August 23, 2022

Dec 2 2022 12:40 PM

Brockton, Massachusetts
Regular School Committee Meeting
August 23, 2022
Live Stream

The Regular Meeting of the Brockton School Committee was held this evening in the George M. Romm Little Theatre at Brockton High School, at seven o'clock. These minutes contain a summary of the meeting and list items that were under discussion.

Present: Ms. Asack, Vice-Chair, Mr. Homer, Mrs. Rivas-Mendes, Mr. Rodrigues, Mrs. Sullivan, Mr. Sullivan

Also Present: Superintendent Thomas, Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Ms. Wolder, Executive Team Members, Mrs. Kim Gibson, BEA President

Absent: Mayor Sullivan, Chair, Mrs. Ehlers

Ms. Asack – Vice-Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m.

Ms. Asack – Vice-Chair, took a roll call to establish a quorum that was followed by a salute to the flag.

Mr. Rodrigues – Here Mrs. Rivas-Mendes – Here Mr. Homer - Here Mrs. Sullivan – Here Mr. Sullivan – Here Ms. Asack, Vice-Chair – Here
Ms. Asack mentioned Mayor Sullivan had a prior commitment and is unable to attend.

Hearing of Visitors There were no hearing of visitors.

Consent Agenda

Ms. Asack explained the purpose of the Consent Agenda and asked members if they would like to remove any items for further discussion.
Mrs. Sullivan moved the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve the Consent Agenda in its entirety, seconded by Mr. Homer.

Voted: to approve the motion, unanimously.
A. Approval of Minutes: July 26, 2022 Special School Committee Meeting
B. Approval of Minutes: July 19, 2022 Regular School Committee Meeting
C. Approval of Minutes: May 17, 2022 Regular School Committee Meeting
D. Approval of Minutes: May 3, 2022 Regular School Committee Meeting
E. Approval of Minutes: April 5, 2022 Regular School Committee Meeting
F. Acceptance of Notification: Personnel Actions
Leaves of Absence, Resignations, Retirements

Superintendent’s Report

Introduction of: Dr. Karen Spaulding and Dr. Sean Precious
Superintendent Thomas introduced Dr. Karen Spaulding, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning K-5 and Dr. Sean Precious, Assistant Superintendent of Accountability and School Improvement and invited both to the podium to have a few words to say.

Dr. Spaulding and Dr. Precious both thanked the School Committee members and Superintendent Thomas for the opportunity and are looking forward to the work ahead.

Presentation: Superintendent’s End of Cycle Evaluation (Vice-Chair Asack)
Vice-Chair Asack requested this line item be moved to the Tuesday, September 20, 2022 School Committee Meeting.

Presentation: The Superintendent’s Proficiency Commitment (Superintendent Thomas)
Superintendent Thomas presented a brief powerpoint of his proficiency commitment.

> At the end of five years, 90 percent of our student will be proficient in ELA and Math.
> How we will measure proficiency?
We will measure the successful attainment of our goal via:
* MCAS Results
* Other Benchmarks
* Student performance in the classroom
> Two Crucial Assumptions
1. Our students can achieve proficiency at every grade level and graduate from high school ready for college and career.
2. Brockton educators are intelligent enough, creative enough, and love our children enough to figure out how to overcome obstacles and provide the instruction to get them there.
> How We Get Started
1. The Superintendent’s Declaration
2. The Recruitment Presentation
3. The Working Group
4. Operational Latitude
> Incubating Excellence
Schools will provide the proof of concept that show what can be achieved within the typical constraints of:
* Schedule
* Budget
* Legal parameters
* Labor agreements

“We exist to move children to proficiency. We will organize ourselves to do it.”

Comments

School Committee members thanked Superintendent Thomas for his presentation, his commitment, and the proficiency report. Ms. Asack thanked Superintendent Thomas for his presentation.

Mr. Homer thanked Superintendent Thomas for including in the benchmark discussion weekly progress that the kids are making and believes that will drive success for the kids, when we celebrate those successes as they’re making progress. It is an ambitious goal and believes it will take time.

Questions/Answers

Mrs. Rivas-Mendes asked if we thought about breaking down this goal. Superintendent Thomas mentioned yes, that is what the action plan will do going forward.

Mr. Sullivan asked what percent are we now?

Superintendent Thomas mentioned presently we’re at 17% (the goal is to be 90% proficient in five years). It’s bold and important and we owe it to our students and families, and with the support and great partnerships from everyone we can do it.

Presentation: PreK Program and Grant (Dr. June Saba-Maguire)

Superintendent Thomas introduced Dr. Julianne Andrade, Early Childhood Coordinator to present information regarding the PreK program and grant.

Dr. Andrade presented a brief powerpoint to discuss the PreK program and recent grant. Dr. Saba-Maguire is unable to be in person for the presentation but is watching via YouTube.

> What is the Commonwealth Preschool Planning Initiative (CPPI)?
* It’s a grant funded by the Early Education and Care (EEC)
* Explore ways to expand local access for 3- & 4-year-olds in the community
* Increase access to meet the diverse needs of families and to support children with disabilities.

> Purpose
To develop solutions to address priority needs of Brockton’s preschool age children and their families.

Brockton Public Schools was awarded the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative grant in March 2022. This was a planning grant that included conducting a needs assessment and drafting a strategic plan.

Two Grant Strands
> Expansion and Access to Quality Preschool
> Equitable Access to Special Education and Inclusion

Why is this work important?
> It increases understanding needs of families, programs and children with disabilities
> It supports strategic implementation plan development
> It provides the basis for future funding

What Else?
> We partnered with Linda Warren, Early Childhood Associates
> We identified leadership teams:
* Core leadership team
* Larger leadership team
* Summit team

   Why a Leadership Team?
> The CPPI work relies on a diverse and connected group of leaders and decision makers
> The Leadership Team provides grounding to the strategic plan

   Implications: Strategic Plan Goals
1. Develop
2. Expand
3. Strengthen
4. Ensure

The planning grant positions us for an implementation grant that would bring funding into our community based on our needs assessment and strategic plan!

Update on tasks completed:
> Needs assessment
> Submitted an interim report to EEC
> Summit
> Develop a strategic plan
> Submitted plan to EEC
> CPPI Implementation application 8/1/22

Next Steps:
> The grant was submitted to EEC on August 1, 2022
> We used data from that planning grant in order to write the implementation grant
> BPS is the lead agency and will partner with Head Start and Brockton Day Nursery
> Await notification from EEC by September 1, 2022

School Committee members and Superintendent Thomas thanked both Dr. Andrade and Dr. Saba-Maguire for their hard work.

Questions/Answers

Mrs. Rivas-Mendes asked how many classes are we looking to have? Dr. Andrade mentioned ideally, we would like to have universal preK that would be for 3 and 4 year olds in a full day pre-school program.

Mrs. Rivas-Mendes asked for further information regarding full daycare as it is different than school and vacation hours. Dr. Andrade explained upon the rewarding of this implementation grant we can work with Brockton Day Nursery, 30 preK students to get before and after school care provided.

Mr. Rodrigues asked if we worked with the Bilingual department on the surveys and was there a breakdown of what languages and the demographics of what the needs are? Dr. Andrade mentioned all surveys were all translated, and she has a detailed breakdown of the needs assessment.

Mr. Rodrigues asked how will the preK program be affected by our extended day program? Dr. Andrade mentioned there is a licensing issue with Extended Day, preK is not licensed its a different license for young children for preschool with the EEC.

Items to Refer to Subcommittee
There are no Items to Refer to Subcommittee

Unfinished Business   There is no Unfinished Business

New Business

Discussion and Potential Vote: EEC Rate Increase

Superintendent Thomas introduced Mrs. Susan E. Cole-Teixeira, Coordinator of Extended Day and recently appointed as the new Assistant Principal of North Middle School. Mrs. Cole-Teixeira discussed the EEC rate increase, and advise that we adopt last year’s proposed increase of 2% in addition to this year’s 4% increase, making it a total of 6% increase for private pay tuition. If approved, the new rates will be implemented on September 1, 2022. Mrs. Cole-Teixeira mentioned two of the proposed rates: $0.56 increase for the a.m. session, $1.18 for the p.m. session.

Questions/Answers

Ms. Asack asked when was the last rate increase?
The last rate increase was July 1, 2020 (The 2% proposal increase was not approved by School Committee due to COVID-19 last spring of April 2021.)

Mr. Sullivan asked are the EEC rates set by the State?
The EEC rates are set by the State.

   Mr. Sullivan motioned to approve the Early Education and Childcare (EEC) Rate Increase as presented. Seconded by Mrs. Sullivan.

           The motion passed unanimously.

   Discussion and Potential Vote: Regarding the Friday, September 2, 2022 School Committee
   Meeting date change to Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., B.H.S./Little Theatre
   Ms. Asack mentioned the School Committee meeting date change from Friday, September 2, 2022
   to Wednesday, September 7, 2022.

School Committee members had a brief discussion on the matter.

   Mrs. Rivas-Mendes motioned the change of the Friday, September 2, 2022 School Committee meeting date change to Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., B.H.S./Little Theatre. Seconded by Mr. Rodrigues.

           The motion passed unanimously.

Ms. Asack thanked Cradle to Crayons for their contribution of 2,500 backpacks for our BPS students and volunteers that helped assist.

Mrs. Rivas-Mendes mentioned the public forum “Respect Our Voices” that was held on Thursday, August 11, 2022 by the Youth Leaders of Youth SOL & Sabura, a community leadership development program that teaches youth the tools to organize their communities to create meaningful change to bring about the liberation of all people. Ms. Wolder represented on behalf of Superintendent Thomas. It was great conversation seeing youth being empowered.

On behalf of the School Committee members and Superintendent Thomas they would like to send well wishes to all students for the 2022-2023 school year.

Executive Session Ms. Asack read the following into the record.

“The School Committee members will go into Executive Session Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 30A, § 21(a)(3), to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining, Brockton Education Association (BEA), Brockton Education Paraprofessional Association (BEPA), Monitor Teacher Assistant’s (MTA’s), Transportation/School Bus Drivers Teamsters Unit. The Committee will not return to open session following the executive session.”

Mrs. Sullivan motioned to enter Executive Session. Seconded by Mr. Sullivan.

The School Committee members went into Executive Session at 8:42 p.m.

   Respectfully submitted,

Michael P. Thomas
Superintendent/Secretary

   PowerPoint: Superintendent’s Proficiency Commitment
           Brockton Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI)

mdc