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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-11-15-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, November 15, 2022 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 5:31 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice -chair Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Larry Freeman Eileen Jay Student representative, Grace Ou SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent Dave Coelho, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Chris Lyons, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Staff Support The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. 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. Ms. Sawhney made a motion to enter Executive Session under Exemption 3 — For the purpose of discussing strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Lexington Educators Association (LEA) and the Association of Lexington Administrators (ALA), as the Chair so declares an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the School Committee, Ms. Jay seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. The School Committee entered Executive Session at 5:33 PM The School Committee returned to the regular meeting at 6:22 PM CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval JK 11/15/22 - Approved a. November 4, 2022 - AP Warrant in the amount of $668,179.46 b. November 4, 2022 - Payroll in the amount of $4,484,972.23 Ms. Jay read the following consent agenda items: Minutes a. August 30, 2022 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: Donations a. Anonymous $500.00 donation for the Pacific Basin Musical Festival b. $1000.00 Donation from Arlex Oil for the LHS Choral/Vocal Program Ms. Lenihan made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS • Mr. Freeman mentioned the Martin Luther King event that the Human Rights Committee is organizing. They have great facilitators and the whole program is going to be different this year. They are very excited about it and are looking for volunteers. Please visit the Human Rights Committee website to volunteer. • Ms. Lenihan announced that we had the second School Building Committee Meeting yesterday. At this meeting, we discussed the MSBA Eligibility Phase and where we are with that, and the next steps. We also discussed the Integrated Design Policy. These meetings are recorded and Ms. Lenihan will send this out to her listservs. Ms. Lenihan and Ms. Sawhney attended the SEPAC quarterly meeting where they heard about concerns regarding transition as children move from one school to another, inclusion issues in regard to AP classes at the high school, graduation requirements, and open vacancies. Ms. Lenihan also enjoyed attending the Fiske Joy in Learning Celebration. • Ms. Jay went to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) conference a few weeks ago with many of her School Committee colleagues. She also enjoyed attending Lexington Learns Together last week - one particular session was run by students and they did an amazing job running the session. Ms. Jay also attended the Fiske Joy in Learning Celebration and she loves how education has come a long way with learning in small groups. • Ms. Sawhney attended the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) conference a few weeks ago as a delegate from the School Committee. She also attended the Planning Board meeting and Permanent Building Committee (PBC). • Grace also went to the Fiske Joy in Learning Celebration and it was a wonderful experience. The DEI Student Advisory Committee met and they are in the process of replacing books so there are more diverse reading books in elementary schools. Grace attended the LHS Senate meeting last week and they are working on making menstrual period products more accessible to people in the high school. • Ms. Cuthbertson also went to the MASC conference the first week in November. She and Dr. Hackett did the Battle Green walk/run and participated on the LEXSEPTA team. For a JK 11/15/22 - Approved Town update - the Hosmer House was moved and that will be turned into housing units. COMMUNITY SPEAK Dr. Avon Lewis, President of the Lexington Education Association: Tomorrow, November 16th, 2022 is Educational Support Personnel Day. ESPs are vital members of our school community. We cannot operate our schools without them, however, often ESPs feel like an afterthought. Our custodians and maintenance workers are in their second year of working without a contract. With gas prices soaring, the technology unit asked for an adjustment to their travel stipend that would have cost less than $5,000 for the whole unit, but the district said that was not warranted. Some of our clerical workers and Administrative Assistants were paid for less than a full day of work on Lexington Learns Together when time could have been used for training. While Unit C was paid for their usual day on LLT and we appreciate that we have Unit C staff across the district, they are being paid at a lower classification than what they are working and Principals are resisting reclassifying them. We could not function without our ESPs. Thank you to all our Educational Support Personnel, we see you and we hear you! Chris Doucette, LHS Math Teacher for over 20 years: I want to speak about what I believe LPS wants to be instead of where I see us heading. We recently developed core values to strive for what we want to make Lexington Public Schools be. Care for Yourself and Others - I love being a part of this community and want to continue to be. I am proud to have been part of the team that brought the Lexington Food Pantry more than 70 pounds of food. This is who we are and what we do, but we need the ability to take care of our families. Some of our staff have to choose between going unpaid or working sick. Many staff I have spoken to feel unvalued, as staff need to have a sufficient amount of sick time and reasonable student loads. Using Your Mind - we have some of the finest minds in the country working at LPS. Recently, sadly, many of my colleagues at LHS have left, retired, or are working reduced course loads due to unsustainable course loads on their time and energy. Last week, I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Hackett at Lexington Learns Together and she tweeted a photo of two of my amazing colleagues but there is more to the photo. Many people are saying this is the hardest year of their careers. Do Your Part - I am hoping you will do your part to make sure we receive sufficient sick time to take care of ourselves and our families, find creative ways to support our staff, especially new hires, and capping all secondary educators at 100 students. Anjali Agarwal, a Lexington High School student: Called in to express the stress educators have been experiencing. It has been particularly discouraging to see unsustainable conditions for our teachers. Between unreasonable allocations for teachers and cutting into supposedly guaranteed prep time, the overworking of our teachers and staff is a failure of our school system. We are a district that values community, care, and belonging but our actions toward our educators do not show this at all. I can say, as a student, that students will benefit if teachers are respected and valued at their workplace and this requires a massive overhaul. Laura Sheppard -Brick, LHS Math Teacher: Today I am speaking from my own experience. Teaching math at LHS is particularly hard and this is because we hold ourselves to a very high standard. This is also due to the math department and a few other departments having a cap at 125 students spread over 5 classes. With 125 students, it is impossible for me to do this job well JK 11/15/22 - Approved and be a good mother. Before I had a child, I said yes, to a student who needed extra help during a prep block, I stayed after school to make practice quizzes to make sure my students understood the material. I would work 6-8 hours on the weekend to ensure my students received tests back as soon as possible. I would stay at school for 10-11 hour days, my partner never saw me but my students thrived. After returning to work after maternity leave, I was torn between my child and my students. I started to say no to my students. These no's do not serve my students well and they did not give me the quality time with my family that I thought they would either. This past weekend I spent 13 hours grading tests and quizzes. I want to be the teacher my students deserve, especially now, but I also want to be able to do that for my own family. All secondary teachers should have a cap of 100 students. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Before Dr. Hackett discussed her report, she explained that we are working really hard on a contract with the Lexington Education Association. We are hoping to have possibly a one-year successor agreement soon and hopefully, a three year after that. We currently have an ALA tentative agreement with them. There are many complicated issues that we are working through and many proposals. Obviously, we care a lot about our teachers and staff, and we are working hard to determine what we are able to resolve. Dr. Hackett also spoke about the district's new elementary math program, Illustrative Math (IM), that we saw being used at Fiske. This program was just rolled out and it is being expertly taught and implemented. When Dr. Hackett spoke with teachers, she explained that teachers felt that this curriculum really allows them to focus on one concept and this has been very rewarding. Shoutout to the Fiske staff! Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendent`s Peort with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 1. Congratulations and Celebrations 2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 3. FY 2022-2023 Staff Turnover and Vacancies • In the fall of 2021, Lexington Public Schools had approximately 24 vacancies, compared to 37 vacancies (including full- and part-time positions) this fall. We typically see approximately 25 staff vacancies every fall before the pandemic and now. Currently, we have 13 more vacancies than we did at this time last year. Dr. Hackett was actually surprised we did not have a larger turnover rate given the state of affairs in Massachusetts and elsewhere. LPS does not have an inordinate number of open positions when taking into account the total workforce size (approximately 1,300) and the increased staffing needs of students new to the district. 4. FY 2024 Special Education Stabilization Source • At the last Budget Summit, we explained how we were thinking about the Special Education Stabilization Fund, and questions were asked about whether or not we could increase that amount due to more move -ins and greater needs. The FY 2024 JK 11/15/22 - Approved proposed revenue allocation currently has $1,000,000 designated to the Special Education Stabilization Fund—$500,000 to return unspent funds allocated for the FY 2022 operating budget, plus an additional $500,000 to provide as -needed support toward unbudgeted special education move -ins and a substantial increase in private tuition expenses due to a 14% inflation rate set by the Operational Services Division (OSD). We are requesting to adjust the allocation amount from $1,000,000 to slightly more than $1,400,000 in order to bring the fund balance to $2,000,000. This will bring the School Department closer to our projected 4.16% budget increase needed for FY 2024. Although it is not necessary, a vote of the School Committee would be appropriate in helping us to formalize this request. Our next step is to reach out to the Town Finance to solidify this. • Mr. Coelho explained that we have 2.6 million in Circuit Breaker leftover. It can only be spent on Special Education until 1 year after receiving it, it then expires. Once it expires, it is turned back over to the Town as "free cash" and can be used in any manner. We are requesting to have a portion of it to be allocated into the SPED Stabilization Fund. • Ms. Sawhney asked, How does the Operational Services Division determine the rate? • Mr. Coelho explained that it is determined based on inflation but also Circuit Breaker funds. • Dr. Hackett explained that we have leftover Circuit Breaker funds only because we received other grant funds through federal ESSER funds, Medicaid, etc. We do not have money to turn back because we have unfilled staffing positions for the majority. If we did not have the ESSER funds, we would not have these funds to turn back to the Town. • Ms. Jay asked which line these funds would fall under. • Dr. Hackett explained that we would only have access to these funds if we needed them and we may not, we just would like to have the option to. 5. Website & Parentsquare Coming Soon! • This will be for the district site first, then all the school sites will transition over after. 6. Testing Kits Available 7. Later Start Time Recap • Ms. Lenihan explained that this was a big drive due to transportation issues. When looking over bus maps, it showed that many students take the bus who live very close to the school. Should we have set limits on who should be able to take the bus - perhaps a mile or a mile and a half from the school? There are multiple stops on certain routes. I am wondering if we consolidated bus stops, if that eases up the demands of transportation. This should be something we consider. • Dr. Hackett explained that in her pause on elementary school start times letter, she stated, "It also was suggested that another way to solve the elementary start time problem is to comply with state regulations and eliminate busing at elementary levels for children within walking distance of schools. Such an approach would likely create new challenges for families and the environment" Yes, this could help solve the problem as we are over -delivering services and it boxes us in. A solution JK 11/15/22 - Approved would be to deliver what is required and that would give us flexibility. Of course, it is good to have students on buses especially environmentally. There are many ways to solve this and not everyone is going to like all the decisions. Even during tricky conversations, Dr. Hackett believes that they should be had. That is what makes our decisions better. This was a good process and when we say that there is a process, it is not designed to say that there is a conclusion already, we do not operate that way. We are sincerely asking the community for their opinion so that we can collaborate together to find a solution. • Mr. Freeman asked why Lexington Public Schools does not have a system to notify parents when a bus is broken down, delayed, etc. Will the new ParentSquare system have this type of system? • Dr. Hackett replied that the new system will not have this functionality but we will look into this. First we'll work on the new communication system, then website, then we will look into this. COMMUNITY SPEAK Robin Strizhak, LHS English Teacher who has been in the district for over 20 years: I wish more people would speak up for the sacrifices we make in our own lives for other people's children who we also love. We collectively as educators across the board are in crisis. We want respect and to be listened to. The way we are going is unsustainable. Nathaniel Dvorkin, senior at Lexington High School: As a student, all my teachers utilize Google Classroom and one of the features is that when a teacher grades an assignment or adds a comment, etc., I get email and phone notifications over the app. Over the last grading period, I have taken note of when I received them and they included the times of 8:31 p.m., 9:14 p.m., 9:42 p.m., 10:06 p.m., 10:28 p.m., 10:39 p.m., 10:41 p.m., 10:57 p.m., 11:11 p.m., 12:10 a.m., 12:31 a.m., 12:44 a.m., 4:11 a.m., 5:27 a.m., and 5:52 a.m. These come from across all my teachers and classes, so I am asking where as a School Committee do you draw the line of a too -large educator workload. Kristen DePesa, LHS English Teacher for over 13 years: The awareness of students and what their teachers are feeling this year is unprecedented. The fact that students are taking notice of their teachers are able to do their jobs and support them so much speaks volumes of how hard this job has become. It is so inspiring to hear students speak at School Committee. If you are not going to listen to teachers then listen to students because they are who we are here for. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS No items discussed. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Lenihan made a motion to adjourn at 7.47 PM, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. JK 11/15/22 - Approved