===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, November 20, 2024 6:30 – D132 LMHS - Hybrid 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: Mr. Michael- Ray Jeffreys – Lunenburg Municipal Design Committee Chair 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 Brian Lehtinen at 6:39 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Public Comment – Mr. Sculimbrene would like to thank the town for voting to support the warrant, which allowed for town investments to be invested pursuant to the prudent investor rule, I think that is a modernization step that needs to happen. It is something that will hopefully put the town on better financial footing and hopefully it will be good for the schools. Ms. Archambault would like to mention the Master Planning Committee is holding a town wide meeting on December 4 th at the Lunenburg library from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to continue the discussion of what direction we would like our community to move in. Also there is a third survey available on the town website and the superintendent has sent it home to all families 4. Chair’s Report Mr. Lehtinen reports we had a very successful town meeting. The town did pass the additional Chapter 70 funding to the school budget and the study was approved for the Brooks House. We also had a great presentation by Mr. Sculimbrene. The annual tree lighting is December 5th. I also want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and hopefully a successful winter tryouts for all sports athletes. 5. Student Representative’s Report - None 6. Review & Approve Minutes a. Regular Session 10/2/24 Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to approve minutes for 10/2/24, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion all approve 7. Review & Approve Warrants, Line Item Transfers, & Donations a. Warrants 11/5/24 to 11/15/24 $290,529.31 – Warrants have been signed Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 8. Superintendent’s Report Dr. Burnham reports the select board approved AARPA funds for the truck with plow and the middle high school safety window film. An update on the position of Director of Facilities, we have completed round 1 of interviews and round 2 will be starting tomorrow and we are hopeful to have the position filled after Thanksgiving. We had our school specific assessment forums for families on November 14 th, the meetings were not highly attended through zoom, however, they were recorded and posted on the district website on the main page under back to school. The Thanksgiving food drive to benefit the Lunenburg Food Pantry ends tomorrow, so if anyone was interested in contributing and hasn’t yet still has time, each school is collecting specific food items, so make sure to check the school website for the specific information. The 7th annual gift card drive that is organized by our Lunenburg Public School secretaries has kicked off. We have received gift card donations from members of our very generous community and thanks to all who contribute we have helped numerous families over the last six years, the collection with go through December 6 th, they can be dropped off an any of the schools, through the mail, or electronically to mbowen@lunenburgschools.net We welcome gift cards from Walmart, Target, Visa, Dollar Tree, grocery stores, anything that can be donated is greatly appreciated. I’d also like to offer wishes to everyone for a Happy Thanksgiving. Upcoming Dates December 2 – PTO Meeting LMHS 7 p.m. December 4th 6:30 Hybrid Town Hall School Committee Meeting December 5 – PACASAL meeting at 6 – support group via zoom December 5 – Annual Tree Lighting 6p.m. at the Gazebo December 18th 6:30 Hybrid LMHS School Committee Meeting December 23-January 1- All schools are closed for Winter Break 9. Presentation – LMBDC Update Mr. Michael – Ray Jeffries gives an update regarding the Lunenburg Municipal Building Design Committee work that they have been working through. He shares a history of the town of Lunenburg trying to resolve building concerns. Initially they were tasked with looking to repurpose TCP, after lots of research and working with architectural designs and updates, the pandemic we were hit with a price tag of close to $30 million, which about $14 million was for code upgrades. We then also had to make a plan for the Town Hall and the Ritter Building and also the Brooks House was all brought under one umbrella. We worked together as a committee to come up with three plans of what you can do with the buildings, three distinctively different concepts and ultimately came up with a 4th hybrid option. The select board endorsed it and that is where we are moving forward. Our concept is to be cost effective and how to maximize the usage of the municipal buildings. The vision for the town hall is to stay a town hall, but more like a meeting house, the vision is to remove what is now the town manager and HR office to get back to the original footprint to have a larger meeting room, the first floor would have three meeting rooms, the assessor’s office would become a smaller meeting room, the area that was the town clerk and copy room would become an additional meeting room. This would also provide an opportunity for groups that need to meet whether AA. AL anon etc., it provides community space. The Ritter building will become the primary location for the Lunenburg Public Schools, there is adequate space in the building to accommodate all of the current staff, future staff, and also the ACE program. The concept then would be to build a new town hall, which would be to th e right of the current building, this would be an administrative building. We preserve TC Passios for another day. We would keep this on the horizon as we recognize it’s the central location of our school district, we recognize a potential need for more sports fields, and also the conversations of the Turkey Hill Building. The LMBDC previously recognized that Turkey Hill would make a wonderful community center, it is well located on a separate parcel with separate entrances and egresses. The committee discusses ideas in relation to the district being “campus like” vs spread out around the town. Sharing support for the committee to move forward and get the projects done…to keep moving forward. 10. New Business Discussion a. Student Competency Determinations An update to the committee on the impact of the vote to eliminate MCAS as a requirement to graduate. We are awaiting additional guidance from the state regarding any impacts this decision will have. The committee along with Dr. Bookis discus the MCAS. MCAS are not optional, students must participate in the exam, and the change is that a required passing score to graduate high school. A discussion of how we maintain receiving the data to make sure we continuing to improve, and will students continue to give the test the same participation effort if it is no longer required b. Cell Phone Policy The committee discusses cell phones in school, use in classes. Mr. Sculimbrene reached out to many different resources and community members regarding thoughts and concerns on the cell phone in schools. Is there a centralized policy or is by classroom. Are there different rules for different grades? Zero tolerance policies ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 in classes, but allowed during recess/lunch etc. Parents wanting to be able to contact students in case of emergencies. Surveying the teachers was brought up as an option, as is it a “problem” in their classrooms, surveying administration, students, and parents. c. 2025-2026 School Calendar A draft of the calendar is brought forward, we are still in the process of gathering input from many different groups, if anyone has suggestions or concerns with the calendar please reach out to your schools. One of the conversations is our winter break and possibly having a two week break, bringing up concerns for those special education students being out of school can result in learning loss, our food insecurity students, this is a long time to be without food, along with our mental health students and having the access to our counselors. d. Topics for Delegation Mr. Lehtinen has reached out to representatives and the senator, representative Scarsdale got back to me and would like to have the delegation do a private meeting to start before we do a public me eting, they believe they would be able to get more done and have conversations about potential options, constraints and insight. I invited the chair of the select board as well as Mandy, who has been very involved. I wanted to put this out for everyone to brainstorm their thoughts so I could bring them forward to Representative Scarsdale. Mr. Beardmore is not in favor of a private meeting at this point, we need this brought forward publicly and the more public we can be the more we can speak face to face. We have offered many times for them to meet with us and it’s time for them to be in the public. Mr. Sculimbrene says take any opportunity you can to meet with them. Mr. Sculimbrene wants them to focus giving us some indication that they will fix the problem we are all having with busing cost increases, these increases are going to make it impossible for us to operate. Ms. Archambault agrees meet with them with any means possible, however, echoes Mr. Beardmore, they need to come and meet with us public ly. They need to straighten out the Chapter 70 funding. They need to stop making mandates that they do not fund. We need more help either through the community or the schools and getting mental health help faster. Food insecurity is so huge, we need school food to continue to be free and anything else they can do throughout the Commonwealth to give people food. Health Insurance assistance, and help or insight they can give on the large increases in health insurance costs. Ms. Brzozoski speaks about Chapter 70 inflation adjustment, also the current focus on the electric busses, however, that is not helping us now. Rep Scarsdale really focused on regional schools, and that does not help us specifically. Mr. Beardmore says we need to apply pressure, and we keep an open invitation on each agenda for delegation to attend our meetings. Mr. Sculimbrene would like the opinions of the delegates, first, what happens if the Department of Education seeks the legislative repeal of title one because that would have tremendous impacts on us, our kids, and the school district. What would happen if they seek the legislative repeal of Title 9? Likely the head of the Department of Education and the audience she will be are not the people that understand how the funding mechanisms work and how the laws work, we need to be prepared that if that happens our only other protection is the state of Massachusetts and I don’t think they are going to be able to have any policy commitments, but I think they need to be aware that local towns and school boards are concerned about this. 11. Reports Ms. Brzozoski attended the Massachusetts Association of School Committee Annual Conference there were approximately 850 people in attendance on the cape. They had a keynote speech by Tim Shriver, he talked about dignity the foundation of a new patriotism If you are interested in it you can google the Dignity Index. Also attended School and Municipal Collaboration Supporting Common Goals which discussed informal vs formal governments. Th ere were discussions of how other towns worked together to save money, whether DPW took over some of the town or school tasks, school bus leasing options, and budget task forces. Collaboration between school committees and superintendents and how culture is set by the interaction communication relationship and trust and it is a common goal working together. Making sure the school committee has the most amount of information is important. We are very lucky to have Dr. Gilson, tons of school districts are trying to hire a Finance Director. I also wanted to take a moment to appreciate our SRO’s because in talking to other districts, I didn’t realize how blessed we are to have the SRO’s we have, it is really a fine line to walk, it comes down to relationship and the culture of the town’s police department and the school. Every district is having the same issues with bussing and increased costs. Mr. Beardmore reports the Capital Planning Committee has not met yet, is scheduled to meet on 12/2 we will be consi dering all of the proposals that have been made to all of the departments. One topic I am going to recommend that we remove the items that have been funded by AARPA. My preference would be to remove the truck and plow and the window film for the middle high school. The Town Manager Selection Committee met in executive session on Monday night this week and will be meeting on December 11 and 12th to conduct interviews and hopefully report out finalists for consideration to the select board. Ms. Archambault The Master Plan Steering Committee met on November 14 th, I was unable to attend and the minutes aren’t available and the meeting was not recorded. However, I did receive a spreadsheet from the consultant to put my personal thoughts of critical needs of the community and the school, I do not feel comfortable doing this on my own and instead ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 would like the input from the committee, if you could fill this out and get it back to me by December 2 nd so I can bring forward at the next meeting on December 4th Mr. Sculimbrene reports the Budget Task Force gave a very brief presentation at Special Town Meeting on Monday about ideas we have on the table for recommendations to other Town committees and a request for help. We then met on Monday and discussed a bunch of different solutions, we went through a punch list that we generated throughout the process in anticipation of writing a very brief summary of the budget task force finding and our recommendations. One of the things we considered and talked about extensively was community preservation and funding. Mr. Lehtinen reports the LBDC presented at special town meeting. We also met on Monday to go over questions we wanted to ask to the one candidate for the interview we had tonight before this meeting. The Primary School will meet on Monday 12. Public Comment - None 13. Topics for Future Discussion 14. Adjournment Ms. Brzozoski makes a motion to adjourn at 9:31, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion all approve Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller