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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-09-24-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, September 24, 2024 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:13 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Eileen Jay, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice -Chair Larry Freeman Kathleen Lenihan and Sara Cuthbertson did not attend the meeting. 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. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: • Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. September 20, 2024 - BMO Warrant in the amount of $53,955.10 b. September 20, 2024 - AP Warrant in the amount of $628,416.27 c. September 20, 2024 - Payroll in the amount of $5,166,691.50 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: • Field Trips a. LHS Field Trip to Neuchatel, Switzerland & Brussels, Belgium from 2/5/26 - 2/21/26 b. LHS Field Trip to Guadalajara, Spain from 2/11/26 - 2/21/26 Ms. Sawhney made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, and Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed, 3-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Ms. Sawhney attended some of the budget summit meetings this past week. Two matters were discussed: the first was to provide feedback to the SBC on the Field House and pool options for the LHS MSBA project work. The other was to indicate financial indicators and to give an update on last year's financial performance and where we were. Ms. Sawhney also announced that the Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL) will be having their annual Diwali celebration on October 19th at Cary Memorial Hall, this will be a ticketed event. Mr. Freeman reminded everyone that at the last Town Meeting, the Town approved recognizing Indigenous People's Day. He encouraged everyone to attend the first event, which will be on October 14th from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Lexington Depot. There will be music, dancing, storytelling, and fun for the whole family. Ms. Jay announced that the Select Board has chosen November 13th as the start date for Special Town Meeting in the fall. She also mentioned that on October 4th, all elementary teachers across the district will be trained on a new DEI curriculum. She asked Dr. Hackett if School Committee members would be welcome to sit in on the training to learn about what's going to be happening; Dr. Hackett responded, "Absolutely." COMMUNITY SPEAK Zach Friedman - 1 April Ln. Apt 11 (in person): "I'm a 2005 graduate of Lexington High School, and moved back to Lexington about a year and a half ago when I split with my six-year-old son's mother, primarily so he would be able to enroll in the Lexington Public Schools for Kindergarten. My parents have lived here for 40 years, I have a brother who went through the system as well. My son has numerous special needs, both developmental and medical. He has a trac, he receives nutrition through a feeding tube, he's nonverbal and autistic. He is also energetic, mobile, and a lot of fun. Brian attended a public preschool program in Watertown for the last three years, where they met his inclusion needs. He had a great experience with both disabled and general inclusion classroom peers. Brian was enrolled in the beginning of July in the Lexington Public Schools with the hope that he would be able to attend the program in the district, which has not happened. He was offered a temporary placement in the DLP program at Harrington with an indefinite start date. There was some confusion on the start date, and he started for one day the day after Labor Day. I, shortly after, received a call from the school principal that Brian could not return because there was some things that were incomplete with an agency nurse's paperwork. We asked continually, I asked for updates on that paperwork and was just continued to be told that the paperwork had not been completed. We asked for other options so he could get into Harrington as soon as possible to be considered. I was told by the head of nursing for the district that none of the current district nurses had time to train until October 24th. He has since been offered a placement at LABBB just last Friday. I had been informed by the Director of Special Education that that offer and placement with a start date meant that Brian would no longer have the opportunity to attend Harrington as a temporary placement, despite the fact that we have not agreed to the LABBB placement. Over the last month, I've watched my son regress, cry, point at schools and cry, and this is the town I grew up in and used to love. I urge you to reconsider the space in your programs, to adjust the programs for new students so temporary placements are found so they can start school when everyone else gets to attend school. Ironically, I'm still included on the emails from Harrington from his temporary placement. And got an email a couple of weeks ago that the stress at Harrington is "We all belong," and it's clear that my son does not belong. I beg you guys to please not let this happen