School Committee: July 15, 2024

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:08 okay so turned on the live stream welcome everybody El you can hear us Sarah you can hear us great thanks um okay so I’m going to call us to order at 4:34 p.m. and we have four school committee members here Al is uh Williams let me know he was traveling today so he’s not going to be joining us I’ll speak to him afterwards um him any updates that he may need um so I’m going to um go through our um agenda of initial business um public comment anyone have any public comment no I’ll leave you alone you sure oh POS I mean you had a break from me for weeks welcome back oh gee thank you um let’s see is there anyone who I don’t

0:58 oh Samantha oh Samantha Rosado yep okay

1:13 there yes sorry unmute um good to see everyone I just have a question about the fund f for the assistant director of special special education coming from the prek-k fund and I was just wondering why it wouldn’t come from the special education revolving fund that was my question thank you okay uh we don’t have Mike piing here today who’s our assistant superintendent of uh finance and operations John I don’t know if you’re comfortable speaking to that or we hold off and um you want me to answer the question sure

2:44 it shows it shows John

2:57 [Music] [Music] uned music

3:43 that okay good I’m glad it wasn’t can folks hear me though yeah yes uh so in regard to the funding mechanism for going from 0.5 to 1.0 coming out of the revolving account um when I spoke with Mike kepping our finance director have just joined okay um basically we looked at how we can fund fund that extra 0 five and when we look at the the role of the um assistant director the preponderance of that role will will be working with early childhood and uh in order to fund that for this coming school year that seem to be the most uh best way to go ahead and fund that in order to move forward is to to do that

4:28 account that’s not atypical for districts to um fun positions out of the account such as that when a lot of the job details are in regards that that preschool in kindergarten Ro childhood setting so I don’t know if that answers your question but that was the reasoning behind that second half the salary on if my son he wants to weigh in that’s fine as well it was a little hard to hear you by the way I think the other thing to note John correct me if I’m wrong that before the question of the funding the qu the issue also was that our new directive student services ATO felt strongly that it

5:14 needed to go from a 0.5 to a 1.0 yeah yeah I think um you know we had that conversation can you hear me better now um we had that conversation and you know in looking at where we are with Staffing with programming uh the 1.0 is definitely uh required in order to um move things forward and make sure that the staff are being supported in the way they need to be supported so that we can support the students so I don’t think the point fly was really the question I think question is how we funding it so that’s how we decided to move forward for this year at [Music] least and Samantha just so you know I think almost every school Committee Member asked the same question offline of the superintendent so we’re definitely just where that’s obviously

6:01 where that’s coming from um okay any other I don’t see any other hands up on public comment thank you everyone um the next topic is schedule of bills we did have um some bills that needed to be paid minute [Music] [Music] here um I am looking for a motion to approve the scheduled bills that were that was in your uh drive for a total of 81652

6:37 71 by Brian second I have from Allison any comments or

6:45 questions right I’m GNA ask for a roll call vote um Alison Taylor hold on Sarah we can’t hear you sorry Sarah sh use your hand up sorry about that uh no she just texted said she couldn’t hear weren’t are we hearing her we are not hearing you Sarah you are muted let me but you’re a co-host

7:17 everybody you texting your back Allison yeah

7:24 yeah she can’t hear anyone either she yeah she’s sing either Maybe does she want to sign out and sign back in again and try that CU we’re hearing each other yeah believe I’ll

7:47 she’s I’m here again guys there she is you can hear you Sarah can you hear us yeah for the first five or so minutes I couldn’t but I signed off and got back on and it seems to work I could see you but I couldn’t hear you okay awesome um did you have a um we were about to take a roll call but I didn’t know if you had a comment or if you were just having the technical stuff no I couldn’t hear anything that was going on so what is the roll call on okay so let me start again so we um all right so the first thing that we had public comment there was a question about the funding source for the um for going from the point5 to the 1.0 FTE for the assistant director of student services so John spoke to that um out of the prek revolving fund so then I asked

8:34 for a a motion for the schedule of bills to pay for to approve the payment of a second here say say 86,5 2171 motion by Brian um Oda and seconded by Allison and so I was just about to do a roll call do you have any questions or comments about the bills yes no I do and I um I asked this the other day when um you guys had kind of talked about this with me um and then the more I thought about it afterwards I I fully support going to a one um 1.0 fulltime full-time

9:20 employee I understand their need for it I fully support it the funding source doesn’t make sense for me that kindergarten revolving fund The Establishment Clause that was put Within uh I think we lost you again sorry sorry is

10:19 again I just told her the audio was breaking up really badly I just texted her okay why don’t we do this um uh why don’t well let’s just give her a second I don’t I would say to move on but we’re moving on to that next vote and she obviously had some questions about that so just give her a second can

10:48 better it was for me okay perfect so what I was saying was I fully support the full-time moving it to a full-time FTE that makes 100% sense to me the funding source still doesn’t make sense to me the creation of that revolving fund was very specific in the language when it was first established in my understanding is the

11:15 money the the funding has to be used for the purpose it was paid for and since special education students aren’t paying for the after school afternoon program if they meet that threshold they’re T like that tuition going towards a special education area does not fit the language for the town meeting I think there’s probably a way to make it work I just want to make sure it’s completely up to up to par with the the language with the creation of that revolving fund and I don’t think as of right now it is

12:10 students so there’s really no way to pull those two things apart in the intergrated preschool so I I definitely understand um you know the thought process is you know paying for a special education um position but that’s that’s it’s really student services position and that student services assistant director will be um you know working hand inand with within that Early Childhood Program so it’s not just special education just like student services in general isn’t all special education either it’s 504 it’s homelessness it’s etc etc so um I don’t know the actual language that you speak of Sarah but I think in in practicality and in in looking at how we operationalize things um it’s again it’s

12:55 not atypical to to utilize a fund like that for position such as this when you’re when you’re looking at student students um education and people that are overseeing and working with those students and parents in that realm but um that’s just my two cents obviously it’s up to the committee to to decide that uh I just want to add that piece in as

13:22 well is there no way to draw Draw Something From Another revolving fund and then do a line item transfer so that we can refund like we can fully fund to

13:36 this that that was looked at initially and just where we are with the budget process and where we are moving into next school year it seemed like this would be the um the most um uh prudent way to to move forward just you know going into this into this next school year um that wouldn’t you know it wouldn’t be my thought to keep it funded like that moving forward um because we can we can work towards you know looking at ation can look at different ways um but to get the person on board and then moving forward I to make sure that we had the funding available uh to to hire the person and you know Mike and and Lisa Marie and I will continue to work to to see how that might need look different moving forward so it’s it’s really it’s a it’s a shortterm fix for a

14:22 long-term goal I guess um and I I do understand the con ter believe me I think it’s uh it’s not that we didn’t look in other ways it was um you know it’s just uh thought process in the way we fund it yeah I just don’t know if it’s to be perfectly honest I don’t know if it’s legal because that the way that revolving fund is written it’s only the portion you’re paying for so it’s that hour and 45 minute portion that funds drawn for that hour and 45 minute for fund or for tuition paying students which the Stu the student with a certain threshold would not me that can only pay for those Services we can’t even pay the

15:09 morning portion of the Cara or the kindergarten teacher salary it can only be for that hour and 45 minute portion so I just don’t it may I would like to hear Le sign off it’s also the prek right because there’s also prek tuition prek so it’s prek and K tuition S I don’t know if it’s all the it appears to be the same revolving fund but there also prek tuition so and there are students in have integrated preschool way it’s set up is is just with that um integrated preschools typical and students on IPS um again I I don’t

15:55 know how it was written in but what I can tell you that um it’s it’s not it’s not atypical to use that fun for for servicing for paying for people who service students so I mean you it’s diff with any with any bated position right you can’t really say you know for this hour I’m only work with preschool and for these three hours I’m work with typical it’s it’s a um you know it’s it’s a full-time position so it’s very difficult to quantify that hours and days but I would say the preponderance of that position would be early child position

16:40 vote are you prepared to vote Allison are you does is there anything Mike wants to add I know he’s on as well yeah so I I’m a little confused because I thought we’re on payment of our schedule of bills and then we jumped into prek so I think the Motions for schedule of bills isn’t it it is the scheduled bills why don’t we vote you’re right Mike why don’t we vote that because then Sarah the next motion two motions from now includes the FD the FTE okay I am so sorry I missed the audio on the first portion and I thought I heard someone say the motion on the table was for the FTE I’m so sorry no it’s for the schedule bills so I’ve got Brian Oda first Allison Taylor second for the scheduled bills I’m going to do a roll call um Allison Taylor in favor in favor SAR

17:26 fox in favor fa in favor in favor 4 to Zer um so the next um item for school committee communication and discussion items the first is a request to increase the hourly wages for our cafeteria workers um this was in your um in your uh drive that it was a breakdown which we appreciate very much Mike it was a breakdown of the FY 24 rates um for the various positions um in the cafeteria staff and then the proposed increase um which goes anywhere from five to um $3 to5 per hour thing to note too um that was explained to me that um the keper workers formerly previously were members

18:13 of a union I think it was an asme local from asme um and the uh members of the Union voted to desertify that so they’re no longer uh in a union our cafeteria workers by their own choice so that’s what allowed us to allows us to make this change so we don’t need to bargain it would have bargain it um so we’re able to make this increase which is great um because we’ve been hearing about this for quite a while that um our hourly rates were not competitive and I believe Mike Bill’s pretty strongly working with John Constantino our food service director that this will make a difference in being able to attract and retain um uh folks in the cafeteria which is really important so um I am we can uh certainly deliberate this but I am looking for um a motion to approve

18:58 the hourly wages for cafeteria workers the 2425 school year as

19:11 motion still moved so we can discis do have a second Brian okay um discussion questions Mike’s on the line John

19:34 questions no I’m very happy to see this happen I think this will really

19:50 Sarah okay I’m thank thank you for Mike for turning it around yeah okay I’m gonna do a roll call Allison Taylor in favor Sarah Fox in in favor in favor and Jen chaper in favor that pass for is zero thank you thanks Mike for doing that y okay the next one Sarah this is uh the next motion that we had been discussing a few minutes ago um I It is Well I’m going to read the motion and then we can just we can deliberate on it um so I am looking for a motion for the school committee to approve the requested increase in full-time equivalent for the assistant director of services from F5 FTE to 1.0 FTE as presented and to fund the

20:38 additional 0.5 FTE from the pkk revolving account which is the free kindergarten kindergarten revolving

20:47 account do I have a first on the motion Brian first second Allison okay all right questions deliberation I will also note that the job description was included in your Google drive as well for the assistant director of student services so Jen this position is currently

21:15 empty yes well yes it was approved in the FY 25 budget as a point bu but yes we are looking to high so what I’m thinking is we had 0.5 for one month which will cover us you know that’s some savings we’ve recouped that we can reallocate towards getting us towards that full fulltime now because we’re only looking at it at for 11 months at this point um

21:49 realistically I’m just wondering as we get closer to getting that number down can we really push the envelope and find the funding somewhere else so so this one I mean we can look at funding I don’t think it’s going to help the conversation I mean if it weren’t um we can look at you know potentially taking um the you the some of the tutor salary and put it into the preschool revolving account but it’s it’s the same conversation just different bodies so um you know it would be the assistant director or you know we can do the tutors but I I think the point to your point Sarah is um it’s still Staffing so it’s it’s apples hairs I guess par it so um I think I think we

22:36 have we have um potential um candidates in the wings for for the position that’s you know been um been looked at um I just I don’t want to can too far down the road and lose somebody that’s qualified we’re having trouble filling special a positions to begin with that’s my only fear there for get down the road too long what I can maybe maybe if it if it helps the conversation with the committee if we can move forward with the funding as it’s as as requested and then um I can continue to work with Mike as he’s you know still kind of we’re all new here so uh you we have a little bit of time to kind of figure stuff out if we can figure out the funding differently um after we look at stuff a little bit more closely always bring that back to the committee and say we

23:21 found a way to reallocate that fund if that’s helpful for the conversation um I’d be willing to do that I’m sure Mike can be will I would really appreciate that I fully support creating this I think we can approve we don’t want to lose a candidate and then um can we revisit the reallocation of funding at our next next meeting well let’s see what the committee members think Brian do you have any comments well I I think we’re GNA start using revolving funds we should keep running tabs so yeah as the budget comes up next year we can see the areas we had the fund R for sure and I think you know obviously if we take you know 40,000 whatever it is we just need to make sure that we can um you know

24:07 slide that into local um you know and there’s always is there gr grant funding pipe that makes sense to this maybe so we always look at those funding sources anyway um you know the revolving accounts aren’t the first place we go to for for uh staff but um I feel like we’re in kind of not crisis mod but we need to get some so get

24:32 Alison I I just didn’t know if Mike had anything to add specifically since since he’s

24:50 muted am am I Live Now you’re good I apologize um to Sarah’s Point um you know by the time we get this person on board it’s probably going to be close to an 11-month position for this and I project that that would probably save us about $8,700 in rough numbers so that amount it’s going to go from 53 maybe down to to 47 um and and I do think that we can we can certainly find things that fit in the revolving account to move out of the Lea to free up money in the Lea if that’s the the desire of the committee uh I also agree with with um Mr Robo Robo um this this position is going to be supporting our earliest education students our prek andr students as they

