Minutes – Oct. 22, 2015

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Great Barrington           Stockbridge        West Stockbridge

SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING

GREAT BARRINGTON FIRE STATION- MEETING ROOM

STATE ROAD, GREAT BARRINGTON

 October 22, 2015

Present:

School Committee:   S. Bannon, R. Bradway, R. Dohoney, D. Weston, A. Potter, J. St. Peter, W. Fields,  K. Piasecki, C. Shelton

Administration:        P. Dillon, S. Harrison

 Staff/Public:              N. Thompson, B. Doren, M. Young, S. Soule, D. Long, J.Briggs

 Absent:                F. Clark,

 List of Documents Distributed:

October 22, 2015 School Committee Meeting Agenda

Personnel Report Revised 11/20/2015

 RECORDER NOTE: Meeting being transcribed from recorded DVD provided by CTSB after the fact. Length of meeting: 1hr 37min

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CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Steve Bannon called the meeting to order 7:00pm

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PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

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MINUTES –   Aug 20, 2015 presented by S. Bannon for Committee approval

Oct  1, 2015 presented by S. Bannon for Committee approval

Motion to approve minutes: R. Bradway     Seconded: K. Riley      Approved: Unanimous     ___________________

 TREASURER’S REPORT – None

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 SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT –

A) GOOD NEWS ITEM(S)

Muddy Brook Elementary (MBE)

Nan Thompson, Vice Principal:

• Parent/Teacher Conferences: 20 minutes long. M.Burle and N.Thompson were in Community Room during conferences to be avail to meet family members too. Snack were offered in Community Room.
• IS183 working on next wall mural w/ Grade 1. Grade 1 working on mural of campus to be inline with the 1st grade working on mapping. Mural will be of just MBE.
• Flying Cloud working with Grade 2 last year and Grades 2&3 this year. Flying Cloud working with 3rd grade on Nov 3, 2015 on Prof Development around interdisciplinary units; incl science, soc. studies, reading, math
• Berkshire Health Systems and Canyon Ranch- offering Life Enhancement Program for MBE staff and parents.
• On Oct 16, 2015 was a PD w some teacher, parents invited- group joining with Country Song & Dance Society. Teaching family dances for Family Night events- first one being January 22, 2016. M. Gillespie putting together a student band to play during the events. Fun community building.

Monument Valley Middle (DBM)

B.Doren:

• 8 weeks into school year already- Staff is working very hard to meet kids needs.
• Patriots Pen Season- VFW led essay contest. Veterans invited in to spend an entire day with students in the classroom. Talk about service, why they service.
• BioBlitz- in front lobby- Science/Biology project where students count/inventory every living thing in a particular area. 6th grade working w Flying Cloud; display shows our forestland, vernal pool, fields. Student drawn pictures and grafts of different campus flora and fauna. Deep inquiry done by students
• Halloween window painting on Main St, Great Barrington has been done. Artistic and non-artistic students coming together to beautify our community.
• Student leadership training- student council and student mentors working with parent mentors, Berkshire South, Railroad Street Project, Brien Center to bring training to students on how to be leaders, work together, in community. 55 students going to Berkshire South for this training with community partners.
• Advisory Program- Restorative Practices w grades 6,7,8. & community practices in 5th grade. Students are “circling up” to talk about personal concerns/issues. Staff taking 30 minutes weekly to teach talking, listening, opening up, helping out. Tier 2 & 3 benefits from this regular activity.
• Department meetings- readying for Nov 3, 2016 PD day. Deep learning: making learning meaningful; Ex. taking time to write by drafting and thoughtful process. 4 times per year. Faculty is working hard and the program is really showing itself a success.
• Student Conferences- parents are feeling informed by powerschool communications

Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS)

M.Young:

• School Center Inc.- board that manages revenue from Berkshire Crafts Fair. Met last week. Committee members who sit on the board too are W.Fields, R.Bradway, & S.Bannon. Students who received funds from School Center Inc for summer activities reported back at meeting; 2 students went to Nicaragua ($500 given to each). Ace McAlister: his flight back to Ethiopia was funded (`$2,000) to go visit his orphanage and to see his birth mother for the first time in years. Worked in orphanage and with children in Ethiopia. Ace presented to ~70 students and students inquired how they too could help. $1,500 used to get water to Project Sprout; water spigot now utilized rather than rain collection or buckets from greenhouse.
• X-Tech program to freshman; instruction in personal finance, yoga, change tire/oil in car, digital presentations.
• Fall Festival Shakespeare- performing Henry VI parts 2 & 3 on Nov 13&14, 2015. Parent group working to fundraise and publicize the Fall Festival Shakespeare performances.
• English teacher- taking a full day to attend Bard College symposium on thinking, reading, & writing. They go every year but there is continuously and consistent influence on the way teachers teach. New ways in teaching writing, critical thinking, analyse literature.
• Student Senate holding student lunch forums where other students can express concerns about issues the students face. The first issue was dances and the return of dances after they were cancelled for inappropriate dancing. Students want a return of school dances.
• PE teachers are hosting all day Salsa dance instruction on Nov 9th for students and teachers to learn Salsa Dancing.
• School Council up & running- Parents recommending 3-prong approach; 3 issues they see impacting their sons and daughters: 1) stress management- deal w anxiety/fear through mindful practices like meditation & yoga. 2) Film series started- want to continue with yearly offering. 3) Communication; how to provide orientation and support to parents new to high school/ new to MMRHS.
• E.B. Dubois Lecture Series Initiative- goal to bring back a lecture series framed with the mission and work and values of W.E.B. Dubois & celebrate that GtBarr legacy.

P.Dillon: good new is connected to the NEA conference so that will be covered in that discussion. Wait for that and go to MCAS.

B) MCAS UPDATE;

P.Dillon: memo sent for point of clarification, this past year:

• 5th & 8th Grade- took Science, Technology, Engineering MCAS
• 9th Grade- took Science, Technology, Engineering MCAS
• 10th Grade ELA in Math
• Other students @ MBE & DBM took PARK assessment- results not yet available
• Gives us multiple measures for assessment

B.Doren: Science- seeing better results because of increased focus on basic science concepts at lower grades. 5th grade test covers k-5th grade learning, whereas that wasn’t a big focus until T.Dingman pushed for it. Now we’re seeing those results in better testing. As well as content and instruction being supported by current MBE administration. We are more aligned with “next generation” science standards.

W.Fields asked how many standardized test are taken between grades 3-12. P.Dillon said 17 without PSAT/SAT/ACT. Bill feels that’s too many and that students are over tested. District originated testing isn’t state adopt because it’s not “standardized”.  D.Weston feels his children’s education is not dominated by “the test” and feels there’s balance.

MMRHS- P.Dillon wants to recognize English (and Soc. Studies teachers who teach writing that supports what Eng teachers are doing)- real exciting positive trend in English over the years. Math is hard to sustain, so those # aren’t as good, but not seen as a problem.

C) NEA CONFERENCE REVIEW

P.Dillon: Conference trip is part of a grant paid for by NEA. 2.5 days attended. Team of 8 people went: P.Dillon, Josh Briggs, D.Weston, Steve Estelle(Pres of Teachers Assoc), Laura Passetto(Pres of Unit C- Paraprofessionals), Patty Melville(MBE librarian), Jacob Robbins(student).  Work done there spent on how to develop progress assessments with the school, and what alternatives may look like. Learned we need to better define our problems so a better solution can be found. In 2nd year of 2-year grant, hoping to extend that for a 3rd year. Tony Burk spent an hour one-on-one with group at conference. Videos of speakers to watch to be made available.

D) Potential Attendance at MASC (MA Assoc of School Committees) Convention –

District used to be active but budget cuts stopped convention attendance. Two conventions held every year. Break out sessions on agenda are very relevant. Committee used to send 7 or 8 members. A.Potter and R.Dohoney had possible interest in attending Fall 2015 meeting but date is very close, tentative. Moving forward there is interest in going with ample notice. At budget time, this will be an item for consideration.

E) New Grants

Josh Briggs: 3 Grants recently recently received

• Creativity and Innovation Grant- Continuation of a grant from last year, used to develop Makers Space @DBM $15,000 again this year. Curriculum Development grant to expand that curriculum to all 7th graders starting in January.
• Quality Enhancement and After School Grant- use for Project Connection to increase service-learning type projects in PC. Use this for the Summer Program – 7&8 grades program Crafting in the Berkshires to strengthen its core AND build a new program for 5&6 grades. $31,000 development grant; used to build sustainable programs that will continue after grant ends.
• NESDC- New England School of Development Council- P.Dillon and J.Briggs worked on together. $2,500 of “fun money” to be used to send a team of teachers & staff to visit 3 or 4 sites that use technology and Makers Spaces who are ahead of us 2 or 3 years so we can see the range of possibilities. Help to kick-off a Makers Space @ MBE.

F) Next Steps – District Improvement Plan/School Improvement Plans

P.Dillon: Principals & Superintendent are working hard on this. 3 years ago Committee and Principals collectively worked on Plans. Now fine-tuning the plans by recognizing accomplishments and shifts. Principals are meeting w School Councils and Staff for feedback and then Principals & Superintendent will present to Committee in December w potential plan drafts to workshop with committee.

A.Potter: Asked, “Are they mapped in any way to the strategies that were developed for the District with a one-to-one connection to each one?”

P.Dillon: Confirmed there are and connections will be even more explicit.

G) Requests:

Additional Boys Soccer Coach – Funded by Booster Club

Additional Girls Basketball Coach – Funded by Booster Club

Additional Boys Basketball Coach – Funded by Booster Club

Third Team Coach for the 2015-2016 season  – Funded by Boys Basketball Booster Club

Motion to approve above requests: R.Dohoney              Seconded: J.St.Peter

Approved: Unanimous

Overnight Field Trip – MV – Proposed Eighth Grade Trip to Washington DC (5/31/16-6/2/16)

D.Weston raised a concern about supporting a first-come-first-serve trip whereas if not a full second or 3rd bus is filled, the unfilled bus students will not be permitted to go. All students who want to go, should be able to go on a trip that is offered during a school year. No one should be excluded because they were last to sign up and the bus thresholds aren’t met. Moving forward, a new process will be looked at.

R.Bradway: voiced concern about the trip planning has gone very far along and the Committee hasn’t yet voted to approve the trip itself.

P.Dillon: Yes, it’s a little backward this time. Moving forward we need to know prior to monies being collected.

Motion made by R.Dohoney: Move to approve the trip with the provision that if any scenario presents itself where any student who wants to go is unable to, it is to be brought back to the Committee for a vote of reconsideration.          Seconded: K.Riley

 Approved: Unanimous

H) Updates:

• Southern Berkshire Shared Services Project (SBSSP): meets every 3 weeks w other Superintendents. We currently share w Southern Berkshire: Psychologist and Food Services Director (Kathy Sullivan)
• Berkshire County Task Force Update: putting together for RFP and White Paper. Request for proposal, Info gathering of all county buildings and their capacities.

Pledge form to be sent by Districts to give $500 to support work countywide.

Work is  uncertain but all districts participation will be viewed as unanimous

county support which would help with getting other funding by loan or grant. $500 to come from Regional Agreement Contract budget item as there is money there to cover the pledge.

Motion made by A.Potter to approve the $500 pledge to SBSSP      Seconded: S.Bannon

Discussion:

W.Fields: What do we have to gain by this?

P.Dillon: Initial analysis of enrollment and space across the whole county.  SBSSP Goals are to maintain high quality education, reduce cost/increase savings. 13 school districts in Berkshire County- too many. Also maybe too many high schools in Berkshire County. Info gathering, doing research is a good way to make shifts to look at the options- like the shared Superintendent opportunity. P.Dillon: All towns are part of this Project except Farmington River, so it’s a good source of information. Uncertain the clear benefit but it’s worth staying with. Research and planning is focus.

R.Dohoney: Zero-sum game for funds and don’t want S.Berkshire group to be at the losing end of it.

W.Fields: what is final end-game? Are we looking toward consolidation?

P.Dillon: the SSBSP is a consulting advisory group and has no legal power to make change.

D.Weston: Consolidation might not be the end result, but $500 is so little cost that no reason to “cut off our nose to spite our face” and is possible to prove productive, no reason to bow out right now.

Approved: Unanimous (unenthusiastically)

R.Dohoney: follow up to say that consolidating districts and closing schools is not one and the same.

S.Bannon: Absolutely correct and mentioning the closing of schools should be treaded upon lightly. He was part of committee when Bryant, Searles Middle, and W. Stockbridge was closed and it was not easy and was very emotional.

R.Dohoney: Cost savings in consolidating without closing schools is TREE-MENDOUS.

• Regional Agreement Amendment Process- Ads in local media. Starting to get additional letters interested in serving from towns; select boards and finance committees. All inquiries should be forwarded to P.Dillon.

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SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS

• Policy Sub Committee- Oct 27, 2015 @4:30 P.Dillon: online policy manual will be online shortly.
• Building and Grounds Sub Committee- working on 5-year plan for all 3 schools(like waste water treatment). Will present 5-year plan at School Committee on Nov 5, 2015 meeting. Worksheet concerns for committee: 1) Facility use and rentals- recommend Superintendant make respective Principal his designee for administering the rental facility use. And recommend any fees gathered from facility use and rentals go directly into an account that support the respective facilities being used. Already a policy but would like to have it be a function of how we enforce the policy.

POLICY ISSUE: Policy Committee to review and suggest ideas around online fundraising and crowd sourcing. District could benefit from both in way of supporting extra-curricular activities and help in making positive strides at the high school. Ex: replacement/repair of auditorium seatSuperintendent’s Evaluation Sub Committee-

• Superintendent’s Evaluation- D.Weston: Required to use a state process to evaluate the Superintendent; breaks it down in 4 areas with “needs improvement, meets, exceeds recommendation”- Sub committee gave P.Dillon “exceeds” in all 4 areas of state evaluation. Sub-committee believe Peter Dillon is doing an excellent job and strongly endorse his activities over the last year. Peter is a good self-critic and he understands areas of self improvement. During a very challenging time keeping primary focus of teaching children and keeping the district moving forward can be difficult without getting sidetracked by other issues of local and state politics, financial issues. Evidenced when programs in all 3 schools & district-wide continue over multiple years. This district looks at long term & changes the way things happen, not reacting to changes around us. What we want to see in our district. P.Dillon: It has been a pleasure working with this district. Thanks.

• Finance Sub Committee- R.Dohoney: Met with principals to “front-run” any issues with current budget-good and bad. Questions:Cost savings opportunities? Potential issues that could impact budget? Level funded budget model, do we need to break from that? Requests/recommendations/changes brought to Committee prior to the budget meetings so as to address without so much stress. Any change would need a cost-benefit analysis that would be acceptable to the Committee and easier to do with time and information rather than at last minute during the budget meetings in February. Going to meet w GtBarr town finance committee and will offer to meet with all towns to go over what this Finance Sub Committee is doing.
• Technology Sub Committee- Meets again in November.

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PERSONNEL REPORT

Certified Appointments

Non-Certified Appointment

Long-Term Substitute Appointment

Extra-Curricular Appointments

S.Bannon asked for question or comments from Committee.

Certified Appointments:

O’Dell, Daniel      Tech Ed/Design Teacher – One Year Appointment – MV   9/30/2015  @MAStep3 –   ($44,984) – (replaces Russ Jarowski)                                                                                                                                                                                    

Non-Certified Appointments:

Hinkley-Grady, Helen            Paraprofessional – Muddy Brook                   $11.25/hr. 6.5 hrs./day (workday 7/hr/day) – new position to be                                                                                                                                                                                      reviewed & assigned facilitator –  FY16

MacDonald, Alex                      After School Paraprofessional                       $14/hr – 90 min. per week – weeks to be worked (9/28/15-11/19/15, 1/11/16-3/10/16, 3/28,16-5/26/16)

Long-Term Substitute Appointments:

Martin, Dennis  Tech Ed/Design Teacher – Monument Valley                9/3/2015         Per Diem – BA Step 1  ($213.79)(rep- Russ Jarowski) 

Extra-Curricular Appointments: (all 2015 – 2016  unless otherwise noted)

Rates/stipends listed below are based on the FY15 Exhibit B Chart.  These may be adjusted once negotiations are finalized.

Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School

Monument Mountain Regional High School

Project Connection – September 28 – December 4, 2015

Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School

Title I – fund 25016

Benton, Ali                  Program Instructor – Alien Inventors                                                                 Stipend: $560 – up to $80 add’l for training                                                                                                                                                                                                 not to exceed 2 hrs. @ $40/hr

21stCCLC – fund 25716

                                                                                                              Berkshire United Way – fund 26716

  Scott, Wendy              Non-Certified Instructor – Storybook – Muddy Brook                                     Stipend: $306.25 – up to $50 add’l for                                                                                                                                                                                                        training – not to exceed 2 hrs. @ $25/hr.                                                                     _______________________                                                                                                                                                                                         

BUSINESS OPERATION – None

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EDUCATION NEWS– None                                                                        

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OLD BUSINESS– None

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NEW BUSINESS-

A.Potter asking about “reading in the news” Farmington River about consolidation Southern Berkshire and wondering how the tuition agreement with them would be affected because they would no longer be a district and would have a high school. P.Dillon: Merger is complicated and would require many local approval votes from Farmington River towns and Commissioner of Education. If that were to happen, it wouldn’t be impactful a couple of years. The BHRSD School Committee would then need to readdress tuition/choice options. No easy fast answer; would be a Committee discussion down the road.

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 Public Comment– none

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Written Communication- none

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Executive Session Agenda – for the Purpose of Negotiations (Chapter 30A, Sections 21,22, 23 # 3)

1. Negotiations – Shared Services
2. Negotiations – All Bargaining Groups Pertaining to Health Insurance

S.Bannon: Motion to go to Executive Session and not go to return to public session for above purpose.             So Move: A.Potter       Seconded: W.Fields    Roll Call: All “aye”

1. Weston: State possible conflict of interest. He will leave Executive Session if So.Berkshire Shared Services involves So. Berkshire Regional School District, as that is his employer. He will leave the Executive Session if the second part of the negotiations regarding health insurance as it may have a direct impact on his personal health insurance.

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S.Bannon Adjorned the meeting @ 8:37pm

The next meeting is scheduled for November 5, 2015 – Re-organizational Meeting followed by Regular Meeting – MMRHS 

Submitted by Rebecca Burcher, Recorder