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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 05/08/2018% - 3 Approved 5-22-18 Mansfield School Committee Meetine RECEIVED Minutes for Tuesday, May 08,20,10" N Town Hall, Room 3ab i4,J-E-,CUAS OFF -ICE 2918 MAY 23 A U. 5S - i An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in room Akin'0*312n Hall on Tuesday, May 08, 2018. The open meeting session was reconvened _ry qipq and called to order by Kiera O'Neil at 7:05 p.m. Members Present: Administration Present: Kiera O'Neil Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Lynn Cavicchi Michael Connolly, Assistant Superintendent (Teaching/Learning) Linda Fernando Edward Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Lauren Scher Jenn Walsh Members Absent: None Video Recording: None Communications: None Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Report: Michael Connolly provided an update on "Project Lead the Way" Grant. School Committee had asked us to review the contract. Over the course of several months the parties made a few changes and are comfortable with the terms on data privacy. The agreement has been signed and a kickoff meeting held. Staff will go through professional development over the summer. Michael also gave an update on the Technology Plan. The groundwork has been set, the current state of technology reviewed, and a vision created. Currently the group is working on plan categories and creating goals. Mike hopes to be done by the end of the school year though it will be a big challenge to do so. Lauren pointed out that the technology group works very collaboratively. Kiera noted that we will need a plan in place prior to CIP planning in November of 2018. Lynn asked if there was an audit on the current plan. As part of the "Current State" review, the group looked at where the district stands on technology. The district is looking at a baseline of all technologies from base infrastructure to teaching components. Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operation Report: Edward Donoghue provided a review of FY18 third quarter. For the most part our spending is on target. Of note, professional development shows a shortage. Last year the budget had been cut but we have contractual obligations to meet so we have to reallocate funds to cover expenses. We are showing favorable numbers for Buildings and Grounds. Special Education numbers are fluctuating due to many purchase orders in process. Ed will work with Bernadette Conroy to track where we stand. Athletics is over budget but we are expecting income from ticket sales to offset those amounts. Page 1 of 8 Approved -5-22-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab Approval of Warrant: Motion to approve Warrant memo dated 5-2-18 by Linda Fernando/Jenn Walsh Warrants Warrant #'s Dates Amount Goods & Services 2018-1035 04/03/18 5891324.67 Salary & Wages 2018-20 04/06/18 1, 633, 295.89 Goods & Services 2018-1037 04/17/18 487,851.74 Salary & Wages 2018-21 04/20/18 1, 661, 233.46 $ 4, 371, 705.76 Motion Carries 5 - 0. Approval of Minutes: Open Session with Board of Selectmen Minutes of 4-12-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 3 - 0 - 2 (Kiera O'Neil and Lauren Scher abstained, absent from meeting) Open Session Minutes of 4-24-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 4 - 0 -1 (Linda Fernando abstained; absent from meeting) Executive Session Minutes of 4-24-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 4 - 0 - I (Linda Fernando abstained; absent from meeting) Old Business: Committee Updates: Audit: Planning an upcoming meeting date. CIP: No update Bu Next meeting on May 10 Facilities: Met last week to discuss water testing (new fixtures installed at QMS and Robinson. Testing on these two items complete and awaiting results. If good then further installations will occur.) The group worked thru several policies. Next they will review facilities rental agreements. Po Several policies to be reviewed this evening. New Business: Health & Wellness Committee Annual Report to School Committee: Christine Dooling provided an update on the activities that occurred this past year. The council held four meetings this year. The main focus of the work done has been on vaping and substance abuse. In October, a Parent night was held discussing the dangers of vaping, school consequences and athletic consequences. In the winter, the SAFE Coalition held a parent night in conjunction with schools, rotary club, fire and police. The Health & Wellness Committee worked on a grant for the Jordan/Jackson farm; helped to support the Jordan/Jackson Health & Wellness Expo and worked Page 2 of 8 • Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab with Kenny Wright and the Bristol County District Attorney's Office Round Table and Teen Seminars. Next year, Christine would like to see the group continue with vaping discussions and focus on anxiety issues. A flu clinic during district open house is planned for the summer. Linda Fernando participates on the council and noted that it is a great group with an amazing amount of collaboration. Members are willing to share, are very supportive and provide a lot of ideas. Lynn Cavicchi asked if the school committee could be kept up to date on agendas and minutes. She also asked if members could be listed. Christine would need to go back to members to ask for their thoughts. Kiera O'Neil asked if we can always keep two students (one senior and one junior) on the board. This would allow for a smooth transition from year to year. MSBA Curtain Wall Project: Edward Donoghue updated the committee on the curtain wall. The area of improvement is the back exterior wall of the high school. The preparation of this project has been in place for a couple of years. In September, Ed took the project over from Mike Ahern. As he moved forward with the efforts, he worked with the MSBA architect to review details. As part of this review, we discovered that the cost will be higher than the original $1.3 million dollar estimate (by $600,000.) Most of this new cost will be reimbursed from the state. Ed met with Matthew Jacques, Teresa Murphy, Kevin Dumas, John Stanbrook, and Mike Ahern. They agreed that we need to move forward in requesting additional