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School Committee Meeting Landlord Foregoes Rent Increase for Admin Building Committee Approves Cheerleaders trip Stimulus money to be announced on Friday
Above, Committee member Dave Stoldt, who doubles as Hopkinton Athletic Association Treasurer, listens attentively as one of four Girl Scouts invites the Committee to attend an event with officials from Hopkinton's "twin city," Marathon, Greece.
by Derek Dobachesky
March 20, 2009 — The Hopkinton School Committee discussed federal
stimulus money as well as a plan for seeking community input into
potential changes to the bus transportation policy, and passed the
2009-2010 school year calendar in a productive regular meeting on
Thursday, March 19.
The meetings started at 7:30 p.m. in the Middle School library, with all
Committee members in attendance, including David Stoldt, who had missed
the prior two meetings. A wide range of new and old topics were
addressed during the two-hour meeting.
The meeting began with the recognitions section, during which Committee
chair Nancy Alvarez Burdick announced a State of the Schools event that
would be put on by the Hopkinton Parent Teachers Association on April 1
at 7 p.m. The event will give
Four local Girl Scouts stood up for the public comment session. They
invited the Committee and community members to a cultural exchange on
April 17 at 4 p.m. in the First Congregational Church. The Girl Scout
troupe has invited the mayor of Marathon, Greece — Hopkinton's Sister
City; members of Massachusetts' U.S. Congressional delegation, as well
as state legislators and others to attend the exchange.
Chairwoman Burdick then updated the Committee on the
FY10 budget process. Burdick said interim town manager Clayton Carlisle
has presented the Board of Selectman with the Committee's flat-funded
budget for FY10, which Carlisle has called its "can do!" budget.
However, Burdick also said he will recommend an alternative budget with
an increase of up to $800,000 in funding, as the Committee is
seeking. The
Board of Selectman will meet Saturday, March 21 at 8 a.m. in the Town
Hall for a public budget working session.
"They expect to make decisions on Saturday," Burdick said. The budget is
required to be submitted by March 31.
Following the budget update, Dr. Phelan updated the Committee on what
sort of federal stimulus funding Hopkinton Public Schools would get. He
said that the full amount was currently unknown, but would be announced
on Friday, March 20. About half of the funding would go toward special
education and increasing the schools' capacity, while the Committee
would have some degree of flexibility to strategically spend the money.
"They want us to be cognizant that this money is going to fall off a
cliff after FY11," Dr. Phelan said. Since the funding is only temporary,
for two years, Dr. Phelan said Congress did not want schools spending
the money on new programming, faculty or other areas that would require
continued funding.
The Committee then moved on to new business. They first heard from High
School principal John McCarthy and cheerleading coach Melissa Heiligman
about a proposed overnight field trip. The cheerleading team placed
fifth at the Division Three state
Committee member Rebecca Robak announced a process for obtaining public
input on changes to the bus transportation policy, a hot-button issue
that has drawn much attention in previous meetings. Robak said she would
hold a focus groups with parents on April 8 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to go
over potential policy changes. Robak and Committee member Richard de
Mont said they hoped to have a productive meeting in which they could
present the problems with maintaining the current policy allowing
multiple weekly bus changes. "A
lot of comments were not formed in helping us find a solution," de Mont
said of past statements during public comments at Committee meetings.
The Committee then heard from from Elmwood School Principal Ilene Silver
and Special Education Director Dr. Kirsten Esposito about their proposal
to hire a new teaching assistant at the Elmwood School for 10.5 hours a
week. This is in response to findings that several special education
students at the school require additional attention, so a teaching
assistant will free up time for the teaching specialists to help those
students.
The Committee proceeded to review progress of the Strategic Plan, which
Dr. Phelan, Burdick and Robak presented. It then reviewed and made
further comments on second drafts of proposed policies on Student
Records and Weapons Possession. These policy changes were introduced at
the prior meeting, and will be reviewed again at the next meeting on
April 2.
The Committee approved the 2009-2010 calendar, which included changes
made at the March 5 meeting.
Finally, the Committee voted to extend a lease on an administrative
building for two years. The original lease was for three years, with an
option to extend it for two more years at a five percent increase in
rent. At the Feb. 26 Committee meeting, de Mont stated his opposition to
extending the lease with a five percent increase. Following that
meeting, director of finance Geoffrey MacDonald spoke with the landlord,
who agreed to lease the building for two more years with no increase in
rent. The Hopkinton School Committee will hold its next regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2.
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