Education Options Review Committee, April 4, 2017

HOLDEN EDUCATION OPTIONS REVIEW COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

April 4, 2017

6:30PM                                                                                                                       Memorial Hall

Present: Brian Allen, Tom Curran, Liam Dempsey, Susan Sullivan, Kristin Turner

Not present: Tim Ethier, Christopher Larsen, Laura Puleo, Lauren Salmon-Garrett

Also present: Eric Scheinfeldt

Chair Sullivan called the meeting to order at 6:53 pm.

1. Approval of Minutes - March 22, 2017

Motion by Allen

seconded by Turner

it was VOTED TO APPROVE THE MARCH 22, 2017 EDUCATION OPTIONS REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES BY A VOTE OF 3-0-1

(Dempsey: abstain)

2. Review and Finalization of School Council Questions

Reviewed the proposed the document that Sue will send to Dr. McCall to request that committee members attend the

McCall suggested removing the question regarding the quality of education but we cannot as it is essential to the committee's charter

Salmon-Garret entered the meeting at 6:54pm

Me motioned to adopt the question

Allen seconded

Approved by 5-0-0

3. Schedule of Upcoming School Council Meetings - Who will attend

Times in proposed letter to McCall

Kristin will do Mountview

Lauren can do Mayo

Liam will do Davis Hill

Sue can do Dawson

Sue will rewrite the letter to include who will be attending each school council meeting.

Sue noted that McCall met with the finance committee in Holden last Wednesday and McCall told Sue that Holden has been supportive of the budget in past years but he did not get the impression that the finance committee was in favor of this year's budget.

4. Review and Proposed Changes of First Draft of Final Report of the Committee

Sue explained why the draft of the Final Report was setup in the current format in terms

of beginning with the charter and moving chronologically through what the committee had

reviewed.

Sue will make change to "revolving fund" on page 7 to "stabilization fund" under the

"Review of Brainstorming Activity & Prioritization of Ideas" section

The "Review of the Current State of Holden's Education Funding, Staffing, and Quality"

section will need to be rewritten to incorporate the upcoming school council visits.

Salmon-Garrett suggested adding "mini-grants" as a recommendation. Sue will write it

up.

Final Report will be updated after school council meetings after which the report will be

finalized.

5. Old Business

Selectboard did not appear favorable of the proposal of adding the stabilization fund to the

town charter for next town meeting as the town attorney felt that further review was

needed.

Sue and Kristin attended the selectboard meeting on 4/3

Tim was upset that the selectboard did not feel that the proposal could be added to the

town charter.

Sue and Kristin spoke for the committee and noted that the committee would rather have

the proposal thoroughly vetted by the town attorney.

Selectboard wasn't comfortable with the way the proposal was presented.

The letter was sent in February but it was clear that the selectboard had not seen the

proposal until the meeting on 4/3.

Allen noted that the selectboard may need to see the full report from the committee in

order to better consider the proposal with the town manager and attorney.

Town attorney sounded very concerned with the proposed idea of the fund

6. New Business

No new business

7. Citizens’ Address

Eric attended as a private citizen and not as a representative of the board of selectmen. He thanked the committee for their hard work and noted that we should not be discouraged by the results of the selectboard. He did not vote for it to be brought to town meeting as it needs to be further refined. He suggested that the best way for it to work would be to have the selectboard present the report to the town manager and say, "this is one of those goals". The idea of a stabilization fund is unprecedented so Eric suspects that the town council was overwhelmed by the idea. The schools are overcrowded so it's a matter of when the schools will reach their limits. We are going to buy new classroom space in the future. The selectboard tasked the town manager to pursue a growth study/expansion with a third party to pursue option. Eric suggested using the fund be added to until classroom space is essential.

Sue and Kristin clarified that expansion was one of the reasons for the fund.

Open space fund will look to buy farm land when sold for town use.

Eric liked the grant idea and said that the idea is similar to a Wachusett endowment fund that was enacted in the past for the high school.

Allen noted that Holden has a people-population task force that he and Eric are on that we could join forces with to push the idea of adding more space for schools.

That committee is on hiatus but Sue will ask McCall if that committee can be reconvened and work with the EORC.

The committee and Eric discussed the fact that the population will keep growing and that the schools will need to grow as well.

8. Next Meeting to be Scheduled

It was agreed that the next meeting will be scheduled for after the school council meetings

May 24th, 2017

Location to be determined

6:30pm

9. Adjournment

Motion by Allen

seconded by Turner

it was VOTED TO ADJOURN THE APRIL 4, 2017 EDUCATION OPTIONS REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING AT  7:32 PM.

Unanimous