Minutes 03-13-2007

HWRSD School Committee

HAMPDEN-WILBRAHAM REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Public Hearing on the FY08 Budget @ 7:00 p.m.
Thornton W. Burgess Middle School – Computer Lab
School Committee Meeting @ 7:30 p.m.
Thornton W. Burgess Middle School – Library
March 13, 2007

Present:
School Committee Members: Scott Chapman, William Bickley, Marianne Desmond, D. John McCarthy, Lisa Morace, and Peter Salerno.
Administrators: Paul Gagliarducci, Donna Scanlon and Beth Regulbuto
Guests: Marc Ducey, Wilbraham Finance Committee; Suzanne McLaughlin, The Republican; Garrett Hall, The Times; Marty O’Shea, Principals of MRHS; Sherrill Caruana, MEM Teacher; Alan Kinney and Bob Page, Concerned Citizens of Wilbraham; John Lovejoy, Wilbraham resident; and Bill Olmstead and Ed Gorski, Hampden residents.
Absent: Gilles Turcotte and Student Representatives.

Public Hearing on the FY08 Budget
Dr. Gagliarducci provided a Power Point Presentation overview of the FY08 budget. In summary, the increase is 4.67% over last year, with the total FY08 budget being $36,777,612. The assessment to Hampden is only a .81% increase and Wilbraham’s is 1.56%.

The group reconvened in the Library and Chairman Chapman called the School Committee meeting to order at 7:55 p.m. He explained to the viewing audience that Dr. Gagliarducci just presented the FY08 Budget at a Public Hearing.

General (see attached)
1. Public Comment
  There were no comments.
2. Minutes
  - Regular Meeting – February 27, 2007
    The Minutes of the February 27th meeting were reviewed. Mr. Bickley made a motion to accept the Minutes as written. Mr. Salerno seconded and it was approved.
3. Student Representatives
  Student Representative Liz Medeiros had to get to another meeting, so Mr. Chapman reported on some recent and upcoming events at the high school including, Key Club “Kids Night” scheduled for Friday night, Blood Drive also on Friday, Battle of the Bands on March 23rd, and the Seniors-Faculty Basketball Game on March 30th.
Financial Issues (see attached)
1. FY08 Budget – Vote Required
  Mr. McCarthy complimented Dr. Gagliarducci for his work on the budget. As a member of the Budget Subcommittee he knows this budget is very lean. He feels that budgets like this require making choices and frankly his choice would be to take a closer look at what the District spends on sports programs and also consider privatizing maintenance, etc. Mr. Chapman is pleased with the new Governor’s commitment to funding Chapter 70, but is mindful that the Legislature still has to act. He asked for a motion to approve the FY08 budget. Mr. Salerno made the motion to accept the FY08 Budget at $36,777,612 as presented by the Superintendent. Mrs. Desmond seconded and it was unanimously approved.
  
  Mr. Chapman thanked Mr. Ducey, representing the Wilbraham Finance Committee, for attending tonight’s meeting.
2. Recommended Fee/Ticket Structure for 07/08 – Vote Req’d
  The Committee previously received a memo from Mr. Doyle regarding the need to increase athletic fees about $10 per sport and increase the ticket price structure for 07/08. Mrs. Desmond made a motion that the Hampden Wilbraham Regional School Committee approve the new fee/ticket structure for 07/08 as set forth by the Athletic Director. Mr. Salerno seconded and it was unanimously approved.
3. FY07 Audit – Vote Required
  Mr. Salerno briefly discussed the very comprehensive annual audit for the year ending June 30, 2006, the one that lists the E&D of about $800,000 that we have worked so hard to build. Mrs. Desmond made a motion to accept the FY07 Annual Audit. Mr. McCarthy seconded and it was unanimously approved.
4. Donation from Dangleis Family –Vote to Accept Req’d
  Dr. Gagliarducci explained that the Dangleis family had donated four 93-piece toolsets, a 3’ x 3’ lockable, movable toolbox, and a tool storage rack to the Tech Ed Program in memory of their son, Dean. Per policy, the School Committee must vote to accept this donation. Mr. Salerno made a motion to accept the generous donation. Ms. Morace seconded and it was unanimously approved.
5. Approve Warrants
  The warrants were approved.
Other Business (see attached)
1. Class Rank – Vote on Recommendation
  Mr. Chapman noted that at the last meeting there was a long discussion about the issue of class rank. He believes everyone was in agreement that we don’t want to totally get rid of class rank and that we want to start any changes with the Class of 2010. He thanked Mr. O’Shea for the great work on his report. Here are the recommendations from Mr. O’Shea:
  - Modify the reporting of class rank to colleges and universities effective with the Class of 2010.
  - Revise the Minnechaug School Profile to include class rank range information. This would be a chart or a bar graph and would indicate what grade point averages fall into the following ranges: top 1%, top%5, top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40%, and top 50%.
  - Retain Minnechaug’s system of recognizing a Salutorian and Valedictorian at Graduation.
  - Report a specific numeric class rank directly to military academies and scholarship sponsoring organizations, if it is requested by parents and/or the student and required by the academy or scholarship organization.

The first item has already been agreed upon – that any change will start with the Class of 2010.

Mr. McCarthy then made a motion to accept the recommendation to include more information in the Minnechaug School Profile. Mr. Salerno seconded and it was unanimously approved.

Mrs. Desmond then made a motion to accept Mr. O’Shea’s recommendation as noted above: * Revise the Minnechaug School Profile to include class rank range information. This would be a chart or a bar graph and would indicate what grade point averages fall into the following ranges: top 1%, top%5, top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40%, and top 50%. * Retain Minnechaug’s system of recognizing a Salutorian and Valedictorian at Graduation.
* Report a specific numeric class rank directly to military academies and scholarship sponsoring organizations, if it is requested by parents and/or the student and required by the academy or scholarship organization

There was much discussion including Mr. McCarthy not being in favor of making it harder for Admissions Counselors – he feels we should be giving them more information to help our students, not less, and sees no advantage to changing this. Mr. Salerno was in agreement with him and cited many excerpts from various reports, including one which said that college deans “deplore the trend” of eliminating the reporting of class rank. He feels
that class rank is one of the many tools provided for colleges to evaluate students and that competition can be a good thing. Mr. Chapman noted that he is in support of a change, but would also like to include the decile information on the transcript itself, as well as the school profile.

Mr. McCarthy made an amendment to the original motion to keep class rank and add the decile information to the transcript. Mr. Salerno seconded. Mrs. Desmond would agree to have the decile information added to the transcript but was not in agreement with keeping class rank. There was one in favor and five opposed to the amendment, so the amendment did not pass.

Mr. Salerno made another amendment to the original motion and that was to include the decile information (top 1%, top 5%, etc) on the transcript as well. Ms. Morace seconded. There were five in favor and one opposed, so the amendment passed.

Mrs. Desmond then made another amendment to the original motion and that was to include the following deciles: top 1%, top%5, top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40%, and top 50%, top 60%, top 70%, top 80%, and top 90%. Ms. Morace seconded. Mr. McCarthy suggested rather than do all that, just give class rank. The amendment was approved.
Mrs. Desmond made a final amendment to the original motion to incorporate the changes, as follows:
• What is going to be represented on the student transcript is the GPA ranges using the following deciles - top 1%, top%5, top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40%, and top 50%, top 60%, top 70%, top 80%, and top 90% .
• Retain Minnechaug’s system of recognizing a Salutorian and Valedictorian at Graduation.
• Report a specific numeric class rank directly to military academies and scholarship sponsoring organizations, if it is requested by parents and/or the student and required by the academy or scholarship organization.

Mr. Bickley seconded the motion. Mr. McCarthy complained that something simple has been made much more complicated, but Ms. Morace believes it will force Admission Counselors to look at the student as a whole. Mr. Chapman feels that the Committee charged Principal O’Shea with bringing forth a recommendation and he is very comfortable that the recommendation, as amended, is sound. There were five in favor and one opposed, so the motion passes.

Mr. O’Shea was asked to show the Committee the revised School Profile when available.

Policy Manual Subcommittee Update
Mr. Salerno apologized for having to postpone today’s scheduled meeting due to personal reasons. He looks forward to having the first meeting on Tuesday, March 20th, at 5:00 p.m. (Mr. Salerno then left the meeting at 8:50 p.m.)

Correspondence/Written Reports Received (see attached)
1. Superintendent’s Report
  It was announced that we received notification from LPVEC Career Tec that Bonnie Strange, a Career Tec Landscaping and Horticulture student from Minnechaug, has been selected as this year’s “Outstanding Vocational Student” and will be honored on April 12th at the 21st annual Outstanding Vocational Technical Student Awards Banquet. Also, the MRHS girls’ basketball program recently two honors recently. The first is that this year’s team was voted the “Sportsmanship Trophy” for all Division I schools in the State, which is a great honor. Also, our program was asked to represent girls’ basketball and the State in the Scholastic Athletic Hall of Fame in Kingston, Rhode Island.
2. Misc. Correspondence (green folder)
  Dr. Scanlon announced the District’s “Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards”. This year we have Teresa Kansas at Wilbraham Middle (Beginner Teacher recipient), Anne Axton-Jones at Mile Tree, Gary Petzold at MRHS, Laura Murphy at Stony Hill, and Denise Fiedler at Thornton Burgess. Congratulations! These teachers are all outstanding representatives for our district.
  
  Mr. McCarthy mentioned a newspaper article he read recently about high school drop out rates. He asked what is being done to discourage our students from dropping out? Dr. Gagliarducci explained that there are, indeed, programs at the high school to work with students who are struggling or are disenfranchised with school.
Personnel
The School Committee noted the following appointments, resignations, leaves of absence, and retirements:
1. Appointments (replacements unless noted otherwise*)
  - Daniel Moran, LT Sub History/SS Teacher @ MRHS, eff 4-13-07
2. Resignations
  - Catherine Flechsig, Food Service @ MEM, eff 3-9-07
  - Brian Logan, 7th/8th Gr LA Teacher @ TWB, eff 3-1-07
3. Leaves of Absence
  - None
4. Retirements
  - None
New Agenda Items (for upcoming meetings)
1. Policy Subcommittee (ongoing)
2. Capital Projects Review
3. Begin Superintendent’s Evaluation (March 27)
4. Review Task List (Mar)

As there was no need for Executive Session, Mr. Chapman asked for a motion to adjourn. Mr. Bickley so moved, Mrs. Desmond seconded, and it was unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Karen W. Belsky
Recording Secretary

Next Meeting Scheduled For:
Tuesday, March 27, 2007,
at Mile Tree Elementary School