Dartmouth School Committee Meeting, March 3 2025

001[Music] come in good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the Dartmouth school committee to order for Monday March 3rd 2025 would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 and justice for all please be seated well good evening everyone and welcome to the March 3rd meeting of the darta school committee if maybe Mr parate could turn down the uh the volume a little bit so we don't have so much back feed thank you very much it's on the TV as a reminder this meeting is being video videotaped for rebroadcast on dmouth Community TV channels 9 on the following days Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Friday at

0026:00 a.m. Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. dmouth Community television channels 18 on the following days Monday and Saturday at 12:00 p.m. and Thursday at 3 p.m. and as always we thank Mr parate and his crew with Dartmouth High School media uh for videotaping our meetings could I have a roll call please miss gner Kathleen Amaral John Nunes yep Mary Beckwith here B Coughlin here Chris Oliver here thank you and uh Amal could not be in attendance at tonight's meeting uh she will be uh watching from home or watching the rebroadcast of it uh so with that at this time we have alloted 10 minutes for anyone wishing to speak on any of tonight agenda items uh for public comment we ask you to please keep your comments brief state your name

003and um just approach to the podium if you are interested in speaking uh during public comment good evening uh Nathan Silva if you can imagine I'm want to talk about the budget um and what I want to do is uh encourage you uh to vote against the draft budget that was presented at the last school committee meeting um and there's a number of reasons why so gave myself a little list so I didn't forget anything um but first reason is uh it violates the town's own Financial policies to spend one-time funds on reoccurring operating expenses right and I personally wouldn't have a problem in doing that if that was truly to bridge a gap but this is a bridge to nowhere there's no plan in place um to what we're going to do when that

004money runs out so until we have a plan in place at the Town level as to what we're going to do when that money runs out I don't think it's wise to spend that money on operating expenses um number two it's going to result in further increases to our average class size uh which we are already above the state average in terms of what our class sizes are in Dartmouth um and as I said at the last meeting my daughter's class size increased by 33% what I personally prefer to see is if we have to for space reasons or other reasons uh you know reduce teacher counts and and and increase class sizes there should be teachers assistant positions uh filtering in to help with that with that um burden because there's a tangible difference

005in my daughter's education experience this year versus last year uh with that increase in class size um number three we shouldn't have to pick and choose between meeting the needs of our students um and and standard uh classroom education right we shouldn't have to pick and choose and and shift resources from one area of the schools to another area of the schools we should be able to to to walk and Sho glum at the same time um number four uh there's not really much you you guys can really do about it but you know I'm looking at this on a long-term Horizon my youngest daughter is 3 years old she has 15 years before she graduates she crosses the graduation stage and um the way I see it among the greatest threats to the school

006dep department is our ability to attract and retain the next generation of exceptional Educators in terms of what we offer for salary and benefits and this school this budget doesn't do anything to to address that issue and I think that's a problem because anyone in the Private Industry will tell you that the next generation is not like mine where I've been with the same company for 15 years right but I have new hires that come to work for me for 6 months to a year until the next shiny job offer comes around and they are out the door chasing the money and whether we agree with that approach to life or not that's the reality of the current job market and if we don't get competitive I fear what the school department will look like

007in 15 years as my daughter's crash my youngest daughter is crossing the graduation stage um and finally over the years anytime when the town has been in financial Peril we look to the school department the largest line item in the budget to absorb those uh those pressures right um so we've incrementally over the course of decades have cut the school department so that it doesn't necessarily reflect the school department that I grew up in it shouldn't be the same school department I grew up in but that we we have always requested the schools to to Bear the burden of of the town's pressures and I think that um when we say the schools what we're really talking about is the the one sole customer of the school department and that's the children of this town

008and they shouldn't be the ones carrying the full load of the town's Financial pressures so that's all I have today um thank you for your time I'm going to catch the rest of your meeting on YouTube because I'm going to go down the hall and watch the girls game so thank you very much thank you thank you Mr s anyone else wishing to speak on any of tonight's agenda items all right we'll take that as a no and we're going to continue right along uh next up would be the approval of minutes sh will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of February 10th 2025 so moved second uh motion by Mr nun second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any further discussion J hearing none all in favor I I oppose abstentions

009motion passes unanimously 4 to0 next up chair will entertain a motion to approve the executive session minutes of February 10th 2025 so move Mr chairman that and that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed second motion by Mr noon second by Miss beckworth on the motion any further discussion chair hearing none all in favor I I opposed extensions motion passes unanimously 4 to0 moving right along we have the spotlight on kids this evening Joseph Dello Elementary School always excited for these presentations Dr Sab McGuire I can see um Mrs ker headed right up right karea um so we're excited to uh hear what you're going to be highlighting with us this evening and I can see from um the presentation that it's jam-packed and so you have quite a

010bit to share with us so we're going to turn it right over over to you thank you when when I drove up and saw every spot in the lot filled today I was like go Dello like we put it in the FYI but we did not think that we would draw this much of a crowd and I learned that it's the uh girls basketball big game tonight so I'm a little disappointed in that we do have students who are amassing in the hallways and we hope that they will get here I think there was a problem parking Mrs Thomas said is kind of tough out there so hopefully I can um fill you in on all things deela before we get to the student presentations which will happen at the end so we are here

011to Spotlight put the spotlight on the kids of Dello school and I will start with um it's been quite a start to the school year it's been quite a six months um so first of all thank you all for allowing us this opportunity to come and Spotlight our kids and Mr Hill and I are so excited to talk to you tonight um but before we hand things over to our staff and our students who will be presenting I just want to begin our presentation by spotlighting a big and exciting addition to our school this year um so at Dello we affectionately refer to our primary Wing the wing where our youngest Learners are housed for their time um in first and second grade largely at Dello school as little land um and our first graders

012and second graders have been in Little Land um little land has been a thing for about 27 plus years um as long as I've been involved with Dello school but last year last fall uh Little Land became the new home uh to the three kindergartens that were previously housed at the kushman um school so for the first time in 17 years Dello School welcomed 60 very intelligent very creative very small uh 5-year-old to our school family uh and Mr Hill and I could probably take the entirety of this meeting to tell you about all the things that we've learned um over the past months but what I want to highlight here are a couple of things that we've discovered discovered about K that I think are just really notable so we all know that teaching

013requires enthusiasm patience um and love no matter the age of the student students in front of you uh however uh kindergarten requires an abundance of these things in a way that I think you have to witness firsthand to understand and appreciate um when I was a teacher at Dello school we did have three kindergartens back when I started in 1998 I was in fifth grade I don't remember honestly much about the kindergartens there other than my daughter who's 28 today going through kindergarten uh in Little Land um even my time uh in Administration in another District we I had kindergarten in my building but this I think is honestly the first time that I've been immersed in kindergarten and I think it's been a little bit since Mr Hill former kindergarten teacher um has been

014this immersed in kindergarten so um you know we really have seen a lot and I think we appreciate so much more about this grade level now that we've had six months to really wrap our brains around it so we believe that roughly a third of our case students came to us from a preschool program um so that means for most of our kindergarten kiddos the first day of kindergarten at Dello school was their first day in a learning environment really uh a formal learning or School setting uh you can imagine how exciting but also how challenging and overwhelming and even chaotic that can be for these Littles um so enter Mrs Condon Mrs Cam and Mrs Sylvia our our kindergarten teachers who are not here with us tonight but I have to sing their praises

015because with their abundance of enthusiasm patience and love they got right down to business uh to the business of cultivating their classrooms into what has become these unique and vibrant learning environments uh where friendships are forming and kind of C curiosity is growing it's it's thriving and it's been the most amazing thing to watch um and we know that they made it look easy we know that this isn't easy because again we've immersed ourselves in kindergarten we've we've seen it all um and we know that teaching is never easy but they certainly made it look effortless uh over the past six months um they are masterful in our eyes and they are magic so that's our first big observation the second discovery that we made is directly linked to the work that our Kade teachers

016and staff have put into these students every day over the past six months and that's um has to do with their rate of learning um since the fall uh simply stated their rate of growth socially emotionally and academically is remarkable and like nothing I've seen I mean we are used to watching our students grow grow grow grow right we look for that in in one to five but the kindergarteners just learned so much they just come and ready and they just absorb it all it seems like it's rapid fire going on all the times in in their brains um and it's beyond what we may have imagined even like going back to those first few weeks of school um when their teachers were working with them on coming in and sitting down and and working

017with friends and sitting a little still to listen to see it now and to see where they are in every area again magical so I just thought you might like that update uh on our new additions to our school and now it's time to Showcase some of our un other wonderful work and I did it Mr Hill I told Mr Hill don't let me forget to advance the slides so here here are just some pictures of our littlest Learners in our come to little land or welcome to little land sign that we have above the now so there they are these are probably uh December and January pictures and you can see that they are all doing what they need to do they're wonderful so now I'm on the right slide thank you we are

018just going to move into spotlighting what we've been doing at Dello school and our presentation tonight is as it should be directly linked to our district strategic plans we'll be focusing on uh areas uh one and two teaching and learning Mr Hill is going to take talk about how we do work with making our schools safe and supportive for all students um so I'm going to start with teaching and learning and I will advance to the right slide so what I hope you see in these slides is Dello students engaged in collaboration communication critical thinking and problem solving these are four key competencies identified in our District's portrait of a learner and as Educators we know that the key to developing these critical life skills is nurturing a culture of student agency in our schools

019at Dello this means we're focused constantly on creating learning environments and experiences that Foster within our students the belief that they have ownership and control over their learning we want them to understand that with great teachers by their side they able to learn anything in their own time we also know that at the elementary level we have six short years to build confident readers writers mathematicians who are curious and who are confident in their abilities and too often we hear students label themselves early um based on what they perceive as deficits right how many times have we heard kids say I'm not a reader I can't read I'm not a writer or I don't have a math brain it's all too hard for me so we do make an effort every day at Dello school

020um to work with students on this we want everyone to believe that everyone is a reader a writer and a math person and this brings us to our Spotlight on an initiative uh that uh to develop uh de students agency in math I'd like to introduce Mrs Jen fitton our incredibly talented and Brilliant math coach to tell you all about how everyone at Dello is a math person and I could have gone faster through those slides but here you go hey everyone so one of the things that we started this year um at Dello was based on a grant that I wrote for de last year about how we don't all perceive ourselves as math people so I want you all to think back to when you were in elementary school I know for me

021it was very long time ago but I want you to take a sec and think about what your experience was like when you were in first second third fourth even fifth grade around math if it was like mine I did a lot of worksheets a lot of the teacher standing in front of the room telling me what to do and I liked that because I was good at it I could follow rules I'm still a rule follower but that's that's really not the world that we live in so think how many times a day do you use math in any way you use it to make your food you use it to pay your bills you use it to go to the gas station you use math for everything so then why aren't we math

022people we are all math people so that's what we're trying to get kids to realize at at Telo so I'll start with a sign that's in the middle of the screen um a couple of years ago I wrote a grant for DF and they gave me a poster machine so we're using that poster machine a lot this year um and at all of the entrances of Dello you'll see a sign that says welcome math person if we can read it maybe we'll believe it um we've also started um displaying lots of things that use math every day in the hallway so every classroom has a sign with GG our STD math mascot um who's holding a sign that says welcome math person and every few months we change that GG based on some data that

023the classes collect each GG is similar in that their outfit is the same but the colors and the accessories are different based on what the class votes for uh We've also established this initiative of who is a math person well we're all math people so we created this Frame and I'm going to leave it here tonight I hope you'll all take a picture with it and Mrs poo can send me the pictures so we can add them to our hallway we're taking pictures of kids sta of all kinds teachers um esps the custodians the speech and language Pathologists so that the kids can see we are all math people so if we are so are you we're taking pictures of the kids doing math what does a math person look like it looks like all

024of us we do math all day even if we're reading a book technically we're doing math I have a video I'm hoping it's going to load um to reinforce our mission we're reminding the kids that math isn't just about calculations math is full of many other things that our state standards call math practices so I went around and I asked the kids what do mathematicians do and these are the things they came up with I hope you can hear it I'm not a videographer I need Mr pate's class mathematicians communicate [Music] mathematicians look for tions make observations I see in the array this array is 4 by9 maem I think those are par mathematicians make mistakes and learn from them I think $19 time 80 is [Music] $960 I don't think that's correct because I

025got 9877 oh I made a mistake with my place with my decimal mathematician ask questions mathematicians notice things I noticed that there are nine kids mathematicians persevere and don't give out oh this oh this puzzle is so hard puzzle hard maybe you should take a break always I did it so we're really getting the kids to believe that they are mathematicians so we also created this in the planter hallway of Dello a street called mathematician Street um and I'm changing the activities every few weeks um we made this bulletin board about which type of math person are you and it's funny the kids if I go into a classroom the kids will say I'm today I'm a Problem Solver um today I'm a helper they're totally noticing it and and really grasping it and incorporating

026it into their days um we're also um using these activities and I'm changing them every few weeks so that the kids can um think outside the box it's not necessarily I'm just putting a problem up on the wall it's it's looking at things and and really working through them so for Christmas we had a bunch of Christmas pictures and um the kids had to fill out a little form and put in in a box and Mrs Coria she and Mr Hill shared them during the morning announcements so and so put this in this was there idea and the kids love hearing their ideas come through on the um morning announcements this month we're working on patterns because patterns are a huge part of our world um so I kind of differentiated it for kindergarten I

027started with a simple pattern and then for the other kids they had to figure out these much harder questions and I have to be honest with you I didn't think it through before I did it so I had to have Stephen we who's a senior at the high school help me with the line 100 um because I couldn't figure it out either but many kids did try and that's all I really care about um this last video is um a fifth grade class who both teachers and students have truly embraced this I am a math person and they're coming up with amazing ideas and not giving up and and sometimes when you're a teacher you want to help kids you you don't want them to struggle you want to make sure that they feel comfortable

028with they're do with what they're doing um but these two teachers in this room have really embraced the we're all math people we're all Learners and even when they're not feeling comfortable they're giving the kids a chance to feel comfortable so they just wanted to tell you this I'm a bad person and we're so proud of them so thank you for having us I don't know how to make it go to the next slide though a few here we go no one yeah right thank you Mrs fitten all right hello everybody uh Adam Hill assistant principal of Dilo school and I'm going to as Mrs Cory head aluda I'll be chatting a little bit about Focus area two of our strategic strategic plan of how we keep our school safe and supportive so um you

029know really quick we have a few um nice pictures here and I'm going to talk a little bit about a tiered approach um we do we we take a look at how we can promote social and emotional growth and we we we started off really by looking at whole school um we'll focus whole school Community meetings targeting at First beginning of the school year focusing in on our core values so what is that is how can we be safe how can we be responsible how can we be respectful throughout all aspects of the school so really want to take that whole school approach and talk about growth a little bit as Mrs cor said with our kindergarteners to see where our kindergarteners are right now versus where they are in SE we in September it's

030amazing to see how they are a part of our community and um it's amazing too watching our older stud students become such great role models for our younger students but we start with whole school and then from there we would take a tiered approach and we'll focus in more on grade level Community meetings that can take place in the cafeteria it can take place at lunch um and there we will focus on more specific topics that are directly related to grade levels um you know I may I may do that in the cafeteria a lot of what we try to do is data driven so our teachers collect PBIS PBIS um tier one data from their classrooms that focus in on our core values of being safe respectful and responsible that comes to me where

031I can then relay that to oural team which I'll talk a little bit moving forward um and what our Outreach social workers will do is that as they are working with classroom teachers to facilitate Second Step lessons which is our curriculum they can embed some of the areas of focus that we are documenting into their lessons so really kind of take a data driven approach on that um so in kind of funneling down we'll take Co school and then grade level we'll also focus in on small group um and I have to give a shout out to not only our teachers who are working with our with our students but also our team so here is just a quick snapshot of some of our of our Outreach social workers Miss Frick who is new to

032us this year she's parttime with us part-time down at kushman Mrs Simer um Mr O'Neal along with nurse Rachel and nurse Kate we meet with them weekly um and there we talk about really whole school and our individual kiddos because our Focus really is understanding where our kids are coming from what they need and what we can do to help support them um so here with our awesome emojis um for confidential reasons um we have um a student initiated um lunch group that is just you know they find that the um cafeteria maybe not be the best environment for them so that's my office it's turned into a little lunchroom and that's used on a daily basis and it's used it could be used for any grade level uh in addition to that we have

033our we have lunch bunches that are more small groupal focused um facilitated by our Outreach social workers uh and then of course you know we have our counseling aspect which is small group or one-on-one so really focusing in on who our kiddos are and what they need and what we can do to best support them um this last picture you'll see the change this is great and I'll talk a little bit more about student council but this is working in collaboration with our student council um that is a chain of kindness which we did around the holidays really great um activity where the whole school got involved focusing on different colors and and every student from every classroom put in a thought of what they are um what are they thankful for right and I

034thought it was just really great for them to just you know be humble and think about the positives around them um let's see oh and the other thing that we've done with student council is student council has actually have worked on creating skits of conflict resolution and performed in front of our younger students and any way that anytime you can get students facilitating a message and acting it out it's very powerful so that are just some of the big things funneling down to individual how we individualize support um I'm going to be calling up Miss vosi shortly but in addition to and talking about where how we can support kids for what they need recess isn't always a best fit for our kiddos so I would like to call up Miss fosi to explain um

035maker space and maker space she's put a lot of time and effort into creating an alternate recess for some of our kiddos so turn that over to you thank you Mr Hill my name is Liz vosi I'm the instructional technology specialist at D school and I'm really excited to talk to you about the progress of our recess maker space last year we were awarded a DF Grand to establish this maker space as a Comal creat cretive space for kiddos to come as an alternative to traditional recess um it gives them that calm space to be able to create and transition from their morning to afternoon learning we know that arello students just like everyone different students need different things and some students find Outside recess or indoor recess in the winter over stimulating and sometimes

036you just have a day where you need to decompress in between that morning and afternoon learning so we've established this maker space it runs for three res is every Tuesday through Friday and students have had a chance to come in and uh build with Legos magne tiles connects giant blocks um they've been jewelry and fashion designers and we've explored some 3D design with our 3D printers and our 3D pens we also are just finishing up our second huge collaborative project more than 100 Dello students have worked and contributed to planning construction and the interior design of our Dello cardboard Resort and we' brought two of the five modular pieces with us today to show off because the pictures just don't do it justice when you really look at the detail that goes into these uh

037rooms and the design and we still have the Treehouse playground Lobby restaurants and water park back at Dello School uh we would love to invite the members of the school committee to come visit our maker space anytime and I'm excited to see what our students will build next now we're going to turn it over turn it over real quick to and all right and now I would like to um introduce Mrs colbeck to come on up um who heads the fifth grade student council and again student council is such a big part of our demelo community as the students work collectively to help develop a safe and sorting learning environment and school culture so that being said I'd like to turn it over to you you're welcome do we uh do anything here right you

038might do okay okay I'm a little short hi everyone uh I just want to say thank you so much for having us as you can see we have a very large group here tonight and they're extremely excited I'll be a little nervous uh for the Talking part but extremely excited our fourth and fifth grade student council members um have been extremely active this year uh the groups are large as you can see we meet once or twice a week and if there's a special project it's every day at lunchtime our recess um the kids get together and they make their own minds up about what they want to do and then we go for it um uh their activity is pretty impressive this year because their big motto has been helping people and um we

039don't only help within our school but outside of our school in our community and they're going to tell you a little bit more about that our student Council does date back quite a few years prior to covid um and of course we had a little Hiatus there um and of course now we're back in business and we're strong and it's so good we have a lot of leaders here a lot of role models who want to get involved and so now I really am going to hand it over to the kids because that's really who makes up this wonderful fourth and fifth grade student council good evening our names are Faith Cali and faith and we are part of the fourth grade student council at the Melo school we have 37 members this school year

040and are proud to help both within and outside of our school Community we would like we would like to share a little bit about our history and some of the projects we are are part of during the school year our names are Max Desi Addison and Grace and we would like to share with you how the fourth grade student council came about Miss B and Miss Moy from student council 11 years ago they wanted to give students the opportunity to give back to the Dello Community there's a break during Co but other than that we have continued to work hard hello our names are Noah Rowan Hunter and Brady we' like to tell you some of the projects the student council has participated in so far this year we have made holiday decorations for the

041Dartmouth Council on Aging collected new socks for people in need and we and we have run a sports ball drive for gifts to give we are also responsible for the bird feeder in our Courtyard in past years the student council has visited the Council on Aging to make crafts and line dance and we have gone to Gifts to Give In order to volunteer our time we hope to be able to continue these traditions this year thank you for all thank you for inviting us here tonight to share okay yep that was our fourth grade [Applause] Council good evening my name is paisy B and this is Ella Barrett and I mean and this is Ella Ella and Zachary we are going to be talking about what we did for the local community one of the

042things we did during Halloween is formed a Halloween parade we dressed up and made Halloween cards and then we paraded marched over to the Mia Apartments to visit other residents another way that we helped the Dartmouth Community is that we held a few drive for the Neighbors at the Dartmouth Council on Aging we had students donate non-p perishable goods and then we restocked their Pantry we also had an idea to make Valentine's Day cards for some of the elderly who live in son so this is is how we designed cards and then we Dro them off there thank you hi my name is Tyler this is rean Mia and Samantha and we all participate in the student council bulletin board we all feel that when we design our bulletin board we are not only expressing

043our creative minds but sharing our ideas to make one we also not only work at school or during our recess time but devote our free time to our bulletin board usually we base our bulletin board on the upcoming holidays for example this February we based our bulletin board on Valentine's Day so far our designs on the bulletin board have been based on Valentine's Day Christmas Thanksgiving and Halloween on our bulletin board we include small paper shaped for the holidays that have names of the people and student council me and Regan both work on making decorations while Samantha and and Mia assemble the bulletin board our upcoming theme is for St Patrick's Day most of the time we like to plan ahead for example we all had the idea to add Joey the wolf and gig

044to our bulletin board we also put up some hallowen newspapers according to the month all hi my name is Wyatt this is Thomas and this is Miles we are here to talk about assemblies and skits one of the assemblies we did was Unity assembly in October it was about taking a stand against bullying and doing the right thing one of the skits we did showed an argument about whose turn it was to use a the special chair at the end of The Skit we showed the real way to compromise the fifth grade student council wrote the skits and also performed them we know the importance of modeling positive behavior and this is one way that we can do it hello I'm here with Katherine and Zachary and we're going to talk about how the recycling

045works so recyclers have a huge part in the Dello School community so today we are telling you about how the recycling works first there are 10 kids total on the recycling team everyone on the committee goes to Mrs cock's class to get gloves to keep our hands clean then we separate into our sections of the school there are three groups one group of four two groups of three then we walk around the school grabbing the paper bins and plastic bins and dump them into the town wheelie bins if the wheelie bins are fall we swap them out for the empty ones after we empty the classroom bins we bring them back to the classroom it is a big job in a dirty one too but someone has to do with it are there any questions

046and this is is Mr [Laughter] whle okay thank you love hi hi I'm Olivia and this is Charlotte Payton and ly helping around the school is very important for and helpful for many teachers some things we do are reading SD math and organizing classroom tools some of the kids are shy so reading and talking to them helps them come out of their comfort zones and build a relationship with us the students sometimes need a friend to talk to and it helps them talk to more classmates thank you any questions thank you thank [Applause] you I couldn't believe that just about every student in the student council came to school committee tonight we expected we knew that the the speakers were going to come we weren't sure if everyone else was going to make it and

047I think just about every student that we have came so thank you all boys and girls for coming that's fabulous thank you and I would be remiss I'm so thankful to uh Mrs colbeck who as the senior Dello school teacher got volen told that she needed to introduce the student councils but we have teachers that work behind the scenes and they are working behind the scenes today in fourth grade Mrs Baker and Mrs Mary work very hard with these students they're here on the sidelines coaching thank you ladies and in fifth grade Mrs Agia Works alongside Mrs colbeck to get the students working there too so we couldn't be more proud we thank parents and students for coming and we would love to open up um up to any questions or things that you want

048to ask of our students or our staff while they're here here thank you so much thank you we'll start this down over here um great presentation all around um really great speaking skills and Leadership were shown here um and I can feel the pride in your school and um and the real desire to help the school be better and help the younger kids be better um so no questions just very impressed and appreciate you coming here to present M Beck I got a great sense of what a great place deelo is and um and I want thank you all for coming out tonight on such a cold night uh to share with us we so appreciate it uh because we're always working for you but we don't always get to see you so it's great

049to see you and um I will definitely be over to see that make space so I'll be in touch thank you Mr no yeah thank you Mr chairman uh my congratulations uh to the students wonderful presentation to the faculty and staff uh I'm Blown Away the way these uh young men and women our Future Leaders got up here and spoke without any trepidation or concerns or anything of that nature very clear very articulate uh parents Guardians grandparents should be very proud of them they did a wonderful job I'm very very impressed and yeah we're impressed every day yes thank you Mr Nunes and just what a turnout there must be something very special going on over at the Melo School how many students here are proud and excited to be Dello school students all right

050all over there [Applause] I will just say that you all did a fabulous job it was great seeing some of the things going on at Dello in the student council represented here this evening and thank you all for coming out you did such a great job all of those all of you that came up to the microphone and spoke and even those of you that came along and just you know for there for moral supportal support so uh thank you uh parents Caregivers for taking the time to bring your students out here uh we certainly appreciate it and I'm just going to turn it over to Dr Sabra Maguire our superintendent I have to say I was at the Dello school today just today walking through classrooms and the energy and the sense of school

051spirit that we saw here this evening was absolutely on display while I was at the school today so when you look at those pictures please know for all the folks here and thank you so much for all of you folks coming out and I understand parking was at a premium so we're we're happy that you were able to make your way in but that you can be confident that the photos that you're seeing are the experiences that the children at the Dello School are having and I have to say like personally and professionally I have so much uh confidence in our future because to hear you as student council members come up and be so focused on the things that are so important in society it gives us all hope and we all know that

052we have our Future Leaders sitting in this room right here and how lucky are we to know and it it gives us all just a sense of pride in the Dartmouth schools and pride in all of you so please bring that spirit with you wherever you go because it has impact and you're inspiring all of us so thank you folks for coming out tonight um I know again not easy to come out on a cold night and find parking spaces but please like peek in on the basketball game while you're here apparently they might be up by a few points um and I just want to say I could hear the energy outside in the hallway before you came in and so there was uh yeah we we were looking forward to having that energy

053uh in in with us as well so thank you so much Mrs kareah and for the folks the teachers you know doing this work at the school level how important is this and you can see it yes so thank you thank you thank [Applause] you oh absolutely oh you don't want to stay for school committee you are all more than welcome to stick around and listen to the rest of our meeting but we certainly understand that you have places to be B basball games to see so have a wonderful night everyone I give them couple of minutes yeah what I don't think no no maker space those are amazing I know those are really details oh yeah oh yeah oh [Laughter] oh it is funny they're just all so different so different tell me have

054oh that's nice yeah that's good thank youn take take your time lemon oh yes oh yes hold on Dartmouth has committed so few fouls that's just the first trip for two free throws all night long for the Blue Devils the only other free throw was that and one by Maya Keenan three is no good kicks off and a foul coming right and I think we're just about ready to move along seems like the crowds have uh dissipated yes uh next up we would typically have our student representative of report however they are not with us this evening so we're going to move over to the next item which is a consent agenda and uh Dr Sab Maguire is recommending in approval of the Dartmouth High School Youth and government Club to attend the model government

055conference in Boston uh this April of 2025 any anything else you want to add no no I think again another example of opportunities for our students get involved in government and give us sort of you know exactly what we just s witnessed give them opportunities to have those experience so important so moved second motion by Mr noon second by Miss Beckwith on the motion any other discussion have a good time and learned that's right J Haring none all in favor I opposed extensions motion passes unanimously 4 to0 all right moving right along to Old business proposed FY 26 budgets some frur the discussion uh shall I turn it right over to Mr Kylie I'm just yeah I'm going to lead off just for for a minute because I I just want to connect back to

056um some conversations that I've been involved with recently around school choice funds and what what I've heard and come to learn over the past two years really almost that I've been here in Dartmouth is that there seems to be continued misunderstanding around school choice funds and the Reliance of the district on this money to fund position positions and so one thing that's important is that we acknowledge that there has been conversation about initially utilizing Esser funds for positions and I think that that's been some of the um sort of debate about why why did that happen well I think it's important to note that when those decisions were made we along with the rest of the world I when you think about the impact of that statement the rest of the world we were truly

057in Uncharted Territory at that point these funded positions by all accounts and from what I've learned were necessary at the time they were deemed necessary the folks at the table had multiple conversations they were certainly uh paying attention what to what was going on at the national level at the state level and most importantly at the local level so to question how are those decisions were made at the time at this point is just it's truly just unfair decisions were made in the best interest of staff and students there is no doubt about that so now we have these positions and now we are in school full-time and we find out that these positions are actually critical to every day to us every day they're important positions in schools and you saw some of that

058this evening you saw some of those people who OCC occupy those positions most importantly that's what you witnessed that's what you just heard the Dello folks talk about particularly when you heard about social emotional learning and you saw the team of people that Mr Hill shared with you so what are we going to do now that's the important question that we all have we decided to use school choice funds to finance step positions this we know and I know we've heard this and I know it's a broken record but this was a initially necessary due to the expiration of essr funds and that's the simple statement that's the simple fact that's a reality these positions were originally in some of them in the operational budget right and again have previously meaning the the school choice

059funds supported educational programs and Personnel so then the federal funding ran out yes we did know that that was going to happen the district faced an immediate budget Gap and was not yet prepared to request an override from the town we were not in that position at that time it just it was we were we were um we were literally grappling with the challenge in the moment at that time the school department was not asking for an override at no time did the school department or school committee come forward and propose an override we had discussions about over an override but we didn't ask for it school choice funds were used as a short-term solution to bridge the gap and maintain those essential Staffing levels without disrupting student services remember schools are constantly responding to

060the changing policies the guidance and funding and as we all know at that time you couldn't have more rapid change I mean we were pivoting by the day and sometimes by the hour and we also know that this approach is not sustainable in the long run and the school Comm knows that more than anyone school choice revenue is not a guaranteed or fixed funding source it fluctuates annually and it's based on enrollment needs and it could as we all know and we've said here uh multiple times could disappear entirely in the past pre-pandemic and pandemic recovery These funds were used to support one-time cost so pre pandemic that's how those funds were used uh such as curriculum updates technology purchases and facility improvements rather than the expenses that they're covering now shifting these school choice

061funds to recurring Personnel costs create a structural deficit we are aware of that and we have been saying that since I got here again my second year here and the message has not changed it's been very clear by FY 28 we know what the projected shortfall is and that has been widely shared now this isn't a uh an issue this isn't us trying to create a sky is falling narrative because that's not the case right now we have these school choice funds we're looking at using them wisely to continue to support our schools in the west best way possible but we need to ensure long-term stability and we know that that is coming close and we we don't want to wait until the last minute to be going to the town to look for additional

062funding and that is why we continue to discuss school choice money and how we're using it and to seek guidance from the town from the committee on how we're going to eventually bridge this Gap because without Bridging the Gap eventually yes it's not we're not um as I said it's not sky is falling but eventually this is going to catch up to us and we're we're sharing this widely and we just really need the community to understand that the way school choice funds are being used are in the best interest of the students and the community in darmouth and I know Mr Kylie is going to discuss um some specific questions that you had at our last budget meeting and I think and hope that it will really clarify uh what this budget represents for

063us thank you Dr s Maguire so in um the spirit of addressing some of the questions that you had at the last school committee meeting and really tying those things into what Dr sa Maguire um just spoke about we have a few um a few slides here that I'd like to present um this slide realign staff and resources was in our budget presentation at the last school committee meeting but I I want to be sure that we understand that yes we in this budget proposal we are um taking positions that currently exist and realigning them um and asking for support in other areas and we really want to show you what that looks like in practice so the next slide there's a lot on this slide but this is our um fiscal year 26 projected

064enrollment and class size by grade by school also included on this slide are fiscal year 25 enrollment and class size numbers couple of things to note um you'll notice a projected decline in enrollment we do our own work work on this we also have neas um NASDAQ nesda nees do the um I had NES on the brain from earlier today um uh do a enrollment projection for us and um it it certainly looks like we'll have a relatively low incoming class into the Elementary uh in kindergarten for next year um so at the elementary level we're projecting to be down about 5% you'll notice that in both the elementary totals and in the Dello and Quinn school there's an indication of a reduction of of class sections so for instance there's one class section at

065Dello and three at the Quinn school that um we are projecting will be reduced for next year so back to the first slide that is the first line on here elementary teachers for FTE that we are realigning similarly um the middle school has a reduction of two um two staff for next year um I'd like to remind you that we're going to do everything we can to um limit the impact to attrition um right now of these positions we have one position that is not that is currently not through attrition the rest are all through attrition so retirements or other changes in staff um so there's been a question um member of the finance committee asked us about what our plan was in regards to declining enrollment and this is what our plan is addressing

066class size um maintain trying to maintain a re a reasonable class size you'll notice towards the right hand side there where we com where we can compare the class size for fiscal year 26 projected and fiscal year 25 actual um at the elementary level we maintain a class size of of 21 on average um at at the middle school level we have a slight increase from 19 to 20 on average and the high school is a much more complicated piece um because there's such a variety of course selections we'd certainly be happy to provide you with more information about that um if you'd like in the future so we thought it was important because I I think proposing this realignment it's hard to visualize what that looks like in practice and what the impact is

067going to be on each student and um so I I hope that this helps depict that um and hope hopefully helps you understand that we are attempting to maintain a reasonable and appropriate class size um while still utilizing our resour ources in a in a different way to address our needs before I move to um sort of the the next topic are there any questions about about this information can I just just add that in um just adding to what Mr Kylie said about addressing declining enrollment we also took some steps to do that last year if you remember and that was part of the reason that we were able to move the cushion students the kindergarten to the Dello and you can still you can see that in doing that we were still able

068to protect class size somewhat um I mean it's not perfect but that was an intentional move to put our kindergarteners where they should be which is in their home school and at the same time to respond to declining enrollment so Dr Sab McGuire just to be clear uh because of that move from kushman to Dello with kindergarten is it safe did we reduce two FTE last year last year was it two actually I think it was three right it was three last year um so we reduced our teaching staff at the Melo by three FTE because this is a just real you want to to be sure important point to make when we're having these convers conversations with the finance committee with the select board and other folks in town is that yes we have

069we've already reduced last year we're continuing to reduce MH just we just Mr Kylie's just checking to make sure we the right I don't need an absolute answer right now but that's all right that was my that was my only question that's a that's a great question and and we definitely reduced and and it was in response to declining enrollment and it was the right thing to move the kindergarten to the Dello and you could hear that this evening you could hear that that was a decision that makes sense I mean you move them all into you know they get accustomed to that building and they're going through it type of deal versus coming in as freshman and starting all over again to get us new school yeah la last year um we realigned resources

070as well um and and really overall had a fairly significant reduction um we had three Elementary School teachers um two teachers at the middle school that were funded through the Esser grant that um we did not continue uh a middle school teacher a high school teacher an elementary specialist teacher the secretary to the superintendent and a Middle School uh secretarial position a part-time position so all those uh positions were reductions in last year's budget in response to having to um you know having no consideration above a 3% increase last year um and then uh we had very little that we were able to reallocate because of the um you know the lack of funding so we've gotten ourselves to the point where we're utilizing school choice which is coming up on my set of slides

071here right um to to sort of stem the tide so Mr Kylie with that being said the we still had a net loss after the reallocation of staff there was still a net loss Lo correct significant yes so I don't I don't know how the rest of the committee feels but it that may be helpful when you when are you presenting to the finance committee this week Thursday okay Thursday night I don't know if you have the time but that may be helpful to to put that data into a slide or or or handout as to what we've done in previous years we'll do y for what it's worth mhm thank you I agree uh so there's a lot on this slide as well but this is this is the slide that Mrs Amal um

072spoke about in terms of things that we weren't able to fund in our budget process I I guess what I think is important about this slide um maybe most important is that I don't really consider this to be an exhaustive list um I I think that we are we are realistic are administrators are realistic and understand the general limitations that that we face um in the budget process particularly in the recent in recent budget processes um so I would say that if U we were to ask our administrators well is this all you would need I guarantee that they would say no but they're also you know again being realistic and practical and not uh proposing a great deal of uh a great deal of of of resources um that we can't realistically expect to

073to receive that said there are quite a quite a bit on this list um it's 1.3 million I've included the school choice positions former eser positions um on that list because I you know I think it's important to not lose sight that yeah those those are really not funded in the in the budget um we're making du and using the reserves to to get by uh in the short term any questions about about this slide Chris yeah thank thank you Mr guy correct me if I'm wrong the these are not quote unquote pie in the sky and you know wish lists and that type these are for discussion purposes are really necessary in our in our system they are you know I mean when you look at you know the um the esps the behavioral

074specialists the guidance counselors the school nurse you know the the Tas and so it's it's everything that helps make you know the student better and our system and our district that much better so I agree so yeah C good certainly a good point Mr NES it it paints a picture when you look at a number of these positions of Support Services yeah there's a number of Support Services positions uh and that just speaks to the high needs that our student population has um so also in terms of class size we talk about class size but we don't talk about like how many teachers assistants or how many um esps we have in those classes because um if you just have a teacher with 23 children that could be overwhelming and there could be um could

075be harder for the children to learn but if you have support services or teachers assistant so do we have a breakdown are we increasing the number of assistants no but we do have assistants or um teaching professionals but specific we do have esps right you mean that's what you mean right education support Personnel yes right we do have those folks in but they fall into different categories you don't we don't have an ESP for every classroom if that's what you are asking we do not okay I will bring you back to this slide from the uh presentation at the last school committee meeting in which we did speak about dartmouth's ESP count per 100 students is 1.1 below the state average so we per 100 students we have 1.1 Less esps in the state average

076okay so it' be good to have more of this yes it would it would I I think you know that um additional supports for students are part of what we're missing when we're 270th of 322 districts I I think you know our class size is not very high um it's not very low either uh but I think the additional support s are where at times where you know we're lacking um in terms of our our funding level being low it's also usually the conversation that we're having when our our school leaders are calling looking for support it's usually that they're looking to have an additional ESP added to their building and that happens throughout the course of the school year depending on what the particular needs of a student who may um may enter the

077school or may have been in the school and and require some additional supports and I think our ability to respond to those those needs that may not have we we may not have had a full understanding of at the time of the last budget is very limited we just don't have we don't have wiggle room at our funding levels so anyone else I'm good thank you okay thank you so uh speaking of school choice this slide is essentially um there there's one column different than um what was presented previously and and a uh Finance Committee Member asked about um what um what we had spent school choice funds on previously so the the column on the left is everything that we've spent um through the school choice revolving fund since its Inception in 2017 uh

078I I would say that the things that the largest thing um on that list is is technology and we were served well by you know positioning ourselves and and Mr gashaw being ready when the pandemic happened to um to go to one to one and we never would have been prepared to do that without without that utilizing um school choice funds for that purpose we supported renovations to Dartmouth Memorial Stadium um we had not used um school choice for staff and you know for obvious reasons we we didn't want to um you know approach it that way till now that we have now we have to so um so anyway it's informational I I think that um one other important point was that during the pandemic we received a significant amount of grant money relating

079to technology resources um and and as a result saved school choice funds um so that's part of what has you know led us to have some reserves which thank thankfully we do because um we're using them right now to survive really but apparently there are people in the community that feel that we were putting that tucking that money away and so but look what we're doing with it now right right keep my mouth shut yeah I'm I'm not go ahead Mr dudes because understand something M and Mr Kylie just mentioned it okay two things number one we had the Esser funds and we had a number of Grant funds that's with all due respect that's free money okay so that's what we used first and that's the smart way to business and to to budget

080if you have free money and money that's coming in you know that type of you use the free money first type of deal that's the right way to go about it hence the buildup of school choice and others so thank God we did it that way we had it to use because now it's bailing us out those Grant funds had very specific expiration dates right and uses yeah so um so I think we did a good job of using those funds 100% agree 100% so um the the other things that were included in your school committee packet I'm not I'm not you know projecting up here it was informational um but they were um to address questions regarding the human resources proposal um and there's some analysis that we provided in your packet in the

081team facilitator uh yeah proposal so we're prepared if um you know if you have any questions on either of those we'd be happy to discuss those so does anyone want to go first go ahead M I just have to say I was astounded at the range of how folks do human resources across these school districts MH yeah there is not a a model um that is consistent and a lot of it doesn't make sense so I I don't know how you have a district R size without a professional HR person I just don't I don't get it okay thank you um and I would say um our town has an HR person and that's not the schools that's the town and yet the schools are 57% of the budget and we have more personnel and

082for some reason we don't need an HR person I think the fact that we are so big we need one did you have a question Mr NS yeah I did Mr chairman thank you I mean if you look at the this list and thank you very much Mr Kylie for this but you've got seven in the dart districts down to Somerset Berkeley if you go through there are seven of these that are Regional Schools okay Triton Blackstone Dudley Charon I'm assuming is shepher Hill Ash Braham wind uh you know uh titon reob Freetown Lakeville Somerset Berkeley and then you've got the vocational schools in Bristol lagi so you know some of these you know you know the biggest schools so it's a needed position in my opinion so um is it okay if I just

083jump in a little bit and knowing and it sort of you know again having been here two years now I think you remember that last year this was a position that we did put forward and in recognition of the challenge of the budget we withdrew it um things haven't really changed and so that's why we again Put It Forward at the same time I think that you know and we have a lot of internal conversations about this um I can't not acknowledge the work that Kate gner does every day and and the way that we all work together um to really be the HR office and I and I'm not saying that we're not capable of doing that because I I do think we are I think we do really good work as a team

084and I think it's because of the strength of our team that we are able to um to do the best that we can and I again commend and she I know Kate doesn't want me to do that but I am anyway I'm sure that she's rolling her eyes at me even though you can't see it um but uh it's because of of really her expertise and attention to detail and the work that she's doing is really um it's just incredible and we couldn't not have an HR office if we didn't have Kate in the position that she's in and her level of attention to detail uh again in recognition of another challenging budget we as I said have had internal conversations and some of the things that we're looking at doing is um automating some

085of our HR functions because we really are paper driven um and we are in talks with a a group that does some of this work and Kate has been working closely not only with Jonathan but really uh all of us to to learn what kinds of things we can do to reduce sort of the overreliance that we as a school district have on on really a paper driven system whether it's keeping track of folks in their credits where they are on the salary scale uh keeping track of of the the submission of professional development of of all of those sort of HR things that I'm talking about that aren't related to Personnel because that's another whole story right so there are two parts to HR but at this point I think what we're thinking is

086we want to try those automated um support services and see how that impacts our operation and we think it might be best to think about holding off putting that position forward as we Mr Nunes is shaking his head but I just want to put it out there that it is something that we have talked about and uh we recognize the you know the challenge of talking about eliminating positions and bringing in positions and you know we want to be well positioned to do that and we want our school Community to understand the need we have and at the same same time respect some of the challenges that that you as a committee are facing and that we're facing as well I know when I met with Dr Sab Maguire for our bi-weekly meetings uh in

087preparation and we had this conversation I was certainly a little hesitant um after having this conversation about taking this out of the budget because I think it is such a such a big need but I think it does show uh very much you know that the school department and this Administration wants to work together with the town as much as possible when we're uh proposing uh eliminating positions and then proposing others and then with some of the some of the systems that are they're going to try to put in place um see if maybe they those will work um but ultimately you know at the end of the day I I I certainly think ultimately sooner or later this is going to possibly absolutely be a position that is needed and I guess I I

088just add to that because I left the Personnel part out of it uh we do um and I'm not saying that we have significant Personnel issues because we don't but what I am suggesting is that we do spend time on Personnel of course you do in a district this size and we also have new legal advice right we have a new legal firm that and we don't yet know what the the impact of that I mean we're we're monitoring it so we want to kind of like experience see what that cost is so that we're able to clearly Define what a cost savings an HR person would be for the district and we're not in any way I don't want you to think um being Martyrs because we're not because that's a position that I

089do think is needed and I also want to be strategic with the committee about when we bring that position in because it is a needed position Mr NES thank you I'm trying to be good I really am but I think I think this is a position that is very much needed as big as a bigger District as we are I think this is a position that we need you know I for one and unfortunately we've put the cops on the table but I would prefer to wait and see what comes down from uh Town Hall as to what what we're going to what the bottom line is going to be and you know if you know it's you know that amount of money shot type of deal then fine we can adjust the budget that

090way but at the moment I for one you know leave it in the leave it in the budget for now and let's see exactly how everything uh flows out and comes out with uh all the meetings that Mr Kylie and Dr Sable Maguire have having with uh with Town Hall that that's that's my opinion thank you anyone else I I concur with that I I do believe it's a needed position um and maybe the town can see that too since they have their own HR person um and maybe there is the money for it does that town HR person serve all other departments yes yes yes again I'm having trouble understanding so I think the consensus of this committee is to leave that position on the table right now okay we appreciate your support no

091problem no problem is there anything else Mr Kylie uh just wanted to fill you in that um obviously we have the we have the finance committee uh Thursday at 5: at Town Hall um we will have a budget hearing on March 24th here um the the school committee budget hearing so we'll be advertising that appropriately and um be an opportunity for people to speak about the budg budget um for you to further consider the budget and then at the following school committee meeting I'll ask that you vote on uh a budget proposal so okay that's what's coming up on that front thank you Mr Kylie cofin um yeah I just want to be clear about how the whole budget thing works so if as has been suggested by some people that the salaries for the

09211 full-time employees that are currently um on school choice if we wanted it to be in our regular budget and we put that to the town and the town says no so then we we we would not that this is happening this is hypothetical if we said that's what we wanted and we voted on it then we take it to the town and the town says no then it goes to town meeting and the town meeting can say no and then we just have to slash our budget is that correct yeah yeah it's pretty accurate that's pretty accurate yeah I mean the the select you know the select board and finance committee would would make a recommendation like if you voted a budget with an additional you know those let's say the the positions that

093are in school choice right um in the budget uh um you know you'd have a 7% you know 6 point something per budget um increase which I would assume that the town Administration would say well I can't help you with that and then um the finance committee and select board would make their recommendations to town meeting some different recommendation than what we are funded at and uh you know we proposing and then um yeah we would have to something else so it just seems I mean we've been using we used school choice last year and then if we use it this year we're just putting it off and putting it off and shouldn't we maybe take one of those positions and put it over there instead of pretending that we're not so over budget having

094it more out there um I see what you're saying because otherwise when you when we do run out of school choice funds um we are going to have to ask the town for more money and all of a sudden it's going to be well why do you need 6% more um I mean I know everybody's listening tonight as they do every two weeks and they hear this so um it shouldn't be gives surprise but it will be next year go I just don't know should we just push a little because it's not going away as every single person has said well to your point and I was I was going to hold off for another meeting but I don't know if me personally will vote Yes on this budget I think we need to have

095and maybe that can start at the presentation to fincom that I want to know that there's some plans in place for the following years that if we're going to use school choice for FY 26 well then can we at least have some kind of agreement either verbally or written or written preferably written would be better yes that there's going to be some kind of cooperation with the other departments in this town because at the end of the day we're we're out of luck come FY so I kind of am with Miss Coughlin on this to maybe break a couple it's a good point yes a couple of those positions um and if there's no interest in entertaining some kind of conversation or agreement or how we're going to handle this deficit that's coming down the

096road that I'll say put all 11 positions in there and then Mr Nunes can make a motion on the town meeting floor to take it out of free cash I don't think that's going to work again just speculation that's that's a that's a that's a great that's that's a that's a viable fund source that type I you get my point though I got your point AB absolutely here's my here's my concern leave this the way it is right now y for discussion purposes okay and I mentioned this at the at the last at the last meeting okay is the fact that if they cut us you know 1% that's $500,000 okay for discussion purposes okay that means at the end of FY 26 we're out of money okay you mean cut us down to 3%

097if if if if in their Infinite Wisdom we get cut 1% pick a number okay or anything yeah between the 4.1 and 3% for discussion purposes okay in FY 26 we run out of money at the end of FY 26 we basically are going to run out of money because that's 500,000 $550,000 give a take right okay that we're going to have to use in school either beat up the budget to find that 500,000 which is not going to be cute okay or use it from school choice okay and that in turn takes the uh takes that deficit and by the end of FY 26 going into 27 we're not going to have any money in in school choice to use that's that becomes my major concern overall somebody correct me if I'm wrong if

098I'm reading this wrong I'm you know no so and I have one other thing Mr chairman go ahead and I just want to piggyback and say thank you to uh Dr Sab Maguire about the speech you gave at the beginning of the budget with the Sr funds and everything else I mean you are absolutely correct somebody they need to go back and read the minutes from our meetings or go back and look at the DCTV tapes in the archives from when we got the SR funds because we started from day one we all the people that were on this committee at the time said from day one we knew that June 30th of 24 we were going to and we said it we were falling off a cliff because we weren't GNA we weren't going

099to have the funds and that but these were all positions that we needed because of what happened and what our students and our staff went through and everybody went through so we put these positions on which was absolutely needed again we used free money from the federal government to do it but we needed those positions and that's what we did and we said it all the time it probably every meeting that it came up about budgets or something of that nature there was a comment made by someone on this committee or maybe multiples that we were going we knew we were falling off that Cliff but we were willing to do what we needed to do to take care of the students and the staff in this District so thank you Dr saber Maguire for

100thank you reiterating that because it I guess has fallen on De ear for three and a half years so I don't have anything else other than thank you to you both thank you we certainly appreciate all the documentation uh I know that must have taken some time to collect all that data so thank you um to you and your teams thank you thank you anyone else I do appreciate this additional information it really helps and I hope it will help down the road uh for folks to see this it's in black and white yeah okay so that concludes our budget discussion a new business superintendent's update Dr sa Maguire some this is always news this is always that's what I was just going to say let's talk about some you know really great things that

101are happening because like I start off by saying as is the norm right so many wonderful things to highlight that are happening every day in the dartus schools you got to see evidence of that today right tonight this evening when you see the students come here with their families and talk about what they're engaged in during the school day that is the experience that dma students are having and that was a really great cross-section of kids that you had here in front of of us this evening to see just how widespread that is that's not a handful of kids that's a good number of kids um so I mentioned already that I was at the Dello today and last week I've been spending time in schools I spend time on schools but these are scheduled

102visits that we pre-plan from the beginning of the year and I was able to visit many classrooms and and when we're doing that we're doing that um and we're we're looking through a specific lens so for the past uh week and a half as we're spending time in schools we're really talking about what does literacy look like in the classroom and we have some very specific things that we're looking for and we're talking about with our leaders and we're hearing about from our teachers um and when I say that that's at all levels High School Middle School elementary tomorrow we're at the kushman and I can tell you that there's high quality teaching and learning happening in the Dartmouth public schools and I can say that with great confidence I can say that to the

103public I can say that to parents I can say that to teachers I can say that to students and I can certainly say that to our committee and these are classrooms where kids are thriving um just this past week I've had an opportunity along with Mrs Pavo uh to enter into classrooms where our teachers are using are piloting the the new resource that we're launching full uh fully in the fall and I have to say that we talked with a veteran teacher who's been using this resource and she couldn't have been any more excited about the work that she was doing with her students and what we're hearing from our teachers that are invested in this resource and I'm sure spreading that excitement to their colleagues is that they're learning right alongside with their students

104and so in this particular teacher they was um classroom they were studying um ancient China and you they had calligraphy going they had symbols they had the the the Dem dimensions of learning that were happening were incredibly complex and at the same time it really did highlight just how much our kids love to learn and so with this um new resource and Mrs poo is going to come up in the next few weeks and talk about it um what we're finding and what we're hearing from our teachers is that this is again a veteran teacher who's saying well this is really had an imp impact on my approach to teaching and it has inspired me in some ways that maybe weren't quite anticipated again an excellent teacher to begin with who's now given that tier

105one high quality core resource and you watch what teachers can do with that resource because she wasn't relying on that resource uh word for word right she was bringing her own experience and her own knowledge into her classroom to share with her students and it was really vibrant we saw this in a couple of other places as well so this isn't just a single classroom with a single teacher we saw this in multiple places and so when you bring that resource to life that's when you see the difference that it can make on not only teacher practice but teacher investment and student learning um so again classrooms across the district are doing this as a matter of fact we're in also a math CL a couple of math classes but just highlighting a few we

106are we're in a third grade math class and I had to take a photo of of the work that the kids were doing and of the board and to think about like as an elementary teacher what I saw the kids doing I think I was probably teaching in fifth grade so when you introduce those things those sort of high quality um just opportunities to engage in the complexities of Mathew again you heard that today you heard that this evening kids will rise to the occasion and teachers are seeing the benefit of again your investment by the way from what I understand essr funds in bridges and that was something that you made an investment in and we're start we're really starting to see the impact that that can have on kids um and teachers so

107I and and talking to the teachers about it I get so excited when teachers are excited because you walk into and they they want to tell you all about you know what they're doing with with their students and the impact fact that these resources but again the resources are only as good as the person who's implementing the resource and so we rely on our teachers but I've always said it's our responsibility to give our teachers the resources that they need to do that work with their students um I just will mention I had a the opportunity to serve as a mock judge for our robotics students um they did compete this weekend one of the team um selected to be the third place alternate team so you get to pick your team um when you're

108in the top three you get to pick any other team to compete with you as a teammate and so selected so one of our teams was selected and and I have to tell you I understood a lot more this year as a mock judge than I did last year so I was really happy with that but the students did a really great job in explaining to sort of me as a lay person what this robot was intended to do and how it sort of came to be and it's something that they work on all year long alongside their teachers who do such a great job helping them to prepare I'll mention uh Playbook because I think I mentioned it at the last meeting but this is work that's again ongoing this past uh week Tia

109rad and Audrey Audrey kersch hosted The Playbook initiative here different than the one that I talked to you about last time but this time they had old Rochester here so they had 60 middle school kids here and so double the fun and I'll tell you walking in and seeing those young students middle schoolers sitting listening to our high school students who I would say were well prepared and able to manage a group of 60 middle schoolers I'm not sure that I could say that with the conf with confidence that they had but remember that the activities that they're focused on are about empowering our middle schoolers empowering them to stand up when witnessing issues of hate discrimination and bias that is what the Playbook initiative focus is and it has been really successful this year

110and the DHS uh Multicultural Club is serve four members are serving to help support the students and they are going to be producing a video that I'm sure we'll get to share with you um towards the end of the year to highlight the work that they've done this year and so on Wednesday and Thursday a different um I know I mentioned World lunch language teachers last time but again they're participating in two two uh two-day professional development uh Again part of the yearlong effort to vertically align World Language remember back to our strategic plan right and it's right there it's it's um teaching and learning one and thank you so much from for Mrs C Coria who made that direct link to our district strategic plan and you can see how clearly it's understood by

111folks in the district and as far as uh strategic initiative uh teaching learning number two is design professional learning opportunities that are relevant and support professional growth we are in the process right now of establishing a districtwide professional development committee Again part of our strategic plan and we're going to be putting out a call to Educators to serve on this Committee in a capacity that will give them an opportunity to have voice as we plan professional learning for our staff uh so that's under teaching and learning under budget and capital Improvement we spent quite a bit of time on that tonight but uh under HR which we've put under budget and capital Improvement we need to add to um you know our search for assistant principles at the Potter and the Quinn and the associate

112principal have um are are ongo well we the job ads actually have closed I'm pleased to say that we do have a number of applicants for all three positions and then I have to share that uh again bittersweet news our Middle School associate principal Sarah Deus has announced that she will retire at the end of the school year and I say bittersweet because we're sad to see her go but at the same time she already has a trip to Italy planned for September so that's the Bittersweet but we are certainly grateful for the work that she's done in and continues to do in Dartmouth as I say we're always looking for monitors substitute teachers I know it's Shameless plugging but I'm going to keep doing it and I'm pretty sure we need a custodian right

113now and so we're going to continue to advocate for folks to um go ahead and apply for those positions look on school spring it's updated on a regular basis under a family and Community engagement the DHS Orchestra you know headed to Spain for a February vacation by all accounts it was a fantastic experience had the church shared an email with us I think Mr Oliver you were part of that email to families and it was like it was really impactful to go through just the way that she was able to articulate um and they email the experiences that the students had and the wonderful like the food the the culture everything I mean it's all in this email we could forward it to you and you'll get a pretty good idea of of the experiences

114the uh students had and I just have to say this because even though it I did run into a group of students who are on the trip and they were discussing how they were all trapped in an elevator for 30 minutes together so I can't not mention oh you mm yes and it it was oh were you in the elevator oh good I'm so glad um but the students were I mean they they they were discussing it and I just happened upon the conversation and they they were discussing it in good spirit one of the things they said one of them said I thought was interesting was well you really find a lot out about a person when you're stuck in an elevator with them for 30 minutes and apparently it was 11 kids but

115still you know a memory forever um but under safe and supportive schools I talked about uh School visits this past week and it's about seeing kids in the lunchroom in the hallway classroom Educators have created an environment for our kids where you can tell they they they're happy to be in our schools and I share one example of a student who was having you know a little bit of a hard time and I saw a teacher who wasn't even the students teacher out in the because the the principal pointed it out to me out talking to that student getting them calm down reentering them so that they could return to the classroom and I'd also mention that I met was student advisory the high school students this past Friday and I asked them how and

116Mr Shay is with me um tell me about how you feel about your your school is this a safe place to be and unequivocally every one of them went around the table and talked about what a wonderful place that Dartmouth High School is and how safe they are here and feel how safe they feel in this school how well supported they are by their Educators and their school leaders and that one of them even expressed that she's a senior and is sad in some ways that you can see the year coming to a close and how fast it actually all goes goes by so that's something that we can all celebrate and that's my report so thank you thank you very much and I know Mr noon has the B stuff so I don't want

117you to think I'm just leaving it out don't no I know no problem I I do not have anything oh basketball they won that's right won I I just already knew so it's you know what was the score2 52 to 45 wow excellent do we know when the next game is who all right Ducks Thursday night ducks Whitman Hansen next on the great on the docket thank you for that update all right beautiful that's good or bad say that though I will turn it right over to Mr nuns for his update thank you Mr chairman uh one thing and I apologize I meant to bring this up on the I had it written down I forgot to bring it up on the budget Mr Kylie with the uh with the uh break that we had

118at the Quinn School type of deal did we incur a decent amount of costs with that there we we did incur some cost repairing that yeah we had um an excavator you know a vender come in and excavate the the area for us and um the and make the repair so so I mean I'm just wondering that's you know I think that classifies like for Reserve fund you know on un foreseeing type of deal so I'd like to see us apply to the finance committee for uh a reserve fund transfer for uh those costs to be reimbursed it's just my my thought just that's what that fund is for certainly Falls outside of the operating yeah you know that type of deal but back to you know in in all services thank you um this

119past Saturday uh we had from 11:00 until quarter of 9 we had 55 groups between Cad and percussion winds uh go through this school uh great day a lot big crowds so it was nice um I don't have our Junior vity score I couldn't find it and I forgot to write it down but our vity color guide took first place in their class with a 751 and our percussion got an 896 so that's an 89.6 so those were good scores you know for this time of the year just just coming out uh this coming Saturday uh we're hosting a uh WGI Regional for percussion uh starts at 10:00 in the morning and uh the pric is $114 for preliminary and $18 for finals or you can buy both for $24 if you're going to be

120at both and you know both groups you know all the groups compete both in the preliminaries and the finals uh dmouth is on at 2:00 and then they're back on at 81 18 and then Awards will take place after uh the I don't the the one thing I don't know and I'm I believe it's somewhere around 5:00 the uh the first half is going to end about at 2:45 and then the finals the preliminaries end then and then finals will start somewhere around 5:00 so you'll have a couple of hours in between times so that's what's going on our color guide is our color guide will not be here it's a percussion event only our color guide has back up in Salem for the day so that's what's going on there oh and we've got

121High School concerts coming up we've got uh we've got the ban concert tomorrow night and then uh I think next week is uh chorus and then oestra on T Tuesday and Thursday so that's all I have Mr chairman it's quite a bit thank you Mr NES great job to all those groups anyone else right next regular scheduled meeting of the Dartmouth school committee is for Monday March 24th at 6:00 p.m. right here in the Dartmouth High School library media center at this time chair will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session pursuant to Master General Law chapter 30A uh section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining where an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the school committee's bargaining position Dartmouth administrators Association Dartmouth Educators Association and asme pursuing

122to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21 to conduct strategy sessions and preparations for negotiations with nonunion Personnel assistant superintendent of Finance in operations so move second and that is not to reconvene sorry not to reconvene so we have a motion by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Beckwith on the motion any other discussion roll call please misser John Nunes yes Mary Beck yes best Coughlin yes Chris Oliver yes motion passes unanimously 4 to0 meeting is adjourned Happy Thanksgiving for