Minutes – Dec. 10, 2015

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Great Barrington           Stockbridge        West Stockbridge

SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING

Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School Library

December 10, 2015 

Present:

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

Administration:  P. Dillon

Staff/Public:      M. Berle, B. Doren, M. Young, S. Soule, J. Briggs, K. Burdsall, Glenn Chamberlain

Absent: F. Clark, S. Harrison

List of Documents Distributed:

December 10, 2015 agenda

February 17, 2015 Minutes- Mtg. with town SBs and FCs

2015 – 2016 DIP – 12-2015

2015 – 2016 MB SIP and Action Plan 12-2015

2015 – 2016 MMRHS School Improvement Plan 12-2015

2015 – 2016 MV School Improvement Plan 12-2015

Additional wrestling coach

Berkshire Hills RSD Profile Report

BHEA Exhibit B Revisions – Dec 2015December 10, 2015 Pers. Report.

Draft – Speech Language Supervisor Job Description – 12_2015

Eagleton School Autism Center

Eagleton School Memo

Elementary student leadership Coordinator

MMRHS – Assistant Coach Assistant Director

MMRHS – Head Coach Director

MV Activity Advisor 5-6 Grade End of Year Activity description

MV Activity Advisor After-School activity general description

MV Activity Advisor Dress-Up Dance description

MV Activity Advisor Musical Director-Producer description

MV Activity Advisor Newspaper description

MV Activity Advisor Student Government description

MV Activity Advisor Yearbook description

MV Project Leader Grade Team Leader Description

MV Project Leader Shared Leadership Description

MV Activity Advisor Activity Director Description

Out-of-school-time certified instructors

Out-of-school-time non-certified instructors

Out-of-school-time Nurse

School Nurse Leader – Dec 2015

Sub-Committee Chart 2015-16 as elected November 5, 2015

Substitute Coordinator

Teacher Mentor

Tutor

Webmaster

Wellness Champion

RECORDER NOTE: Meeting attended by recorder and minutes transcribed, after the fact, from DVD provided by CTSB . Length of meeting: 1hr 58min

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CALL TO ORDER

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

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PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

The listing of agenda items are those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed, and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. This meeting is being recorded by CTSB and will be broadcast at a later date. Minutes will be transcribed and made public, as well as added to our website, www.bhrsd.org once approved.

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MINUTES –

BHRSD School Committee Meeting: – February 17, 2015 minutes Joint meeting with Town Select Boards and Finance Committee

Motion to approve minutes: D. Weston    Seconded: W. Fields      Approved: Unanimous

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TREASURER’S REPORT -None

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SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORTDillon:

GOOD NEWS ITEM(S)

VFW STUDENT AWARDS:

John Bubrisky and Scott Gagnon (District Commander) VFW Post 8183 Housatonic- District 9 (Berkshire County)

Voice of Democracy & Patriot’s Pen Contest from November

VOICE OF DEMOCRACY

The VFW Voice of Democracy contest provides students in grades 9-12 the opportunity to explore democratic ideals and principles through audio essays. The first-place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship and a trip to Washington, D.C. – This year’s theme was “My vision for America”.

District 9 Winner: Jacob A. Robins

PATRIOT’S PEN

The VFW Patriot’s Pen essay contest is for students in grades 6-8 and challenges them to reflect on American history and their own experiences based on a patriotic theme. The first-place winner receives $5,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C. -This year’s theme was “What Freedom means to me”.

3rd Place: 8th Grader- Rosemary Snyder

2nd Place: 7th Grader- Paige Scott

1st Place: 6th Grader- Ruby CitrinDillon: Tennis Courts: Has been recently upgraded and resurfaced. Community members who play tennis donated money, unsolicited, in the amount of $300 from 4 checks. Would like to set aside those funds to maintain the courts and for new nets. The committee must accept donated funds.

Motion to accept: R. Bradway    Seconded: J. St. Peter      Approved: Unanimous

Peter will send letters on behalf of the district to each of the donators.

Eagleton School:

Superintendent Note: When private schools want to set up programs that fall under the rules of the School District they are located within. Eagleton is here to discuss a certain program they want to bring to their school and the committee would acknowledge that request.

Eagleton School Attendees:

Dan Farrell, Administrator at Eagleton School Autism Center

Maureen Prijma, Clinical Director at Eagleton

Joy Kiley, Education Director

Bruce Bona, Executive Director

Jim Yaman, Program Director

Dan Farrell:

Autism Center Key components: For Students where Autism is the primary disability

-Highly trained and specialized staff headed up by the Board certified behavior analyst at the doctor at level, Tom Byrne. Also head of the Behavioral Science at MCLA.

-Board-certified Analyst at the Masters level.

-Licensed special needs teacher, experienced with autism students

-Teaching AIDS are trained as registered behavior technicians also trained by Dr. Tom Byrne to include one-on-one AIDS and classroom aides

-Student staff ratio is 8 students to one special education teacher, 1 General classroom aide, and One-on-one aids to all students in the program.

– Large new building built and in that space is a classroom activity center and related Services offices. All in one building and connected to the dormitory where the students live.

– Data collection program for each student.

– Students have access to all programs already offered at Eagleton.

1. Dillon: Program works towards filling a need locally and nationally with autistic children and program has the superintendent’s support.
2. Shelton: Did the day program ever get off the ground?

Dan Farrell: No. Programing is difficult with a day program. Focus turned to the Autism Center so as to free up space in the classroom for possible future day program.

1. Potter: Approval by the committee is understood but is there any ongoing responsibility for this program from the committee?
2. Dillon: No. This is just part of the regulation from the state for the schools operating within this District.

Move to approve: A. Potter   Seconded: R. Dohoney      Approved: Unanimous

Dillon: Request for approval for Assistant Wrestling Coach to be funded by the Booster Club. Request is based on need. Recommend vote to approve.

Motion to approve: R. Dohoney    Seconded: J. St. Peter      Approved: Unanimous

Muddy Brook Elementary School (MBE)

1. Berle, Principal:

• Pk,K,1 Concert was very successful
• Grade 2 concert: Insect parade prior to the concert celebrating the collaboration with Flying Cloud.
• 4-day project with Erin Hadaway, ELL consultant. Great experience.
• PTA is doing great work. $11,000 on Donating for Good Auction; Holiday Stroll, Craft Festival, Holiday Gift Drive
• MBE named one of 44 schools in Commonwealth with accommodation from state based on PARCC testing. Accommodation in meeting gap-narrowing goals.

Monument Valley Middle School (DBM)

1. Doren, Principal:

• Chorus concert w Robert Putnam was wonderful. Red Lion Inn concert coming up. Expanded program by 30-40%
• Want to thank the maintenance and custodial crew. The school is 10 plus years old and it looks brand new. Building is taxed both inside and outside to its maximum potential. The collaboration between the crew and the staff is fantastic. Ex: Maintenance build a standing desk for students who cannot sit during classes.

Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS)

1. Young, Principal:

• Monument’s Winter concert is tomorrow evening- orchestra, concert band, jazz band, starting at 7 o’clock and poinsettias on sale from horticulture greenhouse reprogram.
• Jacob’s Pillow- Curriculum in Motion finished up this morning
• Poetry Out Loud – phenomenal performances by young people in the semi-finals.
• Winter Sports: Full teams. Boys and girls basketball captains met with the captains from Lenox. Talked about sportsmanship both home and away.
• Christmas in Stockbridge-orchestra, jazz band, chorus @ St. Paul’s
• Mark Sprague- did arts and ideas forum on the Medical Field and the Life of a Doctor
• Andrew Scecina- new physics teacher, Erin Fisher, Tom Roy attending Science and Technology teacher’s consortium at MCLA. Sharing and learning ideas for teaching.
• Cory Sprague-Brought to Monument a woman’s self-defense course for female students and their mothers. 27 participants.
• Dec 22 periods 1-8 teaching Salsa dancing. All invited

EXHIBIT B and Job Descriptions:

Reorganized coherently; arranged in categories.

Consider and Vote on:  1) Schedule in Exhibit B; Hope Committee votes to accept Exhibit B because the teachers union already has. 2) Vote to approve amended job descriptions- offering consistency there and systematized description + one additional job description for Speech Language Pathologist Supervisor. Supervisor needed because there is a Speech Language Pathologist assistant and their training needs to be monitored by Supervisor.

Exhibit B:

Motion to approve Exhibit B: W. Fields    Seconded: J. St. Peter     

Discussion:

1. St. Peter: Who formulated Exhibit B?
2. Bannon: The negotiations committee based on last years; contract negotiations stipulation to look at Exhibit B to organize before next contract negotiations.
3. Bradway: Webmaster for 3 positions; MBE, DBM, MMRHS- What happens with problems at district level?
4. Dillon: At District level, Doreen will take responsibility for it or Technology Director.
5. Dohoney: Coaching positions are Category 1 and Category 2. What makes that determination?
6. Bannon: Has to do with number of practices, games, students- so really it’s a responsibility.
7. St Peter: A few of the amounts went down.
8. Bannon: It was determined responsibility went down; less demand, less participation. Agreed to by both sides.

Approved: Unanimous

Vote to approved amended job descriptions-

1. Weston: Separate evaluations for all individual stipend positions.
2. Dillon: Yes. Stipend positions evaluations are less in-depth and faster to do.

Motion to approve all revised job descriptions: D. Weston    Seconded: R. Bradway      Approved: Unanimous

Motion to approve new job description for Speech Language Pathologist Supervisor : R. Bradway   Seconded: W. Fields      Approved: Unanimous

2015 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey (PNSA) Presentation

Eric Brun and Ananda Timpane presented slideshow (meeting attachment)

Ananda: “What is happening in this district is not happening in the rest of the county. It’s happening at Mount Everett but it’s not happening in Central County or North County. The specific kinds of protective factors around valuing youth, involving them and the lower risk factors. The work happening in our buildings to create a welcoming environment has big impact and it’s really rare that we have data to show how important. Gift to Committee is the data showing that those things, that aren’t about standardized tests, make a huge difference in the lives of our youth and Committee and Staff are all doing something right to make that possible.”

Eric: “We really debated whether we should offer some solutions here because it’s not like we can fix it, we’re here we’re here to figure it out. It’s an important issue and opening it up in terms of how do people just respond to this. Does this sound familiar to you? Does it strike you as ‘off’ or accurate?

COMMENTS:Young: “We’re watching a culture of addiction that keeps growing and growing and growing and we are facing it across Massachusetts and the country; so are young people are here at school by listening to program the program to talk about to talk about finding better ways to manage yourself manage your motion manage the challenges and the discomfort that comes just from getting out of your house every day, then showing up in a crowd of people and yet around them are young people and adults really struggling with this issue and not really talking about it publicly, denying that it’s actually happening. The divorces that our young people watch are often related to drug and alcohol abuse. If not a divorce then there is strife at home often fueled by drug and alcohol use and abuse. So there’s a sense that ‘the community doesn’t hear, the community favors or condones it and no one is doing anything about it so they must not care’ is the more classic questioning going on.

Addiction/alcoholism in among our community / country really influences how our young people feel about it. Slide shown where the risk factors are really high and the protective factors are low; that’s a beautiful picture of the conflict the confusion around drugs and alcohol, not just for our students but for their culture too.”

Potter: “One of the things I was hearing with the protective factors, there’s a big gap is at the community level. People who aren’t involved necessarily the schools, aren’t necessarily parents. Question then is, “Where are the structures that can be engaged to start building things up, whether it’s an actual program or even something more informed?”

Ananda: “When thinking in terms of program level, something like mentoring- where a young person is given a relationship that’s intergenerational. That’s outside of a family structure and outside of a school structure. Railroad Street has a mentoring program but when you get to that ‘community norms level’,  It might take something that’s more creative . The state organization that does work on mentoring has in their mission to try and capture more informal ways mentoring and intergenerational relationships happen. One reason for that is national data shows only one out of every three young people under 18 can say that they have had an adult in their life who they consider a caring and trusted adult who values them. People in education are all too familiar with this. It comes up again and again that something as simple as just one single adult, consistently expressing care over time can have a huge positive impact on a young person’s life in all kinds of ways. That’s what I’d like to see really different in our community.”

