##VIDEO ID:jUwo7Hy6v-s## 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 good evening welcome to the Monday January 6 2025 meeting of the Dennis yarm Regional school committee Happy New Year to one and all and please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance welcome uh we're going to B begin this evening with our student reports and tonight we have both an attendance so we're ready for your updates see it thank you so much um so we have the Pauline Hopkins Gallery exhibit um which went really well the Dy winner band show is taking place this this Thursday at 700 um in the DIY Auditorium robotics had a competition today at nset and then there's also one coming up I'm not sure if it's this Saturday or the next but it's the big tournament um and then the end of the semester is coming up on the 24th um and then Izzy has some more stuff yeah so it's not a super busy time right now at UI even though like you would think it is cuz middle of the year and end of semester but it's mainly just winter sports so that's what I have my most news on today uh the Dy girls winner track team remains undefeated as per usual every year but you know we still have to give them their props cuz they're very hardworking uh we also had both of our hockey teams boys and girls played this Saturday uh boys went against Bishop sang and girls went against Martha's Vineyard and they both won in overtime so basically what I'm saying there is Tony Kent was going crazy with dolphins all day Saturday and everybody was really really excited about that and also just on hockey news every week the um kPa times comes out with a power ranking and hockey has been absolutely climbing the charts I know boys started dead last and they've moved up a lot of spots and girls right now are in first place for capid Island so I think everybody's looking forward to the rest of the season because they've been very good so far and then sort of my last piece of news is just a lot of seniors are getting their college acceptances everyone's sort of like anxiously awaiting the rest of their news but most all applications are in so such an exciting time at Dy but nothing no crazy news from us this week thank you very much and now move uh the meeing over to the initial budget proposal for 2026 thank you very much um so uh as mentioned we're going to run through the first initial pass at the budget and as mentioned uh uh so we'll run through the initial uh budget proposal in so we sort of tag team between David and I here going through different parts of the slide deck the committee has uh should have the slides in their packet uh as well and um today is just meant to get uh off the ground we'll go through the time table timeline here on one of the actually I think it's like the third slide on on some of the additional elements to come up so first want to start just with the Strategic plan and really want to try to ground the budgeting process now and forever going forward in the plan you know we didn't have the benefit of having a strategic plan to guide the the budgeting process last year and last year we found ourselves in a very different place right last year we were really trying to figure out how to come off of Esser we had you know I think I my first slide said something to the effect of The Perfect Storm you know we had a whole bunch of different uh factors that came together where we found ourselves in a much different place uh than we find ourselves fortunately this year we're really now trying to think about how to move forward over the next five years and really try to accomplish the goals that we have laid out in the plan that we presented to the committee earlier this year and with our three really big objectives that we really want to focus on trying to eliminate the disparities in Access and achievement for our students um we really want to work on and have already really worked on trying to establish some consistent districtwide systems in order to support organizational Effectiveness and then those two you know you'll see in some of the when we get to the priorities you'll definitely see one and two reflected in the priorities number three sort of follows its own strand uh in a separate process in the in determining a capital plan for the district you know as the committee knows the capital planning process sort of Falls separate than the operational budget um but uh we definitely it's a big part of the needs the strong set of facilities and support As We Know by sitting in this beautiful building the helped support a strong learning environment help support uh one and two as well so just you know we're going to really keep the the needs of the plan center as we uh support the initiatives moving forward you'll see that when we come to the prioritization system I I'll mention back to the Strategic plan when we get to this prioritization system a little later in the slide deck so so again I mentioned the timeline so here we are right at the very beginning and it is really just to give you all some of the initial information as we'll mentioned a couple different times today there's a whole bunch of information we don't have um to include largely the whole Revenue side of our picture um we won't have for another couple of weeks um actually really about three more weeks um but we uh want to give you as much information as we have and as much detail as we have at this time and and then we'll be back to next week um maybe with some guidance from you all refine what we present to you tonight still won't unfortunately have that whole Revenue side of the picture but you all will have to take uh a tentative budget vote at the next school committee me meeting B so that we can stay within all of our timelines uh for the regional agreement which will then move us into the the budget hearing uh the first meeting in February uh then we'll have to have the uh final budget all secured by the first meeting in March and as we've discussed as a as a group before we have held another meeting in March we have it held on the Cal calendar a t tentative date if we do need to have another meeting there because we do have by the the deadline or the timelines within the regional agreement we do have all the way until the 14th that's the last possible date based upon where the town meetings fall for us to for the for you all as a committee to adopt the final budget so you know we'll revisit this multiple times I'm gonna turn this slide over to David to just sort of talk about what's still to come as far as the information we don't have so so as Mark mentioned you know the um being a normal year with a sitting Governor we have until you know the fourth Wednesday in January for her to release the first version of the state's proposed budget so that would be the January 22nd and that's when we will see the first first initial proposal for know the left side of these two boxes is the revenue that comes directly to us so we have the chapter 78 you know the Char of school aid Transportation Aid school choice incoming Revenue so those four items for this year alone are 15 A5 million of Revenue so it's quite a large figure for us it's not small numbers that we're waiting to see come out it also list a foundation enrollment and the minimum required contribution from the Two Towns now some people ask you know what does that really matter because they they fund us you know quite a bit over the minimum but it directly impacts the assessment calculation because that's the first step is we assess the minimum as assigned by the state and then our formula in the regional agreement is everything above the minimum the Box on the right hand side is the assessments the money that the state withholds directly out of our state aid so that's the chart of school assessment the school choice assessment and the special education component of school choice those three things are this year about 4.9 million in expenses so then that leads us to our roughly $10 million net state aid video that we've talked about before transition from so turn my mic off sorry um so David can talk a little bit to this slide but this uh looks at current fy2 and and where monies are allocated in 25 so you know as one would have 72% of our budget goes directly to the salary and benefits of our employees you know that's what we do I've said before we don't manufacture anything we employ people to teach our children so the largest portion of the budget is the salaries and benefits Then followed by our fixed costs which is transportation utilities any investments in capital tuition that's both special education tuition and the chart of school and school choice tuition figures amounts that's about 10% of the budget and then what I would consider discretionary which even then it's really not but is the remaining 6% which is but 1% for technology 1% for athletics 2% pretty much districtwide just supplies and minor contracts and then another 2% for maintenance which again is all the the maintenance supplies and repairs and you know preventive maintenance contracts and things such as that so again just to recap the salary and benefits of 72% of the total of what we do so as we start thinking about 26 you know last year this slide talked a lot about you know Esser um money's ending and and and a bunch of other factors but as we think about building FY 26 there's really four big bullets and the second one has just some um sub bullets um that are influencing the FY 26 budget so as I mentioned our one of our big drivers is trying to implement the Strategic plan that's the our biggest influencer for FY 26 um we do have contractual obligations we're um you know benefit by entering this or entering next year with all of our uh major units all settled so we know what those obligations are going into next year we don't we're not entering into contract negotiations with any of our uh major bargaining units so we know what those those are uh pretty much all our service contracts are are settled so we don't have to we're not we don't have any unknowns when we go into for example the custodial contract the busing contract trash service Etc all those are settled so we know what those are but we do have obligations under all of those um some of our contracted Services we know some of them it's you know for some of our um special services for students who have particular needs that were not able to meet inside the school district some of those we can make some estimates based upon uh past Trends and some of them um and that's that that's what David has done there there's been there's really really been one year where those Services were um uh saw dramatic increase but they've been fairly steadily increased at at a consistent rate over or as you sort of look at them year-over Year and that sort of though that's also tied to the next one which is added District special education services and transportation and I'll talk to that one a little bit more specifically on a later slide um student need is a drive um again we'll talk a little bit about that and then uh one thing that we've done this year is level fund all the supply lines across the district okay so starting with Staffing so this graph just shows Staffing over the last multiple years and what you'll see there from 23 to 24 in particular is the reduction in Staffing that occurred last year um and you know in this budget we don't anticipate currently or this budget doesn't include any further um Staffing reductions um and you know we've been able to support the district's needs under the current Staffing levels um you know we do have increased student needs and we may need to consider that going forward we actually do have one due to some student enrollment at one of our schools we may need to increase a position but but and it is on the list um when we get to the priorities um because we do continue to have increasing enrollment which you'll see on incoming slide uh but again it's just to show the pattern of Staffing over the years and to to show the the drop in the 35 the net reduction of 35 and a half staff from last year and then this just short this is to show how we compare uh in Dart districts and you can run Dart two different ways you can run um the dart data by districts with similar demographics or you can run it by uh districts with similar relative wealth so ran the data both ways and then um it would have been a really uh because it gives you about 10 comparable districts so it would have been a really busy graph to show you 20 comparable districts so then further grab districts of about the same enrollment so you know Dy is roughly 3,100 students so grabbed districts that were similar demographics that were somewhere between 2500 and 3500 students and then similar wealth districts that were again within that same range and so when you look so this is broken up by teachers par professionals leadership student um support and clerical tech support and you can see you know we are better than some Le less off than others but were not out of the nor and you know I put a little green star either up above or in Dy to easily be able to find it um compared to all the others we are you know we're right right in there with everybody else I inan some cases we have Better Staffing than others so I it's just sort of a further argument which I made last year um that you know Staffing wise we're in a good place as a district even though we laid off um some Staff last year I think um and this year has born it out you know we definitely have been some particularly challenges and and been some adjustment period um but when you look at us compared to other comparable districts um you can see that our staffing is is similar to those other districts whether you look at it by demographics or whether you look at it by relative will and this is based these are based on um like you're looking at if you look at the numbers on the side of the graph it's uh staff per 100 student ratio that's why the numbers look like you see like a zero and a two on the side of some of these so it's you know it's a ratio uh so as I mentioned one of the other driving factors is student need so Dy continues to have evolving student need um and there but there are patterns when you look at the need um so one is just general overall student enrollment um and I know I've been harping this train a little bit since arriving not really I think I just made up that yeah that was definitely a mixed metaphor um but um the you know for a while we've had some general trend of declining enrollment but for the last two three four five years now um we've had a steady increase in enrollment including this year we about a hundreds more students this year than uh at the end of the year last year um and it's pretty steady across the district um the next slide you'll sort of see the breakdown on um uh different some of the different student groups I want to do I was actually thinking about this last night I want to break down the student groupings a different way and show it to you maybe in a in a later um uh later presentation maybe either already by next week um because I think there's maybe some other ways and just as an aside this the superintendent uh the cape and Island superintendent meet monthly we met last month I mean last week rather and there's some interest among the other Cape superintendant about doing a a demographic study on the cape there was one done maybe 10 years ago um because some of the other districts are seeing some similar shifts and I think there's some benefit to all of us just to S sort of see where where thing's heading um uh for the cape down the road because I think there are some some I know personally from for Dy we're we're one of the few there's a couple other districts that are seeing overall student enrollment but everybody's definitely seeing some shifts um into who's walking through the doors um so that speaks to the next two slides um our percentage of high need students which is a category that the department of Ed uses for a couple different factors one of It ultimately comes to chapter 7 70 funding um has you know been steadily increasing it's leveled off over the last three years or so um I don't have the 24 25 number um yet it hasn't been released yet um so that's the last three years from 21 22 to 23 24 um that it lags a little bit on when they release that particular percentage um data because it's a well it's made up of this data um and and students can fall in more than one category so knowing exactly how they're going to calculate the overall percentage isn't something I can do on my own um and the top number on this graph which is the economically disadvantaged I I used our free and reduced number to get the 52% but that's not exactly the number that apartment of Ed uses so that number may not also be accurate so I I got the 2425 data by using our own internal data so I know the percentage of English Learners that we have in our district I know the percentage of um special education students we have in our district I know the percentage of uh students whose first language is not English and I know the free and reduced um percentage it's not the same as the economically disadvantaged so that number may may move a little bit once we get um that updated information from the state um because the numbers up to 23 24 come from a different place they come from the state um the state releases that data um annually the same place they release the um High needs numbers but I know the other three um and what you'll see there is you see our special education numbers have been pretty consistent you know for the last 11 years as a percentage some up some down but basically somewhere in that 17 18% um but we've had a steady increase um of the students whose first language is not English um we're upwards of almost 30% of our students at this point um as well as our increase of English language learners which um requires um uh both from a instructional standpoint for the English language Learners um and requires um service need for families whose first language is not for the that's the student whose first language not English and often times um requires a level of support um to communicate with a home um uh for the family whom for whom they might not speak speak English at home um so we've seen that steady increase um especially over the last five years um to where almost one out of every three kids um you know we're getting close to one out of every three kids uh first language is not English and then this is the other area that we've seen some significant increases over the last uh three years in particular um so you look the the graph really kind of jumps out at you so what you're looking at here are three different d points uh so the the line at the top is the number of students um that have been placed in out of District um placements in the district over the span from 2019 to the current uh fiscal year and then what you see in the bar graphs as a stacked bar graph of in the blue is the cost of the placement so for the student to attend the wherever we have to the student go that's a tuition school that's not Dy um it's a variety it's every student needs a different place well not every student but you know it's all based upon what the student need is and then what the Orange is is the cost of getting the student there and back and what you see is both of those things have really started to increase exponentially in where was the 14% increase was that between 22 and 23 2 24 yeah so between the FY 23 and 24 there was a Statewide 14% increase in out of District um tuition so you see even before that prices were escalating part of that was due to a spike in the number of students um so this speaks to a couple things one it speaks to a growing cost um two it speaks to a growing student need and three it speaks to an internal programming need I spoke to this a little bit last year we've been doing an internal review was actually on one of my slides on us as a district needing to look closer at you know if are there are there programming that we can be providing internally so that we're not sending there are there's a need there you know we're never going to get this number to zero um but sometimes um we can do a better job building programs inside the district um which is not only better for students because the um being that we uh are located where we're located um sometimes the nearest program is one way 50 minutes to an hour so a student is spending two hours a day just getting to and from school um so there's an advantage not only cost wise to the district but to the benefit of the child if we can design a program that can be housed in the district all right so then something uh an added layer that well actually quite frankly we just weren't in a position to do really prioritized requests last year um because we were really looking at uh prioritized um cuts last year if I'm being quite Frank um so this year we were able to sit um with each of the cost centers and have a conversation about how to best support um the Strategic plan moving forward and so we sat with each uh building principle uh department leaders like our facilities director Athletics etc etc and um sit and and listen to their requests for the FY 26 budget and put all those together and then used a prioritization system for uh prioriti prioritizing the requests um the there's a was a four-point system four being sort of highest level of Priority One being lowest level priority um and there was an attached rubric so a four uh is uh is required under either a contractual obligation or the or by law um it was an emergent safety item um or it was to replace broken failed equipment um something like that uh three was in direct support of the Strategic plan um or was delayed or deferred maintenance or more addressed or addressed a student staff or safety need two uh is a student I mean excuse me a school or District Improvement initiative that was proposed but didn't necessarily have a concrete plan when it was proposed yet so it was a sort of like a good idea without a fully fleshed out implementation plan yet at this point um it was the acceleration of a strategic goal so sort of ahead it if we were to implement it now it was ahead of sort of where we had it in our timeline um it was a safety or facility enhancement as opposed to a need um and or was a and the last sort of part of a two was an an effic an efficiency Improvement and then a one was a school Improvement that wasn't tied to the Strategic plan um or like a beautification project so just s some uh context for the next slide so these were the what were categorized as a four or a three um so these are the items that um were proposed and were part of like I said a part of a four or a three on the um from what was brought forward to us so at the high school um robotics is uh a program that has been offered for our students um for a long time competes um and every year um there's equipment that needs to be replaced and we haven't had a budget line for it for as long as I can go back and find and every year we end up trying to find somewhere to find the money for it um instead of actually having it um budgeted for so uh this is an obligation that we have every year but don't actually budget for um next is Winter Guard and winter percussion um these are part of uh a settled mou um in order for us to have these um these positions exist but we don't actually have again have them budgeted for um the game officials uh M AA what remind me what this one was right yeah the mass inter local Athletic Association they said the rates that we have to pay say like you know the umpires and referees and for the games for the high school sports and I believe that percentage was 7% that they authorized going into next year as a raise for all the game officials so they sent out I think to all the athletic directors just advising them to know be prepared to see this increase because again they the state sets the rate that we have to pay for the game officials when they come down so that 7% was just right around $5,000 and then the third is this is a tentative um but so we've established already prior a class siiz um uh parameters and based upon the current enrollment in second grade at me small uh basically we need about one or two more students and we'll be over the threshold for when that class moves up to third grade based upon the number of teachers that are at third grade currently um so we're preparing for the need for an additional third grade teacher at me small for next year um so that's we're holding that place in the budget as of today um based upon the current enrollment in second grade at that school um so those are the those are the fours the for the threes um so the first is that is a district el director um so if I go back to the if I was to go back a couple of slides to the increase in student um the the breakdown by student population we've had a steady increase in English Learners over the last um 10 years we're up to pretty much one out of every five students as an English Learner in the district one out of every well now less than one out of every four students is a first language not English and it's the one Department in which I don't have um a director supervis in that department I don't have anybody overseeing um instruction in that department I don't have any anybody um providing or planning for professional development in that department uh I don't have anybody in my cabinet who's you know the analogy would be um you know having a police department without a chief or having a um a uh putting in a whole new Wastewater system system without a Wastewater superintendent you know I've got a significant student need in my district without somebody um whose day-to-day responsibility is for that student need um so that's why I see it as as superintendent I see it as a significant need the next is um maintaining our thought exchange uh account so we were able to find some money for it to get get it off the ground that's the system that we've used to engage the community on multiple occasions through um that essentially the upgraded um survey mechanism the school committee used it to engage with the community uh around the transportation um and actually know I Ed it for the transportation you all used it for around the school calendar um to get feedback around the school calendar um provides AI analysis and uh I've used it for multiple pieces both internally and externally I'm about to use it for a staff um to get staff climate feedback across the district um the next U speaks to some of the special education programming that I mentioned um is the our first step in developing an internal uh uh program to try to support um or keep some of the students in District that were sending out of District that's the next two bullets the um special education teacher foral and then two Pais to support that program um and then going on to the next half of that slide um arced training that is in the the data platform those are two pieces to help support um collective bargaining which we will be heading into next year and then the subsequent years after so they will help the committee and leadership in organizing and preparing um data um for other contracts um across the across the entire state so they they help to organize all the data for all the comparables um so that our HR department doesn't have to do that um and it's quite frankly a short money um and then uh as part of our curriculum ongoing curriculum work um it there's a a line for foreign language textbooks um believe it's Spanish no did we just do Spanish and this is French we did French this year oh yeah so this is Spanish um and then the next are not their their budget neutral it's really just to uh keep the committee um informed on a couple of um changes that are planned so here at the Intermediate School uh the plan is to make a transfer of an FTE from the we currently have three Health um actually and uh Mr Blake talked about this when he talked about his um um his school or his Improvement plans after zcast presentation but a transfer of one of the three upon retirement that happens to be happening after one of the or not replacing that health and fizzed position instead creating a a stem teacher position and keeping that and and shifting that um slot in the um related arts to be a stem position instead and then Baker uh where em small we're seeing an increase in a grade level rolling up Baker is seeing a decrease in a grade level rolling up and uh we may have cut a little bit too deep in their intervention last year so we want to transfer that classroom FTE into an intervention FTE so those are the threes and what you'll see is in the budget that you have we've included the threes and the fours in the initial budget that we're presenting to you and then these are the twos and the ones and these are not included in the recommended budget but we do have them to show you that these were asked for and that these um are in the current budget that are presented to you are unmet will be unmet you know sort of asks in the in the in the future or you know in this budget that is currently in front of the in front of the committee um I'm not sure I need to go through all these unless the committee has a specific ask um but again they were either were we yeah I'm was going to give you a minute to look at it while I take a sip of water because this cold is catching up with me do you want questions as I take okay I'll wait you want to take this sure so this is you know breaking down the budget request into the you know the nine major function codes of the Department of Ed uses so in the FY 2026 column you can see that for the operating budget all that we just went over would come to 80 million $647,500 now I do have two lines highlighted in green which I did at this point in time a year ago as well because the 5,000 benefits and fixed charges I put in there an amount for health insurance increase right now the Cap Cod Municipal Health Group will vote on the rates we should know at the end of January but they'll take their vote the first week of February so by that point in time we'll know whether that needed to be adjusted up or down and then on the 9,000 tuition that relates back to my slide with the governor's version of the budget talking about the school choice and Charter School tuition that if that changes from what we have in there now I will have to update that as well but where we stand today at that 80 million 647 which does include the budget priorities 4 and three would be a 4.89% increase then on debt service for next year and there's a slide that details it a little bit later on 4,964 for the debt payments you know the debt that's outstanding is just the high school and this new building that we're in now and then taking those function codes and just plotting those function codes as a pie chart you know this differs from the one previously because this is that was you know I lumped all salaries and benefits together as a people cost in that piece of the chart this is a function pie chart so there are a people and expenses in every one of these just about every one of these pieces of pie but again even looking at it this way direct instruction is 54% of the budget then following clockwise around you know pupil Services which is athletic is Services is kind of a mix because it's Athletics it's nursing it's activities it's field trips it's a kind of a catchall then you see Transportation maintenance utilities 7% is our benefits and insurance 15% less than a percent for private school transportation that's really just an accounting breakout of the couple buses that go to St Pas and tuition to other schools broken out this way 10% and then only 3% for administration so do you want to pause there before we go on to the assessments so is there an interest in going back and looking at what's been presented already asking questions this be the opportunity uh particularly if you're looking at the the priority ranking system so I will pause and see if there's an interest in asking some questions at this point in time ask questions to ask Mr Morris the colorful pie chart is of great use when you compare them from just a text chart but what uh how do we have a how can we easily get a handle on what the trend has been over the last few years uh other than and references to the work that's already been done uh this pie chart is uh particularly uh very useful I can tell you um as far as when I updated it just from his current year looking to next year quite honestly the percentages stay all about the same they varied less than a 1% variance within each of them now off the top of my head you know I could go back in Prior years I don't want to misstate something tonight but in the three and a half years I've been here it hasn't swung much again it's within we're talking tens of a percent Within These major categories not big swings there is of of course the fact that when numbers are done outside your office we can get sometimes questions asked about why did that go up or what is going on here why can't you make it so to that is what we need in preparation for the public hearings and for town meeting and our friendship with the two boards of Selectmen uh they they sometimes Trends indicate academic need state government need none of this is is a as was used to be said a wish list that that word once it is released it floats around and I don't see anything on his it's just purely wish we have a mission to do and this is a certain minimum that will meet that need thanks yeah welcome Mr J new thank you uh if we could go back to Priority number four uh robotics Winter Garden Winter percussion are you zeroing out those three programs or are those numbers reflective of uh equipment and supplies uh can you just clarify the question when you say zeroing out I'm not sure I are we eliminating those three programs no those are all ads so we didn't have so so so for robotics as an example um there's uh so the the so there's a teacher who teaches robot so there's a salary position that exists in the budget okay um and will continue to exist in the budget what has happened every year is there's been no supply line to cover the you know the kids build stuff right they build robots as part of the and they compete and and as um you might imagine some of that equipment is expensive and it gets has wear and tear in order to maintain that program um he needs the the the teacher happens to be a male and he needs to buy uh materials to replace them and every year we scr because there's no budget line that's actually ever been established to um to buy supplies for the robotics program so this year we are stopping the practice of every year trying to beg borrow and Ste steal from other account lines we're actually setting up an account line for the Robotics and that's how much we're putting into the account line for the robotics that's what that's why it's a a priority because every year we're we're spending it we just never put it into the budget so was a misunderstanding of my point I thought it was a priority for that was something that was going to be cut that was going to be a savings no no there the other one these are ads everything up here is an ad into the into the budget thank you I appreciate that you know and Robotics was considered you know part of science technically at the high school but then as the expenses were growing you know we didn't want to cut science the traditional Science re so to speak to then fund robotics because it's got to the point where Kendra came to us and said that you know I'm scraping a little bit from social studies a little bit from there every time robotics need something could we just maybe fund robotics with its own line item of $10,000 to pay for the I can understand completely you know you have three programs here that are very successful that um cater to a population of students at the high school that potentially are not athletically inclined and there were three programs that did not have line items for for their supplies and so you were beg borrowing and stealing from other areas percussion exactly just on robotics right the other two are relying on majorly on parent donations to fund Winter Guard and winter percussion so that was an add to and you said those were under anou that we have to pay those to that's why they're forsed because they're they've been one of the robotics is something we've been funding we just have been it's never actually sat in the budget anywhere and the other two and the other two we established fers and we established anou to to take to take that on awesome thank you for clarifying M Landers um on that priority for the EM small third grade teacher you mentioned that the second grade is of the size that with two more kids coming up they'll exceed what we've said that is the um guidelines for classrooms don't hold me to the two but we're close we're close to the guidelines right so but I'm assuming that means that the class behind them is also of a size that uh like so like the first graders right no it just what happens to be the second grade class it why would why wouldn't a second grade teacher just I I don't know this sounds like I'm asking dumb question why wouldn't the second grade teacher just then move up yeah so so currently we're not going to add a teacher in the middle of the year but in theory we could we could have added a teacher in the middle of the year but we're not going to break up classrooms in the middle of the year so we're already over our um class size recog in second grade yes and it's also the combination of the projected enrollment for next year looking at kindergarten coming up so the the whole mix of the whole kada 3 you know segregating out preschool lends itself to a total student enrollment that would justify one more teacher now whether how it follows with grade from two to three and because normally if you had just one bubble you correct that bubble teacher could follow the class but with the amount of kids that are moving up to fourth grade versus what's coming in projected kindergarten filling in leaves an entire enrollment for the District of District of that school needing one more teacher than is there now okay I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a bubble that we could it's a bubble moving up combined with the pro enrollment from kindergarten or preschool moving into the full-time role of students need for next year as well at that building okay so there is a A continuing need yes there okay and then one thing that didn't get um that didn't make the cut here under a priority to is dym math interventionist at $75,000 and I'd like to know more about what that position would be I think the last few weeks of presentation showed us um a real need in math and this seems high priority to me to get some math support uh for our students you know I think everyone um is a little surprised when they find out that math coaches that we have in the district don't actually work with students right we have math coaches coaching teachers and now we have them coaching principles who are helping coach teachers but what is this position and couldn't this seems H pror to me yeah so uh the the this is one that didn't have a clear plan for how it would be implemented um and didn't have so we have at the middle school interventionists in the on the reading side and don't have data to support that they've been beneficial so I didn't have the data to support the position and didn't have a plan to support the position which is why it was a two and not a three is that something that someone is coming back with more information on or it's just off the table it it didn't make it I mean ultimately it's the committee's budget like my recommendation to you is it's not ready yet doesn't mean it can't be ready later but it's not ready yet um we have other things that we're trying to work on right now in the district I I'm I my recommendation to you is it's not um it's not the best investment right now and you can point to other investments in math in supporting our math curriculum within this yeah if we go back to if we go back to the data from the mcast presentations and if we pull apart the K5 data versus every everybody else data then you would see the progress that we made in K5 shows um especially the I mean the mcast data was only three to five but if you look at the 35 data versus the six through 10 data you see the all the positive Trends are in three to five and and in math in particular and where we saw gaps closed where we saw overall aggregate growth it's all in the 3 to five space and that where that is where we invested in coaching support that's where we invested in principal support um that's where we invested in assistant principal support and so we've taken that model and expanded that model into this year plus some other things but that those those are the primary levers that we're driving this year thank you are there any other questions from the group here before we proceed the the only uh it's my understanding that it's ultimately our budget that we vote on tentatively next week which means that at this point as a committee would be my understanding that we own the priorities and decide how we support them as written or want to make any changes or adjustments or ask for more clarification would that be correct 100% you know the superintendent that I worked with a long time ago you use an analogies he's probably not the first and I probably definitely won't be the last but similar to to the Govern Governor or the President right my job is as as the executive branch right I'm just here to recommend ultimately you're the legislative body it's your job to ultimately establish what the what the budget's going to be my job and our job is to put together um and do the leg work and put something in front of you and you're you're all you all's job y'all's job y'all's job is to is to ultimately establish what what the budget is and ask for whatever level of support you need from our office in order to get there all right where did we leave a fact I lost my place Foundation yeah influencing assessment all right actually I'm going to turn this over to you sir so the foundation enrollment okay so two things first of all a little like to clarify each year what the foundation enrollment is because you see 3,261 and you say we don't have 3 3,261 students in our schools today because Foundation enrollment is all the students that live in Dennis and Yarmouth that we are financially responsible for so it includes if they go to you know charter school or school choice to somewhere else they are included in that figure they're the ones we are financially responsible for So within the regional agreement the amounts to be assessed above the minimum set by the state under your Regional agreement is the 5year rolling average so I've put the trend going back to 2016 but the last five rows in green fy21 through 25 are the five years to be considered in the assessment formula and as you can see you know it's been trending slightly but every year from Dennis towards Yarmouth with the percentage split so with the FY 25 you know you can see Dennis went from 980 to 983 students but Yarmouth went from 22 23 up to 2278 so in that one year the split now for Dennis in 25 alone is 30144 and 69.85 6 on Yarmouth but when we factor that into the 5year average you know 25 comes on fy2020 drops off and that leaves a 5-year average of 30.6 68 for Dennis and 69.3 32 for Yarmouth and then just below it I put just for point of reference what this past year was with the fiveyear split so the 5 split was 30.9 and 69.1 just around it so you can see that it has shifted again a little bit towards Yarmouth then the next slide just shows the same data visually know the um the bars are the numbers the line graph is the percentage so if nothing else you can see visually with the two lines across the line graph widening across time showing the shift in overall percentage towards yth and away from Dennis so as we stated you know January 22nd so we'll probably have at the morning of the 23rd the projected state aid figures from the governor's budget again as a point of reference you can look at the history of the net state aid so that's the revenue L the assessments that they withheld from us now back in fy20 was 5.6 million then it dropped in 21 it dropped in 22 then in 23 the information of the student opportun implementation of the student Opportunity Act saw that nice increase up to 7 A5 million $2 half million increase and another 22 million increase to FY 24 another almost $1.1 million increase to fy2 so we've been the beneficiaries of the student Opportunity Act but I feel I also have to point out if you notice it's increased in at a decreasing rate you know 2 and half million 2 million 1.1 million and it's very difficult to predict where this the state says and even in an email I got this morning you know local education K pre to2 education is a qu high priority of the governor well in two and a half weeks we'll find out what that means I hope it continues a nice trend for us and all the districts but we just there's no way of predicting it until it comes out as a point I'm trying to make but it does show for three years in a row we've seen some nice increases this is a six-year implementation so hopefully there's at least three years left of this again here it is visually for people who like to see things visually instead of just reading the numbers the three years of green the slight Decline and then the three blue years of the increases we've been seeing since ffy 23 so again as I stated in that very first slide there you know this the two sides of Revenue and the assessment variable so what our Revenue variables that we're still waiting to be able to factor into our calculations in the Chapter 70 Regional Transportation Aid school choice tuition coming in charter school aid Foundation enrollment this is that affects the calculation to the two towns and then again not available yet then on the expense side our school choice tuition out assessment Charter School assessment now I've said before that Charter School tuition assessment and Aid kind of offset each other so I'm not tremendously too concerned about that because if the tuition goes up the aid tends to go up if the aid goes down I mean if the tuition goes down the aid goes down they kind of offset each other as I mentioned the health insurance by the cape card Municipal Health Group will be voted on the first week in February we are aware of some people know giving us their intent to retire at the end of the school year so we're going to be able to factor in you know some jobs are easier quotation fers to replace in others so can we factor in a reliable projection on savings on any of those impending retirements and then quite honestly as we move through the process our ability to fund those priorities four and three that Mark went through on those slides and then here's just the detail of The Debt Service so the high school bond which is FY 26 is the final payment which is good 416,000 the two outstanding Bonds on the new building total together 2.8 million for the annual payment and then the ban the bond anticipation note on this building is $846,000 for next year and then we've got our next steps coming up all right so what will happen next so um there'll be as I don't know we've probably thoroughly beaten this horse but we will incorporate the state revenue figures once we have them um and that'll also give us the minimum required contribution as David has mentioned uh both towns uh contribute well above the minimum required contribution um but that is the the first step in calculating the assessment so that that gives us the first piece of the equation which is necessary in calculating the uh assessments and then we use the fiveyear uh rolling average so we need that information in order to establish the Assessments in both towns so we'll have that by the 4th Wednesday in January um then next is establishing uh as David mentioned we will have be having um retirements um we have already gotten notification on retirement so um actually one thing that we're planning to try to do between this meeting and Monday is to really take a good look at that list and try to bring back some anticipated savings if we were to use um a hiring cap now as David mentioned some positions are harder to hire than others if you're trying to hire you know as a simple example this is isn't a case for our particular for this year but if you're trying to hire a physics teacher it's hard to though that's a hard position to hire and it's hard to put a particular hireing cap on that position but if you sort of work within an average and you give the hiring managers a a a an average in which they need to sort of come within so if you have a physics teacher you're trying to hire and you know uh an English opening then and you try to work within an average then then that's doable um and so we're trying to establish a hiring cap with the leaders um for retir retirement Replacements and then use that to Cal calculate some savings based based on all of our known retirements and um there has been a significant number of people so far who who've notified us so that there might be some we need to again we need to sit down to do that do that math be able to bring that back to the committee for the next meeting um we need to go back through the priorities and look across the entire district and like look at enrollment and all the other pieces and just see are there any other ways to fund some of the priorities um and so that'll be another piece that we'll be doing over the next um bit of time and then the last one is to uh somebody already mentioned this but working with the with you all as a committee on the priority list to determine which items should remain in the budget proposal um does anything needs to be added Etc um before you know uh as we move through each step in this process before you all get to your final vote on in March I'm sensing additional questions Mr Morris yes well I it comes from leaving my green light on so uh but handy as it is in establishing priorities ities you've given us a sense of all the different variables that are important or the factor in some of which none of which are controlled directly but I'm also wondering do you anticipate some of the same problems Municipal side of Finance has with not enough housing stock or affordable housing available do we anticipate having confronting this as a as a thing we have to take into account on the hiring side yeah always um I'm we currently have positions that are unfilled um largely due to that reason um and it place that challenge I think places pressures on lots of pieces that places pressure on uh Staffing just in general it places upward pressure on um on the salary structures across all units um it's definitely one of the and we've had this conversation I know I've heard um you know my um my colleagues on the municipal side talk about this you know that they they have the same challenges right you know and talk to the the Chiefs and the apartments you know they have the same time the same challenges recruiting firefighters and police officers to the cape because of housing availability housing affordability um and it puts upward pressure on um when they're sitting in negotiations with their units etc etc right so um and applies across all and my fellow superintendant all have the same you know it's not a Dy only problem um it's definitely something that we're facing across the cape um and you know it's part of the the um part of the conversation we had around the demographic study you know does does some of the work that towns are doing around sewering does that open up different opportunities for housing and Housing Development I don't you know that's not really my area of expertise I'm not a I'm not a um a housing planner so I I wouldn't want to comment that's not again that's not really my area of expertise but I would like to have that conversation with people for whom that is because it's a problem that faces us um on the Staffing side I'm interested on what the impact you know all this work that's getting done in all these communities around SU planning will that have an influence on a on housing and then with housing potentially is that going to bring families and if that's going to bring families what's that going to mean for schools right and you know as we think over the next 5 to 10 years you know that school AG children ultimately come to school right and what's going to be the impact um as these as as each Town takes on each Town's in a different phase but as each Town takes on um projects what's what's then after that and is there housing implications for that and then who's living in the housing and are those School AG children and what's going to be ultimately be the impact on the school I just think it's all part of the same conversation both from a recruitment and hiring standpoint and from a who's walking in the door standpoint M Landers um on the budget requests I don't see any um repairs improvements capital projects um I know that some of those are probably already built into the budget but were there not any specific means that should have that could have been should have been in this list for so there there's two separate Pathways so one will be like the the big Capital planning is is a whole separate project um and then there were a couple of smaller items right so you know the bigger plan a capital plan which might need funding beyond the annual recurring operating budget right we'd have to look at that separately that's something that Steve and I are starting to look at the random you know even $20,000 repair that's going to come up somewhere unexpected each year does fit within what we budget for the buildings in the on line item in the 7,000 the 360,000 that's kind of the catchall for you know everything from a hot water tank going to the dump truck at the high school you know unfortunately saying just dying on US mean so there you know 300,000 sounds like a l but it's really not out of an 80 million budget as kind of the catch off with the truly unknown things that happen from year to year but we do have a decent amount in every single building for the annual you know maintenance preventive maintenance reactionary maintenance of the types of things you can predict from year to year so nothing really stood out other than things that will come up on a bigger Capital list that might be real big money poten we talked about the track and field at the high school before the wastewater treatment plant at some point is is nearing an age where it's going to need more than $10,000 in maintenance like it does each year now is going to need you know a roof and a rooftop unit at some point not tomorrow but in the next few years so that's what we're going to be putting together in a bigger plan to say how are we going to address the bigger dollar needs of each of the buildings any other additional questions on this proposed Budget moving on the calendar update all right so in your packet uh you have uh the 25 26 Calendar so there's no substantive changes to the calendar other than what we did is overlay uh information that wasn't on the last time you saw this so what you have now are the open house dates and the quarter um term dates for the high school and the trimester dates for everybody else um and really it's mostly information if the committee wants to take a vote on this you can but we didn't make any other changes we didn't make any Chang to the start end dates any of the half days any of that stuff it's really mostly and then if the committee is in consensus that everything's fine here then we'll post it on the website tomorrow um but we didn't we realized we didn't have that information on there before so um it was really sort of me not knowing that who's who was responsible for it and US figuring it out and getting it done and bringing it back to you all so that's just informational um moving on into subcommittee and Leon's reports I don't have anything to report as the is on to the Dennis slug board and I see Mr Glenn is not in attendance so Cap Cod collaborative did you need to make a statement Mr Morris starting on taking place on Wednesday the collaborative which meets as a board either Zoom or at the actual structure in uh in Osterville will be the last day of our long established Genius of putting together the collaborative board meetings The Cutting Edge of what is a response for families for helping local school districts handle some of their sped burdens so that ceases to be a burden but a sense of success uh so he'll be his last day will be on Wednesday he announced this about a year ago and we've had a executive Search Comm committee which interviewed a number of people and we now have the search committee having met and organized a set of questions which was given and answerers given to the board of directors and the board voted last month for hiring out of choice of three h hansum from the town of Dennis will be taking over as the new executive director of the Cape Cod collaborative the the board of directors of the collaborative is not just a copy of of a board of a school committee uh granted the boards made up of one member from each member School District but the need for skill set for the director includes business Specialties administrative as well as educational so what I have the very impressive resume package that that hope uh put together she comes from the town of mashby where she knows many of our own Dy staff members particularly in the sped field but uh she has experience in all those three areas that I mentioned is is goes along with a package what I'll do is rather than read read it I'll ask the central office to send a copy around to for our next meeting and invite her for participation she's already met uh all of our sped and administrative staff and she's got a really impressive set of credentials to take over this multitask of position so having been a member of the board most of the time of I of the time that I've been on the Dy school committee I have a lot of appreciation and pride in the work they do and The Cutting Edge savings that it brings completely to the member districts so more will be for example this is a typical packet for a board meeting they meet once a month and sometimes it looks like the phone book has been included because there's so many medical and fiscal and legal requirements so I'll without overwhelming you with too much data I'll work with the administra team to put together a picture from time to time thanks thank you is there School building committee report um so work was done over the um over the winter break to get uh some items done from the punch list I think we're really left down to there's uh roof access ladder um is one of the last remaining things that get done one of the work projects that was done over the uh winter break was to uh get all the intercom systems working there was a couple spots in the building where the internal intercom system wasn't working we really needed to get a couple different folks cuz it's you know electricians and software Engineers getting the right people in the right place at the right time um so they were able to get my understanding is almost all the bugs worked out um test a few things I believe they ran a test uh one of the first days back either Thursday or Friday um in the building um and and uh to like there were certain sections like between and that part of it was cuz we had I think moved a couple of classrooms too that were supposed to be intermediate or were supposed to be Middle School classrooms then became intermediate so you was about getting all those things working the right way um but there were some sections but that they found that like the speaker was there but it wasn't actually wired to something right so you need an electrician for that that's not a software problem and other things were software problems right so um that was a big project they that they got done um trying to remember what the other that was the biggest one and then I know we're waiting on the roof ladder I think and then the other big thing is that you can fill in any other blanks that I'm forgetting um the other big thing is that the the the the committee voted to take the field project out the general bid that'll go out uh next week um and then we'll update you on where that process is yeah I was just going to say as we've mentioned before a lot of the punchless things with the building that's technological is really just programming and computer related you know such as some of the speakers you know whether it's Mike m programs so that say if Mike on the Middle School side is making an announcement it's not inconveniencing the whole building right so then they're finding out as different things went through not everything was being heard where they wanted to be heard but then it's like okay who's the right computer person to get into the system to make it do what we want it to do now that they've been living here for a year or so and then again a lot of programming of controls of a lot of the HVAC stuff just just tweaks here and there to try and minimize hot spots cold spots and as Mark said within the next week we'll have the final bid package ready to go on the field and get that going as well okay this is your second reading and vote on policy dja for your consideration policy dja Regional School District purchasing authority authority for the purchase of materials equipment supplies and services is extended to the superintendent through cost center appropriation as part of the District budget process the purchase of items and services within the cost center appropriation requires no further committee approval except when by law or by committee policy contracts may be entered into for a period of up to three years contracts of longer duration may only be entered into by a vote of a duly called school committee I move that we approve policy dja as presented second second policy is KD CB the new social media policy District website and social social media the school committee wishes to ensure accurate delivery of information and as such the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District will maintain a district website and such district and school social media accounts as authorized by the superintendent all such online Pro platforms will be maintained by District staff acting in their professional capacities in order for Public Communication with the school committee and District Personnel to be responded to in a timely manner in line with the legal requirements for Public Communication commenting on all district and school sites will be turned off every school and District site will clearly indicate this policy and will direct those wishing to contact the school and District Personnel to the appropriate venues to do so unauthorized use of District or school name is prohibited a high priority will be placed on such platforms being accessible frequently updated and user friendly I move that we approve District website and social media policy kcb as presented second are there any questions on this new policy please vote by saying I I I oppose eyes have it now it will be the superintendent's report all right thank you uh so want to start with recognition of donations and some acknowledgements um so starting with some donations I have a few to go through just want to make sure uh again we're recognizing our very generous committee um Community rather um so starting with a couple donations to the basketball program at our high school so want to recognize Robert K Sullivan Jr and Dan Windsor for their uh donations to the B the basketball uh program at the high school um with many thanks um Contin to support our high school program uh I want to thank the rotary uh their continued support of our uh school program the Yarmouth rotary uh they continue to be a great supporter of Dy in particular uh this particular donation uh supported uh two students one from Dy middle school and one from Dy High School to support their attendance at the a uh aslp program which is the uh the program that uh is actually sponsor through the collaborative uh for students uh uh attend in the summertime for it's advanced studies and Leadership program um that some uh students can qualify uh for through the first criteria is an advanced set of scores on their mcast um and then there other Criterion which they apply for but um that it can be an expensive program and not all students can access because of the finance piece so this helps offset that um so we're very thankful to the rotary for um their support of that again uh and it's it's open to eth and nth graders that's I mean no seventh and eighth graders that's why one at the middle school and one at the high school um so then uh next is a long list of donations uh that were uh through the holiday season uh to Emy small so first is the First Congregational Church of Yarmouth they supplied $1,500 in gift cards the Yarmouth rotary again sponsored nine different families um Bright Lights provided 15 meals the armouth police department uh uh did shop of the cop with two different students uh Ernie Ray and the mark horb Lodge uh provided winter coats uh and Christmas trees the Family Resource Center provided seven winter jackets The Family Table collaborative provided meals for families Dennis Public Market provided turkey and ham donations Shaws 50 bags for Thanksgiving meals Stop and Shop 50 bags for Christmas meals the Family Pantry of Cape Cod 35 Thanksgiving meals backpack program uh bathroom and hygiene supplies the Andrea Holden Foundation $15 $100 Shaws gift cards the ladies of hus yach club5 $25 uh Target gift cards three $25 Stop and Shop gift cards four uh $25 Shaw's gift cards the BJ's whole club one whale club uh one $25 gift gift card and the arrow autog glass five Stop and Shop $20 gift cards so so just especially through the holiday season um a lot of families uh need a lot of support to get through those Seasons through that season um and we're just forever grateful for our community to step up to support those uh in need uh in addition uh we had uh a member of our uh local law enforcement community so Yarmouth Police Department uh when officer uh Pascarella was here uh presenting around our um uh my gosh I just lost it our um our new I just got a term our anyways around our safety protocol which has a name which I is completely escaping me right now uh I love you guys SRP thank you I just came up with that on my own uh standard response protocol um uh he talked about it sort of was an aside it was a slide but he talked about um that the Yarmouth Police Department was bringing back uh and adopt a school program so we have our sro's but then the Yarmouth Police Department was uh uh several of the officers were adopting a school so beyond just our standard sro's um some of the armouth officers were adopting uh schools Beyond uh the SRO that are assigned to the schools so uh I happen to catch this story right before uh winter break uh because uh the station Avenue principal uh Miss Kelly put it in her newsletter and and then I S saw this other story that got put out which is which is great which also captured it was in Cape news but um but so officer Jefferson Willis of the Yarmouth Police Department who's adopted Station Avenue as his Adopt A School program um on his own uh went out and bought uh Christmas presents for every single student um at the station Avenue uh school um as part of um yeah yep um so in addition to just to Simply shop of the cop he went out and bought Christmas presents for every single student at the at the Station Avenue Elementary School yeah so um just uh uh so it says here um uh he uh he nicely packaged a gift for every single student the principal said I've been in education for 17 years and I've never seen someone take the effort time and initiative to do something for an entire School we have over 400 students and he admitted he was up till 2 a.m. uh he shared that the very special uh Christmases as a that he had very special Christmases as a child and that he can sleep better knowing that every child would have something to open so just a testament to the great people that we have in our community Mr Maris as an as an adjunct to that report it's been my my observation that people make contributions people receive the largest of the town's people more than just one way it's uh it's it's been a pattern that has been growing such that it adds to the sense of community that at one time didn't exist it was 25 30 years ago there was B concern about too many business shops opening up up and cutting down trees and yet what we're seeing now is a concern on several issues of local people adding their input their support habitat of humanity for example is is is an example the rotary clubs uh the activities for for families under stress and families who are just enjoying life all working together so it's it's uh it's it's really a pleasure to be participating in community events government and friendship so I would endorse well that laying out thank you all right moving on um so the uh next thing on my list was uh a school security update so as the committee is aware um and and the community is likely aware we had a a threat against one of our schools over the break um and I just want to just to in case theur Community isn't isn't aware um the uh you know we've been continued to work closely it's another case of working closely with our uh School uh or our partners on on the uh the law enforcement side our local law enforcement and while I don't have much more information to share than what I've already shared in my two messages out to the community I do just really want to say that it is um a strong Testament to I think the relationships that we've developed with the local law enforcement over the last um year plus um I do think well uh we didn't have to the timing of the of the um the timing of sort of when news came in the fact that we were out of school at that particular moment in time uh didn't require us to use any of our standard response protocol you know in the moment uh the relationships that we've established during that time uh allowed us to both think through a process uh have we've had it and the work that we've done the regular meetings that we've been having uh in doing all of this work have set up a framework um of collaboration that allowed us to easily work together on a complex problem that has many layers um as one might as one might imagine um and that even then when we did return to school has allowed us to work seamlessly together um has a plan in place you know the the the student involved with the threat in particular is not currently available to us um but when that student does become available to us we have plans in place to continue to keep the school safe as well as support the student in that student's needs um and uh and that's Ben again a collaborative effort that I think is a big Testament to the the work that's been done on both sides right on the school side and on the public safety side because we all have our own responsibilities uh but when it comes to coming inside the school building uh we have to work together and to keep a safe and secure environment and I think it wouldn't work if everybody wasn't coming to the table with the same um objective which is to keep a safe and secure environment for our students and for our staff um and you know as a simple example you know one of our sro's uh when we had to have a a meeting coming right back after the vacation was working um a midnight the night before and and when it was convenient for us to work or to have a meeting was during the next day and you could definitely fail tell that he worked at midnight the night before but he came in because it was it was important to him you know to come in and be at the meeting and participate um uh and and have strong input on our plans Etc um because he's committed to the school he's committed to the kids he's committed to the work um and it's just a simple example but is an important example of the work and the commitment to um commitment to the safety of of the whole District so um again not not a ton more information than I've already U provided but we continue to we continue to just stay and I guess the other piece that I would say is we've set up um and I'm I'm grateful to have a a team on both sides on the law enforcement side and on the school side because there's an army of people behind me that are um in reg have already set up regular communication channels uh to stay regularly updated because again without being able to there's so much so much information that I can't share but um you know uh there's there are folks who are staying regularly updated and have worked tirelessly through the vacation weeks through the holiday weeks to to set up communication channels so that everything is in place um to keep U to make sure everybody gets what they need on all sides of this um complex issue so um and then the last bit of information that I have for you is on the compy determination so and I do have a couple of slides which I just put together you don't have it in your packet because I just put it together about maybe two hours ago um so um couple of things so first sort of what I want to try to cover tonight um in the next couple and really just it is just a few slides but I needed to organize my thinking plus I just we just had some information involved today um um and so today I just want to give you sort of an overview of what we know so far because this is quickly evolved in um summary of some of the key information for the committee as well as anybody who's paying attention out there in the public um and some of the things that you're going to need to consider um in a coming meeting um and then what is coming is uh and that uh you're going to need to take some action on is is some draft changes to policy specifically policy IFK which is the graduation requirement policy at least that's my recommendation a is the path that we take and you'll um uh you have that policy in your packet um so so starting with the language um to the ballot question so this is the language that was changed uh with the ballot that was passed so uh in the striketh through is the language that existed uh and then in red is the language that was added uh in R whoops read in italics is the language that was added with the passage of question two and substance substantively what this means is that that the competency determination still stands um it's just how the competency determination is is um uh determined so and it's this inserted bit which is the satisfactory and I'll come back to this but the satisfactory completing of coursework that has been certified by the students District as showing Mastery of the skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks in the areas as measured or measured by sorry uh the mcass high school tests described in section one administered in 2023 and any additional areas determined by the board so short what changed and what didn't change so what changed we can't use the mcast any longer to determine compensated determination for students in awarding a high school diploma and the department of Ed no longer has a direct role in determining company um through the vehicle of the mcast right so they used to be the Arbiter they used to be the one who determined whether or not A student got a CD and they ter they had um control over the appeals process etc etc so that has changed what it what Remains the Same uh the mcast will still be given that hasn't changed uh a a criteria for competency determination must still be established and it must be uh uh actually I guess this is changed I should have put that on the other slide um uh established based upon um or maybe it should be a sub but anyways a criteria for a CD must must be established that part has remain the same um but it has to be certified through coursework um it's a responsibility of the for us to determine um the CD and what will remain the same is some students will get a CD and other students will not um if they don't some students won't meet the CD requirement and some students will um because it's different than your local graduation requirements which is the next slide and so there are two separate Pathways and they remain separate this part has not changed um the CD compensation determination sits in state law and federal law um and the CD Now now under the new law or the new the change to the law as passed by the ballot question has to be certified by the district and that certified means that it's based upon coursework that in quotes uh shows Mastery of the skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks in the areas Mastered by U measured rather I left off a D um by there a typo there too um happens when you do something about an hour before you get to present it uh by the mcast a high school test and then it went on a little bit to talk specifically about the ones in 2023 where that's important is so it's the tests that were given in 2023 so that means it's the 10th grade test and and the standards that were measured in the 10th grade ELA test the standards that were measured in the 10th grade math test and the science tests that were available in 2023 so physics biology chemistry and Technology and Engineering so the CD doesn't include history and social sciences because there was no history and social science mcast um in 2023 yeah yeah yep yep this is how I've spent all my time um and the CD has to include up to 10th grade uh or 9th and 10th grade Ela standards because the 10th grade mcast there's no mcast in the ninth grade for ELA the 10th grade mcast measures ninth grade standards in ela and 10th grade standards in ela and the the 10th grade mcast measures geometry and algebra so the coursework has to certify all of those things now it doesn't again in the Sciences it doesn't have to measure all of those Sciences because the kids didn't have to take all of those science tests they had an option to take one of those four so you have to have an option for coursework that certifies one of those four because the CD its job was to assess basic skills and competency local graduation requirements were what was everything you had to do in high school to get out the door and that's different in every single high school Across America now Common Core put a bunch of high schools in the same bucket but not all high schools in the same bucket and so this is what it currently is for Dy you have to take six credits in math in English four and a half credits in science Technology and Engineering four and a half credits in history and social sciences one in health and PE one in find and Performing Arts one applied Tech and three credits foreign language and a minimum of 30 total but that's also based upon our credit system um some uh you know because we do a I don't get a guy on Counsel here to explain the credit system at the high school a little bit better than I can but my understanding is like one full year course is a credit and a half and I actually I don't fully understand I'm still trying to wrap my head around it um um but it's a little bit more it's why you get a six credits for four years of math so you have to somehow add up the the way the credits all add up um or maybe it's 7.5 or0 75 I think that's what I yeah I again I I get a guy counsel here to miss boff could explain it much better than I can um and I didn't get to that level today um in the meeting that we had so what has happened so far so so far I've attended a webinar presented by the department of Ed on the new regulation and and the FAQs um which helped sort of parse out a little bit of what we can and we can't do so we can't use school districts can't because there's language in the standard that says like any other criteria established by and and pretty much both the department of Ed and legal counsel has said you can't use that language to like further insert the mcast as like your um cedd requirement they every body has every sort of legal opinion has been that would be like running against the spirit of the ballot and I would recommend that you take that legal advice um uh and then really they really try to drive home this idea that there's two different pieces there's your local graduation requirements and there's the CD um they talked a little bit about you know if everybody's waiting for the department at Ed to kind of iron this out I don't think definitely not for the class of 2025 maybe down the road some guidance for you know other High School classes but nothing I mean I'm not anticipating anything for the class of 2025 next uh right before the break organized a zoom meeting with the cap and Island superintendents to try to see if we could all try to get on the same page um we had a good meeting we discussed and dra we discussed about drafting a little bit a policy we um we started to talk a little bit around that you know it was the holiday break um some policy ideas got drafted um we also discussed some of the challenges some of the pitfalls um and then we had a follow-up meeting on Friday where a whoops adraft couple of versions of draft policy got T tossed around um which I'll be using to get us off the ground um as well you know part of the challenge is we all don't have the same program of studies so but it's it was enough to generate some good um uh starting points and then today uh earlier today I met with a high school team to discuss our program of studies in particular as well as you know we have a group of students uh who have yet to meet the CD um and this is the sort of the pressing group right I sort of see this is what I had with our high conversation I have with our high school team we have the class of 26 and Beyond that's sort of One Challenge and we have time to think about that group we have a class of 2025 and there's roughly somewhere there there's definitely 16 kids some of them or almost all of them probably took the November retake because of the way when the ballot um passed and when the law goes into effect that the the November retake can be used for the compensated determination um but any they can't take the March we take so um so that number of 16 or so may get shortened a little bit um based upon the November retake but we also like when we get that data back um it's not going to leave us a lot of Runway the other challenge we have is that the semester changes um in like two and a half weeks I think for the high school so if we base something on coursework which is basically what we have to do and we point to a set of courses that that group of 16 students don't have and we need to try to enroll students in a course we've got a very short window to work with here as far as getting something in front of you all having you all approve it getting notification to the students getting the students enrolled in a class that will give them an opportunity to pass a class to get a CD now again some students still aren't GNA meet the CD um this didn't make it so that everybody gets the CD the CD is still in in the law still if you go back to It ultimately still means a basic um it's a still a basic skills andc compeny determination um and so we're have to have we still have to meet that same criteria um but it I think the idea is it's supposed to open up some other possibilities from other students some other Pathways um and we have to be pretty we don't have a lot of Runway to work with here miss Landers I think I missed a something here so you said that we've got 16 students who had to who took the retake who retook the mcast in November and that was because they hadn't met expectations on the required 10th grade mcast that they needed under the previous law right to have the CD yeah so they in at least one of the three tests they have yet to meet and it's not meeting expectations actually a lower bar but they haven't met the qualifying score okay for a CD in at least one of the three tests and the remaining 150 kids have and that can still be used as the CD for this year yes so you don't have to come up with anybody who's anybody any even kids in the class of 2026 who met this who've already earned anybody who's already earned the CD under the mcast they've already earned it so anybody who took the mcast in the class of 2026 that would be the current Juniors and sophomores wouldn't have taken it yet right yeah so it would have been anybody in the current junior class or anybody in the current senior class who took the mcass and earned a CD prior to the change in the law you can't take away their CD they already earned it so nothing has to be done to qualify those students for graduation correct it's just the students who didn't earn the CD under the mcast they now have an opportunity to earn a CD under a new pathway which was created with the ballot question to which we don't have a process yet right that we especially for the class of 2025 we have to create a process toot and you were reading off the list of subjects tested in the 2023 mcast and for instance one of them was physics so are we does this mean that physics so competency in physic physics is now required so in 2023 you can all right so in science they offer the science mcast in high school you can take one of four exams okay so you can take a physics exam which is traditionally offered to ninth graders you can take a bio ology exam which is traditionally offered to 10th graders those are the ones that I most familiar with I know they offer a chemistry exam and I know what they offer Technology and Engineering exam I've never been part of a school district that offered the other two so I don't know where they offer it and when they offer it and to whom it's offered but I know they're offered in the state like the state has mcast exams for Technology and Engineering and chemistry so because they offered those exams in the state a kid doesn't have to demonstrate all the kid to earn a CD all a student under the old system all a student had to do was uh pass an mcast exam in one of those four so in my previous District all students took freshman physics and took the mcast in 9th grade they didn't pass the mcast in 9th grade they were enrolled in biology in their sophomore year and took the biology exam in the 10th grade that was part of their scope and sequence for trying to get everybody to pass we don't use the same sequence here um but that and that's a fairly traditional pathway through high school science and then Juniors take chemistry and maybe then that's when they that's like a retake option again I'm not as familiar um but any one of those individual ones is a passing so when we're designing so when we met today one of the things we talked about was a science uh like a coursework would be a student who passed the full year of physics or or past a full year of biology or past a full year of chemistry it's not being R to expand and say you have to have competency in all four that were offered that year we can take the path of saying got it okay thank you I guess my question is when do you to make it work or to be available for them to the students to do what they need to do how soon does this decision have to be made so um so my goal is to have a draft policy um as ready as early as next school committee meeting now traditionally we' bring it up through the policy subcommittee I just don't know if we want to take that much time because I can have something ready for you all to at least have for first reading and if you all can expedite read discuss and move and wave a second reading then you all could vote through it next at your next meeting I'll have it ready um I already have the draft skeleton of it I'll be able to run it through Council um and have his legal opinion on it um that recommendation is to at least have your legal councel take a look at it um for any because there's a potential for I guess you know somebody to because now everything's on us right the challenge here is competency was we didn't have to the state held the burden now we're determining whether or not somebody else gets this level diploma so you want your policy to at least have been vetted so I would want to get something drafted I'll work on it tomorrow send it to legal counsel and get it back um again I have the bones of it um already drafted based upon the I had today and what I have the cape superintendent have been passing something around so I've got I've got a lot of language to to work from and I can have it in front of you all by next meeting by Monday I mean Sor I you're obviously already doing this working with the other super Cape superintendent and you know that's like obviously critically important for a lot of reasons here I we don't want to end up in a situation where students are picking districts based on you know some sort of perceived um better easy easier better right system for right that that would be Mr new thank you so my understanding is in the short term we have 16 students that currently have not met the requirements they're going to be graduating this year either with or without the CD correct they are going to need to enroll in second semester courses in two weeks some maybe currently like when I left this meeting the guidance team was going to do a transcript review we may be down to a really small number of kids who need to maybe do something differently with their course we're talking of impact at most 16 children correct for the graduating class of 2025 correct and we need to have something in place for them so that they can change their course of curriculum within three weeks correct so my position is uh bring us something next week we have a meeting next week uh you know I would most certainly not ask for a second reading we can pass something that would satisfy the needs of the 2025 graduating class correct yes and then we can continue to work on a document that is going to satisfy the needs of 26 and going forward correct okay thank you yeah you can always amend policy I mean my recommendation would be it's uh we could do it one of two ways and uh take whatever Direction the committee wants one way would be to add it to this to the existing policy which is in your packet which is the graduation requirements I would essentially stick it it at the end you know or I would change the policy to Reg graduation requirements and competency determination and I would add the competency determination language to the end or we can do it as a I already lost the L the numbers is it J IFK ikf and then do an Ika and then have a separate policy that is compeny determination I can do it either way um and I'll take my direction maybe from the two subcommittee policy subcommittees folks yeah yeah maybe I'll I'll get recommendation from Council too um you know if it expedit I certainly would be willing to attend an extra meeting and I'm sensing the other member of the policy subcommittee would we would be available this week to expedite in any way we can all right perfect gu all right then I I'll get something done tomorrow get it to Maria and I'll have Maria work on scheduling with the two of you so next is the consent agenda um on the consent agenda are those four donations that uh superintendent Smith has already acknowledged and we discussed as well as the minutes from December 16th move the consent agenda all in favor I I that leaves us with bills requisitions and payroll it is completed thank you and the calendars I think you noticed that we are meeting next Monday so last on the agenda before adjournment is an opportunity for public comment is there anyone here wishing to make a statement please bear with me I'm going to read the public comment policy first our policy on public participation at meetings can be found at the table with the agenda the public is reminded that a school committee meeting is the meeting of a governmental body which members of the body deliberate over public business we welcome your attendance and appreciate your interest of viewing your school committee as we conduct our regular business meeting school committee believes that the school district commun should have an opportunity to comment to the committee on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the commune'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 that your concern may be given proper consideration individuals may address topics on the agenda items specified for public comment or items within the scope of 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 please come forward to the podium if you wish to be acknowledged good evening could you introduce yourself now we got it Wayne bur you're on the town of Dennis I'm pretty sure that policy was read for me exclusively but that's okay we'll just go forward with that um I am here this evening by the way I would like to mention I taught 34 years in the school district and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I recogn some familiar faces and uh some old faces Phil not it's that old but to the point I'm a member of the uh Cape Cod Coalition for safe communities uh we were responsible for passing in 10 Towns on the cape uh safe communities act which is to look after immigrants and to make sure to the extent possible that uh local authorities had not um support ice operations immigration custom enforcement in terms of what happened within our communities except of course in cases of criminal complaints which is a different story we've been meeting with a number of immigrant groups over the course of the last few weeks and what stands out to me is there a high degree of anxiety in our students and our school systems at their homes in ter of what's going to come forward with the change of the new Administration uh federally um the uh concerns based around were some of the comments that have been made ahead of time which may or may not come true but the uh aliens and Sedition Act is one of the things that um our new president coming at his mention that he would like to use to uh Round Up 2 million immigrants and support them or have them in incarceration camps now this law was passed because of concerns regarding during World War II were primarily the Japanese all right and they were rounded up um 120,000 of them and put an in ger in camps and 70,000 were American citizens there's concerns regarding simply doing away with Deca uh deferred uh deferred action Upon Our uh young immigrants who came here with their families who were not born here and this talks of trying to go ahead and to change the 14th Amendment which would be very difficult but who knows that in taking away the citizenship of people who were born here in this country who are automatically citizens I bring this all up simply because the fear is pable it's impacting our students and the question is two things first of all where do they go to get support in the schools if they're if perceived problems and do they know there is a place to go and to get it they're afraid of losing one or two parents they are afraid of being sent back to Violent countries that they left um they fear losing their friends and other aspects we need something in a policy and place in my opinion to reach out to these students and make them aware that there is support within the school Community for counseling and support as we go forward finally I brought something sorry I brought something I would like to share and just maybe just pass it down people can take one regarding a potential policy for the school to adopt or at least to consider adopting in terms of how we deal with um ice if they come to the schools looking for names and addresses of people I know one to state law you're not allow to go give out information about students but this may change and where do you want to go with this that particularly happens um the policies that you have in front of one of you is ones that we have put together from different school districts to think consider so as we go forward here having raised this concern thinking about where we're heading where we might head things are going to happen very fast um unfortunately time January 20th is coming very very quickly on us and that's going to make a big difference am I over three minutes already uh we gave you a little bit more time so well I I said what I had to say anyway so you know where I am in this particular issue thank you for time the consideration Miss D I think it's still on right yeah hi um Michelle Dunn fifth grade teacher at Dy president of the dyaa speaking as an individual um a long time ago I sent an email to Emily mati that said another day trying to teach fifth grade math to a group of kids with a first grade under understanding and unfortunately my colleagues who teach math still face this challenge we have many kids who are well below grade level in math yet get zero support outside of the classroom we had an SST meeting today for one of those students Kendra Johnson one of our math coaches tested this student testing all the way down to grade two standards her recommendation daily tier 2 instruction and math but as you know we have no tier 2 math support in our building of my 34 non-el students 11 received tier to reading support and I know from working with those reading teachers last year that that support will make a difference when kids are that far below grade level no amount of coaching is going to fix it the best tier one instruction in the world is not going to fix it they need remediation we recognize that in this District in ela but year after year we refuse to provide that help in math so once again I urge you to fund a math support teacher at the Intermediate School the proposed Hing cap concerns me for two reasons we want to hire the best teachers for Dy not the cheapest teachers secondly we are at the beginning of a looming teacher shortage we started this year in Dy short speech and language Pathologists sped teachers an elel teacher and high school science and English teachers if our neighboring districts do not enforce such a cap I fear that we will lose candidates to those districts exacerbating Staffing challenges regarding the comparison charts shared earlier night I'm baffled why Marblehead and Westwood are included based on Desi profiles and US Census Data I don't see them as similar our high need percentage is 66.6 in Westwood it's 28.6% and in Marblehead 31.8 our low-income population is 54.9 marble heads is 133% Westwoods 7.9 our El student population is 70 uh pardon me 17.7% of our our students 1% in Westwood 4 and a half% in Marblehead the average NE and household income in our two towns is between $88 and $889,000 in Marblehead 165,000 Westwood 205,000 I confess I'm not familiar with dart but I don't see how those two districts compare to our districts so I don't see how those comparisons are valid finally um at this point I'm not sure if I'm talking about the CD or the graduation requirement I'll confess um but I would strongly encourage the district to allow our high school students who who are El students to substitute e classes for the foreign language requirement my high school colleagues tell me it will be hard to schedule e services and their foreign language classes and I fear it will detract from the students ability to really focus on mastering English thank you for your time thank you good good evening Mr Simon Richard Simon Precinct to in yth um I came tonight uh obviously related to the budget uh question uh we had met earlier uh with uh Dr Smith and uh the entire team including the school committee uh and we discussed the challenges that we're going to be facing uh for all three towns all both towns as well as School District coming year uh I was glad to see the updated information especially the uh detail that was provided in that standard format uh a couple of quick questions uh is that general fund or total expenses that's you're reporting in that box that's the that's the general fund general f school um I would suggest uh as part of their review the committee would perhaps consider having a breakout of code 2305 uh similar to the way that the transportation is split out 2305 is the classroom teacher line uh that's part of instructional the 2000 line but I think it's a big enough piece that it should probably be broken out as a separate line similar to the way the student services splits between student services and transportation okay um also I would be I think very useful for the committee as they do this uh much to uh Mr Morris's example is to have some context um it would be relatively straightforward to look at the uh Charter 25 database uh you can get a five-year comparison of U of the total uh general fund expenditures so you would have five years of History to append to the three years of forecast um also I would suggest that the committee uh might want to have some key indicators uh below that which would include things like the total enrollment U out out of District enrollment um and uh in District teacher FTE all very useful for context because uh the numbers right now are slightly more than what the school or what the town's probably going to uh be able to do within the prop two and a half or in our case we had said we would be able to go additional up to 3% but it's not going to make quite make it also would suggest um that in last year's presentation was a great slide that broke down the number of uh classrooms number of of uh teachers by grade and a one up to grade four I think it would be useful to extend that to the entire district and also to incorporate the special projects so in other words you would end up with grade by grade how many many student or how many teachers would be required plus the specialty things like Arts PE um SP and so on so it gives you the whole picture as you look through uh the future um and then I think that will that may I will stop but I would be glad to work with the committee at any time to discuss that as well as obviously the miss so last piece of business is the time we like uh do I see a motion all in favor adjournment I