Welcome to the Monday, January 5th, 2026 meeting of the Dennis Jorth Regional School Board. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Welcome back. Happy New Year. Uh we will start with Ms. Deereo and our student representative. Sure. She's very
excited to have woken up this morning, come back to school. >> It's funny. My first um note is we are off from the holiday break as um no, but it's it's all good things. We um you know, this time's kind of a dull time of year. It kind of is slow for a lot of
people, but we seniors are almost done, if not already done with applications, so getting through that. Um, let's see. The robotics team and unified basketball had an article. They were featured in the Kickpod Times. Um, the winter band,
oh, sorry. Um, we have a winter concert for the band, choir, and orchestra this Thursday. Um, winter sports are underway. We have an early release this Wednesday, the 7th for teacher development. Um, and then semester 1 ends on the 23rd of this month. And
that's all I have for today. Thank you. >> Thank you. That's a lot for being off for two weeks. So, we appreciate uh next we have our uh our first initial FY2027 uh budget presentation from Dr. Smith and Dr. Wilson.
>> All right. Thank you very much. Welcome back everybody. Jumping right into the heavy stuff. So, uh, we're going to kick off. Uh, Dr. Gillson and I are play a little tag team here. I'm I'm going to get us started and then I'm going to hand it off um to Dr. Gillson
in a little bit. So, we're going to start um this is the very first pass at the budget and it will be fairly high level. We'll get a little bit more detailed as we get deeper in uh to the budget presentations over the coming weeks uh and meetings.
But I want to start with just sort of uh a reminder on what's driving our work. Uh started this process last year just a really reminding what are the what are our focus areas and really our strategic plan continues to be uh what's driving our work in the district. We have three
big strategic objectives um that we've been talking about since uh launching the plan that we working to eliminate disparities in achievement and access for every student. We're working to establish consistent districtwide systems of support and organizational effectiveness. And then uh we're working
to address our short and long-term facilities and capital needs. Uh and then this last spring uh and into the summer uh we did some work with a committee and the and then this with a committee small C and then this committee big C uh approved our
district's new core values. So those also ground our decision making for everything we do including when we have to make tough decisions which is definitely a way that I would categorize the budgeting process. Want to start just by highlighting, you
know, uh the budgeting process as an investment process and we just want to talk about the some of the commitments the committee has made over the last couple of years and how those are starting to pay off in that strategic plan and and some of the again some of the way those investments are paying
off. So what you're looking at here is uh the percentage of our students. This is one of our benchmarks from our strategic plan and it's our percentage of our English language learners that are meeting uh their ELE uh bench or
progress benchmarks. Right? So the department of ed sets benchmarks each year for the uh progress students are making in gaining English proficiency and we've set targets and the you can see we were heading in the wrong
direction for a little while. Um, but we've we've started to make steady progress since 2023 in heading right in the direction that we want to be and we're on track to hit our district percentage that we've set as our goal as part of our strategic plan. Um, and this
is even actually as we came out of our difficult budget year, the 2425 budget year where we had multiple layoffs, we actually in in that difficult budget year, we redeployed FTEES in order to support EL instruction. Um, and we continue to
in coming into this current year, we invested uh in a MLE director which continues to support the work of the district in this area. Over the next couple slides, just some highlights. You got a larger MCCAST presentation, but just again this this presentation, some
version of it will be with the select boards and the finance committees as well. just really to show off some of our highlights, some of the work that is starting to work its way out through the system, starting to close some of the gaps with the state in achievement uh with the MCCAST and ELA uh and which
will also frame some of the um later asks as we continue to build the budget out. But even without some of the curriculum adoptions that we've been able to get in place, we still have been able to close some gaps or or in some places actually exceed the state. uh back in sixth grade, it was at the first
grade in ELA to be able to push back above the state marker. And then the mathematics investments which we've made over the last couple years, continuing to either exceed or close the gap uh with the state uh in again that investment showing showing or proving
that the investment starting to pay off. And then uh again that strategic objective number three being about us investing in both the short and the long-term capital uh improvements for the district ensuring we're investing in our facilities. Just a this is a a list
of just the work that was done over the summer by the facilities team um that either they directly did themselves or that was overseen. Right? So this is across one, two, three, four, five different buildings. U just showing you just a snapshot of the work that was done. And this isn't even all of it, but
this is the majority of it. Um try to get it all to fit on one slide uh of the work that was done by that team. So again, just again one of our strategic objectives and just a quick snapshot of what that work was. So here we are. This is a an overview of
the timeline. So this is the very first presentation. Uh again, we're going to start at the high level. I'm going to give you some uh pres some I don't know maybe the third somewhere between the 15,000 and the 30,000 foot view of the of the budget and we'll work
our way way into um more detail as we go through this presentation. We're going to show you what we do have as information and there's some key information that we don't have yet. For those of you that have been through this, you know that we don't have a big um big piece of the puzzle which is the
revenue side. Um, and we're going to get that between now and your next meeting. But we're also going to do a lot of refining and we're going to present you with a lot of more detail. Uh, and you'll start to get more and more detailed information that that'll be supplements to the budget um, as well as
we as we both get more information um, and we continue to refine our practice or refine our data to present to the committee. But anyways, this is the there are meetings in between here, but these are some of the key benchmarks. So
the next meeting um the committee has to approve a tentative budget uh and between then we will get the state some of the state revenue information uh by the or on the 9th the meeting on the 9th will be the the public hearing.
That's for those again going through this the first time. That's an opportunity for uh the public to come and have an open conversation, right? There aren't too many opportunities for the the public to come and have public comment, but there isn't often a dialogue back and forth between the committee and the public. Public hearing
is an opportunity for the public to come and have dialogue about the budget. And then uh the the 9th of March will be when the committee has to adopt the final budget. Now, technically the last
date that you can do that is the 13th. Now, that's also assuming that Yarmouth Town meeting gets set on the 28th. They've yet to officially vote, but typically um it's the last Tuesday of
April. So, that is the 28th. So assuming everything stays according to plan when you back up based upon the regional agreement it has to be 45 days before the first town meeting which is typically in Yarmouth which is um Dennis has set their town meeting but Yarmouth has not yet set their town meeting at
least as I've been able to understand. So um it but anyways the last 45 days is technically the 13th. So, you know, if you needed to, you could schedule another meeting somewhere in that week, um, if you needed a little bit more broadway, but the the current last
scheduled meeting is the 9th of March. So, um, some sort of continuing that that timeline conversation, some remaining uncertainties, some things that we don't yet have as far as information. As I mentioned, the entire revenue picture, well, not the entire
revenue picture, but a huge chunk of the revenue picture is not yet available to us. Uh, we don't have the chapter 78 information. We don't have the transportation aid information, the charter school aid information, or the ch school choice estimate aid information or revenue information. Last
year, that totaled 17 or over 17 million dollars revenue. Uh, so we don't yet know what that number is. that will information is provided by by the governor. Uh the governor has up until the fourth Wednesday in January unless
it's a new um election year, which it's not. Uh and typically they take right up until the fourth Wednesday. Um so we anticipate that that's when we'll get that that information. And then also comes with that some
additional assessment information. So we'll find out what our charter school assessment will be. So, what we're going to be charged for kids from Dennis or Yarmouth who attend the charter school, kids who kids who school choice out of DY um as well as special education assessments. And then another big piece
which we'll talk a little bit about later in the slide deck when we get to determining the assessment is the foundation enrollment uh as well as what's the minimum required contribution for the two towns. And that's the big one is the minimum required contribution
for the from for each town because that's the first sort of bite out of the apple when it comes to the or the bite out of the pie when it comes out of the um when it comes to the assessment calculations. When it comes to what are some of the big factors that are driving the FY27
budget in particular there are two categories. First are some predictable factors, some things that are known and then then then there's a bucket of unpredictable factors, some things that are not yet known or are volatile. Uh so
on the predictable side uh are the implementation of our strategic priorities. We're now go by next year we'll be in year three of our strategic plan and we have been working those in a pretty predictable manner. We'd like to stay on track with those things and we have a plan uh so we can sort of
anticipate the roll out of those things. We have some currently settled contracts as far as like with vendors. So our regular day transportation, our custodial, our tech uh services, none of those are uh need to go out for bid. So we we have predictable increases for
those. Uh we've worked with each of the schools to level fund the major supply lines. We have a a facilities uh a long-term facilities plan now which we haven't had before which I know the capital planning subcommittee has had presented to them
and at our next meeting we're going to do a parallel presentation with an update on this as well as presentation on that plan and then uh we do have some settled collective bargaining agreements which allows us to anticipate the increases in costs on those. On the
other side, we have some unpredictable factors this year. A big one is health insurance. Uh there are some estimate increases uh for health insurance which are very um alarming and we don't yet
know where the final number is going to settle. Uh maybe later this month, but more likely early in February, we'll find out where the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group will ultimately settle on the increase uh for health insurance for next year.
