Welcome to the Monday, June 16th, 2025 meeting of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School Committee. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh we will start with our reports and discussions, our students representatives report. Miss Deo, hi everyone. Um I feel empty without
Izzy here, but my other half, no. Um, yeah. So, so happy to be here. Our last meeting. Um, for us, I I don't really know. So, uh, the seniors are done. They had a great graduation. Um, we just finished up our finals
today. Um, they started last Wednesday, so today was our last one. Um, and then tomorrow is our last day and we have step up day. So, everyone's going to their classes to kind of preview it for next year. Um, and then
some exciting new updates for the DY community garden. Um, we planted uh today and I'm so excited that this project has like actually things are growing there, you know, cuz Yeah, I'm so excited about it. Anyways, yeah,
that's all. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sure everyone's counting down their last three hours. Um I am not but uh but excited. Uh next we have uh the discussion on the station avenue school gymnasium dedication and
memoriam of Patricia Watson. So the committees had uh the first uh reading two meetings ago now uh where the the you were presented with the information from the the smaller smaller
committee of individuals that put the put the original petition together. The school committees had public comment. Um and now in the third meeting uh you have the recommendation in the uh on the agenda from the superintendent
recommending uh that you make a motion and the motion is there for you all in uh on the agenda. And so the action is now in front of you as a committee to determine what it is you'd like to do, whether you'd like to move forward with uh the
naming or not. I would like to um I would like to make the motion to approve the dedication of the Station Avenue Elementary School's gymnasium in memoriam of former educator Patricia Watson and to name the space the Patricia Anne Watson Gymnasium.
Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing Miss Landers, you I just want to thank everyone who worked so hard to put together this proposal
and who dedicated so much time to honoring a woman who clearly had a huge impact on all of you and her students. So, thank you for putting this together and bringing it to us. Um, it's really special. Thank you, Miss Landers.
Okay, seeing none. Um, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Congratulations. Uh, next we have a discussion on a rate increase for technology sports stipen for school committee meetings. Uh so uh
as folks may or may not know on the committee uh you're recorded every e every time you're here and that's put also put out live um on YouTube and uh there is setup and breakdown that happens every night uh for the meetings
as well as making sure that it all goes out and all the sound etc works u and there is compensation that goes along with that in order for the person for the person that does that and sets it up. Uh you also used to be a separate uh equal stipen that went for the uh on top
of the um executive assistance role, but again we restructured that is a separate stipen now that supports the school committee. Uh and in doing some history and digging back and looking at this particular meeting uh rate, the meeting rate hasn't changed in years. uh you
know as we increase compensation for other things we haven't increased this compensation in a very long time. So in sort of looking through across compensations that we've had um in you know across all of our compensation really felt like this was one that needed to be addressed. So just looking
for a uh 3% probably should be more but just starting with a simple 3% increase to the per meeting rate uh from the committee for the person who comes every day or every meeting to support the the meetings.
All right. So I will make the motion to approve a rate increase of 3% for the current stipend of $150 per meeting for the technology support of these school committee meetings. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion, Miss Landers?
Um 3% hardly seems like enough. Um and I know you said it's a start, so I hope that we can continue looking at this um and and budget accordingly. Um you know, certainly obviously
um the setup takes a long time before the meeting and the breakdown takes a lot of time after the meeting. And when we have sometimes three-hour meetings, you know, that they're dedicating a whole, you know, we all do it because we're, you know, we know that we have this volunteer commitment, but um, you know,
for someone to come in on an evening like this away from their family, that's a lot to do for 150 plus 3%. So, I hope we can budget more in the future for this role, please. Yeah, I think I know we've had some discussions around similar like substitutes. we sort of don't do nothing
for a while, then we're kind of behind. So, I think this falls in that similar where I think we'd be better off if we just got into a annual cola increase for positions like this. So, I I'd like to get into that habit. Mr. Glenn, uh just two questions. One in
regards to that. So, is there a reason why we set 3% or was we just thought that was a fair amount to start or Yeah, and it's in line with most of our other contractual increases. So just looking for something that was looking for a number that was in line with where we
are with other places. And does this um I only recently realized the you know a separate line item on the school committee. Does this come under the school committee line item in the budget or No, it does not come from there. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep.
