Dartmouth School Committee Meeting, January 22, 2024

001[Music] come in ready there we go I'll do again good evening everyone I want to welcome you all to this evening's uh school committee meeting for uh January 22nd please rise if you're able for the pledge of allegiance The Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I want to remind everyone to uh turn off any cell buzzing devices I just did so myself uh this meeting uh is being recorded uh and will be rebroadcast on DCTV channels 9 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. Fridays 6:00 a.m. Saturday 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. the meeting will also be rebroadcast on dcv DCTV channel 18 on Monday and Saturdays

002at noon and Thursdays at 300 p.m. uh roll call Kate Kathleen ameral here Chris Oliver here best Coughlin here Shannon Jenkins here John newes yep okay so we are at 602 uh we are beginning our meeting at 605 uh with the public hearing for school choice for the 2024 2025 school year um this hearing was advertised in the standard times on January uary 12th 2024 um so we cannot officially open until 6:05 another three minutes in another three minutes so may I make a recommendation that we at least take the minutes yeah sure yep motion motion to approve the minutes of uh January 8th 2024 second uh point of clarification yeah the regular session minutes regular session yeah yeah well it's regular and Joint it's regular and Joint yeah for the reason that we did

003not have a uh executive session on January 8th so so we have a motion I made the motion second any discussion all in favor I I I'm G to abstain passes for to 01 exstension so we have two more minutes uh we don't have a student rep report tonight I just wanted to mention that um our student was rep was unable to join us this evening may I make a recommendation Madam chair sure uh that we at least take uh maybe you have time for one of the consent agenda items absolutely so I'll turn it to you Dr sa M okay so um on the consent agenda this evening we have um two requests uh related to field trip so not field trips actually competitions um we haven't or at least I haven't seen yet

004that um we have our indoor percussion team in our winter Color Guard in uh competitions and I know that Mr Flint was supposed to be here this evening but he had another engagement and I know Mr noones has um has some information that he wants to share with us regarding I mean this is this is standard these are uh the W winter guide International WGI regionals uh that you have to partake in before you have an opportunity to go to uh Dayton in April so that's what these are and this for the colad this Pennsylvania is the closest and right now for uh the percussion it's uh Toms River New Jersey excellent uh I'll make a motion to approve the uh indoor percussion team trip to Tom's River New Jersey and the Winter Guard trip

005to Bethlehem Pennsylvania yeah I'll second that so we have a motion by Dr Jenkins a second by Mr Oliver um any further discussion good luck in the good luck to them um early spring so uh with that uh all in favor I I passes uh unanimous 5 nothing and we are here 605 so um let's officially open the public hearing for school choice 2024 2025 um I asked that if anyone has any comments um much like our regular public comment session this is just an opportunity for us to hear uh the concerns and the the uh concerns and compliments let's say of uh what folks have to add to the conversation relative to our deliberation later on in the evening um so if you uh have anything to share I ask that you step up

006to the podium uh and uh state your name for the record um and try to make your remarks as brief as possible um thank you well my name is uh Bob Garin um I've been a resident of dmouth for 35 years uh I'm here as a p as a citizen not as uh a member of the finance committee and I want to thank you for the opportunity to uh get a few things into the record um I recommend that you phase out school choice uh starting with having no freshman for the this following year so that way any any students that are currently in this in the uh program do not get pushed out of the system as of right now there's 132 students in the high school that are under school choice that equals

00713.8% the total expenditures per pupil for the town of doth is $177,300 and going up school choice student Revenue per student is $5,000 and it's been $5,000 for two decades so all incremental cost per student over $5,000 is paid paid for by the taxpayers of dmouth for out of town students if you do not know the incremental costs of out of town students then I would ask you how can you vote for placing the B this burden on doin taxpayers I've been told that these are empty seats I been told that the best predictor of favorable student outcomes is the teacher to student ratio if that's true then filling empty seats hurts the outcomes of dotman students other considerations additional staff for out of town students will have future pensions and will also have future

008medical payments upon retirement on a personal note I would not want to be on a school committee if an out of town student injures adop student uh please consider phasing out school choice and right size the staff of dmouth for dmouth students thank you um hi my name is Arlene Johnson and I a senior here at Dartmouth High School I um am am a student of school choice and I live in new bford um I believe that I have accomplished a lot here at darmouth high that I would not have been able to accomplish at another school I have gotten into the National Honor Society program here and I have gotten the seala by literacy here that I believe I would not have been able to complete at a different school and I think shutting

009down school choice is not a good opportunity for a lot of students I think shutting that down will lessen the opportunity of somebody to become better at just being a person and being a student in general I have seen a lot of kids here and I know a lot of kids here that are of school choice like my sister and I know I believe like three of my cousins have gone here on school choice and they have become better people um I've have seen what school choice have done for kids and I believe that taking it down is just not right so thank you hello thank you for taking the time to listen me speak today my name is Aubrey wi I would like to take the time to explain why I think school choice

010is important to me even though I don't go here at the moment it looks familiar my eighth grade year I sat in the cafeteria and listened to someone talk about if you chose to go to Dartmouth High then this is the school that you would be in I wanted so bad to be able to go here with my friends at that point I also have been here for quite a few band performances I did in Middle School see even though I don't technically live in Dartmouth I feel like I'm part of the community I have gone to dma school my whole life and have always been in this town until the pandemic hit my grandfather stepdad and best friend all living here in Dartmouth less than 10 minutes away from this school I know most

011of the teachers names by face some of you I Rec recognize some of you I don't and because of all of my friends that go here that talk about you um I don't go to this school I went to vetech um in new badford because I moved 3 minutes away from my old house that was in Dartmouth across the street from my best friend since the sixth grade 3 minutes by driving was the deciding choice of if I got to go spend the next four years of my life with the people that I've known since I grew up even though I don't live in town I think I should be able to have the opportunity to go here since the middle of my freshman year I have tried everything to be able to go to

012Dartmouth High School I think you should let school choice be available and I if I somehow got picked you wouldn't be picking a random person to come into your school you'd be picking a person of the Dartmouth Community I also have a lot to offer the school I'm an AB student of our city cheer leader I also Run Track I think that I should be given the opportunity to join the junior class next year with all of my peers thank you for your time hello I'm Danielle I'm Aubrey's mom um I just quickly wanted to add that I did offer up to the school department and the town of Dartmouth that we would pay the offset cost for my daughter to attend for the year and they said they don't allow it um we were

013willing to pay and they still wouldn't allow I just wanted to let everybody in the room and the school committee know that that was not an option available and I know a lot of people have and I'm sure some of the people on here have concerns about the budget but maybe you should consider allowing people who want to spend the money um to do so thank you for your time hi good evening um I was not planning on speaking today um this is my first meeting my daughter um goes here she's a junior your name sure my name is Don um my daughter came here from our town school that didn't have much to offer in regards to sports and clubs and she is th driving here uh she has her grades has have excelled

014she's earning 97s in her classes she earned her um her way to go to Spain in April she's part of the Multicultural Club the Key Club she's she was at Varsity um freshman softball player we have um just become so comfortable here in this community and this school is so incredible I brought my daughter who is in eighth grade in um Catholic School and she has been looking forward to coming here um right along um we actually live right on the border of Dartmouth um we're right across the street so uh we kind of feel like we're part of Dartmouth more than um than Westport and it would just mean so much I think you know for all of us to be able to have my daughter as part of this school system also um

015they're really looking forward to being together in the same school um and I didn't know that people had been talking about potentially paying um if that ended up coming um an issue I have been following the minutes um through all the school committees and I understand there is that the budget and the finances be more than happy to pay um whatever we needed to um to help U my daughter get the education that my oldest is receiving here so thank you for your consideration thank you anyone else I Madam chair make a motion that we close the uh public hearing for school choice for school year 2024 2025 I'll second that okay any discussion all in favor I I motion passes 5 z uh the public hearing is now closed um and I would next

016like to um open the floor so to speak for our regular public hearing um similar to uh what just happened just ask that if folks have anything to add to um any comment or for our consideration relative to anything any item on the agenda to please um step up to the podium and just state your name and again just try to be as brief as possible um we're not a large group but still don't all run at once speak at once looking for move doesn't look like it all right that is uh no taking thank you we're good all right next we have um Spotlight on kids I'm going to turn it over to Dr Sabre McGuire to introduce our guests okay wonderful so this is as your superintendent this is my first Spotlight on

017kids so I'm excited to be part of this part of your audience and hear um what is happening here at Dartmouth High School as far as internships are concerned I understand that's the focus and Mr Shay is going to introduce this segment to us and I'm thrilled to see that we have students here this evening yeah I'm ly I don't get to talk too much today so um I when we were talking about what we wanted to Spotlight we wanted to really highlight something that is um a really growing thing here that has always estab established here um I want to be truthfully honest that I was an intern when I was a senior in high school and um it was the best thing that ever happened to me in the sense that um I

018realized I did not want to go into marketing and I found a love in special ed and I didn't spend $200,000 on an education that I knew that day one that I wasn't going to be in um so I have the just the distinct pleasure of introducing um Mr White and Mr Russell who are running our Spotlight program and they've done a lot of us um our internship program and they've done a lot of work this year to reestablish it and and and really grow the program and you'll get to hear some of our goals at the end thank you oh sorry Mr par first hello M Mr parate from back behind the scenes of the control room I'm actually here as the uh business innovation technology Lead Teacher so um for our Spotlight on

019kids tonight we are uh overviewing as Mr Shay said our internship program uh what we do we pair senior class students into multiple and many unique experiences some of which we have a database of which we're going to go over in a few minutes um and then others that students actually uh find their own experiences and they can come to one of our um uh internship coordinator teachers and um actually input those into our program and uh this year it's all new to us because we're using a new software which is called imblaze um and Mr Russell will talk a little bit about that but currently we have 92 seniors placed in and around the community of Dartmouth which is a big increase from last year which was 49 and the hope is uh in

020the next few years to place every senior at Dartmouth High School out into an internship experience um and I know Mr Shay is a a big proponent of that and we're well on our way I think and uh we are really sparking a lot of interest in our program as a matter of fact we recently met with Fall River uh Family Services last week who has heard about our program very interested and working with our seniors not only for an internship experience but also for a compensated opportunity experience for work for students um after school hours as well as paying for college experience to BCC in those experiences that they're conducting the internship in so uh they have many uh placements right now in Fall River and we're hoping that other communities will step in

021and hear about this and we'll be placing students uh not only in our local community but in the surrounding communities as well and I think this is a a great opportunity for all seniors and I could say the for the purpose of this why what's our why why do we do this well uh in the past uh I know Mr Shay has spoken about this I have experienced when I went to high school like I was in an internship program and um the big purpose is for students to find out if their interest is truly their interest what we can do literally is give that opportunity or that experience to a student and they may decide that that opportunity or that experience is not for them as a career what does that mean that means

022that if a student let's say the medical field is interested in maybe a career in the medical field well they conduct an internship experience and they decide you know they might be oh I you know I I didn't think it was like this or I didn't think this entailed this well now we have literally saved that student thousands upon thousands of dollars going to college for a career that that student thought they were interested in and now says you know I try this I I don't think it's for me so then they can focus on something else that might spark their interest so I think um that's a good reason why for a student who just wants to explore experiences but for a student like like myself when I um did my internship in high

023school I was so laser focused on what I wanted to do and um I really went right into my internship and worked hard and and now it really was like a a stepping stone to other and bigger opportunities for me personally and I can see that with many of our seniors um they are not only spending hours within the program time but they are spending time outside of the internship program time after school hours and working with these mentors and working in these um specific job experiences so right now I'd like to introduce Mr Russell who's one of our uh business teachers and internship coordinators here he's going to talk a little bit about uh what we had to do to acquire our software that we're using and he'll talk a little bit about the

024IM blé software and Mass higher of uh great and new be hello I'm Mr Russell I am one of the uh internship teachers at the high school I am also um a uh business teacher here as well so uh yeah the as far as uh bringing the program to uh to a larger uh population uh it is H you know there are costs involved in we do work closely with mass hire um to help them def Fray any cost that we can uh wherever possible and um we have a contact over there who's been very very helpful um showing us uh giving us um actually you know ideas of what they can and cannot uh do to fund us and when I brought up the uh the program which is called in blaze this is

025the software program that we um that we um discovered from um visiting xbridge High School who uh works with that which I'll get to in a minute uh we were're hoping to um you know to integrate the software but at the before we went up to the school we did have that in the back of our head how much is this going to cost and uh uh it is actually something where we got a quote I believe is something three or roughly $3,000 per year and that's increment that can be incremental too because if we have n we call 90 student licenses right now so that costs $3,000 a year for us to use that software and um but we do have the uh we have we have that worked out for the next three

026years but if we do scale this up and we have uh more students we can go back and there's a good likelihood we can continue to uh have that funded 100% by mass hire so um Mass hire has been very helpful um for us in in in securing that U that resource which I'm going to actually just explain here um briefly so Oxbridge High School uh does use this um this program they have a they have a a smaller program it's a smaller school so there's not as not as uh many students involved in it and they do um get to really um you know closely um stay involved with what the students are doing in their internship through this program just briefly are we going to walk through the actually you want me walk

027through that I I can do okay so I'm just going to cut in here a little bit um so just to give you an idea of um what the software looks like this is the actual software page so um what students can do it's almost like a menu of different um job experiences and opportunities that students can log in and either select ones that we may have which currently our database um we literally have pages and pages of experiences as I scroll down and you can see that students already placed into those um experiences but not only do we have this to keep every time we add a position or a job that stays in the database and so those mentors we can almost guarantee that we'll have interns in the future for those um

028job experiences and what's nice about this app too is students also will log in using their smart device so when they go to the job site they actually log in right on their phone and we get the data of the um of the logins and the hours kept by the students uh when they're at their work experience which which is great and uh it's a great tool um to use just to pair up those student experiences with the actual seniors and this is only our first year of doing this and like uh Mr Russell said we went last year to see what Oxbridge high school was doing and they we kind of got the whole layout of the software there and um we found out about it there and but because there is a cost

029to it Mr Russell uh worked with mass hire and was able to save the district for the next three years it's about three or $4,000 every year just for the cost of the software so we save the district that much money so this is all free for us for the next three or four years so which is great um and then now I'd like to go back to our presentation and introduce uh Mr White who's going to talk about our placements hi good evening I'm Rick white I'm a business teacher at darmouth high school when I'm not coaching football I'm teaching business um nice to be here uh just going to talk a little bit about our interns and how they get placed Mr parate and Mr Russell talked about the emblaze app which is

030we we're building that database with some previous internships that we've had last year this is my first year doing doing it so we're kind of collecting all that uh information and putting it onto the app uh the other so the kids can come in and they can say go through the database online and see what might be a good match for them okay not everything on there is going to be a great match and they may be like hey coach I don't see anything I like so um in that regard we can say well what do you want to do what are you thinking like Mason's going to talk about his experience this year uh bushar who's a senior and he said I'm thinking engineering broad range we called Fen in Associates in Fair Haven

031hey what do you think about it I got a I got a guy that wants to do a a student that wants to do um an internship would you be a to take them on and then they can we set that meeting up and we meet with them see if it's a good fit the student meets with them see if it's a good fit and kind of go from there so there's a couple different ways of doing it um also students should uh if they have something that they know they want to do they can come to us with the idea with the contact information of the business in the area and they can bring it to us and then we can go through it that way and if it's a new internship experience we

032can kind of vet it out and see if it's going to be good a good match for Dartmouth High School it's a good match for the student and then go from there um but currently we're doing um these are some of the pictures from the fall uh of our interns with their mentors um throughout the community we go as far as fa Haven uh East and we go pretty much as far as Fall River West it's about 15 minutes either way um so we're looking at Fall River Westport Dartmouth uh New Bedford and uh Fair Haven um obviously they could go north a little bit I don't know why we don't seem to go north much uh but maybe next year we'll go a little further into Lakeville or somewhere like that but there's just

033more opportunities in the in the cities and in in the local areas here um so we do have students at in our own school system at the middle school and the elementary schools which is great for the kids in in in town to see the older kids and what they're doing if they especially if they're into an educational path uh and want to become teachers or work in the school systems uh later on we have a bunch of kids uh right now placed at South Coast Community Health um with through um at St Luke's hospital um and we also have students and so Medical Careers are huge right now and um Physical Therapy interns we have uh at hathon Medical we have people students shadowing surgeons uh and nurses and um so you know it

034it really runs the gamut we also have other uh students have come to us with trades that they want to work in construction and electrical and so they're they're they're partnered up with those companies right now and and it's um uh it's been really great to see and uh the kids show a lot more enthusiasm when when it's something that they really want to do and uh so so far so good um and we're going to continue to try to to to build as many uh different opportunities as possible in the next year and we get to hear from a few of our students tonight thank you so we have um three student presenters for you tonight uh we have Mason bushard who's over at Farland Corporation civil engineering we have Olivia aruo who's at

035bright dents of Dartmouth dentistry and we have Grace Haskell uh over at Fusion Physical Therapy so first up I'd like to introduce Mason buard hi everyone my name is Mason Bard I'm an intern at Farland Corp civil engineering and before I really get into what I want to say I just want to start off with that I'm very grateful to be given this opportunity to really understand what engineering really is because going into college as my senior I never really knew what engineering really entailed what it really was meant to be and thanks to this class I think I really know what I want to do with my life um so I started off this school year really contacting places getting to know what I really wanted to do for engineering and when Mr White

036had told me that Farland Court took interns that was the first place I really looked into um so when I first started I really didn't understand what I was going to be doing I didn't understand anything what engineering really had to do but now I've really I've really taken a grasp to it I do land surveying I help out with billing with the administr with the accountant and administrators I do I work on sites I help out with cleanup I help out with planning I uh I've really taken down the basics of AutoCAD which is pretty much primarily what they really work with and I've really I've really taken an understanding to everything and I've really gotten to the point where I've been able to go to go to meetings with project managers and I've

037gotten able to sit down and listen to them all talk about what projects have to do what they really what they really have to focus on to be able to get the projects done and what's needed to really get the job settled and everything that entails with it for my future plans though I'm really thanks to this internship I think I'm really going to take up in take up civil engineering that's pretty much what I've really taken a passion to overall I mean between the time you spend outside to the time you're in the office it's never you're never by yourself you're always moving you're always keeping it very on the go and I I've never really taken a liking to just always stay in a one place I really enjoy always keeping my feet

038moving understanding what the difference between just how to get things done and I really think this is what I'm going to do thank you next up is Olivia Ario and um Olivia is at bright dense ofart hi um my name is Olivia rjo I am a dental assistant at BR of Dartmouth um I have been with this office since July now um during over the summer I really just wanted to get a head start on my future with the dental career um kind of pursue like I said my future um my experience is there what I've been doing is I've been working with a lot of patients so I'm dealing with um Pediatrics children along with older people um I've been doing some you know like basic Dentistry stuff um fillings root canals extractions um

039I've helped the hygienist with like cleanings um I do take X-rays um this office has helped me with a lot through since I've been with them they helped me obtain my dental assisting license so um they helped me uh go to schooling at T University for my Radiology um as long as um with my infection control stuff as well um it's helping me with my future get a head start um for my plans for the future I will be uh going to Bristol Community College for dental hygiene um so it's kind of giving me a head start here um I am really grateful for the internship um program we have here helping me um get in out there um that's kind of all I have I'm sorry and finally we have Grace Haskell who's at

040Fusion Physical Therapy hi everyone my name is Grace hasell and I am an intern at Fusion Physical Therapy I'm shadowing a PA and a PT and a PTA um I've had an amazing experience with Fusion I mean they're great people but you're learning so much I mean I've learn I've seen hip replacements knee Replacements knee surgeries um shoulder surgeries and just people with problems that they want to fix um so impact of real world it's I feel like this is probably the best learning I've had in my four years here I mean handson is like my thing so being able to watch someone do what they love and take that in is just amazing and I've learned so much um um I've worked to learn the exercises and relay those to the patients and watch

041them grow and improve and get better which is just so like it's so heartwarming to watch especially with the older people it's just so nice and then my plans for the future is I'm going to Marram college and I'm majoring in BIO and doing a double minor in health science and Kinesiology to either be a PT or a PA I haven't really decided yet but this internship has definitely helped me see what they actually do I mean I had my ideas about what they did and really watching them has shown me what they truly do and the ins and outs which is so important so I've loved it and I've had a great time thank you all right so just wrapping up here um as our program grows and evolves uh it's it's our major

042intent to work with the upcoming junior class for this year to really focus in and tune into their specific unique Journey for their experiences next year and we are we're going to try hard to increase our numbers from the 92 up even higher that's the idea so uh I'll let uh Mr White if you can cover our first initiative okay so um March 2024 um right now our our Juniors all of our underclassmen are signing up for courses for next year um so pushing the internship to our junior class is going to be very important um so we'd like to have our seniors uh present to the Juniors uh about the internship program itself um so really getting the word out and we'll probably call the Juniors down is what we're thinking during a pace

043period U or something like that to get uh the all of the junior class to at least hear the presentation and decide if something that they want to be uh signing up for so we're just going to recruit we're going to recruit as many kids as we can because we definitely see the value in it thank you okay just to follow up on that thanks Rick um yeah from March to April through June um when students are juniors are wrapping up their you know their junior year they it really moves quickly and um just to make a little bit of a Improvement to the to the quality of the of the um you know the fit of which students go where what they choose to do of whether they bring their own ideas to um

044to the table they want to do or they want to use uh the resources we have in the emblaze program um that's where the senior class can really help by um working with them in a presentation doing a QA answering questions for the uh for the students and seeing what's available what type of opportunities are out there for instance uh with um with the South Coast program with Charlton Hospital we charlon Memorial in Fall River we have uh we have a mentorship over there with somebody who rotates students through five different uh modalities of um Radiology students go through there they had no idea that it wasn't just nursing you could work in in Pro specific programs like ultrasound and radiology and they found that uh you know that might be something for them also

045students there might uh get opportunities to move into other U parts of the hospital into nursing if they don't like that so uh this program really especially with the emblaze uh software which is there's a lot of visual uh presentation to it so they can really really pan through it quickly and get a sense for what they want to do so hopefully um just hearing from the seniors and also just bringing to the table what their Ambitions are we can get a good match for them the real key is um having them do it before the summer because we've sent them off during the summer to you know to finalize if they don't have it yet but it's best for them to just know so they can hit the ground running when they come back

046they have a contact already in place soon as we get here beginning of September they're ready to go out and start working rather than having concerns about whether or not um they're going to be able to find something in time or if what they're doing is right so we're just going to use our our in-house resources possibly even bring in some some career people to speak to the students as well and um and work from that and then ultimately we're going to talk about the Capstone right going from there yeah thank you so and then to end the year off in May uh we're going to have our seniors make presentations like they did tonight um of uh their experiences whether it be in the classroom or uh uh Public Presentation perhaps to uh even

047Juniors or sophomores at the end of the year it's important to encourage the younger students um into this uh Endeavor so we're even thinking um even bringing in the uh underclassman to um almost almost like a TED talk so to speak in the auditorium that's what we're thinking and uh to Showcase what our what our seniors are doing with um presentations and photos uh like a TED Talks so and and um we hope to wrap that up for the end of the school year in May and that's our presentation for tonight so questions and answers Q&A we're all here W turn over to my colleagues what thank you Mr parate thank you uh the members of the senior class as well as the staff uh here with you this evening has th has this been

048the first Like official year of the program or had have we had this in the past um I'll let Mr Shay yeah I'm just curious it's always been a part of the program of studies like I said I in 2001 was a part of it but um like they said there was really declining enrollment in the program and um every year we go to the administrative team goes to a summer Institute and we met the um Mike Rubin at who from Oxbridge who really is innovative in this field and he really was pushing it with Dave MOA on us and saying this you got to build up your program you got a big up program your seniors need experience they need that work experience so coming into last year we really made a start of

049of an exploration of building it up knowing the numbers were low so we spent last year exploring and then into this year was when we really kicked it off and then as we're growing we're seeing tweaks like one of the things that they said is we want our seniors to have or our Juniors that are going to be part of it to have a placement by June so they can come in in September really hitting the ground running thank you yes personally I'm I'm thrilled that dmouth high is moving in this direction and really promoting and advertising and really pushing our our seniors to take these uh types of internship courses to get we've heard three great presentations from the seniors uh this evening regarding you know career exploration what their you know what their

050possibilities are for the future uh so I am certainly a proponent of this and I'm thrilled to see that uh dmouth High School um leadership and the faculty are moving taking this to the next step so thank you thank you all for your presentation thank you um so I'm I'm curious is all of this after school sometimes does this happen during school is there a minimum number of hours that um you're at your internship um how does all that work and I think it's great fabulous number of hours Grace um so we are required 7even hours per week I know I go probably 8 to 10 um I work with a PT place but I'm also working somewhere else in Rhode Island as an intern and so I'm probably getting about 15 hours a week

051and I think that experience it's just a great and the the more hours I go I feel like the more I learn and the better I get every week talk about when you leave school talk about when you school so Mason's doing a morning internship but he's also can I speak for [Laughter] you so uh he's in the morning but if we have a one block one hour block where he it's a rotating schedule so he can't always go in the morning so he set it up with them so he can go after school on certain days too so he's gone above and beyond the requirements by not only going in the morning but on the days that he can't is is often times that he does the afternoon but how many hours um I

052probably get around 8 to nine hours it's a little it's a little difficult more in the morning due to only having two periods and then I use my free period as well to be able to get at least two two and a half hours in in a day and then after school I get out at 20:3 of course and they close at 4:30 so I can only get about 2 hours in even after school but even still I still can make up up enough hours that I can I can really say I've accomplished a lot doing this doing this whole experience it's just it's I've really enjoyed it thank you can I add something just quickly um you go ahead there Olivia I was talk about um leaving school um so my hours within the

053week I probably get they range between like 15 to 20 um mainly because I am there uh I'll leave here sometimes around 11:30 other times I'll be out of here by one and then I'll get to work by like I don't know it's only like a 10-minute ride from here so it's not that big of a difference um during the week I'm probably there for five hours and then on weekends I'm probably there between well Fridays I'd be there eight hours and if I pick up on Saturday as well there I'll be there for about nine hours as well so I do get a good amount of hours in between my internship and here so yeah I was just going to add that uh one of one of the things with the program is we

054can set up for the students a fixed schedule where they have hours Monday through Friday we say it's 1 to two or 12 to two or we can we can keep that open and the students report a block of ours so there there's that um there there's that adaptability to the program and also they can U we can actually too have them move in the in the program really sort of intuitively encourages this for them to to um roll in other Journeys they call them or experiences so not that you want to stay at the same place for the whole semester or year you may learn other opportunities it be a day or two you want to go and see what someone else is doing you might for example I bring back Charlton again the

055charlon memorial hospital any student can take up to 30 experience days there so they can pick days to go and if they want to see what real is like and they know they can fit their schedule some days they have a two block some days they have a one that can be a challenge but that program is perfect because they can just send the schedule ahead to the contact and she sends them back ours and they go in and they do the rotations and so that's that's another advantage of the program and also with Olivia they Journal their experiences too weekly and you know I could really see the um how her hours went from like 10 to 15 to 20 I think 30 sometimes 30 30 40 hours a week you can see how

056she's built you know you can see the enthusiasm for what she's doing by the hours that she's do because she's picking up hours you know on the weekend as well so she's done a great job with it it's a great success story and again the the software really does help us adapt to the schedules but I'm going to step aside so someone else can talk here Dr Jenkins so I you know I think this is a great program it's always great um you know I ran an internship program and we had a lot of students who thought they would wanted to go to law school and they would intern in a law firm and they would find out that in fact it was not the career for them so to your points like saving these

057several hundred th000 and finding that out is just as good of outcome as figuring out that you love the career and you want to go there so it's awesome my only recommendation having you know sort of worked and securing internships I don't know if you do any placements with state and local government um but I would encourage you towns as we know budgets are always tight um they're always looking for people to help out and from police to DPW to you know working for a town manager there are lots of opportunities um to work for state and local governments and because I'm a political scientist I'm always telling my students right there's good jobs in state and local government you get things like health insurance and pensions a lot of which are unheard of in

058the private sector um so I find that those are really good opportunities for a wide variety of sorts of interests um public health is another example where students can work if they're in health rated Fields so I'd encourage you if you're not doing that already to reach out because there's a lot of local you know thinking going up to Lakeville or going to Westport right there are a lot of opportunities there and I found that super that's super fruitful thank you we we currently actually we have a a student intern working with the Dartmouth Police Department uh we also have a student at the F Haven fire department if I'm not mistaken yeah so we we are currently doing some of that but yeah we would like to do more so anybody watching this please

059reach out to us excellent Mr thank you thank you madam chair fantastic this this is this is great the interesting thing when you last sometimes somebody asks all the questions that you were looking at and one of them I had was you know the time frame when you're there that's been answered which is great one of the uh questions and Dr Jenkins kind of mentioned it a little bit is you know in the state and and such do you have uh students out in the business World I.E you know accounting and things of that nature and the reason I asked that is coming from the municipal field uh I think of Sean Cronin who's the uh director of accounts and local Services up in Boston and we're crying for Town accountants and finance people because

060you can't find them type of deal so that's you know something out there to to put a a bug in it's you know so last year too we've had students uh my son did one with sou bees International in real estate and then we we you know anybody that has that business I'm a business teacher so I'm always pushing the marketing uh internships and Finance and Accounting so so um those aren't is you know we got to go out and get those um kids don't always you know it's one of those uh things where the kids don't really understand what that looks like in the real world you know what I mean I think they see it they may have parents that work in the field um but to get them out there uh yeah

061we we're definitely going to work on those now it's tax season so if there's any CPA firms looking for students you know type of deal as a pen P you know we're taking that like uh Mr ver said we're we're everybody at anyone who wants to jump any business that's in locally that that wants to do it we we're welcome to talk thank you just to add to so also we have several students that are in real estate that really picked up that working with Realtors too so that's a piece of it one last year I'm working with Citizens Bank too in like a loan risk department but I think that's a great that's a great idea for us to move forward with especially accounting and so thank you and and the last question I

062have and not trying to put the students on the spot but what have you guys taken from this program um I've taken a lot from this program um like I said earlier I'm a very Hands-On learner so being in a classroom is a great and like right now I'm taking Anatomy so pairing Anatomy with PT is just it's perfect so I'm learning about bones in my anatomy class and then I learn about someone with a spiral fracture so stuff like that it's very you can connect the two but I don't necessarily think you get the experience in the classroom that you do in a real world situation like that so I've taken a lot away I've learned a lot I mean I've gained a lot I've learned what pts actually do which is very important

063like Mr um white and Mr Russell said so that's it's just an amazing experience I think it's super important to get outside of the classroom um I've taken pretty much most of every engineering course at dmouth high I've there a couple haven't taken I'm finishing them the rest of them in my next term but um I got the basis down for engineering with these classes I've taken but with this internship I've really I've hit that Mark where I really can say I've made a jump in learning what I really want to do because of it I've really like the auto the doing AutoCAD this school offers CAD but it's nothing compared to what they do they they're always Hands-On they're talking on the phone they're always in contact with people making sure that all the

064property lines everything is all the way they want it to be and the computer on the computer you can't make mistakes you got to always be correct it always has to line up properly but with the school I like I said I got the bases down with the cad now that I'm doing AutoCAD it's all it all lines up in the end but without this internship it's really it's just been a blast I've really enjoyed it I love the people I work with I love my mentor I love all they all just make the they make it so fun every day thank you um with this internship I've taken away um a lot more of public speaking skills I'm I'm very anxious when I talk to people I'm not familiar with but this has helped

065me a whole lot um I'm also very big like Hands-On learner so this that's also helped me a lot um it's helped me learn new things that I didn't really know that I would learn um at this office I do both Dental Assisting and I do front desk so I'm working a lot with with checking patients in and out um insurances and contacting insurance companies so I am learning a whole lot about like um like credit like credit payments and whatnot for patients uh with treatments so it is helping me learn a whole lot and it's helping me expand my knowledge to the Dentistry world and like price like money and everything so thank you thank you madam chair yeah no I think all I I I'll add um going last everyone pretty much has

066said it um everything but I I first I just it's so incredibly um to see how it's great to see how you all have reimagined this program um and for the students what a testament to the students and the future of this uh Community I could not have stood up there as a senior and uh nor had the wherewithal to recognize that I you know uh Mason you mentioned you know you all sort of mentioned Hands-On learning you mentioned uh recognizing that you know a job on your feet on the go is something that you're interested I did not have that I was not self-aware I don't think I am now at 50 self-aware enough for some of that um but so impressed with all that you've shared um I put down I I just

067jotted down leadership I I it's exciting to think about how enriched your future learning is going to be by having that lived experience um and and just I wrote down the word meaningful just you've all had such meaningful um experiences and and I'm sure that there are so many others up to that 90s something number that we're up to now for the internship um Good Luck to all of you you are just topnotch uh um what a testament to to the school department by hearing about all that you're doing and and excited about all that's to come um so that's all that I have thank you for your time and go ahead I just want to say one more thing because I wanted to say that you know arleene back there excuse me she's in

068our program as well and she's had a great experience she has a she had something else to do but she I wanted her to acknowledge her I know she was here to do some other things but you know there you are thank you for thank you for participating as last year too so thank you anden Oliver is also in the program as well sitting right next2 people so excuse me Aiden I'm sorry and uh do Dr Sab Maguire wanted to add a couple thank you I I did and most of you asked the questions and I had written down a few notes but I just want to say when I think about strategic planning and I hear the questions around is this something we've done before I think that this is a phenomenal example of

069why why strategic planning is so incredibly important to us as a school district because this is a program that we would want to expand and the school committee is sitting here listening to all those opportunities that you've been given and know that that's going to make a difference for you when you leave this high school and it sets you up for success and after all that's what we're aiming for in our prek to 12 space is that you're all going off after school after your high school your um prek to2 experience and experiencing success in adult life and the fact that you're doing it here in the community in the area um again it speaks to what you just said Mrs Amaral about having your talent come back and give to your community I want

070to thank the teachers here um wonderful Mr White I've only seen you on the sideline great job coaching but even more phenomenal job coaching these young students as they go off into the next phase the next chapter of their schooling thank thank you Mr Russell wonderful I love that you're this committed to making sure kids have this experience and Mr parate I know that you know I've seen you at work with many many young students and have great confidence in the skills that you're building in our students and I would like to Echo Mrs Amal I'm super impressed with all of the students who got up and came to the microphone this evening um so congratulations to you I'm glad you're developing that skill early in life because it is going to take you far

071so thank you thank you good job great [Applause] job so great I think great I think next on our agenda moving on um where is it resolu resolu resolution 24-1 resolution awarding contract for regular and late school bus transportation services I will turn it over to you Doctor thank you so much so um as you know or some of you might know Mr Kylie is out of the district today he has a um a family matter that he is attending to so uh I know that within your packet you had a memo from him but I'm just going to go over some of the points that that he made and submitting his requests for regular and late transportation services um as you know or as you don't probably don't know U but after reading we

072had one bid for regular and late transportation and that bidder was trembl I don't think anyone here is surprised by that I think Mr Kylie's pretty much been saying that all along and although he allocated uh within our budget 15% a 15% increase it's actually 26% again he predicted that this might happen and what um I think he wants us all to pay attention to certainly the school committee is but for those in the public listening is that the current School transportation climate uh both here uh locally and nationally is um is really challenging and that there is in fact a bus driver shortage and that wages have increased pretty significantly as a result of that so in addition with inflation the way it is right now it's no surprise that these costs have increased

073uh somewhat dramatically U Mr Kylie has taken the time to review other districts and look at the the uh bid results and he believes that that this is in fact in our best interest to award this contract uh he has done some preliminary work on uh you know he recognizes this would be about a $75,000 Gap in funding but he is at work identifying some efficiency improvements again as he mentioned at our last meeting that he hopes will result in the elimination of at least one bus and that would uh offset some of the cost uh some of the deficit so this is a one-year contract uh it is um upon your approval after the one year we can exercise a two-year option and so he as you know Mr Kylie continues to monitor the

074current trends he keeps a really close watch on what's going on certainly in this area and so that's his recommendation and with that I am going to read um the resolution number 2401 resolution awarding a contract for re regular late transportation services K to 12 whereas should it be prek to 12 y no okay I just want to make sure sure they're like no okay from thank you whereas bid invitations for regular transportation services K to2 were duly advertised and the bid proposals received were opened at 10:00 a.m. on January 2nd 2024 and whereas the bid from the only responding bidder tremblay's bus company LLC was reviewed and deemed to have met the public specifications therefore be it resolved that a contract for the regular late transportation Services K12 be awarded to tremble bus company

075LLC 284 Myrtle Street New Bedford Massachusetts based on Dartmouth Public School specifications dated December 24th 2024 for the period of July 1st 2024 and ending June 30th 2025 the contract offered is for an initial an an initial period of one year beginning July 1st 20 2024 through June 30th 2025 with two additional one-year options to be exercised at the sole discretion of the school committee of the town of Dartmouth for a maximum end date of June 30th 2027 the rate for July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025 is $477 per route per day so moved second question yep discussion yeah um so under resolved it says Public School specifications dated December 27th 2024 isn't that 2023 should be 2023 yes yes okay so we'll make that correction anyone else CHR thank you madam chair here

076so yeah I just want to briefly speak to the fact that this is coming in at 26% increase and I know we were locked into this current rate for three years but when we're talking about prop 2 and a half and we're talking about uh you know trying to stay live within our means it's very difficult to live within our means when we have transportation contracts that are coming in at 26% um higher than they were the previous year uh so you know I just ask uh the viewing public and uh those those of you watching this uh recorded just to keep that in mind that you know we do we certainly do our best and I know at the Joint uh The Joint meeting with the fincom and the select board we did have

077a conversation specifically uh discussing transportation and how uh it's it's it's constantly a uh constantly a moving Target and Mr Kylie and the transportation department does do a phenomenal job trying to uh clean up routes but at the end of the day we do have to bust our students um so you know I just I just want to mention that we are cognizant but 26% is a lot of money thank you thank you Mr Oliver Dr Jenkins yeah I'll also note I think some people might be surprised that there was only one bid but this isn't just a Dartmouth problem there's been stories in the globe about how most communities in the Commonwealth are receiving only one bid for their transportation services is um it's not an issue that we're going to fix here in

078the town of Dartmouth um this is something that the state needs to probably look at because you know I don't I don't want to say bus companies are colluding but they have the bandwidth to deal with the contract that they have so they don't bid on any other contracts um there's just not excess capacity in the system um and so when that happens right um there there aren't sort of Market forces driving cost down um it's it's across the state it's not just here in Dartmouth and so um it may be frustrating to see that there's just one bid but I think we were all expecting it and it's there's there's not much that we can do about that no I'm good it's everybody said M yeah yeah I don't really have anything it is

079what it is as well so we have a motion on the floor we have a a second um no further discussion I will um all in favor I I motion passes unanimously 5 Z thank you everyone all right next on our [Music] agenda is old business uh Dr Sab Maguire again I'll turn it over thank you and so again um we're look Mr Kylie is seeking the committee's approval of the FY 25 through 29 Capital Improvement plan a reminder this was presented at the committee's January 8th meeting meeting and in fact I also have notes Here uh just to reference that U Mr Kylie began presenting the capital Improvement plan uh back in September uh as a matter of fact at the September 22nd meeting and then again at the January 4th meeting I know

080that you have uh you have that in front of you in your packets but uh he's looking for your approval to move forward well we are not just Mr Kylie anyone have any um questions points of discussion yeah Madam chair make make a motion we approve the uh excuse me the FY 25 to FY 29 Capital approvement plan as uh presented back on uh January 8th I'll second that okay we have a motion by Mr Nunes a second by Mr Oliver any further discussion I just want yeah Madam chair through you to either the superintendent or Kate um when he goes to present this to the uh CIP committee if somebody let you know if I'm available because I know it's usually at 8:00 in the morning type of deal you know if I'm available

081I'd like to be able to attend perfect thank you noted thank you great um do we all did I say all in favor no the further discussion we no anybody else have anything additional no all in favor I hi passes unanimous um five nothing so now we'll move on to new business and we're moving into the discussion and vote for school choice 2025 we open the floor my colleagues for yeah Dr Jenkins so yeah I would just like to um clear up some misconceptions that were entered into the record earlier this evening during public comment um the assertion was made that the Dartmouth schools lose money on school choice and that is just simply not true we do spend on average $117,000 per student that pays for this building it pays for the lights are

082on in this room it pays for the books that are in this Library it pays for the librarian who is here it pays for the janitorial staff the maintenance staff the nurses the superintendent all of that is counted in the amount that we spend per pupil if you get rid of school choice student none of those costs go away they all continue to exist right and so we are not losing money on school choice children if you think about a classroom like what's in front of me right and I put two people in those front two seats and I still have one teacher I am not increasing costs at all we have not hired additional staff to staff classes for our school choice children so I want to be clear there are no increases in

083pension or a tirey health care costs that come from school choice all right it is simply a misconception to say that we lose money on school choice when I add two students to those seats at the front of this room I might have to flush the toilet a few more times I might have to wash hands right I might have to buy some books right that doesn't cost $5,000 all right so it's simply not true that we are losing money on school choice children and so I people can believe that but the facts do not support that there is also an assertion that right why are we adding students of class size is the strongest predictor of Student Success it is but class size is the strongest predictor of Student Success and the effects are

084greatest at the lowest levels right a class of 30 in first grade is different than a class of 30 in high school both are hard but one is just a little bit harder all right and we're not talking about that we have variable class sizes in the high school so I want to be clear that this is not increasing the cost for the town of Dartmouth that is not having a negative impact on Student Success and I think we heard from the other people who came and spoke this evening that the students who come here through school choice add value to our school Community um so they add value to the taxpayers and the the town of Dartmouth in terms of those benefits they add value when they sit in our classrooms and they interact

085with our other children and to say otherwise I think is simply not true thank you drins Mr Nunes thank you madam chair uh as usual my plan is to vote no okay and again it's nothing against it's just a fundamental that I have always uh I've always voted on and and believed in type of deal but take a step back okay with what we've had in school choice the funds that we've had in school choice and yes we have $2 million in that account you know unfortunate fortunately unfortunately the pandemic you know with all the federal funds that have come down the pipeline we didn't have to use it okay thank God we've got it because other than that we would be sitting here trying to figure we would really be scrambling for an override

086between now and June 30th for a million5 dollars minimal in my opinion the type of deal deal okay we've I think the district has been very frugal in using those funds you know between one to one to computers and you know the nice nice presentation that Mr Kylie gave us uh at our last meeting and such yes we did this past year for this current year we've taken money out of it instead of a one-time purchase we've taken it out for per se covering costs with it being uh you know supplies and maintenance and things of that nature the million and a half that we taking out for next year those are you know those are basically recurring costs that are going to come up so we're walking that very slippery slope so we're going

087to have to be very careful but you know I'm glad we have it don't get me wrong type of deal and it's been a a blessing in a godsend but my vote is still no thank you Mr Nunes anyone else sure yeah Mr I'll go I I certainly agree uh with my colleague Dr Jenkins you know for me you have someone you have people in town that are against school choice but yet like Mr noon said if it wasn't for our school choice we'd be having a much different conversation here this evening so it it just it frustrates me and it boggles my mind that after the disc the multiple discussions that this committee this budget subcommittee Dr Jenkins and myself have had with other boards in this town that we still come to some

088people still come to that consensus school choice is a value it is an intrinsic value it is certainly brings in money it adds a substantial value to the culture of Dartmouth it it allows students from outside of Dartmouth to come into this District that otherwise wouldn't be able to um so I I am certainly certainly far school choice and it's only at the high school and I don't know how many times we have to say this is that we have a course catalog at the high school these courses have to run regardless whether we have two or three students in there or if we add a few more school choice students in there it does not make a difference if it comes to a point in which okay are we're keeping students in Dartmouth High

089School that and we have to lower our school choice numbers we're going to do that but the reality is we are losing students from 8th grade that are going to new badford voke into other schools and believe it or not school choice is very is getting very very competitive in this state there are a number of local districts that are uh voting in school choice every year and I can assure you that there are some darmouth students as much as I would love to see them stay in dmouth that are accepting they choicing out of Dartmouth to other school districts so I want to do what we can to build up what we have our capacity to keep our Dartmouth students from going outside of Dartmouth but I also want I'll if we have the

090capacity let's take those students in because I think it's a win-win for everyone anyone else can I just ask one point of clarification um uh Dr s McGuire correct me if I'm wrong I believe that the school the state school choice program does not allow us to accept additional payments because that came up several times um during the comments if we're if we're going through the state's program where the state reimburses us we cannot then turn around and charge um families who are sending their kids here to pay additional fees is that correct that is correct we wouldn't be able to I just want to make sure we clarify that also in public comment thank you you stole my thunder Dr Jenkins I pulled up the policy and everything any other questions thank you for

091doing that I I saw a hand raised oh you're good anyone else yeah I I I would um uh just I mean I'm I don't have anything else to add I'm in in agreement Dr Jenkins you were so eloquent and and I loved your visual demonstration pointing to those two seats uh because I do think it's sort of uh folks want to think what they want to think but the reality is the facts are as you presented them um and and I do believe we are just incredibly enriched by the students that come here from other communities um and I wish the student that students that spoke were here to hear that uh because I think that's really important we learn from one another and we only know what we know and I learned from

092you and and and Etc so it's really um uh strengthens the fabric of who we are it really enriches us um as a community uh just as we're going out with our internship program to other communities welcoming students here I mean it's about it's about just being one Dartmouth and being um you know just gracious and you know open to to that uh enrichment um as I see it so that's all I will share I did pull up the policy cuz I was going to kind of circle back to that point that it we we we allow for a certain number we vote in a range of what we can take in each class you know year um and so we couldn't then based on their policies but we couldn't then go back and say

093oh I'm going to squeeze in one here if you give me some money on the side it's just not appropriate ethical it's not part of our policy so um thank you Dr Jenkins for bringing that up up uh without I guess at this point Mr Oliver yeah I do have just what one quick statement I do want to thank I know I don't think there in some of you may still be here but thank you to all the uh the students uh that that uh Dartmouth High students or students outside of the district that spoke to about school choice this evening yeah great and so now it's time to vote yeah um Dr Jenkins so I will make a motion that we the school committee vote to authorize uh school choice for the 2024 to

0942025 school year um I guess I would say at levels similar to what we have done in previous years at the discretion of the administrative team thank you second we have a motion by Dr Jenkins a second by Mr Oliver any further discussion hearing none um all in favor I I opposed me one so we it uh passes four four one AB uh one um nay one against so um thank you for one thank you um great annual report 2023 annual report attached for our review um for um it's required to approve before we uh forward it to town Hall Madam chair make a motion that we approve the 2023 annual report as sent to us second okay we have a motion we have a second any discussion nice job yeah thanks everyone who put

095this all together yeah yes um I will just say that we should go over it not we but someone should just go over at a final time to make some punctuation Corrections and M um Clarity okay can I just say one thing about the just I just want to mention as far as the annual report is concerned I'm really interested in um really spending more time reading it because um this is the first time that I've seen that this is what Dartmouth commits to every year and I'm looking forward to working with the committee and with staff here in Dartmouth to talk about ways that we can bring that annual report to life um so that it's more of something that the public can hear about um Beyond a written document so I can see

096that in the future and um I'll be bringing that to you I love that idea great maybe we can yes Mr news once you know given a final go through type of deal we can post it on the website on the homepage or something yes okay I will say a very informative document as to what the schools are about a lot of work you can see that yeah I mean if you look at the then again I look at the finance but look at the you know the amount of grants that we get type of deal is is unbelievable yeah so nice job by everybody thank you all right um all in favor I I passes unanimously 5 Z next on our agenda you'll see um an authoriza we'll discuss an authorization to release um

097many uh executive session minutes um and so for uh our review calendar years 2022 and 2023 um and I would ask that we consider um and bring up any of that may Mr noons yeah Madam chair and bear with me please yes do this in two pieces uh I make a motion that we release the executive session minutes for uh 2022 and 2023 okay second okay so we have a motion on the floor for release of all of the executive session minutes listed for 2022 and 2023 yes and a second by Dr Jenkins okay any further discussion on that no okay um all in all favor I I Tes unanimously for 2022 2023 Madam chair there's uh and I'm I apologize I don't know the dates but there are some from 2021 that we need

098to still hold okay type of deal I don't know if Miss Gunther or Dr Sabre Maguire know the dates but this that we need to hold and not release so we have uh the June minutes the November minutes and the October minutes that we would recommend that we continue to hold okay okay okay thank you so Madam chair I'll make a motion that we release the executive session minutes for January 25th 2021 February 8th 2021 May 26 2020 April 26 I apologize thank you 2021 and May 17th 2021 second we have a motion for the 2021 um January February April May as noted by Mr noones a second by Dr Jenkins any further discussion no I hearing none all in favor I I passes unanimously um five nothing beautiful okay and next we have superintendent

099excellent thank you so much so there just there are a few things that we want to update you on under teaching and learning I'm going to invite uh Mr tbolt up to talk he's going to discuss uh some of the changes that are still in the proposal but pretty close to um I think are they official yet last time they weren't quite yet we were still going through some public hearings but as you know uh post P pandemic post pandemic absenteeism not only here in Dartmouth uh or the state of Massachusetts but really nationally and I would be willing to bet internationally um absenteeism has continued to be a real challenge for us at every level of the school system um I I'm pleased to say that last year this past year when we looked

100at our accountability and Ross is going to talk about this um that we did make some progress but we want to make you aware of some of the changes that desie is proposing and the impact that will have on the weight of our uh the impact that will'll have on our mcast calculations moving forward thank you Dr Sabre Maguire um so as you alluded to there are actually two proposed changes to the accountability system that the commissioner is making to the Board of Education um the first is here on the screen now which is just to change the to include a third year of data towards the accountability um system and to change the waiting it used to be two years of accountability data and it was a 6040 split um and the commissioner reports

101that you know the plan was always to get to um you know uh several years of data but with the pandemic that was um delayed and so they're making the recommendation at this point to split it between three years obviously with 2024 which would be the most recent year would count the highest at 60% and then the 40% would be split between 2023 which would be at 25% and then finally 2022 the third year out would be 15% so that's one of the proposed changes that they're they're making and then as Dr saber Maguire uh made reference to the other um significant change is the commissioner really wants to focus in chronic absenteeism and chronic absenteeism is defined as students who are absent for 10% or more of the school year and I think it's

102important to note that the department of Ed does not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences um I think there's a misconception that if you know um students are called out uh because they're legitimately sick that that then does not count you know we excuse it locally but in terms terms of accountability and state reporting in absence is an absence and the reason for that um is because we know that when you're not in front of your teachers loss instructional time impact student achievement and and student learning um obviously and so um what this commissioner is proposing is here on the screen um and the proposed waiting I would just say for our community where a low instant a what's called a low instance Community meaning our multilingual learner English language learner population um is not

103um uh as significant as some other districts so for our purposes we'd likely fall into the no elel waiting um and so the change here is really to take um 15% of the accountability and put that onto uh an additional 10% to make 25% for chronic absenteeism the other thing to note is that that 15% mostly comes from student achievement and the reason for that again is the the logic is that um you know that's where being absent really shows up so why keep that high and also add to Chronic absenteeism is uh is the logic there um so the new proposed waiting uh for you know schools that don't have um a significant El population would be 52% would be achievement and that's in ela math and um science and then 23% would be

104on student growth and then the 25% would be for chronic ABS andm again that's for non- high schools so that would be for all our elementary schools and our middle school as well and then for high school which is a bit more complex in terms of the accountability again likely in the far right column um but 42% would be achievement which is down from 47.5% and then um student growth would be 23% 10% for high school completion and again High School completion includes four-year graduation rate the extended uh engagement rate which is our students who don't quite graduate in four years but remain enrolled with us to finish out their and earn their high school diploma that would be the extended engagement rate um and annual dropout rate those three factors um would count for

10510% which is 10% less than they currently account for um chronic absenteeism would be 20% up from 5% and then um Advanced coursework completion so completing at least one college dual enrollment one project lead the way or one advanced placement course um in your junior or senior year that's what counts towards that 5% so again that's what is proposed by the commissioner to the board not sure when the the board uh meets again to to vote on this um but they did take public input um which they released a summary of um the mass Association of school superintendents has recommended putting together a multi-stakeholder uh committee to look at this rather than to make this change halfway through the year however um the commissioner and the department of Ed has moved forward and is recommending

106um this change tomorrow morning so very very TI oh they're voting tomorrow so this yeah and public hearing closed on uh January 12th it was it was I have to say a very short timeline wow yeah so I would just add that CRI you know this is a uh CommunityWide this is not something that schools can solve alone we need um support and we know that the pandemic has really shifted some behaviors and mindsets around attending school but I think I would just take this opportunity to encourage attendance at school is critically important our teachers cannot teach Empty Chairs um and so you know um please uh you know send your students to school if they're well and able to be there yeah thank you thank you questions Mr noes thank you madam chair got

107to love it you know call you call you at 11 59 and say you got to vote by midnight got to love it uh seriously thank you for this uh yes I I totally agree with you you know we need the we need the students in in their seats type of deal but my question is you know you talk about chronic GS onism and everything else I mean God forbid what do you how do you count a student you know that has a serious illness or you know a surgery or God know knows whatever else could happen I mean what what's their take on that so their take is in absence is an absence and they're not you know in school for instruction but I will say too uh I did not mention this but

108there is some um the commissioner has vaguely referenced a few times that there will be some opportunities to um earn back um absences if you will through either Saturday sessions or an accelerated uh notice I credited the commissioner Mr Oliver these not my ideas no um Saturday sessions and our accelerated acmy the way we've we've run uh accelerated cies and again it sounds good in theory but to recreate instruction that goes on during a school day this week in a Saturday session two weeks from now or a accelerated Academy during February vacation or what have you I just sounds good in theory I just don't know practically how that impacts student learning yeah but all right thank you sir no I was just going to say I I vaguely remember hearing something about for students

109that are medically at home due to a medical diagnosis if they we provide tutoring to them I think that does count to some extent I don't know if it counts for a full day or how many hours that if we provide tutoring at least 50% of the academic day we count them we should be counting them as pres for instruction so gotcha so I guess my gripe with this with the chronic absenteeism ra going from 5 to 20% is we know that absenteeism is a problem um and we also know that there's only so much that we as a school district can do about it um we can make recommendations we can send home uh strongly worded letters um but at the end of the day um it's really out of our control control so

110it's it's certainly frustrating that there's there's no um there's no bite to our bark um and I'd love to hear what the commissioner's recommendation would be or what the uh Board of education's recommendation would be and how you know locals can do a little more um enforcing of this because at the end of the day it really we can only do so much as a district and it's frustrating that we're going to be penalized um at the of 20% for students that are chronic uh chronically absent yeah I guess you know I just would like to share that I know that our schools our our school leaders our teachers I mean they are aware of this Challenge and are doing everything within you know their sphere of influence to ensure that kids are coming to

111school I know the high school made some uh pretty pretty significant modifications to their school schedule as one way to uh ensure that students are in school during their first class of the day I mean the I guess the The Challenge and the opportunity is is that we really we're postco we're still feeling the impact but we're getting there with our students we are making an impact in their perspective and our families on the fact that we all need to be in school um unless we're really sick right and and that's what we're working on again across the district that's been something that we've had multiple conversations about we want our students here if our families are listening we're just encouraging you to make sure that your students are in school your children are in

112school and if you need some support with that to reach out to your individual child's school and will help to come up with the plan if any of uh our children our students are having any kind of really difficulty uh being here every day but it is important um we do we do know that this is a challenge encouragingly Dartmouth has made steady progress in this area and if I could just add to that I know looking at the data it looks like we're tracking towards improving again um in this current school year but at the end of the day it will be do we hit our targets or not um you know and that's the other point that I would just add is that um the the proposed changes are comparing ourselves to ourselves

113not to other schools so that'll be important anyone else have any questions or comments just thank you for the present thank you for the information bringing this to us thank you thank you thank you Dr s McGuire so um next I wanted to update you on where we are as far as exploring curriculum resources uh for those of you who took the time to watch the governor's um State of the Union Address she did talk about education and one of the things that you heard her say or maybe read about is the state's commitment to literacy resources this takes a on a particular I would say takes on particular import importance here in Dartmouth given the fact that not that uh I'm not putting Mrs poo on the spot but she is doing quite a

114bit of work at the elementary level in preparation not for the state to come in and help us but we're grateful for the help and we'll gladly take it given the budget implications um but working with curriculum teams at the elementary level to uh investigate curriculum and to get teacher input into what resources that we think or that they think would be particularly relevant and to our Dartmouth students Mrs Pera you're I put you on the spot totally I was going to text you and say would you be willing to come up but I don't have my phone so we would love you to come up and talk about some of that work that you're doing sure always always have to talk about that I know you are so um we do we did shift

115our curriculum teams this year so that we have um an elementary curriculum team at each of the four major levels so we have an Ela team and a math team a social States team and a science team and we are working through the curriculum review cycle and I would love to to talk to you about that a little bit more in depth at another meeting and so we can hopefully um dive into that but we know that the elementary literacy curriculum is something that needs to be looked at um who I've stood here before to speak to you about how we address some of the foundational readings skills that we really needed to address by bringing in foundations Integrity to address some phonics and some phonological awareness um pieces of curriculum and I'm really excited

116because we have some Publishers coming to speak to us about um you know a broader scope a prek to five with the potential even to look Beyond fifth grade and do some connection with the Middle School curriculum um and looking at just you know the commitment to putting highquality research-based materials in our students and in our teachers hands um you know there's really just it's undeniable that what we know about putting high quality materials into the hands of our students in our staff um we're certainly committed to that I'm super grateful to this committee and to the central office to their commitment to doing that and so um we do have a couple Publishers coming next week which I'm very excited about um I have another meeting with another publishing company this week to see

117if they can come in March um and so you know working with Mrs denisio working with these teams and looking into our data and sort of what that's telling us we need and what our students need and being able to bring that forward is is very exciting for me and and as we recognize there's no one siiz fits all but what Mrs poo just referred to is again research-based highquality resources that for this community really should be a non-negotiable and so I was thrilled to hear the governor speak to that because it was the direction we're headed in anyway uh but at the same time there are other areas of need here in Dartmouth not just our literacy curriculum although that's our priority right now um we have Mrs Deus working at the middle school

118she is working very closely with many of our curriculum teens but as you know we have to focus on science and that's true for the elementary middle and high school level uh so that is connected to our ability to go ahead and vet resources and and bring those resources in Pilot them get them in the hands of our teachers and our students get feedback and to move forward so it's our goal to put those resources high quality resources in the hands of all of our teachers and all of our students and that's something we're paying close attention to we have Mrs chavier here from from Miss Javier from the high school and I know that's work that she's committed to working with the content leads here at the high school uh we know how important

119this work is and again connects to strategic planning thank you thank you thank you thanks Kathy thank you Mr t-bolt thank you thank you Mrs poo for coming up even though I put you on the spot I know how excited you are about that work yes she's got a great team of people and again we're going to be seeking input from our Educators that is critically important to choosing a resource and making sure that that resource is one that I mean we're not all 100% going to agree but that we get as close to that uh percentage as we can and so I mentioned entry planning this so I I I can say that I'm beyond entry planning I think I kind of alluded to that at the next which I'm really happy to say

120that I'm now looking at findings um and I think that I have learned quite a bit about the Dartmouth schools uh thanks to the folks out in the school district and to the central office staff our principles our teachers everybody's been really open about sharing um I still have to get to the Dello so Dello folks we haven't forgotten about you we have that on our calendar but you'll be hearing soon about our findings and will be coming here to present them to you I can say that I've started to write them and that makes me feel like I've accomplish something so we have an outline and I have some help from my team so I'm looking forward to that as far as HR is concerned again I mentioned at the last meeting that we're

121going to be advertising The Early Childhood director so that's in the works uh we'll be sharing that publicly and hopefully we're going to get some high quality candidates for that position again that will be an inclusive process uh as always I say substitutes um substitute substitutes there will never be a time where we don't need substitutes so if you're out there and you're listening you're thinking oh they have to be all set for the year that just simply is not true and it never will be so um we know our college students are headed back to school and they've been super helpful but we still will always need uh substitutes and again we we've shifted some responsibilities at our central office I want to thank all of the central office staff for the work that

122they're doing and as always thank you Kate for the work that you do around personnel and HR and then of course we have to talk about the wonderful accomplishments of our Dartmouth students um I did I'm totally using Mr Christa's notes um and I don't have Ben here to make sure that I have properly pronounced his name but I think I did but we have a basketball team that is our two basketball teams doing incredibly well our girls team and our boys team and apparently Bridgewater ROM's a big rival again I told you last time the boys beat Brockton I was happy about that and so I'm equally happy about Bridgewater rum because that's where I live Bridgewater so again the competitiveness yes we're all about Dartmouth winning um so again we have a a

123our track our into a track team is doing a great job there have been some wonderful accomplishments by the students that are participating in that um and we also heard and I did I want to have this here our robotics team I mentioned at the last meeting that I got to pretend judge and myself and a couple of other people I to say it must have helped a little bit anyway um because both of our teams um placed first at the WPI qualifier and they'll be moving on so we're going to have some other I think things to celebrate here in Dartmouth and so far I don't know I think the boys are playing right now here yeah so we'll see some is it oh are they winning don't I don't know and and so

124we're looking for forward to you know seeing out the season Boys Hockey also they are getting steadily improving so I'm looking forward to seeing a hockey game very soon excellent nice thank you very much than you uh report of the chair I I have nothing to report I will ask my colleagues if you have anything that you'd like to announce Mr NOS thank you madam chair a couple of things uh number one the advantage of sitting back here I just you know when I sat down and I'm looking at this fantastic artwork that our students I know I talk about it when they have the art show and everything else but never sees us too amaz me what our students do like I said before I can't draw a straight line with a straight edge

125so when I see what these students do it it's absolutely fantastic uh am I missing something or we haven't seen any voke minutes since they were here in November so could we check on that please we have not the voke you know I know they've met November December type of deal so thank you uh thank you to M church and everyone for the wonderful tour of the atlas room tonight oh my God I'm impressed it's just fantastic and uh the students look excited so that's even better type type of deal and uh the last thing is and and I don't have a lot of information I'll get it for the next meeting but uh Saturday November 2nd uh we will be hosting our annual uh winter uh nzar home show for percussion and color guide

126and such uh March 2nd March 2nd so like wow it's some advanced notice what did they say November oh jeez wow getting late so yeah look and I put I got March second here okay see it oh oh well anyhow so I'll be looking for presenters but I'll get I'll get that information you know times and everything else as they become closer thank you you anyone else no with that our um the next meeting of the school committee will be same place same time on February 12th uh and I will entertain a motion to uh um adjourn to Executive session exective session for the purpose of non-union contracts and DEA grievance matters and not to return to open session yes I'll make that I'll make that motion a second and so it's roll call kathle

127Amal yes Chris Oliver cin Shannon Jenkins yes [Music]