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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-13 ad Hoc - School Committee Policy Subcommittee Minutes� Or RF 0 Town of Reading r Meeting Minutes �'raP+IMOPr� Board - committee - Commission - Council: School Committee Date: 2023-04-13 Building: Address: Purpose: Open Session Attendees: Members - Present: Policy Subcommittee Time: 10:00 AM Location: Session: Version: Final Erin Geffen, Tom Wise, and Chuck Robinson Members - Not Present: Others Present: RECEIVED TOWN CLERK R_A�1- MA. pf, 2823 MAY 10 AM 9 1 Director of Human Resources Michelle Roach, Student Intern Kate Leone, Director of Finance & Operations Susan Bottan, Director of Health Services Mary Giuliana, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Dr. Jennifer Stys Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Tom Wise, Chair Topics of Discussion: The meeting was held remotely via Zoom. A recording of the meeting can be found hem with a passcode of KyH-2+g7. Chair Wise called the meeting to order at approximately 10:02 a.m. via roll call. Mr. Wise walked through the agenda. B.1. Consent Agenda Mr. Wise proved to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr. Robinson seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. D 1 Old Business - Review Discuss Revise and Approve MASC and Lapel changes toD 1 Old Business - Review Discuss Revise and MASC changes to Policy -- Professional Teacher Status The Subcommittee reviewed the comments and other verbiage in the Policy. 1. The Subcommittee agreed to keep the option to allow PTS to be conferred on teachers moving from other districts in which they already had PTS. 2. The Subcommittee agreed they didn't want to box the district on decisions to only evaluation procedures and adjusted the last sentence of the second paragraph to align with policy, law, or regulation. 3. Michelle asked to clarify emergency licenses vs. full teacher licenses. She asserted that emergency licenses should not qualify for PTS. While legal counsel removed the word "full" in their review. There was a suggestion to add "This excludes emergency and waiver situations" to the first bullet of the qualifying years definition. The Subcommittee accepted this change. 4. The Subcommittee removed the word "promptly" from the notification sentence in the third paragraph. Mr. Wise noted he will confirm the emergency and waiver addition with legal counsel before the full School Committee approval. Mr. Wise moved thalwe recommend the amended Policy GCJ - Professional Teacher Status to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carred 3-0 via roll call vote. Page 1 1 D.2. Old Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve changes to Policy DGA—Authorized Sianatures Mr. Wise outlined the MASC changes that were previously discussed. He then described what he attempted to do to align the Policy to current School Committee procedures per the previous Subcommittee meeting. That attempt included both financially binding and non -financially binding documents. Mr. Robinson asked a clarifying question concerning the proposed semi-annual reporting on FERPA and Employee Privacy related contracts. For example, this may be covered by the quarterly Human Resources update, the annual Student Services update, or the budget packet reviewed each year. Mrs. Bottan asked it this section could be clarified a bit more. Mr. Wise explained that he wanted to avoid a prescriptive definition here and allow the administration to align this requirement to current processes. Mr. Robinson suggested a bit more definition around the 1st and V quarterly financial updates. Mr. Wise countered with the 2n0 and 4' to align the first report with the budget cycle. The Subcommittee added another example to the non-financial signature section of the Policy. Mr. Wise moved that we recommend the amended Policy DGA— Authorized Signatures to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.1. New Business— Review Administrative changes Discuss. Compare to MASC Master. Revise. and Approve changes to Policy ADF— Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy Mr. Wise invited Mrs. Giuliana to introduce the topic. She mentioned the policy should be reviewed every three years and that we are currently out of compliance with that requirement. She mentioned the current group that is involved in the review includes Dr. Stys, Catherine Franzetti, Katie Fiorello, Tom Zaya, and Erica McNamara. Mr. Wise furthered the convemation by sharing both the Reading Policy ADF — Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy and the MASC Policy ADF — School District Wellness Program. He asserted the first question was whether we wanted to base our discussion on our existing policy or the model policy from MASC. He mentioned some misalignment between the current Reading ADF and the State law and regulation. Mrs. Giuliana mentioned she would like to see alignment across the district but with input from key constituent bases. Mrs. Gaffen said the inclusion of the School Council in the Reading Policy jumped out to her as well as odd as it doesn't reflect how we operate. Mr. Robinson suggested that the MASC Policy should be the baseline to start with, then add things that may be district unique to that. Mr. Wise concurred with that thought. Discussion ensued around individual school wellness committees vs. a district -wide committee. Discussion continued on the role of the School Committee in the district -wide solution. Mrs. Giuliana introduced another way to handle it with a core -small committee and annual or semi-annual meefing that brings more people in for greater discussion. Further discussion on the process to share the policy and ensure consistency ensued. Mrs. Gallen asked about the inclusion of recess and the exclusion of using recess for discipline. Mrs. Giuliana mentioned some of that is in the current guidelines and pointed out that we may want to pull some of the guidelines into the policy. Further discussions ensued about the inconsistencies between schools. Mrs. Giuliana asked about specificity as they work to adjust the MASC Policy for Reading. Mrs. Gallen suggested that things need to be spelled out to be done right, then spell them out. Mr. Wise tried to balance that and suggest the Policy stick to two to three pages so we can balance policy vs. procedures and try to walk that line. The team discussed the timing of reviews, updates, and legal counsel reviews for the rest of the year. D.$. 010 Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve the creation of Policy JKD — Suspension of Students Mr. Wise moved to take E.S. Policy DJ — Purchasing out of order. Mr. Robinson seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. DA. Old Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve the creation of Policy JKE — Expulsion of Students Mr. Wise walked through the way he was approaching Policy JKE— Expulsion of Students. Mr. Wise shared that his intent is for everything common to be in JK, everything that is Suspension to be in JKD, everything that is in Expulsion to be in JKE, and all Students with Disabilities in JKF. Page 1 2 Mr. Wise noted that per the regulations, expulsion is more than 90 days and 71:37H% says nothing can be more than 90 days. Thus, you can only expel under 71:37H and 71:37H'fi. He will review that with legal counsel before submitting the final version to the Subcommittee. Mrs. Geffen expressed surprise that we cannot expel if a student attacks another student. Mr. Wise outlined that was true. They can be put on long-term suspension until they are convicted of a felony. Dr. Stys shared that there are other safeguards in place for alternative placements in those situations. Mr. Wise continued to outfine the structure of the new policy. Mrs. Gaffen asked about academic progress and the obligation of teachers. Mr. Wise outlined what the expectation was for principals and the tlistrict to create plans for the maintenance of academic progress. Mrs. Gaffen asked if we had expelled a student since Dr. Stys joined the district. Dr. Stys confirmed that we have not expelled any students in her time in the district. D.5. Old Business — Review Discuss Revise and Approve the creation of Policy JKF — Discipline of Students with Disabilities Mr. Wise briefly outlined JKF and noted it was a rip and replace from the new JK, but he hasn't done anything fuller. Mr. Wise motioned to table JKD, JKE, and JKF (Suspension of Students, Expulsion of Students, and Discipline of Students with Disabilities) until the next meeting. Mr. Robinson seconded. The motion was carded 3-0 via roll call vote. E.2. New Business — Review Discuss Revise and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policy DH — Bonded Employees and Officers Mr. Wise briefly outlined the minor changes to the Policy. Mr. Robinson moved that we recommend the amended Policy DH — Bonded Employees and Officers to the full School Committee for adoption. Mr. Wise seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.3. New Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policy DI — Fiscal Accounting and Reporting Mr. Wise briefly outlined the minor changes to the Policy and confirmed there were no Charter alignments that needed to be added. No further questions were raised. Mrs. Gaffen pointed out that period was missing from the end of the last sentence of the policy. Mr. Wise moved that we recommend the amended Policy DI — Fiscal Accounting and Reporting to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. EA. New Business — Review. Discuss Revise and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policy DIE - Audits Mr. Wise moved to take E.6. Policy DJA— Purchasing Authority out of order. Mr. Robinson seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.S. New Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policy DJ - Purchasina Mrs. Bottan asked about the bullets since they are already codified in law. Mr. Wise addressed the question by stating that we often quote things from the law in policy. Thus, this is generally a standard process. Mrs. Bohan asked about "each public dollar' and asserted that procurement law addresses both public and private contributions. The Subcommittee agreed to change it to "all funds" instead. The Subcommittee made a few grammatical adjustments. Mr. Wise moved that we recommend the amended Policy DJ — Purchasing to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. Mr. Wise moved to take DA. Policy JKE — Expulsion of Students out of order. Mr. Robinson seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. Page 1 3 After the review of Policy DJA and the motion to reconsider, Mr. Wise suggested moving the third paragraph become the first paragraph, the second paragraph, after the bullets, be added to the new first paragraph, and amending the sentence proceeding the bullets to show the responsibility of the district's purchasing agent. Mr. Wise moved that we recommend the amended Policy DJ — Purchasing to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.S. New Business— Review Discuss Revise. and Aoorove MASC and Legal changes to Policy DJA— Purchasing Authority Mr. Wise outfined the changes to the policy and his discussion with legal counsel to answer their questions. Legal counsel noted that the Town Manager's responsibilifies have an exclusion for School and RMLD purchases. Mr. Robinson asked about "extended to the Superintendent" and whether that was too restrictive. There was a discussion about whether a curriculum coordinator could be the designee. Due to knowledge of purchasing law, it was agreed that it is more likely to be the Director of Finance and Operations. The Subcommittee agreed to add "or designee" after "extend to the SuperintendenC. Mr. Wise moved that we recommend the amended Policy DJA — Purchasing Authority to the full School Committee for adoption. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. The Subcommittee briefly reexamined Policy DJ to determine if it needed to add "or designee". Mr. Wise moved to reconsider Policy DJ — Purchasing. Mrs. Gaffen. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.7. New Business — Review. Discuss. Revise. and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policv DJE — Procurement Requirements (FKA Bidding Requirements) Mr. Wise moved to table EA., E.7., E.8., and E.9. to the next Policy Subcommittee meeting. Mrs. Gaffen seconded. The motion was carried 3-0 via roll call vote. E.8. New Business — Review Discuss and Approve Revocation of Policy DJG —Vendor Relations Per MASC and Legal Recommendation See motion from E.7. E.g. New Business — Review. Discuss Revise and Approve MASC and Legal changes to Policy DK — Payment Procedures See motion from E.7. The Subcommittee briefly discussed availability in May and June for the next set of meetings. The members of the Subcommittee expressed availability on the following dates: • May 9th or 11th • May 16th, 18th, or 19th • June 5th or 8th • June 12th, 13th, or 15th Motion to adjourn by Mr. Wise, seconded by Mrs. Gaffen at 11:58 a.m. The motion was carried by a roll call vote of 3-0. Page 14