Any other questions or discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carries unanimously. Never guess. I see the camera waving. Uh the next is a discussion of the MEES
building committee recording secretary job description. So the committee, the school committee has uh job description in their packet. Uh so as you are all aware the school committee voted several
meetings ago to authorize the creation of the me small building committee. Uh the initial version of that building committee has been formed. They have yet to meet. They uh the chair of the building committee who is also the chair of the school committee and I met recently to discuss getting the first
meeting up and running. But once that committee and the building project gets going in earnest, that that meeting is gonna or that committee will meet regularly. And just like this committee, it will need to have minutes generated. It will need to be organized for as far
as scheduling. Uh it will need to have public meeting notices, etc., etc., right? Just just like this board needs. Uh so, uh we'll need someone to do all of that. So, we're looking to have the committee to authorize the creation of a
recording secretary for that uh for that for the building committee. So, and authorizing the superintendent to post for that position um and and uh get somebody into that um role. We're looking to have the first meeting
probably by the third meeting, third week in July. Uh and you'll see the the the the duties described which is large similar to what the job does for the school committee u with some differences and but largely the same. And then
you'll notice in the comp in the compensation section you'll notice two rates one in black one in red. That was just largely depending upon how you voted on the last motion. The red would be the rate I would uh anticipate to align it with uh the the um the same
meeting rate for the technology uh position. So that would be the new rate that you just approved. Um and I think that's it. I'm happy to take any questions through the chair that you may have. Guess we could take a motion first and then see if there's any discussion or
questions. Someone wants to make a motion. I'll make the motion. Um, I move to approve the proposed job description for the MEES building committee recording secretary as presented.
Perfect. We have a motion to second. Any discussion or questions? Mr. Cleveland. Uh, it'll go generally posted internally, but I do know of at least one person who's expressed potential interest. Mr. New,
could you explain to me the 15450 in red? Yeah. So that so the rate would have been commensurate with the 150 per meeting, but then you all just voted a 3% increase. So that's a 3% increase to the 150 per meeting. I just wanted to
make sure. Okay. Thank you. Okay, seeing no other discussion or questions, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Also passes unanimously. Thank you. Next is uh Eid Dennis Sharmouth Regional
School District Treasurer. All right. So, there's uh two things uh for the committee to consider here. So, this has been a a an ongoing conversation that we've been having
around the uh shift in the treasurer position. So, uh, again, just for the sake of the public, um, for anybody who hasn't been following along, the the the way the treasurer role has operated in Dennis Yarmouth for a long time is the
treasurer position has sat uh, in with a school committee member. that school committee member has been bonded uh but largely hasn't done many of the functions of the treasurer and that functionality has sat in an assistant treasurer role uh in the business office
at the at central office um along with many other administrative assistant functions. uh 3 monthsish ago at this point. Uh our admin the assistant treasurer uh uh
retired and we uh were sort of left in a little bit of a pinch and act but also created an opportunity to reorganize uh moving forward. several other districts,
actually pretty much every other district that operates like a region. So whether they're regional school districts or for example, Cape Cod Tech or operates fiscally similarly to us, right? They hold money from an assess
towns in the same way that we do. uh they have a separate treasurer function separate from your business administrator and that treasurer is the one who transfers your funds is the one who manages your money separate from the
um business administrator. The business administrator manages the budget uh oversees the uh warrant the the generation of the warrant oversees the purchase order process you know your business uh contracts etc. But the
actual movement of money in order to uh cash the or pay the bills is done by the treasurer. um is this proper separation of um duties so that essentially you can't write a check to yourself and be able to move the funds in order to pay
it. Um and it's all by statute. Again, we've been through all this as uh in in leading up to today. And so the the school committee has approved previously the job description for the treasurer, the posting of that job description. U
and so today what I'm asking for is for two motions. One would be uh after the posting of the job description and an interview process uh when we've and some going back and forth on a contract, we're all ready. But this is one of the positions that the school committee has
to appoint because the treasurer does um reports to the superintendent but works for the school committee because again one of your major functions is to oversee the fiscal health of the district, right? So you do have to appoint the treasurer position. So is to
appoint Mr. John Ferris to be our first treasurer in this new role. Um and then the second motion would be to officially as of July 1, um relieve um Miss Landers of the burden that she's been carrying
for the last several months um and move this officially move this duty from a school committee member to this job description that um that you have previously approved. The only question I have, should the second motion be first followed by the
first motion? Should do we have to probably I would say that we'd have to I did about which I think we'd have to approve transferring the role and then approve appointing a role. Okay, that's all I'm going to ask of whoever decide
if anyone wants to make any of those motions. Okay, make the second one. I move to transfer the role of the treasurer from the school committee to the treasure job description that was approved on May
5th, 2025 by the school committee effective July 1st, 2025. We have a motion and a second. Any discussions or questions on this one? Seeing none, do we need a roll call vote for the appointment or we can we can do
a roll call vote for that one. We'll start with Mr. Glenn I Mr. New I Mr. Martin I Miss Landers Miss Beis yes and I vote yes. Okay. Okay. There's a second motion.
I move to appoint Mr. John Ferris to the position of treasurer. We have a motion and a second. Discussions or questions? Miss Landers. Um should we have an assistant treasurer?
What's the protocol if John you're unavailable for something like who will be the second person on the bank and on the bond and all that stuff? So, so we have discussed um a couple of
things. So, one um the way we can set it up is that John can do most of it remotely and um we've set it up for him to be able to do remote work. actually doesn't have to physically be able to be in the office on some days. Um second
bit is uh we will set up the in an emergency the superintendent can um access the bank if needed. Um and then um and then we've also discussed options for the accountant to be able to be a
backup as a third layer uh in like an extreme emergency. Um but those are the scenarios that we've discussed and then again having somebody in the role we'll be able to um workshop all of this moving forward
like especially once he'll be able to focus on just that um we'll be able to so if we do have to come back to the committee at some point forward and say you know we now that we've been doing this for six months here's what we think is the best option going forward but
having an assistant treasurer the the functionality there as we've spent some time. We don't believe many of the functions that we're sitting in that job we need to keep there. It's an unnecessary extra um
human capital that we don't need to bring an extra person on to do many of the functions that were there. No, we've been able already to redistribute them. Quite frankly, I I know you've been moving the money, but everything that's been done to do all that, we've been able to do quite frankly by
redistributing some of the work inside the office. John's been doing two jobs part-time. I think having a full-time business administrator on and then John focusing just on the treasury functions. I I we're pretty confident that we'll be okay, right? I mean, I think we certainly
never expected to end up in the situation that we did this past year. So, you never know, right? Um, so if you do need to come back to the committee and if it makes sense to have someone on the committee as an assistant treasurer as
sort of backup again, you know, I know now I know how to do all this. So, not that I love doing it, but I'm I'm happy to, you know, stay on since I'm already on the accounts and I'm bonded and all that. So, if it makes sense Yeah. to not
have a full another employee in the office as assistant treasurer, but somebody who can just do the transfers as needed. Um because I know we like to separate those duties as much as possible. So just a thought. Yeah. Can I pretend I don't see your arm? I
see your arm. You know what happens if you can't don't see me, you hear me? Um, I just had a question kind of dovetailing off of uh what Jenny was saying was because we do have that kind of fidiciary duty as a school committee,
would you just be doing a report back to us on treasur like a treasurer's report? Um or it it might perform a role for the assistant treasurer to you know uh
report back to us. Yeah. So and to be clear so like you're still going to have all the same warrant you know the signing. So not so that whole process is not going to change right. So the committee still has to sign off on all the districts purchasing as part of the
warrant process. Um and and yes, um a process that I would like to set up with the committee, a process that you haven't had up until now would be quarterly treasury reports. Um that
would align with um you know, quarterly or maybe not align with maybe they'd be you know, you'd have one one week and then one the other week because it that'd be a lot of probably staring at the screen a little bit too much. But, you know, you'd get a a quarterly budget
budget report and then a quarterly treasury report because they are two different things. You know, where's the budget stand and then where does your money stand? Um because those two things aren't exactly the same thing. So, I I don't I I think it's a good idea to have the assistant treasurer if if we're not
a voice adverse to it, should could we make a motion to do that now or it' be better to wait? I would say we will we'll wait on that. Um because even even in the role that Jenny has as treasurer or I've had in the past, we've never actually did any presentations. So um
really have never had this. So we're looking to add something already. We can look to see um once Mr. Ferris is in the position and we have the our new business manager. We can look at seeing about that. So we'll look to maybe add that to a future agenda. So if you can't
see, I'm not in an agreement with you. Any other questions? Okay. So, we'll do a roll call vote for the second motion. Mr. Glenn, I. Mr. New? Hi. Mr. Martin, yes. Miss Landers, Miss Beis, yes. And I
vote yes. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. We're excited for you to continue with us. The crowd claps. [Laughter] Um, next we have subcommittee
representatives, leaison reports, school committee leans, and sue select board. Anything from the town of Dennis to add? Yes. Uh, tomorrow night at the Dennis select board meeting which starts at 4 o'clock, the select board will be issuing a proclamation to our retiring principal,
Kevin Deppen. Excellent. And I know we had I know we had some events last week um which was great to see. And anything from the town of Yarmouth, Mr. Glenn? I believe they do have a uh special meeting, not the select board, but the
town of Yarmouth libraries has a meeting at 6 p.m. to discuss the location of uh a new library. So, I know that is at town hall in the meeting hearing room tomorrow at 6 p.m. Those of you who did not get a robocall as of yet, you should see it shortly.
uh superintendent report. All right. Um so just a couple of recognitions. So first I just want to actually just running off of the sandwich I mean not sandwich the u uh Dennis select board
meeting. Uh might have been the last one or maybe there was there's already been one in between but one of our students presented at uh a previous uh select board meeting. Ella Ella Antonio uh an eighth grade student was presenting her
classes. So it was representative of her her the work her whole class had done. But uh a brave young eighth grader got up in front of the select board and presented their civics project action civics a action project on uh they were that class at actually several classes
at the high school. I thought it was interesting when I went to the civics action day at the high school. several classes presented on the benefit of having rec centers in the in the communities. So So she was there presenting. She had been invited by one
of the select board members to come and present. She was there with with her teacher Kristen Williams um Tristan Williams and and they were there to present uh but Ella did the presenting. So um her teacher just introduced her and then she took it from there and she did a great job presenting um to the
select board uh who was very receptive to her. So just just a quick shout out just just another example of some of the great stuff that our kids are doing um in the community in a wide variety of ways. And then the second thing that I just wanted to recognized was during
senior week uh so two weeks ago already now uh you know had um the senior awards night the Thursday before graduation and it's always just a mind-blowing number. Uh but for folks that weren't aware, we
gave out the the high school staff gives out one of the m main things that happens at a wards night is the giving out of scholarships to students and the total number of scholarships that were given out was over $69,000 in scholarships. It's just a huge
number. It's just, you know, I say here every night, every school committee meeting about the generosity of the community for all the different uh donations that come through the the committee and then there's that, right?
So, on top of all those, there's was $69,000 that was given to Dennis and Yarmouth students to help support their furthering of their education. So, it was um and service, right? So some of it was for students that were going on to military service. So wasn't just college
scholarships. Um it's just it was just again when you when you hear the final number at the end, I mean you can see all the kids and you just you can start to get a sort of mental tally that's going in your head, but after a while you just start to lose track. Uh and when you hear that final number, it's just absolutely phenomenal.
So again, just a huge thank you because without the support of the community, obviously you don't get to that number. All right, a couple of updates. Uh, so first just the field construction update. Um, if again, if people have been able to drive by, you can see the
progress that's going on out there. The lower field is completely stripped at this point. The turf's off both fields. The lower field's completely stripped down to the base layer um or down to the they've taken out all the subbase material, so it's ready to bring the new material in.
um testing continues at each stage as they uh take this take the material out. As as the committee knows, we're in dispute over the original build. So, we've had engineers um from a couple from our current designer plus from the
the team that uh helped the committee through the the original dispute or has been helping the committee through the dispute has been on site testing as each layer has come off to help uh us in our
case with the dispute. Um and this week they'll start milling. So, they'll then the work will begin in earnest in the upper field. They'll mill the track down to the that subbase material and they'll take all the subbase out of the upper
track upper yeah the upper field and then new material will start coming in. Um they'll we had a meeting on Friday with pretty much everybody uh out on the field. It was was actually a nice day.
