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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Committee 11/15/2016Approved 12-6-16 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Town Hall, Room 3A&B RECEIVED 4i W'N CL-ERKI OFFICU An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held at the Town Hall AQfy' 004304 , 5 A CV 0 U November 15, 2016. The open meeting session was opened and called to order by Kiera O'Neil at 7:00 pm. t­'IASI-HELD ''. HUS S Members Present: Kiera O'Neil, Chair Lynn Cavicchi, Vice Chair Linda Fernando Lauren Scher Jenn Walsh Members Absent: None Video Tapine: None COMMUNICATIONS: None Also Present: Zeffro Gianetti, Superintendent of Schools Teresa Murphy, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Edward Vozzella, Director of Finance and Operations SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT: Two retirements announced: Special Education at MHS and Music at QMS for a total of 4 to -date. ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT: Teresa created a technology document draft for the committee to review. This document is intended to give parents and the community updates on our technology efforts. Teresa intends to create hard copies for schools and community locations, place on the website, and add to the town report. School committee is to provide feedback by the end of the week. Teresa also provided a STEM brochure highlighting an upcoming event: Mansfield Envision the Future STEM Expo 2017 which is being held at the Jordan/Jackson School on March 18d, 2017. This event is for 5d' and 6th grade students who live in Mansfield. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Open Meeting Minutes of 11-1-16 A motion to approve the minutes was made Istby Linda Fernando and 2nd by Lynn Cavicchi. Motion Carries 5-0 Special Education Workshop Minutes of 11-8-16. Amotion to approve the minutes was made ]stby Linda Fernando and 2nd by Lynn Cavicchi. Motion Carries 5-0 Superintendent Search Workshop Minutes of 11-8-16. A motion to approve the minutes was made lst by Linda Fernando and 2nd by Lynn Cavicchi. Motion Carries 5-0 FINANCE AND OPERATIONS REPORT: Ed is currently working on the FY18 budget with building administrators. Ed recommended that the budget subcommittee start gathering to prepare for a more detailed discussion on December 6d'. Expenses for FY17 are steady. Page 1 of 5 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Town Hall, Room 3A&B OLD BUSINESS: Sub Committee Updates Approved 12-6-16 1. Audit: A meeting is scheduled for 12/15/16. 2. CIP: The group met earlier today to review the overall plan. The school will present on 11/29. 3. Budget: Meeting to be scheduled next week. 4. Policy: Met to discuss Wellness and non-discrimination. A few policies will be ready by 12/6. Superintendent Search Update Teresa Murphy is the only internal candidate. The interview will take place in open session on Wednesday, 11/16/16 at 6:00 pm in room 2ab. The committee discussed the interview process: Each member will ask a question of Teresa. This process will continue until each member has asked 3 questions and any required follow up questions. The Student Advisory Council will have the opportunity to ask two questions. NEW BUSINESS: Senior Project: Nature Trail behind)f: Gus Huiskamp, a MHS senior, returned to the committee providing an update on his meeting with SRO Wright and Chief Sellon. The trail was modified to create a loop off of the original trail. An access trail will be available for use by the schools. Signage will be posted regarding access. Michael Connolly, Zeffro Gianetti and John Nieratko all approve the new plan. Motion to approve the modified loop nature trail by Gus Huiskamp was made by Linda Fernando and seconded by Jenn Walsh. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Appoint New School Physician: Annually, the school committee must appoint a school physician. This position was held for many years by Dr. Halle. In the summer, the board appointed a new physician from the same practice to replace Dr. Halle upon her retirement. The new physician has left the practice forcing us to appoint another person. Christine Dooling provided information on candidate Dr. Lisa Cannon of the Westwood Mansfield Pediatric Office. Motion to approve Dr. Lisa Cannon as the new school physician with a $3000 stipend was made by Linda Fernando and seconded by Jenn Walsh. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Field Trips: MHS Orchestra to NYC for a clinic and Broadway show. Motion to approve the field trip to NYC was made by Lynn Cavicchi and seconded by Jenn Walsh. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Capital Needs (taken out of order): Mike Ahern of the Highway Department and Robert LaConte, Director of Buildings and Grounds (schools) were available for questions. Page 2 of 5 Approved 12-6.16 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Town Hall, Room 3A&B Ed Vozzella presented a draft of the capital priority list. Since the last meeting it was determined that the MHS boiler (one of two priority items of which we were going to seek state reimbursement) was not in terrible shape. Mike Ahern said that further research on the age of the boilers will be completed but Mansfield can look out a few years before a replacement needed. This project will be removed from the FY18 capital needs list. Item 1: Additional Chrome books are needed to improve student accessibility. Also, it is time to slowly start replacing some of the original district smart boards. This will be an effort over the next several years. Item 2: Electrical Panel replacements were strongly recommended by the consultants. Mike Ahern addressed the board indicating these should be replaced "as soon as possible." Item 3: Some of the food services equipment is at the end of their useful life including one JJ stove which broke down on the first day of school. Item 4: Replace sewer pumps at JJ. Bob LaConte addressed the issues that we are having with these outdated pumps. Many repairs have been made over the years but at this point they need to be replaced to prevent an emergency. The board discussed the potential of moving this repair to the current year using some of our reserve fund. Bob LaConte will return with an estimate. Item 5: Bleachers at MHS are beyond their usefulness. These were donated by the Comcast Center many years ago. Funding was already approved but additional funding is being sought to make sure new bleachers are up to code (handicap accessible, meet new inspection guidelines.) Item 6: The oldest special education bus has over 100,000 miles on it. The district is looking to replace this bus and send the old one out to auction. Item 7: Locker replacement continues at QMS with a request for the 6tb grade wing. The 8th grade wing is complete and the 7th grade wing remains in good shape. Item 8: Road repairs within the JJ front loop require update. Item 9: Sprinklers start being updated due to age. No safety issue, sprinklers are in working order. Other: Further down the list but not yet prioritized are bathroom repairs at QMS and MHS, track renovations and unit ventilator at MHS. Additional items below the cutoff line were left off because they are beyond the budgetary scope of this year's capital. The committee reviewed several of these items to determine if they should be moved up to priority items. Of greatest concern were the fire alarms. Mike Ahern addressed their concern indicating that ALL fire safety equipment is in good working order and that these suggestions are for future need only. Discussion centered on the need for chrome books and the anticipated cost. There was concern that this cost was high. The board asked that the schools look toward MESA to see if they were considering any technology donations. Chrome books could also be removed from capital and added back in the budget. The board and community are requesting that the district improve our technology so the district feels that these purchases are a priority. The committee requested that Zeff Gianetti get a little more detail on what is needed and how they are being used currently. Page 3 of 5 Approved 12-6-16 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Town Hall, Room 3A&B After discussion, the committee requested that priorities 1 and 2 switch and that all other items remain as is. Kiera O'Neil asked for a motion to approve the capital priority list as amended (Electric panels #1 and Chromebooks #2). Jenn Walsh motioned to approve the capital list as amended; Lynn Cavicchi seconded the motion. Motion Carries 5 - 0. MCAS and PARCC Results (resume agenda order): A powerpoint presentation was provided. Christine Kalinowski began the presentation on the PARCC Math testing. She noted that it is difficult to compare to prior years MCAS testing. We do know that it was a very challenging test. The state has yet to provide us comparisons to other districts nor have they provided detailed results. For now we will make the best assumptions possible. Grade 5 showed a potentially large decline. In speaking to other districts they saw similar results so it may be a matter of the test itself. Grade 10 (passing required for graduation) continued to use the MCAS exam. Results were slightly lower but still well above state averages. John Nieratko and Cindy Carli spoke to the ELA testing. John felt that the PARCC testing was at a higher level of difficulty than the MCAS tests. He feels comfortable with the results. Again, test results appeared to be stable and we will know more when the state releases further information. A drop in the grade 8 scores will be reviewed. Cindy spoke to the difficulty in the essay questions compared to prior MCAS exams. Grade 10 MCAS testing showed positive results. John Nieratko and Janet Hogan spoke to the 2016 MCAS (no PARCC) science testing. Grade S showed a decline. Further research will be done to determine the reason. Janet feels that professional development, vertical team review and curriculum changes will be beneficial. In addition the QMS is well underway with a portfolio program whereby students start their own resource portfolio in 6th grade and continue to build upon it through grade 8. This provides a great tool for the students in high school. The committee identified some concern that we scored lower than some local districts. Department heads assured the committee that they continue to work to finding ways to improve these scores and will dig deeply into the test results when released. Remote Participation: In 2011 the State Attorney General allowed boards to take advantage of remote participation. That same year, the Board of Selectmen approved the measure while the school committee did not. The board reviewed the restrictions on this plan which include: the participant must be audible to the audience, the chair must announce a remote participation, it cannot be used for executive session, a quorum must be physically present at the meeting.) Kiera O'Neil requested a motion to discuss. Linda Fernando motioned that the school committee change their position to allow for remote participation. Lynn Cavicchi seconded the motion for purpose of discussion. Discussion centered around the pros and cons of use along with the intended use by the law. Motion Fails: 2 - 3 (Kiera O'Neil, Lynn Cavicchi, Jenn Walsh opposed) Student Advisory Committee: Nithin Lankipalle provided an update on MHS. Quarter one has come to an end. There is a high level of school spirit as teams enter tournaments and playoffs. The election has had an interesting effect on students and they learned that there is a fine line between Page 4 of 5 Approved 12-6-16 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Town Hall, Room 3A&B supporting a candidate and going too far with comments. Students are looking at the option of decorating their caps for graduation. This has not been permitted in the past. Mr. Connolly will work with the students on the pros and cons of this idea. Nithin thanked the school committee for inviting the students to participate in the superintendent interview process. Citizens Comments: None School Committee New Business: None School Committee Other Business: None Documents Referenced: Mansfield Technology Update Brochure (draft) STEM- Envision the Future Expo flier MCAS/PARCC power point presentation Capital List Motion to adjourn by Jenn Walsh at 9:28 pm; seconded by Lynn Cavicchi. Motion U.C. 5-0 At 9:28 p.m., Kiera O'Neil asked for a motion to enter into Executive Session pursuant to M.G.L. Chapter 30A, Section 21 for the Following Purpose: Under Exception No. 3, To discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and not to reconvene in open session and the chair so declares; Role Call Vote: Lynn Cavicchi Yes Jenn Walsh Yes Kiera O'Neil Yes Linda Fernando Yes Lauren Scher Yes Motion U.C. 5-0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 5 of 5