1998-04-04 School Committee Minutes

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Reading Public Schools Reading, Massachusetts School Committee Meeting Regular Session April 4, 1998 Call to Order The school committee meeting was called to order by Chair Tim Twomey at 8:15 a.m. All members of the school committee were present: Ms. Cavicchi, Mr. Dahl, Ms. D'Antona, Mr. Stohlman and Ms. Williams. Also present were Superintendent Harry K. Harutunian, Associate Superintendent Dennis Richards and former school committee member Mr. Spadafora. Dr. Harutunian distributed to the committee a publication called Special Education Law Monthly. He also distributed the Fiscal Year 1998 Budget Analysis as of March 31, 1998. The committee discussed the Building Maintenance Regular Day accounts. The committee will need to request $75,000 from Town Meeting. Mr. Dahl brought up the issue of the Reading land fill being sold, specifically a possible Home Depot development issue. Currently the decision is up to the selectmen. He asked the committee if it was appropriate for the committee to give their input to the selectmen on this issue. Ms. Cavicchi said it would be appropriate for financial reasons. The Superintendent agreed and said the lack of closing the land fill will affect the capital plan. He said it is a hot button with the Chamber. Mr. Stohlman said he reviewed the Home Depot proposal and a hotel proposal, and the capital plan will fail if four million dollars is not in the bank next year. Dr. Harutunian said the selectmen might throw out both bids. Mr. Spadafora suggested looking at the operational budget as well as the capital budget.A potential motion was discussed but not made. It was decided to have Dr. Harutunian ask the Town Financial Manager to meet with the committee to discuss this issue further. Self- Evaluation Chair Twomey referred to the self evaluation packet and suggested focusing on the two areas they scored the lowest, Governance and Operations. They began with Governance, 1. The committee's policies are clear and up -to -date. Chair Twomey suggested hiring someone to perform the task. The Superintendent said a quote was received in the past from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees; they quoted $10,000 to review the current manual and identify (1) the policies that are modified for educational reform (2) the policies that should no longer be used and (3) the policies that are okay. The committee discussed several other possible options. Mr. Spadafora suggested addressing this issue once the strategic plan is complete. The Superintendent said the policies and procedures are necessary for him to refer to for decisions, it is important they are not outdated. Chair Twomey said the possible options discussed were: (1) consider putting it in next year's budget to hire someone (2) find a volunteer to scan the manual (3 ) have the committee review small sections of the manual at a time. The Superintendent said MASC will put the entire policy on disk. Ms. D'Antona moved to directed the administration to put money in the FY2000 budget for the updating of the School Committee policy manual. Ms. Cavicchi seconded the motion. The vote was 6 -0. Mr. Dahl said the committee should be familiar with their own policies and they should be on disk. Dr. Harutunian said he will look into how much effort scanning the policy book would take.