CHELMSFORD SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING October 8, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Transcription

1 CHELMSFORD SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING October 8, 2013 Meeting Minutes Members Present: Mr. Michael Rigney (Chair), Ms. Evelyn Thoren (Vice-Chair), Ms. Barbara Skaar (Secretary), Mr. Nicholas DeSilvio, and Mr. Al Thomas Also present: Dr. Kristan Rodriguez (Assistant Superintendent), Ms. Kathleen McWilliams (Business Manager), Ms. Anne-Marie Fiore (Technology Director), Student representative and Tiffany Shu Chair Opening Statement: Mr. Rigney welcomed everyone and informed them that Chelmsford Telemedia was recording and televising this session. Molly Laughlin from the Chelmsford Independent was present and recording the meeting. Consent Agenda: The committee reviewed the meeting minutes from September 24, There was a discussion regarding the vote discussion area, and 2 typos on page 4 that will be fixed. Ms. Thoren motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee approve the regular meeting minutes from September 24, 2013 as amended. Mr. Thomas seconded. Motion carries. Unanimous, 5-0. Student Representative Report Tiffany Shu gave the following updates from the high school. Last Thursday, there was the parent open house, and the National Honor Society members helped parents to get around school. This Thursday there is a presentation Behind Closed Doors about teen substance prevention, being shown during the day for students and evening for parents. Students are wearing blue ribbons for anti-substance abuse and/or orange ribbons for anti-bullying. CHS sport teams that are winning include football, girls swimming, cross-country, boy s soccer, golf and field hockey. Good News Dr. Rodriguez congratulated Ms. Anne-Marie Fiore for making Huffington Posts Top 100 Technology Experts on Twitter. Public Comments There were no comments from the public this evening. New Business 1.0 Performing Arts Center Update Bernie Battle Auditorium manager Mr. Bernie Battle gave an update to the committee. The Performing Arts Center at the high school and the auditorium at McCarthy continue to be successful locations. The PAC is in constant use by the high school during school hours as well as after school usage by the high school theatre guild, musicals, band and chorus. The McCarthy also enjoys usage by McCarthy musicals, got talent, etc. All revenue for the auditoriums comes from booking outside groups. Last year over 20 outside groups booked the PAC and 9 booked McCarthy. A significant amount of these outside bookings are dance studios and dance competitions as well as a barbershop singing competition. Chelmsford community band, Board of Health, Live Smart, elementary presentations, and new dance competitions are all using the PAC or McCarthy. 1

2 The PAC was updated with new LEDs for lighting this week to help with electricity costs. Usage has been up slightly each year. Spring is totally booked at PAC, McCarthy will be used for overflow. Lowell High School is not renting out their auditorium any longer, which brings new groups asking Chelmsford for space. Mr. Battle is using schooldude.com to schedule the auditoriums. Air conditioning in PAC also helps promote renters. Technical director Tom Peterson puts in long hours and Mr. Battle thanked him, as well as dedicated high school students who are learning technology for theatre. Auditorium revenue history: , $16, , $23, , $34, , $35, , $36, , $43,400 This year the PAC is looking to host 154 individual events 44 of which are external events. McCarthy currently is slated to host 73 internally, 0 externally. Mr. DeSilvio asked what the next step is for the PAC to be more enhanced. Mr. Battle discussed the prep area at the PAC. There is none currently, dance studios have to rent out small gym and big gym and / or cafeterias for prep. If it rains, they need to bring dancers through the hall to perform. Mr. Battle and Ms. McWilliams also think that rates should be raised; they are still the original rates. Ms. Thoren asked if any policies need to be changed regarding auditorium usage, Mr. Battle did not think so. They discussed the policy regarding cancelling within a month. This is a useful policy for them. Ms. Thoren asked where the revenue goes, it goes to a revolving account called Civic Activities. This covers custodial coverage as well as buying items to sustain the auditoriums. Ms. McWilliams said that a nice thing is that the LED lights were installed as part of the new Energy Management ESCO. Mr. Rigney asked if there would be space to expand the PAC, Mr. Battle didn t know if there would be any room, maybe in back parking lot to push out. For purposes of high school usage the PAC is spot on. For outside rental such as for dance companies, it is not. There was a discussion if another building project is done, what could be done. The corridors were discussed. McCarthy is up for renovations shortly. Mr. Rigney asked if Mr. Battle had any words of wisdom for the turf fields committee since now they will be hosting externally as well. Mr. Battle said that using schooldude.com will work well for scheduling. 2.0 ESCO Update Kathleen Canavan Ms. Kathleen Canavan, the facilities manager for town of Chelmsford, presented to the committee an overview of what public facilities has done in the past 4 months. It is a small staff of 11 maintenance workers, an administration assistant, under the guidance of her and Gary Perschetti. Public Facilities FY14 Goals and Objectives: quality /maintenance of all building, reduce costs, develop expertise, energy management, build consensus and collaborate with other departments. Ongoing facilities work consists of: daily work orders, FY14 capital projects, handling energy service management agreement (ESCO). FY14 work orders included upgrades, electrical, retrofitting older schools and building, plumbing maintenance, trash removal, grounds field maintenance. Ms. Canavan presented the change in number of work orders. For completed work orders, in June there were 100, September it went to 180 with the start of school. Ms. Canavan presented pictures regarding work orders: Clock repair finding vendors to repair cost effectively South row concrete steps done this past summer 2

3 Athletic corridor at high school repainted Lighting repairs ceiling New Computer graphics lab - their group supplied electricity and wiring. South Row grate repairs and odd jobs For annual completed work orders they are on track to do FY14 Capital projects include work at: McCarthy, storm water drains at fields, erosion control, turf field and track Byam and Harrington school gyms new poured floor and paint, remove old equipment backboards, new climbing wall McCarthy plumbing RFP for designer services for girls and boys room, including ADA accessibility Ms. Canavan reviewed the work being done through the Energy Service management agreement (ESCO) with Johnson Controls. ECM 1 Lighting Fixture Retrofits: CHS corridors installation complete ECM 2 Fixture Controls: occupancy sensors with dual technology move and sound ECM 3 Building Envelope Improvements: weatherization 75% complete in schools ECM 4 Building Envelope: Fiberglass Retrofit o Roof / Wall / Attic Insulation 90% Complete in Schools o South Row fiberglass insulation, in kitchen too ECM 5 - Window Replacement at School Admin & South Fire Station Delayed o Administrative building new windows front, insulated panels ECM 6- Energy management system o Automated building controls for unit ventilators and air handling units ongoing o Direct digital controls controlled by central desktop to regulate it o Electrical tie-ins univents took out and cleaned ECM 7 Building Controls VFD on Fans o CHS & Parker Middle School installation scheduled 10/21/13 ECM 8 Heating System o Furnace / DX Cooling Unit Replacement at the Senior Center ECM 9 Heating System: Air Handler Replacement at Town Office Gym o Scheduled Installation Date 05/19/14 ECM 10 Heating System o Boiler replacement at Town Office installed 10/2013 ECM 12 Heating System o Pipe & Valve Insulation o Installation fall 2013 & spring 2014 ECM 13 Heating System o Installed unit ventilators with DDC Controls Operational on 10/15/13 ECM 15 Cooling System o Ductless split system at Town Offices installation started 10/2013 ECM 17 Cooling System: Chiller replacement at Center School installation scheduled 10/21/13 ECM 18 Pumping System: VFDs on Hot Water Pumps at Center School, installation scheduled 10/14/13 ECM 20 Renewable Energy: photocells on roof. Example: CHS now has 1070 solar panels. ECM 21 Energy Efficient Motor Replacement: Harrington & Community Ed Roof Top Units o Installation Date 11/11/13 3

4 ECM 24- water conservation replaced 69 toilets at CHS, 33 at Harrington, and put aerators on faucets wherever they could retrofit them. ECM 25 Vending Machine Controllers: intelligent controllers. Installation scheduled 01/01/14 ECM 26 Walk in Coolers / Freezers, Installation scheduled 03/03/14 ECM 27 Steam to hot water conversion - Parker steam to hot water conversion spring. o Installation date spring ECM 28 Energy Efficient Transformers, CHS, Parker & Chelmsford Ice Forum o Installation Scheduled 01/31/14 (18) in Total ECM 29 Street Lights, retrofitting 2,218 street lights with new LED BXSPR Cobra Head Lamps Ms. Skaar asked if there were plans for old showers at McCarthy in locker room, this is not part of plumbing upgrade. Ms. Thoren asked about lighting at McCarthy and ceiling tiles. Ms. Canavan said they didn t upgrade the lighting; sensors were installed. Bathroom can be address with capital upgrade. Ms. Thoren said the ceiling tiles are a mess, in stairwells as well. Mr. DeSilvio asked if Ms. Canavan could explain further what the line items mean in the budget, such as the lecture hall upgrade for $102,000 what is included in that. It helps to know the description of line items, what is encompassed. Mr. Rigney asked about work orders these are tied into the schooldude.com system and goes to supervisor at maintenance shop, copies about 10 people. Mr. Rigney said that the McCarthy PTO would like bathroom doors that close more tightly for privacy reasons. The committee asked who was in charge of maintaining the new floors in the gym. Bruce Griswold from Aramark has the operating and maintenance manuals and he was there to learn proper technique to clean those floors; Aramark will be in charge of the maintenance. 3.0 Academic Data Presentation Dr. Rodriguez Dr. Rodriguez presented the latest academic data to the committee. She thanked Mr. Rigney for his participation on the district data team. The focus of her presentation was to discuss what was being worked on and the corresponding student gains. Strategic Initiative #1: The district will align all curriculum and instructional practices to the new MA frameworks and standards documents such as the Common Core for Literacy and mathematics, WIDA, and the Next Generation Science Standards. Action Steps to meet Strategic initiative #1: Adjust and implement curriculum and instruction changes in ELA, Math, and ELL based on the new frameworks/standards. Begin developing and piloting benchmark assessments to align with the new standards. Review the draft science standards. Update curriculum resources for parents. These action steps resulted in positive gains. Chelmsford is above target for English language learners, with high 85% in that area. This is very encouraging for English language teachers. Dr. Rodriguez reviewed college and career readiness, specifically 10 th grade scores. Over 6 years, ELA had a 25% gain in advanced scores, 0% scored in failing. Looking at the same group of students, one can see from grade 4 to grade 10 there was a 24% growth improvement in ELA. Chelmsford had 84% of students getting scores in Advanced or Proficient. Following were the results of students scoring Advanced or Proficient for ELA in neighboring towns. Westford 89%, Chelmsford 84%, Groton-Dunstable 84%, Tyngsboro 79%, Burlington 75%, Wilmington 75%, Tewksbury 74%, Billerica 70%, Dracut 66%, Lowell 48% For SAT scores, critical reading mean score was 538; this was an 8-point gain over 5 years. Writing score of 537, 17-point gain over 5 years. AP scores they had the highest score on record; 27 point gain over 5 years. The 4

5 AP Scores showed English Literature and Composition with a Mean Score of This is the highest score on record with a.27 gain over 5 years. For Math, we were above or on target for scores. The state average for Advanced or Proficient was 61%; Chelmsford was 76%. Following were the results of students scoring Advanced or Proficient for Math in neighboring towns. Westford 87%, Groton-Dunstable 77%, Chelmsford 76%, Tyngsboro 71%, Wilmington 67%, Burlington - 65%, Tewksbury 63%, Billerica - 58%, Dracut 53%, Lowell- 47% Grade 10 math MCAS results over 6 years showed an 11% gain in advanced, 6% reduction in needs improvement/failing category. From : students had a 27% growth in math. SAT scores mathematics mean score of 562, 27-point gain over 5 years. AP average for calculus sections mean score of What is the next area of focus based on student data? The next focus is science where Chelmsford had lower scores. Following were the results of students scoring Advanced or Proficient for Science in neighboring towns. Westford 84%, Groton-Dunstable 81%, Tyngsboro 66%, Chelmsford 65%, Burlington 62%, Wilmington 52%, Billerica - 51%, Tewksbury 51%, Dracut 47%, Lowell 26% AP Biology AP gains were.29. AP Physics had a 1-year gain of 1.65, which is amazing, resulting in a score of 3.95 for Dr. Rodriguez explained that for colleges to accept AP scores for course credit, the students score needs to be above 3.0. Starting in spring of 2013, only honors classes took Biology MCAS in 9th grade. All other levels will take it this year (in 10th grade). Starting this year, Level 3 freshman are in a two-year track of biology. At end of the second year they will take the Biology MCAS. Dr. Rodriguez reviewed the focus that was given to SPED; students are making progress. At the high school students are meeting or exceeding targets for ELA and Math. At the middle school students are on target or improved (but still below target). They will continue with co-teaching and pilot interventionists. At the elementary level, overall students are not meeting targets. They will focus on co-teaching to address this. Dr. Rodriguez reviewed that at the Harrington school where they had an internationalist pilot the students performed above target. This same type of attention will be given to the other schools. SPED students performed better in a cotaught classroom. The result from the data analysis brings the focus now to be on middle school science and SPED subgroup work. Middle school advanced/ proficient for grade 8 science was only at 54%. School and department goals will be focused on those areas in those grade levels. For SPED, school improvement goals, department goals and district allocations of resources and grant funds will provide the focus. There will be UDL training, increased assistive technology, increased interventionists, increased co-taught sections. The committee thanked Dr. Rodriguez for the presentation. Mr. Rigney was encouraged about the theory of action to make improvements to 8 th grade science. 4.0 Joint Meeting Update Last week, the Finance Committee, Board of Selectman, Permanent Building Committee and School Committee met. It was held on September 30 th and was televised. Ms. McWilliams spoke about the meeting, how town manager Paul Cohen discussed future projects for Chelmsford, how the schools fit in with strategic plan broader scope. Kindergarten was included in much of the conversation. Ms. Thoren said there was a presentation over what happened over last decade, future action items including new science requirements. They also talked about portable classrooms, suggestion to replace with building. Size will determine projects. Chelmsford Forum may be able to purchase. Mr. Thomas said it was important that there is cooperation and understanding between all 5

6 the boards. Kindergarten discussion came up quite a bit. Paul Cohen was asking the members what kind of community do you want to have. Mr. Cohen reviewed the plan for next several years. Mr. DeSilvio made a comment regarding kindergarten fees; that the consensus of the school committee is that Chelmsford is a public school and the committee feels strongly that there shouldn t be payment required for full day kindergarten. They discussed money set aside for Varney park area, discussed the school kitchens, they were interested in security to make buildings more secure. Mr. Thomas spoke about how security is being proposed to increase, doors being locked from inside and outside, etc. Mr. Rigney spoke of how he spoke with town representative Pat Mahoney after the meeting; there is a need to get to know the people who will be reviewing application. There are things we can be doing now to lay the groundwork, such as the enrollment projections for kindergarten. 5.0 Field trip request McCarthy School Grade 8 Mr. Rigney presented the field trip request from Ms. Veronica Gadbois and Mr. Rob Asselin for a McCarthy school 8 th grade World History / French field trip to Quebec. The trip is scheduled to leave 5/27/14 and return 5/30/14. Mr. Thomas motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee approve the 8 th grade trip to Quebec that will take place from 5/27/14 through 5/30/14. Ms. Thoren seconded. Motion carries, 5-0. With no objection from the committee, Mr. Rigney added an additional field trip request to the agenda. Field Trip Request Cross Country Team Mr. Rigney presented the field trip request from coaches Jack Lang and Mr. Brian Crane of the high school. The trip is for grades 9-12, boys and girls cross-country teams to attend the Manhattan Invitational in New York from 10/11/13 to 10/12/13. Mr. Thomas motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee approve the cross-country trip to Bronx, New York from 10/11/13 to 10/12/13. Ms. Thoren seconded. Motion carries, MASC Resolutions Ms. Thoren reviewed resolutions with the committee. Resolution 1 Funding for K-12 Transient Student Success. This is regarding students that move around, it is difficult to get academic records because they are moving in and out. This resolution hopes to get academic records quicker. Ms. McWilliams said that this resolution goes against a federal regulation regarding a student being able to enter a school without academic records. Mr. Rigney said it was vague regarding putting the student in appropriate classes and implement necessary support systems. Ms. Thoren motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee support Resolution 1 Funding for K-12 Transient Student Success. Mr. DeSilvio seconded. Motion does not carry. All opposed, 5-0. Resolution 2: Performance Assessment for Readiness for College and Career. This resolution would be for MASC to petition the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the commissioner to allow schools sufficient time for educators to prepare students for new testing system. Dr. Rodriguez said that the way PARCC is presenting that there is now an option for schools to do pencil and paper or online. There was a discussion regarding MCAS and PARCC. This resolution was tabled for now to be discussed at a later date. Resolution 3: Teacher Evaluation. This resolution references having an updated Chapter 70 formula to reflect the increased costs associated with this enhanced leadership/supervision of all teachers in Massachusetts. Ms. Skaar motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee support Resolution 3 Teacher Evaluation. Ms. Thoren seconded. Motion carries. Unanimous 5-0. Resolution 4: Evaluation of the Commissioner of Education. MASC supports the board of education to solicit and consider in the evaluation process the Commissioner of elementary and secondary education. 6

7 Mr. DeSilvio motioned that the Chelmsford School Committee support Resolution 4, Evaluation of the Commissioner of Education. Ms. Thoren seconded. Motion carries. Unanimous, 5-0. Resolution 5 Confirming Actions from The committee voiced opposition for MASC to continue their support of resolutions that had not gotten traction from last year. This resolution was tabled and not voted on. Liaison Appointments 1.0 Liaison Appointments Custodial Service Subcommittee Mr. Thomas and Mr. DeSilvio will make a report back to committee on current Aramark contract. Superintendent Goals Subcommittee: Ms. Skaar & Mr. Rigney will work with Dr. Tiano for educator goals. Budget Subcommittee: Mr. Rigney and Mr. DeSilvio - initial focus will be capital priorities. Website Subcommittee: Ms. Thoren and Mr. Rigney will work with Ms. Fiore. Action Items 1.0 Summary of Actions to Complete 1.1 Open Items Prior Meetings There was a discussion regarding the letter from Dr. Tiano regarding athletic policies. Mr. DeSilvio will follow up. 1.2 New Items Ms. Thoren to continue follow-up with wellness committee. Press Questions There were no questions from the press this evening. Adjournment Ms. Thoren motioned for the Chelmsford School Committee to adjourn the Regular Session School Committee meeting of October 8, 2013 at 9:18 pm. Mr. DeSilvio seconded. Motion carries. Unanimous, 5-0. Respectfully submitted, Karin Lamson 7