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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-14-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, December 14, 2021 Conducted by Remote Participation Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:20 P.M. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Kathleen Lenihan, Chairperson Eileen Jay, Vice -Chair Scott Bokun Deepika Sawhney Sara Cuthbertson, Clerk STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Sara Mei SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee is convening in-person in the Technology Room at Central Office. Members of the public can view and participate 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 Chair, Ms. Lenihan, moved that the School Committee go into Executive Session under: 1. Exemption 3 - For the purpose of discussing strategy with respect to litigation, as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body. 2. Exemption 4 - For the purpose of discussing the deployment of security personnel or devices, or strategies with respect thereto. Ms. Lenihan took a roll call vote, approved 5-0. EXECUTIVE SESSION 6:25 p.m. - 7:25 p.m. LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK The School Committee returned to Open Session at 7:25 p.m. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Ms. Cuthbertson thanked LexPride for hosting the Transgender Day of Rememerance. She also attended DEI and an inclusion CIT meeting last week, they got to look over some sample lessons. Mr. Bokun announced that the Dyslexia Task force met last week, the administration and educators have made great progress in making sure that LPS is following the new DESE guidelines for Dyslexia screenings as well as explaining the new procedures to other educators and staff. He hopes that sometime next year, Kathy McCarthy and her team can do a brief presentation on the work they are doing to help our students be successful. From the Lexington Human Rights Committee; students can still receive service hours from No -Hate November activities. The upcoming MLK Day Annual discussion on race is also an opportunity for service hours, you can go to the LHRC's website for details. Mr. Bokun's last announcement is for all LHS Seniors, the Lexington Rotary Club has scholarships available for college. Applications are available on the Rotary Club's website but you should go through your guidance counselor first. Ms. Jay thanked LEF for organizing the trivia bee! Ms. Sawhney wanted to give a shout to the nurse staff, especially to Ms. Rufo for organizing the vaccination clinics. Sara Mei said that there's a new advisory schedule, Senate looked over this. Ms. Lenihan gave words of encouragement for Seniors and parents of seniors since this week is the week of early decision/early acceptance and wished everyone good luck. COMMUNITY SPEAK None. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT • Congratulations and Celebrations o Dr. Hackett congratulated Lexington High School, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) notes that LHS has met three of the six "foundational elements" in the standards for accreditation. She also gave Dr. Stephens and the LHS administration, faculty, and staff a shout out for all of their work. • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion o Dr. Hackett announced that the METCO Directors Conference was outstanding. Dr. Tricia Rose was the keynote speaker and the theme of the conference was "Building an Antiracist School Culture". LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK o We also had the annual METCO meeting with our Boston families, it was very nice even though it was virtual. Barbara Hamilton, the METCO Director, presented a video that Dr. Hackett linked in her report. o Members of the DEI Student Advisory Council joined Dr. Chris Lyons at the Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity in Education job fair earlier this month. Students are excited to be involved in the hiring process of staff. • LPS COVID-19 Update o Dr. Hackett announced that since last spring, LPS has administered 5,173 doses of COVID-19 vaccine/booster shots. We will not be able to get additional doses for walk-ins for the next vaccination clinic on December 23rd. o On December 10 and December 13, over 1,349 COVID-19 shots were administered, including 571 vaccines given to 5 to 11 year-old students; 554 Pfizer for 12+; and 226 Moderna boosters given to LPS staff and community members. There are no more available appointments for the December 23 clinic but two dates have been added on January 7 and 13, 2022. o Dr. Hackett reviewed the graph that compares COVID rates - Average Daily Incidence Rate per 100,000 (Last 14 days), that is listed on her report. She hopes to get as many people vaccinated before the holidays as possible to hopefully keep positive cases down. • Mental Health Supports o Dr. Hackett states that in school systems in Massachusetts it is typical to see only one counselor per school for hundreds of students. In Lexington Public Schools we are fortunate to have a full complement of staff, the Counseling Department, comprising more than 50 professionals, includes a school counselor and social worker at each elementary school, three school counselors and two social workers at each middle school, and twelve school counselors and five social workers at Lexington High School. In addition to that, LPS has three METCO social workers each of whom support students in two of our elementary schools, and two METCO social workers, each of whom support the middle and high school levels. There are also Therapeutic Learning Programs at Estabrook, Bridge, and Diamond each have dedicated social workers, as well. o Dr. Hackett also included the link for Mental Health Program and Services in her report. • School Safety o Dr. Hackett said that after the recent tragic events in Michigan, many people have been asking about our safety protocols in schools. In 2018, her first order of business was to examine existing safety protocols and procedures. She examined safety and security reports and met with administrators and the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, and the Director of Public Facilities to learn more about the district's approach to safety. Prior to Dr. Hackett's arrival, the district had begun to implement ALICE Trainings, ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. The program teaches staff that they have choices. These training sessions were not done in every school so there were some concerns about LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK consistency and controversy over what ALICE teaches. In 2018 we put together a LPS Safety Team to develop a modified approach to ALICE Training. Our approach to safety includes a focus on building security measures and procedures, placing a high value on students' and staff's emotional and psychological well-being. All teachers and staff have begun the process of getting regularly trained in building security and safety procedures. o In terms of preparation for emergencies, each school convenes a Crisis Response Team, including school administrators, the school nurse, school counselor(s), and others. The CRT helps plan and coordinate safety drills. All staff receive training in safety techniques and drills, and students participate in age-appropriate drills to teach safety and emergency procedures for a variety of situations. o The goal of any safety drill is to practice so that in the event of an actual emergency, students and staff are able to respond. o Safety drills that have or will be practiced in Lexington Public Schools include: ■ Fire Drills ■ Enhanced Lockdown Drills ■ Active Intruder Simulation (this drill is not done at the Elementary level). ■ Exit and Rally, every school has a "rally spot". o The LPS Safety Team developed "Safety Training Guidelines" and identified a plan for consistent safety training, "safety is not a choice". o During the pandemic all LSP educators completed the online ALICE training. Over the next couple of years we will continue to implement the work on the additional staff safety training outlined on the chart in the Superintendent's report. The full Superintendent's Report can be found here. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney asked if we can find out how many students are vaccinated at each school, Dr. Hackett said yes we can but it does take longer to do. Ms. Lenihan brought up testing after the break, there will still be pooled testing. She mentioned that Belmont had testing for the town after Thanksgiving, she will reach out to the Board of Health to see if we can do something like that again. Ms. Lenihan mentioned that the State has a list of students vaccinated but the number is higher than actual students enrolled so it is not very accurate. Ms. Cuthbertson has been hearing that it has been challenging for parents to get mental health support for their children outside of school. She asked Dr. Hackett if staff have been hearing from people that they cannot get into services recommended to them. Dr. Hacket responded that she has actually heard the opposite, especially with the Tele -Health services being available have been a helpful tool for the Community but she will look into this. LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK Ms. Sawhney and Dr. Hackett discussed the work that counselors do to help with DEI efforts and that this is part of the ongoing work. Ms. Lenihan points out that there has been a lot of attention on the mental health of students and school shootings across the country. Dr. Hackett shared that her niece's friend was in the Parkland shooting. She came up from Florida and spoke on a panel about mental health, school safety and how important it is for funding to go into the mental health support system. Dr. Hackett mentioned that we've got to get better at the mental health components in schools across the United States if we are going to see a decrease in school violence. Ms. Lenihan also added that adults need to make sure that children don't have access to weapons and that this is almost uniquely an American phenomenon. NEW BUSINESS a) SC Letter Supporting 5.365/H.584 Ms. Jay gave an overview of the bill 5.365/H.584 An Act Relative to Anti -Racism, Equity and Justice in Education. The intent of the bill is to be able to give the capability across the State for school districts to curriculum work around anti -racism and incortating into the curriculum histories, stories and contributions of various racial and ethic groups in our nation's history and around the globe. It also is hoping to foster some teaching practices around social justice as well as how to be active in combating injustices. It is also to help promote diversity in the workforce. The structure of the bill is that it is proposing to establish a commission whose task it will be to work in conjunction with DESE on some recommendations for how to develop a curriculum around ethnic studies, anti -racism and social justice as well as how to promote diverse hiring. The commission will set a framework but the bill also establishes a funding mechanism for school districts to be able to apply for grants if they are interested in doing this work (professional training and curriculum development). It is currently in the joint education subcommittee, but it has not gone to the full floor. It is at the stage where the subcommittee has to decide to move it out of the subcommittee into the general legislature. Ms. Jay drafted a letter after discussing this bill at a previous School Committee meeting. Mr. Bokun asked if she knows of any other school communities doing this, she replied that she does not know of many but that she hopes Lexington will help set an example. Ms. Jay added that this won't be back in discussion in the joint education subcommittee until January. Mr. Bokun moved to sign and support the SC Letter Supporting S.365/H.584; Ms. Cuthberston seconds. (Approved 5-0). b) FY22 First Quarter Report Mr. Coelho went over the document; Fiscal Year 2022 First Quarter Year End Financial Projection. He prefaced that a lot of this information may change throughout the year. Right now we are at an approximate $1.34 million dollars surplus. This includes not accessing the $500,000 from the Special Education Stabilization Fund. Table 1 shows a surplus of $732,236 in salaries and $611,252 surplus in the expense line. The biggest thing that has been generating our surplus in payroll is around vacancies. We have had some difficulty filling positions. Some LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK other surplus has been generated by new hires coming in at slightly lower levels than the past. Mr. Coelho also went over the expenses listed in Table 3 and 4. Transportation is subject to change due to different challenges but it seems to have calmed down. We are projecting a small surplus with SPED transportation. Table 5 shows where students were projected to be in out of district categories. We also received an additional LABBB credit of $135,000, we are required to use this in the same year. At this time, we are projecting the Special Education Out -of -District Tuition budget will generate a year end surplus of $640K. Table 6 gives an idea of the circuit breaker proceeds, Mr. Coelho points out that when we projected the Town Meeting for FY22 we weren't certain what the States finances would be, circuit breaker is subject to appropriation. Circuit breaker came through at a much greater rate than anticipated, that 5 million dollars will be available for use in FY23. Other than that, there have been some small savings and Mr. Coelho is keeping a close eye on the Legal budget, the Legal Services budget is projected to be fully expended in FY 2022. Ms. Cuthbertson noticed that there are currently 35.72 FTE vacancies, she asked how does this compare to a typical year? Mr. Coelho replied that in his first year that number was about half, 17, maybe 20 vacancies. This is a significant change, the number is higher than "normal" circumstances. Ms. Cuthbertson asked if this is happening in other districts and Mr. Coelho responded that everybody that he has spoken with has had trouble getting substitutes, keeping substitutes and keeping staff. Ms. Jay noticed that the bulk of the vacancies are in Special Education, she is wondering how are we able to get the coverage for positions with all of the openings? Mr. Coelho states that some are not being covered because it's not available to have our staff cover it. There can also be a bot of a domino effect when filling positions with aids. We have what we call "building subs", someone comes in and gets assigned to whatever vacancy is open that day then they move around, it's a bit like a chess game. Ms. Jay asked why we are not seeing many classroom vacancies, Mr. Coelho replies that he has to take a look at that, he does not have a satisfactory answer for that at this time. Dr. Hackett also added that many classrooms have multiple people to support the students. Ms. Lenihan added that there is a nationwide shortage of teachers. Mr. Bokun asked if the $500,000 from the Special Education Stabilization Fund is in our account right now? Mr. Coelho explained that the money has been allocated to a line item in the accounting system so he can utilize it if necessary. Mr. Bokun is concerned about this money "getting lost", Mr. Coelho states that there is a process in place on how to use the money. COMMUNITY SPEAK None. CONSENT AGENDA LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK Mr. Bokun read the following consent agenda items: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. November 19, 2021 - BMO in the amount of $25,460.49 b. November 19, 2021 - Payroll in the amount of $4,160,612.99 c. December 3, 2021- AP Warrants in the amount of $1,206,892.04 d. December 3, 2021- Payroll in the amount of $4,150,776.00 e. December 17, 2021 -AP Warrants in the amount of $875,268.40 Ms. Jay read the following consent agenda item: Approval of School Committee Minutes f. November 9, 2021 g. November 30, 2021 Ms. Cuthbertson moved that the School Committee vote to accept the whole Consent Agenda; Ms. Sawhney seconded. (Approved 5-0). Ms. Sawhney made a motion to adjourn at 8:51 P.M.; Ms. Cuthbertson seconded. (Approved 5-0). LSC 12/14/21 APPROVED JK