June 6, 2024 School Committee Meetings

June 6, 2024 School Committee Meetings
Posted on 06/04/2024
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Agenda

Quincy School Committee
Notice of Public Hearing: Quincy Public Schools FY2025 Budget

Consistent with the provisions of M.G.L. Chapter 71, Section 38N, the Quincy School Committee will hold a Public Hearing on its proposed FY2025 Budget on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:00 pm in the School Committee Room at the Coddington Building, 34 Coddington Street, Quincy, MA 02169.

All interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard, subject to the terms of the Quincy School Committee Open Forum policy:

Open Forum: An opportunity for community input regarding the Quincy Public Schools. Community in this context is defined as a resident of the City of Quincy, a parent of a student who attends the Quincy Public Schools, or an employee of the Quincy Public Schools. Non-community persons not permitted to speak at Open Forum may submit written statements to the School Committee. After giving his or her name and address, each speaker may make a presentation of no more than four minutes to the School Committee. An individual may not exchange their time or yield to others. Interested parties may also submit written statements to: [email protected].

Members of the public can access the meeting in person, live on QATV Channel 22, or at www.qatv.org. The meeting will also be recorded posted on the QPS website on Monday, June 10, 2024.

Minutes

Quincy, MASSACHUSETTS – June 6, 2024
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Quincy School Committee Public Hearing: FY2025 Budget

Public Hearing

Chari Presiding

A Public Hearing of the FY2025 Quincy Public Schools Budget was held on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at the Coddington Building at 6:00 p.m. Present were School Committee Chair Mayor Thomas P. Koch, Mr. Doug Gutro, Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, Mrs. Emily Lebo, Mrs. Courtney Perdios, and Mrs. Tina Cahill, Vice Chair.

Also present were: Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins, Ms. Kim Connolly, Mr. Michael Marani, Mr. James Mullaney, Ms. Maura Papile, and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.

School Committee Member Mr. Paul Bregoli was absent.

§

The Quincy School Committee held a Public Hearing on the FY2025 Budget.

As there was no one present to speak at the Public Hearing, the meeting was adjourned.

§

On a motion by Mrs. Hubley, seconded by Mrs. Lebo the FY2025 Quincy Public Schools Budget Public Hearing was adjourned at 6:02 pm.


Agenda

Quincy School Committee Budget & Finance Subcommittee

Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:01 p.m.
Coddington Building, School Committee Room

Mayor Thomas P. Koch, Chair

Discussion of the Proposed FY2025 Quincy Public Schools Budget - Mayor Koch and School Committee Members, Superintendent Mulvey, Mr. Mullaney

Members of the public can access the meeting in person, live on QATV Channel 22, or at www.qatv.org. The meeting will also be recorded for rebroadcast and posted on the QPS website on Monday, June 10, 2024.

Minutes

Quincy School Committee Budget & Finance Subcommittee Meeting ~ June 6, 2024

A meeting of the Budget & Finance Subcommittee was held on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:05 pm at the Coddington Building. Present were Mr. Paul Bregoli, Ms. Tina Cahill, Mr. Doug Gutro, Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, Mrs. Emily Lebo, Ms. Courtney Perdios, and Mayor Thomas P. Koch, Subcommittee Chair. Also attending were Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins, Ms. Kim Connolly, Mr. Michael Marani, Mr. James Mullaney, Ms. Maura Papile, Ms. Kimberly Quinn, and Ms. Bridget Vaughan; and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.

Mayor Koch reviewed that the draft FY2025 Quincy Public Schools Budget was presented to School Committee at the May 22, 2024 meeting and opened the meeting up for discussion.

Mrs. Perdios asked about the Special Education Work Study line item that is being reduced to zero. Mr. Mullaney said that the LEAP work-study program is now self-funded, so this line item hasn’t been used for five years.

Mrs. Perdios asked about the extracurricular funding, Mr. Mullaney confirmed that elementary and middle school amounts are based on per-pupil rates. Mr. Mullaney said text & learning and supplies are also funded by a per pupil basis.

Mrs. Perdios asked about the reduction in the Translation line and if there are additional accessibility issues that could be addressed if the current funding level was maintained. Dr. Perkins said that the translation costs have been far below the original $500,000 budgeted and the $300,000 that will remain in the line will more than cover the current services, including the language line and external translation services. Mrs. Perdios suggested that we survey EL families to see if there are additional interpretation services that families could utilize.

Mrs. Perdios asked about level funding for some of the smaller accounts and inflation. Mr. Mullaney said many of the accounts have been funded at the same level for close to 20 years, we have been able to make the most of the funds we have.

Mrs. Perdios asked about the Special Education tuition line, could there be a decrease due to potential for students to move back from Out of District placements to the DeCristofaro Learning Center. Dr. Perkins said that there are future savings for outplacement candidates that will not be sent to out of district schools. Currently, there are over 180 students in Out of District placements, not all are candidates for the DeCristofaro Learning Center.

Mrs. Perdios asked about the Professional Discretionary Fund, this is in the Quincy Education Association contract and reimburses teachers for expenses for supplies and materials up to $500 per year.

Mrs. Perdios asked about academic classroom staffing, there was previously Grade 8 French at Central Middle School. Dr. Perkins said one of the Quincy High School teachers taught one section at Central and one of the North Quincy High School teachers teaches one section at Atlantic. The higher high school enrollment made that a challenge to retain this year.

Mrs. Lebo made a motion to move the FY2025 Quincy Public Schools Budget as presented to the full School Committee for the June 12, 2024 meeting. Mrs. Hubley seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it, 7-0.

Mrs. Lebo made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:20 pm. Mr. Bregoli seconded the motion and on a voice vote, the ayes have it.


Agenda

Quincy School Committee Joint Teaching & Learning and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittees Meeting

Mrs. Emily Lebo, Teaching & Learning Chair
Mr. Paul Bregoli & Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, Subcommittee Members

Mrs. Tina Cahill, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Chair
Mr. Paul Bregoli & Mr. Doug Gutro, Subcommittee Members

Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:15 pm
Coddington Building, School Committee Room

  1. Updating & Aligning K-5 Rubrics, Report Cards, and Pacing Guides for ELA and Math - Ms. Quinn, Ms. Vaughan

  2. Chronic Absenteeism Update - Dr. Perkins, Mr. Marani

Members of the public can access the meeting in person or live on QATV Channel 22 or at qatv.org. The meeting will also be recorded and posted on Monday, June 10, 2024 on the QPS YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@QuincyPS.

Minutes

Quincy School Committee Joint Teaching & Learning and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittees Meeting

A joint meeting of the Teaching & Learning and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittees was held on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:20 pm in the Coddington Building. Present were Teaching & Learning Subcommittee members Mr. Paul Bregoli, Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, and Mrs. Emily Lebo, Subcommittee Chair and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee members Mr. Paul Bregoli, Mr. Doug Gutro, and Mrs. Tina Cahill, EDI Subcommittee Chair. Also present were School Committee Member Mrs. Courtney Perdios; Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins, Ms. Kim Connolly, Mr. Michael Marani, Ms. Maura Papile, Ms. Kimberley Quinn, Ms. Bridget Vaughan; and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.

English Language Arts Coordinator Bridget Vaughan and Mathematics Coordinator Kim Quinn presented an update on the updating and aligning of Kindergarten through Grade 5 Report Cards, Rubrics, and Pacing Guides due to the implementation of new curriculum for both ELA and Mathematics. Samples of the updated report cards and rubrics, pacing, and alignment documents were shared with School Committee. All of the documents are accessible to all elementary staff members through the shared Google drive. These documents were a collaborative process among teachers and the Curriculum coordinators, with support from the IT department. The revised report cards will be rolled out for the 2024-2025 school year.

Mrs. Hubley asked about the continuing real-time revision process. Ms. Quinn said any teacher can reach out to a curriculum team member. Larger changes would be discussed at the citywide professional development meetings and implemented after analysis and agreement.

Mr. Bregoli asked about the ELA curriculum and the inclusion of sight words. Ms. Vaughan said this is part of the developmentally appropriate Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum, along with word and sound walls.

Mrs. Cahill asked for clarification, the 2024-2025 school year will be the second year of using the CKLA program at all schools. Some schools had additional experience through the piloting process in the 2021-2022 school year. Ms. Vaughan is looking forward to the spring MAP results for demonstrated growth for our students.

Mrs. Lebo said the CKLA program is a high interest program, appealing to even reluctant readers.

Mrs. Lebo asked for clarification, the Common Core are national standards and there are also Massachusetts standards that are close but not identical. The Illustrative Mathematics program is correlated to Common Core, so the Quincy Public Schools pacing and alignment guide pulls in additional resources to support any different Massachusetts standards to ensure those are taught as well.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins and Curriculum Director Michael Marani presented an update on the Quincy Public Schools initiatives on Chronic Absenteeism, reminding School Committee that students are considered Chronically Absent when they have missed 10% of enrolled school days, typically 18 or more out of 180 school days. The Superintendent’s goal for the 2023-2024 school year was to reduce chronic absenteeism in Grades 1-8 by 2% from a base of 14.9% and in Grades 9-12 by 3% from a base of 26.2%. As of May 24, 2024, 1428 students have been absent 16 or more days. In the same time frame last year, 216 additional students were chronically absent, so the snapshot shows a decrease of 13%.

The principals have made tremendous efforts to combat chronic absenteeism, implementing attendance recovery through the Accelerated Academy offerings on Saturdays and during school vacations. Increased communication and education of parents/guardians, personalized outreach, and continuing the multi-tiered approach to support students and families including early interventions before students get into the chronically absent category. The final Accelerated Academy will be offered the week of June 24, with the possibility of students earning back up to five days.

Mr. Marani noted that Kindergarten is not part of the Chronic Absenteeism data, but the elementary schools are emphasizing the importance of school attendance to Kindergarten families. For high school, students are concerned about their course credits and participate in credit recovery through the online Accellus platform. In the fall, principals will have opportunities for formal sharing of best practices.

Dr. Perkins emphasized that the success of this initiative is due to the hard work of the principals, encouraging regular attendance and celebrating the students who have made progress.

Mr. Bregoli asked for a breakout of data by Grades 1-5 and 6-8. Mr. Bregoli asked if DESE provides guidelines about absenteeism and promotion, especially for middle school students. A student who misses school and does not pass classes won’t have the foundational skills needed for high school. Dr. Perkins said there is no state guidance on promotion, it is a local decision. Dr. Perkins said that sometimes students have other issues, need the supports of the PASS program or other family interventions.

Mr. Gutro agreed with the request for the data to be broken down by grade level grouping, as well as the breakdown of issues that prevent students from attending school regularly. Mr. Gutro asked when the analysis of the 2023-24 school year will be presented, Dr. Perkins said it will be part of the annual data presentation in October and the School Improvement Plan presentations in November.

Mr. Gutro suggested surveying families who have shown improvement in absenteeism what changed for them, was it internal or external factors.

Mrs. Hubley asked about the absenteeism for EL high school students, Dr. Perkins said that we are continuing to analyze high school student engagement, especially looking at ACCESS data vs. students’ class schedules, and offer alternative supports to ensure that students make progress towards graduation.

Mrs. Hubley asked about traveling families, students who are traveling internationally for extended periods of time are withdrawn. Dr. Perkins said families taking multiple shorter vacations are more of a concern.

Mrs. Lebo asked for clarification on the high school data, some students are in multiple categories on the chart. Mrs. Lebo said that for the high school students, one option to incentivize older EL students would be bilingual paraprofessionals in CVTE classes.

Mrs. Lebo said that the in the past, family’s DTA benefits were affected by school attendance. Ms. Papile will research whether this is still an issue.

Mrs. Cahill asked about the pre-COVID chronic absenteeism rate, it was much lower (after several years of efforts to reduce it). Mrs. Cahill asked for analysis of high school students who are new to the US and having absenteeism issues. Mrs. Cahill asked about the transition process for older students, there are EL curriculum area courses at both high schools. Some students can finish high school in four years while others may need additional time due to not having credits from their home country.

Mrs. Hubley made a motion to adjourn the Joint Teaching & Learning and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittees meeting at 7:25 pm, seconded by Mr. Bregoli. On a voice vote, the ayes have it.


Agenda

Quincy School Committee Policy Subcommittee

Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 6:30 pm
Coddington Building, School Committee Room

Mr. Doug Gutro, Chair
Mrs. Tina Cahill & Mrs. Emily Lebo, Subcommittee Members
**This Meeting is a Committee of the Whole**

  1. School Committee Policy 2.3.3 - Mr. Gutro
    Subcommittees of the School Committee

  2. School Committee Policy 2.4.10 - Mrs. Lebo
    Public Participation at School Committee Meetings

Members of the public can access the meeting in person or live on QATV Channel 22 or at qatv.org. The meeting will also be recorded and posted on Monday, June 10, 2024 on the QPS YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@QuincyPS.

Minutes

Quincy School Committee Policy Subcommittee Meeting

A meeting of the Policy Subcommittee was held on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 7:25 pm in the Coddington Building. Present were Subcommittee members Mrs. Tina Cahill, Mrs. Emily Lebo, and Mr. Doug Gutro, Policy Subcommittee Chair. Also present were School Committee Members Mr. Paul Bregoli, Mrs. Kathryn Hubley, and Mrs. Courtney Perdios; Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins, Ms. Kim Connolly, Mr. Michael Marani, Ms. Maura Papile; and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.

For Section 2.3.3 Subcommittees of the School Committee, Mr. Gutro reviewed that a draft revision to the existing policy was shared with School Committee.

Ms. Owens noted that the proposed revision to the Policy incorporates the Massachusetts Association of School Committees language where applicable and documents current School Committee practices.

Mrs. Perdios requested adding the disclaimer language that Subcommittees are not meetings of the Whole to the Policy.

Mrs. Perdios noted that some items would be of interest to the whole School Committee and requested advanced notice of planned agenda items.

Mrs. Hubley reminded School Committee that developing a master calendar/agenda is an item in Policy Subcommittee. Ms. Owens said that Subcommittee meetings are listed under Communications section of School Committee meeting agenda, planned topics could be listed there.

Mrs. Lebo made a motion to amend the proposed revision of School Committeee Policy 2.3.3 Subcommittees of the School Committee to add the following additional paragraph: “The following statement will be included on each Subcommittee agenda: A subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole School Committee. Therefore, per the Open Meeting Law, only subcommittee members may sit at the School Committee meeting table, discuss, deliberate and vote.” Mrs. Cahill seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it.

Mrs. Cahill made a motion to approve the revision to School Committee Policy 2.3.3 Subcommittees of the School Committee as amended. Mrs. Lebo seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it.

Mrs. Lebo reviewed the proposed changes to School Committee Policy Section 2.4.10 Public Participation in School Committee Meetings.

Mrs. Cahill suggested a time cutoff for the written letter submissions.

Mrs. Perdios is concerned about the proposed changes, three minutes is a short time to make a complex point. Reading the written submissions aloud gives all community members access.

Mrs. Hubley is in favor of the proposed changes, School Committee is providing options for community members to contact them.

Mrs. Cahill agreed that reading the letters aloud is not necessary if they are posted online.

Mr. Gutro asked for clarification, the letters would be posted prior to the School Committee meeting.

Mrs. Lebo suggested letters be submitted the day before the School Committee meeting for the posting.

Mrs. Lebo said the three minutes aligns with 300 words limit for written communication.

Mrs. Cahill made a motion to amend the proposed revision to School Committee Policy 2.4.10 Public Participation at School Committee Meetings. The last paragraph of the Policy will read “Residents or non-community persons may submit written statements of up to 300 words to the School Committee at [email protected] by 4:00 pm of the day prior to the posted School Committee Regular Meeting. Written statements will be posted on the School Committee section of the Quincy Public Schools website by noon on the day of the posted School Committee Regular Meeting.” Mrs. Lebo seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it.

Mrs. Lebo made a motion to approve the revision to School Committee Policy 2.4.10 Public Participation at School Committee Meetings as amended. Mrs. Cahill seconded the motion and on a roll call vote, the ayes have it.

Mrs. Cahill made a motion to adjourn at 7:55 pm pm, seconded by Mrs. Lebo. On a voice vote, the ayes have it.