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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-07-13-SC-minLSC Meeting Minutes 7/13/2015 1 LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, July 13, 2015 Estabrook Elementary School Auditorium 117 Grove Street PRESENT: Superintendent Dr. Mary Czajkowski, Chair Jessie Steigerwald, Vice Chair William Hurley, Judy Crocker, Alessandro Alessandrini, Margaret Coppe The Minutes were taken by Christine Ashness, Recording Secretary The meeting convened at 7:00pm Call to order and welcome: Chair Jessie Steigerwald called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m., and introduced committee members. She also welcomed Anna Monaco (Principal Clarke Middle School), Jeff Leonard (Lexington High School Director of Performing Arts), Erin Maguire (Interim Principal Bridge School), Liz Billings-Fouhy (Director and Supervisor of Early Education Lexington Children’s Place), Ellen Sugita (Director of Special Education), Ian Dailey (Interim Director of Finance and Operations), Pat Goddard (Director of Public Facilities), Ken DiNisco and Donna DiNisco (architects from DiNisco Design). Public Comments: None Superintendent’s Announcements: Dr. Czajkowski read a letter written by a student at Bowman to welcome her to Lexington. She noted that Town Manager Carl Valente was introducing her to department heads, and also shared her July calendar to show the School Committee how she was implementing her 90-day entry plan. Sean Newell (Assistant Director of Public Facilities) has received a$238,000 grant for lighting retrofit from Green Communities. School Committee Member Announcements: Agenda Agenda: 1. Update on Extended Day (10 minutes) Dr. Czajkowski provided an update on the request to explore adding space for Lextended Day. She has been in conversation with Jeff Leonard, Erin Maguire and Heather Hartshorn (Executive Director Lextended Day) to see if space can be added by adding a program at Bridge. The date they were investigating would be after school began, possibly October 1, 2015, and a limited program. Bridge is the only school without a school-located program but Bridge has been the home of the town-wide orchestra and band. There are multiple issues to address including the LSC Meeting Minutes 7/13/2015 2 need for additional parking at Cary (where band might relocate), additional buses to transport students. Further updates will be provided when information becomes available. 2. Capital Projects – Discussion following DiNisco Design’s July 7, 2015, presentation of options for Multiple School Projects addressing overcrowding in pre-kindergarten, elementary schools, and middle schools (2 hours) Steigerwald noted that tonight’s goal is to formulate our request for release of additional funds from the March 23, 2015 Special Town Meeting appropriation. We were appropriated $4.08 million, with a first-phase release of $1.4 million. The Summit is our opportunity to advance our request for additional funds to continue design on school-related projects. Updates from Appropriation Committee, Capital Expenditure Committee, and Permanent Building Committee Meetings a. Updates from Appropriation Committee, Capital Expenditure Committee, and Permanent Building Committee Meetings Coppe provided update from Appropriation Committee meeting of July 9. They reviewed costs to date and wanted to know what had changed from Consensus Plan documents. They were concerned that Fiske was behind even in 2 pre-fabricated units because of the loss of art/music rooms in September 2015. Asked for current enrollment numbers for July 14th. Also requested accounting of all money spent to date. They were positive in their questions. Crocker noted that she received feedback that we should clarify that Lexington Children’s Place is the Lexington Public Schools’ pre-kindergarten program as some people have been unclear whether we are talking about one or two programs when we refer to “LCP” and “preK”. Hurley provided an update from the Permanent Building Committee “PBC”. The PBC asked that DiNisco state their recommendations for each school project and also share the evaluation criteria. Steigerwald provided an update from the Capital Expenditure Committee “CEC” and meeting with Joe Pato (Chair of Selectmen). One note is it is important to restate what we have looked at from the earlier stages. Parents recently asked about the possibility of using Old Harrington as elementary expansion space and this is a reminder that people will be joining the conversation at different starting points and will need help to understand what we have already reviewed. She also received request that we clarify when we are considering brick and mortar vs. pre-fabricated modular additions. Members of the CEC also had concerns about the total cost of all projects, and specific questions about helping understand the distinction between general education classrooms and other purposes for which we use full-sized general education classrooms. We need to articulate how ELL, special education, math or literacy use classrooms. Steigerwald noted that the Selectmen asked School Committee to come to the Summit with list of strategies or internal actions taken by the School Committee and School Department to address rising enrollment. She read through a draft list and invited comments. a. requested recommendations from prior superintendent to support redistricting from Fiske to Estabrook to better utilize space at Estabrook. We ultimate rejected the administration’s proposals which included dividing half of the incoming fifth grade for one year, or relocating children in Kindergarten or Grade one for one year. When we gathered information on the LSC Meeting Minutes 7/13/2015 3 new incoming K students we learned that they were located across the Fiske district and would likely require two buses. To maintain the policies we articulated around keeping siblings together and avoiding redistricting children more than once in their elementary career, we did not consider it a practical solution. b. asked Dr. Ash to establish a subcommittee to make redistricting recommendations to utilize existing space c. continue to identify any students who are attending our schools in violation of our policies d. updated our Non-Resident student policy e. new process to notify families that they are required to inform us if they move away from Lexington, and that they are no longer entitled to attend our schools. f. pursued space mining to optimize use of all existing space g. Administrators are consistently looking at better ways to share space. h. Administrators and teachers are adapting to short-term adaptations, for example, at Fiske, where the art room will be used as a general education room for 2015-2016 i. Close review of our special education programs to study whether there are program improvements that should be incorporated in this multiple-school project so all of our students are in the most appropriate educational spaces. b. Discussion of DiNisco’s Evaluation Criteria DiNisco made a presentation beginning with Middle Schools projects. In one model Clarke has 824 students with 29 classrooms and Diamond has 793 students with 36 classrooms. Need to decide where growth will go: all at Diamond, some at Diamond & some at Clarke. DiNisco does not recommend all growth at Diamond, feels it does not work. Anna Monaco, Clarke Principal, also spoke about needs at both Clarke and Diamond and recommends adding capacity at both schools. Questions include how to keep equity between the two schools if one is over 1,000 and one is under 800 students. Both Middle Schools have wetlands and DiNisco has begun talks with Conservation Commission. Discussion around the needs at Clarke and Diamond. Clarke needs space relief. It is possible to aim to have Clarke a lower student population and Diamond larger. Hurley is concerned about increasing enrollment at Clarke. DiNisco’s presentation was organized into different “Considerations” at the Middle School level and the School Committee reached consensus to support growth at both middle schools. There were two DiNisco options with growth at both schools, one included relocating the cafeteria and was expected to cost more. Coppe recalled the “add alternate” strategy used for Bridge and Bowman and asked whether relocation of the cafeteria could be an add alternate. Steigerwald agreed this would be a good idea. The committee did not agree to do this at this time. Consensus was reached around “Middle School Consideration 2.” In terms of available additional elementary space, could count 4 at Harrington if preschool relocates, 3 at Estabrook (or 4), 0 at Hastings. With prefabs, could add 2 at Bowman, 2 at Fiske, 3 at Bridge. Elementary level concerns included whether Fiske would receive appropriate support if we add two prefabricated units. DiNisco thinks it does not work. Preschool program could be a stand-alone facility on the Harrington property. Crocker is concerned that Bridge and Bowman need to reduce student population. The Committee reached consensus that the pre-Kindergarten program should not be at the Hastings site due to space constraints, but that the pre-Kindergarten should be a stand alone facility, possibly at the Harrington site, unless a better location could be identified. LSC Meeting Minutes 7/13/2015 4 The Committee reviewed DiNisco’s chart for all projects and was most closely aligned around “Consideration 1” for the multiple project proposal. c. Discussion of School Committee Recommendations for July 14 and July 16 Summits Motion to present as the consensus view of the School Committee the projects represented on slide 13 entitled “Final Consideration #1” with the following projects: - stand alone Lexington Children’s Place - pre-fabricated modulars at Bridge and Bowman - Fiske brick & mortar expansion with further exploration of the optimal size of the addition - New Hastings - Harrington renovation after moving LCP off site - Clarke space mining and a 10 classroom brick and mortar addition - Diamond space mining + 16 classroom brick and mortar addition and café addition (Hurley, Alessandrini) Approved 4-1 (Judy Crocker voting against) Motion to request Board of Selectmen to release balance of funds, $2,666,000, from the Special Town Meeting allocation made on March 23, 2015, to pursue further design studies of projects delineated in “Final Consideration 1” listed above and funds for construction documents for pre-fabricated modulars as specified above. (Coppe, Crocker) Approved 5-0 Vote to Accept a $10,000 Check Awarded to the LHS Robotics Team for Their First Place Finish at the FedEx Innovation Challenge (2 minutes) MOTION to accept $10,000 check awarded to LHS Robotics Team. (Alessandrini, Crocker) The Motion was approved 5-0 MOTION to adjourn at 10:37 p.m. (Hurley, Crocker) The Motion was approved 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 10:37 pm. Meeting Materials: Dr. Czajkowski’s July 2015 Calendar; “Multiple School Construction Projects” July 13, 2015 Presentation Materials from DiNisco Design; Steigerwald’s draft “School Committee Actions” list. Voted Approved by the School Committee August 25, 2015