EASTHAMPTON — At its June 11 meeting, the Easthampton School Committee discussed plans for food service for students over the summer and had initial talks on some policy changes and updates.
The summer food service will continue this year, offering breakfast and lunch Mondays through Fridays at Mountain View School and NEARI School. The program will begin on July 1 and end on Aug. 16, with no service on July 4. Breakfast will run from 8:30-9:15 a.m. and lunch will run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. All meals must be consumed on-site and will be distributed indoors to avoid the weather issues that affected the program last year.
Director of Business Services Nick Bernier said that the program supplied about 17 meals per day last year but the district hopes to increase that to about 40 meals per day this year. He noted that with the program at Mountain View School, among the many other programs going on there over the summer, they expect to see that increase in numbers.
He noted that all the families who came last year were “very thankful and very appreciative.”
Laura Scott, chair of the School Committee, asked if a half-sheet flyer with information about the program could go home to families before the end of the year. She explained that this would allow families to put it up on their fridge and have a visual reminder of the program.
Member Sam Hunter also did the first reading of several policy updates and revisions. All of the ones read included minor changes in wording for clarification and specification. Some of them included adding a hyperlink to a policy about nondiscrimination on the basis of sex and clarifications on how the School Committee develops policies and how it reviews and revises its policies and procedures.
Although the School Committee had initially planned to have more discussion on interim Superintendent Maureen Binienda’s evaluation, Scott explained that she was still awaiting evaluations from several members, including the mayor. The evaluation discussion was continued to the Aug. 13 meeting.
In his business update, Bernier said that he expects the district will have roughly a $100,000 deficit at the end of the current fiscal year but some of that should be eased by circuity breaker credits for special education.
The School Committee’s next two meetings will be work sessions on July 9 and 23. These are open to the public. The July 23 meeting will focus on forming a superintendent search committee and the job posting for that position.
