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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-12-20-SC-minLCS Meeting 12/20/16 LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE Monday, December 20, 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; 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 7:02 pm Call to Order and Welcome: Chair Bill Hurley called the meeting to order and introduced committee members. Public Comments: Elaine Ashton – 32 Cliff Ave. – Ms. Ashton would like to see the homework pilot program that is currently at the Estabrook School to be put into place at all schools. This program requires little to no homework but promotes reading instead. Dawn McKenna – 9 Hancock Street – Ms. McKenna would like the School Committee to allow public comments during its meetings, not just at the beginning. Superintendent’s Announcement:  FY18 Budget o Friday, December 23rd the budget books will be distributed to School Committee members at their homes o Dr. Czajkowski reviewed the budget calendar with the School Committee members.  Dr. Czajkowski spoke with Mr. Valente regarding the timeline for the Fall Special Town Meeting and a debt exclusion vote for the Hastings School Building Project. More information is to come. School Committee Member Announcements: A. Alessandrini: Wished everyone a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year J. Crocker: The Lexington Community Education booklet has been delivered and classes will begin in January. On Lowell Street, the flashing school light is currently inoperable; the problem is currently being looked at. Thanked the 20/20 Subcommittee on Asian Communities for its report; once the report is approved by the Board of Selectman it will be submitted to the School Committee. Mr. Alessandrini and Ms. Crocker met with Mr. Dailey to discuss the Financial Working Group. The working group will meet with Dr. Czajkowski and Mr. Dailey in the first week in January. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! W. Hurley: Mr. Hurley congratulated Sara Calvino, the Executive Assistant to the School Committee, on her promotion to the Executive Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent. Mr. Hurley updated the committee on the Plus One meeting. Mr. Hurley suggested taking some of the bonding for 20 years and some for 30 years. There was no decision made at this meeting. E. Jay: None. LCS Meeting 12/20/16 J. Steigerwald: An excellent Coalition Steering Committee meeting was held last week. After hearing from a Bedford visitor about their Unplugged effort, the Coalition would like to move forward with bringing this initiative to Lexington. The Coalition is forming subcommittees to address each of its three goals. Ms. Jay will be captain for the Academic Atmosphere subcommittee and Ms. Steigerwald will be captain of the Mental Health subcommittee. M. Campos: Consent Agenda: (Hurley/Steigerwald) Items 1 & 2 of the Consent Agenda were deferred for approval at the next meeting. Agenda: 1. Agenda Item: Sustainable Building Policy Recommendations Mark Sandeen, Chair of the Sustainable Lexington Committee presented recommendations for the Sustainable Building Policy that has not been updated since 2005. The Sustainable Lexington Committee met with Peter Kelley, Joe Pato, Carl Valente, and Pat Goddard to discuss designs for the new Hastings School. The Sustainable Lexington Committee gave the same presentation to the Board of Selectman. The Board of Selectman is requesting the School Committee’s recommendations after tonight’s meeting. Mr. Sandeen explained the problem as of now is that the current codes have surpassed the standards that were adopted in 2005. He stated that we are in the business of educating students, and we at Sustainable Lexington would like to see staff and students in the healthiest environment for better cognitive performance. Ms. Crocker explained that MSBA will return 2% if a certain amount of points are met but with that comes a cost. For each project, you will need to determine if 2% is worth the money it would take to get to the 2%. Ms. Steigerwald wanted to know how the points are determined for health and energy in each school if they are not meeting 100 points. Mr. Sandeen explained that the health factors that are being talked about are attainable, but each project is different. Ms. Steigerwald supports health in the classrooms and would like to see less asphalt at the schools. Feedback from Estabrook staff that there is not enough parking, so for any future projects we would need to accommodate the program needs, including having enough parking for staff. Mr. Goddard explained that Estabrook School was qualified as a LEED Silver School, which resulted in an MSBA reimbursement of 2% of the cost for Estabrook. The architects at DiNisco in collaboration with the PBC determined what points were feasible without driving the cost up. The 55 points was not easy to obtain. It’s a matter of prioritizing what is most important in a LEED program. Mr. Hurley would like to hear from the PBC on how long the payback period would be for adding these points and their costs to the budget for each school. Mr. Goddard explained that it’s really about evaluating the project with the benefits of each point and determining the cost. Each stakeholder will go back to their committee to get a consensus, identify recommendations for the points, and come back to the stakeholder meeting with recommendations. LCS Meeting 12/20/16 School Committee appoints Alessandro Alessandrini as the representative to the Net Zero Task Force and the representative to the Sustainable Committee for the upcoming project of Hastings. 2. Agenda Item: Preferred Schematic for the Maria Hastings Project – DiNisco Ms. Lipsitz, Principal of Hastings School, held a meeting at Estabrook School with community members and staff where attendees had the opportunity to tour the new Estabrook building in order to help inform designs for a new Hastings school. Donna DiNisco reviewed the facility options to achieve the previously approved 110,000 gross square feet Hastings Educational Program. The options included: (1) current building with a code upgrade, which does not accommodate full program needs, (2) current building renovated and additional space added to meet program needs, which would require vacating the building during construction, and (3) three design options for a new building on the Hastings site. At a public review of the options on December 15, attendees unanimous chose Schematic Option C as the preferred design. Ms. Crocker explained that at the last Transportation Safety Group meeting, concern was raised about how close the academic wing is to Route 128. Donna DiNisco explained that there will be large retaining walls around that side of the building. The walls will be at around 6 to 10 feet high. Tonight’s recommendation of the School Committee will be presented to the Permanent Building Committee. Ms. DiNisco explained that there is space for expansion in the future if enrollment grows, but you will never know what the building laws and codes will be in the future for adding an addition. Dr. Czajkowski would not like to see the school grow past the 30 classrooms, as this is a K-5. Ms. Steigerwald would like to see greenhouse space at Hastings like the one at Estabrook School. Ms. Lipsitz would certainly be willing to explore these options for the school. The School Committee moves to select the Preferred Schematic Option C for the Hastings Elementary School Project is a new building, consideration and that this selection be reported to MSBA in the January 4, 2017 Preferred Schematic Report. (Hurley/Crocker) 5-0. 3. Agenda Item: LHS HVAC Shawn Newell provided an overview of spaces at LHS that are currently air-conditioned and then provided two options for adding air conditioning. Option 1: provide air conditioning for teacher planning areas. Option 2: provide air conditioning in the library. School Committee requested this information on November 1. In speaking with Ms. Lasa, Dr. Czajkowski explained that Ms. Lasa would like to have some air- conditioned rooms for students and staff. Ms. Lasa and Mr. Baker are both in support of this. The School Committee requests that the 200,000 dollar design supplement be withdrawn towards the 20,829,000 HVAC construction project at LHS. (Hurley/ Crocker) 5-0. Ms. Crocker fully endorses the library being air conditioned for the students. She has reservations about air conditioning the teacher planning areas as just a Band-Aid and not worth the money at this time. LCS Meeting 12/20/16 School Committee moves the design for the HVAC System at LHS Alternate 1 and that the project be included in the 2017 Annual Town Meeting warrant. (Steigerwald/Hurley), opposed Crocker 4-1. School Committee moves to support the design for the LHS HVAC Alternate 2 the library and the project be included in the 2017 Annual Town Meeting warrant. (Steigerwald/Alessandrini) 5-0. 