Welcome to the Monday, April 14th, 2025 meeting of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School Committee. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. First, we have our student representatives report. I see Miss Deo here. Good afternoon or I guess good evening
everyone. Um so uh this week or actually not this week but spring sports have kicked off and um this week is spirit week and we have some themes. Today was like pride day for like your country I
guess. Um yeah and then um this week we also have the pep rally which is highlighting our winter and spring sports seasons. Um, and then this is also the week before vacation, hence the spirit week. And then we have the
musical, which is the first weekend of May, which is May 2nd, um, 3rd and 4th. I'm really excited. Um, and then AP exams start on the 5th, which is also the start of teacher appreciation week.
And that's it for now. Thank you so much. I've seen some posts of some of the teams, the baseball team and some others in the newspaper and on our Facebook pages. So, it's great to see um that spring is here um other than the rain we had this weekend. But, uh
next we have the superintendent evaluation report. All right. Thank you. Um excuse me. So, um we are to the the end of the year. We're creeping to the end of the year
and it's time for uh the committee to start the process of summit of evaluation for superintendent of schools. And so we had midyear uh presentation of some evidence. Uh if I remember correctly, it was in February. Uh and so we're to the t uh end of the
year. So for this meeting, I'll be providing you all with an update on progress on my goals, plus some additional uh information around the focus indicators that the committee voted to approve way back in August. And then just reminding you all the
timeline, then by the next meeting, so May 5th I think is the next Monday meeting, correct? Sarah's not in agreement down there. Then uh everybody completes their individual uh summit of evaluations uh and give those to the
chair. So then the chair can then summarize those then present at the next meeting two weeks later uh the summitive uh evaluation for the committee that you all will then deliberate on and then vote on which then becomes my evaluation
at that meeting. So you all submit individual reports. uh the chair then uh pulls those all together into one single report that then becomes my evaluation. I don't see the individual ones. The chair pulls them all together into a summitative uh single summitive from the
collection of all seven. Um and then that gets uh uh presented that becomes the public evaluation and you all vote on that one on the on the 16th. So uh just sort of quick review of the process. So tonight again going to go
over this is the same information that was present or that I emailed to you all on Friday. So you have links. I'm not going to go in click on every bit of evidence. Uh one because I don't want to be here all night and two because some
of this stuff as uh I said in the email that I sent you, some of it is uh not for the public in the sense that some of it is like communications that I've had with people so that you all as a committee can see that but it isn't for public consumption. Um but I some of the things I may um go in and reference um
as we go through this conversation. So just a couple things off the off the front which are linked to things that we've discussed throughout the course of the year. So uh linking back to the original goals, you can see what was originally set off set up as the goal, what was set up as some
of the key benchmarks um that you all approved, the focus indicators that you all approved. Um the midcycle progress report. So that report that I mentioned back in Februaryish, that slide deck um with evidence is linked there for you to easily be able
to find. The timeline, which again has those um responsibilities I mentioned, those last couple of things that I just talked about are all in a in a document there for you all. And then uh the last bit is the rubric which you all will ultimately use for evaluating me in this
process and that has the focus indicators um highlighted for you all. actually sort of done in the reverse. The the one the indicators that aren't the ones to focus on are are stricken out struck stroke they have the striketh through in
them. So again here are the five goals that you all approved back in August. Uh the first goal being around effective uh organizational effectiveness and planning uh with the focus indicators being around fiscal systems and uh
managing conflict. The second two goal and that was a professional practice goal. The second two goals being student learning goals. Uh first one being around math curriculum implementation and the second one being around an investigation around early literacy. Uh both of them having a focus
indicator in the area of instruction. The math having a secondary focus indicator in curriculum and uh lit early literacy having a focus indicator in data uh informed decision-m. Then there were two district improvement goals. One
was in the area of public relations with a focus indicator for communications and another one for uh engagement. And then the last was a continuation of one from last year which was around district and
school safety planning uh with focus indicators around environment and family concerns. So just starting taking those goals in order the first again. So I'm just sort of trying to update I'm not going to
review all the information that we did at the mid cycle. Um just sort of what has been done since the midcycle till now or any additional information that I felt was necessary to round out that information. So talked about a number of uh practices and procedures that we had worked on to establish in that first
half of the year. um and you know talked about a lot of that was in the budget process and things that we would put into place along with some bits around um how we got to that process some curriculum review documents are all linked in that previous one but so since
then it was okay so now that we've started to develop these processes like how do we keep track of them so one thing that uh Sarah and I now are the keepers of is this um is very simple, but it is a
district-wide document that all the leaders now have access to is is tabbed by organization. As as we start to develop all these processes, it's a simple place for leaders to be able to now find them as we develop each of these new processes. It's where they're
linked. And now we can quickly go and find, you know, whatever that wherever that process is. It's got its name and there's the linked document. And again, as we now update the document, it's easy to go find uh Whoops. Go find where that document is um and go find the most
recent version of it. And again, they're all now housed because these are all housed in different places, right? So, somebody might own document X, document Y is housed on the website, document Z is in my drive, document A is in Sarah's drive, but they're all here and linked
and everybody can find them quick and easy. Um at the last actually when we did the strategic plan update we talked about how um the part of the strategic plan around capital improvement planning had stalled a little bit but since then we've been able to hire a part-time
staff member to start to move that process forward which will will again allow us to move we had purchased the easycip software but now this will allow us to actually implement the easycip software which will store organiz ize and publicize our capital improvement
plan and start to get some of that information out and moving forward. Um, we've been able to and and actually execute now a couple different rounds of uh a consistent hiring process for executive leadership positions. Uh we've centralized the school choice
application process that actually just started with you all uh adopting a new policy to now us implementing a new application process which just went live uh last week uh and into this week. And
then um we have secured a consultant who's going to help us. One of the things I mentioned in this group is some of our business pra practices from the like the way we do payroll to onboarding through HR
um to um uh like accounts receivable a bunch of the different business functions of the district. There are ways we could be doing them more efficiently, saving time and allowing us to get to bigger projects uh and just allowing us to have less human error,
etc., etc. Um there we've secured essentially like an internal audit um to be able to figure out how the best first transitions to make and then how to best and first modernize and then what will be the training needs and the
appropriate next steps. So that is uh um going to happen within the next uh within the next few weeks. We'll start that process and so we'll actually be able to start implementing some things right here before the end of the year. So then instead of um in the first half
I I really or the first time we did this presentation or the midcycle I really tried to connect each of the goals back to the focus or each of the um things that I mentioned as evidence for the goals back to the um the focus
indicators and that is is is important but I felt like I had done enough of that. So here because your job is not only to mention or to to talk about my work on my goals but is also to give an overall evaluation in each of the four
standards. Right? So I also just wanted to sort of give a little bit of additional evidence on other stuff that I've done unrelated necessarily to the goals but are also supportive of the um focus indicators because you all decided that these are the areas that I should
be focused on. So one of the focus ind indicators within this goal is fiscal systems. So the proficiency standard discusses and I paraphrased I didn't grab the whole thing but this need to develop a budget that supports the district's vision mission and goals and
effectively communicate the rationale of the staff community members municipal stakeholders school committee etc. Um so just wanted to discuss a couple of things that happened this year. So, one was the loss of the assistant superintendent in business fin business
assistant superintendent for business and finance. You know, it happened at a key time in the bud budget process. Um, and while it was great to have John come on board, John was obviously learning the process as he was coming on, it was a difficult transition and placed a lot of extra responsibility on the
superintendent at that time to ensure that we effectively got through that process and landed where we did. um and required some additional creation of materials for school committee, town officials, and supporting documents to help explain the budget process, which
would have quite frankly fallen on that other position. And you know, John and I have had this conversation was actually great for me in the long run in that it helped me really learn the budget in a deeper way than I had previously. Um, but I really think it was just created
an opportunity for me to really develop proficiency in this area. So, it gave a bunch of different examples of different things that that I was quite frankly just forced to do this year because I didn't have um that that right-hand position and John was coming on learning learning it as but we quite frankly we
just didn't have time, right? Like, you know, we had to we we had all these meetings we had scheduled. We had we had a budget we had to move forward. So, um, I had to jump in and I knew I had been through it already at least once before. Um, so I I knew what had to get done and and and these aspects and we were just
divided and conquered certain aspects of the process. And then you know the second piece was around which is something that I had already taken the role of because I see this as a larger part of the superintendent's responsibility which is around how to effectively communicate the process and
and how to message the budgeting process and again giving some examples here on how to message both to our our um what I would say like is our key constituency group like the people who interact with the school uh community
the most our parents, our um our students to a certain degree. Some of them pay close attention to the budgeting process. Um and then um to you all, but then also communicating to those who ultimately vote on the budget. Um and so getting out to the town
officials, getting out to the word out to everybody who's ultimately going to show up at town meeting, and show out to the ballot in order to uh vote on the budget. And then the other the other factor was around managing conflict. Uh and so really a lot of work this year
was focused on proactive work with both towns on building building not only um like a budget building process and and a fiscal management process to really try to break down the us versus them um sort
of mentality that had had some dominance in the historical budget conversations um within the community. Um, and then that had really come from what I believe came from a higher level of transparency and taking an active decision to have a higher level of transparency. Didn't
always mean less work on our end. Um, and I gave an example uh here, but but really opening ourselves up as a school district to questions and really um showing that we have nothing to hide. Um, and again, that required extra work
on our end. um but extra levels of meetings, extra levels of transparency and sharing of information um between us and the town boards in order so by the time we got to when it came to votes uh that we had unanimous votes of support
from all the town boards um and as we head to town meeting we have that behind us. even you know as one town saw a larger increase in their uh their assessment and to be able to explain the minimum core required contribution and
again because we had gone through the entire process because we shared everything I think we really did a lot of work to build trust and avoid conflict rather than manage conflict. Second piece second goal is around the math curriculum
implementation and the second half of the year has really been around building the capacity of the leaders uh within the schools and I and I've said this before at the superintendent level excuse me you know my job is largely um
around building leadership capacity um so that leaders can work more effectively with teachers who can then work more effectively with students. And so large part of my work this year has been working in coordination with the STEM director um and with principles and
really aligning those efforts uh to ensure that they're making the principles are making really um refining their practices in things like how they're using professional learning communicate uh excuse me professional learning communities uh and using those
structures. we already have those structures in place, but how are they really using structures like those as effectively as possible in order to drive um change and are how are they doing data informed decision-m at the school level again to drive change for
students. So this year um and really uh I started with a loose structure in the beginning half of the year and the second half of year really started to tighten it up a by making it more regular b by structuring the agenda around a common text and around a common
um what's the word I'm looking for a common uh well I guess the text a framework that's the word I was looking for and the text is called leverage leadership but it gives us a common language anguage around the around le the way we're going to talk about learning, the
way we're going to talk about leadership around learning. And so we meet now once a month, myself and the principles. And it's giving us a common language around school improvement and around school uh improve school improvement for
leadership and ultimately to drive achievement and what role the principal plays in that. and then how the the superintendent uh supports that and then the STEM director is also working within that same text and within that same confine. So we're all now speaking the
same language and so but the STEM director is doing different work. The STEM director meets with the principles and the coaches and they observe classrooms and then they go back and they have conversations. So at
the at an individual building level, I'm meeting with all the principles around shared practices, but then the STEM director goes in with the coach, the principal, they walk classes in their specific building and they're having conversations around, okay, so what did we see in building X and then what's
that going to drive for the conversations principal, you know, principal X is going to have with those teachers in that PLC to drive that next bit of um uh change within that math. What's going to be their focus? Uh
because um they're going to they're focused on that particular content area where I'm I'm focused on the larger structure on how are we going to have data informed conversations. Then the the coach and the STEM director is going is taking that and focusing it on a
particular content area focusing on a particular grade level focusing on that with a particular um principle and having that conversation but within the same larger structure that I'm having the conversation about and then we and
then as a different layer um we're bu also building this larger datainformed conversation you've seen the presentations as I've had the principles start to come to present data to you as well. And then we meet twice a month with what's called we have the princ
well I don't know I get a lot of flack for all my different groups and creating acronyms but we have another one the DY instructional leadership team um which is principles plus some other folks and we meet twice a month and so most recently this was
just in March the principles had to so we do uh map data twice a year no excuse me three times a So the principles had to bring their map data. They I gave them some very specific things that I was looking for from their map data and
how so they had to come give presentations on what they saw at their school level and then some specific action plans that I was looking for uh from that from their winter map data. So it's not just autopsies at the end of the year. It's okay, we're at the middle
point in the year. What did you see? And I gave again some specific questions for things that I was looking for. And so how does this tie back to the the or some additional evidence around the the standards? Some other things that are going on again around the the two
focus indicators, the curriculum and the instruction. So we've talked a lot about the the learning walks that we do as a leadership team. We've done three larger district team walks again this year and
we've continued to refine this practice. We've refined a tool. I have it linked there where the goal here is for us to really and we've continued to refine and refine to where I'm pretty sure we're pretty close at this point to defining what are some of the key instructional
practices that we want to see in every classroom from kindergarten to 12th grade regardless of the content area regardless of the level um that we are the that are the high most highest leverage researchbacked instructional practices that we want to see. We want to get a baseline on where we are right
now. So then we can inform professional development to help support teachers to get to where we ultimately want to be and part of that also is calibrating as a leadership team. Do we all see the same thing when we go in? So we walk the buildings all the buildings in the
district over a usually takes about about two weeks when you get it all kind of scheduled out. Um and then we have also refined our debrief protocol in order to ensure the conversations after we do the walks are more meaningful not only for us as a district team but also
so that when we leave the principal has some actionable feedback from having a whole bunch of people in their building. Um and then I also specifically and there's a link to the memo as well. After some
feedback that I got as part of one of my own professional learning experiences, I realized that I needed to refine the messaging to my office of instruction and provide more clarity around our direction as a district that our even
within our um strategic objective for tier one that I wasn't providing enough clarity and enough direction and on the the real actionable things that I wanted to see from that department. So you'll see in the memo that I've linked there,
I provided them with three areas that I wanted us to be focused on and assigned them some key tasks that I wanted to see done in the next six months. Um and and you know this really drives this bit of the framework or the rubric which talks about setting high expectations for content and quality of instruction
empowering administrators to do the same. Again, it's not my job to do their work for them, but it is my job to set the clear expectations for the work that I want to see done by the people in the roles. um and really be clear about the work that uh that we want to see done or that I want to see done in order to move
us forward. Next uh was uh the goal around early literacy. That's a lot of talk in it. Um so the next uh here again I talked at the last bit around our transition from work we were doing around sort of
internal self-discovery to the lawsuit out of Boston which really forced our hand to move forward. So since then I've been really working with the director of humanities again leading others to do their work.
Um and again as another example working in partnership with another director level position. So a couple of te key tasks since the last time we discussed this was um helping and and establishing with the
director of humanities to set the expectations for what a curriculum review team should look like. And so you know who should be the members be what should the timeline look like? because there's some key aspects on when
decisions should be made so that we can be back here with you all to inform next year's budgeting process. Also to make sure we can have um we can have appropriate planning for a big um K5 literacy program. We need to make sure the decisions are made in the right
order. We also wanted to make sure we had the right people making the decisions etc etc. Um and established also with that individual a process for regular updates. I have another structure, the central office leadership team. Um, and
so that group meets once a month. So you'll see an example there for I look I expect regular updates from that group. So I gave you an example of an update in that meeting. You'll see a bunch of other things that I got updates on. But if you look in the curriculum section, you'll see an update there. And then also the
um it's important and I've mentioned it before in this group. It's it's an important value for me that we listen collect feedback from folks but then also share back um what we hear. So the humanities director had collected survey feedback
and then we had a conversation about what she was going to do with that information. So under my uh direction she she she summarized the information and then pushed it back. So you can see the example of uh that there as well of her pushing the information back to the
K5 survey. I mean the survey information back to the staff again sh showing them they they haven't made a decision yet. But it's it's essentially like an interim step saying we've heard what you said here's what we heard reflecting it back to you and here's how it's
informing the next steps in our process. And then for the data informed decision um making indicator uh so the the superintendent or myself I use a lot of the data to inform
decision- making. Um and it's it's helped in a couple different pieces, right? So, one has been to help inform uh you all in your decision-m. I give an example there from um the budget process um from the 10th
of uh February in helping uh you all make a decision around the uh the DYMS intervention position. Um but additionally um there was some additional information from NWA that wasn't shared in the public domain that
also just supported my belief system around that decision. Um and there's also um a lot of patterns and data that support our strategy uh and uh as a leadership team.
the the committee has been provided with updates from our state assessments at each school. Uh and we use that those to set targets for improvement. Our strategic plan not only has outputs as um data pieces. So like an output would
be like we're going to complete this task by such and such a date, but we have outcome measures. You we're going to move um student percentages from X to X. we're going to have x percentage of students reading on grade level. Those are outcome measures
um versus an output measure. Um because I believe that the at the end of the day the data matters. Um, and we continue, we're going to refine some of our strategic focus areas this summer based upon some additional looks at some of
our data like and some other things that we're starting to uncover that we think might also be driving some of our achievement pieces like some correlations between student attendance and our achievement. Um so again as we continue to dig deeper into our data um
the more um the more we find quite frankly and we've you know we presented uh plenty of information around our gaps for students whom were not serving well and work and some improvements we've surely made. We've showed you some of our e gains that we had in the MCCAST uh
last year um and areas that we still need to continue to grow. All right. So next public relations, excuse me. So in the second half of the year, um the first half of the year was really worked on getting a a person in place.
Um getting that person up caught up to speed. Um starting to do some initial steps. And in the second half of the year, it's really been about starting to build like an infrastructure, right? what what's our system and our process for taking over our own
narrative? And we're still definitely in the the the development of of all those in the process of developing all those systems. Actually just had a conversation yesterday, not yesterday because yesterday was Sunday, so it would have been Thursday or Friday last week um
about maybe even like another tweak and adjustment to one of those systems. But um really our small but mighty team has really started to develop some pretty robust systems. Uh if I really think about where we were just at the beginning part of the year
to where we are now really made a lot of gains in a very short period of time. And so just in the last couple of months a lot of the things that we have consistently in place are listed here. So we've developed a system for press releases. So now when we have you know
what we would call significant events or like the hiring of principles um the release of the information on the fields uh the release of the information on the MSBA um uh invitation you know those we now have a system for not only
releasing them internally but releasing them out to the press and it's actually gotten us some coverage in the papers at this point right um we've expanded uh positive relations uh and uh we have a our first fulllength story, first DY spotlight. That's one of others to come.
Um, we've collected information on our communication methods. We did a full communitywide survey and that's going to inform the way we communicate going forward as well as some you're you all were going are going to get a presentation on what that information
um uh told us and and then it's we also have some upgrades coming to our website in the next it's it's scheduled for about so midocctober next year so you'll get some information on that Um we you know I've personally attended
been able to expand beyond just our our traditional groups and by traditional I mean like the public bodies so like this public body the select boards the fincoms and gotten out to some other community groups. have been invited uh actually have one another one scheduled
during April vacation going to go speak to another community group and just to an opportunities to speak to the public groups about the school district and build positive relationships within the community and then um started to build positive relationships with the press um
and start to build some facetime with some folks again to build some positivity about the school district um and in a way that I think is ultimately in this particular case well in the two examples I have links one is just just
general positivity about the district right are our districts getting in the paper for good things um not just you know for a splash of a negative headline but then also we're going to need public support around some capital projects down the road right so strategically having things getting into the paper
that are building awareness so that when we show up uh and are asking uh stakeholders to weigh in one way or the other when it comes to capital projects. They're not hearing it for the first time because not everybody, you know, we we have a, you know, sort of a what's
the word I'm looking for? Captive audience when we push out our our newsletters around um everything that's going on inside the district, but I know that that's school community folks, right? So, how do we get the word out to the the the taxpayer who's going to show
up at town meeting? Well, an article in the Cape Cod Times that's going to at least peak that's going to peique other folks interests who are then and you know my terrible picture and it was a terrible picture in the Cape Cod Times about Emmy Small. Um, I've got several
people talking to me about that project who are it either, you know, are newer to the community or, you know, just didn't know that that was a thing or it reminded them that, oh yeah, I forgot about the Emmy small school because it's been sort of out of the
conversation for a while. Um, so connections to the focus indicators. So, um, a couple of other things that are going on that aren't related to the the specifically to the goal. So, in the coming weeks, uh, as part of our strategic plan, I'm going to be leading a series of meetings starting
after vacation, uh, with a steering committee to define the district's core values. Now, we have some core values. I think I've talked about this before. They are a series of words on a page, but they're not really well defined. So, the the purpose of this work will be to either well, it'll be one of two things.
It'll be are these still the core values? If they are, then it'll be to define them. Well, then what do these things mean to us? And if they're not, then it'll be to first define what our core values are, like like what are the things that we believe stand for DY and then to define them. So, it's either a
two-part process or a one-part process. Um, so messaging has gone out to families. Uh and and in part of that has been so sort of this this particular standard talks about encouraging families to actively participate in the school comm community and also talks about sort of removing
barriers. So in the messaging that went out uh it included families letting us know if they needed had any access barriers. So we actually have uh one family who requested an interpreter. So we'll be providing them an interpreter so to ensure that they can participate.
And the next piece is around, you know, from my role to in an effort to ensure regular and informative outreach to staff, families, and community members into the school committee. I've developed some regular communication structures. So you you all are aware I
have a regular communication structure with you all as a committee. Uh I include superintendent messages. I'm pretty rel actually been better this year than last year on staying on a regular uh superintendent uh messaging basis every two weeks. Um I also
communicate with the staff as appropriate. I don't have like a regular memo that goes out to staff. Um I tend to wait until I have something of substance to send out. So whether you know it might be providing direction at times I I included a memo that I've
shared out with the the the staff. Um sometimes it's reflecting back some feedback but uh when we send out a climate survey I reflect that back out but again uh sharing information to each of the stakeholder groups um as
appropriate and then finally the fifth goal you all have seen the presentations from Oscar officer Pascarosa it's easy for me to Okay. Um, and uh, this year, I think I've mentioned this already, but
I've transitioned the the overall leadership of the safety team, so the joint public safety and school safety team over to Officer Pascaroska. He and I sort of co-develop the agendas, but I he runs the meeting as our safety expert
in the district. and um and we've accomplished e even just since January, we've accomplished a lot. Um so we've trained the safety team in our new app um which is a digital
application of our standards response protocol. Uh and then we scheduled just in the last couple of weeks, we've scheduled two schools. So, we're going to pilot two schools uh in to get all the staff in that
building trained in the app and that's those are scheduled for early May. And so then this will be followed with the first drill at those two schools with the app. And the idea is so that we can do it on a smaller scale
uh and test the app sort of work out the bugs with instead of doing it full scale in the entire district. test it out on a couple of the schools with our safety partners, right? So, pro most likely it'll be like a fire drill. Uh run it with our fire partners, test test it
out, come back, work out any of the bugs so that by next fall do a whole scale roll out with everybody and then all of next year it will be that's how we will run all of our drills will be uh through the digital uh app. And then in addition
to that, I think I mentioned last meeting uh because I think it had just happened on March 28th uh a group a smallish group uh so staff from the high school, the middle school, intermediate school, some central office staff went to uh training on SEAG which is stands
for comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines. Um there's a joint training between us and the sandwich public schools and so it was it's some mental health professionals and school leaders and a couple of the
SRO's went to this training and I think I mentioned at the last meeting the sort of the goal of SEAG training in a nutshell is if there's some type of a threat at the school it's a team-based approach to determining if is that the initial phase is is the threat a
substantive threat or is it a transient threat? Um, and then if it is a substantive threat, then it's sort of what's our response and there's a whole process and protocol to go through. But it's taking a consistent team-based approach to monitoring threats inside
the school. Making sure a you're not overreacting, but also and then also making sure you're not underreacting and having multiple perspectives on the situation. No, nobody's making this decision by themselves, uh, you know, in an office all by themselves. And so, and
this is a consistent research-based program, um, comes out of the University of Virginia. Um, so what'll happen now is starting right after April vacation, the team that went and had this initial training, we'll come back, debrief the process, and establish the DUI
processes. You can customize some of the forms, etc., and make a DY uh version of this process or you know tighten it up and make sure it's ours and and understand what the protocols will be in DY create a public facing description of the process to share with the p public
so that people know should we have a threat this is how we handle it um and then we're going to have another round of folks because I think I mentioned at the last meeting you can't send every mental health professional every administrator every SRO out to a
training on a Friday. Um so we sent some um the next one is scheduled for next year during the all cape in service day. So we're going to get another round of folks plus move it down into the elementary schools as well. Uh so but but by then we'll have our version of it
all tightened up. So those people when they come back and get trained they uh or when they go out and get trained rather will already have our system in place. And the last two focus indicators again the environment and family concerns.
Um so the environment talks about sort of my responsibility to ensure a safe and orderly environment within the school district. And so through work done with the town of Yarmouth we've been able to secure funding not uh not
only for the budget but for a series of other things. So including ongoing again assuming success at town meeting. So these are all on the warrant but we have on the warrant we have um the uh significant funding to maintain the Emmy
small roof um flooring at station a the station avenue playground um and painting at station a um we're gonna meet we have a meeting next week um to have conversation about the playground at Ezra Baker. That's just
that fall town meeting conversation. So, it's just a little bit behind schedule. Um, and then as far as far as family concerns go, um, we developed on the communication side, we developed a contact us page, um, which allows for
families to if they're not comfortable with just emailing us, um, or calling us, which we do deal with those as well. But if somebody just want to uh submit, there's even option for an anonymous submission. It's hard to deal with something that's not with that's anonymous, but we'll take anonymous
feedback as well. There's a contact us page should they have any feedback to provide us. Um and then I provided some examples as well as you know just a couple of situations that have arisen this year um that I as superintendent
have have dealt with. Um and just as a demonstration of my ability um to address family concerns, you know, does everybody always leave happy? No. Um but um do my best to manage and address uh family concerns in an equitable, effective, and efficient
manner. And support my my administrators in doing the same. And we do we have I didn't put it here, but we have a separate um communication vehicle we created a while ago, and we we shared out with families. actually probably should share it out again. It's a um I forget exactly
what we call it, but it's uh the name's escaping me, but it it communicates with families sort of if you have a concern about, you know, the the about instruction or if you have a family question about your kid's schedule or if you have a question about whatever it it
shows you sort of the the chain of command like where should you start your questioning? you know, if you have a question about your um kids's high school schedule, the first phone call probably shouldn't be to the superintendent. You might want to start with the guidance counselor. Um and then
sort of shows you the flow of uh if you don't have success there, then the next person is then the next person is then the next person is points of contact. I think that's what we call it. Um, and so we created that as well, um, actually at the end of last year, um, as a way to
sort of help people navigate the system on who who to contact first and then where to go if that isn't successful. I think that's the end. Anyone have any questions? Okay. Thank you though. I appreciate it. Anyone? Is that Mr. Glenn? Are you
raising your hand, Mr. Glenn? I didn't know if you saw me down here. Um, just a couple questions. Um, I'm wondering in regards to like the assistant superintendent for finance, are there any lessons learned?
Like we can't really know people's personal family obligations, travel. We can't really anticipate that and and I don't expect you to know more, but I'm wondering if there's a way and and it it actually came about before your hire
because I'm I was wondering we were kind of blindsided um even though we shouldn't have been um on the superintendent Carol Woodbury's departure and um my thought process is here is you know we have other positions
other important leadership positions And is there a way or a mechanism and if there isn't there isn't but is there a mechanism to kind of find a way to retain recruit in other words kind of say oh well we might be losing this
person or to kind of anticipate you know well we don't you know we want to incentivize a person to stay or incentivize a person to come and uh you know and they're basically the key positions you it seems to work out
pretty good with the the principal. Um, and we don't know when people are going to retire, but you know, if somebody's been, you know, a principal or been in the district and, you know, when they're close to retirement, you might want to anticipate saying, "Hey, we got a we,
you know, Mr. Depp could be retiring at any time." And I'm just wondering if there's a way to kind of anticipate that. And um uh the other question is in regards to communication. I'm wondering if uh there's a a way of us to have
input before something goes out as a press release. Like you're great at updating us when it goes out. I actually still haven't seen the um the Emmy small piece because it's a you know it's a sub
subscriber thing and I didn't see it but I might you know I kind of look at us as the liaison between you and the community. So something we might see as school committee men or excuse school committee
members um that we might say um you know we might want to approach it this way or we might want to word it this way because we're really the the first avenue of uh bridge to the community. So something we might recognize that you
might not have. And so if we saw it beforehand we might say well do we want to word it this way or can we present it this way? It's ju just a couple thoughts on on how we do it. We might not be able to do either of those things, but I just wanted to put it out there as
questions. So to the first question, um sometimes we get a you know like so take the principal in both two principles I both came and had conversations with me ahead of time that they were thinking about it. So, like I
had a sense it was coming. Um, you know, was it going to be this year? Was it going to be next year? They hemmed, they hawed. Um, then they both made the decision, right? So, you know, I had that information and confidence and until they both made their decision. Um, in the in the other case, I I didn't
have that information. Um, and and that's sometimes the nature of the beast, right? Um, sometimes people let you know what they're thinking and sometimes they don't. Um, and when it comes to, you know, which we're finding now, when it comes to the business and finance
positions, there's they're they're there more open positions than there are qualified people. Um, so that's it's a challenging position. And so, you know, when the when the supply and demand isn't in your favor, right, the PE or the people in the position have the
power, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, right? So, they they're they're in the driver's seat. Um, so you know I and and again I I don't want to get into the decision-m of the particular individual. Um,
so yeah, I guess I would leave that part there. And then the uh second second question, I mean I can I I understand your perspective on that one. My my one worry would be uh you know efficiency right in our ability to get
communication out. You know sometimes it's it it gets slowed down just by two of us trying to write a press release. You know if we then have seven people trying to write a press release it's going to you know I will sometimes go to whomever the chair is and ask for a comment dependent upon the uh on the
nature of the press release. Um, but then if we're going to run it through a whole committee, again, it is going to slow us down. It's going to be the nature that and that's a reality. Uh, so in some cases, is that okay? Sure. But if we're
looking for something quickly, it's definitely going to slow us down. Great. Thank you. Great job, Mr. Morris. It seems the evolution of communications is a direct result of the not just the
more efficient tech technology but also the impact of issues. when you just had a head of the finance committee and the chair of the selectman and maybe the
town administrator to answer outwardly and whoever was the strongest personality coming out of the parents council and the MTA representatives you you could pick five
to 10 individuals. Now the issues are more complicated. they go they go to uh steam rapid more rapidly. Do you find you have enough time to engage in educating them the other the out the
outside as to really what we're doing as opposed to just handing out chalk to kids at the blackboard? Um yeah, I mean I think I think a lot of it is proactive work, right? So I think
um and I think that's where it comes back to building the relationships and starting early. So if if I take the if I take the budget process you know we started conversations in August if I remember correctly. So, it's, you know,
starting early, um, having a long on-ramp, uh, and and in this case, it's nice that there's, you know, I I'm I'm a short I'm I a really short time. Um, but there's consistency on those boards. So,
there's not there's not a lot of turnover. So, like you build a relationship and that relationship sticks, right? Um and and I can envision that the people that I'm starting to form these relationships are going to be there for a long time and then then they have relationships, right? So I can leverage their relationships with each
other and and them sharing information with each other um which is which is helpful. So that that part is nice and then I think the same us working in the with the with the media folks I think is think it's the same right just sharing
being open and sharing as much information again building a relationship of transparency and sharing information and and and being proactive getting out in front of story so and sharing we shared a full press release with as much information as we had in it and then answer the follow-up questions
if you have all the basic information in there And then you're able to answer the follow-up questions to give them you know you know in the case of the Emmy small right we had a press release that gave a whole bunch of basic information then they came and they wanted to see the school and see and put some context
to what we had putting out there put put out there right so there was already some upfront information for them to work from. Do you find that your administrative role gels with parent leaders more than
it did in the past? Because there were parents who had certain goals in mind for their family and their kids sports success rather than their academic success or flip that around. uh hidden
agendas uh are not so hidden when once it becomes obvious somebody's not getting their way. Um I think it's probably an area I could uh get better at. I still I don't think I'm as tied in with the parent
community yet as I should be as a as a superintendent. I don't I couldn't answer that question one way or the other. know a few parents well, but I don't know enough parents well enough to answer that question. Um, and I
think I think sort of the to answer the other part of that question, I think the work that we're going to do around the core values, um, I think when we land on really what those are as a district, like when we
can really say this is what DY stands for and this is what it means because again, even if we agree that the and and and I'm not sure like if I'm being honest like there's about I think it's like 10 or 11 words like that's a lot of
things to say you really really believe in. So we're going to have to hone it down. I really believe so. When we are able to define what those things are, then I think that gives us some grounding as a district to to really um come back to again and
again and again to to as part of our decision- making, as part of our when we get to tough times, you know, when we come to hard decisions, when we come to disagreement, just to be able to say, well, we're making these decisions because as a district, these are the
things we believe in. Anyone else? Miss Beus, mine is going to be a comment. Um because part of our goal is also to uh sort of create a better image of who we are or tell people who we are. And I
appreciate the struggle or sort of the challenge within that because we are in a news vacuum in the middle of the Cape. There's no regional newspaper and the Cape Cod Times is more syndicated out as we all know. So I'm I'm I'll be curious
to know and learn clever ways that you do it and your team does it so we can sort of emulate that or figure out what to do other than relying on some sort of social media which is not always a great way of going.
Yeah. And we've it we've been learning from others, right? And part of it's about cultivating contacts and just blasting those contacts and and they do sometimes change to your point, right? Sometimes it's freelance. It's sort of figure out who the current freelancer is. Um and then
uh and not every press release gets picked up, right? But if you keep sending them all out um then some of them will get picked up. Um, and if we're sending out the stories that we want people to know about, then that's where we start to control the narrative.
And but if we're waiting for other people to tell our story, then they're controlling the narrative. And then the social media thing, that's the most recent conversation we had. I was listening to another superintendent talk about how they're um managing some of
the the negativity. And so again, I I I'm not sure we have a strategy yet, but they had a strategy that I found particularly interesting. So we're wrestling with whether or not we want to try something different than what we're currently doing, which really is, you know, we have our own social
media platform and we just ignore everything else. So we're rethinking whether that's the the way we're going to currently stand. Anyone else? So, next meeting everyone will
have all their information for me and then I'll schedule a meeting with Sarah who will help me uh put it all together for the following meeting. So, thank you. Yeah. And if um last when uh you know and ultimately it's your decision as chair how you want to handle it. Um
when for last year uh everybody sent their stuff directly to Sarah uh or it was Eileen last last time and Eileen did some initial sort of organizing um for when u Jenny met with Sarah. If you want to have it done the same way. Sounds
great. I can't I can't see you Sarah. Now I can see you. It sounds great. I think Sarah's probably better organizing than me. So thank you Sarah for that. Uh just as a reminder she is she has two
roles. She's the the executive assistant to the school committee as well. So this is that part is confidential from her role to me. Next we have the school committee leon select board. I know we are talking about the town meetings in the next report but anything separate from town
meetings? No I was just going to mention town meetings. So thank okay we'll move to superintendent's report. Not even have time to sip sip my water. All right. Um, so just a couple of uh quick things. Uh, so first uh recogn uh
recognitions and donations. So just a quick thank you to the Yarmouth Rotary. Again, great supporters of the school district and they generously donated books to the Station Avenue Elementary School uh as
part of their uh vacation book club program. They donated a book for every student at the uh uh at the school to read over vacation. Again, just supporting literacy uh as both as a district, but also just as part of their
goal uh as an organization. So, just big uh thank you again to the Yarmouth Rotary. They continue to be a just a great partner for the district in in a bunch of different ways. Uh so, thank you again to the Yarmouth Rotary. Um and
then uh just a quick um notice on or I just wanted to uh speak. I mentioned the core values committee in my um message or in my uh
evaluation notice here. Um as I mentioned, we're going to be starting after vacation. We're going to be doing some work around core values. I mentioned it also in when I did the uh update for the strategic plan. You
know, we I was behind schedule at that um technically I'm still behind schedule. Um really trying to get back on schedule. Uh and so the we have we'll have five or six meetings depending upon how quickly we get through the work. Uh
and the purpose here is to have a steering committee that will uh lead the work. We're going to do a large survey of all the stakeholders. Uh but we need a group to steer the work, right? Um so what I'm looking for is
I've got uh staff, some staff that have uh volunteered to be a part of the work. I've got some uh families members that have volunteered, some students that have volunteered and and I it would be great to have a couple of school at least one or two school committee members. We have three. It's too many I
think, right? We'd have a quorum at three, right? So, one or two school committee members. Uh we're going to meet Thursdays. It's 5:30, right? Is when we're starting central office um starting the Thursday after April vacation. Um uh Sarah can send you all
the specific dates if you're interested. Um, again, I'd love to have um at least one school committee member. I think your voices would be really important in determining what we most value as a school district moving forward. Um, and again, it's it's not going to be just
that group like saying these are them. We're going to do this large survey and get the voices, but then we need a group to sort of call that out and lead that forward, lead that work going forward and be that steering group uh going forward. So, um, and I don't need any
answers today, but again, I just wanted to sort of put that out there as part of the superintendent's report today. Happy to answer any questions if anybody has any questions. But, Mr. Just a question going going way back to uh the fall. Has there been any movement
uh with the DY Red Sox or the Yarmouth Red Sox and the uh improvements to the field that they wanted to do and the position that you had with that as you know wanting some equity with the girls field as well?
Not on the agenda. Can I talk about it? I can add it to the May meeting for a recap. I know. Okay. We we we have discussed it at a at a meeting before. It's not on the agenda now, but we have discussed um some improvements that they were doing on the softball field as well, but yeah, I can give you an
update. It's just not on the agenda. So, I just want to be careful not to discuss something that's not on the agenda. So, I'll I'll put it I'll put it in my superintendent's report in May. Okay. Happy to give you an update. Very good. Thank you. Yeah, uh just a quick question on the core
values. Um I know that you had said that you had kind of looked at other districts and I'm I'm just wondering if you could provide us or uh give us, you know, ones that you thought were good and ones that you thought were not so
good. Um because I really can't wrap my head around what what it exactly is. So, I'm I'm I'm trying to grasp to me, you know, how could they be different in different districts? Like, how could schools have different core values? So,
if I if you if I saw an example of what you thought was a good, you know, solid core value and then we could kind of work on that. So, the ones I shared with you is more about the structure. The values ultimately have to come from the
district, right? So I can't as one person say this district has to value excellence, this district has to value, you know, uh, perseverance, this district has to value whatever, right? What I liked about the ones that I
shared you was like somewhere in the ballpark of four to seven def like stating what it is and defining what you mean by that word because if you say excellence that's a that's a that's a nice word I like that word but what do
you mean when you say excellence as a community as a school community? So, you have to say the word and define the word so that everybody is clear when DY says, and again, I'm just picking a word. This isn't saying this is what DY's word has to be. Um, but if you're going to say that word, well, what do you mean as a
school community when you say that word? So that was just sort of showing you those examples just for the sake of the structure, not that those words were the words that and that's sort of the purpose of the the surveying is we'll create a survey that's and ask really
it's going to come down to one maybe two questions that we're going to ask everybody you know about and I have some ideas on the question uh questions but to to elicit what people believe the district should be about and then that steering committee will and call all
that down to these values. No, I think that's great. I mean, I think I'm a classic example of, you know, I don't understand it, but that's a good thing because now that's how we can define ourselves. So, yeah. All right. Uh, so the last is just on
town meeting. Really just uh want to make sure everybody knows got some important dates coming up. Uh so first town meeting is Yarmouth's uh it will be both are right here in this beautiful building in the auditorium. So town
meeting for Yarmouth is on the 29th of April. It is at 6 pm. Uh the on the town meeting warrant of particular interest for the school district is obviously the budget and as I mentioned there are several capital articles related to
buildings uh within the uh DY school system. So folks that are interested in those um items should please uh I know it's hard especially for I put in my superintendent message. I know it's hard um for families, especially with young
kids, to get out um on a Tuesday night. Um but um you want to make we really want to encourage families to have their voices heard in that process. Um and then that's also followed by town elections um which into the town of
Yarmouth are scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th. And then Dennistown meeting is also here. Uh it is on May 6th. So that is the following Tuesday. Uh and it's just a little bit later. It starts at 7
p.m. but again here in the auditorium. And then the election in Dennis though is the Tuesday prior um to the Yarmouth town election on May 13th. And really the big school related item on the Dennis agenda is the
budget. And that is what I have. Mr. Morris. We have we don't have much negativity to look forward to uh unlike past years when we would as a committee
be promoted or pushed to make a change. But here we are as a member of seven of two different towns sitting together in the audience having to spend a few minutes making a decision. The new town moderator of three years
ago ruled that the people out of town, the Dennis members of the school committee can't sit with the Yarmouth members. They have to sit in a special reserved area. Uh, and I'm and I talked
to him about the opportunity to make changes since we present our budget doesn't go through the town hall. It is what we are by law allowed to present in tech fact technically speaking it's the only budget that at first can be
discussed at town meeting up or down the won't changes aren't made by the board of selectman or the fimcom so I uh it's a sign there have been times over the years where the group of so school comm
people sit together as a sign of camaraderie and support And there are also years in other towns where they don't get along and they sit all over the room. So, uh I'm wondering in the strategy in the planning with our chair
and our members, give some thought to what do we what do we want to do as a body that is or elected and handles a big segment of the town's success? I can respond to I believe at last
year's Yarmouth Town meeting um Dennis members were allowed to sit. They do have a elected official area, right? But they're not allowed to vote. They don't get a voting paddle unless you were you were not able to sit. I I did attend. Um, I had to sit
here for a while and then when they found out uh and after a while I was allowed to sit in the way back. Well, I can tell you for the town of Yarmouth, I will be presenting the budget to the town of Yarmouth um with Superintendent Smith um and then Miss
Beimis will be presenting to the town of Dennis as the speaker uh for the representative. Any other members from each of the town that sit there? Uh there is a they do set aside the right-hand front side in Yarmouth for members to sit together. So we are more
than welcome to sit together. I don't not been to the town of Dennis. I'm not aware if they do the similar thing but we have we can reach out to the moderators and get answers for you. Perfect. Uh next we have our school b school committee business consent
agenda which we have uh a donation from Dennis Sharmath Middle School. Does anyone want to move that item? It was uh from the DY middle school like to thank the dentist union church for the generous donation of feminine products to the nurse's office.
Uh and thank you for that donation. Have a motion. We have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Perfect. And then we have our bills requisition and payrolls. The consent agenda. Should we have that meetings? It says revised on
the front. I don't see the note for the meetings from last week's meeting on the consent agenda. Okay. They're not ready yet. That's why it's not there. Uh calendars. We have a half day this Friday for all schools. Uh and then the
21st to 25th is April vacation. Uh we have our next meeting on a on Monday May 5th and then on May 7th uh there's a one and a half hour early release. I think that's the last one of the school calendar. And then we have bills
requisition and payrolls which we said public comment. We do have a large crowd today. Uh remind the public that they have three minutes to speak. Um, if anyone does raise their hand, I'll be happy to read the script. No one's raising their hand. We'll move on to the next one. Mr. Mr.
Morris, were you making a motion? Mr. Martin, thank you, Mr. Martin. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor