001e [Music] he [Music] good evening everyone I'd like to call to order this meeting of the school committee for April 8th please stand if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you everyone uh I just want to say before we start that this um oh roll call that's what I want to say before we start Amal here Oliver here best Coughlin here Mary Beckwith here John Nunes yep uh so um this meeting is being recorded um for um well live streamed and recorded for uh people to watch after um rebroadcast on DC TV channel 9 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5:00 Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Saturdays 8:00 a.m.
002Sundays at 2 p.m. and then also rebroadcast on DCTV channel 18 on Monday and Saturday at noon uh and Thursday at 3: so to begin the meeting as we always do I welcome anyone to step up to the microphone state your name uh We've allotted 10 minutes for public comment uh regarding any item on this evening's agenda so anyone that wants to say anything for public comment speaker once here hearing none and seeing no one making the move um that's it so I'm going to turn it over to Dr Sab McGuire to introduce our um got approval of minutes appr I thought I would get at one of these meetings but so I will entertain a motion for the regular session minutes for March 25th so move second okay we have have a a motion
003by Mr nun a second by Mr Oliver um all in favor I I I motion passes uh and I also will um take a motion for the executive session minutes for that same evening of stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed second okay we have a motion by Miss noons second by Mr Oliver um all in favor hi hi okay and then Mary for um would be ension for not being yeah that's okay one um so it passes four for 01 that would be both regular for both regular and executive session minutes for March 25th 2024 now we'll turn over to Dr s thank you so um I see the Quinn school team is here I'm going to invite who whoever is um going to be presenting
004this evening so I see the admin team is coming up to the microphone I see some teachers from the Quinn School are also with us this evening um so we're excited to hear and to see what you have to share with us good evening first we just want to thank you all for this opportunity to present present Quinn Spotlight on kids over the past several years we've tried to show our uniqueness uh that Quinn school has some of you might recall that we've talked in the past about our fifth grade peer leaders we've talked about stem initiatives um we've also showcased our entire staff um and how hard they work in their dedication as well as our PBIS initiative this year we're excited to present on how the Quinn School celebrates being inclusive and unified
005and in doing so we're very fortunate to have some of our staff here and I'm going to talk a little slow because there's about eight of them walking down the hallway right this minute but in the meantime we have Lindsay vafides here who is our past teacher at the Quinn school and Kim Carrero who is one of our Palace teachers um and again this is Dr Thomas and Steph y malovich the two assistant principes here and coming in shortly um they'll be here to answer any questions or anything after it and they are part of the voiceovers that you'll be hearing in our presentation we have Corey Diaz who is an occupational therapist Sandy alpal Roso one of our slps um Katie noise our school psychologist Mike Capello AP and Steph melow who is one
006of our Pal's teachers who also put together this presentation um that you'll be seeing tonight and unable to be here um who is also part of the voiceover is Maryann Sorenson hi everyone so we hope tonight's presentation provides you all with a really nice inside look highlighting the opportunities of our programs that what they offer to the elementary students throughout the district our staff Works tirelessly to provide an environment where inclusion and unification are at the Forefront of their daily routines at Quinn we have 34 classrooms K to5 and those 34 classrooms 100% of them are always willing and able to provide the integration that our students need to be successful we pride ourselves on creating a place that is shaped around the idea that Equitable doesn't always mean equal but we do everything we
007can to promote access to all so we hope you enjoy so I yep welcome to the Quinn school being a part of our Quinn Community is important to us we are always looking for opportunities to communicate in functional and organic ways throughout our day to a variety of familiar and unfamiliar staff thus our snack cart was born students sell snacks to staff within the building you say Hi I'm AR ask hi I'm AR would you like a snack would you like a snack which snack would you like did you he said that one can we look for it where is it green chips thank you what do you say Mr what do you say Ari thank you hi I'm AR you say hi but what do we say thank you and hi I'm AR thank
008you have a nice day have a nice day thank you our students have access to a variety of low Tech and high-tech tools to promote and enhance their learning throughout the course of each day [Music] go find the green circle next to Wednesday many of the students in our programs have a variety of sensory needs and therefore have motor brakes built into their day these brakes are meant to assist with a child's regulation and help them to achieve an optimal level of arousal each child's break is unique individualized to meet their needs under the guidance of the occupational therapist so if you see us on the swing or in the hallway riding a scooter board just know we are getting our bodies ready to work and learn meaningful learning is important and we believe it
009should Encompass more than just traditional academics students learn to navigate their Quin Community participate in seasonal activities such as pumpkin exploration and carving egg coloring they follow recipes and have building based jobs like shredding paper and recycling to name just a [Music] few program students are very much an integral part of the fabric of Quinn they have so much to offer our community and they help to make Quinn a better more inclusive empathetic and kind-hearted place where all people are welcomed accepted and [Music] loved relationships are so important at Quinn we Foster meaningful friendships for our children the genuine hugs high fives and pats on the back come so naturally and are heartfelt [Music] so I'm going to talk a little bit about the community outings and we are very fortunate that we're able to
010get out and do a lot of different extracurricular activities um some of the pictures that you see here are we we went to hetland Ice Arena for some ice skating we had gnome surf School come down and teach us some Dryland training uh We've also been involved in one of our favorite things this year has been fun trampoline park um as you can see the smiles and everyone this has been probably our our biggest hit this year um other things that we've done we've gone to Bay State Gymnastics um we've done bowling before so we really try and do provide the students with a variety of different experiences and we really feel like these experiences allow the students to explore some new environments helping them develop some physical social and communication skills and and really
011building their independence and [Music] confidence so my favorite day of the year is the day of the unified games we call it the school day games and basically what it is is we invite neighbor towns and programs to participate with us and this year it'll be at Dartmouth High School in a variety of different track and field events and just fun motor activities and this is just such an awesome day it provides and promotes inclusion it just Fosters friendships um we certainly promotes a lot of physical fitness and really creates an awareness as we have so many people involved from volunteers of the high school and the middle school to all of our staff and I hope that you guys can make it this year May 17th at Dartmouth High School this year we are
012very excited and grateful to have added adapted art and music to the program schedules this change to the schedule has provided additional opportunities for students to enhance their self-esteem increase social interactions improve language skills and has given an overall greater awareness of the Arts the students and staff look forward to miss robo's Hands-On projects during adapted art and Dr seagull's engaging songs and interactive instruments during adapted music next up adapted physical education we provide adapted physical education services in a small group sometimes within the regular fizzed class um so there's a lot of different ways that we try and uh provide these services to our students here at quein elementary school and basically what it does it really tries to help individuals respect needs improve their physical fitness motive skills coordination and overall health it
013also promotes social interaction teamwork and and self-confidence and I think the big part about adapted fette is that ensures that everyone has the opportunity to experience the benefits of physical activity and lead a real healthy lifestyle here at the Quin school we do our best to ensure every student has a voice and access to what they need to succeed assistive technology is a big part of helping students with diverse needs communicate learn show what they know and engage socially within our school community at the Quinn school we are proud to have students who are using a variety of communication devices that help them to communicate interact socially and engage with learning in meaningful ways these communication devices allow our students to be seen and their voices to be heard communication devices open doors for our
014students and break down barriers helping them to learn language and academic skills advocate for themselves make their wants needs and thoughts known and interact socially with peers as equal members of our school Community boy needs to clean go to actions clean clean up up up up he needs to clean up the car good job in the words of Rita Pearson every child deserves a champion an adult who will never give up on them who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be these are our Quinn School [Music] champions [Music] last year Lori denisio set the ball in motion at Quinn and opened up opportunities for further collaboration amongst staff to provide richer opportunities for our children with Kim joining the team and consistently being present within
015our building we are confident the students will continue to be supported thank you to all of our staff for all that you do for our children thank you [Applause] so thank you very much um we hope you enjoyed the presentation the people that I had mentioned before are here so um Sandy alom Roso Katie noise um I they were already here who else we have Corey and um Steph melow so again we'd be happy to answer any questions or any comments excellent I'll turn it over to my colleagues to begin any questions Mr Oliver wow so first of all great job putting this together I know there was no all of you and probably a few other people that are not here that put this together so I thought it was impeccably done um just
016the pieces to it um you highlighted a number of different things there's just so much to impack out of this video um I I think it my opinion is that the highlighting what is actually going on in some of your classrooms is so important um not only for the school committee but also for for the town in general to see what today's classrooms um especially in the the area that all of you uh work in um it it goes without saying that we have a dedicated uh bunch of uh staff at at Quinn and across the district um you know I could I could say a number of other things but I don't want to be too winded but um no congratulations um this was just so important to highlight and see the um the
017interactions with our students and what what we're actually doing on a day-to-day basis is huge so thank you all Yes um so I agree with everything what that uh Mr Oliver said um the communication with the computers how long have you had that um does every student who needs that or would benefit from that are they able to access it or is there some you know do we have funding gaps um I the physical education I think you know moving your body helps your brain work and um helps a person integrate with their class and their friends um but I'm curious about the computers I'll say so um what you see are communication devices and so there are um are a variety of types um we have some students well most of the students have
018dedicated devices and so a lot of times parents don't realize that they're a able to access that through their insurance so if a student um is unable to get their communication needs met verbally um you were able to go through your insurance and get a device funded you usually do need a speech pathologist um to help with that process and to write the evaluation and I am very proud to say that Dartmouth has really been above and beyond some other districts with helping our parents get those devices so we have um many more students with devices than you would in other districts but it's because we take that time that's additional time that we just seek out to help facilitate families so if we see that a student isn't able to make their needs um
019known within our district as speech pathologists in the district we help the families access that so because a student doesn't only need that to communicate during school hours they need that for life and so we help parents navigate that um and that's something we're really proud of we've done that for numerous years in the district we didn't have as many students as we currently do now who required that um and as we know with covid and just the way times have been changing and and the needs of our students we've had more students with that but at Quinn everyone's a part of that process of embracing um students with devices and making it so it's very normalized within our school Community terrific thank you all for your good work Mary I was really impressed to
020see the range of outings that you do with the students can you tell me about how many you do over the course of a year hi Steph mow um Mr Capello is the one that really um orchestrates that he's the voice that you heard um we do lots of events throughout the course of the year um because the program has grown so much and there are so many students um we typically go uh the cycle for each class is about once every month and a half um so just about every Thursday Mr Capello is out and about with students in the district um but each class goes about once every month and a half great thank you so you're welcome yeah no just unbelievable I'm I'm so impressed and and just blown away by uh
021what I saw uh your dedication to the students uh the work you know and I'm thinking of you know the the student that was trying to you know clean up type of deal and working to you know here's where you got to go and then you know he finds you know I'm assuming clean up your room or whatever it was type of deal and and the you know the satisfaction and the congratulator that you gave the re positive reinforcement that's the words I was looking for that you gave to that student is is is is topnotch and uh my my hats off to everybody not only here but you know throughout the district as to what goes on so thank you for doing that thank you Mr Nunes so some of my favorite people up
022here life lifelong friends for sure um and very respected um for the work that you do I won't get emotional um but uh it's been about I don't know like 12 years not 11 years since my son was a a student so um I can the the compilation video was wonderfully done I totally authentic this is the real deal um and the beauty of it is that it was showcasing um a group of students with the highest level of need uh which brings its challenges um I don't know how you do it uh you know as a mom only having one at home it's it's a lot my husband and I it's it's a 247 thing um constantly redirecting and it's beautiful as well uh you do it every day for that times however many
023students um and so that needs to be commended because it does take a level of skill set um and what you do inspires the trickle down so I wrote down um you first of all the innate skill that you all have in building trust within the families that you work with um for the safety of their children um and and the way in which you facilitate um natural connections with peers it's just part of the fabric of what you do um to build empathy and understanding within those students who don't have those high level of needs um and ultimately of course the goal is friendship but it's also safety um and so speaking personally you know there have been situations where um I have a child who doesn't speak and so he can't really tell
024me everything that happens and of course the beauty of the work that you do your constant communication with families and it's wonderful but as my son got older it was those kiddos that were in his class at Quinn those peer models that would ask about him that would ask their parents to ask me about him or to share something that happened good or bad with him through the course of the day um and in last year I had the real honor of having a conversation with a young lady um who was graduating and going into special ed and I said uh oh my you know my my son his needs Chang over the years he's out of District um but she said she turned to her mom and dad who were there as well to
025say remember that we saw as if they talked about my family at home which was beautiful uh to say that he inspired her to go into special ed and that she always wondered what happened to him where where he was and so she was happy to connect um that's what you do so you do it from 3: when they come to you you do it until they move on to to the Middle School um and that's lifelong effect the impact that you have is great um and that the beauty of that video was that it was so playful and loving and so authentic but there's hard work that goes on in between that um and you love what you do and it just comes out in every day so I just want to say that
026um and I was long-winded but and it needed to be set so thank you all of you and those of you who aren't up here right now um and the rest of the folks in the district that are doing this great work thank you go ahead Mr Oliver can I ask one more question can I put someone on the spot for either for for the veterans that are over there or if you're if you're new to the district why [Laughter] Dartmouth why Dartmouth why Dartmouth um that's a really good question it's the people it's the values it is coming to work in a district that I grew up in and loving what I do and loving the kids and valuing the staff that I work with it's being part of a team it's knowing that
027when I come to work the support system is here for the kids for us um it's being a part of something good thank you you're welcome the team great thank you very much thank you very much nice [Applause] J great that was incredible very good so next I'll turn it over for our next presentation we have uh Dr M I'll have you so I first I just want to again thank the Quinn School staff um faculty I just want to say that I've been to visited the Quinn school and been in many of your classrooms and I have to say when you talk about authenticity uh having the opportunity to see you all in action uh sometimes uh is really emotional for me when I walk into your classrooms and see the way that you
028support your students and as uh as zaral said some of our most high need students uh and there you are there you always have Smiles on your faces you treat the kids with such love and respect um it's really an amazing school it's your classrooms are amazing places to visit and beyond that the way that you've integrated your students into the greater School Community is obvious I've seen the cart the snack cart um I've seen that in action and how much the staff enjoy the staff and students enjoy when they get the uh knock on the door and the snack cart even though the students can't get the snacks which is okay I think that's a good rule um uh but watching just the way the students also love to see the the uh your
029students come to their classrooms it's really quite um it's inspirational and I couldn't have said it any better Mrs Amal so but it also this also provides us an an amazing seg way into our NE next presentation with Mrs denisio who's going to talk about again you you've had these students since they were three years old how do they come to us in the Dartmouth public schools and I think this provides us as a community an opportunity to learn how do we identify our students who inevitably or not inevitably at sometimes end up in your classrooms I just again can't say enough about the work that you do every day and commend you and have feel very fortunate to have seen you all in action so thank you and I'm going to turn it over
030to Mrs denisio to talk about the the beginnings of how we bring these children into our schools before that um I can't stand up here after that and not um acknowledge what we just watched but um when we look at at the changing demographics of our school Community with over 40% of our students being high needs this is what we're talking about our students and families are protected by privacy laws so we can't we can't talk about a student's educational needs we can't discuss it but this video so beautifully Illustrated what a budget numbers cannot the faces and services spotlighted here tonight require increased support higher Staffing levels which lead to increased budgets and higher costs for things like specialized transportation and I think we can all agree the invest the investment to provide quality
031education for all of our students is worth it our entire School Community certainly myself our students our families and our staff are enriched when we provide high quality inclusive educational experiences in our schools and now I'm going to try to compose myself and and do this presentation about preschool it is it is and I think um having been a witness to it for so long um and getting to shine a light on it like I said a lot of this happens behind closed doors because of privacy so the fact that these parents allowed um you guys to Spotlight their children um was needed so thank you for that but where do we start um so the the topic of this is pretty timely because uh we are just starting the preschool process getting the preschool
032process ready for next school year the lottery has been completed the application process um and and we're starting to fill those peer Partners uh slots for next year so the logistics of preschool in public schools are a bit confusing we don't currently have Universal preschool so I'm hoping tonight's presentation can provide some clarity on why we do what we do so the why behind preschool if we don't have Universal preschool why do we have any preschool because under idea the individuals with disabilities Education Act beginning at age three students with disabilities become the purview of public schools prior to age three services for students with disabilities are provided through Early Intervention which is um a program through the state Mrs Amal can um tell you all about that school districts are required to provide developmentally
033appropriate Early Childhood special education programs and services for students Age 3 to 5 those words are bolded because the Early Childhood special education is actually a department in Desi that guides the work for our earliest Learners this quote comes from the Desi website um the ecsc programs and services ensure that all children with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education that is designed to meet their unique needs and enable them to make progress in acquiring Knowledge and Skills improving social relationships and learning to take action to meet the needs within the general education program uh we measure what matters and desie measures the outcomes for students students with disabilities so when a child turns three and and is evaluated by us uh we fill out these rating skills which rates these three areas the
034knowledge um skills and knowledge appropriate behavior and communication and then when they leave us at age 5 and enter kindergarten um we rate them again and that's to ensure the growth and the effectiveness of our early childhood special education programs so what that means for Dartmouth when a student turns three and has been evaluated by Dartmouth public schools and is identified to have disabilities that impact their ability to participate in a preschool uh classroom that Stu student is entitled to a seat in our preschool programs um historically speaking approximately 20 seats are needed each school year to provide preschool for students with disabilities turning three the district has to plan for enough seats to provide services and supports for those students with disabilities so where do these referrals come from often the students are referred
035through early intervention um some referred through pediatricians private preschools dayc carees um some referrals come through Community screenings and because of our child find law the district is required to evaluate a child in the area of suspected disability so far this school year we have completed um 70 evaluations for preschool age students some of these uh evaluations are for related Services only for example speech therapy that's a it's a big hit in the 3 to five population um the reality is we as the public school have the lowest barrier to entry an evaluation completed through Insurance uh you might be on a waiting list for 6 to 12 months um in public school we have 45 days to complete that evaluation so when concerns arise with development people turn to us so how do we
036provide these services and that's through the use of inclusive practices guidance from the US Department of Education promotes the use of inclusive practices for Early Childhood special education inclusive practices means that students with disabilities learn alongside typically developing peers the peers are there to support the learning of students with disabilities students with this with disabilities are the why there is a preschool program and the peers are part of the how we're providing services for them inclusive classroom have been shown to support the learning of developing social skills um increasing academic achievement fostering a sense of belonging and provide age appropriate models for social and language skills in other words a three-year-old is much more likely to learn how to play um by watching another three-year-old and playing with another three-year-old um than by working with
037adults so what this looks like um for us our inclusive education is provided through eight integrated class classrooms um seven of those are at kushman and one is at Potter in each classroom there are seven seats um for students with disabilities and eight peer partner seats so the um seven seats with first spots for students with disabilities are cons what's considered rolling admission because when a student turns three they're eligible um to begin school so that might happen on October 3rd so they come to school on October 4th so at the beginning of the school year some of those seats are empty but they fill up as the year progresses the peer partner slots are filled through the application and Lottery process with priority being given to four year-olds um and all of those students
038start the beginning of the school year in September for next year we had 42 open peer partner slots all of which are filled um primarily with four year olds but we were able to to provide services for some um three year olds as well and there are 21 open special education slots so hopefully that will be enough and if it's not then we open another classroom because that's our that's our job and then I don't have fancy videos because I don't have that kind of technical skill but I do have pictures and really just to point out the fact of this is what inclusion looks like it looks like kids playing the kids at the table some of them might be non-speaking some of them might be uh you're typically developing four-year-old you can't tell
039when everyone's playing um I love the picture of the kids at the fire with the firefighters cuz no one's p paying attention and that's perfectly developmentally appropriate um we have sta students getting more support from staff than other kids need but again we're all working together um to meet the the expectations of preschool and this is sort of where uh that middle picture this is where our our Unified sports begins again the Mike Capello touch at at kushman um that's where he starts his unified um sport so he he starts him young so that's all I have for tonight does anyone have any questions best and then M well goad yeah okay best and then we'll go to m um great presentation even without the video um so I'm curious about the peer Partners [Music]
040um and the ratio so is that a mandated ratio is there it is that ratio is set by desie it's 7 to8 there are other ratios like you can have a class of 20 and have 15 peers and five students with disabilities but we stick to the seven to eight model here um and that's it you can't have less than that or more than that that is the number of of students okay and that that works well because to have prek in Dartmouth it's a real Boon for parents um because it really doesn't cost very very much but do the parents of the peer Partners fully understand what the ratio of the classroom that they're entering sure I think that's why I'm here tonight Mrs coflin I think that that's a really good thing to
041dwell on that that when parents apply that their children would be peer Partners is that ever discussed yeah it's certainly part of our preschool presentation um again it's it's hard for us because we swim in this water so this is what we live and I think parents we might say it um but understanding it is something different right so uh what that actually looks like in the classroom might not be what a parent is envisioning we've certainly said it they know it when they sign up but again I think the reality of that is is um misunderstood sometimes and the peers themselves um they probably this is the water they swim in so this is the water they swim in they think this is the way the world should be this is the way the
042world should be right they know some of their friends need more help and they are very willing to help them right I think it's more people of an older generation who don't swim in that water who who see it differently right yes okay I really wonderful wonderful wonderful work and um the patience and dedication to do it right is out standand yeah I just make myself an O later I'm sorry I understand something I'm going to talk about later but I just wanted to make a note so I don't forget one of the I think the slide just before this one here it's almost yeah there okay the far right what what are we doing here with these St this is you know it almost looks like they they're trying to throw you know balls
043or the one with the net the one with oh is that a that okay I butterfly I think it's a butterfly um you know when they make the pupa and they make the butterflies they let them go I think it's that yeah science meading some science standards excellent there we go no that's fine no I you know it was you know they they seriously they're enjoying themselves and such and I I and no one's really looking and everyone's half sitting I mean this is preschool it's beautiful it's great wonderful but in all seriousness you know thank you for thank you for this and you know that was my stomping grounds kushman was for sixth grade and that so I you know a little bit of a love for that that building but uh you know
044just again taking care of students and that's what we do and it's you know what we have to do you know I mean unfortunately the state you know doesn't give us a lot of money to do it but they make us do it and you know one of those and it is our pleasure unfunded end it's it's and it's it's thankful that you know it's you know we have the staff and Personnel that uh that's their love and I appreciate it thank you absolutely thank you anyone else Mr oliv so first of all Miss Denio thank you great presentation um I know it's a tough act to follow well um they're my people too can't beet them can certainly can certainly appreciate that but it's just so important to highlight the fact that we all
045know as most of us as Educators know that the sooner that we can get to these students uh that have learning disabilities that have other types of disabilities the better the outcome is going to be right so for us to to have uh seven classrooms across the district um of pre prek speaks volumes I know that we're always looking uh to expand I would love to see Universal prek at some point I know uh the uh the budget certainly uh is not looking uh favorable right now in the uh coming years but I I just love to see um you know the explanation not just so much for the school committee but I would love to see these kinds of highlights as we move forward throughout this school year to Showcase everything that this school
046uh District does for the students of Dartmouth I think it's so important um and not only is it important for for our our special education students but I think it also helps to grow I can I'm speaking from experience my two daughters were uh you know they went through the the kushman preschool actually I think it was Quinn then kushman preschool program at the time and uh I I I truly believe that uh they certainly are are better people because of that so um I think this program speaks volumes to what we can do uh with early interventions and at the preschool levels so thank you you're welcome anyone else uh yeah I you you actually embed answers to what I was going to ask you about in terms of the Rolling enrollment because obviously
047students hit that that uh transition if they're in early intervention or if a provider uh you know refers the student for that age three um if it's so um evaluated and and decided upon as a as a need um so you answered that you spoke to anticipating um the numbers for the year for with fingers crossed right I'm sure yeah I'm sure um and and that's just an important Point um but my colleagues kind of spoke to the rest I mean I said what I said before goes um you know in having the importance of this presentation and showcasing this and and um and uh going into detail as to the why and the how really and with your um clear um you know love for what you do and for the people that you
048work with uh the heart and soul you know it's all about the heart and soul of doing what's right um a you know aiming for those those that progress and those good outcomes um it starts at starts at the preschool um yeah so I don't really have anything else to add but thank you so much this was so important uh this is hard work uh rewarding work um important work necessary work mandated work um and you all make it look so effortless and beautiful it's pre it's it's messy it's dirty it's it's noisy it's lovely it's wonderful um but it costs money uh and that's the bottom line is that these are kiddos who deserve this are entitled to this um and it cost a lot of money yeah and anyone can do the math
049around the the peer partner tuition and realize that that is not funding yeah our our preschool program right so I think that that was you know something I had heard recently and I thought oh I I'm not good at math but I know that that's not true um you're right it is an investment it is an investment in in their outcomes and our outcomes um as a school district CU like I forgot who said it but it's really that early intervention that's going to pave the way for future um success so yeah and and those kiddos those peer partners are swimming in the water with their with their uh um their peers who need extra help and and it's just setting the stage for a better Society a more uh integrated and more empathetic more
050understanding aware society and so it's it's just not only do we have to do it of course we're going to do it because it's what what should be done so thank you can I just just add um because U Mr Oliver mentioned that we don't have Universal uh prek and certainly we know that's true we do know there's a lot of attention uh on pre on universal prek at the federal level and that is trickling down to the state level um I just read a memo right before I came here uh from the uh from desie just announcing some additional some communities that had been awarded what they calling a cppi grant which is a Community Partnership Grant and that's meant to expand opportunities for access to prek in collaboration and partnership with local um
051child care providers and so that's something that I hope as we start as we continue to develop our strategic plan that we can be considering ways that we can examine um whether or not that type of funding opportunity might might help us to expand prek here in Dartmouth because we certainly know the importance of early childhood education thank you very much thank you thank you job Now's the Time now the time has come reorganization of the committee is uh or organization of the committee um is next so I'm going to turn it over to Dr sa McGuire and well yep okay I'm going to jump right in so um so at this time we will seek a nomination for the chairperson of the Dartmouth school committee Madame superintendent I make a motion that we nominate
052Chris Oliver as chairman of the diamond school committee for the next school year and I second that any other nominations any discussion close nominations okay all in favor hi hi all opposed I think I say the motion carries congratulations Mr Oliver thank you I don't know how I don't know how I how I feel right now I know how I [Laughter] feel no justce me stay there for tonight and just move the the name we've done that before just move the name tags okay make it official I guess and I would um formerly like to uh welcome Mary Beckwith to the school committee thank you welcome we are delighted to have you and I don't know actually you can't take it out no no we you can keep it and you can stay chair she
053actually did get it out Mr Oliver right do yep do the bottom one again all right because I can't get my name out I can't I can't get my name out all right I don't know either of you are qualified she said it Chris no don't oh wait oh I'm not this yet I'm not I'm not this oh no I'll give that to you for now I don't know who that is so I guess uh first of all thank you for your support for uh nominating me as chair I will uh certainly do my best uh through this upcoming challenging year uh that I Know It uh is going to be I do want to take this opportunity uh like Miss amarell said to welcome Miss mewith if you could um if you want to
054say a few words um and just uh introduce yourself uh I don't want to put you on the spot but I am putting you on the spot you are um so I just finished this campaign where I had to speak all the time and so I did didn't expect to have to do that tonight but uh my name is Mary Beckwith I um I've lived in Dartmouth for about 20 years um I work at UMass Dartmouth I'm a title non investigator and compliance coordinator um when Kate called me today I was just about to start a hearing uh for an incident that occurred between two students so I was like Kate I have to get off the phone but anyway that that what I do during the daytime um I live here in Dartmouth with
055my wife Jill and my son Isaiah who is um a senior here at Dartmouth High we'll be graduating hopefully and um just about a month and um I am delighted to be here and look forward to doing this work for the town of Dartmouth thank you excellent how's that for off the cuff I love it I love it perfect I guess at this time uh I will entertain a motion uh or nominations for a vice chair Mr chairman make a motion we uh nominate Elizabeth Coughlin as Vice chair second on the motion any discussion does she accept will will you accept I will I thank you for that um all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I'll take the regular old Committee [Laughter] Member yay congratulations thanks congratulations get your graduation speeches
056ready hold on not yet it'll be here before you know it here before you know it he gets to high school you get Middle School oh I didn't know you go excited y so uh I guess at this time uh I will call for the election of a secretary uh typically uh the secretary to the school committee is the superintendent of schools yeah Mr Mr chairman make a motion that we appoint Dr June sa Maguire is secretary to the school committee second motion so I have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Amaral on the motion uh any discussion all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I don't really think I had a choice I don't think you had a choice either nonetheless we thank you for
057for serving us all right uh next up we have the assignments for uh subcommittees and um other uh committees that the uh school committee members uh serve on uh so the first off and uh no particular order just what I'm reading off of my brief here is the Dartmouth Education Foundation I'm not sure who was uh I don't have that up in front of me yet uh who served on it let's see serve doing it but they never got in contact with me and I have not done anything with them okay so uh what are our thoughts do we want to continue on with this uh partnership or um and elect or appoint someone else or at least why don't we have you um unless someone else wants to can I just say I know
058that at least for me I've met with them only once this year and we actually have a meeting tomorrow at 5:15 so perhaps it was just I'm guessing an oversight on their part because I think there's been some change in the the leadership of that probably okay board and maybe they just didn't know that you were supposed to be invited so we I'll see you tomorrow 5:15 where's that it's right here right here in the library yes okay anyone any opposition or anyone else that would like to uh be apped to thef well thank you for serving uh next up is the uh Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative uh I currently serve on that committee uh I'm currently serving as chair of the executive board for for smck I'm happy uh this is I think now
059my uh probably my eighth year doing so I'm happy to stay on that board unless someone else uh would like to step in no I'm the treasurer so I'm out so uh I will continue serving uh next up we have our representative uh to masc now um I'm just thinking about this CU I was just looking through the uh the monthly uh newsletter we get from masc now typically uh at their annual meeting in November they they have a meeting of the delegates is is it safe to say Mr that the person that represents us uh that we appoint to this committee would also serve as our delegate should we should we uh take up some of their um their language and and send someone I I would I would think it would uh I
060will be honest with you I did not get to uh the meeting down in Cape last year I was in Indianapolis with the the with the band but you know I would assume that that's what it can be or you know maybe we can find out exactly if that's the way that would work I would have no problem with that yeah one of the things I would like to see uh this committee do moving forward um after being involved with masc for so long and the need for advocating is um take up some resolutions and um bring them have our delegate bring them uh to the to the fall convention So currently we have me who is on that me thank you no seriously are you are you happy to stay in that committee is
061anyone else fine nope I'm good with that if if the commit if that's the committee's wish I'm fine perfect so we'll keep Mr Nunes on that uh moving forward I I have the list up I'll just go right down the list now uh negotiating representative uh to the DEA uh for collective bargaining uh currently and we have John Nunes Kathleen Amaral and Shannon Jenkins as backup obviously our backup is no longer with us Dr kins um what is your pleasure uh Mr Nunes and Miss Amaral and does I'm fine with with doing that okay as the backup yep okay sounds good now just just a quick question because I know um how collective bargaining can be um you know it can be certainly time consuming is there any interest in separating out um any of
062the bargaining units or is it important to have the same person um around across all collective bargaining units I personally I'm again you know depending on everybody's you know I mean know this you guys are working so you know if they're meeting at 3:00 in the afternoon it becomes very difficult for you guys to get there you know 99 times out of 100 I'm retired so I can you know if I know far enough in advance I can always rearrange my skill schedule okay and I've been fine with that it hasn't bothered me so I don't know again Mr you know not Dr Maguire wasn't there but Mr Kylie was there as was Mr TBO they can chime in if that I'm but I'm good with it yeah I just know that it can be
063certainly a a burden on uh I'm good our members so okay perfect thank you very much uh the technology committee um I am on that uh I don't believe we've met recently I know Mr gashaw has certainly been busy uh since my my background is um technology I'm certainly happy to stay on that although I'm also happy to give it up so if anyone wants to uh you're the computer that Ru um otherwise I'm happy to stay on all right where are we at uh Dr s McGuire or Mr Kylie with the uh Representatives for the town chter committee I could answer that perfect I happen to be the representative so I knew I knew there was someone for the town CH committee okay and it is uh time consuming but we see the light
064at the end of the tunnel and um therefore I would like to continue continue cuz we're almost done yeah perfect and is uh Miss still on the committee as well is our representative is she I think she is our representative she's still she's the chair okay I know she's a select board member now um but she's still I think looking at it through our lens through the lens of I thought so I have no doubt she is I'm not questioning that I'm just just bringing it up so per I'm happy with that we'll leave that one alone we're really almost done okay fair enough uh where are we at uh Dr s muu with the Dei committee because it says no appointment made where well we don't actually have a Dei committee we are doing
065Dei work um and the focus this past year has really been with the with the district leadership team and the plan is to continue that work more at the school level uh moving forward but as far as a committee that includes a school committee person we don't currently have that Committee in place I know that I think it was prior to your arrival there was uh quite a bit of back and forth I know uh Dr Jenkins had uh was part of the discussions as well I don't know if anyone else can refresh my memory because it's a little foggy right now as to what this how this committee left it um because it clearly it's here for a reason yeah um because we at one point maybe we were looking to have a representative
066um I'm think oh go ahead um yeah so I think Dr Jenkins had said that they were rearranging and it might not come back into existence and she wanted to wait and see how that all played out yeah I I just want to assure you this is work that is happening in the district this this past year our our Focus has really been on um building capacity amongst our leadership team and when I say that I'm talking about all of our principles our assistant principes um directors and so that's been the focus of every one of our DLT meetings this P not even meetings PD this past year with the idea that this over the summer we'll be looking at how we're going to roll that out into the schools so that our uh staff
067and faculty can participate in professional learning and that will be an area of focus for the school district as far as professional development next this um 2024 25 school year okay so I unless someone you know has any other suggestions or thoughts we'll just leave it as is yeah I would leave it as I I just with best sharing that and I think it was um also I I hate to even bring this up but it was around um it was like offshoots and we we were talking about indigenous curriculum and and culture and then we didn't really have um early on we didn't have two um a secondary uh and a primary level curriculum directors at the time and so now it's sort of woven into the fabric of what you're doing as you're
068you're sharing and as we're seeing um so I think that's why it was not necessarily coming back in in and okay the usefulness of us to to lead that where we have a leader who's leading that in in the work that's being done every day I don't know that's my No I'm I'm completely as chair I'm completely fine any you know and I just want to sorry um we we can update you as to what we've done this year and once we have our a clear plan in place we'll come to the committee and present the direct the direction that we're headed in for next year great all right does that work that sounds good thank you you're welcome uh committee Representatives Town open space and Recreation plan steering committee is this still a valid
069committee I know we had a number of meetings uh early last year and such and you know they put a huge packet together uh I haven't heard any more on it uh since they kind of had that final meeting probably sometime it maybe it was even this time last year I don't I have to go back and take a look at my minutes in my notes but you know it it's there I haven't heard any more on it okay so I mean I canang I can hang with it I'm good okay perfect thank you and curriculum Council I believe this was fairly new last year or recently that we had an a a uh school committee rep on it I do think it's important that we do have someone I know this isn't uh the
070the school committee does not have any say of a curriculum um but I think from a budgetary standpoint and just a stakeholder standpoint I do think it's worthwhile to have a a Committee Member on the curriculum Council for the simple reason uh that we're they're able to bring back if they hear concerns in the community or whatnot they are able to be the that voice that speaks to um to some of the stakeholders in the community um any thoughts on who would like to take Dr Jenkins Place I'm happy to thank you thank you and going back up to the top uh since I uh SED off in the middle there a policy committee uh the which is made of our assistant superintendent um the assignment has been best Coughlin and Kathleen Amaral how often
071did we meet last year um so but again if there's no no uh so here here are my here are my thoughts and I'm just G to speak just give you what I think I think that masc is always coming out with new as you probably see in your in your um newsletters different language and there's always language to be updated I I would personally I I think it's important that this committee does its due diligence uh because that is one of the specific areas that we're responsible for policy and budget um that uh we make a commitment to at least meeting every every other month or quarterly um during the school year um to uh because I know that I have no doubt that there's policies that need to be updated uh with policy
072language changes um and Ju Just the general stuff that'll be coming up not so much policies but first reads of other documents that need to be brought to the full committee um so I I would just like to see the you know some kind of more some and I'm going to bring this up for the budget committee as well some kind of standing meeting um that we have and it doesn't doesn't have to be monthly but I think it should be at least quarterly thoughts on everyone else agreable um yeah I think it's a good idea I think that our policy should be updated on a regular basis absolutely so with that um bass and Kathleen are currently on it um are you would you like what's your pleasure I'm happy to be on it
073um i' probably enjoy being on it oddly um but I'd also have an interest in the budget committee so I don't know what other people are interested in there and balancing things out is that something you might be interested in yeah I would definitely be interested in policy does anyone have any and I'm happy to stay on that as well you mind so it'll be be Mary and Kathleen MH perfect thank you both uh fields and Facilities committee uh currently we have John Nunes and Kathleen Amaral um thoughts on that is that um have you been meeting we have we did we did meet several times in the fall I know that so particularly regarding the long-term capital planning efforts Capital plan everything so I I don't know you know how that's going to evolve
074um and how fast that long-term capital plan is going to you know begin to take shape but certainly that subcommittee can be an important uh play an important role in that process I I think it's important to keep this um School District moving uh with a lens at the big picture of school buildings I think it's important that we we you continue to do this work for sure so uh John and Kathleen yeah you okay with saying I'm happy to stay I'm happy to give it up if somebody has interested I'm good I'm again I'm good with it if somebody else perfect you know this is not all right ego driven thank you both uh budget committee uh so was Dr Jenkins and myself and then John as a backup I am certainly happy to
075stay in this commit um as well um anyone else I know so I I do have an interest but I don't know if John would like to move from backup and have me as backup uh but I do have an interest in that committee oh go ahead and I'll stay us backup if necessary that's fine I'm good great thank you perfect well thank you and once again like I said uh with the policy committee I think especially uh this ongoing School school year is going to be certainly very important um and I would like to see uh Mr Kylie um we can meet uh later on but some kind of standing meetings in which uh where we get updates on the the different aspects of the budget um because I think with with some of
076the um concern around some of the finance committee members that it would be uh prudent uh to try to NAB some of these questions and concerns um before before they it's speculated and there there's other other comments that come up and last but not least uh School assignments uh we had decided last year no school assignments will be given and that all members should do their best to keep in touch with all the schools um are we okay with continuing to do that um I I mean I would I just wonder and and I haven't done my best with this I certainly keep myself engaged but not to the point of like calling Dr Thomas can I or you know Mr Grand can I come in to see you know to meet with you I
077would love to know what the administrators feel about this personally I don't know I mean if we if it's something that we don't decide on today or we keep as is but perhaps learn that they would have enjoyed us being assigned to a particular school yeah Mr you know uh discussions I've had you know and that their comment of to me has always been you're always welcome well I for one always make it a point to you know pick up the phone or send an email and say hey I'd like to stop in you know what's a good time because sometimes you know they're out at admin at at meetings or you know they've got certain things going on in the school so you know I don't make it a point to drop in unannounced
078once in a blue moon but that's very rarely but uh the ones that I've always t to you know my comment to them has been you need me call me you know and that type of deal and you know they'll call and I'll pop by and that but again however we want to go about it it's fine with me you know I'm happy to talk to June about setting something up in which we can get some maybe maybe it's easy enough to put out an email and just get some feedback from the admin team we can do that we we're actually seeing all of our administrators at some point this week so we can check in with them okay beautiful great thank you very much am I missing anything no I think I've covered it
079all I got everything checked off y all right uh before we get to anything else I do want to take the I have a few things that I'd like to say uh first of all I'd like to thank uh outgoing chairperson Kathleen Amaral for your uh for your work and your your dedication and time thank you very much uh over the past year um I always I always learned so much from you Kathleen and um I know sometimes you you always you're very hard on yourself sometimes and uh not necessarily uh but I certainly always uh learn something from you and your uh your calm demeanor and always your thoughtfulness and and especially uh around special education so uh thank you thank you for for serving in Ro uh so one of the things that
080uh the new chair does sometimes is just kind of some thoughts for the upcoming year um and I do have a little something I would like to share with everyone and it's around the uh the times the that we're having right now around the budget um around uh budget uncertainty around um possible reductions in staff through whether it's through attrition or anything else as well as uh using one times funds to solve the budget and uh while I didn't have an opportunity to attend uh the entire finance committee meeting uh last Thursday I believe it was I know I walked in late and uh Mr nun and uh Miss best was there and um they said you really need to watch the beginning of it so I I I did take the opportunity to to
081watch the beginning of the finance committee um and it's certainly certainly a little concerning some some of the pieces uh that that came out of the chair's mouth and I do have a little just a little something to share with everyone and I would like to fir first of all go on the record to thank Miss ter ham for she a finance Committee Member a past chair I believe who's always been very supportive of the school department and uh is always at our meetings you can typically find her sitting there in the audience so thank you Terry um for always uh coming to our meetings and um listening to what we have to say uh but I'm deeply troubled with some of the rhetoric coming from Members a few of the members of the finance
082committee while I understand it is certainly their role and their responsibility uh to question uh Department budgets uh at last Thursday night's finance committee meeting in the fourth uh some members had gone on the record stating a number of concerns they had with the school committee most concerning in my opinion was the statement that the school budget had wiggle room in it and implied the school district could continue with the status quo without a general operating override and that what I had said previously that this town is going to need to make a decision on the types of schools uh they want for their children was was simply uh political and hyperbole um that that is certainly not the case uh we could continue everything uh some of the other things we could continue everything
083we offer currently with the status quo financially because of that wiggle room make no mistake about it there is no wiggle room in this budget in the school department that is simply wrong when the Dartmouth Public Schools budget ranks close to the bottom of 322 school districts across the state at number 270 for the FY 23 school year there is no wiggle room I'm extremely proud at the amount of budget transparency our assistant superintendent of finance and operations Mr Kylie provides to the finance committee to the school committee and to any Department in town as far as I'm concerned that ask for that since I've been on this committee I've made it my goal to push this school department to be as transparent as possible I know for a fact there are other school districts
084that do not give the amount of data that is very time consuming but worthwhile to other departments Switching gears we are tapping school choice funds to solve this year's budget deficit but yet the chair of the finance committee stated at a joint meeting that it was their recommendation to get rid of school choice a decision in which they were not educated enough to make this leaves me confused in wanting more answers from some of their lines of thinking the only way forward in my eyes is to have open honest dialogue with all stakeholders in this town it is my recommendation that we do a few things the first of which we schedule standing budget subcomm meetings we invite finance committee members to intend in addition to if there's any appetite we can certainly what we
085certainly welcome Town officials the finance director Mr mcginness if you'd like to be part of this because I see a pattern here uh that there there were a few things that were that were correct in my opinion where're our budget will be at $60 million before before you know it I'm going to look to this staff in central office and this committee to really make sure that we're leaving no stone unturned and I think we're we're seeing the efforts of that right now based on some of uh what's happening with reductions in POS in positions and I thank them for that in addition I would like to and I'm going to look to you at some point we'll put it on the one of the next agendas but I would love to see something that
086uh that I found very helpful was uh last year the year before uh new Beford vocational had an an Open Door session in which they invited all of their all of the um elected and appointed officials from new bford for Haven in Dartmouth to attend two years ago um and they had Mr um Watson thank you Mr Watson Mr uh commentator himself of all the meetings uh held a a brief uh opening welcome meeting and then he went on and there was a full um tour of the school and all the facilities that it had to offer I would like to see the school department uh extend that same invitation to uh elected and appointed officials in this town as well as um we can talk more on this but I'd like to see some
087um some more conversations around who we want to extend an invitation to but exactly what we saw tonight by the the Quinn school by by the staff of the Quinn school is why we I think it's important for everyone to see what actually goes on within these four walls across all of our districts this is not your parent School District some of the people um even myself at time you know times have changed and what we're doing today in the doou public schools is not what we were doing 20 and 30 years ago for sure the amount of responsibilities put on a school district and mandates we and that's why I asked that question why Dartmouth we have something special here I think we can all agree on that that's why we all serve on
088this this board that's why Dr samon Maguire decided to come to Dartmouth she had opportunities to go elsewhere I'm sure of it but she decided Dartmouth there's something special about this town for the people that live here for the people that grew up here were educated Here and Now work here there's something special for all of us so I would just like like to see a better working relationship across the town and this starts with me extending an invitation to finance committee members to attend any of our meetings our subcommittee budget subcommittee meetings and please when we have it I'd love to see a full house here when we have when we welcome our elected and appointed officials for tours of our buildings so uh I thank you for um entertaining me um but I
089think it was important to say or will say yeah excellent uh next up old business fy2 budget vote discussion uh I will turn it over to Dr sa Maguire so we've been having this disc discussion since December so um I think that I'm hoping that we're at a place now where you know somewhat reluctantly but certainly we know that the committee um needs to make a decision about the budget um you know Mr Kylie had I can't thank him enough you already talked about how transparent he is I can't tell you how much he's taught me this past year about understanding a budget I feel uh so much more knowledgeable uh because he's taken the time to explain every detail and there's still some that uh that I think I have left to learn but
090I'm really grateful for the work that he's done and I can't imagine working alongside anyone um anywhere who takes the time and spends the due d the due diligence uh to make sure that every single thing that he puts before you is I'm just going to say it even though it's right on the money and and so I've seen him change things in the moment and I've seen him change things um since again the first budget presentation in December so um you know just kudos to the work that he does and and Dartmouth is really fortunate to have him in this position so Mr Kylie thank you thank you very much Dr sa Maguire I appreciate the kind words and yeah it's been a little bit of a different budget process this year than normal
091obviously we um you know we had some we had some struggles in last year's budget process the FY 24 uh process um but uh really nothing like the U changing Dynamic of this year so um what we are asking you to consider tonight is a vote on the fy2 budget I always feel bad for Mrs Beckwith like brand new school committee member who okay you're thrown right into it now you've got to vote to approve you know 5053 million it's no pressure there um but uh there's a series of motions that I provided you uh memorandum of um we have one conflict of interest uh so we have a uh a way that we need to go about these motions um so I would uh certainly before we do all this be happy to um
092entertain any questions you might have about the budget um we've had a lot of discussion about it but there's there's you know always room for for more uh thought on it so I'd be happy to entertain that before we move forward questions Mr NES yeah Mr chairman uh do you want my rant about Thursday's fincom meeting now we would you like to wait till later I will choice is yours you're the chair I have no quarms either way well since we are uh on budget discussion we we can vote the budget and then I can do it that's fine too no we're on budget discussions you know that's fine uh thank you I agree with you and I had it on my notes Terry thank you very much for all your help uh at least
093there's one St stable vote on that committee type of deal uh I think the only thing that came out of Thursday's meeting in my opinion that I agree with anyone on uh and I agree with Mr Gavin on this was the amount of state aid that we're getting and the fact uh you know we've all talked about getting uh representative Maki and uh Senator Mony on board and seeing what they can do and everything else and you know his comment about having uh breakfast with Senator Maki and not getting anywhere in Senator a representative M I should say and you said yeah have an override you know gee thanks you know you going to help us at all or not when like I've said before when you sit here and you look at you know
094not the Gateway cities though that's a h of a different color I'm not even going there type of deal but when you look at communities around us or anywhere and they have less students than we have and they get Oodles of more money it gets a little disheartening just because of the way the state formula is set you know yes we can't raise taxes and you know 5921 takes care of that from uh you know 19 1989 or 1979 with the proposition two and A2 so it's as simple as that uh school choice well I'll tell you what and I've said it before and if we didn't have school choice we would really be sitting here singing an entirely different tune because we wouldn't have $2 million okay yes we banked it okay because we
095had the free money well I don't know about anybody else but in my accounting World in government Finance world if I have free money I'm going to use it first before I have to start tipping into my own money if somebody gives me $5 million type of deal I'm going to use that first before I have to use mine because there's going to come a point in time that the free money dries up which we know it does so I'm going to use that type of deal the eser positions we said from day one when we put those positions on that we knew we were walking over that Cliff okay come September 30th and we've talked about it to have a member of the finance committee sit there who watches our meetings and says well
096why did you put people on with those positions doesn't make sense to me what planet do you on we've talked about that for three years now you know so it is what it is the changes in the budget you know well how come it went from 3 to 6 to three to two what's you know I think Mr Kylie has talked about that in nauseum okay as to how what we came up with when he went and had a discussion with the town folk you know the town administrative Finance director members of the board of Selectmen and they sat there and they said put all the positions back in and we'll see where it stand that's where the budget went from 3 to six you know we're following kind of marching orders that they're giving
097us so that's simple as that uh pay for transportation well yeah we tried that a number of years ago and there's a couple there's one member of the committee that was there at the time I'm not sure if M I don't think Mr Bulls was on the the committee at that time he had already gotten off but we tried paying for transportation okay remember we got a transport K to 7 so what do you do when you have you know a child in sixth grade and a child in eighth grade in one household you're can transport one and not the other or seventh grade in high school you know how you know come on it doesn't work and you know the paying and trying to account and tickets out and everything else it was an
098absolute disaster in a nightmare so that just doesn't work I think Dr saber Maguire said it perfectly when she talked about the reduction in force and she just got up there and she just said remember one thing it's people those are people that we are talking about we're talking about people's lives and and you know their livelihood and everything else so you know things of that nature and lastly I think we need to send the slides that we had tonight from the two from the uh Quinn school and what Mr denisio did uh I think those have to go to the finance committee I AG okay because that gives them an idea because one of the wonderful slides that we had at our previous meeting that says selected student populations you know with lwi income
099disabilities and high needs and it did spelled it out type a deal and again this was a fantastic pres presentation that you know our Administration gave the uh the finance committee but that really highlights that drives the nail home type of deal agre so I mean I think you know you know Mr Garin made the comment about you know they're you know I've made comments about them you know the way they're looking at the budget and everything else you know one of the wonderful things sometimes I've said to people I haven't said it at a meeting but I'll say it tonight you know we could sit up here as a committee and be smart and we're going to vote $53 million and as I say to people we could put it all we could vote
100to put it all into maintenance or some other different line item and our students and faculty show up you know September 1st for school with beautifully clean modern buildings type of deal but no supplies no P Personnel no textbooks nothing of that nature that's what we do our responsibility is this budget that's our first and foremost responsibility is the budget and the education of our students in this town and that's what we're charged with and that's what I've always taken to hi in all my years here so Madam superintendent I apologize for the rant I did warn you but you did I'm actually very very impressed uh that was that was not bad at all it's amazing what you can write at 3:00 in the morning oh my God no I I certainly agree I
101I Echo some of your sentiments any other thoughts um I really feel that Mr Kylie has gone through every line and looked at under every Rock um do you see any wiggle room I don't I don't um not unless we want to be the bottom of spending in every category um and that will catch up to us eventually um so I endorse this budget um I wish we had more to spend and uh I hope that we can come together and solve next year agre I I don't have anything else to add you you have all spoken so eloquently um really looking forward to your uh ideas of of just working better working relationships to see how that translates to understanding what we do more um representation of what we do um as was seen
102earlier today um yeah no wiggle room no so silly mean you can't find $133,000 come on people sorry do you have any thoughts or I know brand new M I do want to say I attended a few meetings earlier in the winter and have been following along and I'm very appreciative of the amount of detail uh that the Administration has provided Us in terms of the budget and the different um the different presentations of amounts that they have given us so I do pr feel prepared to vote great so yeah I will just close with um thank you everyone for long arduous budget process for the FY 25 budget um I am no doubt that as soon as this is approved that we'll be looking to FY 26 um and uh we'll go from there
103but I'm not going to belabor the point any longer so uh let me just bring up my motion sheet here and whenever anyone's ready Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 5 budget appropriation for part of school classroom teachers in the amount of 23, second so we have a motion on the floor by Mr Nunes a second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any other discussion all in favor is this a roll call no no all in favor I opposed abstentions I will abstain motion passes for is zero with one exstension Mr chairman make a motion to approve the fy2 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item voted individually in a previous Motion in the amount of 51,1 143,00 $727 54 second we have a motion by Mr Nunes a second
104by Mrs Amaral on the motion any other discussion J hearing none all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5 to zero thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you Jim thank you June good job all right uh next up new business superintendent update Dr Sab McGuire great we get to talk us about some fun things um like the eclipse I mean it really was a an amazing event uh certainly worldwide um and I do want to say that I'm glad it's over um because there there was some angst that went along with just people concerned that students in um some way you know could perhaps look at the sun too long and I have to say that that didn't happen um we did happen
105to be out at the potter school this afternoon and we got to see the students with the glasses and the teachers were doing such a great job teaching them how to use those glasses and to go through kindergarten and first graders so if kindergarten and first graders can do this I have complete confidence that the rest of us would be able to get through it um and we did and so it was fun we got to look out the window I even had Kate um try on some glasses and we got to look out the window and and look at the uh the eclipse so it was really fun but again kind of glad it's behind us um but I am also pleased to share that the mcast testing I we I've talked about this
106the past few meetings but it's well under way and in checking in with principles and some of the folks out in schools things seem to be going really well uh you always get a little bit anxious about m mostly because and I'm sure that Mr Oliver is going through this right now uh because it's so heavily reliant on technology and we all know that um technology as wonderful it is as it is can sometimes uh cause us some some issues so I'm sure you've been out and about in your school buildings as well um I'm going to continue to remind folks about kindergarten registration uh as we discussed it's important that if you have a kindergarten child who will be 5 years old before September 1st 2024 please register them as soon as possible and
107if you have any neighbors or friends that you know may have a child who is kindergarten ready please go ahead head and encourage them to register as soon as possible I know that we've had quite a few folks take advantage of that and we're about to start um assigning schools to those Stu to the students so the sooner uh that we get kids registered the better just a reminder as well we'll be hosting a districtwide kindergarten showcase that will be at the Quinn school on May 15th at 6:00 p.m. again an opportunity for incoming kindergarten families to hear an overview view of what can be expected and for kindergarten parents especially parents who haven't and family members who haven't had children uh starting kindergarten it can be quite an emotional experience so the more opportunities
108we have to invite people in to hear about what those experiences will be like the more comfortable that transition is going to be come August September um so I also want to to mention that we are in the midst now I'm so happy to be able to say that of strategic planning we have met uh a few of our school committee members are on that team really grateful to have you there uh you know we've partnered with teaching Learning Alliance and what I think has been uh a really smooth start to the planning process uh given that we've invited so many other stakeholders into this process so we have about 37 plus people who are participating in this process and one of the questions was how did we select folks to be part of this
109I remind people that there was a core group of people who invest who were already invested in this work through a portrait of a learner and so the most of those people are still part of the strategic planning committee a few may have stepped away and others were invited in but I think that um that what we did to expand membership was reaching outside of the schools themselves and including our school committee members including we have um again it seems like Terry him's getting a lot of uh positive attention but she this evening at our school committee meeting but grateful to have uh her participate we have parents um so we think that we have uh a diverse stakeholder group and the best folks that we have on the team honestly are we have three
110students unbelievable and uh they they certainly are uh willing to share their experiences and what they think we need to be doing they're not bashful no and when I say that they're respectful and um what they share with us are are things that you know we as adults can absolutely um value because it's not anything that you would think is outlandish they really want what's best for for schools and for the experiences of of other students at Dartmouth High School and so we've already met I think we're at our next meeting we're going to discuss Mission which I'm excited about so there was some talk about I know we've had a very um established U mission statement here in Dartmouth this is meant to not to take away from that but to be more inclusive
111of you I think somebody said it this isn't the last time the mission statement was Revisited may have been I'm not really sure maybe 20 years ago so it's it's a good time for us to be examining what the mission is of of schooling for today's youth uh so we also have a we have a teaching and learning committee we have a Comm committee this is uh subcommittees within the strategic planning so all 37 people are not working on the same thing um so we have a group that's focused on teaching learning and leading we have a group that's focused on community feedback we have a team looking at facilities finance and human capital uh you can probably look around and guess who's on what team um but yeah we we definitely think that yes
112the representation we have is going to allow us to develop what I think is eventually going to be a truly Dynamic five-year strategic plan for the Dartmouth public schools and having Community input is critical to that uh so as far as HR work you see or maybe you haven't but we have advertised the position of the Early Childhood director so that's gone out um and we're excited about advertising and hoping that we get very qualified candidates we will be putting together I know Mr Denio's already sent out a a an um survey to staff to ask for their input on what they're looking for in the next Early Childhood director and it will be there will be a an inclusive team that will be involved in selecting our next Early Childhood director we hope if
113all goes well that we'll be able to introduce that person at one of our at our May school committee meeting I'm going to skip over education support professionals but you know we always have need them substitutes we know and again uh the HR work that comes out of the office especially with Kate I can't thank her enough for making sure that we stay on track and get people on board on boarded as soon as possible I think Mary can probably attest to that she was on boarded immediately as a school Committee Member and had everything she needed to to get going this evening um so climate and culture always great to talk about climate and culture here in dmouth I love that question why Dartmouth and you're 100% right Mr Oliver I am so thrilled
114to be here in darmouth this is a wonderful community and the schools and the folks in them are doing amazing work and kids here are just really just just such a joy to be around um and we want to keep that going that's important and part of the way we do that is through the budget and the way we support the work of strategic planning but here we are it's spring spring Sports season has arrived so I'm in my this is my first cycle of the spring Sports season even though I was visiting Dartmouth last year around this time but several competitive teams so this is um really something we have eighth graders who have joined a few of our teams this year on waivers Mr Christa foi has made sure that he's gone through
115that process uh so we have softball um we have baseball girls lacrosse boys lacrosse girls outdoor track boys outdoor track unified outdoor track girls tennis Boys Tennis sailing which is new for me and I'm being told that I might get to go out and see an actual sailing competition um in all we have 367 students participating in Spring Sports so we should um be really proud of that I know when I'm finished Mr noones is going to share the good news about the color guard and the band's recent accomplishment so I saved that for you Mr Nunes um I also want to acknowledge that and you might have seen it in Dart Dartmouth week we had an author's visit that was hosted at the middle school I want to thank again the Dartmouth um Middle
116School administration and in particular the librarian Laura Gardner who recognized student interest in a certain author his name is Dean ganh har I hope I'm pronouncing that correct irly and she invited him to come to speak to Dartmouth middle school students um Mr G Gart that's a tough one his books and um he talked about this and he focused on um giving students a message that was around the importance of hard work and perseverance even in the face of rejection and he was able to share how many times the books that he had written were rejected by publishers before he finally had his first book published and now he is a nationally known author with several books that many of our middle schoolers are enjoying um so that's great again a great lesson not just
117for the students but for all of us um also Mr parate informed me just before uh we started school committee that four of our students are finalists for producing a video around burn awareness and that's what the the firefighter they submit the video they submitted I think he said about 8 to 10 videos and two were selected and they'll be recognized April 30th at Children's Hospital in Boston so another again example of how our Dartmouth students shine and finally the trip to Spain and Portugal it's really going to happen um they the students 45 students and seven adults will be leaving from Dartmouth High School on Saturday at 12:00 if any of you want to try to stow away I'm not sure how far you'll get but um I think that everyone is really excited
118to see uh how that trip goes and and I mean that genuinely Mr Shay has also informed us that there'll be a social media link available via Instagram and that you can pick up this link through the there'll be a DHS travel uh link on the p on our website page so we'll be able to see some of what the students are up to so we're really excited about that trip y maybe next year one of us will be able to go along wouldn't that be nice that would be nice all right so that's all I have so thank you thank you Mr Nunes thank you Mr chairman uh yeah the uh this past weekend was nesba finals for both colig God and percussion uh on Saturday up in Salem both our junior varsity and
119varsity color guides took first place in their different class divisions that that they're in uh our percussion was here uh yes our finals was here yesterday I can't tell you how many school we must have had 30 schools that went through this building yesterday uh you talk about and i' I've said this before but you talk about a a school building that that's being used I mean it was great you know coming in the side door uh when you come up the walk their big props were coming in and you know stored down in the corner we had tables set up you know the marimbas and they're walking this way the students are walking in the other you know and you know yes all three will meet at some point in time uh but they
120love being here going you know different areas of the school that they're set for warmups but they come in you know right over here perform and go right you know right out the door to their trucks and that type of deal and it was it's absolutely great but you know our percussion won their class uh they had this high score of the night uh percussion on Saturday is going to be down in uh West Hill High School down in Sanford right there the right on the New York border for the Mac finals and that uh our uh Varsity Color Guard leaves uh tomorrow night 7:00 for uh Dayton Ohio for their w GI finals and uh they start their uh performances uh somewhere around quarter of one on Thursday so they'll travel uh Tuesday night
121they'll get their Wednesday rehearse and then you know start Thursday uh Thursday at you know quarter of 12 quarter of one or so with theirs uh The Varsity leaves uh the percussion leaves uh next Wednesday for uh uh for Dayton for their their shot so wish them well and you know I had spring sports but Dr sa Maguire talked about that and that's fine hopefully just the weather will hold out so that they can play yeah jeez agreed that's right thank you Mr nun than you Mr chairman anyone else I do not have anything at this time I think I I've said enough tonight uh the next regular scheduled meeting of the Dartmouth school committee is for Monday April 22nd 2024 at 6 p.m. right here in the Dartmouth High School library media center uh
122at this time chair will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for the purposes of an update on Union Personnel not to reconvene so moved second motion by Mr Nunes uh second by Miss Coughlin on the motion any discussion roll call please Kate Kathleen ameral yes Chris Oliver [Music] yes