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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-11-29-SC-min1 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE Tuesday, November 29, 2016 Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA Present: Chair, William Hurley; Vice Chair, Alessandro Alessandrini; Judy Crocker; Eileen Jay; Jessie Steigerwald; Superintendent, Dr.Czajkowski Absent: Student Representative, Matt Campos The minutes were taken by Sara Calvino, Executive Assistant to the School Committee and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent The meeting convened at 6:02pm in Open Session. Call to Order and Welcome: Chair, Bill Hurley called the meeting to order, and introduced committee members: At 6:03 p.m., in open session, the Chair moved that the School Committee vote to go into Executive Session under Exemption 3: To Discuss Strategy with Respect to Pending Finley Litigation and under Exemption 6: To Discuss Executive Session Minutes of April 4, 2016 Relative to the Purchase of 20 Pelham Road. Alessandrini – AYE; Crocker – AYE; Hurley – AYE; Jay – AYE; Steigerwald – AYE At 6:05 p.m., the Motion was approved 5-0 by a roll call vote, and the minutes for the Executive Session are in a separate document. At 7:01 p.m. Mr. Hurley called the Open Session back to order and invited public comments. Public Comments: None. Superintendent’s Announcement: 1. The Email Communication Task Force has been meeting and being chaired by Principal Tom Martellone. The Committee has been meeting regarding 3 separate email vendors, Office 365, Google and First Class. The Email Communication Task Force will be meeting tomorrow at 3:30 pm to finalize a decision to move forward with a new Email Communication system. Dr. Czajkowski will be sharing the decision with the School Committee by the end of the week. A transition team will be put into place to hold professional development and train staff on the new system. 2. The feedback from the Beyond Measure Book discussion and film will be compiled and at our leadership meeting on January 10th there will be a discussion on the feedback and 2 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 recommendations. Jessie Steigerwald and Eileen Jay will be invited to this meeting as part of the Community Coalition along with Claire Seth. 3. Dr. Czajkowski will be running Voluntary Homework Listening Tours with Andrew Baker for teachers and staff on January 4, January 11 and January 17. Each teacher will be asked to complete a short survey prior to these meetings. 4. Dr. Czajkowski thanked the members of the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL), Koreans of Lexington (KoLEX) and Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL) for attending our leadership meeting on November 15th to learn more on how we can better support our Asian students and our families. 5. Dr. Czajkowski awarded Ruth Zheng and Emily Zhang, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Academic Excellence Certificate. School Committee Member Announcements: J. Crocker: The Recreation Community Programs booklet has arrived in everyone’s mail; the Owl’s program is particularly highlighted in this book. Shout out to the Lexington Minuteman new Mascot! It has definitely brought good luck to the sports teams. Ms. Crocker held a moment of silence for the victims of the recent student attack at Ohio State. E. Jay: Ms. Jay expressed her appreciation to Dr. Czajkowski for inviting the Chinese American Association, the Korean Associate and the Indian Association to sit down and begin a dialogue and a partnership of working with the public schools system. Ms. Jay felt this meeting was a very productive meeting. J. Steigerwald: Congratulated all the sports teams and Barbara Nobles and staff for creating an amazing meeting last time. Ms. Steigerwald thanked Dr. Czajkowski for her very warm and thoughtful Thanksgiving letter. Regardless of your political preferences, we were all exposed to a very complicated bitter campaign where language was model for our students that have raised questions and concerns for them and their families and own town. We all have a part to play in sustaining what is best about our welcoming community. It is our part to. The School Committee is committed to celebrating diversity and making sure all children are safe and treated respectfully. We strive to be a welcoming place and it is demonstrated by both school centered and town sponsored activities that honor and celebrate diversity. Lexington will not be put into a local bubble; there will be impact from the National level. A year ago we met with U.S. Secretary of Education John King here in Lexington, who came here to look at our amazing progress with the METCO program. Ms. Steigerwald is really struck by the nominee for Secretary of Education. Ms. Steigerwald, Ms. Jay and Dr. Czajkowski attended the morning coalition meeting and they talked about setting up three subcommittees to represent each goal. For the Community, you can check out our Facebook page to get updates on meetings and how to get involved in the subcommittees. A. Alessandrini: Thanked everyone in Boston for holding the last School Committee Meeting to be able to spend time with the students and parents in the METCO program. The School Committee assured them that we support the METCO program. I am the School Committee member on the school community center for the advisory committee. One of the goals this year is to explore the white carriage house next to the community center. Mr. Alessandrini asks the 3 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 input from the School Committee on what this space could be used for as they explore ideas such as a teen center. W. Hurley: We as Committee are proud and privileged to be able to be partners with the people that are our administrators and staff. It has been known for a long time of Lexington’s academic achievement, but I have been tired in recent years of being asked why we don’t do so well in sports. Bill congratulated all the athletes for all the accomplishments the sports teams have achieved so far this year! This shows that Lexington is a great place to grow up. Mr. Hurley suggested that if we don’t need to meet for the December 6th School Committee Meeting that we hold December 14th or 15th to hold for another meeting. The School Committee will address this at the end of the meeting. Consent Agenda: 1. Vote to Approve the School Committee Minutes of November 1, 2016 2. Vote to Approve the School Committee Minutes of November 7, 2016 Motion to approve consent agenda items 1-2. (Steigerwald/Crocker) The Motion was approved (5-0). Agenda: 1. – Agenda Item: Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) – prevention model for teenage substance abuse Ms. Fenn, Prevention Specialist and Ms. Gasperini, Director of School Health Services presented the implementation plan for a new and mandatory health screening program, called SBIRT, as required by Massachusetts state law. SBIRT is a proactive, preventative model for substance abuse. Principal Lasa sent a letter to ninth grade parents informing them that the Lexington High School Nursing and counseling staff will pilot an interview based health screening called SBIRT. This screening process allows the high school to pilot screening requirements that will become Massachusetts State law in 2017-2018. Mr. Hurley asked where the personal notes will be kept under lock and key, and how long will they be kept. Jill Gasperini explained that she would follow up with the task force on how they will be kept and will make sure they are kept under lock and key. Dr. Czajkowski: At the leadership meeting today, the legalization of weed was discussed. She imagines that schools will have to form policies around the drug and how we will address and prevent this within the district. Ms. Crocker is very happy that there will be a screening for marijuana as well as other substance abuse. The October community opiate discussion that was had with Chief Corr is now up on LexMedia for anyone who missed this discussion. The opiate epidemic, this is really hitting home, it is right here in Lexington. Between the Coalition and the SBIRT, this is excellent. 4 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 Mr. Alessandrini thanked Ms. Fenn and Ms. Gasperini for calling substance abuse a chronic disease. It should not be stigmatized and should be treated as a chronic disease. Ms. Fenn explained that there are catch all substance abuse questions during the screening including prescription and over the counter drugs. 2. – Agenda Item: MCAS Update Ms. Maureen Kavanaugh, Director of Planning provided an overview of the 2016 MCAS results for ELA and mathematics, and 2016 state accountability results. Ms. Steigerwald would like to hear more from teachers within the district from other assessments. Maybe next year we can go through the MCAS results quickly and hear from the teachers about their assessments. Ms. Caitlin Ahern, Coordinator of Professional Learning provided an update of spring 2017 statewide testing plans. Ms. Ahern explained the next generation MCAS also known as MCAS 2.0.will be administered to grades 3-8. The MCAS will be staying the same for the 10th graders for the next two years. In spring 2017, 4th and 8th graders will be taking their MCAS test online. The teachers administering the MCAS test will have training, which will include online training as well. The test is still being developed at this time, but once there is more information regarding the test, it will be shared with the district. 3. – Agenda Item: FY16 4th Quarter Financial Report Dr. Czajkowski acknowledged Mr. Dailey and his staff for putting together these reports but also for the careful budgeting and monitoring to be able to return a little over 2.7 million dollars to the Town. Mr. Ian Dailey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, reviewed the FY16 Fourth Quarter Salaries and Wages Budget and Fourth Quarter Expenses Budget. Dr. Czajkowski explained that coming in under what was projected is due to Ian Dailey working closely with Ellen Sugita and the Principals and all the meetings that are taken place daily. 