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Home My WebLink AboutSchool Comm. 12/11/2018Approved 1-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 112018 Town Hall, Room 2ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 An Open Meeting of the Mansfield School Committee was held in room 2AB of the Town Hall on December 11, 2018. The open meeting session reconvened after Executive Session 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) Lauren Scher Edward Donoghue, Assistant Superintendent (Finance/Operations) Jenn Walsh oCD Members Absent: Linda Fernando a Video Recordine: None � > z �— Communications: rnc� None rc"ri Cr ' Crn Cn< rn D Superintendent Report: o o Teresa Murphy reported that there have been two additional retirements. Barbai;Aiello°ionl�me office assistant at the Robinson and Bonnie Beuregard, a para -professional at MOare bq retging at the winter break. We wish both the very best in their retirement. Two students have been awarded the Certificate of Academic Excellence which is presented by the MA Association of School Superintendents. This year's award winners are Lydia Jankowski and Connor Eames. Lydia is extremely well respected by teachers, staff and students alike; she is a valuable member of our community. She has been inducted into four National Honors Societies as well as the recipient of the Smith College Book Award given to her for her strong leadership skills, dedication to her community and demonstrated concern for others. Outside of the classroom Lydia's involvement in the Mansfield community and beyond is extensive and includes participation on the Orchestra where she serves as the Assistant Concert Master, membership in Roots, Art Club and the French Club as well as leadership roles as the President of both the School Orchestra and the Tri -M Music Honor Society. Lydia is looking forward to college next year and to explore her options; while undecided at this time her interests include education, environmental studies, and anthropology. Connor was inducted into both the National and Spanish National Honor Societies and was the recipient of the Golden Hornet award in both his sophomore and junior years. Additionally in his junior year, Connor was the recipient of the Frederick Douglas and Susan B Anthony Award from the University of Rochester representing his high academic achievement as well as strong commitment to his community. Connor is respected by students and staff alike and is known for his strong determination, accessibility to his peers and friendly disposition. Beyond the classroom walls he is a varsity athlete, with both soccer and track, a member of the Math Team and Student Service Corp where he holds a leadership position as the Membership Chair. Next year, Connor plans to attend college where he will study in the field of engineering or applied mathematics. Page 1 of 6 Approved 1-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 112018 Town Hall, Room tab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Report: Michael Connolly reported on a few happenings in the schools. At MHS and J/J, students participated in Hour of Code. This effort demystifies coding and computer science. It was a great opportunity for our students. At MHS, Mary Watkins submitted the progress report to NEAC ahead of the January deadline. Mike commended Mrs. Watkins and her staff on creating the new progress reports to parents. The next NEASC Self Study will occur in 2023. At QMS, students participated in ADL peer leadership training. The goal is for students to recognize bias and the harm that it causes students. At Robinson, teachers held their fall parent/teacher conferences and held their annual 2nd grade multicultural festival. Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operations Report: Ed Donoghue presented the FY19 quarterly update. There are no immediate concerns with the expenses occurred to date. He is currently working with staff for the FY20 Budget presentation. Approval of Warrant: Motion to approve the warrant memo dated December 3, 2018 by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 Approval of Minutes: Open Session Minutes of 11-27-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 Executive Session Minutes of 11-27-18 Motion to approve the minutes by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4 - 0 Old Business: Committee Updates: Audit: Town audit has been reviewed and will be presented soon. CIP: No update Budget: Meeting was held with Finance Committee to discuss the initial presentation of the 1:1 technology plan. Facilities: No update Policy: Progress being made. New Business: Data Results Review - Robinson Principal Kerri Sankey presented information on how the Robinson School plays a critical role in preparing students for academic success in future years including achievements in MCAS testing. Students at Robinson do not take the MCAS assessment but do take the DIBELS benchmark testing. This testing shows significant improvements from kindergarten to grade 2. Lynn Cavicchi asked how the new reading program helps. Ms. Sankey noted that the new reading assessments will occur in addition to the current testing. She is in the process of working with her team to determine which of the available assessments will provide us with the best feedback. Lauren Scher asked if Page 2 of 6 Approved I-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 112018 Town Hall, Room 2ab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Robinson breaks their assessments down by the same defined groups that MCAS uses (i.e. race, socio-economic...) Robinson does not but they do focus on the lowest performing students. Lauren also asked if Robinson addresses absenteeism. Ms. Sankey reported that the nurses, administration, special education staff and counselors work closely together to review student needs, monitor attendance and provide support. STEM Update Video -Jordan/Jackson Principal John Nieratko showed a video which gave an overview of how STEM is incorporated into the school day. The committee was impressed with the activities. Kiera O'Neil asked if we would look into "Destination Imagination" for after school. Lynn Cavicchi asked if we had enrollment demographic data for high school STEAM electives. Are we expanding our offerings to support the STEAM advances made at JJ? Principal Watkins noted that she is constantly monitoring electives and adapting to student abilities and interest. Lynn asked if the STEAM opportunities at J/J were available to ALL students. John indicated that yes, though some teachers are more advanced in their knowledge than others. He is working toward training, coaching and exposure for all teachers. Field Trip: MHS Orchestra to Washington, DC Motion to approve MHS Orchestra trip to Washington, DC for a master class and sightseeing by Jenn Walsh/Lauren Scher. Discussion: Lynn Cavicchi noted that a 3'h day trip was a lot for a master class which is only 90 minutes long. Would there be options for master classes closer to home or would there be better tour companies that could incorporate more musical options into the tour? She also reminded staff to keep all requests for financial assistance confidential. Motion Carries 3 - 0 - 1 (Lauren Scher abstained; her daughter is in the orchestra program.) School to Career Dual Enrollment Program: Principal Mary Watkins and Assistant Principal Abigail Barlas have researched new opportunities for students, especially those that may not be heading to a 4 year college. One option is Southeastern Vocational School's School to Career Dual Enrollment Program. How it works: Students would apply during their junior year. If accepted they would attend MHS for the first semester senior year. During second semester, seniors would attend 2 periods daily (content is delivered on-line) at MHS. A bus would transport them to Southeastern from 4:00 pm - 9:00 pm for entry level certification and trade areas. There are 4 options to choose from (Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Electricity or HVAC) with Advanced Manufacturing/Welding and Precision Machining coming soon. During the fall after graduation, students would complete the program during the day (tuition based.) There is minimal cost to MHS which includes the two online courses ($650 per student) and some administrative support. Southeastern pays for transportation, classes and class kits. Students would need to purchase uniforms if applicable and pay tuition for the one fall semester. Last year 9% of our students went to a community college or studied for a trade. As a district, we question why this is so small. Are we giving our students the right opportunities? Brockton and Norton currently participate in this program. Lauren Scher noted that there is a minimum GPA of 2.5. Would this exclude some of our students who most need this alternative programming? Mary Watkins noted that Southeastern is still a competitive program. Students must be in good academic standing with good discipline records. Page 3 of 6 Approved 1-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 11 2018 Town Hall, Room tab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Lauren also asked about capacity. Mary noted that we would start with a max of 5 students the first year as a pilot. MHS will then research and determine if we should increase the cap going forward. Motion to approve Mansfield High School's participation in the School to Career Enrollment Program by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Discussion: Lynn Cavicchi asked that we evaluate and report back to school committee. She also noted that the MHS program of studies will require a school committee vote to update. Lauren Scher asked that we monitor low performing academic students who may not qualify for this program. Motion Carries 4 - 0 1:1 Technology Plan: Michael Connolly addressed the committee regarding the proposed 1:1 Technology Plan in line with goal 8 of our District Technology Plan. The plan optimizes the use of our existing 2400 chromebooks and supplements those with additional units via a lease program. Chromebooks provide benefit over laptops in that they have a faster startup, are more affordable and are easier to maintain as the district can push changes out to the units easily. These are Google based machines which pair well with our programming of Google resources in our classrooms. Our current usage of chromebook shared carts is very high. Lori Letendre has put together a very detailed roll out plan by grade including infrastructure changes that area needed. The program starts at the middle school because we have a large number of existing chromebooks already inventoried so it will be easier to trial the lease program with a smaller number of units. District will monitor such things as the student care, cases, ability of students to successfully take home and return to school. The goal is to complete the rollout by the end of FY21 though ongoing lease costs have been projected out to FY29. Lori is currently looking into options for repairs, extras for students who forget them at home or forget to charge. These extra units will be availability for daily checkout at the library. Teachers will receive chromebooks ahead of students to ensure the learning curve is met. Professional development will be provided to teachers and paras. We are not looking to remove the desktop computers from the classrooms at this time. Lynn Cavicchi asked if we needed to increase our tech support staff. A component of this plan is to train students at each school to support help desks (to a certain degree.) By the time of the complete rollout, Lori projects the need for one additional tech support person. Michael Connelly noted that we need coaching and integration support. As part of the tech plan, he is still seeking instructional technology supports in each school. Lauren Scher asked if we have found any grants to help with the cost. Per Michael Connolly, we have not yet found any but will continue to look. Motion to approve the 1:1 Technology Plan by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Discussion: Kiera O'Neil is very excited about the plan which has been documented in very clear detail. Lauren Scher asked that we provide a method for assessing the success of the program. In addition there should be check in points to evaluate based on budget and success rate in the event that we have to put a hold on the plan at any point in time. Michael Connolly suggested we review annually as part of the budget process. Lynn Cavicchi asked that the committee receive regular updates. Motion Carries 4 - 0 HR Department Job Descriptions: Page 4 of 6 Approved 1-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 112018 Town Hall, Room tab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 Jocelyn LeMaire, Human Resource Director reviewed the proposed positions. The two new positions of Human Resource Assistant and Human Resource Specialist will report to Jocelyn and support the Town of Mansfield and Schools. Cost will be shared between the town and school as follows- Director is in school budget; two new positions will be paid by town; supplies, requisitions, etc will be paid by town for an overall 50/50 split. These will be "At Will /non-union' positions due to the confidentiality requirements. These salaries are in line with other districts. Once the job descriptions are approved, we will move forward with posting and hiring. Motion to approve the job descriptions for Human Resource Assistant and Human Resource Specialist by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Discussion: None Motion Carries 4 - 0 Organizational Chart: Motion to approve the 2018/19 Organizational chart by Jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Discussion: None Motion Carries 4 - 0 Policy: Code Title Notes Action Motion Motion Vote 1 2 GA Personnel Policies Minor editing Revise JW LS 4-0 Goals GBD School Committee/ Staff Communications GBEA Staff Ethics / Conflict of Interest GBEBA Staff Dress Code Obsolete Delete JW LS 4-0 GBEBD Care of School Obsolete Delete JW LS 4-0 Property IMG Animals in School Revisions per State Guidelines Revise JW LS 4-0 IMG -R Animals In Procedures for administration and Adopt n/a n/a n/a School, staff. No vote required Administration of IMGA Dissection and Allows for alternate activities for Adopt as JW LS 4-0 Dissection students who do not want to amended Alternatives participate. Lynn proposed removing specific class names from the policy. Amendment approved. Upcoming Agenda Items: Review of upcoming meeting dates: Page 5 of 6 Approved 1-15-19 Mansfield School Committee Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, December 112018 Town Hall, Room tab, 6 Park Row, Mansfield, MA 02048 12/18: Budget Review and vote 12/18: Comfort dog with K. Wright 1/15/19: Program of Studies 2/5/19: Review Fees 1/15/19: Superintendent midyear review Citizens Comments: None New School Committee Business: Other- Items not anticipated by the Chair 48 hours prior to this meeting: None Documents Referenced: Robinson Presentation School to Career Dual Enrollment Program 1:1 Technology Motion to adjourn: At 9:30 p.m., Motion to adjourn the open meeting by jenn Walsh / Lauren Scher Motion Carries 4- 0 Respectfully Submitted, Diane Nugent, Secretary to the Superintendent & School Committee Page 6 of 6