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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm Minutes 11/1/2011Mansfield School Committee Meetine Minutes for Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Town Hall, Room 3B & C An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held at the Town Hall on Tuesday, November 1, 2011. After returning from Executive Session the Open Session meeting was reopened and called to order by Chairman, Mr. Michael Trowbridge at 7:35 PM. Motion U.C. 5 - 0 Members Present — roll call vote to re -open the Open Meeting; Mr. Michael Trowbridge, Chairman; yes Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz, Vice Chairman; yes Mrs. Jean Miller, yes Mrs. Kiera O'Neil yes Mr. Jim Perry yes Also Present: Mrs. Brenda Hodges, Superintendent of Schools Mr. Edward Vozzella, Director of Finance PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED None SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Personnel The Superintendent informed the Committee that she had met with MEA President Mr. Kevin McGovern and Mr. Scott Cohen to speak about the new Teacher Evaluation Model that the School Committee, Superintendent and MEA must agree on. The target date right now is for May 2012. The model must incorporate the state, local or combination model and must have all 5 components. The Mansfield Educator's Association along with the administration are formalizing the District Professional Committee, consisting of four teacher representatives and four administrative representatives to select a teacher evaluation tool for the district. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education require that each district submit a teacher evaluation model that meets the state mandated criteria. Each district must adopt the state model, design a district model that includes the state mandated criteria, or adopt a blend of the state and local model that is accepted by the DESE. The MEA and the district have set a target date of May to develop a model that is submitted to the MEA and School Committee. Mrs. Hodges updated the Committee on the conferences that some of the principals and directors have attended or will be attending. The conferences are hosted by MESPA. Attendees will receive an I PAD as a part of the conference loaded with software to assist `with teacher evaluations. Spotlight on Students •3 QMS Drama Students Mr. Patrick McCrossan and Ms. Jessica Strunin of the QMS Music and Drama department, introduced two young ladies, who will star in the QMS play OLIVER this weekend. Both students performed songs from the production for the School Committee and audience. Miss Jordan Calusdian plays the part of Oliver and sang "Where is Love ? ". Miss Julia Shapiro will play the part of Nancy, Bill Sikes' girlfriend and sang the song "As long as he needs me." The girls sang beautifully and showed tremendous poise and talent. If you had been able to hear these students, it certainly would have provided the motivation to set aside time this Friday, Saturday or Sunday to attend the production of "Oliver ". APPROVAL OF WARRAN'T'S The following warrants were presented and accepted by the School Committee on November I„ 2011, Goods & Services 42012 -1009 dated 10 -4 -2011 in the amount of $518,289.60; Salary & Wages, # 2012 - 8 dated 10 -14 -2011, in the amount of $1,432,550.18; Good & Services # 2012 - 1011 dated 10 -18 -2011, in the amount of $305,642.95 ; Salary & Wages, #2012 -9 dated 10- 28 -11, in the amount of $1,417,672.09. Chairman Michael Trowbridge called for a motion to approve the warrants. A motion was made to approve the warrants 1st by Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz. , 2nd by Mrs. Kiera O'Neil. Motion U.C. 5 — 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Executive Session Minutes of August 23, 2011 were approved. Motioned by Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz, 2nd by Mr. Jim Perry. Motion U.C. 5 — 0 School Committee Minutes of August 23, 2011 were approved as amended. Motioned by Mrs. Jean Miller, 2nd by Mr. Jim Perry. Motion U.C. 5 — 0 OLD BUSINESS FY 113 Budget: The School Committee engaged in a discussion of the FY 2013 District Budget. The minimum district goal is to maintain the level of staffing that is currently in place. Given that the district will not have approximately $1.3 million in stimulus money for FY13 that was available in FY12, the budget will be very challenging. The discussion included anticipation of a need to increase the staffing at Jordan Jackson to reduce the class sizes. Mr. Vozzella asked the school committee for input around adding things to the budget that were not currently represented in the FY12 Budget. These have previously been referred to as "enhancements ". It was suggested that a different terminology will be used for the FY13 Budget. These additions will include staffing, as well as any other instructional or building need. The result of the discussion was that the principals and directors will include these additions at this time and the December School Committee Meeting will consist of prioritizing these requests. Some requests will not be moved forward to be included in the initial submission of the budget. This will reduce the budget gap at the onset of the budget process. Mr. Vozzella said that this was going to be a tough budget year. We will not have stimulus money, we have a new bus contract which is more expensive, and the new contracts will kick in. We will be hard pressed to meet the town's number, which I have not seen yet. Mr. Vozzella asked the School Committee what they would like to do with enhancements, either putting them on a long range plan or put them in the FY13 budget and talk about them as part of the budget. Mr. Perry said he would like the priorities in the FY13 budget; especially class sizes at Jordan Jackson. If we are looking at it as an enhancement put them in the budget, and anything we do not need and if we can leave out, then leave them out. Mr. Trowbridge agreed with Mr. Perry. Mrs. Losiewicz would like to have the choice and prioritize as a Committee but knows we won't be picking as many this year. Mrs. Miller stated that she doesn't like the use of the term "enhancements." Mrs. Miller said some things are not really enhancements, but priorities. Mr. Trowbridge asked the School Committee if there is anything the Committee would like to see now, other than what we just said. Mrs. Losiewicz said that a Librarian and Curriculum Director are very important to her, as well as a QMS Adjustment Counselor. Mrs. Hodges asked if we should just bring the personnel piece of the budget forward to the Committee and enhancements could be addressed through the Strategic Plan. Mrs. O'Neil, Mr. Perry and Mrs. Miller would like to see everything at once. Mr. Trowbridge would like to know in December what is on the enhancement list so they could whittle things off the list and know right away what we are not going to ( approve and get them off the budget right away. Mr. Perry said that we have to be realistic and not take things off that are important for our children to have. Mrs. O'Neil stated that she wanted smaller class sizes at the J/J and asked if it is possible to have a part time Curriculum Director if we can't afford a full time Curriculum Director. Mr. Trowbridge asked if the Finance Committee could get a budget book, with ( enrollment, full time equivalency, and breakdown of the general budget. Mr. Trowbridge asked if Mr. Vozzella had any idea of Chapter 70, and Mr. Vozzella said he did not, and he would not hear until January. Mr. Vozzella explained the process in December. We will have a short meeting to go over assumptions like payroll and expenses, utilities, Special Education, and give schedules and enrollments. We show how we come up with the numbers; we go through and look at the cover page for the whole district. We will do a reconciliation of payroll on a separate schedule, here's last year's payroll FY12 and here is FY13; and here is how we got from FY12 to FY13 this year. Then it would be SFS money and Job credit dollars, and raises from contracts. We will walk you through all of that, so that's the payroll and expenses. After that Nye then go through the enhancements which I think you just said you really want to do. Then we give you the other schedules of enrollments projections for the next five years, class sizes currently etc. So that is what you are going to get in December. At the January meeting we will go school by school and look at detailed expenses, line items and probably look at enhancements then. Mrs. Losiewicz asked if it was in January that you do the public hearing. Mr. Vozzella said they do it here and in the same room we do the School Committee Meetings. Mrs. Hodges confirmed that is an open meeting for the public where anyone can attend. So just to clarify what goes on in December, we will have to bring the budget number in by the end of December. So when we meet in December we are going to look at enhancements then and reduce the number that we want to submit. Mr. Trowbridge added that is if there is something to reduce, there may not be anything, but we all agree and then we need to fight for all these things. Mr. Perry added that he would like "enhancements" to be called "additional priorities" Mr. Trowbridge asked Mr. Vozzella about free cash. Mr. Vozzella explained that the schools gave back $168,000 to the town. There will be some money the town will take, if an encumbrance is more than one year old it comes off the books. Last year it was about $30,000 to $40,000 so call it about $200,000 going back to the town from us. Mr. Vozzella told the Committee that he did see a memo last week that the town received extra money, it was $1oo,000, it was unexpected and will go into the free cash. Mr. Vozzella thinks the Finance Committee will take that free cash and give the schools back what they generated, so that helps us when we get the allocation. Mr. Trowbridge noted that we do have savings in health care when they do the 70/30 split and will be distributed. Mr. Trowbridge said the selectmen did vote to go ahead with the subcommittees, which will consist of School Committee, Selectman, Finance Committee, Mrs. Hodges, Mr. Vozzella and Mr. Ross. These meeting helped to move along the budget last year. Communication: The School Committee discussed communication around the district E Backpacks. A number of parent requests were presented last year regarding improving the district technology and moving to a paperless district. Parents expressed a concern about the number of papers that were placed in student backpacks leading to information being buried or lost in the backpacks. In an attempt to respond to these requests, the district has set up E Backpacks. Concerns have been expressed by some parents that parents may not be receiving or accessing important information, via the E Backpack. Some reasons that have been cited for this concern is that fundraisers by MESA and PAC are down this year. Some requests have been made to send information by E Backpack, as well as hard copies to parents. The continuing discussion included thoughts around the need to let the transition take place and people have time to adjust to the change. The superintendent suggested that the district could design a short survey soliciting feedback from the parents regarding utilization and effectiveness of the E Backpacks. Mrs. Hodges told the School Committee that there has been some concern that information in the E- Backpacks have not been reaching the parents. The MESA president said that the Wrapping Paper fundraising and tickets sales for the Casino Night were down from previous years. The MESA group is requesting that the flyers go in the E- Backpacks and also hard copies be sent home. Mrs. Hodges said she doesn't know if sales are down because of the economy or because of the E- Backpacks. The MESA group feels parents are not paying as much attention to E- Backpacks as they would if a flyer were going home with the students. Mr. Trowbridge noted that the high school is putting out a Newsletter and that he thought it was great. Mrs. Hodges said the other schools were in the planning stages of doing the same thing with the newsletter. The goal for the Elementary Schools.was to do one every other week and the Secondary schools have not decided how often they would send theirs out. Mr. Trowbridge did not want to put the principals on the spot, but asked them if they found parents were getting the information from the E- Backpacks. Mrs. Miller asked the principals if there was a good response from parents with other information in the E- Backpacks such as Parent Teacher Conference, Curriculum Night and the principals said there was. Mrs. Miller does not want to jump to the conclusion that just because the fundraising sales are down that parents are not using the E- Backpacks. Mrs. Hodges said that John Nieratko, Robinson Assistant Principal, and she have had a conversation regarding the use of E- Backpacks and he feels it is being used. Mr. Trowbridge suggested to the Committee that they put out a parent survey. Mrs. Losiewicz said she would like to do a survey and felt it was a way to communicate with the parents to let them tell us what they are looking for. Mrs. Losiewicz said that she was all for communication and making things easier but we need to realize every time we come with a form of communication it requires manpower. we only to come with form of communication hat works for parents but is not over working the staff. Mrs. Hodges said she will work with Lori Letendre and the administration and they would put a survey together. Mr. Vozzella did say to the School Committee that when you make a change you have to stick with it a little and let it percolate a little, we made a change, not a real big change in today's society, but we went from paper to electronic which is what we wanted to do. So now, if you send out a survey and ask "what would you like" who wouldn't say give me both. Mr. Trowbridge that we can't give both and Mr. Vozzella agreed; you have to give it time for people to get used to the electronic idea. Mrs. Losiewicz told the Committee that we have to find out what they want and what we are capable of, so we can discuss what we think we can do. Mr. Trowbridge said that what they want, they may not be getting. Mrs. Losiewicz stated that at least we will know, they will be communicating with us. Mrs. Miller agreed that she doesn't -,vant the survey to ask what they want but she would like the survey to find out if they are aware of the E- Backpack and how we can help them to understand how to use it better. Mrs. O'Neil would like a survey, people have trouble transitioning. Mrs. O'Neil stated she would like the School Committee to see the survey questions before they go out and Mr. Perry said if the School Committee had any questions to send them to Mrs. Hodges. Mrs. O'Neil said she had a website that has questions for a survey and would send them to Mrs. Hodges. Mrs. Miller agreed that it should be how is this working for you and how can we make it better. We paid for it, we need to use it. We will make it work for people. Mrs. O'Neil felt that the key thing would be to find out how to make it work. Maybe we should use a different instructional tool for them to get to where they need to go, it maybe just need some tweaking to get there. Mrs. O'Neil asked Mrs. Hodges if they know of how many downloads there have been, Mrs. Hodges stated they do, Mrs. Letendre does have stats and she would check to see if she has them on the E- Backpack. Mrs. O'Neil said she would like to see them. Mrs. Hodges stated that she would bring the survey questions to the next School Committee meeting. Track & Field Update: Mr. Trowbridge updated the Committee on the Track & Field project. We are getting ready to go out for bids, they are non - binding bids. Knowing that the economy has changed in the last year the bids are going to be coming in higher. Mr. Trowbridge did mention this to the CIP. We know that there needs to be some changes with the track as well. Originally they were going to put an epoxy on it like Sharon did but that did not work well so they now want to put a half inch layer on it. The biggest issue right now is the timing, it needs to be done in the summer to be able to get the turf ready for the fall sports. In order to get the turf & field in there will be a conflict with the Relay For Life in June. WE know they have a firm date but is there any way that they could move it to before Memorial day ? Mrs. Hodges stated that she has not spoken with the Relay group yet, she wanted to bring this to the attention of the School Committee and ,get some feedback from you as to what you want to do. Mr. Trowbridge showed the timeline to the School Committee and in order to be able to have a little bit of room they need to begin the beginning of June. Mrs. Losiewicz did point out that the best we can do is contact the Relay and ask if they can switch with another town or look into another option. Mrs. Hodges noted that she would be contacting The Relay For Life to see what options there are and get back to the School Committee. NEW BUSINESS Robinson School Improvement Plan: The Robinson School Improvement Plan was presented by John Nieratko, Robinson Assistant Principal. You can view this on the Robinson and District websites. The Robinson School staff, administration and the School Council are to be commended for the vision and planning that is represented in the SIP. Robinson Literacy Jennifer Fleishman and Stephanie Manning presented information regarding how the Robinson School is Using Data and Evidence -Based Curriculum to Prevent Difficulties and Promote Literacy Success for all Students. This presentation highlighted the fact that the grade 3 WAS scores have shown a significant increase and widened the gap between the state and Mansfield. These students are the first group of students who started kindergarten using the Scott Foresman Reading Program. The presentation also included information around how the Robinson staff is designing and administering assessments to identify student strengths and weaknesses to design individual interventions. This presentation can be viewed on the Robinson and District websites. QMS Honor Roll Zeff Gianetti spoke briefly about the Qualters Middle School Honor Roll, informing the school committee that Qualters Middle School is ensuring that the Honor Roll is reflective of the schedule changes at Qualters and supported by the new student information program, X2. The School Committee was informed by Mrs. Hodges that the change to X -2 and increased DESE reporting requirements, that the current language in the handbook was not compatible with the requirements. Mr. Gianetti will provide some options that can be considered for the present honor roll calculations. He will address the needed changes with the staff and bring forth new language. Mrs. Hodges told the School Committee that Mr. Gianetti is working with Lori Letendre and X2 to make sure that we are able to transfer everything over and that we don't have any discrepancies with how it will play out with the honor roll and reporting. Mrs. Hodges spoke with Lori Letendre and she does not think there will be any problem. Mrs. Letendre has been working diligently on this project, just as Mr. Gianetti has been working with it as well. The Superintendent wanted to give the Committee a heads up in case they had any questions. Mr- :.Gianetti had asked for this a. subject to be on the agenda. He had anticipated a problem with the language in the handbook not with regards to the X2, but with the new schedule, the language is very specific to the old schedule and Mr. Gianetti was worried he would not be able to work it out with the language in the hand book. In terms of the honor roll there are no concerns, but they need to tweak the honor roll language during the course of the year to be reflective of the courses we are running. Mr. Gianetti told the School Committee that they were in good shape. Mrs. Hodges thanked Lori Letendre and her staff for being able to make the adjustments for them. Mr. Trowbridge thanked them for being pro- active. CIP The School Committee reviewed the items that will be submitted to the Capital Improvements Planning Committee. The CIP submitted was prioritized and the School Committee was asked to review the priorities to determine if they were in agreement. After discussion, the School Committee voted unanimously for the prioritized items, as presented. School Committee Chairman, Mr. Michael Trowbridge and Mrs. Jean Miller currently represent the School Committee on the Capital Improvement Planning Committee as voting members. ( Bus Transportation Contract The School Committee was informed that Connolly Bus Company was the low bidder for the new three year bus contract. Three bids were submitted: Connolly and Sons, Inc., Durham School Services and Illinois Central School Bus. Connolly and Sons submitted a significantly lower bid. Based upon the new contract, the increased cost of transportation for the FY13 Budget will be 11.8 %. Mr. Vozzella informed the School Committee that his email sent October 28, 2011, he had reported a 15.5% increase in the bus rates. This calculation was in error. The increase versus the prior contract, for the regular day runs, the kindergarten runs and the late runs equals $184,000, or an 11.8% increase. It is too early to provide the impact on the FY13 budget. We first need to determine how much we can afford to subsidize through Pay & Ride. We will also need to discuss whether the district will require increase to the cost of Pay & Ride to absorb this increased contractual cost. Mr. Vozzella gave the School Committee a summary of the transportation bid. Mr. Vozzella told the Committee that Connolly and Sons won the transportation bid. We sent out about 8 or 9 applications to bid about two months ago and three actually bid on the transportation contract and Connolly came in significantly under the other two companies. Connolly Bus Company bid 5.6 million for 3 years, Durham Schools bid just around 7 million and Illinois Central School Bus bid about 7.4 million. Connolly won that contract, it is a three year term with an option to renew for years 4 and 5 at our discretion. This contract will go out to 2018, it is an 11.8% increase for regular runs and athletic runs are at a flat rate. We pay Connolly equal installments over a 10 month period, any extra buses are billed separately as is any athletic events. Mr. Vozzella. told the School Committee that there were a few new things, one being that in the event the Federal Government or Commonwealth of Massachusetts implements a mandated health insurance plan for employees not currently covered, the School Department agrees to negotiate for the additional cost to the Contractor. Mr. Trowbridge said this was actually his biggest question, why would we have to put that in there? Mr. Trowbridge said if he is doing a business and I want to bid on engineering job, I don't see how if someone is putting the bid out should have to put that in there why do we have that in there? Mr. Vozzella answered if you are the bus company and you did not have in there you would have to put that into your price you would have to speculate, Is the government going to pass something or is it not, and I better put something in that bid to make sure that I am covered for that in the event something happens. So at least this way you can say we are going to get the lowest possible price now and will worry about if the government passes any laws later. So look at it from the bus company's perspective, in order for us to get the lowest price from them they need to know they don't have to consider that in their bid. Mr. Trowbridge let me ask you, what happens if in a year from now you are forced to sit down with them, they are asking for an increase because their business is now required to have insurance, what happens? Mr. Vozzella answered that we sit down and negotiate. Mr. Trowbridge asked what happens if we don't agree on a price, do we walk away from the contract. Mr. Vozzella answered no, we still have the contract, it is just like a few years ago when fuel process went up they came to us, and said we are losing money and we want to re- negotiate for more money because price for gas has increased and we said no, and that was our negotiation we are in the driver's seat. Mr. Trowbridge said not to get him wrong, we have been very fortunate over the last 10 years, where the fuel was going up we weren't getting escalation fees, other towns were getting huge increases. If you look at 11.8% increase over the last contract that is nothing compared to other towns. Mr. Trowbridge noted that in the past it required a town meeting vote, but Mr. Vozzella said that is only when the three years are up. Mr. Vozzella also said there is a new fuel clause that states — This contract contains a Fuel Adjustment Clause whereby we will be charged or credited for the cost of gas predicated upon the AAA fuel Gauge Report on the first of each month. The base price will be the price as of October 14th, 2011 of $3.839 per gallon of Diesel Fuel. Mr. Vozzella told the School Committee that this contract with Connolly Bus Company needs to be voted on and he will draw up a contract and have the attorneys look at it. Mrs. O'Neil asked if most towns around us use Connolly Bus and Mr. Vozzella said yes and if you look at other towns that have Connolly bus we are still the lowest price, we are very happy with them. Mrs. Losiewicz asked if we could still add busses if we need to and Mr. Vozzella said we have the control over the amount of buses. Mrs. Hodges said an example of that would be during the Bird Road construction we asked for another bus and they just added another bus, we have to pay for extra busses as a matter of fact we just received an invoice for $9,700. Mr. Trowbridge asked if this is something the electrical department will help with and Mr. Vozzella said he spoke to them that morning and Gary is going to see what he can do, he is not hopeful but he is certainly going to see what he can do. The project on Bird Road will be done sooner than planned so hopefully the extra bills will stop soon. Mrs. Hodges expressed her gratitude to Connolly Bus, the Electrical Department the police and fire department. Mrs. Hodges told the School Committee they should be assured that Connolly Bus Company is very accommodating. Mr. Trowbridge called for a motion to accept the Bus Contract . Motion was made ist by Mr. Jim Perry, 2nd by Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz. A Roll call vote was taken to accept the new bus contract: Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz, yes; Mr. Michael Trowbridge, yes; Mr. Jim Perry, yes. Mrs. Miller, yes; and Mrs. O'Neil, yes. Motion U.C. ir; — o Gulf Coast Relief Field Trip Approval The School Committee approved Mrs. Debbie Fournier to travel to the Gulf Coast with a group of Mansfield High School students during the February vacation. The purpose of the trip is to assist with the continuing Gulf Coast cleanup efforts. Mrs. Hodges informed the School Committee that Debbie Fournier would like to chaperone a group of students to go the gulf coast to help with the hurricane Katrina relief during February Vacation 2012. Mrs. Hodges said Debbie Fournier can't seem to curb the excitement from the students, they want to go down to the gulf to help. Debbie at this time doesn't know the cost of the airfare but she is working on the cost of everything else, and once she has the approval she will work on getting more chaperones. Mr. Trowbridge mentioned that he thought there was a problem last year with this trip and Mrs. Hodges told him the place where the students were to be housed was closed during our February vacation therefore they could not go, and the students could not go during April vacation. Mrs. O'Neil asked "so they did not go at all last year" and Mrs. Hodges said no they did not. Mr. Trowbridge thought they did go once last year but Mrs. Hodges said a few students went on their own as part of a senior project. Mrs. Losiewicz wants to make sure she is getting more chaperones and does not want only one chaperone in case of an emergency. Mrs. Hodges said yes she is getting others and Debbie does not see a problem getting more chaperones and once the trip is approved she will get you the prices and chaperones. Mr. Trowbridge called for a motion to approve the Gulf Coast Relief Trip. Motion was made 18t by Mrs. Jean Miller, 2nd by Mr. Jim Perry. A Roll call vote was taken approve the Gulf Coast Relief Trip: Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz, yes; Mr. Michael Trowbridge, yes; Mr. Jim Perry, yes. Mrs. Miller, yes; and Mrs. O'Neil, yes. Motion U.C. 5 — 0 Mrs. Mary Beth Cragan spoke about the MEFA Mansfield Secret Shop. This event is for kids kindergarten — 5. We are looking for more exposure. She is looking to have the flyers go home in the children's backpacks and also have it put on the E Backpack. Mrs. Hodges said that she would bring this to the Leadership and discuss it with them and get back to her. SCHOOL COMMITTEE NEW BUSINESS Mrs. O'Neil asked that the Strategic Planning be put on the Agenda until it is all over. Mrs. Hodges noted that we had submitted all the names and are now waiting to meet with the Executive Board to pick a committee. OTHER Motion to adiourn: Chairman, Mr. Michael Trowbridge, called for a motion to adjourn the School Committee Meeting of November 1, 2011, at 9:30 PM for the sole purpose of adjourning. A Motion was made to close the meeting 1st by Mrs. Jean Miller 2nd by Mrs. Lisa Losiewiez. A Roll call vote to close: Mr. Michael Trowbridge, yes; Mr. Jim Perry, yes; Mrs. Jean Miller, yes; Mrs. Lisa Losiewicz, yes; Mrs. Kiera O'Neil, yes. Motion U.C. 5-0 Respectfully submitted! Mary O. Jackson Secretary to the Superintendent & School Connnittee ,TSi _ ?,4 a e'