Welcome to the Monday, December 15th, 2025 meeting of the Dennis Jamorth Regional School Committee. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Um reports and discussions. Uh Mr. Deo is not here. However, I know we are meeting uh tomorrow with some of
our new uh to discuss our other student representatives. So, more to come on that. Um move right into our secondary MCCAST presentations and start with the middle school and Mr. Good evening. My name is Mike Deino, middle school principal. Tonight, I'm
going to walk through our MCCAST results accountability data for the Dennis Yarmouth Middle School, just like uh the elementary schools did a couple weeks ago. The goal of this presentation is not to just report outcomes, but to clearly explain where we are seeing
success, where we still have work to do, and how our instructional decisions are directly tied to this data. As always, our focus remains on data informed decision-m and continuous improvements for all of our students.
This slide represents our schoolwide accountability snapshot, sometimes referred to as our MCCAST report card. Overall, the Dennis Yarmouth uh middle school is classified as not requiring assistance or interventions based on
moderate progress towards improvement targets. One of the most important indicators here is our curriculum progress, our cumulative progress, which increased significantly from 23% of targets met in
2024 to 49% in 2025. The jump reflects real visible improvement across multiple indicators, not just in one subject area. When we look at strengths, we see this progress driven largely by ELA
achievements and growth, strong progress towards English language proficiency in our EL students, and a steady upward trajectory in both ELA and math. Several student groups exceeded target areas in
ELA achievement, including students with disabilities, our Hispanic or Latino students and our black African-American students. This tells us that our tier one instruction and targeted supports are having a
meaningful impact across student populations. At the same time, this slide also holds us accountable for areas where improvement still is needed. Two areas that stand out clearly are math achievement and consistency across grade
levels, as well as chronic absenteeism, which increased across most student groups. Even with improved instruction, students must be present consistently for gains to take place. The overall takeaway from this slide is that Dennis
Yarmouth Middle School is moving in the right direction, but more that there's significant work still to be done. This data is directly directly drive driving our schoolwide priorities
moving forward. When we look specifically at ELA, we see one of the strongest success stories this year. 38% of our students met or exceeded the expectations of the state, up from 27 the year before. And our
average student growth percentile was 55% 55.2%. Which is above typical growth. Most importantly, we are seeing fewer students in the not meeting category and
more students moving into the meeting and exceeding C category. This indicates that our instruction interventions and curriculum alignment are having the intended effects.
When we truly look at this slide, our strengths in reading and language are clear, but writing remains an area of focus, particular particularly constructed responses and evidence-based writing.
The adoption of our new ELA curriculum and the use of vertical PLC's are intentional steps that strengthen alignment and instructional consistency across grade levels. Now when we look at math, math continues
to be an area where we are seeing gradual improvements but not yet at the level we are expecting. The percentage of students meeting or exceeding increased from 23% to 29% and while we remain below the state average the trend
line is moving upward. Been looking more deeply into this data. Sixth grade continues to outperform outperform our seventh grade with 37% of our sixth graders meeting or exceeding comparatively to the seventh grade only
20% are meeting or exceeding expectations consistent instructional strategies. One additional data point that isn't shown here is that uh our student growth percentile. Student growth percentile
shows the rate at which students are making progress. When we break out our sixth grade students, we see the students are increasing at a rate of 56% which is 6% higher than the state average. When we look more deeply at certain
subgroups, our EL and our IEP students in ELA, we see progress, but almost continued gaps. Also continued gaps. Our focus on our is on access, ensuring students can meaningfully engage with
grade level content through structured curricula. scaffolding and targeted supports. In the EL department, you can see that over time we are showing signs of gradual improvement. Last year, we had a
decline that we are already addressing with our windb block and increased content support for both our EL and our IEP students. Now looking at math, this slide reinforces a key message that math gaps
for students in with IEPs and reel persist even when particularly remain remaining steady. This is a system level challenge we are addressing through strength strengthened tier one math
instruction as well as being very intentional with our tier 2 and tier three supports particularly during win intervention blocks. Again these trends are not about individual teachers or cohorts but rather system level part
patterns. It reinforces the use of importance of fidelity to the core math curriculum, explicit vocabulary and lang uh language supports in math instruction, consistent use of
data inform win groupings and targeted interventions. As we move forward, our focus will be on aligning curriculum instruction and interventions to ensure these student groups are making meaningful meaningful
progress. So this slide is intentionally celebratory. Our certain our current seventh grade graders posted the highest ELA growth score on the Capeen Islands reflecting strong instruction student effort and
alignment across grade levels. This is the type of progress that we are trying to have across all content areas. Now for our action steps. Based on the data, our action steps include continued reinforcement of
refinement of our windb block and content support classes, full implementation of ELA curriculum with coaching support from both internally as well as externally. expanded math leadership and curriculum
training with uh our assistant principal, Mrs. Burns, gaining uh additional curriculum knowledge through coaching, developing stronger PLC structures
focused on instructional impact, and then focusing on our attendance structures. Any questions? Any questions? I know one of the slides was different from our packet. Why we >> right?
>> Yeah. >> We realize that today trying to look at the screen. Um any questions from anyone in the community? Okay. Go once. going twice. Seeing none. It's It's great to see, you
know, the numbers climb. Looks like over the fiveyear span. Um there has been some change. One were the highest and the other one that's the right slide. Uh between the math, it looks like
there's definitely been an increase over the past five years um from the 2021 numbers. Kind of looks like right after that we dipped and we're starting to climb back up. So that's great to see. So thank you. We'll invite the high school up. Good evening. I'm Kendra Bennett,
principal of Dennis Yarmouth High School. All right. So you'll see here is page one of two pages of the accountability um for the high school. Um I'd like to begin by saying um our overall school
rating as you can see is in the needs assistant or intervention and I just want to clarify that this is solely the reason for this classification is for low participation rate in subcategories that are listed above. Um, in doing some digging, we looked at all of the
subcategories and in order to get um to meet the target for your overall rating, a high school would need 95% participation rate. So, in some of these categories, we are at 94% specifically the English learners. In looking at this data, it's the um difference of one
student who didn't take the test. So that had us go in the 94% participation rate missing the 95 by 1% giving us the needs assistance rating. Um additionally if you'll look you know the scores are
um we know measured by reaching targets. So not necessarily you know a a zero or no points is not meeting the target but doesn't necessarily mean no progress. Um so again I know that there are along with the other schools a lot of places
for improvement but I would like to go deeper in some of the highlights that are listed here. Um we did make progress in both ELA and math MCCAST achievement in both 8th and 10th grade. We exceeded the target on the ELA MCCAST in the area
of our English language learner students. We exceeded the target on the math MCCAST in the area of students with disabilities. We exceeded the target in English language proficiency for non- high school students and maintained progress for high school age students. We
exceeded the target for exa advanced coursework completion in almost all of the subgroups. And I would like to highlight a couple points we're really proud of. Um we had a 9% increase in students completing advanced courseworks in the area of our high need students.
We had an almost 9% increase in students completing advanced coursework in our low-income students. And I'm incredibly proud to report that the amount of students with disabilities completing advanced coursework increased 17% in one
year. Here's the second page of our accountability where I want to identify some focused areas of growth. Um, again, like all the schools districtwide, we are on board with the improvement towards decreasing chronic absenteeism.
Um, so again, I'd like to go deeper into some of these subcategories. Um, we did decrease the chronic absenteeism amongst our lowest performing students almost 6% in one year and we decreased
the chronic absenteeism amongst our English language learners over 8%. So these are areas and subcategories that are historically very difficult to move. And so we are mimicking some of the strategies for lowest performing students and English learners because we
were able to decrease the chronic absenteeism there. We want to mimic some of those strategies. Um another area we're focusing on is our graduation rate, extended engagement rate, and dropout rate. Again, although progress towards the targets wasn't made as much as we'd like, I wanted to note that our
dropout rate is 1.9% which is below the state, which is at 2%. Um, and then our dropout rate amongst highnee students reduced and is now at a 2% rate where the state holds a 3.4% rate. Oops.
Additionally, our dropout rate amongst English language learners in one year reduced by almost 7% leaving us with a 2% rate. And if you compare the state level for dropouts among English language learners, it's 7.7%. So we are below the state in um the dropout rates
among those two subcategories. All right, for eighth grade, our ELA data, you can see the percentage of students in the meeting and exceeding categories went up 1% from last two years ago to last year. Um, and noting the state also went up by 1%. So, our
progress is at least aligned with the state. Um, still work to be done in this category. going to 10th grade um you will see the percentage of students in the meeting and exceeding was 20% and we sorry I
think I have my slides ELA sorry in 10th grade we this cohort of 10th graders when they were in eighth grade their meeting and exceeding was 34%. So we increased that by 6% with this cohort from 8th grade to 10th
grade. Um we also went up 1% in the students of meeting and exceeding. And I just want to note that last year the law was passed that the MCCAST score was not a competency determination. So statewide in 10th grade ELA, the state dropped 6%
with, you know, one year into um the CD change, whereas Dennis Yarmouth was able to make a 1% um upswing. Okay. In eighth grade math, the percentage of students meeting and exceeding was 20%. And again, we um
increased in 3% from 2023 to 2024. So in the last three years, we are maintaining maintaining that 20%. Again, something that we are looking at this trend data. Um definitely work to be done in the areas of math. We are implementing a
system of support for teachers understanding the curriculum design. We're providing specific feedback from walkthroughs and observations that help teachers understand embedded in supports accessible to their students. We're not reviewing this information in isol
isolation either. We have the appropriate people around the table and we are delivering specific information to them to help work to increase student achievement. All right, our 10th grade data again
there was a 7% increase this cohort um from 8th grade to 10th grade there was a 7% increase in students meeting an exceedingly exceeding expectations sorry and admittedly we're working on increasing this percentage as a whole in both grades I want to note that it's of
course not trending in the right direction among grades we shifted our model in math about 5 to 10 years ago and we're doing an instruction instructional audit to see if another shift is necessary. Again, there was a change in the CD requirement last year. So, as the state went down in math by
3%, um, DY was able to maintain with that CD adjustment. Um, one thing to note that we're hopeful about is the SGP, you know, is in a typical area for progress. So very hopeful that with um you know looking at the instructional
model making the necessary shifts we can see things trend upwards. All right. So again you've seen this slide before the um this is in the subject area of ELA for students on IEPs and EL. The chart on the left is the
number of students tested in those subcategories. And you will note that in for ELA in both of these subcategories we've closed the gap. So in the last five years at one point the gap the achievement gap between students on IEPs and nonaps was 50% and last year we were
able to um shorten decrease that gap to 28%. Additionally e students in the area of ELA at one point it was 45% so in five years we were able to reduce that by 10% to 35%.
And it's a similar story in math with these subgroups. Um, in the last five years, at one point the largest gap um for students on an IEP in math was 42% and we were able to reduce that to 23% in the last 5 years and in
for EL students, I think it's 34% was the largest gap and last year the gap was 24%. So again in seeing data in these subgroups um like I mentioned are you know some of the toughest subgroups to move the work
the intentional targeted work that the teachers have done is working and so again we want to take some of those strategies um take some of the in-house expertise and apply it to grade levels. All right. So action steps I felt one
thing was um best communicated visually. Um we are working really really hard at analyzing the data and analyzing and auditing our strategies, structures and systems. So a way to have it be accessible to teachers for you know at
least the last two years. Um I I felt like this visual was effective in opening school this year. So it's something that teachers have been seeing. It's on almost all of my faculty meeting slides, but the reason we're here is that first oval, student achievement. Um, and there's many ways
we're achieving that. And I, you know, our action steps is to not lose sight of this. So, we have our schoolwide goals. Um, they are all aligned with our school improvement plan. And teachers, I've shared multiple times, just like I have expectations, they have a criteria for success for their lessons, I have a
criteria for success for the instructional material. And that is all aligned with our vision of a graduate. Again, we have high quality curriculum and we're uploading that into the program chalk. What is supporting that is our PLC structure and our tier one instruction. Tier one interventions that
are happening are dolphin time and wayfinder for social emotional support. And then we have the dolphin way for incentives and expectations. And then again, tier 2 interventions are going to be as a result of tier one instruction.
If tier two again through PLC and data analysis is proving to be ineffective, we have our DECAP, our student support team model and then tier three interventions. So this is kind of a scaled out visual um but each of these have their own system when we know what
needs the students need. Um so here you know I have it a little bit more literary. Um we have the implement reimplementation of PLC's. We're using formative assessments to influence instructional shifts towards increased
student versus teacher classroom discourse. Educators are working with their evaluator on their student learning goal around tier one instruction. Additionally, we are giving very specific uh feedback through our walkthroughs.
We're looking at priority area students, identifying specific tier 2 and tier three interventions, moving those students from the red up. Evaluators are increasing observation feedback using the new evaluation form. I'm currently working on a root cause analysis on the
MCCAST data with DESIE. Um, we are implementing strategies to increase connectedness with the school to decrease chronic absenteeism. again a focus on curriculum and high quality curriculum. We are now in stage two of understanding by design in our
chalk platform and we are working really closely with the math coach working up to grades eight with a very targeted specific um you know approach to math curriculum and we'll take questions. Okay, we'll start with Miss Land.
Thank you. Um on the action steps chart or graphic there. Um I don't think I understand I had a certain understanding of what tier one instruction was and I don't
understand how and maybe that's wrong. How how are dolphin time wayfinder and the dolphin way Are those I don't understand this chart. Are they tier one instructions or they're supporting tier one instruction?
They're a tier one support. So those are something all students have access to and it's you know if you think about it systematically it is something the whole school systematically is participating in. Now again there is a d you know if those are proving to be unsuccessful or
students are struggling you move to the tier two and those will have more targeted um interventions for students. So like tier one is something that again you can prescribe to the whole school. Tier two and tier three are going to be much more targeted to the individual student or a small group of students. So
again you know there the t from the tier one those three offshoots the expectation is all of those are happening all the teachers and all the classes and then again measuring against the criteria for success if students need additional support beyond tier 2 or
dolphin time or expectations of the dolphin way that it goes to specific interventions through the decap SST model or tier three interventions. I have one other question on the next slide. Action steps.
The second one says using formative assessments to make instructional shifts towards increased student versus teacher classroom discourse. >> Can you tell me what that means, please? Because I have no idea.
>> Yes. So again, this is a um evaluative measure on the teacher evaluation tool. So um evaluators will go into classroom observations and look for this. Essentially there's you know multiple ways this can be observed depending on
the content area but it is the teacher as the facilitator and the students doing the output of you know you have your learning objective which is standardsbased. you have your instructional delivery and then um an activity or a learning activity the
students are participating in that is going to show the teacher the output of the learning target the learning objective. So essentially increasing that student discourse you're going to see classes that are a lot less teacher talk, a lot less stand and deliver. The
students are having more output back. There's lots of ways that you could measure and observe student discourse, but um you know, in a very basic way, it could be a turn and talk. It could be a small group discussion, it could be a share out what your partner said, and as the teacher is observing, they're
measuring that student discourse to see if they how many students are achieving that learning objective. So again, it's through projectbased conversation, out of your seat, um you know, but it's very much facilitated. It's not um you know
there is a level of proficiency that is being expected. It's not just go and do it and I'll see what you give back. It's very it's strategic intentional and then teachers are using that data uh maybe in the moment to provide some support some interventions um or you know students
might produce something they grade it and that will drive more of the instruction. So it's the teacher as the facilitator and the students doing the learning. One more question. And um when was the current math curriculum
implemented at the high school? >> So I believe it's been at least three full years. I think this is the beginning of our fourth year, but um we we've had some leadership shifts that um me and Miss Pontius are working on the
exact date um because we know there's different we have two curriculums in the high school with 8th and 9th through 12. Um so it's a matter of which one started which year that we're nailing down, >> but essentially within probably within I
Betsy I see here too within five years we within the last five years. >> That's what we're thinking. Yeah. >> And and that that tracks with a pretty steady decline. >> Yeah. So again, it's >> in our math achievement.
>> Yeah. It's not a trend, you know, that we're looking for clearly. Um but really digging deep into the why of this data and you know being open to a shift that may surface from looking at it doing a complete audit.
>> Okay. Thank you >> Miss Beus. >> I have three questions all slightly different. I did look at uh the participation rate and what was interesting um in grade 8 ELA science
and civics had either 93 94 or 95% but math was at 92%. And then in grade 10 ELA was 95% science was 95% and math was 88%.
So is there uh students not taking that because there's a decision made of their preparation or readiness? No, I mean all students have will be tested. I would say it would be a matter of attendance.
Um and I'm in communications with DESIE on whether or not the retakes count towards the participation rate because you might have a high, you know, absentee rate and students take it during the retake window. Um but I have to see how that aligns with this data that's reported out. So a student
wouldn't be um ch opted not to take it due to readiness. I think you know the more times they can take the test the practice um so that wouldn't be a factor in them not taking the test. The next question is on the action step
again and and pulling it all together. And I know you're looking a lot of schoolwide goals and looking at curriculum. So I'm wondering at part of that discussion, especially since the PLC's have started up again. Are you looking at how the day is structured,
how many active periods they have, how long a teaching block is, maybe adjusting it. I'm curious to know if there's any discussion along that or the use of dolphin time. >> Yes, there definitely is. Um, I think, you know, if I could have the magic
answer to a schedule, I would love it. I've done a lot of research on a lot of schools spec specifically around the state, but um I mean around Cape Cod, but statewide and um so we our schedule now has a lot of alignment with some of the best practices that have been out
recently with research. But I continue to keep an open mind because I think um you know the best way we could utilize a student's school day, we need to be tapping into that. So we do have um a scheduling committee. We have motivated teachers that look into this as well. Um
and we also have a dolphin time committee that is meeting today, the 15th. Today they met um to analyze how we're going to best use that time. >> Thank you. One more question. Um I'm
wondering how the coaching model is working in your building because you have the challenge of four grades and then of course high school becomes very content specific. So are all there's three assistant principles. Are they all involved in
that? Are you starting to use sort of senior colleagues? How is that working so everybody gets the help, the intervention or sort of the just in time learning they may need? >> Yeah. Great question. Um so the coaching at the high school again like all
effective coaching is very targeted. So um of you know we have the eighth grade is receiving specific coaching on that curriculum and then um the illustrative math sorry the Carnegie math on grades 9 through 12. So it's a combination. We're
building up just like um Miss Burns at the middle school or building up Miss Dick at the high school. So she's our um she has a background in math. She was a math coach at her previous district. Additionally, Briana Durkin, the math coach for the district, um she's working really closely how that looks with the
eighth graders. She's doing a lot of lesson implement lesson internalization. Um diving into who the students are that are in each class, what the lesson looks like, what does each class specifically need. So, she's really working through that multi-tered system of support at
the level of eighth grade. Um and then we have a coach um as part of the implementation plan for the Carnegie math. So we have a contact with Carnegie that comes in and works with each individual teacher because it is so content driven. Um and it's, you know,
from the reports I get from um Staca who's here, the math department chair is um she it's very collaborative. It's very two-ways. You know, you have a curriculum. It's not built just for Massachusetts schools. Um, but the Carnegie coach really listens to our
teachers. She's really, um, dug into our schedule and how to best utilize their curriculum with, you know, our students, our demographics, and our schedule. Um, so it is very specific, really deep work. >> I want to thank you for your forward
thinking analysis and all the great work and I I wish you well on your school system well on the next chapter. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Morris, >> I can see I can see by the chart and by your discussion that the
shift or the ratio between student versus teacher classroom discourse is being changed and instead of putting the burden on the student, it's it's put it's not a burden
But it's a structure for the teacher to check on themselves and their the effect of their work and on the students themselves. One of the things that the the jargon it
it takes me usually a few years for me to get up to speed on what you're saying >> and then it'll change. But what is a formative assessment to to make sure instructional shifts to an increased student? >> So what what is
>> Great question. Yep. So there's formative assessments and summitative. Summitative assessments are your typical unit tests, large quizzes, projects, debates, that type of thing. Formative are in the moment. So it may be an activator, you know, a quick five minute lesson. might be the major um learning
activity for the class, but you know it could take up about 20 minutes of a student's time. So a teacher might get it back in that class period to be able to measure effectiveness of the lesson. And then also an exit tickets. So formative are, you know, really in the-
moment lessons um and student work that teachers are um you know the transaction between production and getting back to the teacher is fairly quick and then a teacher can make a shift you know by the next lesson or maybe um depending on
planning in two to three lessons. So formative are those smaller assignments. It would seem that the formative assessments, not only are they getting results back earlier, there's also
conceivably less pressure to achieve a targeted goal, but rather it's observed by the teacher of the student and working together. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, always a targeted goal, but I think the important
thing in that formative um assessment is that in the moment, so maybe there could be a small group shift or um you know where the teacher was going to move on, they're going to ask two to three questions to make sure that targeted goal is being met by at least 80% of the
students in class. >> That that is impressive that that percentage. And it seems to me that you're going to be able to speed up the cognitive appreciation from students by
this method which is absent test taking uh with pain involved. >> Yeah, that's the hope and students taking ownership of their learning, you know, and be able to um display it in a variety of ways. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
Anyone else? On a on a housekeeping note, I'd like to thank you for having the high school logo on every page. And >> it is the first presentation where we didn't have to squint to see the numbers. >> That was the last minute, too. I was like, I got to do this for Tomas. He
asked for it. >> The numbers on some of the other graphs were a little blurry, but the everyone was clear. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next we'll move to Dr. Gillson and uh a summary of the FY25
uh year. >> Okay. I was looking forward to this moment all week when I could get to the point where we could summarize FY25 budget. And so, um I'm very, um pleased to report, um that, um we reached the
end. And I'm going to ask Sam to scroll through this. Um I'm uh I'm going to go back. This is in the same format that I did for my quarterly. Um and I'm going to keep this format. Um how to read this report. Uh essentially I'm going to be
talking about things called budget appropriation. Um and that's the total amount that was approved by the school committee for each major account at the start of the fiscal year. And if you could scroll up. Okay. Um and um
expended expended is the amount that we paid out um for the whole year. Encumbered, if you remember um when I did the quarterly report, encumbered u means funds that are reserved, waiting
to be paid. Um and um basically uh what I also mentioned was that encumbrances as you move from the first quarter to the ending quarter of the year the incumbrances should start to dwindle. Um and and um you would close out the
incumbrances typically so that they're zeroed out. Um and then um the amount remaining is just simply that um the amount remaining um and we are getting get to the end of the year um amount that was remaining and uh while I wasn't
here last year I think it's fortunate that um to know that we ended with 1% of the budget remaining after the full year. So, if you look at this summary right here, um we've um basically the appro the monies that were appropriated
for the FY25 budget are um listed next to um this is this list of major accounts is the DESI chart of accounts. the major categories in the chart of accounts. Um and um you can see that um
we were um over budget um in administration um instruction all good reasons and um transportation. However, um we were under budget in um if you look at the the table up here, um
we were um under budget in the uh like pupil services, um operations, maintenance and utilities, um benefits and fixed charges, um private school transportation, um fixed assets, debt service, and
tuition to other schools. So, above all, I'm mostly concerned with the bottom line. and we ended with 89, um 666. And um again um the starting
point, we began with an $80 million um budget. And um can you um uh make that uh bigger so that um so that I can actually see this amount? Okay, perfect. And uh continue
to scroll down. Okay. So this this was our starting point and um um so 80 million899651. Our ending point was 809666.
Okay. So keep um going upward. Um and um keep going. Keep going. Um oh and I want to stop. Um I want to um if you had looked at the encumbrances closely um in that table there's one left and I'm
going to tell you about that one left because I I I found it. We researched it um and it it actually um it was a part of a health insurance premium for someone that passed away or retiree in January. So we no longer have to pay
that balance. It is what it is. it's stuck in the system. I have a call into Tyler Technologies to help me figure out how to get it out. Um but um right now our auditor is um gave me the word this morning that we we don't have to take it
out and go through that effort. So we um can submit and I have submitted today the general ledger um for closing out um the f fiscal year. Um, so I just I just wanted to tell you because I've been saying that the the incumbrances should
by the end of the year we should be able to close them out and they should reach to zero. This is one instance where it did not reach zero and that is the reason. Okay. So um we're going to go through this very quickly um and keep going keep going. Um so there's in
addition to keep going um in addition to um oh okay stop pause right there. Um the other thing that I also will tell you um uh in the quarterly report I gave you a about a very lengthy print out of
all the account lines and all the specifics there. I didn't do this the same but I also gave you the verification reference um and again it's the bottom line um from uh the all of the uh listing of all the account lines
in the detail and again you can see the two 273 if you look in the screen um at the where the laser pointers going this is the $273 encumbrance um this is the amount that's remaining and the percent
of budget used was 99% so 1% % left. So, um we did pretty well um with our money. I was delighted we didn't end up in the red. Um and um and continue down parallel to the expenditure reporting,
we also have to do a revenue summary. And so the revenue summary lists all of the um ex uh the offsets or incoming revenues um that we receive either from the town or from the state. So um the um
Dennis and Yarmouth receive um a assessment of what they they um will uh contribute to each uh each town's um education. And so we have received in full all of the amounts from Dennis and
Yarmouth. Um chapter 70 is a major aid funding stream that funds this the uh the school budget and um we received all the funds from that. Um unexpected uh we didn't really have a budget um for uh
homeless money and so um we did receive an amount of $169,000. And if you look on the right side on the screen, it you know in revenue reporting the parentheses does not mean negative
amount. In revenue reporting the parentheses means a credit. Okay? So that's money that came in um which we hadn't um hadn't uh basically we didn't know it was coming in. So it came in and
we have the money. Um there was um aid for the charter school and we had predicted this amount. Um this was the amount that we actually received and um so all in all um as you look at the
bottom lines again um we started with a 800 80,899651 um million appropriation um and then we um brought in um this revenue um of uh 90 952,000
And that um so between the revenue that we brought in the actual um budget um total um would have been 8185226 um and so um if you could scroll up uh
yeah that way okay u so I'll in summary um you know the um revenues uh get provided um stronger than expected. Um and um the town member assessments were
received in full and uh we have uh no concerns about last year's budget and I'm very pleased to be able to report the closure. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Great. Any questions, Mr. Morris?
I can detect a easier understanding with the way you've laid this out. How much of I know you we have to see these and understand it for us to support it and vote and then support
town meeting fin. How often do you get a chance to go into the detail with Fincoms and select boards? Uh, or you dependent on us to uh
continue to keep improving our ability to explain it? >> I would love to continue to help keep improving your ability to understand it. It's not at all easy. Um, and um, so I I
told you last time it's the teacher side of me that really wants to help everybody to understand it. And I would always encourage you to ask any questions. Um, and um, I will tell you that FinCom typically loves the account
line detail and the changes. Um I try not to get too obsessed with each line and the differences and the percent used or not used. I tend to focus on we our budget is arranged so that um all of the
basically by school every school has its own budget and um the numbers are arranged in control groups. And as you work with um these larger set of numbers, it helps to make sure with the control group that we don't go over
budget. So um that is always the goal. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you, >> Miss Be. >> Sorry, I'm looking at the revenue summary. >> Yes. So the account for aid transportation for the homeless is that
because we can't plan it because it comes a year later or it's a wild card. That would be my first question. >> Yes. I think for for that we we didn't really have an expected idea that the state was going to be able to provide for homeless. I don't know if you want
to add anything Dr. Smith. >> Yeah. And like so with uh regional transportation with circuit breaker there's a formula when it comes to homeless transportation vento transportation the state designates a
pot of money through legislation uh and then distributes it uh to the districts but it's not on a percentage and it has the variance is wild. Uh we have a chart I'll show it to you during the budget presentations but it's wild
yearbyear and it's essentially at as they come to the end of the year when they have additional funds they will they will allocate those towards Mckin Vento reimbursement and then they just just distribute them evenly sort of across towns that have applied for them
but it's not you know you can account for 75% reimbursement on regional transportation so when you know what your costs are you can budget for that again you you know the formula for circuit breaker. So you can reasonably account for circuit breaker. Um now
sometimes that goes up, sometimes that goes down, but you can make reasonable estimates for both of those numbers. But for for Mckin Vento, there has been no consistent way the state has done it up until this point. There's a problem or a fiscal challenge the state is behind on
for as far as reimbursement goes. It's a growing fiscal driver for communities that the state is yet to catch up. >> The other one was under miscellaneous revenue. Why would we lowball what we it is it or what falls under that category
as an example? >> Well, there is a very large amount that comes back to us in solar revenue. So, that is a part of the miscellaneous. Um there's a very small amount that is just that miscellaneous. It's it's what we
can't really tie to anything but um but the solar revenues are actually most the bulk of that amount. Okay. >> Miss Marshall >> for the um for the state aid is that use
it or lose it or does it roll over to the next year? the state. So the homeless transportation, if there's 86,387 that we didn't spend, >> do we get to keep those funds if they're unused?
>> Mr. Mark, I understand most of this because of the way that you presented it and I appreciate that you you kind of presenting it the way that you have. Um, there's one thing that I don't understand, and don't laugh at me. I don't um I'm not um
I guess I'm not entirely clear. On one one side here you have the the um year end budget summary by major account which leaves us with an amount remaining of 809,000 and change. Yes. >> Um >> but the revenue summary
>> revenue summary leaves us with 952. >> Yes. So what which one is which one is it? >> I guess I don't I that's that's where the disconnect is happening for me. I don't I don't understand. >> So roughly So what'll happen next is
we'll have to get our E and D certified. So this actually goes to um Miss Marshall's question. So this this when you put those two numbers together, that's ultimately um the excess and deficiency. Excess or deficiency. In
this case, we'll have excess um that the district will have in our account to carry into next year. So, I don't have the number off the top of my head, but the district had roughly after the committee's decision last year to
uh we used 250 for operating uh the district moved a certain amount of monies into capital stabilization >> and um paid the last um uh debt service payment on the high school. And after
making each of those transactions, the district uh remained roughly 1.8 8 million in excess of deficiency. This again, it's going to have to go through a certification process. So that's a whole another process which won't get certified somewhere until like February
or Marchish. But if you add those two numbers together, >> so excess revenue and we underexpended by about 800,000. So 800,000 950,000. put those together, it's roughly 1700 17 $1.7 million is another amount of money
that's going to get added to that excess and deficiency, which will be important when we come back for our budget conversations in January because we're going to have some ideas for the committee around what to do with some of that excess and deficiency money as we talk about some of the priorities for moving forward.
>> Okay. And Okay, that makes that makes total sense. Thank you. Um but um the last year when we were talking when we allocated to make the final payment on the high school and yada yada yada was there I don't even I'm not even quite sure how
to word it but it was there like a cap on how much we wanted to keep in the in that fund or was there like I mean we didn't want to go over a certain amount or whatever. Can you can you refresh? statute, you can't have more than 5% of your operating
>> 5% of the budget in that I can look at. All right. Okay. We're good now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I had that same question. I had 1.7 61,000. I did the math and Miss Montas left so
she didn't check my math. Um but I had that same question. The negative and the positive are both positive. Um so that's around where we'll have excess. Perfect. And then uh the second question I I had is so for budget 26, what numbers are we
using? Are we using the numbers that we ended the year with and going from there or are we using the numbers that we did in 2025 budget? Because again, if we're 1.73 million over in instruction, um is that the number we're starting with with our budget for next year for 27, I
should say, or are we starting with uh a number that we had in the budget? So, um I can say we'll have this more tight for you when we come back in January, but it's with the $800,000
um uh savings. Yeah, it's a good good word for it. Strategically, um when uh Mr. Flynn left us uh in February last year, we brought in an interim. Um I worked with Mr. Ferris and
and on our our side, we froze the budget. So that $800,000 is largely a product of the fact that we froze the budget on our side because quite frankly as superintendent, I just I didn't have a good solid grasp on where things were and it was a conservative move to make
sure I didn't end up on the other side of the ledger. Superintendent, you never want to end up in the red, right? I definitely didn't want to come back to you all as a group and say, um, we're out of money. um that's not a position I ever wanted to find myself in. And as a
result, we ended up uh with more uh funds in the in the bank probably at the end of the year than we would have liked. The revenue piece is is a little bit harder to predict. Um but we're we'll do some revenue trend analys but
that re the revenue if we and part of it's a little tricky especially like on some of the return on investment um revenues because the market's heading in the wrong direction. You know interest rates have been really high which is good for your investments but um as the market has come down now we're not going
to earn as much on our on our investments as well. Um, so we'll project some of that, but then we're also some a lot of work and and so I say we, I'm really talking about Dr. Gillson and the mouse in her bucket. Um, she's been doing a lot of work um over the
short period of time that she's been here to really digging deep into our account lines, account line by account line by account. So, like the personnel pieces, like we were just talking before coming over here today, she's literally going personnel by personnel by
personnel. She's verifying with principles. She was doing that this week, making sure that we have every single staff member accounted for, rolling every single position forward. Uh, so we're going to have a really detailed u projection for FY27. Uh so
we're going to have a really strong base to work from and uh and then we're going to be also working to try to get we'll never be perfect because you can never we have too much turnover in the personnel to to be able to nail it 100%.
But you know I know through the interview process I I showed Dr. Gilson some of our multi-year uh account lines and you know we talked about the fact that you can look at this over multiple years we have lines where
we're over by a million and change and then under and other lines by and so our projections are off it all to Dr. Gilson's point, it all comes out in the wash at the end, but we could be doing better forecasting in some of our lines. And so, she's been she she took that to
heart and she's been doing a lot of really good work to make sure that we're we have a much tighter projection. And and when we sit down to to Phil's point, like when we sit down with because we do have lots of meetings, you know, my whole point since I've been here is we
should be an open book. So, whenever FinCon on either side, the select board asks for something, we give it to them. So, they're they see the they see the line item um for our budget and then they understandably ask questions. Well, how come you know this this line is, you
know, $300,000 over? Can't you cut that line? I'm like, well, we could except that that line is $600,000 over budget or under budget. So, if we cut that line, then we're not going to be able to pay that line. So, um we're where we've
been working and we're going to start to bring to you all too. You'll see when you some comparisons from year to year are going to be off over this year and then it's probably take us a couple years to do it and we're also going to be working to consolidate some accounts because we've got Dr. Gillson showed you this the last when she did her quarterly
report. You know, we've got a lot of account what's the word I would use? Maybe um redundancy uh would probably be a good good word. Um which makes also some of this hard to track over year over time. Um, so we're really looking to make
things more efficient um, and effective and ultimately more transparent to the public, to you as a board and to the broader public. >> I appreciated the conversation. I had two people on the board that asked about athletics and so I sent you that
information. Um, but if you have looked at it, there are a ton of athletic accounts, like a like thousands, one for everything. So, um, we're really looking at consolidating,
um, to make our process run more efficiently so that also we still will be able to track things. Miss Landers. >> Yeah, I was one of the people who asked for the athletic line item budget and
thank you for sending me everything you have and seeing everything you've done to try to streamline uh that situation. Um I'm probably going to schedule a meeting to come in with you and actually really try to understand what's really
going on there. It's very confusing. So >> I'm happy to do that. >> Yeah, I appreciate your work on that. Um it's very interesting and I I also wanted to say in terms of you know savings like a lot of these things are not things we wanted to save money on right you know a lot of these were
positions that we wanted to hire right we want to hire OT's we want to hire Spanish you know whatever you know these positions are so the minute we cut those out of the budget and then we you know sort of restrict
ourselves from being able to hire them when they do turn up and are available to hire. So, I think, you know, I've learned over the years it's important to keep those in the budget and to make sure that the fin and the select boards understand that th this is not us
patting a budget. This is what it costs to fully educate our students when to be fully staffed, to be fully resourced. And sometimes things happen, right? And we can't hire or we can't run a program or whatever it is. But, you know, This
is not padding to save money to put into END at the end of the day. We'd love to spend all this money on our students all year. So, I mean, the extra income is certainly, you know, a gift, but yeah,
>> thank you. Yeah, I I appreciate the the explanation and like I said, you know, keeping the numbers where they are and making sure I appreciate you looking at the instruction the way you are. Um, you know, to to Miss Lander's point of savings because of a mild winter. Well,
we're not starting so great. So, uh so if if if we continue to have weather like this, that that will go very quick. So, um we don't know what each year will bring. So, you know, keeping them where we think they will be each year. And then, you know, to your point of going line by line with each personnel and
understanding where we are and where we could end up um you know, with the increases in health insurance that we've talked about and all the other options and items that could affect the budget for next year. I know there's going to be a lot of helpful discussions. We all look forward to to those those
conversations. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> And next we'll move to the subcommittee representatives le report school committee less to the select board. Anything from the town of Dennis? Town of Yarmouth has requested uh some
of our presence tomorrow. Um but Dr. Smith is unavailable. So we have uh sent correspondence about possibility of moving that. Um we've not heard back as of yet, but look forward to uh having that conversation further. Uh next we have policy subcommittee
policy JICA student dress code first reading. So I think you can see the current language. We actually have two JICA which is uh an updated and revised which we adopted in January 23 and we still
kept JICA-R and the date for that was 2016. So fortunately there was a request from the high school administration that we really needed to look at JICA-R for consistency and uh so
appropriateness and sort of its requirements. Uh so is this was the first time that when the subcommittee met we had the high school principal an assistant principal and the middle school assistant principal. So the end
result was we drafted one policy which will be the new JICA uh which has exactly as JICA had originally plus we added some things
sort of that we wanted to keep from JC. So you have a copy of that and um that's it unless anybody has any questions. Miss Landers. Um,
so this is extremely paired down and leaves out a a well, I shouldn't say leaves out and removes a ton of provisions that I would think would be very important to um maintaining a
certain level of appropriateness. Um, and you know, I'm sure that some of did did some of did any of this come from uh the uh legal from the association from
MASC about, you know, new decisions that have come down on first amendment or restricting, you know, freedom of speech or expression or anything there because, you know, some of these things seemed really normal to me, right?
You know, that was in JIC A, you know, uh dress or jewelry that is directed toward or intended to intended to harass or an intimidate or demean individual or a group um or promote, you know, certain use that's, you know, you haven't carried
that over. So, I'm curious about, you know, the removal of so many of these provisions. um I can help you with the discussion. So um this is the process remember this is policy it's not procedures and what's
act we wanted to give guidance in which policy has been tod do for each building to develop their specific code that was one of the discussion the other thing is the mass association as school committees they did a deep dive to all
of their policies in 2022 and their end result was the first language that we adopted is when they implemented that policy. So it was a major rewrite from their work and we all subscribed to that. The other thing we
did is we looked at six school systems geographically close to us and all of them have the language the first language AICA. Um so with that
um we went and looked at the provisions of JICA-R from 2016 and kept some of that respect for individuals in their right. Um if you look you might want to review it a
little bit more. There are one, two, three, four, five different bullet items designed to sort of capture the essence of what was in the original document that people felt that they needed to
keep of this subgroup. That meant one idea I had if people would like this is the first reading. we can hold a vote perhaps to the next meeting so everybody has a chance to look it over a little bit more and we could take the first vote and table it to another meeting.
>> I I move that we take this as a first reading um and we will not make a vote until our at least our second or third meeting um to give you know due process to read. Um we typically don't vote on the first one. I know we we enact we
enacted something on the at our last meeting um specifically to move something through on the first passing due to that was one specific item due to the necessity with Desi um so that we could pass uh for high school
competency. So, typically we we will do a first reading and then we'll have a second reading and discussion um follow. So, we'll give plenty of time. But I I appreciate the work that was done. Um I appreciate the students uh wanting to be
involved. Um again, we have a meeting tomorrow with with some students that have been elected to the student council who will be joining us uh one of their members will be joining us at our table um to get more involved. Um so we're really increasing um what what's going
on. So um I'm excited about that. Um and I I think you know as I looked at it uh it you know specific items were removed like rather than saying spaghetti strap like this again it says fads change. So rather than specifically stating specific items um it had specific you
know discussion of what's appropriate not appropriate and again this would be the policy and then each school will have a handbook which will have their specifics and maybe theirs will be more specific um to us that's what I would expect correct the middle school and the high school would have their own under
their um student handbook section Miss >> Yeah I mean I think that I see the the idea here of having, you know, this
overarching policy and then letting the schools have their individual policies. I think that, you know, there's it's tough when you have language like this that says, you know, attire shall be appropriate for all activities.
Um, you know, who decides what's appropriate, right? Right. I mean, this is very subjective. Um, student attire may not contribute to a lack of student focus. Well, what's how do we know that it's, you know, that theire, you know, this is all very subjective. Students will be asked to change any
inappropriate article of clothing. Um, so it's um fads and styles quickly change and in turn require the judgment of the school administration and staff in the areas of these things. So
this is all extremely subjective. So I'm just wondering if there will then be guidance to the schools in terms of how they craft their policies, whether their policies are going to be more specific or not.
>> Dr. Smith. >> Yeah. >> Yes. So if we follow a model, I guess by we I mean you all as a board. If if the board follows a model to which Miss Beamis was alluding where the board sets
the or the committee sets broad policy, which is what this would be, then we would lean heavily on the I guess what would be the last paragraph before the numbered they're not really bullets if they're numbered, but the numbered statements I guess start where each school would have
then a published set of dress codec expectations. Yes. And then we would establish that as a uh an internal working group uh where we would and for me as superintendent I especially particularly between the middle and the high school because that would be where
these issues would bubble up the most. We'd work on tight alignment between the middle school and the high school. Um but that uh as they we work with them on working it's not perfect on working on a consistent code of conduct. it would fall in that in that space as well on
working on a consistent dress code uh within the schools. And again, most of those things that were mentioned are already in our policy. They're under AR in it's a combination of the two and then certain things removed it looks like. So
we're getting rid of R, but if you read the in red the proposed, it includes several items that are in R. So the first the the first statement is what's from sounds like what's from MASC that we adopted in 2022 23 and then the some
of the items not all are from 2016 and then some additions. Miss Beus, >> I want to point out one more thing that believe it or not this couple of words. If you would look at um the current JA
second paragraph and what we propose for a JICA, which I believe is in red. Um so it's a second sentence uh destructor to school property complies with the requirements for health and safety and
does not cause disorder or disruption. We expanded that. So complies with so instead of requirement for health and safety we went well what does that mean? So we have complies with reasonable and acceptable standards for health safety
cleanliness and does not cause disorder disruption. uh it just sort of expanded it a little bit in our interpretation. For example, you know, it's June and I want the right to, you know, walk barefoot in the hallway in a high school classroom or
hallway. Uh you know, it it sort of allows a lot of circumstances. >> Great. So, I I thank you uh Marilyn and and team who went through this for the high school administration, middle school administration and students that went through this. Again, this is a
first reading uh high school high school administration. Um and we'll have a second reading. Yeah, that's good. That's right. No one said Miss Burns. Um so um we'll have an opportunity for a second reading and then another
discussion and then um at some point have a vote. So So thank you for bringing us to where we are today. And then uh next we'll move to superintendence report. Uh thank you very much. Um couple of
uh actually starting with an uh acknowledgement. I want to acknowledge the Yeah. Can you hit this Sam to be my go-to slide mover for me? So, this last week, unfortunately, I missed it, but I
was I asked for some pictures and then I was able to sneak in there today. I had a meeting over at the high school, so I grabbed some of my own pictures, but our high school art students had an exhibit uh at the uh in the art gallery over at the high school. And it's just another
display. So, we're just going to if you can just maybe every 10 seconds or so, just click and move to the next picture. But just a display of some of the amazing artwork. So, there's both 2D and 3D art that was on display over at the high school. They had a uh during it was
Thursday. I was out of the district both Thursday and Friday last week at two different meetings. So, if I remember correctly, this was Thursday. Um they had a an exhibit open to the public uh for a couple of hours. I think it was at 2:30 to like 4:30 if I remember
correctly. and just, you know, I'm always at awe at the the so many of the amazing talents and the amazing displays of excellence that our students show in a wide variety of ways. And this is just another example of it. uh where you can
see and I took a couple of close-up pictures that you will see a little bit later in the in the slides here, but again just an amazing display of our student talent uh in the in the gallery. Um and again, an opportunity for the
public to come in. There was uh on our social media, you got to see some pictures of their families in there with them and and the students talking about what inspired them, what uh what the medium was they chose, why they chose it, etc. Uh and and again just just some amazing
uh real talent on display from our our DY students. I'm just blown away. You look there on the left like some of the intricacy of some of that 3D art is unreal. I I don't even know how they get pottery to do some of that stuff. The the one uh couple of those are by our
student rep um by Ava. There's that one in the front that looks like a croissant is called a croissant whistle. I didn't pick it up to play it, but it was got a slit in it and so I'm assuming it does actually make a whistle sound. Um, and then some of the amazing color work here. Again, I'm not an art connoisseur,
but I don't know. I was I was blown away by some of the stuff that was on display there. If you want to click to the next slide, again, just look at some some of this. Uh, I mean, to me, the stuff could hang pretty much anywhere. Um, and to
see it on display in our high school is really fabulous. Again, some more of that three-dimensional stuff. Just all done. That's all pottery work. So, they're again, I don't know how they get clay to
do that, but somehow they do. And then just some amazing pencil um shading. It didn't come out great in the picture. It really looks up up front. I was worried it wasn't going to show great on the screen there. Yeah, like all the contrasting that this student
did with just graphite was really really remarkable. But I just wanted to again show off just some of you know we talk about a lot of different things that are great here in DY and this is just another another one that I wanted to acknowledge. Uh I was bummed that I personally missed it but
it was great to be able to have the photo shared with me and then be able to get over there today. Um I didn't get to see the kids um on display there, but to be able to see it for myself because it it's still up on display for a couple more days. All right. Um moving on. Um
and the the committee got a copy of a memo that uh Sarah distributed it like three minutes before the meeting started. Um as I mentioned, the the week kind of caught up on me last week and I was out of district at two different
meetings at the end of the week. So, I didn't wasn't able to get it into the packet and then today kind of caught up in me. So, I actually didn't get it produced until about didn't get it finished until about about 10 minutes before I walked over here. So, um but what I wanted to provide the committee was just a brief update on one of my
goals uh around the goals focused on some of the organizational effectiveness. And largely it's uh that memo there provides you with some of the work that's been done. Some of the work, a lot of the work has actually been done by some
other folks and but work that I've been directed and led and had some other people continued as part of our strategic plan and moving forward. So, as the committee is aware, you know, in the fiscal systems and some of it was actually either talked about or presented tonight. So the commit through
the committee work with the committee we've established the treasurer role and then in working with that treasurer role we've been able to establish some uh fiscal processes um some checks and balances have been put in place um that have helped to uh strengthen our
internal controls. We've reassigned some duties and have started to establish a nice workflow. Um first part and I know Dr. Gillson's talked about this part. First part was getting sort of caught up from where we found ourselves uh during the transition um both in the business
office and in the treasur's office. But now that we've been able to do that, we've been able to work in get a nice system um on both the treasury side and the business side and get those two working together. And then that's then moved us in now to start to think a little bit forward. We had a meeting
just last week uh with an a public or company that invests public funds to start to think about we've had this conver conversation around the revenue um one of those revenue sources for us is investment uh but largely we just do it through the money that sits in the
the bank largely in a savings account right but that's not the best return on investment we could get as a district so we had a meeting um with a a firm yesterday that does a lot of work trying to remember oh somewhere in the ballpark yeah but I Yeah, but it was more they I think they meet with like they they invest like with like 200 I think
municipal groups. So they long-standing history. So, if that's the direction that we ultimately decide to that's our best recommendation, we'll be back to the committee to talk about some financial policies. Um, and we'll need uh your blessing on a contract with with
that vendor and then um so those will be those will be forthcoming, but that work is ongoing and in process. Uh uh myself a little bit and a lot of bit with Dr. Gillson and our facilities
director, Steve Foucher, have been working on the five-year capital plan for the district. A list has been developed, spans the next five years. Work's been done to then put those into like a chronology, you know, what should happen first, what should happen next.
Um, and then start to price out some of that work and then as well as start to prioritize that. That'll be coming back to the committee soon for some final discussion and formal approval. And then uh last bit is op some operational efficiency pieces. Uh talked
this table on multiple occasions about some of the things that we do as a district on the business side that are just a little antiquated um or a lot antiquated and uh taken some steps over the last uh bit uh to move us into the
21st century. Uh most recently the business office has been working to we're in a pilot phase of employing opening up what's called employee access which allows employees into the digital um system which will allow them access
to things like their payroll or their pay yeah the pay tax information. Ultimately it'll once we build the whole thing out it'll allow them to uh change benefits. It'll allow them to uh accept uh transaction forms like you know every
time we uh send or somebody gets like an a stipened there's a there's an HR letter that goes right and all those transactions can happen through that's sort of down the line but leave requests all those document all the documented forms can
happen through employee access so we're looking in the coming weeks to employee to expand employee act we've been field testing it with a small group essentially with central office. Um so the next test step will be to open employee access out to everybody largely
in time with uh with uh tax I was screwed up W2s. Is that what we get out? Yeah, W2s so people can access their W2s. I I don't know. I always screw up W2s, W4s, W9s. Um but anyway, so people can get their W TWS um through the portal as a as a as sort of a first step
um into this process and that and their be able to access their paychecks um through through that. So those are some some things that we've been working on um towards this meeting this particular goal and and we'll continue uh along that path. Um, and then next I had just
an update on the the statewide graduation council. Um, so there I think I've mentioned this before, but this and and I know I gave you all a brief email update on this, but there have been two parallel
tracks running at the same time. Maybe they're not parallel, but there's definitely two tracks. So, and maybe a third prong. Uh so the you had you had ballot the ballot question two right if I remember it was number two uh where
the the voters decided to eliminate the MCCAST as a competency determination for graduation. Then school committees first had to figure out okay so then how was competency determination going to be determined. That was last year the
committee voted a policy in place. Then this late spring, early summer, the Department of Ed said, "Okay, well, now we're going to put regulations in place for what that policy has to include." And that is what you all just adopted.
It's either at your last meeting or the meeting before and that um is being submitted to the state. And then as a parallel to that or maybe tangential to that, the governor created a uh statewide
graduation council which is made up of all these interesting stakeholders. Um depend upon who you ask tell you who's driving the um bus on that council. But um that council
just came out with their let's call them recommendations um on what the statewide graduation requirements are going to be. And so what you have is one of there's they
just released aund and something page document that has a hund that has lots of details in it and I did not want to flood your document or flood your packet with that. So, I just gave you the quick little FAQ document in your packet, but basically what they're calling them right now is their recommendations, and
they said they're going to take some time to iron it out. There's some groups that think that this is pretty final. Um, but we'll see. Time will tell, but basically the um what they've created is
a multi-pronged approach to statewide graduation that includes but and I may be missing some components but rigorous coursework which will look something like what is currently the mass core framework.
Uh end of course exams. So, they haven't said what courses yet and how these what these exams will look like, but essentially some type of an exam, the statewide standardized exam that kids would take at the end of a course. Nobody knows yet what courses, what
grade levels, and how they all fit. That's again one of these questions in here that doesn't that has a squishy answer, but um that that'll be a component. Um there's a component about fastbook completion which I know at a
read meeting I was at sort of I we can see one side superintendent can see one side of it sort of the why behind one side of it. It's an interesting part to think about the imple the implementation of that. You know one superintendent at a meeting now is that said are families going to want to give all
their financial information over to public schools to complete a FAFSA? That just seems like an interesting question like some of the actual application of some of these ideas is is an interesting thing to think about. Um and then
there's a component for uh seals of distinction. So like currently a seal of bi literacy is one that's already in the state but I think they're talking about expanding that. And then there's another layer about financial literacy but again it's not spelled out like is that going to be a required course? And if it is a
required course, then that sort of begs the question, who's going to teach it? Who's going to pay for whoever's going to teach it? So, those are there's a there's more questions probably than there are answers at this point. But that's where it stands. And again, there's thereund and something pages in the document that just came out. If anybody's having a hard time falling
asleep, email me and I'll send it to you. Um and then the last thing uh we are doing a uh so DY has a tradition that stands well before uh my arrival. Uh so I take no credit in creating the
tradition but DY celebrates staff that have 25 years of service in DY. Uh one of the things I heard when I came in to entry um was that folks would like maybe the celebration to like be beefed up a
little bit. So essentially what the tradition had been, at least as I understood it, was that folks are recognized at convocation and they got a little uh like a pin memorized or memorializing their um accomplishment. And so
first couple years, you know, this was in the back of my head, but um took a little while to materialize into something a new tradition or expanded tradition. So this year we're going to um have a special um evening for our 25
year uh folks. We've rebranded the pin. We've got a plaque um as well and we're going to host an event for folks. We did recognize them on at at convocation, but we're also going to have a special day for them and that'll be the tradition
going forward. It would be just the folks who are hitting 25 years, but we didn't want all the folks who, you know, hire 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and are still working in the district um to feel like, you know, well, hey, what happened to
us? So, we're bringing we're re we're uh everybody who's currently actively still working in the district and has 25 years or more of service, we're inviting them to a celebration on January 8th uh at 5:30. Um the cultural center of Cape Cod is hosting us. Um they have a beautiful
venue over there. Um and we're going to have uh some light refreshments. We're going to have a we've got a Mr. Pendleton hooked us up with a local jazz pianist who's going to play a little light music for a little bit and then we'll do a a brief um little ceremony
and hand out the awards and acknowledge our staff. Um the school committee is invited to attend. Again, 5:30 on January 8th. Um, we'd love to have some of you there. And I think that is it for the chair take any questions.
Any questions? Perfect. Sounds like a a great new tradition or expanding the tradition. Uh, next we have school committee business and closures. The consent agenda. Consent agenda includes the minutes from November 3rd, 2025.
Anyone want to move the consent agenda? >> Second. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Perfect. Bills requisition payrolls, the red folder is back. There's a couple in there. Um then there was an email sent out today 3 or
4:00. So if you can check your school district email and make sure you review those as well and get those signed um digitally, it would be appreciated. Next, we have calendar. School committee topics. Um school committee topics. Our next meeting will be January 5th. We'll
have our first initial FY27 budget presentation. We'll also have a discussion on rental facilities. Uh there's been discussion about uh previously about if we're undercharging and with the new fields being completed uh what we can do as well as for our
auditorium, performing arts center. And then on the 26th, we uh moved our John and Abigail Adams scholarship recognition because many families weren't able to attend when we originally had it. Um, we will have our tenative FY27 budget vote and then we'll have a strategic plan progress report and treasury report. And
then districtwide, uh, December vacation starts on Wednesday, December 24th. And then students return, students and faculty return back January 5th. It looks like I can turn the pages. January 5th,
um, which is our next meeting. And then on the 7th, uh, they have an hour and a half release. So come back for two days and an hour and a half release um right after and then public comment. Anyone looking to speak in public comment?
Okay, seeing none. Student from the high school does not want to speak. Okay, we'll allow anyone want to make a motion. >> Move to adjourn. >> We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? and he abstained. Enjoy the the holidays. We
are in the second night of Hanukkah and we have other holidays coming up.