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So, this spring, as you know, this has been part of our district strategic plan uh right from the beginning, but we this isn't quite where we want to be, but it's a start. So, I just want to be able to just frame it that way. We'll be launching an afterchool enrichment program at all three of our elementary schools. >> Nice. Um we've started yeah it is really been uh something that we have been committed to for a number of years. I think Mrs. Paveo and Dr. Thomas who have done a really good job sort of coordinating from the ground level in getting it moving. Uh they have been working with the town and with the Dartmouth Advocates for Addiction as you heard Mr. Kylie mention. Well, we're able to do this because of the opioid money and we're working closely with the DART uh task force and it's Rachel Diazio Shiglo who has been wonderful and working very closely with Katie and with uh with Audra to be able to do that.
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>> So, if this goes really well, if you know Downs Grove North, uh the whole fronts, so off Main Street, um the sidewalk that's there pitches directly at the school and there's three or four more water caps. >> Might be really cool to have the whole front of the building look native. Just saying. >> The colors too. >> Set you up. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. With with >> new colors. Fantastic. So, >> do you know of any other districts or buildings in schools in the area that are doing similar >> project? Yeah, the conservation foundation, they're actually at climate of hope as well. Beth Koo, I talked with her. Jefferson did something across the front of I'm trying to think directionality here. South side of their building along that long um parking lot area. They did a nice strip of I would say three foot wide all the way down the walkway the sidewalk there.
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Stahlbaum, is there a motion for items 8A and B? I I move to approve Oh, go ahead. I got I move to approve line items 8A and B as presented. Second. Thank you, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Nowlin.
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So >> great. >> Okay. Okay. >> All right. Uh so yeah, let's open up the discussion to the public. Is there anyone in the room who'd like to come up to the podium and ask a question from what's been discussed tonight? >> There's somebody online, too. >> Okay. Okay. I'm not see anyone on site here. So, let's go to let's go to the Zoom Zoom participants. What do we have here? >> Julie. >> Oh, okay. We have uh let's start with uh Mark Done. You can come off mute and ask your question. >> Mark. Mark. It's >> not Mark. It's Julie. >> Oh, it's Julie also has his hand up. It's just cut off on the TV. I >> think you're still on mute, Mark. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, >> Mark the Sony 19 Main Street. Um, at least this is a good start to get get a starting point for the uh what could be going down the road.
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So, our goal for this program is to give students a fun, positive experience where they connect with each other and they're able to explore their creativity. There are some parameters around the way that the opioid money has to be used and we're working really closely with Rachel to make sure that what we're doing in the afterchool program aligns with what the expectations are related to the expenditure of that money. But families are receiving all the details and registration information really soon. Uh the program is going to run from the week after April vacation through the first week of June. So this is something that we're really looking forward to and we're looking forward to seeing the response and something that we're committed to growing over time. And I'm really excited that we're I had thought originally we were only going to be able to pilot at one school, but that we're able to uh extend this opportunity to all three of our elementary schools, which is the goal at the end of this.
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Uh and the same intent there is to just try to infiltrate because native plants have deeper roots than just top soil blueg grass. So that makes the soil a lot better and allows the water to go down faster. So I think Jefferson for sure um golly you're putting me on the spot. I can't remember all the ones that she had mentioned but there's several in the area and their whole goal is confer they have two programs. conservation at home, conservation at school. So, we are officially a conservation at school school. Um, and we have a signage that is out front for the the rain garden as well. So, >> great. >> Thank you. Awesome. >> Thank you. >> I'll be back up in a second. >> She's my former teacher. >> He was my student at one time. >> He graduated last year. Yeah. >> Thank you.
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Any discussion or questions? Hearing none, we can move to the roll call vote. Mr. Schultz? Aye. Mr. Glick, how do you vote? Aye. Ms. Lloyd, your vote? Aye. Chair votes aye. Mr. Nowlin? Aye. Mr. Major, your vote? Ms. Weelden? Aye. Thank you. 7-0. Opportunity at the close of the meeting for board input and review. Start with you, Ms. Weelden. I uh I would just like to acknowledge the work that teachers, administration, and etc. do to pump our kids up. I have had three teachers reach out to me today. Two of them tonight, actually. Mr. Edwards gave me some positive feedback about my daughter. And Mr. Cooper, as he went through the line, also said the same thing. And it has like made my week. Um so, I just you know, you may not recognize the impact that you're having on family members when you share something positive, but it it truly turned me around.
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I have two two questions. on the flood plane and the um the ram issue. First on the flood plane where the the middle building is the base of the buildings. I'm I'm just wondering will those buildings be strongly flood preventable by the by the um developer or how that how's that going to work? That's one question. And the other question is that the RAM peer review seems like be like a like an issue saying that u they don't want to not saying they don't want but they kind of don't want don't agree that that should come forward. Why is that ram uh issue a difficult one to agree on? first the um base for flood planes of the mill building itself. It was who's going to uh make it upgradeable and then the ram issues. Thank you. >> I'm not sure I heard the first question.
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Uh we'll talk more as we go along about how do we provide additional supports for students who may need transportation, etc. But we're just we're not there yet, but we're excited to get started. Um, under safe and supportive schools, I would just say, you know, making sure the school grounds are safe and accessible for students. I would mention to you that we are working with the department of elementary and secondary education regarding access testing and MCCAST administration because as you can imagine not for the whole state but certainly for the south coast we've been more impacted by other communities across the state but there are enough of us uh that we are we're able to work directly with the department of ed as a matter of fact the commissioner uh commissioner Martinez is joining the South Coast and and Cape superintendent on Wednesday as part of our Oak Colony roundt uh to have some discussion around some of the impact that this blizzard has had in this region and ways in which the department can help to support us as we recover from it because there are dates that will be impacted and deadlines and compliance and all of those things that really set us back a bit.
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Thank you all. I really appreciate it. >> Of course. >> All right, let's keep moving. That sounds so exciting right now. I bet all of us are going to be in our cars next couple days around the world for that. I know I will. So, okay, so up next, last week at both Downers North and South, they brought in a wonderful author. I actually I had an opportunity to sit and uh participate and have lunch with this wonderful author. And so we have Kim Hokowski and Allison Baba who will share how well that event went. >> Hello everyone. Could you go to the next slide? Thank you. Um so yes, so last week, last Monday and Tuesday, we had the pleasure of having Lamar Giles speak to students at both of our schools. Thank you so much to the foundation for helping us cover that cost.
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So, I had a bad week before that, actually. So, turned it around for me. And then, um the second thing was there are a couple things I'm not a townee, okay? I'm an import to Columbus, Indiana. I've been here a long time, but there are a few topics that I have found um create a reaction by people that are open lunches is one of them. Okay? And then the other one is senior projects. That seems to be kind of a thing for people in Columbus. Um and I have been able to um see senior project report outs, etc. and I kind of understood the concept, but now I have a senior going through one and my goodness, she is working her tail off. And um and her group of friends, I mean, they are just phenomenal pieces of work in the community. One um created a 5K race and you think about all the things it takes for a kid to put something like that together.
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>> You >> Mark, can you repeat that first question, please? >> He was building the the mail when you showed those 1955 flood >> um issues. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering a building the build the mill builders now who's going to make sure that those buildings are be um capable to withstand the um any sort of flood that does actually happen. >> Yeah, that's going to be part of the discussion of the flood plane, Mark. That's something that we're going to talk about in depth going forward. So it'll be discussed at great length here at the conservation commission >> future meeting. >> And your second qu what was the second question? >> Oh the RAM report. Yeah, the RAM report is a release abatement measure and it has to do with uh with in essence what's there and how is it going to be uh um remediated without it uh being problematic.
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But as I said, the last day of school is set for June 23rd right now. Uh but there are other things for us to think about. One thing that I'm really pleased about is that our graduation dates are still on track. So no change to graduation dates and we don't have to make any adjustments due to uh meeting Desi regulations. So I would say because I'm I've also been on a few virtual calls with the area superintendent, we've been able to meet. We invited somebody from DESIE into one of our meetings to have these conversations and they have been responsive to our um our challenges and not everybody is as well positioned as Dartmouth because there is talk in some communities about maybe having to give up Good Friday. Um, but we start school before Labor Day and I think that that's something that I really appreciate that the committee continues to support because I know there are differing opinions on that.
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Lamar Giles is a young adult and middle school author. He has written 13 books. He's been on the Lincoln Award, which if you're familiar with that, um is an Illinois librarian, English teacher, and studentbased award. Um and so his book, his most recent book, The Getaway, or his second most recent book, The Getaway, was on there two years ago. Um and he is just an author that is really popular. Students really enjoy him. So, we were able to bring him in. He spoke about the writing process. He talked about inspiration. Um how he comes up with his ideas. Um he started off his presentation talking about kind of how many of his young adult books are horror and thriller. Um so he talked about um when he first got invol really kind of learned to appreciate control fear is a good way to write a book.
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It's just really impressive. So, I know sometimes they get a bad rap, maybe there's some easier ways out, but for the kids who really want to give it their all, I feel like she is taking something away from this and I'm pretty impressed with the process. I'm pro. Pro senior projects. In case there was any question. Thank you, Ms. Weldon. Mr. Major? >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, I just wanted to again, I've done this in the past a couple of times, thank Mrs. Haynes and the entire team of teachers and parents that worked really hard with all of our robotics programs that we had this year. There were several events that were both local and statewide and it it takes a lot of work and effort uh to to make an event go well and I think our IT team here has done a great job as well coordinating all the cords and TVs and timers and everything, scoreboards and scoring system.
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And so usually that is a um is hazardous waste is is a D issue. The fact that it it's complicated in this case because it's in a flood plane which is jurisdictional for the conservation commission. So trying to put it into to lay terms D for the most part is concern is concerned with the impact on human health of these things. The conservation commission has no jurisdiction over human health. our our jurisdiction is over environmental health and so the flood plane and the river and the wetlands uh area there will they be impacted by uh this ongoing project and that's why we are suggesting that we have jurisdiction uh concurrently with uh the D but over different issues slightly different issues that make sense We'll be discussing that in great length going forward though. Okay. Is that all set? Mark, >> thanks Mark for your questions.
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But this is a really good example of why that's a great practice because we have flexibility built into our calendar that not all districts have. But one of the things that that they are um they are um considering is making a hard last day of school for all communities. God forbid we got more snow. I mean right now we're in good shape, but >> um it's, you know, not quite winter is not quite over yet. Uh the other thing that I would mention is the questions have come up regarding remote learning and I just want to clarify that at this at this time DESIE regulations do not allow for remote learning as a substitute for in-person instruction. And this was a position that was recently affirmed by a vote that the board of educa elementary and secondary education took very recently um not too long ago.
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Um very believe it or not very funny story behind that. Uh and so we were able to bring him in last week and um lots of students were able to see him. So if you could switch to the next slide. Thank you. So this is um what what happened at Downtown Grove North. We had three class periods. So he spoke during third, fourth, and eighth. It was important for us to have a lunch period in there so that any students who wanted to drop in during lunches could. Um and also if our book club members wanted to drop in, they could during any of those periods. Um it covered 13 classes. There were 322 students present. Um and that was over eight teachers. That includes co-teers in some of the classes. Um, so we had a couple pictures. The first picture on the left is during one of the sessions and you can see they all looked like that.
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It just I I don't know that we had too many issues that were noticeable and I think it's something that's pretty cool to see not just uh uh athletes tonight we celebrated, but we also I people that are doing it with their brains, and so um not that athletes aren't smart, but these kids are all out here trying to solve a complex problem. They're doing it in both a collaborative and competitive environment. And I think that is a really good start for their future. And hopefully we build a lot of good strong engineers, doctors, lawyers, and others. And then, you know, obviously those that don't go to college, they can take those problems solving skills and put those to a trade. So So it's a it's a really good program. Hopefully we can continue to do a good job. And hopefully parents stay engaged with it and keep their kids uh focused on having some fun building robots.
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And then we had one other person online. We have uh Julie. >> Julie. >> Yeah. Julie, you can come off mic and uh ask your question. Um, this is Julie Nardone, 86 Elliot Street. Um, the Rivers Act exemption for historic mills exist to renovate, restore, and readapt these historic buildings. Um, it isn't to tear them down and replace them with new buildings. um why would there be an exemption for historic mill sites if they can be demolished? And then two, can we please get a state expert in here on that exemption to explain uh why these mill buildings could be demolished given the exemption? Thank you. Yeah, I think the answer is um we will have um a discussion with regard to this. It's something that that the applicants have raised in their notice of intent. It's something that we uh will discuss uh again in great length um going forward.
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