Minutes – June 2, 2016

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Great Barrington           Stockbridge        West Stockbridge

SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING

Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School – Library

June 2, 2016 – 7:00 p.m.

Present:

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

Administration:        P. Dillon, S. Harrison

Staff/Public:              M. Berle, B. Doren, M. Young,  J. Briggs, Holly Troiano

Absent:  C. Shelton

List of Documents Distributed:

Music Changes Memo-Final; MBEOverview_5 26 16; Muddy Brook Overview Addendum; 2017 Presidential Inauguration trip request

Finance Committee Protocol.docx; June 2, 2016 agenda; June 2, 2016 Pers. Report

RECORDER NOTE: Meeting being transcribed from recorded DVD provided by CTSB after the fact. Length of meeting: 2hr 2min

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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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TREASURER’S REPORT  -None

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SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

P.Dillon:

-Shaker Mountain School Union approved our shared superintendency agreement last week; that’s going to be a two-year agreement that we’ve talked about that since last meeting. Good help on that from Shaker Mill School Union and that subcommittee and it should be exciting.

-Sharon Harrison has received an award as a “Friend of MASBO- Mass Assoc of School Business Officials” for going above and beyond expectations to help MASBO. Sharon has been working with them for a number of years creating model programs at the state level.

GOOD NEWS ITEM(S)

Muddy Brook Elementary School (MBE)

1. Berle, Principal:

• Wonderful concert season: PK, K, & 1 concert was last week;
  2nd grade concert is tomorrow at 2pm

3rd & 4th concert is June 10th 1pm-2:30pm
First concert was absolutely fabulous and well received and we’d love to see you

• continuing to have lots of great field trips: MassMoca, Bartholomew’s Cobble, Botanical Garden
• Volunteer luncheon next week
• Myself or Nan Thompson are meeting with every teacher in the building for end of year
  Delighted to report that the intentionality that teachers brought to improvement projects this year was tremendous and these conversations have been a total delight. Share more of that later.

Monument Valley Middle School (DBM)

P.Dillon speaking for B.Doren, Principal:

Ben Doren is in Washington with the eighth graders and they’re having a good time.

Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS)

M.Young, Principal:

-We awarded about $200,000.00 in scholarships this morning at the senior awards assembly. I thank all of the individuals and the community members who work to raise this money in honor of people who have passed people and who have contributed to our community and to our School. At one point in the program we started to see a theme of 4 or 5 scholarships that are awarded in honor of in memory of young people who were killed in car accidents, most of them alcohol-related. It was pretty moving to hear one after another adult, who were remembering these young people, talk about what happened to them.

– On-the-heels of the month of May, in which 8 parent meetings we scheduled (at different times of the day / different days of the week so that all parents of seniors could attend) and during those meetings we talked about this time of year and the risks. Along with this joyful and celebratory time, especially for young people who feel that this is their last time together. Scott Annand and spent a lot of time with parents and with seniors talking about being careful, about parents exercising their parental judgment to say no to using car/staying out late/not checking-in. Very well received.

-During that time we conduct senior exit-interviews with students and their parents to get feedback on their experiences @ MMRHS, what they saw as our strengths, what programs/courses/opportunities impacted them positively and where they think we can do better.

-We have a new a relatively new partnership with Rambo Wild (Outdoor education setting in Williamstown):  environment students went out & built a bridge that crosses a ravine and then our alternate PE students went and used all of the adventure based outdoors ropes course.  Two of our freshman English classes went and used the property for walking meditation poetry and art. Nice opportunity to use a beautiful setting in the Berkshires and use it for all kinds of learning.

-Anna Abrams, MMRHS freshman, is the state winner of the world languages essay

contest. she was a student of Mickey McCartney in French and we believe it’s the first time an MMRHS student has taken first place in the state.

2017 Presidential Inauguration trip request- Holly Troiano, MMRHS Soc. Studies Teacher

“I’m here this evening to propose a trip for students grades 10-12 to the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC. When first investigating this, no idea it would be such an interesting election; no telling what we’re going to get in November. Students would have to register long before we know who wins. We’d like to take about 30-35 students to Washington to witness what is truly a world-wide unique experience. The transfer of power in the most powerful democracy in the world is something I think it’s underestimated here and we take it for granted. The first thing that comes to mind when I talk to people about it is our security. My feeling is that Washington DC on January 20th is going to be the safest place on earth. The FBI, the Secret Service, Homeland Security, the Coast Guard will be cutting off the Potomac River and be patrolling. The Capitol Hill police as well as the separate Washington DC police will be on patrol, and interestingly we found out that there will be behavioral specialists anonymously in the crowds throughout looking for people acting like they don’t belong there and they’re up to something.  I think security will be well handled for every students we can encourage to go. One chaperone will be going from here plus we will be assigned our own tour director for our group. There is nighttime security provided all night long within the hotels. The itinerary is a two-night / three-day trip which would take us down early one morning and tour various places in the capital, yet to be determined. I’d like to make this a presidency focused trip so that we would be viewing monuments and parts of the Smithsonian, specifically dealing with the presidency. The company is called World Strides they’ve been at this for 50 years; personally checked their references and spoke to others who also took this trip.”

Q&A: F.Clark:  Family financial commitment of $1,200. Talk about financial part?

Holly: World Strides has financial aid for qualifying families. School Center, Inc. is open to helping, with more details and SC approval, based on the Free Lunch Program. Goal is to allow anyone who wants to go can. Individual student fundraising is available.

A.Potter: Don’t want to run into problem of students who want to go, can’t go because of a cut-off number of 30-35.

D.Weston: This is an “extra” and not part of the curriculum so more leeway is permitted in restricting numbers.

Holly: I haven’t run into that problem and have been told that transportation will be available for anyone who wants to go. I’ll check on that.

R.Dohoney: What’s included by World Strides for the $1,200?

Holly: Round trip transportation, hotel stay, all meals minus lunch, security, educational materials.

J.StPeter made motion to approve the Inaugural Washington DC trip as presented,   Seconded: A.Potter   Approved: Unanimously

BHRSD Music Changes Memo-Final

Josh Briggs recapped attached memo then opened to floor for questions.

Key Points: Structural Issues

• 4 staff cut with new budget resulting in declined enrollment at MMRHS
• Access issues at MBE having moved performance music programs out of the regular school day schedule and moving it a before-school program. Students riding busses were missing program opportunities to participate.
• Number of offerings at DBM creating a strain on the overall schedule because those offerings were all within the school day.

New Mission Statement written by music department and want to adhere to those points of importance:  1) High levels of access for younger students; 2) but maintain high quality music program for older/more advanced students who are very serious about their musical craft. 3) Increase participation in the later grades.

Work in Progress Proposal:

Reimagining how music program in 3-6 works = every student will participate in performance music. MBE: will have a music block where every 3rd grade student will go to orchestra or chorus; 4th grade will go to orchestra, band, or chorus. K-2: will have weekly “All-Sing”. MBE will offer 8:30-9 music slot before school, addressing access issue for bused students. DBM 5th & 6th grade: every student will participate in performance music. 7th & 8th: students can choose to participate or not. MMRHS: looks about the same but trying to bring the participation up.

Q & A:

D.Weston: Access issue: Problem with certain instruments (percussion, tuba, cello, saxophone) not allowed on school bus?

J.Briggs: Was not aware of that issue.

P.Dillon: Seat removal to allow for room of bigger instruments?

S.Harrison: Issue is if any items (not just instruments) cannot be secured safely and cause potential egress blockage.

J.Briggs: Will look into that access issue.

F.Clark: Offering more performance music rather than general music at elementary level.

J.Briggs: Struggling for time for teachers to collaborate with other teachers (Ex: SPED), so having an extra music block in the week will allow for that collaborative time.

F.Clark: What does general music program look like at MBE; how much/how often each class have music classes.

J.Briggs: Each PK,EK, K class will have 2 general music blocks per week. 1st-4th each class will have one general music block per week (reduced because technology is introduced starting in 1st grade). EK-2nd will have an additional “All-Sing” each week. 3rd & 4th will have an additional performance class.

F.Clark: Are the sectionals mandatory for the students?

J.Briggs: Sectionals not mandatory, but will still have high quality music experience during class time.

R.Dohoney: MMRHS: Increasing enrollment?

J.Briggs: Want to set specific benchmarks in desired participation. Mainly want to see numbers in performance music increase. Then smaller classes, like music theory, rise as well.

R.Dohoney: Is curriculum changing?

M.Young: Looking at the curriculum to see where the interest is and also where students are spending their time even when they are in an independent study period. Students in the Band Room all day playing music but they are not signed up for music classes, they are in independent study. We are looking at that to see if we can redirect that interest into the proper places in the curriculum. Intro to piano was born of that situation.

Muddy Brook Elementary Programmatic Overview –

Presented by Mary Berle, MBE Principal

P.Dillon: Programmatic overview- we did the District overview a few meetings ago. MBE is first of the three school-based ones. Mary Berle sent documents; first was a 77-page document containing lots of detail, followed up by a three or four page memo. We’re under assumption the Committee has read it. Mary will do high-level overview, then respond to questions. Please note, this approach is a work in progress, so at the end of this it may make sense for SC to reflect a little bit on process so recommendations can be given to Ben Doren and Maryann Young for when they share their respective overviews from the middle and high schools. (Please see attached overview and memo for full details.)

Q & A:

W.Fields: Looking for two words in your overview, and I didn’t see mention of “play” and “recess”.

M.Berle: MBE has one scheduled recess & teams take a second recess at own chosen time.

Supporting staff into 2 recesses/day and  added five minutes this year = 20+ mins outside every day during lunch/recess block; most classes take additional recess.  Intentional about movement breaks & w/morning fit club (7-minute workout – student’s choice or invited to). Kindergarten team hosted Emily Taylor from Department of Education on Monday; all in total agreement around a play-based kindergarten. Continue to create inquiry-based, intentional project-based work through the whole curriculum. Best learning when playing and that’s core of our curriculum & should be described in that way.

W.Fields: I was told by a parent that there is only one scheduled recess. There used to be two

at one time. Why the change? I don’t know when that occurred and why. You are saying you feel it should be back to two.

M.Berle:  We’re doing 2 recesses almost school-wide. Teachers choose 2nd recess in response to their students, working to not have classes overlap too much. Helpful for teachers to choose  2nd recess time rather than be set schedule.

W.Fields: General comment- Kindergarten and elementary school isn’t what it used to be. Almost overwhelming what we’re having kindergarten kids do. Concerned the joy of school has left.  State requirements to meet all these standards and it’s just standard after standard after standard; if not State, it’s the District.  Concerned & don’t know how to stop it.

M.Berle: Good question. (Saying with “caution”) more than any other elementary school, we do almost nothing to prepare third-graders for PARCC test. Show tremendous growth in 4^th grade because students have learned the format. Being intentional about a strong curriculum.

W.Fields: Changes for students in the last 10 to 15 years & the pressure & staff must be overwhelmed at times.  That’s why asked about role of play & recess because a lot is learned during play.

M.Berle: Recess/Lunch block: research shows students return to class more settled if they play 1st, eat 2nd. Added another 5-7 minutes to the lunch block last year in response to parent feedback about students rushing through the day.

F.Clark: Speak about assessment. From your state report card, we’re right in the middle of the state standards. How using assessments as feedback to identify students that need extra work or to shift programs. Also about environmental education and outdoor learning.

M.Berle: That’s taking 3rd/4th grade into account. Assessment: Internal benchmark assessment system which is connected to fountas and pinnell reading (comprehension & fluency at all grade levels) done in September with higher needs, December w/ below-grade-level students, done again at the end of year. Gives rich information about reading level for informed groups and working w/ learning specialists or sped teachers. Also use aimsweb (another benchmark assessment) at lower grades: very short 2-3min probes for math and letter naming fluency. Data also is used to inform groups. Observational assessment: learning specialist teams w/classroom teachers develop reading groups and math groups for pull-out. 3-tiers: IEP with sped teacher; a little below grade level and they will see a learning specialist in small group in addition to their classroom instruction; classroom instruction.  More informative than PARCC (which is an end test with results next year). Internal system important for on the ground decisions. Using assessments proactively &  were able to exit 28  students from reading support this  year. Those are nationally normed benchmark assessments. Have local assessments: students self-assessing project-based work and  some local tests connected to math standards.

Working greatly on interdisciplinary projects & rubrics to look at areas of strength and interest to see how that can impact achievement.

Environmental Learning:great science units in this year that are getting students outside-3rd grade life unit that got them out into the pond. Team did beautiful job going back to the intentions of mud day and having the environmental focus not commercialism. We had 300 families: a great day of people hiking on Monument Mt.,  face painting with clay and natural ingredients, orienteering and definitely pushing into the school day.  More action on the trails than previous years & encouraging all teachers to do use trails. Glen Chamberlain & Amy Sallinetti, for 4 years, have very beautiful garden they’re maintaining with their students. 1st thing seen in the morning and the last thing seen when leaving. Kindergarten classifying and talking about colors and organizing different plant leaves.

R.Bradway: How do we know that we’re hitting our mark with all these things and are some of these things great aspirational things but really we’re missing the point and not hitting some of the things that we really need to be hitting? Is there a way for us to get some of that data that you’re talking about?

M.Berle: Yes we can share benchmark data. One thing that does not work is when we have different initiatives and activities and each one is in a “silo”; then we’re just driving students and teachers crazy. Work is integrating the commitments in science, social studies, reading, math. A lot of purchasing in last two years has been on materials that align with science & social studies content. Working on projects that are interdisciplinary and connected so multiple standards are met in one curricular project. Otherwise, impossible to look at all the standards and do one at a time. Real challenge is assimilating severe special needs and emotional disabilities. Emily Taylor was absolutely clear that every district in Massachusetts (rural, urban or suburban) is facing a

real needs shift around emotional disabilities. We are seeing significant shifts in both & created need to restructure our special education work = a stretched staff; down one academic sped teacher because of need to place somebody in a behavioral position. Intentional work around a clinician & using formative assessments proactively & PD for k-12 staff with event trauma-informed care, & trauma sensitive care and becoming trauma sensitive school.  As feedback, people feel these are huge mandates and it’s a lot of work and the profession has changed.

J.StPeter: Especially designed reading & math instruction regarding the lack of collaborative time with other sped teachers and classroom teachers.

M.Berle: That’s coming from teachers. We have a context of working on teaming for

5-6 years. All grade level classroom teacher teams have a 45-minute block once a week for dedicated team time- making very good use of & really good projects and intentional work is coming from it. A big frustration is lack of collaborative time between classroom teachers, specialists, learning specialist and sped teachers. One decision made, particularly around reading: guided reading in the classroom, guided reading plus with a learning specialist or to a more phonics based program.  We’ve trained teachers in those strategies

represented and the coordination around what a particular student needs is really important.

R.Dohoney: How do these goals align with our current homework policy? Could we continue to do with changes in our homework policy?

M.Berle: Would love to have a conversation about homework and what meaningful homework is and that can certainly be part of next year’s school improvement plan. Teachers are struggling with the fact that there’s an expectation from parents to send homework home. Teachers want it to be meaningful work and manageable for parents. We’ve actually started a conversation in math around that this spring. What is your concern about specifically and that will help us further our conversation?

R.Dohoney: The meaningfulness is not what it should be and there’s a volume issue. I fear there’s a culture developing where homework is being assigned and they aren’t doing it. I feel like there’s too much. It’s having a detrimental effects on kids. Not trying to be funny but the most peaceful week this year in my household was the week of PARCC because my kid was so relaxed because she didn’t have homework. It was the week that she was most enthused about sports, joyfully did her piano every night without a fight, then she actually got along with her sisters the homework was literally the issue.

M.Berle: That’s really good feedback & this is a topic that our staff would love to embrace because I actually think that, at this point, people are assigning homework out of a sense of duty. Have a broader conversation about play and getting outside.  The one thing we’re up against is kids who are going home and just sitting in front of video games. Figuring out how to provide something meaningful and inspiring and not too much. It will be in next year’s school improvement plan so it gets attention early.

W.Fields: Current homework policy?

M.Berle: Routine at MBE is 10 minutes per grade level; first grade= 10 minutes,

2nd grade= 20 minutes, etc.  It’s not something addressed yet as principal, going through the list of things, so really happy to take it on.

D.Weston: Homework is the primary view that parents get into what happens in a school and can very clearly relay the correct or wrong message about what the school’s trying to accomplish.

A.Potter: When having that conversation, we should really burrow down into some research and get a thorough understanding.

M.Berle: Understood.

END OF MBE PROGRAMMATIC OVERVIEW

P.Dillon: Asked Committee to email him any suggestions on the Programmatic Overview content/presentation in preparation for the Middle and High School overview.

FOOTBALL LEAGUE Update:

F.Clark: Asks M.Young for an update to, last Fall, the MIAA doing away with Berkshire County League and put MMRHS as a co-op football team with Pioneer Valley to get some more competitive school play. Month ago the fall football schedule was published and Monument is playing only one Berkshire County team (Taconic) and rest has MMRHS traveling to the Pioneer Valley or they’re coming here for most of our other games. Playing Ludlow, East Hampton, Amherst, Chicopee; no traditional rivalries with any of these teams. Parent travel. Player travel. Why we don’t play Lee, our traditional rival or Mount Greylock, or Drury or some other Berkshire County school that we’ve always played.

M.Young: More complicated and different than you described. Berkshire County League wasn’t done away with. Two years ago, MIAA changed whole tournament competition structure for football statewide. District G (MMRHS is in G) has really small football program compared to other instate districts. In this new structure, MMRHS unable to be at tournament level play or Superball play. It was voted to run for 2 years, still in that statewide structure this year. Being looked at by the MIAA level football committee for restructuring again in Fall 2017. At Berkshire County level, football programs are declining in almost every school. Stronger football teams that would’ve had tournament level game opportunity were losing that opportunity because of game schedule in Berkshire County. Berkshire County League decided to approach the PVIAC (Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference) which is District F (Pioneer Valley) to see if we could get more competition & options for all Berkshire County teams & potentially Berkshire County football teams to play longer and deeper into the tournament season.  PVIAC, District F, & District G met and agreed for the upcoming year to try this model:  all Berkshire County and PVIAC teams to playing one another. Resulted in fewer Berkshire County games for some Berkshire County Schools. Other piece, MMRHS was bumped up a division when MIAA realigned football teams across the state. Alignment based on school’s male enrollment and w/our co-op with Mount Everett, calculated 9th-12th male enrollment of MMRHS & Mount Everett together to establish alignment. Vocational schools: McCann and Taconic and other state standalone vocational & technical schools also calculated by a formula.  We decided not to disband co-op w/ Mount Everett: 1) been a really good partnership, 2) helped our team. Not a lot of players from Mount Everett but the 5 or 6 strong football players from there make a difference on whether we can run JV, or have a building year w/ freshmen & sophomores. Opted to keep co-op & not disband. Drury, Lee, Lenox disbanded: they didn’t want to bump up a division. The schools we’re playing have larger enrollment but aren’t more competitive & make good competitive play for MMRHS. Travel, yes; by both teams, home and away. Perhaps new MIAA structure level, piloting with the PVIAC will potentially open better competition & real opportunity for our football team.

F.Clark: Getting bumped up a division because of co-op is counter-intuitive. Co-op reason was neither school had enough boys to play football, now there are more eligible boys bumps us up, it goes against that logic. Feedback from kids and families about the proposed schedule? What would an ideal League look like, if we had one?

M.Young: 38 players this year; JV and Varsity. Haven’t heard any feedback from players or parents.

F.Clark: Is there a point where football isn’t a good fit for monument in the future? It’s expensive, it’s dangerous, lots of other sport options.

M.Young: Berkshire County High School principals and the Berkshire

County athletic directors have now had two lengthy meetings. Each school has put up its enrollment numbers & numbers in every sport offered; and we are seeing teams and the size of teams diminish. Lee not offer JV soccer, St Joe was a powerhouse in sports for years and years not be able to offer nearly the number of teams that they offered without co-oping.  We’ll look at football, and all sports, to see does it make sense to offer them. We’ll do it in collaboration the other principals and ADs in Berkshire County. Monument’s athletic program is strong. Numbers are holding steady, but we’re watching schools around us not able to hold on to many of their sports. Football is going to be different this year as a pilot year with the PVIAC. At the close of the season we’ll see what did and didn’t work, good competition or not.

P.Dillon:I think’s important to add, investing in athletics and other after-school programs gives high school kids, in particular, something to do. I’d rather invest in something proactive like athletics/drama/ music and have kids engaged than have them not engaged and then try to clean up some mess down the road. As a community we struggle with substance abuse and it’s much harder for a student to be involved in that if they’re a competitive athlete.

A.Potter: How much money goes into the varsity and jv teams from budget?

M.Young: I don’t have those numbers but will get them.

W.Fields: We’re gonna have a High School programmatic overview that will include the athletic program.

R.Dohoney: The athletic program is less than 1% of the total budget, so this is not a high-level budget impact issue.

S.Bannon: Biggest point to make is it we’ve got to be compelling that a co-op is not a way for us to make it into playoffs,  it’s a way for us to have a team at all.  Somehow we have to get across to people that those six players from Mount Everett are keeping our football team alive.

Updates:

• Southern Berkshire Shared Services Project (SBSSP)-P.Dillon: Meeting June 14th to talk about: PD, curriculum work, and technology integration. Opportunity for second round of funding connected to community compact.  We’ll put together a proposal for SC to do more work, specifically around special education.
• Regional Agreement Amendment Process
• Discussions with Shaker Mountain, Lee & Farmington River -P.Dillon: Shaker Mountain-update given in Superintendent’s Report earlier. Lee & Farmington River- nothing new since last SC meeting.

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SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS

Policy Sub Committee- F.Clark: Met. Discussed some of the new MASC policy changes & will be bringing them this committee in August.

Building and Grounds Sub Committee- R. Bradway: Met May 19th. 1) requests from baseball booster club: didn’t address them in that meeting, said we’d like to meet w/ them at a future date to understand the nature of requests and what/ if we can do.

2) Approved study on the high school boilers to assess what would be the best course of action so that we can present that to the school committee so an informed decision on that info.

Want to put as SC meeting agenda item the discussion of what the school committee’s philosophy is /will be regarding facilities. Particularly w/ high school: how to set priorities, timeline with respect to future work. Have some pending things that we need to address and how we should prioritize these to bring to the Committee. Want to revisit five-year plan, assess what priorities are, and hopefully get majority School Committee agreement.  Philosophically decide on a Statement of Interest for future work and what it’ll look like. In flux right now. Items in last budget cycle were removed, i.e. boiler(s) fixes. Are we going to accept band-aid approach or are we making some incremental improvements that will serve both short & long term or maybe do nothing.

S.Bannon: That will be an agenda item or maybe a meet & confer topic.

R.Bradway: Circle back to administration to understand the animal guideline at the elementary school that was set in place. There are ~ 27 animals in the elementary school and only 3 documented; a lot of undocumented animals. Boils down to that the animals are being taken care of and that it’s not being placed on custodian or staff where it’s not in their job description to do.

Superintendent’s Evaluation Sub Committee- D.Weston: One more meeting to finalize the evaluation. Need some paperwork from Peter Dillon for that next scheduled meeting. Trying to get that done by July 1st so we can bring in the new Shaker Mountain members and start fresh on July 1.

Technology Sub Committee- P.Dillon: Dave Long is putting together a report. Tentative meeting date late June, will circulate that date.

Finance Sub Committee- R.Dohoney: Met earlier today. Focused on the protocol for the Finance Committee going forward.

Paragraph 1: list of monthly review items; Second part: how we deliver the budget. Hoping to get some more dialogue with the Committee. CHANGE: First draft budget in early December would first be presented to this Committee and then referred back to the Finance Committee, rather than initiated at the Finance Committee level. Purpose is to run some of the big issues at the Committee level rather than just at the subcommittee level. Also suggested, is that we should not go straight from the budget presentation to the public hearing meeting.  There should be a full School Committee meeting in between as a dialogue opportunity.

F.Clark: Interested in the long-term approach to budgeting, more than just a year-by-year. With a longer-term look at it maybe we could smooth out spending. One year use almost all E&D, next year, very little E&D. Is there a role for strategic budgeting?

R.Dohoney: I think so.

S.Bannon: We will move forward with this protocol unless said otherwise. It’s important enough to vote on. Don’t think we have to vote but think we should because next year going to budget season, will use this template and then if anyone ask why it was done this way, we can say we  went by this document and there was a vote about it.

D.Weston made a motion to approve the Finance Committee protocol piece that was suggested that the School Committee have at least one additional meeting between the budget presentation and public hearing,      Seconded:R.Bradway    Approved: By Majority

Unopposed: F.Clark

F.Clark: Opposed based on want for finance committee to shift to more of a planning committee.

Regional Agreement Amendment Sub Committee- S.Bannon: Haven’t met. Meets Tuesday 06/21/2016 at 6:00pm at District Office

District Consolidation & Sharing Sub-Committee- S.Bannon: Was already covered.

Berkshire County Shared Services Committee- S.Bannon: There is $150,000 in the Senate Budget earmarked for the group and that it appears anywhere between $100,000 to $150,000 will end up coming out of the Senate and House negotiations.  There will be money for that group.

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PERSONNEL REPORT

P.Dillon:

Time of the year where personal reports get complicated: hiring new people, some retiring, a couple people are moving to work in other districts.  Jessica Redmond has worked for us for quite a number of years as a teacher at MBE. I’d like to recognize her and her retirement.  Couple people are taking leaves of absence.

PERSONNEL REPORT

June 2, 2016

Name                                                    Position                                                                   Fund        Salary/Stipend

                                                                                                                                Source                 Effective Date:

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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

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S.Bannon called for motion to adjourn.

Moved: D.Weston     Seconded: R.Bradway      Approved: Unanimously

Meeting Adjourned at 9:02pm

The next meeting is scheduled for June 16, 2016 @ 7pm – Regular Meeting –District Office Professional Development Room, Stockbridge, MA

Submitted by:   Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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School Committee Secretary