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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - SC - 09/18/2019 T COFlASS�T� School Committee Minutes Wednesday,September 18, 2019 Cohasset Middle-High School Community Use Room 143 Pond Street Cohasset, MA In Attendance: Ellen Maher, Chairman Jennifer Madden Craig MacLellan Ashley Colleary Paul Kearney(joined late 8:05pm) Also in Attendance: Dr. Patrick Sullivan, Superintendent Dr. Leslie Scollins,Assistant Superintendent Michael MacMillan, Director of Finance&Operations Call to Order and Roll Call-Chairman Maher reminded the public that the meetings are televised and recorded. Chairman Maher called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and stated Mr. Kearney will be a little late. Roll Call:Ashley Colleary-Present, Ellen Maher-Present,Jennifer Madden-Present,Craig MacLellan- Present Pledge-Recited. Public Comment-None Superintendents Report- Spring Sports Update-Steve Rotondi reviewed the 2019 Spring Sports Overview,Accolades and Highlights which included 5 League Championships, 30 League All-Stars, 10 Patriot Ledger All-Scholastics and 3 Boston Globe All-Scholastics. Mrs. Colleary asked about facilitating transportation for the teams that collaborate with Hull. Mr. Rotondi stated Hull had a 15-passenger mini-bus and was able to help transport athletes back and forth from Hull to Cohasset and vice versa. Chairman Maher stated unlike last year,there were no Booster donations this year. Mr. Rotondi stated the coaching salaries decreased due to some positions being eliminated and because the Boosters paid the coaches directly. Chairman Maher questioned the Track& Field coaching salaries line item being higher than the other Spring Sports. Mr. Rotondi stated there was an extra coach from Hull who came on as a second assistant coach. Chairman Maher stated the Girls Tennis participation number is high and asked how Coach Meehan balances the playing time for the Girls Tennis team. Mr. Rotondi stated Coach Meehan rotates the girls through time slots and Scituate has been a good neighbor offering their tennis courts. Mr. Rotondi stated Coach Meehan puts in the efforts to 1 include all the girls and has had some discussions about finding a balance for the players. The Committee members thanked Mr. Rotondi for his good work. Special Education Update-Mary Buchanan, Director of Student Services presented her goals and visions for the year which included supporting and continuing to improve inclusive practices; evaluating and enhancing the Language-Based Program at the Middle School; Embedding Executive Functioning with classrooms; and enhancing Social Emotional Learning Tier II and Tier III Interventions. Ms. Buchanan reviewed the differences in the types of learning styles and gave an overview of each of the department's goals. Chairman Maher asked if the Executive Functioning seminar was still in place. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan stated Erin Ryan is still teaching the Executive Functioning seminar for the 6t"grade students. Ms. Buchanan stated the District has someone coming in to support the new co- teaching teams at the Middle School and will be training with the co-teaching teams at the elementary school level. Ms. Buchanan stated there is a lot of support for SEL coming from the state which the District plans to utilize. Chairman Maher asked if the District is co-teaching Math and English for Grades 6-10. Ms. Buchanan stated the District has sections of both Math and English that are co-taught and stated it's going well. Chairman Maher asked if there is any need to expand the co-teaching into other disciplines like science and social studies. Ms. Buchanan stated from a Language-Based perspective,the District would love to be able to expand the co-teaching to other subjects. Ms. Madden expressed her concern for the need of an intermediary tutor for students who may be struggling with reading. Ms. Buchanan stated that across the board there are about 10 teachers district wide who are Wilson certified at the K-12 level. She also stated that for a small district Cohasset has committed quite a bit of resources to Wilson certification. Ms. Buchanan discussed diagnosis versus disability and stated that diagnosis doesn't drive the instruction of the student,the IEP team determines if there is an educational disability and makes an education plan based on their assessment. Ms. Madden asked what mechanism is used to determine if student is a Tier II or Tier III social emotion learner. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated his goal it to look more into the child study process and the District needs to work on creating an assessment tool to measure social emotional learning. Ms. Buchanan stated the District Accommodation Plan is on the website and shows a flowchart of the identification process and the intervention provided to the student. Ms. Buchanan discussed the special education caseloads for the school adjustment counselor at each school and services provided by Gosnold to the Middle High School. Superintendent FY20 Goals-Superintendent Dr. Sullivan reviewed his goals and methods of achieving of the goals with the Committee members. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan's goals include one District goal, one student leaning goal and a professional practice goal. The Committee members discussed and commented on Superintendent Dr. Sullivan's goals and methods of achieving them. Ms. Colleary stated she loves the idea of learning walks and appreciates how visible the leadership is in the District. Chairman Maher commented that if there are plans to change anything procedurally the changes should be in sync with the Committee policies. Ms. Colleary asked if the District plans to use the climate assessment again. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan stated the District plans to use the climate assessment as a regular process. Ms. Colleary stated she is confident that the District will see measurable results through Dr. Sullivan's goals. Chairman Maher stated the Committee has been negligent in complying with the policy and law regarding the Student Advisory Committee to the School Committee and would like the Committee to become compliant. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan and the Committee members discussed ways of sharing his benchmark evidence. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated he will collect the evidence and share it to the Committee members in the most efficient and legal way. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan also stated his newsletters to the staff and community will act as evidence. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan thanked Mr. Kearney and Mr. MacLellan for their help in 2 preparing his goals. Motion by Mr. MacLellan to approve Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sullivan's goals with minor edits as outlined for the 2019-2020 school year, seconded by Ms. Colleary and the vote was unanimous (5- 0). District Handbook-Superintendent Dr.Sullivan reviewed the changes to the 2019-2020 District Student Parent Handbook. Mr. Kearney requested that his phone number be included in the Cohasset School Department Personnel section. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated the biggest change to the handbook was the wording around Mandated Reporting and he reviewed the change with the Committee members. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated the administration wanted to make it clear that all employees of the Cohasset School Department are mandated reporters and therefore are required to report any witnessed or reported allegations of neglect to the Department of Children and Families within 24 hours and a written report within 48 hours. In addition,the staff member must share their concerns with a supervisor prior to filing with DCF. Chairman Maher asked if the Committee members are mandated reporters. Assistant Superintendent Dr.Scollins stated the Committee members are not mandated reporters. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated that anyone can file a claim with DCF and if the Committee members witness neglect,they should certainly report it. Ms.Colleary asked if parents will be notified of the handbook changes. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated staff will be notified of change and will be discussed in training on October 11, 2019. Chairman Maher suggested sending a Blackboard message notifying the community of the handbook changes and include a link to the handbook. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan stated he would highlight the changes in his Navigator newsletter to both staff and the community. Chairman Maher stated the Memorandum of Understanding with the Cohasset Police Department was updated and should be included in the handbook. Approval of Warrant- Mr. MacLellan asked for clarification on payments to North River Collaborative and Scituate Public Schools. Mr. MacMillan explained the invoices relate to Special Education tuition and transportation. Mr. MacLellan also asked about the Thurston Foods and Gordon Foods invoices. He thought the monthly cost seemed low. Mr. MacMillan explained it is likely due to the timing of the invoices. Motion by Mr. MacLellan to approve Warrant#20-055,seconded by Ms.Colleary. Roll Call Vote; Paul Kearney-Aye,Ashley Colleary-Aye, Ellen Maher-Aye,Jennifer Madden-Aye,Craig MacLellan- Aye. Finance-Monthly Update-Mr. MacMillan reviewed the monthly finances through August. He stated it is very early in the year and that we are roughly at the same point as last year without the encumbrances. Chairman Maher noted there was a big change in transportation. Mr. MacMillan stated the bus leases were paid up front and a lot of the variances have to do with timing of invoices. Mr. MacMillan stated the grants and revolving accounts are moving ahead as planned. There are no major deficits. The METCO grant received the initial payment for FY20 and the final FY19 payments for the IDEA grant and Title I grant. Vehicle Maintenance Update-Mr. MacMillan stated the vehicle maintenance expense is a little higher than last year due to repairs of a small dent in one of the leased vehicles. There were some other small repairs to the District vehicles. The report reflects the total cost of repair without insurance reimbursement. Mr. MacMillan is working with the insurance company to sort out the discrepancy in the repair estimate and the appraisal of repairs. FY21 Budget Calendar-Mr. MacMillan briefly reviewed the proposed FY21 budget calendar. Mr. 3 MacMillan stated it is mostly the same as last year and highlighted some key points including discussing with the School Committee members the principles and priorities to guide the budget process at the October 301h School Committee meeting. Chairman Maher and Mr. MacMillan agreed a Finance & Facility sub-committee meeting specific to this agenda item should be scheduled before the October 30th School Committee meeting. The November 28th agenda item needs to be moved to November 20th. Mr. MacMillan stated that the Committee members should start thinking about the format of the FY21 Budget Workshop with District Leadership Team on December 3rd. The Committee had a brief discussion. Update on FY21 Capital Budget Items-Mr. MacMillan presented the District Facility Maintenance& Improvement Plan to the Committee members. Mr. MacMillan stated he has been working with the Mark Kelly, Facilities Director; Nick Berardi,Assistant Facilities Director; and the principals from each of the schools. They started with a list of items from last year and walked each of the buildings with the principals. Mr. MacMillan encouraged the principals to make a comprehensive list of all needs so they can see what is funded and not funded from year to year. Mr. MacMillan explained the process of determining the priority scale and the formula used to calculate the priority scale. The criteria factored in the formula is the likelihood of failure, impact on health and safety, impact on school operations, impact on future costs and impact on district vision. Mr. MacMillan stated the formula is a tool to help prioritize for capital requests. Mr. MacLellan asked how a building is assessed and determined to be more ineffective than effective. Mr. MacMillan explained his approach is to look at all the component parts of the buildings in order to help determine if the costs of fixing the components parts exceed the cost of replacing the building. Mr. MacMillan stated the Finance sub-committee has a call on September 19th with the MSBA to discuss their process. Chairman Maher stated that it is important for the Committee to work with the Master Plan Committee to review data based on potential new housing developments and population growth that could affect the school enrollment. Chairman Maher encouraged the Committee members to google MSBA and review the 2016 survey results for every district. Ms. Madden asked about the status of the track resurfacing. The Committee discussed the status of the track and turf resurfacing. The current plan is for the resurfacing of the track and turf to be done in 2021. Chairman Maher stated the new Mass General Law allows for CPC funds to be used to pay for the resurfacing. Mr. MacMillan stated they have preliminary requested a new projector for the auditorium, a van for Special Education transportation,and upgrades to the Middle School entrance to make it a secure and stand-alone entrance. These items will be presented at the special Town Meeting in November. Chairman Maher stated there is a Capital Budget meeting on September 23rd at 7pm in the basement of Town Hall and encouraged the Committee members to attend. The Committee members discussed the status of the traffic study. Chairman Maher stated the Committee needs to revisit the traffic study with Brian Joyce and Jason Federico. The Committee discussed the status of the Osgood playground. Mr. MacMillan met with the vendor and the vendor is preparing a quote to resume work. School Committee Comments&Communications-School Committee Handbook-Mr. MacLellan will prepare a draft of the Appendices with new comments from Chairman Maher and Ms. Colleary. Reports from Sub-Committee and Liaisons-Mr. MacLellan reported that the Safe Schools Committee met and established goals as a Committee through a goal sourcing game. There were two high school students in attendance. Mr. MacLellan stated the common theme he took away from the meeting was knowing the resources within the school to go with needs. The next meeting for the Safe Schools Committee will be September 26th. Superintendent Dr.Sullivan stated that the one word sourced from the goals was connectivity; students connected to adults and adults connected to adults to support the students. Dr. Sullivan stated the goal is to make 4 people feel safe through their connection with other people. Mr. Kearney stated he would like to add the discussion of nutrition to an agenda. Chairman Maher reminded the Committee members of the protocol for requesting agenda items. The suggested item should be sent to Chairman Maher and she will present and discuss with Superintendent Dr. Sullivan. Mr. MacMillan stated he and Marilyn Haraden, Food Services Manager, have been working on a broad presentation detailing spending, nutrition and staffing. Chairman Maher stated they would discuss the issue further in the Finance and Facilities sub-committee meeting on September 19th. Ms. Madden stated that the Policy sub-committee met and hopefully there will be two policies ready for first reads at the next meeting. The next Policy sub-committee meeting will be September 26tn Chairman Maher suggested that when posting for sub-committee meetings to invite all committee members as it encourages participation. Mr. MacLellan stated the Superintendent Evaluation sub- committee will meet in January for a mid-cycle evaluation. Ms. Madden stated that Principal Sullivan reached out and let her know that the next Deer Hill School Council meeting is scheduled. Superintendent Dr. Sullivan stated he is working with the principals regarding school council protocols. Chairman Maher stated the Capital Budget sub-committee is meeting September 23 d and Finance & Facilities sub-committee will meet on September 19tn. Chairman Maher suggested she and Mr. Kearney meet to discuss minutes as the Committee is falling behind on minutes. Ms. Colleary informed the Committee that the Unity Council met this morning. They are planning to watch "Dawnland" on November 25tn in the auditorium. The Unity Council is exploring how they might interact with the 250th Committee regarding cultural proficiency. Ms. Colleary stated one of the High School Diversity Club committee members is working on getting the Diversity Club into "On the Rocks". The next Unity Council meeting is October 9tn at 9:30am. Chairman Maher will send a card from the Committee members to Principal Scott regarding the loss of his brother. Mr. Kearney visited the Senior Center and is working to do the Seniors to Seniors lunches. Mr. Kearney stated he discovered they are not doing the reading program with the seniors. Chairman Maher suggested he go through Superintendent Dr. Sullivan to coordinate starting up the program again with Principal Farrell. Mr. Kearney stated there is a form for the seniors to complete so they don't have to go to the Police Station to get their pass for high school games and if you are 60 or over you get in for free. Follow up and Updates-The scheduled School Committee meeting on October 9, 2019 will be rescheduled to October 10, 2019 due to Yom Kippur. Adjourn Opening Meeting-Motion by Mr. McLellan to adjourn the meeting at 10:23pm, seconded by Mr. Kearney and the vote was unanimous(5-0). Documents used at the Meetine Spring Sports Update E-1 Special Education Update E-2 District Handbook E-3 Monthly Update G-1 Vehicle Maintenance Update G-2 FY21 Budget Calendar G-3 FY21 Capital Budget Items G-4 5