Welcome to the Monday, November 3rd, 2025 meeting of the Dennis J Region School. >> I move that we go into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to litigation and to reconvene in open session. >> We have a motion and second. We'll do a
roll call vote. Uh, M. I miss. Thank you. Welcome back. Uh please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Welcome back.
This this weekend, the DY community lost one of its own. Gabriel was a senior, an athlete, and above all a kind friend to so many. His p his passing has touched our entire community. On behalf of the
school committee, we offer our heartfelt condolences to Gabriel's family, his friends, and dedicated staff at the high school. Dr. Smith will speak during the superintendent report about steps that have been taken to assist in the grieving process. I ask everyone to join
me. >> Thank you. Next we'll move into reports and discussions over you can thank you so much back and
yeah So, the haunted house last Saturday was a success. Excuse me. We donated over 120 pounds of canned food and hygiene products. Um, so that was really good. Um, we have, yeah, as I said, fall
sports wrapping up volleyball. Yeah, we lost our playoff match yesterday after a great season. Football played on Halloween. Um, it was their senior night for cheerleading and football and
The football players actually gave their jerseys to teachers to wear an imp. Um it was a tough loss, but they have another game coming up on Friday the 7th. Um we have term one closing on
Wednesday and two starting up with Thanksgiving break to look forward to takes this week as well. The first round of college for our seniors are complete or soon to be early action early
decisions inductions are to occur soon as well as the blood drive and then fall on the >> Thank you and welcome back to school. Next we'll move into the curriculum
update. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with you an update regarding the current status of our K to 68 lit programs. You may recall from last spring when I presented to the school committee the results of the literacy curriculum review for grade
six. The curriculum review committ chose to ELA due to it standard alignment accessibility for learners design students. Every lesson in Amplify ELA follows the same progression begins with vocabulary
practice to build text. The lesson then shifts to analyze the writer intentions and students are unpacking the text and discussing their findings with one another. This is where the direct instruction
The performance task is most often a writing task where students develop their analysis with evidence from the text. Students also participate in sporadic seminars, discussions and presentations as evidence of their learning. The lesson ends with an opportunity to reflect on their learning in the form of
either an exit ticket or wrap up. These are snapshots of student learning which inform the teachers instructional planning for subsequent lessons. Homework comes in the form of a solo where students apply their developing reading skills to a new text in prep. for the next lesson.
As you can see by the time to each portion of the lesson, the pace is fast moving. Lessons are designed for a 60-minute block through teacher self-reporting and administer observation. We have established that lesson pacing is an area of growth to be addressed. Immediate action.
Immediate action to support teachers in collaborating at the PLC level to complete the unit internalization process, which allows teachers to deeply understand what students are expected to learn, how they will be assessed, and what the key lessons and tasks are that will have the greatest impact on student learning. A longer term goal is to study
the current schedule design and determine what adjustments can be made to allow for sufficient instruction. This slide shows an example of a year to glance for seventh grade. Amplify ELA offers a 100 day lesson pathway that ensures full standards coverage in 100 lessons. Each grade level has five core
units, a story writing unit, a full complement of grammar lessons, and two novels. When creating the pacing guide for each grade, the number of lessons in each unit was laid over the number of instructional days in each month to determine approximately how long each unit would take to complete. Allowances
were made for half days, district assessments, and If teachers are able to stay within the suggested pacing, all assigned units will be completed and there will be time available for either story writing or a novel study. As I mentioned earlier, we are closely monitoring the lesson pacing to ensure that core units are completed
by the end of the school year. Amplify ELA is a significant departure from the types of teaching and learning that typ has typically existed in our middle grade classrooms. With the implementation of amplify ELA, there is a level of cognitive demand. work out for students that is
unprecedented. Virtually all learning occurs via the amplified platform. So there is a substantial reliance on technology both for students and teachers. The lesson design is deliberate and pacing is fast moving. And this is all to say that there is considerable need for teacher training
and support in order for them to feel confident in their ability to effectively use the resources to deliver instruction and monitor student progress. Professional development kicked off in August for both teachers and administrators with an initial training and program overview. The goals for the teacher training were to
navigate the curriculum platform to access unit and lesson materials, evaluate a lesson to identify how reading and writing instruction is integrated, locate student work and assessment data to monitor student progress, inform instruction and provide feedback, and apply their understanding
of the curriculum to prepare for the first minute of instruction. That was followed by an enhancing planning session in October focused on the process of unit internalization. This work will continue during our upcoming early release days and PLC meetings. Amplify ELA will
continue to support teachers and administrators with additional strengthening sessions and direct coaching to evaluate instructional practice. Our first scheduled visit with our Amplify coaches on January 14th. This date was strategically chosen because it follows the winter map testing window and is at the start of
core unit 3 which is the midpoint of the scope and casing sequence. Based on the observations made that day, we will be able to determine the focus of our next strengthening PD session. Experience has taught us that the most effective way to support teachers is by providing on demand job embedded reinforcement by an
instructional coach. In order to provide that for our teachers, Jennifer Domingo, the instructional literacy coach of grades four and five, was repurposed to allow her the flexibility to work with the middle school teachers and the teachers in grades four and five participating in the phased implementation of Jenny's been attending
PLC's observing lessons and meeting with teachers to plan lessons. The K5 review committee came to the unanimous decision to choose HMH into reading as our new literacy program to ensure a well informed and thoughtful transition to the new curriculum resource. We are conducting a phased
implementation this year. We asked for a volunteer at each grade level K to three and two volunteers in each in grades four and five to be the curriculum pioneers alongside the literacy instructional coaches building the administrators and myself. Much like the Amplify ELA program in
Reading is a complete departure from what teachers are accustomed to using to deliver literacy instruction. It will come as no surprise that all of our curriculum pioneers have embraced their role and fully immersed themselves in learning how the program works. I wanted to provide you with a brief overview of the various components of
inter so that you could see at a glance how the program is structured. The example on the screen is from grade 2 module titled meet in the middle. The essential question for this module is how can people work out disagreements? As you can see this module has a social studies connection. There are also units
that use science cont. for delivering literacy instruction. Interading provides explicit systematic instruction of the foundational skills which spiral throughout the curriculum both horizontally and vert. All the curriculum pioneers involved in the phased implementation of intering
are receiving a full complement of professional development in job embedded support throughout the year. There was a full day of professional learning in August that introduced the program, walked teachers through the array of reading resources, explained the pedagogical and demonstrated how to deliver
instruction using the platform and resources. This coming Wednesday, they will engage in a P session focused on writing assessments and lesson. Instructional coaches meet weekly with their assigned coach the coach for unlimited support as they guide teachers through the implementation process.
Coaches are in classrooms daily to observe instruction. They also have weekly meetings with teachers to plan and provide feedback. They are constantly collecting vital information to use for implementation next year. I look forward to coming back later in the year to give
you a more indepth look at reading and share our plans for next year. My final slide this evening is about civics instruction across the 2025 is the first year of the grade 8 civics mass as a required assessment for all students. This assessment consists of
two components, a state level performance task and an end of course test. The end of course test covers the full breath of the grade eight civic standards and students are scored on 32 questions. The state level performance task is based on one of seven civics topics. There is a combination of
constructive response and selective response questions. The topic of the 2025 civics task was rights and responsibilities of citizens to help prepare students for the state level performance tasks. Desi created local level classroom performance tasks for each civics. They are designed to
complement the content and skills that appear on the state level performance test. While the local level task is optional, it is strongly recommended. Tristan Williams, our history department chair at the high school, has involved students in meaningful civic engagement projects for many years, long before the state suggested. The most significant
project is civics dayd. The goal of these projects is for students to actively explore civics issues and develop their own civic identities. Students work in groups to take informed authentic action toward sustained change they hope to affect in their community. Past topics include
school start time, affordable housing, mental health, gun violence, and substance abuse issues. In 2023, the district began using the children discovering justice curriculum to support civics instruction in grades K through five. Children discovering
justice is a high quality standardsbased culturally responsive supplemental social studies and civics curriculum that provides the entry points and tools to facilitate critical thinking, rich civil discourse and active engagement around justice, community and advocacy. By laying the foundation for strong
civic engagement, students will better be better prepared for their eighth grade. Good evening everyone. I'm the director of STEM instruction and I'm pleased to share with you an update on our mathematics and science curriculum
efforts for the 2526 school. The curriculum resources we have adopted are grounded in research on what makes a difference in student outcomes. This chart illustrates that providing students with greater access to four key
resources leads to improved outcomes. Students experience an increase in academic progress when they have access to better assignments with access to strong instruction. When students report being engaged in
class, when teachers have expectations. Our instructional materials These qualities, strong instruction, high engagement, and clear expectations to maximize student
achievement. Each district resource has been designed with a problem based approach to learning which fosters a balance of conceptual understandings and pro procedural. Here is a breakdown of our curriculum by
grade level. These curriculums have been in place for at least three years. Grades K to 5, we utilize Great Minds Eureka Math. Grades 6 through 8, we use McGraill's illustrative mathematics
and in grades 9 through 12, the curriculum is Carnegie Math the Integrated. These programs share other research supported elements included grade level assignments that address the rigor of
the Massachusetts math standards, resources for building stronger instructional impact, and tools and strategies for student engagement. We are already seeing some positive
indicators of success from our math curriculum implementation at grade three. Our students districtwide on the MCAST were 6% above the state average for students meeting or exceeding expectations.
At grade six, we've observed that growth increased 12%. At grade 10, there was no decrease in achievement even after the graduation requirement was lifted. We will do a deeper dive into the MCAST
data later this month, but these indications are that our resources are having an impact. To continue this momentum, we are deepening our implementation efforts this year. This involves a focused
strategy to build the capacity of our district leaders. Building on last year's work with our principles, we are providing training for assistant principles and instructional coaches so that we are all
calibrated in our knowledge of the curriculum resource. We will train. We will provide training efforts to increase the capacity of our leaders in understanding the curriculum design elements,
supporting teacher study cycles, monitoring for deeper implementation, and providing effective feedback. The outcomes of this work will be reflected in instruction and student learning.
The hard is basically that teacher study cycle embedded in the increase in knowledge, beliefs, um professional learning and um the
tools within the curriculum. Finally, we can take a look at science. We are currently using STEM scopes curriculum in grades K to 7. At 6 to 8 in the high school, teacher created courses use high quality resources from the field. I am happy to report that
grades K to 5 are continuing to show growth. For grades six to eight, our focus this year includes a curriculum review using our district's established process to help us determine if a new resource is needed.
So this process will be looking at data. It will be examining the resources and it will be examining the other resources that have sort of been vetted by the state and other entities to see if we uh to help us determine if a new resource is needed.
In addition, I will be working with the high school to review the science pathways within their work on the program of studies. In summary, we are making progress in math and science with a deliberate focus
on the use of high quality instructional materials. Our math curriculum is problem based, which serves students in persevering through math solving math problems and engaged in learning through developing
conceptual and procedural understandings. Um I have a very deep commitment to this work especially in mathematics this year. I look forward to working with our building leaders as we all kind of
deepen our knowledge in these resources. Thank you for your time and Sherry and I are able to answer any questions you may have at this time. Thank you. Any questions? Looking at what would you drop off
at that point or I just drop off dealing with why 41% grade I think it really speaks more to um areas where we need to sort of deepen
implementation. So the areas where that is almost like our transition grades as well. So fifth is moving into middle school, seven moving into high school. Um and so I think it's really a combination through that transition to
where the if the conceptual understandings have not been built then it's hard to kind of even go deeper into different number systems um and and the depth of the standards and even though all of that is
really embedded within the resource itself many teachers and ourselves included were not taught the way expected to teach. And so as leaders, district leaders, school leaders, when we go into
classrooms, it is important for us to be able to understand what we're seeing and what and hold that against like what instruction looks like so that we can sort of mark where teachers are and help them take
that next step. So it's really a combination of teachers using the resources but leaders understanding the resources so they can give the kind of feedback that will help a teacher take that next step into implementation.
>> So if I understand you correctly then it's a case where the leaders need to work more closely with the teachers to give them the tools and the understanding necessary to uh deliver the content of the curriculum.
>> Correct. It may look like in practice where a a principal or an assistant principal or even an instructional coach would work with teachers and facilitate them through like an internalization process. So you're studying the unit and
then you may study prioritize lessons that of maybe standards that we see okay these are standards that we that have challenged us in the past. And so with a laser focus right there, we can dig in a little deeper to say, okay, what is the
curriculum showing? What do these models mean? Have you used a tape diagram or a bar model to teach before? And how do you do that? Right? So um that's that conceptual piece. And then if a teacher
and a leader really understand that, we implement that. It's also getting it to our students and helping them understand how to practice and use that to deepen their understanding so that they can develop that procedural.
>> Thank you. Uh again going back to those percentages, how do they relate to last year's? Are they static? Are they have they improved? Are they you know the 27 and the 28% >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Um so those are
the fifth grade I believe we came up and I think eth and 10th are a little bit static. So that's why we're going to like dig in a little bit. >> So when I have somebody from the community that that corners me and ask questions about why the scores are what they are, I will say to them that the
curriculum is is doing what it should be doing. And right now we're working with the faculty to bring everybody on the same page in order to deliver content in the most efficient manner. And I'm sorry, I apologize. I think maybe I thought we were talking math and the
science slide was up there. So for science and and this slide right here, we are going to dig into the resources used at grade six through eight and do a curriculum review process. So we'll look at that data. We'll look at the we'll dig into the data and then we'll look to
see like what our resources are providing and do we need something more robust? And so in that process, we If we determine we may consider adoption of and then we would look in like what is
kind of meeting the criteria where um students can show success. So the curriculum we have right now is kind of falls under that high quality you know criteria. However we if we're not seeing
um incremental progress then we do want to kind of dig in and see. So yes to both to what you said we still continue to work with teachers but we also have to then take a little closer look at the resources themselves. >> Thank you.
>> Anyone else? >> So my question is related related to first and then I'll have a question. So it was always my understanding that Eureka was the first one to be implemented. So maybe four or four or
five years in and there were a lot of emphasis rightfully so on skills and instructional coaches on that level and if I am correct in the implementation has been say four years have you
considered allocating instructional coaches for the other grades or is there any movement or staffing still the same? So, um, we do have instructional coaches for grades six through eight in
mathematics. Um, and I think one of the things we're doing this year is to really bring the coaches into um, alignment with the district strategy, what we're looking for, so that everybody is kind of focusing in on the
same things. So to kind of give an example of what I'm discussing is um you know coaches certainly go and they meet with teachers and they support teachers and and it's a very you know one-on-one relationship there that starts with trust and taking risks. What we're
trying to do is really also say like we also need to be reaching here. And so as a coach we're going to need you to again maybe facilitate a lesson study routine before you go into then have a class lesson where you're obser observing and
giving feedback and then reflecting using the student data. So, we're trying to clarify also the coaching model at the same time honing in on where and the resources we need to support teacher study and reference and planning.
So we do have a coach 6 to 8 and we have had a coach 6 to 8. We also have a coach that is hired from Carnegie that is working with 9 through 12. >> I have a couple of questions. Um yours
is I understand the process and I remember when you went through the process from the last presentation how amplify was selected for 68 and it was a long study process. So when you show the sign about
what is being tested through is that an adopted one is it still under consideration or is there an ongoing process to look at what's available completed that process for K
simultaneously with the 68 process but adopting full adoption for K5 um and full adoption for 68 in the same year um would have been an overwhelming task to
done it well um it was decided we start with 68 we're phasing implementation in for K5 so as I mentioned in my presentation there are calling curriculum pioneers um at each grade level in each building that are rolling out the um
inter. So why that um was it HM product was selected will it be eventually implemented all tell me what are the features that made it a desirable choice >> um well I think I mentioned that it's
the that systematic um spiraling instruction around foundational skills um so that students are constantly um ing these the standards again and again and again and increasing in rigor as the
year goes on horizontally and then vertically as well. Um so they had a strong phonics program has a strong writing component um I'm sorry 3 to five uses the um platform called writable which gives real time
feedback to students both from an AI feature for the overview of it like um conventions and then the teachers can go in and the final grade in comments and feedback around the content. Um, and they all of the prompts
are aligned to mirror what happens on the MCAT. So having the seen has the text on the left and the questions on the right. So they're getting practice with that early on starting at the very beginning of grade three. Um, so that the format of the test is new to
them. Um, it includes handwriting starting um kindergarten and then cursive starts in grade three which was wasn't on the top of the teachers list but it was an important skill especially the handwriting at the lower levels had something that was um consistent and
concrete to teach them their letters we were finding that penship was a challenge so we wanted a program that was going to incorporate that as they were learning how to Anyone else?
The only thing that I I see again, you left the slide up. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing is that, you know, the fifth grade, you know, we're pretty close to the state average. Looks like they're at 43. We're at 41. Um,
both the state and the district at 8th grade. Um but what's what's glaring in this slide is that we don't rise at all really from 8 to 10. However, this state jumps back up to their fifth grade uh
scores closer to that 43% and us 28% bringing us 15% down from the district versus a few%. I know it says review 6 to 8, but it seems that something's happening between the eight and 10.
I know that you guys are the experts, but looking at this chart, it seems that, you know, maybe that normal life of middle school to high school and not knowing who you are and maybe that has a, you know, a big jump from five to eight, but there's something between
that eight and 10 that state is an increase back to considered normal or not. >> And I think um again this is a very general look at it. So we have the
biology, physics and chemistry sort of together there. So, I think when I'm talking about um looking at the program of studies, it's really going to be digging into um where our students are successful in those courses and perhaps
having a strategy of aligning a pathway of those courses that will promote um more student success. Um so, again, yeah, it probably was an error to like not switch to a because then we're just staring at those numbers. Um and also
this was just meant for sort of a glance. Um but when you do dig in you're we will see when we dig in we will see sort of and kind of met out that that approach. It should also be mentioned
that um Miss Bennett is doing sort of a curriculum writing initiative at the high school right now and that is another um lever to kind of support um the instruction where it's you're building it. You'll match up your standards, but then what do your
assessments look like? You know, are we are we posing high rigor um questions to our students? Um what are the instructional strategies look like? How does the content flow? So, a lot of that work is also being done at that level and I also work with that.
>> Perfect. Yeah. To your point, if we're if we're having students taking classes they're not ready for How we level up, you know, see a specific class, how the classes are assigned
that question. I looked at numbers recently about the number of students took our percentages. We had a lot more students take it and our percentage is still high pass. part of what I talked about
within that particular department's electives which is not necessarily a bad thing that there is clear It's not atypical. It's not atypical for traditional high school experience for kids to take
physics in the nth grade, biology in the 10th grade, chemistry 11th grade. That's not the path. Our science department body's taking physics in their freshman year
after everybody's takiology as a second chance to pass. So part of this too that's why program studies second and we do have just chemistry. These are all things that
central office where is appropriate place to program. These are all strugg on my school had and I watch all these, you know, choosing better curriculum and high quality instructional
materials, tier one, two, tier two, tier three instruction for our students and as a parent as a parent and also putting back some of these numbers, you know,
I don't not see the results and I I know that these things take a lot of time but it's very frustrating to you know watch my student audience but um you know since third
grade I've asking for help for him. He's a junior. You know, I listened to a presentation a week or two ago about dolphin time and how we're using data to decide, you know, dolphin time. I'm not seeing that.
I mean, if we were using data, maybe he'd be getting help in math during dolphin time. And this is This is a problem. Um, I know these things take time and you
need time for professional development and to get people aligned. I don't know all the jargon. Um I hope are good options and that as you continue with
rolling these out. Yes. I just wanted to comment. I don't know if this is going to be helpful or not, but thank you for letting me share. Um, when Dr. was talking. I was just thinking about um my 10th grade here and I'm pretty
sure I was taking chemistry but then like I took the class and I was being tested on the physics that I learned. So I don't know if that might do um personally like
it's such a short little It kind of feels sometimes like it's hard to like sit down and like get the help or like get things done, especially when like teachers have students in there that might not necessarily are
supposed to be in there or are like being loud or you know and it's just such a quick period it's hard to get their attention and their full attention for like real like actual help. And I think that's why tutoring has been like um implemented during time because
kids can, you know, it's oneon one whereas like getting help from a teacher is a lot harder, especially like even in my ceramics class or um my math teacher because the kids that go in her dolphin time are like the um like eighth graders
or like not like the AP students, which is like what I would need help for if that makes sense. I just wanted to share. Thank you. >> No, we appreciate that. That's why that's why you know, as we're figuring out that this role, we want to hear
students that's appreciating uh in regards to CTE recruitment. Well, I'm a member of the big policy committee. Um, so this uh career and technical
education policy, it's not a new practice. It's something we've been doing a long time and allowing our our students to understand and appreciate and explore what's available for them and career and technical
And the policy spells out what everything that we are doing and have done. The only thing is different is in October I mean sorry August Desi decided to have a new requirement. So the only requirement is that we have to post in a
lot of venues what this service or program is all about. So um it won't be going in our policy manual but it will be going in uh the program studies on the website and a lot of venues to make
sure we have awarding Thank you. So this is for outstanding ban bond anticipation on this current project on this building. The
remaining debt that we're carrying before we can go to the full bond that we still cannot yet go to full bond for due to the fact that we have yet to close out the MSBA project on this building. Uh, and we cannot yet close
out the MSBA project on this building due to the pending or where we are sort of sitting with mediation litigation that committee just got updated exact when we close out with MSBA, there's still some remaining reimbursement money
that they're holding on to. So it ultimately will reduce the total amount of the bond. So we get the final borrowing amount we need carrying this bond anticipation. It's like a smaller
shorter term that you're holding on to the last one. We need to extend for a new one. This is the committee to go out for another participation. Hopefully this will be the last one. Hopefully we get the rest of this
process out then. >> Perfect. So we're looking for a motion to adopt. So we can make a motion question. >> The vote was drafted by the
says that the district secretary is certifying I understand how do we adopt something if council said that's what's in the sale of the district 11 million votes dated 114
Second. >> Okay, we have a motion in second. Further questions? Seeing none, do we need a roll call vote? We'll take a roll call vote. I
miss Next we'll have a presentation for the first quarter of FY26. >> Thank you very much. I have enjoyed preparing this quarterly budget report very much. Um and I I thought about this
and I want to make it as interesting to you as possible because I'm going to come back and I'm going to present it in the same format um so that it's consistent with this. So I want to teach you how to and it intention is for me to be as transparent
as possible to tell you where we are in spending the uh FY26 budget and then also to compare it with historical trends from the past two years to show what are where ultimately if all things
go in accordance with plan um then we will land at the end of the in a good place as far as the budget goes. So to do this report, one of the things that um to give you an appreciation for the fun
part of my job um as you work with the um central budgeting system which is called infinite visions. So to produce this report in a way that was understandable to you, this comes from monthly
downloads. 39 pages of account lines. Okay, we have an account here for every single thing. If you take facilities, there's painting for every school and there's um also like plumbing for every school. There's
electrical for every school and that all adds up. So presented in an easily readable format, um I looked at wanting you to understand four terms. The four
terms are um appropriation which is the amount that's approved for each major account at the start of the fiscal year. The expended line is just what we've already encumbered is a interesting term. You
don't hear it every day and those are just monies that have been reserved for future spending. So we tend to do that right away with all the salaries in the district for example because those are all clearly defined by contractual
obligations. Um and then we um in terms of presenting a higher level summary um if you look at this table right here this is what um I created a series of um of data downloads into Excel and what it
does is it organizes all of those lines into specific accounts that the department of elementary and secondary education requires for us to consider and Many of these are explainable.
You've got administration, you've got instruction, people, transportation, operations, maintenance, and utilities, benefits, and fixed charges. That's where your health insurance is. That's where your um contributions to
Barnesville County retirement system are made. That's where your teachers um retirement um uh considerations are made. Also um I found that um basically it takes each area and it separates into
either salary expenses or non salary expenses and non salary expenses are just the goods and services that we buy to support learning. Okay. And if you look at those the words that I outlined here are the appropriations. These are
the monies that we said we would spend in that leads to our total operating budget which is 84.4 million. These are all the amounts we've spent to date and when I say to date that's as of
mid October. Um and um if you look at the encumbered lines they're monies that we have reserved for spending in the salary lines and also goods and services lines money to be spent. Then you come
up with what do we have left? What do we have left right now in our total budget is basically 9 million 9.4 million. So that's 11% approximately of the budget remaining.
Now, how do you know if I'm not just making this up? Well, if you want to know, you can look through those 49 pages of downloadable detail from the general ledger that I printed. But if
you take your packet and you look and flip through, there's a page 49 mine. Okay? And you want to do that right now. fun. Look at the uh grand totals at the
bottom and the grand totals at the bottom. Um if you look in the budget line, that's how much money we have. And you can see that's reflected in the table there organized. Um And that is and the reason why
they're slightly different but um the only reason is the time frame of the print because the fiscal database we're getting every minute of school day the fiscal datab
very busy responding all day long and I'm very busy responding all day long to look at these lines. Um and then um if you look at what's remaining um that is in the um it says percent
of the budget what number do you see there this is 11.17%age 49 bottom line you'll see 11% so that's how you know that I'm being
very transparent with you and I'm not And so what you'll also notice you see the monies that have been the monies that are encumbered. If you look at this you see 17
million has been expended to date but there 57 million in encumbered funds. What you will notice as I continue to present the quarterly budget report this year, you'll notice a shift that takes place
and the shift will mean that as the salaries um have been encumbered reserved for spending the more progresses you're going to see a shift from the monies that are encumbered now. So you'll notice
incumbred is waiting to be spent but still reserved and expended means already spent. So you'll notice a progressive shift back and forth. If you look at that table,000, sorry, not thousand million. So $15
million 57 million shift to this expend. Um the highlights I didn't do highlights throughout all the accounts. You can I think that um you know quickly if you
look at um fixed assets fixed assets in explaining fixed assets because that's not so easily understandable. Um this amount of 365k
um basically that to me um looks like that um those are like amounts of money that um are typically spent on technology lines refurbishing or laptop refreshes. Um you
know the um projection devices that are higher cost that are um that we will have a year of operation. So that's kind of what might otherly
do this year to previous year. So with the information that um that I had, I was able to create a month by month which says okay
this is so if you look up at the screen I have three different lines and 24une and FY2 is the orange line all the way
from July And then the months of this year show that we are really on target with our other gives you the spending to date acion
and it continues to you have in August right since the report was generated in mid October you have slightly lower amount
in October and I expect if I did a full report I would expect that it would be so remain according to plan and I will will not going according
um looking at um in terms of the strategic goal which is streamlining things to become more efficient with our operations. Um and so we have people like all people in district are working
extremely hard every day right so we're trying to look at where I said we have an account for virtually like everything you could think of um it's it's like the schools are organized like if you
take the facilities account lines they're like thousands of them I mean literally like we have I could go into the detail and I I could give you like paper products. I could give you um electricity what we're spending. I could
give you like plumbing. I could give you you know I think there's even a line for um you know so you know the thing that we're trying to look at there's someone in the business that has to put through a requisition. There's
the main office of a school that has to like know what the account is. Um simply doing a um a broad base like major category contracted services and then looking at that because the detail
is requesting funds for something. Um you know perhaps putting a little bit more detail and then having similar account to if we really need to do so. Okay. So, we're looking at considation. That is
why I gave you the 49 pages of lines that I have to look through every month to kind of see where we're landing. And that is why I have fun with I know how to create pivot tables, but I actually really learned. So I'm always learning
something new. Um and and the format for this report I've been thinking about since July because it's really about the monies that we're spending to land. which is what I want to know as your
finance. Okay. Right now we are continues do that I do and basically by presenting this way I can
show you that mytorical comparisons are accurate by presenting you with a comparison of the previous year's data in line with this year's data. Okay. And the other thing I will say is the
control measures that we have for you and you go through the monthly um the whole document of the 49 pages you will see that there are many positives but you might also find
there's some negative swings. Don't be alarmed by that because every school is organized as a cross center where there multiple counsil break. You could have a department that didn't purchase enough supplies
and What the costers do is allow the principal to make informed decisions to approve the requests that are coming up from the staff members in the school. Then it goes to me for approval and it
goes to also Dr. Smith for approval. So as we look at those that flow then you know it's we can't be obsessing over a negative swing here or there account but we monitor the general ledger with
all those account which is on page 49 of the report and that shows that we have 11% total budget and again what we
are what we reserve to be spent and so those are not everyday vocabulary that people speak um so I will repeat this like four times and um you know in the same way so that you can get used to
knowing what to look for and you may already know what to look for. Um, but I always think about what do you want to know and um, I certainly always value your feedback. Um, because I'm trying to
be as transparent as possible and be able to make this report as interesting as possible so that you can follow it. Okay, >> great. Thank you so much. Any questions?
Having dealt with this budget 20 years ago as director of construction district could you please provide me the codes because I'm sure they've changed since that point so I know what schools are
expend >> um I'm wondering do we know whether there's been any fluctuations. I guess this is to you as well as Dr. Smith and our enrollment that could potentially change that, you know. And then the
other question I have after that is private school transportation. That's still the wild card. We don't know what could happen or do you think that looks like that's the one? >> I would say this. Um, we are monitoring
the enrollment. Um, and I don't have the figures in front of me right now, but it looks like we've had a slight decrease in the enrollment um, this year. Um, and but not a significant decrease and if I
and Dr. you may want to correct me because you're as up to date on the figures as I am and you know I you know about student difference between last year and this year
somewhere between 15 students challenges that spread across the district when we get into budget building as we do every year we'll look at our class student ratio We'll look for
opportunities quick even last year where we had increases. There was some spots. >> Okay. The budget for private school
transportation is you secure with that since it seems to be the one we have to closely monitor. We monitor um you know private school transportation right is something that is a part it's part funded by circuit
breaker and so we're contining to monitor circuit breaker in terms of like tition breaker and you have something to share additionally Okay. Um, you know, so I think part of
the data that we'll be providing um at time of budget is always to look at how much are out of district tuition placement costing, how much is the transportation cost, and I have a um I have a spreadsheet which I'm working on
with the special education um department to make sure that we're as we can be and I talked I talked to the collaborative um and try to get a sense of what increases are
going to be for tition um and also transportation services and we do our best to keep cost down. We have a we have our own internal for kids students that are in district with bus
transportation. The only thing I would add is I think that specific special education is had our is a driver as we get fined last year. The budget process
ongoing cost special education transportation predictable escalator cost 11% left. >> It seems funny. It feels funny at this point in the year, but the reason why is you have that amount Next move to subenn
tomorrow night select board meeting that's the fourth select board is scheduled to meet at 4 but probably looking at their agenda at about 5:15 they're going to do a joint meeting with the finance committee and
beginning the discussion of the fiscal outlook for Dennis and uh receiving a report from the mass uh municipal association what a lot of communities are experiencing. So this is a little different and a little bit more
involved. So if you're interested uh the agenda you can find it go to the calendar on the town's website. will show you the agenda and even show you the select board packet to preview it. And for those who want to see what might
be happening at fiscal 27, this would be a good night to chime in and look at it. >> Thank you. The town of Yarmouth has a select board meeting tomorrow at 5. One of the first items is the
interviewing of four potential candidates to join the as representative on the town of website under select agendas of the four names of the applicants as well as their resumes and their letters
of intent during that meeting they will approve vote on a member to join the board so we look forward to that tomorrow on Monday in the performing arts
will be meeting the meeting. We're meeting tomorrow. >> Next, we'll move to >> Sorry, it's Wednesday. >> Can you remind yourself to make sure that you're there?
Wednesday at 2 o'clock. You and you and you and Maria. I think high school. Next, first start this weekend
calls that every superintendent has nightmares about learning that we lost one of our students. Uh this weekend's passing of Gabriel is tragic and first and foremost our thoughts are with his family as they
grieve through this very difficult time as a father and at the same Unfortunately, this is not the first student in my short time here. Um, which gives our team some practice responding
to difficult situations like this. However, each student passing is unique impact and it effect on the school community. And so, you know, being over the last couple days, this
I don't know this roller coaster of emotions because you're dealing with weight of the situation and also the last couple days just been real moment of pride for me as superintendent in watching the way the team came together
all the different people that have really stepped up whether it was over the weekend people like Maria sitting next to me and Kendra the way that from the moment I got the phone call to starting text messages to bring people
together on a conference call figuring out how we were going to message how how we were going to be respond as a school district as individual high school and then I know there were conversations going on beyond just the ones I was directly involved in so I'm not even going to name all the people that I know
taking the charge to communicate with all the other principles right there was just all these people who stepped up and then going to the high school and seeing the way counselors officers wide variety of police
departments on what was likely a moment's notice language support students soccer coach was there all day long today to provide support for the entire
student, you know, and again the impact is is intense for a group of students, not the entire school community, but the way the school is able to respond in a flexible way
am And for the family as well everyone again I just really started over the weekend school later this week and then that will continue as the school and the district work with
the as being a senior. Come up and district, you know, again for me. things heavy sadness really
talking about today. So moving on to the some other positive or not other positive but two more positive things. We are the school committee will
recognize some donations uh today. is close to being done. Uh if you had a chance to drive by today, you see almost all the places. Um so one thing that the committee uh is going to be accepting today is a donation from the PTO at
station of nearly $30,000. As the committee may remember, this project is possible due to wide variety of funding that came from different places, capital improvement from the county, the CPC from the
county, uh some district funding, some special education grant funding from all. Second is the class of 1970 made a nice athletic fund
over $1,000 and then we had somebody show up um and literally gave us $100 in cash uh to use for school supplies, J Smith. So again, we want to thank all the donors and all the different contribut
uh next uh as the chair mentioned on the 17th of November just next door voters will have an opportunity to vote on the Emmy small feasibility study
obviously big moment for us as a We've worked to create aformational flyer. We put that flyer out, communicated it to communicate about their mechanisms as well. We will continue to get that
information outage. We will continue just to remind it's there as well as have it available on town at town meeting for people to uh I'm working currently on finalizing slide presentation which will have
larent the facts to folks before that they vote on that article and then the third so Wednesday this week we're having an open house at any small for the entire public as well to come again
we've been broadcasting about that opportunity for people come and vote for them to see the school, see exactly what it is we're talking about to get inside the building. will have myself the principal will be there to
folks around and we will have slide deck presentation with some pictures that might be a little bit hard to get to the maintench that and then the last thing is just an update on one of my
um so as the committee may remember uh I have two goals and one of them I want to just focus on today just provide you all an update on what I've been doing on So this goal is my second goal. It's focused. This is specifically what it
says. It's focused. It's my way to support tier one instruction. And I'm focused uh specifically on the observation evaluation process in the district working with the leadership team on calibration.
So basically what that means is when we go all go out in the classrooms, are we seeing the same things? Are we providing the same type of feedback? what we see doing it in the same way so that we're all moving towards the same goals, right?
We all need to be moving towards the same. We all have to have a clear understanding of what effective instruction looks like and then how we help teachers move towards the next step and that has to come from a consistent process. So next slide please.
So what has been done? Well, some of this actually started all the way last year uh coming out of the u the working with joint I put together a joint team which came through a little bit of a different process but um
working with the both the association and then some leaders uh that team looked at our whole edel process. The committee actually voted to ratify this spring if I remember correctly might
have been kind of lost track of some of the dates but as part of that process came out a more streamlined observation feedback tool. So in the past what would happen we just had this like really big
cumbersome tool which I was not a big fan of and quite frankly a lot of people in the district including the teachers and what this tool now has this is just the
first it's not much bigger than this but it is a little bit bigger than this and what it gives us now is a streamline version of what it is that we're when we go in class really only four big areas that we're looking for. We've taken the whole teachers rubric rubric
and just like you all work with me to come up with focus indicators. We've done the same thing with the teachers. We said what are the priority things that we're focused on and then we designed an observation feedback tool around the things that we're focused on so that it's clear for teachers what is
it that we're looking for. It's clear for observers what it is that we're looking for when we go into the classroom. And it's quick so that when a when an observer goes into a classroom, they're able to quickly provide feedback. Um the challenge that we were
having is that observers were going into classrooms. You might only do by contract they have to be in there longer than 10 minutes. So you might go in there for 15 minutes, do an observation, but it would take you 30 to 45 minutes to write. So what you'd end
up having, speak for myself wouldn't be the observation. And so your frequency and anybody who's tried to get feedback, it's about frequency. How am I getting some consistent frequent feedback? And so this is designed so that I can identify
what are the things and where um where am I on the things that I'm that we're working on collectively as a district. And what's that one small actual bit of feedback that I need to take the next step and it's digestible for me as the person receiving the feedback.
for the person giving the feedback and it allows it to happen on a more regular consistent basis. So now that's great. We created the form. We have a little bit of a process now begins to work on working with the
faculty. I mean, excuse me, working with the leaders. So, this is a copy of the agenda. I meet with my entire leadership team, all 30 of them, um, including all the assistant principles, all the directors, principals, all the central
office team. We meet once a month. And so, this is a copy of the agenda from our last meeting. And that's a blow up of the last agenda item. We meet on Mondays after work so that everybody can come. So that was the last agenda item.
Yes, I stuck it right at the end, but they did it. Um, and you can see we're working on this particular one. You know, we have this other goal working on chronic absenteeism, but we're doing it through
this idea of well, if the school and the classrooms are this safe place, then kids are going to more likely want to come to school. And one of our focus areas is around relationship like what is the what is the relationship between the adult and the child in the
classroom? You go to the next slide. And it's not just based in um opinion. We have a researchbased framework and this is linked right to the observation tool. This is available to anybody. Again, it's all about transparenc.
It's all about transparency, keeping this open and honest um between all parties involved. This is a research based from the search institute and it's specifically about adult student relationships and what are the five
characteristics of an effective um relationship and they are expressing care providing supporting power and expanding possibilities and then each of those is further defined which are a little harder to reach far away. Um, so we we
did some work on digging into this because this has been available to them, but you know, they're all busy and they might not spent as much time digging into this as they all would have wanted to. So we spent some time digging into this. And then the last step was then
anticipation. Um, the next was that we then the department of ed has these recorded classroom lessons on available on YouTube. So we then spent time together watching one of these lessons together. So, it's a way for us all to be in a classroom without us all being
in a classroom. So, we watch a lesson, we essentially just and we just focus on that one section, right? So, we'll do one section at a time. We just did that one section. We all observed it as if we were there and then we all identified, okay, how would we have scored it if we
were in the space and what would be the one piece of actionable feedback that we would provide and then we debriefed it um in a space or in that And that's sort of the process of calibrating where we will be different and we will continue.
Next just hit them so they all come. Uh so some other things that I've been doing as well is I have a regular schedule with the principles where I
walk the buildings and walk classrooms with the principles. So we'll go and visit a few classrooms. We jointly observe the classroom and then we debrief again with that same tool. Right. And then okay what would we what would we
have seen if you This was going to be an observation. What did you see? And what would be the one piece of concrete actionable feedback? And then this is all grounded in I also meet once a month separately with just the principles. So myself and the
principles have a monthly meeting and we're that is centered around this book leverage leadership. There's one more and there's a focus chapter focus chapter for this year. We did a different focus last year, but this year our focus is around observation and
feedback. So, you know, our focus here at least the beginning of the year, we'll move on to other chapters later, but is on how do we provide what are what does that actionable feedback look like? It also
gets into like how do they manage their time so they can get in there effectively and efficiently? How do they manage their calendars in a um and then so then for next steps beyond here I'll continue those monthly meetings with the principles
and not only will be focused on developing their skills but then I don't directly assistant principles they do right so then okay so how do they take what they're learning and bring it to their Uh but I and then how can I um
reinforce that because I do have once a month with everybody. So I will continue to use those dyscership. How do we how do I use those training sessions to reinforce that and we'll take different parts of the tool
each time continue to do those calibration walks with the principles and then eventually I'll get to the point where I'll I'll start randomly sampling feedback from all
observation solutions where all goes so I can go in and randomly sample not for like as a way of collecting and comparing and saying okay so how are we doing as far as consistency
just from the high school, two from the middle school, one from see how are we doing as far as are we similar? Are we being consistent in the way that we're consistent?
It's not about Mr. and so and so you need to change this rating. That's not my It's about teacher perspective. is not evaluation comes in. Any questions from the committee?
We'll move to the next is the consent agenda. We have several items that were discussed on there. We have English books from the department high school surplus 1970.
$4. We have a motion and a second. Any questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any passes? We have the bills and payrolls.
I thought I was done with glad to get back to writing them back to the good old days. topics are there. I know that we have a one and a half hour early release for all schools this
Wednesday special meeting here meeting on Monday for all schools on Wednesday and public comments. Anyone looking to speak in public com
I thank you so much. November 17th, please make sure you're there.