001[Music] good evening I'd like to call to order this meeting of the school committee for Monday October 16th um if able please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al Al to the flag of the United States of America to the it stands Nation indivisible justice for all thank you um something I haven't been saying is just silence your phones if you um if you have them John was always notorious for saying that and I haven't been saying that so please do that if you can um and just want to let everyone know this meeting is being recorded live streamed on Dartmouth High School TV media YouTube channel and will'll be rebroadcast on DCTV channels 9 on Wednesdays um and Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. Friday at 6:00 a.m. Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2:
002p.m. also on channel 18 um Monday and Saturday noon and Thursday at 3 roll call Kate here Chris Oliver Elizabeth here y jenin here thank you very much Chris is unable to uh be here this evening and our thoughts are with his family um next on our agenda we have allotted on our agenda 10 minutes for public comment comment from the audience on any topic that's on this evening's agenda so if you're so inclined please come up to the podium I just ask that you state your name before you speak okay I was like the awkward pause um and so next I'll uh turn it over to uh Dr Jun sa Maguire minutes approval of minutes you get the minutes oh I do yes I do we have approval of minutes John thank you I
003knew it was going too smooth um so we have the regular and executive session minutes from the um we'll take them separately we'll do regular minutes for our September 25th meeting so move second okay any discussion all in favor I I great abstain great one exstension um and three uh eyes next I will entertain a motion for the executive session minutes for that same evening on September 25th so move Madam chair until the matter for which they were incurred is complete thank you second second okay any discussion all in favor I I I and I will abstain one abstention thank you very much so now I'll have you introduce I know and now next we're I'm going to introduce our student representative um Annabelle it's Johnson yes and uh two s's in that by the
004way um Annabelle just performed this past weekend in the band competition and I want to say that we were so impressed with you so we'll turn it over to you thank you um as a student advisory committee we don't have any issues to report on but we're currently looking on a way to get student input um as a whole and we're looking at like a Google form or a survey that we can um we have these advisory meetings every month um every student is in a class of students in their grade and usually we'll discuss um like goal setting um grades um and we think it would be a good idea to put a survey out that they can answer at each advisory meeting and we can take a look at the results and look
005at Trends and things like that and so far that's all we're looking at that's great thank you anybody have any Dr Jenkins so I just want to say that one of the things that I do for a living is survey design and methodology so um if you would like to have someone come in to talk to you about designing surveys and sampling and different types of questions um I would be happy to come visit with you all um to help you out on that because the ways that you design surveys can impact your response rate the responses you get and all that um so I'd be happy to help you guys out with that if you're interested thank you I'll contact Mr Shay and we'll work that out excellent you just gave it the thumbs
006up I didn't know if you saw her great thank you very much for that um and next I'll turn the consent agenda okay so we have a couple of things on the consent agenda related to fundraising activities first we have the Dello kushman school PTO and their fundraising activities uh I have to say looking at their um their ledgers have been quite successful and I know that uh I see uh the principal here and do you want to come up do you have any questions about the kushman Dello fundraising that's great and so if not I guess not Liz I think we do missed but I do like to always state for viewing audience because they don't necessarily see the same documentation as us um that the kushman dealo PTO is planning to raise nearly
007$45,000 I think it's an important reminder to our community members um how much our community gives to our school but also um it's one of the consequences of of low funding for our schools um that we do have to rely very heavily for things like field trips right there's a lot of field trip budget um coming out of the PTO and we very much appreciate that but I think it's important for the community to know those figures motion to approve great second any any further discussion all in favor I passes unanimously next we have the Dartmouth High School music department well I just want to mention fundraising because I didn't mention the Dartmouth Middle School also has a a fundraiser so um I know you want to move forward and again echoing what Shannon had
008to say these fundraisers are truly important for a lot of the the important school activities that are going on every day uh across the school district so that is um again Dartmouth middle school and Mr Ross's here if you have any questions for him anyone have any questions sorry I'm going to be the you know um I would just appreciate this is fine for the year but you know we are the fiduciary responsibility for the school district and so I think it's important all of the other PTO and we've asked this of the the band does this as well their fundraising arm um to just submit like totals and budgets and all of that because that's part of our duties as a school committee um I don't have a problem with what they're doing this
009year um but as a general sort of principle we'd like to see those okay that having been said I'll move approval I'll second okay any further discussion all in favor I I and we'll follow up on that as well Dr Jenkins and so next we have the Dartmouth High School music department and they're looking for permission for a cultural Excursion and performance in Spain in February of 2025 and I know in your meeting packet you have the trip itinerary um I think we do have representation I think this is got to be the de this has to be Heather Church yes who's here to answer any questions that the committee might have how exciting for our students to have this opportunity I want to tag along but you're welcome too thank you I appreciate that
010we have a very big group that's already committed to traveling um pending your approval and you know um very ambitious and I'm just curious when was the last time such a trip was taken by this sure um the last time was in 2018 and we traveled to Scotland and with the same um travel company that we're hoping to go with this year MCM arts and we had 112 people on that trip a um actually it was 102 and we had about 60 students and the rest chaperon Tagalongs and staff okay um and we're looking at about the same numbers for this one actually um and we've traveled quite a bit over the past 20 years since I've been here every I try to arrange for one international trip every four years so that every student
011can have the opportunity to do that um then one domestic trip also I don't have any questions I'll move approval it looks great to me I'll second right any further discussion all in favor I I excellent great have fun okay thank you so much move that up yeah and um I I thank you so much Heather um thank you so before our presentation I just want there's some uh I propose uh moving the superintendent's report up now to share some additional information and then we'll go into our presentation sure sound good yeah great I appreciate that so the reason for that is because we have a couple of guests here this evening that I'd like to give an opportunity to share some of what's been going on um in our schools we want to give
012them a chance to hire highlight some of uh the recognition that our schools have been getting and just some of the phenomenal work that's happening here on an everyday basis and we want to give our schools an opportunity on a regular basis to come before you and to share some of again what seems like the day-to-day but really special events that are happening on a continuous basis in our schools so we're going to start with the middle school and I'm inviting Mr Rossy up to the microphone you see he's advertising for the Middle School we'll get to that a little later you're going to talk about that okay I'm pretty sure he has a starring role and we'll hear about that but he's going to talk about some of the wonderful as I said work
013that's been going on at the middle school and it was an event that I was invited to that I was really excited to be able to walk around and see how engaged your students were well good evening everyone and uh thank you for having us and giving us this opportunity on October 4th we had our 9th Annual career day and uh that's earmarked for our seventh grade it's put on by our guide Department uh Paula Pacho and Temple Mitchell and we had 30 guest speakers come in throughout the community and speak with our seventh graders about future opportunities and it's a it's a great event that keeps getting bigger and Temple actually is in the detect department and she put together a two and a half minute video that I think can explain this better
014than I so I'm going to uh I was told I just need to press the space bar so I'm going to see if this works um but before I do that I would like to give a plug for this year's production of Cinderella it's going to be November 17th and 18th our kids are working hard there'll be a Friday show and a Saturday afternoon show so we hope you can can all come on out and make it so let's see if this works with the space [Music] bar the Dartmouth middle school has been hosting career day for several years now it is a day for seventh grade students only to hear about careers and professions right from our community members in preparation for this day 7th grade students participate in an exploration period during social
015studies students learn more about themselves by first taking a learning style survey and then a Career Cluster survey with the learning style survey 20 questions they learn if they are best learning auditorally visually or kinesthetically the Career Cluster survey 35 questions guides them as to a profession that might offer a career matched to their personality and [Music] likes the career day committee then invites volunteers from the community to come present students are then asked to choose a first and second choice of presenters they would like to hear from the committee then coordinates the schedule for students to attend two sessions since each session host two present presenters students hear from four different professionals we are thankful for our community professionals that volunteer their time to present to the seventh [Music] grade [Music] my colleagues have
016question or comments yeah that that's how how did the students receive it we get a lot of positive feedback from the kids we actually um one mom had emailed one of the seventh grade teachers and said it was the best school day ever for him that he had ever had so we and the presenters get a lot out of it the from the sneaker store he he actually was uh yeah I mean great experience for him when you go back to just looking at the sneaker store were they like Nikes or are there all different types that he sells I think he he uh does all different types I think he's a collector as well oh he's a collector okay sure that was good nice very nice and yeah thank you to uh all the
017presenters to taking time out of their day and i' give a big shout out to our guidance Department in Temple Mitchell and Sarah Dias and Paul Pico because they really are the the committee that organizes that day yeah absolutely good job it's a great event I've done it before but it's kind of hard to explain to seventh grade student sometimes what a PhD is and college professor but it's always fun to do and I I I think the students do get a lot out of it so it's great yeah it's fantastic I remember um last year when may um I just hap happened to really enjoy um Dr Kate Burke's presentation and and I don't know if it was the practice of if this happened for everyone but but friendly with Kate so she shared
018to with me that my daughter had you know they I'm assuming that they were prompted to say thank you to the presenter and and what they their takeaway was um and my daughter wanted to go on to to um some sort of like occupational therapy which I'm thrilled about and hopefully she keeps on that trajectory who knows but um uh it was nice to hear that the presenters were also grateful to hear back some comments from the students so I don't know if that was just a oneoff or if it's just part of I think it's it's a pretty consistent experience that the the whole group has yeah and I did have the opportunity to visit the school that day and Mr Rossi walked around with me and we got into a couple of classrooms
019and the students were truly engaged and I think even though as Dr Jenkins said their seventh graders um there it's never too early to start them at least thinking and just exposing them to Opportunities and things that might just start sparking their interests at very early ages and they were you couldn't hear a pin drop which is highly unusual for middle school and I can attest to that fantastic thank you for sharing Mr Rossy before you leave you do have to tell us what part you're playing in so um I am going to be a fruit vendor in the uh opening scene and I will uh I will be singing with an ensemble cast that the uh I think it's the prince's having a ball I have to you learned your lines J I I
020I need some work in that department but I'll I'll get on it so I hope everyone can come on out either on the 17th through 18th wonderful fantastic thank you very much it is it is a bit of a step down from Teddy but uh I'll I'll take what I can get he did have a speaking role last year now he's part of an ensemble so thank you okay and and next again under teaching and learning I want to invite Mr Shay and Miss chavier up to talk about a couple of wonderful things that happened at the high school in the past month one was certainly the college fair um I know if you want to just talk about that briefly and then also a a very special recognition that Dartmouth High School received uh
021recently that I think is important to share with the Greater Community uh this is the perfect segue um very exciting to hear that the middle school is cultivating our students passions and um one of our mantras is for students to pursue their passions and AP allows students to do that they think about what they want to do with their lives and they can take College ready courses to prepare them so they can pursue whatever occupation they want to pursue so thank you to the middle school for laying the groundwork we're very excited about that so this year the College Board um launched a new program called the AP honor rooll and we received silver distinction now we have room to grow but silver distinction is quite an honor and we've really been working on this
022for the past I'd say six years uh working on Pathways of study guidance counselors creating plans for students to avoid taking you know five or six APS senior junior year so they're peppering them throughout so that being said very proud of our students our teachers and this is I don't know if you can see this but this is basically the breakdown of the honor roll progress report so the progress report is this we must meet or exceed the criteria for a given recognition level for all three metrics College culture college credit and college optimization so for college credit we received silver which is 42% or more of our graduating cohort scored a three or higher on at least one AP exam during high school now it's important to note and I'm very happy the College
023Board acknowledged this that to avoid pressure on students to take large numbers of APs only one AP exam score of three or higher per student contributes to this particular indicator for college optimization we earned 42% and uh seven well no I'm sorry yes 42% or more of our graduating cohorts scored at three or higher and at least one AP exam during High School to avoid pressure on students again to take large numbers of APs only one AP exam score of three or higher per student contributes to this indicator for college optimization which we received 177% which was excellent 177% or more of our graduating cohort took five or more AP courses exams excuse me during high school at least one of those exams was taken in ninth or 10th grade so that students are spreading
024out their AP experience across grades thinking about how it applies to what they want to do to their future or at least pursue their passion and um because that feel because I'm sorry um at least one of those exams was taken in nth or 10th grade so that students are spreading the AP experience across grades rather than feeling disproportionate pressure in any one single year AP also the College Board recognizes that research shows that if students they if they take six or more APS and do not improve college graduation rates beyond the optimal total of five such courses the bottom line is five courses is what students need to do anything more than that they don't count more than the five exams so they're really looking out for our students so that they don't overwhelm
025themselves so we received the silver distinction and in some of the categories we receive the gold and the Platinum so kudos to all of our teachers guidance counselors administrators parents the second recognition that we received was AP access now the AP access it honors schools that encourage lowincome or under represented minority students to take EP courses and the percentage of students in at least one of these categories who took at least one AP exam before graduation is proportional to or above our school population so demonstrating that we have a a a clear and effective commitment to Equitable access for students and one thing to keep in mind the College Board also recognizes and colleges that even if students don't receive a three or higher they're preparing themselves for college they're creating that and cultivating that
026college ready skills preparation strategies so even if students I always tell them don't worry about the score that you get on the exam you're preparing for college and you're here at the high school getting the support that you need before you get to college so I'm just very proud of our students Mr Shay and I have have worked very hard um to prepare our students um for the AP exams and AP courses and we try to offer as many as we can to our students to all of our students any questions Mr thank congratulations that's great news couple of well a whole bunch of questions actually how many students take AP classes okay so right last year yeah I did write the numbers down for last year because right now we're still no there still
027last year we had a total of 551 total exams so there were about about 300 students who are enrolled in AP courses and some students take more than one obviously um so we had a 3.1 average score and 68% of the scores were three or higher you know that's all great but what what we care about most is that our students are pursuing their passions like the Middle School mentioned earlier we want them to feel confident we want them to be able to go to college and feel like they are prepared and that they have a dream to pursue how trying to figure out how how to word this I just word it the uh what type of credits do they get from the colleges I mean does every College accept every exam or does
028it depend where you're going what you're majoring in that I'm so glad you asked that because we had an assembly at the beginning of the year and I met with the AP students and I said it's very important for you to investigate your college and guidance counsel's work with students to find out out what courses what AP credits they will accept some schools accept three or higher and any other schools if say you're going to be a uh biology or medical have a major in the medical field they may not take those particular courses because they want them to take the courses in college so it really varies from school to school so it's so important to educate students to let them know you know look into the schools that you're interested in find out
029what they accept and find out what they won't accept so that you know you're not over um stressing yourself is there a uh a limit to the N to the number of credits in other words if I took AP English and passed you know you get they give you the three credits in college if it's ex is there a limit to those credits that that they can get depends on the school depends on the school it really depends on the school okay thank you thank you madam chair you're welcome those great questions anyone else um I'm just curious um students who are taking AP courses in n9th grade um it's the same course that a senior would be taking correct yes so are the ninth graders stepping up or is yes yes it's not like
030when they're taking them in their the lower grades that they are maybe not at the top a particular curriculum it's very established the teachers have to submit um their syllabi to the College Board um and um one particular course is the AP Computer principles that's very computer science principles that's very accessible to nth graders so nth graders and seniors can be in that class great yep yeah I think it's a great program and I'm particularly pleased with your access honor um you know I I think for a long while AP was um very much the province of certain types of students and to get that award I think is it's they're both great but I I'm I'm super proud of that for you because I think it's fabulous and I know you know um my
031kids took a number of AP classes here and did well on some of the tests and not well on the other but they got amazing experiences in all of those classes and that was really important and I know um I can't remember who they took AP goo from God yeah yes God bless her soul she had the two of them together in the same class um but you know we would talk to them about their experience and because that's what I teach at um Dartmouth and I can attest to the fact that the quality of instruction that they're getting and what they're learning is on par um with what they're getting in a in a college class so it's a really great program and a super proud congratulations to all of you on the these
032Awards just a little caveat we've partnered with mass Insight over the past two five or six years and that has really been a a very strong partnership to help us democratize AP access and to provide students with study sessions mock exams and wonderful PD for our AP teachers a big shout out to our AP teachers they spend a lot of time preparing and they go to um high quality conferences and workshops and um they put a lot of time and energy into making sure that our students get an equal access and a great rigorous course can I jump on that for a second I just want to say that um the access side of things is something that Ross and Rachel have done a lot of work on um they've met with students they pulled
033students down and based off of SATs that the PSAT scores that give our AP potential but they've really sat down with students and really open their eyes to say you can also do this too and just that meeting with another adult that says you have the ability you've proven it to us is a lot so that's a lot of hard work that Ross make I put together and and you are correct Dr Jenkins in that when I used to teach English and I'm just thinking of English it was only a certain level of students that would be in like AP Lit maybe 10 students now we have three sections it's just it's it's exciting because we're we're really preparing our kids yeah thank you so much and thank you for all of the the work
034that had gone into this U you know coming to fruition in this way um great job uh really proud and and I'm especially thankful for you to bringing this to us and sprinkling in some great information um through your update as well yes I just I want to add that you know I don't know if we talked about this but the college fair was also if we h space yes oh good because I wanted you to hear about that too I just want to say like I just saw uh Mr parate peek his head out I just want to make sure we're speaking into the microphone we I'm not sure if that was why but it might be oh you college fair because there's so many exciting so our college fair was held on September
03526 we did it for our Juniors and seniors we had over 75 universities colleges um and technical schools attend as well of all branches from our military represented we tried to show a lot our students as many post-secondary options as available um the big thing is is this couldn't be done without Miss kach I don't know if you all know her or not she's one of our guidance secretaries she spend hours doing that driving to Marisol has been the first thing in the morning to get make sure our our presenters or our our College Representatives all have just a nice quality breakfast so um it's one less thing on my plate which is really nice and she does a spectacular job that I should not be doing it anyways so um it was an excellent
036day it was really fun it was really intriguing to see our especially our Juniors our seniors have a little bit more of an idea where they're kind of more in the process of like the applying side but our Juniors this is really their first full exposure to being like oh we're going to be grown adults real soon so you could see that kind of on their faces they they were taking it very seriously asking really insightful questions when they were visiting tables and and really a a lot of them had a vision and at darmouth 90% of our students are postsecondary so whatever that means so we have to have something that shows for all of our students it was exciting because they they had all the pamphlets and M look they were very excited
037about oh planning for school um so it was a great experience to see their little eyes light up I can attest again that there was a lot of excitement in that space and lots of great colleges universities represented um throughout the gymnasium filled I think every spot was filled in there so it was a great job by you and your team it's very proud that Yukon was there too in case anyone wants to know thank you so much thank you everybody thank you for thank you thank you again yeah and and again thank you for um you know bringing bringing this information to us not just in a way that we're you know hearing throughout the year yes I think it's important to hear directly from the folks out in the schools that are leading
038this work and so I thank them for being willing to show up um here on a Monday evening to share this with you it is I think it's important work that they need to be sharing not only with the school committee with but with the public um and so just ju I'm going to just finish the superintendent report and so um I just wanted to mention that this past week I want to thank the principles and their leadership teams for welcome welcoming me into their schools I got to spend a couple hours in each one of our buildings this past week and the focus was really about talking with leadership about what's going on that's impacting them on a on a daily basis and really hearing from them individually and as a group group what
039their goals are and I have to say again impressed with what I've been able to see um in this entry planning phase uh of my school year my entry and I've been in plenty of classrooms now and there is a lot to be proud of and I just want to say thank you to the Educators again that have welcomed me into their classrooms um it's it's really been impressive and so I want you to know that you should be really proud of what's happening in your schools every day um next I just want to mention be because we've had a few inquiries about the State Board of Education and the revised health and sexual education standards um I know Mr chrisa foi I hope I'm saying that right Ben um I don't want you to
040tease M Mr chrisa foi all week long um about me mispronouncing his name at the last meeting but I know he's had some inquiries and this isn't going to be a sudden change in the way that we approach the curriculum and the standards for now it's um for lack of a better way to describe it status quo because there will be a team that comes together to examine the changes to the standards and to be strategic about how we Implement them and we'll come before this board before the school committee to discuss those changes before anything um before there before they're implemented so I wanted just to reassure you about that um just a quick update on HR I know I want to thank again I want to thank lorri denisio who is doing really
041Yan's work as a one one Woman Wonder right now because I mean I know she's out there and really busy uh and at some not never overwhelmed just always always uh on the Move though and and doing the best that she can again doing the job of two people and we're expecting her name is Kim redlon I think I mentioned it at the last meeting and as soon as she uh joins us we'll have her here before you to introduce her again HR I want to say put out uh just a plea for esps Education educational support professionals we really need you so please if you're listening and you're looking for some work and you live here in Dartmouth please reach out we'd love to have you on board board and I also want to
042say the same about substitutes so if there are folks who want to work but don't want to work every day well substituting could be uh maybe something that is of interest to you and I want to thank Kate again always I always than thank Kate for the HR piece of this and Nelly who is always busy on boarding our substitutes and so that's the HR piece but I do want to talk about climate and culture because it has been so so exciting and I just want to say let's not forget about fun it has been really fun here in the Dartmouth public schools in the past couple of weeks for lots of great reasons and not just because the football team is undefeated but congratulations to the football team we're really happy for them there's
043so much excitement going on um if you are at the stadium I've seen a few of you there of course Mr noones is there all the time I think he must live there somewhere he has to have some space set up there um but there are other great things going on with all your sports teams your band your clubs I mean there is just so much excitement going on I do want to mention to you that there was a recent uh football game where Dartmouth the Dartmouth foot football team was winning by a large margin and Mr Christa foi shared this with us and I think it's important to hear not just about how great the athletes are and the fact that they have a winning record but who they are as as people and
044so this was shared with Mr christop foly this is from a coach from another team who just uh wrote to him and said I just finished watching the football team football game between our school two schools it was a lopsided Affair from the opening whistle in in favor of Dartmouth my reason for emailing you is that I admired the character I saw from your sideline and coaches once the game was out of hand your coaches put in substitutes and both teams played hard to the finish at the conclusion of the game your players made an intentional effort to come over to our sideline and shake hands with our players who were at the game but injured and on crutches it was sincere and in my opinion one of the best parts of High School athletics
045I thought you should know so I thought you should know that that's one again one person's uh sort of perspective on on the character of the students on the football team team and then just to take it a step further uh this past weekend we also had the opportunity to work with our cheerleaders um and I want to give a huge shout out to our coach uh Rebecca bragga and our DHS depart uh dmouth high school cheerleaders because they were phenomenal in that they went over to the senior center last week they joined the senior's line dancing class um it was spectacular uh they learned a few steps the CH leaders shared with me they did the hustle and I um I told them I gave them the title of a movie they should go
046back and watch uh you probably know what movie it it is and and hopefully they will um but it was so genuinely touching to see the interaction between the Dartmouth cheerleaders and the seniors at the center and then to take it a step further the seniors came to the football game now they were so excited they had their pink hats on that they had their pink fedoras they got they had a ton of energy we thought they would leave at the half I went over to see them at the half and they weren't going anywhere they were definitely all they were bundled up they came well prepared um and I want to give a special shout out to claudet Claudette told me that she watches the school committee meetings all of the time so claudet
047I told you I was going to say hello to you she told me she agrees with most of what I say but not everything but I want to thank her for that but I do want to say that there was a real Spirit um of of genuine care between the Dartmouth cheerleaders and and the seniors that that came to the game and and those are the kinds of things that we're looking to build upon so all of that is again that's the fun stuff um and that's that's the end of my report that's fantastic thank you thank you it's really good to get all that good stuff in and now we shift if you um turn it over to you I know I I get to turn it over now to Mr kie I want
048to thank again School staff for being here tonight thank you for coming and presenting um and then Mr Kylie gets to talk about the budget which he has been hard at work the B past couple of weeks as you remember uh what we promised is that we would uh we would work toward presenting you with a preliminary budget as early as we could and and Mr Kylie again has been hard at work at that thank you Dr sa Maguire so there is a sense of urgency here you know we we really do need to start this process and work through the various stages to determine where we're going to be in fiscal year 25 so let's talk about it a little bit um let see so our process is a little different this year so
049normally we have a very collaborative process in which we're um working with all the stakeholder groups and determining what our priorities are based on our school Improvement goals and student achievement goals um we're not there yet it's early for that and but what we are doing here is preparing a preliminary budget that um while it doesn't reflect those types of process processes yet uh it is based on trying to provide a level service um is and I'll talk a little bit more about that level Serv service is um budget so that said there have been some areas that we've adjusted in that process and I'll talk a little bit more about those um we've done projections of various areas of the budget um this is much earlier than I would normally do these types of
050activities so I have less data to to rely on but uh Staffing tuitions utilities Transportation they make up almost all of our budget so um when you're projecting Things Early makes it a little more challenging um this is what I would say a what I would call a starting point you know a beginning of expressing our needs uh so we can find a path forward that works so some of the key factors that um make up uh the work that we've done so far uh on the Staffing side we had some good news in that we have collective bargaining agreements in place haven't done one of those types of budgets in a while where we have that set um that's the good news but it is also a challenge we have to actually fund those
051agreements um we usually uh retirements will be a factor in uh resulting in opportunities for us to save some money um sometimes they can partially offset the increases that are contractual in the budget we have three retirements uh scheduled for this year so very low number of retirements now that's great in some ways too it means you know we're maintaining keeping uh great experienced staff so there are positives but from a financial perspective there's not there's not savings to be had in that direction um transportation also has been positive in some ways in that we have had uh level funded contracts for three years that are now due um we are going to be bidding this out uh in the near future um but it's a guarantee that it's going to increase significantly the cost
052of of providing in transportation services is dramatically increased um the the um minimum wage increases have driven up lower uh paid jobs in that field so the higher uh paid folks with school bus driver licenses are making more money than you know significantly more uh than they were making three years ago when they bid out this contract so we shouldn't be surprised to see a substantial increase and right now I'm projecting 15 % increase in that area this um next area is uh one that I'm just not sure about I I don't I know that you know we're facing um some challenges in terms of supporting kids that are um you know either in a homeless uh situation or foster care situation um we have spent more money in this area uh in the last
053few few years and there is State funding state and federal funding that supplements it but I just don't I I don't know as this uh the numbers increase how much of that we can we can count on so uh enrollment so so we have a less than 1% 8% um decrease in enrollment that we're that we're working with in uh in 2024 expect to be pretty level from that in 2025 but that said we are proposing some class siiz adjustments um so particularly at the elementary level uh because of sort of pockets of enrollment fluctuations that have occurred so we're keeping an eye on that and if there are opportunities where we feel like we should address something we're doing that so that's already included in this in this uh budget proposal does have a
054slight impact that's part of why I said level service is so there are some classrooms that'll have some more kids in them than than had been in the past um special education tuition we uh last year if you remember we had a we had a big issue with this where the the state where the rate of inflation was 14% And the state ended up coming through with with some funding for that um 4.69% so a little more manag ible but still obviously a not you know it's a pretty sizable increase uh in terms of the rate of inflation so that's going to impact you know our our outplacement tuitions um it's also I would say uh difficult to project that area of the budget which is a pretty sizable one uh at this point in
055the school year so we're doing the best we can with that but that's a work in progress It's it's always a work in progress right up until the start of the actual school year but um particularly difficult this far ahead um the other thing that I didn't put on here but I just want to mention is I've I've mostly level funded the utilities area and you know we've been working really hard to try and be more efficient um we've done a great deal of HVAC work in terms of controls in the buildings and improving our HVAC systems as best we can they are older systems uh but we've done a lot of that work and I do hope that those efficiency improvements pay off in terms of sort of balancing offsetting rate increases um and
056some mild win mild Winters if those things continue that would be nice too but uh but I do hope that we'll we'll reap the rewards of some of those efficiency measures so Town state and federal factors um so really you know now that like tonight we're going to be talking a little bit and you can you know pepper me with questions about this um as we work through this we're going to begin our meetings with the town side of government meet with the Town Administrator who had expressed interest in in meeting on this and I kind of told them we need a couple of weeks because I've got a I've got to prepare it um so we're at that point now so we'll start that part of the process uh um I it's I don't
057think a surprise to anyone that the Esser funds uh have a big impact in this we we have a couple of Esser positions that are currently vacant so those positions have not been filled won't be filled in fiscal year 24 won't be a part of things in fiscal year 25 uh we have um two additional position we we have 14 total positions in Esser um still though um that there are some that are partially funded but it's still substantial amount of funding we have um we looked at those positions and and I've got to say that you know we talked a lot about what those positions were they're providing essential services to kids they're providing things like therapies and counseling that I don't know how we can live without um so do you mind if
058I just I would love it so I just and thinking about the SR funding I just I think it's important for people to think about context and so I have heard um so sort of some questions about using Sr funds to fund positions instead of one-offs and one thing that I think is important for everybody to recognize is that context counts for a lot so at the time and even though I wasn't here at the time I can I can at least working with the folks that I'm work working with know that they were very thoughtful about the way th those funds were expended and they were expended in the best interest of students and I think it's important to recognize that and I I just with I'm repeating myself but context counts for a
059lot and and the need was there the need for the Personnel was was an IM there was an immediate need and so that's why those funds were expended the way they were and so if anybody has questions about that I mean that's the answer the funds were expended because there were needed services for students and after all that was what the money was supposed to be for thank thank you um the the state aid part of this equation I know Mr noon's that must have been his first thought if we're going to talk budget in October um we have no idea we have no idea what that's going to be it's going to be months before we know and uh so we'll just have to see I wouldn't expect any significant change I think it
060would be part for the course and we'll just get a very small increase per pupil uh again unfortunately F uh federal and state grants I've this is also early um we've basically just gotten approved for our existing this year's federal and state grants um so what I've done is looked at level funding and Hope that that is something that uh that occurs um with the different legislatures and hopefully it comes through there's a few other things that I listed there that are really things that do have a significant impact on the town budget but um are really just way too early to to tell so health insurance costs obviously that's in the town side of the budget um as is great to Bedford V Tech's uh cost and Bristol agie cost those are not on
061our on our part of The Ledger but you know it is one pool of money so um one Dartmouth I guess I'd say so um so all of that uh being said where we are currently with our preliminary budget increase is a 5.3% increase so that would be a preliminary budget of 54,2 74,7 um not including the Medicaid budget line which is like a separate budget line in the T in the town's budget but um so it would be a 2,731 n93 increase over the fiscal year 24 budget um I I think we did just I did just want to talk a little bit more about the fact that it isn't exactly level service so we have two Sesser positions that aren't filled and aren't going to be filled we have two more s positions
062that are going to have to be cut as part of this process we are also going to have to look at class size adjustments which I mentioned at the elementary level so we're being thoughtful about this that's six positions that existed that are no longer longer going to exist um in this preliminary for discussion purposes draft um and and that's sort of that's sort of where we are with with that I didn't um I thought that this would be a good time to sort of give you that broad overview and not get into the nitty-gritty yet because we got a ways to go but we can begin to to talk a little more about what the next steps are are so this really needs to be flexible so um I can see a lot of
063back and forth through this process if we're going to make this work right um you know meetings with our District administration like I said haven't had those thoughtful discussions collaborative discussions districtwide we've had a little bit of discussion but not at a detailed level looking at their proposals um if you remember last year we had $2 million worth of proposals from the schools that we couldn't fund those needs haven't changed either um so that hasn't been a part of this process continuing the budget development process obviously um you know updating estimates and and making sure that we have the best numbers we possibly can that'll continue uh budget subcommittee meetings and that's something we have yet to have one so this is not a normal thing that we would bring it to the school committee
064without having a budget subcommittee but it was a matter of necessity and urgency to do that um that I would like to have a meeting before the end of the month um with the budget subcommittee so I'll be reaching out and so we can talk about that meetings with the town Administration as I mentioned that that's going to happen now um you know now that we're beginning this process and I'm talking to you about um where we need to go we've got to start working uh alongside side with the folks at the you know in the town and trying to make something work um school committee discussions you've got lots of time to discuss every meeting between now and when you are supposed to approve the budget in April There's an opportunity to discuss it
065and I'm always available so if it's an individual discussion that needs to be had about this I'm happy to do that at any time um public hearing down the road it's a long way way off selectman and finance committee I put March because it's usually in March I'm pretty sure that given where we are going to be with this um issue this challenge that we're going to need some help um and hope that we can uh work with folks on those committees to try and solve this issue U and then town meeting in June so those are just some of the things there might be some other steps that get added depending on how we proceed but this is um sort of where we are with the process right now be happy to answer any
066questions you might have turn it over to my Dr Jenkins um so I've got several questions and thoughts can let me start with Transportation I know 15% seems like a big number but to me that seems like a small number knowing sort of the bidding environment and what other communities have seen in recent years um do you think I know it's early you don't know but to me that seemed low I'm a little worried about it okay I am a little worried about it the wage rates have increased significantly for those folks and the competitiveness of that market has you know I mean there are districts that like are from what I unable to trans communities now are getting one bid yeah yeah that's correct yep almost exclusively and that's Statewide it's it's actually more
067than Statewide it's it's a national Trend and um something that I I think there's just not enough drivers for competition to you know to result to be a result of that so all right so my my next question right political scientists we have an assumption of level funding from the feds um I'm a little worried about that and I just think it's worth I think it's worth articulating because I think a lot of people think well you know conversations about deep cuts to education at the f Federal level are going to happen in other districts um but so maybe it's worth sort of could you maybe just talk a little bit about how Reliant we are on sort of federal funding just in a ballpark sort of sense so people get a sense because I
068think it it sounds like it's going to impact somewhere else but that sort of decision at the federal level would be massive to us yes yes absolutely could be um right you know it's interesting I mean we have um couple of million well so Food Service looks like that part of it is kind of taken care of right with the universal free meals I think maybe um I mean it was voted in Massachusetts so they've got to come up with the money somehow I guess um so that was a major source of federal funds for us outside of that the rest of our budget um I mean we have a number of Staffing positions that are um you know critical like have to have position not things that that um we can do without that
069are uh federally funded we have a couple of million little less than $2 million of Federal Federal grant funding right and so I think I just want to make that clear to people because I think people think it wouldn't affect Dartmouth it's going to affect EV nearly every community in the United States including ours um maybe we can be a little optimistic and hope those things don't come through I don't I don't wager on predicting us politics anymore even though that's my field of study um so I just want to highlight that and then the last thing I just sort of want to talk about is so we know right the Esser Cliff is is here it's upon us and you know I don't disagree I mean hiring people was the only way to service
070kids those were those were the things that they need they are the things that they continue to need um I know we have a policy on you know sort of townwide about not using one-time revenues to fund ongoing operations but I don't worry whether we need to use some infusions of one-time Revenue to ease us off of that Cliff I'm not optimistic that the town's going to be able to give us 5.3% right that's a lot from the town side and so we do have some sources of one-time revenues that could help us ease the Gap right as we fall off that Cliff of the funding for that over two or three years rather than a coming one year 5.3% and so I think that's got to be part of the discussion as we move
071forward with the finance committee which I'm gesturing because some of them are here and with the town um as a not as an ongoing sort of thing but recognizing that this is going to help us get through this period and all of us agreeing to a limited period of use of one-time funds to help us you know so it's not like we have to lay off 10 to 12 people that we really need um so I I hope that that's part of our discussion um I know there's been I think it's a positive thing an aversion to using one-time revenues for recurring expenses I get that I don't want to be back in the mess that we used to be in but I think here is an appropriate situation where we need to strongly look
072at that that's it for me Mr n thank you madam chair um couple of things going back to uh your key factors uh Mr Kylie uh about the homeless and Foster Care Transportation do we get I know we get some McKinny vinto and I'm putting my government hat on yes and that type of deal but you know we there was always way back you know you build them for $100 and they give you 50 yeah on a good day type of deal is that still in existence are they kind of maybe up to 7580 even though they if my memory is any good they were talking about fully funding yeah that type of situation they they were talking about fully funding it now when when they talked about fully funding it they were using the
073numbers that were in existence there is a dramatic increase um that that exists right now so I am skeptical because because the state budget is voted at a specific number it's not um first of all the state budget says that they'll fully fund it the the the law says that they'll fully fund it they just don't fully fund it so that's with many things in in the state budget that's you know the way it's approached um I would I'm worried about that I level funded the money that we have in place to support kids who are are home homeless or foster care um but the state has to come through with their end of the of the equation and I would think that there will be additional strain placed upon the state um that they
074didn't plan for so I mean there is for us that we didn't plan for and so I would think that that will also be the case which would mean that they would have to spread out the money a little a little bit thinner um scrape it you know cross even though years back the state audit you know mandated it should be full uh another question and you Dr Sab Maguire uh and I know we have only got three at the moment but you know the refuges and you know from that that they've that they've put in I mean if you know three students is not bad don't get me wrong it's but I mean if we start getting a a huge influx I mean that could throw this out of is there any talk of
075what we're going to get is the state going to help you know with transportation and educating these students I mean I know we have to educate them I don't have a problem with that believe me but you know is between the governor and and the federal between the state and federal governments are they helping to take care of this and we can both speak to that but um I do know right now first we have four students enrolled no that's okay it's three elementary students in one high school and we are potentially enrolling two more elementary students maybe tomorrow um who were already here but they were assigned to a different school district and and I think Transportation cost wise it makes more sense to have the students enrolled here in Dartmouth um but regardless
076uh right now what the state is providing Us in terms of financial assistance is um we do receive one $1,000 per student um that's just right off the bat um through a grant and we will be submitting that Grant this week so that's not a lot right that's $6,000 but um we're also receiving $14 per student per day um so that what that equals out to if the students were here for an entire school year is $188,000 per student so the is in fact compensating the school district for student enrollment um again some of those details we're in the process of working through um we're definitely new at this so um but I can tell you again on just uh you know the personal note of seeing our students enrolled in in in our school
077in schools and in our classrooms that our Educators have done a tremendous job welcoming our new students and and I think it's important to remind folks that Dartmouth isn't new at welcoming newcomers because essentially that's what these students are they're newcomers and so we this school district has welcomed newcomers in the past so it's not a completely um new experience for our Educators and that's clear in the way that our students have been so welcomed into the community so yes and answer short answer to question is yes this state is in fact compensating the district okay thank you uh I'm just wondering only because the uh State funding is the formula is all messed up if if we need to you know have U representative Maki and Senator montigney here they probably won't sh you
078know show but that's beside the point just to to get them to go to work on I mean when you know forget the the cities I'm not worried of that's you know that's that's a h of a different color but when you get you know communities around us you know we get 50,000 in districts that are a lot smaller than us are getting you know two and $300,000 more that's a problem type of deal in in my estimation so I'm just wondering if we need to have some type of a dialogue with them we can certainly extend an invite um to them I I do know that the discussions that I've had uh with with them about this it's really based on the fact that Dartmouth is being held harmless as it currently stands um
079for not getting less um because really the formula says we should be getting less and uh you know I I think that we are um just not basically we have an ability to pay the state compared to other districts we have an ability to pay that um exceeds what we are paying and that's that's the way the formula works now I know uh but I'd be happy to extend an invite yeah okay and my last comment you know just going back to uh Dr sa Maguire and agreeing with with Shannon we have talked about in this committee you know at length with the erer funds putting you know those 16 we knew this this point in time was coming type of deal and we you know we knew we were going to be you know
080taking that walk off a cliff type of deal but you're right we had to take care of students coming out of the pandemic and and such and and that's the decision we made and we'll go forward and figure it out as we go forward but I age whenever you're making decisions right in the best interest of kids it can't be the students it can't be the wrong decision so right that's all I have Madam chair thank you for indulging me um so I just want to put it on the table right out there the reason we don't get as much money as other school districts is because our tax rate is lower than other towns so according to the formula unless we raise our tax rates we will not get more from the state so
081that is correct right we we still won't get more from the state even if we raise our tax rate so is there any way we can change what we do no so basically um so the the Chapter 70 formula is pretty complex yes um but the basic description of how it determines our ability to pay would would be based on property value in the community and income reported through the Department of Revenue so it takes those two equations and um and combines them and Compares them to other communities which then informs how much we would get uh based on a per pupil basis at type of pupil that we have so lots of different there's lots of different kids in this in this District needing you know with a whole um lot of different needs
082and that is sort of um so you take you take all that you put it together and what it tells you is that u based on our enrollment our income um and our property value we are getting significantly more than what the state would calculate in the formula there's a hold harmless provision that has um been in place that we've been um basically Mo almost my entire time here has been uh the only reason we haven't decreased uh state aid so no community in the state has decreased state aid during that during that time as a um because of the hold harmless um provision but our increases are very slight so our increase less you know it's 100 ,000 increase which you know on on $10 million of state aid so a 1% increase and
083our costs are going up with inflation at whatever 7% you know and then our salaries going up at 3% or 4% you know and so it makes for a difficult uh difficult budgeting process but that we're really not going to be in position in any way to get more from the state it's just going to be um unless they would have changed the formula which they just changed the formula and it didn't help us at all and it didn't help us at all so I'm pretty sure and they knew it wasn't going to help us and we're not alone there was a hundred other districts that also were not you know did not benefit from it but it did benefit a lot of districts and a lot of kids in the Commonwealth so that's good
084um just not good for us but um so I it's really going to be up to the community as to who we want to be as you know a a a town um certainly what we want as a educational system in the town it's it's going to it's going to be some decisions that people are going to have to make um so also going back to Esser um it's great that the feds gave us all that money and we did need those positions to help the students and obviously we're still feeling repercussions from Co and we will be for some time so it seems unreasonable to just get rid of that staff um because it would hurt the students um so it does occur to me that we are all having our real estate reassessed
085for Value um obviously a mystery to me but everything is worth a lot of money now so um I'm guessing that taxes are going to go up and revenue for the whole town is going to go up um and it seems that there will be a little bit more money to play with I hope Just5 two and a half% chapter 59 section 21 proposition two and a half so every time they reassess our property values they can't go up more than that you cannot go you cannot go up more than 2 and a half% plus New Growth plus New Growth but we don't have very much New Growth no in the previous years no okay I thought somehow that that every reassessment kind of you could get around the 2 and a half% that would
086be nice it's always somebody to just bring you back down to earth there is sorry that's what I did for a living yeah thank you for all these these questions I um and did you have another one so I would say we are not the only entity in town that is probably feeling like they have um monetary needs above what we're able to do so yes I will reiterate it is a going to be tough decisions and also um hoping that the town will see that perhaps our needs are legitimate um and greater than what we can actually achieve right now without their cooperation thank you thank you thank you um everyone um the only thing I I can think to add uh is just a you you know I and bring this up in
087past years and it's always been sort of a not very much of a of a line item or not worth sort of like digging into but I'm just wondering about you know you didn't include um a number for like the Medicaid reimbursement in the budget line which you know is stems off of the work of related services in the district and then the funding goes right to the municipality not to the school and it's always sort of just been a it's it is in there because it's thought about because it goes there but um could you give a little bit more information about the what that number is if it's gone down or um so we we there was a sharp decline with during the the pandemic um because it was for lots of reasons
088anyway but but uh the the reimbursement is back up um to sort of you know approximate pre pandemic levels um we work hard a lot of Staff members have to contribute time um to raise this funding for the town and it's um $300,000 um you know worth of potential funding that's out there approximately so it's not insignificant what we get out of it is um part of one person's salary um so we have a clerical staff member who is partially paid through Medicaid um and she that's she does that so she um you know helps compile everything and report to Medicaid and um so that's really all we get directly the rest of the funding so statutorily it has to go through um the town unless there was some other agreement in place that would
089that would allocate it directly um some districts do receive Medicaid funds directly but I'd say more than more often than not it does go directly through the through the town and essentially we get a share of it through the town budgeting process but thank you for that um and then I'm just thinking about you know just you know anecdotally just thinking about you know we're still getting our youngest Learners coming in really unprepared due to just the co pandemic and their needs are incredibly um High um and these sweet little kiddos are coming into our integrated preschool um you know on weight lists for diagnosis and I'm sure that's impacting the trajectory of what you know what we can put in place in in IEPs and that sort of thing um and and I know
090we are but I think it just sort of begs speaking about the fact that we really can't cut those corners on those really critical staffing needs to support those students because on the other end if those students aren't supported appropriately and they're not you know making effective progress and they're not kind of moving on to to a least restrictive kind of trajectory in our district the the result is going to be um increased out of District placements which we don't really want and to see and um but that you know in taking sort of the risk of of eliminating you know that that rich infrastructure especially early on and throughout into middle school and Beyond um to support the the students and and you know and and the you know the classroom setting uh is
091going to result in you know increase numbers on the other end with tuitions and that sort of thing so it just really um is important to be mindful of that moving forward it's very important I and you know I think um I could just go down the list quickly of some of the yeser positions and we can dive into this a little deeper as we go through the process but you know you've got a special education teacher you've got two adjustment counselors one at the high school one at the middle school you've got three um education support professor profs um working directly with kids all these people working directly with kids um we've got two speech uh Speech therapists an occupational therapist reading specialist um adaptive PE teacher Outreach social worker um lots of lots
092of things there I'm glad you brought that up Mr Kylie because I when I when I looked at that list what I realized and what we had conversation about is those are essential positions coid are not and right so some of those positions were positions that the district had sought to put into place because it was a need before coid so it's certainly some were put in place during coid but I know that there was a need for a certain number of those positions and there wasn't money in the budget and so not to have them during coid would have been even more detrimental to the school district and to the students so the thought of of eliminating them I guess postco if that's what we're calling it um is is troubling and will certainly
093have uh a detrimental impact on on the schools thank you anyone else have any last minute comments well thank you for this preliminary uh discussion yeah yeah thank you for your thoughts on it and uh I will be reaching out about the subcommittee meeting excellent so next um oh so uh next where I look at I closed my I don't know why I don't know why I did that but yeah I think right it is old business and we're going to go right into a dis a further discussion um on uh Capital planning and so I'm going to turn that back over to Mr Kylie thank you Dr sa McGuire so um what we're going to I'm going to just let you know that so there's been um some movement on what we talked about
094at our last school committee meeting I'm not sure it's all good but it's movement um so we talked about using kindergarten Reserve funds um which was a proposal that uh came up at the capital Improvement planning committee by some uh folks who were eager to work with us uh Town Council has said that that would not be an allowed Amendment at town meeting um Town meeting's tomorrow by the way so uh you uh why I I that I don't know um sorry so what has happened since then uh so first of all there'll be no school department requests of any kind at town meeting tomorrow so um not nothing will be on the nothing's on the warrant nothing will be you know entertained so um you know I'll go to the meeting but I guess
095I can just uh bring some work to do with me or something um that's the first time in 13 years that we've not had that I've not had an active role in in town meeting in some way um but it's unfortunate uh what I will say is I was I was happy that the finance committee did vote to transfer 125,000 from their reserve the fincom reserve fund for the high school roof repairs um it's needed we are a little concern like concerned about operational continuity with some of the issues on the roof like being able to not have parts of the roof blow off and like so we really do need to take care of things um so we'll use that so we're we're appreciative of that I was also told that um the town
096administ Town Administration spoke with District 3 fire chief Rick Aruda I had supplied you with a letter that came from uh Chief Aruda and um basically asking us to you know seek updates on our fire systems uh my understanding is that uh they were they they were told that that could wait until Springtown meeting for further consideration so that's not on the agenda at the moment either um we'll be also the technology money that we need because we have eate matching funds not on the agenda so um you know amongst other things that we that we really do need so I was disappointed um to say the least with that but that's where we stand so we'll put the roof money to good work and have a quiet night at town meeting tomorrow so I
097had the same reaction as U my colleague Mr noon here when you said that the town attorney has said it's not an allowable use we both he said why out loud I thought it in my head um so I'm hoping you can elaborate on that comment is it a never allowable use right town meeting is the the legislative branch of town government or is it just not allowable at this particular meeting on this timing okay so let me let me clarify if I said it wasn't an allow use that's not what I meant um what I I wanted to say was that it would not be an allowed Amendment okay uh based on the way the warrant's written I don't and the rules regarding that I I have not spoken to attorney savastano I also
098think that we have you know the fire systems have been you know a an issue with these aging buildings for a long time if we get the money in the spring then we'll begin the work um so I'm going to follow up I want to spitball with Mr Nunes here I think the way I would interpret that then is that probably the capital planning is coming out of the Town funding right and you can't put stabiliz you'd have to do it in multiple motions right you'd have to make a motion to remove it from the stabilization fund and then a motion to put it on the capital planning from General Revenue no I if I may I would think and Jim correct me if I'm wrong but I when we were at the that cap
099that that CIP meeting and that I even said to uh the finance director and and and Mr mcginness to make sure that they worked with attorney and attorney savastano and uh the moderator Melissa hll to make sure all those motions that they go through at the beginning because one of them it's like if you're going to transfer from an expense to you get to transfer from an expense to an expense and we were going to be going from a stabilization fund to an expense type of deal to make sure that we were going to be doing that I mean personally to me if you're standing up on the floor I want to make an amendment it's going to come out of this yeah it's going to take more than a regular vote it's going to
100take right 2third or 80% whatever it takes for stabilization to fund it period case closed next battle um can we can and I don't want to put any more on your plate than you already have but unfortunately can you get a hold of Mr mcginness tomorrow and make sure attorney savastano is ready to answer that question because I'm going to okay I'm going to pose that to him tomorrow night sure and and you did say exactly what you just repeated at that meeting and I know that I know that I believe that the town Administration did follow up after that meeting and and ask attorney savastano I but I'll certainly uh relay that message in the morning so uh but attorney savastano can be prepared for that um the on the other hand that means
101you're not taking the money out of the kindergarten Reserve fund so we'll have it we'll have it for the budget next year I mean it's going to be a one-time shot but so what do we have to do to get it on the budget next year that we didn't do a good question that's that's probably probably going to need to be a separate article yeah yeah to the department so we have to bring that to the select board before yes with the warrant process okay and to get that 125,000 from the reserved fund that's already on the agenda finnin vote that yeah the okay the finance committee Reserve fund is a operating budget line item that is um designed for emergency situations unexpected expenses um and so so that is in the FY 24 operating
102uh budget and they've already voted in favor of of that so I am thankful that they were considerate enough to do that that was it's needed so thank you one last question because I and again as I caught bits and pieces I have yet to see the whole discussion I've caught bits and pieces of the select board's meeting but correct me if I'm wrong in the discussion that you and I had with the fire suppression system and type this initial funding is to start the design y this is not to go into xyz's any of these schools and start replacing them it's it's get starting to get it designed that's right and this is almost like a three or four year process yes and there are multiple requests on the capital Improvement plan that you
103that you approved um back in the winter um for repeat funding uh in future years to to you know support that process so yes this would be the beginning of that process which would we'd dive into design of those systems and you're talking about old buildings that essentially what you're doing is designing an entire enely new system in which you're going to leave the old system in place until the day the new system's turned on and then you're going to scrap the old system but it's going to be like a parallel structure essentially because the old systems are not not worthwhile um that they can't be updated uh but it's more than just like fire alarm systems it's actual things that like magnets that that hold doors open and when there's a fire the doors
104shut we don't have that in those buildings um that's of course been the case since the 1950s so it's it's just not current best practice fire safety um so you know we want to we want to consider that but thank you I do have one more bit of capital planning if if it's okay um so just in terms of the long-term capital planning uh I I think the next step in that process is to schedule another subcommittee meeting with the fields and Facilities subcommittee really just to to um have an opportunity to strategize and uh talk about what we're going to bring back to the to the larger committee uh again so I have a few dates that I could throw out and and I don't know we could do it after the meeting or
105whatever and just see if any of them work um to get a meeting together to move that process forward I I've been pretty encouraged with the discussion that's been happening at the Town level regarding that there's um a significant amount of debt capacity in the town um the average town uh has um has 7% of their operating budget as um debt and Debt Service we have one so there's a great deal of capacity to accomplish some of the things that we know need to need to happen um and I think folks in town you know in in certainly in the town Administration side and us on the schools we recognize that and want to want to be a part of that process so yeah thank you anyone else okay thank you thanks for that I
106know I I should have I should have started waited to talk about the Chia leaders and the football I'm glad you got all good and the band y all those great things is there anything else under um new business um is there anything else that you thought to to share I mean I know Mr noon's going to talk about Saturday evening right Mr noones which was spectacular it was my first time attending a band competition um and I was quite impressed with everything that I saw mostly with the Dartmouth band though so so that was really exciting and we have our very own Annabelle here who's in in thatan so congratulations to you um yeah it was really wonderful and you actually mentioned um having some student voice and and that is one thing that
107we're going to be working on and I'm working on with Mr Shay and Miss chavier is having a a superintendent advisory Council up here at the high school for that very reason so I'm glad you brought that up but congratulations on Saturday night quite impressive and um Mr NS if you don't mind before I do my report I want you to share a little bit more about that yeah I mean uh Dr Sabre Maguire talked about the cheerlead as well you know they had the game Friday night Saturday they went to conquered car for a competition and took first place so congratulations to them you know I got things on Facebook about that and it's like you know please mention it and I said yes I will so I will I will do that uh
108yeah seriously sat T night thank you to everyone who helped out and was there and you know got through the rain the the heavy drizzle and and such I brought out the umbrella and the rain stopped it in the mission so you know just just the way it goes but I mean all the groups did excellent you know all 10 groups uh we got a platinum medal you know 94 975 you know 99 it uh was uh was great the students I like the I like the was the first time out with their new uniforms so how'd it feel it was nerve-wracking I thought I was going to be so cold because they have one open sleeve on the side but it just it felt nice because these last like three years are the only
109years that we've had new uniforms and so getting that into our budget um fundraising wise and just like being a able to have a new look it's just like something that we haven't been able to do in the past so yeah felt good it was good but they they did excellent and you know my thanks you know to uh and I won't even try everybody that helped out and literally sat in the bleaches through the through the evening with the rain and such and you know it it was great so I you know thank you to that you you mentioned the sports teams and they had the uh State rankings out this morning and so far all of our Sports fall sports teams are qualifying for uh the tournament so that's great news too so
110and we've got senior night this this Friday night so going to be a good weekend excellent I just have a few things I just want to thank um the parents that stepped uh came to Quinn for our meet and greet for the special head parent advisory Council Council uh we had a good turnout and uh thanks to Dr June Sabra Maguire and lauia diio uh who you know just gave a short presentation um and it was just a a it was encouraging to see it was the first time in many years that uh you know you don't want to hear criticisms and and concerns and complaints really but you have to hear it because that's how we can learn to do better and grow uh and uh they created I I attribute their um their
111welcome uh you know short little spiels um to encouraging some family members to really genuinely politely um just nicely sort of talk about some of the of their experiences that could be better moving forward and um I don't know that that would have happened if you didn't create that welcome environment so that was something I'm looking looking forward to seeing more of um and I just I I received information from a parent that on Wednesday at Deo there's going to be a movie screening open to the public at 6:30 um called microplastic madness it's a Event open to the public uh with a presentation around Sol be the solution to pollution um I should go to that because I'm not the best at that my anyway I should be better um and then I just
112wanted to also mention that on well it's well no I'll mention yeah November 9th we have our next CPAC meeting it's going to be at the kushman school at 6:30 where uh Lori denisio will be providing sort of a a landscape of the trajectory of special education services I mean separate from you know individual specific you know nuanced needs in an IEP but just more the landscape of the programming that we have throughout the district um and so that should be interesting and we're going to have that at the kushman school thinking about that one Dartmouth for our youngest you know parents of our youngest Learners and anyone's welcome uh we're just trying to do a tour of Dartmouth again like we did last year for folks to kind of see what what we offer
113what things look like or might look like depending upon all sorts of situations and scenarios depending on your child's needs but um a nice way to sort of look ahead a little bit or at least have a a better idea of what things might look for you know in in the coming year so those are things I want to share um anybody else have anything great anything else over here anything else Annabelle no all right so with that said I think we are on to our NE our next meeting so I could have held off on that our next meeting is Monday November 6th here at 6 o'clock um in the D library media center and I would entertain a motion to um oh gosh adjourn to adjourn Madam chair make a motion we adjourn
114into executive session for a discussion of non-instructional contracted services and not return to open session second any discussion all in favor I oh roll call yes yes John yes yes yes thank [Music] you