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 hi everybody we're going to get started welcome to the Monday April 29th 2024 meeting dentist arm with regional school committee please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much um a pen pass a pen down okay thank we got it one yeah um our first item are the student Representatives reports please good afternoon so yesterday Saturday and Friday the school put on their production of The Little Mermaid the musical which was really good it took place in this school just past that door um I watched it last night it was really good I know the students put a lot of hard work into it everything from the costuming to the music and the acting was really good and I know they're very proud of what they just put on we also have girls lacrosse and track who have done some notable things um in the past couple weeks all of our sports teams are working really hard um we're about midseason for everyone so it's coming down to will people make tournament or playoff or divisionals depending on what sport you are um we also have term four that just started so this is our last term for our students seniors are done on May 24th because the majority of us take AP tests and then after that the week after that is just finals so if you take APS the AP test counts as your final so you don't have to really attend school which is the vast majority of seniors um which is pretty impressive so then the official last day is the 30th so everything's kind of just winding down we also have prom on the 18th which is really exciting and then Senior week will be the first week of June and then we graduate on the 8th which is really exciting um we also had the Japan trip they just the students just came back back after break everyone spoke very highly of it they all really enjoyed it they all felt like it was really worth it um a very culturally Rich experience they did so many fun things like a sushi making class and just like walking around the streets and like going into shops and they thought it was like really like immersive and like something different that you don't see at all like anywhere it's like not an experience that you can really get outside of actually going um and they said it was very worth it and we also have AP exams which start next week on Monday and we have all the way through the week after that on Friday will be the last exam which is physics so we start on Monday with AP Gov and AP chem I take gov as he takes chem and then the last exam will be on the 20th which is physics for DIY and then we also have civic's day coming up on Wednesday next week where we have a bunch of students um who are working on projects and they're going to do presentations and it's going to be kind of like interactive with like booths and they're going to present and like people are going to go around and kind of give them grades or like evaluations based on their ideas and I know like a lot of the Juniors and the eighth graders are working really hard on their projects and their ideas hi guys so also over April vacation we had our um winter percussion take their field trip to Ohio which I heard was amazing I've seen some videos I know there was definitely some awards won that was great everybody really enjoyed it today we had our art club and art National Honor Society take a field trip to P toown which I think they toured around and saw some museums I haven't really gotten a chance to speak to anybody about it but everybody seemed really excited this morning going on the trip um so next week we actually have the New England Association of schools and colleges coming to visit dii I think Wednesday and Thursday so they've signed up to come visit specific classes and basically what it is is that schools have to get accredited every 10 years we're on our eighth year so it's sort of like a preemptive check-in I guess I would say and then also next week we have our eighth grade math mcast so they're all preparing for that I know they just had English and that seemed to go well everybody was like focused I feel like it went it went good and then also we're gearing up for next week which is teach your appreciation week so I know some of the um language nhs's are putting on some little fundraisers and things like that for it so everybody's really excited thank you both anyone have any questions for our students all right thank you both for your reports um next is a presentation on math curriculum from Betsy Pontius good evening um I'm coming in front of you tonight to um just give you an update on how our curriculum implementation has gone this year um so um I'm excited to be here to um kind of talk about some of our successes is and where we're going to head next uh just to set the scene you may recall that in 2223 we conducted a curriculum review and adoption process um really looking to get um highquality resources instituted into our schools um so Eureka Math squar K to 5 is in its first full year of implementation we have illustrative mathematics 6 to8 and that is in year 2 and we have Carnegie math 9 to1 11 and that is in year 1 as well and so to prepare um for those materials coming into our schools and um really work not only to have the high quality materials but on high quality implementation um Dennis Yarmouth was awarded a grant by desie um to help us provide professional learning um and we chose to um Implement learning at three different levels um and so our instructional leaders um worked with our con a consultant from the teaching lab who was our assigned consultant um and they helped me initiate um learning walks districtwide um and we were able to complete um 10 learning Walks from October to December um where teams visited just about every math class classroom in the district um collecting um information and then I'll share some of the information that we collected after this um teachers were provided with eight professional learning sessions at a VAR a variety of grade levels um but all sessions were focused on um teachers using data um and then to elicit um student thinking during their math lessons um and we also had provided professional development at the coaching level so that all instructional math coaches um were provided five sessions which focused on strengthening just your instructional coaching practice and then also giving them time to align to um what the leaders and the teachers were coming to were getting as well so that we have one really strong focused approach um with our leaders and our teachers and our coaches um so when we talk about um one of the biggest things we dug into this year was um really just observing the math classroom um and we had a tool that we used um for um it was sort of a rubric tool that helped us sort of like identify strengths and areas for growth um and really it's based on what is observable in classroom so it wasn't like we were saying great job it was like we were looking for very specific things in three areas so um core action one areas was focusing on the resources themselves were they in use and um do did the lessons reflect the rigor of the um content standards and then in core action two what we were looking for was instructional practices that allow students to learn the math content and then core action three was you were looking for evidence of students um exhibiting the math practices in the classroom so critiquing um with students um persevering through tasks all those math practices that are and um in our math standards so th that tool allowed us to collect some data and then I've pulled together some other data to kind of show you like we're making some some nice steps here um so I want to share with you a few slides so this um first slide is really taken from um the map growth which is our Benchmark assessment that our students take um and what this one shows is the difference in the projected performance on math mcast so in the fall there was a certain projection made based on scores and then in the winter there was another projection and what you could can see is that the difference is positive in almost all the areas all the grade levels so this data comes from the learning walk data we actually had some Benchmark observation points during the year so we had a fall and a winter as well um and this documents our growth um and if you look at the overall instructional growth was 133% um so that would be that that first bar and then if you look at the other bars you can see that the core action one which is really about utilization of the resources is holding strong at 90% where we continue to see nearly all teachers using the adopted resources and then if you look at core action two there was a growth of 15 % as teachers are implementing the instructional um routines that are embedded in those resources and then the third column the blue light blue column um shows a 25% increase in students exhibiting those math behaviors that um are called for in the math practice standards so all in all we are making gains in terms of what's observable in classrooms um this slide documents the sort of growth in beliefs and practices and systems and as you can see from our fall to our winter we have kind of moved from the emerging and moving more towards the strong and so what this really tells us is that in classrooms the conditions for learning are being enabled um we I also collected some data on sort of like how are teachers feeling and leaders feeling about the implementation and um teachers are reporting that um leaders are made sure that they had access to the materials and the resources they needed um and that also that leaders were making time for the professional learning they needed and they were also pressing them to implement what they had learned um that survey data also indicated that teachers feel like they have strong relationships in the building they trust their fellow teachers they're connected and they're collaborating which is super important when you are implementing brand new resources that you really have colleagues that you feel like we're in this together and and we're working together so this quote I sort of paraphrased from Richard Elmore um who has written a lot about the gap between standards and achievement um but for every increment of performance that we expect from our Educators we have an equal responsibility to provide Educators with the capacity to meet that expectation so that really speaks to what I feel my job is and that is whatever we want um I really feel like it's my role to help the leaders the teachers and the students like all get what they need um and so let me just see um in order to do this we really need to kind of come towards like what are our priorities for instruction and that's what all the surface data can help us get to we're making some strides where are we going next and so what we will do um is take the learning and take um what we're seeing in classrooms and we can connect connect that to the greater work on strategic planning that will happen this summer so again um the data we collect the instructional leadership team principles directors will all kind of gather around with Mark and we will begin to like prioritize and really get some specific actions for next year um and when that happens then we'll be able to apply uh plan for that aligned professional learning that will then benefit the go goals that we're setting and just um you know as we celebrate these little steps because it's really the little steps that are going to keep you going you know