The School Committee (SC) met remotely Thursday evening, with Chair Stacey Raffi calling the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

Student representatives Aine Powers and Mary DeVoe reported that they and other students are doing well adjusting to a new routine.  They noted that communication between themselves and their teachers is good.

Minutes from regular and executive sessions of the SC from March 19, and March 26, were approved unanimously and will be posted online. 

The SC Budget Subcommittee Chair, Anne Louise Hanstad, presented a revised budget for the full School Committee’s approval.  Of note is that “fixed costs for FY2021 are expected to increase by 2.72% with no change in services.”

The following are the recommendations the Budget Sub-Committee made in planning the revised budget:

• To reduce the budget to “run-rate” plus fixed cost increases with no change in current services;
• To eliminate all requests [from the previous version of the FY21 budget proposal] except for
  • $60,000–Mood Check Depression Prevention Program
  • $22,500—Permanent substitute for the Holliston HS; and
• To make no changes to the capital expense request at this time. *

The slide below shows the REVISED FY21 Budget recommendation put forth by the Sub-committee:

This revised FY21 budget recommendation represents a decrease of 1.78% from the previous (March 5, 2020) budget proposal.

A vote was taken on the revised proposed FY21 budget that represents a 2.95% increase over FY20, for a total of $35,979,683. The vote was approved unanimously.  This proposal will be shared with the Select Board and the Finance Committee.

Superintendent Dr. Brad Jackson read a prepared statement to update the Committee on the COVID19 school closure.  Here are some excerpts of the statement, which was emailed to Holliston Public School parents on Friday, April 3:

“After considerable discussion, we have concluded that Phase 2 of our Remote Learning Plan will allow teachers to add new content to their remote learning instruction beginning Monday, April 6th.  At Placentino and Miller, where skill development in reading, writing and mathematics have always been the core work our teachers do, this focus will continue. At RAMS, teachers will continue to explore curriculum content through the school-wide lens of “Personal, Local, Global” with the emphasis on deeper, applied learning and deep conceptual understanding continuing to drive the work. New content will be introduced judiciously while reinforcing important concepts and skills.” 

Jackson wrote that the changes to the HHS Remote learning plan would be most pronounced:

• “HHS will be moving forward in curriculum content beginning Monday, April 6th.  Teachers have been asked to be alert to the differentiated needs of their class and offer all necessary accommodations;
• HHS will work on a fixed class schedule beginning at 9:00AM and ending not later than 11:50AM M/T/Th/F where each period will meet twice per week for a class period not to exceed 50 minutes.  On the days when the student is not meeting with their teacher, they will be assigned independent work that should require no more than 50 minutes to complete. With this schedule, each student will meet with their Period A teacher for up to 100 minutes per week and have up to 150 minutes of independent work assigned to them.  
• Students are expected to complete the work assigned to them and teachers will provide students with feedback on their submitted work.”

Additional details can be seen in here in the comprehensive Remote Learning Plan. 

Additionally, Dr. Jackson introduced the topic of possible adjustments to the April vacation scheduled for April 21-24, 2020. (Monday, April 20, is Patriots’ Day.)  For two reasons, Dr. Jackson feels that elimination of the April vacation is “an idea worth considering”:

1. Disrupting momentum in the Phase 2 learning plan would not be helpful to all involved; and
2. “Vacation” days are not has we had perceived them to be—that is, no travel would be possible, visiting other family and friends would not be possible, and visiting other locations is not possible.

Of note throughout the evening, both SC members and administrators articulated many and various statements of appreciation to all teachers and staff involved in the development and implementation of the HPS Remote Learning Plan Phase I.  Gratitude was plentiful for their dedication and work to adjust Phase I plans and produce Phase II.  Members also voiced thanks for the collaboration with and cooperation of the town leadership of the Holliston Federation of Teachers (of the American Federation of Teachers).

The School Committee will meet on Tuesday evening at 6:30 (remotely), during which time the members may vote on the status of April vacation and begin to share feedback on the Remote Learning plan.