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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-10-11-SC-min Page 165 October 11, 1977 The Lexington School Committee met at the school administration building, Tuesday, October 11, 1977, at 8:00 p.m. Those in attendance were: Swanson, Brown, Michelman, Hoffman, Gaudet, and student represent- ative Miller. Also present were Lawson, Spiris, Barnes, Pierson, Mon- derer and Macl'nnes. It was MINUTES OF 9/27/77 VOTED: to accept the minutes of September 27, 1977, as corrected. (Michelman, Brown, Unanimous) Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, it was SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS VOTED: to accept the following Schedule of Payments. (Brown, Michelman, Unanimous) SCHOOL DEPARTMENT BUDGETS Personal Services September 30, 1977 Classified Payroll #8 $ 72,489.34 September 23, 1977 Professional Payroll #7P 425,944.62 Expenses September 30, 1977 Bill Schedules #32 3,001.32 September 30, 1977 #33 7,859.28 September 30, 1977 #34 280.00 September 30, 1977 #35 4,790.65 October 7, 1977 #36 9,611.39 October 7, 1977 #37 5,177.02 October 7, 1977 #38 7,526.05 October 7, 1977 #39 28,302.34 October 7, 1977 #40 3,660.26 Expenses (Carryovefl September 30, 1977 Bill Schedule #206 186.80 Out-of-State Travel October 7, 1977 Bill Schedule #2 143.02 Athletics September 30, 1977 BillSchedules #7 2,619.74 October 7, 1977 #8 1,695.82 October 7, 1977 Payroll #2 773.50 SPECIAL PROGRAMS (Non-Lexington Fundsj METCO Program September 30, 1977 Classified #2 1,562.13 September 23, 1977 Professional Payroll 2,901.57 . September 30, 1977 Bill Schedule #1 155.95 September 30, 1977 Bill Schedule #1O('77) 1,560.00 I Page 166 October 11, 1977 LEADS Program September 30, 1977 Bill Schedules #23 2,442.53 October 7, 1977 #24 494.55 September 30, 1977 Classified Payroll 1,292.96 September 23, 1977 Professional Payroll 856.19 Transition to Employment (94-142) September 30, 1977 Classified Payroll #2 401.10 September 23, 1977 Professional Payroll 1,130.76 September 30, 1977 Bill Schedule #1 7.00 Special Education (89-313) September 23, 1977 Professional Payroll 548.69 ESEA Library October 7, 1977 Bill Schedule #2 2,829.28 ACE Grant October 7, 1977 Bill Schedule #23 124.26 Driver Education October 7, 1977 Bill Schedule #3 214.65 Low Income October 7, 1977 Bill Schedule #2 43.90 The financial statement was discussed. FINANCIAL STATEMENT Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools it was PERSONNEL CHANGES VOTED: to accept the following personnel changes (Professional) (Brown, (PROFESSIONAL Michelman, Unanimous) Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools it was PERSONNEL CHANGES VOTED: to accept the following personnel changes (classified) (Brown, (CLASSIFIED) Michelman, Unanimous) (See next page) Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools it was NEW PERS0NNE7 VOTED: to accept the following new personnel. (Brown, Hoffman, Unani- mous) Page 167 October 11,1977 Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools it was BIDS - FUEL OIL- VOTED: that the Lexington Public Schools award bids of fuel oil to the following companies. (Michelman, Brown, Unanimous) Company #4 Oil 1% #6 Oil 1% Metropolitan Petroleum Co. ,Inc. $14.08 Union Petroleum Corp. 13.4076 Iir. Spirts presented a breakdown. of the elementary school class CLASS SIZE sizes. He noted the average class size for the 148 elementary grades REPORT as follows: (AS OF OCT. 6, 1977) K 17.1 (17 classes) Gr. 1-6 22.8 (131 classes) K-6 22.1 (148 classes) He reported that a similar enrollment was being prepared for grades 7-9 and 10-12. The school committee discussed the School Closing Policy which had SCHOOL CLOSING been developed by the superintendent of schools at the request of the POLICY school committee. Several additions and language changes were presented to the school committee by Frank Michelman. The school committee used Mr. Michelman's suggestions as a basis of discussion.. Mr. Hoffman noted that in Item 3A the impression one could get was that it locked the school committee into current levels of personnel. He felt that it was critical that this item be discussed in detail for present and future clarifica- tion. Dr. Lawson responded saying that it was a positive intention to include this item and assured the committee that it was not linked with the School Closing Policy. The superintendent said class size and pro- gram should not be aligned to the school closing policy being discussed. He said it was critical to affirm our intent not to reduce staff levels or programs in the next two to three years in order to provide continuity in the system. He said that if the policy were agreed upon then a study would take place similar to that of last year. He emphasized the School Closing Policy would be divorced from the issues of class size and con- tinuation of programs. Mr. Hoffman suggested that up-to-date figures (November 1 enrollments) be used in the analysis of the School Closing Report made by the school administration. Mr. Michelman emphasized that it was very important to insure that where the criteria indicated that closing a school might overcrowd or adversely affect the educational sys- tem the committee's policy should tilt in favor of delay in closing a school. He suggested that the policy indicate this by inserting the phrase, "prudent margin" in Section 3B. The sentence would read, "Re- ceiving schools shall, allowing prudent margin of possible error. . .". Mr. Hoffman suggested that Item G be expanded to include the constraints as listed in the Analysis of School Closings, dated January, 1977, pages 2 and 3. It was agreed to include this change. Mr. Hoffman, at this point, returned to the Preamble. He said he was not persuaded that the document needed a preamble. He felt that the wording suggested the system was not doing things of value. He felt the preamble over-emphasized cost factors. He said he also felt the preamble A Page 168 October 11, 1977 should not focus on the feelings of one segment of the population. He added that there were significant numbers of people who felt differently towards some of the expressed items in the preamble. He suggested that no quote be contained in the preamble. Mrs. Swanson said that there was no implication on the part of the school committee that time of the system was being wasted. She felt that the time was well spent in looking at the issues and that they were fully discussed. The consensus of the committee was to delete the ex- pressions, "For many years at significant cost and time in energy and dollars" and "to continue to study this issue indefinitely would result in an even greater loss of time, energy and dollars." At this point Mr. Michelman said that he would like the record to show that he would abstain from voting on the policy. He said he felt he had contributed to the policy in every way possible to make a good policy, although he said he could not vote for the policy due to the judgments and premises contained. He said he needed to keep his posi- tion clear and would accept the vote of the school committee and support its decision. Mrs. Swanson replied that it was disappointing after hours had been spent in developing a policy as a united group, to have a member abstain. She felt that it would be more appropriate for the committee to vote unan- imously to demonstrate support for the policy based upon the vote that had been taken by the committee in February, 1977. Mr. Hoffman inter- jected that any vote by a member of the committee to vote against or abstain should not be construed as non-support. He said he would vote in favor of the proposal, even though he did not agree with the policy, because it was where the committee was at presently and felt that the committee needed to go on to other areas. He felt his position has been made clear on the issue. Mr. Brown moved that the policy be adopted as amended. (Brown, Gaudet, Unanimous) . At this point Mr. Michelman ex- plained that he had changed his mind, and thus the unanimous vote of the school committee was recorded. The proposed Students Rights and Responsibilities document was pre- STUDENTS RIGHTS sented to the school committee by William Tapply, chairman of the com- & RESPONSIBILI-- mittee who developed the policy. Each section of the document was com- TIES merited upon by members of the school committee. Mr. Tapply responded at appropriate times to their questions. Mrs. Gaudet began the discussion by expressing concern that no lim- its were being imposed on students right to expression. She felt that freedom of expression certainly was appropriate but limitations needed to be made known. Mr. Michelman said that even though excesses in free- dom of expression are unfortunate rulings of the United States Supreme Court supported students to express themselves even though judged excess- ive by some. Concern was expressed by members of the comuittee about the possible education process being disrupted. Also a point of concern was that all persons should observe the rights of other individuals. It was felt these items needed to be expressed in more explicit teams than Page 169 October 11, 1977 was stated in the proposed policy. Mrs. Swanson said the document should include specific procedures for the intervention of principals if needed. Mr. Michelman stated that some students upon learning of the policy might deliberately abuse it, but the school committee cannot legislate against it. Mr. Hoffman added that the committee needed to be cautious against the folly of attempting to over-legislate areas of expression by students. He felt that the policy as presented. motivated concern in him. Dr. Lawson said that there could be some policy confusion, but he underscored the need for having a policy versus no policy at all. It was agreed that the policy be reviewed by the Students Rights and Responsibilities Committee and take into consideration the school committee comments regarding the discretionary powers of principals in relation to freedom of expression. It was also suggested that the rest of the policy, even though acceptable in some areas should be re-written. It was agreed to discuss the Students Rights and Responsibilities at a future meeting. The superintendent of schools presented the School Committee with METCO an information sheet on the '77-'78 METCO enrollments. The present ENROLLMENTS METCO enrollment was noted as 271. Mr. Michelman expressed hope that the authorized level of 280 would be achieved as soon as possible. Dr. Lawson said that Mr. Modest, Coordinator of METCO, was working on addi- tional enrollments. A memorandum from Geoff Pierson regarding the professional develop- SECONDARY ment activities of the first secondary school Thursday afternoon half- PROFESSIONAL day was presented. He noted that department heads and coordinators were HALF-DAYS able to meet for several hours. Every member of the department was able to attend to school responsibilities, energy levels were high, people worked efficiently, planning was being accomplished, and inter-department needs were more easily scheduled. All in all, he felt that the first of the Thursday afternoon days were a success. Mr. Maclnnes reported on an Energy Conservation in Schools Confer- ENERGY ence meeting that he and Dr. Lawson attended in September. Highlights CONSERVATION of the meeting included several interesting points. Since the oil em- MEETINGS bargo the cost of energy in schools has risen from an average of $20 per student to $46 per student. The cost of school energies is approximately 43c per square foot now. The schools use approximately 5% of the total energy in the United States. Savings of 20 to 307 could occur with care- ful management via scheduling, turning out lights, adjusting thermostats etc. Other savings could be accomplished with capital improvements. Mr. Maclnnes noted that it was a very interesting conference and planned to utilize many of the suggestions. Due to the lateness of the hour, the following items were deferred DEFERRED ITEMS to future school committee meetings: Proposed Five Year Calendar (2nd reading) Enrollment and Enrollment Projections Student Records Proposed Evaluation System and Role Description for Administrators. Page 170 October 11, 1977 It was agreed that the school committee would shift its regularly FUTURE MEETII scheduled meetings from the second and fourth Monday of the month to the first and third Tuesdays of the month, as soon as possible. The schedule for the next several meetings was announced. Meetings ill be held Oct- ober 24, 8:00 p.m. , Special Meeting, October 25, 4:00 p.m. regarding the budget process with Frank DiGiammarino at Unit S at the High School. November 1, November 22, December 6 and December 20. It was VOTED: to adjourn at 11:00 p.m. (Brown, Gaudet, Unanimous) Respecyfully submitted .Ii"ic7rard H. Barnet /k Recording Sept tary