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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-08-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday,September 8,2020 Conducted by Remote Participation AGENDA CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:00 p.m. Chair Kathleen Lenihan welcomed and introduced committee members SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Kathleen Lenihan, Chairperson Eileen Jay, Vice-Chair Deepika Sawhney Scott Bokun Sara Cuthbertson, Clerk STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Sara Mei SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent Mr. David Coehlo, Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations Assistant Superintendent to Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development The minutes were taken by Kristen Cronin, Executive Assistant to the School Committee Ms. Lenihan read Governor Baker's Executive Order from March 12, 2020 which allows public meetings to be conducted remotely due to the state emergency related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Ms. Lenihan covered additional ground rules for an effective and clear conduct of business and to assure accurate meeting minutes. MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS/LIAISON REPORTS: Mr. Bokun reported that the Planning Board would be reviewing the zoning articles for the Special Town Meeting that will be held in October. Mr. Bokun said the Town is looking at rezoning Hartwell Avenue to make it more attractive to businesses. Details on the plans and the process can be found on the Town's website. Ms. Sawney attended the Appropriation Committee meeting. Ms. Jay reminded the community that the dates have been announced for the beginning of Special Town Meeting. as well as the Budget Summits. The first Budget Summit meeting will be held this Thursday, September 10th. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Ms. Lenihan provided an update regarding the School Committee's resolution to have ongoing, routine and easily accessible testing for all residents as soon as possible to facilitate students and staff returning to school in as safe a manner as possible. She sent an email to State Representative Michelle Ciccolo, Senators Mike Barrett and Cindy Freedman, and the chairs of the Joint Committee on Education. Ms. Lenihan received a response back from Senator Freedman and Representative Ciccolo, both of whom are in support of the School Committee's resolution. COMMUNITY SPEAK: Amanda Laskowski, Special Education Teacher in Lexington: Advocating for more transparency and guidance from the district and School Committee as to how Special Education teachers can deliver the best possible services for students. Also advocating for a workload that is equitable and allows for collaboration with general educators to provide the best services. Mona Roy, Burtwell Road: Ms. Roy asked if the School Committee could consider having the curriculum pared down to what is needed. Hoping the demands on students and teachers will be balanced. Carissa Black, 143 Bedford Street: Ms. Black was under the impression that aides, therapists, and teachers who are in close contact with students that require physical assistance would have KN95 masks. Ms. Black asked if she could donate them and was told that the schools weren't taking these donations at this time. Ms. Black commented that given the close proximity, it would be ideal both for students and staff to have these masks. Bronte Abraham, 22 Hudson Road: Ms. Bronte stated that her question is from her and the SEPAC community. She noted that, in the SEPAC chats that were held with the superintendent and Ms. Ellen Sugita last week, there were two topics that came up that SEPAC has not received an answer on yet. The topics deal with building-to-building transitions. Students would have a 30 minute meet-and-greet with their resource teacher and be able to get acquainted to their new circumstances, whether virtual or live, in advance of the crowd. Ms. Bronte said many SEPAC families have not heard about the transition times and wanted to follow up. Ms. Bronte said the second topic discussed was support blocks not aligning with the schedule. Looking for direction from Tracy Conte and the team as to how those support blocks can be allocated so students will receive support for all of their subjects. Jennifer Burgess, SIA at Hastings Elementary: Ms. Burgess had a follow-up statement on what her colleague Amanda spoke about at the beginning of Community Speak. Ms. Burgess said teachers have Remote Learning Academy class sizes way over capacity. Molly Watkins, 4th grade teacher at Bridge: Ms. Watkins commented that there is a lack of communication on remote placement for staff. She said staff members were not notified of their placements until a few days prior to having to start working. Ms. Watkins echoed the concerns from Ms. Burgess about the Remote Learning Academy being over the contractual limit. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Dr. Avon Lewis, President of the Lexington Education Association: Dr. Lewis said one of the things that is really concerning is how things are going in the town. Dr. Lewis said there are kids playing basketball and at playgrounds without masks on. Dr. Lewis said she knows everyone has been working really hard, but it does not change the fact that things are different this year and staff is feeling very unprepared and it is not the way to start the school year. Would really like to be starting the school year on top of things and ready to meet the new students. Dr. Lewis stressed that everyone has been working very hard and there is so much to do this year and hopes the community recognizes that as we start the new year. Dahlia Rin, 29 Farmcrest Avenue: Ms. Rin expressed concerns about some of the class sizes in the Remote Learning Academy classes in elementary. Ms. Rin urged the School Committee, Superintendent, Principals, and administrators to do their best to make the RLA classes a reasonable size. She said she would like the opportunity for her RLA child to have the opportunity to do one optional, socially distanced, in-person and outdoor meeting with the teacher and his classmates. Carissa Becker, support staff at the high school and representative of Lexington Education Association (LEA): Ms. Becker stated the following: The Members of the Lexington Education Association request that the Lexington Public School administrators demonstrate and model how teaching and learning will function in a socially-distanced school environment within each grade level building setting prior to students arrival to their school buildings. Ms. Becker read a list of requests to have administrators experience firsthand what teaching is like under socially-distanced/masked conditions. Dr. Hackett responded briefly to some of the comments made during Community Speak. We do have class sizes that are growing based on the choices that people are making. Once they're assigned to a class and it grows too large, then we look at what the options are. Look at if there are other staff available; if not, the Superintendent can authorize a principal to do a supplemental posting to hire. On the appeals process for staff remote assignment, legal counsel is working with LPS to assure that ADA process is being followed. Balancing the needs for staffing the school and also the needs of staff the best that we can. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT: The Superintendent reported on the following: Congratulations & Celebrations Dr. Hackett congratulated Jacob Abraham. In order to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, a scout must (among other things) demonstrate leadership by organizing a service project that will benefit a nonprofit organization. Jacob, an Eagle Scout candidate from Lexington's Boy Scout Troop 10, designed and built two mobile gardening carts for the Lexington Children's Place students. These carts were designed with accessibility in mind so that all students at LCP, including those who use wheelchairs, can learn about gardening and growing food. Dr. Hackett congratulated Jacob for his selflessness and dedication to the school community and noted that an Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Back-to-School News Dr. Hackett announced that today marks the beginning of the transition to in-person teaching and learning after six long months. Dr. Hackett said the staff did an amazing job easing students into a new safety routine. Dr. Hackett reported that the Department of Public Facilities has an updated HVAC punch list (Click here). DPF indicated that the work is 96% complete with all but 7 items remaining. Dr. Hackett said Environmental Health & Engineering (EH&E) will host a "Town-Hall style" meeting on September 9, 2020 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. The entire school community (staff, students, and parents) are invited to attend. The purpose of the meeting is to learn about the independent evaluation of school building HVAC systems and plans for continued monitoring. Dr. Hackett gave a friendly reminder for everyone to wear their masks and stated "wearing a mask protects you and me." In addition, 6 foot social distances should be maintained whenever possible. Dr. Hackett said these precautions will keep us healthy and safe and make our return to school sustainable. Dr. Hackett provided a brief curriculum update. She said an enormous amount of work happened during the summer to identify priority standards, develop lessons, and identify instructional materials. Dr. Hackett noted the work is ongoing and coaches continue to create lessons and materials and refine websites for K-5 educators. Fall Student Learning Preferences by Demographic Group We have provided several updates related to fall learning choices based on demographics. The most recent update can be found here. Dr. Hackett reported that 4,958 students have selected hybrid learning and 2,007 students have selected the Remote Learning Academy (RLA). Status of Fall Sports, Clubs, and Activities Dr. Hackett reported that fall sports will begin on September 21st, with golf beginning on September 28th. She noted that each sport would be limited to ten competitions and all competitions, excluding golf(due to limited availability of courses) would be held on Saturdays or Sundays (primarily rain dates) and holidays. Volleyball, football, cheer, and swimming will move to what the State is referring to as the Fall 2 season. Dr. Hackett said due to challenges related to crowd control and safety concerns, the number of fans who can attend the competitions is limited to immediate family/caregivers and no more than one guest per athlete. Update on FY20 and FY21 Finances Dr. Hackett said that throughout the last couple of months the Town Manager and his Finance Department staff have set up bi-weekly meetings to carefully review FY20 and FY21 finances. She said that overall the financial forecast is promising, and ended the year better than anticipated. For a full copy of the Superintendent report, click here LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC School Committee Questions: Ms. Sawhney asked Dr. Hackett about how the district is dealing with having the students, particularly Boston children, that are participating in the Remote Learning Academy (RLA) feel more connected with their class. Dr. Hackett reported that more Boston students are choosing to do the hybrid model rather than Remote Learning (RLA). Ms. Barbara Hamilton, METCO Director, said the middle school mentorship program that was piloted at Diamond last year (in-person) will continue this year virtually and will be opened up to Clarke students this year as well. Ms. Hamilton said the focus is on building connection and community for students. Mr. Bokun asked Dr. Hackett for more detailed information on when Cross Country would start at the middle school level. Dr. Hackett said the details are still being worked out and will have an update soon. DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION: Dr. Hackett provided a brief overview of the ABCL collaboration as of August 2020. She noted that as of August 27, 2020, out of 53 new hires this year, 32% are people of color and/or Hispanic, and 41% of those identify as Black/African-American and/or Hispanic/Latinx. One of the new hires of color is joining LPS as an administrator while the rest are hired in teaching or counseling roles. Dr. Hackett reported that, in the fall of 2019, the district established and published the following protocol for members of the school community to report allegations of bullying and/or civil rights violations. Dr. Hackett said, in an effort to ensure that our schools are inclusive places for all students and families, where we all belong, the district wants to make sure everyone has someone they can turn to when they feel a student's right to an education is being jeopardized, especially incidents that directly impact students' protected identities (race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/natural origin, age, or handicap/disability). Dr. Hackett said concerned families and students can use the following options for reporting such incidents: • The first option is always reporting such incidents to a trusted adult in your school. • A second option is reporting to the Director of Equity and Student Supports at the Central Office: Johnny Cole (781) 861-2580 x68052 <jcole@lexingtonma.org>. • A third option is reporting to your school's Civil Rights Contact Officer, the building principal or Lexington Children's Place Director. • A final option, if none of the others is appropriate, is using the online reporting form available here. Dr. Hackett noted the above information is provided on the district webpage and all building leaders were instructed to share the protocol with their school community. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC For a full copy of the ABCL collaboration report click here. AIR QUALITY ASSESSMENT UPDATE: Mr. Mike Cronin, Director of Public Facilities, Mr. Dave Coehlo, Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, and Mr. Shawn Newell, Assistant Director of Public Facilities, reported on the Air Quality Assessment in each building. Mr. Coehlo started the presentation by reviewing the ventilation slides. He noted that Environmental Health & Engineering (EH&E) were hired to complete an HVAC assessment of the Lexington Public School buildings in early July. Their scope of work included: Ventilation, Filtration, and Engineering Controls. Mr. Coehlo noted that Environmental Health & Engineering inspected all HVAC ventilation equipment at ALL school buildings and from the inspections an action item list of 170 items was generated. Mr. Cronin said in March 2020 when schools were shut down, the Department of Public Facilities changed out all filters in large ventilation units and upgraded all filters to MERV-10 (per manufacturer's specifications). Mr. Cronin reported that the latest guidance from EH&E was to upgrade filters to MERV-13, and therefore, over the summer months all HVAC systems had filters upgraded to MERV-13 filtration. Mr. Cronin went on to discuss the daily sanitizing and disinfecting process at each building as well as the DPW water test schedule and notifications. For a complete copy of The Department of Facilities presentation click here. School Committee Questions: Mr. Bokun: Is the CO number of 800 the breaking point? Mr. Cronin: The health department gives a range of 600-800; we try to stay within that range. Above 1000, we know we have a problem. Ms. Cuthbertson: If the threshold gets triggered before the school day, what is the procedure in place for, if we already have students there or coming in, do we have an identified place in each building where people can go until it's remedied? Dr. Hackett: We have an evacuation protocol for every school to relocate to other places. We have a protocol to clear the area based on the information we get from Facilities. It could be an entirely different location, but more likely another location in the building. Mr. Cronin: We send a technician there. If he can fix it immediately, he will fix it. If it requires parts, we talk to the Principal to figure out what we can do. One step is to open the window. Or we can relocate to another space in the building. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Ms. Jay: For bathrooms, are you using the same standard for air exchange of outdoor air? How quickly does that exchange happen? What would worry me is that someone comes in right after another person before the air is changed. Mr. Cronin: You don't supply fresh air to bathrooms because it's such a small space. What you do is draw air out of the bathrooms, in vacuum/exhaust mode. The ceiling fans are exhaust fans. You draw out through the fans and bring in new air through the door vent or under the door. Air in the corridors that we're pulling in is 100%fresh air. Bathrooms are just smaller versions of classrooms. They're sized proportionally, so they're moving the same amount of air at the correct proportion. Ms. Sawhney: Are the water fountains shut off? Mr. Cronin: Yes, all the water bubblers have been shut off. What we have kept running are the water bottle fillers for reusable bottles. Ms. Lenihan: At LHS with the older HVAC, there was some concern about the noise that it makes. Mr. Cronin: New ventilators are up on the roof, but older systems have the ventilators right in the room. We ask the custodians to pay attention. If a teacher finds there is a problem with noise, we will give it some attention. Ms. Lenihan: Will there be ongoing testing (after EH&E is gone)? How do we continue to make sure that everything is working properly? Mr. Cronin: I think we're doing testing every single day by looking at the CO2. That is our barometer. Dr. Hackett: There have been a lot of questions about the HVAC system at the high school. Can you speak to that? Mr. Cronin: At the high school, there are really two systems: a newer system and an older system. The newer system is doing quite well; we can monitor metrics like CO2. For the older system, we've invested in handheld meters where custodians go into spaces so we can verify that what we see is real. The older system is aging; that's one of the reasons for needing a new high school. COMMUNITY SPEAK: Valerie Overton (she/her), 25 Emerson Gardens: Ms. Overton thanked the Committee for the DEI update on the agenda. Ms. Overton asked for clarification on the curricula in regards to DEI. David Walsh, LHS alumni: Mr. Walsh asked when the School Committee would start having in-person meetings again? LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Joy Masterson Weir, 7 Hunt Road: Ms. Weir commented on the high school level teaching to in-class participants as well as remote students through Zoom at the same time and said there are challenges trying to manage both in-class participants and remote participants. Melissa Brooks, Resource Teacher at LHS: Ms. Brooks expressed concerns for teachers and their students because of having to take a leave of absence for the year because of their denial of remote teaching. Jessica Margy, Teacher at LHS: Expressed concerns about communication and how everything is going to work in the hybrid classroom, i.e. how is contact tracing going to work with everyone on campus and interacting in different ways?Teachers that are high risk had a hard time getting remote assignments. Rina Mazor, Teacher at LHS: Ms. Mazor commented on having issues with the remote process and expressed concerns for the teachers that were denied remote teaching and how the process was handled. Ms. Mazor also expressed concerns about the curriculum. She noted that teachers were told from the curriculum office that they would be covering much less curriculum this year (roughly 50%) and she is concerned that this hasn't been adequately addressed to parents and students. Ms. Mazor also expressed concerns about the student ratio between the hybrid model and the Remote Learning Academy and said there is an equity issue. Arvind, 47 Coolidge Avenue: Arvind is the SEPAC liaison to Fiske. He commented on some of the technology issues that parents are having. Chromebook do not have a great audio system. It's hard for kids to hear. Having closed-captioning would be helpful. For OT and PT services, different camera angles are required. Is it possible for webcams to be provided to the kids on a special case basis? POLICY MANUAL REVIEW- COVID Ms. Jay commented that not surprisingly during this time in the pandemic a lot of things are different. The Policy Subcommittee members, Ms. Jay and Ms. Cuthbertson, may need to take a look at modifying some policies or a supplemental policy to accommodate some of the changes that are going to happen during this time. Ms. Jay noted that some policies are operational while others are around broader educational issues. She said MASC has provided some guidance for districts to review. Ms. Cuthbertson reviewed some of what MASC suggested. Ms. Jay said the Policy Subcommittee would need to meet and that she would reach out to Dr. Hackett to see what administrators would be able to work with the subcommittee. Ms. Jay said the subcommittee would be meeting sometime next week and if other School Committee members have any suggestions they should let Ms. Jay know preferably by the end of this week, September 11th. CONSENT AGENDA: Mr. Bokun moved to accept the August 28, 2020 payroll in the amount of$710,702.83. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC Ms. Cuthbertson moved to approve the School Committee minutes from July 28, 2020. Ms.Jay moved to approve the Mobile Garden Carts donated to Lexington Children's Place on behalf of Jacob Abraham as a result of his Eagle Project. The total value of these carts, soil and all, is about$550.00. Funds were raised from Troop X,family,friends and community members;seconded by Ms. Cuthbertson. Ms. Lenihan took a roll call vote; Consent Agenda Approved(5-0) Ms. Lenihan called for adjournment;so moved by Ms.Jay. Ms. Lenihan took a roll call vote; Approved(5-0). Adjournment at 8:33 p.m. LSC 9/08//2020 Meeting Minutes-Approved 11/17/2020 KC