4. – Agenda Item: FY17 1st Quarter Financial Report Mr. Ian Dailey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, reviewed the FY17 First Quarter Salaries and Wages Budget and Fourth Quarter Expenses Budget. Dr. Czajkowski explained that 32 buses were budgeted for this school year but we are now up to 35. For the discussions on the FY18 budget, Dr. Czajkowski and Mr. Dailey would like to discuss transportation particularly around the after school buses. This is only the First Quarter report and we are already seeing these deficits. Ms. Steigerwald recommends bringing the transportation discussion to the next PTA and PTO meeting to get informal feedback on the transportation fee from parents. 5 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 Ms. Crocker thanked Dr. Czajkowski, Mr. Dailey, administrators and principals for demonstrating fiscal responsibility as everyone is tightening their belts. In FY11, we had 18 buses and now we have 35, it has been a seed that has been planted and has grown. Ms. Crocker believes some approaches can be made to further the partnership that has been formed with Lexpress and the Ride After program. Mr. Alessandrini recommends we do a gradual increase of the transportation fee. He also explains that he is concerned about the appointed Secretary of Education, as she does not believe in public education. Right now, Lexington receives about 1.9-2 millions dollars worth of federal grants, we need to put funds aside for any losses in the future from the federal level as it is so uncertain. We had the Kindergarten and academic grants taken away. Thankfully we had a line for the FY17 to fund these positions. Ian Dailey highlighted the Special Ed 240 grant with collaboration with the state, the auditor and the Special Education Department about how we use our Special Ed 240 grant for mostly paid positions. Going forward in FY17, these positions will be transferred to the operating budget. Mr. Dailey reviewed the transfers outlined in Table 4 for Fiscal year 2016-2017. Ms. Crocker requested from Dr. Czajkowski that at some point she update the School Committee on summer school with an explanation of the program. Move that the School Committee approve the transfers outlined in Table 4 of the Fiscal Year 2016-17 First Quarter Financial Report, per School Committee Policy DBJ The Motion was approved (5-0). (Hurley/Alessandrini) 5. – Agenda Item: Bus Captains Report Mr. Ian Dailey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, provided an update on Bus Captains. With the increase of riders, it has been increasingly challenging to manage within all buildings. The intent to having a point person at each of the schools is to make sure children are getting on the right buses and to ensure their safety. The Bus Captain Stipend fee is $2,276.00. Dr. Czajkowski explained that a topic for discussion is evaluating the programs to which students are being bused, and possibly have some of these programs that are offered on site rather than be transported in order to lower transportation costs. Mr. Alessandrini understands we are providing a service to parents but some of these programs are for profit and are not contributing to transportation at this time. 6. – Agenda Item: School Facilities Update Mr. Pat Goddard, Director of Facilities, provided an updated on the five school construction projects: 1) Lexington Children’s Place, 2) Elementary Modular Classrooms, 3) Maria Hastings Elementary School, 4) Middle School Construction, and 5) Lexington High School HVAC Upgrades. During the update Pat will discuss which projects may be in the 2017 Annual Town 6 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 Meeting warrant and the timeline for decisions by School Committee to have information for Town Meeting. 1) LCP – Mr. Goddard reviewed Concept C, New Facility on Harrington Site and Concept E, Pelham Property. Mr. Goddard explained that the Phase two report for the LCP should be finalized in February in preparation for Town Meeting. Mr. Hurley and Dr. Czajkowski met with the Board of Selectman Chair and the Town Manager on Monday, November 28, 2016 in regards to the Pelham property. The Town is very interested in sharing this project with the school. The question that is being asked of the School Committee is would the committee identify one site being Pelham tonight and move forward with only that one site. Dr. Czajkowski added that Joe Pato, Suzie Barry, and Carl Valente made it very clear that this is joint collaboration between the Town and the school. As Bill pointed out, if Pelham is our first choice, Mr. Valente would add the Pelham property to the agenda for the Summit 3 agenda for further discussion in open session and executive session. Mr. Goddard’s understanding is that the Committee’s first choice would be Pelham if acquired by the Town. If the Pelham property were not available the back up would be Harrington. The timing from now to February is not as critical. It seems the School Committee has a