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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-04-03 School Committee MinutesOFp a ` Town of Reading Meeting Minutes 0 XCID Board - Committee - Commission - Council: School Committee Date: 2017-04-03 Building: School - Memorial High Address: 82 Oakland Road Purpose: Open Session Attendees: Members - Present: TOWN Ci R{ READING, MASS. 1011 MAY 1 1 P 12: 35 , Time: 7:00 PM Location: Superintendent Conference Room Session: Open Session Version: Final Jeanne Borawski, Chuck Robinson, Elaine Webb, Linda Snow Dockser, Gary Nihan, Nick Boivin Members - Not Present: Others Present: Superintendent John Doherty, Director of Finance Gail Dowd, Assistant Superintendent Craig Martin, Director of Student Services Carolyn Wilson, Student Representatives Alex Nazzaro & Mario Cutone, Team Chairs Kelley Bostwick, Adam Blaustein, and Amy Benjamin, RISE Preschool Director Debbie Butts, REF Board members Mike Foley, Nancy Dieselman, Lori Foley and Deb Gilberg, Erin Calvo Bacci and Reading Chronicle Reporter Al Sylvia Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Linda Engelson on behalf of the Chair Topics of Discussion: I. Call to Order Chair Borawski called the School Committee to order at 7:02 p.m. and reviewed the agenda. II. Recommended Procedure A. Public Comment There was no public comment. B. New Business Reading Education Foundation Update and Donation REF President Mike Foley shared that the Reading Education Foundation was able to fund over $45,000 in grant requests for this cycle. He also announced that the Reading Education Foundation will be piloting a professional development fund. Page 1 1 Nancy Dieselman, Grant Chair, added that this fuyd will be available to all teachers and will be used to fund professional development opportunities. She went on to outline the nine grants to be funded in this year's cycle. There are two grants that will be used to fund speakers, one being a speaker on Mindfulness and the other on Internet/Social Media Safety Education. There was one grant awarded to the high school to fund laptops and expand curriculum content to enhance health and wellness learning. The middle and elementary levels have been awarded 3 grants each. REF member Lori Foley reviewed the upcoming fundraisers including the annual Imagination Celebration and on-line auction. The event is being held in Wakefield on April 29th. Pamplemousse will be holding a wine tasting event, there will be a paint night at the Tin Bucket and once again in May and June families can purchase teacher tributes. Chair Borawski thanked Reading Education Foundation, on behalf of the School Committee, for all they do for the school department. Mr. Robinson moved, seconded by Mr. Boivin, to accept the annual donation from the Reading Education Foundation in the amount of $45,035.48 to be used to fund the 2016 —17 Educational Grants. The motion carried 6-0. C. Consent Agenda Mr. Robinson asked the Committee if there were any consent agenda items that they would like removed. Dr. Snow Dockser requested that the February 27, 2017 minutes be removed. Mr. Robinson moved, seconded by Mr. Boivin, to approve the consent agenda as amended. The motion carried 6-0. - Accept Donations to Wood End - Accept a Donation to Joshua Eaton - Accept two Anonymous Donations - Accept a Donations to RMHS Baseball - Accept a Donation from RMHS Band Parents - Accept a Donation from the RMHS PTO - Approve a Coolidge Field Trip — Science Team - Approve RMHS Boys Lacrosse Field Trip - Approval of Minutes (March 6 & 22, 2017) Approval of Grade 5 Field Trip to Nature's Classroom Dr. Doherty shared that the elementary principals have been working on this field trip for the past few months. They feel they have outgrown the Camp Boumdale space and have looked at several other programs. Coolidge and Parker seventh graders go to Nature's Classroom, the principals felt this would be an opportunity to introduce this experience. The Nature's Classroom venue can accommodate the whole fifth grade and is less expensive than Camp Boumdale. Page 1 2 Mr. Robinson moved, seconded by Dr. Snow Dockser, to approve the grade 5 field trip to Nature's Classroom in Freedom, NH on October 16 & 17, 2017. The motion carried 6-0. D. Reports Student Representatives Ms. Nazzaro reported that there was a lot going on at RMHS including: • the Concert Band won a silver medal at a recent MICCA event, • the high school held a formal recital, • there was a playwriting showcase where 10 minute plays were presented by students, and the annual Artsfest will be happening this week with art displays and music performances. Mr. Cutone reported that spring sports are off and running. Mrs. Borawski shared that student representative Alex Nazzaro will be attending the College of Holy Cross in the fall and congratulated her, on behalf of the committee. Liaison's Report Dr. Snow Dockser reported that the Human Relations Advisory Committee will be meeting this week and encouraged residents to attend. She attended the SEPAC meeting prior to the meeting this evening and mentioned that the Coffee and Conversation sessions being held by Mrs. Wilson are receiving positive feedback. She attended the recent Blue Ribbon Conference and Robotics competition and found both to be outstanding events. Dr. Snow Dockser gave a shout out to the schools that have recently held their open houses. The RMHS AWOD group recently held a Craft Reading Program at the Reading Public Library that was very well attended. Dr. Snow Dockser is thrilled that this group is making a difference in the community. Mrs. Webb reported that RCASA has added 2 new associate members and community members have reached out to RCASA regarding the ballot question on marijuana dispensaries. Mrs. Borawski updated the community on the recent Recreation Committee meeting. The topic of discussion was the renovation of the Hunt Playground. There were 900 responses to a survey put out to the community. The plan is to keep the existing footprint. This playground is one of two tot lots in Town. Mrs. Borawski pointed out that this renovation is coming from Capital and is totally separate from the operating budget. Assistant Superintendent Page 1 3 Mr. Martin reported on the recent Blue Ribbon Conference held in the district. He said over 900 educators attended this one day conference. This conference provides a great opportunity for collaboration and discussion on a variety of topics. Mr. Martin said we are currently gathering feedback for ideas on what worked and what we can do better. Mr. Martin has received very positive feedback about the keynote speaker Ron Suskind. His address was inspirational and informative as he discussed his families journey with a child that is autistic. He thanked his assistant Lori Miller for the outstanding job she did ensuring that this event went off seamlessly. He also thanked the custodial, maintenance and food service staffs for their efforts. Superintendent's Report Dr. Doherty announced the release of several sets of executive session minutes and pointed out the inclusion of several emails received by School Committee members from the community that will now be included in the packet. He went on to share the many fantastic events that have happened in the Reading Public Schools in the last month and it is important to celebrate these events. Science/Technology All three of our secondary schools participated in the State Science competitions with Coolidge winning the title and moving on to the Nationals. The First Lego League held their exhibition at Endicott College with 100 students participating. The Extended Day Program has taken over this program at the request of the volunteers that ran it in the past. Reading Memorial High School hosted the Regional Robotics competition for the second year. Our team did very well winning the Engineering Inspiration Award and moving on to the New England competition at UNH this weekend. Fine and Performing Arts The RMHS Jazz Band recently won gold medals in two competitions. One of the gold medals was at a state competition at which the Jazz Band earned the opportunity to perform at the Hatch Shell on Mother's Day. The Superintendent congratulated Mr. Mulligan and the students. Our grade 6 — 9 chorus and instrumental groups performed at the NE Junior Districts in Wakefield and did very well. The Parker Middle School production of "Once on This Island, Jr." and RMHS Drama Club production of "1776" occurred in the past month and several of our middle and high school students were recognized in state wide art competitions. Other happenings include Artsfest, Read Across America, and Blue Ribbon. Page 14 Dr. Doherty reminded the community of the upcoming religious holidays and that he has shared the religious accommodations policy with staff and families. Mr. Boivin asked about testing over the Passover holiday. Dr. Doherty indicated there will be no one-time events on the first night of Passover. Dr. Snow Dockser expressed appreciation to the Superintendent and others for the effort put forth to avoid scheduling events on these holidays. E. Old Business Quarterly Personnel Report Dr. Doherty reviewed the quarterly personnel report for the period between February 7a' and April 3rd. He thanked Human Resources Administrator Jenn Bove for putting the report together. There are not many changes in this quarter. The major hiring will occur over the summer. Mr. Robinson asked for clarification on the report regarding the new math teacher. There has been an internal transfer due to a retirement in which the 1.0 FTE math teacher has become part math/part Technology Integration Specialist. FY2017 Budget Update Ms. Dowd reviewed the quarterly budget update indicating that she will not be asking for cost center transfers until the end of year. She will continue to monitor the district spending. There is a remaining unencumbered balance of $259,195 which is reasonable for this time of year. Mrs. Dowd has been meeting regularly with the athletics, special education and facility rental departments to monitor the accounts as we approach the end of the year. Mrs. Dowd indicated that she will continue to monitor and consider the impact of several potential risks inherent in the process for which the financial impact may not be directly included in the budget. Risks that will have a direct financial impact include leaves of absence, changes in staffing needs, and special needs changes in out of district placements, transportation costs specialty consultations and legal costs, changes in the homeless and foster care population, Joshua Eaton Level 3 status, renewals of existing contracts, unanticipated changes in enrollment and changes that may occur in amounts related to Federal and State grants. She next outlined a list of risks that have an indirect financial impact on the operating budget including the need to create a succession plan within the central office, the need for cross - training of functions in the central office, the current staffing model has limited administrative staffing covering multiple functions, changes that may result in additional workloads for existing personnel like the changes in the Public Records Law and class size concerns in the Oh grade at Coolidge next year. FY2018 Budget Update Dr. Doherty reviewed the status of the budget sharing that $150,000 will be set aside for the implementation of the 2nd year of the science curriculum. This funding will be part of the Town Meeting discussion on the FYI budget. He Page 1 5 next reviewed what funding would be used to restore $438,000 for the 7 FTE middle school positions. The School Committee requested an additional $100,000 as a portion of the $1.2M requested out of free cash, there have been additional retirements since January and we will be reducing technology purchases and building based budgets by $150,000 (from the balance in the FYI budget). The Town Manger has targeted $132,000 in hold backs on the town side with $98,000 of the amount to be used on the school side. Dr. Doherty reminded the public that this is a one year fix. F. New Business Special Education Update Mrs. Wilson began by reviewing the functions of the Student Services Office and then gave an overview of this presentation. She reviewed the trends showing that the number of students identified for special education services is decreasing. She pointed out that over the past 12 years the average number of out of district placements was 67 students. As of October 1, 2016, approximately 7% of the students with disabilities were placed out of district which is a total of 53. These are students that require a more restrictive setting to meet their needs. The majority of students identified for special education services are serviced through the Learning Centers at each school. Our programs like Compass, Connections, Crossroads and the TSP are very specialized to meet the needs of those students requiring these services. Mrs. Wilson next reviewed evaluation data. She reminded the committee that parents can request evaluations for their children. The team also identifies students for evaluations. The evaluations are done during the school day. The staff is sensitive to the amount of time students are out of the classroom. She next reviewed disability categories identifying the number of students being serviced in each. The majority of students that require special education services are in fully inclusive settings. This means that they are outside the general education classroom less than 21% of the time. The Office of Student Services focus areas for the 2016-17 school year include compliance, capacity and communication. Compliance Mrs. Wilson explained that we are ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations and this begins with the team. If we are continually in compliance with the process parents will begin to trust the district. This comes about by continually reviewing our processes in special education. A change in our special education tracking software has had a major impact in our ability to review all our practices to ensure the data we are capturing is accurate. Team Chairs are reviewing all IEP's before they are sent to the parents and are working collaboratively to ensure that the processes are the same at each building. Mrs. Wilson pointed out that Team Chair Kelley Bostwick has taken a leadership role developing a team chair manual. Each team chair has a binder with forms and documents needed in their role. This assists in keeping consistency in the process. She has also worked at aligning the process vertically as well as across the elementary level. She thanked RISE secretary Denise Santoro for her efforts Page 1 6 in improving the filing system. The DESE will be in at the end of April to perform a midcycle review. She continued by reviewing areas of concern identified by the Walker Report that have been addressed. Some of these areas include the addition of a school adjustment counselor to the TSP Program at Killam, the development of a criteria and process for determining, as an IEP team, when a paraprofessional is needed to support a child, continuing to look at all program and service spaces to ensure they are appropriate for the students being served, the Team Chairperson role has been clarified, steps have been taken to provide middle and high school students with access to life skills and vocational skills programming and all special education programs have been reviewed by the special education staff to ensure that the students being served in the program are appropriate for the program. Program descriptions have been developed and posted and the program exploration process is being used for any student being considered for a specialized program. Areas that still need to be addressed include continuing to work with the building administrators on the student support teams at each building, continue to review schedules at all levels to ensure that student's IEP services can be implemented in a manner that allows them to receive these services in addition to the core content in the curriculum in their grade level, continue to discuss entrance and exit criteria for programs and services, continue to work with staff to ensure that service delivery recommendations are made based on the student not the program. Mrs. Wilson also pointed out that she continues to review the structure of the Student Services Office, particularly the addition of an Assistant Director. Mr. Robinson thought there would be more staff referrals than parent referrals for evaluation. Mrs. Wilson indicated that the staff will refer students that they feel are eligible for services whereas; parents ask for evaluations for a variety of reasons that may not necessarily require special education services. Mr. Boivin asked if there is an evaluation process in place for students coming off an IEP. Mrs. Wilson said there is a process in place. He next asked when the reevaluation of staffing begins for the budget process. Mrs. Wilson said it is an ongoing process, working with the team chairs to continuously evaluate the staffing needs. Cgpacily Mrs. Wilson explained that capacity is defined as continued development of our special education and general education staff to meet the needs of all learners in our district. The district has implemented a districtwide process to ensure all staff receive training/information on all mandated topics, the