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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-08-24-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Thursday, August 24, 2006 Lexington High School, Library Media Center 251 Waltham Street Present: Superintendent Paul Ash; School Committee Chair Tom Diaz; School Committee Members: Helen Cohen, Tom Griffiths, Olga Guttag and Ravi Sakhuja. Minutes taken by Leora Tec. The meeting was convened at 7:43 p.m. I. Call to Order and Welcome (Tom Diaz) II. Public Comment Barbara Parker: Is someone coming to do a study of the schools? Jim Goell: Have we overrun the budget? We should get a strong business manager and report directly to the School Committee. Also get an independent audit. Restore confidence, get things classified correctly. Tom Griffiths: We will have new Director of Finance. The town undergoes an audit already. Paul Ash: There was $100K of maintenance work charged to maintenance that should have been charged to the capital budget. III. Superintendent’s Report: 1.New Interim Director of Food Services: Cathleen Higgins is leaving Chartwells. We had an exit interview. Ken Wolfe will be here until we get a permanent person and our staff will be involved in the interview process. He is very well qualified. Olga Guttag: Is the Healthy Lunch Task Force involved in the interview process? Paul Ash: We can ask, though we thought we would only have one person. 2.Design Partnership has been selected to come up with the K-5 / Central Office Master Plan: They presented a brilliant presentation. Enrollment projections will drive this. Paul Ash has met once with the architect. We must determine the capacity of the four remaining schools. A mechanical engineer will visit the four remaining schools for rough cost estimates (no other firm offered this at no extra cost). A report will be presented to the School Committee by the end of October. Also redistricting options will be put forward in the fall. SC meeting 08/24/06 page # 1 IV. Members’ Reports / Members’ Concerns: Olga Guttag: I have been behind because of health issues and a death in the family. I would like to discuss at a future meeting balancing FY 06 effects on FY07. Helen Cohen: Thank you to Cathleen Higgins for the wonderful job she has done. This is the last meeting with Bethan Jones, town reporter She has improved coverage. Thank you, and good luck in your future endeavors. Ravi Sakhuja: Bethan did a great job. Paul Ash needs to pay more attention to the budget. We can’t take another surprise. We need better financial oversight. Tom Diaz: I compliment the faculty for their idealism, as they look forward to opening school even after suffering the pain of a failed override. V. Discussion Items: 1.Draft 2006-2007 System Goals (see handout) Paul Ash discussed the highlights of the doc: Academic/social/emotional needs of students Faculty of high quality Operations (finance and facilities) Then Dr. Ash discussed the annual goals within each category. Math and phys. ed. are the first departments that will get a full curriculum review. Part of that includes measures for knowing when you have achieved the goals. Discussion of SPED costs and SPED financial oversight being moved to the finance office. Discussion of evaluation based on set standards as opposed to a child’s individual standards. 2.Facilities Department Report (Presented by FacilitiesDirectorBill Hartigan with handouts) a. Energy: Did feasibility study at Clarke. He discussed several options all with high cost and lower paybacks than expected. Oil consumption at elementary schools was very high, they decreased it at Bowman and Bridge and increased it at Hastings, because they increased indoor air quality. At Estabrook they also don’t want to invest too much as the equipment is in bad condition. SC meeting 08/24/06 page # 2 Clarke Middle School electric bills have gone down; we saved $138,000 as a result of the NSTAR program we implemented. Energy Conservation project at Diamond Middle School is proceeding well. The opportunity to save energy at the source of generation is much greater than later down the line. b. Personnel 1.Robert Martin is the Assistant Director of Facilities for Custodial Services 2.We are hoping to fill the positions of Assistant Director of Facilities for Technical Services and Facilities Manager. 3.All head custodian and special assignment custodian positions are filled c. The New Fiske is 85-90% complete d. Preventive Maintenance Program: We are talking about two different software programs to track these systems to track expenditures. e. Table of projects We had NSTAR come in to look at LHS energy consumption and our rating was very poor. How can we improve the energy efficiency? We just got that within 72 hours including no cost and low cost options and it has not yet been fully digested, part of it will become part of the budget request. An independent firm paid 80% by NSTAR will look at independent control systems. A goal is to be able to monitor school energy use from a central location. Tom Griffiths: That was the second outstanding report in a row. 3.Draft 2006-2007 School Committee Meeting Calendar: There was a discussion of various dates but the Committee decided to vote on the th calendar at the September 14 meeting. 4.Paul Ash: Report on 2005-2006 System Goals: See packet. Much was accomplished by the Central Office staff, including especially Carol Pilarski and the principals. st 5.Article 40 committee (1): Tony Galaitsis: Idle free Lexington: they want approval to put up idle free signs (holds up sign) (passed out hand out) Need Selectmen and School Committee approval, 3 signs for each elementary school and 5 for the high school. Motion to endorse the plan of the Article 40 committee (Cohen, Griffiths). The motion passed 5-0. SC meeting 08/24/06 page # 3 VI. Action Items: 1.Vote to Appoint Mary Ellen Norman Dunn Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Paul Ash described Mary Ellen Dunn’s strong qualifications and recommendations. Motion to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation of Mary Ellen Dunn as Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business (Griffiths, Sakhuja) The motion passed 5-0. 2.Vote to Accept Furnishings with an Estimated Value of $223,146 from Creo Corporation Motion to accept furnishings with an estimated value of $223,146 from Creo Corporation(Guttag, Griffiths). The motion passed 5-0. 3.Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of January 17, 2006 4.Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of January 24, 2006 5.Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of January 26, 2006 6.Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of March 1, 2006 7.Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of April 26, 2006 Motion to approve all the abovementioned minutes (Griffiths, Guttag). The motion passed 5-0. Motion to adjourn (Griffiths, Cohen) The motion passed 5-0. The next meeting of the School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, September 14, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. at Clarke Middle School Auditorium, Stedman Road. SC meeting 08/24/06 page # 4