We'll have our third interview ready to go. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] I'm sure Just the best. Thank you. proper preparations. You think it's easy? Okay. Good evening. Yeah. Kyle, Kyle, you good? Yeah. All right. All right. Mr. Alexander, thank you for coming in. We have a list of questions that each of us will ask you. We've asked the other two, so I'll just start, please. Why are you interested in this position in this district? So, um, if you you don't mind, I I know that most you know my resume and my but if I could just give a little bit of an opening and then tie that into um that first question. Um, I know I heard partly conversation was people haven't excuse me haven't seen my resume. So, I want to make sure it's important. I I go over my experience as an educational leader.
Right now there's only one. No, but you can add me. That's fine. Yeah. You want to? Sure. Great. All right. Mary Beckwith, he brings the best snacks. I wish I'd known that earlier. I know. Okay. Mary Beckmouth is now on the technology committee. Okay. Um, town open space and recreation plan steering committee. Currently we have John News as the main attender with myself being the alternate. Are you still having I'm fine. We haven't met in a while but you know we did a lot of stuff a couple of years ago. Right. As an alternate I didn't hear boo about it this year. No. Nor did I. So because there's there's the rep. So all right. And then lastly we have curriculum council and Mary Beckwith. You were on that. Did you guys meet this year? No. I have not. Would you would you like to continue on?
I'm just asking. I think I honestly think of the 40 I think there's 46 kids in there right now. I I don't feel like there may be like six out of district.
Do they have a lean on the building until the audit is done of the project. So, would we be looking at we gave this property to be used to build and now they're going to sell the building? I don't think they'd be able to do that with the grant. I know what you're saying. They have to give the grant money back, right? Like, where are they going to come up with those funds? Because I I don't think their organization is just sitting on cash to pay that. Yeah, I I would probably tend to agree with you. And the stipul like where we run into issues on this is that we've got essentially 1.1 to 1.2 that we can actually spend, but there's a grant stipulation that the project has to be 1.5. So that's where this bottleneck is. If they do come up with the funding, we got to they got to show production.
So, I have to I always say I do a puzzle with like 25% of the pieces because I don't have I don't know how many kids are coming down the pipeline yet. Um, but I have to leave those spots. So, my goal is to have eight typically developing peers and eight identified students. Now, they may get a little bit higher than that. I try not to do that. Um, but right now when parents are calling to enroll their kids in preschool and I tell them that they're full, I have to explain that process of that we accept, you know, student I have to keep those spots open for those students as well. I do have a couple spots left in the afternoon class at Salomony, but other than that, we are full with typically developing peer spots. So, super excited about that. I think you're only going to get bigger.
Um the first is our process of engaging in shared experiences. We do that for every program review and that includes professional development. It includes lots of discussion um and attendance at conferences. We also pilot resources um and computer science is no different. You can see the schools, elementary schools, middle schools and McKenzie uh where we piloted computer science resources um and we collaborate with outside districts and we do that for each of our program reviews to come to final consensus on recommendations. So the goals for our K12 computer science uh first and we've already talked about this one this evening is the requirement the graduation requirement for all students and that course is called computing foundations for a digital age. So we needed a curriculum to match the standards for that course. Um we also want to create a progressive pipeline that's K12 so that our students can see where they can progress um as they go through computer science in our district.
Um, been doing this job for about 35 years now in education. um started out as a speech and language pathologist, left there and became a teacher at the elementary level. Um from there I was asked to be the assistant principal at Resto Magneton School, truly inner city school nestled between two lowincome housing projects, probably one of the lowest performing schools in the state and now one of the highest performing schools in the state. Uh it's based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence. So we're using that whole right brain. Um I was there for 13 years. Um you still look it's still one of the highest performing um schools in the state of Massachusetts. From there um I was asked to become the principal city discovery school 700 pupil school by Wingle. Um so that was definitely a challenge but a rewarding experience as well too.
I I would love to continue. Okay. Um so then we have finished with our reorg as it were and old business. We are going to talk about the FY26 budget. Further discussion. [Music] Um, Mr. Kylie sent us all an updated budget. Would you like to say anything before our discussion, Mr. Kylie, or should we just jump in? I wanted to jump in and then Mr. Kylie, I know, had a couple of things if that's okay. No. Um, so I think it's important that we take the time to thank the select board, the finance committee, Gary Carrero, Jim Kylie, and the parents that we have here that I know have been incredibly supportive um since really last year when it became really clear that without some creative thinking, we were really um talk about budget challenges. we are really going to be looking at losing some really important positions in our district.
Oh, did was there any discussion at the legislative level to do away with this ridiculous? No. No. policy. I I would I would agree. But no, I will say two of us voted no last year because we didn't really Well, some of us didn't want to give the state the idea that we really support this. I'll say no. Yeah, it's frustrating. I do appreciate the effort you guys have put into trying to figure out how to balance this out as even as possible. I'm not exactly sure who all was involved in that process. I assume you three had some say in it, but I'm guessing you didn't make that decision alone. So, thank you. To administrators and myself, Lindsay was involved a little bit discussion because you have to remember too, you have to factor in special education students and needs with with that enrollment piece.
They have to have the Well, what we were told was there has to be something built by the end of December. Something not completed. Not completed. Yeah. I don't have those kind of credits. Yeah, I was going to like You're good. Yeah, Josh, just to be clear, that $800,000 that they have though has to be encumbered and spent by the end of September. Sorry, I didn't say that right. Has to be encumbered by the end of September. Okay, Jeremy, what are your thoughts on that side of it? So, we had talked with Sarah about an escrow account, which we've done before. That's pretty common thing um on addressing grant deadlines. She said the issue with that is that you have to show invoicing that equates to whatever that case may be and it has to go to the contractor. We would not accept a check for 850 grand when we just put a shovel in the ground.
Yes. So, I do have a weight list that have started and as positive things from your guys at preschool. Yeah. as parents have changed their mind or whatever in a first come first serve. It's going to be a bad it's going to be a good problem if you're going to have a problem. So, this is a multiaceted um conversation that we're going to have with you um because it ties in to the work that we're doing with uh Vidian Architectural Firm. It ties into your planning that you're going to do with bonds coming off. Um the way that we set up tonight's meeting was not done accidentally. Um because we're have if you see what's happening is um we're going to end up having the same problems at CTE programming at the learning center because we just by going to our own leaving the area 18.
Um, we also wanted to incorporate real world applications and collaboration and problem solving, those real skills that students need in the workplace. And then of course increasing overall student engagement in computer science. So the recommendation for K6 for our kindergarten through sixth grade is called Skillstruck computer science. Um and there's six different aspects to skill struck that really resonated with our teachers who piloted it. So problem solving, critical thinking, the integration of technology, the design and engineering process that's integrated into it, inquiry based learning, so really having students investigate um and and not just uh do algorithms all the time. that collaboration that's already been mentioned this evening in another uh program review really matches our instructional framework where we have students collaborating on a daily basis and then the skills of data analysis that was really important to our committee as well as we move on to our 7 through 12 recommendations seven and 8 and remember 8th grade is where the we're recommending that the computing foundations for a digital age that graduation requirement be held um We're recommending a pilot of the Project Lead the Way Computer Science Foundation course.
It was an expanded learning day school. What that means is you started that day at 810 and we ended at 410 every day. Um it was a grant that we wrote and we're able to um be able to get for having longer days for our students. Um after that I was asked by a superintendent to become the director of curriculum and professional learning for Western public schools where I started about 25,000 students and about 3,000 um about 3,000 staff. And what that was was overseeing MCCAST advanced placement all the curriculum went from prek to grade six. All of that was part of the job of being that. Um also teacher certification and reertification. Um so it was definitely a rewarding experience. I did that uh for about three years before I became the superintendent um in Camden Moham regional school district. I was there for about six years as a superintendent.
But I want to say their willingness to explore solutions from multiple perspectives has been so incredibly invaluable to us and um we're still navigating the town's budget obviously and we do have shared financial challenges and I think that's what's been uh so incredibly validating and important for us as we've gone through this cycle this year. It feels like you know we're kind of doing we're doing it together. Um, it's no secret, I would sound like a broken record that school costs continue to rise, that there are increasing pressures on Dartmouth's resources. Um, but I think that we have to continue to be clear that the issue here is not about reckless spending. Not that people have um have in any way said that it is about that, but I think that I've read a couple of things around uh the way that we're allocating our funding.
So, it's it's it's a team. We do work well as a team. Were families frustrated that they couldn't come the ones that showed up at late I would say they were disappointed um but again it was what was October October when they when they had applied and we have that way of allowing them if they show up late right if we're already to the number well because when they're late if it's after September we don't get we don't know how many did we turn away at the one school that wasn't true I think well we had one family that we had a situation that was here they didn't really follow the process of they were out so we had that family in common and then um there was one family that had re inquired like last May with me and then you know they were informed of the process And then they called way after the date and I was like, "Well, it's closed now." And I mean, you know, they were busy in the summer and they just couldn't get it done.
There's just far too much risk for us and for you on that. It it we're just not going to do that. So either way, an escro account of some kind would be incorporated and then we would likely have to bill for like all of the material or like we can get creative on that side of things. Um but it I mean it is getting pretty creative. So at this point in time, what exactly do you need from us, Bobby? Just the the consensus that we would like to see both options. He also wants to know if we can throw in 300,000 for this project. Throw it in as a school board. Yeah, I have that in my back pocket. Okay, that's the hard part. The hard part of it is if they don't get the grant, are we willing to go back as a district, are we willing to go back to the 1.2 in hopes that they can hit the 1.5 or are we set we want the room?
You just heard how the timelines ex, you know, expediate here and now more kids are taking advantage of those opportunities. This is the first time I've ever said this. I've never said it to anybody around the table or in the community. Nothing would make me any happier than giving every student an opportunity for preschool that wants to have it in this community. And um I think we have to dare to be great and dare to think that way. And if the numbers make me smile, but those numbers will not get me to where I want to be until every student, every preschooler in this community that wants to have a preschool opportunity can have one. And so we're just trying to figure out how to get one in every uh building. But for us to continue to grow and to continue to do what we're going to do, we're going to have to look at other alternatives on top of that uh to do that because the statistic research is crystal clear on this piece is that when you can get a three-year-old in, a four-year-old in and start that process, they are so ready for kindergarten.
Um so as this new course was announced and the standards um were uh released, then Project Lead the Way released a course that matches those standards. And so we want to pilot it for one year because it came out too late for our teachers to pilot it this year. So we want to pilot that for next year because it does appear to be a close alignment with the the standards for that particular course. And then in grades 9 through 12, you can see the three courses um there uh on the left hand side. And the recommendation from our high school teachers is to adopt skill struck computer science for 2526 because it best aligns to our industry certifications, our advanced course offerings, and of course those real world skills that I mentioned for our elementary. As part of our computer science uh review process, we also reviewed AI um and feel like it's important to bring forward a recommendation around a district-wide pilot for AI for next school year.
I retired. Um I was retired for probably a little over a month before I became um the director of admissions at a private federated Cath private Catholic um school. Definitely a a different experience, but it was great to be able to work with families and admissions students to that. um sitting there doing my job at better when I got a call from that chair saying would you apply for the job of interim superintendent of schools for for and that was literally my first day was sometime in August 24th right around that um had a few days to transition with the previous superintendent and then just hit hit the job running um so I have been here for a little over seven months as the interim superintendent of schools so so why to you know why am I interested in this position? Um I I go back to the title of being an intram right?
And I just want there to be no question that our challenges are really stemming from rising special education expenses, state mandates, increased transportation costs, and the need to remain competitive and attracting and retaining highquality educators. And I know I sound like a broken record, but I think it's important to continue to publicly state those things. Um, these are not optional expenditures. their necessary investments in our students and mandated obligations under state and federal law. This is a reality not just faced by us here in Dartmouth, but really in school districts across Massachusetts. And if you're reading local news or paying attention to what's going on around some of our local districts, you can see the pressures that we're all facing. Um, we also recognize that the town has financial constraints, but we remain committed to working together to find responsible, sustainable solutions. And at the same time, we must continue to ensure that Dartmouth students receive the education they deserve.