to any other children. Thank you." Olga Guttag - 273 Emerson Rd (on Zoom): I'm a former School Committee member. I would like to urge you to read the emails that Patrick Mehr has sent you about his analysis of future enrollments to the entire Lexington school system, but particularly to the Lexington High School. That is going to create ... that with the new MBTA zoning, he has proven that it is impossible at the moment to produce a reliable enrollment. And most of us who are working on this problem for LHS for all are concerned about building a school which is too small or too large. At the moment, already the proposal is building a school that is smaller than the existing enrollment at the high school, and we could have a flood of new students coming from developments in the MBTA zones that are being already applying for permits, and the enrollments will grow at an unpredictable rate. We are asking that you slow down the submission to the MSBA and look at staging the process where you build stage one, a building that relieves the current overcrowding, and in two to four years, when you can have more reliable enrollment predictions, build a right -sized building. I hope that you will address the issue at your future School Committee meeting. I would really appreciate your consideration of this point. Secondly, I hope that they will eventually provide, and sooner rather than later, provide me the org chart with all the salaries and employee counts that I asked for five months ago. Thank you so much, and thank you for all the work you do" SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Superintendents Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 1. LHS Alum Marvin McIntyre Inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Hall of Fame o Dr. Hackett attended the celebration of Marin on September 17th. 2. League of Women Voters and LHS Students Get Out the Vote o Dr. Hackett gave a shout -out to Jeri Zeder, "who did a really fabulous job getting students to help others learn how to sign up to vote." 3. LHS Project Updates o Dr. Hackett explained that one preferred schematic design will be selected on November 12th. o Community Forum #7; "participation was excellent". This one was about cost. o ThouRhtExchane: This is for getting feedback on the six options and whether people think a new build or an ad/reno phase in places is the best way to go. 4. Safe Routes to School Survey o Parents and guardians can complete the survey between September 27 and October 11. o It's a two -minute online anonymous survey that collects information on the students' approximate addresses and modes of transit to and from school. 5. LPS Core Values Celebration o October 29th, Dr. Hackett encouraged each one of our schools to have at least one nomination. 6. We All Belong o Included are examples of the type of work we are doing to ensure that we are sensitive to students' needs and to the world around us. o Upcoming holidays and observances; a reminder that Rosh Hashanah is on October 2nd through 4th. School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman mentioned how Mr. Cronin's High costof doing nothing presentation at the Community Forum was excellent. NEW BUSINESS Dave Coelho, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, joined the School Committee. He explained that every year, we produce two documents: a series of guidelines that inform us of the focus of our budget for the coming year and a calendar that outlines all the major steps and points in the process. He added that some of the dates are still to be determined because they depend upon many other factors that are not under our control yet. Ms. Jay gave a word-smithing suggestion on item #8 of the guidelines. She requested clarification of #13 (Identify and monitor potential operating and capital expenditures which may be required to adequately operate a new Lexington High School). Mr. Coelho explained, "A lot of the staging for the equipment and the products for the school materials are going to take up a lot of the fields, so we have to find all good sites for teams to play and practice. So that may require us to go to other communities or relocate where we perform those tasks. So there's probably transportation or field rental expenses, additional time, and things like that that are probably going to be necessary because we're not going to have access to those locations that are right outside the school." Ms. Sawhney added that the costs for these types of things need to be a part of the planning. Dr. Hackett and Ms. Sawhney discussed #10, which is about monitoring and implementing strategies to improve student academic outcomes, especially for students who have been most impacted by the pandemic. Ms. Jay wondered why we have items like this that don't seem to have a budgetary impact. Ms. Sawhney explained that things are looked at in two-year "chunks" and that "this is all about continuing, monitoring, making sure that the work is continuing. There are no new initiatives added." Ms. Sawhney moved to approve the FY 2026 Budget Guidelines and Calendar as amended; Mr. Freeman seconded. The motion passed 3-0. B. Ca ital ca get for Technolc�ye Thomas Martellone, Martellone, Director of Innovation & Instructional Technology, explained the Technology Capital Budget he created. Mr. Freeman has heard about Chromebooks catching fire on the news. He asked if we provide any kind of education to our students on how to store their Chromebooks. Mr. Martellone replied that we have not had any accidents involving fire and that we talk with students about basics like making sure they charge their devices and carrying them safely in a bag. He can provide some additional information. Ms. Jay asked about the amplification system and if teachers wear microphones. Mr. Martellone answered, "So generally, in the ceiling is a speaker and the teacher has pendant mic. And then the elementary level, generally also the classroom sets come with a handheld mic, and that's oftentimes if the teacher is doing a small group activity on the rug or another activity with students and there were students with a quieter voice, there's always one opportunity to amplify individual student voices with the handheld mic. And then what happens is it does connect in, through it, through the projector, so that can project as well" Ms. Jay also asked about the core and the firewall project, she would like to know if it will stay coinciding with the municipal side until the high school is built then it would go into a technology center. Mr. Martellone replied that yes, the core would be in the high school and that we could use 201 Bedford Street as a backup. He added that when they built the new police station, they put in some space for cores there that could be used as well, also ongoing conversations have been happening with the Town over what makes sense. Ms. Jay and Mr. Martellone discussed costs for this being absorbed into construction costs and how Mr. Martellone is working with designers to get our desired technology. Ms. Sawhney mentioned that AP exams will be moved to online. She also asked about the discussion on having a network on the Boston school buses, Mr. Martellone responded that "it went back and forth on that with Miss Hamilton, and at the time, I think she wanted to pause." He added that we make sure that all of our devices are up-to-date to accommodate online testing. Mr. Freeman asked if students with hearing aids would be able to connect to the FM system in the future. Mr. Martellone will check with our vendor, Pro AV, about this. OLD BUSINESS A. 2nd Reading and Possible Vote of C/ED - eal C arse Policy Mr. Freeman asked if "unpaid meal charges place a financial burden on Lexington Public Schools" is a true statement. Mr. Coelho replied, "In order to clear the unpaid balances, that has to come from the school budget. It can't come from the food service budget, they have to be completely separate. It's several thousands of dollars a year. I wouldn't say it's a giant burden, but, you know, anytime people are paying, it's, you know, somebody ends up sort of footing the bill. Is it a large burden? I would say, recently, I would say, No, it's not, but it can't go unpaid" Mr. Freeman questioned this wording. Taking the word "large" out was agreed upon. Mr. Freeman moved to approve Policy EFC/EFD - Meal Charge as amended, Ms. Sahney seconded. Passed 3-0. B. Student Reoresentation can School Committee Dr. Hackett went over the above document that is attached, the following are all being recommended: o METCO Student School Committee Representative o Student -Faculty Senate o Principal Advisory Group Ms. Sawhney hopes that when the Principal Advisory Group is being set up, Mr. Baker will ensure that the Student -Faculty Senate still has a purpose. Ms. Jay thinks that it will be great to have METCO students' perspectives. She also assumes that the Principal Advisory Group will have a range of students. She asked if we could call on the Principal Advisory Group as an advisory body. Dr. Hackett responded, "I'm sure that if there were something that we wanted to get there and put on, we can organize through him (Principal Baker). I think it would be fun to engage with the students in that way, especially if we can make it meaningful around the topics that are relevant". C. EV Bus Purchase Dr. Hackett announced that the recommendation is to purchase one Bluebird EV Multi -Function School Activity Bus (MFSAB), she is not asking for any action on this at this point. Ms. Jay wonders if 240 -volts is large enough and if 173 Bedford St is the best place for the charging station. D. S ®` with o the fear®' Ti aline Dr. Hackett reviewed the above document. Ms. Sawhney would like this linked to every agenda, the School Committee agreed and discussed updating the format of agendas. COMMUNITY SPEAK Sarah Carter - 5 Spencer St (in person): "I am here representing the Special Ed Parents Advisory Council. I want to highlight the story that the previous gentleman told, and sadly, his type of story is not the only one that we have from students within our system. Every year, we are hearing more and more stories of students who are moving into the district and told there's not a place for them. And I urge you to continue the process of trying to find a flexible policy that allows for us to change based on the demands of students coming into the school to meet the needs because we really need to make sure every one of our students are getting a quality education, and ideally in the schools or the school that would be most appropriate for them." Dawn McKenna - 9 Hancock St (in person): "Thank you for the opportunity. I know you didn't have the school building update, but something was said at Monday's meeting that concerns me that I think the School Committee should be aware of and have an opinion about. And that is that they are being asked on Monday to select the designs, and yet, the cost estimates that are out right now are not coming in until the ninth, and they will be discussed at their meeting on October 15th, and then a Community Meeting is the night of October 15th. And I think, you know, we've been really pushing back, and the School Building Committee has been doing a much better job of being transparent and open for people to get information. But the notion that you would vote on reducing six designs that are all being cost -estimated down to two designs before you even see those cost estimates really flies in the face of that. So I urge you to do that. The second thing that I wanted to mention is I heard terms tonight multiple times, and I just want to say that not long ago, the schools and the town were pitted against each other. We worked for years to change that dynamic. And the messaging that worked, that helped that tremendously, that I just think we all need a reminder about is that it is the school and municipal departments. We are one town. I've made the same comments at the Select Board meetings, so we all need this reminder. But I just thought that I would mention that. Then the third thing I want to say is I'm really disappointed in the conversation about the student rep. You're taking something out of the hands of the students that always was about them. For years and years and years, we had a student rep at the table here, and the reason that that matters is because you need feedback from them in real time. I do like the idea of having a METCO student as well as somebody who's, you know, in the general population, but you're missing an opportunity by not allowing them to self -nominate themselves, self-select themselves, and yes, have a voting process to figure it out. There's a big learning experience, and so I think that we need to do that. And then I just want to quickly say it's really important that you all work on getting microphones in this room, both for the School Building Committee meetings and these meetings. I can hardly hear because you've got all these things going on, and I have decent hearing. So I just think it's time if this is going to be the meeting room that should be equipped appropriately. Thank you." Olga Guttag - 27 Emerson Rd (on Zoom): "Thank you for trying to make it easier for people to plan for attending your meetings already, sending out the agendas is very helpful. So I really appreciate Dr. Hackett's office doing that, thank you so much. While you were meeting about other things, I was taking the survey that you're encouraging everybody to take about their opinion on the school building's proposed designs and looked at the assorted responses. And I have a very serious concern about how biased this survey is. For example, the first question is, "I'd prefer new construction on the fields," and then the next sentence says, "appears the least disruptive for students, and the cost is less." You're combining two things which are not necessarily through both together. And so, for example, the designs for Add/Reno will cost less and, more importantly, deliver the right size school if the designs are done appropriately. At the moment, the architects just didn't do enough work on that. Question six, again, it says, "strongly preferred new construction on the field." And the next sentence says, "Renovation or phased in place, options will take longer and cost more"; not true, and this is not true in both cases because, at the moment, you don't yet have the Article 97 protections removed from the fields. If somebody files a lawsuit against removing the protections of Article 97, this could both cost the town a lot of money and it could possibly slow down the construction by years to come. Smart renovation design could cost less and present valuable dollars spent on a better building. We won't have to pay for relocating the field, so that's about $20 million in savings, and we will have a big roof to put solar panels on so that will give us a better location of the panels, reducing cost installation and maintenance. And finally, we will eventually end up with the right size building, which, at the moment, we cannot predict the size of the high school because of the MBTA." POSSIBLE ACTT N ITEMS Items added: • "3 -pronged approach to Student Representative on the School Committee" was added by Dr. Hackett. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Freeman made a motion to adjourn at 8:04 PM, Ms. Sawhney seconded. Passed 1-0.