Mr. Tetreault announced privilege of the floor was granted to Kevin Driscoll. He was not present via Zoom.

Mr. Tetreault reviewed protocols for privilege of the floor. The meeting was duly posted as a zoom meeting. Time will be given if Mr. Driscoll joins the meeting later.

Ms. Berkowitz reported the following:

• Week of teacher appreciation celebrated last week;  breakfast provided by FEA with raffle baskets from Board and leadership team.
• End of year celebrations including graduation on June 7th at 6:00PM.
  • On May 24th at 8:00AM senior assembly will be held to distribute scholarships and recognize achievements and participation in leadership activities.

In Ms. St. Brice’s absence, Ms. Berkowitz reported the following:

• Vacant educator positions listed for FY25 may be hired this year for right candidate.
  • District accountant position to be filled.
• New high school principal Bridget Lemieux visited on May 8th and met with students, teachers and department heads; will check on availability to meet Board members at its June meeting; official starting date July 1st.
• Ongoing communication with new Executive Director keeping him apprised of transportation and union activities and staffing as well as any issue impacting next year; visited on May 8th and met the several administrators and expected return on May 22nd to communicate with rest of stakeholders; official start date July 1st.
• Elementary team stabilizing and seeing downward trend in turnover; positions for content areas of middle school being posted; high school stabilizing with little turnover.

Ms. St. Brice joined the meeting at 6:15PM as well as Ms. Mathias.

Ms. St. Brice reported that assurance letters will be sent out next week triggering information on plans for next year and needed information upon which to act upon.

Ms. Berkowitz reported the following:

• Enrollment steady at 1,494 with 109 Kindergartners entering next year.
  • Kindergarten subject to lottery on May 8th and registration starts today for this next round; seven day window runs to next Tuesday.
• Emails sent out for intent to return and received 934 responses; continuing to widdle down emails for non-responses
• Continuing to expect at least 10% attrition rate and fill with grade levels with that in mind; did K-4 outreach April 1 to May 1 with another lottery on July 10th.
• Offer this past round of 22 Kindergartner positions.
• After budget update in next three to four weeks, enrollment expectations will be assessed.

There were no items.

Mr. Martin completed succession training offered by Charter association focusing on roles and responsibilities of Board and how to separate Board and administration operations. He will distribute seminar materials to members.

Review of policies on boards and committees to be tabled to next meeting at the request of Ms. Vixamar.

To be tabled to next meeting.

No appeals.

Ms. Vixamar asked that the policy on boards and committees be reviewed at next meeting.

Board Bylaws

Due to lack of documents in meeting packet, this item has been tabled to next meeting.

Mr. Yezukevich reported the following:

• Six weeks left to the FY24 budget; tuition reimbursement expected from state with no major hit; no surprises for expenses.
• FY25 budget will be brought to the Board for vote in June; another meeting may be scheduled if necessary for review purposes.
• Placeholder for costs related to union negotiations.
• Due to cost increases from long-term transportation vendor, RFP yielded a quote of $2.36, $.5M less than budgeted $2.5M.
• Health insurance increase at 9.2% at $1.75M coordinated by health insurance consultant HR Knowledge; less than surrounding districts; same employer/employee share.

Following advice from Ms. Calvert of a meeting on Friday for the purpose of locking in the quoted rate, and due to the fact of a potential real impact of not addressing this issue in the current session, the Chair made the audible decision on its merits to add this item to the agenda. Due to its time sensitivity, the members agreed that, in the best interests of personnel to provide the best benefit, it was prudent to vote on this item tonight independent of the budget.

Facilities:

Mr. Michelot reported the following:

• In order to enable a smooth transition, met with drivers today to see if they would be interested in employment with new transportation vendor, First Student; details of contract to be completed on Monday with vendor.
• In the interests of assisting families financially, family ridership fees recommended not to increase in FY25.
• Elementary school roof projects scheduled to begin the day after close of FY24 school year and expected to be completed before orientation day; phase 2 to be completed in FY25.

No first readings.

Ms. St. Brice led the discussion on the second reading of the employee handbook as follows:

• Suggested changes from last meeting documented in packet list.
• New section 8.4 induction and mentoring added on pgs 69-71.
  • The employee handbook lays out all regulations for school staff to follow; however anything specified in the collective bargaining agreement supersedes the handbook; otherwise the polices default to the employee handbook.
  • The employee handbook applies to everyone not in the union.
• Two more policies to be added apply to the fact that any organization receiving over $25K in federal funding has drug and alcohol use polices and these will be read as the first reading at the June meeting.

Following discussion, it was agreed that the above policy would be listed as a first reading and when approved the entire handbook will be listed as a second reading and subject to approval.

• Sponsored sixth/seventh grade dance on Friday night.
• Provided three scholarships to graduating seniors.

• Golf tournament scheduled for July 8th trending well; expect to limit foursomes and cap at 128 participants; expect to exceed prior fundraising efforts at $35-40K.

No updates.

No updates.

Review of the calendar resulted in the following proposed actions:

• Budget approval in May or June.
• Review of boards and committees.
• Board recruitment and defining of goals.
• Follow up on field trips; approval of extended trips at least six months ahead to give optimum chance for as many students as possible to participate; framework for potential school assistance in fundraising activities.
• Review of MCAS data compared to other districts in state.

See above calendar.

Mr. Tetreault noted that minutes of October 10 up to December had been approved. 

December 12 minutes were tabled to next meeting.

Minutes of February 12, 15 and 21 not available.

No executive session.