Dartmouth School Committee Meeting, April 10, 2023

001[Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I'd like to call the school committee meeting for Monday April 10 2023 to order would y'all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [ __ ] if anyone has any cell phones pagers beepers Electronics if you would kindly put them on silent or vibrate I would appreciate it thank you uh roll call please yep Kathleen Amaral here Elizabeth coffin here Shannon Jenkins here Chris Oliver here thank you uh just want to take a moment to uh congratulate Mrs Amaral on her re-election and to Ms Coughlin congratulations welcome aboard looking forward to three more three wonderful years we're here to help if you have questions and such I wish you well

002good deal okay at this point we have allotted 10 minutes for public comment of items that are on the agenda tonight so if anyone has anything they'd like to say and again please remember it's 10 minutes so if somebody stands there and takes eight the next one's only going to get two yeah uh good evening to the school committee those of you that do not know me my name is Rachel Lassie I'm a physical and health education teacher at the Dartmouth Middle School I am also the head volleyball coach here at Dartmouth High School where I have just finished my 12th season uh I stand before you tonight to speak up for Dartmouth athletic coaching staff as I was like to make sure we are not forgotten during the current contract negotiations as well as

003future negotiations the boards presented in front of you represent the following one being the unequal stipends throughout our coaching staff two quite a large difference between our current pay scale versus surrounding school systems and three every sport highlighted in green has either a former Dartmouth alumni or Dartmouth Public School employee as their coach we bring this to your attention because our stipends have not been increased in over a decade as you know coaching has become a lot more challenging over the years the requirements and expectations of coaches have changed dramatically we no longer just coach we wear a variety of hats to maintain our student athletes overall health and well-being we plan and Implement team fundraisers senior nights and community service opportunities all while keeping up with mandatory trainings and certifications we take pride in

004these responsibilities and do them without hesitation not a single one of us is coaching for the money we're coaching For the Love of the Game and our student athletes we want to give our student athletes the same opportunities that we were given when we were kids but when that stipend comes in at the end of a physically emotionally and mentally exhausting season it would be amazing to feel appreciated for all our hard work and time spent so we could justify neglecting ourselves our families and our friends it is becoming more and more difficult for our coaches that our parents on the staff to justify spending more time with someone else's kids rather than their own so here's what we suggest develop a pay scale that is Equitable and justifiable throughout our staff at minimum allow

005our pay scale to increase percentage-wise whenever the teachers pay increases and when the funds are available don't forget about us look behind me at this spectacular coaching staff we chose to be here we take pride in this community and want to still be here for years to come please support us and do what is fair so that we can continue to possibly impact our student athletes for generations to come thank you for your time foreign Lead Teacher of the social studies department and cross country coach former track coach and former class advisor of the class of 2017. I just want to piggyback on what coach Lassie said but coming from the aspect of a club advisor they also haven't gotten stipend increases in over a decade when you look at the people that are doing

006this these are our class advisors the after prom advisors National Honor Society the musical the band the yearbook tedx TV video a lot of different areas Dartmouth is really known and a lot of students choose to come here from out of District because of all these extras that that we offer I would ask that you would consider the same thing that they would get a raise and it really should be more than just when I added up all these it averages out to be about Seventeen hundred dollars some much higher so much lower but if you only throw a percent of two at it people are going to see like 30 dollars more in their paycheck after 10 years thirty dollars really doesn't cut it so we would just ask that you consider all those

007different areas that we bring to the students of Dartmouth and consider those advisors as well thank you hi my name is Tiffany Fredette and I'm a mom to both a fifth grader and a first grader at Quinn Elementary School I've come here today as a concerned parent regarding what's entering some of our schools in terms of the level of communication between schools and families the choices for summer reading assignments have just been sent out to families and a book that raised some major concerns in our family last year as my oldest was entering fifth grade entitled steam Chasers we made that by Theresa Jennings is once again on the list my innocent and well-meaning Son chose this book because we because of his interest in all things steam related commend him for that option I

008knew right away why he chose it this is definitely his interest level unfortunately what we thought the book was about was far from the story that was actually discussed in the book instead the story focused on painting the black characters in the book as victims and the white police officers in the book as the heroes as the as the sorry the villains in our family we have many discussions about race religion and how we shouldn't ever judge anyone by what they look like or what they believe in one of my son's favorite books is the neighbor two doors down a story about Jackie Robinson which led to great discussion in our house about hunt how unfairly he was treated and how unfairly his family was treated and also how we actually should be treating people

009not based on anything their religion their race their color but treating them fairly and equally across the board that's what Dei should be about um looking back at some previous meetings Dr Jenkins stated during a June 6 school committee you have to be committed to making sure all of our kids feel welcome and all of our kids are treated fairly and justly no we can't undo years of systemic racism no you can't do that should you treat everyone and have everyone be represented yes absolutely but by painting any one side as the victim and any one side as the villain you'll never treat everyone fairly across the board in a June 27th meeting Dr Gifford talked in her presentation about overarching priorities directly quoting one of her bullets we need to foster a sense of

010belonging and partnership Partnerships among students and families this one needs a significant amount of work by truly informing parents and not just with surface level information Kathleen Amaral hided in her remarks in that same meeting about parents needing to be involved in a more meaningful way that quote we do a lot of telling parents what we do but there aren't enough opportunities for parents to be more part of the team and I couldn't agree more I will close by saying this certain topics of conversation should be started in the home as it isn't always the school's place to First teach about such sensitive topics as such as racism even as far as sex or sexual orientation gender or things of that nature this year thankfully the summer reading assignment options were sent home for families

011to discuss the options well in advance of children making their choices which is an absolute awesome step in the right direction but ideally should there should be more of that so that it opens up another layer of communication with families and parents with schools parents should be informed in order to discuss those sensitive topics first thank you for your time foreign [Applause] hi Renee Vieira co-president Dartmouth Educators Association and Jody Parisi go right on um we just want to congratulate Kathleen Amaral and being reelected to the school committee thank you very much and we want to extend a warm welcome to Elizabeth Coughlin welcome we look forward to getting to know you that's all we have have a great evening thank you [Applause] anybody else okay thank you okay next item on the agent next

012item on the agenda is the approval of the regular session minutes of March 27 2023. still moved by Dr Jenkins second second by Miss Amaral on the motion any discussion chair hearing then all in favor aye aye opposed abstentions abstention okay Miss Coughlin will abstain the executive session minutes of the same date March 27 2023. so move Mr chair with the stipulation that the minutes be held into the matters under consideration are resolved motion by uh Dr Jenkins the second by Mr Oliver on the motion any discussion chair hearing that all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously great abstention abstention my fault four zero one close enough all right uh a student rep had an appointment out of school tonight so he's unable to uh to be here so we'll move on Dr

013Mr Kiley thank you Mr noon so we're going to welcome Mr christopholi up to the podium who's going to give us a presentation highlighting our phys Ed and health program I'm up here um discussing our Athletic program and I would be remiss if I did not mention I mean this there was quite a few of our members of our coaching staff that are standing behind me they are fantastic human beings they're great role models for our student athletes and they care more about our kids um than any than any staff members I mean they spend so much time with our student athletes uh during the season they spend so much time with them out of season they counsel them during the season out of season uh they are that that shoulder to lean on um

014those people that you know kids go to for advice um whether they are students here they graduate and many of them I've seen it with my own two eyes come back for for further counsel so I do like I said I want to take that opportunity to to thank what they bring to the table on a everyday basis and we're very very fortunate to have those individuals so I am here to talk about our phys Ed health and wellness program Pre-K to 12. uh the structure of our presentation there's three components to it we're going to talk about the curriculum and the activities in which we offer in the in the subjects or the topics that we cover we're going to talk about the strengths of our program and what we do well and we'll

015also talk about the next steps in a reflective piece areas of growth moving forward so our teacher Representatives are Rachel Lassie who is from our Middle School Mark Gaffney who was from our high school and our Lead Teacher I will be discussing the elementary school and also our unified program so this would be a little combo so overarching goals for our Pre-K to 12 program is focus on students mental physical and emotional health and well-being consistently reflect among individuals and uh teaching teams on best practices and improvements to better student learning and experience and provide a safe environment where Educators connect with kids and encourage and challenge students to take academic risks which Fosters growth as individuals so our elementary health and physical education will be first our staff is Katie Schmidt Jody Donahue Robin

016Mayo Peter Lavin Paul paveo Mary Beth Richardson Megan Phillips who I believe is in the back here who's been a fantastic addition to our staff and Mike Capello so the activities that we address in physical education they are not limited to but we talk about skills and lead up games for the following basketball dance lacrosse racquet games volleyball soccer football floor hockey softball track and field backyard games and then teacher created Cooperative games our health education topics which are addressed and they're from our healthy lifestyle choices curriculum our life skills which is decision making self-image communication goal setting conflict resolution and anger management nutrition substance abuse safety and Fitness our program strengths and this was a great exercise for us to really reflect on our practice is we demonstrate an appropriate behaviors which exemplify personal

017character traits such as confidence cooperation honesty loyalty respect and self-control we modify activities to Foster success we focus on quality not quantity and we go for a personal best approach so again not every single one of our students is tremendously athletically skilled but we do ask for them to bring their best every single day to the classroom in the class activity the next steps that we're going to explore is continue to revisit and revise the current instructional curriculum to meet the needs of our students and Society we want to update our wellness policy and build community awareness of the importance of physical and health education in our students growth and development so we really want to bang the drum on that point so for our middle school health and fiscal education I'll turn over to

018miss Lassie one thing that I forgot at the very beginning if we could hold questions to the very end when we conclude our presentation that would be appreciated thank you all right I am back all right uh middle school and uh health and physical education myself Rachel Lassie Christopher Nelson uh Jeff Coker Tyler Tavares Michael Cabello and Peter Lavin Mr Capello and Mr Levin uh focus more with the adopted phys ed students as we have as you know a very heavy amount of students that need those services so they share those services at the middle school for health education these are the topics that we cover we have a variety of topics the way we do things that the middle school is a little different we have trimesters so the first trimester while the weather

019is nice we keep everybody in phys Ed so um for that first one we are seeing students every other day which is a lot of physical activity compared to a lot of other school systems and then within the winter which really Falls during that second trimester they're about 50 phys Ed and 50 health so they get a little less physical activity with more focus in the classroom on the health education piece and then with the third trimester they come back to us for full-time phys Ed every other day which gives them a nice variety throughout throughout our curriculum electronic cigarettes Jewels which is a big one marijuana alcohol opiates and heroin healthy relationships communication skills cyber safety digital footprint body image and self-image Eating Disorders personal hygienes six dimensions of health and the three C's

020of decision making then the phys Ed piece where we have a variety of activities I like to think of it as we do some individual things where they can focus on their own personal fitness some small group and then also some large group activities so we have a variety of things that we do throughout the entire school year some strengths that we really take pride in is our inclusion piece we introduce what conclusion is on day one we go through that and then we implement it and we expect students to practice those strategies we had an awesome opportunity this year at a staff meeting to talk about inclusion and how we do that within our teaching space and it is actually promoted even more so inclusion throughout the entire school so some of the things

021that we are practicing in phys Ed we have our classroom teachers practicing um within their setting as well and we are a unified school where we have a unified basketball and unified Bocce and it's been an awesome thing that has created a really positive culture within our environment we do also do the student choice and voice a lot of the times Middle School is a very awkward stage as we all know because we've been there done that and we like to give students that option to choose what they want to do so that they can have a comfort and also be very successful and then another strong piece in health we like to empower our students we don't want to instill fear with the topics that we discuss we want to empower them with the

022education we want to give our students everything that they need to be well-rounded and overall healthy and if they do choose the unhealth healthy decision that they already are educated on what those potential consequences are so the hopes is that when they go out into the real world um that they they make those healthy decisions because they are choosing themselves um so we really take pride in a lot of that our next steps moving forward um is we would like to update our health curriculum to new generational challenges as post coven has created a lot of obstacles for us and technology is a huge stressor for our students and that mental and emotional health piece which can also tie in to technology stressors that is adding to the pressures that our students are facing we

023want to continue to bring new games and activities to the physical education curriculum that support inclusion we're going to carry that on until the end of time I like to think and then we want to provide students with a little bit more opportunity for their own physical fitness we have a great Fitness area and we just need to kind of get it a little bit more up to date with the times to be able to offer kids the proper strategies to be able to not just be able to go out and play a game but to be able to go into a gym and know what they can do Fitness wise to take care of themselves whether it's at a gym or within the comfort of their own home so we're looking to embody the

024whole child so that's we are actually like researching some grants for that as well to get the funds to be able to make that space a little bit more up to date and moving on to high school thank you Rachel my name is Mark Gaffney and I'm the Lead Teacher and instructional coach for the wellness Department I'm kind of Andy's associate head coach so um at the high school we have a variety of things that our students take so I'm going to just take you through what one student would do so for example um in the first year well we have um why go through my staff first do I have to hit this or I would think so okay perfect um so I introduced myself the staff consists of Scott Richards who's been here

025for over 20 years and Dartmouth Public School Maria Kelly who's been here 10 plus years Mike freits who's been here 20 plus years and he's also a coach in the district Nicole Simas um has been at the high school for three years she also was a student and an athlete year and Mike Capello does the Adaptive physical education piece for the school district so as I was mentioning I'm going to take you through what a student would go through in their High School Wellness education here at Dartmouth High School so the first year students all go into a wellness green class and that Wellness green class is a semester course which meets about 60 to 63 classes so we break down those 60 to 63 classes with 20 to 22 classes of Health curriculum and

026that Health curriculum for the wellness green students which are first-year students is first aid and CPR mental and emotional health which deals with anxiety and stress stress management techniques suicide Suicide Prevention nutrition personal safety and injury bullying bullying prevention and bystander education so that's a lot for 20 days but we try to do our best to get through that curriculum then they shift to either the team activities portion of the class which is 20 to 22 classes and that's just a traditional physical education class with Team activities and group activities and then when that part of the curriculum is done they shift to the fitness curriculum where we have a great Fitness room that was updated about six or seven years ago with free weights dumbbells cardio machines so basically we introduce them to all

027of that equipment safety being the top priority and just kind of educate them on different ways they can utilize that room so then in year two they have a different Health curriculum for the first 20 days of that class and in that year we talk about healthy relationships dating relationships family relationships peer relationships uh domestic violence resolving conflicts we go into the risks associated with tobacco use alcohol use illegal drug use we introduce and get into sexual education um sexually transmitted diseases and um that's what we cover for the health peace and wellness white we also have a fitness piece to the wellness white which is similar to the green but the team games and team activities is different they won't do the same activities in white as they did in green so we try

028to change that up so after the first two years where they're plugged into that they have a menu of activities where they can choose from in their junior year so Maria is a former dance teacher so she teaches all the dance classes here we have a class called Fitness activities and weight training exercise which is based in the fitness room and that gets more in depth than the wellness screen and the wellness weight we have a sports and games class which is kind of your traditional phys ed class and then I introduced a Class A couple of years ago called intramurals games and activities which goes more in depth than Sports and games it's almost like activities you would see at a college or a university um about five years ago I went to the

029Cooper Institute in Texas and I took a walking class I'm a certified walking coach so we have a population and segment in our schools that really don't like to do a lot of the traditional activities or go in the weight room so we have a class that is designed for them so if they just want to walk there's five different ways you can walk we teach them the different types of walking Styles so that's an option for them we have a basketball class we have a racket Sports class so junior year and Senior year they get to pick what they want to do so that kind of sums up what we do over the four years strengths of our high school programs when I came here 13 years ago they had two choices you either

030went downstairs or you stayed upstairs so we've come a long way we've given them a lot of options we've sequenced it pretty well kind of like any other class here at the high school uh we use our common planning time and professional developed professional development time to adjust modify and implement the health curriculum and maybe change what we might want to do in terms of offerings for our students and then our third strength is we try to provide a safe open inclusive classroom and make positive connections with all the students we come in contact with some next steps a few years ago I applied for a U.S lacrosse Grant it was free it was just a matter of doing the paperwork and we got soft stick lacrosse we got lacrosse balls lacrosse is Big here

031in town so I introduced that a few years ago and Nicole and Rachel have been talking about getting that back in to the curriculum in the middle school and into our Wellness green and I can be like a feta system for future athletes um Maria Kelly just got trained and Catch My Breath which is a vague being curriculum that we started this semester with our high school students everyone in the wellness department is going to get trained with that catch my breath and then one thing that we're looking on to do in the future is uh Dr Laurie Santos out of Yale she has a happiness um podcast and she also teaches a free free class online which is called the science of well-being so you can take that class for free as a teacher

032and there's also a class for teens so we're looking at maybe implementing that into in the curriculum so that's kind of what we do at the high school thank you thank you Mark and Rachel and I will I will finish so our adaptive physical education we're very proud of the program that we currently have in place and we're really excited at what the future will bring uh Mike Capello Megan Phillips Peter Lavin and Mike Frazer our our uh adaptive physical physical education staff um I would be remiss if I didn't mention Chris Tolson who's a middle school phys ed teacher is also here um and I appreciate his support and everything that he does okay I program strengths as we support students who need modifications and specialized instruction to access the phys Ed curriculum it's

033a team effort and collaboration with the phys Ed staff along with special special education classroom teachers and related service providers across all levels and existing initiatives that celebrate inclusion are our school day games which is for elementary school we actually have that at Dartmouth Memorial Stadium in May our unified fiscal education class which is brand new to this year it is taught by Mike freits and Mike Capello the team teacher here at the high school it's a very popular class and it's it's it's done wonders as getting more and more interest in our unified athletic programs and it also really builds those relationships between our unified athletes and the individuals that help them during competition and then we have our young athletes that's a program at Cushman our next steps is to repeat the commitment

034to inclusion by meeting the 10 standards of excellence to receive our national Banner recognition which were one of a dozen in the state to be recognized and have continue exploration and networking of extracurricular activities for our students and families and finally composing more functional IEP goals through weekly collaboration with staff so just a few common themes that I think in the last 15 minutes uh that you've you've seen is reflective professional Educators who are committed to providing students with a safe and engaging learning environment Educators devoted to positive relationship building with students focused on inclusion motivated to explore currents and future topics concerning physical mental and emotional well-being encourage student voice and choice and finally provide students with the life skills to combat the ever-changing environment in which they live with that questions thank you

035Mr christopholi Chris sure I'll start thank you for the presentation as for to you as well as your staff it's great to see you know the wide-ranging activities in curriculum that's being taught across all grade levels um you know you certainly spoke earlier about your exceptional staff we have here and with our coaches and our PE department so I couldn't agree with you more and it's just it's it's just nice to see this you know we hear a lot we um we see a lot but it's nice to hear exactly what's taking place in the curriculum so I'm happy to see the last I heard or the last I knew I thought we only had two adapt to PE teachers but it sounds like we have a few more so it's nice to see that

036we're able to um allow our students access to curriculum that way so uh no thank you thank you presentation Dr Jenkins yeah so I agree I thank you for this presentation and all the work that you're doing you know I think I think it's a it's a sort of a popular culture Trope now to to say that PE is you know the class that a certain type of student really dislikes so I very much appreciate that focus on inclusion and choice and giving all of our students a place to be physically active and participate in ways that work for them so I really appreciate that thank you thank you Coughlin um thank you for the presentation um yeah it never would have occurred to me in high school that there was a walking class but

037I know that there are a lot of people who would have wanted to take it so yes the inclusion of having classes for everyone of every interest and level is wonderful yeah thank you um Mike capella was emailing me earlier he um you know reaching out about a upcoming event that we're doing that he is part of and and um and you know so grateful to have his help and his ability to volunte some students but they do volunteer to help out as well and and I'm excited about what that uh what's to come for that in his participation and it yeah what my colleagues said just that Universal accessibility um really promoting that that sense of belonging through again that yeah that walking Club as best mentioned I would have been part of that

038you know it's sort of No Stress not really necessarily having to interact in a way or just a comfort level of how you how you're able to you know converse with your peers it's really wonderful to see that inclusion in that way just that um you know that student voice and choice and and the accessibility and and it's really wonderful remarkable really all of the things that the thoughtfulness um you know in planning for PE for our students so thank you one one quick point also I'd be remiss not to say our phys Ed a unified physical education at the high school level uh Plymouth South High School was actually here touring and really looking and asking a lot of questions about that program them wanting to take the idea and bring it back with

039them so yeah it's fantastic and just like it's just like mutually beneficial right you've got kiddos learning and growing on on either end and really that you know that's the way we're going to help you know build that sense of belonging and and and people understanding how we are more alike and different in how we can uh you know Foster friendships through that I think that's beautiful so thank you oh thank you Mr christopholi and your staff uh yeah this was my idea when we had a brainstorming session in September you know as I said with music we all know what the high school band does what's going on with the rest of the program we all know what our athletic teams are doing and the Fantastic work that they do what else goes behind

040the scenes with the phys Ed and and the health and it's greatly appreciated one question I have three C's what are the three C's uh clarify consider choose we have them address what what is the problem that's how we clarify when we um consider we weigh out the pros and cons um and then we make a choice I and I think it's really important to write it down and to be able to see the pros and cons especially with life-changing decisions like what high school what college what career do I want to stay in this relationship do I want to get out uh those types of things and I think if they can actually do that whether it's just in their head on the spot or on paper it's a real like this is something

041we review all throughout the grades and it's an awesome tool even as an adult been there done that still do it so um three C's keep it going love it thank you Miss less such a great part in leadership is to surround yourself with very very smart people fall Prevail is also here for representative thank you sir thank you appreciate your time thank you and your staff yeah okay uh next item of business is uh organization of the committee and I will turn it over to our secretary Mr Kiley thank you Mr noon so um we'll we'll start this by seeking a nomination for chairperson of the Dartmouth school committee I'd like to make a motion that the Dartmouth school committee appoint Kathleen Amaral as its next chair of the committee I'll second that okay

042motion by Mr Oliver second by Mr Nunes do we have to do a roll call I think no it's all you just no I'm not a roll call okay a vote the discussion we'll shoot I think you're supposed to ask if there's any other nominations no that's right but that was sort of implied that was implied to nominate Chris back then we got to go to a boat you know come on no is there any discussion no okay thank you we have to formally vote so yeah all in favor aye aye okay opposed okay abstention ego ma'am you can put that in yours thank you all right all right now it's all you what's unanimous congratulations congratulations laughs I certainly wasn't running for the the uh the the seat but I will rise to the

043occasion I guess right okay so um now it's up to you for uh feisty I'm thinking of Vice chair okay so now I will um I will open it up for uh nominations for Vice chair uh Madam chair I'd like to nominate Mr Oliver to serve as Vice chair and I'd like to Second That Could I second that you can okay yeah I'll third it does Chris accept great okay and uh yeah so uh close the nominations and con nominations um any discussion on that no chair hearing none I'll pass that down so we officially all in favor now you can unanimous now you can get your graduation speeches ready yeah laughs excellent all right Madam chair make a motion that we appoint uh interim superintendent and assistant superintendent of finance and operation uh James

044Kiley is our secretary second um yeah so um officially we all in favor you'll get used to the Rhythm it'll come it'll come thank you congratulations guess what okay that's a revote in July yeah we have to remember to undo that right yeah secretary yeah we'll redo that in July all right you want to move here yeah I guess you want to walk down I'll go down there that's up to you sure doesn't bother me one way or the other sure I'll just stay for the rest of the science meeting yeah yeah that's fine okay do me a favor just coordinate one two uh want the best and want to uh Shannon now where are we where are we so next on the let me get my agenda here that's committee assignments so next on

045the yeah the um is the school committee assignments and so um oh chairperson comments I just you know thank thank you it's a it's a you know it's my pleasure to serve as a chair for sure um thank you I don't know so we all have in our packet list of assignments for the different committees um Dartmouth Education Foundation the collaborative Southeastern Massachusetts collaborative the association for school committees negotiation for superintendent um and then we have had on here School assignments although we at this point the last few years have not necessarily assigned folks and we can discuss that if you want to change that to specific schools in the past we've been assigned to specific schools policy technology fields and Facilities budget um John Charter and Dei and open space and Recreation for the

046steering committee so obviously yes one to add okay Dartmouth curriculum Council oh great pass that down and so we have another one we're going to add um and so how do we want to move forward with this we see on our list obviously Mary is no longer with us and so there's a vacancy there and of course folks might not want to continue serving do you what is the pleasure of the committee should we go down um as they are listed why don't we go just go run down the list okay so we have the Dartmouth Education Foundation was the assignment was Mary Waite this past year do I is anyone interested in serving on in that capacity I um I don't know if if it meets monthly or it meets a couple of times

047a year it depends a few a few meetings in the run-up to spelling bee a few meetings to deliver grants and then usually one of the key roles of the the school committee member on that is to meet with the administration because sometimes there's a conversation about the schools can fund this but they can't fund that and so that's so maybe five or six meetings a year I might recommend I'm I I've sort of done my turn on this one and for other reasons I think I need to decline but best might you be willing to do I would be willing to do that okay great awesome def okay next on the list we have um Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative Chris Oliver you have been serving in that capacity do you want to continue I'm

048happy to serve probably one more year okay currently the chair and before I step down I think I should turn over the chair personally yes okay sounds good um so the masc committee Mr noons you have been serving and you'll stay on negotiations representative superintendent John Nunes would you continue yeah yeah okay and then we have a backup Mary White is is not here so is somebody willing to serve as a backup to remind me this committee is this the person that sits in on negotiations okay all right that one I can't do because you meet during the day so yeah four o'clock you know three four o'clock so but you generally speaking make those Mr Dan yeah I make yeah I'm happy to be a backup okay um but again I may or may

049not be available but you you know been able to if that's okay with the we'll see and if the if the timing of the meetings changes I'd be happy to attend or be a backup okay okay thank you so down to school assignments um again previously years past we've each had an assignment to report to a specific school um and the last few years we've I think um operated in that we would stay in touch and you know a pulse on what's going on more globally do you want to continue that way or do you think we should Retreat back to um I mean I think it works fine the way it has been working type of deal versus having one person assigned I mean yeah I think if I hope that if there's a

050building administrator you know a director that needs to talk to one of us they will email pick up the phone and reach out to us type of deal so I'm fine that's my two cents I would be agreeable to that yeah okay so we'll keep it as is and um admittedly I I have to get better about that I think since covid I really haven't been as in touch as I would like to be but um and so then we have the policy sub policy committee uh with the assisted superintendent it myself and Miss Waite were on that committee I would happily give up my spot or keep it it's um it's not a committee that that meets on a very regular basis but it does meet when when need be so could if I

051could add we will have some meetings upcoming we are in the process of um of looking at the wellness policy okay we'll have some revisions on that um upcoming rather soon hopefully before the start of the school year um next school year so uh so they'll be they'll be a little bit of better work today and I also believe that uh there's been a number of policy updates from masks that mask have put out that we should probably be looking at a time absolutely uh question I have is you know it was previous it was uh Ms Roy was our assistant superintendent right so we just you know we've got to make a change in there too that probably should just you know for discussion purposes should be the superintendent at this point yeah superintendent

052or design yeah now would that change need to be voted on or is that just a incidental okay no all right so does any is anyone itching to be part of the policy committee I'm I'm happy to do it if nobody else wants to that was my first committee assignment and you learned some stuff about policies by being on the committee and how that works yep that would be fine if you'd like to do it it would be good for me to learn the policy and be part of it okay okay anyone else or shall I stay on anyone else itch into to join you do a good job okay so Beth and myself will be on that committee technology committee Mr Oliver yes I'll be happy to stay on yeah [Laughter] so feels okay

053fields and Facilities committee uh superintendent is the contact there Mr Nunes and myself have been on that committee Mr Nunes are you happy to stay okay does any is anyone else hoping to jump over to this committee I'm not looking at it or I keep it I'm fine with keeping it but I do want to put it out if anyone has an interest of being on that committee hearing none I guess it's it's us again um so this committee representatives to the town Charter committee I think we had it I'm so sorry oh very important one so budget committee um I'm fine with continuing to do that if anyone else wants to do it they're welcome to replace me Chris how are you feeling I'm happy to stay on okay Mr Nunes how are you

054happy to stay on okay I've been fortunate they've taken care of I've been lifting right great committee Representatives Town Charter committee so we have Miss Waite and Miss Brooks I think previously discussed and I was reminded I think it was the committee's pleasure to leave as is since the work is already we would pray that they would both continue in that way well Heidi confirmed but did Mary confirm I believe she did in our discussion when it kind of came up but I we yeah we could reach out to her right now I think that's the best yeah that'd be the best because that should be wrapping up soon that's what I'm that's that's my thought because they supposed you know they're supposed to be close to ready report right you know so I mean

055I'm yeah I'm just I'm assuming that that will probably be a fall town meeting yeah just a thought I don't know yeah and so next on our list um is diversity equity and inclusion committee that is sort of so yeah I would say like we should maybe skip that and come back to it and just leave that open now because I mean as we've talked about it if we do this we have to recharge it yeah um and so I think when we recharge it we can revisit who's appointed because I think we also have to look at the membership and you know the charge we talked about from the Desi report they had some specific tasks for that committee so I think it just makes sense to maybe leave that open until we have

056a discussion about what the charge is and what the what the makeup of that bitty that makes sense we have to re-sort of establish that I think hopefully our our new superintendent pending yeah what once we yeah get her on board with our Urban experience yeah yeah that'd be fun sure yeah that makes sense be good great okay and then um next on our list but not last because we we have been passed out a an additional but committee representatives to the town open spaces and Recreation planned steering committee Mr noons um you have been on that do you want to continue yeah I'll stick with that yeah we do and so we have Mary White as an alternate um does is anyone else interested in being an alternate On This Town open space and

057Recreation plan steering committee I could be okay we'll put you best as an alternate great excellent and so um we were handed this Dartmouth curriculum Council DCC um committee would I could I pass that over to you Mr Kiley to to talk about this a little bit sure thank you Mrs Amaral so um so really the the charge of the Dartmouth curriculum council is to align the curriculum and the professional development uh with our strategic goals and vision for the district so really looking at student achievement and making sure our professional development and activities as it relates to curriculum align with those goals um we have a the makeup of the committee um includes a school Committee Member so obviously we want your input um in that group administrators and other staff instructional staff from

058each building an administrative representatives from each level also serving on that committee and really trying to get a broad representation of of folks so we've had this in place Dr karafotus was the last person who served on this committee so okay it's been a little while um but we want to make sure we're actively trying to you know address and improve in this area so so we certainly would hope one of you would uh volunteer time it's about three to five meetings uh a year about hour-long meetings four o'clock ish um meetings so I would be happy to do this I do one of the things that I do and my job is curriculum and so for me just professionally it would be interesting to look at how curriculum decisions are made in a different

059system and levels and how that aligns with some of the things that we're doing with our curriculum so I'd be happy to volunteer but if someone else wants to do it I'm also happy to defer I'll just say that I'm happy to see this in front of the committee just because it's important when you know we're we have a hot 250 000 or 300 000 line in our budget for new curriculum it's good to hear or good to see that we have a representative there just so we can under maybe they can share the explanation of why uh what was chosen over or something else a little bit deeper so I'm happy to see this back great so Shannon you're sure we've got it awesome thank you congrats excellent thank you all okay thank you

060um and so now we're going to move on to Old business and I would like to turn that over to you Mr Kylie for discussion on the FY budget thank you Mrs Amber also um I guess the first thing I just wanted to do was report back um that we did at the last school committee meeting on the 27th we had the finance committee meeting that Thursday coming up they asked a lot of questions some of the school committee members were able to attend that meeting I appreciate your support um they asked a lot of questions I was up at the podium for quite some time it is available on Dartmouth Community media if anybody wants to watch it I thought it I thought it really was an opportunity for us to express the the

061excellent return on investment that we provide for the community and hopefully help them understand that money invested in the Dartmouth Public Schools is used wisely and produces results so you know I think we got that point across we we the I have I you know a set of motions before you to address the current uh FY 24 budget and this would pass that budget as we discussed before the town has us about 588 thousand dollars less than this budget I hope that you'll consider continuing to support this budget I I do have a meeting with Mr McGinnis and Mr Carrero the Town Administrator and and town finance director scheduled for tomorrow and I'm hoping to this is our number one topic for sure so hopefully we can work on it and try and find a

062way to make this happen so but I would appreciate your support with this budget process we did lower the budget by 361 thousand dollars at the last meeting and lowered it down to a 4.4 percent increase from a 5.1 so we've made efforts reductions Beyond this though are more drastic not to say that the reductions we've made thus far are without impact they definitely have an impact we tried to focus on attrition and and class size numbers that we felt we could adjust without having a major impact on students but there is an impact and Beyond this it is where it really starts to hurt more so hopefully you'll consider the budget as as I presented it with this series of motions we do have two numbers that you need to vote on and that

063is related to a conflict of one of our members so great Mr Nunes yeah thank you madam chair I'd like to make a motion to approve the FY 24 budget appropriation for bought us school classroom teaches in the amount of one million eight hundred and sixty two thousand eight hundred and forty seven dollars second okay I have a motion I have a second any discussion okay does this this is just a regular vote okay so um All In all in favor aye aye aye I will abstain one abstention thank you I apologize my phone is noisy even though it's off um okay thank you Mr Nunes for that Madam chair would like to make a motion to approve the FY 24 budget appropriation for the total budget excluding the item just voted individually in a

064previous Motion in the amount of 49 million six hundred and eighty nine thousand three hundred and thirty six dollars second okay any discussion yes sir I just have one question Mr Kylie can you walk me through we're going to send this to the fincom right as is what's the process if in the well like do we will we have to re-vote this if they don't if they don't approve that no if they don't approve it so how does that work out if we vote it and they don't they don't vote it there's a number of options obviously you could always reconsider right the budget and we could provide recommendations if necessary to do that um the fincom is a recommending body and can issue a recommendation on our budget as it currently stands or something

065different than that um there you don't have to change your budget based on their recommendation the the select board also issues a recommendation again you can decide to do what what you need to do um what you think is best as we move forward with this I depending on what happens tomorrow when I go discuss it at Town Hall and what happens with the finance committee and the select board we can have some more discussion about you know what this would mean and how we could approach it so can I just follow up on one other question given that what comes from the school committee the finance committee and the select board is but a recommendation to the ultimate decider which is town meeting what gets presented at town meeting if the three of those

066bodies are making different recommendations select board's recommendation okay which always could be changed at town meeting can it always be changed to town meaning I just was hoping to understand what the process is thank you that helps two things number one can I make a suggestion that uh in light of what is going on with this budget as fluid as it appears to be we have this on the agenda from here to from now to June so that we can at least keep it in the Forefront and know it you know keep updated on it type of deal absolutely and then number two we've got a and a new business we've got a discussion of Select board fincom request type of deal and I will have more comments to say about the budget at that

067point in time yes I'm going to rant [Laughter] great anyone else no we just need to vote we need to vote so because we've got a motion in a second on the 49 million so so um all in favor of the motion hi unanimous thank you thank you I will let the folks know that need to know that and uh we'll report back after because I get some more feedback thank you for your work on this Mr Kylie thank you thank you huge yeah so we're going to move on now uh right on basically right on time to new business and I'm going to start with uh smack quarterly report and turn it over to my vice chair Mr Oliver for an update thank you madam chair so as everyone is aware and for us

068uh Dartmouth is a member district of Southeastern Massachusetts educational collaborative we're also a member district of I believe a South Coast collaborative and I have the opportunity to represent Dartmouth on that board so just a quick little quarterly update of what's taken place since uh January is actually a number of things besides going through actually at our last meeting we approved our our rate scales for the FY 24 school year for all our teaching staff our teaching assistant staff as well as all of other related providers big news that I have to share is that in I believe in March the committee voted to approve and authorize the executive director Catherine Cooper to sign a purchase and sales agreement for a new building real estate building property it's actually a New Bedford industrial park located

069on the Dartmouth side of the um of the line so really excited we're currently going back and forth at the last meeting we authorized it I believe the bank's appraisal just came in and then some there we might be able to get it for a little bit less than what the RFP was for so but this is for a program that is desperately needed in this area this program this real estate would be it's actually a farmer daycare so it's a good sized building has a commercial kitchen and it would house a behavior program I would start off with with a one age span I'm not sure which age spam we're looking at but the ultimate goal would be to grow the program for a separate Behavior Day program which is certainly needed and we

070already have the with the wait list that we have it would be able to get as long as time goes by and we get things smoothly done we should be able to open it up for the first of the year so certainly exciting news for smack as well as all of its member districts so just to keep you updated once I have some more information on when the sale will go through I will let everyone know and other than that we just had just some really a lot of housekeeping things we did get a hundred thousand dollar Grant from Desi to upgrade HVAC in our in the buildings that we own so that's good news and other than that it's just your our typical um you know housekeeping items with um at the monthly meetings

071that's all I have thank you thank you Chris thank you anybody have any questions hi Mr Oliver thank you for um sharing that next under new business is discussion of Select board and finance committee's request for a joint session on April 24th 2023 which that date is actually one of our scheduled school committee meetings to be held at the Town Hall okay Mr Kiley could you talk a little bit about that thank you Mrs Emerald so uh last week we had the town department head meeting Mr McGinnis Town Administrator asked if the school committee would be available for a joint meeting it would be a town hall we could reserve a if you intend to be a part of that meeting we could reserve another space for our meeting try and coordinate around around that

072and certainly any special requests you might have in terms of when the Joint part of the agenda would be we could bring to their attention so thank you does anyone have any comments or questions Mr Nunes thank you a couple of things I don't want to go there and waste my time okay let me be perfectly honest uh when we've had a lot of these meetings before it's been finance committee and board of selectment talking about town fiscal policies and this item and that item and with all due respect not much to do with the school committee so it's you know as the old saying goes It's an hour of my life I'll never see again type of type type of veal so I don't want to go there and and have that's you know

073that that type of a scenario number two we're coming up on school vacation week next week and you know I for one uh am not going to be around and you know that means if they want us there and we decide we want to go it would be nice to have all everything in hand by this Friday afternoon which means I know it's tough for them but you know if they're going to be giving us Financial projections and things of that nature uh then it would be nice to have them ahead of time and you know I'm not going to get home over the weekend or early next in time for this meeting and not have a chance to look at anything so that that type of deal uh number three I will go I

074will go okay and I will look at the five members of the board in the finance committee and say I want the 361 thousand dollars back and I'm going to find it in the budget if I've got a Banshee budgets and I'll make the motion on town meeting Florida give us that 361 thousand dollars or the million dollars that they want to cut from us okay I'm not going to have them destroy our school system okay it's out there just find it it's there and let's work at it that way so plus the fact is as Mr Kiley says I mean we need a room ahead of time to probably do some housekeeping in in general stuff type of deal and then probably some place to have an executive session after I would think just

075to be on the safe side so that's my two cents Jenkins and then Mr Oliver so you know I I will say I've been chastised for expressing similar uh positions but I agree um you know I think part of the problem is that there are things that fincom and the select board need to discuss but that we have no say our role in so I it's not that I don't want to meet with them but to Mr noon's point is when we meet and we discuss things that are not relevant to us we have no stake we have no interest we have no say it it's somewhat disrespectful to us so if they can set up the meeting such that the items that we have a say and a stake in are discussed up front

076while we're there and then we can be dismissed for the meeting and they can discuss those other things I'm fine with that but I think we need to arrange the meeting so that when we're all together we're discussing things that we all are involved in and that we don't have to be there for the things that we're not involved in and the other thing I will 100 percent agree with we said this last time but I will say this if I don't get those documents in a timely manner I'm not going back because I have a job right and I also have a personal life and so I need more than my lunch break to read the financial information that's being sent to us in the last few meetings we've gotten it the day of

077and for those of us who work it's very difficult to digest the information when you're going to a meeting that same day so I'm not going to continue to do it if we can't get information in a timely fashion that allows us to be informed and engage participants in those meetings Mr Oliver so I guess I'll take a little bit of a softer tone I uh than my colleagues however I will say that yes you know it's certainly frustrating get at the documents the backup documentation uh right on the spot or the day of so the sooner the better for me I think these could be helpful these meetings if they're a little more collaborative and we if we're being invited we need to be talking about the school budget right we need to be

078talking about what what is affecting the schools and we also need to be looking at long term because we keep this came up at the finance committee meeting with uh with Mr Kai where Mr Kiley presented uh the other night and we we do have to talk about long-term strategy as to how we're grossly underfunded uh our per pupil and what we're going to do is a town to fix that so that's certainly something that I I think is worthwhile and it's also worthwhile to have a conversation about what are we going to do about this year's budget um I'm a very collaborative person I'm you know I'm willing to work with anyone but you know let's let's get down to it let's have an open honest conversation and let's you know at the finance

079committee meeting I I spoke and um I believe it was the the finance chair that spoke about Outreach uh the school committee doing Outreach and I kind of expressed my displeasure that you know there's only so much that we can do um this committee we all have you know we all are are putting in especially the past couple months 20 hours a week we have a number of other obligations um we're on TV people can certainly watch these meetings they can come to the meetings they can ask us questions I don't believe at our public budget hearing we had one question that came up so that tells me that there's there's really not that many people that are genuinely interested in in the school Department's budget I wish we could change that I'm happy to

080go to the meeting let's have a conversation let's see what we can do collaboratively this isn't just the school department issue this is a town-wide issue and it affects everyone in this town bottom line it affects school systems directly tied to property values end of story thank you Mr Oliver anyone else um so yeah I mean I'm agreeable to to that as well I mean I I really would love to have our um our time you know specific so that then we could depending upon that time meet before or after to do our business again to Mr noon's Point most likely executive session space and meeting space um do you have any more details as to the time that they're proposing or having it's a 6 30 meeting okay so I don't know if the

081committee would be available before we could do some housekeeping stuff and then go meet with them and then afterwards go into executive session or whether you have something else that you know that fits your needs better that's fine with me I will also just note though often said often at these meetings we spend the first 15 20 minutes when they're doing public hearing they're having people coming in again we don't all need to be present for that so if they do have that that's easier for us some of us who have to commute from longer distances right to just say look we're going to put you on the agenda for 6 45. if they've got 15 minutes of business up front let us know that that that makes it easier for us to not have

082to move our meeting back so I that's all I would ask like I mean every meeting we go to there's a hearing about a liquor license or this or that it's like right I know they have to do that and I know it's respectful of the outside people but if they could just you know if we're not at 6 30 if there's other business let us know that gives us more time to do what we need to do I can certainly work with with them to address your concerns so really making sure that the agenda and the materials are in advance and that obviously we have a place to meet before a place after a defined time to be there and really uh keep the discussion focused on what's important for you folks to represent

083sounds good one lesson that but has to do with the finance committee and the budget and everything else uh have you gotten the paperwork from the finance committee so for that reserve on transfer I have not yet okay that's fine no biggie that's fine I have it right in front of my computer screen like standing up so yeah that's fine look at it yeah I'm kind of done yet no biggie great thank you for that so we'll we'll look we'll look forward to the update as to the exact time and and keep you informed as we learn more about it okay I am meeting you know with Mr McGinnis tomorrow so hopefully we can begin to to really fine-tune that great thank you and so next actually we have the superintendent's update so I'll also

084turn that over to you Mr Kylie all so more MCAS this week we have some news on the high school niask visit it's been postponed so niask is I think my understanding is having some struggles in terms of meeting all the timelines post pandemic trying to stay on track so they reached out to us and we have postponed that to 2027 so the actual [Music] accreditation will take will be take place in 2027 there's work that starts in September of 24. so just wanted to let you know that um spring Sports Mr Christopher Lee mentioned is is well underway I think a reflection of the good work that our coaches do I think we have I think 370-ish students participating in Spring sports right now so great great group of kids participating we have the

085math team Mr Shea filled me in that they were the Southeastern Mass conference mathematics League champions they also finished fifth place at the Massachusetts Association of mathematics League state championship in the medium schools division so proud of them and the work that they're doing chess team first place in their league so we've got some good things going on in the schools I'll leave music to Mr now yeah I know thank you and next on the agenda is report of the chair I am grossly unprepared for having a report you've shared some wonderful stuff I am going to leave the music to Mr Nunes but I will add that tomorrow Dartmouth CPAC will be hosting um a meeting here at the high school in this room in the library media center and we're going to have

086a um a guest speaker talking about the new Massachusetts Behavioral Health hotline and how you know the ins and outs of how that resource can be helpful to the Greater Community as sort of a One-Stop instant kind of connection handoff to a a an important resource um on the line so we'll have somebody there to talk more about that and that's really all that I have how about my committee Miss Jenkins so I have two items one uh just a reminder for everyone one that the spelling bee is on Wednesday night here from seven to nine in the auditorium so I encourage people to come cheer on teachers teams and whatnot and then my second item is you know hearing Mr Oliver's report about smack that we now get quarterly from him I'm reminded that

087we had said we'd like to have the VOC our VOC Representatives come and give a regular report I'd also like to if they ask because I know in the past sometimes I've asked Miss Gunther what do we want to talk about and I want to talk about the minutes um you know we recently had to address an issue with our minutes and becoming familiar with Mass General law and that right Mass General Law requires a summary of the discussions on each subject we've seen the minutes from folk they do not include a summary of discussions on each subject it's very difficult to understand what they're discussing our minutes are excellent thank you very much Miss Gunther if someone isn't here they can understand quite clearly what happened and what was discussed at our meeting I'd

088like to have our vote Representatives come have just talk to us about the things that are going on what they're deciding the way Mr Oliver did with smec but I'd also like to have a conversation about the minutes because I do not believe that they are complying with Mass General law right now and it's very difficult for us to understand what's happening and I think maybe they've approved the sound you occasionally watch on TV Mr news the sound is better you have to watch in order to see you can't read the minutes after to understand what happened and just to to follow up Dr Jenkins I happen to see uh Mr Shea at a spec meeting a couple of weeks ago and that and I happened to mention to them we haven't seen any minutes

089in a while I mean I didn't get into how they were because I did say to them when they were here and they talked about you know they they approve policies ABCD and I went but I don't know what ABCD is you know that type so I did chirp at them about that but I also did say to him and he was going to make a phone call to find out okay now I haven't seen him so yeah I'd love to just have them back and you know again get on a rotation with them having coming in and giving a report to us and I think also maybe Bristol Aggie too do we have a represent who who appoints the representative to Bristol Aggie that comes out of the selectman's office on the slack board

090okay so we'll just do voke then that's fine thank you I would also just like to add um that I think it's important that we also and you know not so much now but uh when our new superintendent comes on board it has the liaison to South Coast collaborative I would like to start hearing what's happening at South Coast it's not something that has not taken place in the past agree with that I will have a new sped director too so we can pop all of that into there that's it okay sounds good okay I'm going to turn over to you uh I'm assuming you have some updates yeah I do one with the music yeah last Sunday not much good but Palm Sunday uh we had nesma finals here in uh at the high

091school and our uh both our percussion winds uh took first place and their uh their individual classes uh the day before up in Reading with color God uh the jv's the JV color guy which is you know the Middle School uh they took uh first place in near class and uh Varsity was in second place this coming week with the percussion uh and by the way if I know what people are watching but there is also a friends and family night at quarter past eight for the color guide as they get ready to leave uh uh but the percussion of winds are down in Stanford uh Connecticut this coming Saturday from a MAC Conference it'll be a long day for them uh the color guide leaves uh Wednesday flies out Wednesday to Dayton Ohio for

092uh their WGI competition that stats on Thursday and then next week on Wednesday the 19th uh the percussion will leave and they'll start their competitions on Friday in Dayton Ohio and the winds leave the next morning the 20th and they start their competition out in Dayton on Saturday so it'll be percussion will be Friday and Saturday and the winds will be Saturday and Sunday and if you go to wgi.org you can get into you can sign up for flow matching and you know there's a fee I will be honest with you I don't know what it is but you can sign up and you can watch the performances online it'll give you their times and you can watch them online so very cool hopefully they'll bring back some more medals thank you like I said

093anyone else thank you great so um our next meeting is scheduled for as we were talking about April 24th it will be at Town Hall and more to come as to you know what part of the six o'clock hour or so or earlier that will will convene um and so at this point I will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for an update on Union and non-union negotiations not to return to public sector so moved second any discussion roll call Miss kenther John Nunes yes Kathleen Amaral yes Elizabeth Coughlin yes Shannon Jenkins yes Chris Oliver yes thank you everyone nervous [Music] thank you