##VIDEO ID:kLtCBsCrosU## 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 there you go welcome to the Monday October 21st 2024 meeting of the dentist jth Regional school committee please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and then before we start I'm going to ask for a moment of silence for the family of Dennis police patrolman John hubard over the tragic loss of his wife who was a loal local educator Shannon hubard and their one-year-old daughter Margaret known as Maggie hubard last weekend thank you we're going to start with our student representative report Miss Powers welcome good evening everybody um this is a very Community filled week at Dy so I have a lot to talk about in that regard so for starters it's our student spirit week it's our first of the year we usually have four throughout the year so people are really excited to just kind of get that going because October I feel like can kind of it can be like very dull for people because you're not quite at Thanksgiving but like the new school year feeling has worn off so this keeps us all going uh we also have two half days this week which is also you know another push towards towards a good attitude in school I think um we have our German Show game night with taking place on Wednesday this is our second one and it's hosted by the German NHS and last year it took place during the Germany exchange trip so we had a lot of German families here and this year you know they want to keep the traditional lives they're inviting friends family community members to dy I think it's at 600 p.m. and that's always an amazing time it's going to be absolutely wonderful uh we also have our band and color guard Community performance on Thursday night uh which they only hold once a year cuz during football games you know they don't really get the focus that they deserve I think a lot of the time so this is always an amazing opportunity for them to Showcase what they've been working on all year and then of course on Saturday we have our dolphin Dash in the morning followed by our homecoming dance that night for students so I think everybody's looking forward to the weekend uh for seniors we have our credit for life which is hosted by Cape Cod 5 on Friday so seniors are going to dress professionally and then once that is completed we're going to go outside and take our senior photo so sort of to endof Spirit weekend the right way uh senior nights for sports are starting so we have volleyball taking place on Wednesday boy soccer Friday girl soccer next Monday and then football is not going to be until Thanksgiving and cross country already happened and then finally we have our college applications a lot of them are due for seniors next Friday November 1st for anyone applying early and then next Saturday November second we're hosting our last SATs of the year so for anyone applying regular decision they're going to have a one last opportunity to improve that score get their score for the first time great thank you so much uh now we'll have a presentation about the Sur safety response protocol uh from our Dennis jth School resource offic officers which is part of superintendent gold 5 district and school safety planning hit the green button on the microphone push button now I'm on you're on I knew I knew I should ask thank you uh good evening to the board superintendent uh Folks at home ships at Sea I'm Nick Pasar Roa I'm your Yarmouth police school resource officer I'm assigned full-time to to Dennis shth Regional High School I'm here with uh Sean Brewer who with his partner Finley is assigned here at the Intermediate Middle School and my partner at the high school from the dentist police John Tibbits was detained unfortunately so it is America school safety week and we're very happy to come to speak to the board and to the public about what we've been doing uh I want to tell you up front that we are not doing things just this week we're simply using this opportunity to report out about some stuff that we've been working on for a while so uh these are things that were on the drawing board and I think that we're in a very fortunate Place uh recently that uh some dominoes are starting to fall in our favor which in Government doesn't happen all that often so this is sort of an exciting time and we're happy to report out on it I'm going to start with talking about our uh very robust Emergency Management plan which we developed in-house that plan um we developed on our own starting in 1996 and we've been updating it every year since then every time an incident pops up of school violence we superimpose that plan over what would have worked or would not have worked in that incident and we really feel strongly that our plan holds up uh really really well and now we're going to change it so let me explain to you why let me first say that we're feeling very Vindicated that the plan is good um sea and I went to a seminar where we saw a presentation on the I love you guys standard response protocol call and I kept nudging Sean saying does this look familiar to you does this look familiar to you he's like yeah it does I think I I said I think they stole our stuff which they didn't do um independent thinking and parallel thinking um brought us to the same conclusion the I love you guys standard response protocol um I'm going try do the slides aren't I look at that that's all of us and when you've been around long as I have you can be a cartoon character too that's about our plan so why are we making the change um anyway I said to Sean this looks like our stuff and this would be a very easy transition for us to make um if our plan so good and it is why would we make a change because there's not not really an operational change to how we're doing things what happened was um there was an incident in 2016 in plat Canyon which is in Bailey Colorado 2006 um uh there was a school Invasion a hostage situation and Emily Keys who was a 16y old student there was killed her parents John Michael and Emily Keys uh started a foundation under name and as far as I understand weren't really sure what to do with the foundation but received a lot of donations from the community to support them and what they discovered that in Colorado where Coline had happened in 1999 um there was a regulation passed by the legis legislature that said every school needs to have a plan but gave them no guidance on what to put in the plan that was true here too we have no legislative guidance we had to make ours up so in 2006 after the plaque Canyon incident 7 years after the Coline incident there still was no template to follow in Colorado The Hub of school violence response so they put together some experts who were drawn into them to them from the incident and from tragedy and they developed this plan um which very closely mirrors ours which means with all the expertise that they could bring to bear and all the resources that they had to research 550 incidents we came to the same conclusions that they did now they're much high pro High much higher profile organization than the DIY Police Services Unit um and so a lot of folks got behind them and the I love you guys which is the name of the foundation based on Emily's last text to her parents um that Foundation is now internationally known and a lot of stuff comes from that that we don't we can't enjoy in our little Pond if you will um so the standard response protocol was developed in Colorado it's spread across the country we're adopting it we have adopted it it's done we've adopted it um and uh I'm getting ahead of my notes I apologize sorry about that at home I'm way ahead of my notes I'm trying to be efficient in time uh so by adopting this for our personnel and our kids the change in what we've been doing for years is Tiny so we're not asking them to do anything different our response is still good it's the same it's the same that they came up with after all their research we get to use their stuff the posters the videos the slideshows when um they update it which they do uh very gingerly after great thought and consideration they don't change it lightly we will enjoy those changes there's we will get the manual and and this has cost us an email from Dr Smith to Colorado that's the cost we printed out some some posters for the classrooms we've been using the videos some of those videos are Public Safety facing we've used those videos to train our Patrol officers on both sides of the river our dispatchers and the fire department is is Distributing those to to their Personnel so everyone knows what we're doing with the standard response protocol this gives us a substantial amount of sustainability so that we don't have to continue to make it up as we go we don't have to depend on our own research our own comparatives we can use their stuff and then we can concentrate on other things we don't have to spend time updating handouts it's all sort of done and we don't have to change what we're doing CU what we're doing is quite quite correct this is actually what you're seeing on the screen here is the poster that's hanging in classrooms it's very succinct I can tell you that for years we've struggled with how to properly distri distribute this to the to the faculty and staff is it because there was T these things go through fads flip charts like a calendar and then there little books and and onepage handouts it's all done it's done for us um all this stuff is available anybody can look at it it's uh the I love you.org website has all of these things this is where we got it it's and it's in employment right now in the district we have completed staff training we have completed student training as I stand here it's done it's in place and now all we have to do is practice it on top of the fact that I love you guys as a is a international internationally recognized program it's in alignment with the Commonwealth's new uh curriculum for First Responders to active shooter incidents the governor decided to U subscribe to a a program developed at the University of te Texas State University I keep saying that wrong Texas State University the advanced law enforcement rapid response training um the municipal police training committee started training that in July to all new recruit officers and over the next six years all police officers firefighters and EMS people will be trained in the uh joint response protocols which is something we've already been been doing locally and what we did in training very closely mirrors the alert stuff and now locally we have alert uh instructors who will carry that forward so we're in alignment with what's going on out there in the world one of the important things that we're going to be enhancing oh here we go it got away from me how do I back it up oh too far come back go back come back I'm giving it all the away this is very sensitive all right pretend you didn't see any of that okay all right so I want to run you really through it really quick we just in the spirit of keeping it simple which is one of the things we really like about the SRP there are five things that we need teachers to to do we don't want this overly complicated the flip chart would tell you how to apply a Band-Aid and how to evacuate the building these are the five things that we want teachers and students to know how to do hold secure lock down evacuate and shelter now it's a little more complicated what we had cuz we had only three things we had lockdown we had evacuate and we had shelter in place now this actually I really like it because it breaks shelter in place into three things and makes us a little more agile which is a good thing and they're not difficult to understand and again all the icons match on the posters and they're very simple so to run you through it really quick what's a hold well if somebody makes a mess in the hallway and we don't want people trudging through it the hold puts people in classroom spaces and it clears the hallways and it allows us to do what we need to do to get that mess cleaned up whether it's some sort of spill that we don't want to track all over the place or if we were to have a medical incident and we needed to get some stretchers and some EMS people in without trying to move through passing time we can move freely and give somebody a little bit of privacy and a little bit of dignity secure is when the problem exists outside of the school building and we bring everyone in and lock all the doors now when I say lock all the doors that's the prescribed thing that you do our doors are already locked we just need to bring everybody in the doors remain locked we're a little heightened vigilance no one comes or goes until we have a handle on the problem so there's a lot of different reasons we might employ that crime that's somewhere near the school up the street maybe in the business area on Station Avenue some sort of crime that we might feel might affect the schools we would secure everyone comes inside we wait until somebody says that's all sorted out and then we can go back to our to what we're doing for you know for some period of time nobody comes in nobody comes out I'll come back to that later lock down for us that's a problem of some sort of violence or some problem inside the building our response there is no change at all it's what we've been doing the whole time evacuation is evacuation there's some Nuance to that but not a lot and not new stuff for us so we've got uh Mass evacuation self- evacuation escorted evacuation all those things come into that and now shelter becomes something um for a higher tier emergency like a tornado so so we would announce that we were Sheltering a place give a direction on where that shelter will take place in the classroom in the hallway in the gym someone would choose what's the best response to that emergency and then we would move into the shelter phase the details that we give to the teachers we spent an hour with them covering all of this and all the questions they might possibly ask the kids got a very abbreviated uh version of that that is compatible with their attention span and uh so the training on this is done and it's just a matter of re refreshing it as we go one of the things that um we're uh communication with parents is a part of this the SRP is like nope we get to engage the parents which was not something we were ever opposed to there's some language in the manual about how that would uh be managed um there are some Nuance to that we're going to put on it that um uh we're not going to call home for everything but we're going to call if we need to clear the hallway for 5 minutes that's not a call home because we don't want to panic everybody but for the other things we certainly would and so there's uh some protocols for managing that effectively that we're going to be following so communication with parents of course is Paramount we need folks to know what uh what's going on and what we need them to do what do we want them to do not this this is an actual scene and this is really a problem and I don't mind telling you that sometimes Public Safety creates this problem although I couldn't find a photo of that to show you clogging the roads hinders response and everyone's first uh inclination to rush to the school to their children is completely understandable but also puts us um in a position where we're working through that as a in contending with crowds showing up and trying to sort through who's who and what needs to get done and it's uh can end up with misallocation of resources uh it can end up with us not being able to reach the scene with the appropriate resources and assets that we need so um most of the guidance in the manual is please don't come to school we'll tell you when we need you to come or where we need you to go and how we will return your children to because uh we're not we want you to have your kids back uh at the right time so that might not be the fastest time but we need to do it right not fast and there's a lot of other things that we need to tease to cross and eyes to dot before we take the kids from place where they're relatively safe to move them out into the open to do that reunification so we're going to do all of those things so um coming to the school is not the first best plan but it might be the first best inclination and we would ask people to resist it and um wait for the communication and then uh help us out so when I talk about dominoes falling in our favor adoption of the SRP puts us in alignment with the state response curriculum um we were in alignment with that anyway with the old plan but now it's official when we talk to the guys who come up from Texas hey do you know I love you guys it's like yes we do and that we know it's not um they're talking about the foundation and not something else the um and it it it's uh they're excited to say well we're compatible with that and now we're excited to say we're compatible with with all of that this also gets gives us an opportunity where it's such a widespread program to um leverage some technology that's been built around the standard response protocol so the icons we've shown you you can see on the screen here on the cell phone match that so this gives us an opportunity to start to move away from pencil and paper solutions for student accountability um and alerting each other with PA systems and some of the other archaic things that we we find ourselves doing in some of the older school buildings um and using smart technology to get the word out that we're responding to an emergency so that everybody knows what they're supposed to do and it's easy to look it's like oh that's the that's the that's the uh secure symbol I know what I'm supposed to do it's right here on my poster next to my desk and it all comes together uh so that's something that's happening Dr Smith has authorized the purchase of the of the software we have a time table for Rolling that out uh I was in a big hurry and wanted it done when we opened and somebody talked me off the ledge um and said that might not be the best again do it right not do it fast um and I I buy that I'm good with that there was a lot of technical stuff so we're about to start figuring out what we need to do we have a meeting end of the month with the company about what we need to do and get ready for and then there's going to be some technical meshing of uh databases so that we can leverage the system to do our student accounting um on the phone instead of yelling at each other over radios or holding cards up and using hand signals around the building we can use the technology to get this stuff done in moments um so that uh that will be a handful of months to get that set up to get it tested uh to get us tested with it do some tabletop exercises and then um have it up and running and trying it out during fire drills is the goal before we're before we're done for the year um as soon as we you can do that practically so um that's happening the other thing this lets us do is uh uh we can integrate the Raptor notification system with our access control system so by doing the notifications in the phone and and alerting everyone the access control system can react to that and we can set alert levels in this in the system to lock out certain cards so if a card became compromised or someone was coming uh into work at a not the start time of school we have some employees that sort of go between schools or they have an abbreviated day they come in at a later time they're not walking into an incident because they didn't get the word they should get the word in their phone and then they should be locked out of the building if we're having a lockdown so they don't end up introducing themselves into the scene in the middle of it in an unprotected fashion um so that again The Dominoes fall a little bit so there's a lot of stuff happening um uh but these are the things that are happening uh and they some of these things have been on the drawing board for quite some time uh the scho the Safety Committee that's been meeting monthly since Dr Smith put it together um we're kind of taking off now uh and getting some stuff done so it's really exciting to report out on this the other thing that we're doing um is we're putting back the band putting the band back together if you will so when I the adopted school is is one of those trendy things that we put together with some grant money a long time ago Circa 2000 that's the that's the there's some late rates in there picture and I'm happy to say there at least two of us that are still working uh Gordon gibbons's on the right side there uh still still around um and Kevin Deon was on the other side of the river when we took the picture uh so there's three of us still working when we had Adopt A School the new regulations around certification for school resource officers from the municipal police training committee and the police uh officer St and training commission uh are pricey and the and the chief's commitment to having somebody in the schools where we have full-time SRO even when some of us have to be reassigned for various reasons um we have nine standby officers uh certified substitutes so when one of us is out they get the nod and they come in they spend the day in the school they have to be certified for that we can't just pick somebody off the day watch who says Hey it' be great to be with the kids for a day they have to be certified if they're going to be in Theo school so we have nine people and some of them have already adopted schools they've already found ownership in some of the elementary schools and they're already doing it so again I can't say this cost nothing because it cost us a week of training two days of in service training for those guys to maintain their certification um but they're already out there and they're already engaging with the schools so we're going to hang a label on it and and give them credit for what they're doing and recognize that we've got a more Rob robust police presence in and around the schools than it might appear to to have and I don't know if we'll ever get together to take another photo like this um I won't look like that though it'll be it'll be a new photo new cast of characters that's for fact um and here's how we've assigned it Alex zaros who was assigned here full-time last year um is the assigned here to the Intermediate Middle School Samantha volini is our backup adopted school officer at the high school Bill Sullivan's going to handle Baker um Jason Bernardo will be handling small School Jefferson Willis is already all over Station Avenue Elementary he's in there all the time and Lieutenant K bden who's the unit commander in the Arma side is uh going to handle St Pas himself um so like I say they're already doing it uh credit we credits due for the initiative um and uh all of these officers and several more on the dentist side who who didn't make the list as an adopt a school officer necessarily will continue to fill in for us and we will uh continue to work hand inand um watching over the schools uh to round out the week and and a little more than the week because we were aware we weren't going to get um all the ground level meetings done this week um but we launched the initiative for safe schools week and we have several appearances at the pack meetings or the PTO meetings however they call it at the individual schools so um tomorrow night uh I'm going to be appearing at Station Avenue Elementary at 6 uh with a similar presentation with some more detail in it uh October Wednesday uh John's going to go over to margarit small and I will be at St P the margarit small appearan is at 4:30 and the St P school is at 5:30 they clearly fall under our umbrella they're on the station Avenue Corridor and we're doing what we can to cooperate because that only benefits everybody Thursday night is uh the high school John and I will be at the high school uh Wednesday November 20th uh Dy Intermediate School Sean and Finley will be handling that and we had don't we didn't uh John was going to lock in a date with uh Mr deppon on Baker John's been detained as I think you can imagine with some other things and so that I didn't end up with that date for the meeting tonight but uh Baker is on the list of places we're going to go so uh we will get that out and we'll post that on our website um and the folks at Baker will get that out to their parents as soon as we've figured out what the date's going to be so um much of this information uh is on our website which we just relaunched um at wwwd pd. us Dy police Detachment Dy pd. us there's a lot of stuff on there it's not everything but it's a lot of stuff so if you're looking for some stuff in the SRP or the meeting schedule or anything else about our mission there's a lot of stuff up there for kids to do research projects on Civics and law enforcement criminal justice um and a lot of information about our mission um that is the uh presentation if you had any questions i' be happy to answer them Sean anything you want to add the dog anybody want to talk just just checking in Sean thank you so much Mr Morris my question would be how can you expect somebody like me who has watched you and the whole police staff do great things come up with innovative ideas before we even know there's a problem you've solved it this has been going on since the very first day that Steve Zares took the Reign that at the high school so we can't be surprised you're we're blessed by because we got good people doing good things right from the get-go thanks thank you March 8th 1987 March 9th 1987 was when Steve exaro started that's the Monday so we've been watching over the high school particularly with the district since then 38 years boy does that make me feel old since I was the head of the high school parents Council Mr Glenn thank you offic pascar Roa um it it's no surprise than just piggy back on what Phil was just saying um I think we already know that you guys are leaders in this area um and I hope we are one of the key dominoes here um not only is the superintendent objective and and he has done a great job pulling you guys together but it's it's one of our top three goals this year um and so we like to think that we're part of The Dominoes of great things that are happening um my questions are oh and I don't want to leave out Finley because I was going to bring my Finley uh doll in my son has a a uh RED Labs too so I always like seeing Finley um but I also think that it goes beyond safety it goes to a lot of things in the district um that are good things that help teachers parents and help the the community overall so um thank you very much for that but um my question is um state and federal funds I want to be able to help you guys I don't want funding to be an issue um however we can help it's one thing but if if there are state and federal funds I know that since evaldi there was some funds that were federally um directed and I want to be able to either get you get grant writers or find a way to get you more money I don't ever want to sit here and say we could have did more because that means something bad happened already I want to support you guys in anything you ask for and let's see how we can get it um I did have a question about the cell phone policies and the difference between secure versus lockdown because a lot of people when they think you're going to be securing the building for something that's happening outside correct and lock down is something that's happening inside but a lot of people in the public might say the school's in a lockdown when it's really in Secure mode correct in during secure mode you've defined it quite right the problem is outside of the building and what's going on inside the building is business as usual so people will be passing the classes they'll be going to the nurse and doing all the normal things that that happens inside of a school building we just aren't letting m in or out at that time so what would be disrupted is parents trying to come into the building and trying to get in they won't be able we won't be letting them in cuz we're secure kids trying to get out well we won't be letting them out right now get the high school if they were going to go to their uh job sites that will be suspended for the moment they'll be and maybe canceled while we sort out what's going on outside a lockdown is a very different thing we're dealing with a much higher tier problem inside the building so that's an important distinction and then the detailed training that we do for the staff and for the kids it's it's uh it's a couple actual there's a couple of slides that say don't get confused between the two because people do is there anything we can do in regard regards to the um cell phone policy to be consistent with both the principles and this um plan is there anything we can do for you that we adopt a policy so that the parents the teachers everybody knows we all know that our policy is that that the cell phones can't be disruptive in the class right but in the case of an emergency it could be very helpful so I'm wondering what your there are Provisions in the plan for cell phone use by students at the right time what we don't want is everybody getting their phone out from the from the container and making phone calls immediately we need certain things to happen right away and at a right at the right time we do want kids to contact their parents and send them texts that says I'm okay and I will let you know I will be back to you in 10 minutes and then have a controlled amount of information flowing for a couple of reasons first of all mad texting back and forth is going to jam up the the circuits which we're going to start using those circuits as part of our response and that could hinder our response um and uh all that activity could give away somebody's location so we want to be really careful about these things so yes there's an opportunity for the cell phones to be used to communicate with parents in a in a measured way um so that we can reassure people that people are okay and that we can at some point give information about how we're going to reunite everyone I thank you so much I I really honestly believe and I've said this for a while but with this I I can firmly say it I not only do I think that we can be the local leaders that we already are I think we can be the state leaders I think we can be the national model and I hope and I think that you could be the one to lead it but I think all the players in involved we could be the place where people are using us as a national model on school safety so that's what I'm striving for thank you Marilyn so I'm a retired educator so I remember the early days the paper and pencil Y and a colored marker or colored paper you throw under the door and and all of that system so what I learned from that and or when experience with that and we've had I experienc active drills um is that students and teachers were not always sure when it was over and how to communicate it there was like this Log Jam and then there was this code that language that came over the intercom and we went is that the right language so how do you address that is it unhold or do you have different sort of It's Over Now messages depending upon the age or grade or well depends on what what mode we've gone into so if if we've gone into a a hold or a secure we just get on the PA system and say okay that's over now and then we can go about our business we could start moving about the building again in the hallways on a hold and um on a secure we could have a a controlled release uh where we're you know individually letting kids out or at some point we would have some sort of standown and we would communicate that uh on a lock down on a lockdown there's a different methodology that I'm not going to say into a microphone onto a camera but there is a different methodology and I would be surprised if you found somebody who didn't know what it was so um who one of our employees I'm pretty sure that because we've been doing it for years we're not changing it just because we this SRP does it the same way we've been doing it so um no no changes with any of that and I feel like it's fairly definitive um they know when it's over Jenny thank you so much for the presentation um can you tell tell me a little bit about how this works or doesn't work in some of our buildings you know we've got newer buildings older buildings obviously you know I would hope that this building has some really upto-date technology that works well for you in terms of getting messages out keeping the you know the building secure physically secure and things like that the high school maybe also has some good stuff in place but you know we've got some older buildings and so you know are there things in the works that we need to be concerned with in terms of changes additions um repairs that need to be made to certain buildings to make this as effective as possible and also how do you sort of audit what's going on with these systems how are you doing checks or how will you be doing checks throughout the year to make sure that staff remembers the training and is doing what they're supposed to be doing that the buildings are remaining secure in the way they're supposed to I know that those are a lot of questions but yes they were let's see um I'm known for my question now so I'm I'm going to say that we work very very closely with um District facilities there are some of our older buildings are challenging there's there's stuff that that's broken and we're getting it fixed as quick as we can that's true of every building new new and old so if we're identifying shortcomings in the facility in the physical plant we're making note of those and we're doing the best we can to make the repair effectively so that's the physical plant stuff the the systems itself should be working regardless of the condition of the building as long as the doors lock and you know they close right and as long as those things are working the protocols should work fine um the question eight was sort of auditing throughout the year I'm glad yes yeah we um well the we are this is the kind of thing that brings us closer with our friends at the fire fire service um couple of staff changes people are into this now we say SRP like oh yeah we like that SRP thing they' have to do four fire drills a year and they like to do one of them as a lockdown drill which is permissible by fire code they have can have one alternative drill and they get excited about doing that with us when they come over to do a fire drill where we consult with them to make sure that it's going the way it's supposed to go so during the fire drills there's an assessment phase and our discussions are to enhance that assessment to not just pulling the handle and putting a clock on how long it takes to get out and Counting how many windows people forgot to close but we'll be in a position where they can go around and say how many kids do you have and that will be part of the drills moving forward once we get some of this technology up and running um in terms of lockdown stuff we bring an army of people to the schools to do the to do the lockdown so they're unannounced until we roll up as a as a battalion of people and then people go oh I guess today maybe but um it's before that they don't know um and so we we will roll up as quietly and as secretly as we can and then we'll activate the system and then we assign eight rooms and a common area to each team which would include a police officer or the member of the fire service fire inspector and a school person and they'll assess it how long did it take them to get it done is the door locked are the lights out can we find anybody are people safe and we've got criteria that that we brief them on to what to look for and they write it down and we turn all that information over to the principal of the building to handle so if there's some deficiencies they to they address those inhouse with their personnel if there's attaboys because we do have adab boys they say hey adab boy that was a great job on that you did a nice job and we we appreciate it U and then if we identify mechanical failures that's a big part of it something was broken something didn't work and um then we'll make a note of that and that heads over to facilities and the facilities team sometimes accompanies us with the drills depends what they've got going on they can't make every make it every time but they will get a copy of hey these are the broken things the work orders will be issued and the repairs will will be made as best the repairs can be made so those are the systems that we've had in place for a really long time we have no intention of really changing any of that stuff because we're getting the information I think that we need to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do and we're fixing what's supposed to get fixed um and as best we can did I miss anything no that was great I just have one followup which might actually be a little bit for Dr Smith which is you know when we have new students and new staff come in during the course of the year is this training that you've already given to staff and students is this given to or how do we make sure that students and staff coming in throughout the year are given the same training so adoption of the SRP puts us let me start with training because I did want to say about the training because that's an important thing so um we do an hour at every school before generally before we open but sometimes it takes place at a staff meeting right after this year we we had to spread it out just a little bit so um the format that we've been following since Dr Smith came in we're visiting every school we're doing an hour with everybody as far as I can tell it's it's everybody the lunch ladies and the C the uh secretaries and the the Paras the and the teachers and the administrators at one time they get the hour and we're all using the same the same presentation and we fan out across the district and we do a lap and that's how we're doing it the SRP adoption is going to make it easier for us to get say substitutes and new staff who come in because we can we can hand them the very succinct piece of paper that has the plan on it and we can there's a there's a seven-minute video that we're going to show to parents when we fan out this week and and in the future to the PTO meetings and the pack meetings um so they can see what what the 7-minute student training video looks like which is pretty on point I mean it's geared for kids but um it's it's a it gets you where we want to go so it should make it easier for us to do the midseason replacement training Dr Smith just a couple other things that I know uh Nick and I have talked about which is uh specifically around the the buildings uh where and it is related to the school commit committee's goal that you know we part of this whole bigger effort too is is this is part of a plan that we have to sit down to and look and it'll be part of the work that the safety team will do or a smaller subsection of that in relation to the work around Capital planning as well is to look at to your point like this building state-of-the art has everything in it it could possibly need so like a simple thing to look at would be like cameras so this building has I don't even know the number Sean you could probably tell me 400 yeah so about 400 cameras in it right Ezra baker has I think one um so but and I think em small and station a and basically the same boat so then it's about and then and and the high school has more cameras but they're getting close to like end of life right so and then that's two different um approaches where the high school there's probably a couple places we could use a couple more cameras but a replacement process for cameras is different than not having any of the wiring or the backbone or the infrastructure for cameras like you need to run all the wire you need to have like this I don't know I'm kind of outside my Lane here but like you know probably need some servers and some pieces to actually get the whole system set up uh so then we you know we had a very brief conversation on having an idea of like what is the Baseline of what an elementary school should have as far as cameras like where should we have them because each of those schools is laid out differently but you know do we need does the cafeteria the playground like what are the the areas that should be covered because then once we the team determines what areas should be covered then we you know working with David we can then start to design an RFP that would get us a sense of what the scope of that that that's going to cost and then we can start to put that into a capital plan um but it's starting to look about around those things from a safety perspective because we agree as a team that those are things that should be in place um and we shouldn't have to wait for a brand new building um in order to get there and then just one additional piece around the audits I know just this is just a conversation I've had with with the Chiefs which is around uh and Nick did mention it somewhere there in his presentation around then doing some tabletop exercises while we do drill around specific things we don't really drill necessarily like a massive actuation where we might have to move to another site eventually might it be I know other districts have done some either larger or smaller scale uh things where they've mimicked some version of that maybe we'll eventually get to that but we can at least put the right people in a room and tabletop and exercise like that and talk through what would it look like so those are places that the safety team will start to go and because we do have to talk through things like if we did have to move kids off the station Avenue uh because there was something something that happened to one of the buildings where we had to evacuate it and it was such an event where you had to bring in all the public safety folks and Station Avenue was closed so you couldn't bring parents here and we had to bring kids somewhere else where would we go who would need to be involved how would we do that logistically how would we R do reun and it's not just the schools right we're going to have to involve police and fire we might have to involve DPW like so who's going to be involved how that's all going to work so like talking through that before we find ourselves in that situ it's very unlikely that we'll ever find ourselves in that situation but I don't want to be figuring that out in the middle of it thank you so much for presenting to us it's it's important to know uh what's going on and the changes I know you love talking publicly and we love seeing you we'll say that so that's more important but you know as many members have said school safety is is is very important to us it's you know making sure that they kids don't have to worry about it and people know what the plan is right that's most important yes and that we have a plan right y cuz we know other places have not in the past that's right and we appreciate all the work that all of you have done or our partners in Dennis our partners in Yarmouth how how you work together to make sure that our kids are safe so that you know they can worry about the most important thing about learning and having fun right and keeping our all of our students and staff you know staff's important too safe every day and you know I feel that you know you guys have a a unique role in the the building yes you're a police officer that's what you know your your full-time job is but you have a different job in the schools and you talked about the adop adoped cops and the role they play in the students everyday lives um as a role model as a leader as someone they can confide in and feel safe to go to right a lot of things you talk about is people don't feel comfortable talking to police especially kids um but having that opportunity to have someone that they know that is a police officer that they can speak to if they felt they have it is is really important so the the relationships that that all of you have built and continue to build really helps our community um so we appreciate you guys Dr Smith I just want to add one more uh thing which is really just a shout out to the three gentlemen sitting here plus uh Alex last year I sat I don't know sometime early in my time um sitting uh meeting with them last year and a lot of the stuff that you know you see actualized here um and stuff that will be coming sometime down the road you know they handed me a list of stuff right that they that they had already analyzed already had been on you could sex see stuff going back dates multiple years right so you know it's it's it's th thinking that's been going on for a long time um my job has really just been to use my position to pull the right people together and I don't know trying to think of a good metaphor put a little wind behind the sales use my position to put a little wind behind the sales um but even just like getting the I love you guys part moving forward you know once I said yes you know they've really taken it and run with it so um I just want to make sure the appropriate credits going to the appropriate place thank you yeah I know we talked about the Chiefs I know both Chiefs are fully supportive of what you guys are doing and the schools all for and the fire as well I know that you know working together is important because we are one Community you know uh even though there's a pond or a road or Bridge or something that separates us but uh River there we go it's the river where River could see I'm not from here thank you thank you so much well thank you we're just you know this is the week that we're talking about it but we're doing it every day this is what we're doing so thanks for having us uh let's do this again sometime and talk to you soon whenever you need and we'll be out at the schools thank [Applause] you next we have our FY 24 closeout which I believe will be Mr Flynn it's a wi you packet I did a year end summary of the um FY 24 revenue and expense size on the revenue side we had a couple of good positive things that happened towards the end of the year which led to revenue coming in a bit higher about a million dollars higher than the re than the projected budget for the year one of the ones most notably was the transportation age which actually didn't even come in until July there three components to that the regular Regional School Aid this homeless Transportation reimbursement and also Foster Care Transportation reimbursement about 95% of that is a regular Regional School Aid we knew it was going to go up from 1.5 to about 1.8 million I was pleasantly surprised to see when they all three of them came in it was just a hair over $2 million charter school aid came in $300,000 less than projected we discussed that before the charter school assessment on the expense side was also right around $325,000 less so those two offset each other revenues were a little bit lower than projected miscellaneous Revenue which is primarily the solar panels at the different schools the rooftops the Dennis landfill some of that's just timing we get checks monthly from a lot of them sometimes you might end up getting 11 checks in one year and 13 checks in the next year but it's been trending up a little bit the past couple years which is good and then the biggest one is the earnings on investments the banks have been good to everybody I know there's been a recent rate cut that's projected to be other ones but we're going to enjoy it while we can and took in quite a bit of money on our earnings on investments for the year then on the expense side we ended up the year with right around $515,000 not spent out of the budget now again over 300,000 of that figure is the money not spent on the charter school assessment so you figure everything else aside that's within the operating budget was really about 200,000 out of 76 million that wasn't spent and the biggest driver in that at the end of the year also it's it's a good problem to have is the state also sent us additional circuit breaker funds to help offset the cost of special education especially out of District special education but the caveat was the money they sent us had to be spent by June 30th so do some journal entries transferred bills that were paid use the money that the state sent us but up until the point where they sent us that money in around May beginning of June you know I was planning on us needing to spend that money because we weren't positive how much or if we were going to get the additional funds in the current year but then once we received them we obviously spent them and then didn't need it in the local budget so then I said the Char of schools at a little over 300,000 special LED we didn't need to spend out of our own local funds about 200,000 led to 500 call it $15,000 not spent to close out last year and we're been working with the auditor right now to do our Department of Revenue submitt to to do and get the excess and deficiency officially certified probably takes them a little while to do it they prioritize cities and towns over Regional districts but we hope to get that in by October 31st as the goal technically we have until November 30th but we want to try and get in by October 31st because the earlier we get it in once they start doing regionals and other districts will'll be at the top of the line so before we move on to this year anybody have any questions on closing out last year chenny what's the this line is 7,000 the fixed assets so that's money that's in the budget for kind of smaller capital projects or repairs throughout the year the money is budgeted there and I may have I said the previous meeting that but when it comes to spending it I charge it to the line that makes sense under the department of Ed accounting so for example part of that might have been let's say I'm trying to think like H exactly so there were say like there were about $30,000 worth of you know HVAC repays I can think off of one thing at the top of my head at Baker School which really wasn't budgeted for but we had to take care of it that's a 4,000 expense because it comes under you know operations maintenance and utilities so when we paid that $30,000 bill I charged it to the 4,000 account but in my mind I know that I'm taking it out of the 7,000 that we have as a larger pool there's also some technology things that Ross needed for the district some technology upgrades that were not recurring every year things there was like once every five seven year life cycle upgrades he needed because they were to support education and it's technology that's a 2,000 expense so money was spent for technology in 2000 but coming from the money originally budgeted for 7,000 fixed assets type of thing and also you know the Top Line Administration with a plus 200,000 and then we to some of the negatives on the instruction that was also technology related there was a technology budget under Administration but was was spent on iPad replenishment which again is for students it's instructional so that expense through technology was in 2000 and it was already in the technology World under Ross under the 1,000 account but I wanted the expense to reflect what he was spending his technology Budget on so I recorded it in 2000 so when we reported to the states in the right spot but his budget as it was broken up the start of the year had technology money in the 1,000 account and I thought it was more important to spend it accurately for what we spent the money on record I should say where it was actually spent so that's that's the bulk of some of those pluses and minuses too is reflecting the expenses where they actually occurred with the correct account number that the state expects to see at the end of the year Mr new thank you David where do those funds reside at this point those excess funds that were left over at the end of the year so the year ends on June 30th so that's part of the submission to the Department of Revenue where we give them mountains of information that shows every piece of Revenue every piece of expense that came through the district for the prior year they focus primarily on the general fund but they look at everything and then that's what the net difference minus and adjustments that they do of Revenue minus expenses for the year gets certified as your excess in deficiency hopefully you never have a deficiency so certified as your excess at the end of the year then those are the funds that you as the committee you then vote to appropriate towards whatever you wish going forward Mr Glenn yes thank you David um I just had a quick question on the transportation it says 563,000 remaining is that what is remaining if we were fully funded our regional transportation mon and if not what percentage if you know have they given us of our regional transportation money so I know I know looks a little backwards when you're looking at revenue and you see a remaining amount that's a negative because it's in parenthesis that's because 563,000 came in more than we budgeted to come in so they actually I don't have the exact percentage off the top of my head but the state started off the year a whole year prior that we would get 1.4 1.5 million just on the regional part ended up sending us almost 1.9 million so I can't say it was fully funded but it was pretty well close to being fully funded last year because they sent us those extra 3 to 400,000 that they themselves hadn't first anticipated sending to us and other regionals they take the whole pie that they have with the state and then divide it up proportionately you know based on enrollment and expenses across all the Regional Schools great we'll add to the next spot the FY 25 quarterly report so now we just have the same format for how we're doing so far this year in 205 right one I don't okay so again with the you know the top half being the assessments you know they are what they are so between received and projected I have 100% obviously assumed to be coming in for those as well as the chapter 78 you see the transportation Aid we have a budgeted figure of 1.8 million this year because that's what came out on the Cherry sheets when we were setting the budget for this year Aid to the charter schools and I already lowered it down to 426,000 based on what they've been sending us monthly looks like we're going to take in about $100,000 less than that but again that tends to transfer into lower expenses as well so if they send us less Aid it's usually based on because our expenses are also lower so if we receive $100,000 less than Aid I would expect that by the end of the year will roughly receive $100,000 less than the expenses that they're going to charge to us and so far to date we haven't received any Medicaid funds those come in quarterly and it's you submit quarterly and it takes a good six to 10 weeks for it to come in so by the time the first quarter is over and the submission has gone in we haven't received any funds yet this year but that's typical for this time of year and the miscellaneous revenue is primarily the solar panels to date 150,000 in the local earnings on investments basically through September because we get all the statements on the last day of the month it's 198,000 so far year to date and the school committee did vote to transfer 500,000 of end last year towards this budget so I just put that in as receives because we're paying ourselves so that's already gone towards supporting the budget for this year so everything's looking healthy through the first quarter or so already this year on the revenue side no no surprises and nothing nothing going going to come up short in the expense side the same thing fortunately there's been nothing surprising so far year to date one thing that's you know if we jump right to the bottom with the T and other schools 2.7 remaining that's main of the timing getting the funds actually encumbered for all of the students that are in the programs we in the process right now with special ed getting purchase orders that's put into the system for all the placements making sure that we take the daily rate of the program times the number of days in the program and what program they're in and just getting them encumbered by vendor or placement as well so we paid the summer bills outright but we're working on making sure the open purchase orders for the encumbered column reflect where the students actually are and it's just taking you know quite honestly this thing a little bit longer than I'd hop i' get the actual purchase orders in there but even with that 2.7 million most of that will be spent but I do not believe we have a shortfall in any way in that based on the placements we have right now and every other line looking at the unencumbered amounts seem very healthy for this time of the year and I don't see anything there that's jumping out at me either great any questions for quarterly 25 excellent we move on to the next one the subcommittee representatives lead in report school committee leads on to the board of selectman no Marilyn says she has nothing from the town of Dennis Mr Glenn for town of Yarmouth uh yes well there was no meeting last week but tomorrow's meeting um the subject of the school resource officers will be on the agenda or is on the agenda excuse me is on the agenda so uh I think that's relevant to what we were talking about tonight so anybody who has any wishes or concerns about the school resource officers uh tomorrow night at the yamit selectman's meeting thank you the school building committee anything to update Dr Smith or David um we had a meet short meeting last Thursday yeah thank you uh the the bid numbers are in um and commodore uh is organizing them um and we should have by the next we have weekly meetings so by the next um meeting we should have solid set of numbers to uh be able to start to make some decisions on and move forward so the they they had a timeline to get the the bids out get the bid numbers back in so that's where we are currently in the process this is for the sorry for the fields for those who aren't um that was all inside my head yeah related to related to the related to the um redesign yes but this isn't a conversation just with my friends this is a public meeting um so related to the fields um uh uh redesign and fix uh to the uh to the the fact that they're not draining so that that that continues to move on as far as the actual building uh there's very little uh left um in the punch list uh we're very we're down to very very like I've said before very small items I know I just conversation with um uh the school resource officers before they were the one of the vendors was down to work on one of the control pad issues that we've been having um related to you know it's it's like a the building is kind of like anybody who bought a new car in the last five years is the computers control everything right so when we've had a couple of um issues with uh like some of the Alarm Systems it's it's they're trying to trace is it in the is it in the coding or is it like essentially like a faulty wire somewhere they think they've tracked it actually down to one of the pads um is faulty and that was setting off the sending a faulty code to to the computer system which was setting off the alarms uh so they think they've uh fixed figured out the culprit to that problem so that's again we're down to the as far as the the main building goes we're down to very few um few small problems we did have a uh a big issue with the um uh with the waste system but that that got resolved that was two weeks ago week ago week and a half ago week and a half ago um but that did get resolved um pretty quickly due to our crack facilities team they were they were right on it great thank you and our policy subcommittee had met Marilyn notes from that uh just quick with um Glenn Martin and I are members of the policy subcommittee we've met twice so far once since September 11th and October 9th at the first meeting we sort of did our nuts and bols ground rules uh we decided to meet the second Wednesday of the month via Zoom zo and the other thing that we've worked on so far is you get into the language is what is a policy how is it developed reviewed and adopted that's where we are thank you so much and next we have the superintendent report all right thank you very much put that's that's all my fault all right so uh just starting with recognitions uh just want to recognize our director of Health Services Kristen DWI uh last week uh she attended the Yarmouth uh Board of Health meeting uh they had invited her to attend and she was she attended uh to update them they wanted some information on the district's work with families uh to support vaccination so she was attended the meeting she provided them with information about our our practices and our protocols uh along with the hard giving the the Board of Health uh information about all the hard work that our nurses do with our families and local pediatricians to really keep dy's vaccination rates in line with the county you know I just want to recognize her for going this extra bit to keep our public uh informed of the work that we do here in Dy um and I know she happen to give up her pickle ball game which she loves very much in order to attend that meeting so I just want to give give her a little extra kudos for for doing that for for us as a district uh next uh at the last meeting uh committee had asked for an update on the the busing uh schedule so uh David actually had sent out a little survey to the uh School leaders over the last couple of weeks to collect some information on where um drop off times are landing at each of the schools and big picture the mornings seem to be operating uh pretty smoothly getting in uh all the buses largely on time there's a couple of buses at Baker um that are still struggling to get all get to Baker on time and the buses largely that have to sort of make the longest runs um to the farthest parts of Dennis and back to that you know essentially across Dennis and back um so we continue to need to work with a bus company on shortening those times uh and getting those buses there uh earlier uh afternoon still tend to be a little problematic especially at the K to3 schools uh we need to do some digging into that with the bus company uh you know our biggest challenge with afternoons is we run into the the the end of the workday on the teachers contract so the newly negotiated teachers contract has a 345 end of the day we've put things into place for coverage for the students um as far as we have we're paying our hourly staff to to man um or person it's a it's a a gender neutral term for having people there available to to support the kids after um 345 so that teacher staff don't don't have to be there past 3:45 um but we really need to get to the root cause so that we can get the buses in and out in the time that they need to be there so we that continues to be um unresolved at this time and we do need to continue to work with the bus company to figure that piece out and you know figure out is it is it just a k 3 timing piece or is it somewhere you know is it because it starts at the high school time and that just sort of um dominoes the rest of the chain we're still working on figuring figuring that out I I spoke with them five star today and you know the Bott the bottleneck if you will in the morning and the afternoon it's really getting in and out of this school because it's the largest school as far as number of kids riding the bus at once so getting 29 full buses say in the morning in dropped off get back out onto the road dropping off all within you know 10-minute time frame then again at the afternoon school dismisses we got to get 600 600 of the 900 kids at least on a bus get the buses out you know all 29 don't fit in the driveway at once so a couple end up waiting so those kids already get on a little bit later they try to line up the buses so that the first ones out are the ones that then have the longest routs to then get out to their Elementary routs but sometimes times we've all seen the parking lot not that it's small but just to get 29 buses in and out in the morning then in the afternoon that's what's taking up some of the time so I know they're already looking at that is there any way we can you know say hey I'm bus five I need to be in front of bus 12 and if bus 12 is here just kind of hang out and wait so then it just lets them out just that little bit earlier so they're trying to look at those types of things to tweak them and hopefully that that can get us the minutes that we need because the rest of it seems to be really by and large running pretty well it's just a little Elementary hiccup in the morning and the afterno afternoon again I think it stems from getting the buses in and out of this property uh let's see next uh had uh so uh there would have been an additional request to get some more information on the building use policies related to um this building was specific uh and the group that's using this building that we have a long-term agreement with uh for that's using this the auditorium in particular on Thursdays Friday Fridays and Sundays so the committee has a couple of things in their packet so they have the the policy uh related the the school committee's policy related to community use of facilities then you also have the procedures and guidelines facilities use this is what so if an outside group uh goes in through our um our system which called operations Heroes to request a space this is what they uh get as part of that and then you have actually a a copy of the contract with this particular uh because we entered into a long-term agreement we drafted up a separate contract so you'll actually have that as well um for the uh for the for the committee to review um and ask any specific questions obviously that you might have um and you know there the the committee has gotten questions about I've gotten questions about so just full full disclosure like some concerns were raised in the community regarding the ability of uh the school students and staff to be able to use the space um if we were entering into this long-term agreement um so I met with staff from which uh the concerns I was sort of traced back sort of where the concerns originated about a week week and a half ago and and to sort of understand what the concerns were where they were centered and the concerns were largely forecasting that certain things wouldn't be able to happen so things like uh traditional events like the spring musical um spring concerts um practice um things like the Dance dances here at the school Etc and information that folks didn't have was that events like that had been discussed with this group prior to um us entering into this agreement anyways and the group had agreed to be flexible with certain dates uh I also had a meeting so I got specific dates from that working group brought it to the the leaders actually had a meeting with the leaders from the uh organization uh in question and had a meeting with them this morning um and we're essentially the short version is that everything's all worked out in that the dates of the musical we're going to relocate um the group out of this Auditorium to an alternative space in the district and um there was some concerns around some ability to rehearse over the weekends and we found by both groups being able to be a little bit flexible with the times we were able to find times that um where the dates overlap but the times don't overlap and um the group is also willing to move on another date um there's a it was a Thursday conflict in June um for for a spring concert and the group is a was willing to move um on that date so that the concert can stay on that same date um but then there was one because that particular time of the year was hard to reschedule on the school side but there's another date in the middle of the year that the school was more able to move their Thursday event to a different one of the Monday through Wednesday nights um uh so anyways so all those dates uh have been re uh anyways the the group has moved or shifted their times so that um we can have all the events that the staff was worried they weren't going to be able to have um as far as the dances you know we can see the space here the double doors close completely cordoning off that space of the building which is why we picked that space to begin with uh we often have multiple groups using any of our buildings at the same time um sometimes the Gym's being used by an adult league and there's another event going on inside the buildings this is fairly common practice for us in the district um to have facilities being used by one group and by another group at the same time um and you know had a conversation with the building principal about how we could adjust some practices with the dance you know the concern was that those bathrooms down that hallway are used for the dance to me I understand that's a change in practice but not an unsurmountable task in order for us to be able to hold a dance we can use other bathrooms in the building um in order to hold the dance um in this space and we can still cordin off that whole section and still have a secure space um um for the students um because those doors close and lock on this side um so people can't enter um I don't if you want me to pause there or I can go on to the last item I think we could take a pause and take some questions that maybe have not answered whether about the policy or a specific group but Jenny sure um so I've had a lot of Outreach there's been a lot of Outreach to me and I'm sure other members of the committee from staff and parents with multiple concerns about the arrangement and so a you addressed a lot of it just now and I just want to make sure that we are clear on a few different things um and that we're being transparent with the families and and staff about a lot of this um the first being you know the primary concern I've heard from a lot of people is that you know obviously this building is was built and paid for by the community and you know we want it to be used by the community but that first and foremost it's for our students um and you know I see right in our policy um you know that priority uh is given to school activities um and also that in the um in the procedure and guidelin it says when scheduling conflicts occur preference will be given to organizations or events directly associated with the school district so we've got it on paper we just need to make sure this is happening in practice and you know I know you had a meeting this week and sorted out some conflicting dates but I guess that takes me back to sort of a bigger picture question which is you know how these things are being scheduled and you know for years I've I've wondered a lot about and I've asked over the years a little bit I think about our calendar system you know just as a parent it can be challenging I know to look to try to figure out when something is happening because if you go to the website are you looking at the district calendar are you looking at each individual school calendars are you going to into Google like there's calendars all over the place and each one seems to have different information so um you've already made great strides I think in your first year in streamlining Communications and I know we're working on community engagement and technology and all these things but I think this is all tied together right how these things are scheduled and when by whom and who gets this type of notice to make sure that you know before you even enter into an agreement like this that we know what's on the calendar for these schools or at least the staff and and parents and everybody know you know things are going to be scheduled by a certain date and I know it's hard to manage this you know so finely but that there's a good system in place for managing these calendars to make sure that these that we can avoid these conflicts as much as possible because it is important I think to to be able to rent out this space you know this is good income for the district and it will help us pay for programs I'm sure so um the second concern I've heard a lot is about um how our facilities are left by groups that come in to use our space um and I know it says you know right in our policy that you know they have to you know dispose of trash properly and maintain things and they're only supposed to be using our Sound and Lighting system um if operated by a school approved event manager and a lot of things are in here right so all facilities should be left in the manner that they were found so this is another thing that we've got on paper and I just want to make sure it's happening in practice that you know groups are coming in whatever they bring in they're taking with them they're not leaving things behind because you know regardless of what it is you know this group you know maybe the things they're leaving behind is just you know paperwork or signs or something that you know we that our staff needs to dispose of but in other cases a group coming in what they leave behind could be you know more onerous to deal with so making sure that there's a good system in place for enforcing these policies um and I don't know if it's our facilities department or if there are certain building Liaisons or an admin within the schools who handles those things but making sure that we have a good plan for that um and the third big concern I heard was so sorry so you know whether they're bringing things in taking them out that the property is left exactly the way they found it um and that includes their use of you know any of our they should probably shouldn't I would think under this be using any of our supplies you know but obviously they're able to use equipment if it's used according to this procedure the third concern which you just addressed um is the sort of co-mingling right of students and folks coming in to use the facil this facility or any of our school facilities so um I saw a lot of comments from parents about oh you know are people coming into our buildings being Corey checked you know the way they would during the school day things like that so again just maybe for the sake of parents watching this meeting or you know going to look at our minutes later want to make sure we understand that what the process is for that you know in this building if an outside group is using the auditorium and you lock that door then there's no intermingling and that's not a concern but if you have an outdoor an outside group using the gym and you have students in here having a meeting you know how do how does that work how do we ensure that our students are safe when we've got other folks coming in to use our building we talked about this a little bit when you were talking about maybe having voting here um and luckily this build building has this door here but other buildings might not have such an easy way to cordon off uses by different groups so checking in on the process for that please okay all right so starting with scheduling um so we do have a system for scheduling and so part of the challenge with the conflict was um certain things were in the scheduling system and certain things weren't in the scheduling system so that was part of the the meeting with the staff that um that like so when we sat down to meet with the group like all the dates that we put in weren't so we use the we use operations hero as our scheduling system for facilities things that occur after hours and so some things were in and some things weren't in and that's we sort of uncovered a little bit about where that process might have fallen down um but we do do have a system that we use so and and it's and it is booked out in advance and so we do so if two people are looking for the same place at the same time yeah the school gets priority but it also when we enter into a long-term agreement with somebody we can't then be like oh like you're we're going to like once we're in a contract we can't we can't void that contract either right so this is was part of once this group got in the times were all available and at the same time they've been a great partner so they were willing to say because we said there might be some dates in the spring we know there's going to be a spring musical we don't have the con dates yet and they were like we'll work with you and we know there might be some other conflicts they said we'll work with you and just when I sat down and had this meeting five minutes in the conversation like yeah yeah yeah no problem and so they've been a good partner this whole time in that and it was part of our initial meetings and our initial conversation so we have a system and system's only as good as the people are using it and some parts of it fell down that's all I can really say to that condition of the building yeah there's expectations there's two layers to this so part of that meeting with the staff was some um some concerns around their space that the way their space was being left there's two layers to that part of that is um the people using this space they take all their stuff with they bring all their stuff in they take all their stuff out and we have we pay to have custodians on staff and so it we're it's delineating between what's the responsibility of our custodial team to clean up certain things you know there was you know I got some pictures of like a door propped open with a trash can well that's really part of our custodial team to make sure so it's and part of the challenge and going back to your initial question it is our our facilities team's job to oversee that component so we learned some things as a part of that meeting um when this first started it was in the summer when the classrooms weren't set up so our custodial team may not necessarily know how the classrooms are supposed to be set up appropriately so we have to we learned some things which we work to rectify after the meeting whatever it was week and a half two weeks ago and then the third piece is about who's in the building as far as facilities use goes uh you know after hours do we have a Corey check policy no because the kids aren't in the building traditionally um so do we check for the men's league that comes in and uses no do we um do we Cory check for this no um it's not it's not the same it's not required um it's a different it's a different use Al together um you know if um the PTO wants to use the space we don't C Corey check the PTO um it's not um it's not it's not our policy it's not our practice um and I'd be hard pressed to find a school district where it is uh because it's it's a it's a community building uh the taxpayers paid for the building so a taxpayer who wants to use the space and goes through appropriate process to use the space it' be hard to be hard pressed to deny um on that level if the school committee wants to go to make that a policy then but I don't know how you'd Cory check every person who's going to come in and it would create a significant administrative burden especially for a large group that's going to use the space yeah I mean I'm I'm not suggesting we do that that was just a question think about like the you know the dolphin Dash you got to core check everybody that's doing the dolphin Dash no I mean I think that poses a a logistical problem I mean who's going to pay for that how do we you know who who's going to do that I mean I'm Master jesting we do that and I think maybe more it's just about communication with our families and saying you know whether it's at the beginning of the year or throughout the year saying you know our buildings are often used by the community you know and especially you know can things be on the calendar like that like you know so that parents know like oh there's you know the senior softball players are using the gym you know the senior citizens players are using the gym every Monday in the winter whatever like could that be on a calendar so that maybe parents could look on the calendar and say hey oh I know my kid has play rehearsal tonight I also see that there's you know something going on in the gym you know just so parents are aware what's going on in the building while their kid is there yeah and I'll I don't know the answer to that question but I will see um like a maybe there's like a public view of the operations Hero count or something yeah I'll I I I have to look in into it I don't know the answer to the question thank you yeah sorry Mr new then Mr Glenn thank you Mr chairman um just a little further definition so if an outside vendor comes in wishes to rent the building uh do I understand you correct that you're going to check the calendar first before you make go work into an agreement with the outside correct yeah okay so if there is a school event that is scheduled it will take priority and precedent correct is there uh following up is there a opportunity for the faculty whose rooms are being used to take a picture of the room that's set up and give that to the uh custodial group so that they know what to do at the end of the day that was that was the way we just left it with the at the end of the last meeting uh with that particular group yeah okay and and with this particular group are they responsible for any of the cleanup or is the custodial staff responsible for the cleanup uh so yes and so for the general cleanup like what would be custodial cleaning there the custodial so I don't know how to so cleaning the bathroom cleaning the um like foot traffic that is the custodial Team Cleaning emptying the trash cans that type of stuff that's all the custodial crew they bring in some of their own musical equipment they bring in um uh some other items for the for the service so they bring that in they bring that out that's all on the the organization um desks cabinets chairs is that custodial or is that the outside sources responsibility if things are moved yeah so it should be set up so like if I uh so the simple analogy would be if I needed this I need this room set up for this um and then I need it broken down to put back as a cafeteria for tomorrow morning that's custodial so same same applies for an outside group outside group needs a room set up with 25 chairs all facing the wall That's C it goes in as a cust request a custodial Team sets it up and then uh breaks it down and puts it back the way it was cabinets and desks uh are they able to be secured do they have locks on them in those particular rooms yes I I I'd have to I'm just saying as as a former teacher I've had people in my office yeah and my desk did not have a lock that worked and often times they had gone through whatever the contents in my desk were yeah okay so they those desk those faculty desks and cabinets can be secured I'm 90% sure in those rooms maybe that's something we could check yes just to make sure okay for those in the audience Mr bino the principal has acknowledged that yes in this specific building all the closets and desk locked thank and then just just one last question what is the procedure of protocol call that goes to reserving the room does the faculty person put it into heroes or does do they hand it off to somebody else who puts it into the HERO program uh uh traditionally it's done by a particular staff member at the building so the staff members have access to the software program so they can go on no so there's a staff member okay there is whose responsibility it is yeah and then it's approved by the by the principal by the building principal okay but there's usually one or two staff members at at the building who uh who have access rights and and but so so if you were still a teacher you would know who that staff member was um at your building um it might be somebody like let's say at the office admin staff and you would go to that person and say you know I if you were still doing your old job I'm going to have these concerts on these nights are they available are yeah are they available they would go in and check in operations hero and and they'd say yes and then they'd put it in for you and then the request would then go to the principal the principal would approve it and then and you know maybe you have some special requests maybe you need a Podium or you need the risers or whatever whatever what else would need to go in there all those requests would go in and then it gets in the principle approves it and once it's in then it's in and it's locked and is there a delay in the timeline between what a faculty person gives a staff person that then secures it in the HERO program uh just as long as the until the principal approves it because the principal gets an email saying that you have a pending approval um so you know what however long the principal is in their sit I'm just trying to you know find out if if there's a delay and someone wants to reserve a spot and they hand it off to the staff person that's in charge of putting in in hero and you or us because that's you know we're supposed to approve these things operate on uh information that is not correct and we go ahead and secure a contract with an outside Source yeah that that wasn't the particular case it wasn't that tight of a timeline in this that wasn't where the system fell down in this case okay right thank you you're welcome Mr Glenn yeah mine are tangentially uh associated with a lot of the questions that were asked but they're slightly different um and they have to do with the general questions of process and policy the number one uh the paragraph number one is the use of all school facilities will be at the discretion of the superintendent and the school committee what what my concern is and this has happened on other issues um where it looks like we are the approving Authority on it and we approve a lot of stuff we approve field trips we approve the cons agenda we approve a lot of stuff that frankly I don't think we should be that and I I don't want to take the authority away from anybody on something that we shouldn't approve but when it says the school committee I don't want to be and I'm sure no other member wants to be blindsided by what what group is where and and oh yeah that's the school committee is responsible for that and and in fact we are responsible for it um but I don't want to be blindsided by it because you know because we just simply didn't know and I've seen this on other issues where it it's it's been a wording and it's made it our responsibility in common Parliament but really we didn't have anything to do with it I didn't know anything about any of these and I'm not saying I should but if it says that that we need to approve the dolphin Dash um if we need to approve field trips um then maybe we should look at approving these uh type of events um and you know in I I think there always should be uh an availability of alternative sites like can we use the High School auditorium and I think you laid that out I mean just to point out we're sitting in here in the cafetorium right next to the audit the auditorium the performance uh Center um we're not using that and we're a we're a school sanctioned uh uh group I think so um you know I just want to make sure that that we know about it and we're not blindsided by the community because it it makes us look bad when we don't know anything about it and fun finally just to take off what Jenny was saying about the the maintenance and the conditions you know the youth football teams I remember back when my kids were in youth football and there were water bottles in every section of the football field it looked like a hail storm had hit um and there water bottles everywhere and the youth football people had to put out to make sure you police up all your all your trash and all your water bottles and and do it that's the responsibility of that group to leave it as you became become and and I think that's just common sense that that we should be teaching all the kids and all the groups that you know we should make sure that we uh return things to way to the way they uh were that they were left so that other people can use it to the their enjoyment so thank you thank you yeah I I had I had similar concerns um about the the use of the school committee as approving um and as the I know the policy subcommittee discussed earlier that their meeting I don't know if there's a specific policy um this says procedures and guideline I don't know if there's something specific if there is to review it if it's a dollar threshold if it's a time commitment if it's a specific group when do we play a role right as as Mr Glenn said like when when do we have to make a decision we have the as he said the people come up about the international trips the the band and colorgard when they went went to AO there's so many things that we do approve and certain things we don't and we don't know why right so I think you know Clarity of what we're responsible for um but uh it's it just makes makes it easier for all of us to know and there are a lot of different groups that use our space and you know to the point that is mentioned um I wasn't aware of it till I saw a sign on the road and wondered what it was and it wasn't until I started getting phone calls and I said oh that's what that signs for and at the end of the day we are making Revenue off this something that we talked about our budget and we fought several months to get our our budget where it was for last year and you know we started our budget process early and we we are a stewards to our towns right so $1,500 a week times 52 weeks is a lot of money and I don't know if that's the exact number but it it's something that we have to look upon and I'm sure there's plenty of other organizations where where we get income so but I think everyone just wants to make sure that the community is aware that the the students are safe at all times you know we had our school resource office just talked today about school safety and I think a lot of the the questions uh that people had or the myths that were out there about groups using our space were answered today so I I think it's great when when things come up when we can have a discussion about it you know we continue to be educated and and the the families and staff can get educated too right we talked about handbooks I know about a month ago and the 900 Pages Marilyn read all of them um but who who actually you know the things you don't know about it until becomes an issue right so when when things like this come up I think it's it's great and it's a healthy thing for us to discuss it so I I appreciate going through the the policy and procedure and being able to talk about it um for those that have questions because we don't all have the answers right and we can't talk about it with between each other unless we're doing it publicly so I think by by having these conversations um you know and and reading feedback from people whether it's via email email or on online um that we can share their concerns um too and get the the answers from from the correct people right and we don't know the answers you don't know the answers all the time and we have to reach out to those specific people so so thank you for that any other questions I think we can move to the complete that so yeah and the only other just bit of factual information that I would add is just for the public just so everybody's aware so um and it was part of the consideration when we entered into this is is Thursday and Friday nights it's the event starts at 7:30 p.m. right so we're outside of all the events that happen at the school other than if there was um and there again we checked the calendar at the time there was no conflicts for like any planned events at that time um so it's you know outside of all the um what am I the like the normal like after school activities are done by like 5:00 here so it was like well beyond the scope of those pieces and then in Sundays which the school isn't operational on Sundays we learned about some um practice is related to the spring rehearsal or spring concert that which start on Sundays which was that sort of where I mentioned about the flexible um shifts on both parts and we're able to accommodate those Sunday rehearsals leading up to the spring rehearsal um so I like I said I think it all kind of worked out but those were all considerations before we entered into the and I think it comes down to you know it says this contract was done in June the not all the you know teachers some didn't return we have a lot some new teachers in our programs here they hadn't thought about specific dates right you know I don't know what I'm doing in three weeks um you know and maybe not know what I'm doing in six to 8 months but you know their plan is in September to have planned it and right and that's what they did but the group was put dates on in in June so I think now moving forward all of the parties will make sure that they have plans and and dates in mind and you said once it's all on the calendar then we're a better shape uh let's see two final just short brief updates uh to get just get through the rest of the report uh in your packet you have a copy of the letter so superintendent report I just gave uh actually no sorry it wasn't superintendent report you all all voted uh to uh support consolidation as part of our msba uh so SOI application so I updated everybody on the meeting that we had had plus the select board had taken a vote uh in Yarmouth had taken a vote to support consolidation so it was looking for the school committee to take a similar vote so what you just have here is a joint letter from myself uh and the Town Administrator in Yarmouth uh basically just confirmed in that so just you can just see that that letter uh was drafted and submitted to msba uh and so we'll await hopefully what will be good news that we'll get invited in uh uh into the next round but we will find out probably in the next let's see where we are we're in the middle of October so within the next couple of months we should hear one way one way or another whether or not we're going to move forward and then the last is just a little bit more of an update on the communications a community relations coordinator position so last time or last superintendent report I had mentioned that we were down to a couple of finalists I did interview those two finalists last week uh no yeah last already Friday ago I took the long weekend to think think it through offered um one person the job and that person accepted so pending some successful contract negotiations uh I'll be able to announce uh somebody very soon uh had an initial meeting with that person today but between my schedule last week and Tom's schedule uh Tom Campbell director of HR uh we weren't able to connect until Friday late uh to work out on some contract terms and then um you all may know Tom works part-time so he isn't in on Mondays so we just need to get that contract drafted in front of the individual and should be able to make an announcement pretty soon thank you any questions about the superintendent report excellent we'll move down to school committee business um so there's been discussion over the the past couple of weeks youve probably seen it all over we've had some discussions um during public comment uh I know some of us have received emails from people about uh the mqu the ballot question number two regarding mcast um there are some information in our packets uh about the question uh the question before the voters is not about the elimination of the mcast as an assessment tool used in the state of Massachusetts uh whether question two passes or does not pass mcast will still be given in grade s or8 at grade 10 as well as grade n for some students specifically in physics what question two is focused on is whether or not mcast can be used to determine whether or not a student can graduate from high school as a competenc competency determination um and I just thought there was some discussion I thought we'd have some discussion between the group um the mass Association of school committee have come out with their own statement um at their meeting but I wanted to see what our thoughts of our committee was as election day is nearing so I'll open up the floor we can start with Mr Glenn and move down this way if each person has something I think would be best thank you um as I've said before um I'm always careful of what we do as a body especially when it becomes a political event um and particularly with these ballot questions and not specifically this ballot question but other ballot questions can be very confusing um you know you just clarified some of the understanding that people didn't have on this question on they thought it was an elimination of the mcaps but when we as a body make make a decision and we did uh last year I abstained but once we have a vote to endorse a particular pos position then my personal opinion goes out the window whether I vote yes no or abstain I then have to support the school committee's um decision whereas if we individually make comments and and make decisions um and put our opinions on and God knows everybody knows that uh you know I have no problem putting my opinion out there um to the people um but I really think on this subject that the peoples should be informing Us by their vote they're informing us what they want us to do we'll still have a decision to make as an individual District afterwards and any unintended consequences that happen um because of it because if we undermine the mcast um Massachusetts is ranked number one nationally um and it's because of the mcast that's the assessment that that they are using do we want to be number two do we want to be tied for 50 um with 50 other states um I don't think so again this is my opinion um but I want to hear from the teachers I want to hear from the superintendent I want to hear from the principal I want to know what their feelings are on it to inform us because we're going to have to come back and either create another assessment you know my political opinion is this is going to pass and we're going to be faced with making another assessment um or ignoring the people's opinion and and it could not pass in Dennis and yarm and pass Statewide so we're going to let people from Western Massachusetts make our decision when our people don't want it don't want it to pass um I think we just open up a a can of worms um of problems that that have unintended consequences and these ballot questions are they used to be citizens initiative to supplement what the legislature is doing now they're B their big business their special interests there's advertisings and that's why I think it's going to win because the special interest paid big money for the advertisement and the uh the centers haven't um but I will point out that the governor the Secretary of Education um the the mass Association of school committee we don't have our we don't have our convention until next week I I think the executive board probably did vote on it but uh you know we haven't voted on it our convention is after the election so um the leadership which that's where our money comes from the the state leadership the Senate President the Speaker of the House the governor lieutenant governor um who has a vote legislatively if there is a tie um they're all opposed to this and all the Senate majority leaders and House Majority and minority leaders uh are not in support one of we got two representatives in the House of Representative that represent Dennis and Yarmouth one is for it one is against it um but the support from the uh from where we are asking money for from the state government they're the ones who make those decisions about Regional Transportation money they're the ones who um make the decisions on our financial things and you know I would rather focus on lobbying them on these things lobbying them on things that will make us a stronger District um and get the money that we're we were supposed to get instead you know instead of unfunded mandates that we can't fulfill um so I'm with the Secretary of Education um I really do want to know what the Educators feel the superintendent feels uh the principal feel on the subject and uh and one last thing um the ballot initiative that we did endorse and vote for that I abstained but I had to support afterwards that was on the millionaires tax or I forget what what the uh fair share uh ballot question I don't know David you might have the answer for this but I don't think we got I think a lot of the money that was earmarked for Education was given to the community colleges and and the like um I don't know and I've never seen the any earm Mark for money that we got from uh the town Mr and that that specific topic is not what we're discussing right now you know I think we've heard your okay discussion and I'll move to Mr new just to clarify for myself uh are we taking a position as a board or are we just voicing our individual position uh we're having we're having a discussion there's nothing specific on the on the agenda for this there's nothing specific on the uh agenda for a motion anyone could make a motion at any time okay great thank you I I have talked to a number of teachers both veterans uh retired and current uh people in the profession and we are torn uh we realize that assessment is a tool that gathers data upon which we can direct instruction to the individual student this is a partnership education of the children it's a partnership between us directing the district the staff instructing the students the parents helping their child and the child buying into the process without assessment on a regular basis we don't have accurate tools with which to correct areas that need Improvement so I feel the mcast assessment tool is very useful particularly when utilized by the staff and the parents to assess their individual child's Improvement as it goes year to year it has to be acted upon all that said I don't believe that we need to have the test as a graduation requirement because there are too many students that have special needs and this test does not necessarily accommodate them when they get to be in 12th grade and while yes there are extra tools available to the district and the high school to help them along the way in their junior year and potentially their senior year there are still obstacles that these particular children face that are very difficult to overcome I've seen it I've experienced it and it's sad so my position is mcast as an assessment tool grades 3 through 10 is a wonderful thing keep it and that's what this ballot initiative does as far as mcast for a graduation requirement I don't think it's necessary Mr Morris anything back before Ed reform removed the stipulation of school committee members being members of curriculum subcommittees but it also was beside the point of mcast being a requirement to graduate I learned from watching and listening and talking to Ed academic staff both at at the state level and the and the local level that it all depends on how well the classroom environment is set up for identifying needs by individual children and students and their success in test taking and impact on graduation the state has done has responded to the pressures that have risen spiked that be a better word from time to time by allowing some flexibility for test taking and allowing means which to Aid academic staff in their conduct of identifying needs of the student so an assessment tool is necessary when it was first created it was discovered within a few short years that students were some of them were just not cooperating and participating hence it was made into a graduate or not you have to pass it so I feel that the phraseology used in this letter created or submitted by this superintendent there is no room there's no plan for a substitute for a common Statewide expectation for graduation should question two pass this does not get rid of a test taking requirement or test taking activity it all still depends on the relationship inside the classroom so I am following the lead led by my colleague Mr new to support using the mcast but not remove but removing any mandatory requirement that it be a pass or fail for graduation thank you Mr Martin thank you I'm also going to um I'm also going to uh uh back my uh colleague Mr new um I Echo his remarks um which were very well put by the way um I don't believe that a uh standardized test should be the be all end all as far is whether or not a child can graduate and if the uh that child fails that test and is not able to make it through that test they don't get a diploma and that's ridiculous um I don't it it it leads [Music] to taking the art out of teaching um last I heard teachers have to go through an awful lot of training an awful lot of schooling they're highly trained professionals they come in they're they're taught how to teach and they are they are the ones working with the children directly figuring out how this child learns and teaching appropriately and if you give them handcuffs like a test that ultimately determines this child's fate at the end of uh at the end of their High School career then you're forcing them to essentially teach to what's on the test I like Mr new said you know I I have um I have a severely autistic daughter and she's going to age out this year and she is still expected to take some form of this mcast test and it's ridiculous every year um I can't tell you I can't even I can't even express how how much I want this to you know to to pass and go through and just you know I testing is fine to kind of gauge where children are and allow the teachers to be able to adjust uh teaching to that child or to said children but it should not be the be all end all I think that it uh I will definitely be voting yes to uh remove the power of the graduation uh from uh from the mcast um keep it as a um keep it as a tool to gauge where the child is but definitely take away the um the diploma having power of this test Miss Landers this is challenging for me I think that you know I'm definitely a fan of consistency and definitions and um Clarity when it comes to expectations and meanings all of that being meaning you know I part of me really likes the idea that there is something out there that says everybody in Mass Metts who has a high school diploma who has it means they've attained X Y and Z that they learned abnc in their school that they reached a level of profis proficiency in something through their education and I've also read that dropping this as a graduation requirement puts us in a minority of States um that the majority of State according to what I read I'm no expert in any of this this is what I read that a lot of states have you know some sort of across theboard testing standardized testing for graduation requirement and you know and I understand the meaning behind these tests right it's to make sure that we're all working under the same set of expectations that we all have some similar guidelines and what we're teaching our kids and making sure that that's that that's what they're learning but I think what we have is an equity issue with the way it's currently structured not only is it an equity issue when it comes to students with disabilities and our special education students but it's leaving out our English language Learners it's leaving out kids of certain socioeconomic backgrounds cultural differences you know we know that even on a math test not just a math test they're reading they're expected to read um and understand a lot you know they're expected to read and understand a a math problem before they even get the math and with um differences in language race religion gender ethnicity you know these were and disability status we're you know we've got an equity issue so I'm also not an expert in education you know when um you know Tracy Post from the selectboard was here and said she wanted to hear from us as sort of a voice on education yeah I mean some people on you know on this panel are you know Educators former Educators or deeply involved in the educational system and I'm I really like hearing what everyone has to say you know I'm not an expert in education and um so I guess for me it's looking at it through the the Dei lens that it really I think will inform my vote M beus so uh I'm glad Tracy asked the question because I had to step back and do a deep dive into my own thinking as a former educator uh so I I do agree with uh Mr no Mr Morris Mr Martin um so I am in agreement with their position I sense it from someone else but I'm going to I I think what I'm going to do is mention some of the things I haven't heard um all students across the nation have to take some sort of assessment to monitor progress that is the federal law so our students and it's recording grades three through eight and once during their High School experience that is Across the Nation um about 10 years ago uh 48 of the states had an assessment tool tied into getting a high school diploma right now it is down to 10 and I can really say it's down to nine because in New York they just decided to uh get rid of their region exam as the determination of whether you get a high school diploma so this is something that at the national level we're all looking at that and maybe what we're looking at is that lens of equity we know there are students of special needs or students who are El and are can they achieve that proficiency but yet show progress show development show Mastery of skills participate and do well in four years of a high school experience and perhaps their uh career ready yes we know those students but do we want to stifle their options The Late Bloomer who can pull it all together that you know adolescent brain doesn't really develop till age 25 what I've been told or that student that English is a second language and it's six years Mastery before you competent but they enter the country in maybe the fifth or the sixth grade and then they have to take the 10th G grade mcast but they're getting there they're making progress they could potentially get there but yet we say you can't pass go you can't have a high school diploma and what does that mean that's limiting their earning potential their options their opportunities so just like other states have grappled with it um why am in favor of this question it doesn't eliminate the mcast it holds schools and districts and us here at this table accountable it's conversations with students and parents about are they making progress that will not go away we are still held accountable the teachers are still teaching to the curriculum Frameworks which are high standards in this state but what will change is we by passing this we are directing the Department of Education to step back and work with us the citizens of the state to develop another pathway because I do think it exists thank you so much um and thank you for the the comments that we received very via email a lot of the things that were mentioned in in the emails were mentioned already by many of our members that specific groups are held to the same standard um from our e all Learners to our uh financially disproportionate and those numbers were shown in our our uh some of our scores that we've saw in presentations that the superintendent gave when we looked at what were our scores whether it was on map or mcast the groups that were farly farly below the standard and did not meet expectation all of those groups that we just talked about were all in that section um and we need to think about what's best for our students and I I have the some of the facts that we also had in our packet it says currently at Dennis jth High School class of 2025 there are 191 seniors eight have currently not earned the the right to to graduate due to this test that's 4% um five of them are in a substantially separate special education program and then three have one more test to pass but but it's about it's about everyone right so the numbers are going to change every year the classes are going to get bigger I know our eighth grade's the largest it has ever been I think it's almost 250 students in our eighth grade class so you think about 191 graduating but we have 250 in our eighth grade class so those numbers that's 250 taking the at 10th grade so that 4% jumps that uh eight kids to I don't know I'm not David's here for the math maybe 15 I don't know I 20 there we go I won't I won't do math uh on TV but uh but the the numbers are going to to continue to go up um and I also think I also think at mcast is important um to see where our our students are um obviously from the results our students are not doing great right we there there was an article in the cape cot times there's information about ours are the lowest on the cape um and we're not looking to get rid of it we're not going to say oh let's get rid of it cuz you know we don't want to be the worst in we we we have an action plan right we had the the principles from all of our schools talk about what we're going to do because of that data um it wasn't okay we're just we'll get a vote to get rid of it it's not getting rid of but what are we going to do to make it better and we have plans in place they talked about their plans and they're going to act on them so I I also feel strongly that it's important to have it because we need to know where we need to do better I don't love the timing I don't love that the intered intermediate principal is is having to get the results from the elementary school from six months ago because schools already started you know the teachers don't have that I love that and some of the schools we use the map uh which is almost instantaneously it's not instantaneously but you you get the results quicker um there's been evidence that map has shown where mcast will be um but they can they can react on where students are not meeting expectation and they can continue their instruction that way and you know Marin talked about it there's the the the coursework we use is approved by desie and it it's great to do it and as as Mr Barton said we shouldn't be teaching to a test and that's what I hear a lot about you know I've heard people even say you know your your student shouldn't take this class CU it's not going to prepare them for mcast well what happens if that's the class they want to take maybe they want to do algebra versus something else they they shouldn't be picking their coursework based on how they're going to pass the test um yes the test is important because we do need a a gauge of where our students are we need do need to see if they're somewhere where we're not meeting expectation right and then it also tells us who we're not meeting the expectation of right and what we can do and that's why we had the presentations we had on what can we do to make it better um what can we where are we falling short in our instruction is it a is it our curriculum I know we've changed our math curriculum and there's continues of things that we continue to do so that we can give our students the best we know we have the best teachers you know but everything's going to be different so it's just what can we do and all of us collectively at this table what can we do to add the resources that are needed to get there right that's that's why we're all here right what can we do better to give to the the teachers the resources so that our our kids can have better and do better um so so that's where I stand at we don't have anything specific on here it's up to anyone if they want to make a motion if not we will move to the next I think if if the question is where where do we sit I think everyone individually has has said where they sit and feel okay then I will move uh to the next thing the sub pay rate so at our uh Finance subcommittee the finance subcommittee had met um something that was discussed and brought up was that the teacher substitute rate was Far Below the rest of the cape um I know Dr Smith probably has a whole list of examples that we utilize but this committee I think it was three years ago um voted to increase it because we were the lowest and then what happened in the last three years well everyone else went above us right so it's a a continued thing um so one of the things that we looked at was there's two different rates we have we have a rate for uh a substitute and then a rate for a substitute who attends a course that is set up from the district and there's two different pay rates um so what the the subcommittee had come up with with the direction of Dr Smith um you know H from Tom from HR and and Mr Flynn was to move the um the noncertified teacher substitute rate from 90 to 97 for someone who's not completed the training and then 113 to 120 for someone who has completed the training um and it would go into in effect as soon as uh a decision is made um there is discussions as well as to increase it from the next following years and the subcommittee has discussed that in the future but it was more important for the subcommittee to get it out in front of all of us today so we can act uh on it so that's kind of the background of where we came and where this number is and if I miss spoke at any time Dr Smith you can say it but um this is kind of the background of where the finance subcommittee came and why it's in front of you today Jenny I I make a motion that we approve to increase the teacher substitute rate from $90 to $97 for someone who has not completed sub completed substitute training and $113 to $120 for someone who has completed the training for the remainder of FY 25 and to consider additional raise as part of the FY 26 budget planning second okay we have a first and a second any discussion seeing none we will take a vote all those in favor say I I any opposed passes unanimously thank you um the next was another thing that came up during our finance subcommittee it was about our Capital stabilization fund um and there was discussion David talked about some extra earned interest that you know we won't call it found money it was the interest was better therefore there was more money uh on top of our Capital St stabilization fund we have a large amount of money in there it's over 1.3 million 2.5 million it wasn't even close uh 2.5 million um is what's in our account and then there was a discussion of taking the interest that we earned in that account and using it for something that is needed so there was we talked about our we're going to have a finance uh Capital subcommittee to look at things uh we talked about our hope to be entered into mba's thing for margarite small however the school's open we can't wait seven years for a solution so there was discussion of why not take the money that was in interest and put it to fix uh the facility there was discussion specifically about roofs and some other things at the school so that's the background for that Mr Morris looks like he's ready he's ready who who you're calling on you oh good that's why I have raise my hand I mooved to approve the use of the to use interest earned from the capital stabilization fund for ongoing roof repairs at the Margaret e small elementary school second we have a motion in a second any comments questions all those in favor favor say I I any oppose I abstain okay we have six eyes and an AB obstain uh bills requisition and payroll have gone around uh calendars I know that Tuesday and Thursday of this week tomorrow being Tuesday is a half day for all schools uh I know there was a memo with specific times I won't I don't have them all memorized uh but it is half day at all schools um those that participate in parent teacher conferences are holding those and then on top of that next Wednesday the 30th Is a 1 and a2h hour early release part of our monthly uh hour and a half early release program that's what we have for calendars and we move into public comments uh our policy on public participation at meetings can be found on the table at the agenda the public is reminding that a school committee meeting is a meeting of a governmental body at which members of the body deliberate over public business we welcome your attendance and appreciate your interest in viewing your school committee as we conduct our regular business meeting the school committee believes that the school district Community should have an opportunity to comment on the committee on issues that affect the school district and within the scope of the committee's responsibilities some questions you may have may not be within the scope of the committee's responsibilities in that case I will suggest that you send or give your question in writing to the appropriate person so that concern may be given proper consideration individuals may address topics on the agenda items specified for public comment for 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 do I have anyone that like to speak yes oh I got a green light can you hear me yes okay uh my name is Liz Argo H and I wanted just briefly to use public comment went to tell you that I came thinking this is going to be a sleepy meeting it was amazing hearing what the officers were saying about uh safe schools week and what you're all responsible for putting into place to keep the children and the staff safe is amazing and then the conversation about um what whether mcast should have the graduation removed or not was so intelligent and enlightening I I just am so impressed we are very lucky to have a school committee like this thank you thank you so much anyone else would like to speak during public comment yes good evening my name is Melissa pascarelli I am a teacher here at Dy middle I am a seventh grade English teacher um I have taught grades 5 7 9 10 and 11 um I have some specific hands on practice with um getting students ready for the mcast um at the grade seven level as well as in the high school level and working with students who did not pass the mcast the first time around um I would like to um speak my support for um question two um and state that I think that removing the graduation requirement um will help our most vulnerable populations um I think that the work that students put in from the time they come to school till kindergart from kindergarten until graduation should not be negated by failing a test they put in years of hard work they work in the classrooms they take their assessments they take their mcast they put a lot of work into that um and I think that um removing that requirement does not negate any of that and it only serves to protect the students that we are here to work for thank you thank you so much m d good evening um my name is Michelle D and I'm a fifth grade teacher and president of D armouth Educators Association um I do apologize when I sent an email to you folks this morning it came from my my union address I was speaking as an individual and not as the the president because we had not um taken any kind of a vote however in response to questions from a couple of the members I did pump out a survey at lunchtime and um out of about 330 dyaa members I had 179 responses as of right now and it is running 87% in favor of question two so perhaps I was speaking for the association after all um I'd like to respond to a couple of things um that I heard tonight and then just quickly reiterate my position on um the test I think that there's a lot there can be a lot of confusion about how many states do have a graduation requirement we are in fact one of only nine that has a test a single test that determines graduation um the figure that I've the the other statistic that I've heard that we're one of only two or three that does not have a specific requirement I think references a requirement from the State Department of Education which is true um however in the email that I sent to folks I did reference something that Massachusetts has put out there but not required which is mass core and mass core is something I reached out to principal Bennett um and we do use Mass core and it requires this is successful completion of four units of English four of math three of a lab based science three units of History two of the same World Language and one unit of the Arts and five additional core courses and it goes on from there Miss Bennett said that we have adopted it and we have also added applied technology and Fine Arts I would suggest that a district such as ours who has such a high percentage of el Learners if we haven't already and maybe we have would allow El classes to be the substitute for a world langu language class um because clearly they have a lot on their plate um just to follow up on on what Miss um B said it's allergy season sorry the um the fact that you know you might have leap bloomers and you have kids coming in here in fifth and sixth grade and they have to catch up but imagine a kid walking in here in 11th grade and then telling that kid that they've got to pass those three classes in order to get their diploma and particularly you know I looked at I looked at the math and um some of the science questions today I wouldn't pass um and I speak English so um I really have to worry about them and in doing the research to try to find out the the exact number of of states in 20 2002 um roughly half of the state's uh based graduation um on a single test and that now is down after these 20 odd years to um nine and there was a really interesting um study quoted in education week um done on Massachusetts students and graduation rates and this team um followed students who had just barely passed the test and students who had just barely failed the test and the outcome comes through these students the students who are denied the diploma by maybe a point or two compared to the students who may have passed the test and gotten their diploma by maybe a point or two was vast um it had a profound effect and we're talking maybe two points you know one one in One Direction and one in the other direction um so I we're at the we reached the time thank you thank you would anyone else like to speak at public comment thank you all for for sharing your feedback we we appreciate when when emails are sent to us and you know typically when people are passion about certain things but that we appreciate the passion that our our teachers and our parents put about topics that we do talk over so thank you make a motion to adjourn second consent agenda oh sorry agenda I missed the consent agenda which was the I move the consent agenda which are minutes from October 7th second all in favor I oppose none okay Jenny now my motion to adjourn second second Mo all in favor say I I and oppos thank you so much