BERKSHIRE HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Great Barrington Stockbridge West Stockbridge
SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
Meet & Confer
Professional Development Room, District Office, Stockbridge
October 11, 2018 – 7:00 p.m.
Present:
School Committee: S. Bannon, A. Hutchinson, J. St. Peter, B. Fields, D. Singer, D. Weston, R. Dohoney, A.Potter, S.Stephen, K Piaseki
Administration: P. Dillon, S. Harrison, B. Doren, T. Lee, D. Wine, K. Farina, K. Burdsall
Staff/Public: C. McDermott – Berkshire Record
Absent:
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Steve Bannon called the meeting to order immediately at 7pm.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The listing of agenda items are those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed, and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. This meeting is being recorded by CTSB, Committee Recorder, members of the public with prior Chair permission and will be broadcast at a later date. Minutes will be transcribed and made public, as well as added to our website, www.bhrsd.org once approved.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT
Request additional j.v. boys soccer coach. Booster club will cover the costs. The delay in asking for this was attributed to change in turn over. Rich asked how many coaches in total. Dr. Wine stated the extra jv coach makes 4 total coaches. There are 3 girls coaches and 3 volunteers.
Unanimous
Liskin Van Pelt Dus and Jolyn Unruh want to take a group of students to poetry event in N.J. Half paid by English department, half other funds. Day trip. Bill fields motion Anne second. Unanimous
Handbooks. Peter stated that the handbooks have relatively few changes with the number of administrators. Motion made by. Seconded by Rich to approve handbooks.
An email received from Sen. Adam Hines reported that the second tier of Rural School Aid was funded. $21,275. Dr. Dillon will have a proposal for using the money soon. Possibly for the Coordinated care position that needs funded.
District improvement plan presented by Kristi Farina.
(Attach document to minutes)
Originally hoped to have a multi-year plan, but with change of administration at two schools it was decided to have a one year plan to allow Dr. Wine and Mr. Lee time to work on multi-year plan with other administrators
Ms. Farina went through the plan goal by goal. See Attached document.
7:17 Kristin Piasecki arrived
Goal 2 specifically talked about crisis prevention trained by Safety Care.
Goal 3 Ms. Farina stated this has been worked on for a number of years. The power school data management system will be implemented in the fall of next year. It will also help identify students who need academic interventions.
Goal 4 Ms. Farina specially stated that specific protocols will be set up to help
Mr. Fields asked about goal 3. Expressed a concern that there might be privacy concerns with all this data about kids including behavior. Has concerns about privacy.
Ms. Farina said the data is already being collected, putting in all in one place (Power School) May actually be more secure.
Mr. Dohoney asked if parents will have access to their own children’s data. Mr. Bannon said the data would be available to a parent, but they might not have the electronic data.
Mr. Potter asked about how long data would be kept. Dr. Dillon suggested that we (admin) come back to SC with definitive answers.
Mr. Fields asked Ms. Burdsall about the number of years SPED records are kept. Ms. Burdsall replied they are kept for 10 years. General academic records are kept for 60 years.
Mr. Weston stated that he believes that only data that is going to be used.
Mr. Potter spoke to the requirements of handling data at the federal level.
Dr. Dillon will come back to SC or supply a memo to follow up on this.
No additional comments
Motion to approve Mr. Potter, Seconded Mr. Stephen.
Dr. Dillon stated this allows the building principals to go back to their buildings and then come back to the SC with their improvement plans.
Dr. Dillon then presented the memo “Building Structures for engaging in Dialogue”
The SC took time to read the memo.
Dr. Dillon stated that there are periodically uses of inappropriate actions and language – language that occur in our schools. This structure is designed as framework to help work through these situations.
Ms. Piasecki wanted the third sentence to clearly spell out the what “our worst” is.
Mr. Dohoney asked about how the Mahaiwe and Rockwell museum are involved in this type of situation. Ms. Piasecki suggested that it be stated how these organizations specifically work with the district on these kinds of issues.
Mr. Fields suggested looking at the materials the Southern Poverty Law center has available.
Dr. Dillon wants to have the procedures and knowledge in place to deal with future events.
Mr. Dohoney asked about sexism not being listed. Asked where we stand on that issue. Dr. Dillon responded that he thinks on the surface it looks good but not sure if you did know how people actually feel.
Mr. Dohoney and Ms. Piasecki both stated their concerns about sexism and how it impacts girls into their adult lives.
Mr. Dohoney asked if substance abuse needed to be addressed in this document.
Ms. Singer suggested that we need to be more proactive in dealing with substance abuse issues and other issues. Is there a clear path for students to follow?
Dr. Dillon said there are clear formal paths, but there are other informal paths that need to be strengthened.
Ms. Singer stated that there not clear paths because she believes that students and parents talk about it outside of school.
Dr. Dillon sated that his hope is that each student has two adults who they can talk to through the development of positive relationships that they would have someone to talk to.
Mr. Fields spoke to his experience dealing with these issues when he taught at Monument Mountain. His expectation is that teachers are expected to do more than teach and deal with the broad number of issues that come before them at school. He suggested that teachers who are not willing to go beyond just teaching should not stay in the district.
Ms. Piasecki asked if there is a known person who girls who have trauma in the past or present who they could go to. Dr. Dillon stated that yes, but it could be better articulated.
Mr. Weston suggested its the strong relationships that students have with a variety of adults is the route students will take.
Mr. Dohoney suggested some PD might be need in the area of teachers recognizing students who are in distress and how to act when they recognize it. He further added that he hoped the creation of the full time extra-curricular position could be utilized to make sure the values we expect of our teachers is carried over into the adults working with our students after hours.
Mr. Fields spoke to the importance of the three school nurses in this area.
Mr. Bannon asked if and Dr. Dillon stated that a better version of this document will be brought to the SC at a later date.
Mr. Fields wants to be proactive on these issues. Mr. Dohoney restated his concerns about sexism in the schools.
Mr. St. Peter brought up the Next Steps group. Dr. Dillon stated that that the best move might be to send out a memo updating the sc. MSBA will be making decisions on the applications from a number of school districts in December.
Dr. Dillon will share with sc
8:05 pm. – Motion to adjourn, seconded by Piasecki
Respectfully submitted –
Dan Weston