===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, October 2, 2024 6:30 – Hybrid – Town Hall School Committee Superintendent Brian Lehtinen, Chair - Present Dr. Kate Burnham Anthony Sculimbrene, Vice Chair - Present Carol Archambault, Secretary - Present Peter Beardmore, Member - Present Laura Brzozoski, Member - Present Recording Secretary Courtney Fuller Guests: Lynn Radford – World Language Teacher, Lt. Thibodeau – Lunenburg Police Dept 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 for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law 1. Call to Order by Mr. Lehtinen at 6:30 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment Ms. Archambault Mr. Passios had his last meeting with the Finance Committee last week. I want to thank him for his service to the town in all the different ways he has helped. I wish him the very best as he pursues the new adventure. Ms. Brzozoski I wanted to make a shout out at the top of the meeting that the Lunenburg PACSAL, which is the Parents Advisory Council Supporting All Learners, this is for parents for children on IEPs or 504s there is a meeting tomorrow night October 3, at 6 p.m. in the Middle School Project room. Mr. Beardmore Echoes’ the comments regarding Mr. Passios, Dave and I frequently disagreed but it is always good conversation, he makes you think. He did remind me that the Green Community Committee does not have a residency requirement and he is not really going anywhere. During our last meeting I did recognize the football cheer leaders, who continue to do an extraordinary job. I wanted to take a moment to recognize the Lunenburg High School band, and to quote the football announcer “is a small but mighty organization” They are a small band or outstanding musicians and are really courageous bunch to go out there and take the field at our home football games, thank you and congratulations. 4. Chair’s Report The Chair reports Representative Scarsdale reached out, she has a follow up zoom meeting planned of the coalition that we had from our meeting, this is going to be a larger coalition to look at revamping the Chapter 70 funding formula, and it is Tuesday October 8. I will be in attendance. There has been some talk on social media about the Snack Shack that has definitely been an issue that has been covered in the past. In early February this was part of our meeting an d district policies, you can look at 3701.03 which is in regards to snack shack and is covered on our website under Food Services page under the policies and procedures. You can also look at the Nashoba Board of Health, which is in charge of the food safety, the district has made many investments and improvement to the snack shack and also there has been a lot of support through the boosters especially the King Family. You can reach out to the Superintendent, the High School Principal, as well as the PTO. If anyone is looking for Lunenburg gear, the PTO is selling some Lunenburg merch, Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 sweatshirts, sweat pants etc., you have to order by October 18 th and it supports the PTO, Lunenburg schools and students. You can find the Lunenburg PTO website by googling it. I also wanted to give a shout ou t to Dave Passios, who is moving to New Hampshire, I did serve on the TC Passios Design Committee with him as well as the Capital Planning Committee, he was a strong presence at the school committee meetings and town meetings, always appreciated his feedba ck and dedication to the town. He is also being awarded the Lunenburg Alumni Award on October 20 at the alumni reunion banquet, there are four days left to register. There will also be a table at homecoming, their email address in lunenburgalumni@gmail.com. I also reached out to the DPW director in regards to a public comment about the trucks. Mr. Bernard responded and the response was read out loud 5. Student Representative’s Report Tatum Furman reports the district has no school on October 14th. The yearbooks are available to order for the Lunenburg Middle High School and lunches are free for the 24/25 school year for the district. The college reps have started visiting at the High School. The Fall athletics are in full swing for both high school and middle school. The PSAT registration is now open for 10 th and 11th graders. There is a meeting on October 8 about the Washington DC trip for the 8th graders. There was a Western Dance last Friday September 27th for middle school. Turkey Hill have started penny wars this Monday. Natures Classroom for the 5 th graders is from October 8 to October 11. The Primary School world smile day is October 4, students are encouraged to wear smiley faces to school that day. 6. Review and Approve Minutes a. Regular Sessions 8/16/24 & 9/4/24 Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to approve minutes for 8/16/24 & 9/4/24, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion all approve 7. Review and Approve Line Item Transfers, Warrants & Donations a. 9/16/24-09/28/24 $224,314.51 No line item transfers, warrants have been signed. 