Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-13-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:01 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Eileen Jay Larry Freeman Deepika Sawhney (virtually) STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Grace Ou and Aditi Swamy SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent 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. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. September 9, 2022 - AP Warrant in the amount of $396,418.61 b. September 9, 2022 -Payroll in the amount of $4,123,723.98 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: Minutes a. April 26, 2022 Ms. lay made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, Ms. Lenihan seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS JK 09/13/22 - Approved Mr. Freeman reminded everyone of the Lexington Human Rights Committee meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. He also thanked the community for sending him back -to -school pictures. Ms. Lenihan thanked LPS for the vaccination clinics. Ms. Jay welcomed everyone back to school since she missed the last meeting. Ms. Sawhney accompanied Ms. Cuthbertson and Dr. Hackett for a couple of school visits last week to Clarke Middle School and Fiske Elementary School. She and Dr. Hackett spoke with a Town consultant, they discussed a zero -waste initiative. There was a PTA Presidents' Council (PPC) meeting, and Dr. Hackett discusses this further in her report. Ms. Cuthbertson watched the 9/12/22 Select Board meeting. The request for proposals for the Center bathrooms went out and all of the bids came in significantly over. Additional funding will be needed. Grace Ou introduced herself. She is currently in the twelfth grade at Lexington High School. She thinks that the School Committee is a really interesting opportunity for students to input their ideas, and she is excited to be on the committee. Aditi Swamy also introduced herself. She is also a senior and is on the LHS Senate. She is really looking forward to working with the School Committee. COMMUNITY SPEAK No speakers. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed the following topics in her report: 1. Congratulations and Celebrations • Vaccination Clinics • School Committee Student Representatives • PTO/PTA Volunteers 2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion • DEI Curriculum • DEI Student Advisory Council 3. Elementary Schedule Review 4. Mental Health Services for Lexington Residents 5. Coming Soon: A New Lexington High School Capital Project Website! The full Superintendent's Report can be viewed here. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Lenihan asked if after the next vaccination clinic we could get an update on how many flu shots versus how many COVID-19 boosters we administered. JK 09/13/22 - Approved Mr. Freeman commented that his husband received two vaccinations at the LPS clinics and he said that the process was very smooth. He also encouraged all parents to remind their children who walk, skateboard, bike, or scooter to school to please obey the traffic crosswalk signs. Dr. Hackett added that there was a minor accident today at the High School. The chief of police is going to survey the area tomorrow in collaboration with the LHS Principal. Ms. Cuthbertson is wondering if our educators are choosing to go to the professional learning on Learning for Justice's "Let's Talk" or if people are being guided to go if they have shared hesitancy in the past. Dr. Hackett responded that educators asked for additional training so she thinks that it is an opportunity they are looking forward to. POLICY SUBCOMMITTEE The School Committee held a first reading of the following draft revised policies: AC -Nondiscrimination Policy, ACA -Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex Policy, ACE -Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability Policy, ACAB-Sexual Harassment Policy. Ms. Cuthbertson explained that these policies are being revised in response to legislation and state and federal guidance, and the drafts have been reviewed by our legal counsel. School Committee members discussed the policies and suggested wording and structural changes. The Policy Subcommittee will work on incorporating suggestions and bring these policies back for a second reading. PRESENTATION - Community Input Team (CIT) for Inclusion Johnny Cole, Director of Equity &Student Supports, presented the Communit Input Team (CIT) for Inclusion slideshow. Ellen Sugita, Mike Law, Sam Johnston, Lauren Black, and Tracy Conte (members of the CIT) also joined as panelists. The team also provided the Community Input Team (CIT} for Inclusion Final Report document for review. The team, which was formed in January 2020, spent time envisioning the future of inclusion and established priorities. Their final recommendations identify the following as priority areas: Short -Term Priorities • Identify early adopters for inclusive practices who can be models on how to take risks. Long -Term Priorities • Provide time and resources to train all staff in Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Reinforce UDL successes in a public way to help establish it as a standard. Provide opportunities for staff members to collaborate across departments, allowing all members to contribute. JK 09/13/22 - Approved • Raise community awareness regarding the benefits of inclusion for all. Dispel the myth that students with disabilities negatively impact general education classrooms. • Continue to promote co -teaching across the district where a special educator is partnered with a general educator in the same classroom. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Lenihan thinks it would be helpful to show an example of a lesson that is part of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the future. Sam Johnston explained that she does work with CAST, which is the organization that established UDL and there is training and research done on it. She also stated that they focused on having a strong foundation of accessibility which has always been the core foundational layer of UDL as well as where the legal obligation sits. She spoke about adding more technology which is a tool that helps with accessibility. For example, with summer reading, using a physical copy of the book is very difficult for a student with limited physical mobility, so making a well -formatted digital copy available allows access to that shared reading experience. Similarly, allowing many classrooms to use Google classroom and writing in a digital environment rather than by hand; the tools are there now to provide that good foundation of accessibility. Speech -to -text, text -to -speech; these practices aren't crunches, they contribute to good comprehension. They make the difference in students being able to participate or not. Dr. Hackett asked what Mr. Law sees changing through implementing inclusion practices. He replied that at the High School we are already seeing inclusion practices being normalized. We already have so many of these accessibility practices existing in the district so it is becoming second nature for our teachers. He also stated that inclusion practices benefit everyone, our students are integrating more into their community and they are making connections and networking in the community. Those connections go a long way into their adult lives; networking possibilities for getting jobs down the road. Mr. Freeman asked if UDL will help special education students be more inclusive in general education classes. When students are identified mid -year as needing special education support, they are sometimes clustered with other special education students even in general ed classes. How inclusive is it if we're grouping special education students together? Is UDL going to change that? Ms. Conte replied that she does believe that UDL helps, it creates more environments where more of our students can be welcomed and can be addressed appropriately. She also mentioned that co -teaching helps make our classrooms fully accessible for all students. Mr. Freeman asked if the goal is that a student who needs special services wouldn't have to be moved to another classroom, and Ms. Contre replied yes. Dr. Hackett added that the answer to this is maybe, it depends on individual need. Ms. Sugita agreed with Dr. Hackett's response, she added that UDL creates an environment for accessibility. Teachers ask themselves if their lesson is accessible for all students, for auditory learners, more visual learners. Do I as a teacher have ways of assessing different understanding? UDL creates an environment but there are times when they need direct services. Mr. Black is a parent of a child who was in a pilot co -teaching model last year in elementary school. There are times when kids with particular significant JK 09/13/22 - Approved needs will still need the pull-out services. A co -teaching model benefits those kids because it increases inclusion opportunities but it also massively benefits the other kids in the classroom. Ms. Jay would like a picture of how the co -teaching model works in classrooms, particularly at the secondary level. She would also like to know how this looks to students. Does the special education teacher help teach the core subject? Ms. Conte responded that the goal is that the two teachers in the classroom are both working with all of the students, and the special educator is the expert in accessibility but over time we will try to keep pairs of general educators and special educators together so that the special education teacher will build knowledge in a specific subject. One example Ms. Conte gave was that a class could be broken up into two groups and both teachers would work with both groups in different ways. Dr. Hackett added that this is one way to do the co -teaching model but it is not the only way. While it can be two teachers, there are many different models, such as using high -trained Instructional Assistants along with one teacher. Ms. Sawhney reminded the School Committee that she and Ms. Cuthbertson were on the CIT as contributing members. She explained that COVID impacted some of this work. She recommended a book by Mr. Hehir that talks about the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion School in Boston. Ms. Cuthbertson thanked everyone and mentioned that she was on the CIT. She stated that the UDL approach benefits and engages all students and creates student agency and it fits into our strategic plan. This work will require a financial commitment. She noted that good co -teaching requires a lot of good planning. So we will need to put money towards making sure that adults are working together to support students. Mr. Black added in response to Ms. Jay's question, that his children (in two different schools) think of the special educators as just additional teachers in the classroom. He thinks that the perspective of the students is simply that this is another person to help them learn and that all teachers are equals. Mr. Freeman stated that the most moving thing he heard in the presentation was dispelling the myth of having special education students in Gen Ed classes. We are all better when we are exposed to people who are different. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Lexington Integrated Building Design Construction Policy The Lexington Integrated Building Design Construction Policy was reviewed by Dan Voss, the Chairperson of Sustainable Lexington. Dr. Hackett explained that this was a joint is a parallel process, and the policy would apply to the high school building project. School Committee Questions/Comments Ms. Sawhney added that she was a part of the creation of this policy, being the liaison from the JK 09/13/22 - Approved School Committee. She explained a bit about the process and her experiences with the Permanent Building Committee (PBC). Mr. Freeman asked if the reporting that's required in this policy is going to be a huge lift. Mr. Voss replied that PBC has successfully gone through this process a number of times. Ms. Cuthbertson has learned a lot from Sustainable Lexington from past experiences and that a healthy building impacts students directly. Mr. Voss used air quality as an example of that. Grace Ou thinks that it's good to hear that the community is putting so much effort into future generations' education and that our environment affects how we learn. Superintendent's Recommendation Dr. Hackett said that we want to follow the Integrated Design Policy as we work on the high school project. Therefore, she is recommending that the School Committee vote to include the Chairperson of Sustainable Lexington as a voting member of the LHS School Building Committee. Her letter provides the justification for the Recommendation as well as the process and authority for adding members to the SBC. Ms. Sawhney moved that the School Committee vote to include the chairperson/member of Sustainable Lexington on the School Building Committee as a voting member; Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. COMMUNITY SPEAK No speakers. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS This Possible Action Items list is set up for the School Committee to better respond to suggestions from individual members and to make sure that things are brought to the attention of the full committee. Dr. Hackett reviewed the setup of the document. She has added to the list a policy that recognizes the unique needs of individuals who speak a language other than English; keywords are Civil Rights; translation. She also added an item to share non-discrimination, sexual harassment, etc. policies with municipal partners (e.g. Rec. Comm); keywords are share non-discrimination policies with municipal partners. Ms. Cuthbertson read the request to do more outreach and public input on the DEI guidebook before release, the policy on diverse representation on groups and committees, and the request for the Policy Subcommittee to review what other school district policies are related to cell phone use. JK 09/13/22 - Approved ADJOURNMENT Ms. Lenihan made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:50, Ms. Jay seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. JK 09/13/22 - Approved