| MSC Permanent Minutes March 26, 2012 |
| PERMANENT MINUTES MIDDLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING HOWE-MANNING MUSIC ROOM MARCH 26, 2012 The regular meeting of the Middleton School Committee was held on Monday, March 26, 2012 in the Howe-Manning Music Room, 26 Central Street, Middleton, MA. Members Present: Mindy Wogan, Chairperson; Teresa Buono, Tasha Cooper, Maria Scarpa and Lisa Saxonis Others Present: Dr. Bernard F. Creeden, Superintendent; Betsy Boulanger and Diane Carreiro, Principals; Sharon Lyons, Director of Special Education; Caroline Halligan, Teacher; Ellen Best, Speech Specialist; Michelle Whiffen, Lisa Stepanick, and Dan Michaud, Parents; and Mary Farley, Recording Secretary. M. Wogan called the meeting to order at 7:27 p.m. A. ROUTINES: 1. Pledge of Allegiance: Everyone stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 2. Remarks from the Public: None. B. REPORTS: 1. Reports from Other Committees: • School Building Committee: M. Wogan reported that not much is new with the Building Committee. Things are starting to wrap up. By July, they should be through the punch list items. They are working on the cable access for the building. The next MSBC meeting will be held on April 23, 2012. They are waiting for the status update on additional bricks. K. DiNisco is working on that. • Location of Middleton Little League Storage Shed: Steve Brickett and Carmen Lepore appeared before the Committee for this request. They are proposing to put up a Little League shed for supplies for the fields. There has been some discussion about this shed. It will be placed in the far corner of the field. It is very similar to the one at Fuller Meadow. Dr. Creeden will mark this on the plan and scan it to everyone. They do plan to put three tier benches on both sides of the field for people to sit on to watch the games. They do have the old four tier ones, but they would like to go with three tiers. They need to find an area where pitchers can warm up. They may have to add a piece of fence to make the warm-up area. They need to show the location of the building and warm-up area on the plan. Plus, the stands on first and third base lines. The also need to finalize the location of the Couture Memorial. T. Buono moved to approve the requests for the shed, warm-up area, and the benches subject to approval of the location for these items. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 5-0-0. • Tri-Town Union School Committee, March 8, 2012: The TTU Committee approved the Math Curriculum after a wonderful presentation by Christine Elliott. This will now be brought to Town Meeting. There was also a presentation by the Tri-Town Substance Abuse Coalition showing what they are doing. There was discussion about the adjunct for the Math curriculum, looking for ways to craft out additional Professional Development time. They looked at bench-mark communities. They approved the Central Office budget. We were looking for a .4 increase for one person in the office. That was decreased to .2. The majority voted to support the recommendation in next year’s budget to replace the Central Office phone system. They gave Committee approval to work within the rental revolving account and reduce the amount of money. • Health and Wellness: The Health and Wellness Committee met last week covering a wealth of topics; head lice, “Get Moving Night, the “Garden”, etc. The granting authority had more requests than they are able to keep up with. They have several beds at Fuller Meadow. There are four options at Howe-Manning that will be looked at again. We do have a volunteer who is willing to help prepare the beds. With the uncertainty of the grant, it may have to come back to this Committee to look for some funding for tools. We got the first donation today from Sol Bean. M. Wogan reported that since “Middleton Get Moving” night, milk sales have gone from 4 to 1 to 2 to 1 for chocolate milk. There will be some more work based on Federal Regulations on milk and competitive foods for the before and after school programs and during the noon hour. Some things that have already been impacted are candy sales. They had a brief presentation on the MA Safe Routes to School Program. We have sent in the necessary requests to become a partner. There will be a program on May 2 on a Walk to School initiative. If we belong to this group for more than a year, they will come out and walk with us and see where sidewalks could be put in. Gary Marques and Marie Perkins attended this presentation. T. Buono talked about safe access routes. Sub-groups will have to connect with each other. M. West will send out some draft language for the Policy. • Report of the Building Principals: D. Carreiro reviewed her written report that was in the packet. B. Boulanger reviewed her written report which was in the packet. B. Boulanger reported that the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast will be on June 8. The Canobe Lake trip was discussed. The purpose for the end of the year class is to keep the class cohesive. Last year, this did not work well. We have a Parent Committee that came up with an alternative for this year. They suggested Cedarland. Children can interact with other children and be cohesive. Parent groups will be talking to the 6th graders. Thank you to the Parent Committee. T. Buono asked about student recognition for academic achievement in place of the honor roll. We should do something to recognize these students. Dr. Creeden explained what they do in Boxford. Last year there was no recognition at all for academic achievement. Dr. Creeden will come back with some recommendations for this. He will discuss this with faculty and staff. • Report of the Superintendent: Election Location Updates: M. Wogan read a letter from Lisa Stepanick regarding relocation of the voting location. The Fuller Meadow School will be used a total of four times this year for voting purposes. Mrs. Stepanick feels this is disruptive to the children who have to be escorted throughout the building for safety reasons and chaotic for the parents who have to pick their children up at the end of the day. There were other emails agreeing with Mrs. Stepanick from Gretchen Fishman, David MacDonald and Donna Rogers. Dr. Creeden explained that during the Presidential Primary on March 6, a large percentage of the staff was able to park off campus and there was transportation available to shuttle them back and forth. In preparation for the next town election on May 14, we toured the Fuller Meadow campus with the Town Clerk and the Chief of Police. S. Clifford has spoken to the manufacturer of the gym floor. We may have come up with some ways to protect that floor. The gym is larger than the cafeteria. We do have some mats that we could use to protect the floor. Sarah George will draft out how she would set up the gym to make it accessible for the handicapped. We would still need alternate parking. It was stated that the Town should be responsible for payment in total for any expenses incurred if they determine that the school is the place where the election should be held. Beverly and Danvers do not have specified entrances and the voters mingle with the children and pass by classrooms. Both towns have large numbers of walking students. Traffic is a huge problem. These towns are much larger than ours. Danvers schools will be open during the spring election. If we change our location to the gym, our children will be brought into the cafeteria. It is a School Committee responsibility to make the decision that is safest for the children given our circumstances. • MA Safe Routes to School Program: This was discussed earlier. • Preschool Hours 2012-2013: Sharon Lyons addressed this issue. There is still a problem with the drop off and pick-up at the back of the school. Changing the preschool hours was considered to alleviate this problem. Suggested times were 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. for the morning session and 11:40 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. for the afternoon session. Factors that contributed to the challenges this year include: 1. Move to a new campus. 2. Increase the hours of the preschool 3. Offer more extended day options. S. Lyons heard from one parent who stated that if she knew the times would be different, she would have chosen another time slot. Some suggestions were: Right now, start time is 8:30 a.m. and pickup time is 3:15 p.m. Administration should make this decision based on their knowledge of the activities around the school. Parents should be notified and given an option on making a change. The problem is traffic flow. The administration will review this and make a decision on another way to alleviate this problem. If it means changing the preschool hours, we may have to do a new registration for parents who will be affected by the changed hours. • Educator Evaluation Workshop Opportunity: Reading Superintendent, John Doherty, and the Reading School Committee are willing to share this workshop with other School Committee members. This will be held on May 3, 2012, at Reading Memorial High School from 9a.m. to 12 noon. There will be a sit down with the Association next year to discuss this and review local discretion. Dr. Creeden will send out the details. • Dan Michaud is present tonight. Today was the last day to take out papers to be filed for School Committee seats. We now have two candidates for two seats. • Charting the Course: This workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Greater Lawrence Technical School on April 28. Cost is $25 for lunch and is reimbursable. • Dr. Creeden informed the School Committee and those present that the number of buildable lots in town is now up over 80. C. NEW BUSINESS: 1. School Calendar: There was discussion about the calendar and time on learning. T. Buono stated that she could not approve this calendar given the time on learning taken away from the children. T. Cooper moved to accept the Middleton School Calendar as presented. Second by L. Saxonis. Motion carried 3-0-2 (T. Buono and M. Scarpa abstained). 2. Math Curriculum: At the TTU Committee meeting, the Math Curriculum was endorsed. T. Cooper moved to adopt the new Math Curriculum. Second by M. Scarpa. Motion carried 5-0-0. 3. FY 2013 Budget Development: Last Thursday, S. Greenberg sent out the new Warrant Article, including Howe-Manning. T. Buono stated that this was the only issue and Board of Selectmen approved it. Finance Committee is meeting tomorrow night for the review and approval by their Committee. Nothing else came up at the Omnibus meeting. 4. Organizational Design: Dr. Creeden reviewed this with the Committee. This is still going to go through more review and editing. He would like to get it out by the end of next week. This is a draft; it is not ready for approval. 5. School Committee Annual Report: Dr. Creeden stated that milestones need to be included in this report; T. Buono concluding 7 years, D. Donarumo’s resignation, L. Saxonis coming on the Committee. We also need to add that we are adopting a new Math Curriculum, the new Writing Curriculum, and have implemented the RAZ Kids program. We are also working on assessing a new leadership model. T. Buono moved to approve the School Committee Annual Report for 2011 as amended. Second by M. Scarpa. Motion carried 5-0-0. 6. Correspondence: • M. Wogan read the letter from Mrs. Mulligan and Mr. Husson regarding the Technology at Howe-Manning School. Dr. Creeden explained what is being done to correct this situation. B. Boulanger, S. Greenberg and K. DiNisco have been talking to the installers to get this fixed. They just weren’t reliable. It is not a clear pathway to resolving this. We had a conference call on this the other day. Wireless access and virtual networking based on the design is being revisited to determine how they can all work together as they do in other schools. It is Ken’s job to do this. There is no clear explanation on how this is being done. The main companies that were awarded the contract were given the okay to go ahead and build a new image. There was not enough time to get this done. Dr. Creeden asked K. DiNisco today for a specific timeline of what will be done and who is going to do it. Dr. Creeden talked to Manchester/Essex and Lynnfield to see if there is something else that we should be doing. Some things are getting to the point that if we had a concrete timeline, we could make a decision to go forward with this. M. Wogan will draft a response to the teachers and explain that it was discussed at School Committee. Copies will be sent to K. DiNisco and D. Billings. • Memo from Dr. Creeden regarding the Review of Fuller Meadow as an Election Location – Lessons Learned from the March 6 Presidential Primary to be applied in May and September. This is to be reviewed by the entire School Committee. • Received a request from Michael McLaughlin regarding some technology equipment that is considered surplus for us, but is useful to the Police Department. The equipment includes Wireless Access Point, Network Switches and Fiber Optic Cable. T. Buono moved to declare the items listed by M. McLaughlin as surplus and be given to the Police Department. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 5-0-0. 7. Other: The next meeting will be held on April 9, 2012 at Fuller Meadow. The Public Hearing on the FY 2013 Budget will be held that night. May 14 is Election Day. Kid-2-Kid performances will be held on Tuesday, April 10. There will be performances at both schools. The schedule will be sent out to Committee members. D. CONSENT AGENDA: 1. Approval of Minutes: T. Buono moved to approve the Minutes of January 9, 2012 as presented. Second by M. Scarpa. Motion carried 4-0-1 (L. Saxonis abstained). T. Buono moved to approve the Minutes of February 27, 2012 as presented. Second by L. Saxonis. Motion carried 5-0-0. T. Buono moved to approve the Minutes of March 13, 2012 as amended. Second by M. Scarpa. Page 1, in the heading, change “Regular” to “Special” Meeting. Change “Nathan Media Center” to “Conference Room”. Under item 3, New Business, item #3, remove the words: “At the recent TTU meeting”. Under item #5, in the last sentence, change “M. Wogan said that” to “M. Wogan asked if”. Same sentence, change the words “doesn’t have” to “has”. Item #11, change “M. Wogan” to “T. Buono”. Motion carried 5-0-0. 2. Approval of Bills and Payroll Warrants: M. Scarpa moved to approve the following Bill and Payroll Warrants. Second by T. Cooper. Payroll Warrant dated 3/29/12 in the amount of $264,635.82 Bill Warrant #BW1224 Café dated 3/26/12 in the amount of $89,681.03 Bill Warrant #BW1224 Café dated 3/26/12 in the amount of $8,742.62. Motion carried 5-0-0. M. Scarpa moved to accept the following Bill and Payroll Warrants. Second by T. cooper. Payroll Warrant dated 3/15/12 in the amount of $255,441.09 Bill Warrant #BW1221 dated 3/5/12 in the amount of $18,872.99 Bill Warrant #BW1222 dated 3/8/12 in the amount of $29,622.03 Bill Warrant #BW1222 Café Meal Tax in the amount of $9.01 Bill Warrant #BW1223 dated 3/13/12 in the amount of $5,498.49 Motion carried 5-0-0. T. Buono moved to approve The Budget Adjustment #JE 12-15 dated 2/13/12 in the amount of $1,049.60. Second by L. Saxonis. Motion carried 5-0-0. E. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, T. Buono moved to adjourn at 10:14 p.m. Second by L. Saxonis. Motion carried 5-0-0. Respectfully submitted, Mary Farley Recording Secretary As per the new Open Meeting Law, listed below are the documents that were either distributed to the MSC before the meeting in a packet, or at the meeting: 1. Agenda 2. Preliminary MSC Minutes for 1/9/12 3. Preliminary MSC Minutes for 2/27/12 4. Preliminary MSC Minutes for 3/13/12 5. Superintendent’s Report 6. Memo from DESE on PARCC Technology Readiness Tool 7. Email from Bo LaBossiere - Re: H.M. Shed 8. Picture of Shed 9. Map of Field Area for Location of Shed 10. Surplus Equipment Letter from M. McLaughlin 11. Memo from Dr. Creeden - Re: Review of F.M. as an Election Location 12. Draft – School Committee Annual Report 13. Tentative Classroom Organizational Design 2012/2013 14. FY 13 Proposed Budget Adjustment Worksheet 15. FY 13 Capital Plan & Proposed Warrant Article Overview 16. Middleton Proposed Calendar for 2012/2013 17. Topsfield Proposed Calendar for 2012/2013 18. Chart of Benchmark Communities 19. Principal’s Report – B. Boulanger 20. Principal’s Report – D. Carreiro 21. Safe Routes to School Overview 22. Email from Lisa Stepanick - Re Using F.M. as the Voting Location 23. Follow-up emails from: G. Fishman, D. Rogers, R. MacDonald 24. Bill and Payroll Warrant Approval Sheet |