001foreign [Music] thank you I'd like to call to order this meeting of August 21st welcome May meeting for August 21st please rise if you can for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you roll call Kathleen Amaral here Chris Oliver Elizabeth Coughlin here Shannon Jenkins here John Nunes so first on our agenda we have allotted 10 minutes for public comment and we ask that you make your comments brief if you would like to state your name first please and keep to the topics on this evening's agenda oh thank you it's working okay great okay so I am talking to you about public comment which is on the agenda what
002I want to address is the summer reading program is that acceptable it is summer so you are going to stifle my freedom of speech My First Amendment right is being stifled I just want that to be very clear committee is not required to allow public comment and we are allowed to restrict comment to items on the agenda under Mass General law I what I will say two items on the agenda but I will allow for you just if you would just for be under I would say the stipulation of other matters that may not have been anticipated thank you please keep it brief and just um thank you stay here you already stayed here thank you so much I appreciate you this evening but as a matter of I just want to we do do
003this it is summer so it's slower but if we were to have people come up and state about you know reach out to us if you'd like something added to agenda but I did everyone were to come up and stay around you know we wouldn't really get the business of the meeting done so that's really the purpose and to my colleague's point um it's not it's good practice I think but at any rate thank you so much Kathleen I appreciate it so I just would like to bring up um some concerns about the reading program um one is the discretion of the books on the um reading program and the other is the way the program is laid out itself um there are a couple of books um two in particular that I'm aware of
004that have extremely mature content in them they one of them is called Verity and the other one is called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas those are the two I know of um that what they have in them Verity has um graphic sexual contact content as well as um uh coat hanger abortion I'm sorry to say and murder of course and um and the other one uh fear and loathing Las Vegas is filled with drug use um you know where it's extensive and pretty much no role models in that book I'm not sure why those were allowed to be on the the uh the program the problems with our program is they only allow certain number of kids to be in each book and so um some kids have to pick these books even if
005they don't want to read them because of the limits put on each book on of the 46 choices that they have so I would like to ask that you consider not limiting kids to those books that are in the summer reading program I would also like to ask that if a kid is reading a book and it's too much for them that you have an easy way for them to switch to another book um if during the summer they're reading a book and it's too hard a content for them and I would also like better discretion maybe from our librarian to help us with maybe ratings of if it's 18 plus for mature reading either that it's parental consent or that um it would be not even offered on our agenda thank you so much
006for listening to me thank you okay um okay so we're going to close public comment and we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes and we had the uh just the regular session minutes from July 17th so move through second the motion we have a second any discussion um all in favor aye motion passes unanimously now to Old business you know we have you know sorry I do need glasses I don't know if you want to introduce I know we have um we have Mr tattlebaum here from the the town side of the in to talk about the town's commitment to indigenous people history in the culture committee I know that you have been meeting together with folks from the school department some of whom are
007here this evening and that you are going to come up and give us an update and is it is it Lily Lily Lily Chamberlain Chamberlain from from Dartmouth High School is also going to oh okay come on up come on up thank you for coming yeah I wrote a few things down so I didn't want to go right ahead um I'm on the indigenous people history and culture um it's called the working group right now because we're not a committee yet that's what we're trying to get we're trying to get to be a committee but um I'm Lily Chamberlain I teach Spanish here at Dartmouth High School I'm also a resident of Dartmouth and both my children graduated from Dartmouth High the Multicultural club which I advise began its efforts towards self-education regarding the local
008Wampanoag tribe several years ago particularly when the Indian mascot issue came up we realized we needed to educate ourselves in order to properly understand the issues involved we attended an online field trip during the pandemic during which core appears of the pocass at Walmart Wampanoag spoke we watched videos that Rob perotti and Judy Cronin made several years ago in which they interviewed Jonathan Perry and Elizabeth James Perry of the Aquino Wampanoag we learned about King Philip's War Indian boarding schools and current issues that affect native people in our country we educated ourselves about these topics we did not assume that it was the responsibility of native people to educate us when I joined the indigenous people history and culture working group last January I continue to educate Myself by talking with members of the local
009Wampanoag tribes I had long conversations with Cora Pierce Ellie page and Donna green dance page of the pocass at Wampanoag they all have been extremely generous with their time and their expertise David has had conversations with members of the Aquino Wampanoag and before I joined the committee there were conversations with members of the mash P Wampanoag through these conversations we all learned a lot for example Star of the Sea that spit of land that sticks out into the North End of Payton arum Harbor which is today a nice residential neighborhood used to be the site of a Wampanoag summer Village they would build fires there to cook up Lobster fish and clams after fishing in the harbor king farm which is just a stone throw away from here is also a site where numerous artifacts
010have been uncovered it's likely that this whole area from the king farm wrapping around to Star of the Sea was an area of settlement during the summer months when the weather was nice also where the North Dartmouth Mall currently stands used to be a large coin field which the pocass at wampano Wampanoag cultivated corn was one of their staple foods along with squash and beans where Walmart now stands was the site of another Wampanoag Village we all we also learned about concerns regarding the informational kiosks our group would like to erect around town when people dig up artifacts they do not realize they are oftentimes desecrating a grave the ancestors are many Native people were buried with everyday items such as Crockery arrows and axes when people dig up these things they often do not
011realize this is a burial site core appears wanted to make sure that any kiosks we erect will not yet sites where people might want to dig so we have adjusted our ideas about the locations of our kiosks so as not to encourage treasure hunting we've had helpful and productive discussions with a number of Wampanoag tribal members and we have asked those people that we spoke above a native Heritage of the area aggress on her own shoulders not on the shoulder shoulders native community if they do not want to serve on our committee community the part of keeping it all students are concerned that if we got rid of the logo native history would be forgotten altogether just having logo is n't we need more and more that is what this working group which is not
012yet a committee is trying to do to suggest that just because we do not have a native member in the group makes the group illegitimate is insulting at best we are obviously trying to use primary native sources as much as possible we also have Mary Waite and Sally Aldrich in our group and Sally Aldrich has written a book about Dartmouth history including the pre-colonial era we are lucky to have such a well-educated and dedicated group of people who are willing to do this work would we like to have some native members in our group of course we would but even if we don't this work should continue and my final point in the draft charge that we submitted to you we mentioned voting and non-voting members this proposed committee is an advisory committee we will
013not have any actual power we will simply be advising the select board and the school committee you all are the ones who will be taking votes and making decisions this is a group that operates by consensus all we're trying to do is put together some educational experiences for the community we will not be voting so if we could change the wording about voting and non-voting members that would be fine with us as far as changing the charter that is a lengthy process that would probably take about two years and do you think people in town would be excited about allowing people who did not live in Dartmouth onto all Town committees I don't see how that would pass and again trying to make a change on the charter was cost us a lot of time
014with no certain outcome I believe that the work of educating our community about its native past should continue and should continue now this important work has been overlooked for too many years thank you for your time and I'd be happy to answer any questions David also has a couple of comments that he would like to make stuff on it Mr toddellon thank you for that thank you Lily one fine example of one of the fine teachers in school I'm particularly proud to follow in her footsteps um I'd like to be able to I am a member of the select board Mrs Brooks Heidi Brooks is also a member of the board and she was going to be with us tonight but she was unable to attend and we have been charged by the select board
015to try to make this committee happen I am also one member of the select board I represent me if we agree on anything I'd be happy to go back and fight for it with our rest of our board but I think it needs to be set um I want to make a one for instance so there was an issue in language about that made some members of this committee on couple regarding the curriculum so we we sat back and looked at it and we agreed and we changed because the curriculum is in complete and out of control of the school committee in the school department should say understood that it was uh I would call it a oversight we changed it we agree this is that is not part of our purview if asked get
016people in to talk about it we'd be happy to do that but the the curriculum so um that was an issue that now has moved on what I'd really like to try to accomplish here tonight and completely said it's very emotional for her because she's had a long history with it as well I'd like to walk away here with an understanding what we're trying to do as recently as uh today I've been in contact with uh with a board member from the uh wampanoaga Quinta tribe which they are located in in the vineyard um we have from day one desperately try to bring in members who are of the tribe be it Pocasset or whomever we can find that would be also a conveniently a resident in town which would take care of everything and
017we will continue to try and turn over every Rock and talk to many people as we can to find those members I've had other recent contacts as well and we're trying hard to do it and we firmly believe as a committee as early said that to have that logo without this kind of a program where we're educating our kids at intervals that you agree on as a school committee school department but also recognizing the history in town is what our goal is because the logo means nothing without some respect for the history and also making it clear to our residents that there's a lot of stuff out there that people could know um I'd like to be able to have any questions regarding what we can do as a committee on what we can do
018as a select board I can bring back I'd be happy to talk to discuss about it but I can't say it much better than Lily did because she's been doing it even longer than I have so the questions be happy to talk about Dr Jenkins so I have a question I've heard on several occasions that this is part of the Town Charter but I've read the town Charter and I do not see anything in the town Charter requiring committee members to be Town residents I see that in the town bylaws and I think that's a distinction that's an important difference because the town Charter amendment is very different than a town bylaw Amendment town meeting is empowered to change Town bylaws town meeting is not empowered to change the charter and so I don't see
019it I'd like to see it in the charter maybe I'm misreading I don't know where it is but where I read The Residency requirement is in the town bylaws as far as I know that is correct okay so we were directed that that's what the rule is for us okay so I just want to be clear about this though right because the charter process requires a vote of the community a charter Amendment correct me if I'm wrong Mr ninja my my historian but a bylaw amendment requires a vote of town meeting and that's different bylaw does require a town meeting a chatter also goes through town goes through the town meeting through town meeting to the voters correct it's a less lengthy process as a bylaw correct so I think that's an important distinction because
020my primary concern I appreciate all this work I am a supporter of all this work but when we create members of the committee that are not equal right I think that's highly problematic given the history I could be persuaded to go around this if there were some stronger requirement for official consultation with tribal members because right now the language that we've seen so far is that the committee May invite representatives of tribes local National organizations May and I think again it needs to it needs to be partnership right because I think Ms Chamberlain made an important point that we were doing this work and we had some ideas and then when we consulted with our indigenous neighbors they were like well there are some problems with that and so I think there needs to be
021a shall a stronger requirement um not just you know I've had some conversations with some tribal members as well who's rape who have raised concerns to me that when we go to this person or that person in the community they may not represent right you came here and you said I don't speak for the select board I speak for myself when we talk to individual people they speak for themselves not for the tribe and so my concern is is that right now I feel that consultation is optional right and that the only required consultation require has Town members being voting members and non-town members being non-voting members either we amend the bylaws to allow a certain number of non-town members on Town committees there are times when that is useful um maybe we set it
022up so that no more than 25 percent of a town committee can be non-town members there are ways to do that when it resides in the bylaw the other option for me is to put stronger Provisions requiring consultation Through official channels right because again that's different than ad hoc consultation with individual people right I can't represent the board like if we have a conversation I don't represent the board I represent me it's only when you come before this board that any decisions that are made represent the interests of the board and I think we need to interact with our tribal Partners in the same way so um either process will take will be an extended a period of time Charter is two years for sure it's not a charter it's not in the bylaws yes
023it changes two years the other will take at least a town meeting right okay um which uh well I would understand it I mean if you have zoning bylaws and everything else in Personnel bylaws type of deals I would like to if that's what we we should do and amend it if there's a hunger for that to change it for this particular I've never run into this issue until now and there has been never a question or a thirst to say we need to have non-residents on a committee okay now we have it and I um I would love in the perfect world I love the aquina tribe and the Picasso tribe to come to us and say we're going to designate this person to represent us they'll come to the meetings they'll listen they'll
024come back to us we'll tell you how we feel and we'll come back I wish that was a case and if that's that's what it takes to try to do fine uh I have to say the communication amongst the tribes in between the tribes is not a it's not finite it's difficult and you everyone here knows that as well so what I'm saying to you we have people thirsting to try to do something that's the right thing to do and we also have obstacles and how do we get to the obstacle so we don't have to wait for either a June town meeting or a child or two of us for now make this happen and make sure we're protected so that we do something that's reasonable and not have to have you know vulnerable
025to all kinds of outside residents being part of committees which I don't think that would happen anyway but I'm here to say what do we need to do and the language you have to have to get this done so we can move forward and if you want to write the language I'd love to listen to it Dr Jenkins and whatever the job that's taken up a lot of my time right now and I don't have the time for that right now okay but uh but you have a strong opinion about how we should proceed so um I'm listening because I'm allowed to no I want to lose it that's why I'm here absolutely so um I think as presented if it's not a voting committee but a consensus committee um and clearly you have reached
026out um and if we do change the language so it's a little more strong in that we will seek out um that's great I do see the issue with if you got a town resident who was indigenous that they only represent themselves and I do see the problem that uh heads of tribes represent the majority of their tribe that is working with them so I I don't feel personally that you need to change not the charter but the bylaws I I don't if you change those two things the voting and make it stronger language I don't have a problem with it I'm I'm wondering if I unless my colleagues have something um you know I think you said a little bit of it but if we cannot do could we do both perhaps continue it
027in the iteration of a working group add some stronger language I'm just thinking I was trying to look it up and my computer wasn't working but um in in Mass General Law chapter 171 was the beginning of family engagement and uh you know having a seat at the table and the wording was something to the effect of you know substantial consultation but if we were to add language that said substantial and documented because I I appreciate Lily's it's what you're doing you know it's you're we've had conversation a conversation about this you're you're trying to engage folks in that way and you got nothing like nobody's nobody's answering the call and you're not giving up and we appreciate that uh but I just wonder if if that language could be so strong as to paint
028that picture of what you're doing so that it's keeping you on task but then in the same I do believe working to change the bylaw because uh you know thinking collaboratively thinking Community right we our Board of Health often thinks about the things about the community and the folks that come through our community right and so in changing I don't think we're going to have a million people stepping up to join our boards but if we were to work on that bylaw language so that it can formally you know present a situation where yes you're still doing the consultation the whole opinion of that is that I think you'd have an awful lot of pushback on that but I'd be I think we need to find other democracy and find out what the majority says
029but I cannot from my point of the years I've been around I've never heard this discussion or requests so as I said before but I think working finding out what that pushback is and and seeing how we can clarify you know the purpose and and and move through that you know um is my thoughts but I appreciate the work I just think it's so important to not give up and I appreciate Dr Jenkins new knowledge of all the nuances of that but I would love to see us do both move forward formally um you know I don't have any any issue with Dr Jenkins what you have to say and the protection you'd like to have for the town for the schools and the tribes I just think can we put together some simple language
030to satisfy that we can move on yeah you've spoke so eloquently about that and what you've learned and how you've you've shifted and to accommodate you know what you've learned um so I think Kathleen if I may you suggested language right instead of the committee May invite right it should be shell to include substantial consultation part of that language was not about tribal members so I think it may be it's confusing because we felt that we want to have the option to bring people no it does say by non-resident in new england-based indigenous people or local or national organizations of indigenous people you know I appreciate all of this work that's so ambiguous yeah I think for me I'm an institutionalist at heart as a political scientist right and we can't build committees structures that
031are based on people because people change people move on different people are elected we have to build structures that withstand turnover in people so that we have right if and someday five years down the road this committee still exists different people come we have the structures in place to ensure that that sort of collaborative work that Lily was talking about continues and so I just want to make sure that when we build the structure we build it properly that reflects the work that you're doing so that this work continues on in this way in perpetuity right I just want to make one thing perfectly clear here and frankly you're hitting frustration and Lily and from me as well I am tired of people talking about this Committee in this town uh and and how can
032you bring someone in here and not give me a vote because you don't really want to have a try and that is it's crap and I'm sick of it because this comes from a genuine concern to do the right thing and it has nothing to do with anything but that and we have a lot of things pulling from different directions and let's button up the language and we can move forward and frankly if you don't like it we'll do it again we'll revise it again but that's if I could if I could just interject here for what it's worth my two cents first of all I want to thank you both for being here this evening and representing the group um you know clearly a lot of hard work's been done you know in with
033this no doubt about it I'm not going to get in your way personally I'm speaking for myself here I think we should move forward with how it is I I certainly understand where Dr Jenkins is coming from um I also expressed some concerns at the last meeting but you being here this evening I did miss the I apologize I did miss the beginning of the presentation so you can read it again I'll watch it on replay um with that though you know I'm very comfortable after hearing what you have both said um I agree there's there's some passion we need to move this group forward we adopted we we formally adopted uh the Dartmouth Indian um it's been recognized and I think you know there's certainly an appetite to move forward uh to do some
034more and part of that is this committee so I certainly uh would not stand in your way but I do I do think that we should at least explore looking at the bylaws I think that's we're at least worth looking at Shannon is saying and we we talked about this ourselves I mean it didn't feel right for us to say voting and non-voting members um so I guess what I would sorry I'd like to try to do is maybe talk to the time administrator about whether we can just take that language out do we need to have voting and do we need to even say that I don't know I don't write my read of the bylaws I would agree with Mr tattlebaum on this that if it is an official Town committee the bylaws
035currently require committee members to be Town residents we don't disagree on that it's just the where the placement of that is so I think that is the they can't be committee members if they're not Town residents correct voting is that what the language says okay and a a town employee baton employee who was not a resident town is an ex-officio but has the ability to vote because they are a paid town and staff that's my understanding if if the stipulation the language is important there I agree right if it says they're not allowed to be voting members then take it out and we're fine I think um so I think we need to go back to the Town Administrator and check on that and also I just I just think changing the bylaw if we're
036going to change the bylaw to say that people from outside of town can be on a committee then I don't think that's going to fly so I don't really know if that's the way to go either but again I can talk we can talk to the Town Administrator about that again somebody had their hand up so that's then John okay go ahead go ahead so I think it would be a tough sell for the town and does every Committee in Dartmouth make decisions by Vote or right are some of the Committees more quakerly and some committees uh like this one is an advisory committee you can I I feel like if no one's a voting member if we put that in the language then we don't need to change the I would agree the other
037thing I'm thinking um what's really going backwards here but and I may be completely wrong and I don't want to devalue the work of this and by not calling it a committee but could we change it to something different I mean you know like a working group like that was suggested Dr Jenkins so this is totally above my pay grade you'd have to probably talk to Mr savasano about this but right this is essentially essentially an intergovernmental relations Council it is it's the mashed potato are in fact Sovereign Nations right they are official governments so you could create I don't know how that works I don't right but you could create an intergovernmental Relations Committee where the tribes they don't they tell they select their the members of that committee right so we select our
038members they select their members it could be anyone they want right like it could be someone from the town of Dartmouth it could be someone on the tribal board that is at their discretion and then there's a full partnership um in this intergovernmental relations right so that's another option along Airlines however are they new and more stringent open meeting laws and it's almost as if for the protection of town staff employees residents that these ad hoc committees have to really be eliminated or whatever they are because the following open meeting laws are becoming more and more astringent more difficult I've I've attended two two uh seminars on them both because it's going to get worse not better so we have to deal with the open meeting as well yes but right an entity like Serta
039or smack right which is subject to open meeting laws official representatives are sent from official boards and they become an official body so it would be a different type of official body it wouldn't be a town committee it would be a town tribal neighbors intergovernmental Relations Committee Mr noon no no fine I don't know I mean the one and I'm listening to what everybody and however this flows out you know it you know it's what August 21st now when you go to town meeting October 20th or somewhere in that vicinity type of deal so I'm not quite sure if you're going to get you know I mean it would be you know Mr McGinnis and his his assistant with Mr savastano to try and get a bylaw put together and worked on to to change
040everything around so I'm not sure unfortunately I'm not sure that's going to work till then but that being that being said the one question that I had you know Dave is this and maybe I'm missing something here but it doesn't have anything uh uh the charge that we had and I made mention of this is it doesn't have any how long the term is you know is is it an open you know I mean you know was it in perpetuity that type of deal so that may be something you want to take a look and again I'm not trying to nitpick but uh if there's a way that we can button up the language as you suggested Samuel and try to do it in that from that direction that would be um simpler and if
041it's being satisfying um I I think it's out you know Dr Jenkins the other uh your possible solution seems complex and time consuming um it is I'm very concerned about changing uh putting that together and getting consensus that it's even worth considering in town meeting in 60 days seems like a dream no I dream as well I understand and I I not judging and I'd be happy to bring it to our board and talk to them about it as one member I can do that but um all that's going to do as far as we're concerned is postpone what we've been trying to do now to get moving we would like to plan events we would like to get um location there's a lot there's a lot on the table that's just frankly just sitting
042there now going nowhere so so and you had something else to say too but um do you want to go first what do you need what are you looking for Mr tattlebaum from us because I agree I don't want to you know I want to move this along I I there's a lot of people trying to do a lot of good things here so what are you looking for us um we we told you what we're looking for as far as taking that voting language out of there one on the other right I I when I in the perfect world if you could just rewrite Edition or rewrite the charge from what you think is perspective have a meeting and agree on it and bring it back I'm sure we can work with that um
043and um if if at some point maybe looking towards um June town meeting if the thirst and hunger was there to recommend to us that we should reconsider the the bylaw uh then that's something I could I could also present but in the meantime if you could button up the language that's just what you could agree on I think you know how we feel about it and the term as far as term limits Etc uh Mr Nunes I I think we've done that but we haven't had to move forward but that's not it's not that difficult no I understand so um it sounds like perhaps we may have some sort of agreement that uh and and if it I'll I will if if it's okay with the committee I would happily take my notes Kate's
044notes and uh give some final language and then perhaps present it again and but I think it's the non-voting voting piece the substantial consultation piece perhaps some clarification on terms or whatever but you've got the group you've got the people that you need that have been doing the good work right now anyway but um and then getting that back to you and you have by the way the two staffers from the that have been on this committee have done a really tremendous work they're fantastic and uh and Mrs Brooks his passion is all we are about doing it so uh did I leave anybody else out I should mention I don't think so but I'm sorry um uh I I just I understand we are coming from Doc Jenkins and I agree with you if
045there's some way we can do it in a light compromise to move us forward and then in the longer term it's something we should be doing there's a hunger for that you know I I've said this many times there were a big big town with a little tiny government and it ties us up in knots and this is a perfect example of you know we can spin our wheels and talk about this in uh two years and today we won't even have a committee because it'll just dissolve and these are the things there's no hunger to change our government structure people think it's very efficient it works well in the selectable itself all the problems just bring them to us and we take care of them so there's no hunger to change it so we
046need to work around it and get it done and satisfy what I think a very legitimate concerns and perspectives because we're going to get it done as a team that's all that's going to happen and so um tell me if I'm right or wrong does this require us then with me sort of prescribing something new or really I can taking in everything we've discussed and modification modifying it is this going to have to go to next meeting or is there a way that we can separately I could pass it through the does this have to wait two more weeks or it's got away because other than that you're violating violating a meeting law by okay I I and this is the luck of the drawer I'm here tonight because this meeting is in between hours
047I think doesn't happen often I'm not a gambler but I know this happened so if there's another time in the very near future that will help that we come back or I come back and I'm available that's fine but I mean I don't think I don't think you need to come back and I say that in this I know your time is precious and I think we all appreciate the work you're doing I want to reiterate what Mr Oliver said we appreciate the work that's being done right but it's about sort of building those relationships I I also think related to this and I will say one of the things that we did take out of your charge was conversations about curriculum and I do think that's something that we need to put on our
048agenda right because otherwise it gets lost that that's a recurring item on our agenda or we have a conversation or a check-in we have two curriculum directors now who can give us an update about again the commitment was when we kept the logo not just on the town side but in the school side and so we should be having those conversations as well I think you'll like what you hear from them yeah I I agreed and but again it's about being open and transparent and making sure that people understand that this work is being done we appreciate it very much I appreciate it I know it's just you know I really again want to make sure we have the institutions and structures right and maybe just maybe in the next few weeks I'm optimistic that
049we may have ourselves a resident Tribal member as well but they also need to represent and report to somebody else or to be part of that language you're going to put in one without the other I think I agree is insufficient I think we're on the real same page yeah I really do yeah and that's why I thought we'd come here tonight get this thing done and thanks you for listening and making this a team effort thank you David so it sounds like there's a light at the end of this tunnel what's that sounds like there's a light at the end of this tunnel amen thank you so much thank you thank you Dave thanks Dave thank you okay next item we're going to turn it right over to Mr Kylie he's going to give
050us an update as to what's going on with facilities and capital Improvement across the district and I can tell you there's lots so um it's it's been a very busy summer for all our folks who are maintaining the buildings uh I provided you in your packets with a list of projects some of those projects given that we're here on August 21st have already been completed some are currently in process a few have not begun yet and and will be upcoming so in addition to our routine preventative maintenance work that has to happen every summer there's a few highlights on this list we have done quite a bit of work really over the last year on HVAC maintenance repairs and controls to ensure we're getting proper airflow in our classrooms and buildings we're continuing that we've
051continued that work this summer we will be continuing that work moving forward but we made good progress flooring replacement at the Quinn and middle schools so this was the the only Capital Improvement plan request and we'll talk a little bit about Capital Improvement plan requests in a few minutes but um this was the only request that was funded at the June town meeting and we've managed to replace a great deal of asbestos containing material flooring in the schools this summer we have a new walk-in freezer at the Demello School it's not not currently cold yet but tomorrow they're going to be installing the uh the refrigeration equipment the atlas program space downstairs is looking pretty good um we were just actually Mr Bernat our facilities manager was meeting regarding pink colors uh I think he
052met at five today here so um so we should be pretty much at the point where we'll be ready to go we're going to paint that this week and get that ready we've also been painting at the Potter School the Demello School the middle school the high school we had a we have a group of three teachers who paint for us all summer and they're awesome they make such a big difference in the schools and have have been doing that for years so we're very thankful to them kitchen renovations at the potter and Demello schools grease trap replacement at several schools sewer line replacement if anybody drove by the Demello school last week it was a big hole in the ground we had an issue with sewer line we had to dig up the parking
053lot and replace that tree trimming work had quite a quite a few schools I guess there's been a lot really the bottom line is a lot that's gone on this summer in a short amount of time I'd like to thank John Bernard our facilities manager our maintenance team for coordinating and undertaking all these projects it's a huge task they've done a great job also thank our custodians for for their efforts to keep our buildings clean last week was the first week without a a major scheduled program at Dartmouth High School all summer and it was still full of kids last week and it's still full of kids today so um it's been challenging working around all those programs but they've been they've been working hard to make sure that we're ready to go and just
054really appreciative of everyone's efforts thank you madam chair thank you Mr Kali for the update just a couple of things that I have um first being the auditorium Lighting and Sound updates has that project been started or is that we still waiting because I know that's been in the in the alleys for a little while here we ordered everything okay well not everything we ordered everything on the sound side um and really need to complete that side before we get to the lighting because we're going to be kind of limited I think as to how much money we actually have available to do lighting because that was originally approved in CIP CIP several a few years ago yeah a few years ago the as you would imagine the prices of everything like every everything else
055in the world have changed dramatically um we are gonna tackle the the sound piece we ordered everything it's been very slow um we don't have anything yet so okay but we can do that during school it's not that you know we're sure obviously it may not be ready for certain things that we would love it to be ready for but I know the Dartmouth High theater company is itching yeah itching right yeah second is the stadium maintenance or the stadium storage facility is that completed it is completed yep okay that that's completed inspected occupant where where we haven't spent a ton of time actually outfitting the inside at this point basically it's keeping equipment dry and out of the weather just because we've had so many other projects going on but um we'll we'll be
056getting to the point where we can move everything in and utilize it control so that's excellent and then second to last is just the stadium as it itself I'd love to at another meeting maybe have some deeper conversations and get together with the turf field committee at some point to come up with maybe a plan b or plan C because the money there is still some money that's sitting there an allocation for that project so I would love to revisit that at some point for sure and then finally it's just the um you talk about your maintenance staff how are we at with what do we have for maintenance staff right now so so what we have right now is one person who does grounds so we have our facilities manager John Bernat we have
057one person who does grounds focusing mostly on athletic fields year-round um yes yeah yeah um and in the winter he has other projects that he'll work on to assist us um when it's inclement although like last winter you could do a lot of work on the fields during the winter to get them ready for the spring because we had an ex you know quite a warm winter um we have uh out outside of that we have three maintenance staff full-time maintenance staff and a part-time maintenance staff member to maintain the buildings and we're thin I mean it's it's a lot of work you know maintaining seven buildings for those folks um ideally we would be we would have more staff but have you been adding it to the uh positions not filled positions not filled
058but wish we had it's it's definitely on the wish we had list and you know unfortunately as we move forward and talk more about the budget I don't think you know actually that's something that while it would make a difference and we're going to talk a little bit about the capital Improvement projects and some longer term stuff in a few minutes um it would make a difference extending the life of the buildings for sure thank you Miss Kylie thank you thank you just thank you to you and your staff for a busy summer but you know walking around here the school school is looking good you know they've done you know considering you know all the heat we had and everything else in July it you know it's not fun I can you know only
059assume and you know thank them for uh her job well done I will thank you they'll appreciate that it's it's exhausting just reading on this list like nope skip tomorrow maybe um okay and so next thank you very much um next though we have about the well this has come up I guess more than once during school committee around um the idea that it may be beneficial for at least one of the members to attend the what they call the committee members to the National School Board Association or nsba annual conference I know that from what I've heard you've had the discussion several times this year the conference is being held in New Orleans it's April 6th to 8th what I can say about those types of conferences is I think they can be truly
060beneficial to folks to connect with people at the national level to be able to share some of of what are in fact common experiences that we're going through not only here in Massachusetts but across the country and so since that's been an area of interest for this committee we thought it would be a good time for you to talk about whether or not you'd be able to do that this this school year committee members Mr Newton Mr Oliver sorry thank you uh this is Amaral so I think it was actually myself that brought this brought this up initially uh several months back and I know that um you know speaking with other school other school districts um that they do send representatives to the National Conference I personally think it's certainly worthwhile as someone who
061has attended conferences in my profession and whether or not we're able to bring something to the conference and or take something away or both um that I certainly think that it it's past time that we um we the Dartmouth school committee starts sending at least one if not two members um at least offering it making it available to to go to the conferences what I would like to see though is um some type of policy created so obviously we're all not going to be here forever that moving forward that there's at least some kind of policy on the books um and whoever I'd like to see this committee at least send it to policy at this time and maybe create a policy around you know the the requirements and what you're expected what the school
062committee members expected to bring back to the committee to share um with their fellow colleagues that's that's my two cents for what it's worth so I completely agree I'm not going to be going because I'm not running for re-election so it makes no sense for me to go but you all should go down um my stepfather was a school Committee Member in Illinois and a school board they call it there and they regularly went I think the entire committee was given the option to go um I would like to see two because I think sometimes having someone to talk about something like in the moment can be super helpful right like you know that person like hey how would that Supply here this is what I just heard that works really well um so I
063think it's a good idea um and I think maybe I don't think we have the money to send everyone on the committee every year but maybe two people every year would be a good thing so I would I would agree Mr news yeah thank you yeah uh I just went and looked and it's it's a Saturday to Monday in April next year so I I'm going to make an assumption it's a fly out Friday come back you know Tuesday morning to type it in I think it's good um you know it's it's something you know we'll have to try and find the money in the budget this year for it type of deal but you know going forward I agree with uh with Chris to uh to put a policy in place so that you
064know five ten years down the line people are you know there's something for people to uh to follow on that number one and number two more importantly next year is the budget is built you know where is it in 25 type of type of deal and that's what that's what you have to look at and I think the key thing to remember too is you know and I'm not being physically but this is not a vacation this is this is this is a working this is going to be what you call a working vacation type of deal because you're I'm gonna make this wonderful assumption that you're going to be going from eight in the morning to late at night you know with with everything that goes on between the you know between the uh
065the different uh breakout sessions that you can attend and and that type of deal so but I I hold I wholeheartedly supported Chris I totally agree with you I'd say I worry about the money yeah um and say if it's in California or Hawaii I think we should think twice about going like not go um but if there's good airfare and we can keep the prices down there certainly value there yeah I agree I mean it's certainly value I think uh you know a tight budget right I mean it is it does you know look like a great opportunity um I can't even get a way to I won't be going but but I'd be I would love to hear what others learn and things for me yeah is there any appetite for anyone on
066the committee to go this year in terms of like if not a solid yes or no seriously I would go okay I'll be honest with you I mean it's a tough time for me but you know if the opportunity and and and again I'm one of those you know I'd like to see what the agenda is yeah agreed okay I agree you know I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not gonna go to go and there's nothing there that tickles my fancy or something that I can bring back I could bring back to the committee or even like when I was working type of deal no that that type of deal yeah yeah and love if they offered a hybrid option I just I just participate yeah um you know I would I would certainly consider
067it as well um and I would say at least for this year and whether or not you you put it into the policy is maybe there's some kind of threshold you look at as well as tying it to school choice funds for this year anyway yeah yeah I'm sorry and I would just say I would not be going because I have enough to learn right here I don't need to go away [Laughter] Mr news I mean but an also I think if as you start to draft a policy on this type of deal you know you know all things being considered as as much as you can on a rotating basis so that the same per you know yeah the same person's not going every year I mean would be my luck you know be
068Honolulu Hawaii and it's not my turn yeah we're not going there but you know what you know what I'm saying yeah but it'll be great and then like you said having a policy where come back to the committee and report on the learning and that sort of thing so there's appetite so it's something early registration opens August 30th just saying great thank you for bringing it to us appreciate that so now you're gonna have the policy committee meeting no we're gonna have to set up see a subcommittee meeting for that anything else on that before we move on okay so we have new business we have smec here Dr Saban Maguire if you want to Sure introduce absolutely so we have from smec we have Kim wilcott she is the director of student services who
069can come right up Kim and she has some good news to share with us and wants to explain to you how this move from New Bedford to Dartmouth is going to impact the services that we're able to provide our students and students in the region so welcome thank you good evening everyone I'm very excited to be here tonight as some of you know we have been looking for additional space for our therapeutic Learning Center Program currently located in New Bedford for probably four or five years now and the reason we're looking for additional space is to meet the growing need of the students in Dartmouth and other local communities so we're really excited to learn that the former North Star Learning Center located at 267 Samuel Barnett Boulevard in Dartmouth was available the location is
070really perfect for us because it's already set up for learning with the appropriate classroom office and outdoor space so we are looking to transfer our current Day School license to the new space and of course there are lots of steps to that process some of them involve Town inspections all of which have occurred another is a department of Elementary and secondary education site review which occurred this morning and went very well and another is to come here and ask for the support of the school committee of the town that we are moving into so I am here tonight to respectfully request that the school committee approves smex intention to transfer our public Day School license from the current location in New Bedford to 267 Samuel Barnett Boulevard and I'm happy to answer any questions that
071you have right right okay do you have questions Mr Oliver I'll just uh thank you Kim good to see you being the Dartmouth School committee's rep to spec we this is something like Kim has said that it's been going on for years we thought at some points we had a building um we went back several times now only to find out that's a the uh it fell through at the end of the day but this is a program that is desperately needed in this region um I know that uh we have smack has quite the waiting list um at our current building that we have on Acushnet Avenue in the North End in New Bedford and this is exciting this is um a big deal for smack as well as for all of our member
072districts which Dartmouth as well as New Bedford Fair Haven mattapois at Rochester Marion uh Fall River if I said New Bedford am I missing any greater New Medford Regional Vocational yeah uh that are all member districts so obviously we get a discounted rate for tuition to smack member districts as well as just being having the opportunity for school committee mem or school committee rep as well as the special education directors who are the steering committee I believe of smec to bring back uh requests and thoughts and you know wishes that for these programs to even exist so I'm thrilled and this is a good opportunity uh for Dartmouth 100 percent Factory so I will make a motion that the committee approves Max transfer of their public Day School license from their current location in New
073Bedford to 267 Samuel Barnett Boulevard in Dartmouth pending deci approval all second all right so we have a motion we have a second I want to thank Kim I've known Kim for many many many many many years 2007 February 1st actually in another in another lifetime and with another hat on with my little guy with my old guy now but um and uh just really just so thrilled to see you in your leadership role with the work through smack because you're just amazing um and before we take a vote I just wanted to ask you have to come to the the district where it's moving do you have to also report to the districts that so much leg work but so our district as as Chris was saying part of the collaborative bylaws ensures that
074all of our member districts really take an active role in our decision making so our steering committee which is comprised of all of our member district special education directors has been well aware of this process throughout the process and they're the ones who are really kind of leading the charge in terms of the need and then our board of directors which is comprised of a school committee member from each of Our member districts has been part of this every step of the way in terms of you know all of the votes that need to take place in order to move us forward oh great so yes everyone is is very aware and on board and to Chris's point is just such a critical need in this community and it's going to be of great service
075to to the children um what grades though I'm sorry though so that is one of the great parts of this building when we opened the program capacity was only grades one through four we are currently K through five and the new building will allow us to be a to eight facility all in one building oh that's fantastic great so we have we have a motion we have a second any other discussion besides our okay so um all in favor aye passes unanimously thank you for coming thank you everyone good luck next we are moving on to Capital Improvements and um Mr Kylie again has been part of a larger group discussion about how we can work together as a town to address some of the capital Improvement projects not only at the Town level but
076how we can connect them to What's Happening Here in the school department save Maguire so I included in your packet a summary of what was previously voted for the fiscal year 2024 Capital Improvement plan so the loan project as we just discussed in the summer work that was received partial funding at the June town meeting was a flooring replacement request that we have a great deal to continue with that work throughout the district the other requests are critical um you know we've talked before about the Aging facilities that we have when you take the the high school out of the mix the average age is 70 72 or 73 years of our facilities so with an eye on that we really want to approach that in two ways these immediate Capital Improvement plan requests will
077help us maintain the buildings moving forward there's a list here that we discussed when you approved I'd be happy to talk about any of them individually I'll just sort of run down the list and not get into details unless you want to talk about details on the specific items since since we've already voted on this and approved this previously so that flooring replacement project Roofing repairs technology infrastructure and improvements of vehicle for the 18 to 22 year old program more technology this time to to fund our Hardware replacement cycle which was removed in the budget process last year which we've received every year I've been here previously bathroom Renovations fire system upgrades Dr saber Maguire and I met with the fire chiefs today and they stressed the importance of this and and my understanding is
078that they are going to Advocate um for this to be taken care of high school track reconstruction energy efficient lighting projects Stadium Renovations Mr Oliver mentioned and music equipment so we'd originally requested you know seven seven million 303 thousand dollars and understand that you know there wasn't money available certainly at the June town meeting to fund all those but we're hopeful that in this process leading up to the October town meeting that some of our requests will be considered and hopefully funded I haven't heard yet as to when we would be meeting with the capital Improvement planning committee on this but certainly would keep you posted if I if and when I hear about that um I guess first do we have questions comments about these immediate Capital Improvement plan requests so I just have
079a question about the msba repair are there is there any indication when they're going to reopen this like how long do we have to keep the roof afloat I think I think that it is unlikely that they're going to reopen the program this this season this year because the inflationary construction costs for their core program projects are so much higher than what they thought um in order to keep those core projects running they just can't they they have a limited Supply they get one one cent of the sales tax funds School building projects in Massachusetts um the there's just no money there right now maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised um I would imagine that if we do hear anything from them it'll be around no normally it's around November when they announced that they will
080be considering accepting because there's this whole process as you folks know who've been around for a while it's it's a kind of a convoluted process you need lots of you need votes of lots of committees and and ultimately town meeting approval to even just ask to be a part of the program um it's certainly on my list and and the second that we hear I would come back to you and ask that we be a part of it I guess I just to follow up like I'm maybe more pessimistic than you I don't think it will open this year and I'm actually more worried about them not opening it for a much longer window and I guess the question is right that we're going to put this money into the roof but what if they
081don't open the program for five years right like so what sort of planning are we engaging in we're like we're kind of putting a lot of eggs in The Accelerated repair basket and at what point in time do we start to say that might not be an option and we have to plan for doing it ourselves right I'm just a little worried about that plus when they open it up there's going to be a backlog of and we're going to put 225 thousand dollars into our roof to make it last which may put us right down to the bottom of that backlog because not that I want our roof to get bad but I'm just I'm worried about the how this all plays out yeah yeah I I think you should be worried I certainly
082am and and um I think that right now we have no option but to think short term um and we are still like funneling water around this building into buckets uh uh and that has to be rectified we can do some things to help but they're not they're not insignificant things they're like opening up walls and redoing flashing and thinking about like that it's major work that needs to be done it's not just you know oh you put a new piece of rubber on top of an old piece of rubber and it's going to last it's not that type of stuff so um I'm very skeptical as to whether they'll have money as well um I I think given so the Middle School roof was was a five million dollar project in 2017 of which
083msba paid you know two more than two million dollars of the project um this project is is a major roofing project than is probably going to be eight million dollars in today's in today's I mean that's 2017. right it's to do it without msba if we if we have an option um of waiting and stringing this along I think we should so we will do the best we can with that but I mean if you don't give us any money to do it right yeah that's a problem because it will get to the point where I don't know it's just going to be it's going to be really a poor learning environment at some point the way this is going so so you know we're not there yet hope is not lost you know we
084can if we receive I mean this is a relatively I know 225 thousand dollars is a lot of money but in the grand scheme of what we're trying to accomplish I don't really think it is a lot comparatively speaking and hopefully we'll get some support for that thank you professional almost sounds like in in the long run we could be you know putting uh good money after bad to to you know holding this together with you know as they say chewing gum and bailing wire so you know have to keep fighting I'll have to I haven't heard anything either on it so but other than that I have no uh no comments there you know again it's everything that we went through though we went through before I guess my only question that I have
085is I look at this now and I apologize I'm the uh the vehicle for the for the atlas program downstairs like what are we doing for those students come next Wednesday so you're right right important question right we knew we weren't good well first of all even if we had been funded at the June town meeting we wouldn't have a vehicle because um they take forever to come in nowadays um even if if we had ordered one at the end of June after town meeting wouldn't be here uh so we're prepared to uh with alternative means of Transport um so really looking at other ways that we can provide opportunities for kids in the meantime and really since the program is developing right now with our first year it makes a lot of sense to
086you know get this funding at some point so that we can expand to our access to the community for the kids but in the first year it's certainly a program that is going to take some time to develop those connections with the community and develop opportunities for kids we do have you know demand response transportation that can be available to us um and and certainly for some activities we can utilize you know a variety of different means but long term you need you need something for the program for sure thank you sir Mr Oliver thank you madam chair so yeah absolutely part of my uh vote in approving this program knowing what the um the program is all about is making sure that these students were going to have access to our community into those
087types of opportunities so I want to make sure that this this gets prioritized with the capital Mr Mr Shea is here in the background I think he'd like to come up and say or a few words appreciate that priority first thank you um we knew this year was going to be that um so like Mr Kylie saying the Ada the on-demand Transportation that's a good skill for some of our students to also practice as well so um Miss Steph Church who's the teacher and I have talked a lot about what that's going to look like and really for the first for the first months anyways it's getting the students adjusted to the transition and and working that way um but I do appreciate your commitment we're gonna but we are going to be working with
088like outside transportations for now but um thank you for the commitment but we're in good space with the program and we're really excited about it no I I'm thrilled I'm happy to see that dartmouth's giving students the opportunity to to stay in District versus going to a program like smack or South Coast has I'm not sure if South Coast has one um but I would certainly you know suggest and maybe I'm sure our new uh director of special education has already had conversations reach out to the collaboratives that are offering these programs already um you know why reinvent the wheel for sure yeah absolutely and on Steph church and I have talked a number of times too about her visiting the other programs in the area already using some of our professional development to do
089it that way um she wants to do a lot of like even just going to the grocery store to start and getting it some of the students is going to have a little bit of a struggle adjusting to um you know they're so fond of Miss KP and for very many reasons they've really matured with her so we're expecting some transition just in the program that way anyways so it does buy a little time on that backside of getting to you so the program getting ready for everything coming and then being um getting out in the community but one of the essentials is the community connections and being connected into the community and looking for future job placement for our students whether it's starting some of this in with our own in our own community
090and then working out into the town and stuff great thank you Mr thank you yes just the one thing I'm thinking you know and I had a note here too uh one of the things that Mr Kiley put in in his his brief to us is uh with what the town possibly could be looking to do and convening the uh facilities and field subcommittee of which you and I are on so whenever you want to put some put some dates together and such right so I'd like to talk a little bit about that I wanted to just talk about the you know the current capital Improvement plan request first but um but now's the time so uh in terms of long-term capital planning I'm pleased to say that I was invited to a meeting um
091by Mr McGinnis with representatives of that had different uh you know different backgrounds and interests in the town to discuss long-term capital Improvement planning and I think that this is from my experience my third you know 13 years here is the first time that we've really approached this issue in this way um the initial focus of the group what we discussed was to look at Major projects that might require borrowing or debt exclusion votes and to look at 30-year window so you'd imagine that with a 30-year window we we have quite a few projects in that in that range um you know clearly several schools should be replaced in that 30-year window in addition to the high school roof repairing you know renovating the stadium um other things that you know are fairly large scope
092projects so I I'm super encouraged that we're you know having this conversation um I I think that to prepare for our participation in this we have the facilities and Fields subcommittee I love the opportunity to right now Mr Nunes and Mrs Amaral are the representatives I'd love the opportunity to call a meeting for sooner rather than later and we could get together and talk about the process our priorities in terms of how we would want to report back to the school committee you know what we're thinking so um I've been doing doing some research on on construction costs and it's interesting to say the least um for for major School construction projects right now but um but it's important that everyone knows and then ultimately in the end that the town can decide what you
093know what they want the town to look like so hopefully if you both are willing to do that and if that's the way the committee wants to begin to approach this um I'll you can either provide me with some dates when you might be available or I can offer a few dates and see if we can get together in the next two weeks maybe yeah absolutely and that way we could report back to the school committee on a few progress um yeah that works for me I don't know how you think John with your schedule no I you know any day that ends in a y is a good day so you know but no sir I mean I've got a couple of things on my calendar but you know see what everybody's got for
094dates so Jim if you put some dates together okay yeah we'll send a few dates send a few dates at any particular time of day that works best for people the earlier part of the day for me where yeah you know yeah I mean times five eight nine I'm not being eight nine o'clock and a mono works for me or you know because of your schedule if it's going to be four o'clock in the afternoon I can meet early it doesn't matter yeah no no I understand yeah I'm even gonna I mean this might be too soon but I think I'm meeting Miss dionisio on Friday at noon so you do have to we would have to post oh that's right yes yeah yeah if if that's agreeable but send some dates that you and
095then uh Friday doesn't work okay Friday doesn't I know this Friday does not work for me unfortunately okay so I'll offer up some some early morning meetings and we can work something out and then we can report back to the committee with some progress and um then certainly engage in the in the larger process with the town yeah sounds good well I'll do Jim Mr Kylie's I'll go home I'll take a look at my calendar and I'll shoot just that's bad for me like Dr Jenkins so in anticipation of this would it be possible for us to resurface that old study that we did I don't know I think the conclusions are not necessarily the same but if I recall that that firm identified many of the deficiencies in the buildings um in terms of
096space per student and things like that and so that might be useful I think you know helping some of us not aware of that but also I don't remember I just remember there was a report about deficiencies in space so it might be a helpful refresher for all of us to to read that with the understanding of those numbers are no longer valid and we may come to different conclusions but I think the the issues part would be super helpful for us if we could resurface that and share it with the committee good okay well that segues right into talking about proposed School committing committee dates um from October actually September through December of 2023 and I know that you've had certain dates that you've worked out in the past and I think that this
097is just representative of the way that you have have committed to dates in the past so we're looking at September 11th and 25th for the two September meetings with one of them I'm not sure which one being the meeting where we introduce the new hires I understand that that's a big deal here and there's a lot of fanfare accompanying that so that sounds fun October there would only be one date and that's because the the Monday that you would normally meet is a holiday so there would be one meeting in October two in November and then one in December and so that is apparently aligned with what you've done in the past and what you've committed to for dates Mr Nunes yeah thank you madam chair um aside from November 27th and December 11th those
098are the two I cannot make I am not here unless you know somebody wants to come join me on a cruise ship that's yeah I did I think I did respond in the affirmative yeah that's fine I'm not I'm serious I'm not here for those two okay how about the rest of the committee I'm good okay so I mean I don't know if is there any need to sort of think about do we typically what happens in the Mr Nunes is there anything that you can think of historically that we've had to vote on when um at that time oh you know it would be no push it off yeah you can put you can push it off or if you have to vote on something you vote on something and you know I'm good
099that that type of thing I mean the other thing you can do is you know for Grins and Giggles if you wanted is uh move the 13th to November 6th and then go November 20th which is uh Thanksgiving week that's up to you know if you wanted to do that or just leave it and I'm good however this committee wants to do it I'm fine any thoughts I can do the sixth and the 20th that's fine I could as well I mean that gets the two you know and again um and then you know I mean yeah then you're in the Christmas weeks are there any conflicts uh I think I think that would work for us leave leave December 11th the way it is only because you get into the holidays the following week
100so I'm good with that I'm fine and again I'm I'm good if you want to just leave it the way it's been presented I'm no I think do we have okay we don't have to vote on that we'll just edit to note the um I got the head nods John so we're moving we're moving the dates yeah that's fine okay great great and then we're all going to join you on December 11th on YouTube no problem great thank you that's great nice good for you yeah yeah okay so I'm gonna move right into the superintendent's report I'm going to start off by introducing you to my new superintendent coach I mentioned Dr Maureen Lacroix at last month's school committee meeting and I'm super excited to have her here tonight I think I mentioned to you
101last time that I felt as if she was the perfect fit for me so Dr Lacroix has been a superintendent actually she was superintendent Bedford for 11 years I think I said eight at our last meeting and three years as an assistant superintendent and so I'd like to welcome Dr Lacroix up to the microphone to explain a little bit more to you about what the new superintendent induction program entails and also hopefully provide a lead-in to my overview of the entry plan thank you Dr Saba McGuire it's nice to say that in front of your committee here tonight um and thank you to the committee for allowing me just a minute here um to tell you a little bit about the new superintendent induction program and to thank you for supporting her participation in that
102program it's it requires your support and it's critical from my perspective that you do support that this program in Massachusetts has been in existence for 14 years and it came about through a partnership with the school committee Association the superintendent Association in deci that decided probably 15 years ago um that superintendents needed support in their jobs they the organizations talked about we were at the time mentoring teachers and we were starting to think about mentoring principles and nobody was thinking about coaching and mentoring superintendents and the program started it has involved most new superintendents in Massachusetts participate in the program and superintendents who come in from out of state also participate so they can sort of learn the Massachusetts way the people like me who work in the program as coaches have to have been
103a successful superintendent in the state of Massachusetts in order to do this work and the work really is an honor I get to work with people like your superintendent I've worked in this area in Fall River I've worked with the greater New Bedford VOC superintendent so get a real sense not only geographically of the work that's being done in the area but get a sense of different superintendents in their leadership styles what's interesting to me in this work is that when you're in the superintendency you can be in a small district and I've worked in a district that had only 100 children or you can be in one of our Urban centers with over 10 000 children and the challenges of leadership oftentimes have similarities across those different venues so part of what we do
104in the program is try to bring superintendents together so that they not only have a coach but they have a support network in the area and across the state the other thing that we do in the program is we're not agnostic in the program we think there are certain skills that you need as a superintendent and that you need feedback on that as you're developing those skills so we have a whole section of the program that's content so superintendents in their first year attend probably six content days in person in some online so that we can talk about things like leadership how do you build a team we can talk about school committees how do you work effectively with the school committee that's an important part of your job how do you work with individual
105members and how do you work with the committee as a body so those are just some pieces of work that we do we think it's important work and the people who've participated in the program tell us oftentimes that was my lifeline that really enabled me to do a better job to sort of have somebody that I could talk to in full confidence in somebody that would give me honest feedback about what was going well and some things that maybe I wanted to think about and work on so I don't know if the committee has questions I'm happy to take them but appreciate you taking time thank you thank you thank you welcome thank you for mentoring all right thank you appreciate it thank you lovely to meet you thank you and you were supposed to
106set up my entry plan Dr Lacroix my test so let me just I was trying to be quick um so the three pieces of the program and the first part of it you're going to hear about tonight that are program requirements we required the superintendents to do an entry plan where they get out listen and learn from all of the members of this community after that this superintendent will be back to you probably in late winter early spring with what we call a report of Entry findings to tell you here's what I learned and that report of Entry findings will be Central to developing a strategy for district Improvement here so that is work that will start probably in summer of next year and go into the following year what's exciting in Dartmouth is you've
107already had a lot of good work done in this area so it's not like a new superintendent is starting from scratch here she's going to be building on what's already happened here in terms of the work of strategy and having an effective strategy in the district so Dr save Maguire is that enough talk just for a few more oh there we go thank you so much you did a wonderful job thank you it's the down arrow not the up Arrow okay so um thank you thank you for that and and again it's it's really interesting to go through this process and have support and and I think at the beginning when I sat and talked with you about the importance of participating in a program like this I talked a lot about networking and how
108I felt that networking would benefit Dartmouth not only because I have the ongoing support as a new superintendent but also because it really does allow you to be plugged into a lot of different things that are going on around the state and for example right now I know what's going on across the state right now around public records requests because I'm part of a network of superintendents who are informing other superintendents about those kind of issues that are coming up on a daily basis so for me that's been really important to really just be locked into what's going on not only here in Dartmouth but certainly what's going on across the state and how that might potentially impact Dartmouth but as Dr Lacroix said the purpose of Entry planning is to provide an opportunity to
109learn more about the school system and I certainly am doing that I'm getting to know the community and with the end result my goal of gaining a deeper understanding of what the district's current status is we had a district leadership team meeting today a couple of times we've talked about the feedback that they are sharing with us as a central office leadership team is meant to be just that to give us the current state we're not making any judgments about that state we're looking to collect honest feedback about where we are as a school district in Dartmouth so one of the things that I've been able to share with the district leadership team and I have to say that they have I believe it's been well received is a focus on core beliefs that schools
110districts must act as ethical organizations and so for me in entry planning and I know you've got a copy of my entry plan and this is just a brief overview of it but this plan does focus on this core belief that school districts must act as ethical organizations I was able to share some of this again at the leadership team Retreat a couple weeks ago and and we'll be sharing it again at convocation I think that it's an important work that can help to Center everything else that we do and if you look here you can see that the after there are five ethics that I believe can Center an organization with Community being at the center and so for example one of the most important ones that I think about here in Dartmouth and
111I think it's like at a critical time that we consider this is that of the ethic of community and understanding and even here in the conversation here tonight as we're talking about indigenous people and how that work has to happen not only at the school level but at the community level and that's what I mean by Community the schools exist as part of a community and the moral agency is the responsibility of the community as a whole and that we are all responsible for the interpersonal and group skills and yes we name them very specifically because that's important and what does that look like it looks like listening with respect and again I love that I saw that here this evening even when there are differing opinions striving for knowing and understanding others communicating effectively
112working in teams engaging in ongoing dialogue and creating forms that allow all voice to be heard I mean in the last hour of this meeting all of these things have happened to some degree and you can actually check them off and say okay this is actually something that is is obviously already valued in this community again a draw for me as a new superintendent coming to a community ethic of care this is one that I actually know I talked about in my interview because it's one that I hold dearly that we have regard for for the Dignity of each person and understand the uniqueness of each individual the ethic of critique and this is one that is going to be on an ongoing basis all the time and again happening here tonight to some degree
113we consistently examine barriers to fairness I'm hearing that conversation here we examine our policies our practices and our structures and just decisions that may disadvantage one group or an individual over another and it's not about seeking that out but it's about being critical about what policies and practices are in place and when they come to your attention being able to have honest dialogue about how to address those things ethics of equity and Justice we're doing we are going to be doing a lot of work around this in the school district this year we talk today about diversity Equity inclusion and Justice and diversity Equity inclusion and belonging and the interesting thing is is that we really had to back up and Katie can Katie and I spent a lot of time talking about this on
114Friday and where we start with this work because those are words that are pretty commonly used in education and in in the corporate world in the business world right now but we first have to develop a common understanding of what we mean by that and so we're working on that as a school district leadership team and we'll be we'll be focusing on that work this school year and and the ethic of profession and Educators regardless of the position you hold I consider every single person who works in a school in a school district to be part of a team of Educators and we all have different roles but in fact we all do bear the responsibility of being Educators and we understand and this is critical that students are the center of ethical decision making
115and so when we continually bring back our decision making to student-centered decisions I listened to Mr Kylie a minute ago say a few minutes ago talk about these this school and if we don't if we don't if we don't engage in the capital Improvement that needs to happen here around the roof that this isn't going to be a healthy learning environment for our kids that's what we mean by ethical decision making we always have to be thinking about our students so it's not just the Aesthetics of a school building it's what does that mean for the students who are being educated inside that building and so all of that has been sort of grounding the way that I'm thinking about the work here and I want to say and eventually we will be here talking
116to you about portrait of a learner one of the things that I'm incredibly excited about is what the district has already developed and I know again that this team this leadership team has come together and developed a really powerful model for what a portrait of a learner should look like in the Dartmouth Public Schools it's not done yet though we recognize that we need to include more stakeholder groups and again that voice is incredibly important and so part of my entry planning has been some of it some of it has felt sort of organic to me and that's why I appreciate new superintendent induction program because it's not enough for me to say oh I'm out here doing this actually I need to name it name what I'm doing and why I'm doing it instead
117of just doing it because sometimes it just feels natural and this is a way to capture what the work is and what it looks like in a way that makes sense to people so that they understand like Mr Taliban I think you reached out to me I'm not sure if I reached out to you but why do I want to meet with Mr tattlebaum because I want to get to know this community really well and so Community Building phase one you know I started that back in April as soon as I got the call I missed the call and then called called Mr Oliver back against you thank you um so was around Community Building listening and learning and that's really where I I it's really where I am right now analyzing data sharing findings
118action planning you heard Dr Lacroix talk about all that so that all of that is part of sort of the big picture and again I included this in your packet but I do want to say that I'll have this on the on the district website and both the PowerPoint and then the The Narrative that goes along with the PowerPoint but you can see just from April to August it has been about establishing relationships with key stakeholders and the action steps are I I hope that again what what I've been sharing with you you can see that that that's what's been happening I've been setting and in the informal meetings have been as important as the formal meetings because building relationships comes before the formality of a relationship so I've appreciated that time and you've all
119taken that time with me each School I've been able to sit down with principals individually collectively it's been important time um I already mentioned the school committee I can't read any of that but um establishes out let's see that's why I brought a copy so I'm not that I'm going to read it all off to you but really it's just about establishing the the community groups that we continue to meet with I just this past week sent out a key Community communication both to the faculty and to the families and again that's part of the entry planning so that people can kind of get to know me and what I'm thinking and then vice versa so listening and learning is phase two I think I said that earlier today when we were with our DLT
120it was about listening and learning it was really let's hear what you're saying so because we're going to need that and we are collecting data as we do it and we'll be utilizing that on an ongoing basis and the questions are all like I said the questions we're asking folks are all part of the document that will be online so we're going to continue that entry this is entry planning out at a glance so the analyzing data piece isn't for a bit thankfully November through February and that's when we're really going to spend time making sense of what we're learning and that will culminate in phase four which seems like it's a ways off February to April but I have a feeling I'll be making a joke about that in a short amount of time
121reporting out and that's where we'll report out on the data and collecting feedback so we'll bring you our what we've learned and then we'll be looking to you for feedback about how you're experiencing our shared findings and then from there it's really about action steps and that is where the strategic planning comes into place Dartmouth does have a strategic plan it needs to be updated right and that's pretty common in most school districts so that's not unusual so that is what this entire year is going to entail is building up to um it makes me think about Capital planning and it is to some degree it's a five-year strategic plan that will be presenting next year and so part of what I'm sharing with the community and I want to share it with you is
122together we're beginning a journey of continuous Improvement Guided by ethical principles to create a learning environment where every student thrives academically socially emotionally and experiences a true sense of belonging as superintendent I want you to know that I'm committed to upholding these ethical ideals and working collaboratively with all stakeholders to lead our district toward a future of Excellence as we work toward our vision of and I love this one Dartmouth and so thank you I don't know if Mr Shea is back there hiding or anything but yes he's really helped us out with that don't worry I'm going to be calling you up in a few minutes to talk about schedules so you can't hide so anyway I wanted to share that with you it's been again I The Narrative was in your school committee
123packet if anybody wants to read more of the narrative that supports this this is really the entry plan at a glance and so it's the work that is embedded with the entry plan that's more important thank you so much for that that was wonderful thank you I um like I'll start with you Mr thank you thank you madam chair I uh went through it and it's it's it's funny um I got to page two and I was reading it and then I went you know continued to flipping on August to October and entry question and I had to make myself a note because I got the feeling on a good way in a good way that you were really getting into the nitty-gritty of what you wanted to do here in Dartmouth and you know
124I was you know overwhelmed excited when I when I saw that with you know meeting with this group and talking with these people and working towards this goal type of deal and and I had to write that down because I know I would forget thank you and that is we're I think again new superintendent induction program really helps to guide you in that or even though like I said that was happening but it allows you to to be intentional and be able to articulate what it not just what you're doing but why you're doing it um I I love that you're talking to everybody and reaching out and just hearing what they have to say and where we are um I really look forward to hearing what the responses were and where we are at
125great thank you I think it's a great plan I'm super excited to hear the results I know you like plans Dr Jenkins I I think it's a fantastic plan I I like to see how you're centering around ethics I think that's huge some of the feedback that I've already received um since you've started is you're certainly very approachable down to earth um uh seems as though you're big on getting to know people I think an education is in many professions but education especially relationships matter whether that's with your staff that whether that's with students as if you're a teacher and it's certainly important with parents in the community at large um it it's so important getting to know people and I love the ethics of care I'm very happy with this so thank you relationships
126relationships relationships they're the center of everything yeah Julie R you know you break down those barriers and you get to see one another and I think that um What drew me um to your candidacy coming here was all that I learned about your lifetime of relationship building and um it was something that was uh yeah it's it's beautiful to see you here now thank you bring that to us into facilitation but um and I agree with my colleagues and uh and I and I love the uh just that real true honest emphasis on the opportunities that can come from getting that feedback in in a way that allows people to be vulnerable to be honest with you because they know because of that relationship building that they can share um what they're truly feeling um
127would improve or or you know the good and bad and I just love that emphasis on just allowing that to happen and to inform um you know planning and you know constant Improvement for the district so I just love it I look forward to I just look forward we have a special apparent advisory Council will be inviting you great looking forward to learning and offline I'll talk with you the Rotary Club uh wants to wonderful to a meeting I always wanted to go to a river Club it's fun so to see how we could be of service to The District in that way absolutely yeah yeah can I just say I just want to thank my team who was here and they have been amazing to me in helping this onboarding to be incredibly successful
128starting with Kate genthner who is actually my like total guiding force every day and I'm so grateful and I know I said this to you but Kate is amazing and what she does and it is really incomprehensible how much she manages as one human being so super grateful I've already told you that about Jim Kiley so if he wants to hear me talk about him he has to go back to the meeting he missed I did call him a unicorn at that meeting so and that's truth and and Jonathan he's like on boarded me got me on my technology when I was super nervous he did he can he's very humble but when I came here I was like where is my technology and um and he was great more than that it's more about
129the relationships that we've built in obviously Katie and Ross have been amazing we've had some really great opportunities to get to know each other and to really think critically about the work that we have to do here we've got a long way to go believe me it's still real new and I know that and we know that but we're looking forward to the challenge so a great team of principals and leaders here in this school district can't thank them enough for the last couple of weeks the time that we've spent together has been incredibly beneficial Mr Oliver it's all about those relationships because the kids are coming through the doors next week and we're going to be leaning into those relationships as we Face both you know some of the wonderful things that we're going
130to experience and then some of those challenges and so that's really based in relationships so again great team of folks here and I've seen some of your teachers and in action and can't wait to see the kids and teachers in class and thank you I have a couple other updates if that's okay yes please do yeah mister nudes just for formality in for Dr Maguire's saber Maguire's records and and such and also her coach make a motion that we approve her entry plan as presented tonight just so that it's on file and we've we've accepted it I'll second that any other discussion all in favor hi first vote thank you great and so you have just a couple of quick things one I just wanted to give you a quick uh update on what's going
131on with hiring uh principals team their teens have been busy with um interviewing and you know even though we've had a smaller pool of people I do want to say that the folks that the principals have been bringing to meet me have been really high quality folks so you have to be happy about that I already mentioned to you that Kate is your HR person extraordinaire and I can't say enough about that we do have a couple of positions that are still open that we're working on two special education positions I think one's at the high school one at the Early Childhood Center a computer science teacher we're working on a computer finding a computer science teacher for the high school phys ed teacher at the Cushman a Pre-K teacher so but at this time
132I think that we had it that we have hired approximately 11 Educators and other positions and project time begins tomorrow so I know that there's been a lot of great work that's happened in preparation for that so we'll stop by and meet some of these new people that are are joining Dartmouth so I also wanted to mention at the last meeting there was a presentation about the summer academic programs we had mentioned that the summer ex the Desi sponsored acceleration Academy was was something that the state had supported and again can't give the team here enough credit for being able to lift that program and being able to walk through it many of the classrooms and seeing the teachers and the students at work it's really remarkable what folks do here with somewhat scarce resources
133and yet they put put something together that I consider high quality for the the students and and the teachers here so I already mentioned we met at the North Dartmouth library today with the DLT team that was great it's so um I think it's just such a good idea to get folks in a different environment to disconnect as we talk about some of our work in a way that allows them to be centered in Where We Are although I have a feeling that they're getting more anxious about the fact that kids are going to be in school in a week and a half even though a week from then they'll forget that the students were ever gone I talked about climate and culture I wanted to keep bringing it back to that and just update
134you on on why we think that's so important and how we understand that communication is the key to building climate and culture so I mentioned to you that we were able to send out welcome back messages to staff and families that was important the schools I've read their individual messages there's lots of welcoming communication going on across the district at every single level I do want to acknowledge and let folks know if anybody's watching except for you know especially our high school parents and Mr Mr Shea please come up we have had some technical glitches with Aspen and again technical folks working on this really hard and and it has impacted high school schedules we have put out communication to families but I know yeah he has Mr Shea has not been sleeping well so
135he can share that um before I begin I do want to think uh thank a few people Mr galash I'm Mr Faraz um Friday night I think we were texting until about 7 30 back and forth and trying to get it thought we had it up and running um needed to do an adjustment this morning the adjustment s oh nice um with our full guidance team that are in to make sure that it's 100 committed we have um we've adjusted the really only impact honestly is the AP summary because kids didn't know what AP classes they were in so we have adjusted those work assignments and timelines based off of that just in in the sense of that we can't ask kids to do work if they don't know exactly what their schedules look like
136there's sometimes AP classes are one-off and if they run two at the same time that's what then they have those choices to make about the classes that's always how it's been in the sense of that they have the first 10 days of school to adjust their schedule as needed anyways so um the other people I did forget was the admin team and our guidance counselors who even gave up time sometime in the summer when we thought we had it solved early August gave up time thought we had it going it went down again and it's back up now I think we're in a much better space I will say on Dr C McGuire and myself had a conversation that when this is all said and done in their up end we will run in like
137an autopsy about what happened um and what went wrong um and go from there so it's not where I want to be and 100 transparency but we will have schedules not where anyone wants to be so we know we need high school schedules that is a critical piece of of starting the school year off but I know you and your team have been doing a great job in Jonathan and his team and we will be trying to figure out exactly how all this happened and determine if maybe there's something that we could have done different so for next year so I can answer questions I I absolutely I think you did you raise your hand well I have a question on a not this but for Mr Shea so if anybody else says anything about
138this so uh Mr I just would like to ask you a question I think there is some misinformation presented earlier in our meeting and I want to give you the opportunity to clear it up when I was a parent and my children were selecting summer reading um they were late we're we're a little late in this and in part this is because I want to make them owners of their educational journey and when the school tells them they have to do something I don't do it for them I don't remind him but even when we signed up for a book really really late my recollection is there were many books available for them to choose from maybe not their first choice but certainly they had several choices and I just want to confirm that that's
139still the policy and the way summer reading works yeah absolutely absolutely there is um that's why we have such a vast selection of books it's trying to gain students interest in in interest that they are we have some students at a student-led run books because we want that ownership of our learning that we've really focused on and we've really also um in that bigger things is that at any time we've really tried to make a community of reach out to and we will like we will adjust if that if that's needed that's why we start this selection process in May I'm sorry saying you relate but that gives time in front of your teachers the teachers present the books they talk about the process Mr Higgins goes to every class well that's not on you
140that my kids are related to some of my kids but we've always tried to that's why Mr Higgins goes to every class to present the books early to make sure students we also communicate the books to the local libraries as well so they have the list in case there's a run because that's I think that's an equity thing as well that we want to make sure that um that their books available for them thank you I think I just just think that again for anyone watching and worried about your schedules we are on this it is top priority and we will be communicating on a consistent basis yeah it's totally taken over sleep it's taken over everything there's a lot of people and it's not just me and I really mean it it's it has
141been way more hands in it because I have not the technology Savvy side of things and it's really nice to have a really good technology team and you know sometimes you have to wait on the phone with Aspen for four hours you know and like you're playing a game of tag and call back and I think Mr galliser now has like the CEO's number probably because he's talked to them so many times but um they've been excellent the IT department has been phenomenal thank you thank you everybody thank you thank you so the only other thing that I wanted to mention was that we'll be welcoming staff back on Monday August 28th All staff here at the high school if you're planning on joining please let us know we definitely want to recognize that you're
142here and then everybody take a deep breath because school opens the 23-24 school year I know I'm super excited about it so thank you thank you thank you I don't have um anything else to report but Mr Nunes yeah thank you just with uh Dr saber Maguire's two things number one I will be him I'll be here Monday okay thank you and number two going back to the opening of school anybody that's been driving around town the every place you go you know the old adage you can't get there from here because of all the cons you know gas work and Road pulled up and that type of what's this done to our transportation for students yeah it's it's messy so the notices from DPW that went out go through September 22nd and right now
143so it's roads so it's all over town which is great because you know fixing the roads fantastic full support of that but it is a little challenging when we're trying to get our get our kids to and from school um so it's off Rogers Rogers Street near the Demello school is one area there's in in uh Panera Village there's a bunch of streets that are going to be worked on there's off Slocum Road near the golf course um that's going to be worked on solomar so it's all over town so what we have worked out with the police and DPW is that if a road is passable even if it's closed we'll be able to go through with the buses we normally you know work that out with them and in most cases it's not
144um it's not a problem and they're aware of the times of day when we need to be there and try and work with us if in fact a Road is closed that we need to get to on a given day we will contact parents and have them meet us at a certain location nearby corner and and go with that so yeah it's it's challenging it's great though that so many roads are going to be fixed it's fantastic I just thought of that and yeah it is a challenge somewhat related to that if I may uh where we still have the app with the GPS tracking which is super helpful um so if parents new parents aren't aware of that hopefully they'll they'll find that but I was just wondering if and I don't even really
145know how you can do it with the the driving shortage but has there been any communication around providing that capacity for our Auto District students I mean I I'm fortunate that my son goes to school with three iPads due to battery needs but and I'm able to track him by GPS I I don't know that all families are that fortunate yeah we haven't added that GPS capability to all the other vehicles so right now we're down to 30 bus routes this year we've actually eliminated a bus route in an effort to be more efficient and save money um and uh at this point we have not expanded that Beyond those big buses love to do that yeah yeah I would love to see that happen just because some of our you know traveling obviously we
146need to tell you that stuck in traffic and that sort of thing can be incredibly yeah those are typically some of our longer you know our longest Roots right right well thank you for having it on the list anyway but um does anyone else have any I don't have an update I do have something for not anticipated another matter but does anybody have any updates Mr Nunes yeah I do thank you um I think you saw her outside when you were coming in band campus that is you know our students here and I know our fall Sports all started out today so you know it's that exciting time of the year uh in the standard times in the past couple of months they've finally started uh saying then congratulations to their spring super athletes and
147all-stars and that type of deal and I know we've had several of them in there so congratulations on that and the last thing that I have uh and I'll talk about I can I'll remind you of this a little bit later on as we go but just to put on your calendar um the music department has got two home shows this year one on September 30th which is a U.S bands and then a nesma show was October 14th I don't have times they're usually four o'clock six o'clock till depending how many bands are performing so I mean I will I huh I love that account and I will and I will be looking for presenters type of deals so I'll you know as I get more information I will let you know okay okay thank
148you have any updates no um I I so I have something um I spoke to uh Cindy Dr Marland um and she called me to say that she knows that we typically like to be updated on uh the school committee her and uh Mr Shea wanted to know uh about being you know coming to us um if we had anything specific that we wanted to ask them that they could be prepared for they would make themselves available I let her know that we were setting our calendar for upcoming dates but they were I said you really what are you referring to Dr Mike Shea I'm sorry thank you yes yes yes yes they would like to to you know they they are aware that we you know like to keep updated on things and uh
149I let them know that I would mention it um and perhaps reach out to them to invite them if it's the pleasure of the committee and if we had anything specific that we wanted them to report on that they could uh to let them know so that they could be prepared um but I just talked to her a few days ago so I thought that was good personally maybe you know once they get in one you know like at our October meeting as you know they've had their school opening and you know cut things in you know some semblance of water there type of deal and they can come and Report how that's going and what's going on at Vogue that's evoke that night that would be okay I'd be good with that or absolutely
150you know October November okay you know depending on what schedules either they're they're available okay she said they'd be available and I said well let me don't don't promise yourself if yeah but I thought that was nice proactive about coming because it was still when you talk to her teller was still not seeing the VOC minutes okay well I would also say anything else I would also say the VOC minutes are still lacking the detail as required under mgl but I'm not going there that's that's that's above my pay grade but I'm just saying it was you know I thought we had this straightened out but I guess we don't such so our next uh regular meeting is scheduled for September 11th 6 p.m you know we moved our our meetings from 6 30 to
1516 for this upcoming year um here in the library media center um so I guess that's it I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second um all in favor roll call no oh no roll call unanimous oh no real cool only for executive [Music] foreign