There were no requests to speak at the meeting today. 

Matt Yezukevich updated the board that we have drafted a new "Privilege of the Floor Policy," and it is making its way through the Governance Committee before coming to the board for a vote.

MCAS DATA REVIEW

Ryan Knight of EdLight, PBC walked the Board through the attached presentation.  The Board asked questions on where the school district needs to improve the most.  The Board requested Ryan return with a comparison of the district to a weighted average of its sending district as well as the state.  The Board would also like to see data over a longer period of time.  It is notable that the results are not in alignment with the school's mission.

We are still struggling to fill roles.  The school district is looking to get even more creative to attract more candidates, including having a school van do a pickup/drop off at the Mansfield Train station to potentially attract candidates from Providence.

The Board Welcomed Mallory St. Brice to the School District Administration.

We had six great submissions, which the Board reviewed ahead of the meeting.  We did vote on who to offer the position to, and notably, it was a difficult choice.  The position will be offered to Saanvi Kumar from the 9th grade.

Given it is a role that gets permission to speak and contribute to the conversation and that is granted to them by the Board Chair, it was determined there was no need to vote.

Mallory St. Brice has joined and needs to be appointed to the Board Committees so she will contribute to them.  As the Director of Human Resources, it was previously discussed she be a member of the Staff Recruitment & Retention Committee.  Additionally, she requested to be on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

Eastern Bank needs a Board vote to add a signer to the School District's bank accounts.

The Community Groups are being recruited along with the Task Forces.  The deadline to volunteer was today.  The groups will be structured and set up for a meeting soon.

Kathleen Crawford asked the different groups to submit their updates in writing.

No update at this time

No update at this time

No update at this time

No update at this time

See DAG update

None at this time

None at this time

Appeals

• There have been no appeals since our last meeting.

Enrollment update SY22/23

• Enrollment has been low, and waitlist numbers are getting low. Heidi reached out to DESE and determined if we have exhausted our waitlist, we can enroll immediately after an application is received without holding a new lottery.
  • It is noted that the current under-enrollment (57) for the Middle School translates into a one million dollar loss in revenue if not addressed.
• Heidi and Kathleen worked with the Middle School Principal and staff to execute a plan that will increase student enrollment to meet the budget needs as well as the needs of the grades.  
  • They will not enroll additional 7th grade students without a staffing solution in place.
  • They have established a start date as well so that students do not show up on the first day each day of the week.  They are grouped with a single start date.
• The proposal would be to increase the number of students in the 9th grade as well.  Heidi and Kathleen will work with the High School Principal to ensure that any increase is done "smartly," with the needs of the High School also being taken into consideration.

Enrollment SY23/24

• The application will go live 01DEC2022

The first meeting is planned for 19OCT2022

• Solar on the roof is more advisable than a canopy structure based on the electrical usage
  • The Facilities committee will get the RFP started for the Middle School Roof replacement.
• Oven Build is done but there are some outstanding ovens to be delivered
• Keys have been distributed.

The meeting was suspended at 7:45 to 7:50 pm for a few minutes when the PC rebooted without warning.  The meeting restarted when the zoom connection was reconnected.

• Trenching to install fiberoptic cable to the green house to add the same card access to the structure.  The trenching will also be reused if/when the building is replaced
• Energy audit is complete, and they will begin swapping out lights
• There have been discipline issues on the school buses, which have been brought up to the High School principal to partner with them to ensure behavior is addressed.
  • Discussed adding monitors on the busses

• The beginning of the school year is always a difficult time to confirm how we are doing to budget as the low enrollment/staffing is impacting the assessment.  With that said, nothing was surprising in the numbers
• The New Finance Committee Members joined and needed to review the Annual budget audit for their first meetings.  
  • We ended the Fiscal Year 2022 strong
  • It was described as a "Clean Audit" with no issues/findings because of the controls in place.
  • Credit to Karen Calvert and the Finance staff, Maureen Belanger, Vandra Durning, Kristen Bowerfind, and Will Thompson, for a successful audit. Their adherence to Good Accounting practices resulted in zero issues.

The Governance Committee submitted a written update which was reviewed by the Board.

Todd Tetreault has committed to holding the first meeting in the next 30 days.

Committed to holding the first meeting in the next 30 days.