| MSC Preliminary Minutes September 10, 2009 |
| DRAFT PRELIMINARY MINUTES MIDDLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING FULLER MEADOW NATHAN MEDIA CENTER SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 The regular meeting of the Middleton School Committee was held on Thursday, September 10, 2009 in the Fuller Meadow Nathan Media Center, 143 South Main Street, Middleton, MA. MEMBERS PRESENT: Theresa Buono, Chairperson; Deirdre Donarumo, Richard Harris, Rock Mastrangelo and James Pearl OTHERS PRESENT: Dr. Bernard Creeden, Superintendent; Dr. Malvena Baxter and Michelle Fitzpatrick, Principals; and Mary Farley, Recording Secretary A. ROUTINES: 1. Call to Order: T. Buono called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance: Recited by all present. 3. Remarks from the Public: None B. REPORTS: 1. Reports from Other Committees: T. Buono reported that the MSBC will meet on Tuesday, September 15 at the Howe-Manning School. At 7:00 p.m., there will be an open meeting with the residents of Central Street to bring them up to date on the access road and the Designers will talk about the design of the building. At 7:30, the Communications Subcommittee will meet. At 8:00 p.m., the full Building Committee will meet. F. FitzGerald will hand deliver invitations to the Central Street neighbors. Dr. Creeden reported that there will be a meeting on Friday afternoon with I. Singer, D. Billings, and R. LaBossiere to review the anticipated needs of the neighbors, K. Abbott and D. Painchaud, during construction. There will be discussion about the affect to the neighbors during construction of the roadway; and the arrival and departure of the buses. They will be looking at the recent design renderings. There will also be a future meeting with Howe-Manning staff and the Preschool Staff to look at access and egress. On October 8, the Subcommittee will meet at Memorial Hall at 830 a.m. 2. Report of the Building Principals: M. Fitzpatrick reviewed her written report which was included in the packet. Dr. Baxter gave an oral report covering the opening of school and the professional development days. 3. Report of the Superintendent: • President Obama’s Speech to School Children: Teachers were offered the option of seeing this in their classrooms. Only two teachers in another town opted to watch this. Jeanne Bentley, Gr. 6 teacher at Howe-Manning, will be showing this as part of her Social Studies Program. She may ask the children to write what their goal is for this school year. • Fall H1N1 Planning and Collaboration with Local Health Officials: Dr. Creeden reported that there was a local meeting held yesterday and a conference call today. We are using the front page of the TTU website to keep people up to date. The CDC has decided to use ILI (Influenza Like Illness) as the name in place of H1N1 or Swine Flu. If a child or staff member had the flu, it was previously recommended that they be out of school for 7 days. The new standard is that the child or staff member needs to be excluded from school until they are free from fever for 24 hours after stopping medication. Dr. Creeden also advised everyone to being sure to wash your hands and sanitize them. He explained about the vaccine and the dosage, and the flu clinics. The coordination for all this is being done by the three local Health Officers. • Personnel Update: Dr. Creeden updated the Committee on the .5 Art position and the Adjustment Counselor Services at Howe-Manning. We had a resignation today from one of the nurses at Howe-Manning. She is taking a full-time position with another agency. • DESE Coordinated Program Review: There is a letter in the packet informing us the there are no further progress reports required. We have met all of our requirements. • Impact of Senate Elections in December and January: The primary election will be held on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 and the election will be held on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. We have agreed that we will operate based on the numbers that were discussed. It was asked if we could separate the precincts, and have one at Fuller Meadow and one at the Flint Library. T. Buono will contact Brad Jones. S. George has asked us to quantify the impact of cost. 4. Report of the Director of Facilities: S. Clifford’s written Report was distributed at the meeting tonight. C. NEW BUSINESS: 1. School Committee Planning: • Howe-Manning Standard Based Report Card Update: At the last meeting, there was a lengthy discussion about how to handle the Honor Roll for the Howe-Manning students. T Buono suggested that they just continue grades and letter for the next two years, for the current Grade 5 and 6, and then it would be phased out. There was discussion about how to determine Academic Achievement. The handbook does not define Honor Roll. T. Buono wrote in that we are implementing the Standards Based Report Card and we will be phasing out letter grades. This only applies to Howe-Manning. Letter grades were done because of the Honor Roll. Dr. Creeden explained how Masconomet handles this and how they use Comment #98 for children on an IEP. There was much discussion about this and how to recognize children who achieve. R. Harris moved to phase out the use of letter grading and honor roll system over the next two years for 5th and 6th grade and then to implement standards based report cards and no letter grading for 4th-6th grades. Honor roll for 5th and 6th grade over the next two years should ensure equity that allows for all students to attain this goal. Second by J. Pearl. Motion carried 5-0-0. J. Pearl moved that we define how we are going to award achievement. This needs to be discussed with the teachers. Second by R. Harris. Motion carried 5-0-0. R. Harris moved that this be discussed with the teachers and a plan for recognizing academic achievement based on the Standards Based Report Card be developed. Second by J. Pearl. Motion carried 5-0-0. 2. School Committee Policy Development: • Enrollment Prior to Residence Waiver: The Shuilla family from Switzerland will be passing papers on September 22, 2009 and has requested to have their children start school prior to their moving in. J. Pearl moved that we allow the Shuilla children to start school prior to residence. Second by R. Harris. Motion carried 5-0-0. 3. Correspondence: None 4. Other: None D. CONSENT AGENDA: 1. Approval of Minutes: J. Pearl moved to accept the Minutes of August 27, 2009 as amended. Second by R. Harris. Page 1, first paragraph: Change “Nathan Media Center” to “Teachers’ Lounge”. Item B, #1, second from the last sentence: change the word “he” to “the”. Page 2, first paragraph, last sentence: change the word “not” to “now”. Fourth paragraph, first sentence: change the letter “t” to the word “it”. Fifth paragraph, change the word “And” to “and”. Last Paragraph, second from the last sentence: change the word “care” to the word “card”. Motion carried 3-0-2 (R. Harris and J. Pearl abstained). 2. Approval of Bills and Payrolls: R. Harris moved to approve the Payroll Warrant dated 9/17/09 in the amount of $213,401.13. Second by D. Donarumo. Motion carried 4-0-1 (R. Harris abstained). R. Harris moved to approve the following Bill Warrants. Second by D. Donarumo: Bill Warrant #Sch 1008 dated 9/10/09 in the amount of $103,231.37 Bill Warrant #Sch 1008A dated 9/10/09 in the amount of $8,878.22 Bill Warrant #Sch 1008B dated 9/10/09 in the amount of $11,268.96 Bill Warrant #Sch 1008C dated 9/10/09 in the amount of $13,192.68 Bill Warrant #Sch 1008D dated 9/10/09 in the amount of $3,850.46 Motion carried 5-0-0. J. Pearl left the room at this time. 3. Declaration of Surplus Equipment: Dr. Baxter provided a list of surplus equipment at the Fuller Meadow School that she seeks to appropriately discard. She explained some of the options she has for removing this from the school. R. Harris moved to declare everything on the list as surplus equipment. A copy of this list is attached and considered part of these minutes. Second by d. Donarumo. Motion carried 4-0-0. 4. Home Schooling Requests: The Homan family has requested permission to home-school their daughter, Elizabeth who is in Grade 3. Dr. Baxter has reviewed the materials online. The Homans have had experience with this in previous years. D. Donarumo moved to accept the home-schooling plan for Elizabeth Homan. Second by R. Harris. Motion carried 4-0-0. J. Pearl returned at this time. E. EXECUTIVE SESSION: At 9:15 p.m., D. Donarumo moved to leave Regular Session and enter Executive Session for the purpose of Preparation for Negotiations With Represented Personnel and to return to Regular Session for the purpose of Adjournment only. Second by R. Harris. Motion carried 5-0-0 on a roll call vote (J. Pearl – yes, D. Donarumo – yes, R. Mastrangelo – yes, R. Harris – yes, T. Buono – yes). F. ADJOURNMENT: At 9:45 p.m., on a roll call vote, the Committee returned from Executive Session for the purpose of Adjournment. R. Harris moved to adjourn. Second by R. Mastrangelo. Motion carried 5-0-0. Respectfully Submitted, Mary Farley Recording Secretary |