to give an example of the announcements that they present each morning. Each week, anew classroom is chosen to be in charge of the daily announcements. The students announce the vocabulary word of the day, weather forecast, an interesting factor sometimes a joke. One student then leads the school in the Pledge of Allegiance. The students attending tonight's School Committee meeting were Cody Nieratko, from Mrs. McHugh's class, Emma Redding, Victoria Dion, Kailash Elumalai, and Sarah Marchand from Mrs. Kent's class. The children did a wonderful job. APPROVAL OF WARRANTS The following warrants have previously been reviewed and signed by the School Committee and will be read into the minutes at the meeting as follows: Warrants Warrant #'s Goods & Services 2014 -1027 02/04/14 484,122.75 Salary & Wages 2014 -17 02/14/14 1,457,292.48 Goods & Services 2014 -1029 02/18/14 528,527.92 Salary & Wages 2014 -18 02/28/14 1,426,354.78 Goods & Services 2014 -1030 03/04/14 428,667.04 Salary & Wages 2014 -19 03/14/14 1,442,146.94 Goods & Services 2014 -1032 03/18/14 314,109.10 Salary & Wages 2014 -20 03/28/14 1,489,799.58 $ 7,571,020.59 Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the warrants. A motion was made to approve the warrants In by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Executive Session Minutes of March 25, 2014 Executive Session Minutes of March 25,201 , were approved as amended. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the Executive Session minutes of March 25, 2014. A motion was made to 1st by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. -2- Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. School Committee Minutes of March 25.2014 The School Committee Minutes of March 25, 2014 were approved as amended. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the Open Session minutes of March 25, 2014. A motion was made to approve the minutes In by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. School Committee Minutes of January 28.2014 The School Committee Minutes of January 28 2.014 were approved. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the Open Session minutes of January 28, 2014. A motion was made to approve the minutes 1s, by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. ( Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. OLD BUSINESS Budget - Speaking to our current working budget, Mr. Vozzella noted that over the past few weeks he had gone over the actual expenditures and encumbrances by department and some significant and the unfavorable encumbrances in Special Ed that we will and have incurred along with favorable ones in other areas as well. Mr. Vozzella was confident that we would not be spending our complete budget and will be returning monies to the Town. Sub Committee Updates: Audit Committee - Mrs. O'Neil noted that the Audit had been presented and approved two weeks ago by the Selectmen. CIP - Mr. Trowbridge said that they plan to meet on Thursday to firm up the present items on our list and that presently there were no deviations on the existing list and ( estimates have been straightened out and the CIP should be able to fund the vents just as we had the appropriation (lower estimate) and should have money left over to put toward the gym floor. All should be summer projects. 13— Budget Subcommittee - Mrs. O'Neil stated that they would be meeting on Thursday evening with the Finance Committee. Policy Subcommittee - Mrs. Fernando updated the Committee that she and Mrs. Cavicchi were working hard on the policies and will be bringing forth changes in the near future. They have a lot of changes to be made and moving on to the next section now. FY 2015 Budget Reductions: Mr. Vozzella reiterated the breakdown of the reductions to the budget as shown in the Budget Hearing earlier. Mrs. Hodges and Mr. Vozzella showed the realignment of classrooms as well as the recent increase in Special Education costs. Committee member, Mr. Michael Trowbridge, voiced his concern about the number of students in the elementary classrooms and felt they were climbing a bit too high with the reduction of staff and he was not comfortable with the change. Mr. Trowbridge did ask that if during the summer there were further enrollments at the elementary level to please comeback to the School Committee to let them know. Mrs. Fernando mirrored the same sentiment and concern especially about the 2nd grade numbers for next year and requested that the 12 sections remain. Mrs. Hodges did note that they felt comfortable with the numbers for grades 3, 4 and 5 and grade 2 is actually larger than we like to see. We really don't want to see the grade 2 class size more than 22, you'd like to keep it at 21 but 22, 23 �/2 is larger than what we want, but to close the budget gap we felt this was the right thing to do. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the Budget reductions and the final FY 15 budget submission of $44,239,758. A motion was made to approve the reductions and final Budget number 1st by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. NEW BUSINESS Proposed Rate Increases: ( votes required) Food Service — Lunch Prices - l The proposal is to increase the lunch price in the elementary schools from $2.50 to $2.75 and at the middle and high schools from$2.75 to $3.00. —4— Food Service - Lunch Prices Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the increase of lunch prices. A motion was made to approve the increase 1st by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. Athletic Fees / Music Fees - The proposal is to increase the per sport/ music fee from $125.00 to $150.00 and to increase the family cap from $450.00 to $500.00. Athletic / Music Fees: Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the increase of athletic and music fees. A motion was made to approve the increase 1St by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. I Policy Update: Policy Sub - Committee Recommendations - April 8, 2014 Mr. Michael Trowbridge asked that the School Committee vote to revise the Policy BGB to allow the School Committee to vote at one meeting to make changes / additions / deletions to the District Policies. The Mansfield School Committee recommended that Policy BGB, which presently requires two readings, be amended so that future policies may be implemented immediately upon an affirmative vote by the School Committee, without the requirement of a formal reading. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the revision of Policy BGB. A motion was made to approve the change in Policy BGB 1St by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 - Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. FY 2015 Budget Article : The Committee made a motion and voted to submit the FY 15 Budget of $44,239,757.000. 15- This amount is being submitted to the Town Manager as the Budget Warrant Article at the Town Meeting on May 6, 2014. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the FY 2015 Budget Article for Town Meeting. A motion was made to approve the FY 2015 Budget Article for Town Meeting 1st by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 — Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. Field Trips (if any The School Committee received a request from the girl's basketball team and coach, Michael Redding, to approve a trip to Orlando, Florida during Winter break in December 2014. The team will play in a tournament then spend a few days at Disney world. There will be no time missed out of school. The team will begin fundraising for this event if approved. Chairperson, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to approve the Orlando trip for the girl's basketball team. A motion was made to approve the Orlando Trip 1st by Mr. Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Fernando. Motion U.C. 4 - 0 — Mr. Smith was absent from the meeting. The High School Representative Report Jake Moran updated the School Committee on the recent Mr. Mansfield competition that is held annually, a mock beauty pageant for the guys of the senior class. This year twelve guys participated. The winner of Mr. Mansfield was Max Trowbridge' and his escort, Sabrina Pray. They won a free tux from Tux Town and alterations for Sabrina`s prom gown. Prom tickets are officially on sale now. The Hockomock Model Senate meet was today and attended by Sarah Nash, Michael Carpino, Carli Rotenberg, and Tyler Smith and they presented their Bill. Student Government Day was held in Boston and was attend by Molly Trowbridge and Andrew Burke. None SCHOOL COMMITTEE NEW BUSINESS Chairperson, Kiera O'Neil, wanted to commend the QMS Middle School on their first STEM Career Day. What they were able to put together for the 801 grade was an unbelievable experience that they will be replicating, it was very impressive. Mrs. Cavicchi noted what a great job QMS teacher, Mary Chmielecki , did. Mrs. Hodges added that she did have help but she really did do a tremendous amount of work and it was a tremendous job. There were very —6— impressive speakers and presenters and it was a great day for our P graders. It's too bad that we could not do this for grades 6 through 8 but maybe we can repeat that in the future and get Mary more help next time. OTHER Motion to adiourn: Chairman, Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, called for a motion to adjourn the School Committee Meeting of April 8, 2014 at 8:30 PM for the sole purpose of adjourning. A motion was made to close the meeting 1St by Mr. Michael Trowbridge, 2nd by Mrs. Linda Fernando. A Roll call vote to close: Mr. Michael Trowbridge, yes; Mrs. Lynn Cavicchi, yes; Mrs. Linda Fernando, yes; Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, yes. Mr. Wayne Smith, Jr. did not attend this meeting. Motion U. C. 4- 0 —7— Respectfully submitted, Mary O. Jackson Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee