001Amen. Uh, >> I'd like to call to order the school committee meeting of September 8th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, roll call, please. >> Kathleen Ammerald, >> here. >> John Nunes, >> yep. >> Mary Beckwith >> here. >> Chris Oliver. >> Best Coughlin >> here. >> Um, just to let you all know this meeting is being recorded. It will be rebroadcast on DCTV and can be streamed on their YouTube channel at any time. Uh we now have set aside 10 minutes for public comment from the audience on any topic of this evening's agenda and we have allowed
00210 minutes for this. If you are interested in speaking, please approach the mic and state your name and keep your comments to three minutes. Okay, I think we'll move on to approval of the minutes for uh regular minutes of September 8th. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Non, second by Miss Amarol. All in favor? >> I. >> So four in favor, >> one absent. Um and for the executive session minutes >> so move madam chair with the stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed. >> Second >> uh motion by Mr. Newton, second by Miss Beck with um all in favor. >> I >> that's four in favor. And we now are going to move into the consent agendas which
003we were all set or all sent. And um let's vote on the fundraising requests first, which are the 1, two, three, four, five first things. Anyway, the the the Potter PTO, Quinn PTO, DLO PTO, DHS PTO. Let's um do I hear a motion to approve them? >> So move. >> Second. >> Um motion by Mr. Non, second by Miss Beckwith. Is there any comments of any of the fundraising proposals? All in favor? >> Good luck. >> I I >> uh four in favor passes. Um and then we have DHS music program. Always exciting. Um Miss Squar. >> Yes. Um, so I see Marielle is here this evening and I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you wanted to come up and talk about the trip that you're taking to I have
004all the information in front of me, so you don't have to, but >> come on up because I think it's really exciting. Yep. Right up to the microphone. >> Hi there. Uh, my name is Marielle Crycala. I am the uh the band and choir director here at Dartmouth public schools or Dartmouth High School is where I'm based out of. >> Um the the motion on the table, is that the proper terminology? Awesome. >> Yes. >> The motion on the table is um our finals trip down to New Jersey. Uh we take the high school marching band. We are a competitive band. We take them down to Metife Stadium in New Jersey to compete in our regional finals. Um, right now I think we'll probably be going against 10 other bands in our division. Um, it's
005a wonderful experience for the for the students to uh be in the audience for some highly competitive ensembles um and as well as compete themselves. They learn how to push themselves. They learn how to be uh respectful audiences. All of that they learn what goes into a a to the preparation for for such a high stakes performance. Um, we had our first competition this past Saturday. It went extremely well. We ended up with a second place ranking, only second to King Phillip. Uh, we ended with an 82.8 in our scoring and we won the captions of percussion, color guard, and visual. So, we'll be heading down to New Jersey for November 8th. That's our finals competition. And then on the way back, um, we decided to kind of treat them with a little bit more
006of a of a well-rounded experience. We'll be heading into New York to watch the Harry Potter musical, uh, which will be super fun. And we'll also be watch uh, sightseeing a little bit for the Statue of Liberty. We'll we'll uh we'll kind of get to be tourists for a day on our on our way back to say thank you to our students for representing our school department well and for their hard work throughout the whole season. >> Great. >> That's what I have. Right. Any questions? >> Um, so did we have a motion? >> Make a motion we approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Newton, second by Miss Emerald. All in favor? >> I. >> So, we're excited about that trip. So, thank you, Muriel. >> I know you even have Dave and Busters
007in there on the first day. I saw that. Yeah, that's an exciting couple days. >> Yeah, they're always impressive. Um, so, >> superintendent update. superintendence report. So, under teaching and learning, you may be aware if you've caught any of the news this afternoon that MCCAST results have become public today. Um, I was invited to or Dartmouth um but I was invited to Arlington this morning. So, that was a fun ride um there and back. But we were invited by the uh commissioner's office because Dartmouth uh was one of 63 districts across the state across the state to be invited. Uh because we um in mathematics, our students in grades three through eight have returned to what they're framing as preandemic levels of achievement. And so, uh, that was something that I thought was worthwhile to
008travel to be recognized or to have the district recognized in that way. Um, it's our goal, of course, not only to return to prepandemic levels of achievement, but to actually surpass prepandemic levels of achievement, and we certainly look forward to being able to be one of the districts next year that has also returned to prepandemic uh, levels of student achievement in English language arts. But we're really pleased and overall we'll be giving a more indepth presentation to the committee um probably in early November, but we're really pleased to see that in many cases Dartmouth has met or exceeded the state average. And so we'll be sharing that detailed information with you. We we really only got the final um MCCAST results this past Friday and weren't able to talk about them publicly until this afternoon.
009So, we're excited about that and we want to again just take a minute to applaud certainly our students but our faculty and admin teams who have done such great work. And one of I think the things that I recognized coming into Dartmouth right away was how hard you worked as a committee, as a community, as t as a teachers union to get kids back in school as soon as you could. And I think you're seeing that that is paying off in terms of their achievement um right now across the state because not everybody had the kids back in school as quickly as you did in Dartmouth. So I commend you for that. Um so congratulations to everybody and really it takes a lot of different folks to who have contributed to making that happen. The
010launch of CKLA is officially underway. You've been hearing about it for two years, right? We've been working really hard on making sure that the literacy resource that we brought to the district was one of high quality that our teachers were invested in. And I thank Katie Pavo and the team of folks. I see many people who were really invested in making sure that that happened in a way that our teachers felt like they had a voice in bringing that resource to the district. Uh we've been out in classrooms. We've gotten a chance to see it in use with both teachers and with our students just this past week. Uh, Friday I was at the Quinn School and I came in just in time to see a performance of Readers Theater which was closely aligned with
011CKLA and watching little second graders or third graders. I think they were third graders. Oh, they were second graders um who were up on stage uh really uh performing, but it was more about were how clearly you could see speaking, listening, and and public presentation skills, all of those things that are so closely aligned with uh with the state standards. And that's really where the work is. So sometimes we get caught up in talking about the state standards as if they are are sort of a punishment. But really when you see our students, our teachers, our students invested in this work in that way, you see that we actually are looking at our students learning in a way that does bring joy to what learning is supposed to be about. And I was really excited
012to just happen upon that this past Friday. I did miss the PBIS volleyball game. Um, but I heard that that went well as as you know. Again, those are things that we highlight because of the staff investment and involvement with one another and really just enjoying themselves in front of the students. And how important is that for our students to be able to see how the staff work together and even have fun together and that they brought them into that um opportunity, that experience. And there's lots of hooping and hollering that goes on in the gym, but um I have to say I'm really impressed with the competitiveness of the Quinn school staff and their willingness to put on t-shirts and get out there and play volleyball. Um so uh just some of the things
013that I I want to highlight too about CKLA is that we've been very invested in train the training, the professional learning that comes along with implementing a new resource. Um it's not it is what what we refer to in the in our business as it's a heavy lift to introduce a new curriculum into a school district and um our teachers are really working hard at it and it's our responsibility to make sure that we're providing them with the kind of ongoing professional development that supports them as they implement things that are are completely not only new to the students but new to them as well and I thank them for that. Um, Mrs. Paveo will be doing uh, again an in more indepth overview of the process that we used and talking a little bit
014more about the components of CKLA, but we're pretty we're really excited about it and we're getting really strong good feedback. We also have our elementary curriculum teams up and running. Again, no small feat. We're, you know, just about to start October and we have uh a good number of faculty across the district who have stepped forward to serve and this kind of commitment is important in paying attention to what our strategic priorities are and in making sure that we have teachers at the table because as we talk all the time, our teachers are the ones who are out there enacting what those strategic initiatives are. So, we're really pleased with that. We have 55 educators who are currently serving on our ELA, math, social studies, science, and preK teams. Again, really great work that Mrs.
015Paveo has uh has committed to. And we appreciate all the folks that are remember this is outside of their regular school day uh for the most part. And so it it's a it's a commitment for our by our educators. Um as far as budget and capital improvement, I think we're up to date. Do you have anything, Mr. Kylie? >> Just um just one quick update. So, the the capital improvement planning committee um we found that they supported some of our requests for the October 21st town meeting. Um, we had spoken about what we were requesting previously, but um, we've received word that they've supported technology hardware replacement for 200,000, security upgrades for 285,000, high school roof replacement for 250,000, flooring replacement for 100,000, um, which was not all that we we had requested 200,000, but
016they supported 100,000. um playground improvements at the elementary schools. They are uh recommending a 100,000. We had requested 250,000. So, just to to follow up and and refresh, the projects that weren't recommended um that were on our list of current requests were the high school track uh reconstruction, the HVAC repairs, the school bus, and the Dartmouth Memorial Stadium renovations. So, we still have some work to do. There's a lot still on our list, but there were several projects um that that were recommended by the capital improvement planning committee and we appreciate that. >> Great. Thank you. So under HR, I would mention that I do want to mention that I had the opportunity to meet with the new HR director for the town of Dartmouth, Sue Cunningham, and we have begun to talk about ways
017in which we may be able to partner with this office. Um the I think one of of the strengths uh that Sue brings to Dartmouth is that she comes from a school department background. So, she does understand, you know, some of the intricacies of of a school department as opposed to a town. Not that we're not a town department, but there are some real differences in the way that we operate. And so, we're going to continue to have conversations and see if there are things that we can share the responsibilities for. Um, as far as positions, uh, not much has changed since the last school committee meeting. We still have two special education positions at Dartmouth High School. Those are the most critical positions really out there that we have to fill. Um, and equally,
018I should say, is, you know, we ESP, LPN. Um, we have a position over at in the Atlas program for an ESP. We have a security monitor still at Dartmouth High School. Uh, we have some advisor positions that are stipended positions that I would mention. We do have a database systems technician that we're bringing on board. So, we're excited about that. Uh that's actually tomorrow. >> Coming in two weeks. >> Oh, two weeks. Great. So, we're excited about that. Um and then food service worker and and positions that we're filling that are related to parental leaves. So, those are the kinds of job ads that you'll see either coming out or at times what we'll do is we readvertise because we want those positions to rise back to the the top of of the list
019uh for job searches. So, that's been important. Uh, as far as family and community engagement, I would mention because I don't think we talked about this last time, tell me if I'm repeating myself, but Katie Pavo and I did meet with Dina St. Pierre, the director of the library. Uh, it was the first time that I was in the Southworth Library and I have to say it just felt so like it just just brings back memories of how much I loved being in a library. And that library is certainly an oldie but a goodie. And boy does it it is really well resourced. Um, and so a plug for folks that don't have a library card, you should go and get one. uh because there are so many resources available there. And then the other
020piece of it that's important to us as a school school district is that and we talked about this last year, but we want to extend we we have partnered with the library. They've been very good to us. Um, we have strong partnerships at both the Kushman and the Potter schools, but we want to make sure that we are working with the DLO and the uh the Quinn schools to make sure that we're offering an opportunity that is a structured and systemic opportunity for us to get kids to the library and to make sure that they have library cards. So, we've identified a couple of grade levels that we're going to start with and we're hoping to do that this spring. So, you'll be hearing more about that. But again, I go back just for a
021minute to the library. It really is a be I've been to the North Library, which is the newer one, but the older one, um, obviously it just it has so many resources in it. And I think it I think she Dina told us that they had more CD right DVDs than any library >> what >> in the area. So don't get rid of your DVD players. All the movies are there. Um under safe and supportive schools I want to thank Kim Redlon. I've mentioned before, but she has recom she has convened a district crisis team and you're going to be hearing from her over the course of the year at our at one of our meetings. Uh but then as I've said, this is a renewed commitment for us and and it's not that we
022haven't paid attention here in Dartmouth to safety and security because I see the attention that's paid to it when I read emails every morning that are going out from the administrative teams to the staff and every school here. But what we're looking to do is again systematize things and she's really stepped in there and is working with local law enforcement, federal law enforcement. You had asked us to provide you an update as far as the homeland security um what we call it um they tooured our buildings. They did an analysis of our systems and they've provided us some reports and we will be providing the committee with that information but that will be in executive session. And I think that's coming up at our next meeting. Uh I do want to say we don't yet
023have a student representative, but we will. We have two who have agreed to come on board, but because they're not here yet, I think I'll just I stole from uh Mr. Christopher Fooly's Monday just to give the kids a shout out. Uh the girls volleyball continues to do really well. They had two impressive wins. They beat North Quinzy and conference rival Barnstable, which is a big deal. Um, girls soccer is doing very well. They're um even their record and they are going to be celebrating their seniors this Thursday. Football remains undefeated. They're 4-0. We're excited about that. And the team is going to host a ponquit this Friday night. And as far as sportsmanship, I had to highlight this because we love to lift up our students, but the football captain, Owen Sherliff, Sherliff, who
024uh was apparently at the hospital for an injury during the game, uh and an old Rochester student was there, too. they were playing each other and he went to check on his opponent's well-being and uh the the mom of that student sent an email to coach White uh talking about or just expressing uh his thoughtful gesture. So those are the kinds of things we want to make sure that we continue to celebrate and th those that student is does represent Dharma students very well. That's what I've come to know about Dartmouth students. Um, so that's that's my report for this evening. >> All good. >> Thank you. >> Um, so uh at our last meeting, we had all just decided and you had accepted uh the willingness to be the delegate to the MASC conference,
025but on further reading, I realized that we actually have to vote you in in order for it to be official. So, I need a motion to uh vote. Miss >> Beckwith, >> we didn't do that. Huh? Okay. Madam Chair, I'll make a make a motion that uh we nominate Mary Beckwith to be our delegate at the 80th annual uh MASC Mass joint conference in on November 14th. >> Second. >> So, that's a motion by Mr. Non, second by Miss Amaral. All in favor? >> I vote on that. No, you can abstain or you can yourself. >> We'll say four yes, one abstension. >> Three yes, one abstension >> or three three yes, one abstension. I'm good at math. >> Yeah, >> unlike our uh >> So, I'll I'll submit the form for us. >> That's
026that's what >> we needed to do. >> Um and then also at our last meeting, we had discussed um looking at the resolutions. Um >> I have to um admit I've only read the first three out of six. >> You know what? Let's let's wait till next week or not. Yeah, it is actually next week. >> That's that's fine because I I glanced at them. I'll be honest with you. I've got them I printed them out. You and I talked. I >> printed them out. >> I I don't think that we should waste everyone's time if we aren't fully prepared for that. But that's absolutely >> Sorry about that. >> Yeah, we'll have plenty of time. >> Yeah, we have plenty of time. Um, >> not being not being rude, but can m can we
027put that on the agenda? >> Yeah. So, >> that would that because that way >> then you it'll bring about >> it will be on the agenda. >> Okay. >> Um, Mr. Nunes, did you have anything to add or did somebody steal your thunder? >> No, somebody stole my thunder on one thing, but that's that's and that's absolutely fine. I have, you know me, I'm doesn't bother me at least. But seriously, going back to the superintendent's report when she talked about the MCCAST results and everything else, I think that just shows what the committee and administration did when uh CO was here and we went one in, one out, you know, it was like students went Monday, some students went Monday, Wednesday, Friday, then Tuesday, that that type of deal versus some districts that went,
028you know, everybody went, you know, there was some groups that went all week and then they were off a It's almost like a vacation type of deal in that. So, you know, that's I think that has come come back to uh paid strong dividends uh with our students and our test scores and such. And the only other thing I have and I know I talked about it a little bit. I got a little bit more information but not much. Uh I talked about our home show on uh our Dartmouth High School band home show on October 25th. Um, it starts at 3:00. Uh, gates will open at 2 and right now we have 18 bands. >> So, I'm not there's I'm not sure how they're going to section it off and and do a type
029of deal. Uh hopefully I'll have more uh information next Monday type type of deal as to how it how this is going to work. So, and uh we'll go at it that way. But, you know, in all seriousness, UMass Dartmouth signed in this past week. >> So, we're going to have the UMass Dartmouth band. So, it's u going to be a long day. We've got a football game Friday night, that on sa that on Saturday. It'll be a long weekend, but it'll be a lot of fun. You know, great opportunity for uh people to uh come out and see our students >> shine >> and shine and, you know, students from area schools. So, that's all I have, Madam Chair. Terrific. Anybody else? >> All right, we're going to be in time for our next
030meeting. >> Um, so, uh, the next scheduled meeting for the school committee is currently for Monday, October 6th, 2025 at 6 in the DHS library media center. Um, a motion to adjourn to uh joint session with the select board. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Motion by Miss Beck with uh seconded by me. >> Yeah, you. >> Mr. Nunes. Uh roll call, please. Miss >> just a regular >> Oh, it's just regular. >> Just a regular vote. >> Regular vote. >> All right. All in favor? >> I. >> That's it. >> Mrs. Brooks. >> Yes, dear. >> This board leaves no stone unturned. We'll look at how we placed our telephone polls and how we fund our schools all in one meeting. >> Yes. busy busy busy >> of equal importance. >> All
031right. So, I would like to welcome uh members of the school committee as member as well as members of the Dartmouth public schools administration team uh to meet with us tonight. Um I along with Mr. Tattlebomb had been asked to be a part of the strategic planning group and we met with you for over time over the course of the last year and we're very proud of the end result strategic plan. We have not had a chance to sit down as a board to see your strategic plan. So I I welcome you tonight to educate us on what it looks like to create a comprehensive strategic plan for Dartmouth public schools. So, welcome. >> Thank you. And um I just like to uh open our meeting of the school committee joint with the select board.
032>> Um and if I can just get a roll call from Miss G. >> Yep. >> Here [Applause] >> we're good. This meeting is being recorded as mentioned earlier um for rebroadcast on DCTV and later to be streamed at your leisure on the YouTube channel. Um so u my understanding is um that we want to see how our goals align and I just want to say um that yes Dr. Dr. Saban Magcguire is going to give you an overview of our strategic plan. But um in terms of our alignment of goals, it's right there in our mission um which we are committed to cultivating a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment that empowers all students to become compassionate, informed and engaged members of their local and global communities. And I will add that we as
033um the school committee strive to uh run a financially responsible tight school department with respect to the taxpayers's money. >> Dr. Sam McGor >> on behalf of the taxpayers we thank you. >> Do you want me to just jump into the strategic plan? >> Sure. Please. >> Okay. So, I mean, I never can miss an opportunity to talk about the Dartmouth public school strategic plan. So, thank you for letting me um hold you hostage for a little while this evening. Uh but it is important for us to have opportunities to continue to publicly discuss what's in our strateg strategic plan because one one of our commitments here in town and to our school department and to our school community and to the Dartmouth community is that our strategic plan truly becomes or is something that
034we're living and that there are clear goals and that we have clear priorities and that we have uh a process for which we can determine our progress toward meeting those goals. So, um as as Miss Brooks already mentioned, we we did strive to have a broad uh cross-section of folks to serve on the district strategic planning team. And it was really important to us that we had members of the select board, that we had a member members of the finance committee, that we had family members who had children in our schools, that we had teachers, that we had ESPs, that we had central office folks, that we had school uh leaders. So, you can see this truly is a comprehensive list of folks that served on this district strategic planning team. and they weren't the
035only ones who had voice in the planning of our district strategic plan. And one of the things that we we really centered our work around is what is our why? And coming into Dartmouth as then a new superintendent, it was clear to me that there had already been a considerable amount of work that had been done by folks in the district. And it was really important to honor that work because from what I could see, there was community input into developing what we call the portrait of a learner and to honor the competencies that people in the community had already identified as being important in terms of thinking about what a Dartmouth Public Schools student uh should possess in terms of the the competencies that we as a school district really look to support in
036developing in our students. And one thing that I really think was important here in Dartmouth and I appreciate that the people leading this work uh recognized that you pro maybe you have heard that there there was a state there were quite a few communities across the state that were focused on the portrait of a graduate. And what I really think was important here in Dartmouth that it was a focus on the portrait of a learner. And really the work that went on in determining sort of the competencies by grade level from preK right up through grade 12 was really quite impressive. And there is a detailed document that does give you uh real insight into what we're focused on here in Dartmouth. And what you'll also see in that document is how well aligned those
037competencies are to what the state standards are. Um so it was a again a comprehensive process that started not you not be there was a dart there was a previous Dartmouth strategic plan in place and as you all know COVID definitely um disrupted some of the work that had been happening in the community and it kind of um pushed the district in a little bit of a different direction. But when when I came in as again a new superintendent just two and a half short years ago, it was really a prime time to bring the community together to focus on where we needed to go next. And and again, you see the number of people that contributed to this planning process. And we're really proud if you see in this last box that the strategic
038plan is implemented now. So it's not just something that we were thinking about and the work that went into drafting it, but the the real work is in the implementation and the monitoring of the work that is happening as a result of of having a comprehensive plan that has clear goals. Um the informing of the strategic plan, as I mentioned, you saw that really comprehensive list of folks that were involved in the development of it, but we had other stakeholder input. For example, the portrait of a learner survey, as I mentioned, done before I got here, but we used that data to work with uh with a a sort of like an extended opportunity to get uh opinions and feedback from extended groups of people. The entry plan survey is part of my uh my
039entry, I did extensive surveys with uh with many different groups in the community. We did a listening tour meaning we were in all the schools. We had uh partnered with TLA teaching learning alliance who also were part of helping to organize and meet with focus groups across the community. And that was really important because it gave people time to meet with somebody that wasn't necessarily connected to the school department. And so we're able to get real, not that people aren't honest and authentic, but sometimes people like the opportunity to share their views and do that in a way that perhaps um they wouldn't if the superintendent was in the room. Um comprehensive data sources, artifacts, the previous strategic plan, as I mentioned, an aer report, MCCAST data, AP data, capital improvement planning has been going
040on for years and years here. the budget uh budget proposal, but you see the empty chair in the room and and we highlight that because what we want the community to know is that as Mrs. Brooks and Mr. Tattlebomb will remember from our planning time that we made sure that we constantly reminded people that you're here representing yourself, but you're also here representing others. And that was really something that we saw uh I think during the entire throughout the entire process. So phase one, phase two, phase three, I mean we are we're through phase one, phase two, guess what? Phase three never ends. Phase three just keeps going and then guess you go back to phase one again at some point in phase two and phase three because that's the cycle of continuous improvement. And
041so nothing here is static and it's something again that you'll see that we have to pay close attention to. Um we already mentioned the mission statement for the Dartmouth public schools. again really important and one thing that I think the community I I hope values is looking at this mission statement. uh the there was truly a commitment um to and I would say a painstaking commitment to ensuring that we had it right here that the words were right and that every word that that we have in both our mission statement and our vision statement which I'll share with you has real impact and it's really truly what we want to see for our students for our school community and for our community in general. um our core values. Um we uh we had a lot
042of fun with core values and one of the things that I hope you see that stand out is the acronym pride because that is tr that truly represents what Dartmouth is about. There's so much pride in this community and what we really were able to do is to embrace the feel. It was the conversation in the room that led to this. Um but you know what the each one of those letters represents is truly what the folks that were part of the team um had a real commitment to. So the vision statement I did talk to Mrs. Brooks about this this past Thursday because we talked about the importance of this vision statement in that this is truly a vision statement for the community. And if you look at the first part of the sentence
043uh stem here, united as one Dartmouth, we are invested in the ongoing improvement of our community. That's attributable to every department in this community. And we've had some conversations with folks like Dena St. Pierre over at the library and other folks about how to take that piece of the vision statement and really adopt it to something that can be unique and something specific to each one of the departments in the uh in the community of Dartmouth. But you see for us and there's a reason that they're highlighted. You see the green and we go into the black font where Dartmouth public schools th this is who we want to be. Remember, a vision statement is aspirational, but it doesn't mean that we're not going to get there. It means it's going to take us some
044time to get there, but we have an aspiration to proudly offer unparalleled opportunities leading to educational excellence and success for current and future generations. And I can't um understate the current and future generations piece enough because when we were in our strategic planning process, what's really clear is that the folks that go through the schools in the Dartmouth public schools return to the Dartmouth community. And in fact, a good number of them actually come to work in all of the Dartmouth community departments and certainly represent the community well in our schools. So, and that doesn't mean every person has grown up in Dartmouth. Um, but I would say that you have a good number of folks who have gone through the school district here, who have grown up here, who have a real commitment to
045this community and to the children here. And so, when you look at excellence and success for current and future generations, I I just I want to emphasize that that was really important to the planning team to to really lift that up. uh theory of action a part of uh of just I think any really strong strategic plan. uh and I'm not going to read this to you, but what I will say about it is this theory of action is is really and truly our strategic plan in one box, right? So if then so if we do these things and if you look at the four bullets, you'll see as I go through the rest of the presentation that each one of these bullets represents a strategic priority for the school district, our strategic goals. Um
046and what will happen if we support these as a school district? You'll see that that's where we will cultivate the safe, supportive, inclusive learning environment. So this is our action plan layout. Focus area one is teaching and learning. Uh as it should be because that's our business. The business that we're in is teaching and learning. And one of our major goals teacher under teaching and learning is to ensure the the alignment of our curriculum. And this isn't a criticism. It's just a fact. It's that some of that had gone a little bit by the wayside. Um and I'm sure that was related to budget. uh because when you implement new resource a new resource I just talked about this in our school committee meeting is we've implemented a new uh literacy resource in CK um
047in pre in K to 5 uh CKLA it's called and it's it's an expensive it's an investment I should say it's an investment it's an investment in the re not only the resource but the people because to implement a resource regardless of what it is you have to invest in the folks that you're expecting to carry out and to to use that resource every day and that's the professional learning. So you can see here um what and what I think is important is that if we say we're going to identify pilot and implement highquality researchbased curriculum this is in the second box prek to 12 and alignment you as a community should be able to ask us how we how and if we did that and where does that exist and so we can speak
048to that by talking about our new literacy resource. we can talk about some of the resources we're implementing at the middle and the high school level. So, this isn't just elementary, but we had to have a plan in place. And if you go back to the first um box, it says develop and implement a curriculum review cycle because that's something we knew that we needed to do so that we weren't in a position in the future where all of a sudden you needed curriculum in every single grade level and in every single content area, but instead that you put yourself on a cycle so that you um you have you're able to budget properly. You're able to forecast what you're going to need moving forward. So that's focus area, focus area, objective, initiative. So um
049you'll see the same in here are our action steps. We have the proposed timeline. You'll see in most of our timelines, they never end, but that doesn't mean we're not accomplishing things as we are moving along. Uh so we're really proud of that and we look forward to sharing with the community uh some of the outcomes as we again we're in our second year. We do have a progress monitoring tool that we're using that we're looking forward to presenting publicly. Uh so these are our four focus areas. Um each one as I just showed the slide before is is set up just um just like the previous slide. So, focus area one, teaching and learning. Focus area two, safe and supportive schools. Focus area three, family and community engagement. Thank you for inviting us tonight.
050This is one of our opportunities to uh engage with the community and certainly strengthen our relationship with the select board. Uh and then budget and capital improvements. And I know Mr. Kylie is going to talk about that. So, I'm not going to get into each one of these. I've already talked about teaching and learning. Um, but I will say under safe and supportive schools, I I did mention this in the uh our school committee meeting is we do have uh somebody who's leading our district crisis team and again our schools do a really good job with safety and security. One of the things that we recognized through entry planning is that we were doing things a little bit different in different buildings. And what we're looking to do again is to systematize so that we
051all are on the same page. And I'm thankful for the group that Kim Redlon who's leading that work and uh for the folks that are serving including uh we have represent representation from police and fire. And so it's there's a broad group that is working to uh again ensure that our students are safe, our students and staff. Focus area three, I mentioned family and community engagement. We're really working on you see we have a we have a new website that we launched just ne last year. We're looking to keep updating it and make it fresh and be sure that if that's the first place people are going to learn about the us that there is really updated and robust information about the school district right at folks fingertips. And then focus area four. I'm going
052to turn it to Mr. Kylie who's going to just give you an overview of where we are with PAT budget and capital improvements. >> Thank you Dr. S Magcguire. So you'll notice in the lefth hand box there it talks about creating a joint vision to address school funding facility issues um and staff recruitment. And you know I think that um this is an exciting strategic plan and uh it's one that can be actionable and implemented um but it does take funding to to do that. So, a few of the steps that we've already begun are um in the spring with the budget cycle, we worked with Gary and the town administration uh and the finance committee to develop a plan by which we would gradually um we would use school choice reserve funds to supplement
053the budget as needed. and um wean ourselves off the use of those uh to the point where we just spend what we get in each year for the school choice funds. So um we created that plan. >> Another spam call. Sorry to interrupt drive me crazy. >> Um so you know I I think we are in a better place um than we've been in some time in in terms of collaborating on the operating budget side. Um, and I'm looking forward to this next budget cycle and we have a lot of work to do. Um, we continue to see and some of the things that impact our, you know, operating budget and really inform the whole strategic plan are that we continue to see an increase in our high needs population. You know, 43 and a
054half% of our kids are are high needs. Um, we're still 270th of 322 districts in spending overall. Uh, and we have, when you look at staffing ratios, we have less staff than than the state average. Um, we have less staff than our comparable communities. So, we're doing very well. We're not spending a lot. Um, that's okay. But to improve, you need to invest in the community. So, I think we're, you know, hopefully making strides towards that from an operating budget perspective. I guess I'd also mention that um you know a big component of focus area 4 is um c is relates to capital improvements and uh we are working both on the short-term capital improvements um which I mentioned in the school committee meeting earlier in which we've received um recommendations for the October 21st
055fall town meeting for technology hardware replacement, security upgrades, uh high school roof replacement, flooring replacement and playground improvements at the elementary schools. So, you know, we're thankful for those those funds and I think we have a track record of um using the the funds that are allocated at at town meeting for capital improvements wisely. Um and we will continue to do that. There are things that we asked for that were unable to be funded at this um this town meeting uh like the high school track reconstruction, HBAC repairs, a school bus, and stadium renovation still stays on our list. So, we have a lot of work ahead from a like current need um capital improvements, but but we're appreciative for um you know, what was uh recommended at this point. The other uh big piece
056of this is is long range capital planning. And as you know, we have a committee that is um you know, organized by the select board that's that's looking at that and has a um has a presentation tomorrow night on uh on a portion of that um that plan. And I, you know, I think it's encouraging. I think that we have some uh major project needs that are very soon on the horizon um that were identified by that that committee. The high school roof, we talked a little bit I I mentioned it um in terms of the short-term capital needs that would fund a a feasibility study for replacement. And we're hoping to hear from the um the MSBA regarding um acceptance into their accelerated repair program later this month. um actually in October. Um and
057then uh the other projects like I mentioned the stadium that's still you know a project that does need to be addressed as well as eventually replacing the the current schools. We have three schools that were built in the 1950s and they will eventually need to be replaced. So, we don't want to be in a position where the town needs to do that all at once. And we hope that through this long-term planning process, we're able to create a system by which we can do that over time and and make it more affordable for folks. But, so, you know, I think um we've made a lot of progress already on focus area 4, but there's a lot of work ahead, >> right? And and I just add that and I know Mr. Kylie already mentioned it,
058but I just I I just want you to be able to make the connection to the district strategic plan and see focus area 4 and how clearly it's identified and how really what Mr. Kylie just shared with you. If you look at key action steps, you can see that those those steps are being taken. Um, you know, and what what are the initiatives communicate and advocate for instructional operational needs of the district. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do that here because you can see that our major um focus for focus area 4 is enhancing collaboration between the schools and town government. And this is one of the ways that we hope to do that. And again, we've met with we met with Cody and Gary earlier in the year. Um I just
059recently met with the new HR person. Um, and those are the kinds of relationships we're really looking to strengthen. Um, so that's our dashboard. Um, yeah, we're really proud of it. It's in all of our schools now. Um, and really that's a snapshot of our district strategic plan. I think one of the things that Mrs. Brooks and I talked about was the importance of sharing with you and with the community who are our staff. I mentioned to you earlier that many of the folks that work in our schools grew up here. They've returned to the Dartmouth public schools. They've committed really their lives here. Um so this is an example though of when you look at what uh the schools are and what the needs are of the school is really dependent on the students
060that we serve. So this is our prek staff. Um our smallest school and although it's a small school, the high need it's a great school as Mrs. Brooks has spent a lot of time there for us in the last really two years. Uh, but you can see that there are quite a few folks who work there, but remember who the students are that they're caring that are in their care there. They're some of our most fragile kids who need lots of extra support. So, we're grateful to them. Here's our DLO staff. Again, thinking about uh what's unique about each school is really important in looking even at the overall size of of the faculties. Uh the potter potter and dlo they are pretty much I think the same building Mr. Kylie >> just flip-flop pretty
061same designer same contractor. >> So you can see the staffs look pretty similar. Um and then we look at the Quinn and say oh why are there so many people at the Quinn? Well, the Quinn also uh it is our largest elementary school and it also houses our um some of our special education programs and uh obviously with that we have a number of staff who have very specialized skills in supporting some of our children. Um here's our middle school. I like to joke about the middle school a little bit because look how organized they are. This is the most organized group of all the schools. um >> run by a couple of football coaches. You can see everyone has taken the football uh >> team picture on that because that is exactly what it
062looks like a football team picture >> or pads shoulder pads >> and they were already like sitting there when the photographer Mr. T-Bolt walked in to take their photos, right? Um and then here we have Dartmouth High School. And so what's important and we want to share with the community is these are the folks that make up our schools. These are the people working with our children every day. and we um want to celebrate them and just uh we keep them front and center and just please know that the folks that are working in our in your schools in the Dartmouth public schools are really committed people and uh they do a great job in supporting our students and we'll go just go back to we are one Dartmouth and hopefully you'll use that vision
063statement and somehow incorporate it into the work that you're leading here in the community. >> Challenge accepted. >> By the way, if you'd like to look at the district strategic plan on the website, there is a link here and it is actually a beautiful document. We like to show it off. So, this is the this is the more detailed plan. What I just gave you was an overview of the plan, but on the website itself, there is a link to the plan that gives you'll see uh there's uh different parts to it. There are um you know some pictures, there's some narrative around the planning process, the phases we went through, the mission, the reason for a mission, what a vision statement represents and so on. But there is a detailed strategic action plan as
064well. >> Thank you very much. I'm going to ask if um this board has questions. Mr. O'Neal, I saw you busily taking notes. >> Yeah. Well, um Jim and Jim and I have had the opportunity to sit down on on some of the um uh focus area four issues. Um we discussed uh school choice and the fact that that number has not increased in how many years? 29 I think it was. >> Yes. >> Which is outrageous. And I think a you know a town like Dartmouth has a has a distinct um opportunity um where our neighbors maybe to the east do not. Um so you know there's a little bit of traction there um with the state delegation. I spoke to Chris uh Maki recently about it again. Um we had a meeting Heidi
065myself and and Cody uh with the state representatives and that was one of the issues that we brought up. Um they are um they're working on it. That's going to be a slow process for sure. I mean a lot of the delegations from some of the larger towns in the and cities in the state have are on the flip side of that equation. So you're going to you know we'll be up against it but I'm not I'm not afraid of the fight. Chris, I just want to clarify. Um, when you talked about school choice, where we're sort of upside down is that for 29 years, uh, the state has set the price as $5,000 even though it has uh, you know, annually gone up for per pupil expenditures, the state still caps it at 5,000.
066So the traction we're trying to get is letting our state reps know that even if they incrementally went up, it would be helpful. So I just want to clarify that. Go ahead, Chris. >> Um the uh No, it's really not that issue. Um >> Jim, the the challenges that you have, you know, I'm looking at that picture. I know a lot of those guys in that front row and they're getting ready. they're getting ready to kind of bail out. You know, what are the what are we doing? You know, where where is Dartmouth right now when we look at the retirement ages? You know, what's that scale look like? We know where the enrollment's going. Where are we on the teachers? >> We've we've had a lot of people retire over the last eight years
067or so. Um we still have, you know, a group with a lot of years of service, uh that will be retiring. I think, you know, the the biggest hurdle that that Dr. S Magcguire and I face when we're trying to replace folks is is health insurance. So, um we are not competitive with many other communities in terms of our health insurance cost. Although I I do recognize that the town has tried to make um some strides in that regard and and you know offering some uh you know a different plan with with a health savings account and everything. But the reality is that uh we lead with those conversations in a lot of our hiring processes because we don't want to waste our time and get people to a finalist or our selection and then
068they walk away. it happens. Um so it's a great community to work in. Um we many of us are are thrilled to work here, but um when it comes down to it, if we're not competitive and in some cases our salaries are not as competitive as other communities in addition to um to health insurance, that that puts us at a big disadvantage. So, >> so I I'll be on the insurance committee uh when when those meetings start up again and I'm looking forward to it uh because I think you know that traverses every department that we have in town and and you know competition is a word that you brought up that that I will uh reiterate. Um we can't function if we're not competitive. I don't want to be the the lowest guy, but
069I also don't want to be the highest guy. I need to be somewhere to the 50 and 60 percentile where we're competitive because the fact remains Dartmouth is >> a great spot. People want to people want to work here. They want to live here. So, let's take advantage of that. Let's get us to a point where when those decisions come at that last meeting with on on an inter uh an intake um that it's not the benefits that blow, you know, blow the deal. So, um, so I'm really looking forward to being, uh, involved in the, um, that committee. Um, you know, you talked about, um, in the vision statement about investment. Uh, you know, it's a a great choice of word. Uh, because it isn't just the investment for the volunteers, for the stu,
070uh, the teachers. Uh, you know, people invest a lot of time. um all the board members, all of our uh board members, um the collective employees. Um but it also requires investment from the taxpayer and town meeting members also. You know, th this this um collaboration is very important because you need to get out ahead of those discussions. So, I'm I'm glad that you're really engaging the community because at some point we're going to have to have those discussions um in what does an investment look like to to you? Might look different to you. However, we all gain by having a a strong school system. There's no question about that. Um uh on on the uh focus area two, safe and supportive. um the what's the district strategy for um for this mental health issue.
071You know, the I'm I'm sure there's a lot of work being done on it now, but my wife's in the you know, preschool area, daycare, and wait till you guys see what's coming down the pike. You know, I'm sure you already know to a certain extent, but it's not good. It really isn't. Um you know, how far are we ahead on that issue? how much investment are we going to need uh in order to make sure we're doing the right thing? >> Um I would say that you've done a really good job in investing in support folks, people who are um supporting students social emotional learning. We have a number of adjustment counselors in all of our schools and matter of fact I think it's quite impressive and that's one area that I think the
072district has invested in and I think that some of that came out of the co 19 money originally I know that Dartmouth had dedicated some of that the esser funds to expanding the uh the staff to support students social emotional learning >> and some of it is now being funded through the school choice funds that we're going to attempt to wean off over time. So, >> and the other thing that I think again shows a spirit of collaboration between the town and and the school town, the select board and the school department is the uh the allocation of the opioid funding. I mean, some of that money we're using in interesting ways, I think, are hoping to use. one uh one one area is that we've invested through the use of of the funding to
073invest in a social emotional learning curriculum at Dartmouth High School and that's something that wasn't in existence before and so we're looking forward to the implementation of that resource which hasn't happened quite yet but we do have a structure in place also the expansion of vape detectors now when you think about the vape detectors it's not about us it's about preventative measures, but it's also about um how do we then as a school district when we know a student is uh maybe struggling with a nicotine addiction, how do we then direct them and their parents to the resources that they need to hopefully divert some of that behavior? Uh also, there's a commitment to a a new um safety person for Dartmouth High School. And what's important about that and it's again not about us
074policing our students but about having adults in the building that are ensuring that our hallways are safe that our bathrooms are safe safe and really these are the folks they build really strong relationships with the kids. Um so there's a benefit to that. >> We're also looking to use some of that funding for after to expand after school programming. One thing that we don't have here in Dartmouth at least I'll speak direct to the elementary level is we don't really have um u many afterschool opportunities for our youngest learners and so that's a focus of ours and that ours and that does exist in our strategic plan. When when you talk about safety, um do we have we taken advantage there's a uh I I think there's a grant that covers it too, but there's
075a program through Serpent that they will do an assessment on buildings um doorways align with fire police. Have Have you seen it? >> Yeah, I I can speak to it. We've um we through Chief LC um were connected with the Department of Homeland Security last year who came down and did a comprehensive security assessment of each of our buildings. They were great to work with very practical suggestions that you know are actionable. Part of that is what um we're hoping to fund with the $285,000 request um at o the October 21st town meeting is to address some of the issues that were highlighted in the um in that assessment. They look not only at the physical security but the policies and procedures that we have in place in the buildings. um the staffing that we
076have um how we're how we're how we're teaching kids. Um >> yes, so this this program that I believe is still running and I'll get some more information. I'll just send it to you and see if it see if it'll help. Um is more on the physical side, >> labeling of doors. So when when that when a when a either a firet truck or a police officer rolls up, they hit that screen, they can tell exactly what B5 door is and where it where it is. Um and what camera is going to be in the uh the library. They know exactly which one to hit. Um so I'll I'll see if I can get some more information on that. It's more physical. Um but uh maybe it dovtales well with with the work. >> It
077probably it probably would. I mean those are a lot of the things that we talked about with homeland security too. >> Yeah. The um what what can the town do um in the areas of consolidation of of task work um you know sharing I'm sorry I'm probably stealing some of the some of the questions that Heidi probably has. You can check them off. >> Yep. um sharing services uh between town departments um that we can help each other I guess uh try and get some kind of savings. Um are there overlaps? Are there not overlaps? Um I'm sure maybe it might even come out in that that committee. Um but I'm just curious. Well, I'll answer one of them has the most recent has been our HR hire. >> Um, for in going forward with
078that position, we >> hired someone that actually has not only municipal experience but school department experience. Although she's housed in this facility, she is working with the school department and specifically I think Kate Gner who the secretary to the superintendent when a new hireer comes on she's able to assist with that. So that's been our most recent um we're also sharing youth advocate services and the dart um substance use coordinator is working both are working with the school department. And I think we have some of those little pieces happening. >> Well, that person who I met with Rachel, right? Yep. I met with Rachel last last week, I think it was, and and she and Dolores were both at Dartmouth High School for the open house. But one of the things that Rachel and I
079talked about with the team is how she can work to help support exactly what I was just talking about students who may be engaging in that kind of risky behavior, whether it's vaping and and how we can connect to offer support to those students and those families outside of Dartmouth public schools, but >> still in collaboration with so even things like u you know uh we just met with our your um director of libraries Dina St. here. Now, it's not it is sharing services because one of the things that we're looking to do is collaborate and they they are wonderful collaborators, but we're looking to just expand on that collaboration so that more of our students are accessing library services. And so, that's a way that we are sharing resources. Um it might not seem
080like that monetarily, but when your community and the folks who live in your community are using your town services, um that's something that you do want to promote. And those are the things. >> Yeah, we tried to tie in uh historical a little bit, too. Maybe that program works again this year or not. I'd like to see it like to see it happen. But I I mean if I could add too I mean because I think it would be a shame not to mention the collaborative efforts that are really outstanding between um Darmouth Community Television who goes above and beyond for our um you know our school operation. Um the DPW is fantastic to work with if we need them for something. they're always there. And the Dartmouth Police Department, who we work very closely
081with, you know, and have have three school resource officers in our buildings and then collaborate um on crisis planning and lots of other, you know, lots of other things with them. I guess the point my point would be if if you do see anything that there is uh the potential for savings either for the town or for the school department that we can collaborate on fleet management anything like that it's worth throwing those ideas out uh to see if we can engage u lastly um uh so the investment getting back to that strong engaged uh and most importantly successful system pays dividends on everybody's investments right so we're looking for dividend dividends. People have to remember that when we come to them at some point and say, you know, we need we need some investment.
082Uh and it goes from, well, I don't have kids in the system. Doesn't matter. That house value is still still as high as it is because uh we've got a great system. So, thank you for your work. >> Stanley, >> let David, I want to go first. Yeah. Thanks. >> All right, >> Dave Tataban. >> Thank you. Uh it's always a privilege to talk to the school department. Thank you. Um we're all very aware of the statistics about how low our spending rates are and we talk about it year after year. I look at it trying to look at it from a very high bird's eye view and the sequence of events. Um my hats off to Jim Kylie and our whole group of long range planning because I think that's first and foremost what
083do we need to spend over the next 40 years? Uh because we because it's if we don't we're going to be in bigger trouble. not not just with schools but certainly with our flushing toilets and drink and clean water. But once we get that in order, do the best we can with that. Then we have a budget budget advisory group. The message was very clear from town meeting. Are we spending money as efficiently as possible throughout the town? I think we do a pretty good job. I'd like to feel we can find some of those funds. Uh maybe there's some departments and categories we could minimize or maybe shrink. And I like to think we can then support some of that money and move it toward the schools. Um, and then we look at what's
084needed for the short and long-term needs for the schools. Uh, and and kind of money that's going to involve. And if I'm a taxpayer, whether I have three kids in school or I'm a senior and I have no more kids in school, um if we can prove to our citizens that we are spending our money wisely and we're doing the best we can and we're underfunded in our schools, we can ask here's what we need based on this overall assessment and jobs like this this presentation. I think it'd be much no one wants to spend more money, but I think there's confidence that we've done it the right way in a sequence of events that says here's what we need and this is what our kids need. I think that we have a good shake
085over the short term to then put together a fund that may require adjustments in our tax rate, whatever that might be. But how can we not do that without the sequence of events? And I think it's happening and I think that uh the end result of all that is we don't spend enough money in our schools, period. And money is not going to fall from the sky. It's just going to be done in a sequence that's fair and has uh facts attached to it. And I'm hoping that over the short term, the next couple three years, we can put this together and do it the right way in collaboration just like this. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Um I got a note here from a resident. Um and I
086know he expounded on this but um maybe you want to deal uh deal with it a little further. Uh the school's strategic plan consists makes note of one Dartmouth as you see and but what does that mean to the schools and in what ways will the approach show up in the in the broader community? Well, I I think like one of the one when you talk as far as the schools are concerned, I mean, we're promoting one Dartmouth throughout our school communities. It's something that you'll you'll see in every building that you walk into now. Whether it's uh one Dartmouth pin u that I know Mr. Kylie has his on tonight that we we're going to have mine on. Wow. I got a good one. >> We will. We're planning on that. Um but So
087within the school community itself, there is a real commitment to one Dartmouth. That's something you'll hear and you'll hear folks talking about whether they're wearing one Dartmouth t-shirts, one Dartmouth pin. We are one Dartmouth. I mean, we talk about it a lot. Um we don't just talk about it, we're committed to it through our strategic plan. Whether it's, you know, looking at the way our elementary schools are working together. We have three different elementary school buildings. Um really pleased with the the work that the three principles of those schools are doing to to align the work in all three of those buildings across the district and to really create a sense that we're all connected in the work that we're doing. Uh so uh and with our middle school and our high school folks too,
088we're we're we're coming together as le as a leadership team in order to ensure that we we are all aligned in our work and that that work is being driven by what exists in our strategic plan. Um whether again I'll just mention because we met with them today, our union leadership. We sit down with our leadership in this district and we have really meaningful conversations about the work that's happening in our schools and how we can support each other in making sure that Dartmouth public schools is offering, you know, the highest quality educational opportunities for students and we're supporting our educators and staff. As far as the town reaching out to the town itself, this is one way that we're doing that. We're saying we're part we're we are one Dartmouth. We're not the school
089department and the town. We're all part of the same community and we all want the same things for this community. And we know that investing in schools, you said, you know, we talked about property values and those are important. And the other thing that's more important really is the support you have for your young people and how they return to your community as community members and how they contribute to a healthy community because um this is this is a community that I see so much commitment from in terms of the folks that live here and work here. And that's something that you want to promote and it doesn't happen by accident. you have to be intentional in the way that you honor um the the not just I think you know mi Mr. Kylie talked
090about it this, you know, whether it's the school department, the police department, the fire department. I we're all leaning on each other all the time. We are part of one community. >> I'm going to talk a little bit more about that's on my list as well. So, thank you, Stan. Any more, Stan? Well, I I just I know you the five five-year plan um and you mentioned briefly that um that we're going to need to replace a school at some point or more than one school. So, where where are we going to put these schools? >> Kathleen Kathleen and I both had follow-ups to So, I'm trying to make a point, but but you know, this is going to come faster than you think. and and to solidify um properties doesn't happen overnight >> and
091we have very little property the town owns. >> I think Mr. Kylie has been working on it and he has discussed some options in prior meetings. So >> that was discussed at our um >> Sep just something I want to bring up. I know it's not going to happen tomorrow but we can't drag our feet about this. We need to we need to be very very cautious in how we approach this. We don't want to have to at some point go out to the public and find a piece of property to build a high school. >> Right. So September 17th at the long range capital planning night, they talked about the plan. That was a night specific to schools. And I just want to uh say that I could identify in the audience everyone but
092two people. Um therefore I hope that there were 30,000 others watching it on TV at home because this is important. >> We hope >> um but um we can't get ahead of ourselves. It's a plan. The first thing we're doing right now is going uh forth with the high school roof. >> Mhm. >> And it was very well laid out uh over and this plan is not over 40 years. We're looking at I mean >> soon >> you know maybe 20 um and it's a lot of work and it's not like any other thing but unfortunately we can't put the heart the cart before this horse we have to make sure we have the funding and the community investment the community support for it. >> Um and that's why I in >> Yeah. Go ahead.
093>> I just wanted to close with this. It's all about money at the end of the day. It's always about money. What can we afford or not afford? >> So, we need to come up with a plan at some point, a little long, much longer than the next year or so, but but with the thought that um that we need to invest in the town of Dartmouth and if we don't, we're missing the vote and we're not going to succeed. >> Thank you. >> Can we have comments about the one Dartmouth? Yes. Now, >> please, >> Mr. Oliver. Oh, >> we're probably going to say the same thing because we both raised it. Um I just when you were asking uh someone wanted to add to what Dr. Saba Magcguire said and something that I've
094recognized through our strategic plan um and some of the efforts throughout our school that one Dartmouth also means um the way that it it is seen is through children seeing themselves as active participants having a voice and a say um and also seeing themselves at our high school. Right? It's it there are options at the high school level um for students where they can choose Bristol Aggie or Voke and that there is a place for everyone of course but I think there's been an investment in um having a similar experience and then having that sense of belonging and saying wow like envisioning themselves at that high school level because some of the efforts that are um that are being done that I haven't seen before. Uh so I'm very proud of it. Um, and I
095think that is another way that we are one Dartmouth where students are entering at preK and then wanting to stay through grade 12. >> Sure, >> Mr. Oliver. >> Is that different? >> It's actually a little bit different. I want to take it another step further. I I guess for me uh one Dartmouth means something a little bit different um through the eyes of both parents uh caregivers as well as our students in Dartmouth that all of our students have these same opportunities across the town. um when I first came on 13 years ago now I don't know if that was if I could say that was the case um that whether you were a student in uh Dlo versus a student in Potter versus a student in Quinn uh that you were receiving uh
096the same uh educational experiences as well as uh class ratios might not have been the same. Um there was a preschool but it was located all there was only one preschool um that was located at Kushman. Uh there was no preschool in the north end of town. And I made it a point uh several years ago that we needed to get a preschool program on the north end of town um for those families for the north that reside over there and we have one now. Um, so to me, you know, equal opportunities across all grade levels and across all schools and and across all zip codes is one Dartmouth. >> That's interesting, Kathleen. So, that that really does dovetail with with the investment in the town because when you when you look at that, I
097never thought of that. When you look at that issue with enrollment, you've got to keep those kids in our system. We have to be competitive. We have to show them that we're investing in the programs that we have and the buildings that we offer. Um, you know, in Westport in the high school when they had an investment in Westport, there was a shift from Stang to Westport and Stang felt it. They felt it pretty badly. Um, and it never dawned on me that those kids have a choice. Our kids have a choice. So, it's about the jobs, too. And it's about keeping good jobs in this town and you can't continue to have a slippage. Um, so you have to you have to, you know, backfill it. You have to invest in it. And it's
098important because we, you know, though all, you know, $70,000 spent in Dartmouth with a Dartmouth person stays in this town. It gets spent in all the local areas that there have been study upon study about that issue. And we we need to keep good jobs in town. We need to keep the money in town and that just helps every other aspect of it. So in my opinion, sorry >> and now me. >> So first on my list was one Dartmouth. I grew I am a towny lead green. We all know that. Um, but when I grew up through Dartmouth public schools, uh, we had the 47 and the 48 and we had the 47 and the 48 that had a hockey game that had a football game that had we always were in compet, you
099know, competition with whichever end of town you were in. And I really do see that has been eliminated. Um, we've always had one high school, but we still knew which side we came from. Um, I see that differently. I I would like to give there was a student at Dartmouth High School that developed the one D to represent one Dartmouth. The name escapes me. I tried to give the credit to Ryan Sheay, the principal, and he immediately told me the student's name, did not take the credit. But I thought that was fabulous. And that one symbol solidified to me the work that we on this board need to do because one of the things that you said was it's not all about the zip code. It's about we're one Dartmouth. It is not the school
100budget versus everybody else. We are one Dartmouth. We have one budget. When I pay my taxes, they go into one big pool and then they're they're, you know, kind of shopped out. But we are one Dartmouth. The other thing I wanted to just highlight is the strategic plan process. Now, you know, truth be told, I think everybody knows that I worked for the Dartmouth public schools for since I kept going back 40 years, but um well, I know and I'm so young. Um but um over the years working on strategic plans, it was always important that the people that were developing the strategic plan were the people that were going to carry out the strategic plan. Because if somebody creates a plan for you and then hands it to you, it doesn't mean anything to
101you. And if they think it can be done but have never walked in that trench, they have no idea. But we had people around the table that were going to implement that plan. And that's how we've done strategic plans in the school department for years. And the process was fabulous. And the group that led us through um was equally fabulous. And it's very personal to us because one of the things that they would talk about is what's going to be our picture on our main page. So, you know, we were up against other communities and they were known for clocks, building of clocks, and they had a clock tower. Oh gosh, what is it going to be? Well, it's one Dartmouth. That's who we are. And we take great Dartmouth pride, and that's why we
102use that acronym. Um, and I'll be honest, our greatest sense of Dartmouth pride is our athletic teams when they perform, our band when it performs, our theater when it performs, and our students when they are successful. There's also a bit of Dartmouth pride when you go to the beaches, okay? And our and our beautiful coastline. But the majority of our Dartmouth pride comes from the school department. Um, I have to also give a shout out to DPW because on trash days when they pick everything up, that's a source of Dartmouth pride as well. I'm sure there's another department that I'm going to get hate mail from. Um, but I do think we can't have Dartmouth pride. We can't sell Dartmouth Pride unless it really does exist. Um, for those of you that want to see
103it, watch the football games on Friday nights, even when they're televised, and see the team go over to cheer with the students that are there supporting them, and you get that one Dartmouth feeling immediately. I also want to talk about the process that the school department has done to think about inclusive verse exclusive opportunities. Um, for example, as the chair of DART, which is our Dartmouth Advocates for Addiction Recovery and Treatment, one of the things that Dr. Sabre McGuire talked about is expanding the afterchool program. We know that folks that feel disconnected, look for something to do to make them feel connected. um by keeping our students involved and 65% of our students at Dartmouth High School are involved with sports um theater or the music program which is incredible. Let's talk about the other
10435%. We do have a lot of committees at Dartmouth High School but as Dr. Sabre Magcguire said the transportation is the key. So, it's an exclusive practice to offer opportunities for afterchool programs and say, "But a a someone has to pick you up." Um, if you don't have someone that can pick you up at whatever time that is, it's exclusive to offer it and then not everybody can participate. So, it's a way for us to look, can we provide the busing? Can we expand the opportunities? Can we let families know how important it is to keep their kids involved? Um, and that's a way to make the practice inclusive. An per a beautiful example at at Dartmouth High School, and I believe they're also doing it at Dartmouth Middle School, is the unified sports team.
105To see our students who have never played a sport because they were excluded for many res for many reasons. Perhaps they didn't have the skill set, they didn't have the um the stamina for it. but on the unified sports team filled out with their their peers who have skills. Um it's it's beautiful to watch the expansion of the uh program for our 18 to 21 year old students at Dartmouth High School. And I'll be the first to admit although you know I love the school department, I thought really do we need this? And then I went there and I saw the program and I thought these are our kids. We should be educating them in our town. And the program that Heather Church is, sorry, Stephanie Church is running at Damoth High School is beautiful.
106And if I had a child or a grandchild involved with that, I'd be so thrilled that they were having these opportunities to get some real life skills that are going to benefit them in the long run. Um, tonight we invited you here for exactly this. The process was fabulous. I accept the challenge. I take on the United as one Dartmouth. We are invested in the ongoing improvement of our community and I challenge the select board to fill in the blank. How are we going to keep that up? And then I intend to challenge all of our departments. How are they investing in that one Dartmouth? Each of our departments, just like your department, has facets. We have in DPW, they've got people that have sewer and they have people that don't. How do they serve
107one Dartmouth? So, I thank you for being the inspiration um to our board tonight. Thank you for coming. >> Thank you for having us. >> And um I'd like a motion to adjourn. >> So, second. >> Yes. >> Any comments? >> Who made the motion? >> Oh, I don't think so. >> Second. >> Okay. Mr. N made the motion. Kathleen second it. All in favor or do we do a roll call? >> No favor. >> All in favor? All right. >> And we're done. >> Yeah.