meeting tonight in Danvers and we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. If we could all stand for the pledge. All right. In the Danvers public school mission statement, Danvers public school is a dynam dynamic community of independent learners dedicated to respect, responsibility, creativity, and
the pursuit of academic and personal excellence. Uh this meeting is being broadcast on Danver's Community Access Television. And one note for those viewing at home tonight the presentation there is a little issue with our uh camera so you may may look skew for the
presentation u but please bear with us and then I just need to ask if anybody in the audience is recording the proceedings. All right. None being said, um the reason I am starting the meeting is because this is our reorganizational meeting and my job is to start the
meeting and from there um the committee will make a motion for the chair. Mr. Chairman, um first of all, I want to thank Dave for his service as chair last year. Um I think he did a great job. You pointed
out you and I have had moments, but they have been good moments. Thank you so much. With that, I would like to nominate Mike Shannon to be chair of the school committee. Second. Any discussion?
I one, thank you for uh the opportunity to serve as chair for the last year. It was a great pleasure and great working with all of you. I'm still going to be here, but um I think Mike Shannon is a phenomenal candidate and uh looking forward to uh the vote and seeing if
he's going to accept. Also, I uh want to thank Mr. Lopes for his his service over the past year. Great job as chair. Um I agree. Mike's been here for uh for a year and been making some great contributions even in in that short amount of time. So, I would uh I would welcome
that. Any further comments before I accept this, which I guess I just did. Um, I want to thank Gabe, too, for for getting into the
public education space at that school committee meeting a couple years ago. We decided to run and stepping up, taking contributing the way he's contributed very positive way to what we're trying to do there. So, thank you for all.
All right, great. Uh before we begin the vote, I just would to like to say thank you to Gabe on a personal level. Always there for any guidance, coaching, um but also a clear levelheaded thought process partner and just somebody who really values what we're doing in Danvers and
just a very solid individual and glad you're staying aboard and just thoroughly enjoy working with. Thank you, Gabe. All right, at this time we'll take a vote. The motion is to nominate Mike Shannon to be chair of the school committee. All those four I I
I those negative there are none. Motion carries. Congratulations Mike. You are the chair of the school committee. [Applause] All right. Who are we going first? Items of
interest to superintendent. No, you want We're still on the school committee reorganization like mic. Oh, there we go. We got a few more things to do. We do. Next order of business is the election of the secretary of the committee. Do I have a motion? I'd like to make a
motion to renominate Eric Crane as secretary of the school committee. Second. Any discussion? Yeah. What I'll say is Eric's been on this committee for a long time. And as he mentioned, this is my interaction with Eric is probably
a big part of why I'm sitting here. But it goes without question the amount of passion and experience and knowledge that he's had and uh you know knowing that we all equally care about the school and the town. Um it goes without it it's a great demonstration of just
bringing good people together to do good things for the community. So I uh enthusiastically reendorse you and nominate you for the uh secretary. Thank you for the kind work. I agree. Eric's historical knowledge is
second to none. Uh the value he brings here is extraordinary and uh we need to to hold on to that. Yeah. Not much more to add and nothing more creative or anything. I think it's uh it's I think you've done a great job with that and I think the guidance that
you're able to provide us even just procedurally to make sure that the meetings go correct. I think um I think you're on point. So I think uh having your secretary great. Thank you Jo. I'm happy. So that we're done with the discussion. Ready for a vote?
All those in favor say I. I. I. Next order of business is the appointment of the school attorney. I would make a motion, Mr. Chairman that we uh approve the uh and continue to employ the firm of Lana Dietra as a
school attorney. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Next order of business is the um request of superintendent to check
the school committee's liability insurance through the chair. Um yes I working on that and I'll have the recommendation but everything as last noted is update. And lastly uh to establish a time place a regular meeting day for meetings. I
believe check calendar is set correct. Continue with the second Monday. So continue second Monday 6:30 right here in this room. Fantastic. And we also need to authorize a member as the primary and secondary
signatory on bill sheets. We need to make a motion for that. I guess that's the power of the chair. All right, Josh. Josh, I know you're the primary s you're the primary signator right now.
Would you like to continue on? I'd be happy to serve in that capacity. Thank you. And Eric, you're the secondary. And chairman will appoint a legislative liaison who may also organize the committee sub. I think our subcommittees are in good shape right now. We just
kind of went through that and our political liaison is you Eric correct legislator my my bad and uh so if you have no objection great that's all set now we can move on to items of
interest school committee community okay this time if it's okay for the chair uh we do have in the community aspect we have CPAC representative Julie D. Philippo want to present an update. Hi everyone. It's good to see you
tonight and report um all the work we've been doing uh to get CPAC um up and going and active and in the community. Um, I'm excited to announce that we found out last Friday that Danver School District was accepted by the Federation
for Children with Special Needs um to be part of the Apple Institute this coming year. Apple stands for advancing parent professional leadership and education. Um and this is an initiative to develop collaborative relationships with families between CPACs and the school
districts um and really build a basis for the future to work together. Um we met with CPAC met with um the department of student services for our first monthly monthly meeting in May. It's very clear that we have a lot of shared interests that we can collaborate
together and I think this is the perfect way to to get it started. Um we have a a pretty big team. So, the the CPAC um board members, myself, uh Jen Corsino and Melissa Dmilio will be part of this. Um from Dammers Public Schools,
Christina Ryan and Angelique Dosta. Um school committee member Shawn Doherty is going to be part of it as well. And Amy Velquis, who's a parent in the Damverse public schools, and Mora Kaufman, they're both also accessibility commission members, will join us. And
then lastly, we're we're hopeful that Danverse wreck will be successful in hiring um the new inclusion specialist for their for their afterchool programs. And we're hopeful that person can join us as well as we look at you know really the need for adaptive and inclusive
afterchool programs um in the school system. We also recently updated our bylaws which you can find on our website. We really wanted to emphasize um more of an inclusive membership. Um this the bylaws before this um
emphasized membership was among um caregivers who had children with IEPs or 504s. Uh we would like any member of the community to be part that's interested in you know finding out about special ed uh being a stakeholder. So so we did
broaden the membership to include that. Um we also clarified some procedures around elections around um uh communication transitions um just to ensure transparency accountability and the future of CPAC as
well. We are holding our our first or probably the last um community CPAC meeting on Thursday night um May 22nd. It's going to be virtual from 6:30 to 7:30 and we'll share the the Zoom link um probably this week and throughout um
next week as well. And then we just want to remind people that we have a new email address. Um it is the danenver cpac sepacgmail.com. You'll probably see it a hundred times because we just want you to email the right place. But yeah, sort
of where things are at. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone have any questions or Thank you for that update and thank you for the work that your committee's done. It's impressive. Anyone else from the community want to
bring items of interest to us? All of you. You good? Entirely up to you. Okay. Paul Pollock. I'm chair of the HRIC committee and I just found out that your next meeting will be after our Pride event. Our Pride event will be held June
7th on a Saturday. And prior to that, we're going to have a kickoff meeting or event flag raising at the Ammeris Police Department on June 5th, which is a Thursday, 5:00 pm. Uh somewhat similar to what we do with the main event on the
Saturday, raising uh activities for youngsters if they want to. The police department will be serving pizza, etc., etc., etc. All right. And um on Saturday at the library, of course, the difficulty this year is that we're unfortunately it's school graduation,
but we wish everyone that's graduating a nice sunny warm day. Gabe, congratulations. I do have to tell you one funny story about this guy. Not going to sit down. I first I'm sorry. We're out of time, Paul. But thank you. You're out of time. No, I'm kid. I'm kidding. Never
mind. No, please tell the story. I I the first the first time I didn't meet him, I I I became aware of him was when a few years back we were having issues with situations in town and we're having a HRC meeting about all the things that
were going on. He gets up and I uh I thought the walls were going to cave in the tumi room and he was very forceful and right about a lot of things and then when he turned around and was elected to the school committee I thought it was a very positive thing and I congratulate
you on the work you did in the past three years and also the fact that you decided to come back and run for re-election. Thank you very much for what you do for us in the town. Thank you gentlemen. Any questions? They're all about the uh pride and Okay, Eric,
you're still going to be our leazison at times. I know Gabe is busy, busy, busy. Yeah, someone will cover you. Okay. All right. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate Paul. Any commendation? any
any items of interest to to to take note of in schools, accommodations, anything? No, I think we're good. If I could share, I just want to mention one um accommodation. The the light
purple event took place uh last Wednesday. It was outstanding, led by our Danvers Cares Coalition. Uh as you know, we uh turned over the leadership this year and and the event was outstanding. a great evening for unity uh supporting recovery u and it was just
great to see the community together. Yes, sir. Seeing none, we'll move on. Items of interest from the superintendent. Oh, we just we just Thank you. Um, so we have some great updates tonight. We'll start with our student representatives report. Uh,
Julia and Ali. Hello everyone. Um, so tonight we're just going to give some updates from the high school. Um, the first thing we're going to talk about is what happened at the end of April. Um, our DECO organization went to Orlando, Florida.
Um, for their international competition. We had two groups that placed top 10 out of 25,000 students. Um, those students were Kenzie Work and Giana Ferraro. They placed fifth in their competition and Charlie Morris, Kevin Ullette, and Darius Chung who placed sixth in their
business solutions project. Um, the next thing was one of our singing groups which was Vocal Alliance. Um they took a trip to Hartford, Connecticut at the end of April and they performed at the 2025 National Association for Music
Education. Vocal Alliance is a small and selective social justice singing group that mainly performed um pieces with messages about acceptance, love, and equality. And they were chosen to perform at this convention. And this weekend was a really great opportunity
for the group to perform in front of an audience as well as publicize their music. Two really good things that happened at the end of April. Um, speaking of the end of April, oh my gosh, that was loud. Um, so we came back from April break, um, which
started quarter 4. The biggest difference is all the seniors started, not all, but most seniors started their senior internship, which takes up their fourth quarter. So, our third quarter doubled as our fourth quarter and we don't have our classes anymore. Um,
except AP classes, which I'll get to after. Um, but we do our internships just for like people to get kind of a head start and just some experience in the fields that they're interested in. Um, for me, I'm just helping out my journalism teacher. Um, I'm planning on
minoring in journalism, so that's kind of my connection. Um, but our journalism class just got a website, the flying onion.org. Um, so I've kind of been helping out with that. Um, but some people are at like hospitals. Um, I know someone that's down at the state house
helping out with one of our state representatives. Um, there's a whole broad variety of internships. Um, we have an internship fair at the end of the month. Um, Friday, I don't know what the date is. I think it's at like 9:00 to 11. Um, so yeah, if you're interested
in seeing like what some people have been up to, you can uh go to that. And then my last point is so not a lot going on this month, but the biggest thing is people have been um kind of getting prepared for AP exams. So this is the second and pretty much final week of AP
exams. I was fortunate fortunate enough to have all three of my AP exams last week, so I'm all done with school, but some people still have theirs. Um, and yeah, that's all I have. I went to that internship there last year. My my guy was a senior and uh it
was fantastic what I saw. So enjoy that. Um Julia, this is your last session with us, right? You're graduating. That is true. The last meeting is after I graduate, so it's my last one. Uh oh. Well, thank you for all your time. Thank
you so much. Yeah, we appreciate you. Thank you. [Applause] And where are you off to next year, Julia? Um, so I'm attending the George
Washington University, which is down in DC. Um, I'm majoring in political science. I'm super excited. I love DC. Um, yeah. Awesome. I don't know if you know there's a there is a DAS alum one year ahead of you that
go as well. Catherine. Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. Great job reporting all year. All right. The next uh recognition tonight is Highlands. I'd like to call Principal Breky and his team come forward.
And I know we have a number of uh Highlands here representing as well as our our school nurse team. Uh just the the reason the recognition is tonight is the quick action of the Highlands team uh saved one of our
second graders last week in the cafeteria. And I'll let Principal Vinsky talk about this, but uh the family Evan Wiki grade two and his parents who are pictured uh they're not able to make it tonight. they're out of town, but uh they came in last Friday to give thanks
to the team and 12 Brennansky's team and it was great to meet them and see how grateful they are for the quick actions and uh what has impressed me the most with the group is certainly they are very humble. Um they're very professional and just we're just so grateful for their actions in a really
stressful situation. Um and I don't want to take away all of your thunder, Principal Binsky, but just want to say thank you to you for your steady leadership in that school. um that has created a great culture there. So, I'll turn it over to you. Thank Thank you, Dr. Ba and uh through the chair. Thank
you. Um it with uh the Danis public schools, the great thing about the Danis public schools, the opportunities for professional development, but a lot of that professional development revolves around safety. And uh you know many times and luckily we don't have to use these
uh these uh skills or these drills that we do whether it be uh safety care or fire drills or whatever. the other day at Highlands that uh the situation necessitated that we uh use CPR and uh
the staff reacted quickly and professionally and it was pretty amazing and I was extremely impressed and I was very grateful that the training was provided because they actually attended the training just a few days before the incident and uh I'd like to introduce
the uh group to you first Pamo uh an instructional aid Vinu Carney who performed the Heimlick uh instructional aid, Lisa Timmons who was also present and reacted calmly and professionally. Of course, uh Janelle
our school nurse uh who is just four of them are nominal. Jen Bet who was also present in the cafeteria that evening uh is unable to attend this evening. But uh I can't uh thank uh everyone enough for the quick
professional reaction and also the opportunities that we get to attend these professional developments is also questions with us the group and also the nurses who provided great work.
[Applause] [Music] Thank you. We can do that. Yeah. Let's dance. Let's go. You want to go? What can be better than saving a life? And if I could just add, I know
that um we have our our team of our outstanding nurses uh that are here tonight too because as principal Breny pointed out, they came to us really with the idea of offering CPR classes throughout the year and they've organized it and it's really through
their hard work and dedication. Um, and you know, the irony is unbelievable with the group receiving the train, but they've been doing this all year. Um, and and John is rightful for pointing out to Mary Wormers, who you came with the idea. She helped pave the way, but you've done the work. So, thank you. And
I believe we had nurses week last week and school nurse week this week, I believe. Well, we'll say it is. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. [Applause] All right. All right. We're going to shift
gears and uh we have a performing arts update. So, we have Alex Grover who is our performing arts uh 612 uh director and he remember last year there was a lot of um changes that took place here at the middle school and Alex provided a
lot of updates. So, I asked him to come back just to say how have things been in in this last year. So, we have a few slides and take it away, Mr. Grover. I a little But right Yeah, a lot um
on social emotional learning and bringing some concrete programming for SEAL to the high school. And now that program is flourishing um because of the work of many um and being given the
opportunity to be in a position to make some whole scale change and get to know more people in the district and more of my colleagues uh has really allowed me to be in a better position for moving the performing arts forward. And that's
been my latest work uh the past couple of years. Again, grateful to the central office for providing the flexibility a little bit with my schedule to be able to do some 6 through 12 work in the performing arts. Uh we still have a long
way to go, but um I'm really excited and u passionate about this work and I appreciate again the opportunity to speak tonight. Uh lastly before I start um I brought one of my colleagues here uh Mr. Jeff Daniels who's the band
director uh and as I said before the performing arts is you know filled with passionate people and is the work of many and so him being here tonight is again a symbol of the fact that we are all in this together and it's not just
Mr. J Mr. Daniels and myself. Uh there are many many uh educators in this district who um you know wear their heart on their sleeve when it comes to the performing arts. And you know I know we had a lot go on last year here at the
middle school um with some um opportunity problems and opportunities. And so I think it's now time to sort of bring some things together a lot more. And hopefully by the end of this presentation tonight, we can be a little bit more on the same page about that so
Danvers can be an even better district in terms of the priorities um and things that we're doing to move forward in the performing arts. So um thank you and um I just have a few short slides and if you have any questions at
the end um feel free to answer them for you. So, um, we're going to start with just some highlights and achievements. And this slide here is really just a snapshot. You know, I could have had five slides of just, you know, the things that we do within the performing
arts here. Um, but I picked a few of them. Um, that's not to, um, diminish others. Uh, but we've been doing some great stuff in the performing arts here in Danvers, and I just thought I'd share some of them with you. Ollie did a really nice job articulating one of
them, which is the first bullet on the list. Uh we had one of our vocal groups uh perform at the National Association for Music Education's Eastern Division Conference, which was 12 states of music educators. It's a big conference that happens every two years and they were
accepted to perform at that. And um there's a thing called a concert hour and you know whoever is walking around the conference or decides to go to it can see a group from Danvers of Massachusetts perform and there's other groups uh performing at different points as well and that was something they were
selected to. But one of the main reasons why that bullet is up there is because that wasn't the only representation that we had at that conference. Um there were two elementary school teachers who presented uh their um expertise at that
conference for different educators from these 12 states. Um we were able to go to one of the sessions that uh Griff Gaul and Jen Dennett uh presented together and it was a lot of fun and so there are people from up and down the east coast that are learning from
educators here in Danvers. Uh, another highlight from that conference is we had one student, Piper Brett, from the high school that was selected to the conference's mixed chorus. Um, and they were rehearsing Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and then uh at the performance on uh Sunday, which our group also went to uh support as well. So we we were really well represented down uh in Hartford, Connecticut and a great uh you
know PR and uh substantive uh experience uh for our uh dams educators and students. So um we have uh performed at Micah the past three years the band has performed at it. That's the
Massachusetts Instrumental and Coral uh conductors association. This year the band was performing for the third time and received a gold. The chorus performed for the first time and received a silver. We also have been hosting that festival here thanks to the hard work of Mr. Daniels back there. um
he brought he's very well connected in uh the Massachusetts educator circuit and you know us having dams as a host site host site is uh really kind of putting us on the map uh in terms of the quality of um you know operations that
we have here as well as the strong interest in music. We also host thea international championship of high school ac capella competition. We had hosted it a lot about five years ago, like a string of four in a row. We took
a little bit of a break and now uh we're hosting it again. Uh a major uh piece of work that we've been doing over the past few years is sort of streamlining the boosters at the secondary level. Um and that's a nonprofit group that has been
rebranded to Danver's performing arts collaborative and it continues to expand in all facets of our performing arts program. We have different subcommittees for marching. We have different subcommittees for our concert music season for band and chorus. And then we have a different arm for the theater
productions. And so that's really creating an infrastructure that allows the parent group. And you know, we're hoping that even it um expands to community members as well who want to be involved that don't even necessarily have still have a student in um in the
schools. um that we're open to anyone coming and helping support this infrastructure so that the performing arts can thrive uh here in Jambers. Next year uh the music department is traveling to Orlando, Florida to Disney World to do a special
um event they have there called the soundtrack sessions. And so it's not typical in terms of when we go somewhere to travel in that um we're not doing like an outward facing performance, but we are going and working with professionals from Disney to do a
recording session. So the band will go in and learn music right there and then record it and have a keepsake and the chorus will go in and work with the professionals, record it, have a keepsake. Um so it's a little bit of a different um spin on our travel that we're doing next year to kind of keep
some variety. Um and then our sort of biggest thing that we've done in terms of programming this year is our private lesson program. Uh we have over 40 students enrolled in our new private music lessons program and you know Dan
and I worked closely on this last year on all the logistics to um get it up and running sort of above board and we've hired five instructors in their different areas of expertise and after school on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays students um and teachers are coming in and out of the high school and
getting private instruction on their instruments. So again, doing things to improve the infrastructure and the foundation for the performing arts here, not just, you know, it's a good performance here and that teacher is doing a good job and that student went to that conference. We really want to do
things that are laying that groundwork so that our groups and our experiences can um go the extra mile and have something to latch on to when they're older and even out of the damage public schools. So, those are some highlights
and achievements. Again, there are so many that I could list. Um, but I just picked out those few because I think they're a great snapshot of what we're doing here. So, I I gave Holton Richmond Drama Club its own slide because um because of the
presentation that was given last year and um the events that went on last year here at the school um we're in a much better place. Uh with the Holton Richmond Drama Club, we have a whole new team of directors that were um they're
internal, but they're working in addition to their day jobs uh to put on the theater productions here at the middle school. And um that team did a great job this year, especially in that uh challenging transition. So we're
really proud of them. Uh they had two successful productions, Newsies Newsies Jr. the musical and then Ro Shambo, the Drama Fest entry. They just received uh the Drama Fest just received a silver at the festival and we had three students
get individual awards. Um and then this is something that um we've been wanting to do for a little while now and that I mentioned that we would do last year and that's move the musical production to the high school. this just isn't a space that you can put
a real quality production on. As you can see, we're having a you know, meeting in here. So, it's you know, just as much for that as it is for uh you know, performing arts on the stage. And so, we're really really fortunate to work with a lot of different stakeholders to
get the musical up at the high school. And then lastly, on the drama club um topic, this is a work in progress. there were hiccups and things that we learned and you know the communication took a
little bit to um get up and running. Um and we recognize all that and you know we take note of it. Um but overall I think it went really well and we're still working again to build um build those structures and that foundation so
that you know we can move forward in a real uh way so that students get the experience that they deserve uh here at Holton Richmond and in the performing arts. So that's the update on that. And then this slide could have
also been probably like six slides. Um, but it's good that it can be concise. Um, because that's kind of what we need with this work. Um, over the past two years, um, during early release time,
again, grateful for the collaboration between the performing arts staff and the central office to give us some more time during early releases to meet as a prek through 12 music department. That wasn't happening before. I could count on my hand the amount of times that I
had had a formal meeting with uh other music teachers in the district like over my 13 years up until last year. And to be quite frank, that's kind of unheard of for, you know, a department like a performing arts department and a music
department not to meet, you know, at least even like once or twice a year, um is not how you're going to get the best out of your teachers. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um so again really really um excited that we
got to meet uh twice in 23 24. We had four meetings this year. Hopefully we can request similar or more time for 2526. And the work over the past two years has been um using an adaptive and distributive leadership model to be able
to um put some pen to paper with strategic initiatives. Um and then those strategic initiatives this year were fleshed out and developed into a draft three-year strategic plan for the performing arts. um and the quick hits
in terms of the um the buckets that we're going to be working under. And I think these really do mirror our um our new strategic plan as well because I've seen a lot of overlap um in terms of the strate strategic plan for the district. We want to cultivate creativity and
autonomy. We want to increase accessibility and equity, the arts and seal, preparing students for the future, you know, like our portrait of a graduate initiative. um professional collaborative um professional collaborative and empowerment um for our
educators and then just you know the PR piece highlighting the strength of arts in dams also um Mary in the middle of the year gave me a heads up about uh an arts grant that was through desi and it's
called the arts and cultural vitality grant so we have a team of um nine art and music teachers you know who have met. Um, tomorrow actually will be our eighth time meeting. So, we met seven times up until now. Tomorrow is the eighth meeting. Um, and we are gathering
artifacts to rate indicators that Dassi has put forward for, you know, how an arts d a district that's thriving in the arts would look. Um and so tomorrow is a big meeting for us and we're going to be looking at you know an abundance of
indicators you know and hopefully rating them to be attempting effective supported and sustaining and those have definitions that um you know Dassi has um given us but the short version is you know where
are we as a district with arts and culture and I think when we're done with this work that you I'd be able to come up here and have some real data to give you. Um because, you know, I can only speak to a small piece of it. You know, now we got nine teachers from art and
music really sinking their teeth into, you know, what's going on here in Danver with the arts. Um and we're excited to see what that the outcome of that. And I'll be happy to share that with you uh once it's completed.
So this kind of brings every this slide brings everything um kind of to a point and um this is very much you know my opinions based on kind of being a little bit more on the inside um the past couple of years um and having a close
relationship with administration um and it's also what I've seen over the past 13 years you know I think a challenge that we face here in Danver is um treating the arts as a unique entity,
right? So a lot of the time what I've seen is that the performing arts and the arts kind of get lumped in with everything out with everything else and you know the arts educators will be at a meeting and we'll be looking at MCCAST data and you know we have three of us
maybe sitting there and like we could be doing you know real work um when it comes to you know all this stuff that I've been talking about and that's not to put down the MCCAST or anything like that um and it's good for us to be aware of that sort of thing. But it's sort of
just been the general rule that when we have professional development, you know, we just kind of get like plopped in here and like it's not thought about that, you know, the music teachers could be doing something to like build that community and that um curriculum on on
their own so that we could um make things better for students. Um, and you know, a great example of that is something I already mentioned. You know, we have two elementary music teachers. That's not to say that we don't have like five great elementary music teachers, but we have two that just
presented at a seemingly national conference. And, you know, I don't know how many times they've actually like shared what they do with, you know, the rest of the staff. And, you know, there's not an awareness of that. So, I
guess at the end of the day, um, we need to find ways to be a lot more collaborative. And, you know, the way that I encompass that in that first challenge here is that there needs to be a better consensus built between, you know, administration and teachers. You
know, we're starting with it now. And I love the relationship that I've had with Mary for the past two, three, five years on all the work that we've done together. Dan's been great the past couple years coming in and you know I get a meeting whenever we need it on
some of these major initiatives. But you know for for these administrators the arts is just another thing on the long list of really important things in education. And we don't have a point person. Like I'm up here advocating, but
you know, I'm only advocating like kind of in a half sense because I've just been up in up here um 6 through 12, right? Um so what's going on with elementary? We have a teacher leader down there, but we really need someone
that is a director of visual and performing arts to be a liazison, a support system, and an advocate for us. And then this next piece about instructional leadership, I've kind of talked about already, but we have such talent and passion in the arts here and it extraordinary, but there's a ceiling
to it. You know, we have to let our strong teachers thrive more and our less less experienced teachers gain access to support and guidance. And this sentence I I wrote I wrote this out because I wanted it to be kind of in ink for you to see. But all teachers yearn for or
importantly need true accountability and high expectations for instructional practices. That's not happening. You know, the last sentence I have on there is arts teachers should also be evaluated by someone in their field. You know, they have someone doing supervising them who like couldn't tell
you the first thing about what they're teaching. And I know that generally happens across the board. You have administrators who like English wasn't their thing and they're going into an English classroom. But it comes back to what I was talking about. The arts does need to be treated as a specific entity. And it goes into my last point which is
the conclusion to all this is our enrollment is down here. Um, if we want to be doing things that are bringing like people in and are a motivating factor for, you know, enrolling in the Dambridge public schools and connecting
with the Danver public schools, the administrators, teachers, students, and community, they need more. They want more than relying on the pride and praise for an individual performance, a project or an event. We get awesome praise all the time. Oh, good job with that performance. Oh, this person came
to our event. Great. you know, um we went to that conference in Connecticut, but everybody here is ready for more than that. Um because, you know, we've had teachers here who've been in the district for 20 years and never had any kind of real real infrastructure as to
let them spread their wings so that we can make things better for students and better for the community. So, it's that last sentence there, we're ready for systemic learning, progress, and achievement. And um again I have Jeff here who know spends all hours of the
night with marching band and all the things that he does. You know we hired these new people to do the Holton Richmond uh jobs this year with theater who are you know in the season of it. You know staying until six o'clock after they taught kindergarten for the whole
day. Um, and you know, they should be recognized not just by good job at performance, but by things that show them that there's a real self- support system here in Danvers. And um, you know, it's not going to happen overnight. Uh, you know, I know the
reality of budget and resources and time um is not to be scoffed at. Um, but I think with the people that we have here, with the passion of the students that there's a real opportunity and I'm more than happy to help with it and I know
there's a lot more other people are happy to help with it as well. So, thanks for the time to talk about it tonight. Thank you. Uh, any questions or comments? I'll just make a quick comment that first of all, your passion is fantastic.
I love I love the passion. Um you can you can feel it and um just as a parent of a newsy from um I guess it was the winter you know what we this was our first exposure. mentioned it at right after the the performance, but um the I guess the the
the culture of the group that was there was so welcoming for my daughter as a first time and um performer in there and it was just such a nice feeling to see all the kids welcomed each other and as an inclusive group and and it was just that you know I think overall uh just a
great that was my first experience to it. So, I mean, I that's all I can really speak to at this point, but we're going to be see see more continued um I guess um exposure to this, but I I just think overall the arts program is sometimes takes a backseat to athletics around in in school systems, but I think
this is just a such a great uh program that you guys have built here. So, um you know, I just thank you for what you're doing right now. Thanks very much. I appreciate the analogy to athletics as well because it's something that I didn't put on my slides but I wanted to mention you know I do think
it's a a relevant juosition. You know we have great athletic programs here. I grew up as a student athlete. I was a three sport athlete for two years and then went down to two sports in my junior and senior year and it was always tough juggling both but it really made
me the well-rounded uh person I am today. But, you know, here in terms of administration, we have an athletic director and associate athletic director. That's two people that like solely work on, you know, the structures in athletics. We're getting there with
the performing arts, but we're it's not necessarily equitable in terms of, you know, supervisory um duties or, you know, administrative duties. And so I think that we need to go there um in order to like get the arts up to not be taking a vaccine.
Mr. Chair, um thanks for for presenting, Alex. And uh yeah, I mean to me the arts like athletics in some ways. Um it's a way to connect students to the
school. There are lots of students. It was this way when I was there. Is this where daughters were here, it's always been thus that there are some students that if there wasn't a performing arts program, you would lose them potentially
in one way or another. It's the fact that they have this thing that they love and this thing that they can do that keeps them connected to the schools. Um, my experience of you through the past many years has been, yeah, you have
passion. You have passion for what you do, but you also have passion, I think, for the value of an arts program and I can tell from tonight's presentation, a passion for wanting to see greater
things for the program. And I don't want to quite say a passion to see more respect for the program, but I don't know that that's a bad way to phrase it either. Um, and I really respect that. I think you pointed out the issues that uh
come up when you're talking about um what you know budget issues and whatnot and there are unfortunately lots of districts that have had to lose athletics have lose performing arts and uh I'm I think it's safe to say that
we'll never reach that point. But that doesn't mean there's not more that we can do within the the resources that we have because what you're doing in your college is important and so especially the idea of giving you collaborative
time allowing more time to work and plan sort of a whole curriculum. But I I know what you want to accomplish. You want to build something that'll be sustainable K through 12. make a difference to kids, attract kids, better programs, um
something that could attract students to stay at the end of I get it. And uh I think we should have whatever support that we can give you in that effort. The finance part won't always be easy. I don't can't promise you we'll have a director next year, but um I get what
your goal is and I appreciate it. Great. Thank you so much. And if I can jump in again that I think if we can get that infrastructure there then you know things like the challenge of last year don't happen right you know that that
didn't happen that was nobody's one person's fault you know like sort of everything coming to a head with the whole enrichment drama club but it was just a lack of communication a lack of structure um and you know again you can't point the finger at one person But
if we had had a system in place, then you know oversightes like you know um you know certain hires and um you know certain reallocations um can have a bigger conversation right and so I think
that's while last year was tough I think it also is an opportunity to highlight uh what you know opportunities we have here. you, Ellis, your point's well taken. And u as you know, I had
three three kids in the performing arts. One under Ron Parsons and two with with uh you all. And um I've never left a bad performance. I could say that in all honesty, but I hear you saying it could
be better if the infrastructure was in place. Um, so I thank you for bringing that to our attention because perform performing arts were very big in our family. It cost me a lot of time and a lot of money but um it was well spent
and if if if a student can get up in front of a auditorium of people and perform like that then I think they can almost do anything. And you know, our guy walked into college this year not looking to be involved as he was in high
school, but be looking to play his music, be part of the pep band, be part of the symphony, and you know, within two weeks, he's got 30, 40, 50 friends. Makes that transition a lot easier. And he always has that confidence. They have
that. And I know there's a whole host of kids out. You've impact the performing arts impacts so many kids and I know a lot of them. Um, and if parents are listening, I urge your parent, yes, let your kids play sports, let your kids go do other clubs, but let them explore
performing arts as well. Just a whole another group of kids that they connect with and what you take away, you can't place a value on it. So, um, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I think this conversation should continue
and, um, yeah, let's let's just make it better. Appreciate the time everyone. Thanks. Thank you, Alex and Mr. Daniels. Thank you for being here tonight. All right, we're going to shift gears and uh we have Mary Beth Barry
providing an update for our Damber's Deep, our Danvers Educational Enrichment Partnership and all the great things that are happening. Good evening everyone. Um Mary Beth Barry, current president of Deep, the Dammers Educational Enrichment Partnership. I'd just like to thank the school committee
and superintendent Bower for inviting me here this evening to give an update on DEEP. Um, as many of you know, DEP is a nonprofit organization that was started back in the early 1990s when the community saw a need to help the Dammer
public schools um support different initiatives that were not covered by the town budget. Um over the course of the years, uh DEP has raised multiple uh amounts of funds to help support
students and teachers in the Dis Public Schools by enriching their educational experiences. We one way that we do that is by providing teacher grants. Um I don't know if you'd like I don't know who's Yep, there we go. So um one
way is to buy by teacher grants and each year we ask teachers to submit grants to h our grant committee. Those grants we look for innovative um applications. Um we also help with improving technology in the classrooms
and providing unique learning opportunities um that not only give students a competitive edge today but in the future. uh hands-on learning. Um DECA is one of them as well. We have supported the uh performing arts in the
um in past years. Um hope to do more in the future as well. Um but in addition to the opportunities that we provide for students or I shall say the one of the ways that we do provide opportunities for the students is through the
volunteerism of our board. Uh, our executive board is made up of a vice president Ben Thomas, uh, our grants coordinator Mari Matt, treasurer Michelle Keith, and secretary Angela Chumis. Uh, and then we have board of
directors, folks that have served as executive board members in the past, uh, Glenn Buchcci, Gayla Bartlett, and Richard Stony. uh when I after elementary school after my children progressed up here to middle school. So in elementary school I was uh
involved with the pack served as president, vice president uh cultural enrichment coordinator. We got to the middle school there wasn't a pack and there was less need for parents to go into the classroom. Uh so those parents, my executive board minus Ben, um those
folks came with me from Riverside. I brought them along on the journey when we went to a deep meeting and their board was in transition and they needed new leadership. So, of course, I said, "Sure, we can help out." Uh, 10 years later, I'm still here and my children have now graduated the Dammers public
schools and one has graduated college. Why am I still here? I'm here because or I'm here with my board because we still care about the Dammers public schools and we believe in the education that our students get here. uh my treasurer, her child went to
middle school and then went on to Bishop Fenwick, but she because she lives in town here and she again being a friend and supporter of the schools uh came along on the journey with us. So I do want to thank them for their support um for 10 years. It is a long time to be
volunteering and not have children in the school but still have the passion for it. Um, going back to Deep and how we raise our funds. Um, we do have some,
uh, well, let's just our fundraising includes our memberships. Um, we offer memberships for family for $20, individual for 10, community membership um, or sponsor is $100, and corporate goes from 250 to a,000. Um, we host
special events. We in the past have done a ball, uh, a wine tasting. We've done dining for dollars events this year and community events. Um, we also accept monetary and kind donations from local businesses, uh, alumni, retirees, community members, and programs where we
do save a seat. Folks can purchase a auditorium, a plaque for an auditorium chair, and we do the Currenes program. Um, one particular community member uh made a significant donation I would say
probably close to 10 years ago and that was Philip Morris uh when he donated the funds to complete the high school uh football or stadium the field. Uh he also made a contribution of $250,000
um two of those, one to deep and one to the friends of Damas Recreation. That fund or those monies um we earmark specifically for DECA um because Mr. Morris is a self-made businessman and
those funds help us help support DECA. Um over the last 5 years, DEP has awarded almost or yeah, a little over $100,000 in DEP grants. So, as you can see, uh 2020 was almost $24,000. In 21,
because of COVID, lots of things were in flux. So, we decided we would just give $2,500 to each school in the district for them to to use however they needed to. and then progressed further down into 22 23 and
then in 24 and 25 um you see there's quite a drop in what our contribution was. Uh but that looking back on that applications are similar but what teachers were asking for the the the financial part of it wasn't as much as
some of those other years. um in each year is different and we have a grant committee that goes through these applications cuz it's not just you know we're not just writing a check for like you know 20 applications we're going through it we're reading for the thoughtfulness of it um if you can see
in that picture right there this year um we supported a request from the Dammer high technology department for a replacement of a a tool that they use in um the shop class it's a Festool Domino XL handheld
mortizing machine. So, uh, at the open house that was recently had, Deep was there, uh, welcoming folks into the building, I did take an opportunity to walk around and I saw Mr. Sanjimano and I wanted to see what that tool was, which is in the middle of that door in
the table. That tool helped make that door that those students are standing next to. The original tool is this huge piece of machinery that weighs like at least a ton if not more supposedly uh to
move around. So to enhance and help the technology department, there are other things that they'd like to be able to purchase and and upgrade to. And in the past, we've also done a 3D printer for the um technology department. They still have that, but that's not quite where
we're at anymore. um technology has changed. So I did speak with him. We talked about some things for the future and we'll see where we can go with that. Um but so again the quality of the TE teacher grants again we look for
innovative high quality thoughtful connect to current curriculum benefiting a large number of students uh technology and depending on the request the technology requests usually will always have to go through our director of technology Mr. Sullivan to make sure it can work with
everything else. Uh in addition to the teacher grants, like I previously spoke, we are a major sponsor of DECA. Uh every year we make a monetary donation that goes to help support the DECA students. Uh whether it's um through creating
their boards that they use at the presentations. I don't know if you've ever seen the kids present um but those boards cost a lot of money each and they use those at states and international competition. We also over the last at least five years have seen a greater
need for financial support for students to attend these uh conferences. Uh it is a very expensive piece of the program for them and some parents or families have multiple children that do it the same time. Uh last year I had a parent
come up to me after I spoke here and was so thankful to help support um his son going to ICDC because without Deep's support he would not have been able to go. And again, I know our our DECA coordinator would not have let that
happen. But Deep was able to help make that happen easier than it would have been for him to fund raise on his own. So this year um the Falcon's Nest um well I think it I believe it was the group that placed at ICDC um they were running the school store
and they asked and wrote a grant for themselves for a heat press. This was an outside request. The heat press was going to allow them to make their own apparel. Obviously, they have to purchase the t-shirts and sweatshirts, but they would be able to make their own imprints on the shirts, cutting down the
cost of an outside vendor, thus making it possible for them to make more profit because what they sell in the school store goes to the DECA uh group. So, it was a no-brainer. It was a $5,000 piece of an equipment or maybe a little less, but we were able to give them that
money. They purchased it and then they were able they made t-shirts for the deep spelling bee this year. Usually I use an outside vendor, but this year I used them to make the uh t-shirts for us which had it was great for the students to learn how to do it and it was great working internally because when they
were done I said okay just bring them down to the curriculum office. So that worked out and they also made their t-shirts for when they went to ICDC. Um and this year our sponsorship this year and last year because of the number of students participating in DECA we went
from a $5,000 line item to $10,000. costs go up. I believe it costs at least 1,500 a student to go to Orlando this year and when they have to go to California, it's so much more as well. So, $10,000 is a lot of money, but when
you divide that by over 200 students, it's not not as much, but we're happy to be able to contribute to it. Um, why wouldn't we give, you know, you got 250,000, why don't you give 50? Well, the goal is for this that account to last for years to come. So those monies
are in investments. Um, and we are doing it very conservatively, but we have an investment company that we meet with uh twice a year to make sure that we're doing what we need to do to keep those funds there. Over the years, fundraising has been challenging for all groups, but it's even that much more difficult for
us because we're competing with every single booster um, every, you know, organization in town. So we this year we did not do a wine tasting. It takes a lot of effort and energy and decided that uh we were going to take a break
from that. We are looking at potentially and there have been talks um a pickle ball tournament something different something a community you know all everyone in the community can participate with. So you know uh we'll let everyone know when that happens. Um
but in addition to DECA we also support events and programs um in the community. Um, we're a sponsor and coordinator of the HRMS spelling bee, uh, the step up for Colleen Ritzer 5K, uh, again, the DECA program, Band and Chorus, uh,
Dammer's High School, Credit for Life. Um, we have given seed money to the high school and middle school stores to get them up and running. And we support the deep breakfast of champions that happens every year where we honor not only our sponsors, but our retiring teachers and
staff in the Dammers public schools. And we have champions that we honor as well. Folks that have contributed to the Dammers public schools in some way that is greater. And again, this is a very small thing to honor them at a breakfast, but these are folks that have
really contributed um to who Dammer Public Schools, who they are, who we are. Um as always, we're looking for new members. Uh again, I yeah, been in on 10 years. I'm not necessarily needing to say uh but we are looking for folks to
come. Our meetings happen usually the third Wednesday of the month. Um we are now meeting at 7:45 uh yes 7:45 at Dammer High School. We brought it back to um Danvers High School to hope to get some other folks to be able to attend those meetings
because some folks I know work. We all work. We take that time once a month to um be there and be present um and have these meetings and have good conversation and dialogue with the schools. Um Mr. O'Ne is a um one of our liaison.
Um so we get updates. Mary and Dan come as well and give us updates and we do talk about different things where deep could help in other ways. Um again over the years we've had conversations about the teacher grants that maybe we need to do something different. teachers are
busy and sometimes the ideas don't, you know, they're they're so busy doing a lot of other things. Are there other ways beyond teacher grants? Maybe we don't do teacher grants. Is there other ways that we can support different uh programs? But it's an ongoing conversation and as of right now, we'll still continue the teacher grants. Um
and again, we have um a website and we have some social media. We have an Instagram and a Facebook. Uh we do have a Twitter or X, but I haven't really been active on that lately. So, we're just on uh Facebook and Instagram and try to get out a
quarterly newsletter uh that Dan will share with the community. Um just want to go back real quick. Not only is it DECA um and the heat press that we supported this year, we supported this was a great meeting because they talked about the flying onion. Uh that was a deep grant this
year to help them get online, get the infrastructure that was needed. So there was a coordination with the English teacher and Jim Sullivan and to get them the money so that they could get that as an electronic version. Um the performing arts, we've done the Oh, they left. But
um we've supported them in their trips to California, Hawaii um and they support us with a deep breakfast. They'll come and perform. So we have a really nice relationship there. Um this year some of the teacher grants were for special education which we have had
special education grants all along but this year there seemed to be multiple grants coming in from different schools looking for different things to help the teachers with their students in the classroom. So, after going through some of it, uh Mary and I, we were chatting about it and we're going to really make a concerted effort to work with the
special education uh or the uh director of student services to come up with whether it's uh I don't want to say like um I forget what we called it, Mary, but um instead of them writing a grant, we would provide um it's not
necessarily equipment, but like a kit that all the elements elementary schools that have um the special education classrooms and students that they would all have the same materials because we had teachers asking for different things at each of the schools and some of the
materials were not necessarily what you know we should be using currently. So, we're going to coordinate better for next year with the special education or student services director. But I I will also say we have provided grants especially one this year for it was a
proposal for sensory integration cart um for the Thorp school. We've also done flexible seating. We also worked with the seventh grade special education team on um some furniture or a desk where students could all sit at and write on
the desk. Um emotional support. We've done things for um story grammar marker and autism um language um multiensory implements to support high needs readers. So the grants that
are coming in, we're again we're supporting most all students uh across the spectrum and all the schools here in the Dammers public schools. And again, it's great work that we do. It's hard work that we do. And you know, I think
my my crew and I are potentially, you know, needing some new blood to kind of keep us going with this. So again, we're looking for new members that want to come and see what it's all about. And again, just like Alex said, it doesn't have to be people that have kids in the school district because there's five of
us, six of us, seven of us, that whole board, we don't have kids in the school district anymore. So, um I've gone to pack meetings, I've talked to packs, I we've made presentations, I've come to school committee, I get it. People are busy and we have other
obligations, but um for deep to continue on, we do need the support. So, that's all I have to say. Any questions? Thank you very much. Oh, you got Well, just first of all, you've been the heart and soul of me for years since, you know, before you were
on school committee, while you were on school committee, and now. So, um, all kudos to you and your crew. I know you're trying to shift the credit. I get that. Um, but what Deep has done for the schools over the years is fantastic and really very much appreciated. And uh you
know it's funny when it comes to fundraising there was a time it seems like events run their course. It's almost like you know first it was the deep ball then it was the deep ball of honor then it became the wine tasting and you get three to five years out of
any of those. So try 15 20 was the ball 15 or 18 was the wine tasting but yeah um so maybe the pickle ball tournament and other ideas will will help with the fundraising. that, you know, it would be great to see
Deep be able to continue to sustain itself and um especially I I get the understanding and the feeling that you need new people to be involved. So, not going to lie, Eric, I'm getting tired. Yeah, it's a wonderful opportunity for
um elementary parents and other parents to sort of get a connection to the school district, to the town, meet people, and make a difference. And uh most of us here probably started out being involved in our local pack and it
grew from there. So it's um it's a great thing if you can if you can do it just as a as a citizen as a way to give something back. It's a great thing. So I hope people will help you. Thank you. Thanks. One of the first things my wife and I went to when we moved to this town
was the deep wall. We had a great time. Thank you for your update. That's appreciated. Y any other questions? Uh, I just want to jump on to Alex's presentation a little bit. Uh, totally support everything that they want to bring into the commun uh, into the
district and totally understand the funding of it. However, um the meeting last year when the parents came and were so passionate and supportive of that is just a testament to where the community is with um what the needs are of the students because we have great sports,
we do have a great arts program, but and you know again quality and where the support is and I coming from working at the library and understanding the arts are the first things to get cut, especially like a library where it's a small percentage sometimes And some folks, and I'm not saying we cut that,
but in the big picture, sometimes folks think, well, we can get rid of that because that's not important. The importance is is that we have to have something for every student. And the arts are a huge thing and it is important. And if DEP can help in some way, certainly can't fund a uh director
position, but if there's some way that we can help beyond and get the word out and all of that, we're more than happy to help with that. So, okay. Thank you again. Congrats on chairmanship and thank you for your service. We just have a brief update of the
strategic plan. We're making great progress. I just want to give again credit to Mary Wormers who has really um taken the strategic plan and we're at a point now where you know we we're pretty solid on the mission and vision as well as the theory of action, our
competencies. Uh there's still a little bit of editing that we're we're doing to boil down. We're getting very close. We had some word smithing uh from our last superintendent's advisory council in terms of the vision uh statement um and the competencies as well, but we're
we're getting there. We're getting very close. Uh but I think it's important to note that you know these are the backbone components of our strategic plan because this is a plan that's designed really it's a five-year plan and as we talked about before you know mission and vision you know the mission
what we do and the vision is what we aspire to brings us to the theory of action for it's going to happen and then what are our true values the competencies portrait of the graduate that has to go through all K12 experience here so we're we're in good shape here we'll bring a uh a finalized
uh copy as we get closer in in our June meeting. But the portrait of the graduate, the things that we stand for, you know, the graduates with resiliency and critical and creative thinkers, compassionate and ethical citizens, empathetic and effective communicators and skillful collaborators. These are
all things that we feel that our students um can demonstrate for success with life after school um after high school and the public school experience wherever they choose to move on. Um these are important factors and
competencies that need to be woven into everything that we do prepare our students the best that we can. So there's been a lot of really really good work and we've cycled down and really just want to develop next our pillars which really drive into our strategic
objectives and priorities. We have four main pillars teaching and learnings, schoolwide systems and structures, family and community partnerships and district procedures and policies. So we're now at the point where we're working with our administrative team and working with our our faculty and staff.
This will be the core of the strategic plan in terms of actionable steps to improve our district and we have we're starting to build those strands as we speak. Um I can give you a quick timeline that we have. So really this
week uh the pillars we feel are in pretty good shape and right now we're looking for you know finalizing the feedback of the miss excuse me mission vision and competencies and theory of action. Uh what we'd like to do is by the end of of the week moving into next
week just have the full draft really is is just about there. Um then we'll go through a whole cycle of review with our principles and their site councils or school councils. We will offer up some faculty and staff feedback sessions. Our advisory council in our next meeting in May will take this even further and and
dig down really deep. And then our administrative council which uh is comprised of all of our administrators in the district will take another uh feedback loop through it to finally drill down and bring the final draft to the school committee in June 9th which
uh it's been a year-long work but really uh the work we spent a lot of time building that mission and vision the competencies this is really the meat and potatoes though the actionable steps to how we improve and this will build our district improvement plans and we'll build our school improvement plans.
in the small one-year chunks. Um I I think uh at this point I don't know Barry you have anything to add but really uh a lot of really really good work. We'll put Barry on the spot but no I just want to thank all the
stakeholders that have really contributed to uh build this plan. It's been amazing the feedback we've been getting and we you know how people really dug in really read closely and carefully um really good. So again, appreciate the superintendent advisory
council. They've done a lot of work representing the community. We did those forums back if you remember in November and December to get feedback from in January as well January to get feedback from the community and um then this superintendent really helps us
pulling this plan have them as again the teachers as well. And so the whole idea is once uh we get this finalized there will be some more feedback groups that that need to take place then we will take our uh retreat
the administrative retreat for June to really start building the actual action plans yearly school improvement plans that we'll then bring forward in August uh when we have our school committee retreat as well. We'll talk more about that so we can hit the ground running. I
don't know if anybody has any questions but um we're getting there. Thank you very much for that update. I I will say the uh superintendent advisory committee made up of parents and staff, they really have taken this seriously
and um it's a really nice cross-section from across this community. They've done some really really nice work. So applaud everybody who's giving feedback. All right. School choice hearing. Mr. Chairman. Sure. Okay. So, this is a
public hearing. It's one of the few things we actually do where it's a public hearing, the budget hearing also. Um but typically you as chair would declare the public hearing over take questions and comments from
the school committee and then to the extent that there are any take comment from the public. Then next would be a motion to close the public hearing and then a motion to accept or not accept school.
Um, no, I appreciate the guidance. Um, the hearing for school choice is now open. Are there any Are you going to run through the presentation again? If you
if you'd like, chair, I'm happy to. Is that necessary? No. Any questions or concerns right now from any of you? Is there any comment from the public? Hi. Up again. Um, my name is Julie Dilippo. I'm the chair of the Denver
CPAC and I'm the parent of two boys at the Thorp School um that receive IEP services. CPAC sent a letter, I think in early April before the original meeting was planned, not taking a position because we understand that, you know, there's lots of different perspectives
on this issue within the disability community, but really just outlining some of the pros and cons of um school choice for students with um with IEPs and 504s. Um for me I think the the
funding mechanism is really a true benefit in my opinion. Um I think this is a more proactive way of managing cash flow um due to the different funding mechanisms. So we know that chapter funded chapter 70 will give the typical
about 5k and the sended districts will cover below the 60k and that allows you to do some planning to proactively through increment funding which is proactive instead of the reimbursement
model with circuit breaker which we know is so reactive and just covers extra expenses that keep going and going. Um, this model I think would actually allow us to do some of these investments even regionally. So, I like to think about,
you know, uh, districts specializing in some of the programming. Hamilton Wenum, for example, has a fabulous language-based program that starts in fourth grade and really attracts students regionally. And, you know, I think a lot of districts were trying to figure out what we can do to serve our
our students with disabilities while managing budgets. um if we I you know coordinated regionally and specialized in certain programs in each district or instead of spreading our eggs so thin in every district I think it could help. I
also think we all compete for the same talent unfortunately every year. Um, and we always all, you know, we come up short, it's hard to fill, uh, positions, especially with teachers and staff that have certifications that special ed students needs or training. Um, that
could also be helpful in thinking about the model outside that. But I mean one of the reasons I really wanted to come here is just to say that I think that the experience within intra school choice that interd district choice that other districts have had is that it is
not increasing special education fund uh budgets for the receiving districts below 60k you're getting increment funding and then it's usually I guess traditionally for the last couple years has been the 60k above you're getting the reimbursement from circuit breaker
funding. So I mean it seems small but I do think like trying starting to shift the model a little bit in some direction could be helpful with this decision. I think, you know, just on a personal level, I'm a graduate of Dmers High School um class of 2002 and I can say um
when I went to college, I went for my undergraduate Simmons in Boston and I felt fully academically prepared, but it became abundantly clear that I wasn't prepared in terms of I wasn't really used to anybody different than me, not only even visibly, but just different
perspectives because they lived in a world and experienced that world in a variety of ideas that I just did not have and I didn't even know that I really didn't have it. And I I just think that is a start to bring you know include people from other even just
parts of this region or parts of the state that can enrich conversations and curiosity within the classroom. Um for me that was one of the the biggest benefits of my um undergraduate degree. Also um it's just the reality of
the workforce today. If we're not preparing students in any level of education to be able to collaborate, communicate is a huge one. We need to be able to learn to communicate between nonverbal speakers and people that speak
verbally. That's the reality. And so if we're not doing that, we're not preparing people to live in the real world, work in the real world, and thrive in the real world. So, you know, from a personal perspective, I've seen a lot of benefits of this program. my work in a school district as a school social
worker. Um, and I really hope that you can support it. Um, and I know even outside the special education realm, it does it will bring some extra funding to the district that I think, you know, we could really use and benefit from. So, thank you.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Anyone else from the public? Seeing none, I will close the With that, I will move that we close the public hearing. You need to second it. Second. All those in favor in closing the public hearing
say I. I. I. Public hearing is not closed. Any discussion on this? Well, we need a a motion to approve. So, I'll make a motion to approve accepting school choice for the uh I guess would
be the 25 26 school year. and um the superintendent has presented to us the parameters of what we would be doing in terms of accepting students. Um so that is my motion that we approve it
for the 2526 school year. I'll second discussion and I'll say this um I think that on its face it's a great idea. make sense from a financial standpoint, but more importantly,
um, we've all received comments from folks with potential objections to it. And I have to say, none of them have been particularly factbased in the sense that no one's come to us and said, "Gee,
this school district tried it and it was awful and it went badly or this negative consequence occurred." not a nothing that we received was anything other than, you know, a subtle subtext of new people
coming into the embers and apparently we're supposed to be afraid of that. Um, you know, I remember back in uh to tell a war story back in 1982, I was a young town meeting member and was sitting at a finance committee hearing the news discussion about a lowincome housing
project. Someone back then on the FinCon made a com we may not want those people here and got me angry and that attitude gets me angry now. We are lucky to live in a wonderful town but we were not
anointed to live in a wonderful town and the more that we can do to expand the experiences that people have expand and and that's you know, talking about the assumption
of who the students who come to Danvers will be. My guess is that they're going to be if students who families want them to try and get ahead and are willing to drive them to Damas every day to make that happen. I think you'll find students who are engaged and uh really
want to do well and will contribute to our school community. So, I've probably said enough or maybe even too much, but that's my Thank you, Mr. Chair. Awesome. I I'd just like to thank the parents that took the time to send emails to us.
I appreciate their uh their input. I will say um that during my time on the student advisory committee uh more than once we had very robust conversation about this issue and without question it was
wellreceived. That was from staff and that was from parents. So, not to parrot what Eric said, but there there was a lot of of positive feedback. Um, so I've been working in schools for
27 years, Dammers being one of the towns, and it was the only town that I did not work in uh or that I worked in that did not have school choice. um the benefits it it's it would bring students here that want to that want to take
advantage of the arts of to use Alex being here um you know going back to when I graduated in 93 um the band the arts we were always highly regarded um that's just one thing um that's just one
piece of the academic life um and before I moved to Dammers I grew up in Lyn who cared fifth grade and it was a whole different world. Um, and I think that when people hear that they're not they're going to picture one thing, you know, they
picture the city. That's not what we're going to get. We're going to get kids who want to learn. We're going to get families that want to be part of something and maybe can't afford to move into the the town right now, but would like to get here at some point or there might not be a housing opportunity. So,
I think that academically and socially, I think that it would be a good thing because I guarantee parents come and walk to school, they're not going to be able to pick out which kids belong from town and which kids belong out of town. It's going to just go as business as
business every day. Yeah, I'll just toss one more thing out there. I I think when traditionally the school committee or Danvers has obviously not gone voted in in favor of school choice, but and I think when this first came up, my knee-jerk reaction was
to say no. Uh but then I started to hear different perspectives and really dug into this. I I read all the emails from the parents that that uh that reached out and I I I really do think that there's more upside than than um potential downside. So I um I I'm in
favor of this. I think it makes a lot of sense for our district right now. And um you know, I think it's a it's a step forward full progress, right? Not necessarily living in just doing what is always been done. I I like that we're actually making a little change here.
So, thank you. See no more discussion. Um all those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Unfinished business. Superintendent recommends the
transportation policy FBA appendix for a second. Yes, just as uh mentioned in our last meeting that we've added to our transportation fleet uh non70 vehicles which means we have staff members that are utilizing the vehicles to transport
students not for to and from school but for different events and it's been quite a savings for us but it's also a major convenience but we need to have in terms of our policy just what is needed in order to be endorsed and we work with our attorney
on this. So we would just make this an amendment to policy PPA. So that's basically it. Um a motion. So move I have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in
favor please say I. I. I. New business monthly budget. You know, Pam, sorry we made you wait. Next time, just give me a wave. I'll move you up. Um I it's I I understand you have a lot of important things that you have to
work through um each month. So, I I appreciate the offer. Um I'll take that under advisement, I guess, going forward. Uh so this evening we have an April budget report that does reflect some
rather significant um increases in the projections to what we expect for tuition and for contracted services in particular um through the last stretch of the school year.
Um I I had some consultation with that department to sort of gain a deeper understanding of sort of what's been going on um there and I I think a lot of it is the fact that we are building
programs and those programs are um are still there's still decisions being made and um investment being made in the training in the staffing in um the design of the programs to be able to um fully meet the needs of the students in
front of them. And so um to help assess that and to uh like help collect the additional data on those students to see what it is they need, there have been some extended evaluations of those students. they have
um that is something that at times can be done within our own uh services. But when our programs are sort of still being built, their capacity and their ability to do those evaluations in in at
the same time as we're, you know, kind of figuring out where everything needs to go um has required that some students have been having those evaluations done at the collaboratives and sort of outside of the district. Um but these
are important investments in developing the programs and uh the expectation is that with the use of that insight that we gain from the data collected through the evaluations the um programs will better be able to serve those students
and we'll be able to keep them in district in the long run. So um it is a a necessary um sort of parallel investment basically alongside the building of the programs in order to keep more students in
district in the long run. So, if they have to spend a little bit of time out um sort of having these evaluations now, then come fall when the programs um have been able to be built with their particular needs in mind, they'll be
able to remain in our district. Um there were other increases I guess to the projection for homeless transportation, but that is not unexpected. Um, we do, as I mentioned last month, we had just received a payment that I was able to apply to
bring that projection down. Um, like an early reimbursement from the state. Um, now additional invoicing has been done since then and we have not had another uh reimbursement. I we have made inquiries with the state about that process and where it stands. Um and
they're well aware of our uh intense interest in receiving additional reimbursement. Um they just are working through various elements of the emergency assistance financial program basically to um so it's still I think on
their radar but it hasn't yet been realized. I would say also that um while the the numbers uh are concerning um we do have circuit breaker reserve that we can
access um and we are keeping a very close eye on what is going on with the supplemental budget that is going through the um state legislatores to as we have described before the amount of circuit breaker reimbursement
that came in based on on our FY24 expenses was a considered a fully funded reimbursement for our tuition, but only a partial reimbursement on the transportation. And the supplemental budget that they are that is working its
way through now would make that transportation reimbursement whole, which would represent another $440,000 of circuit breaker revenue that we should be expecting this year that we could use to apply toward these overages. Um, so we're keeping a close
eye on that as well as the FY26 state budget and how they're going to there are some amendments that um are promising, but we never know until until it's done. Any questions on anything that I
just tried to explain or that you see in front of you? Uh when you're talking about the um the additional cost of evaluations, Jim, what are we talking dollar-wise? How much of a difference or a hit is this going to be? I mean, each each one
is, I think, in the 35 to $40,000 range for the period of time from like February or March through the end of the school year. So I I mean it's it's significant and there are several students that um are kind of in that demographic.
40,000 total for a given month in other words um 40,000 for a student for so what we do what this represents is sort of a projection out through the end of the year. So if if that evaluation started in February and is going to run through June, okay, then it is that
encompasses um February, March, April, May, June, five months worth of um that service. Okay. And when you say that service, it's an evaluation. It is to see what services might be needed. I I think to collect data on what exactly is
needed to meet the students learning needs and challenges. Yes. presumably would lead to an IEP would lead to team meeting and then an IEP. Yes, I think I think the Yes, this is the evaluative piece.
I honestly am not as well-versed in the process. Maybe superintendent. Yes. So, uh these particular situations the students are in an educational plan. It's just to determine if the uh services that we have are adequate and typically looking at um we do not have
the infrastructure currently to run extended evaluations. So we're utilizing an outside entity the consortium that would make the evaluation then obviously team meeting at the end to determine you know what would be the best uh path for the particular student. We're hopeful to to be able to provide the services for
the students to remain in the district. Um but right now we just don't have the infrastructure at this time and that's part of the the piece of building and improving programming so that we could uh run those evaluations because those do not qualify for circuit break. Is it
fair to say that those evaluations you're talking about are somewhat atypical in the sense that they're longer term evaluation versus what typically typically 45 days that's usually the window uh to get a good
evaluation that includes testing right and seeing the student in in that particular environment how they how they thrive and how they function. Okay. Right. And then recommendations come back at the end. We're hopeful that we'll be able to return you know many
students to our programming but that is an area that we need to continue building. So the students who are being evaluated I don't stick with this but I want to understand are they students who are already placed out within the system. Okay.
Thank you. Thanks Pam. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next we have the annual review of the school's recommendation. Well, I think we uh kind of took care of that in the
beginning. So, I will amend that uh next year in the agenda. Thank you for that support. They do a wonderful job. Next, your recommendation of policy student submission to educational
survey and research first. Yep. So um the recommendation is for first reading of the policy IL uh student submission educational survey and research and this policy itself uh
is really a the school committee association it's it's pretty much a boilerplate policy. Um but you know as we conduct youth through surveys or other types of surveys the realization is that um we we
currently do not have a policy in our manual. Um so the recommendation is to bring forth this policy for for first reading. I think it's important. Um the main components they're they're clearly spelled out, but really it's just about being transparent when you do uh bring
uh surveys and just knowing what parental rights are in terms of the ability to you know if a survey is created by a third party then it's administered or distributed parents have the right upon request to review the survey or any associated materials that
may be utilized for any survey outcomes. I mean that that has to We we do that but I think we need we need this in the policy. The other piece too is in terms of the notification of this policy every year for all parents and then also at the beginning of the year you know
before we begin just talk about the surveys and other evaluations that we schedule or anticipated so parents have the opportunity to understand the ability to opt out if they wish. And then really it's in our best interest as we do we have opt outs to really clearly
articulate that and how they look just to protect um you know the rights of parents. That's the whole bottom line with this particular policy. And then obviously at the very end you know if parent or eligible students you know feel their rights have been violated they can file a complaint which they can
anyway but we just really need to have this down in policy for our usage. I really uh I would say I really appreciate this. I mean given some of the controversies that have come up that you know having a policy in place is really responsible and I'm glad that you know as a committee we're getting ahead
of it and thank you for bringing this forward so we can get it out to the parents and avoid any future controversies. Well, since since this requires a vote, should we have a motion first before discussion? Sure. We I will move to approve for first reading for
discussion. Do I have a second? Second. Anyone like to discuss? I repeat everything I just said. Does anyone else have I do um through
through you to our superintendent Dr. B. I'm glad to really be able to say that. Congratulations. Um is it the intent that this policy would apply to any survey that we
Yeah, it it it does. Yes. Um, you know, I think the important piece is that, you know, if we're gaining information to utilize Y and parents have the right to really understand like what are my students being asked to do. Totally agree. Um so they have the opportunity
to review the survey and you know particularly those larger surveys and we also have other opportunities uh other programming that require surveys that help provide information and insight. So the lawyer in me is about to come up.
I'm so sorry. Um so in the first paragraph um it says uh without the prior written consent of the students parent or guardian or of the student if they are at least 18 years of age no student shall be required as part of any program
wholly or partially funded by the US department of education to submit to any survey analysis or evaluation. So, it seems to me if we intend this policy to apply to any survey that we give, we probably don't
need or maybe want to remove that qualifier about a program being wholly or partially funded by the US Department of Education that would then make it apply to any survey that we might be a kid, whatever it might be. Just a
thought. Yes. Um, I mean this I can certainly bring this back. I mean the the the spirit of the policy, you know, and obviously this was constructed with the other piece too and I could certainly run this by Rosanne and and the firm which I always do, but the piece that's important is that, you
know, we do receive federal funding. Um, we right we have our entitlement grants and such that we we receive. So, um, I just want to make sure that we're covered, particularly when you look at the categories of potential items we may or may not even ask. Uh, but again, it
gets into the rights of parents to be informed so they know that they have the opportunity to opt out and particularly if the students 18 or older, they can opt themselves out. Yeah, I'm with you. I just want to make sure the policy applies to all of the services and maybe it does the way it's written. So, if
Rosenne says, "Hey, this is the way to do it. Tell Crane to shut up." And Crane will shut up. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for for bringing this to our attention. Um, you know, we we need to collect data about our students. So,
we we we know how to direct resources in order to put things in place that might help. But with that said, parents should be aware that they have the right to not have this subject such service.
Um, so I'm glad that we're we're maintaining or at least codifying parental rights policy. Thank you. And if I can add to the chair, uh, one thing that we've talked about with our mental health team is that, you know, if
you look down toward the end by the notification annually at the beginning of the school year, we're looking to put together u an evening where we will have a forum that does indicate, you know, the the types of surveys that we do or anticipate as well as the opt out. But
then really the bottom line is why do we do the surveys? How do we apply them? I think that's important to have that dialogue so the community realizes and understands and we would have our our mental health team as well as our administrative team there really be openly and present. We would film that just kind of like we do the uh the
safety form at the beginning of the year. We're going to use that same format. So then we inform everybody what we're doing and we'd obviously link that in. So we would send that that out those that would not be able to attend or you know have a link so they can watch it at
home as well. Love that. That's great. vote. Seeing nothing else, all those in favor of first reading, I I last day of school. Right. It gives me uh great joy to announce or at least
make the recommendation for school committee approval that the last day of school will be June 18th. We've utilized one snow day in anticipation of no more snow days. M would like to bring the recommendation for school committee approval. I have a motion. Motion to approve the
last day of school 2024 2025 to be June 18th. Second. Any discussion? Yeah. I just want to say that I get out Monday following and my summer program starts with the rec department on Monday. So, we hold it off till then.
So, I'm even with you guys. Only kidding. No, I'm sorry. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I would like to mention it's my birthday that day. Thank you. Uh, next is consent agenda. Motion
to approve the school uh to approve the school donations, field trip requests, homeschool requests in personnel memo. So move. Second. Second. All those in favor, please say I. My
bad. There's any discussion? Uh, just real quick, I think that the young man from Riverside money that he raised pretty big top. All those in favor, please say I. I. I
minutes. The secretary moves to approve and release the minutes from the April 7th, 2025 regular meeting. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any communication? Um,
communication. Legislation update. D and did a nice job of laying out the issues with the supplemental budget. Um we're still looking we're going to be continually looking at you know what federal cuts may be coming. Recently there was a there's discussion I think
actually it's been passed of cutting quite a substantial sum for youth mental health services. Again, it's sort of a trickle down effect because if the federal government isn't funding it, then the state is going to have to try and fund it, which means, you know, do
districts get a little less to do other things because the state have less money to do. So, keeping a watch on what's happening on the federal level because it's inevitably going to have some impact on the state. And
great, thank you for that. Any other subcommittee updates? actually. Yeah. Um I saw the email this weekend that um CPAC was awarded the Apple Institute. So we'll be looking forward that probably mentioned sorry I
came in late I had a game today but just wanted to point that out paying attention that deserves a second mention. Yeah. All right. Thank I apologize again but I pay attention. Anything else?
Um through the chair, we have our equity and policy subcommittee meetings this week. Um the safety committee will meet Monday, which is a week earlier. It's the last meeting of the year just because Memorial Day is the following Monday. We usually meet the last Monday of the month. Uh some some exciting
things coming out that we can talk about. The inform, which is our opportunity to broadcast if there's, god forbid, any type of uh serious safety issue. uh we have an opportunity that we can send it right away to our devices uh
increased notification and also a lot of the safety drills have gone through very well but there are a few areas that we need to address so it's constant area of work so anyway and I mentioned Amber's cares they've done a really nice job and
the light purple was out anything else seeing none I would obtain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? I'll second it. All those in favor, please say I. I.
Good night, Davis. feeding his truth.