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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm 06/05/2018Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee MeetinRECEIVIED Minutes for Tuesday, June0SM9,"C R InS 0r—FICE Town Hall, Room 3ab 2018 SEP 20 A 10' 55 4 An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in r4Q4'46'A.-P 4j EI$ Town Hall on �11t � s lop and Tuesday, June 5, 2018. The open meeting session was reconverMdV"#. 0 � called to order by Kiera O'Neil at 7:02 p.m. Members Present: Administration Present: Kiera O'Neil Teresa Murphy, Superintendent of Schools Lynn Cavicchi (arrived @7:26) 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 Recognition of Retirees: The following 2018 retirees were recognized for their many years of services. Teresa highlighted their contributions to our school district. Retirees were then presented with a proclamation from the State of MA by Representative Jay Barrows, a proclamation from the Town of Mansfield, by Board of Selectmen Chair, Michael Trowbridge and a gift from the Mansfield School District by School Committee Chair, Kiera O'Neil. Robinson Music Teacher 30 District facilities 47 District Special Education Director Li o�TMl..nicT 1 L8 oncncy .6 MHS - Special Education Teacher Ll Jim Kirk 18 Elaine Mantia Jordan/Jackson Food Services 29 Donna Neely Robinson Paraprofessional 16 Janet Quinn Central Offce office Assistant 24 .,_�.____ cnarlal Education Office Assistant Superintendent Report: Teresa Murphy took this time to thank the XFINITY Center for the donation of their facility for our graduation and our 1/1 music performance. We are so fortunate to have this facility where our parents do not need to be concerned with weather or ticket limitations. Lauren Scher agreed that Page 1 of 6 Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, June OS, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab it was a wonderful experience for the young students to perform on such a large stage. Teresa congratulated our graduates and MHS staff. Approval of Warrant: Motion to approve the warrant memo dated 5-29-18 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 4 - 0 Approval of Minutes: Open Session Minutes of 5-22-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 4 - 0 Executive Session Minutes of 5-22-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jean Walsh Motion Carries 4 - 0 Old Business: Committee Updates: Audit: Last year's audit will be presented to the Board of Selectmen on 6-6-18. CIP: No update Budeet: No update Facilities: Will meet on 6-7-18. Policy: No update New Business: Disbursement of Funds from Class of 2015: Per policy JJF, if a class does not withdraw their funds within two years after graduation, the amount is forfeited and reallocated per vote of school committee. The class of 2015 funds total is $2,552.30. Jenn Walsh motioned to close the account for the class of 2015 and distribute funds equally among the classes of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Linda Fernando seconded. Motion Carries 4 - 0. Field Trips: MHS Girls basketball to Newtown, CT in December of 2018: Fundraising efforts have started. Per policy, fundraising cannot occur until the field trip has been approved. Since the timeframe is so far off, details are not available for transportation and lodging. A motion to give preliminary approval to the girls' basketball team to CT so fundraising can start was made by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh. Discussion: Lauren asked if it was standard practice to approve the field trip in two stages. Kiera confirmed that this would be the case for any that requires significant fund raising. Committee asks that the MHS return for final approval once details are complete. At 7:26 pm Lynn Cavicchi arrived at the meeting. Motion Carries 4 - 0 - 1 (Lynn Cavicchi abstained having just arrived.) Page 2 of 6 Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, June 05, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab NEASC: Mary Watkins presented an update on our current status. The high school submitted the 5 year report in February. We received a letter with our continued accreditation which is great news for the school. MHS was commended for their Positive Learning Communities (Thanks to Michael Connolly for his efforts while he was still the principal.) Additionally, we were received high marks for our new school wide rubrics, technology infrastructure improvements and the addition of an additional administrator. MHS must provide a progress report in December on the final draft of the student progress reports and steps on expanding advisory roles. It is MHS' goal to connect every student with a staff member with whom they can speak as needed. This staff member would be in addition to a counselor. MHS is 3 years away from the next self survey in the NEASC program. District Strategic objectives and School Improvement plans: See attached presentation and the Strategy for District Improvement documentation. Teresa Murphy has brought forward the Strategic Objectives for 2018 - 2020. Her approach this year was to tie the objectives into school improvement plans so that the committee could see how the schools are working together as a team toward a common vision. The MA Department of Education (DESE) suggests that schools create 3 - 5 strategic objectives. Teresa has chosen four strategic objectives and has tied priorities to each objective. In addition to school specific initiatives there are also district goals that tie into the vision. As we go through the document, note that not every school has assigned an initiative to a specific objective/priority. This does not mean that the schools are ignoring that priority; their efforts are noted under other priorities. Our vision has been created: "Our vision of the ideal school is one in which all students are actively and intellectually engaged in their learning as a result of the instructional practices that are personalized, differentiated, innovative and designed to challenge their thinking and understanding. The result of our collective efforts is for all students to achieve their personal best and become meaningful contributors to our society. " The supporting Strategy for District Improvement has been created through the work of Teresa's Entry Plan, New Superintendent's Induction Program and School Improvement Plans. It has been modeled after the DESE Planning for Success Program. Our Strategic Objectives are: 1 Teaching and Learning - MPS will provide a high quality curriculum and instructional program designed to engage all learners. 1 Social, Emotional, Academic Supports - MPS will proactively provide for the evolving academic, social, and emotional needs of all students and staff. 1 Family and Community Partnerships - MPS will engage families and other partners to create enriching, more personalized learning opportunities for students. 1 Collaborate for Continual Learning - MPS will foster an environment of collaboration, community, and continual learning within each school and across the district. This year the school improvement plans have been made more uniform and tie directly into our district objectives. The district will adopt a DESE Action Plan Template in order to measure progress. One area of district improvement is to be more specific when we measure impact. The use of the DESE action plan will be beneficial. To show how we are working as a team and aligning school initiatives with the district plan, school principals will each take on one objective and discuss how it relates to the school improvement plans. Page 3 of 6 Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, June 05, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab Teaching and Learning- Mary Watkins discussed the various initiatives in the works. For example at the elementary schools, principals are working to foster collaboration between 2nd and 3rd grade teachers for a cohesive transition from the Robinson core literacy model to the workshop model at J/J. QMS and MHS are working on high impact strategies such as providing targeted, immediate feedback to students and positive/student relationships. Principals will spend more time in classrooms doing quick walkthroughs, collecting data and providing feedback to staff. Schools are adopting the Pineapple Chart Model where teachers invite other staff members to observe classroom activities. Schools want to improve equity access among all students. How are students selected for various courses? How are teachers deployed to certain classes? We need to understand how these decisions are made so that appropriate frameworks are established. Use the vertical team to study practices and develop a common shared language of instruction. MHS will explore schedule options to allow for flex block and common planning time. These options will allow MHS to launch various initiatives such as freshman academy, student advising, social/emotional support and remediation during school day. These scheduling options are not a complete overhaul of the current schedule. Rather they are an overlay schedule that can be used as a modified school day at various points during the school year. Mary briefly went through the priority established for the technology plan. This plan is still in progress but will fit in nicely with the established goals. Social, Emotional, Academic Supports - Sue Ryan walked through the schools priorities to support this objective. Robinson and Roland Green will continue to utilize and enhance Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports (PHIS) throughout the school communities. Roland Green will develop In odel lessons. Robinson will update lesson plans regarding universal expectations and getting ities far those expectations into the classrooms. J/J will enhance the engaging work opportun students by utilizing flexible spaces available (e.g. community garden and maker space.) QMS and MHS are working collaboratively to collect data from students and staff regarding social and emotional issues. How can we help students build these skills? Freshman academy will be piloted next year to provide pro active remedial and additional support to students who will be identified via RTI. The first phase will be to develop a strong group of teachers. The goal is to enhance the transition from Bth grade to 9d' grade for those students who struggle. Schools are promoting peer observation. At QMS they are looking to expand staff knowledge and toolboxes for support of students with ADHD and Executive Functioning issues. This will be done through targeted professional development. Family and Community Partnerships - Kerri Sankey reviewed the initiatives for objective 3. J/J and Robinson are focusing on the new literacy and math programs. Schools will engage support and keep parents informed on the upcoming changes via presentations and newsletters. The preschool and elementary schools will provide support and communication with families around social emotional issues and meeting the needs of our struggling students. Schools will engage and inform families through parent workshops, mentoring, and home school communication. MHS will build community partnerships for student mentoring and volunteer opportunities. Teresa addressed priority 2 which is improvements and renovations of facilities including playgrounds, preschool program (possible move to East Street), technology infrastructure, science labs, auditoriums, libraries and media centers. Collaborate for Continual Learning - John Nieratko reviewed the work toward this goal. At Roland Green, they are working to establish observations of student functioning while students are engaged in their day to day activity rather than testing in isolation. Robinson is working toward shared practices in literacy, math and PBIS. They will also prepare 2nd grade students for the Page 4 of 6 Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, June OS, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab transition to J/J. At J/J they are working to improve common planning time and creating professional learning communities. Qualters will continue improve upon the changes made last year to scheduling. In order to support student leadership, J/J will continue to pilot a student council. This year parameters and an application process was established. An initial group of students has been chosen and various matters discussed. At QMS, the staff is working toward a model for the first 5 days of school where teachers will work with students on building relationships with staff and peers. QMS and MHS will also empower student voice, providing leadership opportunities for students, increasing student connectedness to the school. At the high school the flex block model and freshmen academy will help provide extra student support. Teresa concluded by reintroducing the four strategic objectives and asking the committee to approve those objectives. Kiera congratulated Teresa and her team on creating a vision of what we need to do. She really liked the presentation as it showed how our schools are linked. Lynn Cavicchi appreciated that this effort was made possible by the growth of our leadership team. She appreciated that Teresa supports our principals so that we could get to this point. She is happy that we incorporated DESE guidelines into our process. We have clear expectations that we can pursue. Linda Fernando was thrilled to see how all the pieces weave together. It is easy to see the over arching view and how it funnels down to the schools. Jenn Walsh thought it was easy to follow and comprehensive. Lauren Scher thought the objectives and plans showed evidence of progress in our district. Now we need to take it to the next level in order to measure progress. Lynn agreed by saying we need to continually monitor and evaluate. She looks forward to the technology plan being incorporated into the document. Teresa noted that it is important to track what we don't do well. She recommended midterm and final reports. Additionally, she will be asking principals to look at our current school improvement plans and to provide a progress report. She envisions frequent brief updates to be ongoing throughout the life of the school improvement plans. Motion to approve the four strategic objectives as presented by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Upcoming Agenda Items: June 19: Job descriptions, policies as needed. Citizens Comments: Kathy Hill, 30 York Road, provided her feedback on the middle school health program. She has opted her son out of the classroom due many factors. The basis for her opinions was the written content of the material as it appeared on the QMS website. The material was developed by an outside vendor and was approved earlier in the year by school committee. She stated several graphic examples of classroom content, activities and role plays which she found disturbing and not age appropriate. She feels that it is inappropriate to have this program as part of our curriculum. It puts ideas in kids' heads and does not reflect the values of the Mansfield community. Kiera thanked Kathy for bringing this to our attention. Teresa thanked Kathy as it is important to get parent feedback. Teresa pointed out that in order to provide up front information to parents in January, we placed the full content of the provided lessons online. However, QMS has tailored these lessons to our students and we are not using the level of detail as explained in the text. She offered that this information should not have been placed on the web without the adjustments that we had made to the curriculum. Our teachers had worked hard to make the curriculum age Page 5 of 6 Approved 06-19-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, June 05, 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab appropriate. Teresa informed Kathy Hill that we are going to look at this program again during the summer to see what worked and what did not. We would like to take a conservative approach. New School Committee Business: 2018-2019 School Committee Meeting Calendar- Proposed dates were discussed and final dates set as: 7/17(workshop), 8/8 (workshop), 9/4, 9/25, 10/16,10/30, 11/13, 12/4, 12/18, 1/8, 1/10, 1/15, 2/5, 3/5, 3/26, 4/23, 5/7, 5/21, 6/11. Other Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: Anew field trip request has been brought forth to school committee. Four MHS students from the Girls Track team qualified for New England Regionals which will be held on the campus of UNH on Saturday, June 9, 2018. Approval required for any out of state trip. A motion to approve to the girls track team (4 athletes) to UNH was made by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh. Discussion: Congratulations to those who qualified. Motion Carries 5 - 0. Documents Referenced: Strategy for District Improvement Presentation Strategy for District Improvement Document Motion to adjourn: At 9:09 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0. Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6