| MSC Preliminary Minutes June 11, 2009 |
| DRAFT PRELIMINARY MINUTES MIDDLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING FULLER MEADOW NATHAN MEDIA CENTER JUNE 11, 2009 The regular meeting of the Middleton School Committee was held in the Fuller Meadow Nathan Media Center, 143 South Main Street, Middleton, MA on Thursday, June 11, 2009. Members Present: T. Buono, Chairperson; Deirdre Donarumo, Richard Harris, Rock Mastrangelo and James Pearl Others Present: Dr. Bernard F. Creeden, Superintendent; Dr. Malvena Baxter, Principal; Michelle Fitzpatrick, Principal; Debra Hale, Curriculum Coordinator; and Mary Farley, Recording Secretary Because the Committee is going to re-organize tonight, R. Harris sat in as Chair. R. Harris called the meeting to order at 7:13 p.m. A. ROUTINES: 1. Pledge of Allegiance: The Pledge was recited by all in attendance. 2. School Committee Organization for 2009-2010: J. Pearl moved that the School Committee keep the same organizational design as they had for school year 2008/2009. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 5-0-0. At this time, T. Buono took over as Chair and continued the meeting. 3. Remarks from the Public: None. B. REPORTS: 1. Reports from Other Committees: • The Middleton School Building Committee (MSBC) met this past Monday to go through the timeline for the new building project. The project will go out for bid in February. Ground breaking will take place this time next year. It is an aggressive schedule. The designer is going full force. By the next meeting, we must have a plan for the drop-off and pick-up of students. A Public Forum will be held on June 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Howe-Manning School with the Designer and the OPM to get input from the community and to answer questions about what will happen during construction. Members of the MSBC met with the representatives from DESE yesterday to go over the layout and distribution of Special Education space. This is critical to the design specifications. This is the first time the MSBA and DESE sat down together to go over how things will be handled. • Tri-Town School Union met on Tuesday evening after the Regional Study Group Meeting. The TTU Committee reviewed Dr. Creeden’s evaluation. They discussed where we are right now with the H1N1 flu. Presently, we have about 20-21 confirmed cases. Updates from the Boards of Health come in a couple of times a week. The school nurses have been doing a tremendous amount of work. More children have had strep throat at this time of year than the flu. At this point, the Chair allowed a change in the order of the Agenda. 2. Report from the Curriculum Director on the Social Studies Curriculum: D. Hale reported that Masconomet recommended that we exchange the current sixth and seventh grade social studies curriculum to ensure more continuity in the middle and high school program. The Massachusetts History and Social Studies Curriculum allows flexibility between the sixth and seventh grade curriculum to accommodate site-based decisions. As such, beginning next year our sixth grade will shift from being taught Ancient Cultures to World Geography. The following year, Masconomet will begin teaching Ancient Cultures in grade seven. Additionally, this shift in curriculum will enable our schools to integrate Global Studies more easily. She then reviewed the curriculum. The cost for the books is $9,041.34, plus additional resources are needed to purchase maps, subscriptions and other such items included on the well-equipped classroom list. This will allow for one book for each child to bring home and one for each child to use in the classroom during the Social Studies period. See D. Hale’s report included in the packet. D. Hale asked for the School Committee’s support in changing the curriculum. The Grade 6 teachers reviewed four sets of materials based on the Mass. Curriculum Frameworks and chose Glencoe’s “Exploring Our World.” This program is fully available online. The teachers will work for 40 hours over the summer to go over the program. R. Mastrangelo moved to accept the Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum adoption and the purchase of the new books including the additional materials to be kept in the classroom. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 5-0-0. 3. Report of the Building Principals: Dr. Baxter gave an oral report. At the end of the year, Mr. Sharpe had some of the students play recorders for the parents. Both nights had a different program. It was wonderfully done. She thanked the students and parents. Half of the Kindergarten Serenade was done today and the other half will be done tomorrow. She thanked Mr. Sharpe for a great job. The end of the year field trips are in full swing. She acknowledged the Masconomet interns for doing such a great job. Katherine Palladino and a couple of her English students come every month to read to the children. The children bring books to read and they have a follow-up activity. She hopes to have them do the same thing again next year. Dr. Baxter thanked the PTO for everything they do for the children. She is currently interviewing for the Kindergarten and the Grade 3 openings. M. Fitzpatrick gave her oral report. At Howe-Manning, they are finishing up Math Assessments. The sixth graders did a great job at the Parent Volunteer Banquet. They are now getting ready for teacher retirement activities. The children are working hard. She had an MCAS lunch for the 4th graders today. They were exuberant about this. M. Fitzpatrick spoke about the Community Volunteer Lunch and what a great job the children did. 4. Report of the Superintendent: Dr. Creeden thanked the community for voting for the new school. He stated that the School Committee will have to reconsider the next meeting date due to the Community Forum on the new school building being held that night. We should be getting some preliminary results on MCAS with in the next few weeks. • Personnel Update: Tentative Teaching Assignments: He is currently working on this. • School Calendar: The Committee needs to add one more full-day Professional Development Day into the Calendar. He will talk to the teachers to get their input. Dr. Baxter suggested having it on Election Day next May. The Committee will take action on this at the next meeting. • Dr Creeden talked about transition planning for different programs at Howe-Manning, the relocation of the modular classrooms, preparing for the real heavy construction at this time of year, next year, and wrapping it up around Memorial Day. C. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Standards Based Report Card Update and Recommendations: T. Buono and R. Mastrangelo met with the Howe-Manning staff on Monday, June 1 to discuss and develop the final recommendations to be made by the faculty regarding the Standards Based Report Cards. The teachers are using the Standards Based Report Card approach in grades 1-4 and fine-tuning the definition around what they mean and getting rid of the letter grades. There was a lot of discussion around that and how we would eliminate the letter grades; and, how we will convey this to parents. They discussed what we need to do for the students who make honor roll. School Committee needs to think about this. They know that it is a huge shift. T. Buono suggested putting a small subcommittee together to talk to the teachers and come back with a recommendation to School Committee on how to move forward and how this can be communicated effectively. Numbers do not lend themselves to honor roll. R. Harris suggested an academic award. Dr. Creeden stated the subcommittee will consist of one School Committee member and one member from each grade at Howe-Manning. This should be done before the end of July. The charge of this subcommittee is: “How do we celebrate student achievement?” One of the best ways is in terms of growth relative to a roll of honor. Something that is accessible to every child. It won’t be an honor roll as people know it. It has to be public so everyone knows what it is. R. Mastrangelo will meet with the teachers at Howe-Manning. This needs to be in the handbook, so it must be decided by the end of July. 2. School Committee Annual Review: • Dr. Creeden reviewed the “Roles and Responsibilities for School Committees and Superintendents,” a copy of which was in the packet. • School Committee Self-Evaluation: There is a printout in the packet from MASC on School Committee Self-Evaluation. It explains the benefits of this and the process for doing it. • Communication Strategy 2009-2010: Dr. Creeden talked about this from the school building objective; MSBC, subcommittees, all communications committees because it will be so intricately tied to the school. • School Handbook 2009-2010: Dr. Creeden talked about looking at the handbook again. He asked if they should consider taking some things out and making it more available online. Policies in their long form can be accessed on the website. We can take the current format and publish an Executive Summary of the Handbook and put new things in it. 3. FY 2009 Budget Closeout and FY 2010 Budget Development: Based on a decision made earlier, S. Greenberg prepared a simple chart of where we are at this time. A copy of this is in the packet. Dr. Creeden reviewed S. Greenberg’s report. He informed the Committee that we will be able to take the $35,000 from this budget that we are committed to. We are still eight weeks away from the time the books will be closed for this year. We will come back with some recommendations. • FY 2010 State Budget: The House and Senate will present a revised Pension Reform tonight. It will have some impact. There are still hearings going forward from the Special Committee on School District Regionalization and Consolidation. There is a meeting scheduled for June 23, in Room A1 at the State House. Our Consultant on the Regionalization Study will be there. Kathleen Lynch will be prepared with some technical assistance in order to go forward. • General Court Special Commission on Municipal Relief Report: There is a copy of this in the packet with Bill Numbers, Titles, and Summaries. D. CONSENT AGENDA: 1. Approval of Minutes: J. Pearl moved to accept the Minutes of May 7, 2009 as amended. Second by R. Harris. Page 1, Item #3, first bullet, third sentence: change Chirullo to Cherullo. Page 2, Item #2, fifth paragraph, second sentence; remove the word “shed”. Motion carried 3-0-2 (R. Mastrangelo and R. Harris abstained because they were not present). 2. Approval of Bills and Payroll: R. Harris moved to approve the following Bill Warrants. Second by R. Mastrangelo. Bill Warrant #0923 dated 6/11/09 in the amount of $42,445.68 Bill Warrant #0923A dated 6/11/09 in the amount of $9,523.43 Bill Warrant #0922B dated 6/1/09 in the amount of $1,923.33 Bill Warrant #0923 Café Meal Tax dated 6/11/09 in the amount of $9.49 Motion carried 5-0-0. R. Harris moved to accept the following Bill and Payroll Warrants. Second by R. Mastrangelo: Payroll Warrant dated 5/29/09 in the amount of $258,679.59 Payroll Warrant (Dare Officer) dated 6/11/09 in the amount of $1,600.00 Payroll Warrant dated 6/11/09 in the amount of $247,033.26 Motion carried 4-0-1 (R. Harris abstained). R. Harris moved to accept the following Bill Warrants. Second by R. Mastrangelo. Bill Warrant #0921 dated 5/12/09 in the amount of $63,263.82 Bill Warrant #0922 dated 6/1/09 in the amount of $89,097.76 Bill Warrant #0922A dated 6/1/09 in the amount of $20,861.98 Bill Warrant #0922 Café dated 6/1/09 in the amount of $8,955.70 Bill Warrant for School Building in the amount of $113,483.13 Bill Warrant for School Building in the amount of $1,050.00 Motion carried 5-0-0. E. NEXT MEETING DATE: The next meeting date has not been set. A memo will be sent out electronically for School Committee member’s blackout days in the latter part of July. The meeting date will be determined by the response to that memo. At the next meeting, we should discuss the School Improvement Plan and S. Lyons will be present with her Special Education Spring Report. F. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, J. Pearl moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:45 p.m. Second by R. Harris. Motion carried 5-0-0. Respectfully submitted, Mary Farley, Recording Secretary |