Dartmouth School Committee Meeting, April 14 2025

001Number two So, she'll be here. really There we go. Actually, she wants Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Yeah, kick. [Music] Okay, that's fine. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Dartmouth School Committee to order for Monday, April 14th, 2025. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. Please be seated. Well, good evening everyone. Uh we almost made it. We got another uh we got another three days left before April vacation. Uh I'm sure I know most people in my house are excited about that. Uh just a reminder that this meeting is being uh video and audio recorded by uh Dartmouth

002Community Television in partnership with the Dartmouth High uh media program and Mr. Parade. As always, we thank them for their support. And this meeting uh will be rebroadcast in DT DCTV channels 9 and the following days. Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 pm, Friday at 6:00 a.m., Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. The meeting will also be rebroadcast in DC TV channel 18 on the following days. uh Monday and Saturday at 12 pm and Thursday at 3 pm. And as always, you can find us on the Dartmouth High uh media program media uh YouTube channel. Roll call, please. Miss Gentner, Kathleen Amar here. John Nunes y Mary Beckith here. Coughlin here. Chris Oliver here. Thank you very much. Just a reminder, please silence any electronic devices uh that you may have at this

003time. So, with that said, uh next up, uh we have public comment. At this point, uh we typically allow approximately 10 minutes, uh for anyone wishing to speak on any of tonight's agenda items. Um if you wish to speak on anything relating to, uh the agenda, we ask you to please approach the microphone, uh state your name, and please limit your comments to around three minutes. Thank you. Good evening, uh, Nathan Silva, and I'm not about to break my streak now, so I'm here to talk about the budget. Um, but what I want to say is that is that I'm pleased, right? I'm pleased that um of the plan that was presented at the last school committee meeting uh to reduce our reliance on the savings account uh to fund our operating expenses, right? I

004think it's a a smart plan and uh one that has minimal impact on the overall finances of the town. Uh so I want to publicly say that I'm pleased with that as well as encourage the select board and the f uh finance committee to endorse that plan and for town meeting to pass it. Um however I want to be crystal clear that this plan does not solve all of the problems for the schools, right? It solves one problem. I think despite this plan, we are still going to be among the least funded school systems in the entire state. Despite this plan, we our teacher to student ratio, our teachers assistant to student ratio, our administrator to student ratio is still going to be higher than the state average in the wrong direction. And in every

005measurable category, despite this plan, the Dartmouth public school system is among the least funded school systems in the state. That doesn't change with this plan. So, while I'm appreciative of the plan that's in place that that um and and hopeful that it will will be passed at the town meeting level, um there's still a lot of work to do to get the schools what they need uh to do the job that we've asked them to do, which is to educate our children. So, thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Christine Pankowski. I have two children at Dartmouth Dlo. Both of my children went to Kushman for kindergarten. My daughter was in 2122 and my son was a few years later in 23 to 24. They had very different experiences. Why, you might ask? How

006did it change so much in two years? What happened? The answer is simple. It's a reduction of teachers. The reduction of teachers has a domino effect. larger classes, behavior problems, poor communication, loss of trust, decrease in teacher morale, and ineffective learning. As mentioned at previous meetings, the budget is a reflection of our community's values. We are doing our young people a disservice by allowing this consistent reduction of staff. I know it was mentioned at the last meeting that these are teachers who are retiring, but I also know that it was mentioned that these are teachers who are retiring and they are not being replaced. I think that that's really important. Our job is to advocate for the students, not propose a budget which compromises their best interests. Our children should be our community's number one

007priority. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, seeing no one approaching the microphone, uh we're going to move out of public comment and into the approval of minutes. Uh chair will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of March 24th, 2025. So moved. Second. Motion by Mrs. Amarall, second by Mr. Nunes on the motion. Any further discussion? J hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries unanimously. Time chair will entertain a motion to approve the executive session minutes of March 24th, 2025. So moved, Mr. Chairman with the stipulation may be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed. Second. Motion by Mr. Nune, second by Miss Beckwith on the motion. Any further discussion? J. Hearing none. All in favor? I I opposed abstensions. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very

008much. It's time. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Sabin Maguire. Spotlight on Kids Dartmouth High School. Oh, we have our student rep tonight. Oh, hello. And I had this right I had this right over here highlighted for me and I still missed it. Well, good evening Audrey. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Thank you. And at this time, if you'd like to uh provide us with your report. Thank you. Uh good evening. Uh my name is Audrey Kercher and I'm a senior at uh Dartmouth High School. Um so we, as many of you know, we just started quarter 4 at the high school and we are heading into April break. Um despite the current rain recently, our spring sports, they have started out very strong. Um which is very good, especially

009when looking at um our Dartmouth spirit. Um, additionally, the Dartmouth High School Theater Company is presenting High School Musical on May 1st through May 3rd. Uh, tickets are available for purchase online, and I would highly recommend coming. It's going to be a great show. Um, also, our BIT department is hosting a career fair tomorrow, Tuesday, April 15th. This is a great opportunity for students to explore internship options and potential summer employment. Um, this is for underassmen, juniors, um, sophomores, and freshmen. Um, also student council's spring bulb fundraiser is still open. Uh, purchasing information has been posted on parent square and 50% of all proceeds uh go to the student council um that supports giving back to DHS and the Dartmouth community. Uh we have raised um a good amount of money so far and this

010money also goes towards student council being able to attend a leadership conference um every March. Um, so it's it's a very important cause and um if you're interested in buying flowers, I definitely recommend it. Um, also our afterp prom committee is hosting two upcoming fundraisers on April 29th. There's a dine in or takeout from Caskin Pig and 20% of the bill will be donated to supporting um after prom. And the other fundraiser is going to be held on Saturday, May 10th. Uh it will be a wicked sing along here at the high school and information for both events can be found on parent square. Um the annual 13th uh prek 12 through 12 art show is being held on Thursday, May 8th uh from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Dartmouth High School. Uh each school

011in the district uh is having their students art showcased. Um so it's a really great opportunity to come and see what the students um from every grade level have been up to and have been creating in their art classes. Um, and lastly, once we return from April break, uh, the seniors will have 22 days left of school, um, and we have several, um, very, um, fun events that are planned, um, for after April break, uh, that we are all very excited for. Um, thank you for taking the time to recognize us this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Audrey. Questions? What question? Cast, if I don't have the shop, cook, or clean, I'm in. I'm in. Is there a flyer or is that on the parent square or do you know? Yes, information has

012been posted on parent square I believe with that. Oh boy. Okay. Thank you. Can help you out with that, Mr. Nes. Thank you. As always, thank you for your report and you're welcome to stick along, stick around or uh head out if you need to. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think at this point in the agenda, we're ready for uh spotlight on kids. So, uh, thank you, Mr. Oliver. So, I'm going to invite, um, Mr. Sheay up. Uh, I know that Dartmouth High School, this evening, Dartmouth High School will be spotlighting the Spectrum podcast. Um, this is a division of the student newspaper. I do have to say that I did have an opportunity uh, last year, not not this year yet, but that might just have gotten me in trouble because I'm

013probably going to get invited now. No, it was really fun uh to sit with our students and I can say that there's a really committed group of our students who have done some really great work this year and they're going to tell you uh some of the highlights of who they've had an opportunity to interview. Thank you. I have um Michael and Andrew here. Um our host Anukica is in a tennis match right now. She's hoping to make it back and there's a few others on tennis and sports. So, we're kind of The thing about our students is they're super involved. The thing about our students is they're super involved. So, which is great. Um, so we really want to spot like our Spectrum podcast. They've done some incredible things over um the course of

014the last few years and as they've been developing and and growing and um they really get into that strategic plan uh especially that pride side and you're going to see even stuff like that that um portrait of a learner stuff that comes out with the communication and stuff that we're really proud of of what what they have done as a as a crew. So, our Spectrum podcast, if you don't if you have not been on Spotify or if you have Spotify, my highly recommend you like and subscribe, as they say, um to it because every Friday I get an alert that there's a new podcast that drops and I get really excited and that's my car ride home. So, highly recommend you all do that before we begin. Um just a history, it's a student

015led newspaper as a spectrum. This is a division of the newspaper. It's led by um Mr. Higgins who teaches a class at UMass. That's why he's not here. But it's really a conversation around daily lives impacting students both um at DHS internally and externally. Um as it started it was um four years ago it was really an experiment to improve interviewing skills and anyone I don't know if they're a podcast afficionados like me I really love them. It's just a great long conversation and I think they have modeled it really well and how they prepared and they um what they've worked on the last year is like that follow-up question. How do you follow up? you come with scripted questions, but someone pushed this little nugget out that you want to follow up and and

016go there. Um, it was initially designed to be internal just just um the daily lives of DHS and has branch into topics and people who are interested in getting to know each other. Um, and they've had three hosts over the um the last four years. So, I had to edit that this morning because or this afternoon because I was told two this morning and um luckily Anakah um corrected me as we went over this yesterday this afternoon. Um just some interesting details. There was a famous DYA interview that somehow never ran because of a recording error, but um I don't know if you know this, but our students, even our high school, our top athletes still love playing like dia sports and it was really just how they're passionate about it and what the the

017league offers for them. So there's I guess there's an internal joke about how they lost this beautiful podcast. Um they use Spotify to help with the editing tools. It's free. It's um been really supportive of them. It's crazy how they turn around. I remember interviewing with them. I I do um I always start the year with them and by the time I got home I had the had it on my phone already. So um they zoomed into France this year um which was pretty cool for an interview. Um the design is simple um and intentional. It's designed to be that way. They do one mic and it walks around it it limits the edits and it's an authentic conversation. Um and it's the start it's a highlight to how I start every year. I really

018do. I think I tell you guys every time I I super look forward to it. Um so what do they do for interviews? They have different topics. So they do clubs and teams. They've done the sailing team, hockey team, TEDex, debate, math, theater company. They do student life. They do a live event at the prep rally. They talk about dances. They've interviewed the exchange students um over in France. Um the cafeteria updates and there's some student perspective. And then they interview staff. So they've interviewed me, Miss um Burningham, Dr. C. McGuire, Mr. Kylie got interviewed one time. Then they talk about pop culture. So they interviewed Mr. Cody just a little bit. For anyone you know, that's our teachers going to Hollywood. Um they do a yearly Met Gallery recap. They did a summer movie

019preview once and then they've done dignitaries too. And so they've done state reps, um Christopher Marky, they did MIA director Bob Baldwin. They did school committee members in the past and then they did sheriff Sheriff Paul Hero. So they really reached out to and broaden it and um according to Mr. Higgins, that's um really Anukica this year trying to reach out to get more people to from the outside to share their perspectives and their impact. Um, so I want to thank um, Michael today because um, he edited a um, this is a a sample about five minutes of three conversations that our students had. That's it says mute on this. Hold on. I'm going to take over. I'm not I mean not taking over. It worked this afternoon. We tested it. I promise you all.

020What am I doing wrong, Mr. Fry? Here comes the Looks like it's muted. We're just going to build the hard file. Yeah. This was our worst case scenario when we were testing it this afternoon is that we have a backup. Yeah. Almost exactly a year ago from right now, I got a message on Reddit from a man claiming to be Aaron Folding, this Hollywood producer. Yeah. Yeah. And I I actually ignored it. Technical difficulties. Advantages of live television. Do you have audio there? So, while we're waiting, do we have questions that maybe we want to ask uh our our students here? Do you have audio on? Well, I'll at least introduce my role. So, uh I'm associate editor of the paper. I it's the microphone talking to the mic. Uh I'm associate editor of the

021paper. Uh it's my second year on the paper. So I was a staff writer previously and then uh this year I was associate editor. Uh I'm kind of like Anakah's number two. Um we were assist were assisted by uh two assistant editors as well. And then in in addition to that we have 11 uh well 10 staff writers and then one game maker and one um cartoonist sort of writing uh the games and the cartoons is something that we added this year and it was good addition. Um so that's a little bit about what we do uh in addition to writing. So we have the podcast, we have the cartoon and then we have the games as well. So excellent. Michael, do you want to introduce you something? Oh, sure. Um I'm Mikey. I am

022a staff writer. I'm a senior. I joined this year. I'm not super big into writing. Um, but joining this club has kind of led me to write more, so I've been getting better at it. Um, and mostly I just joined the Spectrum because everyone in the club is super cool and I really really enjoy being around them and that's like the only reason I joined. Um, but I have a lot of fun, especially because I'm more on the media side. And so, we kind of combine um the newspaper and our media um uh thing. So, I I I think this club is super fun and I'm really glad uh we're being spotlighted tonight. Thank you very much. Yeah. Almost exactly a year ago from right now, I got a message on Reddit from a man

023claiming to be Aaron Foli. this Hollywood producer. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I actually ignored it. Um I I didn't even reply to it and he double messaged me and said, "Hey man, just checking in to see if you got my message." And I then rejected him and told them, "Oh, I'm just a a public educator. You know, I don't need any sort of writing representation. I figured he'd be some sort of uh fake agent asking for for money or something." Um, and then he said, "Trust me, you're going to want to get on the phone with me." So, I said to my girlfriend, "Okay, as long as I don't give him my social security number, I guess I can hear him out." And then that night, I got on the Zoom call and as

024soon as it started and I saw his face, my head exploded. Uh, I think uh Aaron spoke for two No, we were on the phone for two hours. I think he spoke for like an hour 55 of it and the rest of it was just me going Mhm. Okay. Yep. and we got off the phone and I just it was like I I took my first breath in hours and I was like what the heck just happened? So what I would say is I think in principle the MCCAST is an important thing to have and an important structure to have within our education system. Um I just think that we don't do the right thing with it. I was a late bloomer in learning and um probably not until law school, but um how I

025think MCCAST should be used and utilized is more on the growth of the student when you take it at an earlier age and see how the individual students grow um and get better at it as opposed to looking at it as a single standard across the line and saying, "Okay, now you are proficient in this and this is this is enough. I think that growth continues on um after high school, academically, socially, in every aspect of our lives. So, I think having those artificial measurements isn't the most important thing. Education is about growth and h making sure that kids grow and get better every day as opposed to, you know, making the varsity basketball team. The challenges were that people always told you you couldn't do things. If I went, and this is for everybody

026in this darn room, if I went by the outside and what they were saying about me and a popularity contest, we would have failed miserably. We built two new elementary schools and a new athletic turf field because we never gave up and it was for kids and it was for the greater good. If I went with the popularity contest, I would have sat in a, you know, in a position in my room somewhere all curled up. Um, we built a school. We we had to close a school that was built in 1885 that was um put together by our town benefactor, but it wasn't servicing kids. And I remember there was our thousand people who wrote a petition saying you cannot build a new school and shut down this elementary school. And it won by

027like 64 votes. But to this day, people love that new elementary school. And had we listened to the noise from the outside, wellrespected noise, but nonetheless not for the greater good of the future of kids, we would have stopped progress for our kids. What message are we sending that you just can't fail anymore? And I think it's good to fail. I think failing is positive and you learn so much more about yourself as a human being when you lose a heartbreaker or something doesn't go your way. And I just don't know if society is not allowing us to grow and fail and struggle and know that, you know, I knew I wasn't good enough to play basketball in high school. I experienced it. I loved it and I stayed on the team, but um I

028don't, you know, maybe I'm being I'm I'm a dinosaur talking, you know, as an older person, but I don't think so. I think deep down people know. And I think that um false expectations, false hopes, too much too soon, and the inability to allow people to fail. And then it's the person in the crowd who sees the kid not play, who starts yelling at the coach, or the person in the crowd who sees the bad call who says, "My kid isn't going to go further because of this." And no, whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Let it happen and learn from it. So, I think it's been great with the chef coming in. I know a lot of you got to meet him um last Wednesday and I'm sure you all noticed he

029is extremely high energy. He's the same when he's teaching a class. So, if you can picture him standing in front of a class of people, he's that same energy. It was hilarious. We were we were laughing the whole time, but learning a lot. Um he's not only teaching us the lesson, it's like any little side things that come in, he's like, "Oh, let me show you that. Let me show you this." um my salad um prep person was there the day of the training. He took her off to the side and he was showing her better ways to cut onions so she's not crying every time and and and better ways to peel the cucumbers so you don't lose quite as much and all things like that. So he's he's been great. It's been phenomenal.

030It's not just learning the lesson that's right there. You're learning a lot of techniques which is really nice. Um, and I love the idea of, you know, branching out and bringing in new things, but yet keeping it to things that the kids like, which is why we started with that um, Asian fusion because I've noticed since I first started, you guys kind of like Asian. Anytime we do kind of an Asian themed type of thing, we have a a lot of people coming over to the mainline. So, it's kind of that that nice branch of learning a better, healthier way of doing something that you guys already like. So what you don't hear in that is um the amazing questions and the research our students do ahead of time. I kind of just whispered to

031Andrew because I remember someone asking a question I thought it was him and it was um when Dr. Baldwin sits down the first question they ask him about his grandfather's national prayer station and the he was so impressed and floored by the depth of the research that our students had done and that is very very common with every host you know the depth of the MCAST questions that they ask and and they keep going deeper I really cannot encourage it enough listen ask to be part of the show it's really fun it's a good time it's a Fridays during pace and there is a really great experience I want these guys to talk for the rest of the tonight though questions. Yeah, Mr. Nunes, I think when does when does the paper come out? So,

032typically we um we put out like blasts on Mondays. So, we we assign articles like at meetings. Uh usually when we're not doing a podcast meeting, we have like what we call a regular meeting and we'll uh talk about ideas of things that are going on. We'll kind of assign articles to various peoples in in the club. Um, and then we put out the blast usually on on uh Mondays and through that then that's when people usually get an email that's like, "Hey, come check out the website and see what's new." So it's on the school website. Uh, no. So it's uh Dartmouth High Schoolspectrum.com if you want to check it out. Okay. Spectrum.com. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You're welcome. Anyone else? Nice job. um along those lines. So the podcasts, is

033it every Friday that you have a new one? It couldn't possibly be. So yeah. No, it's usually we try to shoot for it twice a month. It doesn't always come out that way, but that's what we try to do. So So then when you do your blasts on Monday, you'll alert people if there's a new podcast. Uh right. That'll be included. Yeah, that'll be included in the in the uh like that weekly email. Yeah, it's on the website. I'm totally impressed you guys are ready to make a lot of money. Well, actually media I don't know journalists but yeah very competent. So from start to finish how long does it take to create a podcast from developing the questions to the actual interview to the post editing? I would say few hours. Uh um so

034the actual podcast takes around 30 minutes. We just do it during pace. Um but I I think our staff writers and our editors definitely put a lot of time into research and developing questions um throughout the week before the podcast happens. Um so I would say maybe a couple hours and I'm not really sure how much editing Mr. Higgins does before he posts it. Um, but I think he adds some intro music and then he posts it. It's really not a ton. It's super simple, but I think it's really fun and effective. Thank you. How do you make the decision to uh of the topics that you're going to have on the podcast? Well, I would say it really just it starts as a conversation. It's like I remember one time Mr. was actually walking

035through the room when we were uh discussing what we might do the next week and uh we were talking about, you know, all the things that were going on in the sports world and different changes on the national level, state level. And we were like, what if we brought in uh the director of the MIA because he was a former um uh superintendent of Be Haven, so we knew he was a local guy. And Mr. Sheay was walking through and he was like, "Oh, I'll I'll contact him. We'll see what he says." And um that's that's how that one went. But most of the time it's usually a conversation like, "Do you think that we could get this person to come do a podcast?" And then we kind of just reach out and it's usually

036how it goes. Very cool. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? No, I'm just super impressed. I uh I don't really have a question because I don't know enough about it to formulate something meaningful, but uh really impressed with just your engagement and all of your work. And I love how Mikey the collaboration between like that media side and that whatever podcast side but and writing side um it's just a beautiful thing and I'm sure it'll come in handy whether you move into a field that you're utilizing those skills just having them really will add to your um what you have to offer the world which is pretty amazing. And I think the best part is um because it it'll it only takes one student to write an article to spend a week doing a little research

037and then publishing the article. Um and I think it's helpful to keep our student body more informed. Obviously, not every single student checks out our email blast every week. Um but some people do. I think one of our highest viewed articles right now is about the tw the census article. Yeah, the next census is about the next next uh the 2030 census which I have absolutely no idea about and that's not something I'm you know going to go look up on my own. Um but one of our staff writers, Levi, wrote a amazing article about it and I think now it's one of our most viewed articles. So people are now finding out and like learning more than they would themselves and I think that's super amazing. Yeah. About important things. Yeah. Thank you. Certainly

038very cool. Well, we want to thank you both uh for taking the time to come here this evening and for uh sharing a little bit about uh the podcast and what you guys do. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shay. [Applause] All right. Uh next up, before we move on to uh the school improvement plan presentation, I do want to just turn it over to our superintendent of schools for just a minute and uh she has an important announcement uh to share with everyone. I do. So I want to invite first I want to invite Dr. Thomas up to the podium. I tried to give you the signal. Dr. Thomas tried to get you the Oh, are you coming? And oh I see Mrs. Mrs. Y y is also coming up and they're going to

039introduce our new assistant principal from the Quinn School who we're so excited to welcome here this evening. Good evening everyone. First and foremost, Mrs. Yermalovich and I just wanted to thank Dr. Sabre Maguire and Mr. Kylie for all of your support this year. We do still have three amazing retired administrators that help us throughout the week. uh Valerie Brower, Karen McCarthy, and Darren Don who have come out of retirement to help us this year. Um and they just jumped right in. So, we're very very and they've loved every minute of it. We've loved them, too. But we are absolutely thrilled to introduce Dr. Rebecca Hurley, who is um coming July 1st. And Rebecca has her doctorate in education from Northeastern University with a concentration in curriculum, teaching, learning, and leadership. Uh she's been in the

040Somerset School District and now we've got her since 2005. So she's been there quite a long time, and I know that's like family to her. Um but we're very excited that she's going to be coming here to Dartmouth. She's taught grades one, two, three. Uh she was a reading specialist, an instructional coach, um and most recently for the last three years, she's been the assistant principal at the South Elementary School in Somerset. And we're very, very excited for her to join our team. We think she's going to be a great fit. So, we're very excited to welcome her this evening. [Applause] Hi all, good evening. I am very excited to join the administrative team uh here in Dartmouth at Quinn Elementary. Um, as Audra had said, I um am concluding 20 years of service for

041the town of Somerset, and I um take that very seriously, but I am looking forward to that next step in my professional career to grow as an educational leader here in Dartmouth. Um, I know in a big school comes the big challenge of learning as many faces of staff and students and their families. Um, so I hope to be a quick study this summer with the benefit of Aspen and student pictures, um, and matching up as many names as I can before the first day of school. Um, but I'm just very grateful for the opportunities that await me here in Dartmouth. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And welcome to Dartmouth. All right, we'll leave it leave it leave it with you. Right, I get to continuing right along. And I'm um

042pleased to invite up to the podium Mr. Porter. And I think Yep. And I see our new or incoming principal headed this way, Miss Mckenry. So I have to say before Mr. Porter starts to talk about the school improvement plan. This is Mr. Porter's last time presenting a school improvement plan here in Dartmouth. Mr. Porter, congratulations on [Laughter] [Applause] that. But have no worries because Mrs. Mckenry's right beside him, ready to take over. Um, I would say a few years ago was the last time I um introduced a school improvement plan. And I will not be doing that tonight because this school improvement plan is actually I see you're turning it right over. Good for you. Mama did not raise a fool. So no. Um but before um Melissa speaks um if you will just

043indulge me here. So So good evening everyone. And like I said before Melissa does the sit presentation tonight. I realize this will probably be probably you have another meeting before June, though the last time I'll speak before the school committee. After 35 years here in Dartmouth, I am retiring at the end of the school year. And if you will just indulge me just a couple of minutes, there's a few people I'd like to thank. My sincere appreciation is to the members of the school committee, past and present. Your unwavering support over the years has meant the world to me. Your dedication to the students and educators here in Dartmouth has always been evident and this community is so fortunate to have all of you as their representatives. I also want to express my sincere gratitude

044to the many superintendents and there have been many in central office administrators including June and Jim that I've worked with during my time here. Each one has brought their own leadership and vision and I'm thankful for the trust and collaboration we have shared to work together to make Dartmouth a place where students and educators thrive. to the incredible staff at Bush Street and I'm really I'm looking at Kate right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Without your dedication and hard work, none of our successes would have been possible. You've all assisted me in so many ways during my years as an assistant principal and principal. You are the district's unsung heroes. So, I would like to thank you all. I also want to thank my colleagues at Potter School and at the Quinn School.

045Yes, I was at the Quinn School for six years. You have been more than just fellow educators. You have been my support system, my sounding board, and my friends. You have made a lasting impact on the lives of so many students, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work alongside. I truly believe that the relationships we have built have made our schools something special. And we've had a lot of fun along the way. A lot of fun. To the entire Dartmouth community, the parents, the students, and families, thank you for the trust you've placed in me and the Dartmouth public schools. I will always cherish the connections I've made within the many neighborhoods of Dartmouth, from classroom teacher to school administrator. Thank you for welcoming and adopting this new Bedford

046boy into your community so many years ago. Moren, don't tell the willing city, but I think I now bleed green. So, but as I step aside, it's with great confidence that I pass the leadership of our school to Melissa Mckenry. Melissa has been a wonderful partner over the years and I've witnessed firsthand her dedication to our school in our community. The importance of a good partner in this role cannot be overstated. A strong partnership is at the heart of every successful school. I know that Melissa will continue to build on the foundation that we have worked so hard to grow. A foundation that has thrived from years to some amazing partnerships of past administrators at Potter School. I look forward to hearing all about the wonderful things that Melissa will do at Potter and I

047have every confidence that she will lead with the same compassion, dedication, and expertise that she has shown throughout our time working together. So, I just want to thank everyone. It's been an honor to work in Dartmouth and it's been an incredible journey and I will miss you. Thank you very much. So, as my last act, Melissa will introduce the school improvement plan. But before I do that, oh, it's tough to be sure. Okay, here we go. I would just like to take a moment to thank Rick Porter for his leadership and dedication to the Potter School and the larger Dartmouth School community for so many years. His guidance and support have been invaluable to me both professionally and personally. As I present present our school improvement plan to the school committee, I do so with

048deep appreciation for the mentorship he has provided and the collaborative spirit he has always fostered within our school community. Thank you, Rick, for your time at Potter and for the lasting impact you've made. I look forward to continuing our work because guess what? It's not till July 1st um the last few months together. So, thank you. All right, moving on to our school improvement plan, which I'm excited to present this evening. So, hopefully the space bar works. Excellent. All right, so the Potter school improvement plan is rooted in our district improvement plan, which is why I share this slide with you. So, I had the pleasure of being one of the members of the strategic planning committee, which developed the district improvement plan. So, I was excited about that work and looking forward to the

049opportunity to bring it to the Potter School. So, this evening, I'm going to focus on the strategic focus areas of teaching and learning, safe and supportive schools, family and community engagement, budget and capital improvements, and what our action steps at Potter will be. So beginning with teaching and learning and our focus as a district on the vertical and horizontal alignment of curriculum here at Potter uh we will be implementing next year the new CKLA language arts curriculum in our K to5 classrooms. So I'm looking forward to that work and I do want to give a shout out to some of our teachers who this year have piloted this program to start this work. So in kindergarten we have Mrs. Fryus. In first grade, we have Miss Velo. In second grade, we have Mrs. Pimento. Third

050grade, Miss Olivea. Fourth grade, Miss Karen. And fifth grade, Miss Sullivan. So, thank you for your hard work because you actually piloted two um pieces of curriculum. So, um you really worked hard this year. So, we look forward to moving ahead this coming year. Along with that work, another action step involves us creating an instructional schedule that supports a more personalized learning experience or what we're calling a windb block, which stands for what I need. This will ensure that all students will receive the appropriate level of support or enrichment. Um so what we're looking to do is have our intervention um schedules very flexible including both an inclusion and pullout support um getting our related service providers as well as our special education teachers to support the implementation of the CKLA curriculum. Our third action

051step is to establish a schoolwide focus on improving the verbal and written language skills of all students across all academic settings. So you may wonder where that's coming from um which we'll get into in the next action step, but taking a look at some of our data this school year, we've noticed that um we've had an increase in um speech and language screenings in our school. So typically when we get a speech screen it's involving articulation. So if students are struggling with you know uh making a certain sound but what we've noticed over the last couple of years is a lot of our speech screens are coming in very languagebased. So students are having um some struggle with vocabulary or getting their um thoughts out in a in a complete thought or they're writing in

052a complete sentence. So, we'd like to have a schoolwide focus on that this year. And we're excited that with the CKLA curriculum, that will help support a lot of this work because there's a a great focus on vocabulary and language development within that curriculum. Um, the last action step for this um particular slide is we'd like to improve student outcomes by establishing a dedicated data team and a consistent schedule for data analysis. So, we've already done some of this work this year and we do have um established a data team. Uh we've met a couple of times already this year and that's a mix of classroom teachers, interventionists and coaches and we meet and we look at the data um from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year and some of

053our progress monitoring data and we look for patterns and trends and what are our interventions look like? Are those the best um interventions to get to what we're looking for? because we really want to be targeted and that data team is what sort of found the information related to the previous action step about the oral language skills. Um, so we want to sort of increase that a little bit next year by saying that we are going to create a schedule um, as part of our year-long schedule where our data team is going into PLC's with our teachers to talk about that data. And we do that very informally right now, but we really want to formalize that um system to make sure that that's happening and we're including teachers um and really getting the teachers,

054interventionists, and special education teachers together to help build that collective efficacy across the school. So moving on, still in teaching and learning and looking at our professional development opportunities across the school. Um our first action step related here is to foster peer observations and coaching opportunities to support our CKLA implementation. We've begun some of that work um over the last month or so where we're having classroom teachers who didn't pilot the CKLA program go into the classrooms of those of the teachers that did and begin to observe what that looks like. Um and then they reflect on it after their observation. So that's sort of something we've started and we'd like to continue to do that um next year. The next action step is to develop a look for tool um that empowers teachers to

055assess the effectiveness of not only our CKLA curriculum but also our whole literacy block. So when we say a look for tool, what we mean is a guide that helps identify the key elements of the curriculum and how successful um those elements are and whether or not we need to build some PD around any of those pieces. Um, and lastly, and I think um, one that's very important and a lot of times we focus on the things that aren't going so well, but I added an action step here to recognize and celebrate the professional growth of our educators. This is important work. It's hard work and we need to celebrate um, that hard work and including when you know someone steps out of their comfort box for a minute and and try something new. I

056think we need to celebrate that. Um, so I'm looking to build that in as something that is part of our process and part of our day um, every day of the year. Um, and also taking that and encouraging teachers to do some professional development within the school based on things that they've tried and what they've learned um, from those trials. So that is teaching and learning. So under focus area two, safe and supportive schools, when we're talking about building the capacity of our students and staff for their social emotional wellness, our first action step is related to collaborating with the behavior coach um to expand our use of proactive behavior management strategies, fostering social emotional learning, and providing targeted support to our students. So, we do thank you as a a school committee for um

057allowing us to add a behavior coach into the district. That has been extremely important particularly for us here at Potter. She has been a wonderful Oh, Lisa Gibson, shout out to her. She has been a wonderful resource to us. I know for myself personally to take a look at a different lens to help support behaviors. Sometimes we were in it so long, we have our certain way and um she she has brought some new ideas and fresh ideas. So we are excited to continue that partnership uh with her. So the next action step is related to utilizing our Swiss data. So if you don't know what Swiss data is, that's the behavior data that we collect that we receive from classroom teachers or from ourselves if we're if we're um working with students. We take

058a look at that and and in the past we've looked again at students who may need a little extra support, a tier 2 support in a with a particular behavior or social emotional um concern that they may have. So, we've been doing that, but what I want to do is go to the next level by creating a progress monitoring schedule for that. Um just like we do for academic um data. So, you know, we always do progress monitoring for reading skills and math skills. Well, I'd like to, you know, implement something related to our behavior data and social emotional. So, we'll know that if we're putting a student on check-in checkout, for example, that that's actually giving us the benefits that we're hoping it it would. And the last one on this slide is to

059establish and implement a peer mentoring program to provide students with personalized social and emotional support through peer-to-peer interactions. So, shout out to our two school um counselors, Carrie Gregory and Paul Schwinard, who will help implement this. What we're looking for here is to gather students who consistently show empathy and kindness and responsibility and and use them to help some to support students who may not. So, for example, you know, having some recess rangers where students go out and they encourage inclusion and if they see a student without someone um to play with, they could help gather or get a game going to help support that student during recess. Um or something on the idea of kindness captains where the staff gives out catch me at my best slips for students who are pausing to be

060kind, safe, and a learner. Those are our expectations. So we would empower our students to look for those things um within their own peer group. So that's that's sort of our work in that area. Continuing with safe and supportive stool schools. Um we'd also like to establish a fifth grade leadership program to empower our students with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to take on leadership roles in the school. So the idea there is, you know, for them to meet with me and um sort of initiate and lead some schoolwide activities throughout the school um hoping for more student engagement and improved uh student interaction utilizing that Swiss data to show that. Um and the last one uh for that one is increasing opportunities for students to engage in productive problem solving. So, what we're looking

061for there is for students to grapple with a problem, whether it's a math problem or, you know, a word problem of of some sort or some research that they're doing to do some productive problem solving to deepen their understanding of a topic. It also would build resilience and perseverance. It would encourage critical thinking and it would prepare students for realworld challenges so that students are becoming less reliant on the adult coming in and solving the problem but building their skills to do so. Continuing under safe and supportive schools we're always looking to improve our safety practices uh across the school. So again, our SEAL team, which includes our school counselors, Carrie Gregoire, Paul Schwinard, and Caitlyn Colbeck, our school psychologist, um we meet and schedule and they work with students on the safety drills throughout

062the the school and we're constantly taking a look at those and where do we need to improve, where's something we need to add. We're collecting staff and student feedback after those drills. So, we're always looking to improve our effectiveness and updating our protocols. Just to give you an example of some of the work that we've already done is we've uh this year we've added a reverse evacuation drill. So, students who are playing outside on the playground, how would they get in? And just in doing some of those things, we you know received some feedback from staff who, you know, our third grade team, for example, has doors um facing the playground. So they're an important part of that reverse evacuation because they're another door that a child can come in through. So um that was

063one example. And another piece of feedback that we received was some of our younger students when we were going over the intercom and we're saying, you know, we're practicing, okay, there's an intruder in the building and they're over by the connector door in the second grade wing. Some of our littlest learners may not know what that second grade wing. They don't know where second grade is. they just know how to get to their classroom. So, we now connect it to an area that all schools uh all students would know. So, for example, moving forward, we would say by the library or the hallway near the library because all of our students visit the library so they would know where that that was. So, that's some of the feedback that we receive which helps us um

064tweak our protocols. under family and community engagement. The district um goal is to um develop and implement a district-wide communication plan. So, what does that look like at the Potter School? So, we're hoping to set a clear, predictable schedule for communication. We hear a lot from from parents, they're inundated with emails or parent square messages. Um so, if we're clear and we're predictable, so for example, we do a monthly newsletter. If we, you know, make it clearer and more predictable that the first of every month is when that newsletter is going to come out, then parents or families know, I'm going to look for that the first um day of the month versus, you know, trying to look in all their emails. They know right where to go. Um, we're also looking to um use

065multiple channels for communication like email, newsletter, parent square, and parent teacher meetings, but but helping parents know this is where this is the information that goes through email. This would be the information you'd find in a newsletter. So, just really delineating where they would find all of this information. And lastly there, I'd like to establish a principal's coffee hour. It's something I did do at Kushman School, which was obviously a much smaller school. Um, but I did rather enjoy that and it and it just created a more open, relaxed setting for parents to come in. Um, I used to do them either in the morning or in the afternoon. Sometimes I would do them um over Zoom just to give a variety of times to make it available for working families or families with different

066schedules. And I really just think it helps to build trust. It builds transparency. um you have that community connection with your families and it's also a way for me to to gather valuable insights. So, I'm looking forward to trying that at Potter. Continuing with family and community engagement um and establishing and strengthening those relationships with our families. I'd like to um sort of enhance the volunteer opportunities for parents and families to come into the building. Um I would start by offering a volunteer training which is something that we had done at at the Quinn school together and I also continued at Kushman. Um just to have parents come in across multiple areas in the school. So not even necessarily in their child's classroom but maybe another classroom, maybe outside at recess, maybe in the cafeteria,

067maybe in the library. So just some different um areas, multiple areas that they can um be a part of our school community. And the last one there is to increase our community uh participation in school events and programs. We do have rather large participation in our PTO meetings when we have a bingo night and art night, things like that. But I'd like to extend that a little bit. Um where families can come in and we're sort of like a resource hub for them. So, it might be at night where we're talking about our ELA instruction or our math instruction and what could you do at home to support that. We all know the new math. I was just with a fifth grader the other day. I didn't know how she was doing her multiplication. Not

068much different than how I learned. So, you imagine what the parents are going through. So, having that um ability to bring parents in for things like that. and we've done a little bit of that with our PTO meetings, but it limits sort of the time that we're able to do it because it's a part of an agenda. So, this would be something um you know much more extensive. And then lastly, under budget and capital improvements. So, obviously communicating and advocating for the instructional and operational needs of the district is the district improvement plan. So, obviously at the school level that would be for our school. um and what um what our needs are and how they directly impact student achievement and operations. So, working with uh collaborating with our district leaders in order to do

069that. Um also within this to explore all potential funding resources um whether that's a district um funds or if it's grants or community partnerships. Um and we've done we've already started some of this work. Um we we use um we we partner with the Feinstein um program and that has brought in some money for us to to do some outdoor learning um tables and things. So continuing that work and this year I have been on fire with the scholastic dollars that we receive from our book fair. Um, it really does help offset the costs of some, you know, some things like books or, you know, wobbly stools is always a big one that teachers are looking for and those are great ways to offset those costs. So, just keeping that open mind and looking for

070those other um opportunities to to locate some funds. Um, we want to continue to use our budget to expand the outdoor learning spaces. I'd love to see more um picnic tables out there. Our students enjoy them. Um, we also have a fabulous garden which we'd like to expand that provides great uh it's a great resour resource for math skills and they're out there measuring. Um, so looking for other ways to get students outdoors and we just recently purchased a lending library so we're hoping to put that outside as well. And lastly, when you talk about budget and money, it's important to create a schedule within your building and we've started that this year um where you're always meeting with your building secretary at least monthly to talk about all right, what funds have we used?

071Are we using them efficiently and planned and do we need to adjust for any unforeseen costs or needs that arise? So, those meetings are important to keep everyone um in the loop. So, I know that was kind of fast, but hopefully I was able to give you an overview and I'd be happy or Mr. Porter to take any questions. Well, first of all, thank you very much for taking the reigns on your uh school improvement plan presentation, Mrs. Mckenry, and congratulations on 35 uh dedicated years to the Dartmouth school system, Mr. Porter. So, we wish you I wish you well uh in all your future endeavors. uh you will solely be missed in regards to the uh school improvement plan questions for my colleagues. I just have one quick one. How did how did you

072determine who would be on the data team? So I asked for volunteers first and then once I got those and kind of wanted to make sure I picked across different areas so it wasn't just all filled with classroom teachers for example. So, it's uh two classroom teachers, two interventionists, and two coaches at the moment along with myself and the school psychologists. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? I'm good. I don't really have questions. I just I just wanted to I just I love acronyms that really are meaningful and that win acronym just I can't take credit for that. That's been around forever. If I could just take a minute, Mr. P Mr. reporter. Um, I just want to say thank you for your 35 years. I won't get emotional. Um, I may uh

073I just want Yeah, I probably said this a million times, maybe over I don't know. Um, but uh you know when I when I um I just remember um my most precious cargo, my um middle son with uh you know, who was entering school at kindergarten um unable to talk and really had complex needs. um learning that your sister-in-law and uh you and uh Lorraine and Wendy were going to be at the helm, but knowing you um really put me at ease and made that transition easy. And so I have never forgotten you for that and all lots of other stories that we we don't need to share today. Um so I just wanted to lead with that. But that acronym and I just had one question relative to so I don't want to because

074I might get emotional if I continue. Um uh he's going to be 22 soon. So yeah. Um we're 28. We're Jack Benny's age, right? Uh there was something else. The Yeah, the fifth grade leadership program was fabulous and everything. I really could really see the strategic plan alive in this um school improvement plan. Um that peer mentoring program. Is that um all of the grades like K through five or It could be. And and it was interesting what sparked my thinking along this line is I had a fourth grader and a kindergartener both, you know, having a tough day and it was just magical to watch them work each other's stuff out. You know, the fourth grader was really relaxing because he was trying to support the kindergartener and I just never forgot that and

075thought, "All right, somewhere we're going to, you know, work on that." And it it obviously, you know, it's not just leaving our students with another child. You know, it it's definitely supported with by our school counselors as well as the admin team. So, fabulous. Um, yeah, we're excited. Excellent. That's awesome. Thank you very much. Anyone else? No, I'm good. That's excellent. Good job. So, I do have a couple questions. Sure. Uh so under focus area one uh TL1 in regards to the uh the the windb block scheduling, how did that come about come about? Was that um organic within the building or um because I know and I'm not sure if other schools are already doing wind blocks in the district or I'm just curious. It's been it's been in place. I think we're we're

076really trying to um create the feedback I was receiving. Typically what we do is at the Potter school anyway is we give teachers their schedule, but it's really here are your intervention blocks. So here's that win block and then they build everything around that. Um so they have the the freedom to be able to do that. Um the feedback we've been receiving is that's really challenging. Like as a teacher I would have loved that because I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it as a teacher, right? But now when you're trying to create a special education schedule, you're trying to do a related service schedule, it it does complicate things. So the feedback we were receiving was, "Please just give us a schedule." Um, so that was the

077feedback we were receiving. At the same time at the district level, we were talking about building that that schedule. Um, and I'll just jump in there and just let you know that's work that we're doing with our elementary folks across the district. So, we'll be talking more about that. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And if I could just uh ask one final question. Sure. Great improvement plan. By the way, um I'm not sure if Mr. Porter had anything to do with it, but however, however, you certainly you certainly contributed to it. I have no doubt. So, this question is for either of you. What do you find moving forward and as your biggest challenge as building based administrators? Is it and you know be honest is is it staffing? Is it wishing that you could

078have more ESPs? And you know I don't mean to put you on the spot but I'm I'm just curious what I don't want to overstep my I mean I could I mean yes. I mean, more staffing and a perfect utopia would be great. I I think moving ahead and I I compliment the superintendent and the building administrators that were involved in the district strategic plan. I think if we stick to that in our school improvement plans and Melissa did a great job with that tonight. You heard Kathleen saying that you could see that plan in there. I think if you stick with that, that's what's going to be the the barometer, the map that guides us the next few years. I mean, as you mentioned, Chris, I've been a long around here a long time.

079I've seen many district improvement plans and school improvement plans, and I'll be very honest with you because I got two months left. They usually, you know, they they usually end up in a binder and they end up on a shelf. This one does feel different. And my compliments to the superintendent, she came by to our PTO meeting and we had parents that mentioned that this just feels different. So yeah, I we could all find different things that we we need, but I think if you stay true to that plan that you worked hard on, that plan also will help you through some difficult times as well too. It's that flexible. So that would be my advice to stick with the plan. No, and you're all working like all the elementary buildings are working on it

080together. There's great, right? And that's so again, it focuses your energy on these key initiatives and these key actions and and so if you're all working towards it, I'm even thinking ahead when we're talking about, you know, creating student learning goals and and you know, your professional practice goals as as um staff like it should be based on this. It's almost been written for you. So what if you're doing that, the school as a whole is doing that and the district collectively, it does make things easier. Nothing's ever perfect, but but you're all working towards that same goal. So, well, thank you both very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's great. Uh at this time, if there's no other questions, uh chair will entertain a motion to approve the Potter School SIP. So

081moved. Second motion by Mr. Non, second by Mrs. Amarl on the motion. Any other discussion? Chair hearing none. All in favor? I I opposed. Absentence motion motion carries unanimously. Thank you. All right, moving right along. My brief. So at this time uh it's that com it's that time of the year where we have the reorganization of the committee and I'm going to turn uh the meeting over to uh our superintendent of schools Dr. Sab Maguire serving in her capacity as the superintendent and secretary of the school committee. Thank you Mr. Oliver. So at this time we are seeking a nomination or nominations for the chairperson of the Dartmouth school committee. Do we have a nomination? I make a motion that we nominate Bess Coughlin. Second chair present. Second. Sorry Bess. Any other nominations? Any discussion?

082We got your back. We do. Are you willing to accept it? I am. Important question. I'm praying. So, all in favor? I I Any opposed? So, Bess Coughlin, congratulations. You are the chairperson of the Dartmouth School. [Applause] Yeah, leave that there. Um, I thank you all for your support and I will need your support this year. Um, gota I will now um seek any nominations for the vice chair. Vice chair. Where's that other sheet? I So I have a question. How is this your second year? Just starting. You're just starting your second year. Okay. I will make a motion uh to nominate Mary Beckwith as vice chair. I second that. Second. I wasn't sure who was how we were going with this. You guys are great. I second that. That's great. You don't have to

083accept. You don't accept. I'll accept. All right. Good. Um, any discussion? Any other nominations? Sounds good. Very good. All right. Um, all in favor? I I Sounds unanimous. Yes. Here we go. Miss Beckwith, congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Get your graduation speeches ready, ladies. Forgot to tell them that. I I think that there should be a little more prep like explanation. Um, okay. Now we are looking for nominations for secretary. Make a motion that we nominate Dr. Jun Saba Maguire as secretary to the school committee. Second. All in favor or any other nominations? All in favor? I I And I don't even get to accept her. No, you don't. I knew that. Um, okay. Great. So, we have that done. Next up is uh the committees um subcommittees of this body and then uh town and district.

084Yeah. Committees. Um so policy committee um the assistant superintendent heads that Mr. Kylie and currently we have Kathleen Amarol and Mary Beckwith. Are you both happy doing that? Do you like I'm fine. I' I've been enjoying it. Okay. Mary's much better than I am at it. But I I will say it's been a very active committee this year and um I feel like everyone has done a great job. Um fields and facilities committee. Uh chair is the superintendent. Um John Nunes and Kathleen Emerald are current committee members. How do you two feel about continuing or not continuing? No, I'm fine. I'm fine. Unless somebody is Yeah, dying to Yeah. take it on. No, I don't see anyone dying. Stepping back. Okay. Budget committee. Um Mr. Kylie of course is in charge of that one and

085currently it's Chris Oliver and myself with John Noobs as backup. Um, is there anyone else who wants on or is there anyone who wants off? I'm happy to continue on that committee. I can stay as backup. I'm fine. You are. You you've with all the you the two of you have done a marvelous and I mean in all seriousness a marvelous job with everything going on. Well, thank you, Mr. N. You know, so terrific. [Music] Um, and we are not doing school assignments. I think decided last year, so we will skip over that. Been a few years. So, district and town committee meetings. We have the Dartmouth Education Foundation, which I was on last year. Um, I'm happy to step aside if someone's very eager to be on it. It's a fun committee. We do

086the spelling bee. We uh make money for different schools here. Um anyone else interested in being on the committee? I'm happy to stay on you. Um Southeast Southern Mass Educational Collaborative is Chris Oliver and you've been on that committee for quite a while. For 11 years, 12 years now. I'm riding a bike and it is happy to stay on there. I'm currently the chair of the board there. So I'm happy to stay on at least probably one more year. Okay, terrific. Um, and then the Mass Association of School Committees, John Nunes, you are currently on that. Are you happy there? Would you like This is a very happy crowd. Um, negotiations representative. Um, currently John News with Kathleen Emerald and Mary Beckwith as backup. How do you all feel about staying with that or does

087anybody want off? I mean, I'm fine staying with it. I just do have limitations now with my, you know, with work. So, I I haven't been needed, but I just say that to say I would step in if I could. I'm happy to stay unless somebody would like to, you know. No, I'm replace. I'm happy to stay back up. Okay. Okay. I'm good. All right. This is um and we have from last year the town charter committee which is over so we can just skip right over that and oh I did uh technology committee Chris Oliver how could you skip over the I know because I I am not a tech genius that is how are you happy on it I think you have the most knowledge of techn technology you'll I'm happy to stay

088on it. I don't know where Mr. Galashar is right now. Oh, maybe I should ask him if he's happy. You could ask him if he's happy. Is that the thumbs up? You hauled something. Would you like me to stay on? All right, that is good. Um, and then we have the I'm fine if you want if you want all. No, you want both of us. Right now there's only one. No, but you can add me. That's fine. Yeah. You want to? Sure. Great. All right. Mary Beckwith, he brings the best snacks. I wish I'd known that earlier. I know. Okay. Mary Beckmouth is now on the technology committee. Okay. Um, town open space and recreation plan steering committee. Currently we have John News as the main attender with myself being the alternate. Are you still

089having I'm fine. We haven't met in a while but you know we did a lot of stuff a couple of years ago. Right. As an alternate I didn't hear boo about it this year. No. Nor did I. So because there's there's the rep. So all right. And then lastly we have curriculum council and Mary Beckwith. You were on that. Did you guys meet this year? No. I have not. Would you would you like to continue on? I I would love to continue. Okay. Um so then we have finished with our reorg as it were and old business. We are going to talk about the FY26 budget. Further discussion. [Music] Um, Mr. Kylie sent us all an updated budget. Would you like to say anything before our discussion, Mr. Kylie, or should we just jump in?

090I wanted to jump in and then Mr. Kylie, I know, had a couple of things if that's okay. No. Um, so I think it's important that we take the time to thank the select board, the finance committee, Gary Carrero, Jim Kylie, and the parents that we have here that I know have been incredibly supportive um since really last year when it became really clear that without some creative thinking, we were really um talk about budget challenges. we are really going to be looking at losing some really important positions in our district. But I want to say their willingness to explore solutions from multiple perspectives has been so incredibly invaluable to us and um we're still navigating the town's budget obviously and we do have shared financial challenges and I think that's what's been uh so

091incredibly validating and important for us as we've gone through this cycle this year. It feels like you know we're kind of doing we're doing it together. Um, it's no secret, I would sound like a broken record that school costs continue to rise, that there are increasing pressures on Dartmouth's resources. Um, but I think that we have to continue to be clear that the issue here is not about reckless spending. Not that people have um have in any way said that it is about that, but I think that I've read a couple of things around uh the way that we're allocating our funding. And I just want there to be no question that our challenges are really stemming from rising special education expenses, state mandates, increased transportation costs, and the need to remain competitive and attracting

092and retaining highquality educators. And I know I sound like a broken record, but I think it's important to continue to publicly state those things. Um, these are not optional expenditures. their necessary investments in our students and mandated obligations under state and federal law. This is a reality not just faced by us here in Dartmouth, but really in school districts across Massachusetts. And if you're reading local news or paying attention to what's going on around some of our local districts, you can see the pressures that we're all facing. Um, we also recognize that the town has financial constraints, but we remain committed to working together to find responsible, sustainable solutions. And at the same time, we must continue to ensure that Dartmouth students receive the education they deserve. As we've heard from our families, they only

093get one shot at this. You know, there's one year in third grade, there's one year in fourth grade, there's one year as a senior in high school. And we want each one of those years to be um very valuable, important, and we want to make sure that we're providing the best possible education for our students. Um underfunding our schools has lasting consequences for students and really for the entire community, including property values and long-term economic vitality. Our kids, the kids here in Dartmouth are the future of Dartmouth. Now, this isn't a school department issue. It's a townwide conversation about priorities and how we invest in Dartmouth's future. We definitely welcome ongoing dialogue and collaboration. And we're seeing that and we're excited about that as we work toward solutions that balance fiscal responsibility with the needs

094of our students and our community. And that really is why we're so grateful for in this moment the clear collaboration that we're seeing that will ini assist us in moving forward and through the these efforts. I know I have to mention you know we are one Dartmouth and that's not the school community by itself. That is us as part of the larger community. And so I think again I'll go back to Mr. Kylie who has really done a tremendous job collaborating across this community. Um, and I know that he has some things that he'd like to update you on before you make a really important vote in terms of our budget. Thank you, Dr. Save Maguire. So, well said. Um, you know, we are in the process of considering a budget tonight for vote. Um,

095we do appreciate the support that we've had throughout this process from you folks, from our staff, um, and from, uh, the town being willing to consider options as we try and move forward. Um, what I prepared for you tonight is really solving one problem. U, it's definitely not solving the big picture, the things that Dr. just say Maguire just indicated um you know if we if if if this fiscal year we had an extra $245,000 we'd be 265th in spending instead of 270th. So just to give you an idea that's the scope of what we're talking about. It's not a gamecher but what it will do is limit our uh you know reliance on one-time reserves. uh over time and it will eliminate the imminent esser fiscal cliff um that we've been you know extremely

096concerned about now for for five years. Um so I prepared a revised proposed budget for you. It's up it's up on the screen right now. It was in your packet. The revision reflects uh the removal of the human resources position from the administration category of the budget that resulted in a $120,000 decrease to the budget. It also includes the incorporation of $245,000 of the former ESSER funded positions which are currently being funded by school choice reserves. So in fiscal year 25, those are being funded through school choice reserves and it incorporates those into the operating budget in the instruction classroom staff category. So the overall net result is an increase of $125,000 to the proposed operating budget from what we had previously considered. Um and importantly, it lessens our reliance on those school choice reserves.

097And uh you'll see at the bottom line of that spreadsheet that the use of school choice reserves, our original proposal had them at using $973,000 of school choice reserves and that is now uh reduced to 200 to 728,000. So in fiscal year 26, we'll be using still a significant amount of money uh from school choice reserves. Hopefully in fiscal year 27 that number will come down again by 245,000 if we stick with the plan and then another the year after that and so on until we are no longer using school choice reserves to fund uh you know these important um resources. So, uh, what this also means is that the overall FY26 budget was revised to 55,478,511 and 1 cent if you're willing to add that in. So, it's an increase of uh 4.4%. which

098um you'll probably remember we were originally proposing a 4.1% increase uh over the FY25 budget. So, we've had um quite a bit of positive conversation with uh with the town side of government regarding this. Um I I understand that um certainly the finance committee will consider, you know, consider our budget. Um they've not, you know, we haven't v voted it. they haven't formally considered our budget. Um, and ultimately, you know, hopefully we we receive support um and a recommendation for town meetings. So, this is where we are with this. Um, I again appreciate your support through it and I think it's a good solution and it uh it solves that one major problem. Any discussion? Mr. Oliver. Thank you, Madam Chair. Couple of questions, Mr. Kylie. One, the the transfer of school choice funds into

099the general operating budget, what does that do? How many FTE U former Esser positions is that uh total? Uh the the way I'm looking at it right now, it would be four. Okay. And it it almost works out exactly. It you know, it all depends on a couple of factors. Um, we're in collective bargaining right now, so the rates for next year haven't been set. Uh, so, you know, it'll be part parts of four people anyway. Okay. Three whole and probably a a partial. Almost all of the fourth person. And then that'll leave us with how many positions left. We we'll still have seven. Two of the positions I think that will be moved in will be ESPs um in the initial cycle. But, you know, it it doesn't really it doesn't really matter which

100positions are moved in. No, you know, it's agreed. They're all part of the overall collective bargaining group. They all have their own seniority system and it's not like any more secure if you're being funded through this or funded through the operating budget, but approximately it's less Yeah, it's less position for FTE. Yeah, it's less positions in that uh in that source. So, it'll be nice. Thank you for that. And I do want to thank uh the finance committee members that are here this evening as well as uh the finance committee uh as a whole. I certainly appreciate I was pleasantly surprised this year at our joint meeting um at the positive dialogue that took place and I want to hope and believe that um as a town we're going to move in in the right

101direction um in in the years to come. Um I will say that while this budget I certainly um am grateful for the um established relationships that Mr. Kylie has uh with uh the town um and the man in the going back and forth to come to an agreement on this and through the finance committee. Um but the really at the end of the day to um certainly some people in the audience's point that we we still this really doesn't fix the larger problem, right? This doesn't fix the larger problem. Um, we certainly we certainly need a general operating override in in this town. Um, I don't care who you who you speak to. Uh, when you look at the initial uh presentation, budget presentation from Mr. Kylie se uh several months ago, I think at

102this point now that we're pretty much at the bottom of all categories. Um, and I know that we can do better in this town, can do better in the town. Really, at some point, we need to put it out to this community and let them decide on is, you know, the school department a priority for everyone in this town. Um, I would like to see, you know, with the with at some point an override all the positions out of or all the school choice positions, the seven out of there into the general operating budget. I think we need we are going to continue to have a problem or will the problem will get worse with teacher retention in recruitment. I have no doubt about that as our workforce continues to approach retirement age. Um so

103there's certainly not a lot to think about there. But I I just hope that the the community hears us and hears me and um you know I hope they rally together to uh um you know ask those tough questions uh at at select board meetings and finance committee meetings and make a decision on whether or not um I you know we need an override. I know we do. Um so uh final question uh I had a conversation uh with Mr. Kylie briefly uh regarding you know in the past we've had conversations at joint meetings regarding uh we have this account or that account last year the elephant in the room was a school choice account even though we spoke about it at great lengths at multiple meetings school choice was the elephant in the room

104and we're hiding all kinds of school choice money I think one person said um so we know that's not the case we've been as transparent as I think we're we're ever going to be about school choice. The conversation I had with Mr. Kylie was around uh the uh the kindergarten stabilization fund uh that there is approximately I believe $250,000 300 $300,000 in the kindergarten stabilization fund. That also came up last year, not this year. um not this year for sure because we you know um we're moving in the right direction but it certainly came up last year and you know from my point of view it's a stabilization fund it need I believe it needs I don't know what what it states in the chart or the town but it needs a a joint vote

105by us and the select board I think and a town meeting vote um in order to access it. So, I certainly, you know, have no problem, you know, having conversations with finance committee members, with select board members, you know, if if they have a need for it, um, I'm willing to reach across the table and work with them. Um, so I just wanted to put that out on the table that those conversations had had, uh, we've had those and, um, reach out. We're happy to talk. We don't bite. That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Oliver. Anyone else? Mr. Nunes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh the elephant in the room, the the boy, which one do I start with? I'll try to be nice here. Uh the kindergarten fund, the $300,000, uh we put that

106aside a lot of years ago for uh just that. You know, never needed it. In my opinion, if we were going to use it, use it for something for like a one-time shot. Okay? Don't don't you know, if it it's almost like the school choice if we're we're plugging the operating budget with school choice funds, it's one time and you know, it's gone. Yep. Type of deal. So, you know, something one time that we would need it to do. That's I think that's that's what we needed to do. You know, as far as you know, I agree with you, Chris. No, we didn't hide school choice. We had free money from the government. Hello. If if it's free, it's for me. Let's use use that first. That's what it was meant to. We didn't we

107don't and we're not like a lot of other communities that didn't spend it and have to send it back. You know, we did an excellent job of doing what we did. And again, I know I've said it a bazillion times. We said from day one that we were going to watch September 30th of 24. We were going to walk that plank. Okay. We certainly did. Okay. So, that's what was going to happen and we knew it. But we had to take care of kids and we did and we did and that that's fine. I personally still would like to see the HR person. All right. I'll be honest with you, but I will swallow my pride and bite my tongue and I will vote for this budget. So, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr.

108Nunes. I think everyone uh said what I'm thinking um including our public uh the public that spoke. You know, this this budget doesn't fix, you know, the issue. Uh it's a compromise. Um you know, yes, a budget really reflects your values. Um, and in the spirit of compromise, we've we've we've done our due diligence and appreciative of all of the work that Mr. Kylie has done and um the town for really hearing us, our uh finance committee and and such. Uh, but it's still a compromise and one that says it's okay that we underfund education in this community. Um, and to me that says, uh, we don't want new families. We don't want young families, we don't want kids entering our schools. Um, that's what that says to me is that, um, if you, you

109know, putting money where your priorities are. And so, um, I don't know. I don't feel I feel better about this version of the budget. I don't feel good about it. Um, yeah. And I don't need to go on every other people have said my thoughts in a more eloquent way. So fine that's all I have to say. Thank you. anything? Yeah, I I agree with uh Kathleen that I think that we've done our part uh this year and I think that um this is probably as good as we can do but I think we have to think immediately about the coming years and um and I do think and I don't know how it happens um to look how the whole override idea is introduced and how we talk with the community about that or

110who talks to the community about that. But I think um this this is as good as we can do. Like Kathleen said, we've done our due diligence. Mr. Kylie did a superb job and um but I think we need to put this one to bed and then go on to the next one right away. Thank you. 26 and 27's around the corner. Exactly. So, I agree with everything that's said up there and and yes, I would like to see an HR director. Um, I would also like to not forget the unfunded um requests. Um, and acknowledge, yes, we are losing staff by uh retirements and whatnot. Um, so it's not really a level budget. I appreciate all the comments that we have gotten from the public. I wish more people would speak up. Um, I

111think that this is a responsible budget, but it certainly does not reflect how I view education or how I believe our community values it or I hope they do. Um, so yes, as uh Nate Silva said, this only solves one problem. It doesn't solve the whole issue. Um, we do need to ask the community for more money. And it does occur to me that there is never a good time to do that. Hindsight says last year or the year before was the time to do it. Um, but just because it's not the good time doesn't mean that yes, we need to jump on it and we need to do it. And if the community says no, the community says no. But hopefully the silent majority agrees. Um, so if there's no more discussion, are we

112ready to take a vote? Do I hear a motion? We need to do it in several parts. Do I hear a motion to start this? Madam Chair, make a motion to approve the FY26 budget appropriation for part of school classroom teachers in the amount of $2,50,283.14. Do I hear a second? Second. Uh motion by Mr. Noun, second by Miss Beckwith. Uh any further discussion? Uh all in favor? I I I will abstain. I any opposed? No. Um so four yeses and one abstension and we need a second motion. Madam Chair, make a motion to approve the FY26 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item voted individually in the previous motion in the amount of 53,428,227.87. Second motion by Mr. Non, second by Mr. Oliver. Um, all in favor? I I I I motion

113carries unanimously. Good job. Um, thank you, Mr. Good job. Good job, everybody. We appreciate your support. Um, and on to new business. I believe I pass this along to Mr. Kylie. Oh, well, thank you. So um we have a list of um surplus equipment. So we're seeking authorization to dispose of this equipment and materials uh that have surpassed their useful life. The condition varies. Some are not operational, some are barely operational. All are not serving serving the purpose that um they were intended to at this point. This will allow us to dispose of the surplus according to the town's policy for doing so. Um we actually the town of Dartmouth has a policy for disposal of surplus equipment and we follow that. We we the school committee actually doesn't have its own policy. Um but

114we could consider one. Uh so first um as part of that policy we would ask other town departments if they are interested in any of it. I would love it if they would take it. I don't think they will. Uh the stuff that I'm going to list is like rotting away and not in great shape. So I don't think anybody's going to take it off our hands. Um, but we will attempt to auction it off and some of the things might be bought for parts or the value of the metal or something. Um, so hopefully if that happens, if if it does, the funds that we would receive, there'll be an online auction. Um, and the funds that we receive will go to the town. So, I'm going to just talk a little bit about

115the equipment um and be happy to answer any questions you might have. So, it's equipment and some and some uh educational materials. So, various Dartmouth Middle School weight room equipment. Um I can talk a lot about No, I can talk a little bit at least about the items if you'd like. Um but I'll leave that to your discretion whether you want me to do that or not. Plexiglass of various sizes. I can't imagine where we got all this plexiglass, but um we have tons of plexiglass. Like I'm storing it in storage containers that we're renting. That's not good. So, no, it isn't. And we're never going to use it again. And I can't do anything with it. So, and it's costing us money. It's costing us money every month. And I'm Yeah. So, anyway, please

116declare that surplus. um o old classroom desks and chairs. Also things that we stored at the time of the pandemic when we were trying to social distance and all that put in put in storage containers and in nooks and crannies and needs to go um a Donaldson toret dust collector which is at the Dartmouth High School. It's actually attached to the building. It's around the back side of the building, the back uh north side of the building. Um, it's never operated in my tenure. So, I'm in year 15. So, um, I don't know. It It's not operational. It's not going to be operational. We don't have a use for it, even if it was operational. So, um, I'd recommend we declare that surplus and get rid of it. A Grove Scissor Lift that is not

117operational. That's out near the track. It's It's rotting away um, as we speak. the Ford four uh four Ford Econoline vans that I purchased in 2012 um for student transportation. We can no longer those would never pass like school bus inspection and they're sitting down at the parking lot behind the stadium. Uh two Ford E350 vans from 2008 that are not operational. Um and outdated ELA and math curriculum materials. So things that don't align with the standards that have been sitting around in closets and people walking around them and saying when are we ever going to get rid of these? Um so those are the things that I'd respectfully request your consideration on and um like I said we will first offer them up to other folks the town departments. When that doesn't work, we

118will uh we will attempt to auction them off and see if we can see if we can get any money for the town for any of them. Thank you for that. Um any questions, discussions on that? No. All right. Um, madame chair, make a motion that we uh dis declare surplus the equipment as listed in the memo from our assistant superintendent of finance and operation dated April 14th, 2025. Second. Um, motion by Mr. Non, second by Miss Emerald. Um, all in favor? I I I um just to segue, you said that maybe we should have our own rules about surplus. The I'm sorry. Yeah. Um the um the town's policy complies with the law. Um so for items valued less than $10,000 uh there the town can can rem remove and dispose of this these

119type of materials um in as long in any way as long as they have a written policy to do so. If it's more than 10,000, which I assure you none of this I wish it was. I wish these were worth more than 10,000, but none none of these things probably all of these things together I'm almost 100% sure are not going to be $10,000. Um so, um if it's more than 10,000, you have to follow Massachusetts law uh chapter 30b for disposal of property. It's like you got to seek bids and do all that. Now, we can we can still follow that law, which is what we're going to do for the majority of this stuff. Like, I probably I I think I'm even going to list the plexiglass on an auction and see if

120maybe there's somebody out there who wants two two or three trailers full of plexiglass. Um, we've done it. We've used it for lots of things, projects in the schools and things like that, but there's, you know, you can only use so much of that stuff. So, so, um, we'll attempt to auction it off. We don't really have to by the law. We could just dispose of it, but it might it might produce a little bit of money for the town. So, um, there's like a website that you can use and yeah, people can go on. If anyone's interested, it's govdals.com and we'll be listing everything and and then, uh, see what happens. Um, so would it be less hassle if we had our own rule and we didn't bother the town or is it less

121hassle just to do it all with the town? It's fine. It's fine. And I mean I I love the idea of being able like for instance we have had and it's been a long time but like we we um disposed of a van many years ago to the police department um who needed a van just to run I think it was to run um cadetses to the academy back and forth and we had a spare van. It wasn't going to be it wasn't going to pass inspection for as a school bus, but it could pass street inspection. And we went through the process. You know, we you declared it surplus. The committee declared a surplus and we gave it to the police department. So, I mean, it's fine in the spirit of collaboration. I have

122no problem using that and asking the departments. It's just that I have a bunch of junk here that nobody's going to want. So, that's Well, thank you for that. Um, next up, I turn this over to Dr. Saba Maguire on the 2025 summer sports camps. I'm actually going to hand that right back to Mr. Kylie since I know he drafted his the um the notice in your for your packet. Thank you. So, um we you had in your packet um a memorandum and a analysis of the um last year's summer sports camp. Pretty successful camp. So, we're seeking your approval to once again operate um the summer sports camp for students entering grades 2 through nine. The camp will run from June 16th through July 25th. It's 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We are planning

123to offer baseball, softball, field hockey, flag football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and field, and physical education games. So, a pretty wide wide variety. Uh we are proposing that there be no increase in in fee. Um so last year and and again this year, it will be uh $80 for the fiveday weeks and $65 for the two four day weeks. the June the Junth week and the July 4th week um or four day weeks. So, uh the nine offerings that we had last year, we had 366 campers attend um and last year we earned a profit of $6,38.86 and that was after buying a quite a quite a lot of popsicles for the kids. So, um we again didn't raise the price and we propose that any profit earned will uh will support the um fizzed

124and athletic programs in the district. Thank you for that. Do we have any questions? Yes, Mr. I don't have a question. um adjust my every year. Uh I I noticed that the camps run from June 16th through July 25th and uh I'm grateful for the effort made over the years, but it still needs to be said that I just want to make sure that there are, you know, that those offerings do happen in June to allow for those students who um require um extended year services so that they can um participate. I know when my kiddo was little, it would have been important those off weeks that a basketball camp was there. So, not that other sports aren't fun, but like having some some of those higher attended perhaps a little earlier in June. It

125would be my suggestion to make sure that those students um with special education needs and and learning needs during the summer can participate. That's all, Mr. Kylie? Yeah. No, thank you. I I you know we've we have talked about that in the past and it is tricky because our camp does run 9 to 12 and and um you know is is partially overlapping with all of our summer programs. So it definitely eliminate you know limits the opportunity for kids um to participate and we attempt you know we're starting early um very early this year uh you know right after um school gets done we'll be starting up the camp the following week. So, um, but we'll certainly take that into consideration and we do our best to make it accessible for folks. Any other comments,

126discussion, questions? Nope. I would say make a motion that we approve the uh summer sports camp as presented. Second. Motion by Mr. Nunes, second by Miss Beckwith. Uh, all in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you. And next up, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School um discussion of Dr. Cynthia Marland, whose term is coming to an end and wishes to um continue to serve. So, do we need to vote on that? Is that us? Yes. So, um if you don't mind, man. Yeah, please. Uh so, we received correspondence, uh dated March 17th from Superintendent Schools, Michael Watson of New Bedford Voke. Um essentially, we have two members uh that represent the town of Dartmouth on the New Bedford Vocational School Committee. Those members are appointed uh jointly I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong,

127Mr. Nunes. We have three members. No, no. Um we have two. Yeah. No, it's it is it's the school committee, the technically it's the chairman of the school committee, the board of selectmen, and the town moderator that vote. So, it's a it's a joint vote, but historically in the time that I've been here, this committee essentially it's a collaborative thing. we vote and then notify um the select board and town moderator that the school committee supports uh Dr. Cindy uh Dr. Cindy Milin um as our representative and then it's in them it's in their uh hands to decide you know where to go where to go from there. Um but as you can see she has uh out of 49 meetings she has attended 49 school committee meetings. Um and pretty good they typically her

128and Mr. Shay is our other representative and uh they typically uh you know at any time they'll uh they certainly will come to our meetings um to present on um you know things that are going on at VO in which I I would actually love to see them here uh because of the uh the lottery. I have lots of questions around the lottery that just took place today um there but that's for another day. Yeah. I'd like to make a motion that we um we we vote to uh reappoint uh Dr. Cindy Martin to the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School school committee. Second motion by Miss Emerald, second by Miss Beckwith. All in favor? I. Um and then I have a question if it's the chair like who do I report to?

129Um the super the superintendent will notify central office will notify the board of selectmen. Okay. And they'll if they need to have a meeting then they will get in touch. Okay. Terrific. And now I'd like to turn this over to the superintendent Dr. Saba Maguire for joyous news. I'm sure of course always is. This is always the best part, right? Um so talking about teach starting with talking about teaching and learning. Um, but before I even jump into that, I just want to say that that when I think about teaching and learning and connect it to school improvement plans that I hope that you can see, and I I can see that you do, how closely connected our district strategic plan is to our school improvement plans. And so, I'm reporting out that we held

130third of four professional development sessions with CKLA today. um or I shouldn't say today, but recently to train our elementary educators on our new literacy program. And you've been hearing about that really since last year, how we did two pilots this year, made our I mean between last year and this year, made a selection, and now we can see how that's translating into the professional learning and the support for our teachers that they're going to need in order to be able to successfully implement a resource. and and we're thinking very carefully about how we're going to be able to do that effectively. And you heard tonight even um m you heard through the Potter School improvement plan how they're thinking about professional learning systems and structures even down to what a win what I need

131now block can look like and how we'll best be able to support our students as we um implement a new initiative. And so we're also working with our elementary administrators and that collaboration's so important on the program features because we want our school leaders to be able to understand how important scheduling is to the successful implementation of a resource and what the classroom look fors are so that they're able to effectively support our teachers in the implementation of this resource. Um, the other thing that I have to say is going really well by all accounts is that MCCAST is in full swing and we have had new a new technology platform that we're using and Mr. Galashaw and the folks out there supporting our teachers and our students with this new uh technology have reported

132that overall it's gone it's gone pretty well. Mr. Oliver, I'm sure you can attest to that as well. Um, so and that can be a big deal shifting from a platform that we've used for years and years to a brand new one. But so far, uh, we've heard some pretty po we've gotten some positive feedback. Uh, so ELA testing at the elementary level, again, I want to talk about consistency. All of the ELA testing uh, in grades three to five is done, right? So that is something that I want to thank again Katie Paveo and our principles in coming together to schedule in a way that was consistent across the school district and so that we know our students and our teachers are having similar experiences. Math testing starts the week after vacation. Our elementary

133students are in the process of making their I can't believe I'm saying this but I know summer reading selections. And so I've been reading emails at the high from the high school level and across the elementary and middle school level and already uh that uh has been put into place in terms of starting to think about how we can best support students and keep them reading over the summer. We're thanking our PTOs at the elementary level who are really gracious in the way that they use the uh fundraising that they do throughout the year to help offset the costs of of programming and making sure that every one of our kids goes home with a book to read over the summer. Um at middle sort of high school, we know that the Dartmouth public schools

134is once again going to be participating in a regional civic showcase. If you remember last year, they were recognized and uh I think that that was a real positive. They got to present their civics projects to community experts and get feedback. Last year the middle school students receive commendation. This year we have two teams who will be participating both at the middle and high school level and this year's regional showcase is going to be at UMass Dartmouth on May 27th. Um so middle school is holding their own showcase tomorrow where all the eighth grade teams are going to have an opportunity to present. Um so tomorrow afternoon at the secondary level the ELA and math vertical teams again I hope you hear how this is connected to our strategic plan. It's about that vertical planning.

135We have our ELA and math vertical teams working around aligning our curriculum instruction and assessment practices 6 to 12 which is a key focus of our strategic plan. The playbook initi initiative the final workshop will be held right after April vacation. Uh the focus of this workshop is to help middle school students, the participants to identify and advocate for an action that they would like to take place in their school and the focus is around inclusivity and belonging at the middle school level under budget and capital improvement. I know Jim and I talked earlier and he does have some things that he'd like to update you around the work that's happening with the capital improvement planning team. Thank you, Dr. say Magguire. So, um you know, I'm I'm pleased to report on the progress of

136the long-term capital improvement uh planning committee that is uh in place at the town level. Um so, they're preparing a presentation for town meeting. It's going to include projects at Dartmouth High School, Dartmouth Middle School, Dlo School, Potter School, Quinn School, and and Dartmouth Memorial Stadium. um Dartmouth High School being the the roof and windows uh project that you you folks have already supported uh you know in regards to the MSBA submission and and the select board also supported um we haven't heard back yet by the way from MSBA. It's kind of early um on that one. uh the middle school being figuring out a you know replacement um or renovation of of Dartmouth Middle School. Same thing with Potter DLO Quinn and work at the stadium. So all of those projects are going to

137be included in the long-term plan. Um, one topic that's come up, uh, is the possibility of, uh, so the town was exploring a recreation center. Um, and one of, uh, they we're talking about a standalone recreation building. There was even some design work done for that. Um, and it it seems part of the discussion at the long-term capital improvement planning committee level is to consider if there's any way with a school project. So, if we were to proceed with, let's say, replace Dartmouth Middle School um to add recreation space to that project that could be there. There's an understanding that would have to be funded by the town separately, but could be incorporated into that um construction footprint and and possibly used. One of the things which, you know, I said we not committing us

138to anything, but we'd certainly be willing to talk about that possibility. the the um you know important thing to think about too is if we were to build a new building at some point um that would also potentially free up space at the existing high school, this high school gym for use by other groups if we were to build a new high school, let's say. Um, so there's things to think about, but just so you're aware that that kind of conversation is happening uh in relation to the recreation center and whether there might be a better way to approach that. Um, let's see. So, um, I'll share a little more information with the presentation as it gets closer to being finalized. Um they are also proposing a series of public forums following town meeting. So

139um at town meeting there'll be a brief presentation no more than 10 minutes and um then a schedule in which the school projects would have a forum, the DPW projects would have a forum and then other town projects would have a forum. Um they're talking about sometime over the summer for that. Uh, so I can keep you posted with some potential dates and we can, you know, we can talk about that. They were originally talking about possibly August for the school portion of the forum, which is fine by me. I don't know if you folks have any thoughts about that, but yeah, Mr. Oliver, question are for the long-term committee. Are there who what are the stakeholders that make up that committee? Well, it's it's an interesting part of the discussion because they've been talking

140recently about expanding um membership of that committee. A school committee member doesn't sit on that committee. I'm I'm representing the school department on that committee. I have all the faith in the world in you, but I but I think that you know the discussions that you're having I think warrant um a member of the committee at the table. Right. And I and I have referenced uh to that group that I can't represent the school committee and that I can only bring back information to the school committee. I can you know represent the views of the school department but you know not not the the committee not the will of the committee. Um, so they they understand that and are um at the point where I think they're they we've been discussing expanding membership to include

141committee members um a school committee member to sit on that committee. Thank you. Um so um so August for a potential um forum on school projects would that be something that the committee would would you know would be comfortable with? Um I'll let them know that yeah we can you know probably work out a date in August for that. It'll be nice to express our needs and I'm I'm thankful for the work that everyone's done on that committee in sort of making sure that the the major interests of the taxpayers of the town are represented and I I think it's been a a very productive, you know, start to this whole thing. Um the other thing regarding capital improvements is uh at annual town meeting we've been informed that it looks like uh there's there's

142almost no free cash available. Um they used allocated almost all of that in October. Um, so what I believe will uh will happen is the fire alarm system for dlo and potter which I currently have out to bid um will that will the proposal is that funds will be transferred from the long range capital planning stabilization reserve account to fund that which is a solution and it's fine and then in October they could always take free cash and put it back into that reserve fund. Um so if that gets the project done because otherwise we will not get the project done. Um and I know the fire department fire chiefs have concerns about that and we've gone through all of this work creating bid documents putting it out to bid and uh hoping to get

143this project done over the summer. It would have to wait a whole another summer. Can't do it during school time. So the good news is that it looks like hopefully that will happen. Um, and then the only other thing that that I believe is going to be considered for funding is $50,000 of the $250,000 that we asked for for technology hardware replacement. Everything else we have on the list, and we had a lot on the list, is uh not up for consideration at this point because of the funding. So, you know, we had $13 million worth of worth of items, including the high school roof, which obviously is in process and and that's, you know, but the other items on the list that that you know is the rest of the technology, hardware replacement, security

144upgrades, which I'll talk about in a second, high school track reconstruction, um flooring, uh removal of asbestos flooring, which I really feel is pretty important, too. Um, HVAC repairs and replacement, playground improvements, school bus replacement and and addressing the the stadium issue. Um, so, you know, those were the items on the list and and I know they had a limited pool of funds. So, I do appreciate them thinking outside of the box to potentially fund the fire alarm at least, but that's where we are with capital improvements. Great. So, um I'm just going to mention that under HR, as you know, we're still hiring for several of our leadership. We're still interviewing for several of our leadership pos um positions, including the assistant principles at the Potter Middle School. This is in process, as well

145as an associate principal at the high school. I am pleased to share that we have I just reviewed um some of the the candidate qualifications and I believe that we have several highly qualified candidates. Uh I truly appreciate the time that and effort of Katie Paveo, Ross T-Bolt alongside Peter Rossy, Ryan Sheay, Audrey Thomas, Melissa Mckenry, and the many school-based folks who have been part of this because it is time and it is effort and there has to be a thoughtfulness about this process because hiring for these positions is really critical to the overall success of our schools and our school district. And so we're going to keep working at it until we find the right people um for the right positions for the right schools. So that's where we are um in terms of

146hiring. And really once we have that process done, we have to start the process of now that you know we'll hopefully moving forward with our budget that we have some positions that we're going to be looking to fill outside of those leadership positions in the district under family and community engagement. Tomorrow actually the um the bit department is hosting a career fair for the fair for the junior class starting at 1:00 which is really exciting. The career fair will extend into afterchool hours for students until about 2:30. There will be over 50 local businesses and institutions for the students to interact with to help with the internship selections for next year. and uh some of our students will be hired for some summer positions. So, that's really exciting for students to plan for their internship

147and local summer employment opportunities. I also want to mention that Dartmouth Natural Resource Trust continues to communicate with us and offer some opportunities for our families over over the vacation. And again, we think that this is really important for us to connect with our families to let them know what are the opportunities that are available right here in town for our students. Uh there are some things going on during vacation. They're going to be working on cleaning up the NLES Peyton Reserve and surrounding area. We're sending things home through the backpack um to let families know about this. And this doesn't sound fun, but uh there is also a snake scavenger hunt, but that's kicking off. Yeah. So I I Yeah. So I don't think they're real snakes, though. So there's that. Um, so but

148the important part of that is for us to continue to reach out to the local community resources and connect our students and our families to those resources under safe and supportive schools. I know the high school is working and focused on recognizing student attendance and tardies and really trying to improve that. I appreciate that there's a team of folks up here who are actively working toward finding some solutions to what is a really uh I think a a challenge not only here in Dartmouth but again I will say throughout the state I hear it um everywhere I go from different superintendent and in just anything that you read but they have partnered with Duncan and if you're paying any attention high school kids definitely are at the Duncan counter and in the drive-thrus and it's

149definitely a favorite. And so one of the things they're doing for students who qualify is entering them into a lottery and they're getting um a gift card to Duncan. So we appreciate again there's you're I say safe and supportive schools here because it gets kids into school where they're safe and we know that they're they're the right support. So, it's making those connections and making them really clear about why we do these things. We want our students in school. And Jim is also going to give you an update on some steps we've taken again in partnership with local law enforcement and some of the outcomes that we've had because of that work together. Thank you, Dr. S Magcguire. So, um, you know, we appreciate, um, Chief Levc and and the Dartmouth Police Department who've arranged

150for us to have the Department of Homeland Security come down and do a, um, security safety assessment of our facilities. So, um, they've been able to do five of the buildings, uh, so far. um their recommendations I I I guess I would say are are I'd characterize them as practical and informative and um things that are actionable um with typically a relatively low investment. Mostly the investment is is time and effort. Um there are some things that we would hope to to upgrade in the buildings. Um I mentioned in our capital improvement plan that we have we had a request for security improvements and part of that is to implement these uh these these recommendations. So we hope that you know in October we'll we'll get some funding for that and be able to implement

151them. But Mrs. Mckenry tonight in presenting the school improvement plan mentioned that um you know they're actively working on uh expanding how they train um you know and train staff and students in emergency situations like a reverse evacuation. Those are the practical type of things that are offered in the report. Um really just helpful for us to things to consider as we um continue our planning and our district crisis planning as well which we're actively working on. So, and so that's really all we have for you tonight. So, thank you. Lots of exciting things happening though. You know, it's spring. We just had Once Upon a Mattress. I know that they just had the musical at the middle school. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go, but I did hear that. As usual, the production was

152outstanding. And I know Mr. Rossi had a part in it. I'm sorry I missed that. Um uh but looking forward to all of the great things that happen here in Dartmouth during this spring season. Thank you for that. Um I have nothing to report today, but does anybody else Mr. Nudes? Thank you. Let's see. since we've met uh between the band and color guide. But first and foremost, do we have a status on if and when we're going to see any minutes from the befford greater than buffet voke. Well, but no, but we will follow up. Okay. Because we haven't I I can't remember the I don't know if it was like September or October we got some but you know maybe then that. So we haven't seen any since. So, if we could follow

153up on that, that'd be wonderful. Thank you. Uh, let's see. The, uh, was a busy month of March for the band and even into April. Uh, the color guard took in the NESBA finals. Color Guard took first place in their, uh, their competition, their finals up in uh, Reading and then went out to WGI in in Dayton two weeks ago. and uh unfortunately uh didn't get out of the the prelims by mere ten of points type of deal. You can't beat the guy with the pencil, I guess. Uh our percussion uh also took first place in uh the Nesba show that we hosted here uh the beginning of April and uh just this past Thursday, Friday, Saturday were at the WGI championships in Dayton and they came in ninth. So, they had a a good

154showing out there. And I know our concert band was up at Micer uh two weeks ago. Uh I don't know how they did. I have to find out. But everybody's getting busy and May is going to be concert month. So, here we go again. That's all I have, man. Thank you, Mr. NS. Anybody else? No. Okay. Um, our next regular meeting of the school committee is scheduled for Monday, May 5th. Yeah, I'll be in New Hampshire, uh, 2024 at 6 PM right here in the Dartmouth School Library Media Center. Um, as well as you can live stream it on YouTube.com, uh, DHSTV Media. Um, and at this time, I look for a No. Yeah. A motion uh to adjourn into adjourn into executive pursuant to MGL C3A 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to

155collective bargaining where an open meeting would have detrimental effects on the school committee's bargaining position DAA and DEA. Madam Chair, make a motion we adjourn into executive session for the purpose of collective bargaining as you mentioned and not return to open session. Second motion by Mr. Noun, second by Mr. Oliver. Roll call, please. Miss Kathleen Emerald, yes. John Nunes, yes. Mary Beckwith, yes. Miss Coughlin, yes. Chris Oliver, yes. [Music]