clear path already for the decision that needs to be made. Ms. Crocker suggested that for future expansion for Concept C to have DiNisco keep in mind that if the School Committee ends up moving forward with Concept C that the bus lane be moved to possibly accommodate a 30 classroom school at Harrington. Mr. Goddard recommends that School Committee does not have DiNisco do anymore-billable work for the next few weeks until actions follow through with Pelham. The phase two report will only cover the Pelham site and not Harrington unless it seems the Pelham property will fall through. The School Committee recommends Concept E identifying 20 Pelham Road property for Renovation for LCP and a shared school municipal use. (Steigerwald/Crocker) 2) Elementary Modular Classrooms Mr. Goddard presented pictures of the site work that has been done at the Elementary Schools that will have Modulars installed for occupancy in May. 3) Maria Hastings At the December 15th Hasting Building meeting, Mr. Goddard will be asking for feedback from the community and staff on the Maria Hastings project. Mr. Goddard will bring the recommendations from the staff, the community and the designers to the December 20th School Committee Meeting and request the School Committee to support one of the options. On Thursday, December 8th there will be a PBC meeting to receive feedback on updating the Town’s Sustainable Design Policy for making better buildings. Facilities will be recommending on the 8th to use the New England CNPS point system in building new buildings. 7 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 Ms. Crocker suggests that the School Committee Traffic Safety and Mitigation policy be available at the December 8th PBC meeting for members to better understand the school grounds, complete streets, pedestrian bike and vehicle mitigation and safety. 4) Middle Schools Mr. Goddard presented an update on the Clarke and Middle School renovations. Ms. Crocker recommends re-doing the school signage to match the great ones that currently exist at the elementary schools. 5) Lexington High School HVAC Upgrades Mr. Goddard has entered a project for Lexington High School upgrade with a feasibility-funding request for FY22. Mr. Goddard explained that Air Conditioning to teacher planning areas could be used as an option for $350,000 until a renovation or a new building is built. Mr. Alessandrini recommends going to the Capital Expenditure Committee with what we need and not let them dictate what can be done. Mr. Hurley asked Dr. Czajkowski to meet with Principal Lasa and perhaps Mr. Baker to identify the areas that are in most need of air conditioning and return to the School Committee with a recommendation on December 20th. 7. – Agenda Item: Greenways Committee ACROSS Lexington Route Map Request Move that the School Committee approves the route H walking pathway for ACROSS Lexington. (Steigerwald/Crocker) The Motion was approved (5-0). 8. – Agenda Item: Third Buffer Zone Policy Reading – Further Discussion The School Committee Policy Subcommittee, in conjunction with Mr. Dailey, Ms. Kavanaugh, and Ms. Trach and in consultation with Dr. Czajkowski, presented the third of three public readings of Buffer Zone Policy JCAB. Ms. Colby Brunt reviewed the Policy JCAB and had no recommendations or changes to this policy. Ms. Jay recommended the following amendment to the second paragraph, second sentence; It is the preference of the School Committee that, if the administration delineates any section of the town as a buffer zone, students would be assigned to one of two, but not more than three schools designated for that zone. The School Committee agreed upon this amendment. Ms. Jay wanted to avoid confusion for the public; the School Committee is adopting this policy but it does not mean we are implementing buffer zones in Lexington. We are just adopting a policy for future use. Motion to Adopt Policy JCAB Buffer Zones. (Crocker/Jay) The Motion was approved (5-0). 9. – Agenda Item: Second Reading of Cross-Referenced Policies to JCAB This agenda item will be placed on a subsequent meeting. 8 LSC Meeting 11/29/16 10:37 Motion to adjourn. (Hurley/Jay) The Motion was approved 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at Meeting Materials: Agenda; A.1-Agenda Item Summary, Letter from Jill Gasperini RN, MN, SBIRT in Schools FAQs, The CRAFFT-II Screening Interview, Letter to Parents from Principal Lasa, An Act Relative to Substance Use, Treatment, Education, and Prevention, Bill H.4056 A.2- Agenda Item Summary, Letter from Kelly Chase, MCAS PowerPoint A.3-Agenda Item Summary, Fourth Quarter Salaries and Wages Budget – Detail, Fourth Quarter Expenses Budget- Detail A.4-Agenda Item Summary, First Quarter Salaries and Wages Budget – Detail, First Quarter Expenses Budget-Detail, A.5-Agenda Item Summary, A.6- Agenda Item Summary, Multiple Schools Project PowerPoint A.7- Agenda Item Summary, Greenways Committee ACROSS Lexington Route Map A.8-Agenda Item Summary, Policy JCAB A.9- Agenda Item Summary, Policies, JC, JCA, JCAA, JCAC, JFAB, JFABC and JFBB