Uh but that's you know we cover 60% of that cost. So that's obviously a big chunk uh for us as a as an employer. And then uh out of district tuition uh continues to increase. I there's a slide but we're going to get to that in a
minute. And then transportation, not our regular day transportation transportation, but both our out of district transportation and Mckin Bento transportation continues to uh be very volatile and increase at uh very unpredictable rates. And then lastly, we
do have two bargaining units that uh are going into the end of their year. So next year they're they're you know, they're unsettled collective bargaining agreements. You know, in in the sense that we have to negotiate this year for next year. So that was that our teachers and then we have a small bargaining unit
with our assistant principles dean um athletic director. Uh those two groups uh are still need to be bargained with we have to do collective bargaining. Okay. So just some important factors
that uh continue to influence the finance decisions. Uh so this is staffing over time. Uh you can see it's been fairly stable, been slightly decreasing over time. That's due to the staffing uh cuts that we made back going
from 20 or into the 2425 school year, but largely has remained fairly stable. Um and you know, I started including this I think last year. just shows where we sit relative to the state as well as
where we uh compare to similar district comparisons. So this is staff 20 as of 2025 staff FTEES per 100 students and then it's into different categories. So teachers, PAR, professionals,
leadership, student support and clerical and tech support. And so these are um the state gives you comparables by your demographic population. So you can see in no category are we drastically understaffed or we drastically really
overstaffed um compared to any other. There's some districts that do have more than us, some districts that have a little less than us, but if you sort of look at it across the entire collection, DY and DY is the one with the star. So it's easy for for you to
find DY. Um you can see uh we fit pretty much right in there among the student enrollment student enrollment trends. Uh we bucked our five-year trend going into this year. Uh we were seeing steady enrollment increases. We're down
from the same time last year as as this year. We're down just just about 100 students, a little less than 100 students, 96 students less across the district. Um, and if we look on the next slide, uh, you can see that they're distributed across. And this slide's a
little convoluted. I apologize, but what I wanted to provide was as much information as I could. So the first column is the grade. Second column is last year's number of kids in that grade. Third column is this year's number of kids in that grade. And then the next three columns give you just
some information by comparing the different columns. So change in class is change in the same group of kids, right? So another term could be like change in the cohort. So from kindergarten to the
same group of kids in first grade. Um that's why you don't see anything in the first box because we didn't have any of those kids the year before. Uh but that group of kindergarteners from 25 FY25 was 215 kids. Now that same
group of kids is 198. So that's less 17 kids. But if you look at kindergarten from 200 or FY25 to FY26, the next column says change in the grade. So the grade
kindergarten had 215 kids in it last year. This year kindergarten has 245 kids in it. That's plus 30 kids in kindergarten. That's what the next column is. And then the last column is sort of what's projected as the grade rolls up. What's going to be the change
in the grade as that grade projects to roll up. The only one, and I have it highlighted in yellow on purpose, is the ninth grade. The ninth grade is a wild card because kids choose tech, kids, kids choose um some charter school choice. This just ninth grade is a
little bit too much of a wild card to So that number is not really a number. it that is if the entire eighth grade rolleds up, but the entire eighth grade will not roll up. Um, so that number is is not really it's not a real number. Um, that 53. Uh, but anyways, that's
that's what that that chart is for. And it helps us with planning, but it also helps show that, you know, that 96 to 100 kids is was not like in one grade to make it easy just to say, okay, we're going to, you know, make a bunch of cuts at one particular grade level because they're distributed across the district.
This we've been showing this slide for a while. This is a percentage of high needs students across the district. They the state hasn't released the newest information. It will come out soon is every year somewhere in these presentations I'm able to give you the most recent data. Um but uh I don't
anticipate it's going to change a lot as on this next slide. Um this is the breakdown of the high need students. this is the same as it was last year because I don't have the most recent data but I anticipate either the next presentation or the presentation after I
will have it. Um but again based upon what I have for our internal numbers things haven't moved very much um but I'd like to keep the data the same and get it from the same source so I keep using the desi data um which should be released soon.
Next slide. So as I mentioned at district costs and tuition costs continue to be a big driver for us. So, this is um there's three bits of information on this chart. What you have
in the bar graph is the cost of tuition placement, total cost of tuition placement out of district for the district. So, kids go to special education out of district placements. That's the blue.
The orange part of the bar graph is the cost to transport those students to those out of district placements. So they're stacked together because it's a cost obviously for the child to go plus the cost to get the child there and back. And then the green just represents
the the number of students in those out of district placements which you can see trending upwards. Um and that's going to be part of a larger conversation as we get to sort of some of the priorities down the road. You know, last year we put a program in place as part of our
longer term strategy under strategic objective number two to try to change this curve, right? We want to reduce flatline and then ultimately decrease the num the green, right? the number of students that are going out of district
to help stop slow and flatline and if not potentially decrease this this rising and escalating out of district costs because this is not sustainable in the long term for the district and you know you're looking at can't see
the number actually look here um you're looking at roughly 7.4 projected for next year $7.4 4 million. It's creeping. It's not quite there, but it's creeping to 10% of the the the budget and that's
just not sustainable over time. Uh I like to sort of give a sense of where do we stack against the cape. So this is our per pupil expenditure uh as uh for the 24 25. This this is a lagging indicator but um this is the most
up-to-date data you can get from the department. Uh so it shows you where we stack against the against the cape. Um and this is inclusive of how we spend our grants and our revolving funds plus our general funds. So it's not just our general fund expenditure, but it's also
what we get for like all of our title grants, our idea grants, and how we utilize our revolving funds as a district. But it's so it's a total amount as a district we spend on student or per you know we spend as a district um divided by the number of kids that we
have in the district and then that's where we stack up against the state where that little tiny red line again you can see you know we're definitely to the better half better
side of the half of the state um but we're not like drastically high higher than the the average. All right. So, as we did last year, um you know, first year for me as superintendent, there was no space to
say, "Hey, what would folks like?" Um we were in a real budget crisis. LA starts going through last year. We were able to meet with folks and say, "Okay, how do we continue to move our strategic objectives and our priorities forward?" And then we uh init instituted rather a
prioritization project uh project process. Um as just as a reminder, we utilize a a prioritization rubric as a four-point system. That's the rubric there. I don't need to read it to you.
Uh but uh last year we were able at this presentation to include the fours and the threes in the budget. I'm going to present all the uh items to you, but it's important for me to stress that everything that we're going to present to you is not, I repeat, not
included in the initial budget to present. Uh but we have it has been prioritized, but it none of these numbers of these fingers are in what's going to be presented uh by Dr. Gilson in the in the once we get to sort of
where we currently sit on the budget. Miss Landers, >> I just want to make sure for folks who are new to the process that you understand that priority four is top priority. It seems a little counterintuitive last year because we think of like number one being but it
goes in the reverse order. So four are what admin considers top priorities and then descending from there. >> Thank you, Miss. >> All right. So, uh, there were four items that were that are number that are
priority number four. Uh, adding a fourth grade teacher to this building to number four, and that's due to roll up. Uh, you'd have to go back to that slide where I showed you the potential increase, but there is a classroom worth of kids. We've been uh there's been two
small bubbles that have moved through and we've actually reduced at fourth grade and reduced at fifth grade over the last two years. And now there's a bubble that's moving up and so there's a full classroom worth of kids um additional classroom worth of kids uh
that are going to now move up from third grade. Um so there's a there's a need to potentially add a fourth grade teacher uh at this building. And then there are four facilities requests uh upper uh gym
repairs um at the high school as well as the bleacher replacement, Station Avenue burner replacement that those are parts to the boilers um as well as fire alarm panel replacement at the high school.
Next is couple pages of priority three items. uh you know all these uh but couple and as you see they move through multiple departments um and what I've tried to do is tag the strategic
objectives that they um uh are tied to u and so I we'll speak to a couple specifically the first one the Chromebook replacement
so we have there's two parts to the there's a part that's built into the budget which is our standard roll over and replacement and we are in the process of transitioning to Chromebooks as a district. Uh we've
started last year, we started at the fourth grade and we started at the eighth grade. Those are our normal transition plate uh points already in the district. Um so this year fourth grade and eighth grade have Chromebooks. The challenge is next
year, fourth, move it up to fifth grade, not a problem. It's eighth grade, move into ninth grade. Eighth grade is largely self-contained at the high school. When you have ninth grade, they start to mix all over the
high school. So having ninth grade students with 10th grade and 11th grade students in class and mixed devices becomes a real instructional challenge. So this is the additional ask the the the switch to Chromebooks. The decision
was made by the instructional the by by the by the leadership team was not only instructionally better but it's actually a cost savings and I have those calculations for a different meeting. Um but the but this would be to be able to do the rest of the high school all in
one show as opposed to um so like Yeah. So that's what that is. that's that's taking care of the rest the additional cost it would take to take care of the rest of the high school. Um and then the
the other piece is um the the last one is the sub increasing the substitute rate have to um Dr. Gilson and I specifically have to do because one thing that I thought I had the cost associated with this or I thought we had the cost associated with this but then I um I
looked at something. So I there was a number there but I took it out in the last minute. Um but the the our substitute rate I know is one of the lowest ones in the Cape and it is driving um there is making it's hard for
us to recruit subs. So the idea here is to increase the substitute rate to be again regionally competitive. Uh but the cost associated with that I don't have a solid number but it will by the next time we meet um as of by the next time we meet with with you all. Um but the
rest are all tied um to strategic objectives. The ELA curriculum I know um Cherry Miss Santini has presented around before. The transportation coordinator would support our uh our work to try to
uh streamline the bus routing, getting the buses to the school on time, which has been a challenge for us as a district. Um to implement um some of the transportation um policies that we want to put in place
starting next year. Uh and then the reorganization of central office uh is ultimately u to be able to free up the we as the committee may remember we used to have two assistant superintendent. Uh we now have one assistant superintendent
uh but that our current assistant superintendent is still responsible for special education. Um and this reorganization would allow us to have a pupil services dire. We currently have assistant superintendent oversees two assistant directors. This would reorganization would create a director
of pupil services and maintain one assistant um director of pupil services. So it's essentially a slight reorganization within the department and then no longer having the assistant superintendent oversee pupil services. um allowing the assistant superintendent
to be a true assistant superintendent and not spend because I'm not sure how much folks know but you can't be in you can't be in special education and other things. It's all consuming. Um so I need to be able to free the assistant superintendent up from the sup uh the
idea is to be able to free the super assistant superintendent up from um the special education responsibilities. Um then on the next slide uh HR department uh has requested an additional staff member um
administrative assistant level position there the number uh hiring has become a year- round job when you add on the hiring requests when you add on workman's comp requests when you add on um
the hiring workman's Um third bucket um yeah the the benefits coordination um we the the the data incre the data has been pretty alarming the increase
for the over the last three years um and uh quite frankly our HR department just can't keep up um and you know when you consider we have an uh uh employees or you know We have 630
roughly employees uh and an HR department of two um or actually 1.6 um it's not a lot to be able to keep up with all the HR needs of our entire um
district. Um and we we do feel it um often. Um and then the rest are continuing some of the maintenance upgrades uh across the district. And then the last priority two
uh are staffing requests. And again, these become priority twos because they are about um either advancing the strategic plan like accelerating it, right? So it's not like we don't think these are important, but
they would accelerate our strategic plan. So that's sort of when we look at adding the familyons to the general budget. It's something we'd like It's part of the long-term plan. Getting to it this year would be accelerating it as opposed to it happening further down the
line. Same with the FFN replacement. So, fixtures, furniturees, fixtures, furniture, and equipment. Fixtures FF fixtures, furniture. What's the equipment? Yeah. All right. So, that's, you know, um largely furniture
replacement at the two schools. all things that are part of our long-term capital plan that we'd like to get to. Um, accelerating this would allow us to accelerate that, but that's sort of and if you read the language on the rubric, that's what puts it as a two versus makes it a three. Um, as well as the
special education teacher ads at station and Ezra Baker are to reduce case load size. Uh, and again, if you read the language in the um rubric, then that's what makes them a
two versus a three. The however, and you'll see the asterisk there and this explaining language underneath at the bottom. When I go back to that out of district um slide, the there after having some conversation with those two,
Dr. Gillson had a made some changes to our process and so we had the elementary principles present together which was which was new for us this year. In the past, we've just had one-on-one meetings. And so with through some of the cross talk, they both presented, right? And what we ultimately determined
is they had a similar need, which might ultimately address some of that district um challenge. And so it might ultimately we this may be revised to actually create a priority three request, which would only be one staff member member,
but would then be a um uh a specialized program. So that that that came from that conversation, but needs a little needs to pull those people back together, plus include the special education department, and we just haven't had enough time to have that conversation since since that conversation happened.
And that concludes all the prioritized requests. Um, and then I'm going to turn the next slide over to Dr. Oh, wait. Sorry. Oh, I got ahead of my
Sorry. I didn't there was one more slide of two. I apologize. Um so then uh the next are I gota flipped before I looked. Um so the last is uh a series of twos um which again
are about reducing class size. The one would be the la very last one on this slide. uh roll up enrollment would suggest an increased need for a special ed teacher. However, two addresses like
sort of for folks who understand the middle school schedule, they're teamed. So the two balances the teaming but is overcompensating the need for the students based upon our
staffing models. So more expert exploration is needed with the middle school principal. how we might amend this uh proposal to better understand uh the actual needs of the building. So there might be a need again that's a
priority. Three, two is based upon the numbers that we've seen is is uh uh I don't want to say it's convenient, but it's it's uh it doesn't directly
address the the numbers that were presented. it addresses more the schedule. Um and I I think just some some further work needs to be um done and then um some of these other pieces didn't have like for example the the the
night school has been presented on it was on last year's as well. Um but there are uh like there would be a need for bargaining um which hasn't been sort of a plan for that hasn't been presented yet as well as a vision for what it
would the program would look like has yet to be presented. So again when you lead the lead read the description of the priorities it isn't yet fully formulated on um what exactly it would look like. Uh so that's what makes it a
two versus uh three. >> Okay, let's go on to the initial FY27 operating budget. Uh so um looking up at this slide. Um, I'd like to start with having you remember that the operating
budget is really like a a a big delicious pie that's been framed by the directors and the principles working uh together um in a process. And uh if you look at uh towards the uh leftmost part
of your screen, and I'm going to use my handy dandy clicker, um the the Department of Ele and Secondary Education organizes budgets in terms of function codes. And you have a function code for administration, instruction,
pupil services, transportation, maintenance and utilities, benefits and fixed charges, private school transportation, fixed assets, and tuition to other schools. So all of these together um if you were to look at
uh how the detailed budgets are in outlined on the uh Dennis Yarmouth website uh you will find in budget detail from previous years. You will find that um the FY24 uh column represents the detail of those
requests for those specific function codes. The FY25 detail is also um on the website. FY26 um is presented there too. Um as you look at the FY26
and 27 differences um I will tell you I want you to pay attention to a couple of things. Um the dollar difference in the transportation um is very much reflective of um the
district's increase in students who have been designated homeless. There is a McKini Vento uh law which basically says schools have to do whatever they can to remove barriers to allow students that have been declared homeless to access
education. And so what that means is um if a student is declared homeless um then we actually are on the hook for transportation costs to bring them here to make sure that they're they maintain a stable learning environment. Um the
and conversely um if a student moves to another location um then um they can choose to go to whatever district is closer. Um so our increase in costs um are related to our transport of homeless
students into the district to maintain learning stability. Um and um I will also point out uh that um all of these uh function codes pretty much are um have a salary budget and a non and
non-sary budget details incorporated in them. the salary budgets. Um, as Dr. Smith already mentioned, we are um negotiating uh or entering negotiations for two of two units. Um, the DEA, which
is the ED educators association, and the DysaA, which is the administrators association. um both um of those units overlap salary budgets in the instruction categories and salary budgets in the pupil services
uh categories. Um the other thing I'm going to say also too is if you look at this FY27 request column um I'm going to draw your attention to private school transportation for a moment. If you look at the um in the numbers for private
school transportation um budget in 24 and 25 remain the same. Um we are exercising the same strategy 173 17,000 for both years. Um and that basically is really St. Pas
transportation. Um so private school transportation. Now, we're also, if you look here, um, under fixed assets, fixed assets, if you notice from FY24, um, through FY26, the same number was
maintained. That was really like a parking lot for an amount um, that was used for any kind of emergency that arose in the facilities um, in this facilities area. Um I Steve Foucher and
I the director of facilities we have worked very closely together to uh formulate a really carefully wellthoughtout capital plan uh for which there really wasn't one in previous years. He's also worked really hard at
um looking at um the um the maintenance and utilities budget. So, what we've tried to do is we're trying to be very transparent and saying, "Okay, we're not going to use that as a parking lot for a number and maintain it across the lines.
We're going to just try to do a very careful job in terms of planning for our capital expenses. I'm anticipating those um and uh being a little bit more um accurate in terms of the facilities budget and what we're uh how we're going
to operate with all of those line items in the detail. Um, and I will also point you the only line right here um that shows a um a real decrease and I'm going to explain to you the reason why um we
were able circuit breaker is a very interesting um um offset that districts receive a certain amount of uh incoming revenue from the state um to offset the costs of high special education expenses
each year. Um the state allows you to carry over um from the previous year's amount uh um circuit circuit breaker um from the FY25 budget we were able to um commit to um carrying over some circuit
breaker funds. And so where we had traditionally um offset within the budget already by $1.6 6 million to account for circuit breaker. Um we have increased that um offset by um trying to use some of last year's circuit breaker
amounts and this coming year's anticipated circuit breaker amounts. So you'll see that um that dollar difference um by raising it from 1.6 million to 1.8 million, we were able to decrease this tuition to other schools
category. Okay. Um, so if you go back to your uh pi analogy because I'm going to continue to work with that as we go through the slides. Um, doesn't matter whatever pie you're conceptualizing. You just pick your favorite one. Um, but the concepts the same. Um, so so um you know
last year's pie um in terms of the operating budget was $80.3 million. Um the um budget pie this year is $86 million. Uh so we're going to continue
to talk about that concept as we go through the next couple slides. And I also want to say that if you want your second most favorite pie, that's debt service. Um so so whatever you want, but debt service is not normally included as
part of the operating budget. Okay. Um so um you know starting again you know the FY27 proposed operating budget um is 80 you know $86,000 or $86 million
thousand would be great but $86 million is what is needed um and so um taking our the first slice out of the pie um as I said I have already mentioned circuit breaker and again the amount that we're offsetting is already applied within the
budget um I spoke about McKini Mento which is to um allow students stability. Um we received a a revenue amount last year from the state and we have not yet applied that. So we'd like to apply it
to offset the budget um this year's budget. And so um another idea um possible strategy uh we've noticed that um in the last two years our revenue coming in from uh solar energies um from
the Dennis um Dennis Landfill from um Margaret E. Small and from the uh Dennis Yarmouth High School um has been significant. Um we are uncertain as to whether those trends will continue. We hope they do. But for to calculate this
amount, what I did was I took an average from all three sources for the last two years in terms of the incoming revenue that we've received and we've just we've applied that to the off to as an offset of the budget. So starting with the big
pie um $86 million take um revenue offsets as another slice of the pie. And so therefore, um, the remaining part of the pie that we're trying to fund is $85.4
million. And so when you compare last year's um operating budget with that total of 85.4 million, um the overall increase is around 6.35%.
Okay. Um so going on to the next slide, I'll go back one. Okay. Uh, keep there we go. Here we go. That's good. Um, and so, um, we work actively with a representative at the bank who verified,
um, what we have to work with next year in terms of debt service. So, this is the other part of the pie. Um what has happened is um it it our overall debt service um is decreasing slightly. Um
but we're we did our last payment uh in August um of 25 for our high school renovation projects that had a a a bond. Um we are still working towards the close on the DY intermediate middle
school uh bond. uh and we have next year a uh both a principal payment and an interest payment. So the total bond payment that will be split between uh based on the regional agreement between Dennis and Yarmouth um is the green
number, the DY bond number. Um and um if you've never heard of what a band is, um a band is a um it is a I better look. It's bond anticipation note. Thank you.
And um so that we applied um because we don't anticipate being able to close out the total project this current year. We may need one or two more years to work with some funding. So, um, we applied,
um, and did what we needed to do with the bank to, um, secure another a bond anticipation note. And the principal payment is what it, uh, $444,000. The interest payment um is uh $330,875.
But um I want to let everyone know that there's an additional premium that the district has already received that we will be able to apply towards um that we didn't include in that interest number. So we will automatically apply that um
and and so the total that would be um part of the um capital debt service that the towns pay um reflects uh the bonds and the ban. Okay.
Factors influencing assessment. Uh so Dr. Smith has talked about um chapter 70 as being being uh the most uh revenue the revenue source that we are most dependent on for our funding. Um, in
reviewing the history of chapter 70, uh, what we've noticed is that the trend has been increasing, particularly also since, uh, the Student Opportunity Act, um, was um, brought into play. And that's to support um districts um that
uh that really have a percentage um of students with very high needs um and are looking to try to mitigate the differences in those high needs groups. Um investments in solar. I just talked
about investments. Um so we are really um we're trying to include the in in our new practice um to apply solar revenues to the operating budget. The interesting thing is we have um solar revenues that are coming in the revenues that I
calculated as as to offset the revenues. Um they are revenues that come in in the check form. We also have revenues that are applied uh directly to our um energy bills that come in from Eversource. So so there's
automatic credits plus we have this additional um amount that is coming in that appears to be a reasonably healthy amount. Okay. So we're going to the next part. Okay. So continuing to talk about
the PI. the PI um is um is functioning. Um we took our first slice out of the pie which was for the revenue offsets that that I already described using solar using circuit breaker using um
using um McKini Vinto. Um and so the next part of the pie um is uh one of the one of the parts of the pie is um minimum local contribution and then it
also works with um another assessment piece which is dependent on foundation enrollment. So what you have on this slide here is all the different years of the enrollments in the town of Dennis
and there the enrollments in the um in the town of Yarmouth. And this graph here the um the blue graph the blue parts of the graph rep represent over time um the enrollment the foundation enrollment in Dennis. The green bars
represent the foundation enrollment in Yarmouth. What is the foundation enrollment? Um basically um what foundation enrollment it says is it's the numbers of students um that are counted in the town that are that need
to be supported with education. Um so um it you know in terms of it could be students in the Dennis Yarmouth school district. It could be ch uh students that um are in living in the towns of Dennis and Yarmouth that choose um choice schools and it could also be
students that choose charter schools. Uh so that's um what the enrollments uh total. um the regional agreement says okay um we're not going to be just
dependent on um the average if you look at the Dennis enrollment in FY26 for example the Dennis enrollment um compared to the total enrollment of of students um is uh 30 30.295% 295%.
Um if you look at the Yarmouth enrollment 2317 in FY26 um the percent of that total is is uh almost 70%. So um to be extra cautious
um the regional agreement says we're going to take five years um average of all of these numbers. So the 5-year average for Dennis uh for example um is would work with the 20 FY22 year through
the FY26 year and the um average the rolling average comes out to be 30.453%. Um so um what does that mean in terms of the pi? So um if we go to the next slide
um you know there is a part of the uh pie where um you know you start off with the big part of the pie the whole operating budget number you've already eaten a slice off for the revenue
portions. Then the next piece um is um I would talk about this minimum required local contribution and then I'll tie it into the assessment pieces I just talked about. Um if you notice the thing that's really um
you know really challenging is to actually predict the minimum local required contribution. The state evaluates what this is and uses a formula to calculate it annually. It's dependent on the um it's dependent on
the um resident income as well as the property values and so that has offered extreme fluctuation. Um, and if you look at this graph that's up on the screen, um, if you can see like some like if
again if you're following the blue, um, look at two two 2023 um, and you see the blue, that's Dennis. And so Dennis was very high in 2023. In 2024, it decreased significantly. If you
look in 2025 at Dennis um and then you go to 2026, Dennis increased significantly. So, you know, so the state is very detailed. Um and we know that residents
income levels can fluctuate. We know that property values can fluctuate. So the size of pie that we bite off for the minimum local contribution um is state determined. We have no um influence on
that part of the pie that each town is given. Um so um the you know after we take go back to the total pie again you have your slice of the revenue that we take off the top end then you have your
slice that we take off for the minimum required local contribution um that is determined by the state and the last part that goes back can you go back one slide um the amount that is remaining um
is is um calculated the the total amount that's remaining um is um and 30 30.45% is what Dennis's additional contribution is and the Yarmouth contribution is 69.5
uh47%. So that's how you get at the total pie. Um, and we try to do our best to be responsible and realistic as we work to put the ingredients of the budget together
and as transparent as possible. >> Yeah. So, you know, I know we spent a lot of time talking about this last year and this this will be this is a big driver one that everybody thinks about this, right? Everybody's like, "Oh, it's 7030 split between the two towns."
And yes, but this is the last step in the assessment piece. First is the revenue which the state takes care is taking care of chunk of it. But when it comes to the two towns and I should have in hindsight we should have reversed these
two slides. This is you know I was thinking about it as you were talking. This this is what happens first and depending upon which town sees if both towns their minimum required contribution increases by the same amount no problem then it's a 7030 split
but it and it's going back to 20 what is that 19 there there has not been a time in which the two towns have proportionately increased the amount of their minimum required contribution. You know, you see for three years in a row,
Yarmouth had a larger increase than Dennis. So when that shakes out, the first piece of the pie that's taken out between the two towns proportionately is larger for one town than the other. So the remaining amount is not equally the same size. the first bite is bigger for
one town than the other town and then it shifted to Dennis for a couple of years and then it went back to Yarmouth for a year and then last year part of the reason why Dennis's assessment was larger than Yarmouth's was because of that actually but the reason it was was
because of that it wasn't because of anything else uh it's because of the medical part and we have zero control over it um and then the last slide is just so what's next Um, so we'll get the information from the state which will
include the revenue fix information plus that minimum required contribution. That's when the state when the governor puts out her information. That's when we get the minimum required contribution. It's on the very first cherry sheet. Um, we will incorporate the health insurance
information when we get it. I maybe by late January, but more likely in early in February. uh you know we'll establish uh we tried this we started this process last year and you know with some wiggle room because there's certain positions that are hard to hire for but you know
given the principles an an average uh target to hire for uh with our retirees um and replacing you know to calculate because we haven't done that yet to sort of calculate we do have some known retirements at this point so what are what would be some cost uh savings based
upon those retirements that so we want to be able do some of that math and bring that back. How does that adjust the overall number? Um because again this is just sort of what you see right now is just rolling essentially rolling the budget forward with some assumptions built in but it's just rolling the budget forward. We have made some
assumptions for health insurance. We've made some assump ass assumptions for the where the contracts might land. Um but it's all uh it isn't adding anything any of the priorities in. Um and then we do have to take, you know, a real close
look at examining the priorities for any additional opportunities and consolidation. We hope to have that done by the time um we come uh back for the next meeting. Um and then four and five uh as well as work with
the school committee on prioritizing the the list. Uh there's um for the members that are on the finance subcommittee uh we going to schedule a finance or there is a finance subcommittee scheduled for the 20th. Do I have that
date right? Yes. Sorry. Uh for the 20th of this month. So uh Dr. Gilson and I will put some information together. Uh again we won't have the revenue information but we'll have some of the expense information. Um uh and we'll be
looking for a little bit of direction. We'll have some around largely around the priority list list. We'll be looking for the finance subcommittee. We'll we'll have some questions. We're looking for some answers from the finance subcommittee to help us for when we come back for the the second meeting this
month uh from uh to help again looking for the some direction from the finance subcommittee to help us in our presentation. I think >> yes, >> Mr. Morris has a question. >> Yeah,
>> Mr. Morris. >> Notice over the years that depending on which ox gets born, uh, each town will have a response, but the fortunate part is the fortunate part is that
somebody can hold the microphone for me. The >> a little closer. The fortunate part is that the state really is the final arbiter of what goes even as we can have a little bit of
manipulation of the final number. But I notice that you use a paragraph here. The variance in the change in this number from year to year is volatile bold face and underline and disproportionate. That's probably an
understatement. Uh but it acknowledges that one town more than the other town will pay that higher price. But it really is for the education of state law,
the the carrying out of state law for the education of the town children. And I have noticed that as long as we keep remembering reminding midcoms and select boards of that we we get a chance to get
the minimum local contribution across the finish line. >> Yeah. And I think there's, you know, there's within the our locus of control again, some factors are are put a lot of pressure on the budget that
aren't like the health insurance. I don't have any control over the health insurance number. But big picture globally, right, we have some and the committee obviously has some control over the district's budget,
like where that overall number lands. What we have less control over is the assessment. And it's helping folks understand the difference between those two things, right? because we were doing just a simple exercise this morning or
the earlier today and and used very round numbers like a $100,000 budget and ran through the assessment formula. So you take a hund $100,000 budget in one year and run out uh an assessment
calculation and and then make a 5% budget increase. So, $105,000 budget the next year. And you have one town have a 10% uh increase in the minimum required contribution and the next and the other town have a 5%
uh increase in the minimum required contribution. And it shakes out to one town having a the assessment for a 5% budget increase. Same district. One town has a 4 point something 4.1 I think it was assessment increase or assessment
increase and the other town has a 6.2% 2% assessment increase, same budget. All the only thing that's the difference and it's the same 7030 split is is the minimum required contribution. It seems most important that if we can get the
FinCom members understanding it and endorsing it, which has been the case of the last five years, because the Fincom carries more weight to town meeting than the select board and the better we do our homework and not
confuse it, then the better we're going to be getting it across the finish. Thank you. And that's why we meet with both the fincom and select boards and we have meetings scheduled um after we get our numbers so they're well aware as the
committee will be updated. Um Miss Landers. Um so the proposed FY27 operating budget before debt service 86,78,360. That's without adding a single thing. I mean this is purely
contractual increases based on negot you know signed contracts with unions with vendors um known like built-in costs right just for the sake of clarity. >> Yeah.
>> Um so that percentage increase of Six. Yep. Next page. 6.35%. That's bare minimum at this point. Unless we make cuts.
That's the bare minimum increase. Unless we make cuts. Well, right. >> So, so the one caveat I will add is that Dr. Dr. Gillson and I are building a budget based on somebody
else's right. So Dr. Gillson's still learning like how everything was set up. So in everything was set up right before the uh the break right before and
quite frankly I implored Dr. Gillson to take some vacation time because she hasn't taken any since she started. And so I've I did work a couple days over the break and have poured through the forget how many lines it is. It's a lot of lines and >> 1,27
>> 1,27 lines. Um and have like some stuff that we have to go back and revisit. Um, so right but >> I'm not I'm not holding you to >> uh >> million44 but I'm saying in theory in
theory if you know once you rework all the line items to make sure that this number is like this is a bare minimum increase based on contractual increases and then we either need we need to decide what priority items we're adding in
um and you know if there were any cuts to be made to bring that number down. So just clarifying where we are. I mean >> I think the one thing that I would add is we don't know what chapter 70 is going to be and and >> No, I'm not talking about revenue. Got it. I'm not I'm not talking about
revenue. >> Yeah. And and you know another piece is I have to do a deep dive on enrollment across the district as well and look and because is there a place where something can be like an FTE alloca reallocation
that would be able to create uh a possibility for something to be achieved. So there are there is more work to be done in the I'm glad that we have three weeks in between or to you know that it isn't our we have a a longer gap between this meeting and the
next meeting because we have we do have some leg work to get done between them. Of course. Uh my other sort of remark was just about so you know we saw one I just want to make sure we all understand that you know we saw a slide that you
presented earlier on that was about um enrollment being down >> to >> if you could number these slides >> like just so I can refer like that would be >> um I know it's another thing. Sorry, but it would be
>> Miller. Can you write that down for me? >> Great. >> You know, enrollment enrollment is down, but the foundation enrollment is up, right? >> Yeah. >> So, we've got foundation enrollment FY26 3324,
but enrollment right there. It's 2,960. So, that's a difference of 364. So, those are all charter choice out of district placements. So there kids who live in Dennis and Yarmmouth who count for our foundation enrollment but they're not enrolled in the dwell schools.
>> Yeah. And that foundation enrollment that number lags, right? So that's last year >> they certified based on last year, >> right? So we'll get the new foundation enrollment when the um when the governor's numbers come out, right? So that'll be more of a match to this year
to this year. But um because I also, you know, it's like how much information do you put in here? Like I was down a whole like school choice like spreadsheet like how many of our kids are and where are they going and I didn't put that into this slide. I'm happy to give you all that information if you want but our
school choice numbers look like they are um like out or are decreasing. Uh but it's also there's also less kids overall. So I'm not sure if if the percentage numbers moved. I haven't I haven't I haven't sort of gotten that deep into it yet. Uh >> are but are tech students who go to the
tech schools counted in our foundation? >> Yes. >> Enrollment? >> Oh, actually that no they're not tech schools aren't tech schools. >> Okay. So this >> but we did have like this freshman class has a has a very large number of students from Yarmouth in it >> which will be interesting to see going
forward. This coming year is the first year of the new regulations for chapter 74 schools around enrollment um like by lottery. Uh so it'll be
interesting to see like does that what effect if any does that have on all the schools and my understanding having a conversation with super superintendent Sambborn they'll the number of slots
will be based upon a percentage of the applications right so if if 10% of the applications come from Yarmouth and six% of the applications come from Dennis, then that number of slots will be reserved for those students and then the
lottery is applied to those applications. It's just my loose understanding of it. I haven't been as much in the weeds in it because I'm not a a a regional uh vocational regional superintendent, but I I did ask that question last time I saw superintendent.
>> And the required local contribution that we're talking about is that's a state formula. based on and we looked at this a few years ago. I just want to, you know, again, we've got some new folks. So that's a state formula that uses
income, property, you know, sort of >> and does this wealth calculation for a town that determines what their required local contribution is based on wealth. So >> not our not our formula. >> Okay. >> And and to be clear, but both towns pay
way above the minimum. So it's not about them not >> but it is the first part of the assessment calculation. So when that number moves it's >> I was talk when I was talking to Dr. it's it's essentially like we it's like two payments. So like when your first
payment increases disproportionately then you we do the second payment which is done at the 7030 split. So when that first payment changes disproportionately that affects the towns disproportionately. Mr. N.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh so ex to clarify for me the budget that was presented excluding 4,3 and two requests is level staff
level funding for supplies and it includes projected cost increases due to uh contracts and healthcare. care. Correct. All right. Thank you. And then
if I did my basic math, if we were to accept all the level four and level three requests, that would add approximately 2.4 million to the budget. >> I'd have to go back and look, but I know the total bundle because I sent it out
to the leadership team was over three. So that that was the all twos through fours. So that could be about right. >> All right. >> I I I I didn't do that math. So >> So 86 million is giving them everything
that they have this year. And we're asking potentially and what we're going to be deciding on is whether to add 2.4 million in requests for level four and level three.
Yes. And uh the when we come at the next meeting, we might all we will also we will also have some additional um strategies for the committee to consider for some of these other items as well. Some of these items are one time
>> and I understand you know revenue state is not telling us and there's a potential that that number could be beneficial to us or it could be detrimental to us. Right. >> We don't know. >> Yeah. I just want to be clear though like the committee some of these items
are one-time costs versus operating costs, right? So the committee has access to some funds that you might be able to use should you choose >> to >> purchase some one-time items that then wouldn't be necessarily the operating
budget would allow you to accomplish what you want to accomplish. um move the strategic plan forward but wouldn't necessarily uh increase the overall operating budget >> for the future. Correct. >> Correct.
>> Right. Okay. And then uh depending on where we sit as a committee, if we're looking to reduce anything from the $86 million budget, we would be reducing in effect what the students in the district have.
>> Yes. Okay, thank you, >> Miss Beimis. >> Great questions from my colleagues. Thank you. So, mine is more I need to understand something. And what I don't understand is that little piece on the
debt service and going to that page. Um, you use language that I need help with. You use apply. Does that mean it's a credit or therefore a deduction?
The premium will be applied. And where is it applied and what does it mean in terms of the two figures in green? >> Got it. Okay. um if I had added basically in November the district received a wireless transmission from
the bank to the district and that um and one of the things that was included was um a uh the premium of $118,000 basically. And um so we're taking the
that right away and off the top and next year we'll have to pay that in addition to the interest of $330,875. So if we um you know but but we're not going to charge the towns for that. Okay.
>> Okay. So, we're just going to charge the towns for the principal and the interest that are listed there for the ban. >> Okay. >> Okay. Does that clarify? Okay. >> Any other questions? >> So, we we appreciate all the work that's
been done. I know we met with the towns in the beginning of the year. I know we met with the town. We have a plan to meet with the towns immediately after the fourth Wednesday. Um you know with the finance committees of both towns, the administrators and select boards so that again everyone's up to date. Um and
we all know once we sit at that table and get the number, one town is probably more upset than the other uh based on what the state decides um if they're not proportionally increased. Um again, as we've stated numerous times, we have no control over that. However, you know
that we gave the town an estimate and we've told them for two years now that again these are estimates and until the fourth fourth Wednesday uh we have no idea how it's going to affect their budget. Um but we did our best to give them a number to set aside and again the
numbers are above two and a half% and both towns are aware of that and uh continue to go through what we go through every year once we have final numbers. Um and then once we get those we, you know, we'll have tougher conversations and tougher discussions and we'll have a public hearing and and
see what um people, you know, are important to the people in our towns and then if the numbers are high, then we'll just we need to do what's right for the for the students and the the staff. And then we'll just need to to fight uh or
let the towns know why it's important to be at the number we're at. Um so so thank you for that. Anything else with the budget? Okay. Excellent. Um and then we're going to move to Mr. Foucher is going to do a presentation about our
rental facilities, an update on uh averages and a proposal uh for us to make changes with their wonderful facilities that we uh now have available to the community. So I will pass the microphone over to Mr. F. >> Thank you, Tomas. Uh so yes, this is a a
review and a proposal for our facility uh fee rentals here in the district. Uh the reasoning for this review uh is we need to establish uh some uh rental fees for our two new turf fields that we have over here. Uh the we also need to
establish uh a rental fee for the uh Ken Jensen uh auditorium also which we do not have uh right now on our books. Uh and uh also we need to review our current fee structure which hasn't been
uh reviewed since 2015. So our current rates are uh from 2015. So uh what I've done is uh I've gone I've looked at nine schools here on the Cape and in our southeast region over here uh to take a look at those rates
and they're in your packet. Uh I can by looking at all this and going through all this I can say that each school district really establishes their own rates. Um there is no template uh to establish rates. Uh so I think everybody
just kind of comes to uh looking at other schools in their region to be competitive uh with their fee schedules. Uh and that's exactly what I did tried to do here. Uh so I think what we can do is when we start with uh our existing
facility uh rates I think it's slide 48. Uh keep on going down. We'll start here and get through this. Keep going. It says uh DH facility. What?
What's that? This was This should be up there, right? No. All right. So, do you have it in your packet? >> We do have it. All right. So, in your packet, you have the uh dentist facility
rental fees, correct? From 2015. Yes. All right. So this is our current pricing structure that we have here. Uh it was effective 2015. Uh up in the upper leftand corner uh you have the
playing fields. Uh and those are the grass fields that we have here in the district. Uh you have daily, weekly, season, adult and seasoned youth. Uh I have elected to omit all of those um from our our new pricing structure
and to just go with uh an hourly rate. So for nonprofits um an hourly rate with a $20 increase would be $50 an hour and for-profit organizations uh I've increased that
rate $30 to a $90 an hour uh rate. If we look at our indoor facilities just just below that what's >> uh it it is on it's updated on the new proposal but this is just like our
packet has the updated the it does PowerPoint does not it's just the back pages are the current ones and the front pages are the proposed looks Correct. In our indoor facilities, uh, in 2015, we had a $50 an hour rate for,
uh, nonprofit organizations and an $85 an hour rate for for-profit organizations. The gymnasium, uh, nonprofit rate, uh, I I have no change for that. So, it would remain at $50 an hour. Uh, the for-profit rate, I
added $15 to that. So, it would be a $100 an hour for-profit organizations. Uh below that is the auditorium. Now it really doesn't this doesn't speak to the Jensen auditorium because it didn't exist back in 2015 and this was uh basically for the high school Madakis
and Wixon. Uh those rates were $150 an hour for nonprofits and $250 an hour for forprofits. Uh there is no change in that category uh going forward proposed. Uh the library had a slight increase for
the nonprofits of uh $50 an hour and the forprofits had an increase of $30 an hour. So the proposal is $100 an hour for-profit organizations. Uh same thing with uh computer lab we took out alto together. Uh we've had uh
no one rent our computer lab and I think we only probably only have one left at the high school. Uh so I took that out all together. uh classroom was a slight increase on the nonprofits uh from 20 to $30 an hour and an increase of $25 an
hour for profits to $60 an hour. We look at food services uh cafeteria uh and uh both profit and nonprofit. There is no change there. So it will remain at $35 an hour and $70 an
hour. Uh below that is the kitchen and that is um uh folks looking to cook in our kitchens and we've taken that out alto together. No. Yeah. Are you still are you guys still looking
for >> is there a slide that just compares the old and the new? That would be like super >> I h I do have it in the slide deck for up top. I just and these were just the uh some of the other facilities. We really didn't get into the rental fees
in our slide deck with some of these uh here because the main focus was actually our turf fields in the auditorium in gymnasium. Uh I apologize that I did not include this in the deck. It's okay. But if so if we can go back
up to the top again down one more please. Okay. So this is the turf fields. Uh so in your packet you have all of the schools. Uh there is a huge difference between um schools as
far as rental fees go. And if you can see, you look at Barnstable uh that their nonprofit rate uh for a turf field is $224 $24 an hour and the lowest rate would be at $50 a day up to four hours. Um, so to
stay competitive in with within the price structure of our region, uh, I proposed, uh, $75 nonprofit rate and $200 an hour forprofit rate for our turf fields. Below that, you can look at the other
school fees, uh, which are somewhat in line with what I have. They vary everywhere. Next slide. Okay, so this is the performing arts and auditorium rates. Uh in your packet, uh
there are only two schools in those nine that actually have a performing arts center. Uh so I I've tried to base it off of those two there. uh Plymouth uh with a nonprofit rate of $160 an hour and Barnstable with a nonprofit rate of
$49 an hour. Uh my proposal uh for the Ken Jensen Performing Arts Center uh would be $250 an hour for nonprofits and $350 in our for profits with a capacity of 775 people.
As I said, the high school has not changed since 2015. the nonprofit and the profit rate remains the same and the capacity as you can see is 489 and if you look at those rates underneath I think we are very
competitive and in line with our region. So if we're if we're looking to compare so there's one page that looks like this that says facility rental fees. These are the 2015 rates and then the updated
logo is the proposed 2026 rates. So those would be the comparisons. The 2015 starts with the Dennis Sher region school district with facility rental fees and then the one with the logo uh would be the proposed new charges. So
you'd have to compare the two charts. Miss Landers. >> So for instance, the auditorium at the high school in 2015 was 150 an hour or 250 an hour.
>> Correct. >> And you're not making any increase to that in this new chart. It's still 150 and 250. >> That is correct. I'm not. And the reasoning behind that uh Jen is the auditorium at the high school uh is
approaching uh 20 years. Uh the equipment uh the lighting uh in theater um stage presence and and things on stage are not up to the standards that we have today here at the performing arts art
center where we are absolute state-of-the-art here. state-of-the-art lighting, sound, theater, everything here at Dennis Young with intermediate is state-of-the-art whereas the high school needs some
attention for sure and then so following that so like the DY upper gym all the gyms had the same rate in 2015 it looks like.
>> Yes. So any gym was either 50 or 85 >> back in 2015. >> Yeah. 50 or 85. >> Correct. And if you look at the other school fees uh now and then they are uh pretty much in line with
what we have today. So a lot a lot of those um rates that you have from other school districts, they all vary. There are only two schools that I am aware of that have current rates and that is Barnstable and Wayham that have upgraded updated their rates in 2025. Uh other
school the other eight schools um or seven schools they vary from years 2015 2014 I heard it was one school was 2012. So it's it's it was difficult to find apples to apples when you looked at
those schools because of the years just like Denny we hadn't upgra updated ours since 2015 and I I run into that looking at other schools in our region that they have not updated to today's standards or today's fees
>> but to your points Landers the nonprofit did not change for the gymnasiums but the forprofit increased by $15 between 2015 and now the proposal was an increase for >> for profits by $15, but nonprofits looks to remain the same of 50 for the
gymnasium. >> That is correct. >> Right. So like what makes the wear ham gym worth $200 an hour and a DY gym only worth $100 an hour? >> I I don't know that. And I don't know the difference between the Barn School
gym and DY gym. Also again I every every school uh establishes their own rates for their facilities. >> And one last question then how often do people rent our gyms?
>> Uh we have a couple of organizations. I know Midcape Hoops um rents our gym in some time. Uh there may be a couple of others that rent them uh rare. I mean, I've got to assume that these two gyms here are as state-of-the-art as it gets in terms of gyms. No,
>> state-of-the-art. However, it's just mostly here is uh basketball. Uh at this school here, we don't have a lot of other uh events that go on in the gym. Uh there's I believe maybe footsel. Is that correct?
>> What is it? >> Footsel. >> Oh. Oh. Oh, that's like >> Yeah. And most of them are recreation programs. Uh we have men's league here like tonight started men's league basketball here, but uh most folks that
use our gyms here are usually our recreation programs. >> We have very little outside uh folks coming in to rent our facilities here. >> Thank you. >> Go to Mr. New first. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I noticed the asterisk uh
custodial is uh included with the rental of the auditoriums. Uh how about uh rental of the fields? >> It is not. We will have a supervisor for tournaments on our fields. Uh so
so if we had uh New England soccer uh that comes in every single year, they use all of our facilities here. Uh they cannot wait to use our fields here. They use just about every field here on Cape. It's their big event in Memorial Day weekend. Uh and any tourneys like that,
soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, uh that would have a supervisor, a field supervisor here uh during all of the tournaments. >> And that would be uh an additional cost. Uh >> it is an additional cost at $45 an hour
with a 4h hour minimum. And then how is cleanup handled after these uh large events? >> Those are our our uh ground staff would be here taking care of that. >> Okay. And so the rental fee is going to pay the ground staff to take care of the
fields. >> The $45 an hour fee. Yes, we'll pay for that. >> Does that normally cover the cost of of the cleanup? >> Yeah. Um we've never had a turf field here, John. Uh it'll be our first go around this year. I'm just thinking the grass fields as well.
>> Grass fields uh probably an hour for cleanup and really it's basically dumping uh dumping in trash and picking up uh water bottles and things like that. We're here on our turf fields. Uh none of that is allowed on our turf fields. >> Okay. >> The the main reason to have a supervisor
here is to make sure uh that that a everybody is safe, they get what they need. uh um fields do not have food or any other people enter the facility. Our two fields um like a carpet here. We
can't in we can't introduce foreign objects onto that field. Even a pencil even a pencil can cause a a student here in the district if they fell nobody saw that pencil they could be impaled where a natural grass surface uh usually eats all of those things. the bottle caps and
plastic caps. Uh soil takes care of a lot of those things where artificial surface does not. Anything that goes on in an artificial field stays there and if it's if it is a food source, it'll get moldy and if a student slides through it, staff infections are very
great >> here. A whole set set of different standards. >> Okay, last question. What are the top three areas that are rented >> areas as far as sport? at sport auditoriums where where do we get the
most traffic? >> Top three >> in top three uh outside obviously outside in the summertime. Um number two probably uh libraries our libraries. Uh we have the addition
here with the new library here. Libraries are are big business here in the district. Lots of meetings go on uh usually one to two hours. >> Number three, um gyms. I I would say gym. >> Interesting. Thank you.
>> Well, Dr. Smith, do you have something to add or have another comment? >> Yeah. The only just just to add on as an opportune moment. Um, so should the committee dec decide that they want to approve the new rates, the the the big
piece for this conversation is around the turf fields now that we've completed the project and we'll have an opportunity to bring the turf fields back online. As uh Steve mentioned, there is interest in the fields and uh
and the fields are brand new. 10 years from now, they won't be brand new. 10 years from now, the we'll need a new carpet. And that's not to do anything to do with the quality of the installation, anything to do with anything like we've
just dealt with. It's just the fact that 10, 15 years later, they need the carpet needs to be replaced. And so should the committee approve the new rates uh at your likely your next meeting if not the meeting after that we will then be back
uh looking for you to approve uh us establishing a separate revolving account for these particular fees to be uh deposited into to build uh a reserve for that day 10 to 15 years from now.
Um, and should you know the like these carpets get periodic tears in them so that and then repairs specific to the carpet needs to be done. So that revolving account, you know, we'll give you the specific language, but essentially that the fees generated from
the turf field would go into that account for the explicit purpose to be spent back on that field. >> Miss Be, >> I'm sorry. As a resident of Dennis, I'm aware of the fact that there really
isn't an organized place for indoor activities. So, if a dentist recreation department wanted to use the gym here, is there a fee for that? >> No, there are no fees for uh recreation
and or town ever. And I'm follow up. Uh, two more questions. One is the facility of this gymnasium. I would imagine it's far superior than
any of the other schools. Granted, Emmy Small does not have. So did you factor that in in considering whether the fee for this, you know, how many uh spectators it can accommodate, the size of the the court itself, the condition
of the court, and then the other question I have is whether or not uh uh you change library rental fees. Uh to answer your first question, uh looking at uh the gym over here, uh it it is a little larger, but at the end of
the day, it's still a gym. It has basketball courts just like every other school. Uh whether it be new or old. Uh there are only certain things that you can do in a gymnasium here. Uh so the fact that this gymnasium is new um I the
usage is still going to be the same whether it's here at this new gymnasium playing basketball or football or whatever it is uh and the high school is all going to be the same. If there was something specialized here um then yes I could say that there would be a need for
for an increase here. Um but but I just don't see that. Um, your other question was the library. Um, and the increase to the library uh was $15 an hour increased from $35 to $50 an hour uh for
nonprofits and it was uh increased for profits from 70 to $100 an hour for profits. Mr. N. >> I like the presentation. Thank you. I'm totally in favor of the increases. I
just have one favor and I don't know how the rest of the committee I'd like to review this in three years rather than wait another 10 years. >> I think you know given >> I agree. >> Yeah, I think this is something that we can even add yearly. Um just like we
talked about substitute substitutes something I strongly feel about needs to be looked at every year I think are any type of fees that we charge. we talk about user fees. Um, again, doesn't mean we have to increase it, but it, you know, we can look to make sure it's just added to a future agenda to discuss.
I think will be a benefit each year because we don't want to wait 10 years to to do this. No. Uh, David Flynn and I started working on this when we knew that we're coming to the completion of the turf fields over here and then we had the the issue with the turf fields.
uh and we had looked at this and so at that time two or three years ago we waited because we knew that we were going to have to redo the fee structure here but I I certainly understand that yeah we should do it more. I can say that uh at the time two years ago uh
Barnstable had a different rate and they I think Barnstable reviews theirs every two years because their rates two years ago were certainly different than they were this past year which I was totally surprised. And then obviously there there has been some discussion of what's
going on with our high school fields and stadium and sound systems and all that stuff too. So, as we uh continue to improve our facilities, then we need to review it anyway. Um, but we do need a vote because we currently do not have prices for uh the turf fields. Um, and
there are increases otherwise. So, we will uh be requesting a a motion to >> Junks auditorium. >> Well, I would just like to move the fee schedule as proposed. >> Perfect. Do we have do we have a second?
Okay. So, we have a motion to accept the facilities rental schedule as presented uh for all of the facilities in the district including the new ones. We have a second. Any discussion? Further discussion? Seeing none, all those in
favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstain? So, we officially have uh rates for our facilities and we can start fielding requests once you're able to create a new facility rental uh application. So, thank you. Thank you
all. We have our school committee leance to select board. Anything additional from the town of Dennis, Miss Beis? So, tomorrow on the select board's agenda, uh, it's about midway on
the agenda, um, item number four, um, is to go over the recommendation of the capital outlay committee, and I do see that the project for the high school was in their proposed recommendation, followed by a discussion with the
finance committee and a joint meeting to talk about whether or not they're ready to vote on the bottom line 2027 budget. So, I'll keep you posted of the outcome of the two. >> Thank you. Um, nothing. Additionally,
down to Yarmouth also has a meeting this week. Um, so we'll see any updates from there. Next, we'll move the superintendent's report. Thank you. All right. Uh starting with uh donations and acknowledgements.
Uh so uh you know coming off the holiday season, the holiday season presents wonderful time for many of us. Um time to reconnect with family and friends and uh perhaps enjoy a little bit of time away from uh the stressors of work and share some joy uh with those closest to
us. Uh however, for um some of those that are less fortunate, the holidays also present um or can present an entirely different experience. For some, it can be a time of stress or worry or uncertainty. Um and these are, you know, feelings that many in our community
experience. That's why um the first donation um in this week's consent agenda is so particularly impactful. You'll see in the consent agenda list of donations that were made just to one of our schools. um to Emmy Small in particular. Uh all made to support
families in need. Uh you know, so a full page of listed donations. I'm not going to list all of them. Um but uh and I happen to know uh in next just because it didn't make it in time, but I have a list or or principal Vino wanted me to
make sure to send out a a heartfelt uh thank you to up to 10 I think it was yeah 10 different organizations that donated over $5,000 of different items and gifts to the middle school. And I know there's
other memos uh in the works for all for each of the different schools as well. Uh it's just a uh another example of our core value of community as it plays out uh in the district each year. And I just continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of
our community as they come forward and come through to each uh two or two of the members, you know, of our district uh time and time and time again. Um, and then you'll also see in the packet a a donation to support our unified basketball team at the at the high
school. Um, our uh Ava mentioned uh briefly uh about the upcoming game, but there was over $2,000 donated uh by four different groups by the Kelly Foundation uh by the Cape Cod 5, the Yarmouth
Rotary, and Cape Cod Caregivers. Um it's all to support an amazing upcoming event. Um uh the our unified basketball team, as Ava mentioned, is invited was invited to play at TD Garden. Um that
event is coming up on January 18th at 9:00 a.m. Um they'll be playing our unified team will be playing against the Barnstable Unified team on the on the Park. um and just continuing the great DY Barnstable basketball rivalry. Um and I
know I'm particularly looking forward to seeing it play out uh on the court in DY. So just a great great experience. I kind of flip-flopped some of my uh u my list my superintendence report, but it's something I know we're particularly excited about. I know uh Miss Wise has
been pumped. She's been doing a ton of work to make this particular event happen. Um, as Ava mentioned, there was a piece in the Cape Cod Times recently about some of the collaboration between the engineer the students in the robotics and engineering program uh and the unified basketball team. It's just
been a great uh like amazing story up at the high school. Uh and then the last piece I just wanted to uh update the committee around the building sort of around the building committee um and some uh provide the committee with some
information and potentially some sort of next steps. So the Emmy small building committee as the school committee uh is is aware based upon some communications I've had with you all on the 16th of uh December.
The select board requested that I attend um to discuss the Emmy small building committee as well as a feasibility study. Um, I had a conflict. Uh, I wasn't able to attend my son at a concert. Um, I already missed his uh
this National Honor Society for town meeting. Um, so kind of kind of chose it to be dad. Anyways, I asked them to move the topic to their next meeting. Um, and they weren't able to. Um, so they had the they had the conversation. Um, and occurred with a couple mil members of
the building committee. Uh and then the chair did ultimately our both the chair of the building committee and the chair of this committee attended uh even though uh he wasn't listed specifically on the agenda. Uh and at that particular meeting uh the an idea was presented
that instead of the school building project moving forward um that we should instead be moving the seventh grade up to the high school, moving the third grade up to into intermediate school and consolidate all the students from any small uh into the
existing sort of schools across the district. Um it was stated by or at that meeting it was stated that could be done as early as August of 26 um but no later than August of 27. Uh I've drafted a letter to the select
board. You've all been copied on that communication um that was emailed today to the um to the board. And the purpose of the letter was really just to provide the select board because I wasn't able to be there with uh as much information
as I could provide in a letter uh not being able to be there to provide u additional information. Um, and I've requested an opportunity to go in front of the the board to ensure because that's a written communication to the select board and I want to make sure
that you know the people who watch the meetings also get all that information as well. I want to make sure all the information is available and act and all the factual act information is available to the public. You know, a simple example I know that I put in the letter
that you all have a copy to, but you know, moving the third grade up to the intermediate school would free up 11 classrooms. Uh, but that still leaves 21 classrooms at Emmy Smoke. So,
logistically, it just there isn't enough room. Um and but big picture still want to I think we have to have a bigger conversation around how do we move forward on the priorities that were discussed in that meeting and
big yes and nursing right it's not either or we have needs as a school district we are Yarmouth is part of DY right we're not some separate entity this is the we educate um a significant
or we represent a significant portion of Darmouth residents, both the students and their families. Um so we want to work together to solve this problem. Um so uh I'll be working with uh um our chair um to determine how to address
this at our next building committee meeting and what discussion needs to happen there because this particular topic around a no build option hasn't has come up in that forum. So whether that needs to be a discussion at that table uh and how we sort of address that
moving forward. Uh and I also know some you know some questions were raised around the enrollment procedure or the process procedure that MSBA uses for determining school enrollment. um their process is
their process, but um if there's some discussions we need to have with the building committee, uh we can have those those conversations again sort of with the chair, determine where that fits on the agenda, uh how how to have that conversation at the larger table.
But that's sort of where we sit. As I mentioned, I've given you all a copy of the letter and I look forward to response from the from the chair um on the Yarm select board. Have an opportunity to have some more back and forth. I've made myself pretty available to the select board. I think I've spent
some time building some positive relationships with both towns. Uh and I look forward to an opportunity to have some some conversation and and answer any questions that they have at that particular answer any questions through the chair.
Any questions from superintendent's report? Mr. Morris >> would like to commend the participants from our DUI community in the public sessions regard regarding
the questions raised by the select the arma select board or any other citizenry. It's firm but correct to do so because
we have an obligation to take care of all the children whether they are residents going to local schools or whether they're by choice going to other districts. But it's important that we
show a united and cogent process. I want to commend the the chair for her his articulate response to a question that was raised at the meeting.
Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah, the goal of this committee and the the building committee is to ensure that all of our students are safe, have a great place to learn and we have the staff and facilities and the equipment they need to do it. So that will be continue to be
our goal for both building committee and this committee as always. So thank you for everyone's support. Um so next we'll move to school committee business. Uh we'll have a second reading and a vote uh for from a polish subcommittee on the student dress
code. I'll pass that to Miss Beas. I don't have anything to add other than uh looking for a motion. >> I Oh, sorry. reference. Okay. Uh I move that we approve policy JA, the student dress code as present.
>> Okay. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? I know we had some discussion uh the last meeting and we've had some time to review it. Any further discussion? Uh we don't need a roll call vote for this. Okay. So all those in favor of
approving uh JICA student dress code say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Thank you for your work on that. Thank you to the students and the faculty uh that were also involved in that. We appreciate um the feedback and
guidance. Um next is uh a question about the school committee website page. Um, as we I have no notes on this, but as we moved from our old district website to our new district website, um, we wanted to have a discussion on what should be
published under the school committee page. Um, previous years we had our actual terms on it. Um, I know we have a contact us page, so that there's information there. Um, I know our addresses and phone numbers have been on there, um, again, which is all public
information. So, I'm assuming that Dr. Smith has some questions on you know what should be provided on that page. >> Yeah. And with the new um website there's just some new features, right? So we can include pictures of everyone. Um and if that's the case then we can
come and have uh photographer come and take pictures and uh be like Mr. Newman back in your days when you worked in the district. Um, and um, there's also an opportunity for uh, like a short bio section. Uh, so uh, I
know when Miss Marshall was doing her interview uh, with the town of Arth, one of the things she talked about was like school committee communications with the district. So it' be an opportunity should the committee want to go this direction to uh put some public facing
uh and again it would be aligned with the strategic plan around you know uh the public um uh improving the public image with the district right and this would be the school committee's direct way to do some of that work. My
you're my seven bosses so I have to think about my language here carefully. My recommendation would be it'd be an all or nothing, right? So that as a committee, you determine this is something we all want to do or something we're all not going to do, whatever it is you decide to do.
Um and because if it's disjointed, it's going to look disjointed, right? It's the public facing u nature of the website. Um but that those are some options as include in in addition to what uh the chair mentioned, you know,
like do Do you want what information general information do you want? Do you want the towns you represent? Do you want to have your length of term? Um, you know, uh, I would recommend we have an op option to
like send you a message feature as opposed to having your actual email address just because if your actual emails is just for like we don't have that as a feature on our website at all because then you can be scraped. It's like a the I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, but
yeah, somehow they they go and they just I don't know how it works, but they can like literally go and scrape the website of all the emails and then create a thing for spam. I don't 100% know how it works, but I generally know that that's the concept. >> Any wallet sizes? >> What's that? Yeah, exactly. Um, so, so
anyway, so just sort of I that's sort of the discussion that I wanted I was hoping that the the committee could have and and settle and then once we determine sort of what you all wanted to do, then I could bring that back to my communications director and Leela could then work on making it happen with you
all. So, she would then reach out to you all if if like as an example, you all went the bio route, then she could come up with a little template for you all, send that all out to you all and you could work on getting that and we could start populating the website. So looking for feedback and discussion.
Miss B miss is ready first. >> Um I I'm not sure. I mean that I want to hear from others and sort of collaborate on that. But one of the features I I think it you know transparency and communication would be something I want to uphold. Whether it's more about me uh
that's you know we can all agree on that together. So I I attempted to I was on the site today and I wanted to just send to every member of the school committee happy new year but in order for me to do that I have to enter a lot of
information and do it one at a time. So to me I you know I don't know how my colleagues feel about it but you know there are some days where and times where members of the community really want to communicate with us. they should be able to. We are elected officials.
It's probably the same question or message or concern, you know, that they want to participate in. And I just thought having made it a little bit too cumbersome a process. >> And I think I think, you know, that
discussion comes into creating a distribution email. I know the select town of Yarmouth has a select board at town of Yarmouth. us. So, you know, maybe having creating a distribution. So if someone wanted to send all of us an
email, they could click one button to a a generic email address that would then send to all of us. Again, I know that's a further discussion getting faces. Yes. I seem to remember Mr. Martin. >> Thank you. I seem to remember there was
um that we I'd received an email, you had received an email and somebody had like sent it to like school committee at blah blah blah blah blah and we had no idea that that even existed because it had some antiquated names on it, right? Do you remember that? Can we fix that?
And then that would be that would be kind of like you know you know message the school committee or send you whatever and and that would kind of lend itself to what you were saying. Um, as far as in general, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to like a photo
term and the town we're representing. Um, I don't need to put up a bio. I mean, pretty awesome, but I mean, it's not, you know, I mean, it did, you know, a bio, what am I to whittle it all down to a small little bio is ridiculous. But,
um, So, um, yeah, but I mean I don't know if that people necessarily want that, right? >> Right. Right. Um, maybe my signature just, you know, whatever. But I mean, photo term town and then message the school committee kind of thing. I mean,
keep it simple. I mean, we're technically broadcasting every meeting. So, you kind of get to know us as we as we have these meetings. So, I don't necessarily think we need to buy you know, all this extraneous stuff.
>> Miss Marshall, I can't see you, so I don't and I don't think you're raising your hand, but as the newest member, I'm going to call on you and ask you any feedback. >> Frankly, I would just like to see Glenn's bio and a large picture of Glenn.
Uh, no. I think I think a picture name I mean I think greater visibility is is really a good thing. >> Thank you, >> M. Lish. Yeah, I mean I think it I'd like to
think that we could fill this page with all sorts of lovely information and that everybody would, you know, go on there and read our bios, look at our but I mean the number of people who actually go on that page is probably pretty minimal and most of them it is just to
get our email address. So um name it has to have our term I think so that people know how long we you know where we are in our election cycle. Um, and I I like the click box to send us an
email to avoid the scraping all email addresses and that. But I'm also just wondering like couldn't there just be a line that says you know that if you intend a message for the entire committee like can't it go through Sarah or you know just something like that. Um
or right if you have that generic address that I don't know who monitors that generic address though or does it just get distributed to all of I like I'm worried about a lot of spam when you make it really easy for someone to like sort of bllightly send an email to seven
eight 10 people like instead of really being thoughtful about what is my issue who am I contacting I need to click this box I live in Yarmouth right I'm going to send this to I I worry about that sort of approach. But but you know, hey,
more emails wouldn't be terrible, I guess, if if it means that people are interested in what we're doing. But I like the a photo quota would be fine. I don't care about that necessarily, but um term and a click box to get our emails fine for me.
>> Yeah, Miss Be. So I think I like the idea of a group photo because at the end of the day we are a school system even though we may reside the well
a group photo. Okay. So based on the discussion, it seems like uh we're all okay to pass a a photo um and to include the term to include the town and then again uh an option to
email individualist and then again create a distribution and typically how distribution works is once it's sent to that one email it disseminates down to all those that are so that's typically how distribution works. So I think we can start there and then uh we have a Mr. do.
>> He wants his bio, the picture of his first teaching here at >> D. I don't I don't please. Most towns know enough about me already. I don't need more. Okay. I like two things. I I like a group text so that they can send it to all of us at
once and an individual. I think that that'd be the best. If somebody wants to keep it just oneonone, that's great. But I think enough people would be interested in if they have a concern sending it to the entire board at the same time rather than fish around and
try to find seven different names. And then uh the only other request I have is please don't use the individual that takes us with pictures. >> And did you say a place on that page where we could post announcements?
I didn't. But if that's something that you want, >> um I think that would be nice. So that when we take a vote on something, make a big decision, have an upcoming topic, like that would be a great place to just say, "Here's what we're up to. Here's what's
coming up or um something like that." >> Yeah, I can I'll talk with Leela about that, but there's the sky's is the limit. So why yeah discuss it the site has a bunch of features so it's no reason like it essent I'm I'm speaking I'm speaking without
talking to her but so I might be making promises that I can't keep but um like each school has announcements that are specific to their school and then the district so I'm sure we could make school committee separate section yeah
>> to mo first to include our public hearing for budget that should be key key thing. Yeah. Right. And then then like certain posts can then also go you to the district um page, right? So it can be shared in
multiple places. So might require a little bit of setup, but I'm sure it can be done. Thank you. I'm at least 85% sure. We just went from sky's the limit to 85% sure, but we'll see where we go.
Um and then next we have uh the consent agenda. Um the donations to the multiple ME elementary school received from the community this holiday. Um the 2015 to Dennis Sherman Funior High School for Unified Basketball Program and the
minutes for November 24th, 2025. >> Move to consent to >> second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions, comments? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstained? bills, requisitions, and payrolls. We have the one which has been
signed. Uh calendar school committee meeting topics. Uh we did discuss uh this Wednesday the 7th is an hour and a half early release. Uh on Monday the 19th, there's no school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And then the school
committee will meet on the 26th. Um at currently listed on January 26, uh we had moved the John and Abigail Adams scholarship and AP scholars recognition. So we'll be accepting families and students for that day. Uh we'll have our tenative FY2027
budget vote. We'll discuss uh the progress report, our strategic plan, and then uh we'll have a visit from our treasur for a treasury report. Good to see John again. Uh and then next we have public comment.
Was there anyone looking to speak for public comment? Perfect. Um our policy on publication at meetings can be found on the table with the agenda. Public reminder that a school committee meeting is a meeting of a government body at which members of the body deliberate over public business. We welcome your attendance and appreciate interest in viewing a school
committee as we conduct a regular school business meeting. The school committee believes school district committee should have an opportunity to comment to the committee on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities. Some questions you may have uh may not be within the scope of the committee's responsibilities. In that case, I would
suggest that you send or give your question in writing to appropriate person. So the concern may be given proper consideration. Individuals may address topics on the agenda, items specified for public comment or items within the scope of the responsibility of the school committee. This is an opportunity for individuals to address
the topics on the agenda. Each citizen will be allowed to speak for no more than three minutes. Miss Dunn. >> Hi, I'm Michelle Dunn. I'm a fifth grade teacher at DYI and president of the association um the DYA teachers association. I have comments about three points in the budget. But first, I do
have to say that I was fascinated by the discussion about the website um because the teachers found out that our fixtures were going to be on the website the day the website went live and Mr. Knew it was the school photographer. So, yes. Um, first of all, the sub rate. I I
thoroughly agree with raising the sub rate. Um, earlier in the school year, early in December, I can't recall if it was a reading teacher or a sped teacher, but at that point, that teacher had been sent to classrooms to sub for the day for 16 days already, and that was in
early December. So, those were 16 days that that teacher's students were not receiving services. So, I think anything that we can do to make ourselves more competitive is really important. Um, I've also talked to Mark about some of the things that I've heard other school districts do. For instance, I believe and you may have spoken to the
superintendent in Barnstable that their retired educators actually make more than non Barnstable educators for subbing. So, any creative ideas that we can come up with to bring people into the buildings, I think would be very valuable. And I think definitely bringing the sub rate up would help. Um,
I expressed this last year. Um, I do have serious concerns about a hiring cap. We live in a very expensive place. It's really hard already to attract people. We haven't had as many issues this year as we had in past years, but at the beginning of the 2425 school year
at the high school, we started the year without an a sped teacher, an EL teacher, um a science teacher, and an English teacher. And we're working really hard to fill those positions after the kids arrived. So, I'm really
leerary about anything that makes it harder for us to attract good staff members. And I think we should be looking for the best staff members, not the best bargains. Regarding the transportation director, I would be very interested to hear what that person's job responsibilities would be, what
their hours would be. It's it's a pretty large price tag. And I agree that we do have problems with the bus, but the buses, but we have a bus company that we pay to handle those problems. And unless this person is going to go out and drive the buses, I'm not sure what they're going to do to make the situation
better. So, I'd be very interested in learning more about what you have in mind for that position. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Miss D. Anyone else? >> Okay, seeing >> I move we have a motion to adjurnn. We
have a second. All those Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain?