##VIDEO ID:6H-juMDIjJY## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome to the Monday August 12th 2024 meeting of the Dennis shth Regional school committee please stand and join me in the pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well welcome it's sad that we don't have our students here but we'll have students here shortly almost getting to that time already um we're going to start with important discussions we have a field trip uh discussion from Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School for pero trip to Washington DC I think Mr kulus is going to speak good evening folks thanks for seeing me today um is there a mouse for the slideshow right here oh how do way gotcha okay and then from beginning thank you I'm used to Google Slides apologies folks um students um to go and see the capital and take partake in some Civic engagement see some living history um and sorry excuse my voice um and have little hands-on experience with it as well um so last year's trip this is actually our crew of students here that we took down we took 29 students four teachers down uh we flew down out of Logan um and had a bus the entire time we were down there motor coach to take them this is our first stop actually at the uve um Aeronautics Museum right off right outside the airport um um it's actually really cool we got to see uh the anola gay and a couple other of relatively important um aeronautical artifacts while we were there uh they also got to partake in um some virtual reality flying as well which some of them really enjoyed others not so much and realized they were not cut out to be fighter pilots um oh that just jumped several screens so these two um photos here actually were two of the more popular experiences that the students had um the first one on the left is the changing of the G Arlington National Cemetery um we were there for better part of 3 hours we got to tore the grounds um see specific Graves we actually met along the way a historian that works for Arlington National samary and he went through all the different uh locations and Graves that we may not have known were there um especially he pointed out several members of the Manhattan Project that were there since Oppenheimer had just come out so some of the kids really interested in that um and then again The Changing of the Guard was very emotional and very much kind of put a halt to the way some of them thought about service um and they had a great experience there and then on the right actually was the most popular thing we did that is our ghost tour our haunted history tour we went into Oldtown Alexandria um and the gentleman there who is dressed in traditional garments took us around town and told us different historical ghost stories pointed out different houses and buildings that we wouldn't have noticed that had historical significance um including one of George Washington's uh houses that was down there um it was really the guy was really good at his job it was really cool the kids had a blast um we also got to explore a little bit of Oldtown Alexandria and they got to get into the culture a little bit there was a free concert there that they got they got to go and visit some of the shops uh get some ice cream and just kind of experience a new town which some of them had never had before um and we'd like to repeat some of this this year that's our proposal um our details here where we want to head to Washington DC we want to leave Tuesday the 11th and come back Friday the 14th um that's our group crew again all of us including teachers in front of the Martin Luther King Jr statue uh um spark some interesting discussions there actually as to why it was carved out of white stone and not Black Stone um the kids talked about that for the rest of the day actually had some really nice conversation on the bus ride back to the airport uh our big change besides expanding to four days from three is to go by motor coach the entire time hop on the bus in the Dy parking lot and ride it all the way down to Washington DC um we feel that it will give the kids a better opportunity to see the country and also to probably get some sleep instead of trying to get through airport security um and it would be we would leave at approximately 2:30 in the morning and we would arrive back home probably around 10:00 at night on that Friday um they would have substit drivers along the way provided by the company Landmark tours and we would be stopping once for lunch second time just to get out and use the restroom go stretch our legs and then we would hopefully be in DC by midafternoon to start our day this here is our itinerary for the first two days I'll let you guys take a look at it um the first day is when we would visit one of the smithonian museums of our choice I know the top ones are African-American Museum of History and culture Holocaust Museum Native American Museum as well um we also wanted to get down into the air and space museum that was under construction we went last time so we would really like to get the kids in there again um and then we'll allow them to explore Oldtown Alexandria have a big sitdown group dinner which we didn't really get last time we didn't really get a chance right off the bat to bond together um in a new location so we're looking to do that that first day and then do our ghost tour uh get into the hotel where we have overnight security every night uh day two would be breakfast then head down to downtown DC go to the White House visit tour the capital hopefully meet a state representor um see the Library of Congress and then we also are trying to work in college tours as well we want to bring them to Howard in American University that first day um um and then that night we'll go to uh the Illuminator Monument store which is really cool uh we went saw Lincoln Memorial the Vietnam memorial Korean War World War II and Washington Monument and then we'd head back to the hotel day three something new uh going to the National Zoo this was recommended by one of the teachers that went down with us he goes down a lot uh and he said that some of the kids who are more into science might appreciate this more going to the zoo and also they've got the pandas everybody wants to see the pandas so we want to take them down there and then we're thinking that third day once we get down there at a certain point break off into four groups one teacher goes with each and go see a couple of different museums of their choice they're all grouped together very well so we'll be able to get in and out and we're thinking of doing something some sort of assignment with it maybe a scavenger hunt for them so we know that they're going and not just kind of Lolly gagging um then that day we want to go possibly to Bowie State in tour um we'll have our dinner and then we're going to go to the Title Basin and see the Thomas Jefferson FDR and Martin Luther King memorials at night and see them lit up and then our last day uh we'll visit George Washington University as well as fors theater and then after lunch we'll hop on the motor coach and head home um again we're expanding it to four days the biggest request we had from the kids was they wish they' had more time so we're going to try to incorporate that uh and give them just a few more hours in Washington DC um everything included is motor coach hotels sites and attractions um the leader meals uh they get a couple of different things from landmark and all gratuity is included as well when the kids pay so we don't have to have extra cash hanging around everything is Incorporated in their payments uh the one thing that they won't cover is dinner the last day and lunch the first day so the kids will have to provide money or just bring a bag to lunch with them for that day uh when I talked to Landmark I had asked them for a couple different proposals uh depending on the groups of students we have um we're really hoping to try to get 40 to 45 students so that we can really drop that cost down for them and the great thing with Landmark is that top price the 1500 that is for 4 days and that is how much it cost for three days last year so we're trying to make it a bit more affordable and put a bit more into it with this company I really we really like working with this company this year not that we didn't like EF but they were a bit more personal and allowed us to really tailor what we wanted um and we also have in motion some fundraising opportunities already we have about $1,000 for scholarships for kids we've scheduled several bake sales already at the high school to raise money for kids that may need it um to help pay off and we are looking to work with Sea Dog one night to do their dining For A Cause to raise money as well and I know that a couple of the teachers are trying to put together a car wash as we come back to school to help raise further money um and possibly do some other sales within the library uh the standards that we hit uh citizen 3.8 from isty to create experiences for Learners to make positive socially responsible contributions and exhibit empathetic Behavior online to build relationships in community most of the museums especially the Holocaust Memorial Museum are all about empathy um and some of the kids had I hate to use the term great but that's what it was it was a great experience for them going and actually seeing some of these images some of these artifacts from the Holocaust stand in the actual Train Museum not Train Museum in the actual freight train car and watch me go like this and see that I could barely fit and tell them they would cram a 100 people into it so Miles dropped on that one um so it's for us this trip a lot of it is about empathy and we're hoping that will carry over into their behavior online we encourage them to post while we're there we encourage them to update their classmates to what's going on we actually send stuff back to Reed winam at the high school to put in the dolphin news as well um the next one of the other ones that we go to hit is defending democracy the Cold War and civil rights at home um obviously the African-American Museum of History and culture is huge for this um they have I mean the exhibits there are fantastic they take you from sorry from the settling of America all the way through civil rights all the way the newest thing we saw was one of the Black Panther suits where they did um afro futurism they had a whole thing on afro futurism while we were there so it was really cool for the kids to see how that ties into American history as well oh all right um for the schedule for payments and what and all of that we'd have a parent meeting probably late September early October at the latest um and we'd open up the online portal after that meeting for all students interested in Travelers to sign up they have 14 days um for it to stay open um and we're looking like I said we're hoping for the third week of September um and closing it October 4th to make sure they deposit do then so they have some time to get their funds together and let us know if they need some help um they can do monthly payments um directly by credit card um or they have auto payments as well if they would rather do that and we can also set up funds to help pay for certain kids as well with the website um the final payment is due January 2nd 2025 um and from there it would be us gearing them up and getting them ready to go um if you have any questions I'd be more than willing to answer them now anyone have any questions M Landers um so so the sign up is first come first serve by students so we are looking to meet with student leaders that would be our first real group we'd want to give the shot to class officers captains of teams leaders of clubs and then we're also looking for faculty recommendations as well I'm going to send once if you guys approved the trip I'm going to send an email out to the staff and ask them for any recommendations of kids that may be under the radar as leaders that we don't see because we got a couple of those kids on the trip last year and they really flourished and one of them is actually now the senior class president that's awesome and so kids who went last year would not go again so we're toying with the idea of inviting four or five of them back to to be the student leaders on this trip and do that hopefully we do this for many years to come and hopefully every year we bring four or five that have been there and can kind of pass it on to the next crew and know how it works and understand that you know this is is about learning and Leadership responsibility empathy and helping us build that throughout the entire process of getting down there and while we're there thank you Mr Glenn thank you thank you for the presentation uh glad everything went well last year so those four students and I think that's a great idea to tag on that leadership U my only question is are those four people going to have to pay again yes they would have to pay and it would be up to them if they didn't want to come again if none of the students wanted to come then so be it you know we have plenty of student leaders that didn't go last year that are kind of Jones into to go again I we had kids as soon as we got back like are you going again when are you going and it's kids that we again hadn't thought about but definitely noticing them then they flew under our radar and we wish we had brought them so this year we're hoping some of them sign up with us and we know that they would be just as good as anybody else and so you you uh also having with just one scholarship right now we have enough to pay for almost one full trip and we are looking to build on that money in the coming months to help kids that need it and the kids that need it we going to put them to work it's not just going to be you know here's an envelope of cash it's going to be okay you need some assistance you're going to come work the bake sale you're going to come do the car wash you're going to come sit at Sea Dogs and tell people about the cost that they're paying for so it it is is going to be kind of earned for them it's not going to be given as is most things with leadership it's earned great thank you um and please let us know any way we can help advertising anything we can do and maybe I don't know if there's a way for the school committee to uh uh try to uh promote a scholarship or a half scholarship or anything that the district can do um you know I'd like to put that out there so thank you Mr Mars I also thank you because I got the promise that you were going to give us a show when you got back and you certainly have you mentioned some of the changes and things you've added on what other what other areas would you say were improved upon or impacted by the first trip last year and second question would you be available for a Friday morning at 7:00 at Hearth and Kettle for a Rotary meeting that uh since we make contributions as a rotarian as a rotary club uh this is this is the type of thing that we'd like to uh without speaking for my club yet but I'm in charge of speakers for September so would you like to uh have a free breakfast uh I would I would have to put in for the day or the morning at least with my principal first but I would definitely be interested in coming to Rotary and speaking with you guys and seeing if we can come to an agreement on something definitely thank you very much and I'll uh trade contact information uh you're probably available by new new uh techniques um I can definitely get you my contact information maybe through Miss whan to send her my email for you and my phone number as well I always go to to that source for information um as for what what's changed um everything was from the students they asked for more time they said the ghost tour was the best thing so right away we told them look this is what the kids said this is what they wanted this is what didn't happen Okay and the landmark representative said we can make that work um they had the kids had some um qualms with the tour guide um so we explained what kind of tour guide we might need um a little more high energy than what we had and landmark said yep we can definitely match you up with the right tour guide for the city um they said that it would most likely be someone who was local um and they understood that high schoolers need a bit more high energy so that's what we are supposedly going to get um but like I said every everything came from them they loved they enjoyed the Holocaust Museum they had a great experience there so we're going to bring them back um the one thing that they had wished again was some more time free time roaming time so that second day when we go and we go see some of the monuments go see the white house we're going to give them that time to go to the museums of their choice let them make the decision um and go with one of four groups thanks for making the presentation but I guess most of all thanks for listening to the students and responding with something that adds to their experience so uh impressive thank you thank you Mr Martin mrus um no thank you I you know it's as we always oh you do now you're ready change your mind I did um I just I I had two quick questions on the the paper of one your slides um it's talking about the uh African-American civil rights movement and uh and visiting the uh the U The Monuments and the museums it says one of the targeted student groups will also be those in the new African-American history class so um what is your goal as far as um or uh the diversity of the group that you're bringing down to um uh Washington DC and what was what did that look like in the previous group so in the previous group we actually had a really diverse group um we had different backgrounds different minorities um whether it was through their ethnic background or through LGBT qia um and we target like I said group leaders uh including members of the GSA and voices heard which I am the adviser for which is all about giving minorities a voice um so we really try to push hard for some of those kids that we think would benefit from it um and I mean our class leaders are it's a very diverse group really is and um when they when they choose the the museum that they want to visit is that a is that kind of a breakout groups that go to different museums or do that or does the group as a whole pick and you go to one place so it will be a breakout group we have uh I have either four or five depending on the number of students um chaperon going down um and they will go with chaperon and then once they're in the museum they will have student leaders last year we had student leaders in our groups um that kids would have to report to they set up their own text groups to hey we have to meet here now and the kids would go and meet with their group leader and the group leader would bring them to us and then we would do the headcount and I think I did about 200 headcounts in three 3 days um but every time there was a student checking our math and making sure that they were all there so it will'll be breakout groups but once we're in the museum they do have the autonomy they are self-guided self-guided trustworthy enough to go into the museum even maybe step outside the museum and get an ice cream um but it is not at all like okay scatter right you know we work the buddy system is three people three to a group all the time um some nights they're allowed to like when they go to Alexandria they're allowed to go out explore the direct area mhm they have to be with two other people every time there is no branching off by yourself or with one other person it's threes and that will carry into this year because that worked really well for us last year very good thank you very much great thank you again for the presentation you know I know that a lot of the members appreciate when you know people ask for a field trip we approve it and they come back they tell us the success stories tell us they want to do it again and to have kids that want to do it again so it's great I'm assuming we need a a a motion to approve the field trip as well as missing the three days of school I'll make the motion Mr chair second okay move to go ahead move to approve Dennis Sharm at Regional High School field trip to Washington DC as part as per Mrs Bennett's July 3rd 2024 memo the dates of the trip are March 11th 12th 13th and 14th 2025 the group requests permission to miss school for three days a motion and a second all in favor say I hi we have it unanimous good luck and we we hope we can get a full group of students down there to visit thank you very much have a nice evening next we have discussion of the 2025 2026 school calendar this will be a second reading all right let me just pull up the presentation can't see it oh now I see it yep it's a world smallest there we go yeah all right perfect all right uh good evening Mark Smith superintendent uh so the committee has taking a first look at the 2526 school calendar so not next year school calendar but the calendar before and just as a reminder the at the so the last meeting was a workshop so the meeting before that actually I think two meetings prior to that the conversation was brought up by remember around the way this school year ended where we had uh the second to last day of school was on the 18th then we had the juneteth holiday and then we came back for a half day on the 20th and so then the question was raised or some member had looked forward and seen that with the way our school school calendar for uh this coming school year was constructed without any snow days that was going to same thing was going to happen in the calendar so we made an adjustment to the 2425 school calendar that uh adjusts for that gives us a one-day buffer uh with that adjustment and then the conversation went to the 2526 calendar uh and then a member had raised the question around February school vacation could we look at maybe adjustments to the the February school vacation and that then led to a conversation about sort of if we're going to think about some more drastic uh decisions like that should we survey the broader School Community to which uh we conducted one right at the end of the school year I know uh I've emailed a link to you all to be able to dig into those survey results a little bit more if you all wanted to but I do just have a summary presentation for you all and for the public to see what the results of that uh was I'm just going to go through that real quickly and then um we uh go through what you all are looking at at the um on the calendar draft and then obviously it's your calendar to make you can ask any questions obviously and and then you all can make a decision on a on a vote for the 2526 calendar tonight if if you so choose so um here are just a breakdown of who participated there was 437 respondents um the way the uh this particular type of survey worked is that people can then enter a thought uh so of those 437 respondents there was a survey section and then there was a section at the end where you could enter a thought so not everybody entered a thought but there was but then you can also rate people's thoughts and you'll see sort of the top rated thoughts in a second so there was a lot of Engagement because you had over 6,000 almost 7,000 rating so people were reading other people's thoughts and then rating those on a scale uh you can see the breakdown on who participated uh the largest percentage was at the high school but you know pretty good distribution across each of the schools uh and then you can see sort of how folks identified within our school Community the larger percentage being faculty and staff but again representation from each of our stakeholder groups so the questions that we agreed that you all wanted me to ask uh were whether or not folks were in faor of exploring a shorter February vacation so you can see here there is not really uh from those that responded not a strong um appetite for exploring a shorter February vacation uh there's also not a strong appetite for eliminating the February vacation um and like essentially a distribution with a slight leaning towards people just preferring not making any substantive changes to the calendar at all that's where the General survey results and then the like again the thoughts can go in a bunch of different directions but these are like the top rated big thoughts I'm not going to read them to you but these were the some of the highest rated thoughts actually the top three ranked thoughts so people started to share some other ideas about you know could we get into like like a uh having half days for PD um instead of the full days those like for example we I for I'm sure everybody's aware but we start with four professional days at the beginning of the school year um now that's if we were to go down that path that's there's that's in the teachers contract right so we can't just decide we're going to make those half days because that part of the teachers work year so that would be a whole you know opening the collective bargaining agreement so that's not just something you all can decide without us having to get into collective bargaining right but but these are just ideas that were generated what were the top rated ones um and then the so the tool has AI built into it so you know this is the AI analysis this is my analysis but one thing it does is it is it looks for common ground like where did because there were some people agreed with some ideas and other people agreed with other ideas so I tried to grab some of or I did I grabbed what the AI found as common ground there's a lot of text up here but these are some of the the things that the AI said across all the comments or some places that people agreed so you can see that you know that idea of using half day for professional development days as opposed to full days comes up again um and people largely agree that we need on the February break for teachers and for the well-being of students Etc um you know there is some importance suggested for Thanksgiving a full day break there as opposed to what we have adopted as a half day um again going back to the we don't start until the Wednesday after Labor Day because of those four days of professional development um and then on the bottom there um the I the need to uh there was some this actually bottom section had Fairly um there's some folks who uh want to actually extend February vacation even longer um and but these folks didn't really have provide any real suggestions on how we could uh do that and there were some folks who who just didn't have any NE necessary um basically promoting this idea of just sort of keeping things the way that they are and another bucket of again things that were in common um wanting folks to keep things the same as other school districts um worried about you know potential increases for absences again the halfday professional development and then on the bottom some of the same ideas get repeated a little bit there's some repetition in the a because it comes from looking try to cut across some of the same themes or different themes and seeing for patterns in the same themes but and then so uh what's left there was just sort of for you all next steps as I mentioned public and you all obviously as a committee know you you were able to slice and dice this in any different ways that you wanted um and the 25 26 Calendar that you all have in the packet mirrors the 24 25 that youve already approved and that the um the uh there's a half day for uh on the 3D of April and there's a half day on the 26th of November and then what's different than from what you saw when we met in June right is the last time we met in public session correct uh is this now includes the half day or the early releases the that calendar didn't have the early releases on it yet um and you'll see what's a slightly different than we've done in years past is they are on the first Wednesdays of the months and that is if you all remember we had to take a vote to move the uh I think it's the May one um and that's because of M uh it interferes with mcast this is to try to avoid any uh interruptions with mcast and have it be something consistent that everybody can count on um without having just either as having to make a last minute move or have something that's inconsistent and out a whac I'm happy to take any questions or I could go back to my seat Mr Glenn uh two things I just like to note um it seems like a really like as you said a really good breakdown of the community um is is was was this tool um the Serv tool was it something different that we've haven't done before or yes so this is something that uh uh partnership agreement with this company called thought exchange that we entered in sometime this spring when we were needed to get the information with the TR for the transportation when we were exploring the two-tier system versus the three- tier system and what we can get from this has been very very helpful uh when we late a little bit later tonight I'm going to talk about some of um when we talk about superintendent goals and we talk a little bit about strategic planning you know we're going to be working on like long-term capital plans and there's I I see a lot of potential for us really engaging not only our school Community but both the broader dentist and Yarmouth communities in uh long short and long-term planning uh for the district I really think this there's a lot of potential here untap potential uh for us and really uh engage enging in a in a two-way com uh conversation with the community at Broad scale and uh secondly on the um half day professional development um I didn't see whether you had like a strong I I would assume that and I may be assuming incorrectly that the staff in other words if we got an indication that they strongly agreeed with doing that I mean the teachers a faculty would agree with that it would make the negotiation go smoothly in other words if they were all for it um I I tend to doubt that that was the case but you know if we could see a breakdown of the um the faculty's answers to that question we might be able to see that because we don't want to go through a a exercise in something that we know is not going to go through so um but I I agree with you 100% that that looks like a great breakdown and we'll be able to use it in the future so thank you Jenny it's interesting I mean obviously that we've seen the top comments here in responses and Etc and it's very heavily skewed towards staff responses um you know I think we also we obviously need to consider parent the you know parent situations and you know years ago when we implemented these additional early release days and half days um you know as a working parent I was very concerned about these days um you know it it's hard enough for parents to make schedules work when kids are getting out way before they get out of work and you know this so I mean to to say that the PD days before the year starts are not productive so that we'd rather spread them out across the year I don't think that's the right answer I think the answer is let's make every PD day productive um so anyway we're not really here to discuss all of that my two cents um you know it sounds like nobody wants any major changes at this point to the calendar it sort of brings us to where we are I like the fact that we don't end on that weird note with a day a half day a day you know a day off in between um so you know and we can always make changes to this calendar you know as as we get more information but um makes sense to me thank you anyone else Marilyn uh I decided to do some research because I I really appreciate your information so I looked at Barnstable naset monoy uh mashby and sandwich because they were all referenced at some point um so yes we all have uh December February and April vacation that's consistent among them all um the interesting Trend I did see which sort of tied into the PD and you know again it's the philosophy of a system all school systems except for us had two sort of professional work days for teachers uh and then the others were sort of some were in October and November some were uh January March but there was that trend of spreading it out I I did notice that um the other thing that all school systems had in common except for ours was they all start on sep the Tuesday after Labor Day uh two of them this year I can only look at their school years two of them this year uh are starting Barnstable and mashby are doing two days the week before for teachers everybody had the Friday before Labor day off and then all of them are starting with students uh on the third so that was a day I thought well you know we could at least talk about it seemed to work um and those oh and in terms of the days that we tried for half days most school systems were had school the Friday before April vacation that that day was was a full school day in most school systems um and most school systems except for sandwich had uh the day before Thanksgiving off so I you know that was interesting to find that Trend Jenny I forgot to say one other thing the the two half days in October and the two half days in March are for parent teacher conferences but at the high school there are no parent teacher conferences so again that's something I've questioned before is the use of those half days um so just a note Mr Morris the use of AI is obviously a wrinkle that is beyond the the knowledge of the times of town meeting where we would have the budget battle or arguments with fincom or select boards getting a sense of because that was the only opportunity to convey what we were trying to do what the schools stood for and what the values the education values I think this is a very interesting proof that we're listening to the community and paying attention to make changes or keep things the same so I I commend being brought into the 21st century even though I was born in the previous not the 19th but the 20th thanks I move and then this is a reading correct are we looking for an actual vote on this calendar I mean you've all seen a first version of it and you can what um I will say I haven't seen a school committee prior that that votes a calendar as far ahead as you all do and I think it might have been miss Landers who said that you know you can make an adjustment later right so you you have the luxury of time if you vote this now and then you want to make another change I mean obviously it's your calendar you all decide what you want to do with it um you've already seen it once so you can take a vote tonight yeah I think it' be a good idea if if the committee decided to vote this in so it's on the website and then if more information comes in as stated it could be brought up in the future but I know people who are in the medical field who have schedule six months or year in advance need to put times time off from what I've experienced with families so I wouldn't be opposed so if we have a motion I move that we approve the calendar as presented tonight second okay I just have a follow-up question so the last day of school the the 24th would be with the five snow days correct so the last day would be the 18th the 16th oh yeah right you okay okay any other questions juneth is the holiday yeah any questions um I don't think we need a roll call so all those in favor say I I I and he opposed so as of right now we approve the 2025 2026 school calendar that's now been reviewed for the second time and uh we can always hear Market if it needs to come back up again so thank you for your presentation and the explanation behind it thank you very much all right move back to my seat I think you're up again we have the the job description all right I think I'll move back to my seat for this one because I don't have anything to present okay all right so uh the committee has in their packet a job description for your consideration to approve for uh a new position in the district family community engagement coordinator uh during our Workshop in July we discussed when discussing school committee's goals discuss some of the work we've done during strategic planning uh and I've shared during both the report of Entry findings and during you follow-up conversations during the um during my entry process the need within the district to have uh coordinated Communications it was probably one of the first things that I heard coming in um actually came up quite frankly in my interview process uh and and this would be a position that would support that that need within the district to you know within my report on Entry findings talked about in a couple different places but one of the places that talked about uh was specifically related to like the fact that on a uh on average roughly four to one family school choice out of uh Dennis Yarmouth versus in and in discussing that with folks there was a conversation around the what I've I know I labeled as an incorrect uh public perception of the district right and we discussed this during our Workshop uh uh meeting uh last last month and this just we need a a you know a dedicated person who's that there's a there's a PR side to the job but then there's also just the the actual regular work with people and building you know i' I I've meet with all sorts of great Community organizations that are dying to do work with the school districts and support the work that we do here and as superintendent of schools I just don't have the capacity to keep those relationships up and fostered and developed uh in a way to then make sure that we can really leverage those relationships that that would be part of this job as well and to be working on ensuring that we have clear consistent uh protocols you know one of the things that we've talked about internally is just take one example I can or I can give you one example would be uh or one I guess maybe example isn't the right word one like Avenue that has multiple examples which would be the way in which we communicate home to families and so Tomas is a well we have multiple parents on the board but I'm just going to use Tomas as my example and you know you get remind messages and you've now transitioned through multiple schools and I'm sure depending upon the principle you get different types of remind messages on different occasions and different principles used remind in different ways remind is a great mechanism but if we're not consistent in the way we utilize it as a district sometimes it can just become white noise and then it's sort of U no longer has its Effectiveness and think we need to get a real consistent system as a district on what are we using our social media for what are we using REM mind for what are we using newsletters for what are we using our website for and that's sort of one layer another layer is identifying our um quite frankly we need to brand ourselves better uh and so to to be to be working on that um then you know there are people who've come to me because they want to volunteer within our district right we don't have a real coordinated way to build a volunteer program inside of our district and then the third layer is uh Our Community Access Channel which where this these meetings get broadcast right um but we maybe put a couple other things on there but there's a ton which again goes back to The Branding piece there's a ton of amazing stuff we are doing inside this District that never really gets out into our community and if I go back to something I was sort of hinting around but which is this idea of building support within the community for the things that we're going to need to do long and short term you know the the Community Access channels are a way to really build public support and relations around the great things that we're doing inside this district and all of that needs people or somebody a person dedicated towards that work and that's in short what this job is um dedicated towards doing so that's in a nutshell there's more detail in the memo there there's more detail in the job description um but that is um in in a nutshell what I'm asking for the committee to approve the job description um and I'm happy to take any any questions Mr Glenn um I think it's fantastic I think I've thought for a long time that this is something that we should be doing um and I think everybody is in agreement that we should be going this way um um the only thing I would suggest or might venture to ask is in the name itself it says family and Community engagement coordinator um I think if we put in communication because that's what we're really trying to do so I don't know if it's family and Community communication communication engagement coordinator or I don't I just think that if we're we're communicating we should have the word because if somebody is to address let's say the media or or another body and they say they're the the family and Community engagement coordinator they might not think that that person that's doing communication is available whereas if we got communication in their title then they kind of know about it so that's my only suggestion but I'm in full support of it Mr Morris knowing uh listening to Joe's suggestion not not not withstanding I would move approval of the coordinator position with a discussion coupled with a discussion about the use of the word Communications I'm in favor of it myself but if we could get a huge handle in the name but anyway I move approval consistent with our discussion yeah I just I just want to point out the part that wasn't discussed but this is not something I know budget was an important topic topic it will continue to be an important topic and uh you know the positions that were uh we weren't able to have this year that this is based through funding that we have so it's not any funding that we need to create it's through a grant and funding through our Public Access Channel and other items so I think that's an important thing to to to point out with that um and the title is the title and to me engagement means you're engaging whether it's communicating verbally or online but um I think the position itself is something that we need a lot of the things we'll talk about later on you know your goals and our goals has to do with you know what is our brand you know and we we have a brand you know the Dy Advantage but but what is it mean when someone hears it and I think that's the next level of it right that we've been pushing it and pushing it for years the DIY Advantage but then what what does it mean so I think this is the next layer so I'm for it Mr Martin I second the motion put forth by Mr Morris I sort of uh you know I'm I'm in support as well but uh my only comment is is in the title itself and I don't know what the magic phrase is but really with this person the pr piece of it so much of what is on the website uh you know the chair toas has a a a student who a child who's gone through the system in different schools I look at the websites and and I said H the jargon the vernacular to the building I have to sort of poke around quite a bit to figure out what they referring so we sometimes get stuck in educational jargon so I think it if it's part of that piece then whatever we can add to the title or tweak it a little bit uh I'm in favor of that as well yeah I'm not married to the title so I can I can definitely play with the title it is if you all are okay with the um you know the responsibilities and that I'm happy to play around with a title great I think Mr Morris made a motion and Mr Martin second um all those in favor I say I any oppose so we look forward to to having someone you know be a person of contact in a crisis that's one of the positions someone taking control of our website and then you know working with the brand and our goals that we'll talk about so thank you thank you I think next talking about goals their presentation of the draft goals of a superintendent all right so uh again in the in the packet the committee has a copy of superintendent's draft goals I'm just going to turn myself to that page and they are up on the screen actually I think I'll just e you mind just grabbing me the mouse off the Samsung uh so thank you very much sir um so following the same although we sort of got there in steps last year uh but following the similar process of last year what you'll find is uh a actually expanded from four goals to five goals this year so I have five goals organized under professional practice student learning and district and then there are a set of focus indicators so what you have in your packet is not only the goals but following that is the superintendent full rubric so that you can because you're both vote if you vote to approve you're both voting to approve the superintendent's goals as well as the indicators on the rubric to which I will focus this year uh and I've tried to tie them together uh and then if you again if you vote to approve tonight then I will do what I did last year for those that participated in the evaluation last year is then I will take the rubric and edit it and strike out everything you don't need to pay attention to give you a a an edited version do the same thing with the evaluation document give you one that just has the indicators that you need to focus on as a part of the evaluation so you have that throughout the course of the year as we are doing our work together but anyways back to the goals so I tried to really do two things tried to build from the work from last year and connect it back to the work that we are doing which I'll talk about during the superintendent report but the work that we're doing with the leadership team on strategic plan which really builds off the entry planning work from last year so really trying to keep all these things built together all moving together in the same direction so the first goal works on is the Bold the broad heading is organizational Effectiveness and planning and really it's trying to take all that information that was gathered during the entry process and take it forward so one of the things that came out of the entry planning process was uh a need to really or yeah like was it was an de I developed an understanding that we needed to develop some um more clear systems and processes and and systematize some practices across the district uh so this goal is is designed at continuing that work forward uh developing some more uh consistent systems for operational effectiveness uh so there are couple key actions underneath that uh one is developing again consistent procedures and protocols and practices to ensure Effectiveness and E uh efficiency to to uh modernize um several U school business processes to develop a 5 to 10e Capital Improvement plan and to refine our budget building process just try and attempt to really minimize this US versus them um culture that's sort of been uh eminent in the in historical process we talked about in the budget process last year and David and I actually just talked about this maybe two or three days ago about I mentioned that really want to get much earlier in the process and and and have a much earlier conversation I actually just had a conversation with one of the Town managers just the other day about setting a meeting um so really um was lesson learned from last year right I was really felt like I was really late in the process about about starting those conversations with the two towns so just learning again from last year and and bringing those ideas forward so then it got some benchmarks in here for How I Look to accomplish that and then some things that as a committee you can expect to um sort of hold me against uh the next section is two student learning goals one is building from last year so last year was focused on math so this is expanding on the work that we did in mathematics so last year we had some success in K to 5 and so we want to build off the model in K to 5 and the way we really did a multi-layered support in K to 5 want to build that all the way up through 12th grade uh so um building off the learning walk model the coaching model the coaching model for school leaders and build that up through middle and high school um again It ultimately ended up being much more focused on our three our no four schools in K to 5 and really want to um move that up all the way up through the high school is the goal for this year and uh so so you know when we're really the go this one here is the goal is moving the needle on student achievement so we have some outcomes I know we had talked about that um I think it was Joe had mentioned that sort of at the end of the year like how do we have some specific um achievement markers and things that we can really start to point at um to hold the superintendent um and so the the this one here is really really looking to move the needle on student achievement um and then you know there are some process markers right uh that I will do instructional no less than instructional um rounds with my principles the next is similar but focused on early literacy so um I guess the other side of the um instructional um coin if oop so to speak oops put that down um and so this is really you know we i' I've shared some data you know our literacy data is not anywhere near as strong as I would like it to be so this is really essentially geared at essentially taking an assessment and figuring out um what the barriers are that are presenting because we've got a pretty consistent Perpetual problem so really taking the year to really dig in and find out what the problem is and then um using that to establish an an action an action plan so uh being really purposeful on planning our future uh and so that this is really last year really dug into math and so this year essentially this goal is about dig starting to dig into early literacy establishing some early literacy benchmarks and developing a comprehensive multi-year plan for early loaders literacy um and beginning to incre increase proficiency again in early literacy uh third grade and I I could quote you all the research on third grade uh reading proficiency but it's if in short third grade reading proficiency is a key success marker for all sorts of things like graduation post College um success income earning in your future it's a whole bunch of success markers that are indicated for uh third grade so that's why we're going to start by focusing on third grade literacy District Improvement there's two goals under here first is uh public relations this is very much tied right to the conversation we were just having uh tied to one of our strategic um initiatives tied to one of the school committee's goals and is really just really on this probably will be a multi-year goal it'll just probably continue to evolve in some shape but really about um taking distinct leadership role uh in in in developing an or intentional organized and thoughtful public relations campaign to really really lift up all the positive things that I know I've seen over my first year here and really just uh I I know I've had this conversation with a couple different individuals um that it's going to take a while right and you don't change you don't turn the Titanic overnight um and but I'm committed to it and and it's going to be it's going to be a process and then the last is uh the fifth goal is building from last year's uh goal around district and school safety planning uh so last year was sort of getting the team up and off the ground and it was I I thought it was going to go in One Direction and that that team did get up and off the ground and the team I don't know what's a did a nice needs assessment of the district and then we've ultimately landed on a SRP with standard response protocol so uh next year is going to be actually just had a meeting uh with the uh one of the SR actually a couple the sro's just the other day so about now we're going to be implementing a new standard response protocol and getting our staff transitioned and trained and then there's actually some technology that's going to help support and enhance our ability to respond so this is about getting the new standard response protocol in place and then getting the technology in place and then starting to drill around those things I think it's really going to enhance our um capabilities around safety and um response protocol calls across whether whether we're talking well across all sorts of different types of emergency situations um schoolwide and districtwide emergency response so those are the five goals in a nutshell again you've got all the details in the packet I didn't want to read through every line um but that's it and not I didn't go through all the focus indicators I'm happy to go back and give you my justification for the focus indicators if you'd like um and happy to take any questions any questions and then Glenn the the pages afterwards Glenn with the blue is is the evaluation part which we have a while before we do but as Dr Smith said he'll condense it to the parts that are relevant um rather than having all the things that aren't relevant but that's kind of a quick background and during the MS Ma ASC training they do have evaluation superintendent evaluation classes that are great to have but we'll we'll coach coach you through that as we get there but Jenny did you have a question specifically or not a question just a comment that you know I really appreciate having this you know set out for us again in the beginning of this year um it was really important to have the goals last year and I know we got the indicators late last year but it all came together really well I think for us as a process and hopefully for you as a tool for feedback and um and planning and so these look great and I really appreciate having these yeah I'll just I'll just second that I think it's great for us to all from you know the top down understanding what the goal and Mission are and to to follow that and then to your point like you did last year to refer back to uh when you're doing a presentation of where it falls into this you know I think I think it's great um the only you know comment I would have is reduce the number of families choosing to school choice out by 10% I I I feel like that's a great idea just that's the goal that you want to move with but uh seems like a high number I like I like to set bold goals I I I just where you going to fall in that blue paper may not be your but uh I I I appreciate it it just where you fall in that blue thing is up to is up to up to that I guess mine is more of a comment yeah I do like having the draft very clear and uh you know it was easy to follow your process last year in year one and you can clearly see how this builds and and it's five different goals um I like three out of the five and I was looking for and I have to admit I have I hosted family last week so I only looked at this today um but uh it in and it was more on the curriculum goals that I see that you're carrying the direction of uh observation and support and all of that but I wanted more specifics of accountability brought into that how do these observations and feedback then change an instructional practice um and then how uh you know looking and I I asked this before I'm trying to make the link between this document and the challenge you also have this year to work on the Strategic plan because it you know the other one has now expired so I'm still trying to find that curriculum alignment and uh in both math and Ela um so I I guess I was looking for more benchmarks about this is you know uh the form that the administrators are using or the coaches are using this is an example of how we've altered the practice more and more sort of the inerts how it is it making a difference and then how is it tied into preparing students for the assessment and curriculum alignment um I was hoping uh perhaps this is one of my passions but I was hoping that the literacy was more K5 um and the rational behind thinking about that is because the incoming fourth graders if my history is correct they were the class that was was impacted as kitten Gardens maybe they didn't come to school or it was the first year of of the pandemic so the school was interrupted for them and usually that's the fourth grade where that performance starts dropping so I was hoping we could begin to look at not not only early literacy but sort of reading instruction 345 so that was just a wish but um I'm just putting it up yeah and I think if if the if the goals are accepted today I think there's an Ask of when you do presentations of each area to maybe include some of those items in your evidence I I would say so you know maybe in your evidence work you can include what some of those things look like we don't need specifics of the teacher and what it was but maybe what the rubric or what the what the form was used I think that's an in essence would help Marilyn if I understand right if we see those during the evidence parts of what was done done or how it's done I would like to know more about the K5 Ela curriculum yeah Joe I think you had a question uh no just more of a comment that um I I think this is fantastic and two of the reasons are that this mirrors our discussion and is consistent with what our goals are and I think of what your goals are for the District itself so it that consistency is huge that hasn't I I think hasn't been there before if everybody knows what we're doing everybody knows what your your goals are what our goals are what the district goals are and those you know they're not going to be the exact same but there's going to be a consistency in a a directiveness of the district that people will recognize and people will say oh that's where they're going and then when we get there when we get there we you know now we can say hey we set lofty goals and we got there um or we tried to get there and these are the reasons why we didn't but you know if we don't set these goals or they're confusing to everybody you don't ever get there how you define the problem is how you define the solution so thank you very good job and uh I'm looking forward to meeting all of them Jenny um I I would like to move that we approve the superintendent goals for the 2024 2025 school year as presented second okay all those in favor say I any opposed okay great now we have the subcommittee representatives leaz report school committee leaz to the board's Selectmen and that later on you'll find out all of the assignments but I believe it has been sent out already and I believe I'll start with Mr ly has anything from the town of Yarmouth yeah actually and the superintendent put it in his uh notes to us um and he can uh direct it but he he did indicate earlier that he had a meeting with the uh Town Administrator but there was a discussion um that the uh yarm selectman had um it's understandable they're going forward with the uh charging the madis uh subcommittee that they have but they don't want go forward if they don't know and I think I think it it is consistent also with your you're laying out your five and 10year capital plan you know if they don't know what we're doing um then we can't expect them to make decisions for them and it goes to the whole Communications level um so I'm looking forward to clearing that up with this with the school committee I mean with the uh Selectmen um and anybody who's um you know willing to be there um I'd be willing to do that uh same thing for uh Dennis but if if you needed but um I think it's important that we're you know we expect you know their liaison was here um and they basically said you know if you need anything for us to keep th those lines of communication open so if we can continue to do that so the report is there was a discussion we're going to follow up but did did we set it date with the Town Administrator or um or we're going to yep just to follow up under there was some confusion the uh the question is about Capital Money needs is what the question was how much money they can put into investing in madaky if we're going to be asking for money to do renovation inste em small or other parts of schools in specifically Yarmouth um station AV were there so that's what most of the discussions were about and I know that Dr Smith did have a conversation with the Town Administrator and I believe we're on schedule to publicly talk at a select board meeting in September so I don't know what specific meeting it is but we'll make sure that everyone's aware of which one specifically Joe has the Le is on great than Mr Morris I would endorse the comments already made but we can't forget the fact that there's a Advisory Board called the finance committee that makes judgment on the do feasibility of capital projects both for the the town and for the uh schools in Dennis it's called the capital outlay uh committee if they haven't changed their name by now uh but uh if we set up a mo process whereby we are coming in with information we predate the inclination to find fault with not getting the information earlier because we don't get our funding source from the state until after January or February whereas the towns try to get their budgets started uh in August and September uh so it's a different time frame but it still comes into town meeting so rather than having an argument of a town meeting we work ahead of time I like the fact that this sets it up yeah and you know going back to Dr Smith's first goal with the intended outcomes of a 5 10e Capital plan again as we go into further on when we go into assignments we did separate Capital uh subcommittee as a separate one versus Finance so that we can have give both towns a better understanding of what our needs are because I don't think we know per se and I I think by having that separate subcommittee and being able to have people dedicated to look at what we're going to need we can tell the town five years ahead of time not you know two years ahead of time one year because they're they're always looking ahead so uh I think we have a good understanding and we we I think David and his team communicates very well with them but it's how far ahead are we looking and I think you know going back to his first goal that that will bring it to it so thank you Joe and Phil Marilyn anything from the town of Dennis well this is sort of good news so for those of you wondering what happened to the closed wixon School uh there is an active committee that's been making recommendations and two members of the select board sit on it and they're moving in the direction it hasn't been formalized by the select board yet but they're moving in the direction to reopening the building uh the part that has the auditorium and uh gymnasium so that it can offer Community programs to our young people this winter nice great thank you that's great news um we we need more space for you know the community meeting space community space Recreation space so that's great to hear um School building committee update any the two any the two gent my left yeah um things are moving around we have um a meeting tomorrow next day yeah tomorrow afternoon with the uh the company that was awarded the redesign uh bid for the turf fields so to address the uh the drainage problems um and so that's sort of the biggest thing that's on the docket there were I took a tour with Steve fer um I know last week across all the facilities and you know being in here we're as far as sort of the the projects left on this building we're down to just about almost nothing like uh there's very little left as far as the punch list goes they are um out we had some um what's the term with the concrete uh I don't know wasn't sping but yeah some some concrete out that was uh discolored like so I bad mix essentially in the concrete so they're the the the vendors out here actually ripping up the old and it's in like you know they lay it in like little squares right so like you know that se and you would you would think they would just sort of work from one direction to the next but they don't so like you'll have one one square that is perfectly fine and the next Square next to it isn't fine because of they kind of almost late like hopcott I wasn't here at the time this is how it's all been explained to me but so you there's like one there's like four squares out here in the front of the school and there's a couple more squares over here in the back of the school and I don't know a couple other squares in different places that have just turned this really weird yellow color and this something bad in the mix so anyways they're here ripping that up to put new mix in and that'll get done in the next um day or so uh so that's like of the big projects uh that and they're trying to think anything else big that's going on here nothing big just working through final punch list things over the summer that we were waiting for a school to be out for some of certain things they had to shut down to attend to and being such a big technological building there's still little technology things here and there that they're trying to why the quirky little things happen here and there but they're doing a good job diagnosing that over the summer like Mark said wrapping up the final few things hopefully on the building yeah great that leaves us superintendent report all right I'm going to take a little bit out of order so I'll start with the Strategic plan uh um so really as I've already kind of mentioned or at least talked a little bit around Following last year's entry work and you know thank you again to the committee for giving me the year last year to do all that work and really being able to get out and meet with so many different folks run so many focus groups uh conduct surveys do all the data analysis really felt like we were in a good place this summer to begin the Strategic plan so in July met with the leadership team spent two days really working on Crafting three large strategic objectives one focused on closing achievement gaps second one uh on establishing consistent districtwide systems to support District Effectiveness and then addressing the third one being addressing our long and shortterm capital needs those are the big objectives and buckets and then underneath that then the team also worked in July on establishing strategic initiatives to meet those objectives so we got depending upon the objective four to five initiatives under each of those tomorrow and Wednesday we get back to together for the last two days we split our leadership retre into two days in July and two days in August so we get back together tomorrow and Wednesday for the last two days and we'll dig into crafting our one-year action plan so we start to there the the Strategic plans written as a five-year plan so what do we need to do next year like what's the first step and we really start to assign tasks to individuals what are the benchmarks that we expect to see in year one for those initiatives etc etc so really I don't know brass taxing it for if I can if I can turn that into a verb uh for next year and so that that'll be what we'll start to dig into next year then sort of plans after that will be to share the it at convocation with the faculty do a presentation here at school committee in September in or also right around that same time in September share it with the broader School community and do essentially like a a public comment period uh probably use that same tool that we were talking about here in where we'll seek final feedback from the community for any additions like what did we miss maybe any tweaks and revisions that need to be added to the to the Strategic plan to put any final polishes I mean it's it's always kind of a Liv living document anyways because you know it's a kind of a moment in time thing U the district's always evolving but we really want to have a direction you know I've been talking a lot to leadership team like your strategic plan should help you really decide like as different things come from the state or different things come different vendors come across your desk your plan should help you decide like what's going to be supportive and additive to what it is that you're doing and what's going to be something that you say that's not for us right so we don't want to let our plan be like a I don't know like a tissue in the wind and just be able to blow all around but we also want to be open to hey you know you missed this about us so that's why we wouldn't have a public because I do feel like we did a lot of listening last year so it's not based on just nothing it's all based on all that listening from last year um but we want to put it out have a public comment period and then use that to put the I don't know it's like sandpaper in the edges I guess for lack of a better analogy so that's where things stand with that and then School opening uh School opening is fast approaching uh there's actually already a lot of signs in place the schools are getting their final cleaning touches on them like I mentioned I was going around with Steve foucher just last week and a lot of you know there's a schedule so some buildings were clean much earlier and classrooms are already all back and set up um some were getting their final waxings done um uh extended school year is ending this week I checked in on the band camp was running last week sports are getting up and running like all the signs are are uh are in place for for school to be up and running and we have new staff orientation next week 21st and second um we have a few remaining staff positions still to fill but we're we're pretty close to capacity you know most of that you know Tomas mentioned we didn't create any new positions but we have normal turnover um some people resign at the end of the year we did have you know with some with the layoffs and and additions we created if you all remember some of those new uh El positions um essentially some FTE transfers um same with uh like some of us we've been always struggled to hire speech and language Pathologists for the last couple of years we actually were able to hire some this year um so so things like that um um and but we're we're we had a couple like uh people retire resign from the leadership team so fill in some of those positions um and convocation where we bring all the staff in for the very first day that'll be on the 27th of August and then last but not least uh we'll have new start times for Station Avenue uh Ezra Baker and Margaret e small as that'll be the final roll out of the extended school day for all the schools right um the bus company is almost done with the bus routes um so we had to reroute 3,000 kids um in order to make all this work um um and David talked to them this sometime today and they said they should have them all they've already done the high school Roots the Dy IMS roots and they're working on the elementary with the K3 Roots pre3 three roots and they're pretty confident they'll have them done by Wednesday um so that's why we haven't publicly said exactly the start times but we're pretty confident at this point that it's going to be it's looking like it'll the we won't have to change anything except for those K to3 Pre-K to3 routs and it's looking like it'll be about 22 minutes earlier of a start time and 5 minutes later of a start time so 8 was at 858 and right it would make the the start time at 858 instead of a 920 but we're just trying to make sure as they model all the roots that that's realistic they're getting down to the last few things and then quite honestly it was over Ezra Baker some of the longer routes to get to the Northeast corners of Dennis and back down as was taking the most amount of time so that's what they're finishing up tomorrow and Wednesday to make sure it looks like the time scheduling all match and then we'll be able to officially say that's it we're shooting for 858 as the start time for the elementary schools so once we have that uh final confirmation from the bus company then we'll share it out publicly with everybody Mr Morris trying to weave myself through Route 28 preconstruction of the sewage systems reminds me what a headache it might be for school uh bus routes how's it going yeah the the con that that's definitely going to be a headache for us there's no no if ANS or buts about it and it's going to be a moving Target I get we get emails every it's like every two weeks I get an update email from the um H the the person's name is escaping me from the town of Yarmouth that's coordinating everything but yeah and it's you know it's it's just moving and the detours are moving so yeah it's when I worked in a different district and they were they were doing the same thing there it was a constant juggle on where's the detour now they all I can say is they are they're very good at updating where the road closures are going to be um so you can at least try to stay ahead of it this this a 40-year project Phill as they keep reminding us as a chief of police i' I've spoken to about it and Jenny for this school year is there free lunch yes and breakfast again for everybody okay yeah it's through the governor's uh it's it's in the state law now at this point yeah so from from the expectation it's it's for the foreseeable future yeah unless it's removed from law yeah they'd have to legislate it out so yeah that's what Rooney had told me that for our expectation for the rest of time unless someone physically changes the law which is great great I got I just have two more things well one more bucket with two more items in it um so uh uh recognitions and um donations so I just want a quick thank you to Brad and Donna sprinkle uh for their very kind and generous donation to the uh Dy High School Hall of Fame so again I say it all the time but continue to be impressed with the generosity of the community it's just another example uh over the summer the the donations come in and then last but not least uh she's probably going to kill me uh for even saying anything uh but tonight marks Eileen's uh final meeting with us and in just a couple short weeks she's going to retire um and I told know I've told her um and anyone who's really willing to listen um that if I had any success in this first year um I owe it entirely to eileene um she's been been kind caring she's been a wealth of information uh consumate professional uh quite frankly she helped me feel right at home from the very first time we met um and you know I've been fortunate enough throughout my career to be in a leadership position on multiple occasions or in multiple different leadership positions and in that job you get plenty of people who come into your your office and tell you that they're moving on right they're they're going to go take another job something else or they're going to retire in this particular case and most of the time that doesn't bother me right it's just part of the job right and you wish people well and I don't often get emotional about it but I have been and was very sad when eileene told me that she was retiring and I just think it speaks a lot to who she is to who she has meant to me over this year and I just wanted to publicly say I am going to miss you and I'm very appreciative to this year that I that we were able to work together app and then you know one of your roles you know is the babysit Mark and then Ro the other role is to put up with the seven of us as we change and I know there's seven different personalities and we have two more so we have nine technically you've had to deal with now um but uh you know I know that the committee is very grateful for all that you've done to help us keep organized to keep us on target to remind us when we're supposed to be somewhere and uh you know to be with us and I'm truly appreciative and we'll allow any of the members also that want to share their feelings I know Mr Morris stood up for I know Joe standing but Mr Morris raised his hand do we have to approve this we know who will second a motion I remember iene at the high being the principal's uh assistant and going back more years than I'm going to admit to but wherever she's gone things got better so thank you very very much personally and officially Joe yes just quickly and I know that's not usually the case for me um but um thank you for all you've done for me thank you for what all you've done for the district and uh I wish you well the only thing I have to say as a retiree is as a retiree you never get a day off Eileen thank you so much you are you've been a wealth of information as Mark said and you've kept us organized you sit through these and L meetings listening to all of it and taking such wonderful minutes and getting everything done so quickly for us it's you know I don't know how we've done we could have done any of this without you we're so grateful and you know have fun and retirement I just want to add all the personal touches because I met you when I first took on for the first time in my life a puppy and how you helped me in the beginning told me not to worry told me all the dog stories and then along the way always said where is your puppy and when are you bringing her in well she's now three so I I just have a small token of our appreciation from the committee to you for all that you've done for [Applause] us trip and then we have uh school committee business enclosures so first one we have our school committee goals for 2024 2025 and we could do a reading or sub explanation of them or all right so I think I think right before I left on vacation I emailed these all to you it's right after your rubric thank you uh thanks appreciate the assist so uh during the workshop um we working with Jim Hardy had drafted out a sketch of the big ideas that you all uh had raised as uh goals that you wanted to work on this year so then I took those um and best that I could both from the notes that were crafted and best I could remember of the spirit of the conversations and drafted these three goals for uh to try to represent what you all had said were um things that you wanted to prioritize and work on these years so I mean this year rather uh and again I think I think they're well aligned to the Strategic plan which I I had shared with you all in that meeting the draft that we had done I think it just been a couple days prior if I remember correctly if all the time with everything and I think there's some nice tight alignment between uh well I deliberately aligned them so I I brought my goals in alignment with this as well um so I I do think you know for whatever my two cents are worth I I do think um there's some nice um Synergy here but uh yeah you know so for the for the audience who can't see what we're all looking at so the the first goal for the school committee is to support a positive Public Image of the dentist s Ral School District through all mechanisms available to the committee including but not limited to funding for necessary communication strategies utilization of meeting agendas advocacy among other Town boards and regular review of policy that supports the school leadership in achieving the school and then there are a couple of markers underneath that the second goal is uh ensuring that every student feels safe welcome respected and appreciated with the Dennis armouth Regional School District the school committee will ensure this by working with the superintendent to collect and review data from students and families related to access and belonging the committee will collaborate with the superintendent to use this data too and then there are like four specific action items underneath that and then uh the third item is ensure for the health Safety and Security of every student and staff member of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District the committee will accomplish this by overseeing and evaluating the superintendent's implementation of a new safety respon excuse me of new safety standard response protocol within the district further the committee will collaborate with the superintendent to determine any short and long-term fiscal and policy needs that arise as a result of the SRP standard response protocol implementation great thank you for presenting that I think it was important for us when we discussed it that you know there's only certain responsibilities that we have so you know we we tried to align our goals based on what we have jurisdiction over you know policy procedures you know an oversight of of the superintendent so I think these were a great way of utilizing what we can do and and helping enforce um these goals and also you know we talked about the website in that new position I know we joked the goals that were on there no one no one on this committee had ever saw saw them before so they're probably 20 years old maybe Phil maybe Phil wrote them but uh we're glad to have updated goals if they're approved on our website with the correct year so I don't know if we have a motion to I'll make the motion um I'd like to move to approve the school committee goals as written for the year 2024 2025 discussion all in favor say I I any opposed great I look forward to having an updated goals and keeping in line with our strategic alignment and our superintendent goals the next we have a discussion of the school committee recording secretary appointment as we just talked about uh Eileen's retirement I know Mark was in the process of hiring a new secretary as well as we made a decision to make it possibly two positions the secretary and then the the school committee person yes so thank you uh so um uh yes exactly so we we uh with E's retirement we did ultimately decide toak break apart the job descriptions into two job descriptions so that there's the executive assistant to the superintendent and the recording secretary to the school committee and the rationale behind that is really well it's twofold one so that uh two people could hold the job like if the executive assistant to the superintendent did not want to be committed to night meetings that that person wouldn't have to be the same person uh and there are times when the committee needs to operate independent from the superintendent so two primary examples are superintendent evaluation and negotiating uh superintendent's contract when the committee needs to go into an executive session uh or might need to go into executive session without the superintendent and you need somebody who's confidential working on behalf of the school committee who um understands that their job is to report to the school committee Keep information confidential of the school committee even if it's the same person that person has to understand that they have two different distinct jobs one is at the behest of the school committee the others at the Beast of the superintendent maybe beest isn't the right word but we all understand my meaning I think so uh and that's quite frankly that's how I've seen it done in all the other districts that I worked at so I really felt the now is an opportune time to make that distinction uh so I'm pleased to um uh let you all know that I've hired a wonderful person to replace uh well not that she can be replaced but to to to follow Eileen uh as the executive assistant to the superintendent Miss Sarah Miller who's sitting here in the audience and uh and she is also um able to do the job of the recording secretary to the school committee so it now this will be your hire so that's why uh I'm I'm making a recomend recommendation to you all um to uh hire into this position and we're going to give you a little bit of information and you'll see the job description there um that you'll be hiring her into but ultimately you all are going to have to make the motion to appoint uh her into that position because she just like me will be technically working for you um in this specific role um and uh so Sarah currently is working for um in Woods Hole for a group of research scientists but prior to that and managing grants but prior to that um she's extensive experience working in central office in public schools in uh our neighboring School District down in nset um has worked for in multiple asset or multiple um uh departments within the central office there the recommendations were extremely high from everybody that I spoke with um um and uh when we met the interview team had great things to say about her interview uh we met as a follow-up and I had actually some performance tasks that I asked the individuals to do hers were topnotch to very great professional work um you know her interview uh her references spoke about her ability to work independently her calm Under Pressure like all the things that I know uh as a um superintendent I'm looking for for somebody to be um in the office of the superintendent be executive assistant superintendent now she's got experience U working as a recording secretary for school committees uh the nset system as you may know has six School committees um so they divide the work up there so she's been a recording secretary to school committees already um and so I think you know she knows knows knows the rules uh knows Robert's Rules and knows how to take minutes and has a lot of experience with that work already I think she'd be a strong candidate for the school committee so she is my recommendation to you all but obviously it's your as we've structured it now it's your H but that is my recommendation any questions Jenny um I move that we appoint Miss Sarah Miller to the position of school committee recording secretary second any questions comments okay um need a roll call vote for I don't think we need a roll call vote for this position all those in favor say I I any opposed welcome thank you very much next we have uh information about Foster Care Transportation reimbursement I might ask to put that on there probably six months ago when I was at one of the Department of bed meetings it was came out that there was an opportunity that if there are Foster Care children from your District placed somewhere else that you then needed to transport back to your District There's an opportunity to get some reimbursement for the cost of Transportation it's around 20 22% but still it's better than nothing but in order for us to submit for that reimbursement they gave me they gave us you know in every District this language that we need to move to authorize us to enter into an agreement to submit for getting the funds back and I want to say in this past year we spent I want to say about $75,000 so if we'll get % of $75,000 back so it's 15,000 better than nothing and all it takes is a vote from you and quite honestly I already submitted the paper work but they said they they understood that they understood that over the summer time that a lot of schools don't have meetings as often they said as soon as you can take the vote Mark will sign a form tomorrow I'll scan email to them and it'll be good to go Marilyn I move to authorize the Dennis yth Regional School District to enter into memor mandum of understanding with the executive office of Health and Human Services Department of Elementary and secondary education the Department of Children and Families for the purpose of claiming Foster Care Transportation reimbursement any questions okay all those in favor say I any opposed next we have our consent consent agenda we had that uh donation that Dr Smith talked about from Brad and Donna sprinkle for the donation of $500 for the high school hall of fame have copies of that we have u a memo from Mrs Bennett for possession of following books are outdated books we have from Principal croll who left us the day after he sent um a surplus of weeded out classroom books and then the minutes from the Monday June 17th that's it for the consent agenda you move the consent agenda second okay and then bills requisitions and payrolls I think I still need to to vote on the do we have a second on theen all in favor I opposed bills requisition and payrolls I think I'm the only one who probably hasn't signed the red folder so I'll take that um then we have some information items to discuss um one of them is attached here the subcommittees for the 20242 year I briefly talked about it we tried to make sure each person was in at least three different um uh areas um so everyone has a copy of that yes we're negotiating again with both these units this year no that's just in case there's something that does come up that we have to negotiate something I was like we're not we're not in a negotiation year per se but in the event that something um comes up that has to be discussed in the contract then we have people designated to do it got it okay perfect thank you and then we have the Lynch marinian associate certified public accountant I think that would these large packets here I'll let Mr Flyn describe them it's just the uh you know the official Financial results and reports from the year a year ago June 30th of 2023 and it gets submitted to the state and the federal government and know I think you always strive to have no findings but I think there were just a couple and they were in my opinion relatively minor one was quite honestly was missing a couple of signatures on two pieces of paper but it was something that should have been done and I think by and large we're a healthy Financial District I think the auditor would attest to that and I think it's largely a positive report and there's any questions or if you read through it have think of any questions just let me know and be happy to answer them for when you can't sleep at night and then we have our calendars um convocation as Dr Smith talked about is on Tuesday August 27th the 28th as teacher professional the 29th is teacher professional day and then uh Tuesday the third is professional day and then the first day of school is Wednesday September 4th um and that's our calendars and then public comment our policy on public participation and meetings can be found on the table uh behind with the agenda the public is reminded that a school committee meeting is a meeting of a government body with which the members of the body deliberate over public business we welcome your attendance and appreciate your interest and viewing a school committee as we conduct a regular business meeting the school committee believes that school district Community should have an opportunity to comment on the committee on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities it is not a question and answer period some questions you may have may not be within the scope of the committee's responsibilities in that case I would suggest that you send or give your question in writing to the appropriate person so that concern may be given proper consideration individuals may address topics on the agenda items specific for public comment or items within scope of the responsibility of the school committee this is an opportunity for individual to address the topics on the agenda each citizen will allow to speak for no more than three minutes do we have anyone like to speak during public comment Miss post thank you my only comment is about public comment and I would ask that the board consider moving the public comment back to the beginning of the meeting because it kind of defeats the purpose of coming to the meeting you don't know about the items until the meeting is here but yet you can't talk about it till you've already deliberated so um I know this was a p practice in the past that was changed and um perhaps you'd have more people turn out if you put public comment back at the beginning that's my comment thank you thank you anyone else great Dr Smith um one just I guess really under the calendar maybe it should have gone under superintendent's report but one just last item um the for convocation um I I would like to do like to add another layer to convocation which is uh and I don't know maybe it's done historically it just didn't happen last year and maybe I forgot an invitation um which is I don't know if the school committee would like to address like a member from the school committee would like to address The Faculty like to kick off the beginning of the school year like as far as a a welcome message uh to because I I convocation for me we've I shortened it significantly last year and really just a a way to kick off the school year um and welcome everybody back and send a message uh you know in inspirational message into the year so I didn't know if if the school committee or you know somebody from the school committee um whether it's the chair or the chair wanted to designate that responsibility to somebody else on the committee wanted to just a brief message welcoming everybody back uh just you know back to the the school year and um something to consider but um I think uh it would be a nice positive uh way to you know connect with the faculty and again set set the sort of stage for the year and and then it could become sort of a a tradition going forward yeah I think that's a great idea and I I think that we can say that we'll have a member there and I we can discuss um through through Eileen or a away that we can find out who or even if we have an attendance of available people that are there and have one speaker um so I think that's something that we can move forward okay perfect thank you anything else that was it sorry as an add-on to that I remind folks that the only person who speaks publicly for the committee is the chair and this is a public opportunity so if the chair wants to make a change I would still start with endorsing the idea of the chair being the person thank you you'd like to make another motion after that Jenny would I'd like to move to a journ second all those in favor since I thought that's what Phil was doing thank