The key takeaway is that this system of services is designed to be flexible and responsive to individual student needs. Students are not limited to one type of service or program. Instead, they may receive supports across the continuum as their needs change and evolve over time. And finally, we know that strong programming depends on strong professional learning. From January through May, we focused on a wide range of staff development. This includes training in differentiation strategies, creating meaningful access for all students, AAC and structured teaching strategies across a variety of roles and settings. Six of our schools also partnered with Educating Outside the Lines for a week-long disability awareness initiative that provided an interactive and in-person experience focused on disability inclusion for the entire school community. We've strengthened instructional strategies in both math and literacy while providing while prioritizing student-centered scheduling. And now moving on to health services, I want to highlight a few key updates that took place this year.
The idea of working >> [clears throat] >> engagement and that isn't our plan nor would that work. um Concerns about uh you know, what we have going on in our other areas or is there are they running interference on engagement? Is things in our grading policies or attendance consequences or enforcement are those things that make students feel less engaged and what is the intersection between those two things are topics that we'll have to look into and investigate over the course of the next year. And then, we did see especially in the in that 10% that was not in favor of this, uh feeling that the proposal was targeting teacher practice like the proposal was saying that teachers aren't doing engaging practices and that isn't the case. I mean, we saw from the climate survey the last time that we are uh positive in all areas of climate were almost in all of them greater than national norms.
It will also cover the new grant will cover math software for elementary to to supplement the elementary math curriculum with the goal of preparing more students for algebra and pre-algebra in seventh grade and at the high school level the grant supports college board training for teachers doing AP courses. So it benefits our high ability students all across >> [clears throat] >> the district. In February Dr. Christie Spears New Smyster who is a consultant for high ability from Ball State University visited several schools and sites and had many conversations and we looked at were presented her results and what's going to happen with that. She was impressed and commended BCSC on our program and plan. She had some recommendations for further improvements with a focus mostly on the high ability clusters in general education education classrooms through professional development, guidelines for cluster groups, and providing curriculum and instruction for students that are identified in math only or English only.
>> And I'll second that. >> Okay, motion and a second. Is there any questions or concerns? >> No. >> Both great trips. >> All in favor of those signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. >> E3, consider approval of shared dietitian consortium services contract for August 1st, 2026 through June 1st, 2027. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> I'll make the motion to consider the approval of the shared dietitian consortium services contract from August 1st, 2026 through June 1st, 2027. >> I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second. Are there any other questions? >> I'll just let you know that's a um service that the uh service center provides a lot of schools. Very, very helpful in planning menus and also make sure that uh allergies and things like that are are at least um handled. So, lots of schools uh do this.
Thank you. And then I also would like to briefly thank high school student Kayn Ward who has been working in our department this year as an intern. Kayn has been an incredible help. A lot of research tasks, some I don't know that she knew she was going to get to do this year. Um, but she did them very well and complaints. She's also been single-handedly managing the social media for one of our elementary schools this year and she did a fantastic job. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Allen. Uh 6.09, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. >> Thank you. like to begin tonight by announcing our new admin positions that were voted upon in personnel report. U Matt Ma will become our director of transportation and moving from the high school athletic department and look forward to Matt's leadership there. Chris Cyber will become our new athletic director and Allison Duncan will be our new assistant athletic director.
Well, I understand. And you don't have to You can sit down if you want. Uh and I don't want to talk this to death all night. Other than the fact that that we do this with every site that comes before us, whether it's somebody's backyard or somebody's store or an old factory. This is not something that we're making up and applying to this site specifically. This is something that we do for everyone. That's what our job is here. That's what our job under the Wetlands Protection Act is. And that's the oath that we take to serve in the town of Ashland is to ask questions and make wise decisions. And we can't make wise decisions if we don't have full disclosure of what we're asking for. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Well, we can move on, Chris. I Yeah, so I I do believe you have more than enough information to make a wise decision here.
Um, so, uh, yeah, I agree. >> Yeah, I think that I think the two of us alone, Mr. Kylie, I think we have more than enough information to go with tomorrow as to kind of where everyone's minds are on on this committee. I certainly appreciate the the conversation and the dialogue. Um, you know, I at the end of the day, I'm I'm well aware and versed as to what what we do here in in the Dartmouth public schools. And, you know, I I I personally, you know, I don't see I don't see the need, but I'm trying to look through the lens of other people that might. Um, but at the end of the day, uh, I think I think we have we're we're we have good information good information to go by and one being the fact that we've been doing really good with our budgets.
Right. You know, the reports are prior and time. I mean, we do that. >> Draw down. Um Yeah. This assistant principal I thought we had talked about it one point. Um that they would actually be located in that wing. No, we hadn't talked about that. Um because you know, at the time we were thinking of K would be there. Exactly. So, I mean, there is the facility there. There is a Yeah, there is office space there. Uh And we also talked about this person kind of being the early childhood pre-K K12. Is that one? Yeah, potentially that was with Kim. And actually, you know, we didn't really love that. As much as we might see flaws in this we saw more flaws in that model. Because we felt like there were just too many cooks in the kitchen at that point and then in a leadership model that was dramatically different than what we see in our other three schools.
Any discussion? All in favor? I. All right, so Okay. Um next >> [clears throat] >> Assistant Superintendent It is if you all need to They need to be at the next meeting, I can fit that. If not, I'll let you know. Okay, why don't we um Are there any real highlights that anything that you need or feel you want us to know? All of them, but I Of course all of What is Where is the next meeting? Right here. Right here. >> Oh, we just keep going. >> even outside? Yeah, there's nobody I mean, if anybody's Okay, go ahead. All right. Who are we Who are we waiting for? Jeff and then the full board? If they come. I don't know who's coming. Two of them won't be here, Okay, okay. So, we just keep going. >> Okay. So, the Cheshire Strategic Planning Committee meeting has been gathering to talk about AI and AI implementation in state um in the district.
Diaz Fucarino. Roll call. Mr. Fucarino. Hi. Mr. Redzio. Hi. Mr. Diaz. Hi. Mr. Kielesz. Hi. Mr. Taylor. Hi. Mr. Ratto. Hi. Mr. Gabba. Hi. Mrs. Hassan. Hi. Mrs. Piterri. Hi. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. This is what it is. Uh uh policy Is okay. Can I have a motion on policy 17.1? >> I second. So moved. >> too. Mr. Gabba, Mrs. Hassan. Okay. Mr. Fucarino. Hi. Mr. Redzio. This is for number 17? 17.1 and 17.2. I vote no 17.1 and abstain 17.2. Abstain from the 17.2. Mr. Diaz. Hi. Mr. Kielesz. Hi. Mr. Taylor. Hi. Mr. Ratto. Hi. Mr. Gabba. Hi. Mrs. Hassan. Hi. Mrs. Piterri. Hi. Okay. Okay. I'm going to open this up for public comment. Any has any comment? There's no public comment? Comments? What? Any comments from the board members? Yes. Madam President. Uh first I want to uh thank all the district uh employees that uh have retired.
I'm not sure of the specifics of it. I should know more after tomorrow because I'm meeting with the team tomorrow to take a look at that. um schedule. >> Okay. Um >> and just to clarify the what Evan and I are doing, we're going through these policies highlighting the changes uh for the slides. Correct. >> Yes. So I think like so let me am I on the let me share this stuff instead. So, for example, um you would put suspensions and expulsions in 33. You would basically put those there without the bullets. Um these are the that's the topic you're talking about. And then you would put your highlights here. >> Okay. And then the same thing here. So, um, why don't I do this? I'm just going to delete the ones that you don't need. Some blank ones for everybody. Does that work? >> Perfect.
So, the district is required to have at least one automated external defibrillator AED in every school building. Of the district's 18 AEDs, all but one were between the years 13 and 19 year years old. They typically last about 10 years. Uh so, this year we began a phase replacement plan and successfully installed eight new AEDs. Next year, we will continue replacing the remaining older units. We are also prioritizing additional CPR training. Currently, all school nurses, health clerks, physical education teachers, and interscholastic coaches are certified every 2 years in CPR and AED use. To strengthen our emergency response teams, all building administrators will now participate and be certified in CPR and AED beginning this June. Next, we purchased and began using the Spot Vision Screener. This tool is essential in helping us accurately identify vision concerns in children as young as 6 months old. It has been especially beneficial for screening our preschool students, as well as students with more complex needs who may have difficulty participating in traditional vision screenings.
So, these kind this kind of plan going into next year is not about like tearing people down and starting over. This is just as we hone in and focus on what we're going to do moving forward is this is the area where we're really good and this is an area where we could put our focus and will move the needle the fastest, right? Um as we are a great district, but we're a district focused on continual improvement. The last uh bit of data in that that group was asking for the release of like all raw data, like all free responses, and all of those things out to the public, and we don't do that especially with free responses because people can write anything in a free response, right? And there can be things in there that could be directed at individuals or be worded in a way that's harmful to people, and there's no way for us to weed out and know what underlying things might be inside of a comment.
In our academic challenge program they have to be identified for math and English and this is a focus on providing extra challenge for kids who are identified only for one of those areas. Thank you Mr. Nolan. Mr. Major? Nothing really new for the health trust today earlier today the Columbus Redevelopment Commission met they talked a little bit about the TIF fund budget upcoming for next year and then they talked about downtown 2030 plan there's around 38 separate projects that are being pursued with that with that large scale project. They talked about Second Street project hopefully being done this summer with some landscaping done in the fall. Riverfront is on schedule and the entrance Plaza will be out to bid this summer. Thank you Mr. Major Ms. Whilden. No updates for my committee assignments. Thank you very much. Dr. Phillips we have three cabinet reports this evening.
>> Is this something we've done before or is this new to us? >> New to us, but very common. Uh I our school uh my previous school has done it. Yeah, yes. >> Okay. >> Nice. >> Uh all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. >> E4, consider approval to declare the 2014 Ram 1500 SSV VIN number 1C6RR7XT6EAS418460 as obsolete equipment. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> You don't have to >> I was going to say >> Okay, consider approval to declare the 2014 Ram 1500 SSV the VIN number as Scott stated as obsolete equipment. >> And I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second.
So we appreciate them stepping up uh to this challenge especially as we have some significant retirements this year. Um, also want to uh thank the board for your work this year, this semester especially. You guys have had eight additional meetings that normally don't have through strategic planning and and getting ready for that. And just know that I appreciate the efforts you all put forward, especially with all the schedules and and all of the other commitments that you have as well. Want to celebrate the end of the year as has been mentioned already. great year, great school year, so many uh incredible things that happened as was displayed tonight. Um again, excellence just continues to be that theme that goes throughout our district. Last thing I just want to bring to your attention, um we Brooke puts together a podcast summary of our board meeting every Tuesday morning that comes out uh posted by Tuesday afternoon and it's really informative.
Joe, Bob, do you have anything to add on the process here that might that might help uh provide some assurances here? Uh yes, I can chime in. Bob Sander with Callahan Construction. Um just to try to address some of the the questions in regards to the the process of the the characterization of the soil. Um >> [clears throat] >> I think Jeff had a very good point is there is additional geotechnical investigation that will likely happen in order for us to uh figure out what the bearing capacity is of the of the existing soils. So, at that time there will likely be some additional um investigation work. That investigation work will also include uh some environmental sampling. Uh the intent of the the characterization program that everyone is is talking about is to properly characterize the soil that is going to be removed from the site during the construction activity.
When you look at Freetown Lakeville, uh, pink slimping 40, I believe 40ome staff, Fair Haven Public Schools, >> um, with a with a Prop 2 and a half override, their pink slipping staff >> this year for for this for well for the FY27 physical year. New Bedford >> and that's oh let's not let's not even go with the city of New Bedford. Um [laughter] but I you know that certainly speaks to to what we're doing here. So I personally think uh we're good. >> Great. Good luck. >> Thank you everyone for your time and good luck with that meeting tomorrow. >> Appreciate your effort. >> Yeah, >> we're trying and Jim. [laughter] [clears throat] >> So the next thing on the agenda, are we ready to move? >> Yes. >> All good. Okay. Um is um Dr. Sam Maguire has proposed uh dates for our meetings for July 2026 through June 2027.
And it it is And even that's not fully supportive of the early childhood environment either. So we felt like by installing a full-time non-teaching responsibility person in that space that they're really the conduit with administration, teachers, parents. But administration has full oversight of this including evaluation of our staff. And you know, ultimately they're the person responsible for the budget. You know, they're going to work closely RAMs and department chairs, you know, oversee make budgetary recommendations decisions. Yeah. Are RAMs writing grants? >> They might. No, the RAMs are not currently but our our department chairs in the past have. >> But we haven't had recently grants for RAMs to even write. No. So it's not germane to what they do. It's germane to what the high school folks do because in their job Because of the Perkins grant or something that's specific to that. Just to parse that a little bit more, if you were thinking of a grant and you wanted someone to write the grant you wouldn't give it to a ramp, but if a ramp found a grant they said I really want this, do you stop them from doing it?
I updated you about that last time we met. I also wanted to note that the District Instructional Leadership Team meeting will be meeting tomorrow. These are teacher leaders from across all K-12 facets of the school system. We're also focusing on MAI and crafting an AI literacy outline for students as part of gathering information, and that will be launched next year. We also have a tour of Barlow School this Thursday after school for paras, for LSTs, for nurses, for secretaries, music, PE, library, media specialist, folks who because of budgeting and different um uh conversation channels are finding out a little a little later where they'll be going to school. Norton doesn't need one because they have enough They're so close that Jody is able to be at school in there a little bit more frequently. Um curriculum writing has begun. Ezra has been holed up in this room with um many of our reading and math specialists and our coaches trying to get a jump start on some of the curriculum writing.