===PAGE 1=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 MEETING MINUTES SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, December 18, 2024 6:30 – 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: Dr. Susan Gilson – Director of Administration & Finance, Nadine Lorenzen – Food Service Director 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 6:30p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Executive Session – to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel Ms. Archambault makes a motion at 6:35 to enter executive session, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion, all agree via roll call vote Mr. Lehtinen, Ms. Archambault, and Ms. Brzozoski, (Mr. Sculimbrene was not present at this time). – committee returns at 6:45 4. Public Comment –Mr Beardmore would like to congratulate and thank Mr. Sculimbrene, Dr. Burnham, and Dr. Gilson for their great work on the budget task force team, which Mr. Sculimbrene reported last night at the Select Board meeting. This turned into an hour and half of a fairly extensive conversation. You beat my record for standing up at the podium. I think that all the recommendations, while I don’t agree with all of them, I do think that they are all things that should be pursued in part of a narrative to driving greater fiscal leadership and responsibility in Lunenburg. All that being said I think we als o need to keep our eye on the ball, which is, we have a number of things that need to move forward over the course of the coming years including dealing with the turf field, dealing with Turkey Hill, and dealing with Town Offices, all of which are going to need support of the voters, and now if we are adding a CPA and a number of other things like that, this is an awful lot for us to have to articulate, campaign and build consensus around. Finally in terms of the budget issue, the big issue around inflation and proposition 2 ½, the delta between the two, while there are a lot of things that were discussed last night that can have an impact the game, is still Chapter 70. When you run a $25 million budget and $10 million of that comes from the state and it does not expand at the same rate as the rest of your budget. The town has to pick up the state’s share and we need to continue to demand leadership from our legislators and our other state stakeholder organizations to make that case and right that wrong. 5. Chair’s Report I have an update on the MSBA, they have announced the statement of interest for the 2025 core and accelerated repairs program will be open (ARP) on Monday January 13, 2025 at 10 am, some key updates, the core program focused on new construction additions and major renovations and the deadline is April 11th, 2025. The ARP now includes heat pump conversions alongside roof, window, and door repairs to align with Massachusetts Net Zero carbon emission goals. Starting in 2025 ARP will be accepted bi-annually with the next deadline Friday March 2, 2025. Some important Lunenburg Public Schools Dr. Kate Burnham, Superintendent of Schools ===PAGE 2=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 changes, there is a template update, therefore districts reusing prior SOI’s must review changes that may impact response submission requirements. Supporting materials must be uploaded online, hard copies are no lo nger accepted. Additional guidance and details may be found on the MSBA website. The finance committee chair reached out and was looking to talk about how we execute budget season, given the transition with the new selected town manager and a lot of new players this year. They have a meeting tomorrow with the budget task force. The Scarsdale 211 had a meeting on Friday the 12 th, but it was a smaller group, so I am waiting for updates on that. Also in our folder I shared an article on North Middlesex, that they are closing two of their schools. North Middlesex is Ashby, Townsend, and Pepperell, they are closing they only school in Ashby and they are closing Spaulding Elementary in Townsend. I think this is a warming when you see towns are not passing overrides, some of the consequences that we are going to see. An update on Social Security that affects a lot of our staff, the Senate voted today to take the next step to advance the measure on Social Security Fairness Act, the House had already passed it in November, it is a bill aiming to repeal two provisions that reduce social security benefits for public sector workers who also receive pensions. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Boxing Day and anything else you may celebrate. 6. Student Representative’s Report None 7. Review & Approve Minutes a. Regular Session 11/20/24 Ms. Archambault makes a motion to approve the minutes, Mr. Sculimbrene seconds the motion all approve via roll call vote. 8. Review & Approve Warrants, Line Item Transfers, & Donations a. Warrants 12/3/24 to 12/13/24 $217,821.91 – Warrants have been signed b. Donations A check from the PTO for $3420 as a result of the request of funds the PTO does, this will be deposited into the gift account at Turkey Hill. A donation from Hannaford helps in the amount of $365 will be deposited into the Lunenburg Middle School gift account. We have a check in the amount of $410 also from Hannaford Helps that will be deposited into the gift account at the Primary School and will be used to support future field trips. Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to accept all three donations with gra titude, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve via roll call vote. c. Line Item Transfers The technology department has requested to transfer $1,279.60 from the computer maintenance repair system, they purchased screens to replace for student laptop s and the money is supposed to come from Lost Books and Technology revolving account and didn’t have enough money to process. Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to approve the line item transfer as described, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion all approve via roll call vote. 9. Superintendent’s Report An update on the Director of Facilities and Grounds, we have been reviewing applicants and we will be conducting an interview tomorrow. An update on the annual gift card drive, a great big thank you to all the generous members of our community who donated. This year we received $6,700 donated gift cards. Thank you to all the donators and to our secretaries for their efforts to make this happen. We also had a donation of Christmas trees, we were contacted b y Hollis Hills and they were looking to donate 50 trees to families in need. Recently Mr. Santry received a letter from NEASC, as we continue this ongoing process, I did add a copy of the letter into the committees folder. They have asked us to let them know of any changes in staffing levels as we are obligated to notify them within 60 days. MSBA will be hosting a webinar for the superintendents to go over the ins and outs of the upcoming cycle, Dr. Gilson and I will attend that meeting. Upcoming Dates December 23 – January 2 Schools are closed for winter break January 8, 2025 School Committee Meeting Hybrid Town Hall 6:30 January 22, 2025 School Committee Meeting Hybrid LMHS 6:30 We wish everyone in the community a healthy happy holiday season. 