February 16, 2021 Special School Committee Meeting
February 16, 2021 Special School Committee Meeting
Brockton, Massachusetts
Organizational Meeting
February 16, 2021
LIVE STREAM
The Special School Committee Meeting of the Brockton School Committee was held this evening, at six o'clock.
These minutes contain a summary of the meeting and list items that were under discussion.
Mayor Sullivan made a statement for the record, that as Chair of the School Committee he is going to relinquish his duties tonight to the Vice-Chair Mark D’Agostino as he has a conflict and will need to leave the meeting early and asked for a motion.
Ms. Mendes motioned for the Vice-Chair to take on the role of the Mayor for today’s meeting, seconded by
Mr. Sullivan.
Mayor Sullivan took a roll call vote:
Mayor Sullivan, Chair – yes
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair – yes
Ms. Asack – absent (arrived later)
Ms. Mendes – yes
Mr. Minichiello – yes
Mr. Rodrigues – yes
Ms. Sullivan – yes
Mr. Sullivan – yes
Superintendent Thomas – yes (non-voting)
Mr. D’Agostino called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., followed by a salute to the flag.
Also present: Executive Team Members, Kim Gibson, BEA President, Attorney Peter Mello
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair read the following information for the record.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic and State of Emergency, on March 12, 2020, Governor Baker issued an Executive Order Temporarily Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A sec. 20. Pursuant to the Order, public bodies are temporarily relieved from the Open Meeting Law’s requirement that meetings be held in public places, open and physically accessible to the public, so long as measures are taken to ensure public access to the bodies' deliberations "through adequate, alternative means."
This meeting will be held and will be accessible to the public via Brockton Community Access, Brockton Public Schools website, www.bpsma.org, YouTube and Comcast channel 98
The public can access this meeting via this link: www.youtube.TheBrocktonChannels
Agenda #1 – Call to order
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair took a roll call to establish a quorum.
Mayor Sullivan, Chair – yes
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair – yes
Ms. Asack – absent
Ms. Mendes – yes
Mr. Minichiello – yes
Mr. Rodrigues – yes
Ms. Sullivan – yes
Mr. Sullivan – yes
Agenda #2 – Executive Session
Mr. D’Agostino called for a vote to go into Executive Session and read the following statement for the record.
“The Committee will enter Executive Session: Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 30A, § 21(a)(3), to discuss strategy and obtain advice of counsel with respect to potential litigation threatened by First Student, Inc. in connection with First Student’s allegation of sums owed under the parties’ contract for transportation services. I hereby declare that conducting this discussion in the open meeting session would have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the committee. The committee will return to open session following this Executive Session.
Mr. Sullivan motioned to enter Executive Session, seconded by Ms. Mendes.
Mr. D’Agostino took a roll call vote:
Mayor Sullivan, Chair – yes
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair – yes
Ms. Asack – absent
Ms. Mendes – yes
Mr. Minichiello – yes
Mr. Rodrigues – yes
Ms. Sullivan – yes
Mr. Sullivan – yes
School Committee Members went into Executive Session at 6:15 p.m.
School Committee Member returned from Executive Session at 6:30 p.m.
Agenda #3 – Discussion and vote regarding: (a) the purchase of school buses; and (b) the School Finance
Subcommittee’s review of such potential purchase(s).
Mr. Petronio BPS/CFO presented a power point on the BPS/School Bus Procurement Proposal to discuss the costs and benefit of having such.
BPS/School Bus Procurement Proposal (PowerPoint)
* Capital Investment Amortized over 10 Years
* Operational Expenses
Questions/Answers
* Mr. D’Agostino asked would we incur excise taxes because we’re a municipality?
Mr. Petronio responded excises taxes; gasoline cost is the base cost there’s no taxes on the gasoline the city buys that in bulk. There are no municipality taxes, we don’t pay registrations for the vehicles, plates, and insurance. All the city vehicles are all with one agency covered under one umbrella, we have the benefit of the very large fleet like that on the insurance and we have over 150 police cars along with the DPW, fire department and school vehicles.
* Mr. Sullivan asked for clarification on the $5.5 million dollar is buying half the buses and $10.6 million for all the buses, is it more because we added air conditioning and items?
Mr. Petronio responded it’s a little bit more due to adding air conditioning and those additional items, it’s $6.4 million for the vehicles including the three extra large buses and three/four extra small buses that we would have.
* Mr. D’Agostino asked for clarification on the mileage.
Mr. Petronio viewed the gasoline usage which we based on the buses doing an approximate 5,000 miles a year. We received a letter saying it’s more like 12,500. The routes were reviewed and it doesn’t appear to be the case, you might have a higher number on one or two buses it all depends on the routes that you run, we’ll be based in Brockton and there’s no extra jobs that we’re taking on.
Mr. Sullivan moved to motion to amend the 2021 non-net school spending budget to allocate a total of $5,483,564.00 from the ordinary maintenance regular education transportation and special education transportation items collectively to school department capital for the purpose of the acquisition of school buses and to authorize the purchase of such buses accordingly, seconded by Ms. Mendes.
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair took a roll call vote:
Mayor Sullivan, Chair – absent (attended another meeting)
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair – yes
Ms. Asack – yes
Ms. Mendes – yes
Mr. Minichiello – yes
Mr. Rodrigues – yes
Ms. Sullivan – yes
Mr. Sullivan - yes
Voted: to approve the motion, unanimous.
Agenda #4 – Other Business
None
Agenda #5 – Adjournment
Mr. Sullivan motioned to adjourn, seconded by Ms. Mendes.
Mr. D’Agostino took a roll call vote:
Mayor Sullivan, Chair – absent
Mr. D’Agostino, Vice-Chair – yes
Ms. Asack – yes
Ms. Mendes – yes
Mr. Minichiello – yes
Mr. Rodrigues – yes
Ms. Sullivan – yes
Mr. Sullivan - yes
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael P. Thomas
Superintendent/Secretary
mdc
PowerPoint: BPS/ School Bus Procurement Proposal