##VIDEO ID:NF7OhuraG2c## 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 to the Monday November 4th 2024 meeting of the Denis Yarmouth Regional school committee please stand and 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 and we will start with student Representatives report good evening everybody I know we hoping to see Ava I promise she's heading right over from volleyball as you all know she's a very busy girl and you know just she's finishing out of her seasons so I think having her there is important she's going to be here for the next two years anyway so she'll get a lot of time face to face with you I promise um I figured I'd start off and talk about a little bit about the dolphin Dash which we held on Saturday Saturday the 26th not this immediate Saturday but it's always a success this year we had an amazing turnout again I know that's just such a huge part of the dii community and I think moving it to the fall people were a little bit worried about how the turnout was going to happen but it was the same as it always is and we raised a lot of money for athletics which is such an important part of our culture uh working off Athletics we have have almost every announcement I have here today is based of our On Athletics so we have our field hockey who won their just who just won their first playoff game on Saturday as well as volleyball who won their first playoff game on Saturday and they both have their round two games coming up this week boys soccer played their game today and they won against Auburn and they have their next game I think on Wednesday and they're traveling about like 2 and a half hours off cape for that one uh and then we also have a football play playoff game coming up on Friday it's not at home I'm not sure where it is but everybody's looking forward to it so Dy sports are doing well this year I believe it's in Linfield Linfield Linfield I'll keep that one in mind I couldn't figure it out one time but uh we're holding our SATs we held SATs on Saturday and it was the second one of the last two months and we're not holding them again I think until like April so kind of any seniors who had anything to do with college applications had to take them either last month when we held them or this month and every seems to be doing well on those hope them for the best they have like a week before their results come out uh we have M mcast retakes for all grades taking place in for English and math in the next two weeks and then we also have our NHS blood drive on the 15th uh this is the first of two for the year so I know that this is really important to miss Adams and we always get a great turnout for that and we're accepting signups right now and then I thought I'd close it off we have our mock election taking place uh we had it take place today I know obviously election day is tomorrow so that's fresh in everybody's mind we had a 7 78% student participation which I was really pleasantly surprised by I think that nobody was really expecting that but this is an important election and we want to make sure students are educated on it and everybody's getting involved thank you I think Ava came in you can join us at the table we appreciate you running over from from practice great and now we have some curricular updates um from director Elizabeth ponus and Sher Santini oh one moment thank you I just I just wanted to put in a spot for the marching band and color guard this past weekend they won the state championship for division 2A uh and they were awarded best music best percussion best color guard and best visual design and just another uh throw into there the majority of the staff I think with one or two exceptions are alumni thank you I know it was in Dr Smith's uh superintendent report but we but we appreciate it we we we can't talk about them enough so we we all appreciate I was there for that Thursday night uh that they had so it was great so great we are ready for you ladies good evening Betsy ponus I'm the director of stem instruction and I'm just going to spend a few minutes um talking about some of the Strate strategic initiatives that are going on in math and science and technology um the district has put significant investment into math in the last several years um we have adopted three resources including uh K to 5 Eureka math squared um in grades 6 through 8 we have illustrative mathematics and in 9 through 12 we have Carnegie math these resources are aligned with the Massachusetts standard and contain instructional guidance to support teachers in providing students access to rigorous math instruction in 2324 to support that adoption we provided curriculum Based training to all our teachers and additionally we partnered with teaching lab Who provided implementation experts to work with myself our principles math coaches and teachers with to focus on learning the design of the materials and putting forth our best efforts um in first year um this year as we continue our implementation plan which is a multi-year plan um we will continue to partner with teaching Lab in order to in strengthen our instructionally focused conversations between principles and teachers principal observation and feedback is a leading factor in impacting student outcomes our instructional coaches will continue to receive professional learning in order to calibrate and align their efforts that will support our teachers as they work to meet the needs of the Learners in their classrooms so this sort of multi pra and continuous approach um is is really part of a even longer vision for at least I would say 3 to five years of implementation in science we um begin to work on a district landscape analysis um with teacher leaders principles and myself the director working to collect information on on the effectiveness of our resources so we will examine data on um student learning and determine areas where the resources we have May maybe need to be supplemented or um we need to bulk them up in some way based on standards or the math uh science practices um we will again be reviewing the resources um and we can do this in two ways so I'm supporting the um Dy High School curriculum development project that's going on and working with the science team there um to review the units that they're writing and working with the curriculum Leadership Council which is AK to um 10 set of teacher leaders um to review the resources that we have in place and decide whether a formal curriculum review investigating other resources is needed or whether we can just supplement and with the resources that we have and finally um speaking of Technology um Dy has been a proud recipient of the pace grant for the last four years and we continue to receive funds um these funds come with one Mission and that is to advance equity in Computing um amongst all our students um so we have developed a pathway um k to2 um in response to this um most the first piece of work happened at 6 to8 a few years back when we adopted the Cs discoveries curriculum and we hired two teachers one here at grade six and seven and one at grade 8 so that every student receives a computer science class um as part of their education um in addition then we kind of went back to to work at K to 5 um ensuring access through the library class so the related arts class now includes a unit on computer science um and then our students go up to the high school where there is a very robust um program which includes um a robotics pathway a computer science pathway and a media um technology pathway um where students can choose um we also are going to be involved through the grant this year um on a student Showcase Event so our um eighth and some ninth graders will be going to Worcester Polytech with their teacher um the first thing they need to do is identify a problem that can they can support um at an elementary school and then they will work as a group to sort of try to solve that problem and then they'll go show case their efforts at Worcester polych so we're excited to um participate in that this year as well and that concludes my review I'm happy to answer questions any questions from the committee Mr new thank you Miss ponas um does your curriculum at all have any data as to the effectiveness um in helping students in grades 10 through 12 in their AP science technology and math courses um we um do have efforts at the high school for AP in terms of getting all kids access um and I am sure there is data that I could like look at to see how how we're doing in that way but yes I mean I believe that data is probably there that would be great I would I would love to know at some point uh you know how successful the program is at providing the necessary tools for those students that are taking those courses and I guess it' be reflected in the percentage of students that are getting uh you know those fours and fives that are necessary to qualify for the credit yeah and so I think there's two ways also to look at that so um I think the initiative for us too is just allowing more students to get access to those courses so to sort of open it up to kind of start even a couple grades lower and um encouraging students to take honors courses so that in a certain amount of time they will get in there and at least get access to that like rigorous sort of college level course the curriculum is all written by the AP college board um and so we just sort of adapt that but yes I think you know as teachers look through the data I'm sure they're always focused on um making sure as many students as possible get those credit um points um and I'm happy to kind of look into that for you and also uh do you ever do any followup with uh students who graduated as to uh how prepared they felt they were once they became a freshman say majoring in science or math or engineering whatever uh Computer Sciences yeah what we do is is a little less focused but that is sort of on my radar and in terms of like sort of garnering some more stakeholder input from the different levels um but we do often um especially at the high school reach out to um former students especially during stem week or other sort of weeks that are dedicated and they will come back and meet with um students to kind of describe the opportunities that they've found um just to sort of get that Focus because careers have changed so much and there's so much out there that's new and a lot of our graduates are out there doing very new and engaging things so to bring them back to talk to our students is something that we are working on now but I think in addition to that it is on my radar to sort of reach out to try to say how your experience at Dy helped you Mr Morris there was a time when you wanted to set up a Science Program you just got a bunson burner and a and a water faucet uh so all the students of all different levels would be taking those courses it would seem that by enhancing the resources for students as early as possible that you build a demand for more help and resources for AP and other and honors courses is that is that a good assumption is that the case that takes place yes I think that with all content I think the the more we can get kids to be able to feel like they could be practitioners of mathematics or science or technology and then also on the same way is to expose them to ideas of what that means out in the career Fields when you're moving into um a career or college that we do try to do that to open them up so that they're engaged and they kind of see it's more than just learning about um the content at every particular grade level thanks great Marilyn now that you're in uh or collectively people are in the third year of a rollout of three different curriculums uh I'm interested for Lessons Learned and I'm wondering if you now feel because the emphasis was on The Early Elementary years have you sort of realigned the instructional coaches uh has there been a shift in sort of Direction uh also I'm curious to know lessons learned about using three different curriculums uh are people feeling comfortable with rolling from one into another or you know anything that you have heard or sh could share sure um so Lessons Learned yes we did start at kada the the K to 5 level um lessons learned I would probably really do a much more focus on all levels next time if I was going to redo it and so for now um one of the things I am really focusing on is that six to8 and then um so six to Eight's technically in their third year um because in that second year we were piloting Eureka Math so it was much more of a kind of daggered roll out and then we had teacher leaders in the building um so the 6 to8 um I think that that is an area of focus because I'm not sure teachers got the same supports and and I mean that from a couple of different Vantage points so everybody did get curriculum um training um but what we're really focusing on now is advancing the principles instructional guidance so that in conversations with teachers yes they're supervising teachers but they also can have very valuable conversations that are ongoing that really help impact what's going on in the classroom and that's a learning curve for all of us so um the the principal has to really kind of understand the um curriculum itself they don't have to be an expert on it but they do have to be able to understand what they're seeing and how that Rel relates to the instructional guidance that is provided and then how we can help teachers by giving feedback that is actually doable like the next day and not kind of broad-based like you know everybody wants to support everybody great job I see you doing this that but to get really kind of concrete with you know some little steps that teachers can take because they are the experts in the classroom the teachers know their students and so um we have to like Leverage both sides of feedback that helps them really focus in on how to use that resource to make decisions that meet the needs of your students so I hope that's clear um and then as for the sort of transition points um each curriculum is basically student centered and so it does require the student to do the bulk of the thinking and the working of problems in class and so that doesn't change um I think some concerns in the past were about sort of technical language that might change between curriculum um I have not heard any feedback that that is so yet but um certainly we could do transitional Parts but most of the language um the models that they use in terms of from going K to five 6 to8 they're very similar they're going to call it an area model they're going to call it um they might call it a tape diagram maybe somebody calls it a bar diagram but other than that like most of the language should stay the same thank you Betsy yeah and to to Mr Morris's point of kids being interested in and I know the school the school here last week had the egg drop um and then the the students that were the finalist the Department came and lifted up a ladder and dropped an egg to see if they were able to build something to to keep it so you know getting kids interested in stem and I've seen some of the speakers we've had for the stem week um and some of the graduates Dy Alum who some of them were in such high jobs they had a zoom in because they couldn't make it here from across the country and some of the top universities as well so a lot of great things um I know we talked about the Alum that teach here and um do activities here and it's a lot of great things and as I said if we start them younger then it's bigger we've seen the robotics presentations we've seen here and all the the different things that we offer so so thank you bets thank you very much and miss Santini good evening Sher Santini director of humanities um thank you for inviting me to share an update on our K3 social studies curriculum with the adoption of children discovering Justice Resource probably the most significant shift in the 2018 history and social science framework was the emphasis on Civics at every grade level especially with the addition of a Civics mcast and required Civics Action Project both at grade 8 fortunately our history Department led by Tristan Williams had long been engaged in highquality Civics education and action projects so they were prepared to meet that new demand the challenge for the district was in finding appropriate resources to teach Civics in our primary grades because content standards vary from state to state and often the political landscape can greatly affect what each state chooses to emphasize those big box Publishers do not invest time or resources in developing high quality materials for social studies promoting Civic engagement in classrooms is essential to supporting children in learning how to participate in shaping decisions that affect their lives when children are exposed to Opportunities and resources to explore and problem solve around issues of Injustice or In fairness their participation can make a difference not only in their lives but in their community in the World At Large it is especially important that we teach students the skills that they will need to become citizens of the world from civil discourse the ability to talk through problems and issues especially with those who don't share your point of view to active participation in their school community and the world around them the building blocks for civic's engagement responsibility respect empathy honesty compassion conflict resolution and open-mindedness are the cornerstones of children's social and emotional development in the early grades learning to work together in maintaining a safe and fun learning environment are key goals in kindergarten in first grade it's what they spend much of their day doing creating and observing classroom and playground rules appreciating others and developing cooperation negotiation and communication skills I first became aware of children discovering Justice in early 2022 when a colleague from the history and social stud social studies Network run by the department of Elementary and secondary education shared it with us there were three things that caught my attention it was aligned to the standards it included lesson plans links to activities and resources and it was free you're welcome so I shared it with members of the social studies curriculum Council and asked them to take a look at it and give me their thoughts on whether or not it was worth pursuing they unanimously agreed and offered to Pilot some of the lessons as well this slide gives a broad overview of the focus for each grade level and how the modules within are consistent across grade levels just like the standards the expectations build upon one another and increase with not only rigor but developmental appropriateness children discovering Justice is a highquality standards-based culturally responsive supplemental social studies and Civics curriculum that provides the entry points and tools to facilitate critical thinking Rich civil discourse and active engagement around Justice community and advocacy this is a slide of the grade three scope and sequence at each grade level through specific content standard students explore the essential question what is Justice and how do I use my voice to advocate for it the purpose of CDJ is not to teach students what to think but rather to teach them how to think critically about important issues what matters most is that students are reflecting engaging and grappling as we push them outside of their individual lens to look at the world through a critical community-minded lens of inquiry as long as students are thinking critically about these multifactor Ed ideas asking questions and making connections to their lives and Community via respectful discourse Civics is happening these engaging election lessons were added this year and they to help students understand the importance of Civic engagement the voting process and the role of leaders in our government the focus is on skills over content like mock elections or how to agree and disagree respectfully the lessons were created with grade level appropriate content and facts the facts and process of voting why voting matters other ways to get your voice heard how to be a leader in the classroom Community each grade span closes with a lesson to teach after the election as students navigate conversations with peers whether they are excited or disappointed in the outcome so as I mentioned earlier I first learned about CDJ early in the 2022 school year after reviewing it myself and sharing it with the social studies curriculum Leadership Council I reached out to Laura brener the education program director to learn more about the program and how to schedule PD for our teachers 30 teachers signed up for that first PD offering in February of 2023 and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive I collaborated with cvj to expand the scope of our work to include additional professional development and a teacher leader cohort responsibilities for that cohort included meeting four times throughout the school year after school hours teaching 15 to 20 lessons providing feedback to CDJ hosting at least at least one classroom visit and sharing and modeling their implementation with their colleagues five teachers in the district participated in that leadership cohort in an effort to make vertical curricular connections I also invited Tristan Williams High School history department chair to come at the beginning of each PD to share the work that the eighth grade is doing around Civics action so the teachers could see how what they were doing in their first grade classroom feeds into the work being done in the eth grade last spring some of our third graders went to the Civic day showcase to view the civics action products of students in grades 8 and 11 here's a few pictures of teachers participating in the various PD over the past two years this year we have expanded the scope of CDJ resource into every classroom in kind grades kindergarten through third in order to support teachers in the implementation professional development has been scheduled throughout the school year additionally Title One funds were used to purchase the priority text for every mon module in each grade level and you can see just a snapshot of the books that are at each grade level not only do they have we have these text sets but CDJ is also made available a virtual read alloud Library this provides teachers with multiple options for sharing books with their students on this slide are some samples of student work in that upper leftand corner is an identity quilt for module 0 lesson one in Mrs Hall's kindergarten class the big idea for this lesson was we all have different thoughts feelings experiences and identities students explore their personal identities and how their identities form the classroom Community students were asked to draw a self-portrait and fill the square with things about themselves all of the squares were then sewn together to form the identity quilt representing each student in the class there are also some examples up there of students identifying examples of rules being followed or not and the rules expect ation where students apply the concept of following rules to their own lives finally the concept of justice injustice is a consistent theme throughout the curriculum as students continually explore that big question what is Justice and how do I use my voice to advocate for it finally I wanted to share with you some feedback I've received from teachers as you know our K3 teachers are responsible for planning everything the four major content areas literacy math social studies and science keeping them all safe making sure they're warm fed everybody's happy it's a big job so one of the first things teachers look for when evaluating curriculum resource is its organization and ease of use do they have to Cobble together their lessons from various resources or is everything in one place CDJ definitely hit it out of the park on this one Additionally the stories activities and topics are high interest in engaging for students and adds an added bonus it aligns nicely with the Dolphin Way and common choice so connections are made and reinforced throughout the school day I'd like to leave you with this fact a 2020 quasi experimental study from The forom Institute found that students who received an additional 30 minutes of social studies instruction in grades 1 through five outperform students who received less social studies instruction they per performed better on their ELA test regardless of demographics thing that made the difference was the extra 30 minutes of social studies instruction learning about the world around them enhances young students reading skills and develops foundational method meod of analyzing information having a broader wealth of General background knowledge is linked to better reading comprehension scores background knowledge is critical for a reader to make sense of a particular text knowledge that helps build a broad vocabulary forms the foundation of true literacy any questions Mr Morris background information is sometimes even more me than this the initial reveal I notice here that there's a before you begin read ourc to 5 considerations for teaching during presidential election 2024 have you had briefly what type of energy or or response do you develop for handling some of the more difficult subjects that take place during a presidential year um I think each teacher knowing his or her class the the focus is about again the process so it's not about the candidate it's about the process it's about how you how one becomes a how one is um able to become nominated to be a president what's the process for choosing one what's the Electoral College um I have no doubt that children bring in with them when I was a classroom teacher they would talk about candidates but just keep refocusing them on on the process and Everyone's entitled to their opinion it's it's being able to critically analyze the facts and make your own decision now if we can translate that into a larger audience uh it just reflects perhaps the civic education such as existed a generation ago and the word how Bill is made is about all I remember and I it was a great cartoon it you all you're all singing it now any other questions Miss beus what happens in grade four do you have to go back to they're piloting so they they're piloting the curriculum it'll go up to grade five so they were hoping to Pilot it last year um we had a teacher that was going to engage in it but the um Department of Ed has been working on um their a curriculum resource called investigating history yes and their focus has really been on that that was been has been delayed so that impacted our the ability for them to Pilot the grade four for CDJ so that's happening this year and then grade five will be piloted next year so the Civics runs all the way through um when you get to sixth and well especially seventh grade when they study ancient Greece the you know the foundation of democracy and then they get to grade eight and it's all Civics all day all the time it's great yeah that that's what I was wondering because I know the Frameworks they go to ancient civilization and geography and mapmaking and the world and countries and naming them and then in eth grade it's back to Civics so that's a challenge there's the big question like how decisions are made so when you think about even in like in ancient Egypt with the pharaohs like there's ways that civilizations make decisions so might not look the way ours did but these are the were the foundations of what then became democracy in our country so studying those and how decisions get made and who gets to make them how that gets determined um all of that background knowledge helps them as they do then learn and look at turn the lens to their our own country So within our district are is it teacher made materials and Bri R sources in fourth and fifth and sixth um no in uh fourth and fifth grade we have um primarily it's the uh TCI don't ask me what the initials stand for because I can I can never remember um and the focus is on like in fourth grade it's on explorers um and then the regions of the country and then fifth grade fifth grade is well I don't know the dawn of time until civil rights it's big um it's big um so we have a curriculum resource that supports that any other questions no I think it's an important thing and I'm sure on a presidential election year it gets people more excited to want to be a part of it um but just the understanding you know because that's one of the things people say when they want to be grow up they want to be a president right so what what you have to do to to get there it's understanding the process there there are rules around it there there is a process so it's that's what we want to we want them to understand yeah we could teach them the process how to become on this school board they want to be Mr Glenn you got a comment about that or a question well I was just thinking to myself did did you aspired to be a chairman of the uh school committee um I'm still trying to figure out this civilization and how we make decisions but um my only question is do you have um any Lessons Learned or anything that you're thinking of that being self-critical that you might want to see differently done in the future there always are things that you would do differently um I could have rolled it out faster pushed people a little more I I wanted I wanted people to come to it I want you get those people that are interested to G engage first and then they tell a friend um and it was also a way to learn about it sometimes you know if we jump into something too quickly just because it's free you start to wonder well you know how good is it and I I really I do have to say um overwhelmingly the feedback from the teachers is that yet everything is in one place but the quality of the resources the quality of the texts that it represents um multilingual Learners it represents multiple cultures it looks at at Justice from all different lenses um and kids are one of the first things that teachers push back a little bit and especially in kindergarten was the vocabulary they weren't sure that children could understand Justice um um and they can and they do it really well and they can spot it and they can point it out I mean any 5-year-old can tell you that it's not fair that your cookies bigger than their cookie that's an injustice right they know that um and they can apply it they know so sometimes I think we underestimate and I think maybe I would have pushed a little bit more but in the end everybody came to it um and are pleased with the resource and what it offers they probably know better than us um but um thank you so much for the presentation and good luck with the going forward thank you thank you so much and then we have uh Miss Kim Christopher from alphab best for a presentation she might have turned you off there you go I apologize good evening I'm Kim Christopher and I am my title is National director of school Partnerships but I've spent probably the last8 to 10 weeks here um in the cape working um in unison with my colleague Cheryl nicoletti um to help get the programs underway um as I'm sure you guys are all aware it was a large collaborative effort um between the school system as well as you know our staff as well as your staff to get the program where we're at today so I'm pleased um that you guys have given me a few moments to give you an update this is just a brief overview um but some great things to celebrate uh from the enrollment data at all of the locations that includes the over all enrollment um how many students and families that we have registered each of the programs the numbers have switched a little bit with the vouchers the vouchers is one of the pieces that went in unison with the licensing um you know when I provided the report I think it was Thursday uh of last week we had 12 now we're up to 15 which is showing um the need and impact of the community which is great uh staffing has been wonderful between uh the 12 staff that we've hired from Dennis Yarmouth uh we have three High School staff we've worked in unison with several of um the high school leadership to bring some high school students in and then we have four Cape residents we've actually added uh four more to that group um over the last couple of days so we continue to keep adding um to our overall Staffing uh piece in as far as partnership is concerned we've worked collaboratively with each one of the schools uh the principes uh to get into their teacher meetings to talk to the teachers as well as uh we provided breakfast and you know gone into some of the classrooms to provide different items so it's been great I mean again it we you know Cheryl and I came onto the Cape right before Labor Day and have really just worked to rebuild um you know the the trust that was needed um and all four of the schools have been welcome and open I can't say enough about the leadership and the teachers everybody it was just what can we do to help what can we do to help and everybody's been there and that's been super great um to both Cheryl and I to help keep moving um the program in the right direction I was pleased to report to the superintendent just a couple weeks ago we received lure at all four of the locations uh which was a huge win and a victory for us um that obviously opened up the ability to see the vouchers but it also gave us um the ability to take over full operation um which is a huge um piece for us you know that was something that we were really looking forward to and that's been great um as as far as enrichments are concerned one of the big pieces and I know one of the big pieces that you guys wanted to see in the program was the enrichments we started enrichments the week of the 21st um and we've been fortunate that everybody has taken it on and loves it uh we're doing it both before and after school just based on the timing so the students have gotten a variety of different and you could see these are several of your students uh that are engaging in the program the first one is our technology piece which is bloxels where the students uh create and make a game design they create their own characters and they put them into the games the second one is our bubble Extravaganza where they're learning everything from how to make bubbles to the formation of bubbles what what they all entail uh to several of the different arts and culture um art and action is what we've used as well so big overview uh just giving you guys I wanted to you know have some moment to celebrate but also some moment um you know to just give you guys some critical information about where we are I hope that in a few more months I can come back and and bring even uh even more updates from what we're doing with the students as well as with the teachers and and the school-based community so I'm certainly I didn't want to take up too much of your time because I know that the meetings um can be brief but I certainly welcome any questions that you guys might have for me that I can answer any questions Mr Glenn yes yeah no uh thanks very much I just wanted to relay and kind of dovetail the fact that you said everybody was trying to do whatever they could to help and I want to extend that to us and this may not be a question for you but maybe the superintendent um in getting finances and other types of help sure um because this is a huge thing in every Community but especially here um and I want to try to do the best we can do to to help you and and get financing and and get as many people uh that you know benefit because it it really is important but thank you so much for what you've done and if there's anything I can do or we can do don't hesitate to be in contact yes I mean just getting you know we for the first as you guys know when we first took on uh the families were coming tuition free for the first I want to say six weeks of the program and we had vouchers and to have 15 already ready and in two weeks just shows that the need is there and that'll continue to be um uh a rolling opportunity so families won't be discouraged to participate if they don't have a voucher which we have had some families that don't have that capability we've been scholar shipping those families so that they have access to the programs so we're not discouraging any enrollment we're encouraging the enrollments and if families need access to the program we're giving them that access right now we're just we're taking it all in and making sure that every student has uh a place in the program um at this point so we haven't had to cap anything or any of those different pieces so that's that's exciting to celebrate but you know certainly I convey the same piece is that we want to make sure that it's accessible to everybody no the the numbers are great it shows a lot of great information so sure you know you start at the bottom you know you say you're at 15 vouchers having it run by us we couldn't accept vouchers we're we're not licensed for that um Dennis shath intermediate we didn't have a program last year so 27 students here um two years two years ago when my son was at Station Avenue they had about 40 kids so you've you've doubled that I was 72nd on the waiting list when my son was there he did not make it in uh why he was at station na yeah but um so if we just look at some of the other two schools I'm not familiar with so I won't make up numbers but for station na almost doubling their enrollment for Dy intermediate having an option for 27 families and then the 15 families that are able to take part and use vouchers so these are these are great numbers and you know we we know that the year didn't start off as we wanted and it a lot of things that were out of everyone's control um and it took time and you know you talked about we appreciate the staff uh the Dy staff that did stay and cover to assist during that we appreciate their hard work after a long day and what they did to uh help that the fact that it was tuition free for that time frame that we took responsibility that there was there was a lapse and and and made changes right a lot of moving things with everything we do in a school um but as Dr Smith has said previously when we decided to look at another option was we we are definitely excellent in in teaching and in sports and all other things and you know daycare was not our specialty right so that's why we wanted to partner with someone um and I appreciate you you giving us this update and you know we our hope is it just can only get better right we can just continue on these programming you know cuz people had asked me well all this stuff was talked about but none of it started right and discussion well they haven't fully started yet right and it looks like as of October 21st the programs now have you know and will continue and new things will happen as you learn what the likes and dislikes are and new programs are are added so um so thank you other questions that's it well I hope I can come back after the new year and provide even a deeper um review of what we've done and where we've come and but I do just want to extend our thanks as an organization um you know you guys have been right beside us and that's not just you guys supporting us uh from the district leadership to the school committee to the school principles but your teachers um not once did anybody ever say no I mean they were extensive training and as I've said to you know Dr Smith a few times you know when you license a program they don't take into account that you are a licensed teacher you know they they you have to start from ground zero so we were C PR in first aid uh doing that we had 20 hours of training and not once did one of your teachers ever say no and I'm not going to do it they were there they were helpful um I think they've gained some additional knowledge which is great um it certainly has exposed us more into your culture and understanding which has been helpful but we couldn't have done it without the United effort of everybody involved um from Community to schools to all of you so I I appreciate um everything that you've done and this won't be the last time you see me I am going to stick pretty close to this partnership uh to ensure that the same expectations that you know we put into play when we first began here in early September stay throughout your school year so please know that I'm here as a resource and thank you for inviting us this evening thank you so much all right thank you next we have the assist superintendent report from Mr Flynn good evening so what you have in front of you on the next page and halfs a whole bunch of words and really essentially it's reauthorizing a one-year ban Bond anticipation note for $12 million as part of the financing of this new building that we're in and the ban for the temporary interest only financing is we're doing temporary financing until we get the final reimbursement from the msba they owe us several million dollars as part of the final audit wrap up of the project so we don't want to borrow money for 25 30 years if we're going to get a couple million from back from the msba the next year or two so we're just doing temporary borrowing to keep the cash flow positive until we can close that project out and this is just an exact roll over of what we did a year ago right now just one year $12 million and it's slight the bank's bid on the interest comes out to be slightly over 3% for the year so I just so we don't need to read it fortunately just somebody needs to make the motion that's on page three I'll make the motion um a motion to approve the bond anticipation note as presented and written in the agenda second we have a motion and a second any discussion we need a roll call Vote or group vot is okay I think group votes okay all those in favor say I I any opposed any abstained move passes unanimously thank you now the agenda is on page seven now I think I um subcommittee Representatives leas report school committee leaz the board of Selectmen mimus does not have anything for town of Dennis Mr Glenn for town of Yarmouth well just a little Civic lesson tomorrow uh voting is tomorrow so want to remind everybody about that if you didn't already know thank you and an update from the school building committee um so we had a meeting uh we have we had two meetings last week uh so there's the the group that meets for the ongoing building projects uh the biggest issue there is um I think I updated the committee at the last meeting this uh building had uh a failure with the inject ejector injector injector ejector ejector ejector pumps for the um sewage uh system so uh we have PMA tracking down because there's actually sort of two legs to it there's the is it the pump or is it the electrical wiring to the pump and trying to sort of track down what was the problem who do we need to have further conversation with my sort of position there was a also a failure in sort of the warning because there's actually two pumps like there's supposed to be redundancy there and like one went a long time ago and the there's but the way it was wired is there's the alarm doesn't go off until the second one fails but by then they're both failed so that was sort of why we found ourselves with a with a backup um so we that was an easy fix they change the wiring so that as soon as the first one goes you get an alarm and you still have your second one as a backup and you can try to deal you know deal with the problem with the first one um but my bigger problem is the building's not that old we shouldn't had two injector pumps fail uh so that's where that that's really the big thing that the the the the SRC is working on right now with this building project because everything else as I've mentioned before we're down to really small items uh chasing chasing a couple control panels a couple of follow-up items the list is getting those meetings are getting very short cuz we're really down to very small items other than this um this other one that just came up uh and then uh the other meeting we have a separate meeting with a smaller group that's working specifically on the field project uh and that is getting closer we're now uh the last meeting we had was between the common or went out and got bids on projects we have the design as I've mentioned before and or the new design commodor went out and got bids and so between the school district the designer and PMA uh providing comments back um things that we have questions about that we want follow-ups between all the bids before we ultimately get a final pricing piece so that's where it sits right now that was at the end of last meeting and we meet those are every week on Wednesdays yeah I can't get you out track of all the different meetings but um so we'll again meet with them again next week uh and we're getting close uh to that project starting to actually move forward um with actually getting a shovel on the ground or an excavator shovel on the ground to start that project anything else that I miss no great uh we will move right into the superintendent's report all right uh first uh starting with IGN ackowledgements um did want to mention I think the only other thing that I had as far as a school-based event was I was able to attend the German club had a uh um like a family game night the other night and I happened to be able to pop into to that that was a great uh event great turnout by both students uh families and by faculty so just an there was was one of those weeks where there's just a lot of stuff going on uh as far as community School community events uh so everything else was sort of captured by somebody else uh and acknowledging some of the great stuff going on in the district so that was just one that I was able to and I'm sure I miss more than half of the things that are going on but those are the ones that I was able to get to um and then I also wanted to acknowledge uh Kim mentioned it but uh one specific donation that's in your packet uh that Emy small noted that alphab best donated uh several school supplies including paper towels hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes to that school to support their programming so want to thank alphab best for their donation of those supplies to em small uh the next is uh I have a some supporting slides for this uh you have a the just one sort of clarification note the slides that you have in your packet have a typo in them on the very first slide um apparently I thought this meeting was yesterday on the 3D um but it is actually today on the 4th um can you just do you have the slides up there if I just sort of give you a next slide does that work all right Perfect all right so you can hop to the next slide uh so tonight I just want to give the school committee a highlevel overview uh of the district data uh related to mcast and accountability I want to give a sense of just some of my observations as superintendent uh and Report out on our uh accountability rating all that information is publicly available uh but I also want to let you know what's coming uh in December you will get similar presentation to what you got last year where each building principal will report out on their schools mcast and their map data the curriculum directors will also come back as part of those to give you some high level trends that they're seeing over time we actually had a conversation earlier today about maybe some different ways we might look at some of that data but you'll get some more in-depth digs uh into the data at the school level the and the principal will share what their school level plans are to address uh some of the mcast data and tie it back to their school Improvement plans U but the purpose today is just to give you the high level 30,000 foot view uh as a superintendent so might as well start with the elephant in the room uh and you may have seen the paper um and the uh you know our mcast scores at specifically at the 10th grade level in this article did address or deal with the 10th grade uh mcast scores so if we go to the next slide this was our this is a fiveyear actually sixy year look uh fiveyear look at our mcast data in ela and Mathematics uh at specifically at the 10th grade so um you can see the trend here over time is not uh great um this is again stuff that we've been talking about as a or that I've been talking about you know publicly that the achievement in the district isn't moving in the right direction um I did look at some data in a different way this today actually started to actually look at cohorts of students over time so like looking at this particular 10th grade class and going back so going back to them their mcast in the e8th grade and then going back to their mcast in the sixth grade and seventh grade etc etc and when you look at it that way I didn't have time to add it to the packet because I just did it today but when you look at the data that way it actually tells a different story actually from sixth seventh grade to 8th grade to um 10th grade this particular cohort of kids the percentage of students meeting and exceeding has actually slightly grown over time um there was a period in time where they had a big dip as a as a cohort of students uh and then we haven't really recovered that for this particular group of students so you know when you look at the data this way you see one pattern and when you look at the data another way you see a different pattern so it's just again it all kind of depends upon um the question you're asking asking regardless what you see here and some conversations that we definitely have been having uh is a gap between us so the the blue line is us or the greenish bluish Aqua line is us and that black dash line is the state so at the minimum we don't want to be below the state but the state is just the state right that's an average of every school district across the state and uh and that just gives us a bit of a benchmark at the we we really want to also be looking to achieve be achieving beyond beyond this state as well but uh our gap between us and the state in both math and Ela at the 10th grade hasn't been moving in the right direction H next slide sir uh so then looking at a couple of other things so so that was that was 10th grade specifically when you look at 3 through 8 uh so the non High well technically yes our e8th grade is in our high school but when the state breaks it out they consider 3 through eight your non- high school grades uh so looking at those grades uh you see uh math has actually made a little bit of a rebound we actually closed some gaps closed a gap in math and then if you if you can go to the next slide for me I dug even a little bit tighter and looked at just 3 to five and I'll tell you uh why that in just a second but you can see that Gap closing in mathematics is even more pronounced and uh Miss P has talked a little bit about this uh and but I will just sort of reemphasize this point that that's really where we focused our energies and efforts as a School District LA definitely coming in you know La last year BMI last year but we really put a lot of our eggs in that basket as far as the professional development that we provided to principles to coaches and directly to teachers was in 3 to five in mathematics and the the achievement results bear that out which and if we go back to my goal meetings at the beginning of the year part of the reason why we're expanding and focusing uh Miss Bonas mentioned we're doing a focus effort on grades three through 8 and grade 10 where we're doing our the same level of coaching expand basically building off the success that we had here we could see some of this uh indicator data in the map data that we had in the spring that that this was likely to be what we would see in the in the math mcast in these grade levels and uh it was good to see that it actually came to fruition here and then that told us gave it gave us a signal that this was a this was something that we needed to build upon this is a success we needed to build upon is it really is the biggest uh Gap closing that we had uh with the state and the biggest positive upswing across our uh scores uh next slide please and then looking at science uh across the K to8 Spectrum you see an upswing uh as well really sort of returning to where we were about uh pre on either side of the pandemic uh and then the high school is fairly stable within a you know essentially within the margin of error uh statistically all right uh next slide now what this uh is it's a lot was a lot for me to try to fit on one slide and I apologize uh and I actually had to shrink the the whole screen to get it to fit but it is it is what it is so this is um the state's accountability report uh that we get as a school every school district gets one and and this is our overall as a district you we also get one for every school and they have you you can see some of the tabs I just screenshotted the tab off the um off the Desi website and this is all publicly available so you can uh Google uh Dennis Yarmouth District profile and then you can do a couple of clicks but if you get to school accountability all this information is all there at all available for anybody to see but anyways I grabbed a screenshot and you can see I'm on the over all results tab but you can see they break it down for you in a bunch of different ways as well but as if for people who are unfamiliar with the way that this works essentially you get rated on a four on a a point scale of zero to four uh and it's all based upon your progress as a school district towards meeting your targets they set targets based upon the previous year on what where you ranked or how you scored the previous year and they set Target targets for growth for you as a school district and as individual schools and so if you make your targets that's you get a three if you exceed your targets that's a four um and then ones and twos and zeros are somewhere in the not making uh progress in different levels of not making progress towards your goals so um if you advance one more slide so you can see there's quite a few areas where we didn't make really any significant progress and some of them are in the achievement areas which are directly tied back to the previous slides that I showed you but there's other areas as well that uh that the uh the accountability looks at accountability isn't just the mcast data it isn't just your achievement it also looks at things like chronic absenteeism it looks at things like high school completion it looks at the the percentage of kids that are excuse me taking Advanced courses in your high school um because that's really the only place you offer them uh graduation obviously is a high school only uh accountability measure uh and then they also look at not only how are you doing overall in each of these particular groups uh in each of these categories but they also look then how do you do uh in achievement and in growth uh and oftentimes in chronic ABS well they do in chronic absenteeism with your uh lowest performing students uh and so you might be doing either really poorly with one group and really well with the other group or vice versa so they're really looking to see how are you not only doing with everybody but are you also helping the students who are struggling the most are you also helping those students so you get two different scores um as well so overall uh our score as a district was making moderate uh progress towards targets uh but was definitely some areas as you can see there that we have to do some Focus work as a school there's some of them in in the academic and achievement area and some of them in um other markers for accountability all right next slide please sir so high level what do I see uh as superintendent outside of grade 10 uh the math data is trending in the correct direction uh uh more specifically as I previously mentioned you know the largest increases are in that K to5 uh space where we really invested the most amount of our resources so as I previously said it's an opportunity for us to build office success uh for ELA uh the data isn't really moving in the right direction for us uh except for grade 10 uh the state where the the state saw a drop in or the state did see a drop in ela dat as well uh so we're following a pattern with the state like the state has been losing ground on Ela but ours is falling faster so our gaps are widening um from the state uh but just to note like the state is this is a Statewide problem and we are falling faster I guess for lack of a better analogy uh in science we're doing a better job keeping Pace uh Andor closing gaps with the state in science uh in that for interestingly and I really don't have an answer or a um a and was actually one of the questions the reporter asked when when when I was called is science seems that particular Stu group of students was in science whatever related to the same achievement dip in math and Ela didn't have this corresponding same dip in science I really can't explain it I don't I'm not really sure why and I I don't have any answer yet um but when you look at uh I don't have a slide where I have all three of them next to each other but I have looked at all three of them next to each other and you the the the dip is pretty um significant in um Ela and math but it's not the same in science and it's just an interesting observation at this point I don't have I don't have a I don't have a reason other than it it's there and I noted it um so if I go to the next slide so what's next well we're going to build off of what's worked so we're going to continue uh using what we learned from the math experience in K5 and continue to expand leader coaching uh and high quality uh instructional material implementation support we're going to as I mentioned a couple minutes ago we we're going to have a real deliberate focus on grades 3 through eight and grade 10 uh we're going to have purposeful planning and we've already really started this work pre the mcast data coming out but uh really having the postco structures like School Improvement planning hadn't really got re um engaged as a school district so that's something that the principles are re-engaged in school Improvement plans being aligned to our strategic plan um and our strategic plan from if you remember from previous presentations has a high focus area on high quality instruction how we're using high quality instruction to support student uh achievement and so and when if you remember from the the school Improvement plan plan presentations uh you know we're as a district going to be working on identifying like what are the high leverage instructional practices uh that that support student learning and really becoming focused on those through uh feedback and observation but also through the professional learning that we're providing you know a little bit to what I think actually both uh the directors were talking about ensuring that the people and the staff and the teachers all have the support that they need in order to uh make the the small little actionable step right the what's the next actionable step in order to uh best meet the needs of the students whom the teachers know best that are that are sitting in front of them uh we need a long-term professional development plan uh I one of the roles that I see in central office is being able to be the Strategic planners and so we really need uh to develop a long-term strategic plan excuse me long-term professional development plan to support the needs of all of our staffs staff and then um I've been working actually we just had a meeting this morning with the principles about really understanding their role in Building schoolwide Systems that support students success um and then the last is really spending some time to dig deeply into the consistently underperforming areas as I mentioned Ela continues to lag uh you may remember one of my goals this is a focus area specifically starting in early literacy so uh we actually have a meeting schedule I think it's for next week um I've I've done been doing some background research but I have a team we're starting at the leadership level to really start to dig into this uh and to come to some common understandings before we take some actionable next steps uh as a team but uh we we have some internal uh work and discussion that we need to do and begin to do some root cause analysis uh around early literacy if we can get early literacy in place come up with some actionable items and then we can work our way up through the system as I mentioned it was interesting when you look when you follow cohorts of kids uh you see the different they see the data in a different way and you see some sort of ups and downs as kids move through the system and you follow you know not just one group of kids you follow consistently follow groups of kids through you see some some other patterns emerge that was new information to see today uh um that apply to literacy U as well so U so that's I I can pause here or I got one more item to share any questions on the M or that specific presentation Jen um I'm glad you did that cohort analysis and I'd love to see more of that um not necessarily the meeting but if you could email us out you know what you see on that that's something that you know in the past I a lot of us have been curious about because to me that tells the real story right is a group of students improving over time the same group you know otherwise you're you know we're comparing apples and oranges right I mean it's good to see you know so um more of that would be great and thanks for doing that part of it um I'd love some more regular updates throughout the year on you know it sounds like math we're making progress on the right track here um I'm sad to see that Ela has taken this decline so um you know this is foundational right this is critical foundational work so um some regular updates on that would be great to make sure that um we are moving in the right direction on that and if not you know what are our options because this can't you know continue like this so I don't know I'll have to hear about that I guess at some point agreed I also you know want to be careful not to what's the expression shoot fire aim or I I don't want to I don't want to jump in you know it's it's it it's something that we need to make sure that we do right I mean you we can make mistakes right but but also don't want to rush into something uh fool hearty uh so like we have a I have a plan for a process and which of which things are already started and underway uh but I also don't want to uh you know make a full hearty decision or make make rush into something and and you know to Sherry's earlier Point uh when she was talking about discovering Justice it's you know you want to make sure you go to the proper decision or vetting process on any of your decision you need to make sure that you know I'm starting with a small team of of our leaders but our teachers need to have a voice in this conversation right so there there's a whole bunch of steps that we need to get through um wherever we ultimately land to solve but there's enough data at this point to see that there's something there that needs for us to address um so and I don't have all the data organized yet either um so anyways now I'm just starting to ramble a little bit M Mr Glenn yeah I agree with Jenny on that cohort stuff because yeah sometimes you're looking at different perspectives and it's not you're looking it's not you looking for excuses why you did bad but you're looking for reasons and the reasons can be different for different cohorts or different perspectives um on the difference between the that science math and English thing and this came up in my mind in in regards to the overall mcast analysis um that sometimes we lose things in the language um that we don't you know we're taking a math test but the language is important in it in the ELA obviously the language is important in it um but maybe that science the way it was worded didn't affect them as much and that could be the difference but what the question that came up in my head was could we do uh language op s in those other in the math and science um or are we required by the state to to do everything in English um you know I mean people take the driver's test and they take it in in a different language and um yeah I don't know if that will help us or hurt us or or what but I was just wondering if it it came to my attention when we were talking about the language barriers and how it affects testing so so yeah so mcast is only offered in one language yeah uh and uh so there are accommodations for students whose first language is in English primarily it's a a multilanguage dictionary for translation uh part of that is if it's not something the students familiar with using like it's not a strategy that they're using on a regular basis it's kind of a I don't know be like giving a hammer when you're really need a saw right it's not it's not a helpful tool if you don't have any experience or practice using it uh so then that's not something I've done a ton of research on so I'm just that's just sort of an anecdotal um example I don't know if that's the case here or not um but but that's really and then there are a couple other safeguards that are put in place uh depending upon how long uh an English language learner has been in the country uh there are exemptions for first year EXE as an example often times student is exempt from taking the mcast in their first year in the country um again with some some some Nuance to that but that's a general rule and do you have that so that that would be an example of something that could follow the kid in the cohort yeah to say well we got x amount of kids that were new to the students and that's unique to that cohort yeah so great thank you for that analysis M beus I guess uh since there's going to be more of a detailed report from the principles and December I am only looking at the additional indicators right now and if I understand it chronic absenteeism is still an issue at the high school level and my understanding is a couple years ago we were making a real effort to work on that I know we went to having Deans and there was supposed to be more interven mention so if there's any way to get an update of how that's going or efforts to work on that great yeah no I I think you know before the article came out I know that we knew there was an issue I know you talked about there being an issue and I know when you said when you applied for the job that you knew there was an issue and uh but it wasn't ever talked about you know and I think it's important that we talk about these things right because our our job is to educate the students so and mcast is a way to see you know where we fall um you know it's not the end all be all um but it's an idea of seeing where our our students are and you know talking about the cohorts it's important right because every class is different in size you know so say one class has 100 one has 250 you know when you talk about 40% well that could mean a difference of four kids or 40 kids so um it's kind of good to see where they are are going and to follow the trends to see where it was um but you know we know that we had the presentation from the principes and then the assistant principls and we know there's a the plan in place and I think to to everyone's point you know we just want to make sure that they're following that that we're looking at the tier one you know uh instruction for all students and that the the learning walks are being done you know I know there was a lot of work put into to that I think you know we just want to make sure that it's happening and I know we have scheduled updates throughout the year to make sure that all the things all the plans are are are followed through and then over time you know our hope and goal is to to see the the improving over the years so so thank you for that and well you move on to the uh yes so sorry then the last thing is just uh so tomorrow is uh voting day obviously and it's also a no no school day for students but all the staff will be here for professional learn learning or all the professional staff it's non nonwork day for our Dy rsaa staff uh so all of our uh professional staff will be uh working tomorrow and uh so there's several things going on both in District and some folks are out of District so tomorrow or yes tomorrow is the All Cape inservice day as well which is organized by the Cape Cod collaborative so a lot of our related arts uh service providers uh so fed um art uh music Etc are participating in a wide variety of activities that actually take place in different places all across the cape depending upon what the activity is uh like so for example I know the one of the fette activities is in Falmouth uh so that like that's where the course is so that the the teachers will be going to Falmouth for their PD tomorrow um but anyways so this mostly it's again not all but most most of the people participating in all Cape this year are related service providers uh for most of our K5 staff they have literacy uh training in the morning Math and Science in the afternoon for most of our special education staff tomorrow uh part of uh or what they'll be focused on largely tomorrow is the supporting the new uh IEP so there's uh starting all the way from the Department of Ed down uh there's a new process or new IEP uh which districts are all in different phases of rolling out and so our staff are in in ongoing training in understanding and developing uh the new IEP uh so that's for special Educators our English as a second language teachers uh we'll be getting content focused training within their curriculum materials tomorrow being led by our e coordinator and support support from the curriculum folks 67 teachers are largely focused around uh instruction specific in their content areas uh in curriculum development and then 812 is largely focused on curriculum work which supports their um they had a NES visit last the end of last year uh their collaborative conference and so one of their areas of focus uh coming out of that is some curriculum alignment curriculum development work and so they'll be using tomorrow to do some of that neas focused work and actually uh principal Bennett is coming I think might be the next meeting it's not the next meeting it's it's an upcoming meeting to present to the committee on what the neas findings were from the collaborative conference and uh what their uh action items are as a result of that I think that's it for the superintendent report great thank you and then we next we have school committee business we have our consent agenda uh we have the um donation from alphabest that was discussed um on the consent agenda it does say minutes from October 7th but I believe it's the October 21st meeting we have here so um I think we'll be approving the minutes from the October 21st so we'll amend that um in the agenda move the consent agenda all those in favor I any opposed any stained okay great next Bills requisitions and payroll I think that's been passed around um calendars this feel like there's so many dates in this month um so as uh Dr Smith said tomorrow is a teacher to professional day so for all three of you watching at home there's no school for students tomorrow um and then Monday the 11th is a Veterans Day observance so there's no school on Monday November 11th and then uh November 20th is an hour and a half early release November 27th's a half day for all schools and then there is no school on November 28th and 29th uh so very busy November with half days and days off so please make sure we look at the updated and the correct calendar so that you have all the updated information and then public comment our policy on public participation at meetings can be found on the table uh right by the sync right there with the agenda the public is reminded that the school committee meeting is a meeting of a governmental body at which members of the body deliberate over public business we welcome your attendance and appreciate your interest in viewing your school committee as we conduct our regular business meeting the school committee believes that the school district Community should have opportunity to comment to the committee on issues that affect the school district and that are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities some questions you may have may not be within the scope of the committee's responsibilities in that case I will suggest that you send or give your question in writing to the appropriate person so the concerned may be given proper consideration individuals may address topics on the agenda items specified for public comment or items within the scope or responsibility of the school committee this is an opportunity for individuals to address the topics on the agenda each citizen will be allowed to speak for no more than three minutes do we have anyone like to speak for public comment you got to raise your hand and let us know if you want yep okay sir you can step up to the microphone just have to announce your name and then you'll have up to three minutes um the public comment you're you're able to speak for up to 3 minutes we do not um answer questions or comment it's your opportunity to speak about anything for up to 3 minutes you just have to hit the push button and make sure the green lights on good all right um yep I think we lost you for a second can you hear me now we can I just wanted to speak on um the ruling of the remover Dante coach Phillips um you the principal Bennett told us that she wanted to remove Dante and find somebody that was a better suit for a basketball team and then she picked somebody that was less educated and didn't go to college and didn't have as much experience and then um also he's just like a big role model to everybody on Cape Cod um he has his own basketball league and um and um um and yeah my relationship's been growing with him personally on a different level from basketball um just on a mental and mature level and um it just shows like so much about him and then for who they brought in is like it seems like he was trying to backo him and take his job the whole time and and yeah that's just all I wanted to say thank you um I'm just here to I'm I'm the just your name first and then my name is VMA Phillips thank you I'm the mother of the coach that is going to be removed all I have to say is that I don't feel like this was done fairly for him he didn't get enough warning you know to to let him know and how it was done was totally I think unprofessional and he also has put so much into these kids that you know he's grown with over the over the years we have um uh kids that's going to graduate that he's been coaching since they were in middle school and in and some of them even in grammar you know in in in in Pre you know grammar school but he has really has grown on these kids and for the the seniors to get that's going to move be moving on the one especially that's going to be suing basketball for their career it just slap in the face for them to discover this news in such a short notice uh they look up to Dante coach you know coach Dante which is my son my son is a well well um you know um you you know go go get her for these kids that's maybe not the word you know I'm trying to find but he has been so supportive in the community in everything as far as Sports goes he's not only um a coach to them but he's also someone that they look up to they they cherish him they love him and they are devastated right now that they chose a coach especially the senior basketball children that they chose to coach so for someone else to coach them on their senior year I'm sorry I'm just I didn't come here planning to speak but since you know um and I just think it's you know devastating for the kids they should reconsider what they what they you know what they've done here um they have done something very bad that had affected like the whole um basketball team um my son was not treated fairly as it is throughout his coaching like he he he was never offered you know like things that was offered to the other sports um um you know uh sport athletes and he's still stuck in there sometimes he you know he's he he's underpaid and everything he has put so much into this and these kids are you know thinks highly of him you know he he's there for whenever they need them need him you know need him to be not just for basketball but for anything he's also um works in the school you know with kids with the behavior problems he's been very very very supportive of this school district and for them to do him like this you know with such short notice I think was very very wrong and I feel like some justice should be done like someone should you know rethink this and and um give these kids that are going to graduate an opportunity to have the coach that they want you know um they shouldn't be put with a coach to learn a coach and this is their year to go and shine especially for the seniors um I thank you guys for listening to me there's there's more I can say but you know I just want to address that it needs to be reconsidered and someone needs to you know you know rethink this situation and give him an opportunity to finish and then do it the right way if you want him out of there by next year then put a coach in there next year he'll have enough time to figure out what he wants to do with his career and what he wants to do to step this is a very short notice for him and I don't think it's fair thank you m Phils thank you good can you hear me cool so my name is Dylan Grant um I my last year playing was actually Dante's first year coaching at Dy um and I've stayed close to the program a little bit I work with the kids a lot in the summer and obviously they were all pretty upset about this so I had a ton of kids and parents reach out to me kind of just asking for help and asking for how to go about handling this so I suggested they start a petition um so we started a digital one and I texted around a little bit I wasn't expecting it but it's at a th000 signatures right now so I can email that to you guys or have that printed or whatever if you want to see that but I just wanted to add that in you know I completely agree with everything she's saying and obviously a thousand signatures is a lot so there's a lot of people that do too the petition itself stated like um petition to reinstate gante Phillips basically was the terminology so anyways I just wanted to add that and I can I'm happy to email that to anyone one thank you hi my name is huren Phillips okay y'all see y need leader coaching Dante is leader and coaching and then he have all the kids he helps all the kids out not just in coaching but support them in their uh academic classes and they he's money to them he's like a great person to be around them if they have any problem they come to Dante and talk to them before they can go to any any other person so I think Dante is a good good fit for them they playing ball cuz he helps them out a lot not for just coaching but in their classes and wonder them uh when they don't know what to do they come and ask him and he'll talk to them and you know bring them down or whatever they trying to do or whatever they so I think that um we should let Dante finish out this year with the kids they love me it's a lot of kids that he have coached with he coach my son since he was in EM small so he has been a good good thing for them helped them out cu when you a single parent you have one person and he helps all the kids that um they don't have no like a man a dad to talk to they go to him and he'll help them out so thank you I doing uh my name is Brendan Baker um I have five kids within the district and uh I just think the way the whole process went down was kind of unfair to Dante I started hearing rumors over the summer um oh Dante is not going to be back as coach how does that even get out there I have four or five families around me that all school choice not to DIY and they all had heard Dante was gone as the coach the fact that that's out there is kind of it's very disrespectful to him um this is a guy who played for Dy Dy basketball really meant something and means something to Dante um the community looks up to him you you know he's been in the community for you know he went to school through Dy he played for Dy went to college and he really really Dy really mean something to him and to turn that to have turn potentially him against that in the community it's like you're turning you're trying to turn the community against the school in a way and it really doesn't make a lot of sense um you know that's just my two cents with five kids in the district it makes me reconsidering want me to send my kids to this District it's just so it's almost just incompetent it just makes no sense to me um so that's all I have to say thank you thank you anyone else for public comment as we we talked about earlier the importance of civics and you know making sure things are heard um we know it's important for people when they feel strongly about things um um this committee itself has has no say over decisions about uh employees the only employee that this this specific committee uh has say over is the the superintendent and the contract and then our policies and procedures but you know we know there's not a lot of opportunities to to get your voice heard so we appreciate uh the community when they are passionate about things so thank you any motions motion to aour all those in favor say I I any oppose thank you everyone