Artie Sullivan briefly reviewed action items from November meeting.

Mid-cycle review for Dr. Peter Cohen will take place at the January 1/25/22 meeting. Peter will present his progress towards his goals at that meeting and the Board will complete evaluations ahead of the February board meeting.

See Agenda...REALLY need to bolster committee and Board membership and quickly.

Parent Tim Wadlow has expressed interest in joining the Board of Trustees. Tim will be meeting the Governance committee at their January meeting and all being well, will be presented to the Board at the 1/25/22 meeting.

Peter presented his update. See HoS report in agenda for details.

There were questions regarding how the school will finance these two new positions (Dean of Students and a Human Resources professional). Finance committee assured Board that school has funds to do so. Also questions on how funding for the proposed murals will be attained.

Peter emphasized the importance of 100% Board participation in donating to the school fund. Board agreed that each member should donate an amount (of their choosing) annually in order to substantiate the claim that we have 100% participation.

Discussion of Dr. Cohen's new contact.

The HoS Contract Negotiation Committee (Artie Sullivan, Paul Baker, Peter Cheney & Rudy Herve[absent]) presented the contract that they had negotiated with Dr. Cohen. 

Please see agenda for actual contract.

The contract presented was for 5 years with a pay increase each year.

Much discussion ensued. The length of the new contract was not at issue, however the rate of pay year over year was debated at length. 

In particular, Board members Ian Hunt & Jessica Gelb were concerned as to the percentage rate of salary increase, particularly when compared to that of faculty as well as the fact that faculty have no tenure and, for the most part, have only yearly contracts.

It was generally agreed and that the Contract Negotiation Committee could and should have done a better job of presenting comparisons and data to substantiate the merits of the new contract. Ian & Jessica Gelb, rightly, requested that this be reflected and noted in the minutes and that, moving forward, a powerpoint presentation (or something similar) be utilized in HoS contract presentations.

Did not meet due to lack of quorum.

In Monsieur Herve's absence, Rick Doran presented a truly fabulous and succinct update of the school financials.

Please see FinCom meeting updates in packet as well as Business Manager, Jeff Barry's enlightening notes.

Peter Cheney & Artie shared that the committee is working on a new and improved teacher survey to be sent out. It will consist of 25-30 questions. Committee members Katie Sullivan & James Rogers have worked extensively on this much needed revamp.

Jessica X shared that the committee had met briefly and that an MCAS task force group will be formed in order to dissect, compare and share out meaningful takeaways from MCAS results.

No meeting was held in December.

Dr. Cohen shared that this committee is still at the formation stage. Stay tuned!

Chair, Will Rockwell was unable to attend. Dr. Cohen shared that as there was no quorum, 3 of the committee members met and discussed planning a science lab and relocating the art and music rooms as well as a number of the classrooms.

There were also discussions regarding making changes in leasing terms for tenants renting warehouse space.

Dr Cohen shared that there would be a review of covid policy based on what the State and DESE decide to implement. Basically a wait and see approach for the time being.

Nurse D has tendered her resignation and will leave MCCPS at the end of the current semester. A new School Nurse has been hired and will join MCCPS in early January.

Chair Artie Sullivan wished everybody a good winter break and thanked everybody for their commitment to all things MCCPS.

Personnel/Salaries/Wages/Tenure will be discussed in upcoming Personnel Committee meetings.

A long and worthwhile meeting with meaningful discussion regarding ways in which to fine tune future HoS contract presentations.