when you see data that says oh a huge jump in one year you got to pause there and say okay but what we want really to measure here is our little steps so that our practices can be sustained and what they're being sustained toward is this vision so that um our educators are engaging students of every background and ability with tasks that Inspire curiosity that our students thrive in classrooms where reasoning collaboration productive struggle and problem solving are expected our Educators believe that all students can achieve at the highest levels of math we partner with families and the community and hold ourselves accountable for the success of every student I am happy to answer any questions Phil if memory serves and I'm not going to be qualifying how it serves or how well but I remember the introduction of mcast testing brought about very very complicated formulas for testing which percentile and which questions were not answered well and gave the opportunity for teachers to work by them with themselves as a team but it seems that there's more observation about teaching teachers teaching to demonstrate effective results as opposed to working out charts and tables about answering questions is is that a fair assessment to say I think what um you're referencing like when we do look into the mcast data that would be sort of a beginning of the year thing so yes that those practices still happen where we try to identify areas maybe types of questions that our students you know maybe certain standards kind of get pointed out and then we can filter in that learning directly into the teachers day with the PLC groups and early release days and um Collaborative Learning so that's still intact but what we are also measuring now which is probably different because um we're making learning walks more of a part of our regular routine is that we're going to be visiting and revisiting classrooms so that we can support teachers and show hey look this this these types of behaviors strengthen how students can learn and then look yes it's making a difference on the um achievement does that answer your question it does I am glad to see that there is seemingly less abstract pressure where your teachers and indiv as individuals are left to figure out how they can do a better Ro job as te monitor of testing this has seems to be far more academically oriented and calls upon new deeper skill sets thank you you're welcome and I just would add on to that um one thing that we're really trying to strengthen um is the building leaders capacity to give the kind of feedback that is actionable so without making it sort of abstract but being like Oh if you do this we'll see a diff and really making that concrete for the teacher so the teacher knows where to go Tomas so I see the percentage that we expect for winter and I see all the increases um where are these numbers you and you may not know the answer compared to our mcast previous years should should we be excited that we're five points ahead from fall to winter or should we say that 57 is going to be five points behind last year um you know that's a good question yeah this this so this is really about like where uh so it's a a a graph that the um nwea our Benchmark assessment puts out so it's sort of it's making a projection based on student answers on if they will succeed so what you're asking for is next year we can compare and say did they what we did show earlier this year um when the principes and the directors came up and we giving our data presentations is that the um the predictions are pretty accurate so um I have not gone back to look to see like if it's ahead of last year's but I can do that and and and get that information out to you yeah cuz that's I remember the Pres the principal's presentations and the discussions are how they know earlier you know what to expect based on map and how important map was and how it predicted had a better idea of predicting it you know my I just in my own head is saying is the prediction should I should I be excited that we're five points ahead or should I be sad that we're Five Points behind last year I guess the question let's try to be a little excited and the only piece I would add is that historically as we've looked at a similar report in years past a lot of those numbers would have been negative numbers from the fall to the winter so this is to consistently see green on that screen is a um a new trend or a new new data point to call it a trend is there's not enough data to say it's a trend so but is a is a new look to be able to see that from the fall to the winter we've seen an increase in the projected projected proficiency consistently pretty much across the entire District in math so that's a new phenomenon let's call it a new phenomenon I have two questions they're more practical and the supportive uh the first question is right around this time we increase the length of the school day at the Intermediate Middle and where now about to do it at the elementary so uh how much additional math instruction and how that may play into sort of how will everybody do in the implementation that's the first question uh the second question is you can give me just a quick snapshot of where are the coaches are they uh available in every school building over a course of a week or do you sort of make priorities and anything you could provide I'd appreciate sure um so I'm going to answer your second question first and that is we do have a math coach um dedicated at um Emy small Station Avenue and Ezra Baker and then two of those coaches share um they each take a grade level at um four and five we have another math coach that works um in grades 6 7 8 n um and 10 technically but she Partners also with the department head that's over there and then with this year um with the grant funding I was also able to pay for a specific Carnegie coach to work with the high school teachers and I am anticipating continuing that next year so there is ample chance for coaching in every building at for math um and then um now I hope I didn't forget your question but the first one was can you just remind me um has there been changes to the length of a math at the different levels yeah so I do believe there were some changes at the middle school in grade six and seven and their math lesson was around 47 minutes and now it's more like an hour um and so that was definitely be beneficial in terms of our curriculum really calls for a 60-minute lesson and so um in some cases we might have principles making a recommendation to extend that slightly just maybe for the transitions that happen in an Elementary classroom um but there's no need to extend it greatly because really what happens is that we want the teacher to be able to work in that time and pace yourself through the lesson because a lesson that's published in the curriculum is not necessarily Soup To Nuts in the classroom it's the teacher using data to pick out what's important and then really just sort of monitoring your pacing like the curriculum tells you 5 minutes for this activity 10 minutes for this 30 minutes for that and that helps to keep the lesson itself moving so students stay engaged um I also have a question about the projected data on that side just sort of a basic understanding so who projects these numbers and what is the how do they project these numbers what is that based on so it happens within the map so it's a digital assessment you know the students are answering questions and um so not to get too technical but the map test is adaptive so that if you're answering things correctly it starts giving you harder questions if you're answering something incorrectly you're getting easier questions the goal of the test is that you they want to find that student sweep spot where they're getting half correct and half incorrect because that gives you the place where you're ready to learn so with that they can then make some projections on if this is what you're ready to learn now and you're learning it this is your projected um ability to meet the proficiency standards of the mcast test so the data behind that I won't be be able to uh the algorithms behind that I won't be able to explain but that's where it comes from and so what I did was I just took the numbers that were given in the fall and the numbers that were given in the winter and I just did the math across so that it looks like they're gaining so what they're gaining is they're getting you know plus 5.1% closer to that proficiency does that make sense yep that helps and then so they're taking they're doing this map testing twice a year they'll take it one more time okay so so for instance the first blind Ezra Baker second graders did this map testing fall they're doing it winter they'll do it again in Spring and then you're going to compare that you'll compare those projected numbers to when they get their actual mcast yes results and when did those results come in so the results will come you know in the summer like late June summer so really it's the kind of planning that you do sort of moving into next year but what this can do in the fall like I think it was um Phil who said um it can give the principal a little like okay hey what can we do where are the grades that are not ready to um that don't look like they're moving in that direction and then you can put there are I just want to say like before we get too um fixated on this report this is just a nice report to see because it can show a small shift that's taking place what a principal and a teacher would look at is more data that's going to be closer to what like what standards are are are you know um they're meeting that standard at that grade level where are they falling a little bit below because then you can do more strategic work in the classroom and is the principal or are you looking at individual student map results or are you only looking do you only get it sort of as a whole for the yeah so so grade levels would look at every single student in buildings and there's protocols in place where the math coaches take every you know they meet with the grade level teachers they take every single student and they just like organize them so that every teacher knows like what my students have done and then they work to plan on like digging into the curriculum resources where are some things that can boost this what's com you know align looking at other assessments that are in our curriculum that can sort of help us say oh look at this is saying the same thing so let's do this is that making sense it is I guess I'm just trying to think logistically about how this works in terms of you know so an Ezra Baker third grader right does this testing three times in a year right and then they're going to take the mcast at the end of the year get the results over the summer and then they go on to fourth grade and how do you capture then once they're already I mean not just in a new grade a new teacher a new building how do you then capture their needs based on this sort of year old data and how do you help them so with student profile will follow them and that will be captured as they move year to year so in when they're going into the next year the teacher can access that student that's now in their class um so it's I mean this this assessment Works in a bunch of different ways where you can do some big picture thinking but you can also like when you're in like after the fall implementation is like where you really the teachers and the principals grade levels dig in and say okay we've