Minutes – March 28, 2019 Meet & Confer

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Great Barrington                     Stockbridge                  West Stockbridge

SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING

Regular Meeting

District Office, Professional Development Room, Stockbridge

March 28, 2019 – 7pm

Present:

School Committee:                 S. Bannon, A. Hutchinson,  J. St. Peter, D. Weston, D. Singer, R. Dohoney, M. Thomas

Administration:                       P. Dillon, S. Harrison

Staff/Public:                             T. Lee,  K. Farina, D. Wine, B. Doren, K. Burdsall

Absent:                                     S. Stephen, B. Fields, A. Potter

List of Documents Distributed:

RECORDER NOTE:  Meeting attended by recorder and minutes transcribed during the meeting and after the fact from live recording provided by CTSB.  Length of meeting:    hour, 20 minutes.

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Steve Bannon called the meeting to order immediately at 7pm.

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, Committee Recorder, members of the public with prior Chair permission 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.

MINUTES:
March 7, 2019

MOTION TO ACCEPT SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES OF MEETING DATED MARCH 7, 2019 – R. DOHONEY                SECONDED:  D. WESTON                      ACCEPTED:  UNANIMOUS

TREASURER’S REPORT:

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT:

• Good News Item(s)
  • Tim Lee, Muddy Brook Regional School District – Just a head’s up to the school committee and anyone watching tonight that on Saturday, April 6th from 11am to 4pm in Pittsfield, there is an event called the Berkshire Earth Expo. It is a coming together of educators and people interested in environmental concerns.  There will be all sorts of presentations, lectures, booths, activities, and I am happy to report that one of our teachers, 4th Grade teacher, Molly Cosel, is going to be presenting.  Molly is going to be sharing a little bit about the efforts at Muddy Brook that she has started and sustained over a couple of years around students getting involved in reducing waste and composting at our school.  Thank you.
  • Doug Wine, Monument Mountain Regional High School – On March 15th, Dion Brown, Meredith and Noel Powell were selected to participate in the basketball all-star game. Randy Koldys coached one of the all star teams and former coach, Tom Kinne was recognized an honorary coach for one of the girl’s all star teams.  Meredith and Noel Powell were both recognized as this year’s basketball sportsmanship award recipients.  Also Nico Vohl was awarded with a young arts award scholarship.  It is a national award and incredibly intense to be chosen.  He is one of the top youngarts competitors.  There are thousands of applicants.  What is does is puts them in a group of artists and people who support artists nationwide and he is now, I think tomorrow, will choose one of the top universities to be a jazz guitarists.  It is pretty cool.  The Thursday before spring break, we are going to be doing a career exploratory unit for 9th grade.  Sean sent out an email to people asking for a few speakers and he got about 30 people who just want to come in.  At the advisory committee we had a number of people who said we are always there, and it was Taconic and McCann saying they are so happy to come to south Berkshire.
  • Kristi Farina – as you know, one of the grants that Sean and I were working on this year was the Innovative Pathway Grant. We have made it through the first phase and we put in our application and we just found out two days ago that we did receive final recognition from the state.  Because we received that award, Sean just told me today that Berkshire Regional Employment Board also received a grant and the grant is going to allow three of the high school teachers to do externships this summer at the community partner/business partners that we are going to working with going forward.  One of our science teachers is going to do an externship at Fairview Hospital and someone is going to be working with Boyd Technologies.  The work is moving ahead.  Dillon – often we don’t get grants that are multi-year grants but this one is a five year designation which is great.  K. Farina – the do it separately; they give us the designation and we haven’t actually been told how much funding they are giving us with it.  When Sean and I went to the interview, because part of the second phase was an interview, the plans at the state level are actually to do a per pupil expenditure so it will be a reimbursement that comes in as these pathways get developed.
• Discussion on Potential Vote on submitting a Statement of Interest (SOI) – P. Dillon – It is my hope to submit a SOI to the MSBA. The date that it is due is April 12th.  As I shared before it is very clear and a factual document so all of stuff is incorporated.  The last one we did was about a year ago so we have updated the cover letter and some of the work that the Next Steps group has been doing.  As the Next Steps group reaches it conclusion and gives the presentation, we will include that as well.  I wanted to respond to any questions.  There is a very particular formal vote and I would read the language and ask if you would do that.  This doesn’t commit us nor does it commit MSBA but it is our way of getting back in the line.  I can also speak to some of the details around it.  Most of you have been around this conversation hundreds of times but we identify the building’s condition in three areas like what we are able to do from the construction and safety perspective and what we are able to do from a sustainability perspective.  That would include physical space, labs, CVTE space, safety, energy efficiency, technology and accessibility.

HAVING CONVENED AT AN OPEN MEETING ON MARCH 28, 2019 PRIOR TO THE SOI SUBMISSION CLOSING DATE, THE BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS CHARTER BYLAWS AND ORDINANCES HAS VOTED TO AUTHORIZE THE SUPERINTENDENT TO SUBMIT TO THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY THE STATEMENT OF INTEREST DATED MARCH 28, 2019, FOR MONUMENT MOUNTAIN REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL LOCATED AT 600 STOCKBRIDGE ROAD, GREAT BARRINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, WHICH DESCRIBES AND EXPLAINS THE FOLLOWING DEFICIENCIES AND PRIORITY CATEGORIES FOR WHICH APPLICATION MAY BE SUBMITTED TO THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY.  DEFICIENCIES INCLUDE PHYSICAL SPACE LAB, CVTE, SAFETY, ENERGY EFFICIENCY, TECHNOLOGY AND ACCESSIBILITY AND HEREBY FURTHER SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT BY SUBMITTING THIS STATEMENT OF INTEREST THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY NO WAY GUARANTEES THE ACCEPTANCE OR THE APPROVAL OF THE APPLICATION, AWARDING OF A GRANT OF ANY OTHER FUNDING COMMITMENT FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY OR COMMITS THE BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT TO FILE AN APPLICATION FOR FUNDING WITH THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY.       R. DOHONEY                SECONDED:  D. WESTON                   ACCEPTED:  UNANIMOUS

Personnel Report:

• Extra-Curricular Appointment(s) – P. Dillon – This is most spring sports and musical. I am excited we are doing this before they started practice but sometimes we do it after the season has started so we are ahead of the game

Meet & Confer Topic(s):

• Discussion/Debrief: FY20 Budget – R. Dohoney – I don’t know that I have much to say.  I think it went well.  This year the staff made an excellent starting over the summer and got stuff prepped and ready which made things easier for us.  I think it is nice that we are finally getting some consideration on the state level.  Bannon – those of us that were on the budget subcommittee, we thought it went very well.  When we first started the subcommittee, people who didn’t go to the meetings felt that they were a little behind.  How did it feel this year?  Does anyone want to comment?  The sharing of information seemed better.  We want to make sure enough information was given to give an informed decision.  It sounds like everyone was happy with that.  R. Dohoney – I felt we were two months ahead of where we were when I first got on this committee.  We also didn’t have any huge decisions to make in that amount of time and the closing now.  S. Bannon – this was an easier year.  D. Weston – I think the documents that were supplied to us were incredibly transparent.  If you took the time, you could locate expenditures for everything down to the dollar.  Anybody who wanted to take the time to look through the budget had full opportunity to see what the plans of expenditures were.  R. Dohoney – I agree; it was very easy to find the answer if someone asked you for information.  P. Dillon – anything we can do to make the process better?  S. Bannon – I think this year’s process went very well.  It was a good year.  There were no surprises but he process went very well.  D. Weston – I think there are a few areas of revenue that we could pursue but they are not make or break budget areas.  There are some facility rental items that are such but that is not going to change the big picture.  R. Dohoney – we have an opportunity now to look at that.  S. Bannon – it is good to have this check in to talk about it and improve on it.  P. Dillon – if you have insights later, bring them to Rich’s attention, or Sharon’s or mine or Steve’s.  R. Dohoney – where are we with the towns?  Great Barrington voted, correct?  P. Dillon – Great Barrington voted and it was unanimously endorsed by both boards.  I can’t remember the last time that happened.  The other day, I spoke to the Stockbridge Selectboard and I gave them a quick update on the budget process and they were happy with that.  They also want an update with the high school project.  I shared that with them.  I need to get out to West Stockbridge and talk with them.  Historically over the last several years, they have been fine.  This particular year is a tough year in West Stockbridge and it may make sense, depending on the scheduling for the reps from West Stockbridge and maybe even some of the other school committee members to go to that meeting with Sharon and me.  When I was at the Great Barrington meeting they went through the warrant and the citizens petitions and that could potentially be a long meeting.  It may be a good one to encourage people to attend.  S. Bannon – I think we are early in the meeting.

MOTION TO ADJOURN – R. DOHONEY               SECONDED: D. WESTON                       ACCEPTED:  UNANIMOUS

The next school committee meeting will be held on April 11, 2019 – MMRHS Library,  7pm

Meeting Adjourned at 7:20pm

Submitted by:

Christine M. Kelly, Recorder

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Christine M. Kelly, Recorder

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School Committee Secretary