funding. They will add a buffer and ask for a total of $2.1 million. This would need to go before town meeting, likely in the fall. If it passes, the work would be completed in the summer of 2019. Kiera noted that a valuable lesson from this is to add a buffer to any estimate we get from outside consultants. Jenn Walsh read/entered the following motion: Massachusetts School Building Authority Mansfield High School - Door & Window Replacement Project That the Town of Mansfield, School Committee supports the appropriation of the sum of $2,100,000 Dollars for the Mansfield High School- Door & Window Replacement Project, which proposed repair project would materially extend the useful life of the school and preserve an asset that otherwise is capable of supporting the required educational program, said sum to be expended under the direction of the School Building Committee, and to meet said appropriation the Board of Selectmen is authorized to borrow said sum under M.G.L. Chapter 44, or any other enabling authority; that the Town of Mansfield, acknowledges that the Massachusetts School Building Authority's ("MSBA") grant program is a non -entitlement, discretionary program based on need, as determined by the MSBA, and any project costs the Town incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the Town; provided further that any grant that the Town may receive from the MSBA for the Project shall not exceed the lesser of (1) 50.79 percent ( %) of eligible, approved project costs, as determined by the MSBA, or (2) the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA; [provided that any appropriation hereunder shall be subject to and contingent upon an affirmative vote of the Town to exempt the amounts required for the payment of interest and principal on said borrowing from the limitations on taxes Page 3 of 8 fflffllz��� Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab imposed by M.G.L. 59, Section 21C (Proposition 21/2)]; and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the Project Funding Agreement that may be executed between the Town of Mansfield and the MSBA. Linda Fernando seconded. Discussion: Lynn Cavicchi noted the long list of items that need to be addressed. How do we avoid this cost discrepancy in the future? Ed noted that we could be more specific in our consultant search, choosing consultants with expertise in the specific effort rather than using one consultant for all projects. We could also add a buffer to estimates. Lauren Scher asked if we would continue to review priorities. Each year those priorities should be reviewed and top priorities may need a second cost estimate. Teresa Murphy noted that timelines are very different in the public sector. Statements of Interest are already 2 years old on our projects. Jenn Walsh left the meeting at 7:55 pm. The district is already discussing capital needs for next year. We will look for new estimates as needed. John Stanbrook had previously grouped projects for cost savings. We should look to see if those groupings still align with our priorities. Motion Carries 4 - 0. (Jenn Walsh not in attendance at vote taking.) job Description for Substitute Custodian: As part of the district's review for the Equity Pay Law, we are reviewing and updating our job descriptions. This will take some time. Teresa noted that we would like to start advertising for the Substitute Custodian position so we have tackled this job description first. Motion to approve the substitute custodian position by Linda Fernando / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 Policy: Code Title Notes Action Motion Motion Vote 1 2 EBAB Pest Management Reviewed by facilities N/A subcommittee, no changes. FGA Inspection of National School Board Delete LF LS 4-0 Completed Projects Association (NSBA) and MASC do by Administrative not have and could not find in Staff other districts. FG13 Inspection of NSBA and MASC do not have and Delete LF LS 4-0 Completed Projects could not find in other districts. by Architect FK Assembling and NSBA and MASC do not have and Delete LF LS 4-0 Preserving could not find in other districts. Important Documents GBED Use of Tobacco and Revise to update language based Revise LF LS 4-0 Page 4 of 8 Approved 5-22-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab Page 5 of 8 n In Tobacco- Free, on MASC recommendations and Products on School review/edits from the personnel Property - revision director. Proposed changes provide more clarity of specific tobacco and non -tobacco products and notes that disciplinary action may be issued. It removes language around addiction. GBK Staff Complaints Revise to update language based Revise LF LS 4-0 and Grievances - on MASC recommendations and revision review/edits from the personnel director. The new language discusses specific channels that school employees would take to appeal rulings made by principals and other administrators. GCE Professional Staff Add this to the policy manual as New LF LS 4-0 Recruiting/ Posting per recommendation of MASC of Vacancies and review by personnel director. This proposed policy discusses procedures for recruitment and posting new positions and discusses internal candidates. GCF Professional Staff Add this to the policy manual as New LF LS 4-0 Hiring per recommendation of MASC and review by personnel director. This policy discusses the selection process, approvals for new positions, and hiring guidelines. JJA Student Revise to establish more specific Revise LF LS 4-0 Organizations guidelines on approving student Note 1: discussion activities. If no funds are below. involved, principals would have the discretion to approve activities/organizations/clubs. If funds will be coming into the district and held in trust and managed by the district, the activity/club/ etc. would need SC approval. IKB Homework Revise to update language. Revise LF LS 5-0 Note 2: discussion Proposed changes were (Jenn below developed through building level returned committees, school councils, to parent/student surveys, and meeting admin. leadership team At 8:27 discussions and research. pm) IKB-R Homework Create school specific language New LF LS 5-0 Language for on assigning homework. Handbooks Page 5 of 8 Approved 5-22-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab 'Discussion on JJA: Lauren Scher had questions on timelines and how this policy would work in practice. She wanted to make sure that schools could move forward without school committee approval holding up the start up of activities. The committee discussed various methods and suggested adding student activities approval as an item on the agenda similar to field trips. 2Discussion on IKA/IKA-R: This policy is outdated and has been in the review process for some time. It has been a difficult policy to work through. Mary Watkins spoke of the work that has been done. There are three high level goals. 1) Parents and students have the right to control their time beyond the school day. 2) The district must place trust in their staff to make recommendations on the required work while meeting the goals of learning. 3) The district must understand the importance of assigning "good" homework that is flexible; extends and enriches the class discussions and can be done without the guidance of a teacher. Lynn noted that this policy makes good progress but we need to next look at summer reading and the burden of AP homework on students. Superintendent Evaluation: Teresa Murphy's evaluation is attached. This document is a summarized version of the individual members' scores. Individual comments will be provided during discussion. The score will be sent to the state but comments will not. Kiera will walk through each of the rubric items. See attached for scores. Comments are noted here. Standard 1 (Instructional Leadership): Linda Fernando found it difficult to evaluate based on the state guidance provided. She felt that the State rubrics were not well defined for what they were trying to communicate. Teresa offered her agreement pointing out to the school committee that this is the frustration that the teachers and administrators find while trying to do teacher evaluations. Lauren noted that Teresa was passed the torch from the superintendent and at the same time had to pass along her role to Michael Connolly and other new members on staff. She did quite well in doing so. Lynn would like to see more focus next year on this standard. We have been understaffed in the past and we have a lot of catching up to do. Standard 2 (Management and Operations): Lauren noted that it was a very challenging year with a lot of new administrator staff. Teresa did an amazing job taking the reins and managing the new personnel. She also worked well with our community. She feels that Teresa went above and beyond. Jenn noted that Teresa has done an amazing job in this transition year. Her ability to recognize the strengths of others and to appropriately delegate has been very effective. Standard 3 (Family and Community Engagement): Jenn noted that we are making great strides. Teresa's love for Mansfield is evident. The changes to communication have been great. Linda loves the new communication approach. Lauren feels that she is always in the loop. Teresa works hard at the communication especially during the difficult winter we had. Kiera appreciates the work done with our police and fire departments and the YMCA. Lynn thought Teresa brought a new focus on "Equity in Access" by reaching out to groups with whom we have not always communicated. For example programs on ADL, diversity, grandparents raising grandchildren and an ELL parent night. Standard 4(Professional Culture): Lauren thought this was the hardest category to evaluate. The school committee members are not in the schools on a regular basis to understand what goes on during the day. Linda noted that some of Teresa's communication was too long and could be tightened up a bit. Lynn noted that Teresa has a commitment to high standards and expects the Page 6 of 8 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab same of her staff. Teresa has the patience to allow change to happen at a slow rate for best results. She is good at prioritizing and team building. Kiera thought Teresa did well at managing conflict and has a great way dealing with people. She is willing to work and listen to ideas. Cultural changes have been positive. Overall: Jenn felt that if Teresa continued to move forward in the manner that she did this year, then we are headed for great things. Lynn thought Teresa set significant foundations this year. Kiera said that Teresa's commitment to Mansfield stands out; she is visible at many, many events. Keira did caution Teresa on burnout. Lauren noted that going forward the committee should look at the district goals and dig deeper on some while reprioritizing others. Upcoming Agenda Items: May 15: Town Meeting May 22: handbooks June 5: school improvement plans, Retirements, Student Activities (disbursement of funds and annual dollar amount limit vote) The gavel was passed to Superintendent Teresa Murphy. The results of tonight's town election are final and Jenn Walsh was reelected to another term. Teresa asked for a motion to nominate a chair. Motion to nominate Kiera O'Neil to Chair by Lynn Cavicchi/Linda Fernando. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Gavel returned to Kiera O'Neil. Kiera O'Neil asked for a motion to nominate a Vice Chair. Motion to nominate Lynn Cavicchi to Vice Chair by Linda Fernando/Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0. Motion to appoint Linda Fernando to the Health and Wellness Advisory Committee by Jenn Walsh Lynn Cavicchi. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Other Committees chosen as follows: Budget: Lynn Cavicchi and Jenn Walsh Facilities: Lauren Scher and Jenn Walsh Policy: Lynn Cavicchi and Lauren Scher Audit Representative: Kiera O'Neil CIP Representative: Keira O'Neil and Jenn Walsh Technology Planning: Lauren Scher Cultural Competency: Linda Fernando, Keira O'Neil New School Committee Business: None Documents Referenced: FY18 Budget Spending Quarter 3 Health & Wellness Annual Report Substitute Custodian job Description Page 7 of 8 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, May 08, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab Superintendent Evaluation Motion to adjourn: At 9:27 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by Jenn Walsh / Linda Fernando Motion Carries 5 - 0. Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 8 of 8