got an alert here on this group of students plan for that and then in the winter you get that check-in um but in between there's a lot of curriculum assessments that you can also monitor progress with so it kind of becomes you know using your tools at certain times of the year to sort of like do a check-in and then you're going to use the tools along the way in the curriculum to say okay you know we've made some decisions here about what we want to do is that working look at the when the student finishes a lesson how are they performing on that exit ticket you know um when the student finishes an ass a unit how are they doing on that end of unit test and is this all showing that we're making progress or are we still concerned and need to dig in and find other ways to open up and support and I think we actually literally just had this conversation earlier today because uh the myself Maria Betsy and uh one of the coaches had a like a district coaching meeting and the it's I think the where maybe you're what you're thinking about is who uses what data right so there's in this particular this is one data point or one data source uh being the map and that data can be accessed by teachers and there's teacher level data how do I respond to the kids in my particular classroom and the there are reports that are all the way down to the individual student and follows the students history all the way back to the very first test that they took then there's School level data which is important to the principal and school level folks and and is important for making decisions at the school level but may not need to get as granular as you know this one student sitting in this one classroom because the principal isn't running day-to-day interventions in the classroom right but that principal needs to be looking for Trends and patterns across their building maybe planning for intervention or making professional development plans or etc etc and then there's District level use of data so to your point you know looking at kids across spans of time looking for Trends over patterns of time looking for are there inconsist like there are a couple places where we have you know multiple grades across multiple schools so does that become like a resource going back to question you know do we need to redeploy coaching because we have maybe there's a whole bunch of new teachers in one school who are going to need um extra level amount of coaching so we're going to have to think about how to deploy resources as a district in a different way that would just be one sort of example but everybody has a different way that we need to look at the data and I think we're building some muscle around how to do that as a as a team because there are different ways that we would all slice the data and everybody has their own intentional purpose or has to have their own intentional purpose I as superintendent am not going to be looking at uh Ezra Baker's data the same way just seeing him in the audience that uh Mr deppon is nor as any of his teachers in this building um so we have to have our own intentional reasons for why we're doing it thank you for that one last question um what do you think about this the eighth grade numbers I mean is three points I mean prob is not statistically significant in the grand scheme of things but do you have any ideas or thoughts about what's going on there yes um we had a substitute there for a bit of this year and so then with coaching support I think it was just that transition between um finding somebody to take that role for us and moving through the program so again it's a new program prog for everybody and so it wasn't like colleagues could be like we know what we're you know so again they were all working together um so that's my that's my guess if I have to say um I also think that you know it could still be like those six seven and eight are are pretty tricky years like we're going to be it's going to take us a while to really get there with those students but um and so even though it looks like it's a-37 I think also it's a little bit less you know it's better than it has been um so those are my like initial thoughts okay thank you any other uh Joe thanks Jenny you you both have uh drove some cobwebs out of my brain uh and uh I haven't asked a question all year so I figur I start to get caught up um but Betsy um when we were talking you one of the slides said that 90% of the resources were being used is that just a natural ramping up and familiarity or is there some issue with the you know a particular teacher or a group that coached it is not confident in that in that like there's 10% of the people that just are like not sure of the the program and the standards or um is it a combination I I think it's a combination I think most teachers are I mean I would want to say like 100% of the teachers have the resource in their hands I think with the discrepancy starts to come in is um how you're using those standards and how you're interpreting them right so when the lesson activity states do blah blah blah ask this do that I think teachers then start to make their decisions in their classroom they're doing the you know they know their students and they're making some decisions and I think where that core action one where you see it's kind of gone down a little bit is that we were starting to look a little bit deeper into the resources at instructional um like uh instructional decisions that were being made um so again like just to give you a brief example is that you know in the Elementary grades the worksheet they work on are set up um that they start with easier problems and they move through to more difficult problems which would allow you to give you know a starting point for a student and then a student who could push a little bit um but there ends up being a problem or two in there that are like directly tied to the lesson objective and so is the teacher choosing to you know show that problem to students and mark the strategies of the day and that's where we're noticing a little bit of discrepancy but it's the kind of thing where we can work to give the kind of feedback that will help that teacher right this isn't about like calling anybody out it's about you know did you notice that in the curriculum is designed this way and you know if you're not sure about how that works because maybe the problem seems like difficult right can imagine how a student could solve it like let's work with a coach so that you can get in there and you can kind of see how it works where the kids are reasoning their way to Solutions instead of just like calculating their way to Solutions thank you that U that thank you for for the whole program and and doing it but especially for this presentation thank you you're welcome everybody good all right thank you very much okay all right moving on to a superintendent report on the budget please all right just give me two seconds to get organized all right okay so uh at the last meeting I'd given the committee an update on the FY 25 budget and as in the my superintendent report as a part of that conversation the committee had asked a couple of questions and uh noted that we David and I would go back do some some preliminary fig hearing and then come back and give the committee a follow-up presentation based on the direction that the committee had uh provided at the last meeting so this is uh that presentation so whoops I skipped so just as a quick review we know where are we now what's broughten us to to where we are as as you all are aware as you've gone through this process you know we started with an initial presentation on the budget all the way back in January 8th which had us roughly I think it was a 9.35% operating budget increase and then since then we've taken several steps together um we revised the state net n the net the net state aid it's easy for me to say based upon the governor's information also uh reduced the choice and Charter tuition information we increased the some of our local Revenue information based upon recent Trends you know as David has pointed out High interest rates you know have been difficult for the the average person for mortgage rates and credit card rates but the flip side of that is that also we are getting a higher return on our cash that's sitting in accounts as we're you know and our cash flow as a in uh as a school district so able to apply some of that uh on the revenue side of our projection the biggest and hardest thing that we did as a school district was to right siiz Staffing levels uh which landed us in a net uh negative 35 a half positions one of the last steps we also did was to reduce about $100,000 in curriculum expenditures from across for $100,000 yeah in curriculum expenditures from across the district and then the very last uh item you all took before approving the budget was to vote on the third 13th of March to use $500,000 in excess and deficiency to help offset both towns operating assessments this year with the idea that we would scale that down over the next three years and that brought us to a reviser in the current approved operating budget of 76 almost 77,000 or 77 million yeah 77,000 um 77 million and that's a reduction of just over $2 million since where we started on the 8th of January so where does that leave us well in the town of Dennis uh there's uh their operating assessment for fy2 will be1 19 m378 th000 in a little bit their worn article will ask the town to raise and appropriate those from available funds so they they're not that particular town is not asking or dentist is not asking for an override and their town meeting scheduled for the 7th so assuming things go well at town meeting we will have the assessment that that's our step right the next step for Dennis in Yarmouth we have a little bit more uh to wait on I guess would probably be the best phrase I would use as far as the budget goes so the the operating assessment for Yarmouth in fy2 is 41 million 161 68,000 and a little bit in the warrant article is phrased that uh to approve the the school's operating budget contingent actually that it's operating and um debt upon approval of an $880,000 override town meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night uh and as I know the committee is aware but just so that the the public is also aware override has to pass two steps so the first is has to pass it town meeting and that it also has to pass at the ballot through town election in Yarmouth the town election is on the 21st of May so about three three weeks or so later so in order for the override to uh pass and that and our total assessment to pass in Yarmouth it will need to pass through both those steps the April 30th town meeting and the May 21st Town election so the committee had asked at the last meeting well what if we don't get the override what are what are what are conditions are we looking at as a school district and that was really really the gist of this presentation well you know base brass tax is we'd have to lower the assessment by $880,000 that's the if we if the override doesn't pass then we have to uh not have 880,000 in that assessment that's the simple first step however it's not a straight line between those two points the language in the re Regional agreement doesn't allow us just to say it's okay Yarmouth we'll reduce your amount by that much and throw off all the other calculations in the regional agreement we need to find a way to reduce the assessment to Yarmouth by $880,000 and the only way to do that is to reduce the overall operating budget so that yarmouth's uh operating assessment goes down by $880,000 and for round numbers it's it's percentage it's like decimal points away from this but for round numbers yarmouth's assessment is yarmouth's portion of the assessment is 70 roughly 70% and Dennis is is roughly 30% again it's it's off by about a percentage Point either way but but for round numbers 70% Yarmouth 30% Dennis so in order to get the 880,000 side of it you need to come up with $393,000 in Dennis uh assessments to balance the whole equation out so you end up with a total reduction needed in the budget of 1. 1273 for round numbers million um so that's what we would have that's where we would have to reduce and we we had those rough numbers at the last meeting what the committee also asked is okay so then what would that look like what would be the impact of that and we haven't gone deep down this road because and we would need um a lot more real deep thinking on this and we'd have to do some more data and I'm I'm going to talk in in some more details about some of that specific pieces as we get into the next bit but what we were able to do is go back and use the same calculations that we used to get to where the current budget is and then start to think about what would be some big picture potential options um and really uh and sort of the exercise here is because feels like it's at least our responsibility and to be transparent with the public about what would happen should should we not uh have the override pass so what we ultimately came up with was showing because it's the number is the number so and you can really sort of only do so many different combinations of things uh so we and and really as we've talked about multiple times we are in the people business there really is nowhere else to really find staffing I mean find funding um we could maybe do some minor tweaks around the edges but in order to get to 1.2 almost $1.3 million you it really has to ultimately come from Staffing so we came up with three again early big picture options and we would have to dive more specifically into this and we kept the buckets really big to talk about because you know we're not into specific positions at this but at this point but to give an idea because I really wanted to drive to talk a little bit the committee to ask sort of what would be the impacts as well so this is the first potential scenario uh and using again the same estimated numbers that we had used before when um putting the budget together for where we currently sit and you can so that we can get to a total that's in or around that $1.3 million and you'll see a pattern because you know you make some adjustments here but uh to the numbers but the impacts largely end up being the same but I'm going to run through these on the first slide and then just add some nuances as we get to the other ones so with the teacher reductions in this particular case you're talking about 11 reductions across the district we've already made several Staffing reductions and I've maintained up until this point that the level of reductions that we've made we're still going to be able to M maintain the S same level of programming you know it might look a little different we're going to run a little bit more efficient efficiently we're we're going to have consistent class sizes things like that taking another 11 teachers away from the staff model we're not going to be able to be able to do that I I don't believe we'd be able to do that moving forward what I would original sort of looking at again big picture what we would have to do one of the first steps would probably be to increase we've have we used some consistent class size um what's the word I'm looking for standards 18 plus or minus two two at K to3 20 plus or minus two at 45 we would have to go beyond those uh should we find ourselves in this and I mentioned at the last meeting we'd really have to think about protecting like core programs meaning programs that are required under Mass core programs that are required to meet uh graduation requirements under the state law Etc that are that we really have to have by other um compliance not all the things that we love to offer that are make for our amazing program but the things that we have to have and so then we'd really start to see reductions in programming in the Arts things like and doesn't mean all of these things necessarily but we'd start to see impact in either music band Visual and Performing Arts or some combination thereof in the grade 6 through 12 uh next is sort of the admin assistant in this scenario uh we have reductions in and admin assistant across each of the buildings Plus at central office and so there's an impact in that because they are front lines to meeting with or to greeting families uh as well as Community is uh so we would see a a a reduced responsiveness to both families and the community we'd also see an increased workload for all other roles they do a tremendous amount of work in supporting whether it's leaders teachers um and then that work would have to get dist distributed among the remaining admin assistants you can imagine sort of the the um what's the word I'm looking for uh domino effect assistant principles in this particular scenario there's a couple additional reductions about above the one that we already have we would likely see a reduced rate into to student disciplined as well as again that family engagement oftentimes assistant principle especially if um on the student interface side the assistant principal can be that first person that the parent is engaging with and as assistant principles have larger by percentage wise have larger amounts of student students in discipline issues or student engagement issues that they have to manage then their ability to engage with families becomes more limited as same on the staff side uh and one of the roles of our uh assistant principles is to uh s support the teacher uh and staff observation and evaluation and feedback process so reducing the amount of assistant principles reduces our ability to do that as a leadership team and then there are two central office reductions in this scenario uh which would increase workload uh for we'd have to put certain work back on teaching units that are done currently at central office back at the principales um and I in this particular scenario I worry about some of our abilities to meet some of our compliance pieces from the Department Ed all the stuff that we do uh at central office that is boring but is needed for State um compliance the next option is just a reconfiguration has more uh additional levels of uh AP and less admin assistance just essentially keeping all the admin assistance at the schools but taking from central office and then having higher level of teacher reductions so here you have the same impact at the teacher level but adding um a a reduced ability to have job embedded professional development um through instructional coaching so so some of the things that Betsy was talking about in her presentation we would not be able to be able to do um trying to think what else everything else is pretty much the same either at a Le lesser or greater scale I do think you know in this particular scenario while with the central office position while we would increase workload we might still be able to get to the compliance pieces because you're talking about one position versus two positions so again just trying to sort of move the impacts around a little bit um with each of the scenarios but again and this is like again in that 1.3 area you know the numbers don't land at 1. 1275 or 73 whatever it was exact every single time so it's all in and around that same total and then the third option um has uh more from the assistant principal level goes back to a few admin assistants again none of these are great scenarios but just trying to sort of show you the different types of ways all of them have impacts on our system no scenario up here is like oh yeah we can do this and there not going to be an impact on the system is sort of the larger Point you'll notice in each of these scenarios scenarios the par Educators all were zero and there that is intentional at this point in time we we did make reductions in the par Educators at the you know in our current um budget scenario the reason for not presenting any current ones is because we're currently auditing um the par Educators looking closely at be and like a little bit of behind the scenes just sort of understanding the way all those um the way reductions work inside of that particular unit it's largely driven or it is all driven by seniority so it's not proportionate around the district so we have to now look closely at moving into next year where are all the student needs going to be so therefore where does all the Staffing at and you can imagine across the entire District that's a big exercise so to propose something where I'm not I want to make I would want to make make sure that we had all the we were comfortable that we had all the Staffing we needed to meet the student needs going into the current budget but to then to propose any additional ones without having completed this exercise first on where exactly are all the students and we all the Staffing to be able to make sure we could even propose anything else I I wasn't comfortable at this point it would have to be if if we found ourselves in this scenario it be have to be so I didn't I didn't you'll see there is zero in every scenario and that's the logic behind it is um we were intentional about the number that we presented earlier um because there is oftentimes a very strong correlation between a student need and a PA educator assignment uh uh that without going back and doing some real deeper look at that I wouldn't want to recommend um par educator cuts at this time until we were able to complete a a more deep audit and we just haven't had the time since the last presentation to do it we're in the process of getting ready for next year but it would take a little bit more time so that brings us to questions questions Tomas not really a question more than a comment um none of these options are good options and um I guess my question is if it doesn't in the event it doesn't pass are there any other options for us can we say this is our budget and continue to say that and till the state gets involved or what are our options other than running out money I don't believe so um unless you want to I mean I was going to make a jokey comment about your other as a PTO um fundraiser um if the budet if we don't have an improved budget from both towns right essentially if the override doesn't pass then the armouth hasn't passed the budget then we end up so back at square one where we could I mean yes so there would have to be another um town meeting in which another special town meeting in which a budget is approved uh so we would end up back um here having to figure out either we're getting down to that number um but yeah we the there you to to your point we don't have an improved budget at that point because it hasn't passed through both towns so we're going to there's going to have to be a special town meeting well then at both towns in order to get an approved to budget or we end up in the 112th scenario look like you wanted to add something to this no I was really just listening to make sure but correct so depending on the route you would want to go you would need at least at least one if not two other town meeting so that they both vote the balanced share of the the same total you know we can't be in a position where one town voted their share of budget a and the other Town voted their share of budget b there has to be consensus among the two right so if this doesn't pass if the doesn't pass yourth and we choose to we would have to come back here and decide what we're doing to our budget or not I mean how much are we reducing or not and then we resubmit it to both towns both towns would have to have Town meetings to then approve that and potentially another override vote right and if this isn't all done by the end of June then we end up in the 112th corre budget right starting July 1 correct and in the unfortunate scenario say it didn't pass in Yarmouth and you didn't want to go for any amount in between at that point it's really just on Dennis to have a town meeting to vote an amount lower than what we presume they're going to approve next week but regardless of any scenario would require at least one if not two more Town meetings to get to a consensus budget among the Two Towns yeah Phil having experienced two town meeting opportunities in the past it does highlight the fact that there is not flexibility as much as nons school Personnel would think and demand it's really spelled out in state law what the town and Town's joint responsibility is for helping create and support a budget that supports education and it has had interesting side effects with when you have a town meeting where the Two Towns don't see things the same way as individual towns and municipality but rather there's a calling upon the school system to Bear the burden and once that becomes obvious that it's not equal it's it may be equal in terms of proportions but it's not equal in terms of the levels that we have achieved in the past so it's uh not to be taken lightly and an educational process no pun intended to towns people and Municipal officials about what the implications are I know that the administrative offices and the school committee members have spoken to town administrators and department heads trying to explain it but it may come to a pass that it's still too too complic at for easy consumption so we should be prepared to do uh beat the drum in a way that Mak sense thank you Marilyn this is sad um and this is my first time since I've been on the school committee facing this override and see what Devastation could could it mean so talking about beating the drum um what can I do as a school committee member um I live in Dennis uh what can I do as a citizen what are we allowed to do there's about a 3 week time in between uh town meeting and annual elections how far can we take it and uh I thank you for sending out to the community this tough news last Friday I'm interested in knowing is there the beginning of a movement among parents and people in the community have you received any response there's a lot of questions there um yeah so yeah yeah so you know as a you're in a slightly different role than I am right so you all have um positions that allow you to speak a little bit more on what you believe can and can happen my job job is to present the the what I see as the the facts and present what I see as the um the potential impacts just give information as the public official but and to encourage people to come up and come out and vote whatever they believe is the right decision to do but to Advocate one way or the other is a little can can be an is probably a misappropriation of you know I get paid to do my job right so for me to then get up and say hey people should vote one way or the other is is a misappropriation of public funds however um I think as you know a campaigning official like you can you can take a different tact and to tell you how to exactly what to do again would be me crossing a line there right so yeah I mean Marilyn you know we are all you know this is our budget and we want this to pass so um you know you can go and speak to um um anyone you'd like to speak to um citizens of Dennis citizens of Yarmouth voters in both places um you know and you can you know you've got all the inform a lot of the information you need if you need more you can get it from anyone at this table to present to folks you know obviously Mark's email went out to the community and um you know you can and should be doing everything you can right we're all going to try to do what we can to get this budget to pass we don't don't want to be in a position where we're making any of these Cuts as Tomas said I don't think anybody at this table wants to see cuts to programming and these types of reductions so but um so I think that answers maybe the first part of the question but the second question um Mark have you had that Community email went out have you heard from any parents I mean I know our teachers are working they've they're doing some postcard mailings and some calling and hopefully some door- knocking campaigning I don't know what maybe we have some folks who want to talk about that and I will invite you up to speak about that but um have you heard from parents or anyone um staff one way or the other so I haven't heard from any like organized parent groups I'd have heard from the local associations that they to your to to to the chair's point that they have organized their done some organized campaigning um to support an override vote so I do know that that that there is some organized effort out there um and but I didn't I haven't gotten I also am lagging behind from being 100% honest in my email today so it's possible that I have some emails in my inbox um from earlier today but I was in back to backs all day today from the time I got in until about half an pretty much pretty much a half hour before today or before tonight so it's possible there was something in there from um from from earlier today but uh but I did not get any direct I know it got significant amount of viewership I know over well over a thousand views so I know people saw it um but that's fairly typical on super my bi-weekly superintendent messages they get about about anywhere between a, and 1500 views so um so it was pretty consistent with that level of viewership and then I know it gets put um like on our social media pages and other things as well Joe so to kind of answer Marilyn um what can we do well facts are always the best and I I don't look at it pessimistic the feeling I get and I you know I've been wrong before about political predictions but the feeling I'm getting is a pretty positive one I think that people are feeling that the programs are are are improving I think that you know a new superintendent is always a change um but I think it's an optimistic view um but take this school for example I think that the the public has seen us as opposed to in the past um as being fiscally responsible and and one of the things that we can point out is last year in Yarmouth um it was like a million dollars or maybe even more than than a million dollars and the assessment for the first time in history as far as I believe the assessment was lower than Dennis and by probably 1.2 of that 2 and a half% so I think it was like 1.3% of yarm's assessment was 1.3% um so you know you can correct me on those facts but if if we get those facts and present them I think we be okay I don't feel the ground swell um and I think that the ground swell that the little that I do hear is from parents and teachers and people are that in the community that care about student performance and they don't want that to go down and none of us do now technically I didn't even vote on this budget but I'm Bound by it um and uh and I support it because I think we have been physically responsible so I think that you know what we put out and it's only hours away from the from the um from the town meeting tomorrow night in Yarmouth but you get a good indication you get a good sample size if it if it passed by one vote you might be scared but if the public and the town meeting unanimously approves it then you also got a good feeling that okay and you know vote a turnout is a big thing if uh if that ground swell you know if people are out outraged they turn out to vote um and if they're supporting like the parents and the teachers and and the people who want to support this this budget they show up because they know they don't want these alternatives to happen so um I'm optimistic I you know we always have to be a little bit pesimistic and be realistic but um hopefully tomorrow night it goes well and um then in a couple weeks it goes well and we can drive on with Sten achievement which was what we're all here for anyone else um was there anyone in the audience who wanted to address I could just briefly I think when you're talking about any organized efforts that you're aware of for um forgetting out the word about the vote or I mean we can wait till public comes if you want but you're welcome to just where it says push just can't see it Betsy hi I'm Pat pinski I'm a resident of Dennis I'm the president of the Dennis jth Regional secretaries and assistant assistance association um uh parah Ezra Baker and and I've been working in this district for almost 18 years um myself and Michelle Dunn the president of the um Dennis jth Educators Association have been working with the MTA to get postcards out to all members of um MTA that reside in both Dennis and Yarmouth to help get this budget passed and to have them also speak to their friends and relatives and encourage them to go to the town meetings and support the budget and to vote um in the election thank you very much all right any other questions on this budget presentation okay um uh any reports um represented leaon to the select boards uh Joe did you want to something yeah I just wanted to point out that town meetings tomorrow night and I think on one of the Billboards uh it had the wrong address but it's here and I think they're asking that the um uh you know we Ed the Ken Janks entrance in the parking lot here but um you know if you care about this stuff show up to a town meeting thank you um superintendent report please all right thank you so first just want to start with a couple of acknowledgements and uh of donations uh you'll find in the consent agenda uh Memo from Principal bino just thanking the Dennis Union Church for a generous donation of uh women's hygiene products for the students uh just a great help in uh supporting Middle School age students and and the program here just all the other ways that that schools support kids and the way the community supports the schools in supporting the kids I've said it before I'll say it again just the the way the community wraps around our school district just continues to um amaze me uh in all the different different ways that the number of these memos that come across my desk to come to you all as a committee is uh just outstanding and then also in the packet you'll see two different memos regarding scholarships so first uh sort of out of order but first is the uh the friends of the Dy football scholarship so this is a self-funding or a funded scholarship meaning that the the money will be provided each year by the the the funding agency or by the scholarship committee and so it's for $1,500 annually $500 per student and we just want to thank the uh friends of Dy football for this scholarship again the scholarships are just I had to I sat down with our assistant Treasurer the other day to go through all the scholarships the amount of scholarships that are provided to our students through the community is another just amazing asset and oh yeah sorry can I just say one thing about the football scholarship um I want to make sure everybody knows that it's not just um uh Dy football but it's also Dy cheerleading the Dy football parents and the cheerleading parents work together as a group um and the cheerleaders work hard helping raise these funds and supporting you know so they they're athletes in their own right and then they're also supporting our our football team so it's football and cheerleading together that puts together this m so just want to make sure little shout out to cheerleaders appreciate that thank you very much uh glad with somebody with some Insider information uh so and then the other is the establishment of the mcginness scholarship so this donation preceeds my time here um but it finally sort of cleared through probate and I don't know if appropriate it's even the right term but cleared through all the different individuals and legal steps that it had to go through and and uh was in the care of a law firm who turned it over to us and the law firm when they turned it over to us often times the scholarships come already with a preset criteria right so then we're essentially enacting the criteria of the uh the the the donor and in this case there was no criteria from the original donor it's a significant sum and we're the awards are just going to be based on the interest alone and so it should be a should be sustaining um a sustaining scholarship which is great and and essentially to paraphrase the the language that came from the attorney is essentially let the school set the criteria so worked with our head of guidance to wanted to create a a scholarship that may be captured some areas that other scholar are other scholarships don't so she proposed this scholarship criteria that's in your packet and when you just so when you vote the uh consent agenda you're also establishing the criteria for this so it's a little different than just acknowledging the donation you're just so you're because it's a little Nuance just as a committee uh you're agreeing to this uh establish this criteria for this scholarship but it's been vetted through the guidance department at the high school uh I you know I reached out to them they established sent me some suggestions with some sort of big picture criteria that I had asked for them to think about and then it came back to me through them um but it's it it's like I said it's a significant sum that allows us to give eight $5,000 scholarships annually just based on the interest alone the current interest alone because again the interest rates are pretty high right now but um uh all right uh now to the oh I got to switch presentations sorry give me two seconds seconds um oh wait it's not there where is it there it is all right um from the beginning all right so we are to the reaching the end of the evaluation process for the superintendent and this is the presentation of uh superintendent's evidence I have emailed the committee this slide deck already you've had a chance to review it didn't make any real changes from what I submitted other than maybe I think there was a I found a dead link but um and so the the but I wanted to be able to put a little context around the things that you had a chance to look at and as a reminder the sort of timeline from now going forward is that you each have your individual little um evaluation forms to complete if you remember the first page might be the first two pages have it says to be completed on the chair on it that's that's for for the chair to complete but those are to are to be sent to ien by the next meeting and then uh Jenny will work on getting them summarized uh for I forget what we set as the date for the did we set a date I can't remember off the top of my head the 22nd in May yeah I think is for the the final was one one report gets generated from each of your individual reports all right so that being said way back in September you all approved four goals for me to work on during this year and then in February we revised those goals based upon our presentation with Jim Hardy to add Focus indicators from the rubric onto each of the goals so this is what the revised version that we've been operating off of since that 5th of February that include again we didn't change the goals in February all we did was added the focus indicators in February so the first goal is the new superintendent induction program which I've been participating in since I think I started like the second day I was on the job CU it was right the started the first was right at the superintendent conference actually I might not even have technically started in Dy yet um but anyways uh and then the second goal is supporting the math curriculum implementation um supporting uh setting up institutional learning walks supporting as you'll see a lot you know Betsy's presentation is a key indicator there so leadership through other leaders as well uh next goal is the effective entry and Direction setting which was the entry plan that I presented way back in August through the entry report that you all got uh early this month yes and then uh the district's school and safety planning which was establishing a safety team and then leading that team through revising some safety protocols and again we had Focus indicators on each of those from the rubric which I'm going to speak to as we move forward also linked on here just so that you had easy access to them was the original goal document that was created and approved by the committee on the 18th of September as well as in on the 12th of February I did a midyear progress presentation similar in organization as this one has some additional evidence on it uh has a narrative some narratives from that time in the year on where things were going on each of the goals okay so you'll see a pattern to the presentation it's going to follow the same through each of the goals I'll talk about the goal and then I'll sort of hone in specifically around the focus indicators so first is the new superintendent induction program and as I've talked about the program be uh to the committee before the superint superintendent induction program meets every month either in person or uh virtually and it's has really been key in helping me um Define uh or it's been it's provided me with both professional learning as well as providing me with coaching and practice to hone uh a wide variety of skills it's allot helped me to uh develop skills in finding multiple sources of evidence related to student learning as well as then using that to help set District goals and help us improve as an organization and additionally it's really helped me really focus on how to use data to help inform and monitor student progress and then communicate that out to key stakeholders like committee like the like the committee the public uh and to uh propriately out to the leadership teams and out to faculty either directly or through the leadership teams I have a bunch of pieces of evidence linked in here uh including the one that was referenced uh by Betsy earlier today which is the presentation uh that the principles and the directors did on the mcast and map data that was an effort that was established in expectation coming from myself with with all those folks on what it is and how I wanted the data presentations to go forward and then we had several pre- meetings on coming together as a team on what type of data it was we wanted to present um and actually developing a consistent template that you all saw and really having some purposeful and meaningful conversations about what it is that we wanted to get out in the public and that I was already starting to see this data and I knew my entry findings were going to report certain things and we really wanted to start to develop a through line in how we were communicating data um from the very start and then from the schools through the curriculum office all the way up to through the superintendent's office you know here our linked I think these will go live yeah so these are like examples of agendas from the nisip meetings nup short for the new superintend induction program uh of the types of things this was a uh one of the virtual sessions so those are tend to be halfday sessions but again just examples of the types of things that we cover in the meetings as well as uh where was I yep uh linked there's a sample of a of one of the presentations they just give you a flavor of the types of things that we cover in the meetings but cover all and I'm going to get into a little bit more detail on the next slide they also provided a strategy development tool which was actually very helpful in the and it's going to be helpful moving forward so once we end exit or not exit as once we finish entry planning the next step is okay so now you found all this information you've done all this work you've listened to all these people people you've looked at all this data now what what are you doing with it and so this this was actually this tool which I Linked In Here was the very last thing at our last meeting this earlier this month was a tool that they gave us to start to think about okay where are you going with it now how do you develop strategy so this is just again another sample of a lot of the different tools that they've given uh us to help make make uh to continue and really help given if I personalize it giv and me to help me continue to grow as a leader uh and then here is linked to a whole bunch of other pieces that I already shared with you at the midcycle review now tied back to the specific uh Focus indicators as you remember from the slide that had this there's two Focus indicators here first is data informed decisions and the second is continuous learning so how am I using data to inform my decisions and then how am I showing my own continuous growth so for to the first one nisip has really focused us on the data collection process so that was a big part of the entry process now data collection data analysis was a big part of my Ed program however it was really focused on my specific problem of practice for my dissertation you know it's really and like in your dissertation they get you to like really narrow in on like a really really really really small topic so what was different for this work is really actually trying to collect data and look for like these really big and Broad Trends and like what's really consistent across the district and how how do you meet with all these different folks and really try to surface what be might be broad problems and what might be so it's really a very different way at looking at data analysis and really so helped me take what I had learned and really kind of elevate it and use it in a new way in a I would argue maybe a more practical way than the the the the dissertation work had its purpose but this was more practical in using it in my real um everyday work here as a superintendent so this these two presentations are really good examples if you're interested in looking and seeing the type of work they did to really um focus us Focus Us in on how to use collect data and they gave us some great examples thinking and a lot of stuff that I use to either refine what I was thinking or actually actually develop specific questions for groups etc etc and there those are two really good examples of presentations that helped with that and then the next piece around continuous learning is my coaching visit so I've my coach again comes at least once a month if not more often and I've really just brought her with me everywhere so I don't often often time I I think there's been maybe one time where I've just sort of carved out a day to work with her and get feedback on a bunch of different things but often times I just run my normal day and she tags along and the purpose is for her to give me feedback on my job so she's if I've got a meeting scheduled at the high school she comes along if we're going to walk through classrooms she comes along if we've got a central office leadership team meeting she's sitting in there in the central office leadership team meeting and I'm open with the group about I mean the group all knows who Ruth is at this point but um you know who she is why she's there and why she's there is to provide me feedback for me to grow on my job as a superintendent and so when you read sort of the indicators around this standard it is about setting an expectation for continuous growth and continuous learning as a leader uh in so that's where I think it's a good example of that particular Focus indicator and again there's an example here of um oh and then I've used that or additionally nisip has allowed me to really think deeply about how I use meeting structures and there's always room to grow um but here's an example of how we've created a learning uh an agenda that was focused around learning for for principles and then this a little bit again behind baseball but we've actually I've actually through my reflections with my coach actually worked on shift this work to others which sounds like I'm passing work off but we actually reflected with the team um about how part of coming into the superintendency part of the hardest step for me was letting go of my old job and I have three individuals who are deeply involved between Maria Betsy and Sherry who are deeply involved in the job that I used to do I don't need to be doing their job I need to be doing the job of the superintendent and so we I I had done a bunch of reflecting on this and we had a little four-person meeting and I did and I shared with them first on how I had been doing this reflection and I and I realized I was essentially stepping on their work and I needed to back off and support their work but not step on their work and so since then we've actually changed the structur you see this agenda here where I let it but I've actually stepped away and actually given the leadership of those meetings to them because they are my instructional leadership team and I need to let them lead and then I had the conversation with the principles and and there's a few other people who attend those meetings about that same same reflection and that same conversation and and again that's all come through this program because of the conversations they have us have they have us reflect on our own leadership etc etc oops I skipped one ahead so then the next is the goal two is the curriculum math implementation um and again this has been this has been about leading leaders right and how do how do I as a superintendent support the work of others and so working as you saw Betsy do her presentation as working with Betsy um it's really been about establishing a a set of systems to ensure that instructional staff are implementing the effective um and rigorous standard-based units of instruction and so it's been for me it's been about establishing the expectations about working with Betsy to establish the culture around learning walks and so you can see the examples of the the schedules there and then I've also carried that practice of building walks with individual principles so we have these the 10 learning walks that that uh Betsy mentioned and then I me actually had just had one earlier today and I have another one scheduled later this week but I'll I'll walk classrooms with principles as well with the same intentional purpose on looking and it may not be math focused in this particular case but the practices around getting into classrooms and then then debriefing what it is that we see uh and then through that it's evolved but we have had conversations around okay so what is it to the sort of question that was asked earlier I think it was Phil who might have said you know there's so we've got this mcast data and we might pick it all apart and you saw the mcast presentation well the learning walks help us if we're not getting into classrooms with any consistency and we don't have a tool or a format for understanding what it is that we're seeing we being the leaders of the district don't then have a systematic way of figuring out how do we best support teachers to make a difference I think I said it during the mcast presentation it's not that our staff isn't working hard our staff's working their rear end off so then why is it that we aren't seeing achievement it's not due to a lack of effort and then it's through the learning walks that we're starting to see patterns in what's happening in classrooms that then we can address through coaching through professional learning through resourcing that will allow us to then to start to move the needle and you've already started to see some of the initial signs that we are through some of those things that we're learning and then making some adjustments that we're starting to start to see some early signs that the the needle's moving on on uh student achievement um so there's you know there was a a presentation that uh on the October 3rd school committee meeting that Betsy did she did another presentation tonight updating you on uh what's going on again showing some of those early signs of achievement and then specific connections back to the focus indicators the focus indicators here are curriculum and instruction and it again as my role superintendent it's about lead leading that work so for me it's been about setting up a consistent process that would ensure that the team is grounded in common language one two and three and I think she mentioned this uh instructional practice guide which is what we used uh so bet Betsy brought it to us and then as superintendent I supported that this was going to be the tool that we were going to use going forward again it's a version of its linked here but this was going to be the tool that we used as we went across all classrooms and we used this to calibrate so that you know when we were I don't know for lack of a better for for a simplistic analogy so then we're all looking at a you know a chair we all knew what it we all had the same common definition for a chair right so we it was gave us all common language for what it was that we were looking for and then it it ended up being core action One Core action two cor action three and then each of those had specific descriptors underneath and then from that then we were able to uh debrief what were the patterns we were seeing and then it's led to specific actions and it's informing our planning as I mentioned we were in a coaching meeting just earlier today and the Really the focus is Okay so we've been doing this work for eight well I don't know not the full eight months but we've been doing the work for let's say six solid months and so now what where are we going what's the next step in the next best step for us as a district we're going to set some big targets but then what is the next actionable step that we want to see to help make move the needle because again it's not that people aren't working hard it's how do we help find those efficiencies and those places that people can uh have the best the the moves and the shifts that people can have to have the greatest impact on student learning and it only comes from us collectively I was gonna use the same word twice but I can't think of another one so I'm just gonna say it collectively collecting um information and uh and using that to make our decisions together all right third is the effective entry in Direction setting so I've presented the whole plan I've presented all the findings but essentially uh in the early might have been our second meeting together I think it was our second meeting together I presented an entry plan to which you all approved um and I provided some updates throughout the course of the year I was able to find I might have missed one but I definitely found two school committee agendas on the the 6th and the 4th uh 6th of November and the 4th of December in which I my superintendent report included updates on the entry uh process at that time and then just on the 8th year of April I presented my entry findings report which again is linked there along with the abbreviated presentation that went with that and then so how does this connect back to the specific Focus indicators there were three for this goal there's one that's Communications which is under standard three family and Community engagement family concerns which is also under that and then there's a communication uh indicator under standard four so the entry process as a whole the work needed to engage with families on a regular basis has really created an opportunity for me to set up effective systems for communication you know one of them being we didn't have this um format that I use for the newsletters uh but learning about the the district and learning uh of all the different language needs and trying to find a fast and efficient way to get that out to systems we have remind but remind isn't a good system for mass communication right if you send out anything of any length it goes out in like 14 different texts um it's just not a great way to send something like a newsletter you can't put pictures in there right it's just not it serves a purpose not this purpose so I wanted to find something that would serve this purpose um and still have the translation features that remind has so that's where we landed on s'more and so that was one piece the other was through the F family focus groups being able to was first time I'd ever use the zoom translation feature which allowed for families with multiple languages to engage it was actually really cool I think I talked about it in one of my updates um and then also being able to and using Zoom I think also allowed for access in the sense that it didn't removed a transportation barrier and and then additionally I think just strictly on the communication end period I think the entry process is provided me an opportunity to demonstrate effective communication to a wide range of St stakeholders you know I've run focus groups with staff students I've run individual meetings individual interviews um staff students leaders I've met with just about not I haven't definitely haven't met with every individual but I've met with pretty much every stakeholder group I definitely still need to meet with more student groups I have met with some but I definitely need to meet with more organized student groups that's on my my list of next steps uh it was in my entry report but that's the one group that I need to do more some more organized meetings with all right and then the last goal it was around the district school and safety planning so the big idea here was to put together a joint group of school and Public Safety staff or a team together made up of those individuals to identify policies facilities needs etc etc related to school safety this has proven to be a much larger task than I thought it was going to be I thought I was like yeah we'll get this done in a year no problem um it's going to need to be a multi- year effort so the group has met we meet regularly we meet once a month uh it was getting you know and we've got a pretty good group or we've got a good group going together and we've got membership from all the agencies across both towns and we're start it took us a little while I think to sort of find an area of focus and then we have found a place to start and now we've started to get some momentum so we'll be able to carry that momentum going forward but the where the team has ultimately landed as far as our most purposeful work is taking what is rather cumbersome safety M well one we're go we are going through and we have started to revise some of our policy so for example one would the one we most recently worked on is evacuation so you have to leave the building for whatever reason fire let's let's just start with fire you have to re leave the building well if you did it in Dennis there was one procedure if you didn't a Yarmouth there was another procedure bu that was largely driven by the fact that they interacted with two different fire departments and but as a school superintendent I'm not okay with that like we need one evacuation process and we need one student accountability process so we need to come to Common Ground on how it is we're going to account for kids when they're out of the building and I need to know that it's consistent policy across both places and so took a little conversation but we ultimately landed on that place and making that a consistent PR PR practice across the district uh and then so that was the the first piece and then the second piece is getting down to essenti what we have is a pretty comprehensive manual and that has pluses and minuses if I'm a staff member and it's time to evacuate the building and I have to take something that's twice as thick of thick as this out the door with me to know what it is I'm supposed to do in an evacuation that's almost as counterproductive or almost as productive as having absolutely nothing to take with me because if I got to flip through here and find all right what are the 1,700 steps I got to do in the middle of evacuation is not really helpful so what the group has decided is we need to come up with yes there's a complex manual for the the chief the person who's in charge right the principal the lead person at each building for each of the scenarios and for them to understand all the Nuance but then we need a cliffnotes version for the staff member the the thing I can grab off the shelf that tells me the you know five steps I need to accomplish to get you know through an evacuation if it's an you know an active shooter if it's and we need to think about what are the big buckets as far as you know because we have you know everything organized by uh trying to think gas leak fire flood sewage all those are evacuations so just if you have to evacuate the building here's the steps you need to accomplish and put all those on one abbreviated placard um and really think about what are the few buckets of action that we would take inside of a school and place those into a cliff notes version um and then each one of those more expansive options you know can have different um things again for the for the the leader at the building you know if it's a bomb thread it's this or if this type of evacuation it's that but if I just know I need to get out of the building and I'm a teacher with 25 kids or whatever then I just need to know here's my steps I need to follow in an evacuation so that's that's where we're that's where the team's currently heading and then back to the specific Focus indicators yes we're rounding the bend so there was two here environment U and then the other is commitment to high standard it's really under commitment for high standards there's a there's sort of a sub bit under that standard uh which talks about organizing effective meetings that's really sort of the focus area for that Focus indicator and so for me I'm responsible for establishing the meeting agendas uh we do only have about an hour to meet once a month so it's really important to structure and facilitate a meeting with a clear purpose um for us to stay on task and for me to facilitate us moving forward and and to carry us from month to month um you know I list I provide the link of where we started to do our assessment but then we've also used the meetings to do some debriefing we've had have had a couple sort of safety related or safety adjacent things that have happened during the course of the year so this has been an opportunity for the team also to debrief again across both school and public safety personnel uh and you know where this fits in with the environment there's a that talks about uh operational systems that promote student health and safety and school safety is Paramount to student health and safety um and I early in my time here I I identified a need for us to have district-wide consistency uh so that that was really the purpose of this goal was to address that need and as this group continues to work together we're going to have to think about things like Capital planning um and and uh future procedure development as well as training needs that have come up uh as a part of part of our work together but that's for maybe next year's evaluation that brings me to the end anyone have questions for Mark on the cont content of the report um or for either of us or about the process going forward so everyone will fill out their form if you want to submit it electronically you can just email it to Eileen if you need to print it out and write it out drop it off to eileene if you need assistance in any way with us collecting that information from you just let eile know and we'll make arrangements to get that form picked up from you um if you can't email it or fax it or carrier pigeon it to the office um Tomas so in essence it's due at next meeting so so if the carrier pigeon wasn't working they could bring it with them next meeting yes yes you yes do by next meeting but the sooner you can submit it the better I mean elen is going to help um collate this information so that I can then write the the comprehensive report and I'm sure you can reach out to Mark as you're going through if you have questions about anything that was presented you know if you need clarification or any more supporting documents but most of it has already been shared with you through all these links so yeah and I would just Echo that so if there's as you get into this if there's anything you got a question about if there's anything else you want to see you don't feel like something doesn't round out the picture well enough um especially as you start getting to the nuan language of the rubric just shoot me either an email or a text or give me a phone call and I will happily um give you whatever it is you're looking for I tried to tried to give you enough without burying you I was trying to find that sweet spot so but if I missed either way just let me know and then would be able to resend the r part Rubik's out one more time so it's at the top of our email the form you need to fill out or the the form to fill out yeah e will you um recirculate that form please just want to make sure yep nothing thank you and the form with the instructions maybe for filling it out thank you all right well I thank you so much for this I really appreciate this I think there are two of us on the committee at this point who remember the prior process for doing the evaluation which was um extremely tedious and timec consuming and didn't necessarily dig I don't think dig deep enough into any one topic because we were trying to cover so many topics in the evaluation so I think you know what you've put together combined with the presentation we had from Jim right from mcast from um mask mask we've had a lot of acronyms tonight all these acronyms um really helped us narrow this way down to a really manageable and I think it also really captures um the essence of the work so thank you for putting this together I'm sure everyone will get their stuff into me in a timely fashion so thank you um Mark anything else on your report tonight that is it okay um so the consent agenda I believe is just the um approval of the two scholarships which you um so the donation from Dennis Union Church approval of the Mist scholarship with the um criteria that's listed in there the approval of the Dy football and cheerleading scholarship as listed in there and then we also have the minutes of the April 8th just April 8th meeting yes does anyone move agenda moved is there a second second any questions all in favor I thank you very much um the calendar is included here can I ask a question about the calendar yeah please I know I know the last day but I I think the number one question on the parents page every single page day is the the last day is the 20th a half day June 20th right half day on June 20th I think best of our knowledge to the best of our knowledge the when we were looking at the calendar right it was was supposed the 25th would have been the last day with five snow days corre and we had one snow day the day after juneth right so everybody's out for juneth and then they come back for a half day on the 20th which parents love and and the only other question is do we have a scheduled date in our to look at the next year's calendar next year is already approved in on website oh right so we'll deal that next year what this year um we can public I can put it on the agenda okay all right so 25 2566 okay we can put it on an upcoming agenda sorry we can put it on an upcoming agenda um we can maybe look at it the next yeah either the next meeting or the meeting after that yeah all right um or do you want to wait for the new committee I because we're going to have we are going to have an interesting period here too actually where we're going to be in between votes right because I think we have a meeting scheduled we have a school committee meeting scheduled I believe between the the Dennis election and the armouth election let's see we've got a meeting here on the 6th when is the Dennis Dennis election is the 14th so then we have a meeting on the 20th Yep and the Dennis Town Yarmouth downtown meeting is until the 21st and when is there election 21st so you're going to have somebody elected from Dennis here so meeting and then a new M so normally we'd reorganize we won't be able to reorganize until but the committee is going to have to make it a ter minute I think I think we're G have I might have to go back and do some research I don't know if the committee is goingon to have to take a vote do we have we have we have a meeting on the 6 right yes yeah we might have to take some type of a vote to not reorganize until the June until the June meeting okay yeah because I think technically we're supposed to reorganize but then we would have to reorganize twice I think so all right maybe we can get some guidance I have to get some guidance on what to do because yeah we're in between okay because you're going to have a new member come on on the fourth by the 20th and then you're going to have another new member come on on the third so in theory you're going to have to do two reorganizations or there might be some way for us postpone the reorganization to the third okay to when we have the full new membership um yep all right um I'll get some guidance and bring it back for the 6th because we have that meeting to figure it out next on the agenda is public comment is there anyone that wants to address the committee seeing none that is all we have on the agenda for tonight anyone want to adjourn all in favor I meeting Jour thank you very much