===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, June 5, 2024 Town Hall, Meeting Room Retiree Reception – 6:00 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: Time Santry –LMHS Principal, Carla Squier – THES Principal, Chad Adams – Primary School Principal Retirees: Kristine Bassett 32 years, Sarah Sabatini 32 years, Tim Normandin 31 years, Erinanne Burroughs 30 years, Mary Whita ker 24 years, Martha Sullivan 23 years In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this m eeting 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 Carol Archambault at 6:30 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment Mr. Beardmore thanks all appropriate parties in budgeting process and execution of the override votes. I was skeptic, but I was surprised and incredibly proud of our town. I hope this is a giant leap for the brand of Lunenbur g, to be a town that prioritize our children and education. I know there are a lot of people in Lunenburg that don’t agree with that, but we need to continue to work to make sure that the vision continues to become a reality 4. Chair’s Report Ms. Archambault congratulates our retirees for their service to the children and families of Lunenburg, it is greatly appreciated. To the Lunenburg High School class of 2024, the ceremony on Saturday was a reflection of you. Thank you to the high school administrators and staff for their preparation and to Mother Nature, for a glorious day, and we wish the graduates all is that good as they move forward. Representative Scarsdale has scheduled a regional meeting with DESE to discuss school budget issues. Mr. Waters and Dr. Gilman, Ms. Lemieux, Dr. Burnham and our school committee chair are invited to this meeting. It will be scheduled either July 12 or 19 at 9 am or 1, she is looking for availability, I will no longer be the chair at that point, but my thought is we reply that we will have someone available at that meeting. She is also requesting a brief overview of our school district with points that would be helpful to DESE . As the fiscal year draws to a close I feel it is important for the public to know that the superintendent and her team, despite the lack of a business manager have made sound fiscal decisions and our financial consultants tell us that we will close out the fiscal year strongly. We a re awaiting their final statements as they are awaiting confirmation through the town, difficulty with Munis, the town’s financial software has caused the fiscal year close out to be more challenging than normal, but we are looking Godward to a financial report at our June 26th meeting. 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. Review & Approve Minutes a. Regular Session 3/6/24 &3/27/24 – Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to approve minutes, Ms. Brzozoski seconded the motion, all approve 6. Review & Approve Warrants & Line Item Transfers a. Warrant Total 5/20/24 to 5/30/24 $244,162.63 Ms. Archambault has signed b. Line Item Transfer $76,336 Mr. Livingston our contracted financial consultant suggests a transfer of funds between lines based on reconciling accounts and open issues from FY 23 and FY 22 lingering open, grants that need to be reconciled and Munis issues have made this an even more challenging situation Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to approve line item transfers as listed, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve 7. Superintendent’s Report Our retirees this year, we had several, Kristine Bassett who has been with our district for 32 years Sarah Sabatini, 31 years with the district, Tim Normandin, 31 years with the district, Erinanne Buroughs 30 years with the district, Mary Whitaker, 24 years with the district, and Martha Sullivan, 23 years with the district. A report of plans for the retirees is shared. Also the last day of school is June 12 th and will be a half day, and we look forward to having everyone back in August. 8. Student Representative Report Tatum Furman reports the last day of school is June 12 th which is a half day for all schools. The Primary School had a second grade concert last night. Turkey Hill Elementary School field day was today and there is a third and fourth grade music concert on June 7th. The Lunenburg Middle School has a fairy tale dance coming up on June 7th. Mrs. LeBlanc’s 8th grade civics class took civics MCAS. Graduation for the 8th grade is on Wednesday June 12th at 8:20 a.m. At the Lunenburg High School we said goodbye to our seniors at graduation last week on Saturday June 1 st, it was a great day. Finals start tomorrow and go until Tuesday. 9. New Business Action a. FY25 School Handbooks All changes in the handbooks have been highlighted for review. The consistency throughout the handbooks for the school is appreciated. Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to approve the handbooks for FY25, Mr. Lehtinen seconded the motion, all approve b. 2024-20225 Parent- Teacher Conference Pilot Mr. Adams shares that at Turkey Hill, parent teacher conferences will be held in January, to occur after some i-ready testing and report cards have been sent out. Ms. Squier reports the Primary School will also hold parent teacher conferences in January. T he Middle High School has decided to keep their parent teacher conferences as scheduled in late October and not change them. All schools will offer zoom options, as well as welcome any parents/guardians to make appointments with us and do not have to wait until conferences if they want to meet with us sooner. Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to accept the changes at the Primary and Turkey Hill schedule of parent teacher conferences, Mr. Be ardmore seconds the motion, all approve. c. Unaffiliated Salary Schedule There are a handful of staff that are not in a particular bargaining unit, these are primary the extended day program staff. We generally bring a 3 year plan forward for i ncrease, however, with budget uncertainty, we are bringing a plan for just the next fiscal year. This represents a 2.5% increase. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to approve the increase, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion, all approve d. Hiring Screening Committee Appointment Our town accountant is resigning on August 4 th, we will need 1 school committee member to be on the screening committee, Mr. Beardmore volunteers. Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to appoint Mr. Beardmore, Mr. Lehtinen seconds the motion all approve e. Payroll Modification The town manager has sent an email to notify employees of a change in July for payroll, currently payroll is paid in advance however, based on some timing of overtime, this will change. The committee discuss concerns over the lack of notification timing, as some employees will go a week without a check and feel this is unacceptable. The members do not agree with this process of change. Dr. Burnham suggests we wait a few days to see what options the town comes up with to combat the difficulties of weeks without payment. Discussion f. LHS Activity Fees Dr. Burnham shares a presentation of fees that are charged at each school level with an explanation of what the fee covers. The committee agrees that even though they would rather not char ge fees, understand this is necessary, and would like a very transparent look into specifically the high school fees and what they actually pay for. ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 10. Old Business Action a. 2024-2025 School Calendar Revised The calendar is presented with changes to include parent teacher conference dates Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to accept revision for Primary and Turkey Hill Schools, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve b. AARPA Funds Mr. Beardmore reports we need to follow through on what was discussed at town meeting. We need to write a letter and send it to the select board re-appropriating the AARPA funds. Ms. Archambault will create and send letter. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to have Ms. Archambault send the letter, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve c. FY25 Budget Dr. Burnham shares a spreadsheet for the override budget line item details of expenses and salaries. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to reconsider the FY 25 budget, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve. Mr. Lehtinen makes a motion to approve the budget of $24,851,494 Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion, all approve. Discussion d. 2023-2024 SIP Progress Reports The committee is given the plans from each school as they are closing out the school year, there are no questions, thank you to the principals for all their work e. Topics for Delegation Bus bidding, state funding- inflation into chapter 70, millionaires tax. Ms. Archambault will be contacting Senator Cronin for an explanation of why the chapter 70 funds came out with $10,000 more. Any other topics, please forward to Ms. Archambault f. Assessment Report A slide show of spring i-Ready results are presented and discussed. 11. Public Comment Dr. Burnham thanks the administrators for staying throughout the entirety of the meeting and being available for any comments or questions. Ms. Archambault thanks Ms. Lorenzen for the nice snack assortment put out today. 12. Reports Mr. Lehtinen reports the Finance Committee met on 5/23, there was no special town meeting needed for the override, they were also looking for support on research and recommendations on collaboration of the town and school specifically with facilities, similar to what Mr. Beardmore talked about earlier today. They are looking for us to research and look for recommendations on how we can collaborate for the future. The town manager specifically mentioned about healthcare, the option for HAS and how that process will work. A rep from each of the unions will form a committee and vote on those changes, the town manager emphasized this would be a difficult process. Some of the committee member’s struggled with the ideas that the school is using excel for budgeting and again without a finance director. Even though many organizations use excel, once it does get to a certain level it does usually go into some other system, which then shows trends over time. Members are working on getting their term cycle back track, also frustrated with the minutes process in general for all committees and feel it’s out dated. Mr. Beardmore reports the Capital Planning Committee intended to continue our meetings through the winter to do a 5 year plus capital plan, however, a meeting was never called, as we were knee deep in budget, it is our intention to have a meeting next Monday, however, I haven’t received any notice or agenda to confirm that is happening. The high school advisory committee met several weeks ago, I have asked for further clarification from the vice principal at the high school is a potential new program involving work credit for some students, this is a new state program that can potentially target at ris k students and organize some sort of school credit around a program relating to part time jobs outside of school. The Athletic advisory committee has not met, but I have gotten some feedback from a couple of the booster club presidents that maybe we need to take another look at that policy around sports club fundraising and the athletic advisory program, as we have set up in our policy. A couple of the clubs have kicked off their spring/summer fundraising programs for fall sports and they ar e running them in different nature then previously, we aren’t selling baked goods or raffle tickets as much, now its text and web based appeals for funding, we aren’t getting the level of participation and compliance that we set out to get Ms. Archambault reports the master planning committee met, but I was unable to attend the meeting, as I was presenting senior awards, they are meeting Thursday night. ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 13. Topics for Future Discussion Next Wednesday will be the superintendent evaluation and reorganization of the committee On the 26th the meeting will be held remotely, Mr. Lehtinen will not be present Head specialist – discussion on concussions at next meeting 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 following at 9:44 p.m., Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion, all approve Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller