Dover School Committee & Dover-Sherborn Joint School Committee Meetings of 6/13/2023

001[Music] thank you so we need mantis so my son comes home now intellantly with like a metal around his neck and I'm like this just looks a little bit weird like weird it's for uh he scored high on the Latin task I think that's so cool he's been preparing us that he's gonna fail this entire year [Music] that was a surprise hon that's awesome that was cool for you [Music] know what my dad was like my dad was really good it was really good in all languages all right guys happy Tuesday evening welcome hello how are you good yeah good Jesse Martha have you met Don Victoria ever since Administration hi Jesse nice to meet you welcome thank you um Denny is at his son's Pre-K graduation so he'll be here for the 6 30

002meeting but not the 5 30 meeting that's so cute he was so excited all day [Music] yeah yeah I think this is the day yeah right yeah and I oh here comes the photos there's Roman oh my goodness [Music] Pre-K graduated kind of like forget what that's like isn't that weird [Music] maybe they'll move from Ashland to DS yeah so just goalie yeah I spoke to her she's coming oh when she gets here um Denny made me promise that I will get a photo of the five of you so that we have on hand if we ever need it instead of chasing you down when we do need it which is hard to get everything in the same place we can even do that at the end [Music] foreign um [Music] who knows organized like

003projects [Music] we do know who's Kathleen Smith from police know who the superintendent there was a superintendent in Brockton who was there for many decades and he was just inducted into the tough Sports Hall of Fame yeah and he was the first student of color or the only student of color at Tufts and he helped desegregate Brockton school so like he's I mean he's like 90. oh wow yeah for the reason I feel like she um great support should I text goalie are we gonna get started okay I'm gonna jump in because you already have a foreign [Applause] okay great all right good evening everyone and welcome to the June 13th 2023 meeting of the Dover uh school committee I it is 5 31 PM I am Beth McCoy the superintendent and I'm calling this

004meeting to order the first order of business is to welcome our two new members Jesse hole and Martha Castle thank you so much for joining uh the team here and we're very excited to have you feel free to ask questions along the way it's a good reminder to us that we stop and explain things as we go for our new members but feel free to ask thank you happy to be here that said we are starting with a new leadership opportunity so I would like to ask if there is a nomination for a new chair of the Dover school committee yeah Jeff Cassidy uh I've had the privilege of working with with Liz for the last two years and I think she shows commitment to the Dover Schools and education in general um I think

005she has the best uh best ideas and wanting to make sure all the kids are successful so I would like to nominate Liz Grossman for our new chair thank you thank you any other nomination is there a second for Liz a second book Martha a second any discussion all in favor okay are you in favor and adjusting yeah all right that's unanimous congratulations Liz thank you the meeting is all yours okay I believe the next order of business and reorganizing is we need to nominate a secretary does anyone have a nomination for secretary yeah I would like to do that here at the moment but I would like to nominate goalie as secretary as uh having now one year of experience on the on the team I think she would be well suited taking over

006a second period do we have a okay second all in favor raise hands discussion any discussion no any opposed okay that was a unanimous vote great okay moving on next we have Community comments is there anyone here to make a community comment before I read the Preamble anyone online there's nobody on Zoom looks like the answer is no we all agree we'll move on okay the first order of business is um we have our PTO current president here Betsy police um we would like to welcome you you were private previously the vice president of the PTO and we're just moved on to taking over um she will be giving us a brief update on this year's pto's accomplishments thank you um for my water I've been talking all day very best here we had our

007transition meeting this morning our last meeting our party and then I'm here so I've been talking about the PTO for like you know 12 hours um so a lot of familiar pieces here well hello um for those of you who don't know me um my name is Betsy police I um I've been in Dover for five years this is my fourth year on the board and I went up through treasury um VP this past year and then for next year so incoming president and I'm here to give you an overview of our year just like tell you what we've been up to I love lots of fun stuff happening um this up here these are the high points I'm gonna just I'm gonna go through them and then just kind of hit them in detail

008a little bit more so you have a little more detail but um so the first thing is we were able to host our full Fleet of in-person events this year which is very exciting the first time since 2019 so we did a little bit better the year prior but this year everything really wonderful because a really big part of our community is being able to gather and to meet people face to face and so it was hard having years where we couldn't do that especially being the PTO trying to pull people together so being able to very exciting so this year yay um second we ran 35 curriculum enrichment programs for PK through fifth we spent a little over thirty two thousand dollars doing so and these are all additions to the classroom curriculum so

009what we like to do is call ourselves the sprinkles on top of the beautiful cake that is already in sugaring schools curriculum so we sprinkled 35 curriculum enrichment programs this year and um and they were really really enjoyable for all the kids we supported our Educators with 11 700 in discretionary funds that is doled out in increments of 250 per educator and we had a record setting 90 of Educators in the classrooms submit for their discretionary funds very exciting for us we've been trying to up the number for years so 90 is very strong um and then we uh so 90 of classroom teachers and 75 of Specialists so it was a high high amount this year uh we supported our teachers with seventeen thousand dollars in teacher grants that is our typical five thousand

010dollars and then we had a surplus of twelve thousand dollars from our auction that we chose to using for Grants so we did so well in our auction um in 2022 that we were like we are going to take this group recruiting money this twelve thousand dollars and we're gonna accept Grant proposals and so um we were able to develop the money in that way which was I think um really great I hope we can do it again the next auction I hope we're not successful because that would be that would be great um and then lastly 3700 in Hospitality that's teacher appreciation week that's dinner snacks gifts all the fun stuff for the teachers and um and we love doing that that is fun lastly we had a very successful fundraising year we had

011our check writing year this year um we totaled 50 we noted sorry 57 203 um which is high our goal was 35 000. so um it was a very strong check reading campaign so these are the events and Community outreaches we were able to run this year I won't go through all of them I just want to pinpoint too so International cultural night is one of it's a fan favorite everyone loves it and um it's it's arguably our biggest night um it's hard to tell how many people comes not like we we check however I did print out the task force I printed out 450 and they're only about 30 left over 400 kids um you know filling out their passports and going around to the different countries cultures and regions so that was very

012exciting and um that is typically in the fall and um the second I want to talk about was steam day so this is new it's a male girl it was run by a resident board scientist Randy Benson if you um if you know her she's incredible and she planned all of the events for PK I'm sorry kindergarten through fifth and just to give you a visual we all know the walkway by the kindergarten it was filled all day long with kindergarten through fifth grade doing steam projects got you know gathering around tables working together building things um and it was so great to watch I mean it was really really wonderful I wish I put up pictures I wish I had pictures I can afford them later the smiles it was something new it was

013something exciting we did it right before Memorial Day weekend and it like it just was something fun to do when some kids take off the other ones were there and they asked you all the fun things so um so all the kudos to Randy Benson who who planned it all I was only the Amazon Shopper she really um did an amazing job um two things that input up there is we did the cereal box challenge I just want to say that because it was so so cute it was to benefit a place to turn they needed cereal they reached out to us because we partnered with them frequently and they said we are in need of cereal shelter bear so we had kids and families bring in spirit boxes of cereal we're able to line

014the hallways and do a domino all the way down the hallways of Chickering just send those pictures too because that was really really fun thank you okay um this is all the curriculum enrichment program that we were able to run this year um I won't go through any of that you can just gaze upon that list of amazingness um but one thing I'll say is that Amy Collins uh and Randy Benson took a really uh close look at the programming this year and they met with all of the teachers after last year and they asked them they said what is it you are hoping to assist the kids in seeing outside of the classroom like what is it you want to bring to their eyes that is not part of the curriculum that you're already

015offering and that was the question they asked and so they started peeling through the things they've been doing year after year and while they you know are amazing and great they found things that maybe they didn't want to repeat so we have a lot of new things up there and we're actually by doing that we're able to shave down our curriculum enrichment uh budget as well so not not an on purpose but just a repercussion of the situation so budget fun stuff um all the numbers you'll see on the left um this is our projected budget for this year we um estimated net operating income a loss of thirty seven thousand dollars seems like a lot that is very typical for a check rating year um we try to offset our losses during check writing

016year with surpluses during auction year and that's just how we run our budget we also are incredibly conservative in our budgeting so we estimate um higher expenses and we also estimate lower income just so that we're not surprised by anything we don't like surprises so what we ended up um netting was a net loss of eight thousand dollars you can just see won't go through it however um curriculum enrichment came in lower teacher support typically comes in lower but again there's a higher number than usual because of so many taking their funds um events Community administrative all of that is very typical so that's how we ended up we were very well positioned after this year that's it that was this year it was such a great year that was this year so this is

017next year and the sport is super talented I'm so thrilled I'm so honored to lead them through the year um each one of these ladies knows what they're doing and the role that they're in um they all are energetic excited to be there and it's going to be a really really great year this is what we have planned so far so we've had a little um little powwow about next year we have a few things on the board uh we have our typical on the right events we have their dates it looks very similar to most years the only difference is we're going to bring our parents night out to the fall because we're trying to connect the parents earlier as much as possible uh with some of the feedback we're getting is that while

018we do do a great job with Community you know getting the um connecting the parents sorry we do a great job with that and they do complement tests with thank you we still feel like sometimes it's too late in the year so we're trying to do it earlier in the fall get the parents together get them meet each other and that is like specifically the younger parents I just want to like just many people so all that looks game for the most part the left side a couple of things we're going to try next year so we're gonna try to up the Chickering swag we've had a lot of requests for fun items um so we're going to pre-purchase some things over the summer have them for sale Dover days um welcome back picnic and

019then the events we think that'll be fun and you know um also bring people together and stuff on uh we want to I'm just gonna say the last thing we want to do really is try to increase our onboarding for new families that was some feedback we got as well is that again while they do know who to contact it still is taking that leap is difficult when you're a new family member as much as you want to show up to an event and meet people walking into a room where you know one or two people and they might not be there it's not easy so we need to work through that a little bit and try to to bring them along more than we do um and that is also the last point there

020with additional volunteer opportunities we're adding in happy to help volunteers people who don't want to commit to a year-long anything and our ads that are happy to come in and help us so we've gotten that every time I add slots to that they fill up in five minutes so um plenty of people are happy to help apparently oh and on the very last thing this is oh I'm sorry that's not plastic I'll just say um Spring Auction but I can talk right here um so our proposed budget the numbers are very big um but sustainable so this is our auction here we plan on high expenses and we plan on high income so while we do have a loss a net loss up there again we are very conservative in our budgets and we anticipate

021that when the actuals come in it will be a surplus that is what has happened every auction year since we've been doing auctions um and so in reality that will probably be a net net income of probably plus 15. um in the end you can you can check check me that next year but we remain sustainable we can run everything we want to run and our Spring Auction our grow school is 80 000 it's 80 percent of our expected income yeah just you can see um our income is our auction we have a few other fundraisers but it's primarily auction and then our expenses our biggest expense is curriculum enrichment per usual followed right up by classroom and teacher support fundraising comes in next and then we have our little stuff that finishes up that

022pie and Julia cabin made those beautiful pie charts for me thank you Julia um yeah and so we're looking forward to a great year thank you all for having me please keep the lines of communication open if you have anything you want to talk about ever you know how to find me um and just lastly from the from the PTO thank you all for what you do congratulations to our new members our new chair um and we're excited to work with you this year thank you yeah thank you for all you're doing for the PTO and thank you to the BTO you certainly make checkering a special place um does anybody have any questions A1 yes do you know for the teacher gifts on average how much each teacher have has or like if there's

023any numbers behind like the different variation or variability among teachers and what they receive in the teacher gifts so teacher gifts like grandparent teacher guests but I'm sorry the like the funds for discretionary funds for teachers yeah so discretionary funds they each are allotted 250 and almost all of them take that full amount if they go over so what we do is we request receipts for submission so that's just how our accounting Works we've had some talks of ways that we could streamline giving them the money in the end we do sort of need the receipt you know at transaction um just for our accounting purposes so we'll say like if they go a little bit over they'll still receive just 250 if they go under they'll you know receive up to 250 they can

024submit more than one time in a year so if they want to use 105 and 150 spring we'll take it twice we try to do whatever we can to help them take the money um so on average I'd say most take the full amount if they submit is my answer very few will do a partial submission but it would be fine and the grants is on top of that they can apply my grandson's house with that so we have a grant period at the beginning of the Fall um usually the month of September so if they want to submit for some of the five thousand dollars they just they write it up and they send it in our vice president handles the reading of the grants and accepting of the grants so no I just

025wanted to say thank you so much for all you did this year it was amazing to see how the curriculum enrichment program was um reshaped and uh in a way that the budget was also was more efficiently done and also I wanted to complement the PTO on the newsletter format I think the newsletter format was changed and I think it's much better to navigate through it and click on the CE programs that each class had so I think it's these are all exciting changes thank you so I will say that our fearless leader Tinley Gilbert who's an incredible president I mean she truly gave it all and she's as we most of us know an absolute ray of sunshine you know she fussed in and and happiness follows um and so she she did the

026newsletters and she worked on that I know she did so she will be appreciative of that and then I would have to say that curriculum enrichment really like Randy and Amy working on they did a lot of work and it was primarily over this so I always try to just whenever yeah it's not it's not in the typical time frame you would think of working for on the PTO they do it a lot of off hour so um they're amazing thank you yes thank you have a great night I know [Laughter] okay our next agenda item is the superintendent report great thank you good evening everyone um my update is brief because I'll have an opportunity to update all three committees at once at our 6 30 meeting um I would just like to recognize

027our Educators and our leaders who um organize several end-of-year activities for our students it seems like when we get to the end of the year on the energy level of students ramps up for kids and down for teachers as we run out of steam so thank you for pulling deep from your your reserves of energy to make all of these activities happen including steam day all of our Field Day activities everything special and unique to Chickering so thank you um graduation I'd like to recognize the 149 students who graduated from Dover Sherburne High School two weeks ago um obviously half of those belong to the Dover Community so congratulations um and they are all they all crossed the stage and many wonderful stories of resilience grit perseverance there of course some who just ran and

028kept running they don't need us anymore others who said Thank you and others that needed a little help across that stage so lots of great stories for each one of our students um I'd also like to recognize the retirements from Chickering we have Steve Hart our technology director who is retiring and we have Ken wadness our grade five teacher educator for a long time who are both retiring both big losses to the tickering community and have certainly left their mark on many students and the school moving forward that said there is always a silver lining which is that we've been able to hire some new folks so thank you to Dr reinemann Mr Carnes and all the teams of teachers that have sat in with you on interviews and mock lessons fabulous new Educators coming

029on board full of excitement full of ideas to engage in and enrich the classroom for our students so I think that new blood in that new perspective is going to do wonders for our district so thank you for your hard work there um and that's it for me at this point I'm happy to take any questions or comments I have one question the and maybe I don't know who can answer it the new technology person are we going back to the old model are we staying with the current model I know there were kova got things weird and just wondering what's the plan to ever wants to answer that in the absence of Mr Conklin yeah all that and more so some of the um well the a lot of the support the tech support

030that Mr Hart was providing um Mr Gaffney will be doing as well uh we're also looking to have Mr gappy doing a much more instruction back in the classroom now that we've got our schedules mapped out we're still big fans of the co-teaching model so if I'm teaching a research project in grade two instead of me being the sole teacher teaching research and navigating websites and databases technology teachers there as well the all-time favorite keyboarding in third grade yeah so those those stamp you know it's old standbys will be there as well and then looking to integrate into more of the wind blocks which you'll hear from the small group awesome thank you anybody else oh hey next we have Dr reinemann with the principal's report all right I'm going to slide over a couple

031seats because I don't want goalie to fall out of her chair good evening um Jesse Martha welcome excited to have you on board thank you congratulations to a goalie and look at this leadership roles very excited um and thank you to PTO which she's going to put for um the financial support emotional support and food grateful I think they're providing breakfast later this week too so we'll be well fed to dig deep again for resources and through the end um Flag Day tomorrow morning I hope it doesn't rain and then our fifth grade promotion ceremony on Thursday we had our rehearsal today I think we all survived um okay and then on Friday which is a half day for students we have our favorite OB joyful um and if you're not sure what the tune

032is just go home and think just say Okay joyful and Watch What Happens because hopefully they will burst into songs over and over and over again and you can thank me later um engineer brings a lot of um wrapping up and saying goodbye and a lot of big emotions I wrote about that in the newsletter parent newsletter last week um it also brings in data meetings joy for everyone um and I want to express my thanks to Mr Carnes and um our coaches Priscilla Stefan Lindsay Weiner and Leslie Campbell and all of our grade level teachers who all met with that crew to look at the end of your data so they look at not only academic data but social emotional data and how did our students do and as the year moves along the

033benchmarks move right you have your beginning of the year middle year ending at your benchmarks and our students came through beautifully we as you would expect had some work to do at the start of the year and make great strides and there's still work to do so um so we're we're proud of the progress of the students have made so was an exciting very deep dive and should you like a deeper dive into it I can I won't be able to fit into the time we have but if you'd like that for the next school for many many we can show you what a dating looks like to get an idea of how that rolls I have our goals in here um for the school Improvement plan thanks to our school advisory Council so thanks

034to Rob Andrews George profino Jesse Holt Colleen Burt Bob Cox Allison Parker Ali material and Michelle Hoffman we have created two large goals um which are in the packet chicken will continue to refine its multi-tiered system of supports or mtss to ensure that all students have access to differentiate curriculum targeted interventions and evidence-based resources to support their academic social and emotional development within the framework of portrait or graduate so the new piece to this is taking the portrait of the graduate which is the work we started pre-covered and making it come alive at Chickering by grade level at the end of kindergarten what is Portrait of a graduate need I know we all love that post to everything I ever needed to learn I learned in kindergarten which is still in our kindergarten presentation we

035did also um so there's a lot there um but what does that look like in kindergarten how to be a good friend all those characteristics and so working with our teachers to to go to those pieces of a graduate so um also with that comes the idea of the what I need block and expanding our offerings Beyond tier two support and looking at how can we do some enrichment at grade levels hence the technology teacher and looking to see how we can push in his expertise to supporting students in the classroom in those rotations that we do through the wind walks the second poll before you go on if I could the um enrichment programs is that going beyond what the curriculum currently provides to challenge the kids more yes okay all right and then

036our second goal is chicken we will continue to Foster School Community freedom from bias and discrimination into as Zach wants me I wish I'd put in both ensure a sense of belonging and Equitable outcomes for all Gerber students through communication curriculum review and policy review uh so a very similar to goal we had before um and the specifics for that are looking at refining Chickering citizens installing Chickering correctly I'm sorry um so the tickering citizens was a grade five program where our students became helpers across the school it was a solid lunch and is ready for a good polish before it comes out again continuing the implementation of teachers College readers Workshop year 305 and continued research and pilot in the math curriculum as well as the SEL curriculums that we were working on and

037of course the new website is going to save everything [Laughter] so flying through there I think you have to do a vote on that but I'll finish my report and then you can do that piece um the handbook changes are in the packet as well we talked about it last time and you asked for a sample so it's simply there I'm taking lots and lots of words and boiling down to a link so that when you go to read the materials it's more digestible um and then the Personnel we had Step Up day yesterday and even five of our new students coming in joined us as well so new to Chickering folks came and as a second grader you get to go and meet all of the third grade teachers and hear about third grade

038so we all went through that yesterday and of course the announcements of who's teaching you which classes are in the packet and you heard about our steam Extravaganza it was an excellent first attempt at an all-school steam piece we're meeting tomorrow actually with Randy to debrief the event and look at how we can more fixing and polishing in making the experience richer for all students so there's the flyby and I'm happy to answer your questions and I'm sure there's bones in here that I probably blew right by so apologies you're good okay we'll Circle back to them okay yeah thank you Dr einemann congrats to making it this week I think you're really close does anybody have any questions they would like to ask I have a question about the Chickering citizens program I think

039it's a great program are you thinking of expanding it Beyond Great fifth grade or you want to keep it to the fifth graders and just add more to that great question uh we're going to keep it with Fifth Grade for right now and add more um ways that they can help across the school okay um some of the options were very popular like helping The Kindergartners get out to the bus and pawing through lost and found not so much so you know so we're looking to do that and make them a little more Equitable you know the jobs were much more time demanding and others so I'm trying to even that out a little bit yeah I'm looking at the sign up and the rotation yeah we did three rotations this year I think we're

040going to try we're thinking about doing two instead don't get me still Yes okay thank you um and making it that you've got a we did a slideshow we got feedback from the kids who did it this year so that we can introduce it to the fourth graders with this is what it looked like these are something specifically when they sign up all right they're getting into yeah and do they sign up themselves they pick the they do but you have to sign it so it comes home and you have to with them make the commitment to and there's a little yeah a little writing piece making a statement for why you might want to be involved with this that's okay oh yeah well it's an opportunity yeah that's nice that's great yeah thank you

041sure thank you I have a question um perhaps a newbie question do you uh would you be able to give just a little bit of background about the math um pilot that you're running and if there's any sort of feedback in the three years that you've done it this is you think you're three of five you said so that's I'll read his work so that's Rita's Workshop okay well if there's any feedback on the successes or kind of work in progress um of the math pilot to date sure um we undertook a a great big Buffet this year I think is the best way to say here we sample there we did a little this a little of that and learned um and learned that we need to do a much deeper dive next year

042um and a much more data driven dive next year so we're looking to bring in full year commitments to a teacher a curriculum um Danny has a whole map this I know I see on this Sunday is it coming up later no not in detail though all right and kindergarten said I want to steal the Thunderman um and so we're looking to pair up across the schools so with grade levels and decide how we can get some good data on what math curriculum will meet the needs of all of our students got it um I'll the spoiler alert there is no curriculum anywhere that meets the needs of all students and it's perfect so everything that we bring in will need something everyday math needed work or we brought it in it came with a

043bazillion manipulatives that we found after a couple years we didn't need we thought we did beginning so we you know as you go through a curriculum for a couple years it changes up so I want to be very clear there's not gonna be a perfect one but we're going to find something that hopefully meets more students and does a better job of differentiating in a way that's manageable for the classroom teacher right certainly teaching two you know one lesson but when you want to differentiate for those who need support and those who are ready to fly creating materials for that which is what we did in a lot of the everyday math yep is a lot of work and we have great stuff we put together so we're gonna need the next year to really

044look at what makes sense so this year is for one grade next year this year was all over this year was all over next year it will also be it'll be um I believe one classroom per grade across the school got it six classes total yes engineering and six at Pine Hill and that makes a team of twelve that can then work together for that this this year was only a sampling of a few lessons from those curriculums for a period of time yep thanks that's helpful so thanks anybody else thank you thank you thank you okay Don your favorite part the warrant report so for new member so Warren is actually just the the big batch of invoices that we send to be paid on behalf of the school um and so we uh

045you have one signer on school committee who signs all the warrants which I don't know who that'll be going forward Liz has been doing it for us but because one person signs we do share with the whole committee um the batches that were sent over and what funds were the expenditures win against so this is just a monthly report you'll see um feel free to always um I always offered a new member sort of like a sit down ABC of finances of school so take me up on that at any time I'm happy to do that I know I did it with Liz I don't know if Jeff and I did it for you but I've done it with a lot of members because there are some financial terms that don't make sense um initially

046my favorite is always we'll talk about circuit breaker and Angie Johnson who's been a member of Sherburne and the region I always thought we were talking about electrical circuits so I would think that sort of you you just take it for granted that everyone is talking your your lingo um so this is what um the vouchers that or that warrants have been sent over to the town of Dover since your last meeting thank you um does anyone have any questions Okay so hop into the monthly report yes thank you um so when every time you meet I'll provide the most accurate or the most accurate the most timely uh statement of Appropriations for you so today's as of May 31st it's broken out by sort of what we call function codes meaning superintendent businesses on

047finance for salaries and you get down to expenditures that sort of by sort of department and then the bottom part is our attic District so again for new members the town the Dover school committee actually oversees all students in Dover pre-k through the age of 22 who attend schools outside of our public schools that sits in your budget so even though there might be a high schooler who lives in Dover who goes out of District it's not at the Region's level it sits in your your budget so I I think by understanding that puts perspective on the numbers a little bit more um so that that's just a piece of information on that um I usually run a narrative that just runs for the whole year and on a monthly basis what's in bold is

048new information but it's nice to sort of have that to be able to refer back so you don't have to look at your old reports the only new information I have this year I'm sorry this month is on expenditures we obviously have closed out our heating oil contract and based on the amount of oil that we used and the more favorable price than we thought we're actually looking at a positive variance in utilities versus the negative that we started out at the beginning of the year so that was great news and one of the highlights of my year and I don't know why is the fuel bid for uh Chickering and that happened a couple weeks ago and we're locked in this year at a rate of two dollars almost like two dollars and fifty

049cents so that's good news and because of that we didn't top off our oil tank which also gave us some additional savings there was no need to top off on the existing contract where we we're going to be paying a higher price So that obviously gave you some savings as well on the added District We are continuing to see fluctuations both in placements and some new placements at the end of the year is when um some cases that have been going for the negotiation say all year long finally start getting settled so what happens is usually we have to go back and pay for the full year I'm anticipating one or two or more of those to bring to you in September but we are looking at a little bit of an increase I think

050it was 270 000 and our last meeting is now up to 310 and we will continue to my guess is see that go a little higher when I report out to you in September but keep in mind that you have the circuit breaker so it's it's reimbursement that we get from the state on our out of District expenses from the prior year the town of Dover acts like that we are not getting that so we budget 100 assuming we're not going to get any reimbursement so that reimbursement is sort of our safety net for where we when we run deficits so at the bottom of your statement you'll see that we're going to be receiving like 1.1 million dollars in circuit breaker so that helps to offset your almost 400 000 negative variance um and

051so that's a luxury sort of that we have here in Dover that it's sort of um makes it a little less stressful for us to worry about where we're going to come up with that funding so don just to make sure I understand it that means that we carry down our budget for a year but then it gets reimbursed by the state the following year exactly for whatever week based on our expenditures at a formula that we you know at some point in time we'll we'll go over but yeah thank you and so the increased expenses that we're seeing in placements this year will actually see the reimbursement for that next year so sometimes you're going to have a you're going to have sort of a a larger circuit breaker so say you have a

052large placement graduated out you're getting reimbursed for that in the next year so all of a sudden you have a little bit of a surplus more than you than you thought so um that's sort of how that equation Works um and then uh just looking at fiscal year 24 I've given you some updates we continue to look at um enrollment so I know we were going back and forth about where we were going to be with kindergarten because the number was a little low for four sections however where we are now and knowing that we have been having additional registration inquiries we have told the school to go ahead and have four kindergarten classes and so then that final position has been posted and So based on this we will have the budgeted four sections

053in kindergarten all of all of our other grades as of June 9th are falling within the budget projections that we anticipated so but we will still continue to look at that but where in a good position to still have room for growth in a lot of sections without exceeding your guidelines is 17 to 22. so that's what we strive for all of our sections to be between 17 and 22. so so Dawn on that are the kindergarten classes will be very small classes they'll probably we'll probably where I think we'll end up is 16 17. so you're right on that cusp that if you don't do that you're going to be right yeah yeah so that's that funny thing where between three and four um you sometimes have that outcome but for a kindergarten that

054would be our preference and so and be also you've already had it in your budget it's been one thing if we were looking and we were gonna have to add it to the budget but it was already there it's already the schedule's already built that way your specials um are already sort of set up that way so in a way it made sense and we were close enough to getting up to at least hitting the 17 that we felt we should go ahead and do it no okay next we are moving on to our second read of the 2023-2024 family handbook we did our first read at last month's meeting Dr reinman correct me if I'm wrong just so our new members know we had some like formatting changes and like you sort of hinted

055at before there was like a link added but not major substantive changes now these are the policies that the district adopted in January um at the joint committee and so um instead of putting in the full text in the body of the handbook because it gets pretty cumbersome we've inserted those links so as changes happen at the district level it's automatically matches up to what we have in place so it has the same Preamble and the same closing required statements but the text that way will definitely match what the other schools have we're hoping to try and get much more in line and cleaner in all of our family and most of that right okay tell me if I do this wrong can I get a motion to approve the 2023-2024 family handbook is there

056a second thank you are there any questions or further discussion all in favor favor and that means nobody is opposed so carries great perfect well done I did it okay try it again yeah um well first we have the first read of the 2023-2024 school Improvement plan which Dr reinman already went over you kind of I don't know if there's questions anybody have any other questions or feedback I know it was in your packet so what will happen now is we'll have our Leadership Retreat um in August for all of our 17 leaders come together and as Denny and I continue to refine our district strategic plan we'll come up with our district goals for next year the superintendent goals for next year we'll put the school Improvement plans for all four schools back on

057the table we might have minor shifts for your second read and so you'll see the second read of the Chickering School Improvement plan in September um and you know you're welcome to provide additional feedback at that time or vote to approve it any other questions okay next we have our consent agenda which included the minutes from our May 15th meeting you guys weren't here um so I was wondering if anybody would like can we have sorry um does anyone have a motion to approve the consent agenda do we have a second further discussion all in favor okay motion carries so next so you had three in favor and two I'm standing here sorry yeah yeah okay thank you um next we have the communications we really go over that or is just like we could

058just talk briefly about it um okay so in your packet our subcommittee assignments with short descriptions um and so if you want to think between now and September about which subcommittees you'd be interested in um participating on if you have questions you're welcome to reach out to myself Don Denny uh Dr reinemann will do we can explain um kind of the purpose of each one some are just Liaisons where you sit down on meetings with your PTO or challenge success and report back out to the committee here um the only thing I want to clarify tonight um is the union 50 membership so Union 50 is what allows both the Dover school committee the Sherburne school committee and the regional school committee to share one superintendent so technically Union 50 membership and that subcommittee only

059really needs to come together if you're hiring a new superintendent I don't know if that's in in your future I don't know what you're planning but that said um usually it's the three senior members on the Dover school committee the three senior members of the Sherburne school committee and all six members of the region who serve on that committee so that being said that would be um Liz Jeff and goalie serving as your union 50 members next year should you need it do you mind providing just like a brief a few words on the elementary literacy sure you missed the math Dr reinemann has already explained technology next year and the math pilot so do you want to talk anything about literacy just in case anyone has questions about the reading workshop model so we

060provided in your packet um a wonderful document that Denny worked with our two Elementary principals on and our elementary coaches for literacy just responding to similar to what we did for the mass pilot how it is that we came to adopt the unit units of study for reading um that was something that had started at Pine Hill um and they had been adopting over time um since I came here six years ago there had been a request from the pine the Chickering Educators for a reading program having reached out to all of the like districts um kind of that we always compare ourselves to and share notes with they were all using units of study um so we piloted them at Chickering we had many of our Educators go to the um teachers Institute at

061Teachers College to do the training those who piloted at first had positive feedback so we continued to roll out the units of study that said we have a comprehensive program it's not just the units of study and mini lessons and conferring and all of that we also have phonics and several other programs including hegarty and intervention systems in place to make sure that we are taking care of both the science of reading and the love of reading together at the same time identifying students who perhaps need some extra supports giving them small doses of extra support and monitoring their progress so it's certainly comprehensive it's not just one or the other it's a mix of both so hopefully that document does I think an excellent job of outlining kind of the rationale of why we

062use the units of study the research behind it and if you have any questions Denny Dr reinemann our literacy coaches would be happy to answer them and that's also available on the website yes perfect thank you any questions comments I think that brings us to the end of our agenda so how do you sometimes say this may we adjourn by unanimous consent anybody opposed anybody of votes all in favor thank you welcome thank you congratulations and now Denny's going to take your picture sorry I was late I had Pre-K graduation yes take your picture should we stand somewhere nice the look who got caught reading is popular [Music] tonight thank you [Music] immigrant welcome welcome oh it's great welcome congratulations [Music] and it should be like that now about my mom specifically [Music] yeah it

063is [Music] [Laughter] I know it's just I know keeping it contained over here Anna Scott's here not here okay [Music] answering yeah I can't feel it into their Pilates today with Jill I think the boys and she she just had surgery to remove her PEC minor muscles that's funny I think we're ready to get started how are you okay all right I'd like to uh call this meeting to order and welcome everybody to the June 13th meeting the Dover Sherburne or sorry Dover school committee Sherburne school committee and the Dover Sherburne Regional school committee it's meeting is commonly referred to as a joint school committee meeting my name is Dennis Quant I'm the chair of the Sherburne school committee and also we'll be taking the role of cherry and the joint school committee meetings for

064this coming year and I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6 32 PM we're pleased to hold this meeting in this open meeting at the Dover Sherburne middle school and we're also live streaming this on DSC TV please note that this meeting is being recorded right um before we kind of get to business here given that there have been a number of Elections and sort of changing of positions I figured it would make sense maybe to just go around and have everybody introduce themselves and give a little background which committee they're on and and whatnot um I can start and we'll maybe go this way um Dennis Quant from the Sherman school committee this is my I think third three and a half year mark on on the Sherman school committee I have

065three kids in Pine Hill Jeff Cassidy on the Dover school committee I have two two kids in the checkering elementary school actually one is finishing uh this week this is my end of second year with the Dover school committee I'm Kate Potter I'm on the regional school committee it's my entering my fifth year um I have three kids two of whom have graduated from DS and one who is almost Aunt Maggie Sharon Regional school committee um this is my seventh in last year on the school committee and my three children are all Ds graduates most recently in 2022. they're grown-ups now I'm Jesse Hall this is my second meeting first joint meeting I am now uh from the Dover school committee and I have three kids uh on almost three-year-old I just turned six-year-old and

066a seven-year-old yeah so and I'm brand new to the Dover committee as well so thank you for letting us join I have two kids one is a second grader at Chickering and the other one is sixth grader at the middle school I'm Angie Johnson and this is my beginning of my second term on the region I filled in for a vacancy last year so I'm actually starting year two and a half I guess is what we call it and um I have three kids I have one who is a graduate of DS she's right over there she graduated in 2020. um and then I have a son who just graduated he did not go to DS but he graduated last week and then I have one who is a rising freshman I don't know no

067more middle school and I'm really sad about that actually my name is Christine Walsh I'm just finishing up my first year on the Sherbourne school committee I have a fourth grader at Pine Hill and a first grader at Pine Hill um my name is Judy Miller I'm the chair of the regional school committee I have two children who are adults now who win K through 12 through the DS system and have both now graduated from college [Music] um is Mark helium entering my second year on the regional school committee committee seven nine and eleven after summer break thank you I'm back at Hammond this is also my second meeting first joint meeting I have two kids in Pine Hill Dylan who's in third grade and Oliver who's in first grade I'm Kristen aberly I'm finishing

068up my first year or starting okay finishing first year um I am on the Sherburne school committee I have three daughters all at Pine Hill one of whom will be going to the middle school next year I'm golisa pair I'm this is also finishing my first year and entering my second year at Dover school committee I have two kids a chick ring one Rising second grader and Rising fifth grader hi I'm Liz Grossman I'm the chair of the Dover school committee this year coming year this is my two and a half years on the Dover school committee I have three kids one in first grade at Chickering and one in fourth grade at Chickering and one in sixth grade at the middle school [Music] I determine the Dover school committee and I just begun my

069term on the regional school committee I have a fourth grader and a sixth grader and um and fourth graders at Chickering and I'm very happy to be here thanks everybody so I guess everybody returning I guess a huge thank you this is an incredibly important responsibility not just for our kids but for the entirety of the community here so thank you those that are new um welcome to the rodeo um definitely ask lots of questions it's a lot of fun and uh it's a great way to get involved and um kind of help further all the work that that so many of us are doing here in the town so thank you um next item is the union 50 reorganization so Union 50 for those that are not aware is sort of a combination of

070members from both the Sherburne school committee the Dover school committee and then all of the members of the regional school committee and the the point or the reason for that for that entity is to carry out sort of the business of the two uh Two Towns collectively in hiring the superintendent and a couple other sort of items and to just make sure that we acknowledge the membership as a lot of The rosters have changed we wanted to just recognize the folks that are that are on that role from the Sherburne school committee it is myself as the chair of the Sherman school committee it's Amanda Amanda Brown um and then it is um uh Christine Walsh as well as the um as a secretary for the Sherwood school committee for the Dover school committee it's

071Liz Grossman Jeff Cassidy as well as police up here and then as I mentioned the regional school committee membership is the entirety of the of the committee itself yeah and may I clarify there's three voting members three voting on the region so those would be those need to be decided excuse me non-voting members who sit in on if there was a union 15 meeting whereas hiring the superintendent it would be all six involved so is that by seniority as well done yeah so that's the most senior members of the region are mag Judy Maggie and Kate great thank you so there will be the voting members not voting members thank you great any other questions we do need to vote a chair yeah chair and secretary all right great so um I would like to

072call a motion to uh well I guess so the chair would be yeah offered nominations for so I would like to offer nominations for the union um and it should only be the people on Union 50 who should participate just the voters or the non-vokers the voters okay so not the legal yeah so the people that he needs those six will elect a chair right there um so does anybody have a nomination I'd like to nominate you Dennis Christine Walsh second any discussion all right so um we'll do a vote um of Justice six members do we have to do individual or can we do all right um all in favor hi um [Music] all right thank you and then for a secretary like to take a any nominations the voting number yeah Liz Grossman

073is the secretary for Union 50. Christine Walsh second um any discussion all those in favor [Music] all right Liz thank you great any other business for you and 50. um so next item on the agenda Community comment uh before we kind of go into that I want to just pull the audience or anybody up here if there are any Community comments yes uh thank you so before uh before you uh provide those comments I just have a quick sort of Preamble just to kind of govern how the information is shared and set expectations around what your roles are and and ours as a committee um we provided a zoom link for those who wish to make a community comment but for whom it's not possible or prefer to not attend in person this evening please

074remember the community comments are an opportunity for members of the school committee to listen to members of the community let's share this meeting it's my responsibility to facilitate this communication between the public and the three committees present this evening I personally believe this communication is a critical element to assist members of these communities with discharging the responsibilities of the positions they've been elected to hold effectively facilitate this discussion I encourage anyone providing comment to consider that the volunteers that comprise these committees are your neighbors your friends and fellow community members we welcome all points of view but I would respectfully ask that you treat them in a manner consistent with that in mind collectively we're here to support the administration who in turn assist our Educators and support staff to educate care for invest in

075and Inspire our children are not a forum for answering questions or engaging in debate we respectfully request that you please make your comments brief no more than three minutes and you move the discussion forward by adding new information please try to avoid repeating points that have already been made once the public comment section of the meeting is concluded we'll move on to other business and unsolicited comments from the community will no longer be permitted this is standard operating procedure in the school committee meetings across our three districts if you desire more information or have specific questions contact information is on the district website okay um so any Community comments sure where should I um speak to you you can speak right there to the entire committee if you just state your name and um you

076know relationship to this committee whether uh reside here or whatnot all right thank you for giving us uh the time to an opportunity to speak today on um the importance of Dei and somehow controversial subject and I've been a music teacher at Dover Sherborn middle school for 24 years I currently teach General music classes and also direct the two jazz bands I am also a co-advisor to the GSA I will begin and end my time with the same excerpt indivisible with liberty and justice for all we hear this and some of us recited every day of the school year I'm not sure who else pays attention to these words every day but I do as a music teacher I work at giving each child a chance to experience their creative expression and fulfillment using music

077as the medium you be here now is a universal idea and concept for Jeff Janice and me you is the most important word of the four and I truly try to get to know each individual student and make human connections I ask each student to find their value as soon as they can what is your value and how will it help your group in the class in other words how do you belong humans need to feel that we somehow belong and are valued so I see diversity equity and inclusion is number one when I teach because each student is included treated equally and highlighted by their diverse selves when I have my GSA cap on I personally think that I'm doing the same things as in my music classes except with a smaller select group

078of students much like the jazz bands are a smaller select group of the concert bands the students who come to lunch with me identify in different ways straight as allies gay trans non-binary Etc I don't know why I don't question them I simply accept them for who they are helping them to feel like they belong in this school and in the group just like in music class Fred Rogers has been a hero of mine since I was very young and I'm going to read a lyric to one of his short songs it's you I like it's not the things you wear it's not the way you do your hair but it's you I like the way you are right now the way down deep inside you not the things that hide you not your toys

079they're just beside you but it's you I like every part of you your skin your eyes your feelings whether old or new I hope that you'll remember even when you're feeling blue that it's you I like it's you yourself it's you it's you I like so simple and yet somehow very difficult for some people when we talk about our GSA friends diversity equity and inclusion for everyone at DS pre-k through 12 we cannot do this without talking with each other and seeking first to understand without bias and false narratives or misinformation Listen and talk as individuals who care about all our children and who they really are and help each one of them to understand that they belong as they are we are all here on this planet as humans communication and community and collaboration

080can we achieve that get together in person when we have ideas concerns and questions I know my door is always open I'll now end with the quote I began with indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you oh good evening my name is Christine Atkinson I've been a classroom teacher at DS for the past 17 years when I decided to make a change from being a manager at a public relations agency to be an elementary teacher I had no idea that Dover even existed what I did know is that I had a love for kids and love sent me down A New Path a path that has led me to right here over the past 17 years A lot has changed some changes have been in my opinion for the better and

081some changes I have really struggled to understand and accept and let's be honest nothing really prepared me for the changes that covet has and still continues to bring to the classroom each day this has been a hard year for many reasons and with all that change I worked to remind myself there is one thing that has stayed the same my love for kids and it is that love that brings me here tonight tonight I have come to say thank you thank you to Beth and Denny for working each and every day to make our schools better than they were the day before thank you to our Administration Devin Jim for being active listeners and for helping me navigate some of the new challenges that I have faced this year I know that all of you

082put your heart and soul into DS and please know that the work you do is appreciated and thank you to all school committee members sometimes making decisions can be hard and all of you continue to show up each and every meeting to make those discs those decisions and move our schools forward I love kids and all I've ever wanted to do is create a classroom where each one of them feels loved feels smart feels heard and feels like they belong because it isn't until a child feels all of those things that they can truly be empowered to make a difference and isn't that what we all want as a DS educator it is what I strive for each day and with all of your support Most states will get there [Music] hi I'm Sarah Collins

083I'm a sixth grade teacher for five years here at DS I'm a team leader and I'm one of the GSA co-advisors and I also wanted to say good evening and thank you to Beth and Denny and the school committee for the support that you have shown in the last year and I'm honored to address you today to share the incredible impact of that ongoing support in our device diversity equity and inclusion work in my experience when we actively acknowledge and embrace the unique identities of our students something magical happens their faces light up their body language relaxes and they become more willing to take academic risk by affirming their identities we create a safe and inclusive space for them to flourish as learners when we explore topics such as a middle eastern civilization it's remarkable

084to witness the engagement and enthusiasm of students who hail from those regions reading articles authored by female scientists empowers our young girls to Envision themselves in as future stem leaders additionally respecting and using the pronouns of our students that they request help them feel seen and validated in their authentic selves by continuously affirming and acknowledging the identities of our students we are nurturing nurturing their growth into resilient confident and compassionate adults it is through these intentional actions that we Foster a sense of belonging and Empower our students to navigate the complexities of the world with Grace however we must recognize that Dei work is still an ongoing process that requires resources and support I urge the committee to continue to support for professional development curriculum enhancements and Community engagement to sustain expand our Dei initiatives

085together let's seize this opportunity to create a transformative learning environment where all students regardless of their background or identity can Thrive by investing in Dei we are not only shaping the future of our students but also fostering a society that celebrates diversity and racist inclusivity thank you thank you sir my name is Jennifer Sunday I am an art educator here at dsms I am also the tech director for our school's drama program and I am a 15-year teacher I have been co-advising GSA this year and it has been one of the most eye-opening beautiful experiences for me as an educator so far as a middle schooler I was bullied endlessly for being different and my drive to become an educator was so that I could stand up and protect my students and create an atmosphere

086for them to express themselves and collaborate with others and feel like their presence here has a purpose and a reason and that they're welcome with their permission I have three Anonymous pieces of poetry written by students in our art lab for GSA where they've used art as a way to express themselves I have not seen these kids up until this point of the Year feel so free and relaxed and happy finding their peers that they feel like they really identify with in their group um this one is a sixth grade student anonymous it says I am proud I wonder what the future holds for me and others around me I hear discrimination against others though I try to silence it I see the people who support me on my journey and I want to be

087understood by my peers I am unique I pretend that I can live through any problems I feel like I could combust into emotion at any point though I'd touch my pencil to distress through my art I worry that I will never be able to truly express myself I just want to be seen and heard sometimes I even cry myself to sleep I am a person too I understand only a small portion of myself though I learn more every day I say whatever pops into my head and I dream of acceptance I try to be the best I can I hope to be an amazing human one day I am proud to be me this one is also Anonymous a sixth grade student I am myself I wonder what other people think of me I hear

088my heartbeat in my ears and I see many fears and show it with my tears I want to meet other people like me but I am scared to let them see into my heart's people and pretend to be straight I feel like I'm trapped in a body that's not mine I touch my face and I worry I am never going to win that race I cry because I feel horrible and I'm sad because I feel like girls are adorable I understand that I will be one day okay and I reassure myself and say I can be gay I dream to be accepted I try not to feel rejected I hope that I can exist and if not I just can't do this they're all very powerful messages from our students and this one was actually

089written by a student who titled themselves human being but an ally who has come to every single GSA lunch budget meeting this year I am supportive of the people created different I wonder what other people think I hear the Happy remarks of my friends who get to be themselves and I see Rainbow Flags diversity in the colors of freedom I want to see people comfortable in their own skin and pronouns I am an ally I pretend the haters don't exist I feel Joy when I see people comfortable in their own skin I touch the hands of my friends to join them in the fight I worry about the mindsets of older Generations I Cry tears of joy at the thought of equality I am a supporter to everyone no matter their differences I understand that

090pronouns are confusing but I still try I say don't fear things that are different I dream of a place where everyone feels safe I try to help the fixed mindsets change I hope to help change the enemy that is adversity I am not lgbtq I am black I am a female and I do support these pieces created by these students show intense bravery and their desire to want to fit in and be treated equally and that each and every one of our students here is unique and we need to raise them up for that not push them down thank you thanks Jennifer so and I get through their formal remarks but we are also here to thank Danny and Beth the dsea and Judy and I have worked with them all year long and it

091is we want to celebrate and congratulate them on a year that has shown us that they have brains they have heart they have soul and they have strength and we are so glad that States so thank you one of your well done [Music] Scott Johnson and I'm preserver and I'm a DS grad I graduated in 2020 as my mom says I just wanted to thank the committee for their Dei work and urgency to continue when I was in the high school we had some incidents of hate crimes and how that was handled was people from those minority groups were put on stage to say how they felt which just felt like an interesting response so I hope that we can keep working towards how to respond better and how to make these never happen because

092that shouldn't have happened to begin with and just hopefully we can seem a lot better thank you anybody else yeah hi I'm Kim Phelan I've been teaching here for 17 years U.S history and Civics I was military before this 15 years in the Army we were doing the era in the Army long before I came here to DS because you can't understand and work together with people who are different than you unless you can understand them and that's the most important part of the Dei work that we're doing is helping kids to understand the world Beyond yes the world beyond their own personal identity their own personal body if they can't understand that they're not going to be a signature they can't be productive today I can't tell you how important this work is and

093we really appreciate the support for it our kids need it they know it they recognize it when they see it and it's something that we need to keep doing things um I just I'm uh have had a request from a citizen to read the statement on her behalf tonight in community comments um so just reading the statement I um I'm Bethany Burke from doverley Brook Road thank you for this opportunity to speak first and foremost I extend my sincere congratulations to the newly elected members of the school committee your Victory is a testament to the trust and confidence that our community has placed in you I trust that you will bring your passion and dedication to the important task of shaping our education system for the better during my campaign I had the privilege of

094engaging with numerous individuals who shared concerns and aspirations for our schools I listened attentively and feel it is my duty to convey the valuable information I have gathered from these conversations one recurring concern expressed by constituents is the need to find common ground on Dei initiatives while we all recognize the importance of fostering a diverse and inclusive environment there is genuine apprehension that some initiatives May silence diverse perspectives or exclude different differing viewpoints to address these concerns we must engage in open and respectful dialogue ensuring that our Dei efforts remain inclusive and respectful of all voices in our community another significant concern raised by parents and constituents is the preservation of academic rigor they fear that the resources and attention that are being devoted to social emotional learning cultural responsive teaching and data-driven systems May

095divert us our Focus away from core subjects striking a balance it allows us to provide well-rounded academic education while addressing unique needs of our students is Paramount transparency emerged as yet another crucial issue many constituents expressed a desire for clearer communication regarding curricular changes and school committee decisions particularly in areas such as safety policy and health education by enhancing transparency and fostering open lines of communication we can build trust and ensure that parents are well informed about matters that impact their children's education lastly the safety of our schools was of utmost concerns parents rightly seek reassurance that our schools provide secure and nurturing environments for children for their children we must prioritize the implementation of comprehensive safety measures including proactive bullying prevention robust mental health support and thorough emergency preparedness plans in conclusion I offer

096my sincere congratulations once again to the newly elected school committee members together let's find common ground on Dei initiatives maintain academic enhance transparency and prioritize the safety of our schools despite our differences we share a common goal of providing the best education for our students we have more in common than what sets us apart and with open minds and hearts we can easily Bridge the gaps that divide us thank you thanks Bethany thanks thank you we have Rob Andrews uh who is online would like to speak I can't either hear you but uh can you hear me I can hear you a little bit but can I can you hear me yeah hang on um Mr Andrews let's see if I can get you on can you try speaking again um I can hear you

097but we're trying to get you on the overheads um say hello I'm happy I'm happy to just start reading if you want for sake of time I know how busy you guys are okay yeah we'll do the best we can speak as loudly as you can so thank you everyone I via email so if if folks want to understand a little bit more that's that's fine too um I find it such a blessing to be able to live in Dover I'm today because after the last few School Board elections I feel that I have to speak up it is clear outside interests or national politics or something has taken hold in our towns misinformation about our schools coupled with anger and fear about the quote other seems to be motivating a small minority in our

098of our neighbors I am unsure of the motivation but in such a small town I hope we can try to build a more civil communication between all of us I know as a two-dad family our very existence seems threatening to some yes we are different our children experience life differently but we also share so many commonalities with most families at Chickering I have been incredibly proud that my children have had Educators who acknowledge our family as a possibility in the world because it's just the truth We Exist I am proud that the Chickering that chick ring formed a rainbow Club my sons have zero interest in joining it but I can imagine what an existence would have done for my self-worth as an elementary school student in if my principal had made that choice times

099were different in the early 1980s though research shows that LGBT youth have a higher incidence of suicide than their peers the work of our schools are going are the work that our schools are doing to be more inclusive saves lives many of your children's lives but more important our neighbors children's lives I understand that there has been some fiery Reddit rhetoric at past school board meetings over the past year as in year 50 I've heard this all before and although it hurts I can handle it as an adult but I think about my friend's children who are just trying to figure out who they are in the world those children who have yet to experience the hate-filled rhetoric so close to home what do they think when the beautiful and resource rich communities such as

100ours as members telling them they don't belong not just what we say but how we speak impacts our children and not just children in the abstract but our Town's children the ones we see riding their bikes to the library to get hot cocoa the ones who wash our cars at the townhouse the ones who play for our entertainment the ones who win sports tournaments bringing us Hometown Pride and the ones who get those outstanding scores on standardized tests that makes our property value rise they hear how we as adults talk to each other and treat each other I know that many people in town are concerned with cultural shifts happening happening around us in many ways I am too perhaps not for the same reason or for the same shifts but I have empathy for

101those fearing the unknown and how it will impact our children with that said remember where we live and who we are as a community we have to treat each other better even if we disagree we have to trust each other and Trust our Educators more many of our school leaders elected and hired are our neighbors not radicals or fascists lurking behind our social media feeds we have to do better for ourselves and we have to do better for our children if you hear something that sounds absurd it probably isn't true our kids are listening to us and need better than what we have just witnessed this past year my life experience and research has shown me that those with the highest degree of disgust or discomfort with homosexuality or different gender Expressions typically are struggling

102with something inside themselves I will give some Grace to those who have said some hateful things because they are most likely struggling with something in their own lives but we have to do better we all need to give each other some Grace and have empathy for those different from ourselves we only learn more about ourselves when we encounter the richness of what what Humanity has to offer our own beliefs solidify when we encounter difference I know in a public school our children will encounter many ideas that are not necessarily compatible with our espoused with those espoused by our own individual families some from teachers and many from peers it's hard as a parent to give up control and let our children have these unscripted encounters we are Jewish yet one of my son's good friends

103tell him often that Jesus is perfect I have not complained to his teacher nor to the children's parent to the child's parents rather this opens up a wonderful conversation at home about our belief system and how we respect and befriend people different from ourselves while holding on to our own beliefs this is the gift of a public school it allows for my Jewish Jewish son with gay dads to befriend another child who is clearly clearly loves attending church with her very large Catholic Family it is not what I expected nor did I necessarily want to be discussing at home but I appreciate that this family exists in the world I would hope that other parents would welcome these types of encounters and help engage their own children in the diversity they will encounter outside the

104bubble of their own homes my son and my family are enriched by this diversity that exists and is celebrated in our public school I applaud the Educators who have who have to manage this diversity and all of the cultural differences that public school affords as a former educator there is no amount of training that can prepare you for managing these types of encounters but I can tell you from experience Chickering leaders either do it well or have the humility to seek help to make sure that all children feel welcome thank you to the school board for supporting the efforts to support all of our children from all of our backgrounds I hope that in the year to come you are able to continue this work but also that our community lowers the temperature around these

105issues so that we can Elevate all of the other important things that you are doing at our school I am sorry for taking so much of your time but I feel compelled to offer these words to the community so that we lift up the work that you are doing to be more inclusive it is always messy in public education and I call on my fellow parents and neighbors to lower the temperature so our children are surrounded by the love and support that I know every parent hopes for their children and their neighbors children to receive thank you thanks Robert [Music] everybody else [Music] all right thank you everybody and that closes the community comments section on the meeting um appreciate all of the bad words and certainly things for us to focus on and think

106about in the year ahead very good all right so next item right I'd like to thank all of our Educators for coming and uh you're welcome to stay for the remainder of the week meeting um but don't feel obligated I know that you have two and a half more days of Reserve to rely on [Music] for a tennis report [Music] seeing live stream fast they can watch it and listen to it the whole ride home fantastic there'll be a quiz on Friday afternoon all right um good evening everyone um so my objective tonight is just to provide kind of some highlights from the school year and talk about the work that's going to happen over the summer and where we will pick up when we return in the fall um so I'll be discussing like

107I said highlights uh provide a few Personnel updates summer projects and planning for next year so as you know Denny and I were both new to our roles this year and had the opportunity to engage in the entry process we have already provided to you our findings I will not go over them all again tonight you can take a deep breath um but just a reminder that our strategic objectives moving forward we have five buckets that will be focusing our work for the next three to five years around excellence in Innovation and learning challenging and supporting all students professional learning and growth for our Educators family and Community engagement and safe and sustainable spaces that said I just want to reiterate the strengths that I heard from talking with community members parents taxpayers Educators students

108administrators everyone highlighted many of the same things that make Dover Sherburn so valuable those include our commitment to academic excellence and our desire to have a rigorous education for all students the value and love we put on the Dover and Sherburne communities in terms of valuing Education being small being supportive of each other our educators are certainly well respected and appreciated by our community and our focus on the whole child so balancing out yes the academic excellence and rigor but also looking at the whole child and making sure that we're taking care of student social emotional needs at the same time this year and other highlights we had several Community forums we were able to discuss the findings of our Equity Audits and what diversity Equity inclusion means in our classrooms there are several resources

109that are available on the website there's recordings there's slides there's a 50-page FAQ um also coming out of all of this work both the entry plan and our community forums it was an opportunity for our community to come together and say what is it that we really believe in so again our goals initiatives have grown over the last 10 years so we want to make sure that all of our students achieve high levels of academic proficiency across a wide range of Assessments that they can demonstrate in many ways that we want to make sure we're growing the skills and competencies in our portrait of a graduate that we're nurturing the social emotional Wellness of the whole child and that we're preparing students for a diverse diverse rapidly changing world so all of these discussions this

110year have landed Us in the same place that we will continue to go back to it's also made us realize what we believe in terms of teaching and learning I won't go through all of these before because I know you've been on the forums and right re-watched the recordings and all of the notes and all of those things but I think it's important that when you go to the new DS website and it says who who is DS we are DS these are the principles that are going to be there in terms of what we believe in term in support of teaching and learning and as long as well as the idea of belonging for all of our students so all of the opportunities we've had to engage in these conversations this year have landed

111us on these common principles that we all share we've also had an opportunity to think about what our curriculum should include and I don't want to take the slide away from Denny um but this these are the pieces that underlie what it is that we use to develop a comprehensive thoughtful curriculum um and this is the tool or this outlines the tool that Denny's been using with all of our K-12 Educators and looking at our entire curriculum to make sure that we're allowing for student voice student agency critical thinking higher order skills Etc so again all of the discussion all of the research all of the work this year has landed Us in this common place that we can always go back to um for a second programs this year as a reminder we had

112our program reviews from Desi focused on English language learning special education and title grants many without findings and a few good reminders to move forward we finished contract negotiations and you'll be voting on not only our Educators contract but three of our four Association contracts this evening we have a new website coming I joke that it's called Denny's website because he's been really leading the charge but it's been a lot of work by Denny and by our assistant principals and many of our program leaders getting that up and running and so hopefully that will have a soft launch in mid-july and we'll be looking for feedback before it goes kind of viral in September and also after two years of research we are bringing on a director of human resources that we'll be sharing with

113the town of Dover perhaps with the town of Sherburne moving forward we have extended an offer to an individual and we are just working on kind of the the point the points of the contract and negotiation so we'll be announced that person soon and they will be starting in July which is very exciting all right a few highlights surrounding academic Excellence thanks to Denny's leadership and that of our principals and our K-12 PLC curriculum and department heads we have identified best practices for teaching and learning in all four of our buildings we'll be coming back together this August and having our instructional leaders look at the similarities we've had that opportunity we know that they're very similar and hashing out a K to 12 list of best practices that you can expect in classrooms throughout

114a child's Continuum of learning obviously little tweaks as they get older and more independent Denny has been working with the leaders on the curriculum audit you'll get to hear more about that next year in terms of their findings and the tweaks that they've been doing very positive feedback from the teachers in regards to their feeling that it's made them a better teacher and thinking about their curriculum more holistically and meeting the needs of all Learners in their classrooms the elementary math pilot is uh continues next year we did small pieces of work with illustrative and Eureka this this year next year Elementary's educators will be working more comprehensively with illustrative math and reveal so we're being very careful and thoughtful about the programs that we're exploring and looking at data and feedback before we make

115a final decision moving forward we have several additional courses I don't need to read all the slides to you but especially at the high school level we've rolled out no new AP Computer Science forensic science and financial literacy continues to be the most popular course at the high school so um kudos to um our department chairs and faculty for working on those and coming soon as a result of all the positive feedback we're getting from students about these expanded course that are relevant we have another AP Computer Science coming in a year or so some business courses an interdisciplinary course and Robotics so lots new and exciting at DSHS several extracurricular achievements I won't go over all of them but we're third in the State mock trial the Science Olympiad did fantastic this year our

116mock trial team our robotics team is the largest to date our physics team plays first and second in the state so many um proud accomplishments for our students and their advisors College matriculation you have a list in your packets congratulations all of our students graduated on June 1st 96.6 of them are College Bound so let's make sure that U.S news gets that right this year um and we have one doing post-grad work three heading on to work and one still working on their plans um so excellent there 85.5 of our seniors got into their top three schools which is very typical if you look at a 10-year average we usually average 87.7 getting into their top three this year is 85.5 not much of a variation but if you'd like to spend some time with

117Mr Smith at the high school he will tell you that during the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic college is over enrolled because they weren't sure who was actually going to come and so now schools are under enrolling because they have such large classes that are going to be Juniors and seniors they don't have the space so that probably explains that fluctuation but our Contin kids continue to be able to do whatever it is they want to do whether it's a gap year go to their um the college that's the best fit for them Etc in terms of student belonging um many thanks to Kate McCarthy our director of student services who is here tonight she's been doing phenomenal work with our principals our coaches our leaders in terms of especially the elementary level

118having the data team meetings looking at student data student data sets multiple times a year identifying students who need short interventions long interventions and providing those interventions and then seeing their growth in literacy and numeracy over the course of the year so thank you for all of your work there and that work will continue as we scale that up to the middle and high school and what that would look like we're piloting the elementary fly five curriculum which is around bullying um and social emotional learning so we'll continue with that next year or again a phased in approach slow and steady we did work with all of our Educators stop at name it claim it as a way of addressing bullying and bias-based incidents in the moment um to just simply say stop what you're

119doing is not okay here's why and let's not do it again and we're hoping to roll that out with our students moving forward so that we can address things before they become big and ensure a sense of belonging for all of our kids safety character or safety training as you know at the elementary level we continue to work with our teachers on lockdown drills and at the middle and high school we recently partnered with Synergy 9-1-1 to do lockdown and barricading with our students who all were very grateful for the opportunity they feel empowered to be able to make decisions in the moment and are reassured that we have a plan God forbid anything happen and then all of the school-based initiatives and we'll go through them but assemblies all school meetings turkey trots the

120bleacher project for inclusivity peer mediation so many things happening within our individual buildings to make sure that our students have a sense of belonging sense of normalcy this year closest to normal we've been in a while I see lots of nods over here no masks um normal schedule getting together field trips Broadmoor hail MFA JFK Library Spain Washington DC we had two different groups go our Athletic program continues to be phenomenal in all of our Sports and as you know our spring teams continue to win we have I think was it Boys Tennis out there right now or girls tennis girls tennis boys tennis was yesterday they won so they're continuing and then we have boys and girls lacrosse continuing so so many championships so many All-Star athletes and also opportunities for our captains to

121engage this year in leadership training about a number of things both leadership skills as well as hazing as well as inclusion um and Equity training finding Performing Arts I know you've been to all the shows Show Stoppers it's like going to Broadway on a discount um but SpongeBob music man one act plays radium girls so many concerts chocolate cafe our kids have phenomenal opportunities thanks to our educators Personnel updates I won't go through all of them but our building leaders have been busy hiring for all of our new positions so congratulations on bringing in a new batch of phenomenal Educators and support staff I've had the opportunity to meet all of them is kind of their final stop and I just get more excited every time I meet a new person summer projects what's happening

122this summer after Friday afternoon when everybody disappears the rest of us will be here Denny and I will be working a lot on the strategic planning again we have those five buckets we worked with our leaders to identify some initiatives key initiatives under those five buckets we need to kind of hash them out and make sure they're in a manageable timeline work with our leadership team during the retreat and then bring them back to you for the final strategic plan in September we have our Educators engaging in multiple Workshop days this summer individually in teams on anything related to the school Improvement plans you've already heard about Kate is busy working with her Special Education team converting all of our special education data and IEPs into Aspen and rolling out a new IEP format and

123process so okay kids going to be busy this summer but thank you for your efforts and then dawn has lots going on in terms of facilities Chickering we have classroom floor replacement Fire Control Panel upgrade at Pine Hill the kitchen floor replacement and energy management system upgrade the Region High School floor replacement the link was bathroom renovation you all saw tile last week and the Middle School library renovation projects thanks to the flood so local bad things Middle School renovation restoration project because there's also work happening in other areas of the library classroom insurance plan thank you so thank you John for doing that work so next year we will have a district strategy which will inform superintendent and district schools they'll be tied into the school Improvement goals that you've already seen drafts of

124which will continue as the calendar task force which has already had two meetings and has some materials prepared to send out to the larger Community when you come back in September we're going to continue to work on communication and transparency our website Denny's website will be key in that but making sure that we are providing information about all of the academics and academic Excellence that we do as well as how we support kids and include them for a sense of belonging we have space audits happening at the high school and the middle school as we are running out of space and need to be creative and that will then happen at Pine Hill too which as you know Pine Hill is a loved school but may need a little extra TLC in the next 10

125years or so and we'll also be finally trying to un-mingle all of the data around start times in came the pandemic so it's hard to decide and determine what caused what and what didn't cause what but we'll do the best we can next year both looking at data as well as getting feedback from our families and educators so that's what I have on tap lastly because kids um it's touching that all of our teachers were here this evening so I just want to take a few moments to recognize all of the people who give their heart and soul each and every day to the Dover Sherman Public Schools it doesn't just take one Village to raise our students in the case of Dover Sherburne it takes two many thanks to our administrators administrative assistants Athletics

126staff bus drivers business office counselors custodians Dita shida drama production crew educational assistance facility folks Food Service groundskeepers I.T team Librarians nurses school committee special Educators Specialists substitutes and teachers that make it happen all of those people got us to this point this year and I just want to say thank you at the opening day assembly in August I reminded our pre-k through 12 faculty of the reason we do this incredibly challenging and extremely rewarding work because kids kids are inherently happy and neatly curious and instinctively creative what better clients to have each child is a gift an individual with a story a student with distinct strengths and interests I asked Educators to listen to each of their students theme songs learn what motivates them engage them in deep learning celebrate their successes and capture

127endless moments of joy throughout the school year they did not disappoint I want to thank everyone I listed for keeping kids at the center for working to ensure all students feel a sense of belonging have opportunities to achieve at high levels and graduate prepared to navigate and thrive in a diverse Multicultural world while this work has not been easy not been easy we have done our best to balance academic rigor with inclusivity and kindness both are possible and both are necessary when we return from summer vacation I called the larger DS Community to unite around our Collective why because kids to work together constructively and collaboratively to advance the system in achieving its Mission and strategic objectives to support every student to discover and pursue their full potential kids are our greatest asset and our

128best hope for the future let's find a way to Rally around them together thank you for all of your support and that's my update [Music] I take questions if I have a question as much as a comment um earlier this evening when many of our faculty members were here um I heard from many people something that thinking about it and I've been attending school committee meetings and lived and where I've worked in five different communities over the past 29 years and I have never one time over hundreds of meetings her faculty members get up at the end of the school year and say thank you to their superintendent and their assistant superintendent I've never heard that happen and um this is the end of your first year death and your first Year Debbie and I

129think it is exceptionally unusual that two first-year Chief School administrators would have that level of gratitude and appreciation particularly at the end of a difficult year at the end of school contract negotiations when oftentimes nerves are afraid feelings are bruised people are in different places and I appreciate how much you've thanked all everybody else and I just need to say a huge and very deep thank you to both of you um and that's not to say that that as a school committee person and I don't like want to speak for everybody else this isn't to say like oh we just yes you to death for all the things that you might want to do I think that we are as a collective we're pretty critical and and Don has been sitting at hundreds and hundreds

130of school committee meetings as a member and an administrator in our school district for a long long time I am astonished and really really happy and grateful for everything that you guys have done this year thank you thank you anybody else no it's clear you've figured out a way to invent the eighth day of the week to be able to get home [Laughter] that's free extra 24 hours um thank you for that update it's a nice summary of everything that has been achieved and is uh sort of on the docket here clearly things are not stopping come Friday afternoon thank you thank you um any other questions great so now we go into the voting and sort of uh review side of this meeting here just quick new members we don't ever vote as a

131joint school committee that's just sort of a meeting itself we do vote by the individual School committees so there's going to be a fair bit of administrivia in moving things around to different teams to do the reviews and um and and votes but bear with me bear with us and we'll get through it um so the first is the second read on the Pine Hill Family handbook uh for the Sherman school committee um so the revisions were included in the packet it was primarily just an update to The Faculty members um and I guess I would ask if anybody had any questions or comments on what was included in the package or after reading the fall material just to clarify the um the updates are on page two of the packet and the current website

132the current handbook is the one that I found on the website today I have the silliest um remarks and they might have already been updated I think page seven and maybe this is on purpose still notes that during covid all school all school meeting will be on Zoom um maybe that's fine to leave in just wanted to note that I think page 38 needs to be updated for the current school committee but I think that's all I could find and you may want to leave page seven in because who knows what the future brings but we're all in it together [Music] thank you thank you so I guess with Dr Brown's initial proposals as well as those changes so uh with those changes as well as Dr Brown's proposal I'd open a motion to approve

133the handbook with the proposed edits as well as the uh the edits that are summarized in the um in The Proposal near him in the uh package so this Christmas second second any discussion can I vote I didn't get a packet so I haven't read it can I vote anyway because I trust Christine's edits so who made the original motion it has been you are our Sherman person anyone I'm hungry [Music] can either abstain or vote in behavior um we did discuss the package during our original meeting in the first read so the only changes from that would be from yeah Christian has um so Christina's second in the motion all in favor [Music] without Amanda great thanks Judy uh for the middle school and as we're sitting here I'm thinking I'm going to be

134up next and I hadn't realized that until you started to until you said may I have a motion but luckily I've actually read all the changes um we we got the first read and on the um High School and we got at our last meeting the middle school we got a flavor for what the changes are um so I guess my question to the region is let's start with the Middle School handbook um uh questions issues anything anyone wants to change the things needs to be changed I I have to say I think Maggie was on the committee that was working on this and they did a masterful job thank you Maggie am I right about that yes but I I didn't don't thank me [Laughter] um so no no who Colleen oh Colleen hi

135thank you hi I just I had a question I wasn't there when the first read was done so um I have the role on page 18 of the handbook it has the role of fact fluency for students that section has been removed I was curious about the um the reasoning behind it there's a role of reading for middle school students followed by the role of fact fluency for students and the fact fluency for math has been removed I'm wondering if that's the thinking um if anybody under knows something why don't you speak okay so um in Middle School often um as there's an expectation that students do independent reading as well as reading for whatever novel or book that they're reading in class they no longer assign facts fluency for math facts at the middle

136school level it's more integrated into whatever their math homework is so they felt that was kind of outdated and therefore took it out okay yeah thank you any other questions okay then um may I have a motion uh to approve the revisions to the Dover Sherburne Middle School um handbook [Music] uh second uh calling bird second all in favor uh I think that's unanimous thank you okay now let's move on to the high school um a handbook which we had at our last meeting and I think John Smith gave us some information about the changes is there any are there any oh I forgot to ask if there was discussion on the motion sorry um is there any questions or or discussion on the high school the changes to the high school handbook sorry I

137didn't look over there um okay so then may I have a motion to approve the changes to the Dover Sherborne High School handbook can I have a second Angie Johnson second um is there any discussion no hearing none all in favor okay and that is unanimous as well Dennis back to you it's handoff um great thanks everybody um so next up is the dsea memorandum of agreement in summary there is just the summary of the negotiation with the teachers union and we wanted to just present some of the sort of substantive updates from that from that negotiation and to do that Kate Potter was graciously agreed to uh to summarize some of the some of the potassium inputs totally asking any remaining members to jump in as they would like to um okay so first

138I just want to say um that we have three people who are who are missing because their terms ended um who were on our committee so Lynn Collins who recently ended her term on the regional school committee Peter Russo from Sherburne and George moral who represented um the town of Sherburne on the select board side have all just a finish their terms so they're not with us but I want to I want to give out a huge thanks to them um and in particular to Lynn and I hope she's listening who was our chair and let us you know with with deep thought um Clarity kept us on track you know made a million amazing slides and graphs that I don't know how to do and and just really kept us moving along um so

139thank you to all those people who are not here um and then next I want to save just real quick this is my third time being on the um school committee end of contract negotiations and the first time it was my first year on Sherman school committee and I was like a deer in the headlights when I said yes to it I had no idea what it would entail and I learned a ton um but each cycle it's you know some people are the same some are different but what has always remained the same which which I think is very Dover Sherburne is the commitment of both sides to really try to understand where the other is coming from and you know negotiating anything gets sticky and there were sticky moments there always are but

140we were able to come back and say okay this means a lot to you and maybe we're not totally understanding why or or this is really really complicated for the school district and maybe we haven't explained why well enough and and I just felt like I was so impressed with both sides um for coming together and it was a pleasure to be a part of that so I know I understand a lot of the teachers left I'm glad some are still here so please relay our thanks to the rest of your team um okay with that Paul's word to provide a fair and Equitable increase to our educators to rape to remain competitive with agreed upon comparable districts of course to maintain all of our amazing programs and services to respect the town's finances which

141is tough I was just talking about you know we have Dover and Sherburne um the two select board members really helped both groups understand the the money side of it there's only so much so how are we going to parse that out um and of course to keep our contract language current with any changes in federal and state legislation thank you um so where we ended up is um teachers are on a matrix um salary scale so for fiscal year 24 25 and 26 um we came to agree on a 2.75 increase plus 300 per step in The Matrix which equates to about 3.05 percent increase overall for all three years um and then for appendix C which is mainly coaches drama programs outside of the school day folks um fy24 a rate of increase

142of about 2.6 25 1.6 26 1.6 um does anyone have questions about that or do you want to jump in at all Dennis or Beth Or Dawn before we so I think well it may seem simple that it sort of a relatively straightforward sort of increase um over the course of the three-year contract so again one point the contract covers a three-year period and we kind of negotiated for each one of those those increments for each year during the contract one of the stated goals here from a financial point of view was to obviously maintain um sort of fiscally responsible sort of standpoint from a town finances perspective we also have a goal to [Music] um remain competitive with our comparable districts as Kate had mentioned and I think we spent a heck of a

143lot of time looking at the comparable districts not all the districts have settled their contracts but we've tried to do some work to sort of model out where they may land as well as using data from districts that already have agreed contracts or in the middle of an agreed contract and our goal is maybe not to be at the highest but we wanted to be sort of right there in the middle and and recognize financially as well as with a lot of the other elements of the contract how much we value sort of the Educators that are you know here coming in every day I'll say where we landed was within tenths of a percent of that top sort of grouping of comparable districts so we are where we want to be but very very

144competitive with what we would consider our comparable districts in that comparable District Roofing is something that we agree with the dsea beginning to set some norms and expectations around how the sort of negotiation would would continue so um I think from a you know financial terms perspective I think it kind of made sense in the context of how we built the budgets the budgets a lot of them had already started rolling through the various committees and approvals both within the Committees here as well as in the towns so he had sort of established sort of a kind of General range things are getting tight with inflation and other kinds of things so we we needed to kind of make sure that we took a lot of different factors into consideration so yeah thank you for

145adding that detail any questions on that before we move I think the next slide helps explain it all okay um would you like to take the next slide down for Dennis yeah sure um so the base salary for all districts and FY 23 is 22.9 uh million the step increased so as Kate had mentioned there's kind of two attributes of the uh of the financial increase from sort of a remuneration perspective the first or step so as you progress um through your tenure and levels of of Education attained those increases for this year in FY for FY 24 is what's pictured here uh amount to about 376 thousand dollars of increase which represents about 1.6 percent the coal increase or cost of living increase is sort of a flat on the top percentage which is

146that 2.75 that Kate had mentioned earlier that represents about 642 000 of additional costs and then the 300 000 which uh which Kate you mentioned is sort of added on to that Cola represents just under seventy thousand dollars of cost or point three percent so when you take all of that together the FY 24 educator cost is roughly 24 million dollars in change or 4.74 increase which is within range of where many other sort of constituencies within the towns are RC sort of remuneration increase foreign [Music] agenda you'll see a lot of different contracts that have gone through this is just focused on the the educator contract we'll go through some as well so we're kind of talking about educator uh specific Ally any questions on that yeah okay um okay so then I'm not

147going to read all of this but some other things in the contract summer curriculum work um we added compensation or a larger compensation for days that teachers have to move their classroom largely at the elementary school takes a lot of time I remember doing it myself a long time ago to move your entire classroom to another room [Music] um maternity and parental leave we've changed to parental and child rearing leave and really just this aligns with being more inclusive for all parents birth mothers fathers adoptive parents foster parents eight weeks of leave for all parents using your Creed sick days and personal days professional development Educators hired after June 30th 2023 will be required to complete a course on Dei or culturally responsive teaching within the first years of employment the cost of the course

148will be covered by the district and will and they will the educator will receive three credits toward a lane change which is part of The Matrix is also available to and then new hires um incorporates existing mentoring and induction program but we make it a little more formal allowing a second year of mentoring for new Educators well Educators new to teaching non-financial agreements um there's always some housekeeping really it's just updating language making changes that just make more sense you know for example you mentioned or somebody mentioned the coveted language you know changing things that are we're not dealing with anymore um cafeteria duty to read defining the term duties more clearly and eliminate outdated language regarding volunteers number of volunteers needed for certain duties um article 16 textbooks really just reflects an update of

149current teaching that it's not just textbooks it's instructional materials there are a lot of things online now [Music] um that we are renewing and then salaries loss of prep time um we change that to planning and non-teaching time so clarify the language around Elementary loss of prep time um and then our insurance and annuity plan we expanded our offerings to include 457 smart plan and broth options um we have a memorandum of understanding um to work with the Educators on a joint advisory committee on special education which we were calling jaxy um a group to to begin in 30 days after ratifying the contract for the purpose to review current workloads and schedules of special educators service providers specialized program liaison um and to make sure they're you know within current contract language and work

150conditions the committee will meet at least twice a month and complete their work no later than February end of February 2024 and then proposed recommendations will be presented to the administration for consideration as and implementation has approved how do we measure up [Music] um we feel that this contract has kept us competitive with our comparable districts for hiring and retaining staff as Dennis mentioned we feel it's respectful of both Town finances neither Town had any appetite to have an override to make this contract work and we were able to do that [Music] um we felt that we were able to work collaboratively with unions concerns um and the the Educators ratified the contract by 85 percent uh with the dsea members which we were very happy about um and then outside of that of course

151it aligns with contract language applicable state federal statutes and future operational needs of the district [Music] okay and then just to thank you I've already done some of this but um I mentioned Lynn I mentioned Nikita and George who are who've all rolled off but um thanks to the rest of the committee who are here Dennis Jeff lose uh Robin Hunter who represented the town of Dover select Ford um I hope I'm not forgetting weld yourself Beth Beth John and um and our lawyer of course um and then the Educators team who as I mentioned were great to work with Rob Williamson was the chair um Lainey Glenn should you go in Amanda Rogers Christine Atkinson on a swan Pam Richie and Anna martinetti um and other support John Stein just our school lawyer Beth

152Dodd and Carl Stam who's the dsea union rep so anybody did I leave anything out through any of the team members who are still here the only symptom that I'd say is that a lot of the things that you rattled through were I think things that were in the summary of Don's sort of presentation of things that either we're trying to tackle this year or we have on the docket I think a lot of the things that the dsea brought up were kind of initiatives that either in one way shape or form were sort of moving forward but I think we use this to sort of clarify some expectations and get some language in the contract to make sure that you know everybody feels as though that you know it's formalized and has the energy

153behind it that it that it needs so um thank you for that summary no I hope it didn't move too quickly I just it's a lot of information happy to entertain any questions [Music] I just wanna I just have one comment um I said this I've said this a number of times this evening I I do this work for a living I'm an employment lawyer and it's the two sides to a collective bargaining after having bargained for a year come together in this kind of a um as as Judy Gohan called the Kumbaya moment is really special and it really speaks to [Music] um the collaborative work that you're that the committee did and how um it's not easy but you guys must have done a really spectacular job and so thank you well and

154I have to say I it was very much coming from both sides so we we felt really lucky to work with this team of of Educators and um yeah I think you know it wasn't always Kumbaya but it was always respectful it was always kind and and we got to we tried really hard to get to a place of understanding and so I agree um so just a little bit of administrivia here so what we're uh voting on tonight is a memorandum memorandum of agreement that's not the actual contract the um I'm gonna kind of give a wave cap and if there's anything I've missed on maybe you can kind of clarify so that sort of summarizes all the sailing points and contract we'll be working through to actually get the contract papered and then

155signed I think the chairs for each one of the Committees together and that will happen in in due course but I think feels good to be kind of coming out of the school year and into the next with a with a contract that sets us up for huge success I think over the next couple years and driving forward a lot of the good initiatives that we've talked about tonight anything Don sort of administer area that right no so you're just you're just approving or ratifying the changes that were agreed upon by the two the two working groups together so you're just ratifying what they agreed there just one thing I left out is that the three um people who I mentioned who who rolled off all voted in favor of this contract and typically I

156will say both Town select board members would be here tonight but obviously George ruled off Robin had planned to be here but had a family medical emergency um but if they were joining this they would be voting with each of the Committees that they team up with so Robin with Dover and George would have voted with Sherburne and then George sherburne's time to vote with the region so George would have voted to fit the region so just pretend like they're here and they're doing that though because that's typically how that plays out so this is where we vote by school committee so um ready to go here so uh we'll start with Sherburne um I'd like to request a motion to approve the dsea memorandum of agreement as summarized by uh by Kate Potter Christine

157Walsh so moved a second Kristen Epperly second thank you Christine Kristen um all in favor okay all right uh Judy do you want to take us for the region um may I have a motion from the region to ratify the memorandum of agreement between these our three School committees and the dsea so moved can I have a second any discussion all in favor okay that's a unanimous vote and Liz for door may I have the same motion for the Dover school committee there's a second second yeah any discussion all in favor any opposed so that's motion carries with me great thank you Mary um congratulations [Music] is there a prize you know I think that thank you guys all of you and also it's huge to be able to get a contract that allows us

158to move forward without overrides that's a big deal in all of our communities and and stay competitive with other parents because the reality is that there are not thousands and thousands of extra people banging down the doors to be teachers right now and so it makes me feel much better to sleep at night to know that they're offering a competitive package to our Educators and hopefully that will encourage them to stick with us or come to us not every town in our neighborhood has been able to accomplish this so thank you thank you it was a lot of time on both sides and I appreciate everybody sticking with it um and making their schedule available I think we started October yeah all right so the next item of business is the um the association memorandum

159of agreement for the administrative assistance custodians food service and educational assistance so we only have the three tonight so we are hoping to have educational assistance but it's not ready but we do have three to share with you this evening um and we are negotiations that Beth and I both run with representatives from each of these bargaining units uh what I've tried to do for you and I apologize I didn't realize until later this afternoon that the memorandums agreement was just a duplicate of the dsea memorandum not all these individuals but if you look at the packet now they're there so uh but to put some perspective around it the cover memo that I include for you so for the administrative assistants we're looking at a total of 13 employees um the custodial is 20

160and the food service is 15. so that gives you that should put some perspective on this for you as we talk about things tonight um with these bargaining units I think the biggest hurdle we had is what's going on in the labor market right now and the economy in general for these particular employment groups so we worked I think the ask came in here and we tried to meet them somewhere um where we could but we also want to be able to keep our positions filled and I've been saying that all the school committee different School committees it's been a struggle for us to keep our custodial staff completely filled we're still not completely filled and so in all three of these we were trying to make sure that our entry rate was attractive but

161we also wanted to show value to those who stayed with us and give substantial increases that would allow them to continue living with the high economic inflation knowing that it may subside but there be when you look at their starting rates instead of that's that's part where you may struggle um with with just the cost of living so some of the numbers may look sort of large and the percentages may look large but same time you've got to put that perspective of how many people we are providing us for so on the administrative assistance it's comprised that both we have both 12-month employees and 10 month School Employees um and with the agreed upon language we upped their starting rates you'll see them there and we also gave rather than a cola we gave a

162dollar increase and that really reflected a little bit of the market adjustment to the starting region so they're seeing anywhere from 4.1 to 5.7 percent increase we don't have steps so if you look at larger school districts who have many more employees in these marketing units you will notice that they have steps so as they look similar to what you saw in The Matrix for educators we don't go to that extreme because it becomes more complicated than we need to but that's where we bring the longevity in you probably won't see very many employment contracts around that have a longevity as early as three years but to us that's sort of our step so we do 3 5 10 15 20 we're adding a 25 actually for the administrative assistance next year and that's where

163we actually also were able to increase those amounts a little bit to give additional financial support it's not built into the hourly rate but it's a nice bump to your paycheck when that gets paid so that is really basically the admin assistance we're pretty straightforward we increased our starting rate and what we did once we settled with the Educators as you noticed we had almost like a three percent for year one year two year three we were Equitable in year two and three with all of the other bargaining units and you'll see it could be across the board for years two and three we actually were able to go back to say the administrative assistants who had bargained for something last and we gave them the gift of the three percent because we really wanted

164to be Equitable across all the groups so that's Administrative Assistant um the custodians as I mentioned we definitely needed to bump up our starting rates in that Arena so you'll see if you look at their weed schedule an increase to both the day shift supervisor the evening shift supervisor but the largest one custodians and then they themselves that at that level so it's really our evening staff who cleaned most of the schools in the night are getting a two dollar uh a an hour increase and we've also increased the shift differential we did a lot of research on the shift differential and um the dollar is competitive it's not the top but it is competitive so what happens when they work the school shift hour say 2 to 10 or 3 to 11 they'll get

165an additional Dollar on every hour but when they switch to the Summers they work days they don't get that dollar so that's the shift of differential their scene increases the head custodians are seeing increases from the range of 3.6 to 6.5 and our regular main custodian staff is seen an average of 10 percent and we doubled the longevity there so that's a huge impact of an individual but it doesn't have a huge impact on our budget so that's where I feel like we find the places where we can put dollars in their pocket that actually doesn't um you know burden our budget so that was the custodial um the food service again we cannot thank them enough I think we have an excellent Food Service program here in all three schools participation is skyrocketed um

166mainly we provide good food but also because of universal free lunch so they are all working more than they did we're producing many more meals than we used to and we're lucky to have a very seasoned staff um and so we worked with them to make sure that we could retain them and they wouldn't want to go to another District um so for the Food Service I think one who wanted and really did this because we looked at area food service programs and there are I couldn't really find that many that didn't have sort of paid time off we don't have vacation really for our 10-month employees but they work sort of a shorter they don't work a normal school day a little bit shorter um if you think about the choppiness of their work

167schedule so in order to make it more financially feasible for them you will see other area school districts have sort of paid time off and it usually corresponds with like the vacation like they'll get paid February vacation April vacation so we did sort of go down that path and added sort of two levels so there's a five year and a seven year I believe um and gave them the April break or February break and then February April the longer that they've been here all but two people or three people currently in the 15 actually qualify for that so that was a nice Financial benefit for them we have been working with the food service if you remember if you were here three years ago we were trying to keep up with the increase in the

168minimum wage because that's sort of the level of sort of our food service um starting people are so we did a dollar a DOT like a dollar seventy five dollars those three years luckily we did that because it kept us at least in the game right but we had to continue to do that increase for them so they're seeing an increase all in between the paid time off a little bit of a boost in their longevity and the increase in the starting rates of anywhere between seven and sixteen percent obviously those on the lower scale are seeing a higher increase because if they if they qualify for an extra week that makes they're seeing the 16 um they have all already received their contracts and I will say we're beginning thank yous from the staff

169so you know that obviously makes us feel feel really good um and um I think Beth and I for the most part it was a it was sort of a pleasure to work with them three the EAS we were we actually put forward a change to sort of the whole EA set up and um that's what's slowing this down so when we do bring that forward to you and it either will be we have some other items we may schedule a special meeting otherwise there's no problem that for us to wait until we can be in September um you'll be looking at a one-year contract because in it is a memorandum of agreement to sort of study what we wanted to do and sort of changing the classifications and spending more time and more collaboratively

170deciding how we go with that so um I think we're close trying to get it in for tonight but um we will share it with you once we have it and then we can vote next time we're all together but we are asking tonight for you to approve um the three ton of agreements for the administrative assistance the custodial and the food service which all Encompass three years thank you for answering me any questions can we vote as a can we vote all three do we have to do this or can we do three well we can do it as a package yeah yeah that was fun yeah yeah we don't typically all have them you know because they sort of common in pieces thank you and I'd just like to thank Don um I

171haven't found an eighth day in the week yet but I do have Kate and John and Denny near me And when all of the balls are coming at me and I'm still trying to juggle the ones I'm aware of um Don always would say time out we need to do this so thank you for keeping us on schedule and moving forward and doing all the research I wouldn't be able to do this without you so thank you my pleasure this is my third time [Music] I just wanted to thank you guys it sounds like you worked really hard to take good care of our people and it's nice to feel good about stuff like this so thank you commentary questions no all right um okay so this will be another vote by uh by committee

172um Sherburne first um I'd like to request the motion to approve alternative agreements for the administrative assistance the custodians in Food Service Groups for each for a three-year period Christine Walsh so moved 15 second Kristen Eberly second Kristen thank you um any discussion to all those in favor it's because you look this way first you know you guys would read that I'll throw a curveball buddy um okay may I have a motion to approve the memorandums of is it memoranda or memorandums of understanding huh I checked it they did it correct it is memorandums um uh of agreement for the agreements for the administrative assistance custodial and Food Service staff Andrew Johnson served may have a second uh any discussion all in favor okay unanimous thank you Judy may I have the same motion for

173the donors like this everybody Martha Castle so moved second yes any second any discussion all in favor motion summary [Music] and I'll just ask for each three chairs to come see me because I actually have them all here ready [Laughter] all right Liz do you want to bring this one yeah so um the next item is a consent agenda so that includes two things both the minutes for the fourth and 26th meetings as well as to appoint Beth to the tech and except board of directors I asked Beth just to give a quick overview for those that may need to brush it up or some new members what those what the tech and accept um uh groups are okay so as a district we belong to two collaboratives so the for the students that we

174are unable to meet their needs within the district um they some of them go to private placements other public school placements and several of them that go to both the accept or Tech collaborative to be educated there um so any members of the tech and accept collaboratives have a mem I have a representative who sits on their board of directors typically that's the superintendent um so this would be an opportunity for you to point me to sit on the tech board of directors and the accept board of directors to represent the district in their work for our students they provide us professional development too right yeah the Educators and stuff so that's kind of right except as your transportation for all of our audits to start the students which is huge as well as buying

175options in terms of buying in bulk and and Tech has all the um the bid so all of our school supplies and everything goes through Cooperative bid through Tech as a group so if you think about all the school districts coming to we do get great prices through that bitty and that's where actually get the Dover Oil Detective oh well can I buy oil two dollars yeah so both those collaborators are incredibly important um for those new you'll hear a lot about those reference kind of in the meetings throughout the throughout the coming year and that's kind of our book that's about all right so um consent agenda Again by committee um Sherburne first so I'd request a motion to approve uh both items on the consent agenda for this evening Christine Walsh so moved

176we're getting good at this thank you Christopher and a second Kristen that really second thank you Kirsten um any discussion paper great thank you um what else hey I have the same motion for the Dover school committee yes Cassidy thank you second close the first second any discussion all in favor motion carries with unanimous consent um may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda what second Harry Potter second thank you any discussion all in favor you pass this unanimously [Music] all right a lot of work going on here um so uh last time before we adjourned just Communications so if anybody has any fancy dinner plans next year make sure you check the school committee calendar there's a lot of meetings out there this year what's up really yeah but thank you guys

177for posting that up for us to take a look at the matriculation report pretty impressive amazing Alaska Pacific I want to talk to them yeah no kidding you are but I want to know all about it very international skills if anybody wants to travel we have Trends in a lot of places now um and then the reason the package was so long there were a lot of additional sort of materials summaries about tech and except we're in there as well um Goodreads to kind of get a little bit more background on what those are and how we how we integrated with that um anything else [Music] all right um so I think we will um unanimous do we need to vote children that's all you need to sleep yeah [Music] yeah all right [Music] um