===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, December 20, 2023 LMS Collaborative Room #D132 6:30 p.m. - Hybrid School Committee Superintendent Carol Archambault, Chair - Present Dr. Kate Burnham Brian Lehtinen, Vice Chair - Present Business Manager/ HR Director Anthony Sculimbrene, Secretary - Absent Peter Beardmore, Member - Present Laura Brzozoski, Member- Present Recording Secretary Courtney Fuller Guests: In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadc ast live over the Lunenburg Public Access channel, on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page. (http://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access-Cable-157427270975305/) and will be uploaded to the Lunenburg Access YouTube after the meeting. The agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may be brought up f or discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law 1. Call to Order by Carol Archambault at 6:32 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment Mr.Beardmore takes a moment to recognize that we have had some big rain storms and this past Monday he had received a reverse 911 message stating there were 4 busses being affected by roads that had been shut down. The school and bus companies were not made aware of this. Mr. Beardmore reached out to the police department and the DPW, the police chief did return his call and they discussed how it needs to be the same as if it was a snow storm, so this doesn’ t happen again, and everyone is better prepared. Ms. Brzozoski shares this has been an ongoing issue this year, for example when the water department had to close part of the driveway at the Primary School to do some work, but no one was made aware of this situation and it made it really hard for people coming in and out with only a single lane available, we need a mechanism for administration to be informed by DPW or police department if there are impacts with roadways. Mr. Passios, 56 Whiting Street. I come to you as a lifelong resident of Lunenburg, and later you will be taking a vote on some archived TCP items, that are dated back to the 1950’s, I also wanted to mention that I have a scrapbook that was presented to my dad after the event of naming the school. This scrapbook contains pictures, articles and letters from all over the country and e ven a few from around the world. We would like for these materials to be displayed publicly with the Lunenburg Historical Society. Ms. Brzozski thanks everyone that put together the craft fair in the cafeteria, Santa Claus made an appearance and everyone had a great time 4. Chair’s Report Ms. Archambault reports that at the last meeting a liaison to Green Communities was brought up, and Mr. Eric Hevy, our Facilities Director, has volunteered to be the liaison. We look forward to hearing from him about his interactions with the Green Communities. I would also like to thank the secretaries and the community for participating in the annual gift card drive, many families were able to benefit from your generosity. I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Healthy New Year. 5. Review & Approve Minutes - None Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 6. Review & Approve Warrants & Line Item Transfers a. Warrant Total – 12/5/23-12/18/23 $591,780.80 Ms. Brzozski mentions she does not have access to the folder and hasn’t been able to review the warrants. Ms. Archambault has signed items. No line item transfers 7. Superintendent’s Report Dr. Burnham reports our timeline for Kindergarten and Pre-K registration will look different this year. Kindergarten registration will open on January 1st and is available online to be done at your convenience. We will also be scheduling times to make appointments to bring in the original documents that are required for proof of residency in order to complete the paperwork with our registrar. Pre-K registration will open on March 1st, to hopefully alleviate the overlap in appointment times. Our annual kindergarten readiness meeting will be on January 30 th at 6:30 via zoom. We will be promoting this event on multiple venues, Facebook, emails, the website etc. The MSBA has sent out a message, they will be accepting statements of interest for consideration on Friday January 12th at 10 a.m. for an accelerated repair program, primarily for the partial or full replacement of rooves, windows, or doors, in an otherwise structurally sound facility, the closing date of th is will be March 1st. The closing date to submit into consideration under the core program is April 12th, this is for the projects that would-be more extensive renovations or new builds. We belong to the Worcester County Superintendents Association and they had their December meeting, we learned that the Mass Association of School Superintendents executive committee met with Commissioner Riley and members of his staff, at that meeting they shared superintendents concerns regarding a lack of qualified business managers and the many openings across the district and statewide. The department of Education is working to develop different paths to hire for this position. The executive committee also shared that superintendents across the state are feeling overwhelmed with the amount resulting from continuous initiatives, grant requirement’s, and unfunded mandates. The commissioner confirmed he recently met with his team and discovered there were 400 initiatives underway from the Department of Ed or federal government, he will be working with his team to reduce those. The water replacement project on Mass Ave is on the horizon and we have been advised that the project will likely begin in the spring. Reminders: Schools and Offices will be closed for Winter Break 12/24-1/1/24 and will reopen on January 2, 2024 January 3, 2024 School Committee Meeting 6:30 hybrid from Town Hall January 12, will be an early release day for students and PD for staff January 15, all schools and offices will be closed to observe Martin Luther King Day January 17, 2024 School Committee Meeting 6:30 hybrid from LMS Happy Holidays to those in the community that will celebrate Christmas and Kwanza 8. Student Representative Report - None 9. New Business Action a. Declaring Surplus TCP Artifacts – Dr. Burnham shares a list of items that have been located in the safe at TCP, some old phots and plaques, dating back to the 1950’s, dozens of newspaper clippings. There are some items that could be considered to be given to the PTO, they could use as part of their annual spring fundraising event at Hollis Hills. Mr. Beardmore and Mr. Lehtinen confirm they have now viewed they items, but given the description they are comfortable with moving forward with a vote. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to make the items outlined in the memo as surplus with the intent of making them available to the Lunenburg Historical Society, and any items not claimed by the Historical Society to be taken up at a later date. Mr. Lehtinen seconds the motion all approve. b. Keystone Annual Report A copy of the report has been entered into the committees’ folder for review. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to accept the Keystone Education Annual report, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve Discussion c. MSBA Letter There is a letter in the draft folder, Mr. Beardmore reads it out loud Mr. Beardmore also reports he has done some more research and notes that he believes we are lacking in terms of information flow with the MSBA, and MASC and availability of these programs, changes, and how proposed changes are articulated. But we also have the responsibility of engagement, we need to ask Mr. Hevy to engage with the MSBA and potentially bring us to a game plan for the beginning of our next calendar year of the end of the school year. Ho pefully we will get the assessment approved through the capital plan this year and we can move forward to synchronize with the MSBA in the future. The committee discusses struggles of being a smaller school and working with MSBA and also ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 some additions to the letter. Ms. Brzozski makes a motion to approve the letter to include the few adjustments and have the letter come from Ms. Archambault. Mr. Lehtinen seconded the motion all approve. 10. Old Business Discussion a. FY25 Budget Development Dr. Burnham is sharing additional data that the team is looking at as they make decisions moving forward with FY 25 budget. A comparison of another school around the same size as ours is shared to show class sizes teacher expectations. Mr. Beardmore states we need to make sure we are continuing to challenge our students and options specifically for students that are on an AP track and getting the kids the classes they want/need to take. Mr. Lehtinen asks if there are any maximum limits allowed for studen ts in a classroom in the teachers’ contracts. He thinks low numbers in the AP and the lower level classes are good, as they have attention, where college prep classes can be allowed more students in a classroom. Ms. Archambault shares the school committee goal is focusing on achievement, unfortunately cuts are going to have to be made, but we are not going to have successful achievement in an elementary class of 28 students. We will be continuing to carefully look at this data and information from the superintendent and use this to make some very difficult decisions. Another aspect of data provided are positions that have been added over the last several years into the local budget we separate the positions that were ESSER or other grant funded positions b. Class Funds Update We are making progress, at this point we have heard from or are actively working with all but two of the classes, we will continue work towards making connections with those two classes. The two classes are 2007 with $740.66 and 2010 with $513.00, we are pretty confident we will be able to connect with them by the end of the school year. 11. Reports Mr. Lehtinen reports The Primary School met on Monday, we talked about the school calendar and feedback regarding PD days, parent teacher conferences, and vacations for next year. The gym teacher Mrs. Burns is now the Assistant Principal at the High School. Turkey Hill is going to be splitting the gym teacher at the Primary School. Cleaning has been a challenge because they are down a couple of custodians at the Primary School. Only had very minor leaks at the school with all the rain, so that was good. Hank Helper awards are going around, snack with the principal. Kindergarten is counting to 100, module 4, they are reading Happy Healthy Me. The second grade was going on a kindness countdown, and show and share with ELA, they were doing fairy tales with gingerbread versions and math is doing dollars and coins. The Finance Committee met on December 7th, they had the treasurer there to answer questions, they were concerned about different funds and accounts and the best types of yields or if they should consolidate. Treasurer noted you cannot compare personal investing to municipal investing. The Capital planning was brought up and talked about the school committee meeting and the window project, there was a question, what is the MSBA penalty would be. Mr. Passios mentioned the Green Communities could potentially help out with boiler in the schools. The town manager reported the town lawyer mentioned the MSBA recovery, they recover any payments and stop any future payments, and it’s basically a major penalty Ms. Brzozski reports Turkey Hill did not meet this month and will meet in January. Mr. Beardmore reports the High School Advisory met two weeks ago, I was unable to attend, but I did meet with Mr. Santry the following day. We had a very good discussion about the budget. The Capital Planning Committee met Monday and reviewed the initial scoring and raking the committee did. I think the window film at Turkey Hill and the assessment project for Turkey Hill were 5th on the list and was the dump truck that was 9th, the rest of our requests were quite a bit further down the list and I don’t believe they will make it above the line for funding, this is a very preliminary assessment. We will be meeting again tomorrow at 6 at the Ritter Building. Ms. Archambault reports the Master Planning Committee met on Thursday December 14 th, the consultant stated there were 205 survey replies to date, he was encouraged with the demographic spread of participants, and he was hoping to get more people that rent then own their own homes. The major concerns from the survey to date is preserving the agricultural character of the town, and preservation and repurposing of municipal buildings. The next public meeting will be held on February 1st. The Finance Committee Nominating Committee met on December 14 th and Tiffany Tavares was appointed to the Finance Committee, and we thank her for offering to serve, we are happy to report the Finance Committee is fully seated! 12. Public Comment Mr. Passios, 56 Whiting Street , these are my own personal comments, as a tax payer, I would not want to be in your seats for the next fiscal round, and what you are diving into. I know you are all very much aware the process of hiring under ESSER 1 & 2, cautions were always made that the money is going to go away and there would be some hard decisions to make, whether you keep those positions or cut others. I have attended or watched many meetings over the past few years and we knew we were headed down this road Dr. Burnham responds, we knew we were looking at a loss of ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 around $650,000 in positions, what we did not see coming was a 10% increase to health insurance a nd we did not think we would be looking at $1.5 million dollar worth of cuts. Mr. Passios asks the committee if they are aware of whether the healt h insurance stabilization account has been depleted. 13. Topics for Future Discussion FY 25 Budget Resolution around MSBA 14. Executive Session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meet may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position to the public body and the chair so declares. Mr. Lehtinen made a motion at 7:55 p.m. to enter into executive session and adjourn immediately afte r. Ms. Brzozski seconded the motion. All approve 15. Adjournment Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller