e e e e e e e e e e great [Laughter] do hi everybody Welcome to the Monday May 20th 2024 meeting of the dentist chman Regional school committee um Welcome to our new member John new um we were sorry we didn't get to say farewell to General she missed her last meeting but she is retired from the school committee um and we're going to start with executive session tonight I move that the Dennis shouth Regional school committee enter into executive session to return to public session for the purpose of discussing strategy in respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and chairs so declares yep we got it CIU and then was seconded we'll do a roll any discussion we'll do a roll call vote on that um Marilyn yes Tomas yes Joe yes Phil this yeah now you can use it yeah yes all right John do you vote Yes to enter into executive session yes awesome um and I vote Yes so we'll be right back e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome back to the Monday May 20th 2024 meeting the Dennis Chou Regional school committee please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right I said this we went into executive session but I'll say it again we have a new member tonight uh just elected from Dennis John new so we're welcoming him to the committee um and actually John do you want to just tell us everybody just a little bit about yourself just I you know just just a a quick intro no pressure thank you um quick intro I live in the town of Dennis obviously I moved to the cape in 1984 I was employed by the regional district from 1984 through 2015 and now I'm serving on the school committee thank you all right um first we have a student representative report from Isabella U Rosanna is not here today and I think she's going to try to come back next time for a final meeting but thank you for coming Isabella yeah of course thank you guys for having me as always I don't know my better half year so you got to bear with me but um so this past weekend we had our Junior and senior prom for Dy which was a really great time I know I've seen a lot of great photos and everybody we had a really big turnout which I don't think people were like expecting as much like students wise and it was a great time we had so many people show up and then we also have sort of that was in preparation for a graduation and Senior week which are coming up super fast I know this week is sort of the last classes that seniors have with finals week and then Senior week coming up and going off of that we also have our sports signing day on the 28th for any seniors who are planning to play sports in college which I've actually heard is a very significant amount of seniors and I think that's going to be a really exciting time for everyone in the athletics department at Dy so also last week we had our Civics day which I know I saw a few faces I think we had a pretty big turnout for that and today we had some of our Civics action projects go to Boston which was a great time for everybody I know I saw some pictures from Miss Williams and I plan on talking to her about that tomorrow uh we also had our dolphin Dash last week so it's been a busy few weeks at DUI dolphin Dash is always a great event we always have an amazing turnout it's such an important event to DIY culture so I think that that was really great time for everybody oh we also which I know so many students are happy about finished our AP exams the past two weeks so two week stock full of exams we had most every junior senior take an exam or two and now that those are over I think it's more smooth sailing for everybody for the rest of the year um as for today we had our track team go to divisionals which they're currently at right now at princial high school which is of course a DIY rival so there's there was a lot of expectations for today hopefully they can pull off a win U we also next weekend have our SATs for juniors taking place and we have our mcast taking place this week on Tuesday and Thursday for the 10th grade and then also coming up which is always an amazing event at Dy is our Pops concert on Wednesday which is when our Orchestra and band all get together and also our chorus and put on a concert and I think that's at 7:30 on Wednesday so we're expecting big turnout for that as well thank you very much Jenny Quick question yeah if I could Isabella um did you guys have the election for the junior repres representative we did it didn't really come down to an election in the end we sort of were between two people and we picked a candidate and we just notified her her name is Ava AO we're planning on having her attend I hopefully the next meeting we're sort of still figuring out logistics and just kind of getting her to ease into it before we jump her into the new school year but she's very excited and I think she's going to be great and I think you guys are going to love her great thank you thank you so much thank you um I guess the next report is mine it is up on the screen and you have a hard copy everyone have a hard copy too yep um so this is the summative evaluation of our superintendent for his first year um thank you all um for turning in your individual reports thank you Eileen for tallying all the votes and putting all the comments together um so what you have here is our draft report which you um we'll all vote tonight to accept or not and let me know what modifications we need to make if any um so first page um Step One progress towards goals um professional practice goals met student learning goals met District Improvement goals met um I will say that there are two District Improvement goals um and on the second one which you'll see a comment on later the second one which is the um the safety plan um there was sort of a split vote on that between significant progress and met so you know it comes out as met I think in the end but um as we know that needs more time so um and then step two performance on standards um everyone voted um the majority vote was um proficient in all categories [Music] um step three overall summi of performance proficient I will read into the record the evaluator comments the Dennis Yarmouth School District welcomed Dr Mark Smith as our new superintendent in July of 2023 Dr Smith immediately took great initiative to formulate a path for improvement began is tenured a challenging time with various Union contracts being decided as well as budget constraints over the normal he has shown that he can work cooperatively with staff Union representatives and town officials as an instructional leader he has implemented focused learning walks and trained and empowered his leadership team to recognize support and monitor effective well structured lessons his detailed review of student achievement using multiple sources of evidence astutely identify factors affecting student performance Dr Smith has made a sincere commitment to create a reliable respectful Equitable and consistent communication system for all Dy families and Community stakeholders ERS showing that he values models and supports responsive And Timely communication among all groups staff school committee members Community leaders and community members he has held several forums for people to share concerns in various ways and in multiple languages his weekly report to the school committee as well as his constant Communications to the public about what is going on in the schools has allowed people to feel more connected to the schools Dr Smith received an exemplary rating from this committee on Focus indicator 3C Communications Dr Smith has shown a commitment to high standards and has given the opportunity to school leaders to show their commitment as well he has continued to gather and share data on a variety of items not previously looked at helping him make more informed decisions on what areas of focus need to be worked on he has created and fostered a communicative environment in a short amount of time um so this is the breakdown of um the goals student learning goal um one which was the math curriculum implementation um the committee found that Dr Smith met that goal the professional practice goal was um participating in the new superintendent induction program again the committee found that Dr Smith met that goal uh number third was the district Improvement goal one which was effective entry and Direction setting um goal has been met and District Improvement goal to district and school safety planning um that comes out as met um although with the understanding that it's not um complete um next page says four of seven at the bottom superintendent's performance rating for instructional leadership um the focus indicators here curriculum instruction and data informed decision making um Dr Smith was found proficient in all three of those indicators with an overall rate in of proficient and instructional leadership Dr Smith has demonstrated a high level of proficiency in data research and Analysis and application which has already led to increased Effectiveness and is putting our district on a path for improved student learning his well- reasoned decision making is a real asset to our district especially during challenging times and crisis moments page five of seven um performance rating for management and operations uh the focus indicator here is environment um the rating is proficient with an overall rating for management and operations of proficient um Dr Smith has made significant progress slm his second district Improvement goal related to safety planning this is a large task requiring input and cooperation amongst many so it is not surprising that although Dr Smith made all efforts to successfully conclude this work within his first year this work will continue next year we appreciate being arived apprised of progress on the goal throughout the year so it's not to be surprised that more time is required this was an important area of improvement that Dr Smith identified quickly in his initial reviews of The District page six of seven performance rating for family and Community engagement the focus indicators are communication and family concerns um this is where you see the exemplary rating and communication and the proficient rating um for family concerns with an over over all rating of proficient Dr Smith has shown commitment to open and timely communication with all stakeholders has taken great care to make Communications accessible to everyone he has made significant improvements to District communication which has previously been identified as a problem area for our district and finally page seven of seven performance rating for professional culture um the indicators are commitment to high standards communication and continuous learning the ratings in all three are proficient with an overall rating of proficient Dr Smith's active participation in the net program and the clear benefits he has received from it are a model for our staff and set the example for increasing our standards of service and achievement anyone on the committee have questions concerns comments changes Joe man that was a lot easier than years B for um yes thank you for doing that Jenny and um I think Marilyn was involved in it also goes to e really for and putting it together it's great um and it it was a very good indicator of um that Mark's first year um and I think it it um it was great to be able to sit down and and be able to think it through and evaluate it and and kind of and it's good for for him also to know where he is you know he doesn't doesn't he doesn't want to know if we're we don't like him he wants to know that and not know it but we do so um thank you very much and thank you for all your effort Phil I was speaking at off the off the cuff I found that Dr Smith comments during the evaluations of looking for a superintendent match very very well with what he's actually accomplished in the coming in the past year so no pressure for next year at all yeah I just want to Second uh all of you that did the hard work uh Jenny and eileene and everybody um and I I can second not being on the school committee but uh in past years Fallen to sleep to uh try to keep up with it and watch it so I hope this is better for everybody all around um the only comments I'd like to make is um you know it's tough to even evaluate because you know we if he if if uh the superintendent had been here a couple years then we'd be looking at outcomes we don't have the outcomes yet so all of this is based on good planning um and we all identified that that we're on the right track in that planning um the only other suggestion I would like to make and and we already identifi if to that on the school safety and uh security issue I'm wondering if um because the school committee is kind of that bridge to the community um that we have either a subcommittee or some kind of active member um and we can discuss that at late but I understand that you know you're still in the working progress of that whole plan so but thank you very much and uh I great job by all anyone else Marilyn um I I thank you for the thess in the report and the updates you've given us throughout this whole process and sort of that summi of assessment you gave us on the Dolphin Way and how much pride we have uh you recognized us as a pod a community um and you also gave us a pathway for what the next goals are and you really thought about it um I so much appreciate your reflective learning and so I was thinking about you know looking over all your documents and what I wanted to say tonight and what I ended up looking at I'm going to quote you back this is what he wrote To Us on May during his application and this is how I feel now uh Dy presents a strong match for both my personal professional skills leaderships and Passions and and I think it is a very strong match and then the other thing he wrote which I think you see the pathway for this leader leader must first T take the time to establish trusting relationships built on honest competency active listening and a continuous focus on the needs of students you're on that path thank you thank you Marilyn thank you everybody um I think that I mean you know I think we've already seen some good outcomes and obviously everyone is very supportive of the planning you've done and the plans you put into place and I think you know a huge part of this was actually just coming in at the beginning and taking a step back and having that 10,000 foot view which you know you had to do a lot of work just to come up with these four goals right this wasn't just it's obvious right from the start that you could walk in and have these four goals so between the work you did looking at the district and speaking to everyone and the work you did in the new superintendent program I think LED you to create what I think we're for really you know pertinent concrete attainable goals that have real impact for the district and I think you know you're well on your way we are well on our way with you now to you know to reaching all of these so um I don't know if you have any questions for us at this point and then we can take a vote no questions just a couple of comments based upon the things that were that were said by the committee so first of all thank you for taking the time to do it I know it it was took energy effort time in a job that's already a volunteer job that takes a bunch of your bunch of your time already so very much appreciate the the thoughtful feedback it's very important to me uh personally and professionally in going off to the the last point that you were just making there Jenny the I also want to thank the committee for the time that you gave me to do the entry work I mean I know we had this discussion when I very first started when we had the retreat at the very beginning uh with uh oh her name's escaping me but the the our masc Tracy thank you Tracy novic uh but I had asked the committee for the time to do this work and to really get to know the district before really setting direction and you all granted me that time so without that Grace without the the the luxury of that time I I I you know you I have seven bosses and my seven bosses gave me the luxury of that time so that that was very much um you all deserve that credit you're giving me credit for something that you all gave to me so I just want to name that and you know to Joe's Point around outcomes I I agree I think that's as a district we actually had that conversation maybe a week week and a half ago internally around thinking about strategic planning now and that we need to set specific measures and markers for how are we knowing that the impact of the things that we're doing and and as a superintendent you should be expecting those things from me and as we as I start to set my next round of goals like you should be pushing me to think about you know what are the specific markers that you want me to hit and uh as as a superintendent to know that we've gotten to where it is that we're going and and I think it's going to be on a future agenda once we have our our new committee but i' I'd love for the committee to consider aligning the committee's goals with the district goals and the and the superintendent I think if we're all rowing in the same direction and I think that's really where we're going to have the biggest impact uh for for our students uh and and and I do think having those um you know some outcome markers are really are really really what ultimately puts the rubber to the road I guess if that's the best analogy and you know as we talked about which is a future conversation for a future meeting when we get to goal setting but for the committee too now to think about as you've just finished this process was there other places that you would have wanted information from because that's stuff we can think about heading into the next round of goals so you know are there places that you would have wanted me to have gotten you feedback from if you remember Jim Hardy's presentation as long as we have a conversation about where it is you want me to be collecting you information from when we start um you know I think that's any essentially everything's on the table U we just need to you know as he had mentioned I'll just give a simple example as he had mentioned you don't want to be getting feedback from specific individuals to in inform my my um my evaluation it should come from yours unless we establish that you all want me to survey around a particular thing then we can co-design a a survey or whatever to a particular group that gets you feedback that then you can use to hold me to a standard I believe one of my jobs and we again we had this we had this conversation not too long ago that we in order for us really to move forward we need to have internal and external accountability um and I believe in that very much myself in order for me to be effective so those would be my only thoughts thank you so much you know I know I've reached out to Mark with some things that I think um are should be included in you know goal setting next year and I would encourage everybody on the committee especially you know Joe is your retiring um but everybody else you know to reach out as well so that you know and then I hopefully again this summer we can have another Retreat type meeting where we you know as you said try to align so awesome thank you and yeah we can always find Joe un unless he moves to a a sailboat in the middle of the ocean somewhere um so is there a motion to approve the summi of evaluation is there a second second any further discussion all in favor I I that's a unanimous vote thank you very much um there is a copy for you to sign um subcommittee reports anything for the select boards uh Joe down there Yeah tomorrow's election day in Yarmouth and uh the override is obviously on the ballot there so if you liveing Yarmouth please get out and vote perfect anything else tonight s boards building committee Joe Joe's going to stay on the building committee even though um he won't be on the school committee anymore that's been approved um so he'll continue as the chair of the building committee yeah I'm I'm happy to do that um to see it through it's going to be a it's going to be another little bit of a road before we get this all wrapped up so I'd be more than happy to stay until that road ends um we are working on um finding a designer to to look at the fields and get a price for that so that's where we are right now um as soon as that's done then they they start working on it and get us an idea um so there's still a lot of things that you know need to need to happen besides the turf fields there's some you know it takes a while the punch list and things like that and things break and whatnot so um I know that there's a still a pretty good laundry list of stuff and I talked to them um the other day and they had assured me that they're going to stay with us until everything's corrected and everything things okay so which is good I don't know if David or Mark have any additions right thank you very much Joe just a quick question for Joe uh in regards to the turf field I you know I see people out there using it there's no um problem with the fact that we're using it unless it's raining or is there any prescription I just don't want something to come back on us later so they say well you guys Ed it and you further damaged it no if I if I'm if I'm correct it it's still usable so it does take extra labor so those rainstorms that we have all the stuff moves and floats but Steve foucher guys go out and they respread it and redo it so the fields are usable um and I know if if they're not if at any point they're not usable then we'll make sure that that you know but I I I feel that they're they're spreading the stuff back out and getting it so it's usable again yeah all the issues are below the um surface of the So Below the both the turf field the the what you the grass it's not really grasp and then and the shock pad it's everything that's happening has already been determined to be below that all right thank you um superintendence report please I'm going to uncharacteristically go to the podium just because of the way my um report is organized okay do you need this mouse and keyboard I do not okay nope I just have two things to cover um and one of them uh requires a a guest all right so yeah keeping on your toes don't now that my evaluation is covered I can do whatever I want all right um so a couple of things first actually uh I don't know if um Joe wants to uh speak to this but there's just wanted to let a uh our community know about a community event friends of Bass River is coordinating a uh great experience for our seventh grade students uh which teaches our students about uh water quality Marsh life uh and several of our seventh grade students as well as some of our high school students get a great opportunity to uh experience life down on Bass River and get to learn about our local EOS system I don't know if you want to expand on that anymore but I know it's been going on for a while yeah it's it's been um something that the the district's been it's a great collaboration between the DIY District it has been for for um for a number of years that um the seventh grade goes for three days when this Wednesday Thursday and Friday from about 9: to about noon um and they learn about everything water quality the environment um in a local setting so everything is is learned here we have people come in from different agencies the um division and natural resources shellfish um constables from both towns will be there um we've got a representative from the wampo tribe that's going to come and speak about um some of the artifacts and things like that so it's a great experience for the seventh grade students um to do um for for three days so they bust them in um and it's uh it's it's really neat also the high school um science program has been working closely with our water monitoring program we have seven different watering monitoring sites um on Bass River that check the water quality our goal of the friends of Bass River is to um protect the quality of of the river and we're stewards of of making sure that what goes into to the waters isn't toxic or anything like that so we're looking to improve it but we thank the district for their all their um cooperation and um it's it's a great Resume Builder for some of these kids going on so thank you that's a great opportunity for great another great Community Partnership we very much appreciate for our students a uh another as I know I know I say it every time I'm just going to continue to say it just some amazing Community sponsors and supporters of the school district there three Don donations you'll see in your consent agenda uh these all support the Hall of Fame at the high school so I would just want to thank uh Kathleen oor Linda Moses and Sharon Merill Coons for their donations to the Hall of Fame you'll see in the memo from Principal Bennett uh in your consent agenda and also in a similar vein just today I started signing all the scholarship letters to go out to students I will have several more to sign over several days you know there're I I joked to somebody at the dry cleaners the other day when I was writing a check and she would like looked at my signature and she was like that's a signature I'm like I got to sign a lot of things and it's kind of like doctor's office I'm I'm not well anyways and I yeah it's it's a scribble um but this was this was a joy you know just to be able to write and see all that all the community support and funds that are going out it was that signing the diplomas was another great moment so there there are some great moments that being able to experience for the first time and and just it's just another sign of all the community sport just looking at the the amount of funds that we Shepherd uh but it's really the community that's providing that money to our students so just another amazing uh amazing thing all right to my last bit of information so about I think it was February maybe early in February a slightly nervous but much more relaxed looking uh principal coroll came in and sat in my office and shared with me that he was his plans to retire at the end of the year and while that was hard news for us to hear at Dy hard news for the school Community to get pasted we knew that uh it was an opportunity for us to start a process to look for the next principal of Station Avenue Elementary School and uh turned to uh assistant superintendent Lopes turned to uh Tom Campbell HR Director they put together a very robust and thoughtful process which included several stakeholders in the SAE Community to go out and start a process to search for and find the next candidate or the next principal of the Station Avenue Elementary School through a very robust process which started with initial paper screen of candidates two rounds of interviews and then a full day site visit at Station Avenue I'm pleased to uh welcome and introduce you to uh Miss Valerie Kelly who is going to be the next starting effective July 1st the new principal of station ad Avenue Elementary School and as Valerie told us during her interview process we're fortunate enough that she's actually has she spoke to it with a lot of Pride she has will have a future dolphin in our community she's already a resident of Dennis as well um she's got a young child who will be coming through our school system she was she was this is a marriage as sort of speaking a little bit to what came up during the evaluation for her this is a marriage of both her professional and personal aspirations bringing those two things together but she comes even if that wasn't Kismet she comes with the very extensive background and expertise in a wide range of school communities both that mirror uh the needs that we have here in Dennis armoth as well as some really high performing school districts uh she's got a a depth of expertise in special education she's got a wide range of uh experiences and Leadership and I think she's going to be a really strong I know she's going to be a really strong asset to us here in the school district and we're really excited to have her join the team and I'd like to welcome uh Miss Valerie Kelly up to to introduce her to the committee thank you everyone I just want to say I'm so thrilled to be here um Joe similar to you I began coming to Dennis in 1984 but that was when I was born I'm sorry not Joe when John um but yeah Dennison has been a constant in my life um it's been kind of the Hub of my family my big Irish Catholic Family um and I was able to become a homeowner a few years ago and I'm just elated to be able to kind of marry my professional and personal life to the place I call home and have a lot of pride in but also um continue this professional path I'm very excited to join station a Elementary in particular the community through this thorough process the more I learned about it the more excited I was to join it I've been getting emails from folks they figured out my Duxbury email and have already been reaching out welcoming me so I am I'm just very thrilled to be here so thank you all thank you very much welcome I'm sure that we'll see you again soon um for you know as you come to view our meetings or to present to us so welcome thank you thank you are you is that the end of your report okay perfect all right um next is the consent agenda which is the three donations that uh Mark just mentioned to the Hall of Fame as well as um one set of minutes from the last meeting May 6 is that the date so um does anyone move the consent agenda moved is there a second discussion All In favor I I looks like bills are going around calendar is enclosed um the concert on Wednesday night is at 7 I just looked at in my emails um Isabelle had said maybe 7:30 it's at 7 in the gym at Dy and it's $5 to enter um and there's an early release day Wednesday Wednesday this week um we can have a public comment period if anyone like to address the committee raise your hand I'll recognize you come up to the microphone and you can have up to three minutes to speak on items within the purview of the school committee relevant to the agenda would anyone like to address the school committee tonight uh seeing none I think that's all we have for tonight oh yeah Joe's last motion no I don't want to do it now now I'll make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I thank you Joe enjoy