001e e e all right good evening and welcome to the March 10th 2025 board meeting board members at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second seconded by Miss Powell any questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries seven in favor okay the next item on our agenda this evening is our executive session so at this time board members I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for the purpose of employment matter regarding the superintendent so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie seconded by Mr Farnsworth any questions or discussion okay hearing none I will call for the vote mine was very slow sorry the motion carries
002seven in favor we are in executive session and we will return to open session e e e okay board members at this time I'd ask for a motion to return to open session so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie second seconded by Miss Bates any discussion okay hearing none we'll call for the vote okay motion carries seven in favor we are back in Open session all right board members at this time I would ask for any motions from our executive session Madam chair I move that we Grant Dr Shane Robinson's request to be released from his contract and accept his resignation from his employment with Dorchester County School District 2 for purposes of retirement effective March 10th 2025 and that we authorized the board chair to execute an agreement with Dr Robbins regarding his resignation
003such agreement having been reviewed with the board in executive session okay thank you Miss Bates I have a motion from Miss Bates do I have a second okay second by Mr Lee any questions or discussion okay hearing none I will call for the vote okay the motion carries seven in favor and at this time on behalf of the entire board I would like to thank Dr Robbins for his service to the district and wish him and his family the best in his retirement all right board members at this time do I have any other motions from executive session Madam chair I do have a motion U Madam chair I move that we name Mr Chad dhy as interim superintendent of Dorchester School District 2 effective March 10th 2025 Mr dhy will serve at the pleasure
004of the board with all powers conferred to a South Carolina superintendent by state law state board of education regulation and District policy okay thank you Mr Farnsworth I have a motion do I have a second all right thank you so much second by Mrs King at this time is there any discussion so so if I may and and obviously a lot of board conversation there but but I think the takeaway is and what I want to highlight as as a board our priority is of course ensuring a smooth and and stable um transition to new District leadership um we we remain committed 100% every single person up here every single person in our district remains committed um to our Educators uh to our staff to our students to our families to our communities everybody in
005our school our Focus um is a seamless handoff during this transition um and we want to move forward without disruption U we appreciate the dedication of everybody involved and uh we will communicate as openly as humanly possible as we navigate this transition together thank you all right any other discussion okay hearing none I will call for the vote okay um and actually we will need to take a hand vote for this so all in favor if you could please all right the motion carries seven in favor thank you Mr dhy would you like to join us up here and I would just like to say welcome and thank you for your willingness to serve serve and step up um I know that um there is a lot of support for you from this board and
006in this entire district and as Mr farnor said we are all going to work together to make this as smooth a transition as possible and we appreciate very much your willingness to help us do that so thank you madam chair and board members and again this is a great team that we have and uh we'll do everything we can to carry out the mission and vision of dd2 and uh again we'll put forth our best effort for our young people and our staff and our parents here in our in our district so thank you for the opportunity thank you all right so at this time without any further delay we will move into our district highlights thank you all for your patience Dr Wimberly Mr dhy good evening board members tonight we have the privilege
007of recognizing the out achievements of our students in schools from academic Excellence to athletic Milestones leadership in business and Innovation and cyber security these accomplishments showcase the dedication talent and hard work that defines Dorchester School District 2 up first we celebrate the incredible achievement of the Ashley Ridge High School Air Force jroc cyber team for the fourth consecutive year they have secured first place in South Carolina in the all services category of the Cyber Patriot cyber defense competition ranking ahead of 35 jrtc cyber teams Statewide after advancing through two qualifying rounds overcoming challenges including a winter snowstorm they placed fourth in the nation out of 230 Air Force JROTC teams this success is a testament to their dedication countless hours of training and the support of mentors from The Citadel and the Navy information Warfare
008Center congratulations to these outstanding Cadets on their continued excellence and cyber security in attendance tonight we have Michaela Benes come on up come this way there we [Applause] go they might be in order yep stay up there Michaela go to the center go to the center that'll be great and we'll put Mr dhy on the other side go get in there first active duty student achievement love it hang out Michaela we're GNA get a group shot go over there perfect Gabriel Draper come on up Gabriel [Applause] Henry [Applause] Durant Haven Griffin Haven not with us not here Haven's not here Courtney [Applause] lamberson Thomas long [Applause] there we go Oxana men up pretty close Nikolai [Applause] Payton and Mariah stula [Applause] also part of that team not joining us tonight we Unice Lim Jacqueline Quang
009ephra schaffers and Angel and Angie TR okay team Center up fantastic Colonel Wilkinson get get in there please yeah one more round of applause for these students and their leaders [Applause] Miss Matthews you want to get in there okay next we recognize the outstanding achievement of Fort Dorchester High School's future Business Leaders of America fbaa chapter fbl the largest federally recognized Career and Technical student or organization focused on preparing students to become community-minded Business Leaders and a global Society at this year state competition several for Dorchester students placed among the best in the state showcasing their leadership business Acumen and dedication to Excellence their success reflects not only their hard work but also the strong Foundation of career preparation fostered by FBLA we're proud to celebrate these Future Leaders and their incredible accomplishments first we'll
010start with some of their educ I know we have Bri Scott in attendance Brie come on up getting these pictures and Gerald Taylor co-advisor is here as [Applause] well oh Mr Aldridge do you want to get in on this you good all right starting out with our chapter vice president Braden Ritz in the state conference got first place in sales presentation and first place in partnership with business project Mr Bohan and while they're looking for that um Braden if I can just say just just a reminder I run a sales organization in the district um so if you would like to leave your resume you're more than welcome [Applause] next we've got our chapter historian Anna ye an has been an integral part of the growing the social media presence and chapter membership and at
011the state conference you was third place in social media strategies next up we've got the October member of the month Courtney Sanders [Applause] next up we've got Gordon chromer Gordon's here Gordon's been heavily involved in the glow Forge Enterprise what and finally Kaylee Allen [Applause] and wave me down if they walked in also uh Gabby Dean Place fourth in intro to public speaking Gabby's not in the room just checking and Angel Perez Alvarez fourth place in intro to Information Technology how about a big round of applause for all these students [Applause] a little more Fort Dorchester next we recognize an extraordinary achievement in Fort Dorchester High School athletics senior Ricky Springs has made history as the first wrestler in school history to win four consecutive State Wrestling Championships beginning his journey oh [Applause] yeah beginning
012his journey in Forts youth program SC Elite Ricky's dominance on the mat has been unmatched he has accumulated an outstanding career record of 146 wins with only six losses a School record 99 career pins in addition to his state titles he earned National recognition as an nhsca Junior National allamerican Ricky will continue his wrestling career at Newberry College and we congratulate him on this remarkable achievement [Applause] well they get and finally we've got some School Achievements celebrating two of our schools Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary and Ford Dorchester High School for earning recertification as arts in the basic curriculum schools this prestigious designation awarded by the South Carolina Arts commission and its Partners highlights their commitment to integrating the Arts into daily instruction these schools serving more than 3,000 students from pre prek to 12th
013grade are two of only 65 ABC schools Statewide they will continue to serve as models for artsri Education benefiting students and inspiring others congratulations to principal Robert nuner and principal trip Aldridge along with their dedicated fact and staff for this well-earned [Applause] recognition thank you Preston can't mess me up this concludes our board highlights for the evening all right our next item on our agenda this evening is our public comments on agenda items we have one Mr J brocker good evening tonight I would like to talk about agenda item 6A the South Carolina School Board association annual conference report uh I looked up the uh the website and uh read some of the Conference highlights and I see that it said and I quote keynote and General Sessions presentations by motivational speakers as Wells as
014state and National experts on a wide variety of issues related to K to2 education so there wasn't a lot of information there but it said they should have covered a lot of topics I would hope that one of the variety of issues that they talked about was teenage suicide following bullying in schools that goes un addressed this is a critical issue in the country there are specific incidences here in this District so I would hope that the scsba annual conference report on various issues would have had a motivational speaker to talk about something like that I actually have a police report about a student that was accused of threatening violence against the school it turned out to be a false accusation and double whammy they were actually the victim of cyber bullying and the report
015states that they didn't come up with anything but it doesn't discuss why they stopped before they were able to address the bullying so I would hope that some presentation at the annual Schoolboard Association Convention of motivational speakers would have dealt with bullying and I hope that in the report that we hear today we get to hear about how this critical issue is being handled it's sad to know that there are students in the district right now that are victims of bullying and it turns out that the victims often suffer more consequences than the bullies but that's anecdotal in my own experience I would hope that a motivational speaker would be able to convey this in a broad sense rather than my specific sense in the times that I've been up here to speak I have
016respectfully used my three minutes every single time the board refuses to hear me on Petty things such as when I come up here to speak I have had my time taken away and I have not ask for it back again I challenge you to review every single time I've been at this Podium and say otherwise or speak to me that would be great speak up for Julian [Applause] all right the next item on our agenda this evening is our board chairs report and at this time we will talk about our annual conference um we had several members attend and I will start us off um I'm going to give anyone each board member who would like an opportunity to kind of give a recap but just to get started I would like to say um
017give a shout out and a congratulations to miss Bates who um did a led a presentation I did help her in that um but she led a great presentation on our um superintendent evaluation rubric that we used last year um the room was packed it was standing room only and we got a lot of feedback and a lot of good discussion um and I think there were a lot of good takeaways not only from her presentation and the information that we shared but also it was a great opportunity for feedback talking to other um board members from across the state about things that they do and just a good opportunity to kind of brainstorm um and discuss those things I think that's one of the most valuable takeaways um yes we did have a lot
018of great sessions and a lot of good information but it's also really nice to network from other board members across the state to have opportunities to brainstorm and discuss and that sort of thing so if anyone else would like to to um speak on that I know that our new board members were able to complete their new board member orientation so that was exciting for them happy to give a little update on that it was a very productive use of time uh I was a little bit skeptical because I've been on a school board before and I've been to the orientation sessions this one actually turned out to be well above my expectations and very very productive and practical uh particularly a lot of the time spent spent going over Finance Basics which is very
019pertinent to me being on the finance committee uh some of the inspirational speakers that they uh provided uh were actually quite inspirational and more motivational than I would have anticipated an event such as that was good to get to meet with some other folks from around the state that I've known and and work with who are now actually on boards themselves so it's it's good to see that type of thing happened uh two biggest takeaways were uh I I was blown away at the standing room only crowd for my two colleagues who presented um a lot of interest in the topic of how to do effective evaluation so uh uh you weren't the only ones uh the other thing is really sensing how unique dd2 is as a district across the state there is no
020other District that's a carbon copy that I could say okay I just need to talk to those people they've got it all figured out uh we can we can really learn a lot from each other and S these problems we learned that we share a lot of the same challenges and while we can collaborate and whatnot no one's got the Silver Bullet the answer to everything uh so I appreciate the opportunity to go I took care of my necessary training so I'm officially allowed to be here and uh thank you to the district for uh sponsoring us I'd like to pick up on what Jim said it was really beneficial for us to learn um like he said specifically the financial component of it um some other things that I was just not aware of
021and I I did kind of go in maybe with a little bit of a sour attitude that I was not excited to have to spend all day in training but I really promis it did change um I was excited to be there I was excited to actually learn um not only just with the words but the handouts that they were given that we can constantly refer back to um these ladies did a fantastic job presenting and um not just saying that multiple people from across the state came up to us to let us know how great they did um they need to hear that um and then there was there was just some really motivating speakers uh they they encouraged us to go out and do our best for our community which is our goal
022anyway but just continue to do that and to be open to hearing the voice of the community and the concerns of the community and the end goal always being the children at the at the Pinnacle if I could just continue one thing one other takeaway which I found interesting the first i' I'd heard of it but apparently it's been around for a while is this organization that's promoting the notion of the dignity index and in a time of very often acrimonious dialogue within any Community uh presenting some ideas about how to try and move towards uh treating each other mutually with respect even though we may not necessarily agree on everything um it's a takeaway from a lot of what I think I learned in kindergarten how to get along well with others uh but
023also to be able to think about not only the language you use but your attitude and how you engage in disag agreements with others and make no mistake we're going to have disagreements uh we've got a lot of hard decisions to make uh in the coming years here in this district and uh if you get a chance uh look up the dignity index uh I thought it was very valuable takeaway from the uh the conference well Jim you stole my thunder um no that's funny um actually that was like really one of my favorite there was a general session on it which had our keynote speaker and then and we had like a breakout session on it and in the General Session they really went about going through the dignity index and it basically is
024it's not what you say it's how you say it and how to have discourse in a in a respectful way that shows dignity rather than contempt um contempt is where you you approach something from a place of blame and pointing fingers verse in having dignity is your we're all humans and really understanding everybody has a right to believe what they believe and so it was really really neat I you know talked with our Superintendent at the time about incorporating it into some of our anti-bullying classes because I think that um it would help with really helping people communicate in a more productive way um the first keynote speaker he was fun he uh talked about walking into a scenario and how everybody would ask like how are you and really that's just such a strange
025question because everybody you know it opens the door of H I'm kind of bad or this day is stunk um and approaching it more of tell me something good and that really sets the tone if you walk into a meeting and it was funny because I was like where did I hear that before and I think it's from our what is that called the capturing kids Hearts thank you and I was like I know I've heard that before so I thought it was really fun to hear that and then lastly there was a breakout session from a school district remind me what the school district was cuz I don't get wrong no it wasn't Newberry wasn't it that with the Greenwood Greenwood 50 or something um where their superintendent took School dist or schools that
026were at like a 95% poverty rate that had very low test scores in reading and math and just some of the things that he did to basically change the performance in these schools and take kids that are normally underserved that people would say have all the odds act against them and not letting that PR stop them from succeeding and it was just really neat to hear his story to hear how he did that and what he implemented and just his passion for students and just to watch how he took that at a pilot school and then did it all throughout his elementary schools and is now transitioning into the middle school so there was a lot of I had notes that I brought in last meeting that I didn't bring this meeting but there was
027a lot of like really really good information um and I think we'll probably plan a visit of some sort to go meet up with them and kind of hear from them directly because it was just such good information but those are some highlights I guess my one um there were so many different sessions that I went to that was inspiring to me and made me want to go visit those particular schools to get more information and bring back to dd2 but one in particular I heard last year and then he did a followup this this year with his results and that first year he talked about the number of fights that would occur in his school and he made up his mind that could not continue and make sure in order to make sure that
028all of the students attending felt safe and they also were able to learn this year he came back and he brought some hard statistic facts that showed what a major decline that he was now having in his school um he gave us information in which we could get in um contact with him so that we can glean whatever we can from what he's doing so that we can basically try to implement some of those here now I don't hear of a lot of fights but one fight on a campus is enough for me and so we want to make sure that our children when they come to school they feel safe but at the same time they also held parents respons responsible for their children's Behavior so it takes all of us working together as
029parents as Educators as community members to make sure that we live in a community where everyone feels safe hearing of a young man that basically lost his life recently at 17 that's still a child and it was done by other young people so we are not at a place here here in our district where we can say oh everything is going well here it's not and one child dies if one child is basically put in the hospital if one child feels unsafe that's enough for us to act and see what more we can do and so my plan is to basically go and visit this particular school and see what they're doing and see how we can implement it here thank you um thank you madam chair and I promise I will be brief uh
030as I always start um I I want to say thank you to the community to the district for allowing me the opportunity to to go to these types of conferences um this one especially a lot of value and and of course I've been going to conferences for a while now and so I try to pick out kind of nuggets um of of wisdom that I can bring back to the district and and there were there were more than a couple but a couple I will highlight um tonight um um Mr Lee and I had the opportunity to go to a breakout session on Workforce Development um which I thought was fantastic um I was you know texting some folks in the district during that session and and asking some some good questions and um so
031a lot of from a state level I will tell you there's a lot of good things happening in the state of South Carolina when it comes to Workforce Development um that that will continue to benefit our district and our students um so that was that was great to see and then the other one uh that was that was very interesting to me um was talking about artificial intelligence so Ai and I know we have a we're actually going to talk about some AI stuff a little bit later in this meeting um but hearing from other districts in South Carolina that have already um kind of moved the ball forward uh when it comes to Ai and and I think it gives us an opportunity uh to look at that direction as a district and and
032how we want to approach AI um because it's it's here it's not going anywhere it will continue you continuously um promulgate um our students Our Lives just in general so I think we need to get ahead of that um and I've I've got some ideas that that I I'm hopeful to bring to the board over the next several months so um but again uh really great conference I appreciate the opportunity and um that's all I have thank you additionally I went to the um session where they discussed how they basically come up with the budget that they're going to release to the various school districts so that they can Finance whatever their programs are and I would encourage parents community members and even those that are in the classroom to go on the website to
033see how money is determined when we find out about how much money we're getting and um it doesn't give us a lot of time to make decisions so I know some sometimes people become frustrated it but go and see what our elected officials do and how they do it and maybe you may have a conversation with them to help us out so that we can come up with a timely budget in order to see what we have to work with thank you all right thank you board members um I will say thank you to all of you for your time and attending because I know it does take away from personal time but I do appreciate the fact that everyone was very clearly excited about this conference um and we had some good information and
034good discussion and I think it is very important for us to have that that time to to work together um so thank you all for attending all right now we will move into our board committee reports first this evening we have our policy committee Miss Bates yes thank you madam chair we have several policies for first reading today um I will start with policy EA support services goals SL priorities and objectives policy EC buildings grounds Property Management policy ECB buildings and grounds maintenance policy Ed waste management and recycling policy a r-j student records policy GB a a sexual harassment and retaliation policy j a ae1 sexual harassment and retaliation students and policy ik promotion retention and acceleration of students um most of these just needed updates to be in alignment with law and or hadn't
035been visited in quite some time so we were just updating them so that they were current with the current times so that's it and I will turn them over to you thank you Miss Bates so um since this is coming out of committee I do not need a second so we have um these policies we are presenting for first reading at this time do we have any questions or discussion okay hearing now we will call for the vote Yes okay um all in favor accepting these policies for first reading and the motion carries seven in favor all right next on the agenda we have our finance committee Mr Guthrie do you have anything for us this evening report to report all right thank you very much and we next we have our facilities Mr Farnsworth
036thank you madam chair uh facilities committee met earlier this afternoon um again a lot of information facilities is is rolling and it's that time of year especially with referendum projects um undertaking a lot of stuff going on in the district um so again so I would just encourage anybody uh who is interested in what we've got going on in facilities um to tune in those facilities meetings and then I would also uh just reiterate we've got our facilities walkthroughs um that are still going on they should be on everybody's calendar our next ones are Wednesday morning yep Wednesday morning I'm looking out um so anybody who would like to join us Wednesday morning just over your calendar and um be prepared to have some fun on facilities walkthroughs so that's that's all for me Miss
037po anything on your side thank you all right thank you very much that concludes our board committee reports and next item on our agenda is our superintendent report so we'll hand it over put you in the hot seat Mr dhy thank you madam chair and the rest of the board uh this evening we're having uh would like your permission this evening to recommend um the adoption of our new textbook recommendations and just a little bit to tell you a little bit about the process uh the South caran Department of Education public review period was from November 18th through January 3rd 20125 and as a district our step one was instructional materials will be shared with schools um step two was grade level content teams will evaluate the quality of the math instructional materials using the
038district look for um the document as a guide um our step three was each school will submit the name of the publisher they select based on teacher feedback and then step four a district selection will be sent to the Dorchester District 2 school board for approval so that's kind of our process and it also follows our policy ijj for textbook selection and adoption and so I have Miss Katie Barker our um Chief academic officer to answer any questions and kind of go over our recommendations so miss Barker thank you so much for having me and just if I may before we get into textbooks um since Miss Bas Bates set it up so well I would like to start with tell me something good um last week Mr Matt Moselle and I were invited to
039attend if you want to go to the next slide Wanda that's um what they'll want to see the hmh District Leadership Summit in Nashville um and it was phenomenal but the biggest celebration is before we even checked in one of the senior vice presidents came over and introduced himself to Mr Michelle and I and started with thank you started with um information about how they use Dorchester District 2 as the model Nationwide for implementation of re 180 because our data is the strongest that they have seen and that starts really with strong implementation which I would just like to celebrate all of our Reed 180 teachers and Matt Moselle that really is [Applause] their thank you um it was such it it just reminds us sometimes that you know when we're in it every day
040you forget sometimes just how blessed you are um but then we're doing so well that um Matt Moselle was invited to speak on the national panel for hmh so you can see some pictures there of him doing that and he I was like a proud mom out in the audience I was like videoing and um so super proud of him and his leadership not just in Dorchester 2 but within the entire hmh um family but then of course it was like the paparazzi like as he was talking about all of the success in Dorchester 2o people from Across the Nation started flocking to him and wanting to ask questions so I had to say he will answer questions but he is not moving anywhere so don't get any ideas um and then on the second
041day the slide on the far not the pictures of Mr Moselle I don't know what side I'm looking from the right if it's your right or your left but on the second day of the conference they were just celebrating some districts Across the Nation that had seen had shown tremendous success and without us even knowing in the entire room full of schools ACR schools and districts across the country and across the world there were from other countries there um Dorchester 2 was recognized and it's hard to read up there so I'm just going to set read to you the data that is up there that they highlighted that and this is all of our re 180 subgroup of students the students that participate in Reed 180 third grade all the way through 12th grade that
042within that group over half of the students that are in in in an intensive intervention grew double the expected annual growth and then within that group 30% of those students actually grew three times the typical growth that we would expect to see from fall to winter and then an additional 10% of those students that are in the foundational program the students that need the most amount of reading support um were able to completely exit that lowest level of support needed after just one semester because of their success with the program so this was not on the agenda to share because but it was just too good to wait until the next board meeting and I just wanted to make sure that um Mr Michelle and certainly our re 1880 teachers were able to get that
043shout out and I wanted you to have that success as well so thank you for just giving me a moment to celebrate something good that was going on in Dorchester too so as Mr already shared this is the process that he just reviewed with you this is the same process that we brought to the December meeting um so this should look familiar to you and I just want to um it looks super easy in a four-step process on one slide um but I just before we get into the recommendations want to give a huge thank you to our team but also to the Math teachers across the district it is time intensive to really dig into multiple math programs at one time um and dedicate the energy to really looking at those in detail so
044that then we could turn around and make recommendations to you so I would be remiss if I just did not take the opportunity say thank you team thank you teachers thank you PD coaches administrators are a part of this um it looks super easy on a slide but it is much more involved than four simple steps so now I will sh share with you after that process um what our recommendations are that at the end and at the end can answer any questions about them and then if you are ready we would like um a vote to support these recommendations so our Elementary at the elementary level we do one textbook for all K through five students and the recommendation from our elementary schools um is the publisher is great minds and it's Eureka Math
045for Middle School all middle School levels core for 6 through 8 gate 6 through eight and geometry with Statistics all um voted to support savis en Vision math so that would all the same program all through um middle schools and then this again should look familiar this is the high school core sequencing guide and I just put this in here as a reminder because you're going to get ready to see a very extensive list of all of the high school books and I did just want to say that this year was a little bit unique from the state in that there were some courses that only had one textbook options so limited um we certainly reviewed those our teachers were able to really look at those but for several of these courses there was only
046one recommendation from the state department so geometry with Statistics CP and honors both um elected for savis in Vision which aligns with that same um High School course as at the middle school level they opted to for the same textbook Algebra 1 CP savis en Vision as well honors for Algebra 1 would be accelerate math Nation Algebra 2 with probability both CP and honors is savis Invision discret math would be savis Blitzer discreet applications and modeling course would be BW Walch MTH standards application and modeling and again some of these are new courses based on the course sequencing reasoning and Mathematics CP would be the savis thinking mathematically textbook statistical modeling is the savis Box stats modeling the world pre-calculus both for CP and honors is the McGraw Hill pre-calculus book calculus honors is the
047sage calculus AP Calculus AB and BC elected for the singage calculus for AP a complete course textbook and then AP Statistics is the practice of statistics for the AP course so those are all of our recommendations for textbook the math textbook adoption that we are currently under and I am happy to answer any questions as long as they not you're not going to ask me to do actually do calculus or anything like that I'll defer to the Kelly could probably come up and do that okay board members at this time I would ask for a motion to approve these math textbooks as presented just I did have one question we move to the vote so thank you for telling me something good um that was exciting to hear so with the particularly with the ele
048and the Middle School um was it close did these textbooks really stand out A Cut Above the Rest and can you comment on what about them really resonated with you sure so I also will tell you that we did um give all teachers all schools kind of a look for document some things that we really with the new standards we really wanted them to be sure that the textbook could support a lot of what those new standards were really looking at um it was very close um especially in elementary there were three textbooks that were voted for up for adoption in elementary and it was so close that after we got the first vote we took out the lowest one and sent it back out for another vote um just to make sure we did
049ask them for a second their second choice but we still felt like we really wanted to narrow it down and even with that second vote at the elementary level it was seven and eight and we have 15 elementary schools so um the middle the ele and there were a couple of Elementary or a couple of um the geometry was statistics Middle School class Middle School course was three for another textbook and then four four um but but the M the elementary one was really the the most close Miss Bates and I were just talking um Eureka Math we've used this in the district previously correct and that was geared towards the gifted and talented used in our gifted and talented program before yes and I was saying not not a question but but some more
050commentary um tagging on to the thank you um because I I think this is another thing that sets dd2 apart um from a lot of districts in the state it would be fairly easy for on high on the mountain to just dictate what your curriculum what your books what what all that will be down into the classroom level but as a district we take it upon ourselves to make sure we get the input um from our Educators and and a lot of input I know that takes a lot of time and effort and so I just want to say um thank you for that and and again it just shows that we're listening um to our Educators not not just telling so thank you I will say we um I attended a virtual session from
051the state department at the very beginning of textbook adoption season um about best practices and it was all about you know getting by in and what makes an adoption um standards change all of that successful and it was affirming to hear everything that they recommended is already a part of our practice here there are certainly districts where the curriculum and instruction team or you know someone just adopts something so I do feel like we have a a really good process to get that feedback from schools I just wanted to say and anytime I hear about Reed 180 I get excited um I was the first to teach read 180 in the district over at theose and the thing I love about the program is the fact that it is up to the students and to
052rather or not they take advantage of all that's available to them they have such a wide variety of books that they can read on their own small groups whatever they want to do they have that small oneon-one time with the teacher and you know if they decide that they want to work the program and do what they need to do they can test out and I was so excited when they moved on to the high school and so um I visited a class my first year on the board and you know she had a number of students that working in order to test out a read 180 so um great teachers great students that understand the value of what's being given to them and that's in any class that a child basically goes into they
053have to be willing to put the work in and when they put that work in and the teacher is working with them then they're going to be successful and we do encourage parents to continue to encourage your children to read a variety of books because that's how they speak well that's how they're able to write well and they learn a variety of vocabulary that they can use later in life so read 180 yes thank you we love it too all right any other questions comments okay so at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the math textbooks as presented by Miss Parker and the entire District so moved all right motion made by Miss Bate do I have a second seconded by Mr barnsworth any further questions or discussion at this time
054okay hearing n we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries seven in favor yes at this time I'd like to call up miss m for our finance report um she's going to talk about our Min minority spend report for fiscal year July through December 24th Mr D Fine Arts update Fine Arts update oh I'm so sorry that's right I know you're excited about the te text math textbooks Mr Walsh we forgot Best For Last here Mr Walsh thank you good evening I was already back to my seat I was so EXC so uh I I also get to share nothing but good stuff um and I'll just give you a brief update about Fine Arts we just concluded uh we had a little rough one of the rougher Rawlings audition Seasons thanks
055to Mother Nature this year we had to move two weekends and so we just finished that up um we had 690 kids registered to aition 576 kids actually auditioned uh that's a little misleading because every kid gets to CH choose areas two areas that roughly amounts to about 1100 auditions over the last uh four or five weeks that and that doesn't count for makeups and those things we had some makeups especially to our great Somerville Elementary robotics teams who did so well we had some extra makeups as far as that goes and so that all those letters have been mailed and all that is happening right now um our GT artistic programs were super proud of those we've we've done we've changed that a little bit in the last couple years uh Gateway as a
056program since for gifted and talented education with artistic Youth and that program is is almost as old as me it's been around for 30 years and so um I'm going to stick with that that's almost as old as me and so uh that we meet five Saturdays in the summer and for two weeks in the summer um five weeks during during the year and they're called super Saturdays and and we've we've really pushed that to move down to our third through fifth graders and it it it's a model that's being um changed all over the state Berkeley has recently adopted our model instead of what they typically do um the state is bringing their nature and needs of the gifted learner program again last year they brought their Clea program here to spend a week
057with us to watch what we do for Gateway they're coming back this summer um and hopefully bringing more people and so we just had one of those on March 1st and then last year we split it um for two reasons first we wanted to increase the depth of instruction for our middle school students and secondly so we could have more students what we were finding is that we were working very hard for retention um in our students and and we were retaining students so well we weren't able to accept any so we we were having huge numbers of fourth graders fifth graders sixth graders and we were able to accept 30 third graders just because we only have so many classrooms and so we split it apart for two those two reasons and uh this
058is our second full year of pathway and we had our first session on March 1st and 215 students um participated so that's about up that's up about 50 students so we're serving almost 600 students engaged through 3 through 8 U through gifted and uh talented artistic education I would invite you to come out to any Saturday and see it it's really neat uh because the teachers are excited to be there because they're doing their art the whole day we also try to partner um we purposefully make it a a professional development thing for us so we try to um include younger teachers with older teachers so that they can lesson plan together and they can spend the whole day together together and they're spending 15 days with a master teacher and so it's a little
059bit of a retention thing for us a little bit of a professional development thing for us uh the next thing we've been working on for the past three years uh you you've probably heard from other counties that have all count band All County Orchestra All County this all County that we uh we TP we had not had one of those the district had had District Honor Choir for several years um and then that got canceled because of Co we brought that back uh and then last year year we brought on the honor Orchestra this year we'll have an all count band we have a an honors dance weekend so essentially right this year once we have our honor band we will have every core area will have an an honors Ensemble which gives those students
060who maybe not make all state or All Region uh an Honors group to participate with something that might be of a somewhat of higher quality than they get on a day-to-day basis because they're with all the and think it's people time to network and to work with other kids um and it's a great time and so all state this year the All State numbers uh choir had 26 which is which is up several from last year ban had 44 students make all state and that weekend happens uh this weekend they leave on Thursday uh and they'll be and they'll be back on Sunday and uh the next thing is a is an ambitious program we're going to try and see how it works we were contacted by the Atlanta Opera Company uh they received a
061grant from the national D of the Arts to create uh operas based for for elementary students and so they they've taken mozarts The Magic Flute and brought it down to a third grade level and so we've sent out a study guide to all our teachers that they're going to meet on on Wednesday to go over um but on April 7th uh that we'll have every third grader in The District in the pack Center between 10:30 and noon and where we're going to make it happen I don't know how we're going to do it it's 18897 students in two hours uh so we have two showings and we're going to figure it out and it's going to be great we did something similar in December for all our fifth graders um that was over two days
062so this will be a little more hectic and a lot more fun and I'm excited to see them it's so much fun to watch kids get those experiences and then we have another new experience that we are piloting with I think 12 programs in in the country and we were approached by the Carnegie Hall music explorers program and what that is it is a program they've had in New York for quite a while but they are now they've again got a national to Arts Grant and they're trying to push that out and what that is is they hire performers from different places in the world and they create these video lessons and study guides for specific music genres from all the all over the world and those students get to then be online and learn
063from those specific ific things like the last the last one they had uh was the PLA and In from which is from Cuba and they have two people who show them the dances they show them the things and then they get to learn a basic how to play those kind of things and to learn about music from Africa and Cuba and and all over and so we're excited about that it's also a uh the goal for that is to provide development for the teachers so that they can then pursue those subjects on on their own so there's also professional development sessions related to that and then here's the big one this um this year this this month March if you don't know is music and our schools month nationally and youth art month they both
064have proclamations from our our state government and national government that they are celebrated nationally for youth art month the music and art schools month um so we're hopefully going to have lots of celebrations all across the district but our biggest celebration is some something we created about 3 years ago it's the third Thursday through the dream um Association downtown we affectionately call it dreamfest and so uh I didn't name it and say uh it's from the teachers and that is on March 20th and we take over downtown we have about 11 groups performing um I just added another one today we have 11 groups performing on the Hutcherson Square stage we have all our steel drums performing on West Richardson um there in front of what is montros and then we just added an elementary
065steel drums group we're going to try and fit there into the uh in the grass in the courtyard area there and that happens from 5:30 to 8:30 uh also we'll have artwork all over uh downtown we're that is going to be put in on March 17th and uh it we're going to since the next week is spring break they're allowing us to leave it up for two full weeks so you don't have to try and Rush down there on in two days and see it the parents can come all the next week and we're going to take it up on April 1st and so this year we are estimated last year we had 27 teachers and 400 artworks and we're right now we have almost we're getting close to 500 artworks to put downtown which
066is is fun and everywhere you go from town hall to Coastal Coffee Roasters that they will have artwork everywhere where you want to look and so another big portion of that is we will have our ribbons for you I have them back there to give to you everybody gets two ribbons to place on two artworks that are their favorites so that is again is March 20th and it's 5:30 to 8:30 and I'm happy to entertain any questions thank you Mr Walsh we appreciate all you do and all the Saturdays that you give up and how you really are promoting our Fine Arts and I know a lot of us have been there on your your dream Fest and that's that's quite an event and a lot of undertaking by all the staff and yourself to
067get that all planned out so thank you thank [Applause] you and now we'll move on to the finance report so we'll have uh Miss man come up and talk about um at this point our minority spend report from July to December 24 Miss Manet thank you um Madam chair board members um Mr dhy um this evening the procurement team has prepared for you the um minority Enterprise report so we are required to um to provide you with the information um for the vendors who have designated themselves when they provide us with their um vendor information as minority business with those qualifications um under the district procurement code that we follow the state's procurement code um as Mr dhy said this is the July 1 through December 31 2024 spend with those vendors um the six-month
068total is 1.9 million just as a point of reference last year at this time between July 1 of 23 through December 31 of 23 we are 2.5 million um our annual goal what we we hope to spend is up to five million last year we made it up to four um I think with these new projects that are coming online we have an opportunity to work with um additional minority vendors again they have to designate themselves to us that they are minority um vendors we hope to um spend some more um business with them um so we will need a board approval of this minority spend report okay thank you miss m board members at this time I would ask for a motion to accept the minority business report as presented so moved second okay
069motion made by Mr Lee seconded by Mr Guthrie are there any questions or comments okay hearing n we will call for the vote okay motion carries seven in favor thank you thank you at this time we'll move on to our operations report uh we'd like to ask uh Jeff Smith and and Tony souls to come up on our facilities update and also the referend update so thank you good evening Madam shair members of the board Mr Dy uh I just gave a report a couple weeks ago so I I'll condense this one a little bit to hit the highlights at the San Hill Elementary Wing we hope to get the building pad started this week and the substantial completion date is currently scheduled for September 15th of this year uh out at Oakbrook Middle School
070the building pad is completed for that project and they're prepping for the foundation installation the schedule completion date for that one is 1211 of this year and at the Oakbrook Elementary School Edition we're coordinating some uh preor site work with them to uh be able to go ahead and and start that building pad very very probably in the next month or so uh there's some coordination to be done there and that scheduled completion date for that addition is the 13th of February 2026 that's all I have for the referendum report is there any questions for me turn it over to Jeff uh good evening so um quick update on the other projects that we have going on most of these are 8% projects like I mentioned in the last meeting we're still waiting on the
071bids to be turned back in for the Somerville High School uh softball field Press Box and as well as we're waiting on the designs of the tennis courts at Somerville High School the Newington and flower toown HVAC Replacements the bulk of that work is going to be done spring break and the rest will be finished up over the summer basically waiting on the fresh air unit to come in and that'll be the summertime portion of the Work summer of high school gym locker rooms HVAC replacement we're going to be doing the leg work of the uh all the duck work replacement which is on the roof that's going to happen this summer I mean the spring break and then the unit will actually be in probably first part of May so we'll be a to
072get that done as soon as school gets out the O Brook Middle School HVAC replacement we're told we're going to have the quotes this week and then that that work will be scheduled for summer um a little more in depth on that installation it's not just rooftop units it's a lot of package units so it'll be uh actually split system so it'll be a lot more internal work in the schools uh just an update we're like I said we already mentioned but the facilities walkthroughs are going well we're already starting to work on some of the smaller things that we've found and that's all I really have tonight thank you one question are you seeing any problems with any of materials that that we may be having issues like tariffs those types of things any
073things that we may have issues with the project the bigger projects Tony seeing more issues on but I I think right now no nothing that looks like it's going to project or postponing schedules so I did have some conversations with some contractors last week and early this morning as well uh the the the the steel Market is a little it's very fluctuating uh it's uh very volatile right now so we're looking at uh other methods of construction that are acceptable U other other than steel frame and and construction so so we are exploring all options to be able to bring in on budget in all time thank you is there any other questions the board may have for either of these gentlemen okay thank you at this time um we'll bring up we do our
074Personnel report and I do have Mr Scott Matthews he would like to make a couple comments just a little bit about Personnel that's going on in our Personnel Department this time of year becomes very busy and so I know Scott want to say a few few words thank you madam chair uh members of the board Mr daughter thank you for this for a few minutes um I just wanted to inform inform you that uh you know when we're doing our recommendations and resonation presentation each month we haven't started including our 2025 uh 2025 26 recommendation yet so um I did want to let you know our our team along with our schools and principles administrators have been working very hard uh recruiting new talent to dd2 which we will soon as we know April and
075May are the contract months and uh so expect to see a lot more recommendations uh in the coming months sometimes when folks when you look at the uh the resonations we are including uh 24 25 resonations for the end of this year but we haven't start and we're and the recommendations are for current jobs we have right now we haven't started uh listing the 25 26 jobs but those are coming very soon just wanted you to to to be aware that that to be on the lookout for those uh exciting new recommendations coming your way in the coming months thank you Mr Matthews there any questions the board may have for Mr Matthews if not we're asking for uh board approval on the recommendations presented to the board okay board memb we did receive that
076information in our packet is everyone okay with proceeding um in Open session with the Personnel report okay at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the Personnel recommendations as presented in our packets okay motion made by Miss Bates second seconded by Mr Lee any questions or discussion okay hearing now we will call for the vote for okay motion carries seven in favor the last item we have on the superintendent report is eight e student enrollment recommendations for 2425 um you'll find in your packet um approval for the student enrollment recommendation as presented okay board members are you okay with proceeding in Open Session the enrollment recommendations presented um in this portion of the these recommendations yes yes okay motion by Mr Farnsworth do I have a second okay seconded by Miss Bates
077any questions or discussion okay hearing now we will call for the vote okay motion carries seven in favor right and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you Mr dhy um next item on our agenda is our public comments we do not have any this evening we will move to the next item which is our executive session um at this time I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for a student enrollment recommendation motion made by Mr Farnsworth seconded by Miss Powell any questions discussion hearing now we will call for the vote motion carries seven in favor we are an executive session and we will return to open session e e e return to open session motion made by Miss Powell do I have a second seconded by Miss Bates any questions or
078discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay motion carries seven in favor we are back in Open Session board members at this time I would ask for any motions any action coming out of executive session Madam chairman I motion that we uphold the decision made by The District in this matter all right thank you Mr Lee I have a motion do I have a second seconded by Miss Bates any question or discussion all right hearing now we will call for the vote motion carries seven in favor all right board members at this time um I would like to bring to your attention that there was an additional public comment in the bottom of our box that we did not see so I would like to ask if everyone would be okay with
079me allowing that public comment at this time okay um I would ask Solomon mot did I say that name correctly okay um to please step forward and I I apologize that we um that we missed your card and so I appreciate your patience and you staying to the end and waiting for us thank you hello my name is Solomon mot I am a lead editor for wave TV Somerville High School's Weekly News show where we cover a wide range of subjects including School Centric stories as well as local and national news recently two of my peers and I reviewed both our school and District handbooks to find the policy on student-led media like our publication and found nothing there's currently any policy relating to student media and what exactly is subject to administrative control control
080and censorship that our program has faced many times we are entirely student L and student created and should be treated as such 5 months ago there was a fatal hunting accident on The Sawmill Branch Trail two students from wave TV took on the story and their coverage contained exclusively the basic facts of the situation no identifying information in lasting no more than 10 seconds and primarily focused on proper hunting procedures in safety after we aired the show for that week our adviser was called into a meeting with an administrator and was instructed that we were not to cover verbatim violence crime or anything negative topics that make up about 95% of the news this is unconstitutional and violates our rights under Hazelwood V colmer it is prudent that our district implements a policy officially detailing
081and classifying wave TV as well as any other present or future student journalistic publication within the district as a limited public for our integrity and our rights as students journalists and American citizens are being hampered and harmed due to the lack of a policy due to the lack of clarification it's crucial to our education and journalism that we can cover topics that affect our student body and that this does not just apply to us in the past few years Rawlings middle school has become their own student run show the Nightly News at Fort Dorchester they have a budding Sports media program creating a policy to classify these programs to provide protections for students constitutional rights to freedom of speech is of the utmost importance we are not asking for free reign to use school likenesses
082to spread opinions or fear or hatred we are asking for a policy focused on preserving and cultivating the minds of both the students creating and those who are watching thank you for your time thank you Mr mot all right board members at this time I would ask for a motion to adjourn motion made by Miss Powell seconded by Mr Lee any questions or discussion hearing now we will call for the vote and the motion carries six in favor one against we are adjourned