When we think of leadership, we think of a single individual. Increasingly, organizations demand everyday leadership behaviors throughout to address complexity and constant change. Understanding how to lead is as important as the tasks of a leader. In this session, you will learn what leadership is, hear stories about how leaders have been successful in leading others to lead and finally begin to adopt a set of tools and practices to develop leaders.

This session is sponsored by:

Steven Leduc, Lead, R&D Learning and Talent Management; Adjunct Professor

Samuel Rippin, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance

*Bring your laptop to this session. 25 person maximum.* Attendees will learn how to create pivot tables and use various Excel/Google Sheet formulas to calculate a salary projection tool. The presenter will walk attendees through step by step how to leverage SUMIFS, VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables, CONCATENATE vs &,, and Data Validation. The presenter will provide any helpful tips and tricks to any function taught in the session.

Michael Mason, Chief Financial Officer

David Coelho, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations

Learn how to hone your leadership skills to include the ability to uplevel your change management strategies by growing your visionary and innovation mindset. What are the paradigms and how can I shift them to meet the goals, mission, and vision of the organization? What are the problem solving skills I need to lead change management or improvement intiatives with creativity, expertise, and results?

Mary Ellen Normen, Administrator for Business and Finance

Daniel Gale, Director of Finance and Operations

This session will speak to the importance of vocational education and the reasons behind the increased focus on vocational education. This will speak to the demand for highly skilled workers, and steps that are in place and developing to help address this need.

Roger Forget, Superintendent

Kara O'Donnell-Galvin, Executive Director

Robert Sanborn III, Superintendent

Erin Orcutt, School Business Administrator

Addressing lead in drinking water in schools and childcare facilities continues to be a priority for MassDEP. Since 2016, we have operated a free comprehensive testing program that has tested over 1,000 schools, and more recently provided opportunities for schools to receive free water bottle filling stations.  Starting next year under new federal regulations, public water systems will be required to contact schools about the dangers of lead and to offer testing. In this session, you will learn about our assistance program, additional available resources, and the upcoming changes.

Members of the Massachuses Department of Environmental Protecon (MassDEP) Drinking Water Program will provide a presentaon describing the MassDEP Expanded Assistance Program for Lead in School and Early Educaon and Care Facility Drinking Water. The program offers eligible Massachuses
public and private schools and childcare facilies the opportunity for free analysis of lead drinking water samples and assistance with sampling, results interpretation, and guidance on follow up actions if lead is detected in the drinking water. The presentation will provide an overview of the following components of MassDEP’s program:

• What is lead, how does it get into drinking water, and what are potential lead health effects
• Program actions to date
• Program benefits, eligibility, and how to apply
• Program stages and what to expect if your school participates
• Remediation options if lead is detected and methods to reduce lead exposure in schools including eligibility for grants to purchase and install filtered water bottle filling stations
• Looking ahead: Upcoming federal regulations relating to public water suppliers and offering testing for lead in school drinking water

1. inform school financial and operational officials about this unique opportunity for free lead in drinking water testing,
2. educate attendees about the importance of safe drinking water in our schools, and
3. 3) provide tools to reduce lead exposure through school drinking water

Michael Celona, Lead in Schools Program Coordinator

Do you ever wonder why your colleague, spouse, or child is so scattered, always late, or waits until the last minute to start a task? Chances are, they aren’t intentionally doing these things; it’s a deficit in one of their executive functioning skills.  In this session, participants will learn about Executive Function and have a chance to reflect on and examine their own Executive functioning strengths and weaknesses. Participants will also discuss and explore strategies to help themselves and others around them

Stacy Linnehan, Special Education Teacher

Megan McGovern, Special Education Teacher

Lindsey Albernaz, Business Manager

Breakout discussion on the mindset and behaviors needed to shift our evolving ways of leading leaders in a dynamic environment and how to get started leading differently.

Steven Leduc, Lead, R&D Learning and Talent Management; Adjunct Professor

Samuel Rippin, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance

A Town Manager’s perspective on town/school finances will explore how town officials prepare financial forecasts, allocate funds between town and school departments, and respond to public questions about finance.

Sanford (Sandy) Pooler, Town Manager

Michael Mason, Chief Financial Officer

The goal of this session is for attendees to walk away with concrete next steps to begin planning for school bus fleet electrification. We will give an overview of funding and technical assistance opportunities in addition electrification background and how to overcome barriers to entry.

Pujarini (Rini) Maiti, Environmental Engineer

Gary Rennie, Environmental Analyst, Air Quality

Orly Strobel, Program Administrator

Elijah Sinclair, Program Manager

Harriet Slaats, Fellow

David Coelho, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is moving to a cloud-based grant administration system (Grants for Education Management System (GEM$)) for many of its FY24 grants, including all major federal entitlement programs. This presentation is geared toward school business officials and will demonstrate key fiscal features, responsibilities, and policies associated with DESE’s move to GEM$, and will identify resources and job aides to facilitate your transition to this new system.

Jenn Ahern, Supervisor, Grants Management

William Bell, Associate Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer

Kathleen E. Cross, Federal Programs Coordinator, Resource Allocation Strategy and Planning

Simone Lynch, Federal Grant Programs Director, Resource Allocation Strategy and Planning

Robert O'Donnell, Director of School Finance

Jay Sullivan, Associate Commissioner, School Finance and District Support Center; MASBO Treasurer

During this session, you will get an in depth look at what makes a goal SMART, an overview of the School Business Official evaluation rubric, time to review sample goals, and an opportunity to write goals for the upcoming school year.

Dr. Terri Marculitis, Director of Curriculum and Instruction

Sarah Hickey, Director of Business and Finance

Rob Clickstein, School Business Administrator

Are you having difficulty getting teachers, staff, the public and even your board of education to understand the basics of school finance, much less more complicated finance topics?  Explore how to avoid finance jargon and explain school finance in terms anyone can understand.  Learn proven design and presentation techniques that will help convey your message.  Clear examples and references will be presented that will engage your district’s staff and community in meaningful dialogue about school finance.

John Hutchison, Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations

Daniel Gale, Director of Finance and Operations

The majority of a school district's faculty are educators who possess a DESE educator license and are evaluated based on DESE's educator evaluation process and associated rubrics. However, School Business Administrators typically supervise personnel that do not fall under DESE's "educator" definition, so how do SBAs evaluate the staff that report to them? Learn best practices for evaluating personnel that typically report to SBAs (e.g. financial analyst, payroll, accounts payable) and ancillary Directors (e.g. Food Service, Facilities, and Transportation).

Joseph T. Bartulis, Jr., Attorney

Michael Knight, School Business Administrator

*Bring your laptop. This session will build on the presentation that DESE staff gave at the December Bi-Monthly and provide an in-depth overview of how you can use the RADAR benchmarking and special education tools to inform your district’s planning and budgeting. Participants will have an opportunity to look at their own data and begin to answer some key questions.

Colleen Holforty, Federal Grant Fiscal Data Specialist

Robert O'Donnell, Director of School Finance

Michelle C Thomas, Federal Grant Support Specialist

Jay Sullivan, Associate Commissioner, School Finance and District Support Center; MASBO Treasurer

Connect with geographical colleagues to plan for FY24. If you are unsure which Roundtable to join, please ask at the registration table. You may also look at the Roundtable Map on the Handouts tab.

Room Assignments:

• Nauset 1: Cape Cod and BICO
• Nauset 2: Assabet Valley and French River
• Nauset 3: Lighthouse
• Nauset 4: Western Mass
• Nauset 5: North Shore

Unassigned, due to no members of these roundtables requesting a space: Metrowest and USBAR.