Franklin Matters: School Committee Recap

Sunday, November 19, 2017

School Committee Recap - Nov 14, 2017

This was the first meeting of the new School Committee. The first order of business was to be sworn in by Town Clerk Teresa Burr. Six members were present. Monica Linden, participating for part of the meeting remotely, had been sworn in previously.

The next order of business was to formally organize. Ann Bergen was nominated for Chair and with no other nominations, voted in unanimously. Denise Schultz was nominated for Vice-Chair and with no other nominations, voted in unanimously.

There was a recess for '5' minutes that ran long as Teresa Burr gathered several forms and documents from each of the Committee members.

Superintendent Ahern announced that she has completed the series of school parent forums (elementary, middle and high school). Attendance was light. She has scheduled a community forum for Thursday, Nov 30 at the Municipal Bldg, 2nd floor Council Chambers to begin at 6:30 PM.

Two additional coaching positions were recommended and approved.

"1. Girls’ Varsity Ice Hockey Coach Assistant 2 -- This position is recommended based on the anticipated size of the team (40-45 students). Currently there are 2 paid coaches for the team, whereas the boys’ team has 3 paid coaches for the same number of athletes, practices, and games. This would address equity concerns and provide for better supervision/coaching of the team. This position would be in Tier 2 of the Coaches Stipend of the Collective Bargaining Contract with a salary of $2,657 for a candidate with no experience.

2. Gymnastics Assistant Coach -- The team is anticipating 14-18 athletes after surpassing last year’s expectations of 6-10 athletes with a total of 11 competitors in 2016-2017 school year. The recommended ratio of coach to gymnasts is 1:8 and other Hockomock League gymnastics teams have two coaches. If we were to forgo this assistant coach, we would have to pay a spotter for all of our meets (at a cost of $120/meet). An assistant coach will do more than spot at meets, including spotting at practices and developing a relationship with the athletes. This position is proposed to be in Tier 4 of the Coaches Stipend section of the Collective Bargaining Contract with a salary of $1,057 for a candidate with no experience"

The proposal doc can be found here:
http://franklinschool.vt-s.net/pages/FranklinCom_Packets/y11-14-2017%20SC%20Packet/Proposed%20Coaching%20Positions%20--%20Winter%20Sports.pdf

For the benefit of the new members, there was a brief overview of each of the sub-committee's focus point and in some cases accomplishments. Creating awareness of the work being done 'behind the scenes' to help move the overall work of the committee and district forward.

if the new committee members have interest in these arenas, they should let the chair know so that (1) the work can continue and (2) those most interested can help to drive that forward.

The next meeting (Nov 28) will begin an hour earlier to hold a workshop to review the agenda format and other school committee meeting business.

The documents released for the meeting were posted to the School Committee web page (hooray!)
http://franklinschool.vt-s.net/pages/FranklinCom_Packets/y11-14-2017%20SC%20Packet/

My notes reported live from the meeting can be found here