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Home My WebLink About2015-03-25-SC-min LSC Meeting Minutes 3/25/2015 LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Lexington High School, Library Media Center 251 Waltham Street PRESENT: Superintendent Dr. Paul Ash, Chair Jessie Steigerwald, Vice Chair William Hurley, Margaret Coppe, Judith Crocker Member Absent: Alessandro Alessandrini The Minutes were taken by Christine Ashness, Recording Secretary The meeting convened at 6:30pm Call to order and welcome: Chair Jessie Steigerwald called the meeting to order, and introduced committee members. Steigerwald noted that Mr. Alessandrini had called to let her know that he had expected that he would arrive late to the meeting, but encouraged us to begin on time and he would join when possible. MOTION to go into Executive Session Exemption 3, to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation regarding a student residency issue, and to return to open session, further the chair declared that it would be detrimental to the School Committee’s litigation position to hold the conversation in an open session. (Steigerwald, Hurley) The Motion was approved 4-‐0 by a Roll Call Vote: Margaret Coppe: AYE Judith Crocker: AYE William Hurley: AYE Jessie Steigerwald: AYE The committee Returned to Open Session at 6:44 pm. Public Comments: None Superintendent’s Announcements: Dr. Ash received a call from Mr. Valente regarding an action by the Board of Selectmen. They voted to put $600,000 less into the “Other Post Employment Benefits” (OPEB) account. They want to instead put the funds in the same account that would provide the ability to help sustain programs in the event that state or federal budget cuts have a detrimental impact on the school or municipal budget. They were going to place $160,000 in the account, but will now allocate $760,000. It is in a reserve fund. It could potentially give the School Committee more flexibility the state cuts impact the school budget. This is time of year we begin to receive information to plan Kindergarten numbers for the fall. Dr. Ash is most concerned about Fiske. As of yesterday’s report, there could be 89 students in the Kindergarten grade, and he had anticipated in the 70s. 89 is manageable with our guidelines. We would need to assign an over-‐max aide. If the numbers are larger, LSC Meeting Minutes 3/25/2015 a full-‐time aide might be helpful. This may be preferable compared with taking a music or art room. Some students are on the census, and some are actually registered. It is possible the numbers could grow within the next month. If we need a fifth kindergarten, we may need to take a music or art room, or redistrict. This is an item that may need to be on the agenda in the next month. It is a separate discussion from any other questions about future or long-‐term redistricting. Regarding the search for the Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Operations: The search committee interviewed 3 candidates. On April 2nd they’ll interview candidates again. We are moving forward and hope that we can make a recommendation in a few weeks. School Committee Member Announcements: Judith Crocker: Saturday is the first annual parent academy, and it will be held at Clarke. It will be a mini-‐classroom setting for the day. You can pick and choose your topics of interest, and there is something for everyone. It starts at 8:30 am. Lexington Education Foundation (LEF) is holding their annual gala on Saturday March 28th from 7-‐11:00 pm at the Burlington Marriott. Margaret Coppe and Jessie Steigerwald will be attending. Dr. Mary Czajkowski is also going to attend. Jessie Steigerwald: The March 30 Town Meeting will include a ceremony for high school students and on April 6 the Diversity Award will be presented. These will take place early, at 7:15 p.m.. April 7 will be our meeting with Dorothy Presser. Mary Ellen Dunn: Last night we held our Student Safety event. The protocol of our ALICE program was introduced. LexMedia videotaped the presentation and it will be available on the LPS webpage. A link will also be sent to parents through school newsletters and information from the question and answer session will be available in text format. Between 50-‐70 parents attended, as did several principals and representatives from the Police Department. This is a very sensitive topic and the format worked well to a constructive discussion and an engaging presentation. Jessie Steigerwald: Alessandro Alessandrini requested some additions to committee minutes from February 25. Ms. Ashness is willing to review the tape and do it if this would be helpful. Agenda: Discussion of Town Meeting Articles MOTION to rescind the prior vote on Special Town Meeting to article 5. (Steigerwald, Hurley) The committee’s intent was to support a fund allocation covered by Article 17. The Motion was approved 4-‐0. MOTION to support Article 17. (Coppe, Hurley) The Motion was approved 4-‐0. LSC Meeting Minutes 3/25/2015 Mary Ellen Dunn explained that the committee should have been supporting Article 17 instead of Article 5. It is a clerical correction from last year’s Town Meeting (2014). Special Town Meeting #1, Article 2 Update and Discussion Jessie Steigerwald thanked the following for their help on the presentation: all of our principals, Jon Himmel, the Permanent Building Committee, consultants Symmes, Maine, Mckee & Associates (SMMA), the Enrollment Working Group, and Pat Goddard. The next step is to work with the Permanent Building Committee (PBC). There are permanent members of the PBC, and then there will be a more school-‐project specific sub-‐committee. Funds have now been allocated to pursue the design studies we requested. Dr. Ash shared that we can appoint two members to serve on the sub-‐committee related to our project. Members agreed to request letters of interest be submitted by April 2nd and people will be selected by April 6th. They are preferably looking for people who have a background in architecture, engineering, and construction. Members agreed that a schedule of how the committee meets and how much of a commitment is needed should be provided before the committee invites letters of interest. These dates may be revised based on when we have that information. School Committee Member Liaison Update – Ad Hoc Committee for Youth at Risk Jessie Steigerwald stated that since December there have been many different meetings in relation to Youth at Risk. She suggested dedicating a future meeting night to the topic at which the committee can also receive the Guidance Curriculum Review report. Margaret Coppe suggested dissolving the Ad Hoc Committee for Youth at Risk and setting up a new committee or task force when we identify the next steps. Policy Manual Review: a. Review Plan for Sections G and H of Policy Manual: Personnel and Negotiations. Judith Crocker and Jessie Steigerwald met with Dr. Ash and will bring his changes forward to the full committee. b. Approve in Form Policy IHA: Basic Instructional Program Margaret Coppe suggested changing the word “children” to “students” and Dr. Ash suggested changing “Foreign Language” to “World Language”. MOTION to approve Policy IHA in form, as amended. (Hurley, Coppe) The Motion was approved 4-‐0. c. Policy JIC: Student Discipline – Second Reading Pulled until next week. One change was a space between “are” and “expected” (last sentence). d. Policy JII: Student Complaints and Grievances – Second Reading Change space between “respect” and “too”. LSC Meeting Minutes 3/25/2015 MOTION to approve second reading of Policy JII Student Complaints and Grievances. (Coppe, Crocker) The Motion was approved 4-‐0. e. Policy JK: Student Conduct – Second Reading Need a space between publish and its, and a space between reasonable and verbal. Motion to approve second reading of Policy JK Student Conduct. (Hurley, Crocker) The Motion was approved 4-‐0. School Committee Liaison Assignments, Updates Committee agreed that Steigerwald will become the Lexington Education Foundation (LEF) liaison. The rest of liaison assignments will be discussed at Monday’s school committee meeting. Consent Agenda Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of December 4, 2014 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of December 11, 2014 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of January 15, 2015 Vote to Approve School Committee Minutes of January 22, 2015 MOTION to approve consent agenda (Hurley, Coppe) The Motion was approved 4-‐0. The school committee will remain in session and relocate to Lexington High School Auditorium for the purpose of participating in Town Meeting. Meeting Materials: Agenda; 12/4/2015, 12/11/2015, 1/15/2015 and 1/22/2015 Minutes; Policy IHA Basic Instructional Program; Policy JIC Student Discipline; Policy JII Student Complaints and Grievances; Policy JK Student Conduct; School Committee Liaison Assignments; Lexington Parent Academy handout; Emergency Information Guide for Parents & Guardians handout; Thinking Not Drinking handout; Forum on Marijuana handout; Emergency Readiness handout; Memo from Mary Ellen Dunn to the School Health Advisory Council