8. Superintendent’s Report I would like to announce that our Director of Facilities and grounds Mr. Hevy has given his notice that he will be leaving Lunenburg. We have reached out to previous applicants and the position has been posted. We will be looking to fill this critical position as quickly as possible. I would like to thank Mr. Hevy for all the good work he has d one for Lunenburg over the last year with us. The administration is grateful for all of his efforts attending to multiple urgent and competing priorities over the last year. Upcoming Dates PACSAL Meeting October 3, LMHS at 6 p.m. PTO next Monday 7 p.m. LMHS School Committee Meeting October 16 6:30 Hybrid LMHS October 14th All Schools and offices are closed October 22 LMHS afternoon conferences October 24 LHMS evening conferences October 22 ½ day for LMHS only October 19 Homecoming, the float Parade will leave Turkey Hill at noon, the theme is Disney, the Lions Club will hold their annual cookout immediately following the parade. Our football game against Clinton begins at 1:30 9. Presentation Police SRO & Comfort Dog Lieutenant Thibodeau, introduces our second SRO Officer Kam Munroe, he will work a lot with the younger kids at Primary School and Turkey Hill. A presentation on our comfort dog Hank, Mr. McNamara volunteers Hank to the district but he is moving toward retirement age, he is almost 9, he still loves coming to work, but their will come a time where Hank will not want to be around all the kids all the time, and at that time he will stop working. Discussion is held with the committee, thanking Hank and Officer McNamara and the benefits the school receives having Hank. We are very lucky to be able to have two SRO’s. 10. New Business Action a. LEAF Representative Nomination Ms. Brzozoski volunteers to be part of the LEAF. Ms. Archambault makes a motion to nominate Ms, Brzozoski as the school committee representative for LEAF , Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion, all approve Discussion b. TCP Mr. Lehtinen reached out to the interim Town Manager after hearing at the Finance committee that there was a $90,000 debt for the building. There is a memo from the interim Town Manager in the folders of the school ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 committee members. The committee has a discussion regarding the response and TCP building. Mr. Sculimbrene explains the building is in such bad shape, it is not suitable to meet our needs, the Brooks House is also in bad shape and small, I think we need to tell the town it is your building do what you want with it. Ms. Brzozoski agrees we should not have staff or students in TCP building. Mr. Beardmore shares we really need to start having conversations of alternatives of locations we can use instead of TCP. Ms. Archambault thanks Mr. Lehtinen for going to the interim Town Manager and receiving some clarification and agrees we need to work on a way to get out of this building. Dr. Burnham shares a move to Turkey Hill cannot happen at this time due to t here are not phones in every classroom, however it is part of the 911 upgrade. Once the lines are installed and phones are set up, Turkey Hill would be an option, however, it’s not ideal that Central Office be in the school, as it’s not possible to have i t separated from the school, as we have people in and out every day all day. But we can explore options if that’s what the committee wants. If ACE moves, our Special Services need to go with them which holds 3 people, but also we collaborate daily with everyone in the offices. Mr. Lehtinen shares we need to be working on a way to get out of TCP, and leave it to the Superintendent to know her staffing and space needs. 11. Old Business Action a. Spain Trip Update Ms. Radford is asking the committee to be flexible with the dates of our trip. The company we are using separates the airfare billing to be as accurate as possible for families. Well this year the airfare has gone up significantly, however if we leave a day earlier, to leave on April 16 th which is a Thursday and a night departure and returning on April 24th, so students would miss the Friday prior to April vacation. This would be approximately a $350 savings Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to approve the change, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, Mr. Beardmore abstains, the motion is approved. b. Facilities and Grounds Report A report is provided to the committee in their folder. Dr. Gilson shares where they are at in the process of Turkey Hill ADA compliance work Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to accept the report, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the report, motion is approved c. Third Read Policies – Facility Policies, Concussion policy, Chapter 766 Ms. Peterson confirms there has been no feedback on any of the policies. The committee members take turns reading out loud each policy. Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to approve policies 1408, 5717, 3503, 3506, 3503.02, 3501.01, 3501, & 3503.01, Mr. Beardm ore seconds the motion all approve. Discussion d. FY26 Budget Priorities Dr. Burnham is looking to initiate conversation amongst the committee as we will be digging into FY 26 Budget soon and looking to see what your priorities are. Ms. Archambault believes curriculums and instruction needs to still be our driving force, and I would not recommend any kind of cuts in the area of curriculum instruction. Mr. Sculimbrene would like to see more BCBAs in a way to stabilize a cost, Dr. Burnham shares at this time the two we have, we believe is supporting the students needs as of now. Mr. Beardmore also shares we haven’t seen any reports on MCAS scores and what our perspective of our overall approach, are we looking at needs based, vs level services etc. Ms. Brzozoski shares she doesn’t want to cut, but we don’t know what our budget is looking like for next year, however, we are the same board, and also our community made it very clear last year, what their priorities are. Mr. Lehtinen also thinks it’s very important we have discussions with the finance committee. e. FY26 Budget – Health Care Mr. Sculimbrene reports at the Budget Task Force meeting and Mr. Watters did a presentation on a comparison of our town and Maynard, and the question came up as to why is the heal th care part of the school budget if it is town wide. So would it be better to take that chunk out of our budget and give it to the town, as we have not control or say over those numbers. This would allow the school committee to get their budget in earlier. The committee discusses positive and negative impacts of removing the health care expense from the school budget and also suggesting other town departments add the health care into their budget, and we will be able to compare on a more “apples to apples” basis. Proposal was made a presented to the Finance Committee on a high deductible health care plan that is in process and sent to the Interim Town Manager. Mr. Sculimbrene will bring this topic up at the next Budget Task Force meeting. f. SC Goals Mr. Lehtinen created a document on goals and feedback, and sent them to the superintendent, these have been added to the folder for review. Ms. Archambault felt as though there were many areas where we were overstepping our charge, as we have to stay out of day to day operations. The committee discusses and revises their goals. ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 12. Reports Ms. Brzozoski reports the Turkey Hill Elementary School met on 9/23, the door is being replaced, the film is on, except we are waiting for few cracked windows to be replaced first. The phone replacement project was given the “ok’ for the 911 compatibility. Natures Classroom is leaving next week. Mr. Beardmore The High School Advisory met last Thursday, it was very brief, Mr. Santry requested some feedback relating to the school improvement plan, I did reply via email. The Town manager screening committee will be meeting on Monday, we will review the community profile that is being drafted by the consulting firm, Community Paradigm Associates, they are completing interviews with department heads this week and other stakeholders. The Capital Planning committee will meet next Wednesday. Ms. Archambault reports the Middle School Council met on September 24, they had a great start to the year, they have a very big 6th grade class. They have had a lot of turn around due to budget cuts and bumping positions but it has been a successful start to the year and everyone is working their way through it. We also looked at the school improvement plan and will be getting back to Mr. Santry on that. They talked a bit about the ALICE plan is changing to ALERT and it is an updated drill and we will learn more about that through the year, the next meeting is on October 15. FinCom met on the 26 th of September, there are two vacancies now, if anyone is interested, it is a great place to learn about the town. They will be voting on recommendations for Special Town meeting warrant by October 13 th. There was a discussion of the proposed financial plan which led to discussion on how the town barely scraped by last year and Mr. Watters mentioned overrides would probably be needed again this year. There are personnel issues all over town, as far as low pay goes, the Budget Task Forces is looking into that. There was discussion about a budget presentation template but it was not completes. MART update, they currently give rides for a few miles with different prices, because of the closure of Nashoba, they will now transport to Emerson, and it will have a fee, but very great. Possible split tax rate discussion, this would benefit residents but increase commercial rates, including farms. There was the discussion on consolidation of town departments and the Special Town meeting is at 5 p.m. on November 12th. Mr. Sculimbrene reports the Budget Task Force had a presentation this week by Mr. Beardmore, we talked a lot about capital planning process, and possible reform, including mandating Town Manager to produce a fiscal forecast. We are asked for spending priorities but are not aware of the amount we can spend. Carter pointed out was one of the problems we have is we have to mail out warrants via mail, which takes time and expensive, it costs $2,000-$5,000 a year. Also making proposals to Municipal Design and Capital Planning Committees, about having project funds matched or anticipate inflation. We are also going to be making a presentation at special town meeting. Mr. Lehtinen The Primary school met on September 23, open house went well, opportunities for parents and stu dents to have choices and move around the building, gym wasn’t accessible due to picture day, they are looking for Paras, substitutes, and the nurse is out until November 23. They went through the testing and are now looking to give the necessary supports for the students. They also did a staff survey on culture and they are going to survey the parents as well. The Lunenburg Municipal Building Design Committee met on September 23, will continue to meet on first and third Mondays on a more consistent basis. The RFP was finalized and should be going out shortly. 13. Public Comment None 14. Topics for Future Discussion Discussion to repair or replace Turkey Hill with presentation by Mr. Anthony Sculimbrene Sr. 15. Executive Session – to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with nonunion personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel 16. Adjournment Ms. Sculimbrene makes a motion at 10:03 to enter executive session and adjourn immediately following, Ms. Brzozoski seconds the motion all approve Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller