| MSC Permanent Minutes December 13, 2010 |
| PERMANENT MINUTES MIDDLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING FULLER MEADOW NATHAN MEDIA CENTER REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 13, 2010 The regular meeting of the Middleton School Committee was held on Monday, December 13, 2010 in the Fuller Meadow Nathan Media Center, 143 South Main Street, Middleton, MA. Members Present: Teresa Buono, Chairperson; Deirdre Donarumo, Tasha Cooper, and Maria Scarpa Absent: Mindy Wogan Others Present: Dr. Bernard F. Creeden, Superintendent; Steven Greenberg, Director of Finance and H.R.; Betsy Boulanger and Diane Carreiro, Principals; and Mary Farley, Recording Secretary T. Buono called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. A. ROUTINES: 1. Pledge of Allegiance: Everyone present recited the Pledge of Allegiance 2. Remarks from the Public: None B. REPORTS: 1. Reports from Other Committees: • Middleton School Building Committee (MSBC): T. Buono reported that the construction of the new Howe-Manning School is still on target. The next meeting of the MSBC will be held on Monday, December 20, 2010. The Design Subcommittee Meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. and the Building Committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. The MSBC will discuss locating an increased play area for the winter months. The contractor will move the gate down to the second pole for those days when students cannot go to the Town Common. The MSBC met last week with the D.P.W. to discuss snow removal so that there will be an area for the children. Hopefully, we won’t need it. But if we do, we will have an area. The MSBC will also be discussing furniture and equipment. After the site meeting, they will meet with the staff members who worked on choosing the kind of furniture to purchase and deciding where it will go. A lot of the current furniture from Howe-Manning will be moved over to the new building. • Howe-Manning Donate-a-Brick Program: The count is almost up to 150. Since we did not reach the 500 brick goal, the bricks will be put in a smaller space more to the front of the building. • The Holiday Hero Program went very well. The children raised $400 and the parents contributed about 100 toys. The story will be in the Tri-Town Transcript. • Tri-Town Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (Update): This group continues to meet. They had a meeting last Thursday. The Vision and Mission of the Coalition is to try to pinpoint some specific goals for the coming year that relates to their statement. They are mostly geared to the middle and high school. They are attempting to put together a youth activity group. Dr. Creeden is extending the message to other stakeholders through communication and outreach. • Mathematics Curriculum Review Committee: D. Carreiro reported that they had their first meeting a few weeks ago. The first meeting was just to get questions out there. C. Elliott had some great materials for teachers. She has set up a message board for people to communicate on. C. Elliott will have different people coming in for this so they can go back and review what they have seen. The people all seem to have the same opinion about what is and what is not working in the program. Different groups will be working with different units across multiple levels. The intent is to look at three (3) programs that we have not had a lot of contact with and compare them to the updated program that we have. There are about 30 people in the group. 2. Report of the Building Principals: D. Carreiro, Principal of Fuller Meadow School, reviewed her written report which was in the packet. B. Boulanger reviewed her written report which was also in the packet. There was some discussion about the current Grade 6 class and that it is the last class to get letter grades. Then, everyone will be on the number system. It was asked if we had decided what we are going to do about the Honor Roll (which will be known as Academic Excellence). Dr. Creeden stated that he will go back and visit this with our new Principal. We did plan to use the growth method. This will be done from a progressive perspective. 3. Report of the Superintendent: A letter was received from Henry Tragert, Town Moderator, announcing the re-appointment of Ellen Weitzler to the North Shore Technical High School Committee for a term to end in 2013. This appointment should be ratified by the Committee. M. Scarpa moved to ratify the appointment of Ellen Weitzler to the North Shore Technical High School Committee. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0. Dr. Creeden informed the Committee of the Grant Award from New England BioLabs to Jennifer Fuller in the amount of $2,000 for books to complement Fuller Meadow Literacy Program. The Committee must vote to accept this. Dr. Creeden reported that we are moving forward with the Olweus Program. All three Committees have made declarations to go forward with this program. We should have the surveys in our hands by the end of this week and have students finish them before winter break. They will be sent out as soon as possible so we can get the results back for the Professional Development Day in January. Robin Dantono, the trainer who worked with Danvers a year ago, will start off with a Coordinating Committee Notebook. The calendar for training has not been worked out to date. Dr. Creeden will be looking for some parents, bus drivers, coaches, etc., about 8-10 people per school. He is still working out some of the logistics for that. The cost is about $4,200. There may be the possibility that we can get one or more of our own people to do the training. We had some previous discussion about an assembly called “Power of One”. There is a program for each level. We will be communicating with them tomorrow on what they can make available to us. 4. Report of the Director of Finance: • FY 2012 Budget Development Calendar: S. Greenberg addressed the Committee. In the packet there is a copy of the calendar. He reviewed the dates for Budget Meetings for the Committee, with the Fin Com, and with the Board of Selectmen. He stated that we are in a particular circumstance where we are going to have larger expenses and will need more heat and power with the new building. We are looking at a reality of five (5) day full-day Kindergarten without any tuition charge. He will build the Adjustment Counselor back into the Budget. There will be one less Grade 2 classroom next year. S. Greenberg and Dr. Creeden explained the budget and the narrative process. • Expenditure for DESE Data Management Requirements: S. Greenberg explained the DESE Sims submittal process to DESE quarterly and the new Report, EPIMS – Educators Personnel Information Management System, which is the staff roster work assignments with multiple components of data. It calls for the student core schedule data. The goal of this is to track specific teacher performance. This ties in with “No Child Left Behind.” There are thirteen elements. This is all brand new. The report is due on January 16, 2011. This cannot be done on an Excel program. We must purchase the Report Card Model from Rediker. We need about $5,000 to do this and we need it now. He asked the School Committee to approve this now so he can get this software. This will make the reporting easier. There will be some training with this. The $5,000 will be within the realm of the current Operating Budget. It is a module of Rediker used now for attendance reporting. T. Buono asked if there was anything else we could use this program for such as the Emergency Card information. T. Cooper moved to approve the expenditure of $5,000 subject to the DESE requirements for EPIMS reporting. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 4-0-0. C. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Policy Development: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan (Action): M. Scarpa moved to approve the Bully Prevention and Intervention Policy - JICFB and the Bullying and Intervention Plan dated December 13, 2010. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0. It was stated that the Bullying Box is too visible. Everybody can see the kids who put something in there. 2. School Calendar 2011-2012 Draft: Dr. Creeden reviewed the draft calendars regarding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Masco will be open, but the Superintendent is asking what the teaching limitations are on that day. They have not reached that point yet. The number of students is smaller right now. The percent is smaller. Staff requests are less than a dozen in the six schools. There was discussion about observing the holy days. We will also be putting the dates of the summer school program on the calendar as requested by Sharon Lyons. M. Scarpa moved that the draft calendar reflect that we will be open on Good Friday in the 2011/2012 school year. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0. Dr. Creeden will prepare the draft and share it with the Association and discuss the Holy Day observance. When we start the school year, we can ask the teacher to come before the first of September. The final vote will be taken on this in January. People like to have the day off on the Friday before Labor Day. Dr. Creeden likes the idea of starting the school year with three days the first week, four days the second week, and then five days. The adjustment would be made that first year, then it falls into place after that. Next year, the first day for students will most likely be September 6 since we will need the time because of the opening of the new school and the reconfiguring of Fuller Meadow. 3. Policy Review: • Policy Handbook Section B – School Committee Operations: This needs to be reviewed and approved to go forward. Policy BID – Compensation. This policy must be revisited. It will be included in the Budget for discussion purposes. Policy BA – First paragraph, third sentence, add the word “more” after the words “needs of all people”. Policy BE: Change the time of the School Committee meetings. Policy BBBA/BBBB: This Policy is out of order. New School Committee members should receive a Policy Book after taking the Oath of Office. Policy BDE: Item #2: remove the word “Chairperson” after the words “School Committee”. Item 6: Remove the word “generally”. Policy BHE: Electronic Messaging - This policy needs to be reviewed Policy BAA: Do the goals cover the various processes? Dr. Creeden stated there is a document that MASC did produce for evaluations. The plan process for the District Goals does cover this for now. Dr. Creeden will put the document from MASC in the packet for the next meeting. Policy BDFA-E: Needs review. M. Scarpa moved to approve Index Section B: School Board Governance and Operations as reviewed with the exception of the following policies which require further review: BA, BAA, BBBA/BBB, BDFA-E, BE, BDE, BHE, BID. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 4-0-0. 4. Correspondence: None 5. Other: None. D. CONSENT AGENDA: 1. Approval of Minutes: M. Scarpa moved to approve the Minutes of November 15, 2010 as presented. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0. 2. Approval of Bill and Payroll Warrants: M. Scarpa moved to approve and accept the following Bill and Payroll Warrants. Second by T. Cooper. Payroll Warrant dated 12/23/10 in the amount of $266,978.33 Bill Warrant #BW1116 dated 12/13/10 in the amount of $55,416.52 Bill Warrant #BW1116A dated 12/13/10 in the amount of $9,749.12 Bill Warrant #BW1116 Café dated 12/13/10 in the amount of $4,231.46 Bill Warrant #BW1116 Café Meal Tax dated 12/13/10 in the amount of $6.75 Payroll Warrant dated 12/09/10 in the amount of $271,553.12 Bill Warrant #BW1115 dated 11/29/10 in the amount of $43,417.57 Accept $2,000 Gift check from New England BioLabs for books to complement the Literacy Program. Motion carried 4-0-0. 3. Next School Committee Meeting: Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.. The TTU Committee will be meeting on Budget that night at 7:30 p.m. at the Fuller Meadow Nathan Media Center. 4. Declaration of Surplus Materials: The list of Surplus Library Books at Howe-Manning was in the packet. These books will not be moved to the new building. Most of them are out of print. They are available for the taking. If no one takes them, they can be placed in one of the Donate Book bins. M. Scarpa moved to approve the Declared Surplus Books list for the Howe-Manning School Library. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 4-0-0. 5. Acceptance of Grant from BioLabs Corporation. This was approved under Acceptance of Bill and Payroll Warrants. E. EXECUTIVE SESSION: At 9:25 p.m., M. Scarpa moved to enter into Executive Session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with union personnel and negotiations with non-union personnel where an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining as declared by the Chair of the School Committee, and to return to Open Session for the purpose of adjournment only. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0 on a roll call vote (M. Scarpa – yes, D. Donarumo – yes, T. Cooper – yes, T. Buono – yes). F. ADJOURNMENT: At 9:55 p.m., on a roll call vote, the Committee returned to Open Session for the purpose of adjournment. M. Scarpa moved to adjourn. Second by T. Cooper. Motion carried 4-0-0. Respectfully submitted, Mary Farley Recording Secretary |