25:36 come into the district I feel like I’m getting an echo here

25:48 um I’m um I’m hearing yeah in speaking with misso she said you know that one of the main focuses for this position is to is to um work with our Early Education students uh to make sure that they the services and their IEPs and whatnot that they need uh sometimes kids come into the district and they don’t already have those Services identified so I think that that’s one of the areas that she’ll be Focus this person I say she here she should be would be focusing

26:33 the previous assistant superintendent assistant director of the people Services also was respons for all placement is that I didn’t actually see that um that I think they’re still trying to work out was going to do those pieces because I think it’s been shuffled around a little bit between director the assistant director the chair chairpersons I think once we get the full compliment of staff on more kind through those things I know this believe has been doing the conversation students right now so I think that’s TD is to that’s going to fall and it may be a shared responsibility I think you know a lot of districts may look at so doing the elementary and some looking

27:19 secondary numbers so that’s something got sit through and figure

27:28 out that’s figure are we prepared to vote okay I’m going to do a roll call about Ellison

27:38 Taylor in favor sorry that’s okay Sarah

27:45 Fox in favor but can I have the opportunity to sit down with um John Mike Lisa Marie just to really explain my concerns I’m open to having you come in in chat anytime sure you can do that per per Brian and Jen shner in favor so that’s four to Zero thanks everybody thank you um our last U motion is which was um probably should have done a little while ago and was um mentioned To Us by our attorney M Valerio um was to um uh appoint Patrick e Our Town Administrator to our school committee bargaining subcommittee as we go forward with the bargaining units um starting

28:31 tomorrow actually our first one this summer so I’m looking for a motion to appoint Town Administrator Patrick keer who’s with us today uh to the school committee bargaining subcomittee so moved Taylor and a second Brian any

28:52 discussion um no I I support this I just we have to be very cogent about open meeting law moving forward so if Jen or I has a conversation at any time with thater regarding the contract and bargaining it has to be posted because we’re at a quum y okay I’m gonna call for a vote Alison Taylor in favor fox in favor rot in favor chapter in favor Z welcome bger um we just have two quick thinks some closing business first is new business did anyone have any new business when are we going to start planning the

29:38 a um I was going to bring that up for new business okay anybody else have any other new business items um do we have an update on if the award or the contract was awarded for the independent investigation if so who was it awarded to in what kind of time frame are we looking at um I to speak to that uh so I’ve been in conversations with folks and checking into um different groups um I’ve been meeting with a lot of uh community members this week and I wanted to get Garner their input a little bit um to have as part of that overall discussion uh I believe I have technically until the 19th to make the decision July 19th I think is what

30:23 the school committee voted so um I will uh I will let you know as soon as um we move forward with that I’ve been in conversation with our attorneys as well um just to make sure that um once the decision is made they can be of assistance and making sure that the uh the group has the right information um so that should come from the attorney to them um so there’s nothing missed I believe they have everything they need to do the investigation uh is not given a time frame on that from the conversation acts I think it’s going to matter it’s going to depend on how many folks they need to speak with and in what the scope of the investigation um is going is going to entail and I think more specifically whether or not um conversations going to be able to be have with staff over the

31:11 summer um I think some people be willing to come in and have conversations some people may um indicate that they’re not willing to do that until they’re back in school so there’s a lot of variables um at this point um but I will update the committee um as soon as um each step is taken so that you guys are aware of where we are that’s

31:40 okay any other new business um so I just wanted to mention that we did um finally we’re able to find a time that we can all do the retreat the summer which is great so it’s going to be Tuesday August um sorry Wednesday August 14th um 9:00 am to 1 p.m um I have put out uh Bri just you know I put out a request to MC to Glen coer and our field rep um to uh ask them what um you know first of all whether they can make that date and some ideas on what they might be able to work with us on one thing that they do have a workshop available is on um is on superintendent goal setting because I think we probably want to have that is I would like to see that as one item um we have talked about school committee goals um I don’t know that masc we can ask if

32:27 they have sort of a workshop for that or not that that’s something that we can probably we can cut that up they do can definitely talk you guys through that okay um and we will have Liz Valia there I think we should um or someone from her firm um she does have an up you know sort of a general legal update um to give us um which may take a good you know that may take a good portion of the day um I know Brian had some ideas on oh yeah I’d like to get the pieces that we need to work on such as saying our goals first rather than get tied up with all leg Yeah I I let Liz know that we like her later they can do that later on the day then we can spend as much time in the morning as

33:16 we um any other comments on that I I just want to make sure that we’re also doing the subcommittee assignments CA we had originally talked back in the spring about kicking off um budgets early the to from finom was to start July one so I want to make sure that we’re not we’re not too tooly okay so I can do uh I will add that Sarah um subcommittee and liaison assignments I’m assuming we’ll just do that all we have a few liaison positions as well okay all right if anything else comes to mind you can certainly email me it’s you know it’s a lot to jam into for we might decide that we want a second

34:02 day at another point the you know finding a date to do that might be interesting but maybe as we get closer Labor Day if we need that we can do it okay great um the only thing I’m GNA move on now any other new business okay I’m going to move on to corespondence which is our last item I did want to mention um in in um read into the public meeting that we did receive a response from the Attorney General’s office office of open meeting open government um there had been an open meeting law complaint some of you may have remembered from back in the fall I believe it was um in regards to a complaint on one of our executive sessions um did everyone receive that in their Google Drive pop that letter or I think I emailed it to everybody or it was emailed to you so I just wanted to

34:47 bring read that into or whatever mentioned into the record um the finding was that there was not an open meeting violation as a result it’s a five or six page um U opinion um which if anyone has any questions don’t ask me I guess we call the Attorney General but um they do give the facts of the case and and their opinion so um I spoke to can you can you share that with I know that there were several articles written at the time uh about the open meeting violations and I’m sure um I believe it was Kathy an swindlehurst that filed it and then filed the appeal um so I believe she would gotten a reply as well but um just to kind of tie this up and

35:35 finish it off put it to bed if if you can share that letter with um I believe it was the current that had featured this in several articles um is that I mean it’s obviously public information yes Allison um I also wanted to um I never said that I deleted text messages nor did I I do that um nor is that what my my email which is public record in response to the question was um and I don’t know what I need to do to go about getting that changed maybe it doesn’t matter not found to VI open law anyway

36:19 but I just have not like I understand that I don’t believe any individual committee members names were mentioned in regards to that Alison there were a couple of um footnotes you’re right that were referencing um health records requests around um around this issue and around this time by the Kant they call it the Kant probably should correct them um leave that deleted um so but it doesn’t specifically say a name so sure I guess just extrapolating from that it’s concerning that that is what from the email that I wrote that that that’s what the person who was the

37:05 records officer at the time provided as a response um so I I guess just thinking in the future and not wanting that to happen again happen again I don’t I don’t even know you know what I mean one thing we could do is we could um put it in the record of the minutes today that that’s your you know that was your to this correspondence yeah and you know help you know I can do a draft and can War it so you’re comfortable with it um so that it’s in the record um yeah I don’t know that helps yeah no that’s fine I don’t want to happen again in the future either to anybody yeah that’s good and I can U you

37:52 either I or you can brief uh John on that offline um yeah that that’s really where issue is got it thank you okay any other items for correspondence okay I am going to adjourn the public portion of the meeting at 512 um I’m going to I’m asking now for a motion to vote to meet an executive session don’t want toj anything that adjs the whole meeting yeah so I’m asking for a motion I didn’t adjourn well okay I didn’t I’m not adjourning I’m asking for a motion to vote to meet an executive pursuant to master general laws chapter 38 section 21A purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to and in preparation for collective bargaining

38:37 with Maran Education assoc Association unit a unit permit substitutes unit tutors unit par professionals and unit custodians because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of committee with the attempt not to return to open session so move second move by Sarah do I have a second R I’m going to do a roll call um Allison Taylor in favor in favor Char

39:21 zero let me just I just want make the following statement the committee will now meet an executive session pursuing to ad Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21 for purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to and in preparation colletive bargaining with the Marblehead Education Association unit a unit substitutes tutors unit par professionals and unit custodians because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of committee with the intent not to return to open session um I’m going to close the meeting Allison and Sarah and ask you to dial back in no problem thank you thanks everyone is

40:14 I assume I’m jumping off jumping off um yes thanks Mike okay great everybody thank

40:28 you I need to get back in so

40:47 still oh I wonder if all of you guys did you sign out Alison yeah and you signed back in yep I can see the YouTube thing on the screen too

41:02 I think it’s because Sarah Sarah are you looking as um host MPS I don’t know I’m on my cell phone and it’s actually um so I I can’t it’s too small I can’t see I just I just clicked on the link for the town website yeah she goes she’s on ad we just to yeah she’s in his host we should get that changed too

41:28 right we should no

41:34 it’s yeah but we don’t want to be streaming so