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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-25-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, April 25, 2023 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 5:30 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice -chair Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Larry Freeman Eileen Jay did not attend the meeting. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent Dave Coelho, Assistant Superintendent Finance & Operations Caitlin Ahern, Director of Elementary Education The School Committee convened at the School Committee Meeting Room at Central Office and remotely. Members of the public can view and participate in person or in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also taped by LexMedia for future on -demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted. The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. EXECUTIVE SESSION Ms. Cuthbertson moved that the School Committee enter into Executive Session under Exemption 3 — For the purpose of discussing strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Lexington Educators Association (LEA), as the Chair so declares an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the School Committee, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 4-0. The School Committee entered Executive Session at 5:31 PM and returned to Open Session at 6:09 PM. Student representative Grace Ou has joined the meeting. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval JK 04/25/23 - APROVED a. April 7, 2023 - Payroll in the amount of $4,367,307.68 b. April 14, 2023 - AP Warrant in the amount of $1,274,285.74 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: Minutes a. April 3, 2023 b. April 10, 2023 Ms. Lenihan read the following consent agenda items: a. $100 Donation to First Robotics from AoPS Academy b. $1,000 Donation to Clarke Science Olympiad for Nationals from Deepika Sawhney Ms. Lenihan made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed 4-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Ms. Freeman announced that the 21st annual Lexington Tattoo and Muster will be held on May 5th on the battleground. Ms. Sawhney thanked the Town Celebrations Committee and volunteers for the Patriots Day event. Ms. Lenihan also thanked the Celebrations Committee. She mentioned that the next meeting of the School Building Committee is on Thursday, May 4th at 12:00 pm, and the OPM (Owner's Project Manager) selection process will be discussed. Interviews will be next week. Mr. Freeman asked about the interview process, he would like to know if we are looking at philosophies and if they match with Lexington's. Ms. Lenihan replied that she has never done this before but Dr. Hackett has (in another district). Dr. Hackett stated that she thinks there is an opportunity to ask that during the interview, she also explained more about the interview process. Grace congratulated the students who performed on Patriots Day. She also announced that there will be an LHS Senate meeting tomorrow to discuss our constitution. Ms. Cuthbertson announced that she also attended the Patriots Day Celebration and that last night Town Meeting voted to approve Article 23. She also mentioned that she signed up for the AAPI 5k run/walk on May 28th. COMMUNITY SPEAK No speakers. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendent's Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: JK 04/25/23 - APROVED 1. Congratulations and Celebration • Rory O'Connor (Assistant Principal at Harrington) is the new Massachusetts PTA Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year and Henry Wan (counselor at Harrington) is Massachusetts PTA Outstanding Counselor of the Year • ELL Family Literacy Night was on March 30, 2023 at Diamond Middle School • LPS Art Show at Central Office, shout out to Alethea Roy • Lexington Public Schools was named a national 2023 Best Community for Music Education by the NAMM Foundation 2. We All Belong • Guest speaker Sylvia Ruth Gutmann came on March 31, she is a Holocaust survivor, author, and public speaker and shared her story with 10th -grade World History classes. • Johnny Cole, Director of Equity and Student Support toured a dozen historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU's) in four different states in the hopes of establishing a recruitment pipeline for educators. 3. Assistant Director of Special Education • Sara Fenzel is our new Assistant Director of Special Education, she has eleven years of experience in Lexington. 4. Lexington High School Construction Project • The next step is to select an Owner's Project Manager (OPM). The OPM is the eyes and ears for everything having to do with the project. 5. Upcoming Events • Guest speaker Dr. Ned Hallowell will be coming to LHS on April 27th to talk about a new term for ADHD, VAST (Variable Attention Stimulus Trait). 6. Bus Registration is open for the 2023-2024 School Year • Bus registration is open for next school year, register your child before May 16th to get the lowest rate. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney loves that Johnny Cole went to HBCU's. She asked if a process was figured out, and Dr. Hackett replied that we have the benefit of the Diversification grant ($79,000). Part of the grant pays for moving costs for people to relocate to Lexington and it also helps pay for courses for people who want to earn a larger degree or want to get into the teaching profession. Dr. Hackett stated that Mr. Cole spoke about the incentives that are available. She also added that there was a Central Office Leadership Team meeting where the process of this recruitment was discussed. Mr. Freeman spoke about sororities and fraternities being a huge part of HBCU's, he suggested looping in some of them. LITERACY & MATH CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION UPDATES Caitlin Ahern, Director of Elementary Education, Sara Calleja, K-5 Literacy Dept Head, and Linda Menkis, K-5 Mathematics Department Head presented this slideshow. Slides 3-15 review the K-2 Fundations Implementation (Sara Calleja) and slides 16-25 review the Illustrative JK 04/25/23 - APROVED Mathematics Implementation for Grades 3-5 (Linda Menkis). School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman asked if the program helps identify students who may be having issues or if the program is there to support students who have already been identified as having an issue in Iiteracy,.Ms. Calleja responded that it is a little bit of both. Mr. Freeman then asked about the Cool Downs in the math program. Ms. Menkis responded that when we piloted the program we learned about the pace. We have come to determine that Cool Downs are "bite size pieces", they are in place to see where students are and most students do fine. For the students who don't, the program circles back the next day and the content builds. The students who do not meet benchmarks receive the intervention. Teachers also work with those students in small groups. Mr. Freeman asked if there is any parent engagement when a teacher notices a trend of a child. Ms. Menkis replied that we have the benefit of building -based interventionists, so when a child is not making the desired strides that's when the math coach steps in. There is a program called Zearn that is an instructional program that has become an important tool. Mr. Freeman stated that we have had dialog at School Committee meetings about high school students not excelling in honors math, it is believed by some that it starts at an early age. He asked if this program will help identify some missing components. Ms. Menkis replied that the anecdotal evidence that teachers are reporting is that there are higher levels of engagement of all students, particularly those students of color. Culturally -responsible practices are the bedrock of the Illustrative Math program and more students than ever are meeting the daily benchmarks. Ms. Lenihan brought up that so many of our students are also taking math classes outside of school. She asked how the new math program works when we know that a certain percentage of students are doing other things. Ms. Menkis responded that Illustrative Math challenges kids in different ways and the program asks kids to analyze the work of someone else which engages a whole different part of the brain. Students are also partnering all the time, this requires communication, and students are asked to represent problems with something other than numbers. We are finding fewer complaints that math is not challenging. Dr. Hackett asked Ms. Menkis to talk a little bit about how the kids who are taking the advanced classes outside of school struggle with the constructivist approach. Ms. Menkis explained that places like the Russian School of Math are about learning an algorithm, performing efficiently on that algorithm, and coming up with the right answer. Our program is based on understanding the structures of math and constructing understanding. Ms. Cuthbertson spoke about how she had a conversation with her family about the benefits of the standard algorithm over the Big 7. Her son explained that he gets why he had to learn that but he likes this better. Ms. Cuthbertson stated that students are still learning all of those pieces, and how to do it efficiently but also finding what works for them. She thinks that makes them feel successful and allows them to build on it, to learn the other strategies too. Ms. Lenihan is really excited that this is how our kids are learning math. Grace thinks this is really great. As a student, she believes that it is informative to have small groups and big groups. She would warn against doing small groups during class time. Ms. JK 04/25/23 - APROVED Menkis added that everyone does the same IM math lesson, then the teacher leaves ten minutes in the end for some independent work or small groups. Everyone will have an opportunity to either play a game, do some computer work, or work with the teacher in a small group. Grace would also like to make sure that at the end of the lesson (Cool Downs), even if a student gets the problems correct that there is still a chance for student feedback and reflection. Ms. Menkis stated that one of the modifications that we plan to do is add to the Cool Downs questions such as "What did you feel good about in math today?" and "What were you challenged by?" so students have a chance to reflect. Ms. Cuthbertson's son is in fifth grade and she has seen the work that he brings home at the end of units, lots of creative writing! The Illustrative Math program makes it clear where the student went wrong with a problem by using drawings, models, and explanations. This is effective for seeing how a student works through each problem and how their brains work. IM uses multiple means of engagement, it also gives students a chance to reflect on their own work. Ms. Cuthbertson feels like she knows more about what her child is learning with the IM program than with the previous program. She asked if sending exit tickets home is standard. Ms. Menkis replied that that is the teacher's choice but that we do send the parent information newsletters for every unit home (available digitally). Ms. Cuthbertson then asked Ms. Calleja about literacy, she would like to know if she sees a lot of movement in and out of Tier 2, Ms. Calleja responded that Tier 2 is meant to be temporary. It's a chance to get a little bit of a boost extra of what the student needs so that they can go back into Tier 1. We more often than not see students make a lot of progress and they may not need that Tier 2 anymore. If a student continues to not make progress, then we look at moving towards more intensive intervention. Ms. Cuthbertson asked what else students are doing in the literacy classroom beyond the Fundations piece. If students come in already knowing how to read, do they get time to explore books? Ms. Calleja responded, "Absolutely. Like I said, tonight we were just talking about the Fundational component but there's a whole other component of the literacy block which includes the reading and writing workshop where students are getting many lessons. And they're doing independent work and working with teachers and working with partners and working in small groups, all the parts of literacy are alive and thriving in Lexington" Ms. Sawhney asked how many literacy and math blocks there are in a day. Ms. Calleja responded that literacy and math are both taught every day, five days a week. There is a full 60 -minute math block every day (except for Kindergarten, which is 45 minutes) and 120 minutes of literacy every day. Ms. Sawhney also asked if the special education population uses the Fundation skills. Ms. Calleja replied that everyone gets the same Fundational skills in the classroom and then students who need extra services receive extra services in addition to the Tier 1. When we find that students have additional needs or need more repetition of the same thing, that's Tier 2. Tier 3 is when it's a more intensive need, and that can be one-on-one in general education or special education. Ms. Sawhney discussed teacher training in both literacy and math. Math teacher training next year will be in Kindergarten to Grade 2 and literacy will be in Grade 3 (and this is a pilot). The progress across both subjects was also discussed with Ms. Calleja and Ms. Menkis. Ms. Menkis invited Ms. Sawhney to come to see what is happening in the classrooms. Ms. Sawhney said, "I would love to have us not treat math as a fearful subject." Ms. Menkis added that within the classroom communities, math is something that is talked JK 04/25/23 - APROVED about, and everyone engages. Ms. Cuthbertson brought up the LexSEPTA event with Dr. Hollowell. He talked about ADHD as a variable attention stimulus trait (VAST) and that it's a positive if your brain just works in different ways. Ms. Cuthbertson stated that we are giving students multiple opportunities to access information, which builds confidence and lessens the intimidation factor. NEW BUSINESS The School Committee just looked at the dates, they will go over them again at another meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Vote on MOA V Se le ent Agreement LapyofMOA V Dr. Hackett recommends that the School Committee approve this agreement. Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to ratify the Memorandum Of Agreement V, COVID-19 Pandemic Plans 2022-203 with the Lexington Education Association, A vote to ratify the Settlement Agreement and MOA V, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Passed 4-0. B. Vote the -Year Successor Contract with the SEN Dr. Hackett recommended approval of this contract as well. SEIU stands for Service Employees International Union. Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to ratify the 3 -Year Successor Contract with the SEW, from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025, Ms. Sawhney seconded. Passed 4-0. COMMUNITY SPEAK Dawn McKenna - 9 Hancock St. (in person): She thanked those of you who marched in the Patriots Day Parade, this teaches the kids what Patriot's Day is all about. She also stated that tonight's presentation made her feel really proud. She has seen multiple generations of Lexington Public Schools and she feels really good about the future. Ms. McKenna is also impressed with how the Superintendent has been in a difficult situation regarding the relationship between the Recreation Department and LPS. She stated that there should be a partnership between Recreation and the schools and is asking the School Committee to engage in a political answer. She added that students need outlets and our recreation programs after school provide releases for the kids. She is in awe of the progress that's being made, she just wishes there were more people listening and here to see it. JK 04/25/23 - APROVED Ms. McKenna came back to the podium since no one else wanted to speak. She spoke about the students participating in the curriculum and the leadership. When she was in school in Lexington, the students, especially at high school, were the leaders. They participated in decisions, they were on the committees, and they were really engaged with educating the adult population as to what their needs truly were. She is encouraging the School Committee to figure out more ways to do that. Ms. McKenna stated that the Senate became very stagnant in recent yea rs. a • Ms. Sawhney would like to change the 2/28/23 entry "Report on student demographics in LPS clubs" to "Report to demonstrate diverse representation in student participation in athletics and extracurricular activities that are supported by the LPS School Budget. Items added: • Send something home about gun safety. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to adjourn at 8:11 PM, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Passed 4-0. JK 04/25/23 - APROVED