Dear Friends,

This update is for the 10/7/2019 Newton School Committee meeting:

Superintendent Update:

• Staff training during the first early release of the year went smoothly.

• On October 22nd, 5:30-7pm at Newton North, State Senators Cindy Creem and Jason Lewis, Senate Chair on the Joint Committee of Education, will be presenting information about the Student Opportunity Act. The public is welcome.

• The Boston Globe published an article about civics education, which featured students and faculty from Bigelow Middle School.

NPS Updates

• Liam Hurley, Assistant Superintendent/Chief Financial & Administrative Officer, presented a draft of the updates to the FY20 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which included, among other things:

  • A higher estimate of construction costs for the Countryside and Franklin schools due to construction cost escalation.

  • A Recommendation for Oak Hill Addition to accommodate higher enrollment projections. Currently, $3,000,000 of that funding would be requested in the CIP, with an addition $500,000 from NPS over three years.

• EDCO Update: School Committee Member Diana Fisher Gomberg presented a summary of updates.

Other Updates

• Second reading and vote on the BGC Policy.  The School Committee voted unanimously to accept the updated wording.

• Discussion of MASC/MASS Resolutions.

Consent Agenda

• The School Committee voted unanimously to accept the McKinney-Vento Reimbursement, a 1-Day Liquor License for the Angier Elementary PTO, the 9-16-2019 Minutes, and Overnight/Out-of-State Field Trips.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Monday, October 21st at 6:00pm.  Please note this meeting begins at 6pm instead of 7pm.  There will be no public comment at this meeting to ensure that the Committee members can address the agenda items and leave promptly at 7:45pm to attend the Mayor’s Budget and CIP meeting at City Hall at 8:00pm. Extended public comment time will be available at the following meeting (November 4.)

At the meeting, we will receive the Preliminary Enrollment Report as well as data from our Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

We hope you found this summary useful. You can access all School Committee meeting documents via the NPS website (www.newton.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee). Additionally, if you are interested in watching an SC meeting from home or a recorded meeting, you can obtain access via www.newtv.org. On the district Facebook page, you can find videos of past “Virtual Office Hours,” which are held once a month and provide the community with the opportunity to ask questions through the FB Live format.

As always, we are very happy to answer any questions or discuss any concerns you may have. Please feel free to contact us via the email address below.

Sincerely,

The Newton School Committee