001thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you good evening everyone I'd like to call the school committee meeting for Monday October 17 2022 to order if we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please foreign I'd like to remind you that if you have any cell phones electronic devices if you could put them on silent as I just did I would greatly appreciate it would also like to let you know that this meeting is being live stream through the Dartmouth High School TV media YouTube channel and it's also will be shown later on during the week on both the channel 9 and channel 18 at numerous times and we thank them for that uh roll call please misconto John Nunes yep Mary wheat here Kathleen Amaral here
002Shannon Jenkins here Chris Oliver here thank you ma'am uh first item on the agenda is we have allocated 10 minutes for public comment of anything that is on the agenda tonight foreign good evening all Renee Vieira from the Dartmouth Educators Association and Jody Parisi so we stand here before you tonight recognizing that you're going to be going into executive session later this evening to just uh discuss collective bargaining issues relative to um Union Personnel so just a couple of comments we'd like to make we're pretty sure that um you're aware that the U.S government just made a decision to increase the cola benefit by 8.7 percent which is the highest it's been in over 40 years recognizing the cost of living right now for things like groceries and gasoline as well as utilities has skyrocketed
003we just stand and we ask um we ask you to recognize that all DEA members have begun this school year without a contract right now we are not in a position like Haverhill or Malden we're not standing before you threatening to strike we don't even talk about striking we recognize the importance of us and our need you know our needs to be in the classroom but we are asking you a school committee to please advocate for us when it comes to increasing per pupil spending because this town has not increased its pupil spending in such a long time as well as to try to help the Town members understand the negative impact that the health care insurance costs have on this District I know that we have lost a number of people just over the
004over the summer between last spring and the summer to school districts such as New Bedford school system New Bedford folk as well so we've lost quality Educators and quality employees because um between the benefits and the differences in in salary they just they their increase is just something that they can't refuse many of them have been disheartened having to leave here and um but they have to put their financial obligations to their family first um also we do ask you to recognize that we have um advocated early on that we were looking to support a change in the premium split and we just ask that you bring that to the select board and to the fincom committee just to let them know that not only are we losing members but folks that do decide to
005be candidates here and you know this at all levels we interview them then we lay out the package and many times they're like just can't do it the costs don't make sense so we just um you know we're here doing our best every day we love this town we love our students and we're just asking for your support thank you very much anyone else okay all righty uh next item on the agenda is the approval of the regular session minutes of September 26 2022. so moved move right in this weight second second by Miss Emerald on the motion any discussion chair hearing that all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right okay a couple of consent agendas okay all right um yep common stuff we've got uh a couple of fundraising we
006got a fundraising request from the Mellow and Cushman school PTO for things this year that they want to do they have also included uh their budgets and such Dr Dale is here and also miss career if you have any questions move approval second by Dr Jenkins second by Miss White on the motion any discussion chair hearing that all in favor aye aye opposed promotion carries unanimously next one is our Orchestra wants to go to our nation's capital in April leaving on April 26th and coming back on April 30th I think they're gone Sunday Saturday Friday Thursday when leaving Wednesday and coming back on Sunday all the information is included in your packet including my synopsis for curriculum standards and a mission statement sounds like they're going to have a busy tour they're busy that's great
007busy uh it looks like a nice tour almost a nice tour and I mean some good education you know as I look at this uh good uh edges beside a good educational events inside too I have no concerns I'll make motion no proof yeah Mr Oliver's second right Ms Amaral on a motion any discussion it looks great see a hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right yeah the just so our audience is aware uh we did have uh a couple of school Improvement plans that were on the agenda for tonight uh for uh the high school and the Middle School uh unfortunately due to circumstances Beyond everybody's control um those are not going to happen we're going to move those to November 17th so that that's where that was going
008to be I think it's going to be the weekend 21st right Church shuffling a lot of things yes a lot of do we have two meetings in November yes yes I think so yeah yeah okay I don't have the seventh on my calendar but I'll take you know that would be my story of my life too busy either that either that or I put it in and then deleted it so yep that's fine okay uh next item on the agenda is the superintendent's evaluations summative uh first and foremost uh thank you to everyone for uh sending in your comments to Kathleen we did we met with Dr Gifford last Friday and we forgot to send I forgot to send this to miss Gunther so that she could forward it to you guys so I'm going
009to kind of go kind of going to go through and read this a little bit I'm not going to go through a Verbatim and such uh what I do want to do and I did tell Dr Gifford and Kathleen when we were doing this is I was just going to uh there's four four performance uh standards that go through unsatisfactory needs Improvement slash developing proficient which equals a proficient practice is understood to be fully satisfactory and also exemplary uh unsatisfactory as of course a performance on a standard has not significantly improved following ratings of needs Improvement needs Improvement of developing is performance on a standard or overall is below the requirements of a standard or overall but is not considered to be Beyond satisfactory Improvement is necessary and expected that type of deal proficient this
010is the rigorous expected level of performance that we would expect an exemplary a reading of exemplary indicates that practice significantly exceeds proficient and could serve as a model of practice regionally or Statewide I just want everyone to understand and I'll let my committee members correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think so when we those of us that took this training a number of years ago the comment was you know not a lot of exemplaries only because no disrespect it almost makes them like they're walking on water and then if there happens to be an issue and they drop down a proficient now it's like well he went from exemplary to proficient versus keeping them at the proficient level so uh this is this is there so uh on assessing progress towards goal uh
011District improvements uh one and two uh the committee is an agreement that Dr Gifford met those goals for professional practice okay let me back up for a second the categories the the rating would be did not meet some progress significant progress met or exceeded so again for district one and two the committee said that Dr Gifford met those goals on the professional practice again the same set of goals and the committee said that Dr Gifford met those practices uh uh in student learning uh the committee stated that there was some progress and Dr Gifford is in agreement with those and there's no issues on my from what I understand okay on step two it says assess performance on standards uh again as I said earlier you have the unsatisfactory needs Improvement proficient exemplary under a
012standard one for uh instructional leadership the committee said she was proficient understand the two for management and operation she said we said that she was proficient under standard three for family and Community engagement we said she was proficient so then uh step three on the uh end of cycle summative evaluation it says rate overall summative Performance Based on step one and two ratings and again the same four as before and we said that Dr Gifford was proficient uh under step four it says add evaluators comments and what we did is we just took everybody's comments and we kind of made a synopsis of uh what was there and uh it says comments and it says add evaluator comments and comments and Analysis are recommended for any rating but are required for an overall summative rating
013of exemplary needs Improvement or unsatisfactory or impact on student learning rating of high or low so you have that so the comments that we have put into this evaluation are as follows overall there is a consensus that Dr giffett has done a good job leading the district through trying times specifically the tremendous added burden of covet also a theme that emerged relative to her strength with curriculum development and school safety and that she is constantly trying to improve Dartmouth Public Schools another theme is a desire for improved family engagement better communication between the committee and a more authentic process for reciprocal communication with parents and Guardians so that's what we have put in there and then uh all the performance goals the student learnings and such are all here they're all proficient we will get
014that uh to Kate tomorrow and she'll get it forwarded to the rest of the committee perfect so that's what we have Kathleen and I have compiled based on your information and input we thank you very much for that we appreciate it Dr Gifford yeah thank you do you have any comments no I think we've we've uh done a lot of commenting on this this few months so I think we're good okay my committee members any Mary um I just want to thank uh you know John and Kathleen for you know all your work putting this together and meeting with Dr Gifford thank you it certainly was a tremendous amount of work and we really appreciate you synthesizing all of that so thank you very much both of you I'll always you know get we we
015talked about it and with my wonderful computer skills thank you to Kathleen for uh putting it all together very gracious of um Mr noons uh it was my fault not that it wasn't complete we meant Friday but um I just dropped the ball on that side now yeah he fell on the swords that's what the chairman does so if everyone is good I will take a motion to uh approve this evaluation because this goes into Dr Gifford's file can I can we postpone just because I I'd like to actually see the document before voting on it so it I don't have any objections but I just I don't necessarily feel comfortable voting on something that I haven't actually physically seen so could we just postpone that until next week I don't want any changes or
016anything like that I'd just like to see it if that's okay that way I don't use it okay can you just put that on the agenda as a reminder please thank you all right that takes care of that uh new business school committee policy first reading JF school admissions Dr Gifford yes thank you so just a little history on this policy as you know we work really hard to maintain residency requirements in the district and I guess to our to our praise I suppose we come across many many many people that have given false information to attend Dartmouth public schools and thanks to our residency people Nelly Alfonso does a lot of work and Chris winterson our residency officer we and I don't want to use the word catch but I will um we are
017we become aware of many people that don't reside here and um so we work hard at making sure that they attend the school district where the town that they live in unfortunately there are many Avenues by which they can provide not so true documents and also appeal to Desi and then Desi doesn't know what's happening and then they go through this reporting system and all of this so one such issue that we had last year which we're still positive the parents live in another town and drop the child off it a relative's house and um continue to come so we asked them to leave the district they appealed to Desi and then through multiple conversations with Desi and providing our entire report and information they decided to actually have us do an action plan into
018corrective action because they said our policy was not conforming to the state law which of course it comes from mask so every other District in the Commonwealth I guess doesn't meet the obligation either and that um our procedure we have the procedure document which people have to give the three columns of information whether it's a lease whatever it might be um electric bill Etc et cetera and that we have to provide flexibility which I assure you we do we we are whether it's a student that might have been here for a while and then they've either moved or they were caught we allow them to stay finish the year et cetera et cetera we provide a lot of flexibility if parents are divorced and one parent is in town and owns property they're allowed to
019stay because that parent owns property in Dartmouth whether the child is half with the mother a father or wherever it is so there's a lot of flexibility um in the in the in the procedures that we undertake so anyway uh trying to conform to what I I filed a narrative with Desi they asked some questions and I filed the narrative with them but one of them was that we update our policy to conform with the the law so I I told them we were having the policy subcommittee meeting which I forgot to tell Mary the date my apologies and um we did that and this so what we're proposing is that we would then submit to deci that this comes exactly from the legislation as you see here it doesn't say anything different so I
020don't know really and I did tell them when I filed the narrative about this that this comes from mask so evidently all the other districts in the state are not following a complying but they are it's it's so I think um in reality it's a kind of a shell game to be honest and that we have to file this with them and um their response to us was just continue to watch the parent this year and see if we can catch them again so that's fine the child is here but um with that said if you want to read this over as a first read and then once it's voted on at the next meeting it's fine and I'll submit to them that it was updated according to really the same mgl that we had
021before but just the exact wording so that's where we are yeah just quickly I just just going back just out of you know just to clarify something when you mention if you have divorced parents the the parent has to own property just running also if you mean rent as well okay I just wanted to exactly exactly exactly but it's the ones and then we have a real hard time with that um they do not live here at all and they're using someone else's address we find families sometimes they're we have a really good office that really is aware of what's going on they'll be all of a sudden 10 families supposedly living in a two-bedroom house so it's it's but we're on it as you know as best as possible and then just with the
022high school and of course they can do school choice so that's to mitigate you know yeah anyway yeah exactly exactly and again if if a student even if a student moves say in their senior year they've been with us a long time I'd say 99 of the time they're allowed to con complete their years you know this is always we check on are they on track to graduate is it going to be two more years kind of there's a lot of flexibility but it's when they try to go around the system it we have to keep on top of it so anyway any other questions comment Dr Jenkins so I'll just ask one question and that's whether we I know this is taken directly from state law and they probably don't have a policy but
023whether we not we use gender neutral language in our policy either replacing he with he she or they or the child or the student I just think is perhaps good practice to use gender neutral language yeah that's fine it's a editorial comment more than anything yeah okay okay all right so next time we're already there yeah there we go okay superintendent's update all right a couple of updates for tonight um let's see I wrote on that was the that was Renee's comment so that's the wrong page okay as as we told you and I know I don't know if anybody else will have anything to say but we did get to tour um New Bedford vote today and it was a nice we had a nice meeting it was a lot of folks from town
024hall attended as well and actually it was really impressive to see the programs that they're running and um they're welcome welcome here anytime they're willing to come or continue those kinds of meetings so maybe you'll get a chance to go at some point um the cook Center we're continuing with our video of virtual sessions so on 10 18 today's the 16th 17th 17th so it's tomorrow um there'll be a an out we'll post it tomorrow folks should have received information about this virtual it's um how parents can help prevent suicide a really tough Pro um topic but again there for parents to view if they feel that that's something that can they can help with and also we'll be sending home in the backpacks from the cook Center a reminder for parents that they can
025sign up for that coaching that individual coaching with that group um also we do we have continued to work with the nurses and Katie paveo is helping with that and Lori joban as well as the again continuing that allergy awareness documents that uh folks are sharing in the schools that are providing information for parents to as we talked about before allergy awareness they can sit where they want um PTO providing food et cetera et cetera so we'll have those just finalizing some of those documents coming up we did have some questions on the student advisory I know I sent out that um not sure where we are with that we did receive it seems like a little bit of a different information but the from Tracy Novak who's one of the field reps from mask
026stated in response to someone else's question about this actually that when you all talked about like a representative that the whole committee should work with the student advisor so I I just want to put that out there that I don't quite know where we are with that um the process so you can you can talk about that um and you you heard me talk about the learn launch which is the group we've been working with through deci as along with working with Envision learning as well as we work towards our strategic plan but the learn launch piece is explicitly about fostering relationships and inclusiveness so we've done some work with them and they visited our school district this past week and had a little tour of some of the schools and we'll be waiting to
027hear from them about some of their observations and of course the home show which I know Mr Nunes we'll talk about and other than that I I do have an announcement to make and um I always talked to Mr Nunes about this but I will be retiring I'm announcing my retiring as of March one so I wanted you all to know um I've let my leadership team know so none of them are surprised but it's uh I said Mr news tonight I've never done this before so it's just time as as everyone comes to time that it's time to go and time to deal with some family issues and and some of the other I say direct my energies in another way so I know we'll have more chances to chat about that but obviously
028it's been an sorry no how many years Dr Gifford 32 for me but 32 years this was my eighth year here yeah in your eighth year so a lot to think about but anyway I'll stop for there thank you thank you thank you I gave Mr news my letter to myself yeah thank you uh I have a letter from Dr Gifford is October 17 2022 dear school committee members it is with mixed emotions I write to inform you that I have decided to retire on March 1st 2023. having spent 32 years working in the field of Education it's now time to redirect my energies and spend more time with family seems like yesterday I began my teaching career in Westport and just like that 32 years have flown by I can only hope that my
029work has had a positive impact on the many students I had the privilege of teaching and the numerous colleagues Who provided support camaraderie and friendship along the way I am grateful for my time in Dartmouth leading such an exemplary district has been an honor and pleasure not not to mention no to mention possible because of the tremendous team of people who work here due to their dedication and talent our district has flourished and I am confident it will continue to do so in the years to come as I am back on new adventures I wish to them at the public school district much continued success sincerely Bonnie Gifford I don't think we're going to leave it there you've given six months for us to you know keep working on it a little more Kate if
030you put this on the November 7th we'll have a busy meeting though we don't have a busy meeting November 7th what type of deal but seriously what we have to do is we have to start two things we've got to do is number one start looking uh at trying to get an interim superintendent okay and number two getting the search committees in and interviewing them and putting uh a search out there for a superintendent to uh to start good Lord willing uh July for us we're a little bit behind the eight ball because normally no no don't please no no biggie no biggie uh I've seen it done I know I've seen it done from March type of deal I was just gonna say I would but I'll thank Dr Gifford for giving us the
031you know that much notice yeah I tossed and turned over it so it was it was funny at the show Saturday because she let me know Friday and uh he's the south of the group it was it you know she happened to mention Friday to to Kathleen and I you know that she was going to be doing that type of deal and you know she said you know she just said she's had some sleepless nights you know thinking about it and everything else and uh I said to her Saturday at the show just before rewards and that I said you sleeping better she did say yes so which which was good but uh thank you seriously uh thank you thank you you're welcome it's it's been an honor and a privilege well same here and
032uh it went so fast yeah you know and it's funny read your letter 30 to you that's my committee time I'm just thinking of that maybe it's your turn just look at two and a half years I always said I didn't think I'd be around this long but that's okay so that's okay so all right very good okay so that's what we have to that's what we have to look forward to don't take the type of deal uh couple of a couple of things yeah I'd like to give a did mention a thank you to um New Bedford vote for the hospitality this one I know Mr Oliver was there I'd like to give it uh Mr Kylie uh it was a real nice to see and going through the shops and you know that
033that type of deal and you know what what uh what they do and how they go about things and it was one of the of it was the cosmic the cosmetology cosmetology which was which was brand new type of do a brand new system brand new setup this year to you know see this give me an appointment for a haircut no they wouldn't no no they couldn't take mine they were going to try and braid I was trying to try to get them to braid mine but they didn't have enough time so you know that that that type of deal so but you know seriously you know in in very hospitable and willing to do whatever type of deal so that that was nice just want to take a moment uh next time we meet
034uh November 7th the sports teams will be into the tournament getting ready for the tournament so you know good luck to them as they go through that um thank you to miss Amaral and and Dr Gifford uh for the you know your help uh Saturday at our home show was much appreciated I know everybody's Here There and Everywhere so understood and much appreciated uh the band heads off to Cranston this week and then next weekend you know leaves Friday afternoon for uh Rutgers University for bands of America for two shows on Saturday and then get the kids up bright and early Sunday morning and head all the way back to reading for nesba finals so and then the following Saturday uh bought down to Giant stadium so that's a few couple of busy weeks coming
035up but that's all right they're young the student rep in Mr Smith and I have been playing phone tag but we'll I'll see Walter tonight to make an appointment to talk with him uh when we were having that discussion a couple of weeks ago I made the comment that I was going to try to get a hold of the attorney of the day to the Department of Division of local Services I got an email back from the gentleman who I happened also happen to know and he says they just handle local Municipal Finance issues I went you got to be kidding me you know but they suggested uh talking with Council which I'm you know again trying to do and when I asked about it you know did it have to be posted as an
036open meeting again pleaded the fifth and says call the Attorney General's office well I've called the attorney general's office three times you get this automated system and says they'll call you back they still haven't called back so I'm working on it just so everyone is you know I haven't you know forgotten about this or anything of that nature Dr Jenkins this may be a dumb question but could that just sort of be resolved by inviting them to to our meeting right they may not all be able to attend but I think given that a lot of us work right having a school day meeting with us is probably not going to happen and so then maybe we just set aside you know 10-15 minutes at the beginning of every other meeting every meeting whatever the
037law requires and whichever ones of them can come for that can come and if not but that allows us to comply with the law yeah I know you still have to talk about that maybe one potential solution is having them come to us as opposed to all of us trying to go to them yeah I want to ask Mr Martin if he knows did you have the election for the students you did okay okay good okay so good okay so that part of it that's fine very good so that's where all of that stands I just thank you for reminding me because I had a fleeting thought that's just what it did fleeted by uh that's all I have anybody have anything Ms Amaral I just have one engine the special education parent advisory council
038is holding our first in-person actual meeting since 2019. um and so we are I think starting off on a good foot because a lot of a lot of our effort has been as with that hat on right now as a mom um has been to sort of legitimize ourselves in terms of like we're in the regulations you know that every district has to have a special education parent advisory Council and we kind of lead with that and yes we have our amazing resource Fair once a year that's now going to be in the spring may not May 7th I think um at the high school I hear again we often like don't talk about the other benefits that a CPAC can bring for both families and staff in the community which is you know resource
039sharing information aside from the resource fair and support so we're beginning our um our year at Cushman which is right you know 746 Dartmouth Street those of you don't know where it's located enter through the back of the school the meeting is going to be down in the in the cafeteria and so it's between 6 and 7 30 and I professionally I that's what I do I share resources I help engage families and educate them and about special education disability services and and whatnot and so I tried with well do I do that does Beth sort of lead the me how are we gonna and so I'm gonna do a little bit of everything and we've um I've invited a couple of resources so that they can take five ten minutes and share what benefit
040they'll bring to the community one is our greater New Bedford local Family Support Center a representative is going to come talk about how how to interact with them and what they provide and then parent Information Network which is funded through a more of a mental health non-profit Statewide our local representative is going to come talk about the parent support groups that they provide and that sort of thing and the rest will be just talking about the CPAC and how to get involved and and again how the CPAC can be that bridge is how I've worded it bridge to the school be a better partner feel more empowered feel more engaged and able to kind of participate in IEPs or 504 meetings so um tomorrow I'm excited six o'clock that Cushman good luck thank you um
041so I just wanted to you know just uh piggyback on Dr Gifford's introduction earlier about learn launch and I knew we were going to probably talk about that a bit tonight when we're originally going to have the school Improvement plans but I just wanted to you know I looked at that in preparation I did look ahead at that program just a bit and they do have two workshops coming up um I believe like one is for individual Educators who might want to jump on and get some you know additional professional development there is one on the 25th which is dealing with fostering a sense of belonging creating space for conversations about race and then there is an additional one that is supporting regulation strategies to Foster students sense of belonging which I know something we're
042talking about and that you know they're working towards next year and that is and each of those are two dates on Thursday this particular one both are in the afternoon so Thursday October 20th from three to five and then again Monday October 24th from two to four just because we won't be talking about that before right next meeting so just good opportunities from some professional development to and they're both free so yes just because if it's free it's good that's good good one thing I did forget uh to mention uh anybody going by the high school tomorrow night we'll probably see a lot of Casio town meeting tomorrow night uh seven o'clock so if you're a town meeting member hopefully we will see you all here take care of the town's business shouldn't be that
043bad Dr Jenkins so I missed the agenda setting meeting I apologize for that I had work commitments but I have a I have a request I don't know if we've um I have put this on the sort of the queue but there's just been a lot this fall about learning loss and how you know how much students have have lost and I know we get you know pictures from the schools and school Improvement plans but I know it's something that you all talk about a lot I'm sure and I'm just wondering if maybe we could have some sort of presentation doesn't have to be in November December you know it could be even January February but just something to sort of address and to let the public know and be reassured to make more visible
044all of the things we're doing to address those challenges it doesn't have to be sometimes we get presentations and like God love all our administrators but I want to say to them sometimes you don't have to spend that much time on your presentations right it could be short and concise but I think sometimes people don't really see all of the things we're doing and how we're directed to addressing those issues and so I think it might be helpful so maybe at some point you know in the next few months if you could share that I think it would be good for the community to know all the things that we're doing okay particularly bit all right anything else nope okay we're good all right our next meeting I think we beat it to death here
045November 7th 2022 6 30 here in the media center and at that this point in time the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session to provide an update with respective collective bargaining with Union personnel and not to return to open session move by Miss White second second by Mr Oliver on the motion any discussion we'll call vote please miss Gunther John Nunes yes Mary wheat yes Kathleen Amaral yeah yes yes thank you everyone happy trick-or-treating good night [Music]