Minutes – May 5, 2016

BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

Great Barrington           Stockbridge        West Stockbridge

 SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING

MONUMENT VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL- Library – 7:00 p.m.

 May 5, 2016

Present:

School Committee:   S. Bannon, R. Bradway, R. Dohoney,  A. Potter,  W. Fields,  K. Piasecki, F. Clark, C. Shelton

Administration:      S. Harrison

Staff/Public:               B. Doren, J. Briggs, Kate Burdsall, John Piasecki

Absent:                        P. Dillon, J. St. Peter, D. Weston, M. Berle, M. Young,

List of Documents Distributed:

May 5, 2016 Agenda; May 5, 2016 Pers. Report; February 11, 2016 Minutes; February 23, 2016 Minutes Joint Meeting member towns

March 3, 2016 Minutes – FY17 Vote; field trip request – Presidential Inauguration; FY16 Q3 Overview; Q3 TRANSFER SC; Add’l Asst. Baseball Coach; request to waive timeline; Clinician Memo – May 5

RECORDER NOTE: Meeting attended by recorder and minutes transcribed, after the fact, from DVD provided by CTSB. Length of meeting: 1hr 20min

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CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Steve Bannon called the meeting to order @ 7:02pm

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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.

Chairman, S. Bannon: Peter Dillon, Marianne Young and Mary Berle are not here tonight. They are at an awards ceremony for Teacher of the Year the district this year and two of them are going to our teachers which is something to be very, very proud:  Ann Kinney, EK teacher and Lisken Van Pelt Dus, Monument teacher.

Clark: Every year since it’s been created, BHRSD had a teacher recognized in this award, which is quite amazing.

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MINUTES –

BHRSD School Committee Meeting minutes:

February 11, 2016 Minutes; February 23, 2016 Minutes Joint Meeting member towns; March 3, 2016 Minutes – FY17 Vote

Motion to approve minutes:  R. Bradway    Seconded: F. Clark       Approved: Unanimous _________________________________________________________________              ____________                  TREASURER’S REPORT – March 2016- Modified

S.Harrison:  Update – Except for investment interest, right on target. A little over on miscellaneous for a couple last year refunds.

-Chapter 71: revolving fund so if excess, depositing it into the regional transportation revolving.

-Expenditures: On track. As of March- $1,000,000 unencumbered. Used for- End of year PD, closeout, software licenses renewal, projected transportation, the other districts tuition, end-of-year custodial work.

Q-R.Dohoney: Any projections for any that will drop E&D by FY end?

S.Harrison: Right now, about $100,000-$125,000. Need clarity from the auditor on employee agreement for the health insurance transition plan. Part might have to be encumbered or listed as a liability. I’m negotiating now because employee has to be here at the time we give out the check. Its for the year you create the obligation

Q-F.Clark: “Instructional” is big. What is that?

S.Harrison: Teachers supplies & materials

S.Harrison: Athletic and activity is over spent. Happens every year because of the transportation for sports. Planned. Let it run out until June 30th then any residual from other athletic accounts goes towards transportation and rest gets paid from the athletic revolving.

Revolving funds:  School lunch fund: typically a negative balance. Halfway through the year, transfer half of amount in foodservice revolving account into the operating budget for health insurance for food service and the director’s salary. Health insurance for food service has to be paid out of the operating budget because no other federal grants or funds go for health insurance.

FFA capital trust: funds for repair of the greenhouse.

Circuit breaker: have to spend last year’s money the end of this year. Try to only spend that much so that each year have a reserve for any extraordinary SPED expenses. Two salaries moving and some of the consultant cost.

School choice/ intuition-in:  Have a balanced so teachers salaries move into the choice and

tuition in funds. Can’t move the money out, only expenses in, between funds.

Grants: Have negatives because all grants are reimbursements. We ask for the money and then they send it to us by the by June 30.

Fiduciary: Specific funds raised for specific things. Scholarships grants can only be spent on scholarships. Activity funds can only be spent on student activities- money raised by and for students, used only for students Ex: field trips, after school programs. Ex: the key club raises money it can only spend on key club activities. State is getting really picky.

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SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

GOOD NEWS ITEM(S)

Ben Doren will do all three schools.

Muddy Brook Elementary School (MBE)

For M.Berle, Principal:

• PTA has spent the week acknowledging and thanking teachers and staff teachers. Staff have received flowers, special lunch, notes of appreciation from students and families
• Hosted our second social dance and our 1st, 3rd, 4th grade potluck last Friday. The dance was warmly received as a positive experience for all. Excited about continuing to grow this new tradition and Muddy Brook.
• This week our first grade went to Hancock Shaker Village. Students, chaperones and teachers had a wonderful time with animals and learning more about a landscape
• Third and fourth grade enjoy to show at the Mahaiwe last Friday.
• Tomorrow the fourth grade will go to the Connecticut Science Museum.
• Next week, Mumbet will visit our third grade
• In the coming weeks, 2nd grade will visit Mass MOCA, 3rd grade will visit the Ashley House and Bartholomew’s Cobble, grade 1 will go to the Botanical Garden.
• 3 wonderful staff members are retiring: Sue MacVeety, Susan Ebitz and Jessica Redmond. We are grateful for their service. Hiring committees are formed and interviewing strong candidates.
• All teaching teams are reflecting on their goals and sharing their work as we approach the end of the year.
• Collaborative work with flying cloud to create science units that connect to reading and writing and include hands-on work and getting outside are established at grades k, 1,2,3. We are very grateful for the commitment flying cloud has made to us.

Monument Valley Middle School (DBM)

B.Doren, Principal:

• Hired an assistant principal which is very exciting, pending budgetary constraints. Really just fortunate to be able to work with. His name is Miles Wheat. Comes from BART, the Berkshire Arts and Technology school in North Adams. Very well accomplished high school environmental science teacher but has taught in the lower grades and really just comes to us as somebody who really understands what kids want to do: be engaged, do hands-on work, do high cognitive intellectual work but also has idea that to actually create programming and curriculum for all students to engage. Been vice-principal for three years dealing w/ instructional leadership, team leadership but also implemented an entire professional learning plan for the staff around restorative practices. Real strong connection between the work that he’s done in the cultural work that we want to do it the middle school. Hope to bring him to SC meeting soon and to have a chance to meet him. July 1st will be the official start date but arranged for some time spent with Chris Condon before she retires.
• Fifth grade: Nature’s classroom was a resounding success again this year. The kids love it! Last year was 95% participation, this year 98% f kids who are ready to go to nature’s classroom did. We’ve created a day program so kids who aren’t ready for sleep over. We bus kids out every day for an extended school day and they take the project connection bus at 5:00pm. Pretty much the whole grade and it has a lot to do with the scholarships that we provide, fundraising, the Lord Hill Association also provides a significant amount of money toward scholarships. So appreciative of that. Kids had an amazing time out there.
• Continuing collaboration with Flying Cloud. Came back again to work on robotics with
• 5th grade. They’re going to be working every year now with us on really promoting engaged robotics work. This year tied to the animal behavior unit.
• 6th grade really amazing focused work, a lot on academics this year in our Period-D. Kids now have time to do some service learning projects. One in particular one is a bumper fly group: creating a garden in the back that’s friendly to butterflies and bumblebees to promote pollination.
• 7th grade: teachers & students are going to Bartholomew’s Cobble. We have a great relationship with the trustees the reservation and they’re delving into Berkshire history which many of the teachers have taken that workshop that they’ve done in the past where they get the kids do a community guide to Berkshire County, including current work and history.
• 8th grade: most successful academic year in our history! The grades are up because student engagement is up and we have very few students that were concerned about graduation. Really the dedication of this eighth grade team, over my five years that I’ve been here, to make sure that every student is successful in moving ahead.
• Design program we started a pilot program with future cities last year which is a nationwide curriculum around envisioning the future. They’re doing vertical gardens; the idea is , “What do we do to sustain agriculture in this world if we all have to depend on ourselves and not just the outside world?” (meaning the transportation network and all the things that we kind of depend on our modern world). Doing actually vertical farming, working on computers, working on sketchup, and working on 3D models. There’s a great creative piece, a sustainability piece, and a technology piece.
• Willy Wonka – Really want to play up Robert Putnam, who’s just simply amazing and a godsend to us. He did an amazing job with the musical; lots of participation, very high quality and really just was a major positive moment our school culture.
• 8th grade put on Shakespeare and Company residency performance of Macbeth for the school. Wonderful. Second year. Entire 8th grade involved.
• Jewish Federation was able to fund My Heart in a Suitcase. A national traveling middle school focused/ appropriate play around a family’s experience of the Holocaust. 6th, 7th, and 8th grade watched. Ties to 8th grade curriculum on the Holocaust, 7th grade curriculum on human interaction, and 6yh grade curriculum focused on civil rights.
• Special Olympics: just always amazing. Wednesday, even in the rain. Our kids came back with silver, bronze, and gold medals and just beaming about their success and their participation.

Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS)

For M. Young, Principal:

• AP exams all this week and next. Students are doing well.
• Spring concerts are coming up. Chorus and orchestra- May 12. Band and jazz- May 13th. This is Jeff Stevens’ last concert. Reception is in the cafeteria following the concert
• Band will be marching in Memorial Day parades and performing at graduation.
• WEB Dubois inaugural event featuring David Levering-Lewis was a success. Well attended for the first event and included an all-school-day session for students. Looking forward to continuing this initiative.
• 2 new water fountains that include capacity to refill water bottles were funded by School Center, Inc. and installed over vacation.
• Special Olympics went well, even in the rain.
• Scheduling for the 2016-2017 is well underway.

S.Bannon:

School Choice annual vote:  A formality – it’s a formality that each year the school committee has to confirm their intent to participate in school choice in the following year.

Motion to confirm intent: F. Clark     Seconded: R. Bradway       Approved: Unanimous

Insurance rate for retirees: The insurance rate for retirees is parallel to the employee.

Harrison: This vote is twofold: 1) to verify that the district going strictly to the deductible plan is for all active-plan-participants, which would include early retirees {those that retire before the age of 65}. 2) is to help retirees {as we are with employees} with a transition plan; $250 the first year or the $750 on the insurance.

First Motion:

Motion to align the retirees health plan with the options that are offered to all active participants, including retirees: F.Clark      Seconded: W.Fields     Approved: Unanimous

Second Motion:

Motion to align the retiree and active participant health plans, to include health insurance transition plan for both retirees and active participants: W.Fields      Seconded:  F.Clark

Discussion:

F.Clark: This is fair and we’re treating all of our obligation the same.

Approved: Unanimous

S.Bannon: We have a request for the Committee to waive the timeline requirement in Article 15,  retirement of the co-operative contract for a staff member with unexpected health issues, for a single individual.

S.Bannon called for a motion.     So Moved: A.Potter     Seconded by R.Dohoney     Approved: Unanimously

S.Bannon: We have a request for an additional assistant coach for the 2016 baseball season. The Booster Club will fund the assistant coaching position.  Once again, I wish these requests will come to us like before the season starts.

Motion to accept the Booster Clubs funding of an additional assistant coach for the 2016 baseball season: F.Clark       Seconded: A.Potter

Discussion:

F.Clark: How many coaches does that make?

S.Bannon: Three

W.Fields: How many assistant coaches does the Booster Club fund?

S.Bannon: We’ll come back with that information.

Approved: Unanimously

S.Bannon: Overnight field trip.  Student travel to the 2017 presidential inauguration in Washington DC. Since no one is here to make the presentation on this one because i want a lot more information, we will table this one someone’s here. Tabled.

