The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2017-06-29-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE Thursday,June 29, 2017 Town Hall,Selectmen's Meeting Room 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA Present: Chair, Alessandro Alessandrini; Vice-Chair, Eileen Jay (teleconference),Jessie Steigerwald, Kate Colburn, Kathleen Lenihan, &Superintendent, Dr. Czajkowski The minutes were taken by Kristen Cronin, Executive Assistant to the School Committee and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent The meeting convened at 7:00 pm Call to Order and Welcome: Chair, Alessandro Alessandrini called the meeting to order, and introduced committee members. Public Comments: Elaine Ashton, town meeting member—32 Cliff Ave.Thanked committee members for publishing draft minutes and for including approvals on agenda for tonight. Elaine had made the request of minutes after hearing concern from parents and residents after her last summary.They were asking how they would have easily-accessible information since she will no longer be providing her summary. The Town and LPS are anticipating a debt exclusion vote sometime in early December for an array of projects that many residences don't know anything about, and it's not because they are not interested. Communication should be a very high priority and shouldn't rely on volunteers, especially when you are about to ask residents for funding, going forward. As you recess for summer, Elaine hopes that the School Committee will be religiously posting minutes to update interested residents on what is going on. Elaine went on to express concern with the dishwasher topic at Hastings Elementary School. Members thanked Elaine Ashton for the work she has done for the town. Superintendent's Announcements: Dr. Czajkowski welcomed and introduced the newly-hired Director of Technology,Jennifer Judkins. Jennifer comes to us from Lynnfield Public Schools,where she was the Digital Learning Coordinator for K-12 Instructional Technology and Library Media Program. Dr. Czajkowski went on to thank members of the search committee. Ms.Judkins will start on July 17, 2017. Effective July 1, 2017 the district will be switching over from First Class to GSuite. All district emails will be first initial, last name@lexingtonma.org. Notification via Blackboard Connect will be sent to all parents this week, and notices will appear in the newspapers as well. Dr. Czajkowski thanked the Technology Steering Committee for their work and planning for this transition, as well as Instructional Technology Specialists who have been providing ongoing training for a smooth July 1 changeover. Central Registration now registers all new incoming stud ents preK-12 online through our central registration website. 1 LSC Meering 6-29-17 Reminder: Due to construction over the summer, Diamond Middle School will operate out of Estabrook Elementary School and Clarke Middle School will operate out of Lexington High School. 2017-2018 School Calendar is available on our website. First day of school is Tuesday, August 29, 2017. Director of Facilities position was re-posted. Interviewing four potential candidates with Carl Valente on July 7. Will keep school committee informed on interviews. Dr. Czajkowski went on to thank the search committee for the Assistant Superintendent for Strategic Planning& Operations. Dr. Czajkowski met with three potential candidates earlier today and decided additional time is needed to conduct reference checks and background checks. Will keep committee members informed. Dr. Czajkowski spoke about a letter she received earlier today from Dr. Kelly Chase announcing her resignation due to continued health issues. School Committee Member Announcements: School committee members welcomed Ms.Judkins to the district and expressed their well wishes to Kelly Chase for the struggle that she is currently going through. Alessandro Alessandrini: Read an email on behalf of Judy Crocker regarding the Safe Routes to School Program. Estabrook Elementary School was honored at the State House for increasing participation for student transportation. Principal,Jeff LaBroad and second grade teacher Lori Verity were present to accept the award. Congratulations! Also, received a thank you card to the School Committee from Judy Crocker thanking them for her retirement reception Jessie Steigerwald: Reminder that the Community Coalition summer reading book is titled "How to Raise an Adult" by Julie Lythcott-Haims. We hope to have some dates set in the fall for community conversations with Superintendent, Dr. Czajkowski and the teacher from the high school who recommended the book, to participate in strategies to help families address stress and the concerns we've been discussing lately. Kate Colburn: Gave a brief update on the PBC meeting she attended—All school projects; Clarke and Diamond are on time and under budget, still a lot of work to do over the summer. Hastings design schematic was delivered to MSBA. Kate will send a preliminary sketch of the Hastings design to School Committee members Kathleen Lenihan: Gave a brief update on the 2020 Vision Committee meeting. They are currently working on analyzing the data from the town-wide survey; an executive summary will be available as well. They are in the process of figuring out when the presentation will be submitted to the committees.This may involve a possible joint meeting of the Board of Selectman,School Committee, and Planning Board, roughly sometime at end of August or beginning of September. Eileen Jay: No announcement 2 LSC Meering 6-29-17 Agenda: 1. Vote to Approve Superintendent's End of Year Evaluation Alessandro Alessandrini explained the process for the end-of-year evaluation of the Superintendent. Alessandro went on to read the Chair's summary of the summative evaluations from the School Committee members. Dr. Czajkowski thanked the School Committee for her evaluation and for the proficient rating in all four standards, as well as the overall proficient rating. There was discussion about exploring ways for the School Committee to receive input and feedback from other stakeholders, including staff and/or the community, as part of the Superintendent evaluation.This might be particularly useful in assessing the Professional Culture standard. There was further discussion among members and Dr. Czajkowski around student learning goals, looking into social/emotional learning goals for students; feedback/clarity on input from outgoing school committee members; and communication of the district's mission statement. Motion that the School Committee votes approval of the End of the Year Summative Evaluation of Dr. Czajkowski, the Superintendent of Schools(Alessandrini/Steigerwald) Motion Approved (4-0) Eileen Jay unable to vote 2. Vote to ratify the Memorandum of Agreement between the ALA& Lexington School Committee Move that the School Committee ratify a one-year agreement with the Association of Lexington Administrators covering the period of July 1,2017 through June 30,2018 and authorize the Chair to affix his signature on the Memorandum of Agreement attached. (Alessandrini/Steigerwald) Motion Approved (4-0) Eileen Jay unable to vote 3. Vote to expand 15`&2"d grade to FUSE Pre-School FUSE School is a preschool and kindergarten for children with special needs, primarily children with autism, anxiety, attention disorder and sensory processing disorder. The FUSE School is requesting to expand to include 1St and 2,d grade. Motion to Request Approval for FUSE School to Expand to 1 &2 Grade(Alessandrini/Colburn) Motion Approved (3-0)Steigerwald abstained; Eileen Jay unable to vote 4. Vote to Approve Amendments or Edits to Homework Policy IKB Members discussed grammatical changes/edits to the Homework Policy which was originally approved by the School Committee on June 20, 2017. Motion to approve changes to Homework Policy IKB as amended by the School Committee on June 29,2017(Alessandrini/Steigerwald) Motion Approved 4-0; Eileen Jay unable to vote 3 LSC Meering 6-29-17 S. Discussion on Adding Dishwasher to the New Hastings Elementary School Design Alessandro Alessandrini received an email from Lin Jensen on behalf of LPS Green Teams and Mothers Out Front Lexington, addressing the issue of adding a dishwasher to the new Hastings Elementary School. Alessandro had multiple conversations with Facilities Director, Pat Goddard, and Mark Sandeen, Chair of the Sustainable Lexington Committee, regarding installation of a dishwasher at Hastings. Mr.Alessandrini informed the committee that during a recent PTA meeting at Hastings, it was mentioned that it is the School Committee's decision to have a dishwasher installed. He would like the committee's feedback on whether to proceed with including a dishwasher to the design for Hastings. Members agreed to move forward with looking into adding the dishwasher to the design for Hastings, as well as looking at cost and space for including a dishwasher for Diamond. The committee also agreed going forward to practice sustainable practices during future building projects. Ms. Steigerwald suggested that the Policy Sub-committee include this on their agenda in the fall. Ian Dailey and Lin Jensen will present a cost assessment of installing a dishwasher at the September 5th School Committee meeting. 6. Discussion about Pre-Registrations Superintendent, Dr. Czajkowski began the conversation by updating the committee with the most recent Central Registration enrollment update. Topics of discussion revolved around un-assigned staff positions to be allocated,flexible assignment and space, growing concern about space at Bridge & Estabrook,following School Committee class size guidelines for flexible assignment. Sandra Trach and staff at Central Registration will keep School Committee members updated throughout the summer with enrollment updates. 7. Vote to Appoint Assistant Superintendent of Strategic Planning and Operations Dr. Czajkowski communicated to the committee that she was not ready to make a decision on this position. Dr. Czajkowski would like to add a School Committee meeting in July to vote a recommendation for the position of Assistant Superintendent of Strategic Planning and Operations. Motion to reinstate the position of Special Assistant to the Superintendent until the Committee has voted on an approved contract for the newly created Assistant Superintendent for Strategic Planning and Operations. (Alessandrini/Lenihan) Motion Approved (4-0) Eileen Jay unable to vote Consent Agenda: 1. Vote to accept a check in the amount of$250.00 from Bay Path University as an honorarium to Kati Bonitatibus for working with Jenna Loconte, Student Support Instructor at Fiske. Motion to approve consent agenda items 1. 4 LSC Meering 6-29-17 The Motion was approved (4-0). 2. Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from February 27, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from March 20, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from March 22, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from March 27, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from March 29, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from April 5, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from April 12, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from April 24, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from April 25, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from May 9, 2017 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from June 6, 2017 Motion to approve consent agenda items 2 as amended. The Motion was approved (4-0). Motion to adjourn(Alessandrini/Lenihan) The Motion was approved (4-0). The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Meeting Materials:Agenda; A.1- none A.2- Memorandum of Agreement by and between the Association of Lexington Administrators (ALA) and the Lexington School Committee A.3- Description of FUSE Pre-School A.4-Homework Policy IKB A.5- none A.6- Enrollment reports—current year and pre-registration, enrollment projections A.7-none 5 LSC Meering 6-29-17