bridge program has continued the connection with the Landmark School at the Parker Middle School and has begun this year at the high school, Allan Blume continues to work with staff on writing IEPs and will be working with the general education staff at Joshua Eaton in May providing information on the difference between accommodations and recommendations. This year, through grant funding, we have started a special education district wide data team facilitated by retired Tri -Town Assistant Superintendent Sharon Stewart, with the focus on using data driven dialogue, there is representation from all levels and to continue this work next year so the team can evaluate the Page 1 7 effectiveness of our special education services and programs. We currently have 7 trainers for QBS, the de-escalation and restraint program used in the district. We also have 3 staff attending a Leadership Forum for New or Aspiring Team Chairs at the Northshore Education Consortium. Walker Report findings that have been addressed in this area include supports being put in place to provide clinical supervision for all our counseling staff, along with regular TSP meetings with the Director of Social Emotional Learning, the development of basic program descriptions with this information shared with parents and staff and the addition of a full time BCBA and the goal of hiring a 0.5 FTE BCBA next year. Areas that still need to be addressed include the implementation of the MTSS framework and ensuring that all staff understand how we use data to guide instruction and supports students, continued work needs to be done on coordinating the professional development for general education and special education teachers, paraprofessionals and related service staff and the focus needs to be on inclusive practices and co -teaching to close the achievement gap. Communication Mrs. Wilson said that the website has been updated and encouraged the public to visit it. She also sends monthly email communications with the staff and participates in the district -wide PLC meetings. She said it has been a great year for the SEPAC. She meets with the board members weekly and the SEPAC has held monthly meetings. The SEPAC has held several information presentations for families this year. Mrs. Wilson has also begun to hold "Coffee & Conversation" sessions which are informal opportunities for parents to meet with her, the principal, team chair and SEPAC member. The SEPAC has been very collaborative and supportive of the work being done and has provided honest feedback. They are working hard to encourage more folks to become involved and reach out to the Director with their concerns. Mr. Boivin asked what can be done to support the efforts. Mrs. Wilson said that her Administrative Assistant Annmarie Foley has been great in the efforts to ensure parents receive pertinent information in a timely manner. She thanked the Superintendent for assisting in getting the website up and running. Mrs. Wilson pointed out that she doesn't have other staff to help in these efforts and sometimes student issues pull her away from other tasks. Joshua Eaton Mrs. Wilson touched briefly on the efforts being made at Joshua Eaton. She has met regularly with the Team Chair and principal, done classroom observations in general education classrooms, the Bridge program and the Learning Center, and reviewed all IEPs with the new Team Chair. The next steps to be taken include providing a report on the Bridge program structure and updates, a review of the Bridge program structure and working with staff to evaluate student needs and ensure the schedule and placement of students will meet the student needs. Reading parent Michele Sanphy shared that as a parent of a child with special needs it is sometimes difficult to be patient. She has had a wonderful experience Page 18 in the 6 years her child has been in the Reading Public Schools. There have been challenges over that period but is happy with the interactions between her and the Team. Dr. Doherty said that the committee heard from each member of the leadership team on what they have been working on and wants the committee to recognize the high caliber individuals that lead this district. The group works collaboratively and as a team. Mrs. Borawski thanked Mrs. Wilson for providing this valuable information and wanted to share that she has received positive feedback from families of students with special needs. III. Routine Matters a. Bills and Payroll (A) Warrant 51737 3.9.17 $225,604.68 Warrant 51738 3.16.17 $207,746.96 Warrant S 173 9 3.23.17 $184,408.60 Warrant S 1740 3.30.17 $172,988.75 Warrant P1719 3.10.17 $1,497,130.04 Warrant P1720 3.24.17 $1,510,350.00 b. Calendar IV. Information/Correspondence Mrs. Borawski referred to the correspondence received from the public over the past month which is included in the packet, and wanted it known that one email was pulled due to confidentiality issues. Mrs. Webb thanked the Leadership team for all they do to move this district forward. She pointed out the tremendous amount of work that had been put into replying to the public's questions regarding the FY2018 budget and encouraged the public to attend the Superintendent's Office Hours and well as the School Committee Office Half Hour. V. Future Business VI. Adjournment Adjourn Mr. Robinson moved, seconded by Dr. Snow Dockser. to enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining, the approval of minutes and to not return to open session. The roll call vote carried 6-0. Mr. Boivin, Dr. Nihan, Mr. Robinson, Dr. Snow Dockser, Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Borawski. Page 19 The meeting adjourned at 9.44 p.m. NOTE: The minutes reflect the order as stated in the posted meeting agenda not the order they occurred during the meeting. �k* JtJ F. Doherty, td.D. Page 1 10