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2006-01-18 BEVERLY PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS January 18, 2006 A regular meeting of the Beverly School Committee was held on Wednesday, January 18, 2006, at the City Council Chambers, Beverly City Hall, Beverly, MA. Members Present: Ms. Brusil, Ms. Cesa, Mr. Manzi, Mr. Manzo, Ms. Decker, and Mr. Latter Not Present: Mayor Scanlon Also in Attendance: Dr. James Hayes, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marie Galinski, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Heidi Zimmerman, Administrator of Finance & Operations Emily O’Toole, Student Representative President Brusil called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Mr. Latter led the Pledge of Allegiance. RECOGNITIONS - SUCH OTHER MATTERS (KUDOS, CONGRATULATIONS) Dr. Hayes and Ms. Brusil recognized the following: Paula Piraino, outgoing citizen representative of the Curriculum, Instruction and Student Life Subcommittee. Colleen McBride, Principal of the McKeown School for receiving her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Judy Miller, Director of Technology, assisted in recognizing the following individuals who had major roles in Briscoe Middle School’s new computer lab: Mr. Mike Pascucci, whose generous donation made this all possible; Chris Sweeney and Brian Boches from Coastline Construction; Ed Gleason, Technology Support; Russ Fisk and Dennis Greenleaf, City of Beverly Technology Department; Bill Ambrefe, City Electrician; Paul Chalifour, Chalifour Painting. Following these recognitions Judy Miller had a power point presentation showing the before and after of the new computer lab. Elizabeth Macomber, Executive Director of the Greater Beverly Chapter of the American Red Cross assisted in recognizing, Kelly Channel and Melissa Ginsburg, seniors at Beverly High School for their outstanding service to the American Red Cross through BHS’s School to Work program. th Ryan Knight and Daniel Cacciatore, 6 grade students at Briscoe Middle School, were recognized for their alert actions in reporting an intruder to school officials. Open Forum for Citizen Input into Non-Agenda-Related Items None Opportunity for Citizen Input into Agenda-Related Items None Regular Meeting January 18, 2006 Page 2 RECORDS OF MEETINGS A motion was made by Mr. Latter and second by Mr. Manzo to approve the minutes of the So voted. regular meeting held on December 14, 2005 with one correction. A motion was made by Mr. Latter and second by Mr. Manzo to approve the minutes of the So voted organizational meeting held on January 4, 2006 as presented. . A motion was made by Mr. Latter and second by Ms. Cesa to approve the minutes of the So voted Retreat meeting held on January 7, 2006. . REPORT FROM STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE th Emily O’Toole reported the following, on January 13, the National Honor Society held a th blood drive, which was very successful with 36 donors. On January 20 there is going to be a Black and White Dance sponsored by the Junior Class from 7 to 11. It will be formal dress. th On January 19 there will be an important swim meet between Beverly and Marblehead. th Both teams are undefeated. There was an Adams Scholarship breakfast held on January 18. There were 84 students who were recipients of this scholarship, which is 13 more than last year. This scholarship gives the student four years tuition free to any Massachusetts state school. A couple of issues/concerns that Emily reported were the upcoming finals were being given as “department wide test”. The concern was, for example, if you are taking more than one math class or history class you then had to find the time to make up the others. Another question is the vending machines and what is the status? Ms. Zimmerman reported that the contract had gone out to bid and Snapple was out and Pepsi was in. There would be different varieties of juices and also water available and while waiting for the Pepsi machines to be brought in the Coke machines would remain there through the end of March. Emily questioned the new color coded passes and how they are going to work. Dr. Hayes said that they will assist in supervising the students. The passes would be color coded by wing. This way the teachers would be able to tell what wing the student was coming from and/or which wing they belonged in. COMMUNICATIONS ?? Almost all had received calls regarding the conditions at Briscoe. ?? BHS building project ?? Ms. Cesa had a call as to why there was a dumpster outside of the field house. ?? Ms. Decker had calls about kindergarten registration, results of air quality test at th Briscoe, 5 grade class at Centerville and sporadic speech therapy coverage also at Centerville. Her last call was an informational call from Mr. & Mrs. Gentile regarding a Raytheon program called “Math Moves You” which Ms. Decker summarized. ?? Mr. Manzo’s calls were concerns about the physical condition at Briscoe and the class th sizes. He received a call from a parent of a 7 grader whose child is enjoying his school year at Briscoe. Also a few calls with regards to dogs on school property and the dog park proposal. He had a question about the BHS presentation and if that information would be available soon. Dr. Hayes responded that there were many presentations that Dr. Scuzzarella was trying to composite all together into one. Regular Meeting January 18, 2006 Page 3 ?? Ms. Brusil had calls from community members interested in how the process is going to go forward with building the new high school. Ms. Brusil spoke to Mayor Scanlon about what the process is for picking an architect. The Mayor said it would be similar to the elementary school process. ?? Ms. Brusil talked about the new ten minute discussions that will be starting with the February meeting. Ms. Brusil is also interested in getting a technical committee together. She asked for anyone that has that kind of expertise and would be interested in volunteering to please contact her. SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT Overnight Field Trip Proposal Dr. Hayes brought Mr. Doug Guy, Foreign Language teacher at Beverly High School, to the podium to rd summarize the June 10 through July 3 trip to Germany. Mr. Guy went over different points of the trip. The benefit of the German trip is that the student’s will be housed with host families requiring them to speak only German. Mr. Guy answered questions from the committee. A motion was made So voted. by Mr. Latter to approve the German Foreign Field Trip and seconded by Ms. Cesa. th Mrs. Gauthier, Principal of the Briscoe Middle School came to the podium to talk about the 8 Grade trip to Mount Washington, June 7 through 9, 2006. She summarized the 3 day trip, what was scheduled th for the students (356 8 graders), and the type of accommodations. Mrs. Gauthier answered questions from the committee regarding chaperones, nurses and hallway monitoring, etc. A motion was made by So voted. Ms. Cesa to approve the Mount Washington trip and seconded by Mr. Manzi. BHS Accreditation Dr. Hayes gave an updated on Beverly High School’s Accreditation appeal to the NEASC. He said both the presentation of new evidence that was submitted and the appeal heard on January 4, 2006 brought the same results, that being, to send forward the recommendation to terminate the accreditation. Dr. Hayes said that it was clear that the NEASC’s real point is that although we have a plan, the fact is that it is not a fully funded plan with an approved time line that goes with that plan. Dr. Hayes said the only other opportunity we have is a second opportunity to submit new evidence. This is submitted to the Commission and the only new evidence that we could send is a City Council vote for a fully funded project for a new high school. Dr. Hayes said there is a time line for this and that things are moving along accordingly. Update on HS Design Dr. Hayes gave an update on the high school design. Having already talked about two pieces, the RFQ and the High School work that’s been done in consolidating their reports, he went on to discuss the third piece of progress: the Demographic study. Dr. Hayes went on to say that it is a very comprehensive, community-based assessment and he explained further the process that these people used for gathering this information. Dr. Hayes felt that they should have the report completed some time in February at which point they will present it to the School Committee. MSBA Update Dr. Hayes updated the Committee on the MSBA Needs Study. The MSBA sent a gentleman out who went around to all of our facilities, with Mr. Rand. He did an assessment of all facilities, met with all Regular Meeting January 18, 2006 Page 4 principals, took photographs and collected data. All of this information will be sent to the Department of Education for them to review. Update on Briscoe Dr. Hayes went over the latest situation at Briscoe. He summarized the flooding situation, the time line of how and what had happened, and the damage that had been done. Dr. Hayes said that the insurance would cover the cost of these damages minus the $10,000 deductible. He talked about the cancellation of school the last two days and that the building will remain closed for the remainder of the week giving them time to get the school back in order and safe for re-opening on Monday. Dr. Hayes responded to many questions he has had around making up the time the students have missed and that they must attend minimum of 180 days. He said that he will apply for a waiver with the DOE but did not feel confident it would be granted. Once we do receive the DOE’s response we will know where we stand. Looking to prevent another emergency of this type Dr. Hayes explained that the elementary school buildings have sensors to alert someone should an emergency such as this arise. The secondary schools do not have these sensors but we are looking into have them put in those buildings. There was a discussion about how quickly information was available, on Tuesday, that Briscoe had cancelled school for the day. Dr. Hayes said that there is a number of places that this information is available for students and parents; web site, greeting on phones and television. Mr. Manzo said that some parents are frustrated with the recent problems at Briscoe and asked should we be concerned? Dr. Hayes and Mrs. Gauthier each spoke about Briscoe, the age of the building and the condition it was in and how they are working to correct these issues. There was further discussion and questions about exactly what the insurance would cover – overtime for custodians, cost during make up time. Another question asked was if these days could be made up during vacations, etc. Mr. Latter asked if there was a prioritized list for Briscoe. Dr. Hayes said that there is such a list and he went on to summarize the items on the list, what items have been worked on and completed and what is left to do. The next item Dr. Hayes talked about is posting agendas on our web site for upcoming meetings. Dates to Remember th Dr. Hayes made referenced to a couple of important dates – Thursday, February 9, State of the Schools this will be held at the Memorial Building Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. th Tuesday, March 7 will be a Joint Meeting of the City Councils. Committee Reports Standing Committee on Finance & Facilities: Paul Manzo, Chairperson First meeting of the new subcommittee will be Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the Memorial Building, Room 164. Regular Meeting January 18, 2006 Page 5 Standing Committee on Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Life: Annemarie Cesa, Chairperson Ms. Cesa said the committee met last Wednesday night, January 11, 2006. Pam Turner addressed the Committee to tell them about Title I, the services they provide and funding. Richard King spoke about the Integrated Arts program. They are into their 2nd year, partnering with Endicott College. The School calendar was presented and should be voted on at the next meeting. The Standing Committee on Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Life recommends the attached policy “Care of School Property” (Section J: Students) for a second reading. The Standing Committee on Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Life recommends the attached policy regarding “Hazing” (Section J: Students) for a second reading. Upon the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Life a motion was made by Ms. Cesa and seconded by Mr. Latter to designate Friday, May 26, 2006, as an early release day for all elementary schools. This change was necessitated when a scheduled early release day was cancelled due to bad weather on So voted. December 9, 2005. New Business Ms. Brusil said that at the next meeting this will be the time for Committee members to discuss topics that they want followed or more information on. Ms. Decker asked if the school choice numbers were in on the monies coming in and going out. Ms. Zimmerman said she would have the final numbers at the Finance and Facilities meeting. Opportunity for Questions from the Press No questions at this meeting Meeting adjourned 9:05 Maria Decker Secretary