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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSchool Comm. 11/27/2018Approved 12-11-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in room 3AB of the Town Hall on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. The open meeting session was called to order by Kiera O'Neil at 7:04 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 o Jenn Walsh Members Absent: None Video Recordin¢: None « o -,-ZD rM Communications: NoneT t-7 Ffl 1 -n Superintendent Report: s r, n Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito is recognizing those teachers who registered with the -D M Southeastern MA STEM Network and during STEM week, created STEM activities for their classrooms. Lt. Gov. Polito will honor Deborah Fournier and Nicole Sclafani from Mansfield High School at a December event. Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operations Report: Ed Donoghue provided a quick update on FY2020 budget planning. Meetings with schools are going well and Ed is comfortable that we can provide a budget presentation on 12/11/18 or 12/18/18. Student Advisory Council: Lily Barnes provided an update from MHS. The fall play, Mrs. California, was a success. The varsity football team played Foxboro at Fenway Park. Despite the cold weather and a triple overtime loss, it was very exciting for the fans. Parent / Teacher conferences will be held this week. Staff members are donating gift cards to the West Side Benevolent Society for holiday gifts. Students are participating in a coat and hat drive on behalf of the BU School of Medicine Outreach Van Project. On a side note, Teresa noted that the district received an email from the Foxboro band director praising our band students for their kindness, professionalism and abilities during the Fenway game. Approval of Warrant: Motion to approve the warrant memo dated November 19, 2018 by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries S - 0 Approval of Minutes: Open Session Minutes at Select Board Meeting of 10-24-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 3 - 0 - 2 (Kiera O'Neil and Linda Fernando were not present.) Page 1 of 6 Approved 12-11-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Open Session Minutes of 10-30-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh One spelling error noted: Change ISDI to 1STE Motion Carries S - 0 Open Session Minutes of 11-13-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Executive Session Minutes of 11-13-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Old Business: Committee Updates. Audit: Review of town audit will occur next Tuesday. CIP: No update Budget: Meeting scheduled for Thursday 12/29 and Monday 12/3. Facilities: Met earlier today to discuss general building updates, planning for approved CIP projects. Next meeting will be held in January. Policy: Lauren is working with Jocelyn LeMaire on personnel policies. Lynn will meet with Teresa to discuss gift policy. New Business: Field Trips. World Travel Club to Eastern Europe during the summer of 2020. Kevin McGovern presented the details of this trip to Croatia, Hungry, Slovenia. The price range is about $900 per student lower than the 2019 trip to Japan. The price includes centrally located hotels to minimize travel time during day trips and the mandated insurance per student. Lynn Cavicchi is concerned about the accessibility to most families due to the high cost. There should be equity and access in all student activities. Kiera O'Neil asked if there were fundraising options. Kevin noted that fundraising has not been successful in the past. Typically the students who are interested in this club, start thinking about it early and raise the money on their own or with family. A lot of time is given between trip announcements and actual travel. Kevin also had concerns that fundraising would take away from other student fundraising who all compete for limited funds. Mary Watkins will work with Kevin to see if fundraising opportunities are possible. Motion to approve the World Travel Club field trip to Eastern Europe by Linda Fernando / Lynn Cavicchi Discussion: Lauren Scher asked about the health advisories from the school nurse. Kevin contacted the trip coordinator who said that there were no significant issues. 1) There is no travel advisory currently in the region 2) All travelers to any European country are encouraged by CDC but not required to have a hepatitis shot and 3) the caves to which they are travelling are popular destination spots. Travel thru caves is by a train. None of the side trips involve any ruralareas. Motion Carries 5 - 0 Page 2 of 6 Approved 12-11-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 MCAS Results Presentation: Michael Connolly noted that today is the third of MCAS presentations. The first took place last spring where we introduced the concepts of the new accountability reporting. The second tools place in October where the team introduced the methods used by the state to score each district. Tonight we will drill down to scores by grade and subject area. Dave McGovern opened by explaining that the accountability reporting focuses on the lowest performing students as defined by DESE. Each school has identified those students at risk and will continue to work closely with them. Overall student performance remains high. MHS - Mary Watkins reviewed the high school results. The state requires a 95% participation rate in each DESE category. In the economically disadvantaged student category 36 out of 40 students took the MCAS exams. This brought us just below the threshold which triggered us into the category of requiring assistance or intervention. Joshua Fogel described how DESE determined our target goals. It is a rather complicated formula where we are compared to other districts. The exact comparison / list of districts has not yet been made public by DESE. It was noted that targets are for this year only and are being re -looked at for next year. MHS met or exceeded targeted growth in 8 out of 10 categories. The high school will focus heavily on chronic absenteeism. Cindy Carli reviewed the ELA testing. The high school is keeping classes small, has budgeted for new text books and increased diversity in reading selections. Chris Kalinowski reviewed the math testing. Our students showed improvement in the open response questions. In 2019, Grade 10 will take the next generation test online. Class sizes are being kept low for students who struggle; PD days have been setup to review new frameworks and the testing structure. Students will practice taking tests online. Janet Hogan reviewed the science scores. The lowest performers need help with open responses. The science department will work on vocabulary improvements. The students will take the first online science test in 2020. The district has setup a course designed just for students who don't pass the first time through. Lynn asked if MCAS retakes are built into the accountability reporting. No, retakes are not part of the reporting. She also inquired about Alternative Assessments. Jim Leonard noted that they are not part of the scoring models. He also reported that the state has asked all districts to reduce the percent of alt assessments to below 1 % of each grade. Currently we are just under 2%. The district will work toward that