===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, April 10, 2024 LMS Collab Room #D 132 6:30 - Hybrid School Committee Superintendent Carol Archambault, Chair - Present Dr. Kate Burnham Brian Lehtinen, Vice Chair - Present Business Manager/ HR Director Anthony Sculimbrene, Secretary - Present 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 6:31 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment Peggy Proctor, 141 Gilchrest St. Thank you for all your work, sometimes we forget the committees are volunteers. I’d like to speak toward the unintended consequences to not fully funding schools. People are wearing too many hats and moving toward burn out. Also with cutting classes in LHS it is hard to fit into the classes and needed an all call for more desks. Also our maintenance, not in regards to our head custodian at all, she is also wearing many hats, we know she is doing the best she can with what she has available, our building is very unkept, the floors are not swept or mopped, we have teachers cleaning toilets, we have students complaining bathrooms have no soap or paper towels, complaints that the locker room smells really bad, again I say this not as a criticism of Renee, but an unintended consequence of not fully funding the schools. 4. Chair’s Report In interest of partnering with state legislation, the original date of May1st is not workable, so we will work on a new date. I ask that the committee members please come prepared with topics and date options to the next meeting. Representative Scarsdale would appreciate the ideas. Thank you to Representative Kushmerek for the opportunity to discuss funding on the Kushmerek FATV, this will also be available on the Lunenburg public access. I also take this opportunity to thank PAC 5. Review & Approve Minutes a. Regular Session 2/7/24 – Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to approve minutes, Mr. Sculimbrene seconded the motion, roll call vote approved by Ms. Archambault, Mr. Lehtinen, Mr. Sculimbrene, and Ms. Brzozoski, with Mr. Beardmore abstaining 6. Review & Approve Warrants & Line Item Transfers a. Warrant Total 3/26 to 4/8/24 $244,434.12 – No questions, Ms. Archambault has signed warrants Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 7. Superintendent’s Report We have received 777 transportation forms, the deadline is May 1st at 5 pm. Extended day summer, early learning center, and extended day before and after school registration are all done online. Our students safel y navigated the eclipse, we had lots of absences and dismissals. Upcoming Dates 4/12 Early Release for students 4/15 Offices are closed 4/15-4/19 April Vacation 5/4 Annual town meeting at 9am childcare is available along with bagged lunches for $7 - Thank you to our students, Mrs. Sabatini, Student Council Advisor 8. Student Representative Report -None 9. Old Business Action a. Override – Communication Mr. Sculimbrene drafted a letter for our communication, Mr. Beardmore wants to make sure we are very clear when it comes to positions, what will and will not be funded. Our staff already spend money from their own pockets and now our budget lines are being cut even more, we may be looking at a possible loss of achievement. Mr. Lehtinen states it’s a good start, I like the idea of a subcommittee. Our line items are bare bones, we want to talk about what the override gets us vs what the schools will be like if the override is not approved Ms. Archambault agrees this information is needed, but we also need to make sure it short and concise as people are unlikely to read lengthy documents. This is specifically for the school not for the whole town Mandy Gilman, 186 Reservoir Rd, just an update for the public we are meeting tomorrow night at 8 pm via zoom to discuss campaign strategies for supporting the override, anyone that wants to join the information is on our Facebook page. I am also the VP of the PTO, and the PTO endorses the override, so we will be sharing that information and we are working on social media posts, so people can share their support for the override. Discussion b. 766 School Approval Dr. Burnham shares a brief update, our director of special services has reached out, however, we haven’t received any response yet. c. Superintendent Evaluation In your sub folder you have progress notes and progress strategies. We have been working to provide artifacts and links under the goals. My team is working to make sure all links are working and accessible. We are still working on final annotations and superintendent rubric. Dr. Burnham shares her screen and shows the work she has been doing and explanations of strategies and rubric d. Strategy Action Plans Progress Update Dr. Burnham shares this is a work in progress. We have spent a lot of time on the budget process. However, we have still been focused on our goals. We are getting down to the core values, revisiting them and defining/revising to make sure they are reflective of what we believe. We have been engaging in this work using contracted facilitators in the past. Mr. Beardmore asks if we are to assume we will not have a facilitator and just make a plan, is this something we can facilitate ourselves. Dr. Burnham’s concern is if the override does not pass, we will be jumping right into the budget for FY 26 right at the end of May and this is something that takes a lot of time and energy to do. Mr. Sculimbrene shares a thought on a subcommittee to include staff, parents, a school committee member, admin, and students. Mr. Lehtinen agrees with having a subcommittee and having the stakeholders involved, but is also flexible with the timeline. Ms. Archambault suggest this come back as a topic in September Family Engagement – we have a strong team working on this and working on defining “what is family school partnership” and what is everyone’s role in student’s education, including the student’s role. We will have a presentation later in May e. School Committee Goals Our first goal was budget – We have had effort and we were collaborating with superintendent and making priorities known. The benchmark has not yet been met, but we got the best we could. Second goal is policy, to update and approve policies to be put into practice in the areas of e quity, family engagement, and athletic head injury. Dr. Burnham shares she had a conversation with the trainer and he will be working on consults and looking for a physician that may be available for a school committee meeting for a Q &A session. Third is communication which in general we have been very transparent, we have our minutes and PAC videos. ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 10. New Business Action, a. Math Adoption Mrs. Scott explains that with we have been piloting different math curriculums for grades 6-8. Mrs. Scott shares a presentation sharing the process of new math curriculums and ultimately Ed Gems has been chosen. This is 100% digital the best choice is a 3 year digital subscription and 1 time purchase of text books. This will be paid for primarily with grant money. We won’t be purchasing workbooks as we can pri nt those. Mr. Beardmore asks if this is an upfront cost and then recurring and also was this decision made by a consensus of all math teachers, Special Ed and math specialist? Dr. Burnham states it is an upfront cost to purchase and then will renew in 3 years. The teachers’ were allowed to make choices along the way and ultimately the teachers unanimously chose Ed Gems. Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to accept the curriculum change for grades 6-8, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion. All approve b. Donation Gail Okerman from the Middle School guidance department was invited by Sharon Kimball to attend a service at United Good Parish in Lunenburg to receive 10 comfort blankets to be distributed to the schools equitably Mr. Sculimbrene made a motion to accept the donation, Mr. Beardmore seconded the motion, all approve 11. Public Comment – None 12. Reports Mr. Lehtinen reports the Finance committee met on April 4 th they reviewed article 8 which is the number of the override. They voted to recommend the override with 1 absence. Ms. Archambault reports the Middle School met on March 26 th congratulations to the Science Olympiad team, they came in 6th in the state. Lots of testing happens in the spring, specifically the eighth grade will have done 4 MCAS, 1 I-ready, plus NEEP testing. They have 94 students going to DC on May 21 st and also Spring sports have begun, we have 130 on Middle School teams and 77 on High School teams. They are looking to spend $20,000 in Artist in Residence program. The Select Board gave the Cultural Council the AARPA funds for this program, however, the person spearheading this project has resigned. Mrs. Scott is helping schools find appropriate artists to come into each school. Mrs. Scott shares the tentative plans for Brett Bataclan for Turkey Hill and the Primary School each for one day, he will do a presentation on kindness and then does a lesson. The Middle School will have a Mosaic artist. The High School is going to have a hip hop artist will hav e social/emotional and dance presentation. The Master Planning Steering Committee met last Friday and had a conversation on outdoor gathering spaces all surrounding the 300th Anniversary, the select board chair suggested the Northfield Rd property, we also spoke about the next survey going out by the consultant, however we asked to see the goals before the survey goes out. The next public meeting will be on 5/30 at Smokehouse Roasters going over goals. We also have a 4’X 8’ topographical street map of Lunenburg, we need to find a place to put it, and currently the Library does not have space. 13. Topics for Future Discussion Athletic Report 14. Executive Session – to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares 15. Adjournment Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to enter executive session and adjourn immediately after at 8:57 , Mr. Sculimbrene seconds the motion all approve. Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller