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Date: 6/10/2020
SOUTHWICK – Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District Superintendent Jennifer Willard received positive marks on her performance evaluation, which was discussed at the June 2 school committee meeting.
As part of the meeting’s educational presentations, Chair Jeffrey Houle discussed the committee’s evaluation of Superintendent Jennifer Willard from the 2019-2020 school year and said she did an excellent job overall.
He said, “I’m pleased to report that Superintendent Willard’s overall summative rating was proficient or exemplary having met the committee’s expectations. We unanimously agreed that her overall performance has a high impact on student learning in the district.”
In her final Student Advisory Report of the year, Gabby Houle talked about the resounding success of the district’s parade for seniors on May 29. She said, “It brought me to tears, seeing the community out together from each town, and being able to see past teachers and present ones, it really just proves how incredible our district is.”
Houle also announced the district pushed back its tentative plan for graduation to July 25.
After her report, the entire committee thanked Houle for her leadership during the school year and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s been impressive to listen to your reports and how detailed and organized things have been, and how positive you’ve stayed. I tried to put myself in those shoes to see how I would have acted when I was 17 or 18 and I don’t think I would have handled it as well, so kudos to you guys for making the best out of this situation,” Committee Member Jonathon Schantz said.
After Willard’s evaluation, Director of Finance and Operations Stephen Presnal discussed a proposed price increase to school breakfast prices. He explained that as a result of the motion breakfast prices would increase by 50 cents. He said, “As a general rule of thumb we’re setting pricing on the institutional meal service at double the food cost price to ensure that we’re capturing the labor and any incidental costs that go along with serving meals and breakfast to families.”
During the meeting, the committee approved nine different action items with little discussion including an increase to breakfast costs at the Woodland School, Powder Mill School and Southwick Regional School. As a result of the vote, breakfast at Woodland and Powder Mill will cost $1.50 and breakfast at the Southwick Regional will cost $1.75 starting on Sept. 1.
The committee also accepted two retirement resolutions for the Director of Special Education Noell Somers and James Ash, a teacher in the district for 33 years.
With her term on the committee expiring, Jessica Boldyga reflected on her experience as a part of the committee and her respect for her fellow members. “I just want to thank everyone for being such a great group of people. In an elected position you’re not necessarily picking people for the role and how diverse of a group of we have from our perspectives and strengths really makes our committee extremely strong,” she said.
As the meeting’s final order of business, the committee also agreed to hold meetings over the summer for Willard to provide updates as the district prepares to reopen buildings in the fall, with dates to be determined at this time.
In order to avoid a conflict with the Annual Town Meeting on June 16, the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee next meets on June 18.