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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-23-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday,April 23, 2024 Meeting Minutes AGENDA: CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:07 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice-chair (attended remotely) Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Eileen Jay Larry Freeman Student Representatives: Tara Pai and Julia Tanin 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. Ms. Cuthbertson announced that two agenda items would be out of order; the Superintendent's report would be first. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT 1. Superintendent Shoutouts o Hastings School Nurse Jacqui Falco was named Massachusetts School Nurse of the Year! Guest Kathy Hassey from MSNO (Massachusetts School Nurse Organization) presented Jacqui with a plaque and flowers. 2. A New Director of Special Education o Dr. Hackett announced;'I am pleased to recommend Ms. Laura Spear to the School Committee for the position of Director of Special Education for the Lexington Public Schools, effective July 1, 2024." Ms. Cuthberton moved to appoint Ms. Laura Spear as PK-12 Director of Special JK 4/23/24-DRAFT Education for the Lexington Public Schools, Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 5-0. Ms. Spear thanked the School Committee, "I'm very excited to be coming to the Lexington Public Schools. Everyone that I've met so far in this whole process has been just so welcoming and warm, and all of my philosophies about children and students with disabilities clearly align with the mission and the focus of Lexington Public Schools, so I'm just truly honored and thrilled to be joining the team." CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. April 5, 2024- Payroll in the amount of$4,857,623.55 b. April 12, 2024-AP Warrant in the amount of$807,318.02 c. April 19, 2024- Payroll in the amount of$4,851,670.98 d. April 26, 2024- BMO Warrant in the amount of$114,752.05 e. April 26, 2024-AP Warrant in the amount of$1,562,415.18 Ms.Jay read the following consent agenda items: Minutes a. February 13, 2024 Ms. Lenihan moved 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 encouraged everyone to attend the Lexington Human Rights Committee meetings. The committee's mission is being revised to be more defined and clear. He also gave a shout-out to the unified basketball team. Ms. Lenihan wished everyone celebrating a happy Passover. She also announced that the next Community Forum for the LHS Project will be on Thursday, May 2nd, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Cary Memorial Building and on Zoom. Ms. Jay announced that several members of the School Committee attended the launch of the Lex250 calendar last Friday. She also attended the Combating Targeted Extremism in Public Service meeting via Zoom last week. Ms. Jay announced that on May 15th the Full Executive Board of the Cary Library will meet and that May is AAPI Heritage Month. There will be an AAPI Walk/Run on May 18th, as well as other events. Ms. Sawhney announced that there will be an essay writing competition organized by CAAL (Chinese American Association of Lexington) with the Lexington Council for the Arts called Immigration Stories. Ms. Sawhney, along with a few Town Meeting members, will be organizing JK 4/23/24-DRAFT another essay contest called My Truth. She has also been working on a series of memos that she will email to the School Committee; the memos are on the finances, budgeting, etc, of LPS. Ms. Cuthbertson attended a few of the Patriots Day events. She also attended the last Recreation Committee meeting. Student Representative Tara announced that the Senate is working on rewriting our constitution, reworking student government structures, and changing the student election structure. Student Representative Julia announced that election season has started, and the Election Committee is going to start changing up the student government. COMMUNITY SPEAK Kalyan Veerla - 8 April Ln: He is a parent of a child with autism in the LPS system. "Tonight, I'm speaking on behalf of many other parents who share the same concerns about the treatment of children with autism and state capacity issues within the LPS special education program. It is devastating to see some more of our most vulnerable students, especially those with autism, being left without suitable educational placements. Every child in Lexington deserves an appropriate education, but many parents feel pressure to accept out-of-district placements that are not appropriate for their child's needs. In some cases, some children have no placement due to capacity. While there are students who may need out-of-district placement due to significant support needs, this should be a clinical decision based on the child's needs, not a result of capacity constraints within the district." Mr. Veerla went over the three minutes allowed, Ms. Cuthbertson suggested that he email the rest of his statement. Lance Bradley- 24 Longfellow Rd: He is speaking tonight because he has an issue with a letter written by Dr. Hackett on March 12, 2024. He believes that we hire teachers based on color for a quota system. He read the following portion of the letter: "While we have made great strides in recruitment regarding teachers of color and retention locally, we can always do more." He also shared a personal experience he had at UMass Amherst. He added, "All I'm saying is I think we should disregard the color and hire based on qualifications." Christina Lin - 2 Eustis St: She is looking forward to hearing about the new Director of Special Education in Dr. Hackett's Superintendent report. She read the letter that she sent to the School Committee on April 3rd about capacity concerns of the special education program. Other members of the community have signed this letter; they are asking for help and transparency on some details of this issue. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT(con't) 3. Literac ll�dates Middle School I�Itera � Presentation Marlin Davis, Diamond Middle School Principal; Jennifer Gaudet, Director of Secondary Education; Dane Despres, Clarke Middle School Principal; Casey Siagel, Middle School ELA Department Head; and Michael Przygoda, Evaluation Team Supervisor (ETS) at JK 4/23/24-DRAFT Diamond Middle School, presented an update on Middle School literacy. o Ms. Gaudet explained the multi-tiered system of support and the Universal Design for Learning. o Ms. Siagel explained Tier II Literacy supports, Mr. Despres spoke about Gen Ed Tier III, Ms. Gaudet reviewed Star Reading Assessments, and Mr. Davis spoke about the Star Trial. Ms. Siagel also explained the analysis of the Star data, the response to STAR data, and the Gen Ed Tier III Reading Intervention Class with Mr. Przygoda. Mr. Przygoda also spoke about Special Education Support for Literacy. o Mr. Despres explained the transition practices, and Mr. Davis discussed Families as Partners. o Ms. Gaudet and Ms. Siagel finished the presentation by talking about supporting Tier I & II in all content areas. School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman asked if there are teams within teams. Mr. Despres explained that our staffing is based on student enrollment. At Clarke, there are 3 and a half teams, normal teams consist of 80 to 90 students, the "half" or "mini" team has around 40-45 students. Mr. Freeman also asked about when parents will be notified if assessments are given. Ms. Siagel responded that they did not include this in the presentation, but it does happen, "Family communication is paramount." Mr. Freeman had a question about the high school transition, "You put in METCO as an intervention. What exactly is that? What does that look like?" Ms. Gaudet replied, "Essentially, these intervention blocks are a scheduled time in the student's day. So I don't know that METCO is specifically an intervention, but a student may be scheduled with a social worker or something along those lines,just as they're scheduled with the humanities, they're called Learning Center teachers. I can find out more information about what happens within that program, but we did just want to highlight that those are things that are scheduled within a student's day that would take up a block." Mr. Freeman lastly mentioned the feedback from parents about their students not getting the services prescribed on their IEPs. Dr. Hackett responded by saying that, "We can't build systems of support, multi-tiered systems of support without first understanding what are the needs." Ms. Sawhney asked when the software solutions were onboarded and which budget covers them. She also asked what specific challenges the current eighth graders are experiencing from COVID, what are the plans to make their transition to high school smooth, and how can we support them. Ms. Gaudet mentioned that now we have specific data to help with the transition. Ms. Jay asked if it's the case that the reading specialists are working at all levels of support or do we bring people in? Ms. Gaudet answered that there are two buckets of support, "We have special education literacy specialists who will provide literacy support for students based on their specific learning disability. Our team here is the general education support of literacy specialists who are providing support to students who may not have an IEP." The full-time literacy specialist at Clarke spoke about her role and the process of assessing students. JK 4/23/24-DRAFT Ms. Jay then spoke about having a specialist working with a student in a gen ed class, she asked how obvious it is that the student is receiving help. Ms. Siagel responded that they work with all students, "A lot of that comes with norming and introductions and making sure that the attention and time on teaching is balanced throughout the class working with the teacher, having different teachers working with different groups. So, it is something we pay close attention to, and we want to make sure we're not spotlighting any students. And so it's really through varied instruction, a lot of communication, and being very intentional with who we work with, how we work with them, and when we work with them." The literacy specialist in the audience added that she checks in with any and all students, they have been trialing more of a co-teaching method this year, and "I have a tracker where I'm tracking what supports used, what I think some good next steps would be, and I give that feedback to the teacher." Ms. Jay lastly mentioned vertical alignment and how we track and use data, "I know we've been talking about as a district this kind of system for all kinds of things, collecting that data. I would hope that literacy would be part of that, kids who are getting identified early, then we're seeing what happens as they move into the other levels. Is that a possibility?" Ms. Gaudet responded, "1,000%, we are very excited to have everything in one place." Ms. Cuthbertson is really excited about the cross-curricular connections. NEW BUSINESS A. Annual Sprung, Enrollment date Maureen Kavanaugh, Director of Data, Assessment, and Strategy, gave the spring enrollment update. The goal of this review is to confirm or refine our specific resource allocation plans for the upcoming year. This update focuses on general education, space, and staffing. Dr. Kavanaugh mentioned that we are within the school's planned operating capacity for general education, as we had defined in the master plan. School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Jay noticed that the number of sections has dropped in several schools. She asked if we could see the data on which class grade levels are being affected. Dr. Kavanaugh replied that those would be in the month-to-month reports. You can also see the historical number of sections by grade level by school in the tabs. Ms. Jay asked what happens to the teaching staff when a school goes down a section, Dr. Hackett responded by saying that we have a highly organized process. There are meetings throughout the year where principals all discuss opening and closing classrooms and teacher placement. Dr. Kavanaugh added, "For the most part, each year, we are able to keep the majority of staff within a school, and if we can't keep them within a school we are able to find a landing spot within the system almost all of the time." Ms. Lenihan asked if proposals for building projects will be reflected in our projections. Dr. Kavanaugh responded that we stay in touch with the town about any large developments that are going to get approved. JK 4/23/24-DRAFT B. Review Draft 2023-2025 SC Mggtng_p21gLs Ms. Sawhney pointed out that November 5, 2024, is election day and suggested moving that meeting date. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Su2erintendenfs Report with the School Committee. In addition to the items already discussed, highlights from her report include: 4. Superintendent Shoutouts o Another Successful LIDS Art Show! o Region IV MA Science & Engineering Fair Results are in! o Heartfelt Thanks to the Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL)! o National Conference: NCTE-NCTM Joint Conference For Elementary Literacy and Mathematics Invites Two Outstanding Fiske Educators to Present! o The Fiske Newcomer Mentoring Program Earns Goldin Foundation for Excellence in Education Exemplary Projects Award! 5. We All Belong o Upcoming Holidays & Observances o A Visit to the Armenian Museum o Partnering with Kidsborough o Updates on the High School Project 6. Literacy Updates o General Education Literacy Summer Tutoring Update 7. Upcoming Events o LPS Core Values Celebration on May 14th - Nominate Someone Special Today! o Lexington Self-Defense Partners is Offering a Free Seminar! School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Sawhney asked if we have any representation or a liaison from our team for the Lex250. She said, "That liaison could be a conduit for bringing opportunities to the schools and back and forth" Dr. Hackett responded that Jane Hunley is the school representative and that she will have an update on the 250 in her next report. Ms. Sawhney also brought up the budget and her concerns on how we allocate funding. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Town Meeting Articles a. Article 40: Integrated Pest Management Resolution (Citizen Petition) Ms. Lenihan moved that the School Committee support Article 40, Ms.Jay seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote,passed 5-0. JK 4/23/24-DRAFT b. Article 31: Prohibit Single-Serve Plastic Water Bottles (Citizen Petition) No position was taken. COMMUNITY SPEAK Poppy Charnalia - 17 Peachtree Rd: She is a special education parent and read the remainder of the statement started by Kalyan Veerla earlier in the meeting. Lindsay Wright: She is a Junior at Lexington High School, and she read a letter from a fourth grader about their struggles in school and their diagnosis of dyslexia and dysgraphia. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS • No items were discussed. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Lenihan made a motion to adjourn at 8:34 p.m., Ms. Jay seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, and passed 5-0. JK 4/23/24-DRAFT