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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-09-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday,Januray 9, 2024 Meeting Minutes AGENDA: CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:01 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice-chair Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Eileen Jay Larry Freeman SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent. The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened 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. Lenihan read the following consent agenda items: • Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. December 15, 2023 - Payroll in the amount of$4,819,572.18 b. December 29, 2023 - Payroll in the amount of$$4,851,593.76 c. January 5, 2024-AP Warrant in the amount of$2,126,086.62 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: • Donations a. $500 donation to the LHS Robotics Team from Carolyn Chang and Ethan McCurdy Ms.Jay read the following consent agenda items: • Field Trips a. LHS Madrid & Salamanca, Spain trip from February 12-22, 2025 Ms.Sawhney moved to approve the entire consent agenda, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Cuthberston took a roll call vote, Ms. Sawhney-yes, Mr. Freeman-yes, Ms.Jay-yes, Ms. Lenihan-yes, and Ms. Cuthbertson-yes,passed 5-0. JK 1/9/24-APPROVED SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Mr. Freeman encourages everyone to check out the MLK Day events that are this weekend and next week. There is an Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL) Martin Luther King concert on Sunday at Follen Church. He also announced that the annual Human Rights Committee Conversation on Race is on Monday. Ms. Lenihan attended the ABCL Black History Portrait unveiling last week. She thanked the League of Woman Voters, and she participated in their Friday forum about book banning the previous week. Ms. Jay announced that on January 21st, the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL) will have its Lunar New Year event at LHS, you can get tickets on the CAAL website. Ms. Sawhney also attended the ABCL Black History Portrait unveiling. She is serving on the Visioning Committee for the new high school and thanked the organizers, community members, students, parents, faculty, staff members, and educators who showed up. Ms. Sawhney added that she has been volunteering with shelter families. Chinese Americans of Lexington (CALex) also hosts a New Year event. Ms. Cuthbertson announced that there are still volunteer opportunities available during the MLK Day of Service as well as community service hours for students. She also mentioned that on Thursday, Ms. Lenihan, Ms. Jay, and herself will be participating in the Lexington Education Foundation (LEF) Trivia Bee! COMMUNITY SPEAK Amy Morin - 22 Hamblin Street (LEA co-president): "Good evening. I am speaking as co-president and chair of the unit D negotiations team. I really wish we were there in person today because I was decked out all in red. And it's not because red looks good on me or my favorite color. Rather we, the LEA, have wearing right to support our unity colleagues in their contract negotiation. Tonight Dr. Hackett will present her recommendations for the FY 25 budget. As this is my first year as CO president and I'm still learning, and I'm certainly not a numbers person, or known for my math skills, I do know that what is budgeted for in the salaries for educators in this town is not nearly enough. Gone are the days when the LEA is willing to settle for less than we deserve. And I think that our intent was pretty clear during the Unit A negotiations. We're currently asking for better working conditions for the unit D team, including higher wages, and a provision proposal for staff that have worked more than 12 years of service. We were told that in order to offer more compensation, we would have to give up on our proposal for that provision because there isn't enough money to cover both. I urge you to think about the hardworking admin assistants, clerical workers, recess, lunch monitors, and other unity staff who go above and beyond daily to ensure that LIDS functions as it should. During bargaining, I referenced a conversation with a superintendent from Vermont, where he told me that if you want to see how a district values, their support staff, you need to look at JK 1/9/24-APPROVED their budget. And if they're at the bottom making little money, then there's your answer. And I'll never forget that conversation. Unit D as well as other support staff educators are tired of being at the bottom of the barrel. And I understand completely, that in the budget process, there are a million things to consider. But we, the LEA wish that the Lexington School Committee and Dr. Hackett will prioritize educators and their salaries. Thank you so much." Aditya Gulati: "Hi, my name is Aditya Gulati I live at 15 Jefferson Drive,just around the corner. I'm currently the incumbent moderator at the Lexington High School student-faculty senate. And just wanted to be here today because I saw a really interesting piece on the agenda about the recommendation for student participation on the School Committee. I was personally pretty interested in this because I've been looking forward to coming to the school committee, I never knew it was actually open, so anyone can come by, which is great. I'm super interested in sending some LHS members to the School Committee to experience what you guys do every week. And I'm really happy that our LHS Senate can come by and talk and perhaps give you guys some of our experience with working with students and representing the LHS body. I did want to just talk quickly about the proposal I was seeing. I've been seeing a lot of information here about student advisory boards and elected student representatives, which is great. I was just a little bit lost in the conversation. And I was hoping that today, if possible, we could discuss a little bit about the advisory board what that would specifically entail. I've kind of just been a little bit lost in this. I sent out an email a couple of months ago to I believe, Ms. Sara Jorge, so I haven't been caught up with a lot of the details. But I'd love to hear what the school committee has for student representatives. I'm sure the LHS community itself would be excited to know that we are having a voice in the School Committee. Thank you." SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendent`s Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 1. Congratulations and Celebrations o Recognizing Greg Vredenburgh, we are grateful for your service! Mr. Vredenburgh and Kerry Dunne joined the School Committee via Zoom. Greg will be deploying but remaining on our staff. He made the following statement: "So first of all, thank you, to Kerry, thank you to the School Committee, to you Dr. Hackett, and the Lexington community for giving me this recognition and opportunity to say goodbye, I guess, early goodbye before my upcoming mission. So I'm in the one 1/81 Infantry Battalion in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. I'm an intelligence officer and intelligence analyst for them. And I'll be joining them for their upcoming mission, departing in late January. So it's something that we've been training for over the past year. And it's not it wasn't entirely expected, we weren't sure if it was going to happen. But there's, as we all know, there's a lot going on in the world overseas right now. And so we're being called up as part of that upcoming mission. I do want to say, that I'm just honored and humbled to be recognized by you, Dr. Hackett, and the School Committee. And I just want to make a special point to thank Kerry, the Social JK 1/9/24-APPROVED Studies department head, of course. Then, the Lexington administration and the LHS administration, especially Andy and Dan, thank you for your immense support. Obviously, it's been challenging for me, and my family. And they've just been incredible, throughout the past few months throughout this whole process. So it required a lot of collaboration, support, and flexibility from Kerry, the administrative team, and my peers. And I just want to say thank you; I couldn't feel more supported. And I'm just grateful to be working in such an amazing district with such amazing students also, who I will miss dearly. It's only my second year in the district, but you know, it already feels like a family who has my back. So I'm just grateful and kind of blessed to be working in the district. And I'm excited to come back next year." o Happy New Year! Dr. Hackett mentioned that she linked the Fall Core Values Awards Celebration by LexMedia to her report. o Dr. Hackett thanked Jane Hundley, the Middle School Social Studies Department Head, who is representing Lexington Public Schools on the Semiquincentennial Commission (Lex250). 2. We All Belong o Read-Alouds at LCP; Lexington Children's Place (LCP) is having the high school buddy program again. o ELE Parent & LexELPAC Night; The English Language Education (ELE) Department and LexELPAC (English Learner Parent Advisory Council) will be hosting a meeting on Wednesday, January 10th, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM in the Central Office gym. 3. State's Upcoming District Review o This review will look at district leadership, what happens at the classroom level instructional, and how we're organized. 4. A New or Renovated Lexington High School o Visioning Committee Workshop #3 will be in January. o The Student-School Building Committee (S-SBC) started with just eight students, it has now grown to have over thirty-five students! o Student-School Building Committee (S-SBC Updates) 5. FY24 Annual Enrollment Update o Our enrollment is stable; it is currently at 6,805. 6. Exploring an All Electric Van Purchase o In 2021 we received a $350,000 grant for electric school buses and charging infrastructure. We have been given an extension to expend the funds at a later date, and we are also exploring the possibility of purchasing an all-electric van for the transportation of our students. 7. Upcoming Events o From Chalkboards to Chatbots: A Dialogue on Al in Education. Dr. Hackett spoke about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, there will be a conversation about this at the High School on Friday, January 19. o Annual MLK Day of Service, they are still looking for four teenagers to help. JK 1/9/24-APPROVED School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney mentioned that in December, she and a few other Town members met to discuss the next steps with the $350,000 grant. One suggested step was contacting C&W, our current school bus vendor. The suggestion Dr. Hackett mentioned would be to own an electric van; Ms. Sawhney added that this would mean that we would have to hire drivers for the van. Ms. Sawhney requested a meeting with the Town members, Dr. Hackett, and Mr. Coelho so that everyone can be on the same page. Ms. Lenihan likes the idea of the electric van; it helps with the immediate need to help families. She still wants to look into getting an electric bus fleet; she would like to know if Ms. Cuthbertson can reach out to the Select Board to see what would need to happen to achieve that goal. Ms. Sawhney is worried about the digital safety of minors with Al. She plans to come up with a document with the collaboration of the community about the digital safety of our students that will hopefully be implemented. Ms. Lenihan brought up Jesse Steigerwald and her work with the Lexington coalition and the support of the refugees in Lexington. She encourages people to reach out to her. Mr. Freeman "sort of likes" the idea of an electric van, and he is looking forward to hearing more about ideas and where we will land. Superintendent's Recommended FY 2025 Budget • FY 2025 Budget Presentation o Dr. Hackett reviewed slides 2 through 8, and Mr. Coelho presented slides 9 through 17. Dr. Hackett finished up the presentation. School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman thinks that the budget book is much better; he also liked the presentation and thanked Dr. Hackett and Mr. Coelho. Ms. Lenihan loves the book; she asked if Dr. Hackett or Mr. Coelho could talk more about turn-backs. Dr. Hackett acknowledges people's concerns with the budget process and giving the Town back millions of dollars. This money is often used to offset different projects, it also is used to seed the budget in the following years. Dr. Hackett added that this is how the budget is built in Lexington, and if we didn't do turnbacks, then the process would be very different; "we have a good system built on trust, we have money that's going back when we can make it go back. All of that for Dave, and I is about job preservation, and making sure that the positions can be funded year over year". Mr. Coelho stated, "It comes down to buying the things that we need to have versus the things that we want to have when when those funds are available. So it's got to be strategic, and if giving back money, helps see that next year or helps fund something in next year that doesn't take away from the general revenue, you know, the recurring revenue, then that's a positive thing for us. I think it's just it's good business". JK 1/9/24-APPROVED Ms. Jay acknowledged the impressive feat that the finance team did to make the budget book. She has some FTE questions about staff increases and decreases that were shown on slide 14. Ms. Jay asked how many FTEs requests were submitted by staff and how many FTEs were granted. Mr. Coelho replied that the number at the bottom is the sum of that column. Ms. Jay mentioned that the first bullet point on the right side of the slide says there was "a net decrease in staffing of 8.61 FTE", she would like to know if that's the case. Mr. Coelho responded that that isn't the case and explained that the FTE requested number is based upon the number of staff we had as of November 1 of this year. In the FY 24 budget, we added 12 additional positions plus an additional 30 staff members based upon new enrollments, new kids coming in, fractional staffing for OT/PT, etc. The 8.61 is a reduction from a much higher number from FY 23. Mr. Coelho pointed out that page 11 of the budget book shows the adjusted FTE counts over the years. Ms. Jay asked, "What is the increase in FTE for FY 25 compared to FY 24. How many additional staff members are added to this recommended budget?". Mr Coelho replied that from budget to budget, "approximately 42". Ms. Jay asked what is the additional FTE request between what we have in this year's budget versus FY 24; Mr. Coelho answered, "This budget reduces by 8.6 FTEs, from essentially the FY 24 adjusted number as of November 1st or so it's really 31 over the FY 24 base". Ms. Jay and Mr. Coelho continued to discuss FTEs. We are two or three FTEs away from fulfilling the contract. Ms. Sawhney thanked Mr. Coelho and his team for coming up with this budget book; she especially likes the bigger font, the definitions at the back, and how everything is defined if an acronym is used. Ms. Sawhney will create a document and share it with Mr. Coelho with all her questions. One thing that she is trying to understand is salaries and wages. She would like to know the reason why stipends came down $44,000 this year; Mr. Coelho will get back to Ms. Sawhney with the answer. She would also like to know the process of how stipends are allocated and the equity of those stipends. Ms. Sawhney would like to know if we as a district are seeing a higher amount of absences overall and if there are "any levers that we can push or pull" to reduce the absentee level. Mr. Coelho replied that this is a chronic issue in some areas, and some areas are doing ok. He does not think that we are "out of the ordinary," and he's unsure if there is a solution that exists. Dr. Hackett added that we track the data so we know by school, where there are higher rates of absence compared to others. Ms. Sawhney also mentioned that the book talks about the challenges of having students who are still having some lingering effects of sort the pandemic. She states that as children enroll who are born after the pandemic, they will not be the same need for hiring more staff. She would like to know how "we manage it in the out years, where we don't need that particular kind of help". Dr. Hackett replied by saying that the best example of this is what is happening with the reduction of the middle school team. We started having conversations last year, we analyzed the data and we looked at the team sizes. It was decided that not this year, but we will have to go back to larger class sizes. Dr. Hackett also said, "We're going to help you find a new position so that you're not without a job because you're a valuable member of our school community", and that the middle school staff has done a fantastic job at managing this process. Ms. Sawhney then mentioned that one of the pages in the budget book states that we have five subjects coming up for curriculum review; she would like to know if we should not be doing all five right now to save some money. Dr. Hackett replied that different areas of the budget were reduced so that we could protect the curriculum review process. She JK 1/9/24-APPROVED also mentioned the possibility of reducing the high-risk list; Mr. Coelho added that we still have reserves for this. Dr. Hackett suggested adding a slide to the next budget presentation that summarizes the pain points so people can know how we managed to get a balanced budget. Ms. Lenihan addressed absenteeism; she stated that "we should see more people using sick time than we did before COVID, and we should see that because one of the things we learned through COVID is you need to stay home when you are sick". She believes that not enough people were out when they were sick before the pandemic. Ms. Cuthbertson loves the budget book and appreciates everyone's hard work on it. COMMUNITY SPEAK Jennipher Burgess - Educator at Hastings from Belmont: "It wouldn't be in a school committee meeting if I didn't speak. I want to first say that I appreciate what Ms. Lenihan had just said about folks not calling out. They still aren't calling out when they're sick because they're a little worried about absenteeism. So I just want to thank Kathleen for what she said because I think it's important that people do take the time that they need. I was looking at the the budget, and I saw once we finalize the unit D contract, we will have completed negotiations with all with all collective bargaining units. And that's not true because tech is next after unit D, which has not been settled yet, or ratified. And then unit C. And I, you all know how I feel about remembering Unit C, because we do a lot of work. We are highly skilled and closest to a lot of harm that happens physically, emotionally, and mentally. It's just stressful sometimes. So, it's interesting to me that we can pass a budget before, and I started the same year Dr. Hackett did in Lexington, so it's interesting to me that we can have a budget settled before unit C negotiates, which is in the spring. And from what I'm seeing, like the new unit A contract has, you know, 2.5, 2.5, and 2.75 COLA for the next couple of years or a few years, tech had a 2.25, a 2.5, and a 1.5. Admin for the next three years has a 2.5, 2.5, and 2.75. In our last contract for Unit C, we got 2.0 and 2. We tend to be the lowest-paid folks. But milk doesn't change; inflation doesn't change for any of us. And in my mind, it's frustrating that we have to beg for a COLA that looks like everybody else's. And I want to keep this in mind as we go forward when negotiating. Looking at districts that are similar to us surrounding us. And I would love it if we could, you know, have all units bargain at the same time. I don't understand how COLAs can be negotiated when the budget is already set. And it feels like where, for me, at least I'll speak for myself, I feel like we're walking into something that's already set up, and there's not any space for negotiations. I hope that's not the truth, and I will keep a completely open mind. But I just want to make sure that we're not forgetting our unit C folks who show up every day to cover the classrooms. I work with three students in my classroom by myself and cover the classroom when it needs to be, and it's a co-taught, and there are multiple behaviors." Amy Morin - 22 Hamblin St: "This time, I am speaking on behalf of Chris Doucet, a math teacher at LHS. I wanted to ask the School Committee if they have thought about the costs of not settling the contract with Unit D, the members of the LEA. These people are the public face of our buildings and the lifeblood of our schools. They definitely helped to keep me and my colleagues working at our best. The time and energy they, and the school committee, are JK 1/9/24-APPROVED devoting to ongoing negotiations have over and hidden costs. What they're asking for in compensation is a fraction of a percent of the budget. In addition to the ongoing over costs of negotiation, in time of the school committee's negotiation team. Showing these people who are critical to the job we do that they are valued and respected will send a strong message that we will follow through on our core values regarding our staff. Finally, I believe that settling the contract will have a strong positive impact on the cultural dynamic of our buildings. Thank you very much". UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. High Performance Building Polio- Second Reading o The sustainability resilience officer, Maggie Peard, read the High Performace Building Policy for the second time. She shared that the only updates since the last reading are: i. The Select Board voted to approve the policy at their meeting on December 18. ii. A minor adjustment was made to the policy based on the feedback at the last School Committee meeting; the superintendent of schools was one of the parties responsible for authorizing and adopting additional guidelines around the policy alongside the Town Manager. iii. Minor language tweaking based on feedback from the Select Board about ensuring that the stakeholder group leading this policy includes an appropriate building lead any time the stakeholder group meets. This could be a principal at a school or the director of the community center, for example. iv. Selectmen was changed to Select Board. o There will be a third reading of this policy at another meeting. 2. Status of$350,000 Grant for Electric Buses o Discussed previously in the meeting. 3. Recommendation for LHS Student Participation on the School Committee o Ms. Cuthbertson stated that there needs to be three readings for this to be put into policy. o Ms. Jay, Mr. Freeman, and Dr. Hackett met to create this proposal last week. o Ms. Jay explained that this memo is driven by a desire to have multiple voices and perspectives from students from diverse identities and perspectives. And that this is where the idea of the Student Advisory Board came about. o Dr. Hackett sent out the Student Ambassador to the School Committee invitation to students in the fall; we got 58 responses. o Ms. Jay discussed different approaches to electing student representatives. o An election process is what is being proposed for next year. o Since we are already in the middle of this school year, there's an immediate need for a student representative and the fact that an election took place back in June, it is proposed that the two student representatives for the remainder of the school year be Aditya Gulati and Andrea Meridas. o It is also being proposed that the 58 students who replied to the survey will be invited to be members of the Student Advisory Board. JK 1/9/24-APPROVED School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney likes what is being suggested and that we are finding a way to give the 58 interested students a role. She would like to know who will manage a group of 58 students. Ms. Lenihan has the same concerns as Ms. Sawhney about the large group of students. She asked, what if next year, 100 students apply? How is this sustainable? She would like to know what the process will be. Ms. Jay has the same concern; she does not want an extra burden on staff. She thinks that maybe this year, we will invite all who applied and then decide how to handle responses for next year. Dr. Hackett replied that she is not worried about this, and that we make plans for large groups all the time. She appreciates that the School Committee is mindful about not taking on too much. She suggests that the Student Advisory Board meet only a few times yearly. Mr. Freeman would like to include all 58 students this year and look into putting a cap on it going forward. He thinks that the students' voices are so important, that the more diversity we have, the better off we're going to be, and that the opportunity should be given to all interested students. Ms. Cuthbertson asked if this follows Mass General Law; Ms. Jay replied that it does and referenced number 4 in the memo. Ms. Lenihan added that we can ask our attorney to weigh in at the next policy meeting. Dr. Hackett invited Aditya Gulati and Andrea Meridas to the next School Committee meeting. Ms. Cuthbertson will reach out to them. Student Aditya Gulati spoke, "So I was really excited about this idea, It's actually super interesting. I come from an Indian American background myself. I'm super interested in diverse voices and opening things up to the student body. Just a couple of things that I was concerned about, though, is there a plan to proliferate the information about the student advisory board within the LHS body? Because if this is an initiative focused on bringing diverse voices, we could have a huge convenience bias if we just send out an email. And students who respond to that email are the only individuals who get to that. I'm saying this from the perspective of running the Senate, which we've seen is that we've had significantly lower rates of people running for the Senate body when we've not had advisory visits to students to educate them and to give them the information to run for the Senate body. So if we're not proliferating this information in a very effective manner, and a direct manner of a lot of students can see this, we might have a very lopsided viewpoint of the students who typically check their emails, typically respond to emails, are open to jumping to an opportunity that they might not know more about. It could have a significant bias in that. The other question I had, was about the organization of the body specifically. I know from the Senate itself we have a 25 Page constitution document that just lists how to run the body, and even then it's a little bit of a complicated procedure to know exactly what to do, at what time when we're voting for someone in as a School Committee Ambassador. We passed a JK 1/9/24-APPROVED resolution recently for a school committee about the Ambassador, nonofficial and obviously, but like a representative to send to the school committee to take notes and to learn what it's about. We passed a resolution for that, and there was a week's build-up before the resolution to vote on the resolution. And before that, one week before we had a reading period and a responding period for students. All of that was to elect representatives to go to the school committee in the future. If that is the same case for the Student Advisory Board, which is a significantly larger body of 58 individuals, what will be the procedures to elect individuals to speak on behalf of that body?And another thing that we were worried about is how do we make sure that when our senators are speaking for the body, for our Senate, and the school, how do we know that they are speaking on behalf of the Senate and not just based on personal opinions or personal beliefs? Of course, we do want a factor of personal opinions and beliefs. But we are also looking to give as wide of an opinion of the student body which we're representing as we can. This is why it's also a matter of whether there is any training being given to the individuals who are coming to the school, like the Student Advisory Board coming from the Student Advisory Board to represent it within the school committee. Is there some sort of base knowledge they're given about the procedures of the school committee and things that better help them represent the school, the Student Advisory Board? And just one final question, sorry, is going a bit long. I was also just really confused about how the student advisory board sort of differs from the Senate. If I was understanding this correctly, the Student Advisory Board was elected from individuals who are interested in running to represent the student body. In the future, it would most likely be a cap or quota set on the number of individuals in the body. The body's main purpose is to represent the student, like the students of LHS, via some sort of representative vote, I believe. So I was concerned about how that differs from the Senate and the class councils we have at Lexington High School. That's it. Thank you." Ms. Cuthbertson suggested that this be on a future agenda (maybe February or March) after continued work has been done. Ms. Jay welcomed Aditya and stated that he raised some very interesting questions. She suggested having a meeting with him and a few others. Mr. Freeman asked Aditya to send his questions to Ms. Jay and himself; he thinks all of those are worth "a deeper dive" Mr. Freeman is hoping that this will not turn into "some big, bulky process; I don't want to go down the road of analysis paralysis where we end up missing the main point of this charge." Ms Cuthbertson stated that what she is hearing through people's comments is that people are in favor of this change and that some details need to be ironed out. She asked Mr. Freeman and Ms. Jay to develop a document for the Policy Subcommittee with the things that might be included in the policy. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS • Postponed to the next meeting. JK 1/9/24-APPROVED ADJOURNMENT Ms. Lenihan made a motion to adjourn at 9:08 p.m., Ms. Sawhney seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, and passed 5-0. JK 1/9/24-APPROVED