EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow School Committee met on March 9, and while they had numerous items on their agenda, the bulk of the meetings discussion surrounded the upcoming school year calendar.

Recently, the school committee voted on and discussed a few changes to the 2020–2021 school year calendar. In past years, the first week of school for students began on a Tuesday, and ended on Thursday. This was often looked at as a way for students to dip their toes into the start of the school year and to slowly transition back to full-time. However, the school committee had voted at a recent meeting to adjust the first week schedule, with students attending school Tuesday through Friday.

In addition to this change, the committee had a discussion regarding half days, and whether or not the day prior to Thanksgiving should be a half day, or if students should have the entire day off. Chair Gregory Thompson started off the March 9 meeting by sharing that following the last school committee meeting, he had received a couple notes. At the meeting prior, Thompson noted that he had implied that half days are not as “productive” as a full day of school. He then noted that he did not have ill intent with that comment, stating that he has “full confidence in the staff” and he wanted to acknowledge that.

Later in the meeting, when discussions on the school year calendar continued, Superintendent Gordon Smith shared with the committee a draft of the calendar that came from the “collaborative committee,” which included the placement of half days “more or less in the same place of this year’s calendar.”

Smith noted that the draft included a total of 10 half days, which included parent conference days, professional development half days and current half days that were placed before vacations or the last day of school. However, he shared, the 10 half days are “not happening at all [grade] levels.”

“You have four professional development half days that basically hit pre-k to eight, three professional development days at the high school because one of the other half days that’s professional development for the rest of the grades is part of [the high school’s] mid year exam schedule.” He continued, “You have two parent conference half days pre-k to [grade] five, and one additional half day for parent conferences for pre-k to [grade] two.” He explained that the parent conference half days and professional development half days are embedded in the contract. The last day of school is also mentioned in the contract as being a half day of school for students.

Thompson asked Smith if those days are embedded in the contract in terms of number, not in terms of when. Smith said that was correct.

School committee member Richard Freccero explained that the group that put together the schedule, which he is part of, “worked very hard” and “tried to pick days that weren’t near long weekends.” He noted that “a lot of work goes into it,” and he “thinks you should take a really hard” as far as half days go.

Turning the discussion to the day prior to Thanksgiving and whether or not it should be a half day of school or a full day off, Freccero reflected on his time in the past as a high school principal. He explained that he “really liked that half day” and that if he remembered correctly, “it was a day where it wasn’t intense which was good for the staff and students. I saw a lot of review going on, a lot of individual conferences, it made for a good social emotional learning day where we kind of took a step back.”

He added that he saw a value to having a half day, and that he thought it made for a “pleasant atmosphere.”

“I’m not saying that the rigor is not as strong, I’m saying it’s much different, there’s a lot of assessment going on talking to individual students, a lot more reviewing going on. I kind of see it as a good send off for Thanksgiving break.”

As discussion closed out, there was a motion to approve the calendar as presented, which included a half day before Thanksgiving. The motion carried three to two, with committee Vice Chair Sarah Truoiolo and committee member Antonella Raschilla voting against.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee discussed the fiscal year 2020 (FY 20) budget, which is in deficit. Smith explained that he provided the committee with a spreadsheet that showed transfers of funds that they were recommending. He explained that the deficit occurred because there were six new out of district placements that were “considerable costs that were not special education costs they’d planned on,” and at the same time over the course of three or four months there were “seven significant programmatic changes for out of district students.”

“All in all, that had us running at a deficit at that time of $546,000,” Smith shared. However since that time, Assistant Superintendent for Business Pamela Blair along with the help of administration worked through some of the budgeting strategy by looking at the operational budget, a grant and circuit breaker reserve. Using those resources, Smith explained that brought the deficit to under $400,000.

Then, Smith explained, they started to look at what areas they might be able to transfer a significant amount of money from without depleting or severely impacting programming. The spreadsheet he provided to the committee outlined areas that they “feel they can make transfers but also keep programming going,” with specifically one of the areas they have given money back to already being social and emotional supports.

“All in all as you go down our recommendations is that you make a transfer of $179,943. That would bring our total deficit to around $241,000, I believe,” Smith said.

There was a motion to recommend the transfer of $179,943 to out of district from designated line items as presented. The motion passed.

The school committee was set to meet with the town council on March 10 for a transfer from free cash in the amount of $240,848, which is the remainder of the deficit, however the meeting occurred following press time.