Clinician Position:

Kate Burdsall:

Referencing January programmatic overview-I had the second plan where we’d do one at MBE next year and bring it to DBM 2017-2018 school year and that was the plan that we all seem to be going with. Reviewed our SIMS data in March which was part of the memo given to SC in April and our needs have shifted.  I presented that data in April and in tonight’s packet as refresher and then we reviewed the job description that night. Ben wants to talk a little bit more about the needs and how they’ve shifted, he’s ready to speak a little bit more detail.

B.Doren:

Excited about prospect of a clinician coming to MBE because excellent work k-4  means that our work at the middle school becomes doable with the early intervention. Also definite need at the middle school. Started with 8 students in the therapeutic learning center through the year now  up to 11,  possibly 3 more by the end of the year = 14 students.

Significant jump, normal jump looking at the demographics across MA & nationally. Industry standard for a program like this is for ~10-15 students: a lead teacher, a clinician,  2 paraprofessionals. Almost have 2 para professionals dedicated to the program but it really makes a big difference in the middle school a bit different than elementary school is the inclusion piece- moving students from this program to a regular program. Requires a lot of work by all supporting staff. We don’t want a self-contained program for students,

want to be able to keep in class – requires somebody who is able to work with families, students, and teachers to understand how to educate students who are experiencing / have experienced trauma, have emotional disabilities. Big thing is the quickly growing #s and it’s really something that’s a clear and present need at the middle school.

S.Harrison: A lot of time digging to make sure we knew where funds were coming from. We’re looking at is money that we had for the assistant principal, we have a retiring para that will not be replaced meaning avail funds if needed….

R.Dohoney: Because of this, para not being replaced or was para not going to be replaced anyways?

S.Harrison: Because of this. We thought that this position was more important than that para at this time. There’s a range $50k-$70k for this clinician. If they come in under $70k, we’d put the $14k for the para back. We targeted the highest amount on the cost. Anticipated speech services that we thought we would be needed, but wasn’t. Also, making this shift freed up consultant money.

F.Clark: Hearing that this position was not included in the budget? But we talked to Kate about this previous.

S.Bannon: Correct. There were two positions; one was going to be included this year, one was going to phase in the following year. They’re asking for us to do is, based on need, bring them both in this year and there is money they have found money available to do it.          

F.Clark: Is there a dollar-for-dollar replacement value, based upon the consultant who was doing this work, now being done by a staff member?

K.Burdsall: We were paying 3 part-time consultants and with the newly identified need, would probably need a third.

S.Harrison: And that’s where the other components came in, to contribute to those amounts.

S.Bannon: One concern, and I’ll support this is, the school committee has two responsibilities; 1)  to approve the formation of a position. 2) we have a fiduciary responsibility, and there’s nothing on here that shows this. You’ve given a sort of overview but we really should have gotten the memo saying this is where the money is coming from, dollar for dollar. I hate doing this after the budget is done and it’s our responsibility to see where the money’s coming from specifically not in speculation. I think we have a responsibility to be much tighter than that.

K.Burdsall: We budgeted for the “Plan B” but now, because of the need, we are asking for “Plan A” and that will require working within the budget we have already formed.

R.Dohoney: If you came to the finance committee in February and wanted to cut a para at the elementary school, I would have “ripped your head off”.  I understand why we’re doing it so easy now.

B.Doren: Because of the need. There’s a small number of paras at the middle school compared to the other two schools. This is a major hit but it is something that is needed; a clinician to work with the students. This clinician will relieve some work by the para team in terms of student support and individualized student support. More importantly we’ll be able to basically spread out some of the work that we do with our students support team, with the paras, with the teachers- in terms of teaming to absorb that need for the para. Actually replacing need to do programming with these students and to prevent kids from dysregulating so they can actually be included. One of those tough choices with zero money. I don’t see any other place for the funding and faced with this need, we had to look at the available landscape of resources. This para was not specific to anyone’s IEP.

R.Dohoney: Should’ve looked at the high school because I think there’s a lot more to give there

then there is the middle school. When this type of intense academic need arises- then have to make the shift in the same pool-  this para that’s being cut was supporting the same effort of the

problem that we’re trying to fix.

S.Bannon:I agree with Rich. It seems like you’re getting less of a bang for your buck because you’re not replacing the para but that’s your choice. The other, I’d like to see a list of what consultants were ‘going to have. If you decide to add more consultant after doing this, come back to us because it gets too easy to add back in if there’s money and I’d like not to do that. I’d like to see the consultants cut as much as possible and if this doesn’t work, come back to us with another plan. I’m somewhat uncomfortable with this but I know it’s the right thing to do.  Motion?

F.Clark made a motion that we approve the position of clinician; 1 person full-time to be at Muddy Brook Elementary School assignment, 1 primarily at the middle school assignment for the forthcoming school year.         Seconded:W.Fields     Approved: Unanimously

Updates:

• Berkshire County Task Force
• Southern Berkshire Shared Services Project- Skipped: P.Dillon not present
• Regional Agreement Amendment Process
• Discussions with Shaker Mountain, Lee & Farmington River:
  • Bannon: Shaker Mountain- in negotiations over the shared superintendent position. Another meeting scheduled next week and we should come back to the school committee with a final proposal at the meeting after that. It’s gone very well. Had one meeting in Richmond was excellent.
  • Lee- meeting which only Peter and Steve were able to attend. Met with two of their school committee members and their superintendent- excellent meeting- talked about your services and we’ll come back with report on some shared services and that discussion with Lee.

F.Clark: Being kept to just shared services discussions of this point or has the discussion been farther reaching?

S.Bannon: Any discussions we have has many pieces to it. First piece is what does the district think about some shared services. As these progress and are successful, there’s always a possibility of going farther down the road and but we’re not there yet. We are implementing things in progression so if there’s more and more shared services that we can do and it seems to be positive we will continue the discussion. I don’t think we’re going to talk next week about regionalizing with anyone but I wouldn’t put it out of the picture in the next few years of this happening.

R.Dohoney: things are rolling so quickly that maybe as a committee at some point we should have discussion about what our goal is regarding some of these things.

S.Bannon: The public expectation is that we are going to save tons of money.  I think expectations should that we may save some money. I don’t see it as much as savings as to decrease the amount of budget increase, the budget doesn’t increase as rapidly. Also see it improving our educational plans as the biggest priority. I think there’s a misconception that, either with shared services or regionalization, that there’s going to be a wind full and I don’t see that happening, but I do see things improving.

F.Clark: My own personal view, I think the goodwill is something that we’re creating and creating a sense of cooperation and sharing that, down the road, can lead to greater trust.

• Bannon: Farmington River was a very good meeting. There’s some real places we can have some shared services with Farmington River.

F.Clark: With around 90% of FRRSD kids coming to BHRSD, Ben and his group inherit these kids and it’s in our vested interest to coordinate their preparation.

S.Bannon: Their kids are well prepared, but there’s some curriculum that doesn’t align and that was some of the discussion which they were very happy to talk about. We’re going to put Joshua & Peter together with their superintendent and some of their teachers so that over the course of the year they can figure out how we can align better. Also was the discussion about shared PD days.

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SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS

            Policy Sub Committee- F.Clark: need to schedule

            Building and Grounds  Sub Committee- R. Bradway: need to reschedule

            Superintendent’s Evaluation Sub Committee- A.Potter: We talked about a set of goals for the year for the superintendent and some of the metrics that would relate to those goals.

Technology Sub Committee- R.Bradway: need to meet

            Finance Sub Committee- R.Dohoney: need to meet. May need to reschedule

Regional Agreement Amendment Sub Committee- S.Bannon: Meets Tuesday at 6:00pm at District Office. ALSO:Don’t believe everything you read. The committee is not dead.  It is going through a political process and there is going to be some positives and negatives.  We said this committee is going to meet for a year and it hasn’t been a year yet. If, at the end of the year we’re still talking about the same thing, then this school committee will have a decision to make- whether to go to the Selectboard or go to the legislature to change our funding but let’s give it some chance. Let’s not throw it out after four meetings and get discouraged about it, it’s way too early. If the RAAC decides to disband on their own, that’s their fault; they need to have a little more patience.  I appreciate this school committee and every school committee I’ve served on even more now because we’ve never taken a vote by town, we’ve always talked about the district and the kids and that’s where we need to steer the RAAC back to again. They’re a thoughtful group, they’re a good group, they’ve just gotten a little off base, as far as I’m concerned in my own personal opinion. Reports of their death are premature.

R.Dohoney: Reports of their death are intentional misrepresentations.

S.Harrison: Peter asked me to update the School Committee on the fact that we will be bringing in another individual, another school finance expert to work with the committee based on the request of the committee to come back with more information and other examples of regional agreements and assessments. We’re working with the gentleman named Mark Abrahams. He is he’s a CPA,  now he’s an independent consultant but he

used to be the assistant to the MA state comptroller, he was the chief of the compliance bureau for the MA Department of Revenue and partner in charge of KPMG Pete Marwick’s  Boston Office of Government Consultant Group.  He also has worked with GASB – the governmental Accounting Standards Board. Very well versed gap as well as understands Chapter 71 like only Roger Hatch does at DECI and understands how these have been implemented. He’s working other districts on this, so we’ve asked him to call to come in and talk about some of the findings that we have.

Negotiations Committee – F.Clark: Is meeting with the unions and doing some work on state mandated requirements that need to be put in place and meetings are going well.

Expected to be done by the end of the school year.

District Consolidation & Sharing Sub-Committee- R.Bradway

PERSONNEL REPORT-

Berkshire Hills Regional School District

Great Barrington   Stockbridge   West Stockbridge

PERSONNEL REPORT

May 5, 2016

Name                                                    Position                                                                   Fund        Salary/Stipend

                                                                                                                                Source                 Effective Date:

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BUSINESS OPERATION –

S.Harrison: -FY16 Q3 Transfer Report (meeting attachment): General number 55, 59, 61 are rather large, they’re made to move annuity and longevity payments from contingency. And then we had contingency for a new hire as well as adjustments for reassignments after the budget was set and new staff in placing non hires or non-renewal.

-Changing general operation needs at the school district & District office and salary lines: 12-17 were for ongoing evolving operational needs. Other 5 were for salary.

Motion to accept FY16Q3 Transfer Report: R.Bradway    Seconded: R.Dohoney      Approved: Unanimous

S.Harrison: Would like to change fund that’s called TPA Services and Fees Fund to TPA/FSA Services and Fees Fund so there is a clear understanding that the fees for the TPA and the FSA are paid out of that one fund. The function of the fund stays the same, just a name change.

Motion to change name of TPA Services and Fees Fund to TPA/FSA Services and Fees Fund R.Dohoney    Seconded: A.Potter      Approved: Unanimous

Motion to transfer excess funds of $812.28 from the FSA account  to TPA/FSA Services and Fees Fund R.Dohoney    Seconded: R.Dohoney      Approved: Unanimous

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EDUCATION NEWS– None

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OLD BUSINESS– None

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  NEW BUSINESS–

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PUBLIC COMMENT– None

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATION- None

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Motion to Adjourn: W.Fields       Seconded: F.Clark     Approved: Unanimously

Meeting Adjourned at 8:22pm

The next meeting scheduled for May 19, 2016 – Meet & Confer at Stockbridge District Offices

Submitted by:     Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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Rebecca Burcher, Recorder

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School Committee Secretary