goal. QMS- Dave McGovern noted across the state, scores for middle school students dropped. Lauren noted that studies are showing that those taking the online version of the test score significantly below students taking the paper version. There is a significant learning curve to taking the tests online. QMS is also working with students who have chronic absenteeism (defined as absent 10% or more.) QMS has developed a math skills curriculum program and an academic intervention block for students who need additional help. Cindi Carli noted that grade 6 students took the test on paper while grade 7,8 students took the test online. It was difficult for the students to adjust. At the middle school we have added a grade 6 literacy course, increased the number of chrome books and ordered new grade 8 anthologies. Chris Kalinowski noted that less than 48% of all grade 3 - 8 students across the state "met or exceeded standards" in math. This can very well be due to the online testing and the overall change in tests. The math department is working toward targeted instruction for low performers. Janet Hogan noted that students need to improve their skills working with charts and diagrams but overall the scores were high. Page 3 of 6 Approved 12-I1-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Jordan/Jackson- John Nieratko started the testing results discussion by pointing out that J/J partially met all targets. Lowest performing students are doing very well at the elementary level. Both Robinson and Jordan/Jackson focus on early intervention. John saw similar decline in scores when students took the computer vs. paper test. EL and former EL students exceeded their targets. Science achievements targets were met for all students. J/J is focusing on meeting the needs of all learners; providing extra support to our lowest performing students; adding small group instruction, increasing inclusion settings, providing greater opportunities for professional development. John also noted that the increased STEM activities are providing many hands on activities for students that support the learning goals for the MCAS. J/J is working at the elementary level with any absence concerns and to remind parents the importance of attendance even at a young age. "Care Cards' and "Shoutouts" are two methods of positively recognizing students throughout the day. Comprehensive School Health Grant: Teresa explained to the committee that we are nearing the end of our first 10 year grant. The current grant helped us to develop our Nurse Manager model. Per the requirements of the grant, the district is assuming the cost of nurses from this grant as time expires. The purpose of the new grant is to focus on mental health. Christine Dooling has been working very hard on preparing for our application. This grant could be as high as $80,000 annually and can be used to assist with the social/emotional wellbeing of our students. Once approved, we must re -apply every 3 years for the 10 year duration. After significant research, the district is proposing the addition of a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at the high school as a platform for a potential Bridge Program. Other possible uses are: continued evening programs for parents, Communities that Care Survey. Mary Watkins, Abby Barlas and Tina Karidoyanes presented their proposal for a Bridge Program. There are several factors that prevent students from attending class. They include school refusal, anxiety, OCD, mood disorders, depression, etc. This 4 - 12 week program is designed to help studenOts slowly adapt to the classroom setting after an absence. Last year 255 students (20% of the population) could have benefited from such a program. This year we are already seeing needs of students due to absenteeism or hospitalization. The Bridge program started in Brookline and has been modeled in 100 schools in the state. To start the program, MHS is asking for a licensed clinical social worker. Lynn Cavicchi asked what the ideal model would look like. It would include the social worker, a general education teacher and a para professional. Linda Fernando asked what the plan would be if we did not receive the grant. The district would still move forward with plans but it likely would not occur next year. A motion was made to support the district's application for the Comprehensive Health Grant and use funds to hire a licensed clinical social worker at Mansfield High School by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries 5 - 0 Kiera O'Neil signed off on the Grant Proposal based on the vote. Student Activity Accounts: TRI -M Account at QMS: Page 4 of 6 Approved 12-11-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 After review of the student activity accounts it was determined that Tri -M should stand on its own separate from the Band Account. Motion to approve QMS Tri -M Student Activity Account by Linda Fernando/Lynn Cavicchi Discussion: None Motion Carries 4 - 0 (Jenn Walsh stepped out of the room) Disbursement of MHS Uncateg_orized Account: Both MHS and the Business Office did extensive research to review where the approximately $22,000 came from. First, $10, 924.41 was received from the Town of Mansfield. This represents interest off of student activities that was held by the town rather than the school. Due to a law change, the town must turn that money over to the school. Mary Watkins would like to set this aside in a reserve account to offset the next audit which is allowed per audit guidelines. The second amount of $10,369.30 will be split in half and used to increase the Freshman Class Startup fund and the Year End Activity Scholarship fund. Mary will keep an eye on these accounts and if they don't get spent down in a timely manner, then she will reallocate. Lynn noted that the high school needs to devise policies on disbursing the funds. Kiera suggested that the high school could use the funds to lower the cost of activities for ALL seniors not just econo ically disadvantaged. FROM: TO: Uncate orized $21,293.71 Interest Reserve Account $10,924.41 Freshman Class Startup $5,184.65 Scholarships for Year end Activities $5,184.65 Motion to approve the disbursement of the uncategorized account of $21,293.71 as recommended above by Linda Fernando/Jenn Walsh Discussion: None Motion Carries 5 - 0 Upcoming Agenda Items: Review of upcoming meeting dates: 12/11 or 12/18: Budget Review and vote 12/11: Org chart 12/11: Policies 12/11: Gift notification 12/11: One to one Plan 1/15/19: Program of Studies 1/15/19: Superintendent midyear review Citizens Comments: None New School Committee Business: Page 5 of 6 Approved 12-11-18 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, November 27 2018 Town Hall, Room 3ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 School Committee determined that one of their goals was to improve communication and suggested setting up a subcommittee. Discussed potential members and dates for subcommittee but determined a workshop may be beneficial. Workshop will be held on 1/10/18. Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: None Documents Referenced: MCAS Results Presentation Bridge Program Presentation Motion to adjourn: At 9:33 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by Linda Fernando / Jenn Walsh Motion Carries S - 0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6