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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-11-02-SC-minSC Meeting 11/2/10 page # 1 LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Lexington Town Office Building, Selectmen’s Meeting Room 1625 Massachusetts Avenue Present: Superintendent Paul Ash, School Committee Chair Rod Cole, School Committee Members Sandro Alessandrini, Margaret Coppe and Mary Ann Stewart (School Committee Member Jessie Steigerwald was not present due to illness). The minutes were taken by Leora Tec. The meeting was convened at 7:32 p.m. I. Call to Order and Welcome (Rod Cole) II. Public Comment Phyllis Neufeld (LEA President): I would like to request that School Committee meetings not be held on election days in the future. III. Superintendent’s Announcements 1. Presentation of M.A.S.S. Academic Excellence Award to LHS Senior to Aviva Mattingly. The award is for students who exemplify high academic achievement and the values of the community. Dr. Ash read a statement written by Lexington High School Principal Natalie Cohen about Aviva Mattingly. IV. Members’ Reports / Members’ Concerns Margaret Coppe: We are having a Special Town Meeting in a few weeks and we should take a position on Article 2 at some point. Rod Cole: We can meet an hour before Town Meeting convenes to discuss our positions on the relevant Articles. V. Discussion Items 1. Discussion and Vote on Draft FY12 School Capital Requests. Introduced by Superintendent Paul Ash. This year we have ordinary capital items as well as extraordinary capital items related to replacement and renovation of schools and extraordinary capital for technology. Questions posed by the Committee were answered by Superintendent Paul Ash, Mary Ellen Dunn, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Business, Pat Goddard, Director of Public Facilities and Thomas Plati, Director of Educational Technology and Assessment. There were comments and questions from the audience. SC Meeting 11/2/10 page # 2 Motion to approve passing this document on to the CEC (Coppe, Stewart). The motion passed 4-0. 2. 2010 MCAS Report. Presented by Thomas Plati. Mr. Plati summarized the MCAS results, explained how the public can access the results and discussed MCAS tests as they relate to SPED students including how to improve test results in the future. 3. FY10 4th Quarter Financial Report. Presented by Mary Ellen Dunn. We returned over a million dollars to the Town from FY 08 and 09. This money will be available for appropriation for FY 12 as part of the free cash certification. We returned $1,940,000 from FY 10 and those funds are going to be available for appropriation for FY 12. And we are also carrying forward over $1 million four from FY 10. There were questions and comments from the Committee. 4. FY11 1st Quarter Financial Report. Presented by Mary Ellen Dunn. We are projecting a year- end balance of approximately $417K. We have a deficit of only approximately $70K in the out of district tuition line. If we had gotten 72% as we did in the past, our circuit breaker claims would have been up over $400K due to the work of the Student Services Finance and Operations Manager, the technology staff, the student database administrators, the ETLs and the SPED staff. Thanks very much to Heidi Zimmerman and the Special Education staff. It is important to remember that students equal dollars in this context. There were questions and comments from the Committee. Motion to approve the transfers that are incorporated in the 1st quarter report (Stewart, Alessandrini). The motion passed 4-0. 5. Update on Estabrook Environmental Issues. Presented by Paul Ash. There was a meeting of the Estabrook faculty yesterday afternoon. Dr. Ash expressed his appreciation for the faculty who have done an incredible job dealing with a difficult and unforeseen situation. The students at Estabrook school have received the same high level education as the rest of the students in the district. The children will move back into classrooms next Tuesday—the details of these moves were discussed at this meeting as well. He will meet with the advisory committee on Thursday with Dr. MacIntosh from EH&E at which time they will discuss what will happen between now and the Special Town Meeting. The advisory committee is comprised of hard-working people with great ideas. We are going to continue working on reducing PCBs and will continue testing and mitigation work. This Friday the emergency SOI will be submitted to the MSBA. Rod Cole echoed Dr. Ash’s comments about the staff and reported that Estabrook parents had glowing reports regarding the staff. SC Meeting 11/2/10 page # 3 VI. Action Items 1. Vote to Accept Superintendent’s Recommended 2010-2011 System Goals. Motion to accept Superintendent’s Recommended 2010-2011 System Goals (Stewart, Coppe). The motion passed 4-0. 2. Vote to Approve William Diamond Middle School Field Trip to Quebec City, Canada. Presented by Principal Anne Carothers and French teacher Joan Yarmovsky. Motion to approve William Diamond Middle School field trip to Quebec City, Canada (Alessandrini, Stewart). The motion passed 4-0. 3. Vote to Approve Meal Charge Policy – Third Reading. Motion to approve Meal Charge Policy – Third Reading (Alessandrini, Coppe). The motion passed 4-0. 4. Vote to Change the Title “Accounting Manager” to “Special Revenue Funds Manager” on Page 2, Line 14, of the Student Activity Account Policy. The change was explained by Mary Ellen Dunn. Motion to change the title “Accounting Manager” to “Special Revenue Funds Manager” on Page 2, Line 14, of the Student Activity Account Policy (Stewart, Alessandrini). The motion passed 4-0. 5. Vote to Appoint Jen Vogelzang as the School Committee Representative on the Permanent Building Committee. Motion to appoint Jen Vogelzang as the School Committee Representative on the Permanent Building Committee for the duration of the current building projects with gratitude (Coppe, Stewart). The motion passed 4-0. 6. Vote to Accept $1,700 in Donations to the William G. Tapply Memorial Fund. Motion to accept with gratitude $1,700 in donations to the William G. Tapply Memorial Fund (Coppe, Alessandrini). The motion passed 4-0. 7. Vote to Accept a $101.68 Donation to the Hastings Gift Account from Target’s “Take Charge of Education” Fundraising Program. Motion to accept with gratitude a $101.68 Donation to the Hastings Gift Account from Target’s “Take Charge of Education” fundraising program (Coppe, Alessandrini). The motion passed 3-0-1 (Stewart). SC Meeting 11/2/10 page # 4 There was a discussion regarding the appropriateness of the corporate and consumerism connections to these donations. The possibility of coming up with a commercialism policy was raised. 8. Vote to Accept a $235.62 Donation to the Fiske Gift Account from Target’s “Take Charge of Education” Fundraising Program. Motion to accept with gratitude a $235.62 donation to the Fiske Gift Account from Target’s “Take Charge of Education” fundraising program (Coppe, Alessandrini). The motion passed 3-0-1 (Stewart). 9. Vote to Accept a $750 Donation from ExxonMobil’s Education Alliance Program to Support Fiske’s Math and Science Program. Motion to accept with gratitude a $750 donation from ExxonMobil’s Education Alliance Program to support Fiske’s math and science program (Coppe, Stewart). The motion passed 3-0-1 (Stewart). There was a discussion regarding how the school was chosen and what the nature of the grant was. There were comments from the Committee and the audience. 10. Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of October 5, 2010 Motion to approve the minutes of October 5, 2010 (Coppe, Stewart). The motion passed 4-0. 11. Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of October 19, 2010 Motion to approve School Committee minutes of October 19, 2010 (Alessandrini, Coppe). The motion was tabled. Suggested amendments to the October 19th minutes: 1). addition of Margaret Coppe’s name as one of the creators of the chart showing the various scenarios for building a new Estabrook, and 2). adding the time that the Committee came out of Executive Session. VII. Motion to adjourn (Alessandrini, Stewart). The motion passed 4-0. The meeting was adjourned at 9:11 p.m. Documents: Revised Meeting Agenda; Article from the Washington Post presented to the School Committee by a member of the audience re: interactive white boards; memo from Mary Ellen Dunn, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business, to Superintendent Paul Ash, re: FY2011 First Quarter Report; Memo from Tom Plati, Director of Educational Technology and Assessment, to Superintendent Paul Ash, re: 2010 MCAS Analysis; Power Point presentation on SC Meeting 11/2/10 page # 5 MCAS results; Memo from Mary Ellen Dunn, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business to Superintendent Paul Ash re: FY 2010 4th Quarter Financial Report; Memo from David MacIntosh of EH&E to Pat Goddard, Director of Public Facilities, Superintendent Paul Ash and the Estabrook Advisory Committee re: Air Samples Collected on October 18 and 19, 2010 Estabrook Elementary School; letter and supporting documents from Diamond Middle School French Teacher Joan Yarmovsky to Superintendent Paul Ash re: proposed trip to Quebec for 8th grade students at Diamond; Third Reading: Meal Charge Policy; email from Mary Ellen Dunn, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business to Miriam Sousa, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent re: changing the title “Accounting Manager” in the Student Activities Policy; Third Reading: Student Activities Policy; letter to Lexington School Committee from Hastings Principal Louise Lipsitz re: accepting money from the Target Take Charge of Education initiative; letter from Greg Steinhafel, Chairman and CEO of the Target Corporation to the Fiske Principal re: check for Take Charge of Education; press release from Mobile re: a $750 grant received by the Fiske School to support math and science programs; Lexington School Committee minutes 10-5-10; Lexington School Committee minutes 10-19-10.