001[Music] for [Music] for [Music] all [Music] committee to order we're just experiencing a little bit of feedback there we go let's try this again good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the doou school committee to order for Monday September 9th 2024 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 once again everyone we like to welcome you all to uh Monday night's meeting the Dartmouth school committee uh like to remind everyone that this meeting is being uh videotaped for rebroadcast on uh DCTV as well as our own Dartmouth High uh media channel and we always
002thank Mr parate and his uh students for uh their dedication to the uh to the uh this program a roll call please Chris Oliver here Elizabeth Coughlin here Mary Beckwith here Kathleen Amal here John new Yep looks like everyone is here this evening thank you very much just a reminder to please silence any cell phones if you have not done so yet this time we have a lotted 10 minutes for anyone wishing to speak on any of tonight's agenda agenda items uh if you if you have anything you'd like to uh comment on we ask you to please approach the microphone and keep your uh your comments brief uh no more than three minutes going once going twice moving on from public comment thank you everyone at this time I'm going to uh turn it
003over to Dr Sab Maguire for some exciting information yes we are happy to welcome our new teachers to the uh Dartmouth Public Schools I'm sure they are super excited to once again U be highlighted publicly we did ask them to stand during our um convocation and I have to say in having conversation with them and knowing what it was like back in the day can you believe I actually remember that that first day I had to stand up in an auditorium as a new teacher um and have all eyes on me but I want to say that I hope that they recognize that they're joining colleagues across the school district who have had amazing careers here in the Dartmouth public schools and that we're so excited to welcome them to the Dartmouth School Community as
004as new Educators and so with that I'm going to turn it over to U Mrs Pavo and Dr TBO who are going to going to talk to you about project time they're going to give you an overview and our um new educators will be introduced so thank you hi everybody ready to roll ready all right here we go so um project time is actually an acronym time stands for Teacher induction and mentoring experience um and so it is a program that's designed to support our Educators as they transition to Dartmouth Public Schools we are um obviously aware that some of our educators are not new to the profession but new to the district and so that induction piece is really about acclimating our new staff to the district the um kind of ways of doing
005things that we do them here um and for our new teachers um there is so any teacher who does not have a professional license there is a requirement to do an additional 50 hours of mentoring in year two so induction and mentoring is a requirement by the state of Massachusetts along with licensing um when you renew your license to go from initial to professional there's a requirement that you have done an induction in a mentoring program um but beyond requirement it really is one of my favorite things that we do it's a great way to introduce our staff um to make sure that we are welcoming them and to set them up for success and Dr T was going to talk a little bit more about the why it's so important so project time is
006extremely important um as a support for our new Educators who are transitioning to Dartmouth um you know we certainly strive to recruit the very best U Educators we can but recruitment uh is not enough right we want to retain our educator force and so Dartmouth uh public schools has had um success retaining Educators and a major part of that is because of the project time and because of all the mentors um who support our new uh Educators when they come to the district and we're going to thank them by name a little bit later on but again I just want to highlight that you know our most recent retention rate is 92.2% last year was 92.4% so it's right around that 92 993 % which is is um is is pretty high um and so
007especially given the way that the um profession has changed over the last 15 to 20 years where um Educators don't always come and stay in one District um there is a lot of movement uh from District to District so you know can't highlight that retention rate enough and thank our mentors enough because really they're the Cornerstone of making sure our new Educators stay with us for a while and we saw that at the new convocation um Dr Sabre guire asked all the Educators with 5 10 15 20 25 years to stand and it was amazing how many have been here for 20 to 25 years um already so it speaks to that for sure so just a little bit about the logistics about how project time runs um as Dr tibo said we have experienced
008and trained mentors so there our requirements to be a mentor in the district um you have to have been a teacher in the district for 5 years you have to hold a professional license um and we do a training with our mentors um around what makes an effective Mentor um we pair them as much as we can with a job alike person who's in their building and so both of those things are important right someone who knows the job you're doing but also someone who knows your space and can tell you where the copers are and where the bathrooms are and right all of those things that kind of going to a new space and feeling like you belong we do a lot of work with our students around creating a sense of belonging we
009do just as much work with our staff on making sure that um Dartmouth is a place where they feel like they are wel and they feel like they can be successful um and then in addition to that um our we have a monthly project time meeting with M Dr tibo and myself and we do all kinds of introductions again to sort of Dartmouth things to Global things we review teacher evaluation we review reimbursement we do some really just general good practitioner pieces and really we have a small group this year but we're trying to tailor it to their needs we shifted our practice a little little bit where we have Dr TBO meets with just the secondary folks we meet with the whole group together and then I meet with the elementary folks and we
010really try to tailor it and make sure that um you know we're using their time effectively as well as uh Mrs poo referenced already the role of Mentor is really just that it's to serve as kind of a sounding board someone who our new Educators can go to you know um we're very fortunate in Dartmouth to recruit uh Educators who have experience in other districts so the the role of Mentor is more about how do we do it here in our district and who do I you know putting uh the new Educators in touch with the right people um and again I can't stress enough how uh thankful we are to our mentors um because they really serve as The Confidant and first line of support to our new Educators so we roll through that
011quickly because we are not what tonight is really about um and so I would like to invite our mentors and our mentees up as we introduce you to our school committee and to our community at Large and I'm going to start with my elementary folks so um I know Elementary folks are good at a good line so if my elementary folks want to file up here I'm going to start by introducing you to uh Miss Logan jro and this is where they get to just stand and listen to me talk about them so Logan earned her bachelor's degree from Bridgewater State University and her master's from Emerson college she is entering her third year providing speech services with experience in both private and educational settings and in her first year a speech language pathologist at
012the kushman school one of the things that we asked all of our new Educators is why Dartmouth and so Logan said I wanted to join a community of related service providers that is truly collaborative and cares about the students that they provide services to dartman Public Schools Fosters a unique and supportive Community we welcome Logan and Logan's Mentor is Mrs Marian Sorenson a speech language pathologist at the Quinn School we'd also like to welcome Mrs Linda Hamilton Mrs Linda Hamilton is something that I think you will uh has one of the characteristics of our new hires that has become also one of my favorites she is a Dartmouth graduate who has come back she earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth she's entering her first year as a third grade teacher at
013the Quinn school but has various teaching roles in education including several years as a middle school math and science teacher in New Bedford Linda's why Dartmouth was I've lived in Dartmouth my whole life it is the school system that my own children go to I've always valued the experiences that I had attending Dartmouth and want to instill some of those experiences into other children in the community Linda is being mentored by Jessica CER a third grade teacher at Quinn school who unfortunately had another commitment tonight so with that we can get to our secondary folks the first um you you guys can thank you can't see the TV here so if the secondary folks could make their way so our first uh new educator is Mr Jeffrey um Jeffrey Carrero and he's a special educator
014at Dartmouth middle school and we very fortunate uh to have Jeffrey Jeff earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts amher he is a Dartmouth High graduate which is again a common theme amongst many of our new Educators um and he's entering his eighth year in education it'll obviously be his first as a special educator at Dartmouth middle school and for why Dartmouth um Jeff's response was to support the community that supported me when I while I was growing up and so um Mr Carrero is being mentored by Mrs Lisa Katz T tjon sorry about that Mrs Sarah duy is our second uh new educator at the secondary level she earned her bachelor's degree or bachelor's degree is plural I should say from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in English literature she also has
015a bachelor's in Humanities and social sciences she has a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling which she earned from assumption University and a certificate of advanced graduate study in school leadership from American International College uh Mrs du's first official day I think was today um you know so we're very fortunate to have her she's served in a variety of roles in education including as a social worker a guidance counselor an attendance counselor and most recently as a call officer um and this will be her first year as a school guidance counselor at Dartmouth middle school and for why Dartmouth um Mrs Dury said my own children attend Dartmouth schools and have had an amazing experience I want wanted to be part of the community so we welcome uh Mrs duri um who's going to be mentored
016by Mr paulan at Dartmouth High School uh we have Mrs Erica thibo who is uh school guidance councel here at dmouth high school um Mrs thibo is entering her 20th year in education um having served previously as a World Language uh instructor World Language teacher at Bridge reham um this would be her first year as a school guidance counselor here at dmouth high school and she comes to us having earned bachelor's degree from Wester State College and her master's and uh her Meed from Salem State and Cambridge College for why dmouth uh Mrs liido said uh when I interviewed in Dartmouth the first time I was welcomed and I knew I wanted to be part of this District I am so happy to be here in the one Dartmouth Community to support this wonderful group
017of students um Mrs tiido is being being mentored by Ms Nicole Heath in the guidance Department here at darmouth high school our next new educator is Ms um Kristen Rose um M Rose is also Dartmouth High high school graduate and I should just share that um two of our new educators are also graduates of the Mrs poo elementary school classroom sharing that which I was planning on it oh so so um true yes um so M Rose uh earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts darmouth and has a master's degree in social work from Boston University she's entering her fifth year in education she has been a school social worker School adjustment counselor um for the past four years at uh the for in the Fall River Public School System for why Dartmouth
018um M Rose said I am a 2012 graduate of Dartmouth High School I enjoyed my experience in darmouth public schools and wanted to give back to the community I came from and so we welcome M Rose back to the darmouth community and she's going to be mentored she's in great hands with Mrs Kathy Thomas one of our social workers here at darmouth High School Mr Thomas mayol uh is also a Dartmouth High School graduate uh Tom actually joined us a little bit around the halfway point last year um and so this is the first opportunity for us to introduce uh him but uh Tom earned his uh bachelor's degree in business management from Bentley University um he's entering his second year as a computer science and business teacher here at darmouth high school and for
019why dmouth he said um an alumni who spent the first 18 years of my life in Dartmouth and you only get one Hometown so we are happy to welcome uh Mr Mayo back to uh Dartmouth um he is being mentored by Ms Jamie O'Neal Who unfortunately is a little little under the weather um and could not make it this evening and finally uh and certainly not least by any means we just want to thank the mentors again uh it is a commitment on the mentor from the mentors to really invest their time energy um and support our newest Educators and without them um you know we wouldn't be in the position or be the strong District that we are so I want to we want to thank Mrs Jessica CER Mrs Maryann senson Miss Jamie
020O'Neal m Nicole Heath Mrs Kathy Thomas Mr paon and Mrs Lisa cat sturgeon just once again for all your efforts in supporting our newest me uh newest Educators so thank [Applause] you turn over to you well thank you very much Dr tibo and Mrs uh Pavo and thank you to all of our mentors and mentees for taking the time this evening to come out and uh be introduced to the Dartmouth Community uh it's always it's always great to hear about those Dartmouth alumni coming back and as well as uh all the new folks that want want to make Dartmouth their home so I'll turn it over there any of my colleagues have any thoughts or I just Echo your sentiments and add uh some parents and also slash holding the two roles I know you're
021not I see you back there um really excited uh because it just seems to to me me I I presume sort of an extra layer of just increased engagement and and just wonderful to hear all the reasons why you you chose to be your why to be here so look forward to a successful year for all of you yeah congratulations welcome aboard uh it's always great it's one of the nights I do enjoy getting a chance to meet and Converse with some of the new teachers and the mentors and as I kind of always say you know lean on your mentors because they know what's they kind of know what's going on and somewhere down the line if there's something they haven't come across they may know somebody that has so they're you know they're
022here to help we're all here to help so welcome aboard and have a fantastic year I too want to welcome you all aboard I'm so glad that all of you are here um I do want to also commend the mentors because I know it's a time commitment and um and I know how critical me mentors have been in my professional life so again like John said use your mentors uh in this first year uh and the other thing I would say is that all of us have uh Dartmouth School email if you ever have any questions for us please don't hesitate um really the same thing um welcome back to the community those who are coming back and and welcome to the community those who are new here um and we hope that you find
023this community as great as we do thank you very much everyone would it be possible uh should we bring up the the first batch of mentors and mentees maybe for a for a photo opportunity yeah oh and we I think that we even have some help to take a photo with somebody here from Dartmouth week I I believe Dartmouth week is here oh there we go we go and I also want to say don't forget um Mrs Pavo has a photo um from 2004 and one of you may or may not be in it I did catch a glimpse of it today think maybe we want to come in a little more scooch in as they say yeah you guys could just get like a significant bit closer get friendly get know each make believe
024you like each other there you go that's good on the right there just one just again a little closer thank you took a bunch you guys are good thank you everyone and as always you're all more than welcome to hang out with us and uh enjoy the rest of ton Mee agenda thank you Mr L but feel free to uh head on out it's always great always good always always good all right at this time chair will entertain a motion for the approval of the regular session minutes of August second on the motion I'm sorry I made the motion Mr noon second best best okay thank you on the motion any further discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much if I could just uh indulge the committee for
025just one minute uh if I could take uh other matters that may not have been anticipated from the bottom and bring it up uh we have some uh student Representatives that Dr Saba Maguire would like to introduce uh to us this evening if that's with everyone and I'm actually going to intro I'm going to invite Mr Shay up to the podium as well um and our students thank you so much for being here I know you all have super busy schedules um so we have three of four students with us tonight and I'll have Mr Shay introduced them but I just want to say um to the students thank you so much for being willing to step into this role we know again that you have incredibly busy schedules and that this is something that
026takes time which I was really excited to hear how you kind of thought it out and thought between the four of you you could figure it out in a way that allowed the school committee to have a student representative here with us so when you come you'll have a seat right here at the table with us so isn't that exciting you'll be right on camera so something to look forward to um and so with that I'll ask Mr Shay to introduce you uh thank you everyone I I'm have the honor to introduce uh four candids actually one of them is auditioning right now now so um that's arbrey Kutcher she's not here she's in the auditorium I believe getting ready for Elf the musical first week in December quit promo um um but to here
027we have um Jordan Rosenberg um Elizabeth O'Neal and Haley zexter they are three of our four that have um been elected to represent um our school student our schools they wanted to split it up four ways to make sure that we can always have representation that was uh something we we thought about after last year and the year before where students had a hard time coming to every single meeting so we're going to work on a calendar for you all that will'll describe they're going to go by season CU um I'll let them tell you a little bit about themselves in a second but you'll hear that they're all actively involved in the school community so we want to make sure that it's fair to everyone that we have representation here by our student body
028but at the same time we can fluctuate who is there and we'll make sure you have that information as needed um that's great I know if you have any questions for the the do do you want to say a couple of things what did you warn them that they were going to be saying I said you might have to tell a little bit about yourself and why you're what you do at Dar with ey well I'll go first um I'm Haley I'm the secretary um student council um I think I just want to say it's a great opportunity for you guys um to be having us I really appreciate it um we're probably all going to say this and Mr Shay said it we're all very involved um I do multiple Sports and I'm very
029involved in like extracurriculars and believe in his school doesn't end at 203 um but honestly I just think it's a really great opportunity for us to come up here and also be involved from the student perspective um because we are student council and we've likeed to sit in and we've actually listened to these meetings um online and watched them but it's a really big thing to be a part of it as a student too um and have a little bit of a perspective or a say in kind of what goes on or just even just pitch you guys some things that the students are going through so I just want to say thank you thank you hi I'm Elizabeth and I am vice president um I want to also thank that the this is a
030really great opportunity for having us here um I think this is a good opportunity for us to express like the students feelings which they can't go to like say teachers about this will help bring voice to the students and yeah great and I'm Jordan um I also want to say thank you for the opportunity as well um like haly said I'm also very involved with school I just think it's really special to get give back and like work with all of the PE like teachers and students after school hours as well so I think this will be a really good opportunity to see kind of what goes on behind the scenes and just get to know more of everyone in dartman thank you so much great that's great thank you to all three of you
031for coming out this evening and we look forward to uh having you on our board with us uh I'm a firm believer in student voice and I would hope I would just ask uh this goes for the fourth person that's not here uh that please uh you know tell us what you think you know you're we understand you have commitments but we'd love to have you here as long as you can during the meeting if you have to leave early we also understand that but we we'd love to hear what you think on a a lot of topics that are discussed here uh so thank you all do does anyone have any other comments welcome welcome so looking looking forward to it and we appreciate you taking the time yes they're a great group of
032students I'm goingon to brag about them one more time we're really lucky to have their voice and you know their special group crew of students that's great thank you Mr sh all seniors right yes okay thank you excellent love it love it take him uh next up we have a consent agenda item for the Dartmouth High School PTO fundraising request for the 2425 school year I I just I mean I looked over some of the submissions and it looks like the um PTO at Dartmouth High School have lots of great things planned throughout the year to help support the school and the students the teachers and I have to say it's always a somewhat small group but it's a mighty group and they do such wonderful work in raising funding to support um the really
033a lot of the extracurricular opportunity that the students here at Dartmouth High School have so I want to thank them for that and again recognize as I say small But Mighty group of people who do so much great work for the community I would certainly agree with you Dr sa McGuire and thank you for all your work uh any comments or questions on uh this request just let me know when the restaurant fundraisers are if I don't have the shop cook or clean I'm golden you know where to find me motion to approve Mr chairman second motion by Mr noon second by Mrs Amaral on the motion any further discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries unanimously thank you thank you next up under old business preliminary FY 26 budget standing agenda item
034to update the committee on budget discussions and anything that has transpired since our last meeting uh and so I'm going to turn it right over to Mr Kylie but just with the preface that this is an item as we say we're calling it old business but this is St really standing business for us in the Dartmouth School community and Mr Kylie is as you know um doing his due diligence to prepare uh a budget earlier than ever and not just one but really two budgets uh in order to work with the community to ensure that we have the funding needs of the school met and that we're all um on the same page as we go through this process together so Mr Kylie thank you thank you Dr s Maguire so um as we discussed
035the last meeting um I'll be preparing a draft budget projection for the September 30th budget subcommittee uh meeting um we had some discussion at the last meeting about um possible sources of funding um I I think given where we are in this budget process I would suggest that we um hold off until we have a draft budget to begin that take that discussion to the next level of um potentially funding a deficit so um you know the the plan would be at September 30th to have a draft and it's definitely going to be a draft because there's going to be a lot that we don't know at that point um pretty hard to project with so many uh so many Loose Ends but I'll do my best and it'll be close anyway as close as
036we can get and then um that will really sort of set the stage for what has to happen after that um I I'll say that the U Town side of government I'm encouraged by um the discussions that I've had very prelim Ary discussions not really talking about numbers but talking about the willingness to consider the needs and um openness to starting this discussion and um trying to solve problems so so been encouraged by that so and I've been really focused on getting school open at this point uh but but I'm going to shift that Focus to the budget PR just um we did have a subcommittee meeting um just a couple weeks ago and again I want to thank uh finance committee members who have joined us uh quite a few at least the last
037two meetings and so I think that's helpful I think that speaks to what Mr Kylie is saying about having those conversations on an ongoing basis with all departments and all of our standing committees here in Dartmouth no I would I would certainly agree and I think the more open communication that we have with the other uh committees in town uh we will go a long way uh because I I think there's there's no easy way around this um and I I look forward to continuing the budget discussion um at the next meeting Mrs amarel um I just a tactic that I'm thinking might be helpful as we are you know revisiting this each meeting uh you we say we're we're constantly saying and and you and you just reiterated on September 30th this is so
038early this will be a draft um and maybe youve done this in the past I just don't recall is there a way to sort of Watermark anything that we're putting up with the draft like the old school and you know word doc that way anything that's get screenshot that there's no going back to say why did you say $10 when you're saying $15 and that sort of thing where it could be watermarked until we have that final proposal that visual cue AB absolutely we could do that yeah that's a great idea to yeah to support the the verbal que is a good ide yeah y y perfect thank you for that M anyone else no I said my piece at the last meeting so I'm good right now but again it's it's it's just a
039matter of putting it together seeing what it looks like and then waiting for everything else to drop into place it's you know it's a you know it's Mr Kylie's best guesstimate that he can give us at the moment and it's all contingent on so many moving Pires s that and you know we're five months ahead of doing anything that we normally in not so much last year but in previous years that we've done right so but we you know the effort is appreciated I just wanted to ask what um what are the next steps the initial next steps after September 30th yeah so um I think that there's multiple steps that sort of have to happen at the same time so certainly the budget subcommittee is an important step and um I think that we'll
040have a robust conversation about okay this is what this looks like and um at that point then I think we bring it to the school committee for discussion but we also try and um you know begin the discussion on the on the town side of the the town's operation um to figure out okay what are we looking at um you know our our budget has averaged approximately a 3 and a half% increase for for um over the last 10 years um so last year we were you know told that we had to settle for 3% um that's a big difference in and of itself um so having those discussions and understanding where the fle what flexibility the town may have I think is important um so I I think we'll you know go in those
041two directions and try and uh move on from there in terms of okay how big is the problem and then what are the possible solutions um you know we've talked at length um about well we solved in some way the the fy2 budget with the use of reserves um that is a possibility that could be a a portion of the solution perhaps um maybe all of the solution for a short time but um you know I think that those things I I feel like without an actual budget proposal um or a draft um I think it's a little premature okay thank you um and I I think it's amazing that you Mr Kylie are doing the work to get a budget draft out there so early I'm wondering are there other Town departments that are
042also working on early budgets so we know where they're going and what their needs might be it plays a big role it's a good question because obviously we are um while while we're a significant portion of the the town's operation and certainly um as it should be we we're not alone and we have um a lot of other departments that have significant needs in town um the the we had a town Department head meeting this morning at which time there was discussion of moving up their portion of budget preparation I don't it won't be as fast as what we're doing but it will be in advance of when they would normally do it um so they're they're aware they're prepared to start that conversation on the town side and um hopefully by the time we
043have some of our preliminary conversations with them based on the drafts um you know that there'll be some more information from the from the town departments as to you know things that are out of the ordinary on their side so great thank you I guess I'll just add that my Hope from the budget subcommittee subcommittee meeting in the 30th Is To Come Away with some some sort of um idea as to at least where I want to move towards and uh you know make that pitch at the next school committee meeting I can't speak for my other colleagues that's on the budget subcommittee but uh I think you know after listening to Mr Kylie's presentation um and having some open open conversations with some of the members there that uh I would hope to at
044least uh shed some light at the following school committee meeting on you know where the school department should be going from my personal opinion Mr Nunes yeah Mr thank you Mr chairman just sitting here thinking uh um at the last meeting you talked about uh having you know have inviting uh the select you know members of the select board and finance committee to one of our meetings yes you know for a discussion and that type of deal and I'm just thinking about it now is well the finance committee normally meets Thursday night but that's so that's fine but the Selectmen are kind of almost on our meeting schedule in other words you know we're meeting tonight as is the Selectmen they'll be probably meeting the 23rd which is our next so we may need to
045figure out a a different tactic Andor uh you know move one meeting a week ahead or a week back to in order to accommodate everybody I'm just thinking of that now so and I could be I could be dreaming but wasn't there something that got put out about a joint meeting an executive session that's right thank you one of the things that we did talking about I'm sorry in executive session right but one of the other things that we talked about in response to what you're saying Mr Nunes is the idea that maybe we could start earlier but then again that's about whether or not the committee is a every Committee Member is available um because remember what and I think it was a great suggestion to have select board here when we present the
046actual District strategic plan um that we could do that earlier in the school committee agenda yeah if we if we were a if you were all able to be present earlier and I know that some of your work obligations might not allow that but we could think about doing it that way yeah good point Mr nin thank you no problem anyone else thank you Mr Kylie as always uh next up under new business Capital Improvement planning update so again a segue this a great segue right because you can't separate Capital Improvement planning from from budget and so I know that Mr Kylie does have some updates for us this evening and again I think that points to some of the positive conversation that you've had um with members of the Town yes thank you Dr
047s Maguire does I I think I definitely am encouraged obviously um so the current capital Improvement plan uh exists you you actually voted it as a committee back in January the site the capital Improvement plan Cy is typically that um we create a plan we created it earlier again than we ever have before usually that's voted you know a little bit later um but we we got that done we did receive funding for several projects at the Jun toown meeting just for to to um to refresh everybody it was technology infrastructure improvements Vehicles flooring replacement and fire system upgrade design at the June annual town meeting so that was a positive step considering the prior year we had received no funding for anything um so I I had provided you with some information and in
048the right hand uh the right hand column on on the the summary page the first page um represents the projects that are up for consideration by the capital Improvement planning committee for the October 15th fall town meeting so first they um they need to go before the capital Improvement planning committee um they will make recommendations which will then be considered by the by the finance committee um and then by town meeting so um the timeline is pretty tight that's a month away you know just slightly more than a month away so the things that we have on the list right now that that are up for consideration are high school track reconstruction $540,000 bathroom Renovations $150 ,000 interior and exterior painting $75,000 Energy Efficiency projects $120,000 music equipment $65,000 generator replacement that's the Quinn School
049generator $150,000 and Stadium Renovations estimated to be $5 million the other item that is was on our list and was not funded um was technology Hardware replacement it was on our list originally for $200,000 we've revised that to 300,000 uh as you probably remember that during the the the budget process um not last year but the year before uh the $200,000 technology Hardware replacement that we had received for at least 12 years um had been removed from the schedule a and is a critical part of us maintaining current uh technology um so that was removed uh this request is going is to reinstate that and make up for some of the Lost funding and hopefully lead to ultimately to a restoration of of that funding of what is an annual need there's there's no way
050around it um so I will be meeting with the capital Improvement planning committee on Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. advocating for all of these projects I I as s McGuire mentioned there's been positive conversations about this um so I I do feel that that our projects are going to be considered seriously um in this process so I I'm I'm happy about that for sure um and these are things that are certainly in need the high school track is original you know to to the construction of this building probably a high a high school track at best should last 15 years this this one's well past that um and it's in pretty rough shape we patch it we cut sections out and um and then replace them but um that's that's not a not a long-term
051fix um you know all of these things are things that are really just minimum requirements to kind of keep things going um my my expectation is there won't be $5 million out there for stadium Renovations I don't think that's probably going to happen but I hope that the rest of the items on this list will will have strong consideration be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you Mr Kylie questions for my colleagues Mr Nunes thank you uh Mr chairman appreciate this uh I don't have anything on my calendar Thursday I may join you it is a public meeting you're welcome to plus I can always use a friendly face um but yeah so it'll be at Town Hall I I think in the select Board Room last one was yeah somewhere on
052the third floor anyway I'll find it thank you but um I was you know kind of jumping ahead here uh and that and and just looking like you know I remember getting we got the letter from the fire chiefs about the fire systems and and that type of deal and you know notice that you've got it on in 26 type of deal you know there there's money in 26 and I think 27 to to get it going along with a whole bunch of other things and this is this is a very concise uh report in listing in the explanations attached to it are uh fantastic it you know was helpful to me to see what what it was for and what we need and such so I thank you for that the only question I
053have and I know that schools are somewhere down the line going to have to come to fruition the decision is going to have to be made and I noticed that you had U uh Potter and Demello I think with the windows you know just because of their age yeah pot and you know that's that that I would assume that's an iffy depending where we're headed that's right yeah yeah I I think the you know the overall direction of the of a new school uh in the district would obviously impact that and if if it were to be an elementary school then then yeah obviously I I don't think it would make sense yeah to to do that um you know we do have a new school listed on here um I've been actively participating in
054the long-term capital planning process with the town and um that's a that's going very well um now we are not actually advocating for any of the major projects yet so we're not at that that far in but we have identified them understand the cost understand the capacity of the town to borrow um so it's it's exciting and and I think the intent is to inform the the the populace of you know what's going to be needed over the next 40 years and um this is how you might pay for it so um I think a lot more is coming including we anticipate a presentation at least a summary presentation at the October 15th town meeting regarding the efforts that we've been making so so it's that's moving in a positive direction too thank you sir
055you're welcome anyone else no I guess I'll just add that I while I certainly appreciate and I look forward to the long-term capital planning committee uh continuing to do its work I I've been saying we've we've got to do something about a new school for the past decade um and the prices aren't going to get cheaper they only going to get more expensive this District it it just it just becomes very very frustrating um we see I I see what other neighboring communities are doing with their school systems and I think I think the community owes it to all the all the kids as well as their own students that probably went through here at one time or another um I just hope that uh this isn't just something that just continues to be prolonged
056I I appreciate while I appreciate the work of the long-term planning committee it's just we need a new school we needed it 20 years ago um and I'm I'm just tired of of beating this drum so hopefully something can be done so Mr alliv our we need new schools right so we don't just need a new school we actually thank you for that direction we do need schol um and one of the things that you had suggested a bit ago is that we actually take you know identify a group including select board finance committee those folks and bring them out to our schools um maybe take a Saturday and do a tour of our buildings to actually show some of um again the the maintenance crew here our custodians I just want to say they
057do a fabulous job when I walk through schools the past couple of weeks they are sparkling they truly are despite their age and at the same time there are some things that facilities and custodians that they they're not able to really address um in a way that brings us up into what you were saying uh School you were saying Mr Oliver about other schools around us who really have some Modern facilities that are really comfortable and create amazing learning spaces for kids um so we have wonderful staff out there who take the because it's not about the building itself it's about what goes on in the building we all recognize that wonderful things happening here and at the same time look at the new configuration of the library and look at the way the space
058has been organized in a way that really is conducive to student engagement and collaboration we had a group of adults sitting in the corner when we came in in a nice little sort of Cozy Corner where you could Envision how kids could be using this space our students could be using this space in a way that really does encourage that kind of collaborative environment that our students are going to leave Dartmouth High School and that is going to be um sort of the world that they're going to live in and so seeing this itself is just this is great yeah and it truly is and we just love the way the space is used creatively to actually allow more opportunities for students to engage and this is just one small example of what can be
059done no C certainly agreed uh and thank you for the correction on schools plural um but at the end of the day it's doas infrastructure it's no different than the B and Sagamore Bridges going over the cape they need to be replaced and they're just about as old as those bries well they are just about as old and you can pay the piper now or pay them later and it's going to be more money later so I just hope um staying positive yep uh next up superintendent update great this is always my favorite part so I am I was thinking that I hadn't all that i' had already shared with you how wonderful the beginning of the year was but I realized when I thought back last time we met we had just had convocation
060which was wonderful and now schools are open um and I have to say that even that uh feeling that I had that first day of convocation and the energy that the staff brought into that space that day is truly evident in our schools um they've returned with such great spirits and in turn have welcomed our students back to school and with I would say a way to characterize it is with warmth and enthusiasm um can't say I say it all the time but how impressed I am with school district leaders teachers everything that all have done to ensure the successful opening of the 20242 school year um it's really amazing to me to think that you know that's the actual year that we're in when I think about inviting uh some of our new teachers
061and certainly some veterans were here with us but we see the long career that they'll have ahead of of them uh this past week I had the opportun well last week I had the opportunity to join principal Shay and Associate principal chavier in a meeting with the superintendent advisory this is a group if you remember that we started last year um a group of students that are real randomly selected so we have two freshmen two sophomore two Juniors two seniors and I want to say that I think that's a really important group to meet with um and I'm pleased to see how diverse the group is and how much they even in that that you know monthly meeting have been able to support each other and what I mean by that is we have a
062senior who was so welcoming to the two freshmen and think about like what uh sort of intimidating experience it can be for a couple of freshmen to walk into a space with upper class people who are pretty um I would say well known in the school and that's the kind of of climate and culture that we have here at Dartmouth High School I'm also really pleased to say that despite some of our hiccups our transportation has our buses our folks Lauren py Jim Kylie have done an outstanding job making sure that our students get to school and get home safely because after all that's what it's all about the safety of our students is our our primary purpose we understand at the beginning of the year that there can be some hiccups and that we
063have to make some adjustments and we expect to do that and at the same time we also want to recognize that our primary import our primary purpose is safety safety getting students to school safely and getting them home safely we have had some challenges at the middle school again the beginning of the year the middle school is probably on the busiest or busiest Street or one of the busiest minus Route 6 in um in Dartmouth and yes there is quite a bit of traffic that can get backed up there um and again just a reminder last year uh the police department we did have our police officers who were at our schools and helped to do some of that Crossing and that traffic work that's no longer the case and that's because they simply couldn't
064staff it and at the same time the police department is supporting us in front of our schools in monitoring traffic and taking action where they think it's needed so we just want to remind people that it's still the beginning of the year and that means there are still some students who may be getting rides that won't be soon and vice and so we're still working through some of that it's um September 9th and so hope hopefully over the next few weeks we'll see that there's there'll be some relief from some of the traffic congestion that's happening um but thanks to our thank you to our families and school-based folks for patience and support because when there is a challenge we're working it through together and that's what's important too about recognizing that there are sometimes
065going to be challenges that we have to work through together so um just on to the teaching and learning piece normally we'd wait until probably after October 1st because that's when we have to report our official enrollment to the state but I thought I'd take some time just to update you as to where we are and then after October 1st give you a more formalized uh presentation that would be something that we'll do through a PowerPoint but I wanted to give you an idea as to where we are with the recognition that we we are actually still registering students for school um it's definitely slowing down uh again Jen masado has done an amazing job but I think we are at the elementary level we made some changes as you remember uh we moved the
066kushman kindergarten to the Dello um that again we're so pleased to have our kindergarteners at the Dello where they'll be spending really the next six years of their school life um and so we're so happy to have them there and I've seen how again the staff at the Dello has welcomed as they call them the the the littles to school um so happy to have them there and if you also remember we did move um three classrooms out of the Dello to make room for not out of but we elimin this goes back to budget and did have some impact so that's why I think it's important for people to hear what was that impact um let's see what that looks like so at Kinder the kindergarten level across the district at the Dello our
067average class size is 18 at the potter it's 19 and at the Quinn it's 16 so for a district average of 17 students um at the kindergarten level at the uh grade one level at the Dello we have 17 students at the potter 21 at the Quinn 21 and that gives us an average of 20 students in our grade ones across the school district for grade two at the Dello we have 20 students at the potter at the potter 20 at the Quinn 21 and that is a district average of 21 grade three we have 23 students in grade three at the Dello 23 at the potter 22 at the Quinn for a district average of 23 students in grade three in grade four we have 22 students at the Dello 25 at the Potter
068and 19 at the Quinn for a district average of 21 at in grade five we have 24 students at the Dello 22 at the potter 24 at the Quinn and that gives us a district average of 24 so um at the middle school we currently have 801 students and at the high school we currently have 900 students um and again when we do our more formal presentation we'll talk to you more about what that looks like and break down the middle school and the high school and give some ideas about what class size look like but I just want to remind people that there are times where you're going to see higher class sizes in some grade levels due to the birth rate that year um there are also going to be times where one
069school may have a few more students than another again based on where what where students are moving um but at the same time the district is paying excuse me paying attention to uh making sure that there is some parity across the district in terms of what class size looks like and I think from what you heard and again I'll give you this more formally so that you have it at your fingertips but that we do have a average class sizes that are reasonable and that across the the especially at the three elementary schools you can see that there's some equity in terms of the enrollment of those schools so that is under there under under HR or Personnel um I mentioned this last uh last at our last school committee meeting uh districtwide we're still
070in the process of recruiting for a behavior specialist the bcba that's an important position for us in the district you approved that for us last year and although we haven't filled the position yet we are already seeing quite early on uh the need for that position and the service that it will provide to our school district our teachers our students our families uh we are looking for a 05 PE health teacher um and then again at the district level a nonin under non-instructional we're still looking for somebody for our maintenance department but we're working on it um you know I'm happy to report that at the high school we are we have identified a World Language teacher we haven't unboarded them yet so I don't want to jinx us but I think we have a
071really wonderful person who will invite here to meet you since we weren't able to introduce her yet quite yet so we think that we're close again to we are on boarding that person this week uh we still need an El teacher elll English language teacher for our our high school and our middle school that's a shared position between those two buildings and three esps um we're still hopeful but we're close to filling both our custodial positions we filled one and we have one in hopefully again um that we'll be on boarding soon at the middle school I mentioned the El teacher we still need an ESP and we need somebody in Food Services at the Quinn um we're in pretty good shape at the Quinn um we're looking for an ESP and we're also looking
072for a full-time custodian and then the Dello again in pretty good shape we're fully staffed for our certified staff um and we're still looking for uh part-time custodian and food services so kushman we're in really great shape so we're fully staffed at the kushman school we're always looking for monitors though so when I say fully staffed please know that that is something that that particular position is one that we value and we're constantly looking for folks to fill that role um so Potter fully staffed I mentioned a couple of things that they're looking for but uh overall and you could see from um from Dr tibo and Mrs pavo's pres uh presentation that we have pretty good retention and that I think shows itself when you start talking about positions and what you what you're
073still or who you're still looking for um you know I always have to say it monitors substitute teachers esps uh Food Service workers always needed in the district so uh you'll constantly see that those positions are advertised and we just want to encourage people that think they may have an interest in one of those positions to apply um as far as climate and culture I'm kind of going to switch gears here a little bit because you know I want to acknowledge that there was a terrible tragedy that took place in Georgia um undoubtedly devastating to hear of the Educators and students there who KN needlessly lost lives and it's just an unimaginable Act of an individual our thoughts and prayer go out to the families of this school community that was impacted by this and
074at the same time what I'd like to do is reassure folks that in the Dartmouth Public Schools we pay a lot of attention to Safety and Security we are partnered very closely with Dartmouth fire with Dartmouth police and we do work closely together with all of our school-based teams to ensure the safety of our school Community um already if you and I read all the daily notices that our school leaders are sending out to their staff they're already you can see established routines uh what are the precautions that are there are precautions firmly in place across the school district and our staff and students are well-versed in safety procedures I brought this just um book the booklet I should say which is a comprehensive emergency plan now I mean a book itself or a packet
075doesn't have uh a lot of impact but what I can tell you is that this is something that I know leadership out in our schools is is sharing with our faculty and they're spending time going over this and it's been recently updated and it'll be something that we continue to remind people of um but at the same time again recognizing that there was a terrible tragedy that took place in our country uh just last week uh very obvious viously devastating for the community but here in Dartmouth and at the same time I should say in Dartmouth we do pay a lot of attention to Safety and Security measures and it is always our primary purpose to ensure the safety of our staff and our students and we'll be doing as a matter of fact we
076we'll be meeting with our safety leaders within the next week or two uh to talk about and update each other on some of uh the processes that we have in place um so I think though Switching gears back to it's been a positive real honestly a positive start to the school year I'm so excited to see you see we had our seniors here tonight a few of our seniors so you know that um they're going to be out there uh doing um just amazing things that we'll be able to share with you here at school committee I read Mr chrisa fi's morning Monday minute this morning our sports teams are off to a great start I'm looking forward to getting out there and seeing them I know that Mrs emal's daughter May qu her first
077goal her first lacrosse goal as a fresh as a field hockey oh did I did I say lacrosse I'm sorry I knew it was field hockey um I confuse them though to be fair they're very different they are different but I still get confused um so but I'm so excited to be out there and see her playing and Mrs Amaral I know you were so um proud of her and how excited she was to be able to to have that sort of moment as a as a freshman so looking forward to seeing what the sports season does Mr Nunes I am not going to say anything about the band I'm leaving it to you that's fine I'm super excited to see what what I have and I'm looking forward I did commit with Mr Shay
078that we are going to be working one of the games the Patriots games in the concession stand and The Patriot looked pretty good yesterday so let's hope that that's going to be a positive experience so that's all I have for you well thank you very much Dr Sab Maguire I thoroughly enjoy your uh super your superintendent uh updates that uhk you all-encompassing I I will like to I would like to take just a quick opportunity in a moment to since I wasn't able to attend the convocation I do want to uh recognize all the um Summer Staff the Dartmouth Public Schools maintenance department uh Administration uh the administrative assistance all of those folks that uh take the time and um you know work extremely hard over the summer to turn these buildings around um so
079I think it's important uh that we I I would just like to recognize them for all their dedication and their hard work and I also like to wish our um educational staff teaching staff a a wonderful year we hope it goes well um and we're very uh grateful and uh you know appreciative for all you do um for the dmouth public schools so thank you ever so much um that's really all I have um I'm going to turn it over to Mr Nunes for the band update thank you Mr chairman yeah the band is going uh doing quite well in all seriousness um we've got our first home football game Friday night uh against against Brain Tre the band will be performing part of their uh their field show their competition season starts the uh
08021st of September I think we're in Blackstone type of deal uh we have our home show uh right now Tena Lively scheduled for October 19th our us band's uh home show here October 19th uh again at the moment scheduled to uh start at 3 o'clock um at the moment again we've got uh 12 bands signed up so it'll be a you know I don't have any times that won't get posted until you know the first week of SE first week of October so I'll have that for our October 7th meeting type of deal but uh they're good to go I know I was watching the volleyball game before I came stuck my head into the volleyball game and we were ahead one to nothing and I had I don't know 22 to six or something
081in the second game so sounds like they've had they had a good night which is good and the rest of our teams are doing great so really thrilled for that which is what it's all about agreed thank you for that update anyone else have anything to share out I don't all right the next a regular scheduled meeting of the Dartmouth school committee is currently scheduled for Monday September 23rd 2024 right here in the Dartmouth High school media center uh at this time chair we'll entertain a motion to to adjourn into executive session for the purpose of an update on pending legal matters and not to reconvene into second by Mr Beck I'll give it to I'll give it to Miss Beck with on the motion any further discussion okay roll call please Chris Oliver yes
082M coflin yes yes yes yes meeting is adjourned everyone good night thank you [Music]