about 30% of our staff reported a favorable response there. So whether or not they had a deep understanding of those connections already or if they we need to communicate better um out the students uh who need more connection and make the staff more aware of those connections that's something that we may need to work on. Um and then also questions about students belonging. We asked students on this survey as well because we weren't able to ask that on the this the activity that we did with our um South Kids. So, this was added. Um do you feel a sense of belonging? So, across district 99, uh 67% of students, whether or not they're currently involved in an activity or not, we don't know. It's an anonymous survey. But of the 2675 kids who responded, 67% of them said that they do feel a sense of belonging in our schools.
And they do have a meeting on they just had a meeting this uh past week. Um, but they do have a meeting on on May 28th. So, I'm going to watch for that as the agenda comes out and see if that's going to be when they consider their accelerated repair projects, but I'll uh keep you posted as to progress on that. So, thank you. And so, under HR, we are hiring. Um, we do have some, you probably have seen them if you um you're getting our Dartmouth email, but we are in the process of interviewing for leadership positions. I want to say the interviews for the middle school I had mentioned to you in my Friday update are com for the assistant principal ship are complete and we're pleased to share that Justin Zexter has been uh appointed. He's a longtime well Dartmouth educator and a wellrespected math teacher.
student engagement in four-year planning is a pretty positive response. So there's a high level of guidance given from families and teachers and also that there the vertical integration. So if I'm taking classes is does one class lead to another that lead to my career goals? Um I choosing classes based on my interest and career goals. Families report a higher connection than the staff do. So when we look at capstone experiences, this is something where we ask the students and the families and the teachers are students able to demonstrate their learning from throughout the year at the end of the course. 63% of teachers report that 65% of students and 70% of families. um going into this question is going to be important in our department chair meetings because some some departments have moved away from uh final exams. Therefore, their chairs would not expect that number to be um high whereas others would expect that to be high.
And so we're excited to be able to have him join the middle school team. And so you'll see in turn um that the Potter and Dartmouth high school positions, the associate assistant and and associate position respectfully respectively have uh you know uh been scheduled for next week. And so we look forward to hopefully at the next committee meeting being able to update you as to where we are with that. Again, lots of people involved in organizing that. I'm really grateful to um Mrs. Pavo, Dr. T-Bolt, our principles, Peter Rossy, Ryan Sheay, Melissa Mckenry, and and many educators have been involved and it really does it is a time commitment for them. So, we appreciate their input because we do believe these are important hires and we want to include as many voices as we can. On the same time, at the same time, we're also now, as you can see, we're advertising for our content positions.
So, we'll be digging into that number a little bit more specifically, especially as final exams have shifted over the last several years. four-year plan. It was exciting to see that 91% of our families say they talk to their students about choosing their courses with their secondary plans in mind and also their interests. And 75% of the staff also provide that guidance. That's a pretty significant number think because when teachers are giving that guidance, they're mostly talking about what class they think is the next in the sequence for that student. But beyond that, they also report um 75 75% of them chose a four or five in indicating that they're also talking to them about their secondary plans and interests and courses that they have. Um as far as alignment, uh students and families report at a higher rate that they choose courses that align and build upon courses that they've already taken.
So, you'll be seeing uh even a few more job ads coming out. Um, under family and community engagement, I don't know if you got to chance to see High School the High School Musical, which was High School Musical. So, I love saying that the High School Musical was High School Musical. Um, so for those of you who got to see it, I'm sure you jo um joined me in saying it really was a spectacular event. It was just so fun and it was so uplifting and the whole theme of the show couldn't have come at a better time. We're all in this together. I've been like singing that over and over and over again, you know, just to ground me and remind us all. Uh but the theme was about different groups, athletic athletes, academics, uh theater kids, and just represented from many groups and how they came together.
We are actually working on developing career pathway documents. So that helps students and families as they're choosing that if they're thinking of a career or a major in mind that will have documents that will help them build those courses more consistently. um and our staff asking them are their courses vertically aligned so that an intro course will uh align and refine the skills when they're getting into more advanced courses. About 59% of the staff report that um whether or not that's because of tied to their post-secary goals or if it's just refining skills for the next course, that's something for us to dig into as we continue to look at the data. So growth of student ownership and agency the activities supports I've already talked about. However, attendance is going to be again one of the big uh stress points um in the survey data.
Uh, and from what I heard from the director, I did get a chance to talk to Dennis and he said it was just such an interesting experience and new for him and unique in bringing just that um just different all those different student groups together and to see the relationships that they formed and then what they produced that night was just really it was just so fun um to see and and again corny I'm just going to say but we're all in this together and it was like an opportunity to say like we are one Dartmouth and it was it was obvious. Um and then under safe and supportive schools I would mention the day of kindness organized by Christina Fon Callahan at the high school. I know uh Mary Beckwith had a chance to go and see what I don't know if any others did, but there were multiple clubs, groups, really fun activities that the kids had set up at their tables to talk about sort of what their club was about and at the same time to engage their fellow students.
So um beyond the activity and athletic data, we asked about interventions and supports and uh how aware are families about them and specifically uh is there something that you wish to see in order to help improve the communication of them? Uh and so email communication improvements was the top one. Um counselor communication also came up but only at 7% of the responses. So for 700 families that responded um that have the fact that more families did not choose counselor communication just goes to show how strong of a connection our counselors have with our students for regular attendance. However, you can start to see some pretty significant stress points. The lowest um indicator for positive responses from the staff is attendance. So school provides adequate support um for students uh attendance and so that's at 11%. Earlier you saw consequences at 15%. Those two as you heard from Jill and as you heard from Hank earlier those are some of our touch points that we need to work on.
And I saw lots of students out there interacting and visiting those tables. So, and I don't think it was all just about the candy. I don't there was some good candy. There was some good candy. But I mean those are the kinds of things that we really think are when we talk about safe and supportive schools, right? There's the safety that kids from a really diverse um diverse backgrounds were there and they were like talking about themselves in their groups and and really went along with the theme of High School Musical. Um so I understand there was a 5K race here on this past Sunday. I wasn't able to make that. I don't think I would actually make a 5K race. So, I'm not sure that would have been a good idea anyway. But from what I understand, the community really showed up. And one of the things I would mention about the musical is I was here Friday night.
And if you look at what students say 56% of the students feel motivated to attend class regularly. Um, and so that does support our staff's concerns about attendance. Um, and then also, uh, finding benefits to attending class every day. That while that's higher, 71% of the students who responded, we would like to see that much higher than that. Our families do um talk about understanding the expectations and feeling the support and know how to support um, their students with their attendance. So we know that the families don't feel that barrier. So that is something that we'll be working on and looking at internally for our recruitment for um highly qualified staff. Staff feel equipped to um teach their courses. They find that they have enough resources. Um but PD still comes up as something that has become a concern. Last year we saw um stronger numbers with our personalized professional learning and because of that that question didn't necessarily need to come up.
It was packed. And talk about representation from the community. It wasn't just students and their families. There were plenty students and their families, but I saw people from all age groups at that musical. I saw people who did not have kids up on that stage and they were there to come out and enjoy what truly is just a wonderful opportunity to see talented stu students from their own community and it was just it was just so much it was just like one of those it was just really fun. You left there feeling this sense of just hope. Um so that's my report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. Um I believe we all got a email about the athletic department updating their policy handbook um or yeah the handbook. Um so Mr. Nun did um show some interest in doing that and I just want to make sure that nobody else wanted to arm wrestle him for that position.
The staff overwhelmingly said last year that personalized professional learning wasn't their concern. It was uh building level PD and that does come up again this year. So, uh, some of our highest, um, numbers from the staff, um, 83% and 81% respectively talking about the skills and resources that they need to effectively perform their job responsibilities to making impact uh, meaningful impact on their student work. So, the staff is feeling good about the work in the classroom that they're doing. But when they're looking at professional development, we ask them a couple of different things. one um how uh they feel about the professional development in their building. And then the the lower uh positively r rated response was in the last six months did you have a professional development opportunity that made a meaningful impact on your work? Um 24% of the staff responded positively to that.
Motion to approve John. Second to approve John. Okay. I don't think we have to vote on it, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone was happy with him representing us for the revision of the book. Okay, very good. I had a minor interest and then I I realized, oh no, that's a John thing. He's That's good for He can do that. He responded so quickly that mine. Okay. Okay. We support him. Um I also wanted to just mention that the joint conference of uh mass school committee and superintendence the dates are November 12th to 14th. Just put it on your calendar and think about whether you're interested or not. Um and really that was all I had. Anybody else have any updates? Oh my goodness. I have one more thing. Oh my goodness. Time is up. Unbelievable. I'm sorry. It's teacher appreciation week.
Um and so that does show an area of growth. We also asked them what are future PD topics. Again, you can see attendance. So, um strategies for getting students to come to class. That is one of the top ones. Infinite campus. Yes, absolutely. And um accountability, you'll see once again, um comes up. We did also ask them when they like to have their professional development. Um that on a regular day, that becomes one of our lower um positively responded comments. But institute day you can see is that large part of the pie. For general feedback uh we asked students what could what would you feel the school could do better to help you in your learning judy uh learning journey. Um 25% of the kids wrote nothing or IDK um something like that. Um that reduced workload um does tend to come up. uh engaging teaching methods.
Oh, that's I just want to say we I I know I had a note, teacher appreciation. So, we just want to say how much again going back to my budget statement, how much we appreciate our teachers. Sorry, I I think I talked over out of turn. So, but I had to go back to that because and and we have our um new uh edition of the Dartmouth Compass coming out to I think tomorrow and we will recognize our educators. So, thank you to all our teachers. We appreciate you and I believe the entire school committee would like to reiterate that. um you're the bedrock and um our students can't learn without fabulous teachers and our students are thriving. They're doing really well with a lot less than other communities and we owe that to the teachers. So on behalf of the whole committee, I would say thank you.
Se several students also talked about having a shorter day or even later start. Um a large percentage of the students either also did not have anything. If it was left blank, it is different than nothing. Um and also if it was a nonschool appropriate response um I left that in the blank category. So, we also asked how likely you're re you are to recommend your school district to your friends as a place to work or as a place to send your students. Um, if a respondent answers a zero through six, they're categorized as a detractor. That's a business term. Often that times that's where where are we going to put our advertising dollars? Um, if someone's asking about our product, how likely are they to promote us? um if uh if they answered a nine or a 10, they're categorized as a promoter, which means they're more likely to say yes and to talk up um the district or as their to send their students or a place to work.
Yes. Um, next, our next regular meeting of the school committee is scheduled for Monday, May 19th, 2025 at 6 PM in the Dartmouth High School Media Library Center as well as via liveream at www.youtube.comhstv media. Um, we I will now accept a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining where an I should say pursuant to MGLC 30A 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining where an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on school committees bargaining position DAA and DEA. A motion to adjourn to the executive session. Is set. Second and not to return. Right. Please. And not to return. Oh, and not to return. In session. Sorry. That's good. Chris Oliver. Yes. Kathleen Emerald. Yes. Mary Beckwith. Yes. Best Cofflin. Yes.
As we know from all of the different bystander training we do with students, most people are considered passive, right? That they're they're more willing to smile and be silent. So, how do we get our passive um families or employees to become a promoter? Or if they're a detractor um where they're more likely to say something negative, how do we get them into passive or promoter? Personally, I I prepare kids for testing either whether it's the ACT or the AC uh SAT. And I always say, I'm not trying to get you from an 18 to a 36. I'm trying to get you in an 18 to a 21 or a 24 to a 27. And so our goal really is to how can we choose something that's going to impact staff, students, and families uh to move them from one category to another, whether that's from an eight to a nine or a six to a seven.
So this is the data that they gave me. Um you can see that 26% of the staff indicates that they're a promoter. So they chose a nine or a 10. Um and 39% of the staff saw themselves as a detractor. Well, not saw themselves a detractor, chose zero through six, which six, which categorized them as a detractor. That's very different from our families. 62% of the families chose a nine or a 10, whereas only 10% chose a zero through six. I'm a data person at heart. I don't know if there's any other data people in the room. Anybody? Anybody? Okay. a while. I wanted to dig into it a little bit more um because I feel like this sort of like glosses over what the real number is. And so because I had access to that data, I did want to uh I made a commitment that I wouldn't change their slides.