“Also, there’s a communications gap, a real disconnect with people who make a second home here. A communication gap, where that any care that they may have to extend to teens, they may not have opportunities or invitations to so. That’s the kind of community problem that I’m really interested in at Railroad Street and trying to build a deeply connected intergenerational community. How can we make people who come to here, for all of the reasons that they love this community, get to share that love with youth and value youth if they’re not going to be in the school seeing teenagers or their friends kids?”

Fields: “That figure of 84.5 percent opportunity for pro-social involvement in the school that jumped out and to the television audience and attendees, know this is this is what the schools are doing the stipends given tonight and there’s some people who’ll sway we are spending that money again, it is money well worth spending to afford after-school programs and to do what we do within fiscal limits to offer what we do and to even look at expanding. A suggestion is how about involving and showing this to selectmen in all the towns because they’re part of the governing body and other agencies?”

Ananda: “We are delighted to have the town’s joining us in the coalition that were launching, this is its official pre-announcement, we are the recipient of a state grant to work on underage drinking and substance use prevention that four towns are partnering with us in.  They’re getting invited to the table and they’re coming to the table and that’s a good thing.”

Fields: “Also dealing, in Great Barrington, with a community that is willing to fund and share in your programs AND has the highest alcohol license right per population in the state, outside of Boston per person. The kids are seeing mixed messages.”

Weston: “How do you screen out “power answers” where somebody’s just checking off their answers? How do you screen out inaccuracies?

Ananda:  “Extra questions that we use in this county are kind of different but within the main body of the survey there are sets of questions to help weed out a wild inconsistencies. RR St staff introduce the survey and ask students to fill it out with the idea that this is not a test, it’s about telling us about their life and their experience in this community. Also include a question where students are asked to rate for themselves how truthful they feel they’ve been. Some surveys dismissed based on those answers. The data is certainly valid enough for us to be drawing these conclusions.”

Bradway: “Wanted to echo the points that were made with respect to the disconnect between the school & community. I agree with you with respect to the communication point of it and while we can’t necessarily have the school solve all the problems of the community, it seems that there are strong suit is in the schools. Question would be, is there an opportunity to leverage what we’re doing here in the schools and extend that out into the community and how do we do that so that it doesn’t become the school’s responsibility to save the community? Engaging the business community?”

Ananda: “We put together panel on mentoring beyond a traditional mentoring relationships. Sean Flynn sat on that panel just to talk about how the climate at Monument happens. What are teachers and Mary Ann doing, what is happening in the building day to day that keeps our numbers from students higher? One example of taking something that’s happening the school and trying to to to use it to start to think about models outside of schools.”

Eric: “Also there’s an element of it having to be courageous. In school, you’re supposed to be delivering the proper lesson, but when you’re out of this school in a different setting it’s harder to push that message. Finding the courage to say the difficult thing as adults in this community. We have to watch our own behaviors, we have to understand that our children are watching us and that we are the models that they will follow. That is a one-person-at-a-time thing and it needs to happen. It takes courage.”

Bannon: Thank you

Ananda: Thank you for all of your time.

District Improvement Plan & Three School Improvement Plans (meeting attachment)

• Dillon: A lot of thought went into these a couple years ago and they are not that dramatic of changes. Trying to keep to a couple of things and doing them thoughtfully; deep work on curriculum and connecting that to even more thoughtful work on the assessment. Continuing to evaluate the educator evaluation system.

May be best to read and I digest these plans and come back to the next meeting with specific questions/changes and then finalize them.

• Bannon: Any specific questions from anyone?
• Potter: Would like to see numerical value so can map current projects back into the goals. Would be helpful to see where we are going and map to initiative and other aspects. An action plan connected to the goals with a representation so it can be tracked. It will also show any “orphan” goals that aren’t getting attention.
• Bannon: Will be put on next agenda.

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 SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS

Policy Sub Committee- S. Bannon: Need to schedule a meeting.

Building and Grounds Sub Committee- R. Bradway: Haven’t met. Plan on meeting after New Year.

Superintendent’s Evaluation Sub Committee- D. Weston: Nothing new

Technology Sub Committee- R. Bradway: Haven’t met. Plan on meeting after New Year.

 Finance Sub Committee- R. Dohoney: Close to a fine-tuned level program budget. No consensus. Meeting again next week to see where to go. Don’t know if there will be a Finance Committee recommended budget coming to SC or if an Administration recommended budget. No visibility on that right now.

 Regional Agreement Amendment Sub Committee- S. Bannon: Meets next Tuesday 01/19/16 at 6:00pm at District Office.

• Dillon: Very productive first meeting: 19 people on committee, most attended. Went through whole document putting a hold on financial part of it. Next couple of meetings will be on financial piece. Two outside consultants have done a lot of analysis of finances and that will be the starting point for next meeting.
• Dohoney: The financial part: It was good discussion and deferral of representation of this committee. No real strong opinions but questions that need to be looked at like: the applications per town as they are right now, weather there are allegations per Town, whether it’s continued that members are elected from all three towns,, weighted voting. All of those things came up and this school committee should be made aware of it and tt is being discussed.

• Dillon: An unanticipated need came up about having a hired recorder for the meetings that will consist of reallocating funds from the already approved $14,000 administrative costs for the RAAC.
• Dohoney: These are important discussions that will be analyzed and brought back to the individual town and volunteer note keeping would not be sufficient enough.

• Bannon: Since no new funds are being required and it will be just a matter of utilizing monies from the existing funds, this issue does not need to be voted upon.

District Consolidation & Sharing Sub-Committee- S. Bannon: Been in discussion with Susie Harding from Lee to set a meeting date.  Agreed to January 21st as joint meeting with the full school committee at 7:00pm, Location: TBD

1. Dohoney: met with Shaker Mountain School Union. Picked up right where the full joint meeting left off. Very positive meeting, very strong operational specifics about how a shared superintendent would work, great questions from the two principles particularly about Peter Dillon. They are evaluating whether they want to do a shared superintendent or not. Seems they will be making a decision fairly quickly.

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PERSONNEL REPORT- Retirements: two middle school teachers- Randy Koldys, Science teacher. Mary Shook, SPED teacher. Gives us time to celebrate them and the work they’ve done.

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT Great Barrington   Stockbridge   West Stockbridge

PERSONNEL REPORT  

December 10, 2015 Personnel Report

Effective                                                                                                           Salary/Stipend: Position:                                                                                                           Date:

Certified Appointment(s):

Coleman, Shannon         Speech Language Hearing Pathologist – District Schools       11/16/2015       MA+30 Step 4 ($50,665) (replaces Tina Hoyt)

Non-Certified Appointment(s):

Extra-Curricular Appointment(s):

(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 Valley Regional Middle School

Monument Mountain Regional High School

Baldwin, Lisa                 Teacher Mentor                                                                                                         Stipend:  $800

Carlson, Daren               Assistant Boys’ Basketball Coach                                                                           Stipend: $2,372

Dinan, Keller                 Alpine Ski Coach                                                                                                         Stipend: $2,372

Dus, Lisken                    Teacher Mentor                                                                                                           Stipend:  $800

Farina, Kristi                  Teacher Mentor                                                                                                           Stipend:  $800

Fisher, Aaron                 Teacher Mentor                                                                                                            Stipend:  $800

Kennedy, Krista             Project Leader – Student Management                                                                   Stipend: $2,081

Kennedy, Krista             Teacher Mentor                                                                                                             Stipend:  $800

Paunchai-Green, Shawn  Assistant Wrestling Coach                                                                                                                                                                          Stipend: $2,372

Staunton-Shron, Kara     Project Leader – Library                                                                                            Stipend: $2,081

Volunteer(s):

Laramee, Jason                Volunteer Basketball Coach – MMRHS

Powell, Cam                    Volunteer Basketball Coach – MMRHS

Wyatt, Tricia                   Volunteer Swim Coach – MMRHS

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BUSINESS OPERATION – None

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EDUCATION NEWS– None

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 OLD BUSINESS– None

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 NEW BUSINESS– None

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 PUBLIC COMMENT– None

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATION- None

The next meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2016 –  Audit Review meeting will begin @ 6:00 – followed by the regular meeting- Monument Valley Middle School

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

Motion to move to Executive Session and not to return to public session as it would be potentially detrimental to the negotiation, by D. Weston. Seconded: R. Bradway   Roll Call: All “yes”.

Public Session Adjourned at 8:58pm

Submitted by:

Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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School Committee Secretary