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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Committee 07/25/2017Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office i 1. F FIC An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held at the Superint:64ent s Office on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. The open meeting session was opened and called to ordg fty at 6:03 pm. Members Present: Also Present: r ;. Kiera O'Neil Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Lynn Cavicchi Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Linda Fernando Edward Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Jenn Walsh Dorothy Presser, Field Director, MASC Lauren Scher Members Absent: None 1. Teresa provided a copy of the Paraprofessional Evaluation Form that will be used in the upcoming school year. This was negotiated as part of the new contract 2. Heroes Corner is moving forward. Teresa met with Joe Russo, Ed Donoghue and the Heroes Corner Committee to finalize some details. The Town will do some excavating of the land and make improvements along the ramp area. The Gridiron club has ordered the 7 flagpoles (US, POW, 5 branches of military.) The location is near the snack shack. The area will be groomed with a new retaining wall. Drainage issues will be addressed. Mark Cook of the DPW had indicated in a prior meeting that the pitch would be set for proper drainage. There is some confusion over the budget The committee expressed concern that we are moving ahead without a proper estimate. The Gridiron club will comeback with a detailed cost. Very little cost should come out of the school budget (primarily the ramp area for proper wheelchair access.) The gridiron club has budgeted for electrical, installation, poles, concrete and flags. Maintenance cost and funding to be determined. The Gridiron club will be responsible for flag replacement as needed. Jenn Walsh noted that the existing flag on the track is also in need of replacement Special Education Bus Drivers MOA: Kiera O'Neil provided a high level summary of the approved Memorandum of Agreement: This is a 3 year contract starting on July 1, 2017; holidays, vacation, sickbank, parental leave, steps, professional development, salary schedule and safety bonuses were addressed. Once approved the attorneys will draft a contract for signature. Motion to approve the Special Education Bus Drivers MOA by Jenn Walsh / Linda Fernando Motion Carries 5-0 Lacrosse Wall. Three parents representing Mansfield Youth Lacrosse met with the committee to discuss the placement of a lacrosse practice wall on the high school property near the field hockey field. Ken Bekampus , president of Mansfield Youth Lacrosse spoke on behalf of the group. Currently 350 Mansfield youth participate in lacrosse. The installation of the practice wall creates a safe place to bring these children together for practice. The lacrosse group will donate the money to build the wall. They will use Keystone Concrete as the contractor. Installation is anticipated to take one day. The town of Mansfield will prepare the site with crushed stone. Attached documents highlight the look and feel of the wall. The organization hopes to paint it hornet green using anti - graffiti paint. Down the road, they may want to install turf around the area. Questions by school committee and answers by Youth Lacrosse were as follows: What maintenance is needed? Minimal maintenance especially with the anti -graffiti paint. Will it be set far enough back that cars on road or in parking lot are safe? Yes, the wall is far enough back. If there is a concern then a back barrier wall could be setup. Page 1 of 6 Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office How close to the woods? This will be set 5 feetfrom the woods. Did the group obtain conservation approval? Yes Will this impact field hockey? Joe Russo addressed this. Hemet with buildings and grounds and Mark Cook of the DPW. In the far corner the fence to the parking lot will be adjusted providing a little more space for the wall. He doesn't feel that it will have any impact on the current teams. Will the cranes and trucks coming in for installation impact the fields? All construction will occur along the fence and woods so no fields will be impacted. Until the turf is added, will the grassy area be destroyed? Yes, the grass will likely be damaged in that area. Youth lacrosse will monitor this with buildings and grounds. Will trash bins be set up? Youth lacrosse will work with Neil Rhein. Will there be any lighting? Not at this time. Light from parking area will provide some lighting. Lynn Cavicchi noted that it is difficult to approve one off proposals (such as benches, lacrosse wall, heroes corner) as they all impact each other. Lynn suggested a subcommittee be established with the town to work through all future property proposals. The committee would like to ensure new installations are coordinated. Michael Connolly noted that Chestnut Hill Photo studio may be required to move their trailer if they are still set up during construction. Teresa Murphy noted that a lot of time has gone into the location study and she feels that we have found the best location on our property. Motion to approve the installation of the lacrosse wall by Jenn Walsh / Linda Fernando Motion Carries 5-0 Kiera O'Neil noted that the school committee must still make a motion to approve the acceptance of the gift money for the wall. This will occur in August. MHS Basketball field trip: The Girls High School basketball team is seeking approval of a field trip for a tournament in NY over Winter Break The group does not have all the details for a complete approval but they would like to start fundraising. This cannot occur until school committee approves the trip. As such, this is an initial approval only. The transportation method and cost are not yet determined. Return date is not yet determined. Coaches will pay their own way. Motion to approve the initial request for the girls basketball field trip to NY by Jenn Walsh and Linda Fernando. The group must return for final approval once all details have been worked out. Motion Carries 5-0 Vote to authorize procurement card: Postponed to next meeting due to time constraints. Workshop. Kiera O'Neil introduced Dorothy Presser from MASC who is here to facilitate a workshop specifically targeting communication between the superintendent and school committee. Dorothy has provided this workshop to many districts. Dorothy started by asking each member to introduce themselves and explain why they decided to run for school committee. Dorothy used a District Governance Program presentation to lead the discussion (attached.) • The mission of the school committee should be "continuous improvement of student Page 2 of 6 Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office achievement" • The school committee and superintendent form a team that must work together • Norms and protocols must be established Effective school boards: • Vision of high expectations • Focus on accountability • Foster strong relationships • Use data to monitor progress • Lead as a united team • Collaboration / Trust / Respect Practices for an effective board: • Set goals/monitor progress • Hold purposeful meetings focused on student achievement • Self Governance - how are we doing as a committee? • Board should partake in professional development • Strong school committee / superintendent collaboration a must Goals: • School Committee / District / Superintendent • District: Big picture strategy. Review yearly. "What are our goals for THIS year." • Superintendent: Should tie back to district goals then move out to administrators, teachers • School committee: Not always set. However, if done they should focus on the committee; they should not be a way to add goals to the district or superintendent. They are meant to be procedural. School Committee / Superintendent Collaboration • Good working relationship important • No conflict • Continue to nurture: don't take a good relationship for granted • Know that superintendent changes are costly. School Committee vs Superintendent roles: • School Committee: o Governance o Ends (results) o Authorize / Monitor Superintendent: o Management o Means (methods) o Recommend/ Implement • The cross over between the two builds trust and respect between the two, staff and the community Committee vs Individual members: • Committee: o Power via official action at meetings o Govern thru policy o Engage community o Employer of record • Individual o No individual authority o No greater power than any other member Page 3 of 6 Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office o Contribute to vision and goals o Support committee decisions o Dedicated to work on behalf of students General discussion: • Placing items on agenda • Need to work toward deadline of getting agenda ready • If packets will not be ready then let committee know. • Should set protocols of deadlines for input and final document • Is meeting every 2 weeks too much? Difficult to prepare and then do follow up before next meeting ready to go. • Dorothy Presser recommended a yearlong agenda based on set goals. Must be flexible but can help identify what needs to be done and give committee, district and staff a heads up • Dorothy also provided a list of general MASC recommendations for a month by month agenda • Ed Donoghue suggested a new line item to all agendas: "Discussion of future agenda items" Activity Prior to a meeting: • What items should be answered prior to a meeting vs during a meeting: o Ok to ask ahead but school committee should ask again during a meeting or the superintendent should weave into discussion so that all members and community hear o Never want it to look like the committee doesn't ask questions during a meeting. However it is important to clear any potential confusing items ahead of the meeting. Meeting protocols: Dorothy established a list of protocols for the team to review. Members paired with administrators to discuss each item. She will provide a summary of the answers provided. Key points are highlighted below: Current meeting layout and structure is satisfactory. Lengtth of meeting varies: A year-long agenda could help with this. We could also set some establish timelines for each agenda item. Dorothy provided some sample agendas for us to review. Deliberation varies. Teresa noted that executive sessions tend to go for a long time leaving everyone to discuss and decide late at night. It was suggested that we move executive session meetings prior to open session. Exec would start at 7:00 and Open would start at 7:30. If the executive session takes more than 30 min we could recess; go to open and return to executive session as long as we announce this at the beginning of the open meeting. We can also delay the open meeting by 5 or 10 minutes if it means we can finish up executive session. Items discussed must be limited to agenda. Staff presentation: Most common complaint in other districts is that staff presentations are too long. Should be targeted, streamline and brief. Staff doesn't always know what the committee is looking for so it is difficult to target. This can be addressed in the year long agenda where staff expectations can be set. Help the staff understand the reason for the presentation. For example: MCAS- we don't need to regurgitate data. We need to provide the content behind the numbers. "Prefeedback": the school committee can let the district know what it wants from a presentation. Subcommittee reports are ok. It is helpful to know ahead if a committee is going to report. Saves time during meeting as you can skip. Superintendent and Assistant superintendent reports: What would the committee like to see here? Dorothy indicated that there is no norm and varies by district. Anything targeting student achievement should be part of the agenda. Personnel items can be listed in superintendent section OR can be part of the packet. NOTE. A lot of information can go into the packet It does NOT have to Page 4 of 6 Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office be discussed at the meeting and it does not necessarily become public document Packet is not public UNLESS it is discussed. Business report: Should have an update quarterly with a financial update monthly. Other items can be reported as needed. Guideline: Anything more than a 3 minute explanation or something that will generate a discussion should be a separate agenda item rather than in superintendent report. Action items / discussion items: Can be two separate categories on agenda. School Committee meets IN public not WITH the public. We are not required to allow the public to jump in during discussions on all items. We can keep public participation as an agenda item. Consent Agenda can be used for warrants, minutes, gifts, field trips. This requires one motion and one vote. Any item that requires further review or discussion can be pulled out and be discussed on the agenda THAT night. School committee will discuss at a future meeting. Student rens: typically report on what is going on at the high school. Keep at the beginning of the agenda. Kiera recommend that she and Teresa are the two people bringing forward new proposals for the agenda. Everyone can discuss with them first. Between Meetings: Superintendent runs the hiring process then brings the information to the committee for approval (with some exception). Superintendent can have discussions with various members without violating open meeting laws. IT is ok to discussion opinions and work toward a decision that will come to a meeting. If one member asks a question of Teresa then she can send out the information to all members so that they are informed. Info sharing ok deliberation is not. Superintendent has `one boss' (5 'brains' but come together as one boss.) It should be the entire committee that decides if something is followed up on. If so, it should be an agenda item to be discussed in open meeting and a decision is made whether or not to move forward. Individual committee members should not be directing district. Committee and superintendent should set protocols that are right for our district. It is important to keep the superintendent in the loop. However, it is ok for the committee to communicate directly with Michael Connolly and Edward Donoghue. The committee can contact a principal directly if it is an agenda item already. If not, then the committee member should go to Teresa first and then discuss with the principals. Confidentiality: District and committee will work together to determine what information is passed along to the committee. This will vary by situation (safety, personnel, student, legal, police involvement....) Goal Setting: These tie in with district strategies. "Teaching all students" is our overarching goal we but need to drill this down into smart goals. Must tie the needs of the staff with the needs of the community. It might be helpful to place district goals at the bottom of all agenda items or note on presentations (what goal does this tie to?) Page 5 of 6 Approved 8-26-17 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Superintendent's Office Teresa must keep on track with new superintendent's entry plan while also meeting district goals. School Committee Protocols: must be voted on; must be posted (on website and other) and must be used. Provide information to new members and review and adjust as needed. August workshop: Bring school committee priorities to discuss. May be helpful to establish evaluation goals; subcommittee to SET goals (not to evaluate goals). They would then prepare final goals report using key pieces of rubric (not all) and establish wording of goals and set evidence measuring components. Documents Referenced: Basketball field trip proposal LAX wall proposal Paraprofessional evaluation form MASC Presentation Motion to adjourn: At 10:17 p.m., a motion to adjourn was made by Jenn Walsh/ Linda Fernando. Motion U.C. 5-0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6