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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-06 School Committee Minutesy Town of Reading Meeting Minutes RE:CEfvE;D TOWI CLERK ���=►xconp� R EA D l N G. 'MAS S Board - Committee - Commission - Council: School Committee 111:1'NOT 30 P t 4p Date: 2017-11-06 Time: 7:05 PM Building: School - Memorial High Location: Superintendent Conference Room Address: 82 Oakland Road Session: Open Session Purpose: Open Session Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Chuck Robinson, Nick Boivin, Linda Snow Dockser, Gary Nihan, and Elaine Webb Members - Not Present: Jeanne Borawski Others Present: Superintendent John Doherty, Director of Finance Gail Dowd, Assistant Superintendent Craig Martin, Wood End Principal Joanne King, Joshua Eaton Principal LisaMarie Ippolito, Selectman John Arena, Chronicle Reporter Al Sylvia Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Linda Engelson on behalf of the Chair Topics of Discussion: I. Call to Order Chair Robinson called the School Committee to order at 7:05 p.m. and reviewed the agenda. Il. Recommended Procedure A. Public Comment There was none. B. Consent A eg nda Mrs. Webb asked if anyone would like to remove any item from the consent agenda. There were no items removed. Consent A eg nda - Accept an Anonymous Donation - Accept a Donation from Craig Martin - Accept a Donation to the RMHS Boys Soccer Program Page I 1 Mrs. Webb moved, seconded by Dr. Snow Dockser, to approve the consent agenda. The motion carried 5-0. C. Reports Liaison's Report Dr. Nihan reported on the recent RCASA Board meeting. Dr. Snow Dockser reported on the SEPAC. The SEPAC will be rescheduling two upcoming meetings. Refer to the SEPAC page on the district website for more information. Dr. Snow Dockser attended the 19th Annual Veterans Day assembly at the Joshua Eaton School. She thanked Jill Mayberry for organizing these assemblies for 19 years. She said it is a great event bringing the community, students and staff together. Next on her report was METCO Game Day that was held this past weekend in Dorchester. It was well attended and a great event. She also attended an assembly at Parker that featured Chad Hymas. Mr. Hymas presented at both middle schools. He really connected with kids sharing a message of inclusion. She thanked UD and the Middle School PTOs for sponsoring this assembly. She mentioned an anonymous donation received to be used to support "A World of Difference Program" and thanked the party that made this possible. The Reading Embraces Diversity group will be holding an organizational meeting to discuss next steps and Dr. Anna Ornstein will be presenting soon. Mrs. Webb reported the RMHS Fall Musical opens this weekend. Assistant Superintendent Mr. Martin reported that the individual student MCAS results were mailed home today. Superintendent's Report Dr. Doherty reported on the recently released MSBA School Survey Report. In 2016, the MSBA visited all schools in the state. The MSBA looks at this report when considering schools for reimbursement. The report is available on the MSBA website. D. Old Business Special Education Update/IDEA Grant Mrs. Wilson reported that the Office of Civil Rights Progress Reports were sent by the November 1St deadline. A response was received from OCR indicating the action items have been accepted and the monitoring/reporting is sufficient. Page 1 2 The Mid -Cycle review progress report will be submitted to the MA DESE by November 10tH Mrs. Wilson moved on to an update on staffing. At the high school, we are still looking for a Speech & Language Pathologist. A candidate has been interviewed. The position is being covered by our part time Speech & Language Pathologist Kelly Barry and a contracted Speech & Language Pathologist. We are still looking to hire a 0.6 School Psychologist and until that position is filled we are contracting with Neuropsych Associates to complete evaluations only. Districtwide we have two team chair vacancies which are being covered by our part time Occupational Therapist and a former retired team chair. We are still having a problem filling the 0.5 FTE BCBA position as well and have been contracting through SEEM and Creative Behavioral Solutions to help our full time BCBA handle the caseload. Dr. Doherty said that these solutions are costlier than hiring a person for these positions. Mrs. Wilson reviewed public records requests that her office has received since July 1, 2017 and the time required to gather, compile, redact and copy these requests. Her office also receives requests for student records from other school districts, alumni, parents and other agencies. Mrs. Wilson provided a grant update. She began with the IDEA grant saying that the funding has been delayed and there will be a decrease in funding. She went on to describe proportionate share. As part of the IDEA grant, public school districts are required to locate and evaluate students with disabilities that attend private schools or are home -schooled within the borders of the town and to calculate and spend a proportionate share of federal special education grant funds on equitable services for these students. Mrs. Wilson has been working with Austin Prep to assist in identifying such students. The students do not have to be residents of Reading. Dr. Doherty has been informed that by 2020 there will be significant decreases in federal funding. He followed up by saying that the items that Mrs. Wilson mentioned in her update are consuming her time leaving little time for program development. FY2018 Capital Plan Mrs. Dowd reviewed the request for additional funding to the FY 18 Capital Plan to support district -wide technology. The request for the additional $85,000 into the District Wide Technology (large scale projects) will allow us to accelerate our wireless installation plan to remove all of our outdated access points, improve internet connectivity and encompass all data access points across the district. The rationale for the additional increase in the FY 18 Capital Plan for District Wide Technology is a result of an issue that we have discovered with student and teacher computers that have Windows 10 installed as the operating system. These computers are not able to access the internet with the older wireless access points that are located throughout all of our schools. The Districtwide technology Page 1 3 funding that was originally in the capital plan for this year ($100,000) is not enough to purchase and install enough access points for all eight schools. The additional funding will complete the purchase and installation of the remaining access points. If we do not receive approval for the additional funding, we will have sections of each elementary school and the high school that will not have wireless internet access with any computer that is using Windows 10. Mrs. Webb moved, seconded by Dr. Snow Dockser, to approve an additional $85,000 to the FY2018 Capital Plan for district -wide technology. Mr. Boivin asked if we have explored other solutions like software. Dr. Doherty indicated that the issue is not a software matter. There is no software that will fix the problem with the access points to make them compatible with Windows 10. It is crucial that we have wireless access for our mobile devices, especially for the MCAS. Ms. Dowd indicated we do have a prioritized plan. Dr. Doherty followed up by saying that the high and middle schools are easier to address. The elementary schools will require the installation of access points and panels in each classroom. Mr. Boivin asked about a back-up plan in case the funding is not approved. Dr. Doherty said the two middle schools will be done to support the new science curriculum and new machines. At the elementary level, all grade 3 — 5 classrooms and libraries will be done to support MCAS testing, the new science curriculum and new machines and at the high school level the math and science wings will be done. Lack of funding to do this work will result in spotty wireless and it will impact student learning. Mrs. Wilson added that it will have an adverse effect on the special education students to utilize devices. Mr. Boivin asked why it is necessary to spend next year's money this year, how many computers are we talking about? Dr. Doherty said a majority of our computers are effected. We have put in a significant amount of time to determine why we have spotty wireless in our buildings. The team has had conversations with the Town Manager to ensure the funding is available. Dr. Nihan asked if $85,000 was sufficient to accomplish what we need. Ms. Dowd took a bottom up assessment and looked at the entire cost of the project and feels this is a good number. The installation schedule will be set as to not cause too much disruption to student learning. The motion carried 5-0. E. New Business MCAS Presentation Mr. Martin began his presentation describing the Legacy MCAS and the Next - Gen MCAS. The Legacy MCAS is Science, Technology/Engineering, grades 5 & 8 and all high school level MCAS. The Next -Gen test is ELA and math for Page 1 4 grades 3 — 8. The Next -Gen MCAS is an updated more rigorous version of the nearly 20 -year-old assessment. It focuses on critical thinking abilities, application of knowledge and ability to make connections between reading and writing. This assessment is computer based and gives a clearer signal of readiness for the next grade level or college and career. Mr. Martin reviewed the achievement levels and assessment results for both versions. Mr. Robinson asked about the accountability. Districts are held harmless and there will be discussion next spring regarding accountability rating criteria. The results do not mean that students learned less. This assessment measures achievement in a different way. This is the first year of a new assessment therefore it is a baseline year. We expect scores to change over time as they did when the Legacy MCAS debuted in 1998. When looking at the Next -Gen MCAS it is important to keep in mind that approximately 50 percent of grade 3 — 8 students who are already scoring in the Meeting or Exceeding Expectations categories is not a result of a grading curve, it is where the scores fell after educators set the standards. The educators valued both readiness for next grade level and consistent expectations across grade levels. A higher percentage of students are likely to score Meeting Expectations or above in future years as students and schools become more familiar with the tests' expectations. This year's 10th graders did not take the next generation MCAS and finally high school students are still taking legacy MCAS tests. The next generation tests will be introduced at the high school level in spring 2019, but the minimum passing is not expected to change until later years. Mr. Martin next reviewed student growth percentiles and pointed out that growth is distinct from achievement. Students are compared only to their statewide academic peers, not all students statewide. Growth is subject, grade and year specific. Mr. Martin reviewed test scores for all grades and subject areas for all students and high needs sub groups. He shared information from the DESE DART tool comparing our scores to communities with similar grade spans, total enrollment and special populations and then our traditional comparable communities. Our next steps include using the district, school and student level results to identify our current strengths and weaknesses, review curriculum and instructional alignment, and identify appropriate interventions for students where applicable, collaboration with other districts to discuss best practices and share resources, examining differences in grade level results among our schools, improving common assessment and data analysis across the district, especially in elementary reading, writing and math, calibrating expectation and standards for district assessments and report cards, and continue to review all the data and released assessment information in our ongoing efforts to improve the curriculum, instruction, and assessment in all content areas and grade levels. The School Committee asked clarifying questions and thanked Mr. Martin for providing the information tonight. III. Routine Matters Page 1 5 a. Bills and Payroll (A) Warrant S 1818 11.02.17 $158,095.22 Warrant P1809 11.03.17 $1,640,149.10 b. Calendar IV. Information/Correspondence V. Future Business VI. Adjournment Before the meeting adjourned Dr. Nihan announced his resignation effective November 7th, citing health reasons. He thanked his supporters and fellow school committee members. Committee members thanked Dr. Nihan for his service and wished him the best. Adjourn Dr. Nihan moved, seconded by Mrs. Webb, to adiourn. The motion carried 5 —0. The meeting adjourned at 9.50 p.m. NOTE: The minutes reflect the order as stated in the posted meeting agenda not the order they occurred during the meeting. Page 1 6