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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-08-05-SC-PMRS-minLexington School Committee Policy Manual Subcommittee School Administration Building Central Office Upper Level Conference Room 146 Maple Street August 5, 2014 11:00 a.m. Approved Minutes In attendance: Judy Crocker, Jessie Steigerwald, Jim Hardy Minutes taken by: Jessie Steigerwald 1. Review of Proposed Section C of Policy Manual: General School Administration Discussed following sections: CA CHCA (change "school council" to Site -Based School Council) CHCA -E Delete CHD — Lexington's policy is preferred CL CM — Annual Report Our SC and LPS annual report is currently published in the Town's Annual Report. Jim shared that in other towns, it is common for the Chair or another member to write the Committee report, the Superintendent to write the school system's report and that each principal may write a summary for her /his school. Jim recommends that going forward the full School Committee receive the draft reports at a School Committee meeting and approve them prior to submission to the town's report. 2. Review of Proposed Section D of Policy Manual: Fiscal Management DA — MASC *DB — (NC) (adding "annual school improvement goals ") *DBC — delete "held on the last Monday in April" DBD — add "The annual budget resources ..." *DBG DBJ — Combining MASC with Lexington.... $50K DD — Policy is set {Referring to Mary Ellen Dunn regarding procedures for grants} DGA - * {Who signs payroll ?} DH — DI — change "periodic" to quarterly DIE — {Audit? We should receive executive summary of the town's report... Our audit may be part of town's...} DJ — "official purchase orders approved" change to "pre- approved" DJA — check *DJE — Discuss with Normal Cohen... (bidding) DJG — check DK — updated with 3 signatures required for Warrant DKC — "Any travel expenses must be pre- approved and within the Federal Travel Guidelines..." 3. MASC's recommendations regarding next sections of Policy Manual for review Section E — Support Services Lexington does not have many policies in this area at the present time. Lexington contracts out for bus services, so EEAEA and EEAEA -1 will not apply to us. Section F — Facilities Development Naming facilities — Many consider it advisable to establish a policy that school facilities will not be named after any living person. 4. Review of non - residency policy Jim Hardy did some research on the questions presented at our last meeting. Legal guardians who are residents, when parents are living elsewhere.... If a student resides in Lexington, but not with parents, they might meet residency requirement if the resident adult has been granted legal guardianship by a court. It requires the child's parent(s) to have relinquished their legal rights to be guardian for their own child. In that circumstance, Lexington must provide public education and can't collect tuition. Lexington can require proof from that legal guardianship was actually established by a court of law. Charging tuition. Federal law states that Lexington is mandated to charge tuition if a child comes to Lexington solely for the purpose of attending Lexington public schools (and is not a resident). Students from another country must obtain an I -20. Some may do this through a private school first. The private school may facilitate obtaining the I -20 in year one. Then, the following year, a student may later reside with a resident and try to attend public school. This is not within the spirit of the law. People should not abuse the residency requirement in this way. Massachusetts law Sect. 6. SC may recover tuition from parent if ... the parent lives in another town but sends child to school in Lexington, knowing that they are violating the residency requirement. In this case, Lexington may recover the expenses associated with that child having attended. Due to our crowded schools, Lexington does not participate in School Choice. Question: Is M.G.L. Sect. 6 in conflict with School Choice law? LPS needs to be consistent. It does not help LPS to admit students on a tuition basis as the schools are crowded. LPS could consider what some other school systems do: have a central registrar to address these issues in the future and, for further investigation, a school attendance officer, truancy officer or school resource officer might help enforce our policies. LPS might also hire a separate investigator to verify residency. Things to consider: "center of child's activity ". This is language used in some court cases. Reviewed and discussed Residency policies from Lynnfield, Concord, Concord - Carlisle, Danvers, Bedford. Schedule updates: It is realistic to complete entire review by June in order to provide a new Superintendent with a complete Policy Manual. By September we will have completed half of the sections. This work might then be accomplished with four more meetings with MASC. Subjects for future discussion: Gift - giving (donations, gifts to LPS). We should review Title 1 language to consider language that supports the bedrock principles of public education, that the community provides the required programs through taxpayer funds — and that additional "gift" funds are to be used to supplement (and not supplant) existing program. MASC has experiences with situations where school gift - giving undermines a system's ability to properly fund programs by becoming too dependent on donations for core supplies. School gift - giving can create inequities or divides between schools. These are also risks within a school, for example, if a principal receives gifts from a wealthy individual or a group of wealthy individuals, it can create an appearance of a conflict of interest. Other areas to note include the limit on individual gifts to teachers. This is an area for further discussion. Approval of Minutes from Prior Meeting: Reviewed minutes from July 22nd meeting and unanimously approved by Judy Crocker and Jessie Steigerwald. Meeting adjourned at 1:37 p.m. Next meetings: August 26th, Jim Hardy will join a School Committee to update full School Committee Policy Manual Subcommittee will meet Tuesday September 2nd at 1:00 p.m.