Regular Business Meeting Minutes 2/26/25
- kettermanh
- Apr 29
- 9 min read
Minutes of the
Monson School Committee
Regular Meeting
February 26, 2025
Present: Chair Alison Morgan; Vice-Chair Jamie Murphy; Secretary Karen Nothe-Valley; Committee Member Colleen Flynn; Committee Member Peter Wiggins; Director of Special Education Colette Bidus; Interim Superintendent Roland Joyal and Recording Secretary Haley Ketterman
Note: This meeting was video recorded.
Mrs. Morgan called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
Mrs. Murphy read off the MPS mission statement.
Superintendent Announcements & Updates
-Congrats to the girls varsity basketball team for placing second in the Western MA class D tournament. Mr. Joyal was able to make it to a few games this season and was impressed by the Monson High Cheer squad as well as the student involvement.
-Congrats to Isabella Zeppa who won the 50 yard freestyle for the second year in a row, Isabella also placed second in the 100 yard freestyle for D2 swim.
-The MHS cheerleading squad won the Pioneer League Valley cheer competition this past weekend - congrats to all on the squad. There is another cheer competition this coming weekend, good luck to all!
-Boys and girls basketball play tomorrow in the round of 32 - girls play at 5 and boys at 7.
-Mr. Joyal stopped by the ECC dance party for the recent fundraiser to check it out.
-GV had spirit week this past week, and had great participation by students and staff.
-Mr. Joyal thanks parents and community members for the recent booster fundraiser, with the money raised the ECC will receive a fence around the playground and GV will receive help with upcoming field trips.
-Congratulations to Lisa Poulin who will be retiring this Friday, Mr. Joyal thanked her for her years of service here at Monson Public Schools.
MASC’s Rural Schools Committee (RSC) - presentation
-Jessica Corwin: Chair of the Sunderland School Committee and also serves as the co-chair of MASC. Jessica presented the School Committee with a rural aid advocacy presentation to see if the committee would like to join forces in support?
-Mrs. Morgan along with the School Committee said that this is absolutely something that they would pursue - the school committee came to an agreement to move forward. Jessica will reach out to Mr. Joyal to proceed forward.
Minutes approval
February 5, 2025 minutes approval
Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to approve the February 5, 2025 regular business meeting minutes. Mrs. Murphy seconds.
Ms. Nothe-Valley asked about checking on line #152 regarding the vague context of “support”.
Roll call was placed:
Mr. Wiggins - Yes
Ms. Nothe-Valley - Yes
Ms. Flynn - Yes
Mrs. Murphy - Yes
Mrs. Morgan - Yes
Motion carries 5-0
Public session opened @ 7:13 PM
-Roxanne Gunther: Discussed an item on the agenda: Sharing on Administrative Functions between Town and School.
Closed public session @ 7:16PM
New Business:
Caitlin Walker - Recapping of the 24/25 Disney Trip
-Caitlin discussed how the trip went, what their itinerary consisted of, and read off student statements on their perspective of attending the Disney Learning Experience trip.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley asked Caitlin, with moving forward, is there anything that you may do differently for next year? Caitlin stated that she was thinking of organizing educational packets for the students for next year to make the process easier when moving throughout the parks.
-Caitlin proposed the following dates for next year: February 5th-10th.
-Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to approve the planning process for next year's trip, February 5th-10th.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley seconds
Roll call was placed:
Mr. Wiggins - Yes
Ms. Nothe-Valley - Yes
Ms. Flynn - Yes
Mrs. Murphy - Yes
Mrs. Morgan - Yes
Motion carries 5-0
-Booster banner fundraiser: The athletic booster club is asking for the school committee to approve the booster banner fundraisers. Banners are placed around the baseball and softball fields from spring - fall. Each banner ranges from $200 - $600 depending on size, and the money goes to end of the year banquets as well and scholarships.
-Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to approve the booster banner fundraiser.
-Mrs. Murphy seconds.
Roll call was placed:
Mr. Wiggins - Yes
Ms. Nothe-Valley - Yes
Ms. Flynn - Yes
Mrs. Murphy - Yes
Mrs. Morgan - Yes
Motion carries 5-0
-Common Wealth of MA virtual schools:
-The school committee looked over the virtual schools cap and paperwork. Mr. Joyal stated that the school committee has the option to limit the number of students who can attend, but those who are currently enrolled in a virtual school will be grandfathered in; we currently have 8 students enrolled in a virtual school.
-Ms. Flynn asked what is the benefit of having a cap? Mr. Joyal stated that he’s not here to sway anyone but the benefit of having a cap would be that students would have to stay in the district and that would help with enrollment, sports participation, etc.
-Mr. Wiggins asked what is the benefit to virtual schools? Mrs. Morgan stated that if the student doesn’t want to attend school in person they have the option to apply for virtual school.
-Ms. Flynn asked, is this something that is looked at annually? So they could look at it now, decide on a cap and then follow up next year?
-Ms. Nothe-Valley would like to either make no change at this time, or make it the 2% cap now.
-Ms. Flynn makes a motion to put a 2% cap on the school year 25/26
-Mrs. Murphy seconds
-Roll call was placed:
Mr. Wiggins - Yes
Ms. Nothe-Valley - Yes
Ms. Flynn - Yes
Mrs. Murphy - Yes
Mrs. Morgan - Yes
Motion carries 5-0
Sharing of Administrative functions between Town & School
-Mr. Joyal stated that he met with Jennifer Wolowicz, the Town Administrator, and discussed the different services that could be combined to help with group purchasing, contracts, etc. Mr. Joyal stated that they are not currently discussing any consolidation of services and nothing is set in stone, this is simply the start of the discussion. Mr. Joyal said that Mrs. Wolowicz spoke with the town council and said that before they enter into any shared services, that both the select board and school committee would have to take a vote on the topic and then have it passed at a town meeting. This means that in the future if the school committee wanted to work with the town that both the school committee and select board would have to vote independently on the same topic to have anything happen. Mr. Joyal said that should the school committee vote yes on this tonight - it would go on the town warrant for the meeting in May to then be passed. Mr. Joyal said that then in the future should staff retire or they want to look at combining services they can proceed with the conversation between the school and town.
-Ms. Flynn asked about the IT side of it. She was under the impression that the school and town already shared the same IT person. Mrs. Morgan stated that we don’t utilize the same person or contract, it's simply the same company. Mrs. Morgan said with IT, the town contracts CMD one day and the school has two days with CMD - with this they are wondering if it would be resourceful to combine services? Mrs. Morgan reiterated that nothing is set in stone and nor is she saying she agrees to combining services - this was simply an example.
-Mrs. Morgan would like to make a motion for the School Committee to work together with the town to determine if the town and committee want to enter into a shared services agreement for services at some point in the future.
- Ms. Nothe-Valley confirmed that at this point they would not be signing anything? Mrs. Morgan confirmed that nothing would be signed, that this is simply voting to approve to have the initial conversation. Once they vote tonight it would then proceed at the town meeting in May to be approved, and even then that doesn’t mean that we will be in a shared agreement - it’s just to have the conversation between the two departments.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley asked if this has been discussed with Kim Roche? Mrs. Morgan confirmed that this has been discussed with Kim. Mrs. Morgan read off a portion of Kim’s email to the committee regarding the topic.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley stated that she's not completely comfortable with this, as she doesn’t have all of the information at this time. She has the mass general law in front of her, but it states notwithstanding the provisions of chapter 41 and chapter 71 mass general law citation - it references those sections, but she doesn’t actually have those to look at to see what it’s really saying.
-Mrs. Morgan read off more things that Kim Roche stated such as, this law is not adopted by the town at this time, so this is basically the start of the process. There is nothing at this time that the town and school are agreeing to combine, this is just the initial start to be able to have the conversation.
-Ms. Flynn seconds Mrs. Morgan’s motion.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley stated that at this time she’s not completely comfortable with agreeing to this. Ms. Nothe-Valley sees the future of the school and town merging together and not having detailed plans to know who’s responsible for what and who’s paying for what, and how everything is going to work out?
-Mrs. Morgan reiterated that this is not saying that the school committee wants to enter into shared services, that this is to simply have the conversation. They are acknowledging the law that allows them to do so if they ever wanted. They are not agreeing to anything beyond that at this time.
Roll call was placed:
Mr. Wiggins - Yes
Ms. Nothe-Valley - Yes
Ms. Flynn - Yes
Mrs. Murphy - Yes
Mrs. Morgan - Yes
Motion carries 5-0
Remote meeting options
-Remote meeting options that were put in place due to COVID, the act is set to end on March 31st and as of right now there is no indication if the governor will extend it. MASC is asking to contact your legislator to indicate that our district utilizes remote meeting options.
-Mrs. Morgan asked the committee for their thoughts and believes it’s a great option for those who can’t make it to in person meetings.
-Mrs. Murphy stated that she loves the option and it is beneficial for all.
-Mr. Wiggins thinks it’s great.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley is absolutely in favor of sending a letter.
-Ms. Flynn is in favor -and will be drafting a letter to send out.
Policy Subcommittee:
JICA - Dress code policy:
-Mrs. Murphy read off the current policy and any changes.
-Changes: Added in groups when talking about parents/guardians of students. Added in see student handbook, section 4.6.6 within the policy. Changed language from we dress to they dress.
-Ms. Flynn echoes Mrs. Morgan's thoughts on do the section numbers change? Mrs. Murphy will confirm if the section numbers change.
-Ms. Flynn makes a motion to approve first read of policy JICA
-Ms. Nothe-Valley seconds.
-All in favor
-5-0
IMG - Therapy/Comfort Dog Policy:
-Mrs. Murphy provided the committee with the revised waiver form for the therapy/comfort dog. One will be a student waiver form and another for staff. Mrs. Murphy received these from the schools insurance company and she then passed them to Kim Roche for review. Mrs. Murphy stated this is not mandatory but will cover liability for the dog. Mr. Fontaine does have his own personal insurance for the dog, but this will cover for students and staff. Mrs. Murphy stated that staff would get the forms on the first day of PD for the start of the new school year, and students would receive them in their front office forms at the beginning of each school year.
-Mrs. Morgan stated that they can’t vote on the waivers they have to have the policy as well - but this will be great for the committee to review.
IKF - Competency for Graduation
-Mrs. Murphy stated that with the vote to remove MCAS as a graduation requirement, they need to ensure that students still meet the proper graduation requirements. Mrs. Murphy reached out to Kim, and Kim sent her some information on what other school districts are utilizing.
-Mrs. Murphy read off the policy that they have drafted so far for the graduation requirements. -Ms. Nothe-Valley followed up after Mrs. Murphy finished, that in the policy subcommittee meeting Mr. Fontaine had really broken down the credits and that students are well above achieving those credits for graduation requirements.
-Ms. Flynn makes a motion to approve policy IKF to proceed to second read.
-Mrs. Morgan seconds
-all in favor 5-0
-Facilities update
-Mr. DeMaio presented the capital assessment plan that he will be presenting to the town at the capitol planning meeting. It gives a breakdown of what projects are coming down the line throughout the next few years. MSBA recently walked around the facilities with Mr. DeMaio and the building principals, their final report will be coming out in the next 6-12 months. No submissions will be made to MSBA- basically more of a what's to come within the next few years.
Action Items
-At the next meeting Mrs. Murphy would like a breakdown as to where the fees are applied to for sports? This spring, baseball is $275.00 and softball is $250.00. Mr. Joyal stated that he can connect with Athletic director Zach Dreher to attend the next regular business meeting for further information.
Scheduled Meetings:
-March 5th Policy Subcommittee @ 5pm
-March 5th Finance Subcommittee @ 6PM
-March 11th Finance Subcommittee @ 5PM
-March 19th Finance Subcommittee @ 5PM
-March 19th Curriculum subcommittee @ 6PM
-March 19th Regular business meeting @ 7PM
-March 24th Tri Board meeting @ Town Offices
-April 16th Public Budget meeting @ 5PM
-April 16th Search Report with Tracy from MASC @ 6PM
-April 16th Regular business meeting @ 7pm
-May 7th Regular business meeting @ 7PM
-May 7th Policy Subcommittee meeting @ 6PM
Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:01PM (Second by Ms. Flynn)
Motion Carries 5-0
Documentation for this meeting:
Agenda February 26, 2025
Distributed at meeting:
Meeting minutes for approval: February 5, 2025
Approved by Committee:
________________________________________
Ms. Nothe-Valley, Secretary
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