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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1976-11-22-SC-min Page 190 November 22, 1976 The Lexington School Committee met at the School Administration Building at 8:00 p.m. , on November 22, 1976. Present were Mrs. Swanson, Messrs.Michelman, Wadsworth, Brown and student representative Nancy Abelmann. Also present were Messrs. Lawson, Spiris, Monderer, Barnes, Maclnnes, Pierson. Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 8,1976 VOTED: to accept the minutes of November 8, 1976 as amended. (Michelman, Brown, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept the Executive Session Minutes of March 15, 1976. EXECUTIVE (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) (with names deleted) SESSION MINUTES VOTED: to release the minutes of March 15, 1976 with names deleted. (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept the Executive Session Minutes of March 20, 1976. (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) VOTED: to release the Executive Session Minutes of March 20, 1976 with names deleted. (Michelman, Brown, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept as corrected Executive Session Minutes of May 10, 1976. (Wadsworth, Michelman, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept the Executive Session Minutes of May 17, 1976 as cor- rected. (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) VOTED: to release the Executive Session Minutes of May 17, 1976 as corrected. (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept the Executive Session Minutes of May 24, 1976 as cor- rected. (Wadsworth, Michelman, Unanimous) VOTED: to release the Executive Session Minutes of May 24, 1976 as cor- rected (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) VOTED: to accept the Executive Session Minutes of June 1, 1976. (Michelman, Wadsworth, Unanimous) It was agreed that at the next School Committee a similar number of Executive Session Minutes would be reviewed for vote. Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was VOTED: to accept the following Schedule of Payments.. (Michelman, Brown, Unanimous) SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS Personal Services November 12, 1976 Classified Payroll #10 $ 72,335.04 November 19, 1976 Professional Payroll #12-C 426,241.24 Page 191 November 22, 1976 Expenses November 12, 1976 Bill Schedules #67 $ 2,448.73 November 12, 1976 #68 1,500.64 November 12, 1976 #69 4,706.47 November 12, 1976 #70 5,495.71 November 12, 1976 #71 25,682.97 November 12, 1976 #72 11,903.63 November 19, 1976 #73 2,649.24 November 19, 1976 #74 817.60 November 19, 1976 #75 2,576.04 November 19, 1976 #76 4,112.60 November 19, 1976 #77 18,817.40 Vocational Education November 12, 1976 Transportation #2 295.80 November 19, 1976 #3 122.80 Out-of-State Travel November 12, 1976 Bill Schedules #10 136.99 November 19, 1976 #11 357.72 Athletics November 12, 1976 Bill Schedules #14 902.46 November 19, 1976 #15 3,090.14 November 19, 1976 Payrolls #6 432.00 November 19, 1976 #7 90.00 December 3, 1976 - #8 35,355.00 SPECIAL PROGRAMS-Non-Lexington Funds Adult Education November 19, 1976 Professional Payroll 1,231.20 Driver Education-Adult Education November 19, 1976 Professional Payroll 951.72 M.T.A. Southwick Salary . November 19, 1976 Professional Payroll 745.38 NETCO Program November 12, 1976 Classified Payroll #5 1,468.10 November 19, 1976 Professional Payroll 5,021.39 November 12, 1976 Bill Schedule #5 27,436.90 Title III-Administrative Grant November 12, 1976 Classified Payroll 160.00 November 19, 1976 Bill Schedule #3 28.08 Adult Education November 12, 1976 Bill Schedule #3 581.25 Other November 19, 1976 Bus Ticket Account #2 1,492.00 Page 192 November 22, 1976 Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was NEW PERSONNEL SECONDARY VOTED: to accept the following new secondary personnel. (Brown, Wads • - worth, Unanimous) Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was PERSONNEL CHANGES VOTED: to accept the following personnel changes (Professional) (Michel- (PROFESSIONAL) man, Brown, Unanimous) Resignations Maternity Leave Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was PERSONNEL CHANGES VOTED: to accept the following personnel changes (Classified) (Wads- (CLASSIFIED) worth, Michelman, Unanimous) New Personnel Change of Classification & Hours Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools it was BIDS FOOTBALL EQUIP, VOTED: that the bid for Football Equipment Reconditioning be awarded to METT - RECON- the Phil Murray Co., Inc. , as being the low bidder meeting speci- DITIONING fications (Brown, Michelman, Unanimous) The report regarding the Summer Co-Op was given to the School Com- SUMMER CO-OP mittee as an informational matter. The School Committee members agreed to review the report at a future date and to discuss recommendations contained therein with the adult advisors of the Co-Op. Y Page 193 November 22, 1976 An informational sheet regarding the follow-up of seniors of the FOLLOW-UP OF Class of 1976 was presented to the School Committee. It was noted that SENIORS approximately 77% of the students graduated from Lexington High School went on to two and four year colleges. Dr. Pierson outlined the purposes of the Secondary Reading Workshop SECONDARY REE that took place on November 18, at the Reading Center, Lexington High ING WORKSHOP School. He said that the focus of this type of workshop was to address discreet and chronic problems in an area and provide for quick solutions. He felt that this vehicle accomplished such a goal. The focus of the reading workshop was the development of a formal procedure for treating incoming seventh and tenth grade students with recognized reading dif- ficulties. It also focused on the development of a procedure for gather- ing data on the reading performance of all incoming seventh and tenth grade students. He said there would be additional workshops to meet problems in the areas of science, writing units, and health education. A letter from the firm of Palmer & Dodge was read regarding the LEGAL OPINION case of Romberg vs. Spiris. The communication said that the Court on November 2, 1976 granted the motion for summary judgment against Romberg. This meant that on the basis of the affidavits and memoranda of the law before the Court, the Judge found that there was no material factual dis- pute and that the names and addresses of students were exempted from the definition of "public records' in the Freedom of Information Act and therefore need not be disclosed. It was also noted that Mr. Romberg had thirty days in which to make an appeal. Dr. Lawson stated that in September, 1976, he appointed a committee FINANCIAL PR" consisting of Mr. Koetke, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Maclnnes and Dr. DiGiammarino GRAM SERVIC. to investigate methods for up-dating and automating the financial data PROPOSAL system of the Lexington Public Schools. During the past months, this committee had been meeting and recouauended the service of an outside consultant to up-date the design of the Lexington Public Schools Finan- cial Management System in an effort to provide financial informational services to the School Committee, superintendent, administrators and other staff members. Mr. Robert A. Nielsen of the firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., was in attendance to respond to questions from the School Committee. Mr. Michelman expressed his concern for Objective 1.1, which stated that the consultant would recommend a financial program philosophy that would serve as a guide for budget development and control of expenditures. He felt that the appropriate manner of development would be for the School Committee and school staff to develop the philosophy rather than have it imposed by an outside firm. Dr. DiGiammarino and Mr. Nielsen said that there would he a great deal of participation on the part of School Com- mittee and staff in development of this philosophy and it would not be superimposed by an outside agency. Mr. Michelman said that he was for the proposal as a total, but still had reservations about this segment of the program. After a brief discussion, it was VOTED: to accept the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools that the firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell enter into a contract with the Lexington Schools for a design phase according to the suggested time schedule as outlined in the proposal, and that fees and expenses not exceed $28,000. (Wadsworth, Brown, Unani- mous) (See next page) Page 194 November 22, 1976 A brief discussion took place regarding the source of funds for the contract. Mr. Maclnnes replied that $12,000 would come from the portion of budgeted money for 2 maintenance men who will not be hired, $11,000 would come from 70% of a budgeted non-replaceable position in Personal Services, and $5,000 from the Expense Budget. Additional information regarding the class sizes at the secondary SECONDARY CLASS level was presented to the School Committee. Principals from the sec- SIZE ondary schools were in attendance to respond to questions. Classes under fifteen or over thirty were documented and the rationale for the classes were also presented. Dr. Lawson stated that during the time he had been here that none of the courses that were under fifteen were ap- proved by him even though the policy states that courses under fifteen shall be approved by the superintendent of schools. After a brief dis- cussion it was agreed that the superintendent review the administrative guidelines in effect that all classes under fifteen be approved by the superintendent of schools. Dr. Lawson also stated that he would further analyze the situation. Mr. Wadsworth said that as he went around, he felt that there was SCHOOL CLOSINGS a great deal of space available, and he would suggest that the School Committee seriously consider the possibility of phasing out three schools at one time, namely, Hancock, Munroe, Parker; rather than phasing them out over a period of time. He presented a plan that would include the retention of eight elementary schools, four on the east side of town and four on the west side with two of the schools being 4-6 organization on each side of town and two K-3 schools on each side of town. He said the specifications would be that kindergarten classes would range between sixteen and eighteen, and grades 1-6 would be twenty-one to twenty-five students. He said that he had asked the administration to look into this. He also added that there should be no combined classes unless there be definite academic reasons . He felt that all of this could be accomplished at a reasonable cost. Mr. Michelman said that the school visitations had been very bene- ficial to him as a school committee member and hoped that a recoimaenda- tion on housing the students in the schools of Lexington would be forth- coming from the superintendent. Dr. Lawson said that he had hoped that no later than the first meeting in January he hoped that the school com- mittee would either re-affirm or change the vote regarding the closing of a school in September, 1977. Mr. Michelman then added that he had noticed space inadequacies in some buildings, and some overcrowding even though there had been a decline in enrollment. He said an upper limit of twenty-five students seemed to him higher .than we should be aiming for and did lead to problems. He felt that the decline in stu- dent enrollment gave Lexington opportunity to set the class average well below twenty-five without a fiscal problem. Mr. Brown said that he saw no great advantage to class sizes between twenty and twenty-five and he felt that the upper end of the range of twenty-five was accept- able as a class size. He said he would like to receive comments and Page 195 November 22, 1976 recommendations from the superintendent as to the future of education in the Lexington Public Schools. Mrs. Swanson said that many Massa- chusetts communities were in a similar situation and there was great inequity in class sizes in some school systems. Some schools were ex- periencing larger sizes, other schools had very small classes. She said the equity problem was one that should be addressed. Dr. Lawson said that he hoped that within one month he would have some recommenda- tions from himself and the staff.- He said he would do what he could in the time period available. It was VOTED: to adjourn at 10:07 p.m. {Wadsworth, Michelman, Unanimous) Respedflully submit.-., Richard H. Barnes /k ✓ Recording/'Secretary