Um, and they're going to they'll create a uh like a 20 yard by 20 yard test area and they'll lay the material out uh before and they'll they'll run some filtration tests on it before they actually put it out in scale across the
the field. So, that'll be another test of the new material when the new material comes in. So, again, a lot of extra due diligence going in to make sure that we don't find ourselves in any type of a place where we found ourselves before. Um and then the new materials start rolling in. Uh and then carpet and
the you know the some tweaks to the design um going as far as aesthetics going. So like some new higher fence posting, a back stop, some other um and a flag pole that apparently never got put in when it was supposed to get put in in the first place. So just some some
some things that are getting done uh and getting done right the first time. Uh next update is the uh Ken Jenks auditorium. So, we've had a lease uh for a community group for the last year. Um
we had a meeting with that group this week, maybe last week. Oh, it couldn't have been this week because today's only Monday, so it was last week. Um and uh their current uh construction project is still ongoing and so they're not uh
so we're going to renew the lease contract for approximately another six months and we'll uh going to put a clause in the contract requiring 60 days notice to terminate the contract for for
them. And that works to our advantage in one knowing that we have the steady income for that 60 days and two giving us 60 days notice when we can start to book other folks coming in. And for us, it's a a 30-day notice wasn't just
wasn't enough time because let's say, you know, the group was ready to be done on December 30th, but didn't notify us until December 1st, then there's a good chance we would miss opening it up to another group that might want to use it
in July, June, January 15th, because it's just not enough wind window for a group to say, "Yeah, we need an auditorium that big." as they're not going to be planning that um in short of a window, you know, another outside, let's say, music performance group or a
you know, whatever. Um so 60 days we felt like gave us enough window to know we could count on it. Plus, we could be able to notify maybe another group that yes, they're going to be gone and and we can start to book other groups because it has been and it's given us a good
little model on what um what that space can be from a revenue generation standpoint and has allowed us to do um uh some good things across the diff district. allow us to tackle several uh projects that we quite frankly wouldn't have been able to get to um from a
facilities standpoint if we hadn't had the the re revenue. Um and we've been able to work uh they've been this particular group's been a good partner in working with us um to both ensure
that we got school projects done like as far as the performances etc etc. um and um again create a revenue generating piece for the district. So like you know as we think forward to these new fields coming online, it's going to be another
opportunity for the district to generate some revenue to then again tackle some of the things from a facilities and ground standpoint that um maybe have been sitting on the back burner as a district. And it's giving us uh a model and sort of a test case for how we might
be able to do some things like that moving forward. to the chair. Mr. N. Thank you. So first question is has central office or the scheduling
um individual whoever program has it taken into account um performances and rehearsals that have been booked by uh the existing department here? Yes. Okay. Uh secondly, has there been a follow-up
meeting with uh the instructors in the music department as to uh adherence to the existing contract? That would go through the principles. So they the principles are the ones who have the regular contract contact with the with
the staff in the building. Okay. Um and so if those performances are scheduled, who has priority now? the the building as priority. Okay. And and we've been working throughout the year. We've already, you
know, as this is gone, the the church has been very amendable to working with with our staff. Good. And is there thought to increasing the fee since it's another contract in another year? Uh, at this time, no. If we're going to extend any further, but it's just another six
months, so no. We feel like we've had a pretty good working relationship with the group and there isn't a a need to increase the fee at this time. Great. Thank you. Yep. Miss Beas,
so as you looked for a new lease agreement, do you see that our policy is still in concert with the terms of the lease agreement? I'm not sure. I understand. What's the policy on using the space? Yeah. Yes.
Does it still work out to our advantage or does that need to be looked at? Uh, I don't think there's anything in the policy that's restrictive, but it's a good probably a good thing to take another look at. But I think the policy is supportive of
the the actual implementation. Yes, Mr. Glenn. Yeah. So, I was going to ask about the policies, but I I also if that applies to the fields and advertising,
you know, a lot of fields have local advertisers might be a good revenue source. Um, so that might be something you want to look at also. Um and not to betray any trust or contract but um just
the total revenue um that we get from them if we if you can. Yeah, I can follow up with that information. I don't have it off the top of my head. Uh yeah, that's okay. I didn't expect it. Um yeah, and um in regards to the fields and the communications, you know, my
fear is, and I've already seen it, but and I'm sure other people have too, that you know, people see the digging up, they see things, and then they run with the rumor control. And I'm just wondering if we're doing any I mean, obviously, we just spoke about it here, but um if we have a separate page for
information that we can give out. I mean, I know there's legal issues, but just giving out the information that we gave out tonight, um, if there's a place to point people at to, um, might be an idea or, you know, communications director or whatever. But I just wanted
to know where I can point people to where they can be pointed to. And then maybe I'll step in and say maybe we need to do another um you know public message on our Facebook page or communication out again. Maybe at the
end of the year at some point maybe as more people drive by and see the construction the bigger construction cup. Yeah. Again it's not necessarily for it's for both. It's for you know the parents but it's also for the to Joe's point of the community members that are not aware of what's going on. I know
your communications to the the parents are is clear, but there's many people, you know, the taxpayers or the summer taxpayers that uh you know, wonder what's happening at a brand new school. So, yeah, maybe we can work on some type of communication again uh that we can
broadcast publicly. It' be great. Yeah, I can do um because we've done a couple press releases. Um it hasn't been picked up by like the paper. uh the um like the Emmy Small press release was
picked up and that ended up being a you know paper a story in the paper. Um but the idea of maybe putting something on the website and well and I had to in that meeting that I mentioned, we did have a conversation with PMA, you know,
they could they said they could do like a progress update. So maybe uh maybe we can take that and turn that into um some type of a a bit on the the website that we could we could push people towards and and we're always looking for summer content for the for the social media
because it's like the kids are gone so it's you know how do we how do we generate content? So that actually could maybe be something that we could drive to and push for content. So, Miss Landers, and maybe a letter just to each select
board like with the same content. Yeah. Okay. Um All right, then. Let's see. Uh so, director of multilingual learner instruction update. So um just to update the committee uh we
started with a round of uh first round we had five candidates that were in uh initially brought in for the interview for the position. Uh there was the inter the initial interview team was made up of a group of leaders, teachers. We had
our community communications and community relations coordinator as a part of that initial interview team. That initial interview uh generated three finalists who moved on. The three finalists came in for about a half day each. Then they the half-day interviews
led to uh or were comprised of a meeting with principles, central office leaders, one-on- ones with me, and then uh and they had a each person had to do a performance task uh related to um
essentially like I gave them a task around entry and what their entry might look like. I gave him some specific things that I was looking for. And then uh after doing some reference digging, um I'm happy to announce that uh Miss
Katherine Watts uh signed a contract to take on the new role as our new multilingual learner role. Um she's coming to us from the Mson public schools. um where she's been uh an assistant uh principal, a principal, an
assistant soup for curriculum and instruction as well as an EL director and she actually had a very short stint as an acting superintendent. Um and she comes with a strong resume of effective leadership. Um her res her uh references
spoke very highly of her ability to lead her ability to do district level leadership uh which was something that really resonated with me. strong understanding of the needs of English learners uh and the work that needs to get done here. I'm very excited and we're excited um to have her as part of
the leadership team. So, she'll start on July 1 and we're excited to bring her in as a part of the team. And then last but not least, uh graduation and year end. Since the last meeting, we had a wonderful graduation ceremony. Uh, and
it's often sometimes or I shouldn't say often, but sometimes it can definitely feel as if graduation is like a high school ceremony. Uh, but the truth is it's really takes the entire district. Um, and our entire district is responsible for getting those graduates
across the stage and it takes 13 years or when if we have preschoolers 15 years to get them get them to that age or if we have them from preschool um to get get them all the way across that stage. Um, I know for me personally it was really it's a really um proud moment to
sit there and watch each of the graduates, you know, they walk right across my line of sight. Um, and I get to see them walk up the little ramp, stand there and pause for a minute until their name gets called and you just like see their face light up as they walk across the stage and then, you know,
shake uh, Principal Bennett's hand and then um, get their picture taken and move off. So it's and I see that you know 100 roughly 180 times. Um so it's was just it's just a really kind of powerful moment over and over and over and over again for me and you know everybody's cheering from them and it's it's all just coming like right at me as
I'm sitting there. Um it's just really a powerful experience for me to be able to uh and a privilege for me to be able to take part of. Um and I'm really honored to be able to take part of it. Uh tomorrow is the last day of school as has already been mentioned for our students. Um it's always a bittersweet
time for me. Uh, you know, I know the district needs some time to reset. Um, it's also time for leadership and other folks to get some strategic work done. Um, and it's time for us to clean and and and really get the school ready uh
for the fall. But a school system is not a school system without the kids. So, you know, that that's the sort of bitter part of it. Uh uh but it won't be long before I know I personally and most of us will be longing to have the kids and
the energy back in the school system. Um but for now we'll focus on getting a little bit of rest. Um and I know the leadership team right early July will be updating the the strategic plan. We'll be getting our next year's action plan
together. Uh, and then we've got a, like I mentioned, we've got a lot of projects ongoing across the district this year. Uh, like as far as projects that we can only really get done when the kids aren't here. Uh, so like the Ezra Baker is getting its first really good deep
deep cleaning that it's had in a while because we're not having the summer uh, extended school year program there this year. Plus, we're removing all the remaining carpet in the basement, doing some tile replacement in some areas upstairs in that building. Uh we're
doing a fairly comprehensive paint work at Emmy Small and in the main foyer areas. Um seas or stations getting a major playground upgrade thanks to the um couple of uh capital improvement uh
funds from the town of Yarmouth. It's also getting some floor tile replacement and some paint work. Um and St. central office is getting some reorganization um work done uh to make us operate a little bit more efficiently and effectively. So, a lot of work's happening all in a very short window of time. The
facilities and grounds team is uh going to be leading the charge and doing yman's work uh in order to make all that happen. We're very grateful for their their work. Um, I know a lot of a lot of people when I talk to them, they just assume everybody is not around in the summertime, but there's are a lot of
people here year round who ensure that uh the school system is ready to go in in the fall. So, I'm very thankful for all those people to make sure that we are ready to go um when the kids come back in early September and the staff comes back in late August. And that is
it for me. Thank you. Uh, next we have school committee business. The first is a a draft version one of the 2026 2027 school calendar. Excuse me. Um, thing to notice on this
is that we Labor Day falls late versus early this year. So, it looks like this shows the first day of school as Wednesday, September 9th, and the last day without snow days as Tuesday, June 22nd. What I do notice different on here
is the difference in half days between the high school versus the uh K to7 I'm assuming because of they don't do parent teacher conferences and then blue days as half days for everyone. So very different than previous ones. Um but
I'll open up anyone any questions or any comments that you have Dr. Smith. I know I just briefly looked at it and said all those things. Yes. So just for for the context uh you know the chair already already mentioned the so a couple of
year last year or the year before the the committee to try to um abbreviate the calendar a little bit added the two half days for staff on the good Friday or for everybody on the good Friday and the day before Thanksgiving. Uh but I
have also heard from members of the committee as well as from the community about the half days for parent teacher conference that we only do parent teacher conferences from K to 7. Um and that is um contractual, right? So then
if we're only doing parent teacher conferences K to 7, then why are we dismissing K to 12? Uh so in working with the bus company this year we were able my my wonder was well can we make it work with the transportation company
and I got confirmation this year from the transportation company that we can make it work. So um instead of making the change for next year pushing it out one one year just to um because we've the committee has already settled next year's calendar. So giving everybody one
more year to adjust uh would be the first time we would just do a K to7 dismissal because that's all we have um the parent teacher conferences at is K to7 um would be differentiating those two items and I believe
that was the only change we made right yeah and then what's the reason for the half day for the high school on January 27th that's that is in the contract um we just haven't never had it on the calendar before but it like happened this year. It'll happen um every year.
There's a half day in the teachers contract for the high school only at midterms. Um yeah, it's in the collective bargaining agreement. Yeah. I feel like I've seen parents say it was a half day and no one believed it because it wasn't on the calendar. Yeah. But I don't have acknowledging it on the
calendar. Perfect. Miss Landers, I think there are more half days at the high school that are actually missing from this or I mean so Oh, I guess it would be like the midterm or the I mean the
final I feel like Jacob had a bunch of half days this year that I didn't know about because they weren't on this calendar and everyone's like, "Oh, yes, the last day of the term it's a half day." And then this week they had half days. Last week, Thursday, Friday, and
today. So, um, if we could add all the high school half days onto this, it would help parents. Yeah, this is version one. So, this is the time to ask all the questions. Yep. So that Sarah can work on it. We get to version two and then get to a final. And
then my other question was about um professional development. So, we've got four days at the beginning of the year, right? And then one day in October, so
it's all front-loaded. Um, and I know that years ago we we made an effort to frontload a few days at the beginning of the year on purpose, but I'm just wondering um,
you know, is there any interest in future years or is there benefit to moving some of these professional days to later in the year, halfway through the year, or is there enough opportunities for that without those?
So again, I'd have to go back and reread the specifics in the contract, but my understanding is the contract states that for the teachers that um we can't start before the
Wednesday after Memorial, I mean Labor Day. Um, and then so then if we have to put the if we put the professional days later in the year, then we just are going to push the calendar date later.
Yeah. Any other questions or input? Mr. Glenn, Mr. Martin's leading forward, so therefore I can't see your arm. I didn't say that. Get my flag. Um, just off of that, so you said the Wednesday before
um we can't we couldn't start full day school. Is that what you were saying? Yeah, I forget exactly what the language it says. It's something about the professional days and one of them has to happen the Tuesday after Labor Day, I think, is that's how it hap that's how it's structured. So that that then
pushes the first day of work to be the the Wednesday after. But here you have the three one, two, and three is right. So so so you could put the other ones later, but so that so then let's say so say you take the the
one from September 2nd and just randomly I don't pick a date. Let's just say you made it December 9th. Then that's going to take your last day of school and make it the 23rd. You move another one and it's going to make your last day of school the 24th. So it just the if you move them to another time in the year
after the first day of school, it just moves the last day of school later and later and later, which in this particular year because Labor Day is so late, it's already then just pushing the calendar. And the and one thing we've also done here um is this date is
reflective of the 180th day of school, not the 185th day of school because that always confuses people. So we've just stopped that practice. We'll just add the days when we have snow if and when we have snow days. Yeah,
a lot of people are really used to knowing that whatever it says last day on here is with five school snow days built in. So, we'll definitely want to make sure that we highlight for folks that that is the last day. Don't deduct five days from this. Any other questions or comments for
version one? Mr. New again revisiting the uh professional days. Uh is the 9th the weekend of um holiday weekend?
Yes. And that's the all Cape Day. That's from the collaborative. Yes. That's very early. It's It's almost always on that the Friday of that holiday weekend. Yeah. Unless it's the the presidential
election year, then they tend to put it on the voting day for um Okay. Thank you. And then all the half days we've tried as best we could to avoid MCCAST testing windows and everything.
You know, every year we try to the imperfect science of trying to avoid all the major and we've probably missed something, but we've tried. Okay. Well, I'll have an opportunity to look at it again. I mean, the 1.5 early releases. Sorry, not the half days, the
early releases. Yeah. And best of our knowledge, we don't have any difference in start time. Start times aren't on here. So, this correct? Yes. So, we don't have to worry about that now. Okay. So, you have plenty of time. Sarah
will update the half days. She'll verify with Miss Bennett and we'll verify all those things that those of us don't have anyone in high school don't know about until their kids home and tells us they had a half day and we don't believe them because we approve the calendar and it's not on there.
I got some time to worry about that. So, we'll put that. Perfect. Thank you. Um and then next we have the consent agenda. All of you should have attached in the calendar is the uh calendar consent agenda should be the
subcommittee subcommittee assignments. Sorry. Um so we should have all of that on there and then the so we all have so can all see that. You have any questions about that? That's going to be on the calendar one. Oh
yeah, it's okay. I um bills requisitions and payroll was passed out. Um calendars. So we have the couple calendars. One of them is going to be the June calendar which again the last day of school will be tomorrow. Um
and then we will have in July we will have our meeting on July 7th our workshop at 5:00 pm and then also is a schedule of dates for 20 2526 starting in September. Um
so all the dates are there. Um we've tried to avoid as much stuff as we could but uh all the dates are there and we will post those um shortly on our website. as well as notify the towns. Mr. Glenn,
it was funny because Glenn's heads wasn't in the way when John was talking. I have longer arms. Nope. My arms are longer. I got your trick. Um, now I lost what I was going to have. Um,
what were we just talking about? The calendar dates for the meeting dates for 25. Okay. I don't know. It must not have been important. Sorry. I'm not telling you that someone told me they skipped made sure they looked at
all holidays in September, but we will look at that one. Oh, I know what it was. Um the um do we have a separate workshop on our uh goals or where do we fit that in?
I thought we did a separate workshop on school committee goals. Uh we'll have the agendas for the two workshops sent out. Okay. No, I just didn't know if it was included in the
other workshop or whatever, but Okay. I'm just glad I remembered it. Tomas, I'm looking at the subcommittee assignments and there's probably a method to your
madness and these appointments and maybe you'll speak to us individually. I just wanted I mean it looks a little uneven. I think it's because we took out several things and added a couple. So I think
Glenn has five committee assignments. Phil has one. John new has one. Um and maybe people aren't maybe there's reasons for that. I just want to flag this seems I've got
three I think and I'm okay with that. I will I will relook because yeah I think it's a little the original list had three more items on there and that's probably where the math did not balance out. Okay. And if you have a chance to look at them, um, you know, as long as we're on
the committee, I'd like to sort of open myself to new opportunities and those existing. I don't know how anybody else feels, but I've done those since I've been on the committee and this is my fourth year. So, I I'm open and interested in trying something else.
Okay. So, we'll we'll table this then for the subcommittee. The other issue was that certain people are ineligible to be in some committees. Um, but I think we removed all those from this list. So, because of conflicts of interest. Correct. Understood. I think that was
the original one. Um, but some of these are have already been the top first two have already been appointed positions. Um, so I will I'll look at the remainder. Okay. Thank and we can redis. Luckily, no one has to do anything as of
yet. So, we'll review that. Thank you for the feedback. And then we'll review the Monday, September 22nd, because it does fall over a holiday. So, where we look to see what's available based on open houses
and stuff. uh for the week before, the week after. That's why we do this in front of seven people. Anything else that was noticed? Yeah, I mean it's all draft. Nobody's Yeah. Perfect. So, we'll get that all cleaned
up. Um there was nothing else on the consent agenda. I saw nothing else. Okay. and public comment in the um anyone in the comment that would like to say anything in the social distancing seating that
someone did today. Seeing none, that's all we have. Motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion to second. And all those in favor say