Regular Business Meeting Minutes 2/5/25
- kettermanh
- Mar 20
- 8 min read
Minutes of the
Monson School Committee
Regular Business Meeting
February 5, 2025
Present: Chair Alison Morgan; Vice-Chair Jamie Murphy; Secretary Karen Nothe-Valley; Committee Member Colleen Flynn; Committee Member Peter Wiggins; Director of Business and Operations Leah Zippin; 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 and updates :
-Mr. Joyal welcomed back all of the students who recently attended the Disney Learning Experience field trip, and also thanked Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Brin who chaperoned the trip. Mrs. Walker will be presenting at the next meeting with how this year's trip went and the possibility for next year.
-Mr. Joyal recognized Trey Dillahunt (9th grade) who has scored 1,000 points, as well as Olivia Chrzan (12th grade) who has scored 2,000 on the basketball court! Olivia now holds the record for the most points scored for girls Monson Basketball.
-Congratulations and thank you to all of our school counselors in the district. This week is national school counseling week and we recognize our counselors and thank them for all of the hard work that they do not only for students but also staff.
-Mr. Joyal congratulated both Mr. Trivisonno and Mr. Fontatine for receiving Mass Cultural Grants in the amount of $5,000 each. Granite Valley received $5,000 for a field trip to The Story Barn, and Monson High School received $5,000 as well to help with after school Drama Club.
- Mr. Joyal announced that we will have a snow day tomorrow, February 6, 2025 due to the impending weather.
Student Representative report:
Julia Royce - ECC
-The ECC welcomed a new round of guest readers.
-8 more star certificates and lawn signs were rewarded for the students of the month.
-Very successful start to the Boosters fundraiser with a total of $1,500 raised! With the ECC hitting their first goal the students have been rewarded with stuffy and pj day. The fundraiser will conclude on Friday February, 14th with a glow dance fit party at the ECC and GV.
-Tuesday February, 11th will be the 100th day of school with fun activities planned.
Mya Bridges - GV
-GV welcomed more guest readers this month and appreciates all of the community members, High School students and parents who have reached out to read to a class.
-This Thursday will be NFL day / and Friday will be the 100th day of school. (There will be updated information going out to families due to the weather.)
-Kicked off the ECC and GV dance fit fundraiser - so far 35% of students are registered for the fundraiser, we are hoping to get at least 60% of students registered! At 60% students will receive either ROCKS tickets / ECC tickets and also a keychain.
Sophia Galarneau - MHS
-There are less than 2 weeks until the Winter Carnival! The Friday before February break will be a fun day filled with activities for high school students.
-This week is guidance counselor appreciation week - shout out to Mrs. Sorel and Ms. Outhuse.
-Congratulations to Olivia and Trey for breaking records on the court.
-Congrats to girl swimmers: Madelyn Moreau, Ally Potter, Isabella Zeppa and Annabelle Tulloch for all qualifying for Western Mass in all three of their relays!
-Boys and Girls Western MA basketball tournament starts on 2/14.
Minutes approval
January 22, 2025 minutes approval
Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to approve the January 22, 2025 regular business meeting minutes.
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
Public session opened @ 7:09 PM
Jessica Allen - Town resident and parent/guardian of a MPS child read off personal statement
Closed public session @ 7:17PM
Subcommittee and Liaison reports
Policy Subcommittee
-MCAS Graduation requirement will be heading to the attorney for review and hoping to have that ready for first read at the next regular business meeting.
-Therapy dog policy first read on updated policy this will include the waiver form for parent/guardian and student, and also a staff waiver form.
-Dress code will be up for first read for the next meeting as well.
-Crowdfunding policy still in the works, it won’t be ready for the next subcommittee meeting but will be ready at the following meeting. Ms. Nothe-Valley echoed that it is definitely a priority for the next subcommittee meeting.
-Mrs. Murphy asked if the School Committee would like to look at the handbook a little earlier this year? Mrs. Morgan stated that the building based updates could be completed by the principals, but anything to be approved would have to wait for the incoming superintendent.
New Business
Mr. Fontaine presented the School Committee with schedule options for Monson High School next year; they currently run off of a 6 block schedule.
Mr. Fontaine talked about the pros and cons of having a 6 block day vs a 4 block day, talked about the team time for ⅞ grade teachers, the lack of dual enrollment/virtual teacher, how 6 blocks a day might be too much for some students as 23% of students are failing a course, discussed duty period blocks for teachers.
pros and cons of a 4x4 schedule:
Pros:
Work Based Learning improves / allows for addition of CTE programming in more of a CTE model / allows for more student choice and more student offerings / reduces workload on students.
Cons:
Subs are always going to be an issue / longer periods / 7th & 8th schedule.
Schedule options for 25/26 - A
9-12: Teach 3 85 min teaching periods / 1 55min prep and 1 30min of curriculum time.
7-8: Class size around 20 students / no coverage needed for team time (team time/prep would be 1 period: 30min for team time and 55min for prep.
Students: Students would take 4 semester classes (Health/PE either split period or A/B day) and more opportunities for elective offerings.
Schedule options for 25/26 - B
9-12: all courses would run semester based / Health 9/10 & PE 9/10 would alternate A/B day or ½ a block for a semester. (Specific classes can be priority scheduling for the semester - AP courses.)
7-8: 30min team time and 55min prep
Option 1: Math and ELA run for a full block all year. Science and Social Studies run for a block on a semester basis.
Option 2: Blocks are split in 1/2 . Match class & Math workshop. ELA class & ELA workshop (full year). Science class and Science workshop / Social Studies class & Social Studies workshop (semester) - would be about 42 min blocks.
Option 3: Split the ⅞ schedule up in half blocks of 5, they would be about 56 mins and need to include a 30 min WIN time of additional offering by core teachers. Mr. Fontaine stated it would be difficult for grades 9-12 teachers to cover classes with their duty block based on this schedule option.
-Mrs. Morgan followed up with questions regarding the online courses and the percentage of students failing classes. She asked if it is asynchronous learning for the students who take the online courses, followed by who monitors the work from the students on the school's end? Mr. Fontatine stated that they have weekly STAT meetings to look over students' progress and then try to meet with the students. In the past there was a teacher assigned to the online learning courses to keep the students focused, but due to cuts that position was eliminated. With this schedule option this would allow flexibility to give that assignment to different teachers, but have a set daily block 1-4 online learning monitor/teacher.
-Mrs. Morgan thanked Mr. Fontaine for identifying the problems and coming up with a plan for next year, but was curious what the plan is for the remainder of this school year? Mr. Fontaine reported that they have solved the coverage issue for the heaviest block of the day. The remainder of the day there is an adult present, but no one tracking the students' work daily. Mr. Fontaine said that with online courses the students, staff and parents/guardians receive weekly reports on what the student has completed thus far.
Mrs. Morgan stated that with the scheduling options that option #2 - looks like the best choice in regards to fixing a lot of the problems, but does have some worry regarding the larger class sizes - but appreciates the breakup of the 85 mins and allows a brain break and some movement.
-Ms. Nothe-Valley also asked if anyone knew why the schedule had been changed in the past?
-Mrs. Barnes informed the School Committee that the schedule changed when 7th & 8th grade moved up to the High School to help with sharing staff for coverage, as well as transitioning back into the classroom since Covid.
-The School Committee thanked Mr. Fontaine and staff for working so hard to come up with a solution for the scheduling issues to help improve and also weigh the pros and cons of the different schedule options that were presented to the committee.
-Ms. Flynn asked if there is something that the committee should be doing differently as a district to help with the sub issue? Mr. Fontaine said that with the recent pay increase for subs the high school has been able to lock in one sub so far.
-Ms. Flynn confirmed with Mr. Fontaine that the change in the schedule would occur for the next school year in September, as well as an anticipated timeline for the decision on the schedule itself? Mr. Fontaine stated that the union is very much open to an MOU with the initial conversation, that he wanted to present all of the options to the committee and go from there.
Old Business
Superintendent search update
-Mrs. Morgan presented the public with the update so far from working with Tracy from MASC for the superintendent search. Tracy has provided a timeline for the search of the entire process. Mrs. Morgan is also working with Mrs. Ladue, who handles the website for the district - and will be launching all of the information regarding the search (timeline of events, in person and zoom meetings with the public and employees, sending out surveys, etc.) on the Monson Public Schools website. Mrs. Murphy wants everyone to know that the survey is completely confidential and your response goes directly to Tracy.
The survey will close on February 21st and the School Committee will have a Working Meeting on Feb 27th to report out all of the stakeholder input. From there they will work on the District Profile that will be presented to everyone who wants to apply for the position. The School Committee would then approve the job description for the position. Mrs. Morgan has also contacted the Town of Monson and they will be posting the agendas for the Search Committee. The School Committee will determine what the Search Committee looks like on February 27th. As of now, they are looking for no more than 15 members, but want to make sure those members are a variety of; students, parents, staff members, community members, etc. The Search Committee will have to follow open meeting laws and follow all of those guidelines - there will be mandatory training for all of the Search Committee members on March 18th. Mrs. Morgan reiterated that everything regarding the search will be posted on the Monson Public Schools website - everything is out there and everything is completely transparent.
Two public input sessions are next week: Feb 12th & Feb 13th and in person @ 6PM on the 13th in the School Committee meeting room at Quarry Hill.
-Ms. Flynn confirmed that the superintendent position will be posted on February 28th and will close on March 28th, and also wanted to clear up that the Search Committee accepts the applications and reviews them and ultimately the Search Committee goes to the School Committee with their semifinalists. Mrs. Morgan agreed and reiterated that everything will be completely confidential within the Search Committee, it will be public knowledge once the finalists have been brought to the School Committee members.
Scheduled Meetings:
-February 12th @ 6 PM Policy Subcommittee Meeting
-February 26th @ 6 PM Facilities Subcommittee Meeting
-February 26th @ 7PM Regular Business Meeting
-February 27th @ 6PM Working Meeting w/ Tracy from MASC
-March 12th @ 5PM Finance Subcommittee Meeting
-March 12th @ 6PM Curriculum Subcommittee Meeting
-March 12th @ 7PM Regular Business Meeting
Mrs. Morgan makes a motion to adjourn to executive session at 8:08PM (Second by Ms. Flynn)
Motion Carries 5-0
Documentation for this meeting:
Agenda February 5, 2025
Distributed at meeting:
Meeting minutes for approval: January 22, 2025
Approved by Committee:
________________________________________
Ms. Nothe-Valley, Secretary
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