===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, December 4, 2024 6:30 – Town Hall - Hybrid School Committee Superintendent Brian Lehtinen, Chair - present Dr. Kate Burnham Anthony Sculimbrene, Vice Chair - absent Carol Archambault, Secretary - present Peter Beardmore, Member - present Laura Brzozoski, Member - present Recording Secretary Courtney Fuller Guests: Dr. Susan Gilson – Director of Administration & Finance, Mr. Kevin Bigelow – Athletics Director, Mr. Tim Santry – LMHS Principal In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast 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 for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law 1. Call to Order by Brian Lehtinen at 6:30p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment – Mr. Beardmore states at our last meeting we had a discussion about our invitation to our legislative delegation to discuss Chapter 70 among other topics. I have received some feedback from the public regarding my comments, all of which were supportive. I remain convinced that the narrative has got to be a public narrative. We have got to have the conversation on Chapter 70 and the states obligation to fund public schools in public and we need to rally our constituents to see that this issue is solved. In roughly two months from now we are going to be discussing serious cuts once again, largely as a result of predicted health insurance rates which is a roughly 12 – 15% increase as well as the contractual obligations we have taken over the course of this last year. We don’t have the official math yet, however, it is not hard to see the condition we were in a year ago and what happened and the condition we are in now and what is going to happen. Nothing has changed with the state! Over the last couple weeks I’ve been in discussion with our Chair, and I believe the meeting was scheduled yesterday with our delegation and I look forward to hearing how that went. I also engaged in an email with Representative Scarsdale, to which the chair, the superintendent, chairman of the select board, and a member of the public were also copied, what I learned from the exchange is that there is definitely work going on and I am hopeful that the work will lead to real change in the coming year. But there is not going to be any change in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts if there isn’t a public mandate to demand that change. Right now our Governor, Senate President, and Speaker of the House are completely focused on housing and to a slightly lesser degree, transportation. They are not focused on Chapter 70, they are not focused on education, and the only way we are going to change the narrative of the dialog is to force it to change and that requires a public discourse on this topic. I am thankful for the work our legislat ures are doing particularly Representative Scarsdale, but we have got to make this a public discussion Once again I call on our Chair, both of the School Committee and the Select Board to put conversation with legislative delegation on every agenda until the time comes that we are satisfied with that conversation. 4. Chair’s Report Congratulations to all fall sports teams on a successful season. Winter sport try outs start tomorrow good luck to everyone trying out. Tomorrow is the tree lighting at 6 pm Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 5. Student Representative’s Report Overall for the district Thanksgiving break is over, we are now in the weeks leading up to our holiday break. There is a district wide gift card drive being run by the school secretaries that ends on December 6 th. For the Primary School, they need book donations for the first annual book swap, books are needed by December 13 th and their goal is 400 books. There will also be a book fair December 2 – 6. Both the Primary School and Turkey Hill had Turkey Trots the day before Thanksgiving break and they both went very well. The Middle High School had a National Honor Society induction that went very well. Winter sports will be starting soon. We also had our powderpuff game, teachers’ vs students and junior girls vs senior girls which also went very well. 6. Review & Approve Minutes a. Regular Session 10/16/24 & 11/6/24 Ms. Archambault makes a motion to approve minutes for 10/16/24 and 11/6/24, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve 7. Review & Approve Warrants, Line Item Transfers, & Donations a. Warrants 11/19/24 to 11/26 $130,437.25 – Warrants have been signed b. Donations A check for $401.04 from Hannaford Helps to be deposited into the gift account at Turkey Hill Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to accept the donation, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve c. Line Item Transfers $24.50 from High School Office Supplies to High School Math Dues and Fees because of the Bridgewater State AP class cost more than expected. This is for our teachers to go to learn how to be Advanced Placement instructors of a particular course. Also, $243 from High School Dues and Fees to High School Music Supplies for a Flugelhorn trumpet, the first one was discontinued and the new o ne was $243 more. A request from Turkey Hill to transfer $1822.80 from Elementary Workbook line to Contracted Services, to pay for an increase in curriculum associated with K-8 English and Math at the elementary level. A request from Primary School to transfer $210 from the workbook line to contracted services due to the increase in curriculum associated with K-8 English and Math. Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to approve the line item transfers, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve. 8. Superintendent’s Report the Superintendent updates on the position of Director of Facilities and Grounds, we had a few candidates to move to round two and references checks, unfortunately, at this time we have not found the right choice and the position has been reposted. This is last call for gift card donations four annual secretaries gift drive, they are being collected through this Friday the 6th. We have recently gone through a Food Services Administrative Review, these reviews are conducted on a 3 year cycle, and there are two parts – offsite portion which is done online through a security portal and also the onsite review, which includes inspections, observation, district policy, administrative documentation. We have had our exit interview and will receive the feedback and once we have more details of anything we need to correct and how we plan to address it we will bring that information to the committee. Also we are due for our OLA(Office of Language Acquisition) tier review will be happening during the week of 12/16, which will include review of ELE program, parent outreach, and onsite reviews. This occurs every 6 years to ensure federal and state compliance. We also wanted to make you aware that The Supporting Arts and Cultural Vitality grant we applied for last year, this is a continuation grant, so there is additional money coming to us this year, we were awarded $7,225. The seven teachers that conducted a review last year using rubric provided by the Dept. of Ed, the work continues and they will now focus on any action plan and address any thing they think we need to improve. The goal is to ensure students have the opportunity to participate in art every year. ALICE training – The Middle High School will be a host site for the updated ALICE Training that is provided through Navigate 360. By being a host site we receive a couple of free seats for the training. Thank you SRO Brad McNamara for spear heading the district safety team to ensure training hear in Lunenburg. Upcoming Dates 12/18/24 School Committee Meeting 6:30 Middle High School 01/08/25 School Committee Meeting 6:30 Town Hall 12/5/24 PACSAL meeting 6 pm 12/5/24 Annual Tree Lighting at the Gazebo at 6 pm 12/23/24-01/02/25 Schools will be closed for Winter Break 9. Presentation –None 10. New Business Action ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 a. Winter Sports Report & Fees Kevin Bigelow and Susan Gilson discus money coming and the expenses that are all incorporated in our sports programs. We do not have official numbers yet for Winter sports b. Sizer & Parker Annual Reports Haven’t received the updated data Discussion c. LHS Master Schedule Development Mr. Santry gives a detailed summary of the scheduling process at the High School via Slide Presentation 11. Old Business Action a. FY 25 Quarterly Budget Report Dr. Gilson presented a report and explained the process of how it is created and how it tracks expenses, and how she identifies and remedies variances. b. Personnel Report Dr. Gilson shares the personnel report of new hires and resignations since the beginning of the year and discusses a few positions that have been difficult to fill. The report has been supplied to the committee c. Facility & Grounds Report Dr. Gilson shares an update on facilities in grounds projects in the district and has supplied the committee with the report. d. Keystone Update There is a quarterly and annual report in the school committees’ folder Ms. Archambault makes a motion to accept the FY25 quarterly budget, personnel report, facility and grounds report, and the Keystone update, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion, all approve. e. LMHS Student Activity Close out & Class Accounts Student activities accounts for the Middle School is proposing to close out the photography account with $1506, and the cross country track club with $3272.89, we would like to use the excess in the Science Olympiad account and GSA account to offset the stipends and resolve the deficit. After the accounts are cleared we are left with $682.03 which we would like to split between New, jazz and Washington DC Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to dissolve the accounts listed and use to clear up deficits and use leftover funds to split between new, jazz, and Washington DC. Ms. Archambault seconds the motion all approve. Work has been happening on our class accounts we can no close the class of 2001, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022. The class of 2003 ($19) and 2010 (5,135) do not want the funds and we would like to transfer them to a scholarship account totaling $5154. There is still work happening for the class of 2005, 2007, and 2015 they have been advised they need to move to close in January. Class of 2023 has 2 years to claim their money and they are aware. Ms. Archambault makes a motion to close 2001, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022 and to transfer $5,154 to scholarship, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve. Discussion f. Legislative Delegation Mr. Lehtinen shared that Representative Scarsdale, Kushmerek and Senator Cronin have been invited to the school committee meeting in December. Representative Scarsdale reports they are interested in private meeting and at the same time Mandy Gilman was also reaching out in trying to set up a meeting. For the meeting I also invited Dr. Burnham, Dr. Gilson, Mandy Gilman and the Select Board Chair. I believe the meeting went exceptionally well, it was more of a round table discussion fostering a productive discussions on key challenges facing the district, and we focused solely on Lunenburg Public School, not on Lune nburg as a whole. I do feel like it was an important step in opening up the communication and dialogue. The legislatures focused on understanding the challenges, so they are able to align the bills. We started talking about inflationary costs for the district, health care costs was number 1. Senator Cronin recommended a GIC (Group