001[Applause] good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the adopted School Committee to water for Monday June 8th 2020 just to remind of her governor Baker's honor suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law chapter 30 a section 20 the public will not be allowed to be physically accessed this school committee meeting the meeting will be connected conducted remotely members of the public can access the meeting via livestream @ww youtube-dot-com forward-slash DHS TV media in addition the event will be rebroadcast on DC TV channels 9 and 18 on the following days Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Friday at 6 a.m. Saturday a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. the School Committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as soon as practical and
002also just a reminder anyone wishing to comment on any of tonight's agenda articles we ask you to please submit your comments to Kathleen Gunther ka th le en g en th m ER at dartmouth schools dot org this time K if I could have a roll call vote please Chris Oliver here Shannon Jenkins Carroll Carrodus here Kathleen Amaral yeah John News yeah I thank you very much just a reminder that uh dr. Jenkins did reach out to me just letting me know that she would not be in attendance of tonight's meeting she wishes us the best but she did have a a prior prior engagement that she could not make this meeting so next up is the public comment if anyone sent in comments ahead of time would you kindly rid them to us I
003have not received any at this time okay thank you Kay we will circle back around if that's okay with everyone look what we quote before we close out the meeting will circle back and make sure let's see if we have any other public comments on tonight's agenda at this time I will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of our May 18 2020 meeting so I have a motion by Kara by dr. Kara Fotis a second by mrs. Emmer all on the motion any further discussion and we're going to do a roll call votes on all our votes over the over the internet or over zoom we were notified that we should be using roll call votes on any any vote that we take so we're going to do a roll call vote
004when our minutes okay please where's Oliver yes Carroll Carrodus yes kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes okay motion passes thank you very much this time I'll entertain a motion for the executive session minutes of May 18 2020 so someone was the chairman would the stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is completed I'll second that so I have a motion by mr. Nunes a second by dr. Cara focus on the motion any further discussion on a roll call vote please Chris Oliver yes Carol Carrodus yes Kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes motion carries unanimously thank you very much Kate appreciate that next up on the agenda is consent agenda smek FY 21 request for permission to lease classroom space at DHS will you take this mr. Kiley muted he's
005on mute Thank You mr. Oliver sorry so spec has contacted us they have voted their board has voted to increase tuition 3% room rental rate rather 3% for next year that's this lease reflects that and they rent one classroom at the high school so we'd ask for your support to continue that thank you mr. Kylie I can just say that I think the program the smack program is a great program and it helps service not only our students and Dartmouth but students in all of our member districts in local districts as well I hope I hope that maybe dr. Gifford can share this with me do we continue to be good neighbors at Dartmouth high school have you heard any concerns anything from your and dr. Gifford I have not heard any concerns as far
006as I know everything is running smoothly okay excellent any other discussion any other questions at this time motion that we approve the lease between a diamond School Committee and southeastern mass educational collaborative for the rental of a classroom at Dartmouth high school for school year 2021 I have a motion by mr. Nunes a second by dr. Cara focus on the motion any other discussion on a roll call vote miss Oliver yes Carol Carrodus yes Kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes motion carries unanimously Thank You Kate thank you everyone next up on the agenda FY 21 budget update and I'm assuming we're gonna turn that over to mr. Kylie Thank You mr. Oliver so the FY 21 budget is expected to be voted on at the June 20th remote zoom Town Meeting we are the boards
007are still in support of moving forward with the budget as previously designated and voted so what we voted for as committee what the Finance Committee has endorsed and what the Select board is also recommended we are planning on moving forward with that there's a great amount of uncertainty obviously in the in the world but certainly also here in Dartmouth in terms of what we will be how will be impacted in terms of state aid and local receipts particularly could be a major factor some of the uncertainty is around whether or not the federal government passes another bill to support states that is very contested situation at the federal level so that as a you know a role to play and where we're going to be next year then at the state level they are waiting
008for that federal information to try and help us by the time we actually know that we could be well close to starting school so we've got a ways to go in this process and we'll have to be flexible enough to adjust as we move forward the town is already expecting a cut in state aid and local receipts and planning for that in their budget in the existing budget so it's just a matter of how much that cut is and how much the state absorbs through its reserves how much the town can absorb reserves we are attempting on our end to be a good partner with with the town and try and not fill positions that are that are not essential at this point that said you know if we have an essential position that we
009can't operate without then we'll need to fill that we the hope there is that will remain you know flexible and be able to adjust accordingly when the time comes and possibly result in savings from those positions long-term so that's where we are and we've not you know we're not adjusting not recommending adjusting the budget at this point and moving forward and hoping June 20th is successful with Town Meeting sure I hope so too Thank You mr. Kiley questions my colleagues mr. Nunes yeah just when I was watching us the replay of those electrons meeting last night I was just have they come up with how people are going to be able to ask questions off the top of your head if you know or that's that's the hundred thousand dollar question it's it's a work
010in progress that you know yeah it's a work in progress okay it'll be a zoom meeting and there will be an opportunity I believe for people to fully participate I have no idea I mean the good news is there's not a lot of hotly contested items on the on the town meeting warrant so but obviously if it's a couple hundred people that could be challenging I'm sure the moderator is gonna have her hands full in terms of being able to manage that process and obvious and there's there's a lot of things still in the works yeah okay just curious thank you sir you're welcome anyone else all right well before I end this mr. Kylie I'd just like to say thank you for continuing you know your diligence on this budget and just just to
011confirm and just so we're our viewing public is also aware like we said at this point in time we're moving forward with the budget that we voted on and you proposed the school administration proposed and the school committee voted on and we're not looking at this point in time to lay anyone off there's no refs there right now we're moving forward with all of our positions that we currently have yes other than vacant positions from some vacant positions that are included in this budget have not been filled at this point and at the moment we will not be filling them you know obviously what happens in this throughout this process so we'll help inform those decisions moving forward sure but there so there are some positions that may not be filled but we're not we're
012not laying any staff off per se that is correct great that's really that's really great news because at the beginning of this there's there's lots of talk and allege that we all know lots of talk lots of information being thrown around as to you know it's gonna be really bad but if we can get through this year we'll take it one year at a time yes no thank thank you very much mr. Kiley for the for the update on the budget you're welcome next up under new business the smek quarterly report and that is myself so really quickly I just wanted to give everyone a quick update of what we've been up to over at our smack collaborative which we're a member district and I am currently the chair over at smek as well good
013news is that the Fall River School Committee officially signed the articles of agreement and we are now Fall River is now a member of smek so we will look to continue to grow our programs I think that's really important great opportunities that we see um obviously one of the big things that we've been talking about the the last two of what a director meetings that there's a lot of unknowns just like here there's a lot of unknowns with the budget especially with the not a lot of new referrals coming into Smith right now because of the school districts are really physically closed so the referrals are down in addition that unfortunately our Adult Services program because smack is one of for collaborative z' in the state that actually services melt as well we had to
014we had to lay off in furlough some of our adult service staff which was very unfortunate but we really didn't have any choice based on the reason that we're not receiving reimbursements from the state on those right now because not working with them we just continue to move along I think we're a good group over there looking out eventually where we're looking to for a new building to look at our one of our behavioral programs it's down the northen and new bedford we're starting to outgrow that building and we've actually there's actually been a few of RFPs I believe put out looking for some buildings in the area we actually looked at a couple of the former elementary schools in New Bedford for possible sites for a new program those did not come to fruition
015however we're hopeful and right now it's kind of on a standstill we're kind of in a whole pattern on that we're gonna see what this new year brings but we are looking to based on the amount of referrals we were getting on some of our kiddos that is definitely a good good idea to start looking for a new location to grow a behavioral program over aspects I'm so that's really all I have if I haven't anyone has any questions about the smack program I'd be happy to answer them alright thank you everyone next up f 120 end-of-year authorizations mr. Kylie Thank You mr. Oliver so it's customary each year for us to - for the school committee to authorize a transfer powers between accounts within our operating budget this year is sort of a very
016different year in every front but it's budget is also quite different usually you know I pride myself on spending our entire budget right down to the penny with lots of good stuff for kids this year it's a bit of a different approach obviously lots of good stuff for kids still a priority but because of factors be out of our control obviously the budget is has some variances mostly savings in terms of substitute costs in terms of utilities to some extent in terms we'll have savings in terms of transportation although I haven't finalized that yet so there's going to be areas within the budget that we'll need you know will need to be adjusted and this with your support tonight that would give me the ability to do that clean it up and with the intent
017that we would be returning some money this year to the town which I think will benefit everyone you know moving forward any questions for mr. Kylie on us mr. Nunes Thank You mr. chairman mr. Kylie one of the things we talked about it the last meeting was you know the transportation and you know discussion with hopefully the once well the money that we get back to the town is going to flow into their you know surplus revenues slash free cash aspiration issue next year too you know and you know could they kind of earmarked that for us no you heard anything from you know Innes on that well I expressed to those folks our concern about next year and they understand I think anything that we do turn back to the town however will be
018free cash you know and and I don't I mean other than to this town meeting acting on it or the October town meeting potentially but I think the timing of that would be an issue or if there were a special town meeting I suppose but other than Town Meeting acting on that I mean there is no ability to create a reserve in the law specifically for that but they understand depending on how this works transportation could be a nightmare there's lots of things that could be in a extremely difficult thing for us to accomplish and so then they understand that I think a more that more free cash the better for the town as a whole because I think there will have to be adjustments throughout the town in and off of that mr. Kylie
019what what did we end up by churning or paying to our bus contracts was the 50 percent or what was the agreement that was made what I had what I had discussed was somewhere in the range of 50 percent like I believe I had mentioned that with us last time we have not paid anything we do not have an agreement in place and I can just say that I'm working closely with the bus company but also working closely with other communities who are in the same position as us and who also have not paid so there's that there will be there will be an adjustment it's we certainly won't be paying the full cost I can say that I would be not in favor of paying more than 50% wouldn't bring that to you there's
020some discussion of a range of as low as 30% with some communities but none of them have reached agreement so what we're all working on it together and it's it's that difficult somewhat challenging process now understood but as of right now there's nothing in place there is not technically we have a contract and we have encumbered funds for to pay our entire contract which we do at the beginning of the year for regular education transportation and so it's encumbered we could actually at June 30th leave it encumbered if we had not settled my hope is that in the next two weeks we'll be able to reach settlement pay it get done with this whole thing and move on okay we shall say all right well thank you for updating us on that so do we
021do we did a motion to authorize you to transfer between lines yes please yeah all right mr. chair yes yes mr. means mr. chairman I'll make a motion that we allow the assistant superintendent of Budget and Finance under policy dbj to make them necessary budget transfers at year-end to balance out the budget as needed and to provide us with edge list of adjustments you know that are when they're available sure Thank You mr. Nunes as we always do as he always does all right so I have a motion on the floor by mr. Nunes a second by mrs. Amaral on the motion any further discussion on a roll call vote okay you give us a roll call Chris Oliver yes Carol Carol Fotis yes Kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes Thank You Kate motion passes
022unanimously next up vacation buyback matters would like this one was mr. Kylie or dr. Gifford mr. Kylie easily conversed about it but he has all the numbers Oh perfect I'm having all the fun tonight so I forwarded included in your packet was a memo regarding vacation buy back so some of our staff our year-round staff have been unable to utilize accrued vacation time due to this pandemic there are varying varying this varying contract language in place regarding their ability to carry forward days and to be honest some of these folks it would not be in the school districts benefit to have them carry forward days because we are going to need all hands on deck in order to accomplish what we need to accomplish moving forward so I would recommend that we that the school
023committee authorize a buyback and to compensate for a crude time that would exceed the carry-forward thresholds for the following groups custodians full-year secretaries maintenance staff non-union secretaries and technology so the total I can go through individually but the the total for the total potential buyback would be thirty two thousand two hundred and fifty five dollars and 11 cents I think for for our purposes it makes sense to buy back rather than have all these days on the books that people are the other option would because we could allow to carry forward more days and negotiate that with those groups but it will be problematic in terms of folks having to wait too many days for us to accomplish the task at hand to get ready for the next school year so I guess my question
024is mr. Kiley even with these buybacks is is the intention that everyone will it will carry over at least five days is that built into the contracts a standard across the board yes it varies from contract to contract how many days so in some cases it's ten days some cases it's five days but yes this is these days would be over and above the maximum carry forward perfect and just from my own knowledge are we looking at how many weeks are we looking at where the most that someone would we'd be buying someone out of three weeks two weeks any idea yeah we we have some folks with as many as three weeks vacation that they were unable to use you know probably planned it but obviously circumstances being what they are you know weren't
025able to to use those days all right I'll just go you know go and say that I'm in favor of a bot of the buyback I think that Dartmouth I think us as a as a school district and a school committee I think we've done our best and I think we've done a really good job that the group of us to really take care of our staff as much as we can and I really hope that people recognize that because you know I want what's we need to take care of each other we need to take care of our students it's really important that we we're all in this together then will we get through this together so those are just my two cents any of my other colleagues have any comments or questions mr.
026Nunes yeah thank you Thank You mr. chairman mr. Kylie I'm gonna kind of make an assumption that most of these carryovers is because people had plans just for discussion purposes they were going to Disney World and of course you know with the covert 19 they were unable to go to Disney World so that vacation got canceled there's no place else they can go right you know typically I mean there will be people who you know school vacation week obviously is a is a popular week for folks and no one was you know able to really do anything at that point in time and it's yeah unfortunately I think people would normally plan things and we don't have people normally turn back vacation days so usually folks will use vacation days now to be clear this
027is just vacation days yeah so personal days if they haven't used them they lose them if they if they're more than what they can carry over and sick days are subject to their own language in the contracts this is strictly vacation time that was crude and and really is owed to them in one way or the other the only option would be to allow additional carryover or pay oh thank you okay thank you Jim anyone else all right so I'll entertain a motion to approve vacation buyback as stated by mr. Crowley and as found on the memo addressed to the School Committee I'll second that AB emotion by mr. Nunes a second by dr. Cara focus on the motion any other discussion Kate and a roll call vote please Chris Oliver yes Carol Carrodus yes
028Kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes motion carries unanimously thank you thank you Jim Thank You Kate thank you for your support and I believe we're gonna continue with the Jim Kiley show summer maintenance projects okay so I normally would would send you a list which I'm sure you were all familiar with and I and I haven't done that yet I certainly be happy to provide you one for the next meeting I'd like to highlight a few things and some that are you know relevant to town meeting coming up so we have items some items recommended by the Finance Committee by the capital improvement planning committee by the Finance Committee by the Select board and you folks that are on the agenda for the that xx to be approved some of which we we'd hope to
029accomplish this summer if possible it's quick turnaround and there's a whole set of logistics and the ability to order things is the availability of items is is challenging but we are going to make efforts to accomplish some things so the things on that town meeting agenda are physical security improvements which are largely focus [Music] it sounded like a train like a train in your backyard yeah that was not me at any rate so physical security improvements camera project bleachers at the Quinn and middle school art equipment at the high school which would be the photography equipment that is deteriorated and needs replacement and the big one would be the boiler retrofit and replacement at the middle school that one we will we've already worked were working with our utility company and we have also the
030town has applied for Green Communities funding to coincide with that so you'll remember we did the big project at the high school a few years ago and we'd hope to continue that with working on the middle school this would not accomplish the entire project but it would be a substantial improvement and should be in a quite an efficient improvement that would save us some money in the long run so those things are all on the Town Meeting warrant for the 20th the other items that we're going to focus on this summer are class we're doing classrooms at the middle school flooring projects throughout the district we are we are working on finishing the locker room projects which had mostly impacted the high school but also the middle school to some extent and the other thing
031that is on my mind that I think is to be I don't know well we shall see what what it looks like is what kind of adjustments are we gonna need to make to these facilities so we know as much as we need to be what from a budgetary perspective we need to be flexible from a maintenance perspective and a facilities perspective to figure out okay if we're starting school at the end of August that's not a lot of time to adjust to whatever but recommendations the Commissioner of Education hopefully has for us fairly soon so but the good news is you know I have a Rick Ferreira who's amazing in terms of his you know his abilities to get to get things done we are a little short-staffed on the on the facility side
032we had a resignation and we have someone injured so we're short-staffed but we're gonna get done what we can and focus on the priorities obviously thank you Jim any questions for mr. Kiley regarding summer maintenance projects good no I'll just I'll sound like I'm getting an echo sounds like it's gonna be a busy summer it does sound like it's gonna be a busy summer and I appreciate the fact Jim that you've taken the time to realize that we we need to be flexible with maintenance and who knows what the guidance is going to look like and what types of whether it's Plexiglas barriers whether it's stations I don't want to speculate so thank you for the update [Laughter] anyone else all right that is it for mr. Colley's portion of the show take the rest
033of the meeting off mr. Cogley no I'm kidding I'm kidding a superintendents update dr. Gifford sure thank you so obviously the big deal for this week was the graduation the parade I know most of you if not all of you were on the route somewhere and I think it went off the attack it was fantastic the excitement in the air even at the high school in the morning when I was there waiting around mr. Nunes was there as well kids were excited and then watching the virtual ceremony after to me it was just incredible and I've seen a lot of other communities and not that I want to compare but I think we did a very good job as a whole as a community and the one thing one thing I really came away with
034it also is that I think this was a really good thing for the community the energy the excitement and people coming together and rallying around the the graduates so I invited mr. Tebow to our meeting tonight because I really wanted him to say a few words about mr. Perotti excuse me cooperation and help from DC TV as well of course but mr. Perotti has been a shining star not only through graduation but throughout all of this as you know the videos I've made on my phone he's edited he's put out so anyway I don't want him to have a big head back there but I wanted to surprise him mr. Tico come in and say a few words about the work that he's been doing Christy bow thank you thank you for inviting me and
035I really appreciate the ability to come in and speak about mr. Perotti and I can just say this I knew this morning the graduation was over because for the first time in a week I didn't have a text message at 6:00 in the morning from mr. Perotti who had already started editing for the day and I'm hoping that he doesn't text me at 9 o'clock tonight either to let me know that he's done for the day all joking aside though he handled all of the edits for the commencement ceremony but on top of that I think we can lose track of the fact that he's a teacher first and so he continued with enrichment lessons for his kids he continued to oversee we had the scholarship and awards ceremony last week as well and I'm
036gonna ask the superintendent that at the next school committee meeting we can invite the students from the DHS TV media production there are three or four students in particular who really helped but mr. Parvati from mr. Perotti provided direction to them while he was making the edits for the commencement ceremony as well last week so you know each day it was it was long day they were long days to film the individual aspect of every student walking across that stage getting their diploma turning the tassel all of that but mr. Perotti was able to kind of stay ahead he got the footage each day he was the last person we are at the end of each night because he'd come in and get the footage from decent TV so he could immediately stop you know
037again I can't stress enough if everyone had mr. peratis can-do mindset we could do great things and we do do great things but there's never a time we've gone to mr. Perotti and said can we do this or he said no figures out a way and I think it's a testament to the great work that goes on in our community and he really exemplifies the mindset that I think we we all should embody and embrace you know and again I just want to stress one last time the fact that he's a teacher first you know it would have been easy after all the extra hours you put in you know he was there at the parade yesterday filming with the drone after all those extra was I don't think anyone would you know fault him
038for taking it easy today but he's exting me about he set up a virtual field trip for his kids in the program to visit virtually URI because they just made a large investment to their program the immediate program and he let me know that last week or a couple of weeks ago during the shutdown his class took a virtual field trip to a university in Florida again that's got a strong media program so the amount of work mr. Perotti does the quality of the work and if the party does its people like him who made yesterday in the past week so positive and then while I have the the floor here real quick I also want to thank the members of the administrative team at Dartmouth high school as well because again I know is
039five minutes for each individual student but when you have two hundred and fifty nine students in a class the time that it took to film it was well worth the investment but the administrative team worked around the clock for those three days and so I just would really like to recognize and thank Rachel sha ba Mike Martin rich Gill Andrew Crisafulli and and Bridget de Silva because it really was a team effort that all possible so again thank you for allowing me to come on and and to really highlight the great work mr. Perotti did and continues to do for us well thank you mr. Tebow as as I said in my email I think that I sent out to you and your administration and dr. Gifford as well as mr. Perotti because I know
040the time and the effort that it takes is that you you're very fortunate to have someone and yeah like you said let's not make mr. peratis head go too big but you're very fortunate to have someone of his caliber and at Dartmouth high school and be able to put together the types of projects that he does so kudos to to rob but also to your entire team for putting together the parade that I thought the parade was phenomenal a lot of energy a lot of heat and it was dr. Gifford hit the nail on the head with it brought the community together it was just great to see Elm Street just lit up with people the village over right over the bridge and Ponte Gansett and all the way down sloping road as they followed
041behind the parade after it and there was just a lot of happy faces and I think it was good to just get the community together and and just get everyone out to see our graduating seniors so thank you very much for stopping by to to share that with us thank you for providing the opportunity really appreciate it Darryl has something oh I didn't I don't see her on screen Carol you see me all night mr. Oliver my other tab I just want to echo what everyone had said and the thing that struck me the most well first of all I look tat the number of students that were going up there and I couldn't imagine how much time it was taking for you to be up there and your team to to have each student
042be up there getting the diploma and their family being there in the pictures but I think the the parade and I was thinking about it all day yesterday after watching was how the community really was excited about our graduates and I can read somewhere one of the social networks that should be done every year celebrating our kids and I know all these these take a lot of time and a lot of work and I know mr. Perotti has been a great asset to our system and I would just say the leadership to of a high school because I know sometimes we have great people on staff but there are times when the leadership doesn't want to take any risks so thanks to you your team everyone involved our school administration and of course everyone at
043Bush Street for their support and enabling this to go forward so thank you thank you and I want to speak for dr. Gifford but I'm all in on a parade every year I do think that that was we have to send very special thank-you notes to the police and the fire department though the idea you're on that and I think for thank-you notes it's it's often email is expedient but I like a handwritten note sometime so we are we are in the front there in snail mail unfortunately by the way we really appreciate the police department they were with us from day one in terms of all the planning that went into it you know so we really appreciate that as well as having the fire apparatus there as well was was a nice touch
044and then I just wanted to comment one other thing our photos mentioned she mentioned all the hours that it take took about 24 hours of footage of real time and so again I share that because it highlights how much editing mr. Perotti had to do he compressed hours into that 45 minutes that the ceremony took so you know it really was a bit of editing to do so I loved it seamless nice job yep mr. Nunes and then he will go with this is a morale Thank You Kathleen wants to go for us go I'm good with that ladies first well thank you no I just echo it what my colleagues said and you know I know we're in the beginning of the alphabet being the a but you know it was just a wonderful
045experience and thank you for everyone that really put the effort in and you you made it welcoming you made it comfortable and it was the graduation and then that parade was fantastic I just I really just echo what my my colleagues have said and just thanked everyone I just enjoy mr. Perrotti is enthusiasm for what his ideas and and and as you said that mindset that really makes things happen and and that leadership that brings people in really all of you have made a difficult time enjoyable memorable and yeah thank you for for making it as special as you did No thank you mr. Nunes I think it was Thank You mr. chair yeah I've just gotta echo everybody I mean with a great job I was at the high school yesterday wanting to see
046the students often boy the excitement you you know you think of sports events everything else the the excitement in the air was unbelievable with these students and even the faculty that was there and I gotta tip my hat to you know the class advises that were there and some additional faculty you know they were walking all around because I guess they were judging the cause is you know who got first who got second you know honorable mentions and everything and you know they just the the faculty of themselves did a wonderful job I mean go back and watch that graduation you're right it's seamless you you just go right down the line with the students you know the way they you know picked up their diploma stood there you know the moment of fame and
047congratulations to them the what ceremony I watched that right after you know and the way you know that was done mr. Tebow was perfect absolutely excellent and what I really enjoyed in all seriousness was at the end with going through and you know the pitches of the students and the colleges that they're going to and what they're majoring in that was really something to see I mean where we have students going you know you know Colorado you know California Illinois New York Connecticut you know Virginia who knows where else and what they're majoring in I mean you know Computer Engineering mole molecular science geology I mean what our students are majoring in and the classes that they have taken I'm not quite sure how these students are able to juggle all of their their studies
048and their after-school activities and clubs and still take three four or five AP classes a year and get you know one student got a 5 in chemistry god bless them you know I'm just over thrilled I'm just thrilled with what our students did in you know my congratulations to everyone mr. Perotti Peter chasing the crew at DC TV mr. or a Tebow in his administration central office just you know you made what had been a tough last semester I think really really great for our seniors I just want to add one money mr. Oliver also in addition to all the high school staff just going along the parade route and seeing the staff from all the other schools as excited it was just a real like I said a real a real boost for the
049community having gone through you know struggling right now and and all of that but I've never seen an admin team or folks like a mr. Perotti really step up to the plate beyond and come together and do what needed to be done to celebrate our kids and I don't know it was very it was very moving and emotional so I I just it was wonderful could I just add one more thing gonna go on all night about it sure I wanted to thank as dr. Gifford just said I wanted to thank the high school staff because it was great to see the department's the department's coordinated with one another so I know for example the science department was all right on the bridge as we crossed over I saw the counseling department further on the
050art department had some great signs and so all of the high school staff that lined the parade route I really thank and appreciate them because they contributed to make it so special for our kids but the dr. Gifford it was also great to see you know the elementary staff and some middle school staff out along the parade route too because graduation really is I know it's a high school event but it's really the culmination of the work that occurs in the district K through or pre-k rather through 12 so you know on behalf of the high school I really appreciate all of the staff both at the high school as well as pre-k through 8 who came out to support the parade yesterday as well well thank you mr. Tebow and you know I would
051be absolutely be in favor at having a parade every year as well so I think I think there's something many years ago John will remember and probably Kathleen the Dartmouth pride parade that used to take place and you know I thought this kind of reminded me of the Dartmouth Pride Parade and I thought it was just extremely well done and you know our students were very deserving so once again thank you everyone thank you to you both all right yep absolutely dr. Gifford I'm not going to go through all the other year-end events but I think you've been receiving that information the grade five is doing at the schools is doing some drive-through recognitions for the great my students the middle school event two things at the middle school I think a ceremony is june
05211th and gctv will be broadcasting that at six o'clock and the other one I wanted to mention was in case you haven't looked I watched it the they did a nice virtual tour for the six incoming sixth graders so it's on the middle school tab under parents you can watch that video it's really nice and welcoming students for next year so excellent yeah couple of things retirements I did give you a list of retirements and I yeah I'm not sure how you I do have other things before that so yeah I can go over those two with your doctor good for me so let me let me do my other topics and then we can move on to that so as you probably are aware we're continuing to receive guidance from the Commissioner relative to
053not only trying to run a summer school which we are doing virtually but also opening school in the fall so the first real almost I would say concrete set of guidance we just received on Friday was about the safety precautions that schools are going to have to put in place to even open and needless to say you know we discussed it today as a team it wasn't a happy moment as we looked at the guidelines that they're proposing such as and we can go over this a little bit more thoroughly at another time especially when we get the guidance about teaching and learning but the guidance for the things they're suggesting to even open school is obviously things like face coverings mass etc the normal things were thinking of now the hand sanitizing and all
054that but the the idea of that they're saying mandated 10 students up to up to 12 people in a room to 10 students and including the adults 12 people things like that 6 feet apart at all time students staying in their own room all day long with a particular teacher never mind the items that they're suggesting that we purchase between now and school opening which lord knows if they're even available and what a budget is looking like in the meantime but those are some of the things the guidance that is coming out as I said more is coming by June 9th for the esy programs I'm just looking through all this paperwork but there's a lot that's gonna have to be looked at and done as any school district tries to open up in the
055fall with that said the guidance for teaching and learning the Commissioner is set to come out in mid-june I'm not sure if that'll be next week or what but in his words the new guidance will be the items in it will be 80% mandatory so whatever they determine I'll make this up as an example every school district has to do one week split their classrooms and do one week of in personal on-site education and half the class is home remoting in and then we do a remote learn the next week and we switch kit just different models of what they're going to suggest but it'll be mandatory so whatever it is so we're waiting with bated breath so that we can then move ahead with all of this guidance about safety and teaching and learning
056and see what the school district might look like in the fall so that's that's that but the team is you know we're constantly meeting and talking about it helping our principals at least maintain their sections of classrooms that they have now talking about the budget etc of the decisions that we're gonna have to make moving forward so that's all part of it how do they separate kids the number of sections etc so that's that as well a lot of fun as you can imagine and the other thing other than the rest time is that I wanted to talk about for a minute if so much stuff is obviously I wanted to mention to you and to the community that in light of the situation that obviously our country is going through right now I did
057put a and I see you know they had some protests in town this past weekend etc and and I think the community came together and a show of unity if you will but I did put a letter out on our Facebook page and we sent it to home to parents last week and I just want to cite a couple of the things because I want folks to know that here we have been going through this koban saying and then now if I faced with another big issue that affects all of us so I just wanted the people at home to know that we as a district are always all inclusive and all welcoming we I think we through a lot of our curriculum and our teaching and what our teachers work with our students we
058teach about empathy and unity and and just all of that I we one of the things I put in the letter is that we're not perfect and none of us it will never be perfect but we'll never stop trying to ensure that all of our students and our staff and our families are welcome and respected and valued in our district so I just wanted to mention a couple of things that the district does do in light of that and one of the things we're working towards right now is adding more we've already been talking about this book titles to our libraries that include authors that from various races and cultures etc that talk about things from their perspective we in our normal daily routines we we are school class assemblies are always our PBIS rallies
059and that's always about positive and kindness and tolerance etc our second step curriculum k-25 includes such topics we have anti-bullying unit and k-25 as well our health and wellness curriculum six to ten includes very excuse me yeah six to ten includes those kinds of topics as well speaking of cultures and diversity we have a sophomore in ela unit based on the book speak which talks about people being ostracized for speaking their mind and then how they deal with that and it's from the authors from the main character's perspective and then we Lucy Caulkins units that we use and through our reading and writing curriculum K to 5 we address diversity it's through some units that are around a cultural cultural responsible framework and I'm teaching kids about that so I think again there's always more
060work that can be done but I feel good and positive about not only the maybe specific things that we do about culture and race and diversity but also our core beliefs that we practice all of the time when we speak about kindness matters and our anti-bullying and and and those kinds of things that we do in the schools all of the time so I wanted to bring that up and then I think the last thing I had was the retirements this doll of her so I think you have the list but I know that you'd like to mention some of our folks so I'm gonna turn it back over to I think mr. Nunes wants to mention someone and absolutely so let's let's do it this way I'll go down the list I'll read some
061off and we'll we'll discuss a couple of them and there are years of service here so it's always enjoyable taking a having a chance to look over our list of retirements at the end of the year it's also very bittersweet for these individuals and some of them that have spent their careers their endowment their whole life so it's I wish them all nothing but the best in a healthy retirement but we'll start with we have Lynn Vincent from Dartmouth high school social studies teacher she's going to be retiring after 33 years of service in the school department we have Susan Calvin she's the Potter elementary school cafeteria manager another one with 34 years of service to the school department Stevens arrest Dartmouth high school business education teacher 27 years of service to the community into
062this school department we have William Kingsland our dedicated band director that I'll be turning it over to mr. Nunes afterwards to say a few words about him 22 years leading a world-class band Dartmouth high school marching band he will be missed we have agnese Agnes frenzies a school cook at the Quin elementary school 23 years of service Valerie Jelena's a teaching assistant at Dartmouth High School 21 years of service lucy Medeiros also at the quinn elementary school she is a food service worker with 15 years of service mr. kohlrabi do our associate principal at the Dartmouth middle school 30 years of service he spent with the Dartmouth public schools and I will mention about him that he said I sure some of my committee members saw the the wonderful letter that he sent to all
063of us and you know thank you thank you mr. Robie due for your time and for all your energy and and your talent that you've given to the dom with public schools it will it will surely be missed and it's you've done some wonderful things with curriculum like you are brought up in your letter you know we're very very pleased with everything that's taken place at the middle school and thank you for your 30 years of service a wand rodriguez dartmouth high school music teacher 23 years of service heidi Brooks our beloved principal at plata elementary school she takes the cake in this group it looks like the 36 years of service in dartmouth she has spent quite a quite a bit working quite a bit of time and you know we she will be
064sorely missed and I'll go back to her in a few minutes Cheryl Allen D'Mello school grade 5 teacher 12 years of service Robyn Eusebio Dartmouth high school math teacher 22 years of service kathleen de campos she is an occupational therapist at Cushman she will be leaving us with 20 years of service and we have a couple of others they'll be retiring a little later but Sandra Nicholas Quinn elementary school she is a grade three teacher with 29 years of service I see the trend here that once we in this is what makes me proud to be environment in you know beyond school committee is that once people come to Dartmouth it seems as like they don't want to leave and I think that's a good thing I think that's a good thing and last but
065not least we have Maureen Mott savino's a Potter elementary school teacher grade five teacher with 25 years of experience and we wish her the best best of luck in the future so at this time I'm gonna turn it over to mr. Nunes if that's okay if you would like to say a few words in general and about your good friend mr. Kingsland yeah Thank You mr. Thank You mr. chairman yeah BK is he's no no you know it's gonna be missed I saw him yesterday he was also without you why not you know the administrators at the high school yesterday to come down and see the parade and you know he was looking good in that and you know looking forward to his free time and again like any of these administers or an administrators
066that are retiring you know this definitely was probably not the the way they expected their careers to end but you just have to put one foot in front of the other and go I remember when dr. Kelly Hyatt bill and you know it was like you know we gonna miss a step and we just you know move forward and you know continue to take the program to to the higher and better better wins and competitions and greatness that you know as I've said before in a number of meetings you know what you know we're kind of the envy of a lot of groups out there because when I kids are warming up you know their parent you know other groups other schools their parents and their students are you know ringing the area to to
067watch our kids just warm up the way the way we warm up the way we do things it's you know you you practice the way you play you practice the way you perform and you know this you know they're totally focused on what they're doing and that's how they do it so you know yeah can anyone else hear home nah John we can't hear you mr. Nunes yeah we can't we lost you last 30 seconds okay well that figures every once in a while my volume my Wi-Fi goes mobile but no problem looks like you're back now if you want to just take it back about 30 seconds I mean yeah what's the last fight you heard let me put it that way other schools watched our kids proud you know again you know what
068you know we practice we practice the way we play and you know they're when they're warming up they're focused on what they're doing and what they need to get done and they're ready they're ready to go the other one I'm just want to briefly touch on is mr. Rodriguez was you know high school chorus teacher and for a number of you know 23 years and he brought back the musicals that we used to have you know miss when you get hired by mr. Madrigal and mr. King and he brought back musicals and you know they were always sellouts for all the years that he had them you know from you know Once Upon a mattress his first one a funny thing happened on the way to the floor you know Spelling Bee like like you
069can't even think of all of them did grease and he did Titanic so just to name a few but you know again you know they're all gonna be missed they very quickly added them up you know 15 15 15 personnel and there's three hundred and seventy two years of experience going so you know you were right mr. Oliver you know they show up and they never leave which is great thank you thank you mr. Nance any way any of my other colleagues like to say something dr. Kara Fotis first of all mr. all I'm just thank you for doing this recognizing these individuals who have worked in our system and I've contributed in so many ways there are a number of people that I know from having worked with them and some of them their
070children to get Lee school while I was principal over there I it's hot just to name a couple but there are a couple that I work very closely whether one was mrs. Brooks she came home with a I hired her for a first grade teacher kid Lee and what she brought in her enthusiasm have sense of humor you know just lifted us up she also did an internship with me and then once I got her all trained mr. Kelly moved her to Potter school so it was actually you you're taking responsibility for bringing her on board preschool so she has many varied experiences and did she's just she's a great person very dedicated and caring talking about how we treat our what we teach our students about inclusion and social emotional development she was really
071right up front with that right from the beginning when she went over to Potter school and became the principal there again mr. rubadoux his beautiful letter that he sent out today and he's just done such a fantastic job at the middle school and we're gonna really we're gonna miss these people Kathleen to campus with her work with her service dog these Sandra Nicholas I hi actually joining them and Maureen of course was one of my grandchild my granddaughter's teaches there are so many good people on this list and I thank them all for their service and again mr. Oliver thank you for doing this thank you for recognizing them Kathleen would you like to say anything yeah I know looking through the list you know what a good we really were really I wish them
072all well in the retirement but we are really we're going to miss them me Brooke says has been such a partner in the work that I have done in the district with the parents for children who have you know special needs she's always been sharing information volunteering to collaborate and have been very helpful and yeah I just the the years of service it's incredible to see everyone here you know I just wish them well in their retirement thank you soin I will I will just add that there's many of these names that I read I'm I know them well you know they might they interacted with one of my two daughters whether it's in a teaching position or another role but I did over that my course of having two two daughters go through Potter
073elementary school I didn't have an opportunity to to meet with and speak to heidi brooks on a number of occasions and she exemplifies what it means to be a you know have Dartmouth pride and be Potter proud and bleed bleed green I know she said that a number of times and she she's definitely been the backbone of Potter elementary school and I think you know personally nan for some of our other administrators over the course of many years when they're looking for assistance or guidance the the one thing that I'll leave with with Heidi was that she's she always was looking out for her students whether it's reaching out to students because something was wrong making a phone call home and I know all of our administrators do this but to Heidi it was very
074personable personal she really wants to make sure she she takes care and she looks after all our families and what a great rapport and what a great reputation that she's leaving with I'm not only with the students of in the north end of town but also with the staff in that building so I wish you nothing but the best mrs. Brooks along with a mr. Robie do mr. Kingsland and all the rest of our dominant public school staff nothing but enjoyment and happiness in retirement so congratulations I want I guess I just had a couple of things very quickly right under the report of the chair I just like to mention that I'm once again wonderful job by the table with high school with a graduation and making everything flow together seamlessly I know the
075job of middle school graduation is happening this upcoming week Friday Thursday the 11th is the livestream where they'll be doing the virtual graduation and then on the Friday the 12th that is when Dartmouth middle school students will be God doing a drive through to collect their belongings including their diploma as well and hopefully get to see some of their teachers which I know my daughter is looking forward to seeing some of them so hopefully that'll go well we'll have great weather on that and you know during these uncertain times as we continue to move forward and you know look for more information I just would ask the community in general um you know to keep keep in touch with us if you have questions if you have concerns and reach out to central office reach
076out to dr. Giffords office to your building principals if you have students in town reach out to your students building principals the table with public schools faculty and staff we are here to help you you know these are some extremely very trying times and you know we're gonna get through this but we're gonna take it one day at a time and just keep up you keep looking for information look for the read the emails I encourage everyone to read the emails that go out from central office they go out from your buildings with information regarding what school will look like in the fall and as we get information I'm sure that um dr. Gifford and her staff will we'll share it with with the parents in the community at large so that's all I have
077for this evening does any of my other colleagues have anything to share all right so at this point oh and I do is wins wins the general town election do we have a date on that 23 the general town election is the twenty Tuesday the 23rd yeah so we're gonna have one more meeting before then so dr. Kara FLOTUS you we're gonna have you one more time one more time all right I I have a few words for you too before you leave you're not gonna leave us that fast all right so the next meeting of the Dartmouth School Committee is Tuesday June no I'm sorry Monday June 22nd and at this time entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for the purpose to discuss individual personnel contracts and not to return to open
078session so moved and a motion by mr. Nunes a second by dr. Kara photos on the motion any discussion on a roll call vote please so Oliver yes carol care for this yes Kathleen Amaral yeah John Nunes yes thank you everyone be well be safe have a good night we'll see you shortly Charley