Votes at a glance: Chicopee School Committee approves calendar, MOA with teachers, two warrants; postpones food-service contract

The Chicopee School Committee on March 5 took a series of routine and administrative votes including approval of meeting minutes, two warrants, a memorandum of agreement with the Chicopee Education Association and the 2025–26 school calendar. The committee postponed a collective bargaining agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers until lawyers finalize language.

Votes and motions at a glance

- Approval of minutes (regular meeting 02/19/2025): Motion to approve carried by roll call; the committee recorded 10 yes votes and the motion carried.

- Warrant S 02/21/25 (total $738,605.70): Motion to approve read into the record. Committee member Jay Dowd stated he would abstain because his employer appears in the warrant. The roll call recorded Mr. Dowd as abstaining; the transcript did not provide a complete final tally for this warrant in every roll-call line and the precise yes/no counts beyond the recorded abstention are not specified in the transcript.

- Warrant S 02/28/25 (combined totals reported; grand total for two warrants $1,538,693): Motion to approve carried; the roll call recorded one abstention (Mr. Dowd) and later the clerk recorded the result as "9 yes, 1 abstained." The warrants included purchases and capital items the committee discussed on the record: two new wooden doors at DuPont Middle School ($990), two indoor scoreboards ($22,835 each), jackets for automotive students ($1,516), desktop lathes and mills for CTE ($31,929 and $30,728) and other routine purchases that were identified during the meeting.

- Collective bargaining agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers (craftsman): A motion by Vice Chair Don Lamothe to postpone passed by roll call; Lamothe said the agreement had been reached in principle but required final language review by attorneys.

- Memorandum of agreement with the Chicopee Education Association for the 2025–26 school year: Motion to approve carried by roll call (10 yes recorded).

- Approval of 2025–26 school calendar: With an MOA in place, the committee approved the calendar by roll call (10 yes recorded).

- Programs of study (Chicopee Academy, Chicopee Comprehensive High School, Chicopee High School): Motion to approve carried by roll call (10 yes recorded). New courses listed during discussion included Human Disease and Prevention, Air Force JROTC Leadership, Introduction to Health Careers, Advanced Screen Printing, Art History, World Drumming, Architectural CAD and barbering courses at Chicopee Academy.

- Personnel report and retirements: Christina Messier, Administrative Assistant in Human Resources, reported 11 new hires between Feb. 13 and Feb. 26, 50 active postings (19 teachers, 16 paraprofessionals, 13 special-education postings) and three substitute postings on PowerSchool. The meeting recorded two retirements: Mary Couture, assistant cook at Chicopee High School (28 years, 9 months of service), and Michael DuVille, welding teacher at Chicopee Comprehensive High School (16 years, 10 months of service).

- Adjournment: Motion to adjourn carried by roll call (10 yes recorded).

Several votes recorded named votes on the record; where the transcript omitted a full numeric roll-call tally, this summary reports the votes that were recorded in the transcript (for example, Mr. Dowd's abstentions) and notes where exact counts were not specified.

The committee meeting then adjourned after completing the evening's agenda.