Insurance Commission), he said North Middlesex is changing over to a GIC. A GIC is able to negotiate and provide administrators with a high quality insurance options, there are lots of eastern districts that are using this. We also talked about transportation, Senator Cronin brought up potential options that could be a long term goal. We discussed unfunded mandates and how that affects the staff, we talked about mental health support, and we were encouraged to look into nonprofit options for some assistance. We discussed strategies to address immediate financial needs. We talked about trying to get Lunenburg back into smart growth. We discussed how some reimbursements for exa mple mental health, goes to the town not to the school, so there was mention of a bill that could potentially help the reimbursement would come directly to the school. The committee discusses topics and benefits of the meeting, however, we still need the push for public mandates and constituents having conversations to make change. ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 12. Reports Ms. Brzozoski reports the PACSAL met in November they had a great turn out at first meeting, we heard from Camp Starfish which is a New Hampshire based camp that offers a genuine camp experience for children that may experience behavioral or intellectual disabilities. They discussed the new IEP format, digital signatures all seem to be working well and Wilson training among staff. A brief commentary on the leadership building team for parents to provide input on the school calendar for next year. There was a Parents Rights night that was offered on zoom, which is also availabl e on the website. The next meeting is December 5 at 6 pm zoom only. LEAF met and discussed bylaws and planning timeline, incorporation and nonprofit status and set dates for future meetings. Mr. Beardmore Capital Planning met on Monday and discussed all items that have been proposed and polled member for high, medium, and low. Relative to the schools, the two items I think have the greatest support are the Primary School projects related to the playground and entry and parking design. The interim Town Manager spoke about his projection how the capital plan is likely to unfold from funding perspective. The projection is just above $1.1 million for capital plan, which is much lower than past years. We had a very good discussion at what we can look at to construct guidance around for a report at town meeting or advice to the select board around capital planning policies, along with post plan and how we can track projects to make sure they are actually happening. The next meeting is December 18. We will be interviewing for the Town Manager position on December 11 and 12, during executive session and hope to have a finalist. The HS Advisory will meet on Thursday the 12th at 3 pm, I cannot attend but I will meet separately with Mr. Santry and Ms. Tousignant to catch up on the outcome of the meeting Ms. Archambault Middle School Advisory will meet on Tuesday, Fin Com will meet next week. Master Planning is having difficulty reaching quorum, their last meeting I was not able to attend, it was not recorded and there are no minutes. PTO met on Monday and discussed the requests from the school, they have $20,000 and will be giving $5000 to each school. They will be meeting with the teachers that made requests and then making their decisions. The school calendar was discuss ed and recommends next year Christmas holiday to go to school on Monday and either a full day or half day on Tuesday and not to take the two weeks off. They will be holding a fundraiser for the movie Sonic 3 in Leominster on the 21st, they have sold 160 tickets and would like to sell 500, everyone is invited as long as they have a grown up with them. They are looking for sponsors for the Special Someone Dance on February 1. The committee is undecided if they will do the Railers fundraiser as we aren’t receiving any discount on ticket prices and last year our seats were scattered throughout. Mr. Lehtinen Myself, Ms. Brzozoski, Dr, Burnham and Dr. Gilson met with the secretaries union for the initial negotiation meeting and will be meeting with them again next Tuesday. Primary School is collecting b ooks to do a book swap and are looking for volunteers. Between the 23rd and the 10th they are looking to get library cards to all kids, the library will also be doing a scavenger hunt. The Turkey Trot went very well, they are trying something new, they are having breakfast now in the cafeteria instead of the classroom. On January 30 there will be parent teacher conferences via zoom and in person. Handbook layout was discussed and they were thinking about doing it differently however, there are concerns about consistency among all the schools. There is also concern that it is a large document, 54 pages, so to expect the parents to read all those pages and know where everything is, maybe add FAQ or hyperlink website. Also a recommendation of Lunenburg getting a website or a PR person to deal with all the website issues and to make the website better and more efficient. The school nurse is back. There was discussion of upgrading the boards in the classrooms to touch boards and those run about $2500 each. A full time custodian has been hired. Lunenburg Municipal Design Committee met with the architects and engineers over map layout of the center of town. Mostly focused on Ritter building and the town hall. There is concern for where PAC will go. We will be meeting on the 16th, the 6th and by the 3rd or 4th of February we will be done. 13. Public Comment- None 14. Topics for Future Discussion 15. Adjournment Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to adjourn at 9:19 Ms. Archambault seconds the motion all approve Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller