PERMANENT MINUTES MIDDLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE SPECIAL BUDGET MEETING FULLER MEADOW PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER JANUARY 28, 2017 Members Present: Tasha Cooper, Chairperson; Christy Carroll, Mark Moreschi, Amy Karas, Kristen Richardson Others Present: Scott Morrison, Superintendent; Steven Greenberg, Assistant Superintendent of Operations; Matthew LaCava, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services; Christine Elliott, Director of Curriculum; Steven Guditus, Director of Educational Technology; George Dow, Finance Committee Liaison; Dale Marshall, School Nurse; Stacey Begin, Teacher; Mary Farley, Recording Secretary T. Cooper called the meeting to order at 8:10 am. A. ROUTINES: 1. Pledge of Allegiance: Everyone stood and recited the Pledge of allegiance. 2. Remarks from the Public: None 3. Reports from Other Committees: None B. REPORTS: 1.

Report of the Superintendent: None

C. NEW BUSINESS: 1.

FY 18 Budget Development: Discussion of FY 18 Budget: Steve Greenberg read through the budget line by line allowing time for discussion of any item presented. There will be no computer equipment in this budget. The new Science Curriculum in the amount of $100,000 will be taken from the budget and placed on a Warrant Article. He explained Applied Income to all. In the salary line, M. LaCava recommended that the BCBA be moved from a .55 to a 1.0. He explained that this increase is based on need. Sped Contracted Services: They have brought in Hearing and Vision testing from outside. Assistant Technology Consultant – There is a proposal to break this out one day per month by town. This person does evaluations and screening. Health Insurance is not being changed at this time. The Town is anticipating a 12% increase for this. S. Greenberg explained the substitute rates. He is looking at other options, i.e. outside services, not necessarily lessening the budget. The BOKS stipend was taken out of the budget in the previous year. It was asked if it could be put

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back in. D. Marshall explained the program. There was discussion about this. BOKS will be put in at a total of $3,200 for both schools. There was a mix of children who came to this program. A lot of these children were not participating in team sports. Subsidizing the cost of the Foreign Language program was discussed. S. Greenberg will put all the budget adjustments on a separate sheet and bring it back to the Committee. Christine Elliott read through her Professional Development budget. She discussed the Learning Management System. We have My Learning Plan, but she is looking to bring in a new learning management system this year. Licensing is included in the total cost. For educators, it is a low cost means of communicating our courses and trainings. This would be easy to navigate. S. Guditus and C. Elliott have done several seminars on this. Online Math League: A stipend has been put in for next year. Science Curriculum: It was decided to pull this out of the Operating Budget and put it on a Warrant Article. C. Elliott explained the consumable materials on page 7. Much of this program is a digital platform. M. Moreschi would like to add ball chairs to the classrooms if there is enough money in the budget. This was discussed and it was stated that each classroom has a small number of these balls for use by the children. Technology: There is no technology in this budget. Technology will be put on a Warrant Article. Appendix N: S. Guditus spoke to Instructional Technology hardware. Middleton is doing an exceptional job with digital learning. The devices we have are exhausted all the time. He is making a request for 90 Chromebooks for Howe-Manning and five (5) carts. In Grade 6, each ELA teacher has a cart. There are two (2) carts for Grade 4, two (2) carts for Grade 3, and one (1) cart for Grade 5. Right now, we are approaching 2 to 1 with the laptops. There are iPads at Howe-Manning. There are 70 Chromebooks at Fuller Meadow. Grade 2 has four (4) carts. We are teaching keyboarding skills. If we get the Chromebooks for Grade 2, we will move the iPads to Grade 1. This is our vision. Teachers are ready to use devices, but they are not available. Demand is high and we need a great number of devices. S. Greenberg stated that we have to keep in mind our infrastructure and modems. We need to increase our band width. This will be coming to the Committee. Amy Karas asked about the Chromebooks and the distribution of the iPads. Howe-Manning is requesting 90. Chromecast is working with the Chromebooks. S. Guditus wants to experiment with what this would look like. Fuller Meadow is requesting 29 iPads for Grade 1. They would take the Grade 2 iPads and redistribute them to Kindergarten and Grade 1. The current iPads will be at the end of their lives in a year or two. They are completely full. Pre-K: There were no requests from Preschool. There was some discussion about iPad minis. Howe-Manning Assistant Principal: James Sforza explained the need for this position. Some of the things this person would be involved with are the Evaluation Model, student cultures, and have a role MSC Budget Meeting Minutes 01 28 17

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with student with Social Emotional needs. S. Morrison explained the Educator Evaluator that was formerly in the budget. Howe-Manning has put in an increase for the Speech and Language position from .8 to 1.0 at a cost of $15,296. C. Elliott explained her new initiative, Reading Connection at Grade 2 level and bringing up the Grade 3 level. J. Sforza discussed the Science-Maker cart and supplies. This is an ongoing project in Grade 6. Right now they are doing a weather project. He wants to make this happen at every grade level. Maker-Space – have one classroom in the building that children can go to. The next idea is to bring in one cart at a time so the cart can travel to different rooms. S. Guditus described J. Poirier’s Grade 6 Social Studies class. They want children to create new knowledge. J. Sforza wants to bring this into every classroom. There was discussion about bringing this to Grade 2. This would be supported by PTO. S. Morrison stated that this would be an agenda item. S. Guditus has started a Blog. He will go to conferences and speak about this. It is about the humanities. It was stated that there may be a member of the community, a retired engineer, who would volunteer to come in and share some of their talent with the students. It was suggested that this be written up and sent to the newspapers. S. Greenberg will develop the Budget Adjustment Sheet and bring it to the Committee at the next meeting for action. It was asked if we could use tailing from the end of this year for technology for next year. The Committee should have a vote on this action. S. Greenberg stated that they need to talk about Special Education Reserve instead of paying one-quarter of Sped Tuitions in advance. The Curriculum will be on a Warrant Article. Technology has been taken out of the budget. By pulling the Curriculum out, it makes the budget less. G. Dow stated that we need a budget that should do what we need it to do. S Greenberg stated that the Committee accomplished a lot today. D. CONSENT AGENDA: M. Moreschi moved to approve the Bill and Payroll Warrants as presented. Second by A. Karas: Vote to Sign and Accept: Bill Warrant #BW1720 dated 1/28/17 in the amount of $1,511.16 Bill Warrant #BW1720A dated 1/28/17 in the amount of $3,295.00 Vote to Accept Only Payroll Warrant dated 2/5/17 in the amount of $318,475.79 Bill Warrant #BW1719 dated 1/25/17 in the amount of $71,719.17 Bill Warrant #BW Tyler 1710 dated 1/25/17 in the amount of $3,487.08 Bill Warrant #BW#TTU1714 dated 1/25/17 in the amount of $645.14 Motion carried 5-0-0. E. ADJOURNMENT: At 11:16 a.m., there being no further business, K. Richardson moved to adjourn. Second by M. Moreschi. Motion carried 5-0-0. MSC Budget Meeting Minutes 01 28 17

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Respectfully submitted,

Mary Farley Recording Secretary As per the Open Meeting Law,

Listed below are the documents either distributed to the School Committee before the meeting in the packet or at the meeting: 1. FY 2018 Budget Books

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