HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-03-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Town Hall,Selectmen's Meeting Room
1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA
Present:
Chair, Alessandro Alessandrini; Vice Chair, Eileen Jay; Jessie Steigerwald; Kate Colburn;
Superintendent, Dr.Czajkowski; Student Representative, Rosana Jiang
Absent: Kathleen Lenihan
The minutes were taken by Kristen Cronin, Executive Assistant to the School Committee and
Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent
The meeting convened at 7pm
Call to Order and Welcome:
Chair, Alessandro Alessandrini called the meeting to order, and introduced committee members.
Public Comments:
Valerie Overton: Valerie thanked members of the committee for the recent joint meeting with Board of
Selectmen on the topic of mental health. Based on the meeting, sees that the Board of Selectmen has a
different level of awareness of mental health issues compared to school committee. Valerie is hoping to
see continued joint meetings in the future with Board of Selectmen to dive deeper into the topic and
look at the data and to bring the data to life.
Based on the presentation last night of YRBS Data for 2017—clearly a lot of great efforts to address
mental health and suicide ideation and related stressors. Health educator positions have not been
funded in recent years in elementary and grade 6 levels. Urge folks to make attempt to include funding
in the budget.
Superintendent's Announcement:
Dr. Czajkowski updated members on the water pipe that burst in the Cafeteria at Diamond Middle
School on Monday. A Domestic Water Pipe system underneath the cafeteria area had a pipe that was
improperly capped during installation over the summer. Water was shut off to the building for about a
half hour to forty five minutes.
Carl Valente and I are in the process of reviewing the applications for the Diversity Task Force and will be
meeting soon to discuss the next steps in this process.
Met with key players to discuss Agenda for Budget Summit I taking place this coming Thursday. Will
send a copy electronically to members tomorrow.
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School Committee Member Announcements:
Kate Colburn: Kate wanted to thank the Town Meeting Members Association (TMMA)for hosting the
bus tour this past Sunday afternoon for TMM. The tour included some of the completed school building
projects such as Diamond and Clarke addition as well as the modular's at Bridge elementary. Very
impressive to see and appreciated by TMM to see the buildings that they funded, very appreciated of
their support
Jessie Steigerwald: Jessie asked for a moment of silence in honor of the victims in the Las Vegas
shooting.
This coming Friday night, girl's outreach program will be participating in a soccer game with high school
students to collect funds for students in Puerto Rico.
Youth Action March will be held this Saturday in the Commons in Boston at 12:00.
Jessie thanked "SHAC" and staff for presenting YRBS Data.
Continuing to hear positive feedback on the Homework policy. Please continue to send feedback to
Superintendent's Office or Lexington Listens, copy school committee if you would like, but we are
tabulating and watching and will continue discussing it.
October 10 is World Mental Health Day: Community Coalition is going to use that day to launch it's
website and the first interview features Dr. Czajkowski and focuses on Social Emotional learning will be
available with LexMedia and the website on that day.
Jessie wanted to address to Ms. Overton that the budget guidelines for this year do indeed have a
request to ask the Superintendent for recommendation about health education in elementary school.
Would like to consider an amendment to include grade 6.
STM in addition to capital projects,there will be a question about how the town is going to manage or
welcome or not accept recreational use marijuana distribution locations. Would like to have on next
agenda and maybe have some citizens who are working on this come and share their points of view.
November 1 is the Kickoff for the Debt Exclusion Campaign. This campaign is open to the public with
lots of information on school building projects as well as the fire station.
Eileen Jay: Eileen updated the committee to inform them about the sub-committee policy meeting and
agreement to contract with MASC to have them incorporate our policy manual online through MASC
website. Mike Gilbert will conduct a policy manual training for school committee members in the near
future.
Eileen reminded the pubic that the coalition will be having a community discussion on the book"How to
Raise an Adult", by Julie Lythcott-Haims. Publicity will be available tomorrow on dates, times and
locations.
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Alessandro Alessandrini: Also want to thank the Board of Selectmen for the mental health summit and
looking forward to further conversation going forward. October 5 is National Teacher's Day, please go
and thank your teachers.
School committee wanted to extend their thanks to Mr. Stephens,Jackie Crow, Mr. Baker and a Parent
on a rich conversation about Lexington High School Graduation Requirements,that we will continue
talking about.
Consent Agenda:
1. Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes from September 5, 2017 as amended
(Alessandrini/Steigerwald) motion approved 5-0
Agenda:
1. Pre-K and Elementary Enrollment and Building Project Impact
Dr. Maureen Kavanaugh, Director of Planning and Assessment along with Mr. Pat Goddard gave a
review and brief update to the committee concerning elementary building projects. Included in the
presentation: A Summary of the School Committee plan from December 2015 and current
implementation status; capacity with full implementation of December 2015 Plan; Additional
strategies to manage space, including redistricting and student assignment policies; current
enrollment and projected future enrollments.
School Committee discussion continued around debt exclusion and possibility if vote does not go in
school committee favor as well as questions about right size number for classrooms for general
education including art, music and special education.
2. LHS Visioning Process
Dr. Czajkowski, Dr. Stephens and Dr. Locker presented an overview of the work being proposed the
vision for a new high school. Dr. Czajkowski reviewed the What, Why&Who of educational visioning
in the 21"century.
• The What: What is educational visioning that needs to begin to take place in order
to begin about space?
o What are best practices now to be able to meet the needs to students
here in Lexington?
o What would the organization structure actually look like in terms of space
and programming
o What would be the concepts of school facilities to support the needs as
well as structure?
• The Why:
o Educational world is rapidly changing
o Different educational goals 21St century learning
0 20th century school buildings hinder 21St century learning
• The Who: Visioning Team: Balance diverse group of school and community
representing
o Teachers
o School and district leadership
o Students
o Parents
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o Community organizations
o Municipal leadership
Would like to start the process soon, beginning in the winter and throughout the school year and
share with the community and high school faculty at regular intervals.
School Committee had further discussion and questions around the visioning project at LHS.
3. Policy Reading#1—DGA: Authorized Signatures
The Finance Subcommittee seeks to update Policy DGA: Authorized Signatures. The main purpose
for this update allows for the committee to designate one signor, and an alternate,for payroll and
accounts payable batch/warrant approvals.
Kate Colburn read the first public hearing on Policy#1 - DGA
Motion to approve first reading of policy DGA Authorized Signatures(SteigerwaId/Col burn)
Motion approved 3-0(2 members not present at the time of the vote)
4. Payroll &Accounts Payable Approval Process
Mr. Ian Dailey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Administration gave a brief follow up to the
discussion that occurred during the September 19, 2017 School Committee Meeting. After this
meeting, the Finance Subcommittee met to further discuss next steps in implementing changes to
the payroll & accounts payable warrant/batch approval process. The Subcommittee met on
September 26, 2017.
Proposed changes to School Committee Policy DGA: Authorized Signatures allows for one designee and
an alternate to be assigned the responsibility of approving the payroll and accounts payable
batches/warrants before checks are issued.
5. Discussion of the 2017-2018 District Improvement Plan—Motion approved as amended 4-0
Motion to Approve 2017-2018 District Improvement Plan as Amended(Steigerwald/Alessandrini)—
Motion approved 4-0
6. Discussion of 2017-2918 Superintendent Goals
Dr. Czajkowski incorporated feedback from some school committee members. In this set of goals
there are two more district improvement goals that have been included. Dr. Czajkowski read the
Superintendent District Goals to the public.
Motion to Approve 2017-2018 Superintendent District Goals(Alessandrini/Steigerwald) Motion
approved 4-0
7. Vote to Appoint Official Voting Delegate and Alternate Voting Delegate to the MASC Annual
Business Meeting.
Motion to Approve Kate Colburn as the official voting delegate at MASC and Eileen Jay as official
alternate. (Alessandrini/Steigerwald) Motion approved 4-0
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At the end of the meeting Dr. Czajkowski announced her intent to retire on June 30, 2018. Dr.
Czajkowski read the letter that was sent out to the Lexington Public School families through Blackboard
connect.
School Committee members thanked Dr. Czajkowski for all the work she has done for the Lexington
Public Schools and noted we still have an exciting year of work to do.
Motion to adjourn
The Motion was approved (Alessandrini/Steigerwald)4-0.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Meeting Materials:Agenda; A.1- LHS Visioning Process Materials A.2- Payroll &Accounts Payable
Batch/Warrant Approval Dates—FY19; Schedule of Departmental Payroll Payables Approvals Summary
Form; Schedule of Departmental Accounts payable Approvals Summary Form2017-2018 District
Improvement Plan A.3-Official Delegate Form A.4-A.5-
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