Minutes
Quincy, Massachusetts – – September 6, 2017
Special Meeting of the Quincy School Committee
Special Meeting
A special meeting of the Quincy School Committee was held on Wednesday,
September 7, 2017 at the Coddington Building at 5:00 pm. The Superintendent
called the roll and present were: Mayor Thomas Koch, Mrs. Kathryn Hubley,
Ms. Barbara Isola, Mrs. Emily Lebo, and Mr. Paul Bregoli, Vice Chair.
Vice-Chair
Presiding
Mr. DeAmicis and Mrs. Mahoney were absent.
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Also present were: Dr. Richard DeCristofaro, Secretary; Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk;
Ms. Sarah Anderson, Ms. Rita Bailey, Mr. Michael Draicchio,
Dr. Beth Hallett, Mr. James Mullaney, Deputy Superintendent Kevin Mulvey,
Mrs. Maura Papile, Mrs. Erin Perkins, Ms. Madeline Roy, Mr. Keith Segalla,
Mr. Kevin Segalla, Mrs. Bridget Vaughan; Quincy Education Association President
Allison Cox; and Quincy Parent Advisory Council to Special Education Board
members Ms. Debby Nabstedt and Ms. Cassandra Beck.
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Vice-Chair Bregoli welcomed everyone to the Special School Committee meeting
and reviewed the meeting purpose.
District Improvement. Plan 2017-2018
Dr. DeCristofaro then spoke about the District Improvement Plan for 2017-2018
reviewing the Design Elements and Frameworks, which document the Key
Questions and Indicators, Benchmarks, Sources of Evidence, and Teams responsible
for achieving those benchmarks. The District Improvement Plan provides School
Committee connections to each of the components, primarily the School and
Program Improvement Plans.
The School Committee goal setting process encompasses a review of items
currently in Subcommittee and goals and action steps with proposed additional
action steps. Dr. DeCristofaro noted that there are many initiatives underway,
managed by the members of the Superintendent’s Leadership Team and these will
be reviewed at Subcommittee meetings over the course of the year.
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District Improvement Plan ~ School Committee
Connections
The School Committee, Superintendent, and Leadership Team members
then split up into Subcommittee groups to discuss their goals and to review the
items on the Agenda for each Subcommittee.
Each Subcommittee had the opportunity to propose additions and changes to
their goals and to set meeting dates. For the Athletics and Budget and Finance
Subcommittee, their goals and purposes will remain as presented. Mrs. Lebo
requested adding an item about evaluation of coaches to Athletics. For the
Facilities and Security Subcommittee, Mrs. Hubley removed the items related to
Faxon and Creedon Fields. Mrs. Hubley requested an update on water fixture
repairs and summer projects from Public Buildings at the October 16
subcommittee meeting.
For the Health, Transportation and Safety, in Mr. DeAmicis’s absence, Dr.
DeCristofaro proposed removing PBIS, Learn to Swim, and Peer Mentoring as
these initiatives are in their third and fourth years of implementation. Agenda
items for upcoming meetings will focus on Program Improvement Plans
(September 27 School Committee); updates on Farm to School, Substance Abuse
Awareness, Health & Wellness programs, and Food Services. Mr. Bregoli asked
about student awareness of healthy relationships and this will be part of the
Wellness programs review. Mrs. Lebo asked for additional information on
educational responses to the opioid crisis, this will be provided at an upcoming
meeting.
For the Policy Subcommittee, Mr. Bregoli removed advertising/sponsorship
opportunities as a separate item. This can be addressed during the ongoing
Policy Handbook review that will continue this year. He also removed the
review of high school academic and extracurricular programming, noting the
work done to ensure parallel opportunities at both high schools. He asked to
advance the discussion of the middle school grading system and the definition of
Open Forum to an upcoming meeting.
In Mrs. Mahoney’s absence, Mrs. Lebo said that this year, QPAC is working with
the Special Education Department to schedule their meetings to coincide with
Parent Academies on relevant Special Education topics.
Ms. Isola reported that the Teaching and Learning Subcommittee agreed to the
proposed action step regarding monitoring specific initiatives at the
subcommittee meetings held on the last Monday of the month beginning in
January. SAT scores will be a topic for a fall meeting and Ms. Isola removed
MCAS 2.0 as an item from Subcommittee. Changes for Action Step d will be
proposed by Ms. Roy.
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Adjournment
On a motion by Ms. Isola, seconded by Mrs. Hubley, the Special School
Committee Meeting was adjourned at 6:00 pm. The ayes have it.