4. – Agenda Item: Location for LCP Dr. Czajkowski spoke with Mr. Valente today and he inquired if the School Committee would be voting on the Lexington Children’s Place (LCP) to affirm the support of Pelham. The Pelham property is not Mr. Hurley’s first choice for the LCP, he would like to see the Central Office be moved to the Pelham property as this provides options in the future for other school projects. Mr. Hurley will support what the School Committee agrees on. Ms. Crocker would like to continue to focus on our students and would like to keep the Pelham property as a school. With the upcoming projects, Central Office could possibly move to the police station in the future. As the Superintendent, Dr. Czajkowski cannot justify spending a dollar on administrative offices; the money should go into space for students. Vote to identify the new location for the Lexington Children’s Place as the Pelham Property. (Crocker/Steigerwald) 5-0. 5. – Agenda Item: Response to Mark Andersen’s Concerns of November 1, 2016 Regarding the METCO Program and Racial Imbalance Act Mr. Hurley read the memo from Colby Brunt, Counsel to the School Committee. This memo indicated that the district is not in violation of the Racial Imbalance Act. Dr. Czajkowski read a memo from Mr. Dailey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations. Mr. Dailey will be researching the operating funds for the METCO Program to bring to Mr. Andersen. Mr. Dailey will make any corrections that need to be made. Ms. Steigerwald explained that as a School Committee we support METCO. The information in the packets regarding the enrollment has been helpful for each School Committee member to explain to the public when asked about numbers in schools. The METCO program is something we are passionate about keeping and we need to reassure parents about this. Mr. Alessandrini explained that the 254 METCO students are spread throughout all the schools so we would be paying the teachers either way. Mr. Andersen brought forth papers in 2004 regarding the METCO program when there was no enrollment issue, now he uses the enrollment numbers as the reason. Mr. Alessandrini appreciates the conversation about the costs. At some point, we have to decide the amount of money that is worth; this is an important program independent of the monetary costs. Ms. Crocker applauds any resident for asking questions or suggesting improvements, as this is how we learn. She believes Ms. Brunt’s memo is a little vague and sits a little uneasy, as four schools are hitting the scale of being in violation of the Racial Imbalance Act. Ms. Crocker looks forward to Mr. Dailey’s METCO update on the January 3, 2017 School Committee Meeting. Dr. Czajkowski applauds the School Committee for discussing this sensitive topic about race, especially locally. To single out any single race is unfair. Dr. Czajkowski believes we should be reaching out to the LCS Meeting 12/20/16 other towns that are facing the same kind of issues with the METCO program. Also, possibly bringing these issues to our legislature. Massachusetts Day on the Hill for School Committee Members will take place in April; this could be a day to bring the METCO discussion forward. The School Committee agrees that Dr. Czajkowski should send a letter out to parents explaining that the School Committee supports the METCO program. Also with this letter, Ms. Brunt’s and Mr. Dailey’s memos should be attached. 6. – Agenda Item: Second Reading of Cross-Referenced Policies to JCAB The School Committee Policy Subcommittee, in conjunction with Mr. Dailey, Ms. Kavanugh and Ms. Trach, and in consultation with Dr. Czajkowski, presented the second of two public readings of cross- referenced policies to Buffer Zone Policy JCAB. The revised draft Policies JC, JCA, JCAA, JCAC, JFAB, JFABC, and JFBB are ready for their final reading and adoption by the School Committee. Dr. Czajkowski recommended that the Policy Subcommittee work with Ms. Trach on the Policy on Non- Resident Students, JFAB. The School Committee agreed to hold JFAB – Policy on Non-Resident Students to further review. Motion to Adopt Policies JC – Attendance Areas, JCA – Assignment of Students to Schools, JCAA –Redistricting, JCAC – Student Transfer Policy, JFABC – Admission of Transfer Students, and JFBB – School Choice as amended and to rescind the prior policies. (Crocker/Jay) 5-0. Motion to adjourn. The Motion was approved 5-0. (Hurley/Steigerwald) The meeting was adjourned at 10:31 Meeting Materials: Agenda; A.1- DiNisco Design LCP Phase One Presentation; A.2- LHS Heating Systems Upgrade, Exhibit B