It's like that for me personally all that lives out in community and they know. >> So I really try to be conscious of what I bring up to the board and what I'm going to talk about and say so it doesn't eat up that time. >> So I just think it's good. It's nice awareness. I've tried with my board report just to list three things the top three that I couldn't go without and then you know sometimes I don't it doesn't always line up but like there is a conscious effort to like well I know don't want to waste everybody's time. >> Yeah. Uh the other thought I had was that we could make a better effort of spending more time on our goals and uh monitoring reports. Um extending that discussion uh naturally and organically. I know it seems sometimes we just come up here and we're frozen because we're just getting, you know, death by PowerPoint, but you know, maybe there's something else we can do.
So it really was um it is indicative of the larger group. >> Okay. >> Um so um but we do have the other surveys um that that families resubmit on to as well. So >> [clears throat] >> um and I also issued a communication survey which which had a higher response rate than than this survey. So survey survey survey. But I called it quick so maybe that increased the response rate. >> Like to be quick about it. >> 84 questions minus 10. >> I'm a little bit concerned with the um response rate for the staff. Uh if you go back to that slide. >> [clears throat] >> It was okay so it's 47.8%. I would hope and that the response rate for the staff would be equal to or above the response rate for the students. Number one. Then number two last year it was 68% and we dropped all the way down to 47% which is definitely not positive.
So, I think that's the other, you know, Mhm. And that's hard to understand and it's it's also a philosophical disconnect to some. Um that's why I think it's really really important that we lay out our priorities and what we're going to do in a way that is easy to understand and that is out there. That's clear. Yes. >> Yes. I mean, yeah, that's our our whole purpose is to be transparent with what we're doing. Right. And if we're transparent, then I think we're okay with some disagreements as long as we we've held true to what we said we're going to do. >> Yeah. And having an assessment and creating a priority list just to to stay on the list is not Yeah. is not Well, yeah, understanding that there's been you know, work and input from various agencies or not really agencies, but you know, different people to to make this decision.
We're a family. We talk about it all the time. Um you know, we we set these lofty goals for us, right? We need that team to come come through. Um and that that's part of that. So, we definitely thank you for them. Uh the the musical I That's what impressed me. It was so packed Friday night. I had to stand in the back. I actually stand stood out there with a Ms. Midas act. Her and I together were we're standing. Uh and that was great. It was great great to see that much support. Um on a side note, I have an opportunity to go see a brand new auditorium here coming up uh in a couple weeks. So, I'm going to take advantage of that and learn a little bit more about the construction phase cuz, you know, we could have two bigger projects coming up here.
So, um Seth, are there any questions in the chat? All right. So, we are we don't have questions yet. Are there any comments that we may need to address? All right. So, we can keep it going. Um, I guess my question for you, um, and you know, if we were to think about broader district planning and expand and innovate, what would be your thoughts about the future, especially for the Camelantis program? Like, how can we shift change, make it stronger? Well, it's it's a strong program and so build upon what we have, you know, future focused. I think um continue to get the message out to the community um so that everyone could get the opportunity. So I feel like there are pockets of people that hear about the program um and not necessarily who it was intended for, right? And so my goal is to really get that message out so that we can I mean and ideally we would love to have like our own, you know, if I go to another district and I see its own building, right?
So that means you know there's competition. So what we need to do is try to keep our programs strong. And I think by doing by keeping our one of the ways to keep our program strong would be to ultimately have an operational override to keep us at the very least at a status quo as we continue to grow beyond 2 and a half% and then maybe try to bring in some of the the extras back uh that we've lost over the years. Personally, I'm h I I was not for it, but I think it's worthwhile maybe at the next meeting to deliberate on this more. I just wanted to put it out there for your consideration. Um, and this would only be if the the the the select board and the finance committee would be willing to take over the cost of the study. >> That's going to be my question.
>> Well, I think of course it comes down again to questions, right? Like those questions on how we can extend it because you know if we have people asking questions then of course it takes a little bit longer and um more indepth. Um, I think sometimes for me I'm still struggling in asking more complex in-depth questions than like surface level questions. Um, and so sometimes like I don't know how to ask like questions that I think are like valuable for everyone because I don't want to waste everyone's time or or um I want it to be something that like they look at, you know, the exec team looks at and like thinks in a different way. And sometimes it's hard for me to to think of questions that I feel like could affect them that way. So maybe it's not I don't want to ask something that's like not useful because I also don't want to waste people's time.
Um, is there any reason for that or is there anything that we can look at doing next year to get a much better response rate from the staff? >> I think we were so focused on the students and really that 95% was a heavy lift for a lot of people. So, as Ryan described I think in the classroom instead of filling out the survey themselves in the moment which is when they may have may have typically they were circulating around the classroom to ensure that students were completing it. So, but but I agree we could throw out some cafe coupons for staff. But >> [laughter] >> but I think it's just so many surveys. So, I think we might take a look at consolidate like I mean we we need to do this but really focusing on what information is most valuable to us and emphasize that going forward.
It's not this you know, what what do you think sounds good? Just some random number. I mean, we put a lot of thought into Yeah. taking all those factors into consideration. So, I would say that I agree [clears throat] with Tracy. So, whether it is Frontline Analytics or Baker Tilly, I think we need to throw these scenarios in with keeping up with our priorities and um trying to figure out if we're ready if the referendum doesn't pass or if it does pass, then we know what it pays for. So, there's a lot of strategy here in the next year or two. And if Analytics, I don't want to say it's free, but it's part of the package we pay for. Um if they can run the analytics, I would do it I would let it let them run it. I think I agree. And they've got I mean I can see it um and I can see portions of it.
So, I'm excited to see what what theirs looks like to get ideas for ours. Um Dr. Asper, welcome. Uh I'm excited to have you here with us. Um, you know, I know you're going to do great things here with us. Have that that big big vision to help support us. Um, so, congratulations. Good to have you. Um, and it's interesting what you say about the staff and kids and field day. Um, talk about big ideas, right? I think Sam and Mr. Cannon, we've talked about this, too, about in the beginning of the year having like the beginning of the year school kickoff and having it out there on the football fields. And this is the that what you're talking about where we can all go out there and say, "Welcome back." And have the entire corporation out there. And again, you there's all these big big visions we have.
In an ideal world, I Cecilia you're speaking to me because at one point I was like this needs to be its own school like create like its own dual language school in Amoris that would be awesome. >> Yes. And so I ideally they would be to expand where we where we needed a building, but I think continued as time goes by, as the program goes by, as we collect more data on the benefits of this program and and follow the kids through, um I think that advocacy and and continued um conversations with the community on the importance, right? And so we might not have a a large community of of Spanish speakers, right, of who the program was intended for, but there's so many benefits for everyone to learn a second language, right? How necessary it is to know Spanish in our country, as well as appreciation of other cultures, learning about culture and history, and um just all the benefits, not only um language.
Yes, it would we would look to them to take over the cost of the study, which you know, in my experience would probably be between 10 and $15,000 um for a study of of that magnitude. However, I think at the end of the day, if we can convince some people to have a third party looking at looking at our data and looking at the facts and the we we already know as a committee, I think we already know what that's going to be. But if we can maybe convince a few people um in the community once it comes to the override because all we can do as a board is put out facts, right? We can't campaign for an override. All we can do is put out the facts. So if we have a third party study um looking at our operations, I would defer to the administration on what's the best route to go about that.
>> And I think that's like my problem sometimes. Like I'm trying to ask questions. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm trying to review it, but I just want to I do want to ask questions that make people think. >> Yeah. like how can we change this or how can we do replicate this or you know something that maybe they haven't thought of which is probably hard to do because I'm sure it's you know different things. So I think that's where I get stuck with the questions and of course if we ask better questions I'm sure that that would extend that time out and be a lot more useful as well for everyone. I think for me like um especially when we have executive session or things that take a lot of my um brain power and I've just come from the whole day at work. I think for me sometimes like stamina is an issue in terms of like making sure that I'm not checking out and like staring at things.
But do they >> a large enough sample though. It is a statistically large enough sample to be indicative of staff opinions in that. Right? So, 95% although it's a great huge number [clears throat] there is no statistical analysis out there that requires that kind of response any group to get statistically relevant data back to make decisions. Right? As Jill said, it's a much smaller sample size that's required than that. So, the family one is a little light. Right? That's a little lighter than what we would hope to see. But the other ones are definitely large enough to make decisions off of. >> But do they I agree that that's a 20 20% difference from last year to this year. Do you give the teachers time in their PLCs or specific time during their planning where you're like we're saying to these students, you're going into access with an understanding that part of your time will be sent and spent this way.
So they have it in cuz you know it's the three different pots, the 1% 2% 3% I think. And then the property tax or the personal property is that what it is, yeah. Personal like your equipment I guess or something. Um so they have it all built in there. They just are trying to work with different people, you know, Baker Tilly and the state and making sure that they have it set up properly. So they've somehow gotten what each of those, you know, each person's property and where where they fall in that one, two, and three. You know, they probably got them purchased it from some company or whatever. Um so I mean I know our advisor at um Frontline, he told me on Friday that um he has a meeting this week about it. So they're hoping to have it finalized in the next couple weeks.
Um, and it's a matter of um, putting the pencil to the paper to get it all organized. Um, so, there there is a time for that. So, um, that's all I got. Okay. Thank you. Uh, item 13, public comments. I assume that they're not on the agenda. Okay. Um, item 15, adjournment. Do I have a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye.
Right. >> You're correct. So, I'm going to ask you a question and then we're probably going to close out because we only have about a few more minutes left to the show. So, if families remember one thing from tonight, what would you want it to be? I would say that our community um learn about our program to know what it it um the let's see um let me think about this for one second. [laughter] And so I >> put you on the spot. [laughter] >> I would say that um although Ammerst doesn't seem like it has I know that Ammerst is diverse due to the university. >> Right. >> But I wish that the community knew how many multilingual learners we have. Right. Right. >> And that education really isn't a one-sizefits all. and that when we're looking and we're working with ML ML, you know, multilingual learners that we need to be able to meet them where they're at.
But for what it's worth, that's my two cents on um you know, if we could maybe at least have some more discussion. And I know it wasn't on the agenda tonight, but I at least wanted to brief the committee as to um what came out of that meeting. >> Yeah, I I will say that um yes, I had a very hard time with the fact that we do have the data and yet it isn't accepted by everybody on um the advisor the budget advisory committee. But that being said, if it's not accepted by everybody on the committee, then perhaps the greater Dartmouth community won't accept those that data either. One of the one of the other problems I have with having an outside group come in is it's going to not only take money, but it's also going to take time. And depending upon how much time, that might delay the need to move this forward.
Um, and I just I get tired and I need to make sure I'm paying attention because sometimes I find myself with my brain drifting off while people are presenting and then I say, "Oh, you should probably be paying attention because you're not asking any questions." I definitely did that in the last meeting. >> It's hard when like sometimes the information is continuously presented in the same way. Not that I'm saying it should be different, but like I just wonder how useful some of the graphs and some of the things are. >> Um, to me, like I look at them and I'm not sure that they like affect me in any way possible. And I think that's I mean I love I I know people love making graphs and stuff but >> well to be fair to the team I don't think the graph the team hates making those graphs.
I know as a teacher when I'm with my PLC and I have the five essentials coming up, we we want those numbers to look good, right? You want your teachers to take time and to go through and there are a lot of questions. But we're given that time. Are we are we giving the teachers the time because to see a drop of 20%, that makes me also wonder if some of these numbers that we're seeing here, why the decline? And are it is the positive that we're seeing truly a true positive? Do you know what I mean? If if it's going down then >> relevant. Right? So, statistically, these numbers are all valid, A. B, yes, staff do have time in their day to complete the survey. There there is time in their day to get this done. >> So, like we say, here's the window.