10. Presentation –None 11. New Business Action a. School Food Service Administrative Review Ms. Nadine Lorenzen shares the information on the review that was recently conducted and the corrective action plan that she has put together. Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to approve the report for School Food Services, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve via roll call. ===PAGE 3=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 b. FY24 End of Year Report In your folder is a report, this report was done by our contracted Financial Consultants that we worked with last year, and if you have any questions that we cannot answer we will contact them and get back to you. This will be posted and available to the public. Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to accept the report, Ms. Archambault seconds the report, all approve via roll call. 12. Old Business Action a. Secretaries Memorandum of Understanding Recently we engaged with the secretaries association for their next contract that will begin July 1, 2025. Mr. Lehtinen shares that he and Ms. Brzozoski were on the negotiation committee, it is a 3 year contract with bereavement leave the same as the teachers got in their contract. This also included a sick day buy back this will allow us to get notified ahead of time if a secretary is retiring and we can plan for their replacement, we also added a step 7 in the 2 nd year and step 8 in the 3rd year. COLA percentages were 4% each year. Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to approve as proposed, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve via roll call vote. b. Winter Athletics Report The committee is provided with updated current number for the winter season Mr. Beardmore makes a motion to accept the winter athletics report, Ms. Archambault seconds the motion, all approve (no longer roll call vote, Ms. Brzozoski has left the meeting) Discussion c. LMHS Activity Fees Dr. Gilson and Mr. Santry share a presentation regarding the activity fees, and will also mirror what we have been talking about and our continuing balance with athletics, which is money coming in does not equal money going out. d. Legislative Delegation Mr. Lehtinen reports he reached out to the Select board Chair and he is planning to have a legislative public meeting after the New Year, there is no date set yet. e. School Committee Resolutions Mr. Lehtinen put some potential resolutions into the committees’ folder that come from the MASC. This Lunenburg School Committee has had resolutions in the past and has also revised MASC resolutions, so before I drafted a bunch I wanted have a sense of what the committee is looking for. The committee discusses unfunded mandates, Chapter 70 funding and IEP report changes and what this costs us. We need to put something together that is really personalized to Lunenburg. 13. Reports Mr. Beardmore reports the Town Manager screening committee met twice last week for about 8 hours, we interviewed 6 candidates and have put forward 3 finalists to the select board and will be interviewed in early January. Last night the Capital Planning committee met and approved our recommendations to the town manager for the capital prioritization list for the FY26. There were 25 items on the list, number 2 was the Primary School feasibility study for ent ry and driveway expansion, number 6 was the Primary School design services for playground equipment, number 7 is the Turkey Hill water tank, number 14 is the Primary School generator, number 15 is the replacement of security cameras and central server, and number 19 was the Primary School window safety film. From a f unding perspective, originally we were told funding would be around 1.1 million, however, an error was found in free cash and is not anticipating another quarter of a million to go to capital planning. Capital Planning will be meeting in January to discuss long term plans. High School Advisory met last Thursday, they discussed items including cell phone use, to which they recommended no formal policy be adopted into the handbook. Ms. Archambault reports the Middle School advisory council met on the 10 th and their thought for the school calendar for next year is that we should go to school on December 22 a full day and a half day on the 23 rd, they discussed the cell phone policy as well, the middle school has a zero tolerance policy, it is supposed to be off and in your backpack, it was felt by the group this decision should be made on a school level not a policy. There was a discussion on the DC, so far they have about 40 students signed up, and January 15th is the deadline. There are 9 families requesting a need for scholarship help, the PTO said they would help out with some money as well. We talked about the guidance staffing, they guidance counselor was on leave, she is back and now the social worker is on leave, but has resigned, so they are hiring fo r that position. Fincom is meeting tomorrow night. Mr. Sculimbrene The budget task force concluded its work on Monday, Ezequiel and I attended the select board meeting and presented our findings. There was lots of interest in CPA (Community Preservation Act), this is a program to match fund program where the state uses revenue generated by the registry of deeds to match funds expended by towns, as long as the town expends at least 10% in three different areas which are preservation of historic buildings or parks, and updating and maintenance of parks, and affordable housing. There are 200 towns in the state that do CPA. We did recommend and everyone seemed to agree with, is that we need some type of diagnostic audit for the town, there are too many Finance and Accounting practices and too many things that go unaccounted for. Mr. Lehtinen reports Natick is looking for a potential $8 million dollar override. The Lunenburg Municipal Building Design met on Monday, we had the architect come with their initial proposal draft, it is a very rough draft, and they were ===PAGE 4=== 1025 Massachusetts Avenue, Lunenburg, Massachusetts 01462 978 582-4100 ~ fax 978 582-4103 actually combining the schools and school offices in the Ritter Building with other offices. We discussed the school is probably going to take up the whole building and will need an addition onto the building, no one really liked the design, the architects are going to come back in January with another draft. 14. Public Comment- Ms. Archambault thanks Mr. Sculimbrene for the job of shepherding the Budget Task force, I knew he could get this done in the small window of time given. I thank you very much, and also Dr. Burnham and Dr. Gilson for all the time spend on this. I also thought the tree lighting went very well, it was a great community effort, wonderful to see so many people there. 15. Topics for Future Discussion 16. Adjournment Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to adjourn at 8:22 Ms. Archambault seconds the motion all approve Respectfully Submitted Courtney Fuller