e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e welcome to the Monday March 3rd 2025 meeting of the Dennis charmouth Regional
school committee please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible justice for
all thank you we will start with our student Representatives report think we have both Isabella and D here uh good evening everybody it's nice to see you all I haven't been here I wasn't at the last meeting but I'm happy to see be back and see everybody and I hope everybody's been doing well um I'm going
to be saying stuff on our sports news so our winter seasons have just come to an end and I have to say they were some of the most successful I want to say the most successful winter seasons I've seen at my time at DIY and um every team made it pretty much to playoffs or further so
both both girls and boys track were League champion Champions this year and it was the first time since the boys track winter program was ever created that they won League champions so everybody was very excited about that and I know there were individual people who are going on so much further than we
had ever anticipated and I don't have everybody's name so I don't want to just give a few shout outs but it's been really really incredible and then as for playoffs our boys basketball made the preliminary rounds uh boys hockey made the round of 32 and both girls basketball and girls
hockey made the round of 16 so it's been very exciting at UI I think everybody's just been like on a high cuz every sports team sort of was a lot more successful than we've seen in the past and everybody was feeling good and our spring Seasons right around the corner we have all our practices starting March
17th and everybody's just signing up and getting ready for that okay I have some other news about you know DIY in general I guess um theater uh The Ensemble Theater class had a performance at the metg uh Festival competition this
weekend um and they were doing hash viral is the performance um we have begun rehearsals for the spring musical which is High School Musical um coming up next week we have stepup day where the seventh graders
will come to the come to Dy and see the IP Healthcare program um the clubs and the sports um and then on that same night we also have the spring open house um all parents and students will tour a chance to see the school like classes
everything like that and then we also have the International Food Festival and this is all on the 12th and the International Food Festival is celebration of culture um there's performances um all foreign languages like make food and and dishes and
perform and just celebrate um and yeah that's all thank you thank you so much Mr Martin you want to add something I did um adding on to the the theater performances the um Dy Middle School side will be having their
musical of uh Shrek the music musical this year on uh March 20th 21st and 22nd it's Thursday Friday Saturday uh two evening an evening evening and then a mat a on Saturday um so you know uh keep an eye out for that and everybody come
and uh support um and uh pack the house because it's going to be a great time and I can add the Intermediate School is doing The Lorax and I should know the the dates of that but I don't off the top of my head but I look out for that my son's in both and the Shrek
so he's in both schols perfect excellent um next probably the most important part of our our year is our official budget uh vote and proposal so Dr Smith will pass it over to you for the final discussion all right thank
you uh so here we are to the committee's uh final uh budget vote uh so we're going to go over just uh taking out some of the slides so we you've obviously had several looks at the budget conversation over the last
several meetings as we've discussed we've been really driving the budget conversation from the Strategic plan looking at our three major strategic objectives um as the as the main budget driver and here we are on the budget
timeline today is uh where we're scheduled for you all as a committee to take your uh vote on the budget uh technically you do all the way have all the way to the 14th to make your final budget adoption I know we had
some discussion around uh what the statute says around decisions after today and I did clarify uh after today you can't make any change well you can make changes to the budget they just have to be uh lowering the budget um so after today's vote any changes to the
budget can only be changes to lower the budget and those can really happen at any time this just a process for notification to the towns um techically you could actually do it in the middle of the year um so it's just we just there's a process we have to go to no notify the towns and Chang this to the
assessment just as long as they're not as they're lowering um the overall assessments uh again consistent uh factors that have been driving the budget throughout this whole process uh as I mentioned the Strategic plan and the Strategic priorities uh we're
fortunate going into this year we had a lot of known in that the contracts uh for all the major bargaining units are settled our service contracts are settled uh contracted services are largely known um and then we talked about uh the factors including uh out of
District special education I've shown that graph on more than one occasion um and the associated Transportation costs student need obviously that is our main purpose and function as a school district so that's it's always driving cost and our considerations as a budget um and then we sub level funded the
supply lines across the district uh we talked about this year about prioritizing our budget requests as I worked with the leadership team uh there was a series of requests that came up through um each of the Departments to the superintendent's office and then we
devised a system for prioritizing that we'll use consistently moving forward you know last year we talked about how last year we were obviously in a different place in make our determinations this year as we're able to move forward in budgeting and we're able to think forward and think about how to support the Strategic plan and
our strategic initiatives moving forward we wanted a system for determining how we would uh give the school committee a prioritized set of lists we developed a rubric to support that again we've talked about this fairly consistently and I'll pause at any time but I also
you know I I know time is precious um and so we had uh priority items four and three were the items that ultimately are reflected in the budget uh and just again for those in
the public you'll see two items that are crossed off on this list and that is not because they are not reflected in the budget it is because ultimately throughout the budgeting process that we were able to fund them through FTE transfers um so they ultimately are budget neutral which was a reduction
that happened somewhere in the budgeting process I think it was in in mid January if I remember correctly um so again they're still will be in the budget they were just able to be conducted through budget transfers and not uh through having to add to the
budget and then Priority One and Two items uh were not ultimately not funded in the in the current budget whoops isip by that slide so that ultimately leads us to the uh large function codes in the packet the school
committee has a detail um you had been given that as well but it's also should be in your packet as well a detail on each of these um larger function codes codes that gives you the breakdown gives you the fy22 actuals the 23 actuals the
24 actuals the 25 budgeted and the 26 requested um so it gives you the again the details for each of these um but the um uh the summary is the and has remained consistent for the last two
meetings that the overall operating budget increase uh from FY 25 to 26 is a 4.49 6% operating budget increase then you see the debt service line their total debt service for this year being
assessed to the towns uh at 4, 9,647 uh and that is uh a final debt service payment on the high school school plus a bond on this building and a ban a bond anticipation note on this building as
well all right to the assessment calculations so as we've discussed there's a three-step process uh that goes in determining the assessment so first we start with revenues and offsets so things money ultimately that comes into the district from other places that
take off from the operating budget uh so that um offset our need to assess the local communities then the next step is the minimum required contribution and I'm going to slow down again a little bit here because this is really a a
Lynch pin in the assessment piece and then the final piece is the remaining amount is assessed at a rolling 5year average this year that rolling fiveyear average is 30. 668 per to Dennis and
39332 per to Yarmouth okay uh this is the cherry sheet so the net State this is a new slide I'm just sort of breaks down the state aid from fy2 to what it currently is estimated at for FY 26 this is based upon what we get from the Department of
Revenue after the governor's budget is released so you can see that I don't need to read the numbers to you there but what you see is the Chapter 70 Regional Transportation Charter School um school choice tuition those are all in the positive but then we also get assessed certain bits as part of uh that
and those are you see in the negative those are the red numbers in the parenthesis so we get charged those um those are built into the budget as charges and then so you get a net state aid so uh what we ultimately are receiving and when you take the pluses and the minuses and put them all
together um and you see a net state state a of just over 12 million which is up from about 10 and a half million so a sizable incre increase rather in state aid from last year to this year now you should also have um this uh
document on the right should be in your packet as well so it's a little bit easier to see but and I want to slow down here we talked about minimum required contribution last um last meeting and while I Was preparing to meet I think it was with the finance
committee might have been the select and Yarmouth might have been both um I was really wanted to uh talk about minimum required contribution and find a way to present it numerically so I created this spreadsheet um and figured I was going
to show it to that group is really important to show it here as well um so I created unfortunately after our last meeting and um so a couple that those boards have seen it but this chart is really designed to demonstrate uh the impact of minimum required contribution
on our assessments so what you have here are three different scenarios and in the middle middle column is the current uh assessment so you have uh the minimum required contribution
increase uh as it was given to us by the governor this year so you see for this year the minimum required contribution increase for de was a little over $1.1 million for Yarmouth it was a little over $1.6
million so the total minimum required contribution for Dennis was $14 million in change and $23 million um and change for Yarmouth this is what has to be assessed first this is the first part of the assessment calculation this is part of the regional agreement this is what we
have to take off the top first so that that is a for roughly $43 million in assessment that leaves about1 19 million and change to be assessed that is the part that then gets the um
roughly 7030 split at this point that money then gets divided the remaining amount gets divided out you get just under six million to Dennis and about 13 and A5 million to Yarmouth and then you get the total assessments and we have where we sit
right now which is largely which is a 4.56% assessment increase from last year to this year for Dennis and a 3.18 assessment increase from last year to this year for Yarmouth so then I was curious I said to myself well what if
the minimum required contribution went up proportionately for both towns what if they both went up by 6.125% that's what it went up for Yarmouth this year their their minimum required contribution went up from last year to this year by
6.125% that's the next column so you see I just applied 6.125% to both so you see yarmis number doesn't change at all right the assessment increase is still 167,000 I mean excuse me 1,676 944 that number didn't change but
you see Dennis's is a smaller number because instead of it being an 8.44 5% increase which is what their minimum required contribution was this year it's only $889,000 and then you move down the column cuz all the numbers change when
that first number changes and you get all the way down to the punch line which is at the bottom and you see well what was the in assessment increase well now the assessment increases are different the assessment increase for Dennis is 3.46% and the assessment increase for
yarmis is 3.7% all that changed the operating budget didn't change all that had changed was the the the minimum required contribution shifted and then I said well what if they had been the opposite what if
yarmus minimum required contribution had gone up by 8.45% and Dennis has gone up by 6.125% so you that's what you see at the top you see a flip so again now Dennis
stays the same as the column before because that's 6.125 and yarmis goes up significantly because that's applying an 8.44 5% increase and you run the numbers all the way down to the bottom and you get to the punchline and you see Dennis assessment increase of 2.46 from the
year before and yarmus increase of 4.17 again the budget in this case nothing changes the only thing that changes is the minimum required contribution the district has absolutely no control over the minimum contribution it comes from the state and the point
here and the point that I've been making when I've been going in front of the boards is some policies that are established and by both boards are not again largely I get it from the town side it's they're most concerned about the assessment but in the middle
column where it goes up proportionate the assessment to both towns would be less than our operating budget increase because of the actually because of the large amount of state aid we're getting and the fact that we're applying our own local receipts including
$250,000 of end to this operating budget the Big Driver the big thing that's pushing debt denis's number so high is minimum required contribution and that's set by the governor's office and that is determined by property values and medium income those the large thing that sets medium
re contribution it's outside the control of the regional district and it changes from year to year on who it affects more last year it was Yarmouth it was part of the problem
um we had a budget challenge last year and the minimum required contribution was more significant in uh proportionately to Yarmouth so Yarmouth got double whacked last year so this is again just sort of showing how we arrive at this year's
assessment which you've seen this slide before and then this is the um Debt Service so total debt service for the high school um is the last year on the bond payment 46,50 there's two Bond bonds currently on this building and then a band a bond
anticipation note um with for a total debt service payment of uh just over 4 million this is a really small slide um hopefully you can see it a little B better in your packet um but this
shows uh the total assessment picture uh and a couple of different options which the K the committee has to just uh consider tonight and the finance subcommittee that just met has a recommendation um uh based on these
options so starting at the very top excuse me you have the operating budget the first number is less The Debt Service to gets you to the net operating budget and then it runs through this same assessment
picture um to get you to less state aid um and Charter School reimburse Etc um and getting you down to the amount to be assessed that's the next uh double black box or uh of 62
m739 $11 and then again the minimum required contribution is first applied uh 4,324 779 to Dennis 20 I need my glasses uh 29
m556 15,000 to Yarmouth the remaining amount to be access assessed is the next box 19,35 582 which is split by The 5year Rolling average of 30 thou 30%
66 8% to Dennis which is a 5,936 189,000 and a 69.3 32% uh which is 13,42 2,692 um so total operating assessment
to Dennis is 20, 261,000 if you the committee remembers in the regional agreement um there's both a agreement that was made for this building a 6535 split that was agreed upon in this year and then for the high
school it was the enrollment at the year that that Bond was taken out um so that comes out to a total calculation for Debt Service for Dennis for this for our current year of 1,448 62 and for Yarmouth 2 mil
[Music] Comm that in addition to the 250,000 which is built into our local Revenue which is part of the step down process that we agreed to last year as part of the budg budgeting process to offset operating that we make uh an additional
Debt Service payment using um end and these are two options for Debt Service payment so option one would be to pay the high school bond uh uh which is set to this year to be 46,50 and then option two would be to
make uh the ban has a principal uh payment due so the whole ban is is a number larger than that but the bond the the excuse me the principal portion is $444,500 um I made a recommendation to the
committee the finance subcommittee they had some discussion and I don't know if Tomas you want to uh summarize the conversation from the finance subcommittee yeah so there was a lot of discussion you know there's three different options that we looked at one was to leave the budget at is including
the 250,000 previously set uh the other option was to pay off the uh High School Dennis yth high school bond that was from 2005 that's due in 2026 for the 46,50 and then the last option which is listed as option two which is actually
option three uh would we pay off the principal part the ban itself is $846,000 but we would be pay the principal which was the 400 and really loud there the 440
4,445 um there's a lot of discussion on if we would do any why would we do any um and a lot of great discussion about it um we know in past years we talked about not paying debt exclusion we looked at how much money is in in
end um we looked at our Capital stabilization and discussed you know financially where we need to be um there was discussion that a a good portion of the money that was uh put into end that was above about
700,000 of it was from return on investments there was some discussion that some of that that money was from part of the uh Revenue that was from the town uh so there was discussion about you know making uh giving some of that
money back towards the town the reason that you don't see anything in operating was because if we we apply any of this to operating then that's how much farther away we will be next year that's why specifically uh we discussed um
doing it towards debt exclusion um um in in the end we did take a vote um and the recommendation was to go with what's listed in front of you as option one was to pay off the high school uh the Dennis shouth high school bond from 2005 that's
due to expire in 2026 and that would give Dennis uh a reprieve of 16252 and then Yarmouth 23,6 123 um and we would utilize end funds from that if there's anything I missed that
anyone wants to add from the uh Finance subcommittee seeing none um so do we need to take a motion first to move this money before we take a motion for the budget or is that all included in the budget vote so there's
three um and the committee has all three in their packet there are three separate motions depending upon ultimately what the committee decides so uh I not KN what direction the committee was going to go and obviously the committee can create a completely different motion um
it's your all decision um but trying to help facilitate some options um I tried to create uh the scenarios motions based upon the different options so the people didn't have to do all the math at the table
um uh there are different um motion options and I can I can put them up in the okay all right yeah yeah so so but but no there doesn't need to be a separate motion it just needs to be all part of the motion for the budget corre so Mr
Martin okay so I move that the school committee adopt at FY 2026 budget of 84,4 38,45 with a transfer from end of $250,000 toward the operating bud budget
and a transfer from end of $416,500 debt payment for the Dy high school bond and a Dennis operating assessment of 20, 261,000 for a total dentist assessment of
2,54 $ 7,743 and a Yarmouth operating assessment of 42,47 7,342 and a Debt Service of 2, 388,000
423 for a total Yarmouth assessment of 44 m865 765 have a we have a motion do we have a second so we have a motion to a second discussion Mr
Glenn uh just first um was your the finance subcommittee um vote unanimous it was a 3 to three 0 decision yes um so can we and I don't know who this goes
to maybe Mr Ferris I don't know um can we do this type of um adjustment to bonds uh at any other time of the year can we only do it during the budget process my understanding is we can only
uh transfer the end at this time yeah you have to make the decisions on what you're going to do with your end during the budgeting process okay and and I've always been uh of the mind I I didn't have a problem with it over the years
that other people did um with going into eend um but I always listen to them and your scenarios that we did before um were you know it's warning us about what could happen next year um and so we take
out of end D whenever we were talking about before what if something happens well your whatif scenarios could be what ifs and I just want us to be be aware that if we make these decisions you know
we could be caught short um what is the percentages of um how does this break down percentage wise over the town's um two and a half do we know what that is now if we chose this option it won't
affect the operating so the the amounts are still the same so the town of Dennis approximately is 330,000 above uh the 2 and a half% and the town of Yarmouth is approximately 880,000 because again we're not affecting operating costs we're just talking Debt
Service so operating costs in all three scenarios do not change great what the taxpayers in essence directly get a benefit from us paying the debt service because the towns are responsible for that payment so the the taxpayers necessarily won't see it on their operating however that
money from the towns will come out won't come out of their taxes because we'll be paying it directly out of our funds got it thank you so much anyone else Marilyn it's my understanding that we
are allowed as a regional school system or all school systems allowed to keep 5% up to 5% of end and what is that what is our amount and by sort of depleting it what will be our remaining percentage
so uh so right now uh our sir hold on give me two seconds wrong folder so between the last meeting and this meeting our we got our certified end report back from the Department of
uh Revenue a current current certified end amount is three 3,257 ,22 we were last year our certified end amount was 1,880 88,9 um as I mentioned we're committed
in our um uh our our step down plan to commit $250,000 towards the operating cost and this commits this this particular um
option commits the district to 46,7 $150 and then the finance committee has a recommendation from the superintendent to also then transfer uh at a later date not at today's meeting
at a later date to transfer $700,000 from end into Capital stabilization to support the long longterm capital um plan which would bring the district's
end roughly back to where it would be it was at 1.88 million it would be at 1.89 million oh and sorry and then to answer so 5% uh roughly it's a little over $4
million uh of our if you look at our operating budget is is 80 million roughly 5% is is is 4 million Jenny and just maybe a finer point on Marilyn's question would also be
that if we do later transfer $700,000 from end to Capital stabilization that puts Capital stabilization somewhere in the 3 million ballpark so just so you see the full pict what
we've got sort of then the capital St stabilization is not bound by that 5% so by moving that 700,000 it would keep it and you from like a money management standpoint it it doesn't earn you as much interest income
as well from in your end as it does in your Capital stabilization just for your money working for you as a school district it earns you better money in your Capital stabilization account Jenny um for transparency um Marilyn and
others of the table I was definitely on the fence at the finance committee meeting about this transfer to cover the debt payment I I have concerns that once you make a payment like this you become expected every year to make a payment like this um and that definitely
concerns me I I think that we should be saving for that rainy day that I think Joe Glenn was just alluding to by transferring money into the capital stabilization and you know the end is essentially you know our free cash at
this point and we have a lot of projects coming down the pipeline so I was on the fence about this um in the end I did vote to support it we are you know working on our relationship with the towns and
um considering the increases to Dennis this seemed like a fair option and you know we are making a payment like this in good faith and showing our
good faith and um hoping that uh when we are when we have to go back to the towns for capital projects that um you know that same collegiality will be there uh up fromont this might border a little bit on a comment when I saw the new
inverse and all of the scenarios I was trying to make sense out of it and I went I'm not sure what it means so I went back and I said I think you're trying to help everyone understand uh what would happen if it
was on the yarma side versus what would happen on the dentist side so I went back and dug this up which to me is the graphic that helped um and it shows the this is from February 3rd presentation it shows the total minimum contribution
on a bar graph over time of about since 2019 and then the same thing in a line graph I'm wondering did you have an opportunity to still keep that in the packet when you presented to the yarma town committee because I can see some of
my Kindred Spirits are in the audience and this will be included so Dennis will see it as well thank you thank you just a point of order um I forgive me if I'm I I just don't know um is this a public
hearing did we already have a cycle of that and so this is the this is the final vote Okay so we've had public hearings we've had numerous presentations this is okay there's no public comment okay got it we've had a motion a second and discussion and if all discussions now we'll have a roll
call vote uh seeing none I'll ask for a roll call vote Mr Glenn I Mr new Mr Morris I Mr Martin I miss Landers Miss beus hi
and I vote Yes have anous so we have our budget for 202 FY 26 thank you for uh Dr Smith and all of your team Mr Ferris for hopping in in the last hours um thank you to both Town's Finance committees
select boards um Finance teams as well as uh Town managers who have met with us for several months to to get where we are today so thank you uh moving with that we'll move on to our uh strategic
plan so yeah just while the slides are getting changed I just want to just before leaving the budget I do want to say that it has been you know I learned a lot last year going through the process and I have
been um like really like just I don't know more of a personal comment than anything in that uh I've got a lot of support and help and um great conversations with both towns across all the boards across the staff you know um
in similar roles to mine uh it's really been a collaborative process um um I know that the uh a comment was made that was more directed towards my role um in a in a positive way um at one of the
board meetings but really it really couldn't have happened if I hadn't had I said it takes two to tango but that's not really a great analogy because it's three towns so I don't or it's three groups so I don't know what the dance is that involves um three three folks but
it really it it's like a wall W Waltz is in three quarter time right um Mr new so maybe it's like a waltz I don't know but um I think it it really required willing Partners across all the groups and I
really felt like I never felt like I didn't have anything other than willing Partners to engage in these conversations so it's been uh I've really maybe enjoyed is the wrong word just because it's it's it's laborsome but it's definitely I I've really felt like I've had willing willing um dance
partners the whole time all right moving on so uh at the last meeting we went over uh uh superintendent goals and I mention that we would come back for a strategic plan uh update so that is uh the purpose of this next
presentation so um H as I've been mentioning we have three large strategic objectives so the first is to eliminate disparities in Access and achievement for every student um we do that by um promoting um uh
student Independence uh we do that largely by focusing on tier one instruction um and and uh and a and a focus on not not only tier one instruction but through the materials that we're providing with students through professional development um Etc
the next is focused on uh establishing consistent districtwide systems for support uh in order to ensure organizational Effectiveness I've mentioned that this is like the business of doing school that there's a lot of ways that we can get better in how we do
uh our job as an organization and I've used the comparison that we're roughly 630 employees Cape Cod 5 577 net Airlines 700 we're somewhere in between there and there are a lot of ways in my first year or so that I've learned that
we could get um more efficient as an organization to ensure that our students are having better experiences so this that OB objective is really aimed at that uh and then the third one is addressed at the long and shortterm capital needs and Facilities needs for
the district so uh last year uh or uh the way we got to where we are is so taking all the information that was learned during the first year uh here a superintendent and all that data that was gathered not only
by me but by the the team and and information that have been gathered prior to me Al arriving that I just organized um we spent two days in July and two days in August to establish those objectives that you see there and the initiatives that I'm going to review
again with you in the upcoming slides um the entire leadership team got together to do that work right um and those were the days largely in July and then in August we came back and in August was F focused primarily on developing Okay so
that's a 5-year plan so what are we doing in year one and one year year one helped us establish again what does it look like in one year if those are fiveyear things and then what are we going to focus on because there's a lot of initiatives we can't do all of them uh because if you
try to do too many initiatives all at the same time you do none of them well so what are we going to focus on so what you'll see over the next series of slides uh is one I'm going to show you which ones we prioritized so those ones will be highlighted in like a bluish
color um and then you'll see the one-ear action plans followed up I'm going to show you a key to which will demonstrate sort of where we are in progress on those action plans I didn't share that level of detail with you when we first came um because I didn't want the slide deck to be super long um I shared with
you the initiatives I shared with you the objectives um but now you're going to see um the it's a little more granular and so that you can see where we are um in moving some of those initiatives forward because the initiatives are still kind of big because they're supposed to be spread
over multiple years so the uh in strategic objective one we had uh improved tier one instruction for every student uh through uh high quality tier one instruction professional learning um
and regular monitoring for improvement um and then we had developing a comprehensive multi-year professional learning plan those are our Focus areas for this year um and while we might be moving some things in these other areas these weren't our big Focus areas for this
year the first one a and 1B were really our Focus area for this strategic objective so I'm going to show you the key and this the only time you're going to see it so pay close attention uh so when you see green that's something we've accomplished it's met um yellow is
something that's in progress um orange is behind schedule uh and and uh red is something that we have not yet started so uh so again this is these we took each of these initiatives and we drilled down to like what are the
specific action steps that we actually need to accomplish in order to get those things moving forward and then we set time bound dates we set who was going to be responsible for those things um and so this is right off of that action plan
I just put them in the PowerPoint uh um and everybody in the leadership team has copies of these we work from them we review them periodically and so this is where we are um working towards so that first one
finalized the Dy dcap dcap is District accommodation plan uh we had one that was probably like 20 years it was long long old um and so the leadership team that dyt the team loves my acronyms and I to
say that with um they don't um but so Dy instructional leadership team so I have different groups that meet on regular basis um with different purposes so instructional leadership team is is the leaders whose job function is function
on instructional leadership so it's made up of principles maras it's on that group but like um the business team doesn't sit on that team because their main purpose is not on instructional leadership all the principal sit on that group Betsy and Cherry sit on that group um and there's a couple other key roles
um our El coordinator instruct techn not ross' technology job because his job is more focused on the it side but we have another assistant technology director whose job is focused on the learning side so she sits on that group um and because I believe that we need to meet
but I also believe in wasting people's time so I really try to structure the groups as much as I can to meet for purpose um anyways so that group uh worked to finalize the Decap and then we're in actually just had a meeting today where we were working on that second one on
what is it that we're looking for um this is sort of an iterative conversation we're having it on a regular basis um I thought we would be able to get there faster but we're still working on exactly what it is we're looking for um for tier one um and so we
created a um a document but that document keeps changing and evolving but we definitely created a debrief protocol um and then again sort of clarifying what it is what the expect expectations are I don't know if you want me to read all these to you but you you can see like a lot of things have
been completed a lot of things are in progress um we're a little behind schedule on sort of how are consistently and clearly are we going to manage uh and review data part
of that is how having a consistent place to find our data and house our data and look at it in a consistent way um part of it is um determining what are the key things that we want to focus on um part
of that is like the schools might know U but then what are we looking at at the district level part of it is like one school might be looking at things in one way or one set of um pieces and not in another or might be strong in one particular curriculum area but not another depending upon the grade level
so it's more about consistency than not having anything um and then uhh and then I can't read that lot next one the fuzz oh uh and then I think we have some
learning to do around our plc's again making those consistent across the district and how we're utilizing them and then um we again we're having consistent meetings uh between the directors the principls instructional coaches those are ongoing um uh in
monthly meetings moving on to the next one um the the first one kind of drives the second one so the second one I think we thought we were going to be able to get into a little bit faster but we realized we actually again have that conversation
today that we really needed to learn more about um our PD needs before we could actually develop a PD plan so we actually we're talking today about scheduling our last round of learning walks and that that will be really informative in helping us move um our
professional development plan forward um as a team so this one is is had less progress U this year um than maybe we originally had ambitiously set for ourselves this summer so next moving on strategic
objective two um focus areas being uh establishing a system to capture and house student data and then telling the Dy story uh to amplify and sustain a positive Public Image and then the last one being uh
establish a set of core values that drive consistent practices so looking at this one um we made some good Headway uh my really my only job was to establish a subcommittee um I was able to do that
one on schedule and then that subcommittee has done a lot of work uh they've met regular L uh Miss Pontius just chaired that subcommittee with Mr hansam from the middle school and they have met regularly and they're working their way through the process they
remain um largely on track um to deliver some information back to the leadership team and this sort of ties back to some of the earlier conversations on one of the other initiatives and largely their job is to determine where um you know
what where do we currently house data um how are we using it and are there hold like big picture is there more effective ways for us to collect house and analyze data U within the district like largely
on the student information side um but part of their charge too was to determine um what is it that we want to be able to um essentially like what questions do we want to be able to answer it's really
sort of what should drive your data look for is is like what questions is it we're looking to answer um that that and if do we have the data in order to be a be able to answer those questions so that committee has been working through that process and they're large I think they have one more meeting um and they'll be largely concluded and then
they start moving into determining you know do we need something that we don't have and then uh this next piece is around uh largely the public relations piece um and so we know we've hired uh our
Communications and community relations coordinator uh so those are the first couple of steps and then um she has been working to both as an individual and then with the leadership team to dig into things that exist like
understanding the the Dy Advantage is that something that's still reflective of Dy is that the direction that we still want to go as far as our image our our um uh our a is not the right word
our yeah yeah our uh our branding that was the word I was looking for um there's a a survey that went out not too long ago to the entire leadership or to entire School Community around all the different ways that we send information
from REM mind to the website um to um to social media channels Etc to understand sort of a base get a baseline on on communication from the district and use that to help shape uh our Direction going forward it Forward um trying to
centralize uh Social Media communication um and and then U but there's some things that we haven't accomplished yet which is sort of the intersection between what's going on at the buildings and on the district level um but a lot there's
been a lot of progress made in a short period of time um with that position um just getting some things moved forward um from a district perspective whoops wasn't intentionally zipping by that one all right and then
this one largely has been a failure of the super inant um if I'm being 100% honest so and it's just been because I haven't been able to get to it uh so this one is largely sent centered around create uh
re visiting and uh perhaps adopting a new set of core values for the school district as a school district we have uh like if you look at look up the school district and look up core values there's something
there it's a triangle and there's a bunch of words in the Triangle um and I've surveyed and I've come across it a couple different ways I'm not really sure and I think I've mentioned it here before it's not really clear about who we are and what we stand for as a school
district if you go to other districts and you look up their core values they're much more clear about you know we believe these things this is what we stand for um and I think it just becomes a little grounding especially when you find yourself in difficult times it's something for you to fall back to and
say well we're making this decision because in Dy we believe these five things these six things whatever they are and so I I have some of these things done in some
pieces but largely what I want to do is lead a community effort to draft a set of core values to ultimately be adopted by this committee um it's it's just a big job to facilitate a community effort
and quite frankly with some Key Staffing changes and you know I just haven't got to it just I've got drafts of ideas and I've got whole framework for how we're going to get there and I just haven't have yet to launch it um so I am definitely behind on um as you can see
by all the red um on this slide stuff that I was supposed to have started in October and it is now February it's on my big whiteboard in my office every time I look at it it makes me not feel so good about myself all right uh move yeah yeah yeah yeah um I
can't even point to somebody else in my office say this is your fault nope it's me um all right so then the third strategic of objective uh is developing multi uh we really were going to be focused on a multi-year capital plan and
then the the that sort of ran parallel to okay so if we're going to have a multi-year capital plan sort of parallel analyzing our ability to fund different pieces and then determining sort of what might be some other appropriate funding mechanisms and this one you're is going to see another a lot of red too because
this one largely fell um you'll see it sort of Look Down line there a lot of assistant superintendent for business and finance um was a key cog in the wheel here and losing that position um you know made it really difficult to
move some of these things forward um we had um we do have a we a a management program in place so we have a we purchased um oh shoot I just not easy CIP I think it's called um that it's the
same tool that the town of Yarmouth uses to uh manage all their capital projects so we have that in place and some of that um sort of backbone stuff has been set up uh and so that structurally is in place but and then we have a a bunch of
reports and we started get you know David had started Gathering all the reports to start to load in there and set up the structure but um that's about as far as it's gotten and so this this is probably going to remain fairly red uh just sort of preparing the committee for the next time I give this report until we're able to get another
full-time um person in place to move this unless somehow some other parts of my schedule free up and I'm able to devote some time in to this um it's going to be delayed I think a little bit by a little bit longer than I wanted I wanted to be further ahead than where we
are right now and then so the same on the funding side you know um again another key cog in that wheel um was to was to velop some pieces and then bring it to the to the subcommittee for the school committee to start to move some of these pieces
forward that brings me to the last sign for any questions Jenny is there anything we can do to help you move some of this stuff forward or I mean I mean maybe the timelines were just very ambitious and you need to
sort of rethink some of the timelines on some of this stuff especially based on Staffing changes and things that are GNA um affect this I don't know what we really could do but can we I mean do you need additional subcommittees do you
like what would is there anything so I would say two things so one you know I sent this out to the team and and actually if you if you look at it through a lens of it's only been six months right so there's actually a lot of stuff that's been accomplished in six months uh
so that part I think we we have done a lot in six months two yes we were pretty ambitious and so we've learned a lot and we'll take that into um our planning this summer for a year or two and I
think the third layer is that um I would rather we had some things that we didn't accomplish then we accomplished everything and didn't push ourselves enough to right so there's like a little bit of a balance there um and then the I don't know I'm on
three or four now yeah um I think I think there's there's a layer of some unpredictability right some of some of the some of the things that we weren't able to and and some things that are red like they should be read right now because they they're not started because we haven't even got to that you know
they're like spring of 25 we're not in Spring of 25 yet if anybody was outside today you know that right um so some things we shouldn't have gotten to yet anyways um um I guess I could have left them blank maybe it would have showed a little better on the screen but you know
we haven't started them yet um and then I mean no I don't think so I think from a participatory standpoint you know when we get to the core values work you know I would like to have some committee members and some committee participation
in that um I just need to get organized um around it um but I think think you know you know and we're still some days it feels like I've been here for 10 years um and then like tomorrow it'll probably
feel like that when I'm going to go to the dentist select board and the arm select board in the same day um but the really like as a team at least from my perspective they've a lot of them have been working together for a long time but sort of just getting a
management structure together we haven't really all been working together for that long as far as dist distribution of work and understanding sort of what my expectations are as superintendent right so we're still figuring out how to all work together um so I think you know
we'll take that into learning and developing for next summer as well um so I think those are all you know again I I was actually pretty proud when I reflected back on it I was actually pretty proud of how far we've come in just six months
was we really finished this up at the end of August you know started launching some of the stuff in September so we really has been a fair amount done in a short period of time oh yeah I didn't mean that to me criticism at all like I'm I think we're all I can't speak for
everybody but I've been very pleased with all your initiatives and how you've been working through things so that was no no no yeah I didn't take it that way okay and then to bounce off that the you know the F Finance subcommittee has been prioritizing the budget and we had
created a capital stabilization fund but we haven't met mostly because of dealing with the budget so there's opportunities for that subcommittee to meet and I see Mr Glenn has his hand up as well yeah I was I you know I was thinking about when you were talking about a lot of that stuff I you know the
core values and feeling bad about yourself but I was thinking about your dance analogy I was like you know if you think about how it used to be it wasn't take two to tango it was take two to tangle and uh you know it was more like a break dance uh in previous years so I
wouldn't feel bad but the core value thing I I can't imagine what like I understand you're kind of getting a hard time getting a Gras point because I I don't understand you know what could be
these other districts differences you know what I I don't know if it's different from a mission statement or how it is but you know what what possibly could their identity or their core values be that are that much different than you know what we're
trying to accomplish so that that would be you know I I would I wouldn't say don't worry about it because you set it for your goals and uh you didn't meet that thing but you know I I just feel like um we we have made a lot of progress and the things with the
community are a whole lot healthier that than you know what they were before uh so it's uh you know in the in the fin Finance committees and the other committees and and the response so far from the towns have been very good on on
the budget stuff so um I just uh i' I'd like to help on the core value thing but I I I can't get a grip on what exactly that would be anyway perfect thank you so much for that um for that update uh next we're going to move to subcommittee
Representatives leison report first will be school committee leison the select board you know we've talked about both select boards I know we've met with the numerous anything additional Mr Glenn you'd like to add for your armas uh just um so uh I attended remotely uh the
finance committee uh meeting and then obviously uh Mark met with the selectman I was present there too but um they uh you know he's going to obviously go back to them so the jury's du out but every
everything looks pretty optimistic so thank you Marilyn anything for Dennis similar I know we've already met with both of them and I think just the superintendent is correct with the finance committee joint meeting with the select board in Dennis is
tomorrow at 4:30 at Town Hall thank you uh next we have a school building committee update yeah um so the the bids are out for the tur Fields
the uh PMA Ren and a um I forget exactly the appropriate term but when the prospective biders can come and walk to site Etc that was um Friday I think and then uh bid openings are on
the 12th and then uh we'll evaluate and then PMA will be at your meeting on the 17th uh to make a recommendation for the committee to assign a uh to award the bid yeah so that'll be
on the 17th Mr new so what do you think the timeline would be with the bid opening on the 17th are we looking for the project to begin in June July August September um
as soon as the contractor is ready to go although at this point we're like in probably be into the spring season so we'll probably start in the summer I don't think logistically they're going to be able to start ground ready um although I missed
the last meeting with um PMA because well you'll see in my superintendent's report the um msba was on site so I I was double booked but um I can confirm exactly and that's a good question for
them when they come um but I don't anticipate I at this point we'll probably have to get although we have made plans for the spring season um on alter alterate sites we work to the town of Yarmouth um on Alternate sites for the spring season so we can adjust
because that was the original plan was to start during the Spring season uh so we are ready to go in the spring season if uh need be ideally I'd like to only affect one season if possible um that's sort of the
goal not to stretch it into two seasons what's the timeline do they think uh for finishing the project is it something that is months uh two three months yeah it's it was uh I'd have to go back and review
the my notes from the from the conversation but it was uh it the largest challenge is the lead time on the on the field as long as we can on the like the top layer you know on the new turf when they take up the old one they
won't be able to put down like you can't put the carpet back down you got to get a new carpet um and so the as long as the original lead time on the carpet was something in the ballpark of like six months but we've got some assurances
from Sprint Turf who's the the who's the carpet designer that they we they will bump us to the front of the line uh so then the project scope was originally somewhere in the ball Park of 3 to four months again assuming no problems with
weather and any other hiccups and challenges so the anticipation is for potentially be done by September again assuming that they're able to start right away they're not in the middle of another project yet thank you yeah Mr
Glen yeah just so I'm I'm trying to remember um what was the last input from the district council and and the reason I asked this when I'm thinking going forward to not repeat the same issues um
we had talked about like warranty type of situations but we haven't had a meeting as a board with that so I'm just wondering where that is yeah so um so ultimately so the last
conversation that the committee had was regarding what you're discussing was with the current GC on this project um but the committee voted I don't remember exactly when I have to go back and find the exact minutes the committee decided
to go out to larger bid and move away from the GC from this project because the pricing we were getting back through their subs was um rather expensive um and we were worried um with the committee's decision to file suit that
we would potentially not recoup all of our losses because we weren't seeking the best possible price so we ultimately went out to suit went out to bid um to get the best possible price so we're not
that conversation isn't really Germaine here because we're with a whole we're going to get a whole different general contractor on this project it's going to be separate from the GC on this building project but is there such a thing as a
warranty as much as you get on any big building project yeah okay thank you next we have the policy subcommittee uh a first reading not sure who's doing the policy first reading so it's uh policy jfbb school
choice update so it's in the packet I mean we can everybody can this is the first reading so everybody can just take this read it go home read it see if they have any questions bring it back to the policy subcommittee if you
have questions or issues right and then we'll vote on it at the second reading right yep okay so it's it's in it was in the packet submitted so it's included in here yep just before you read it I just want to point out to
the committee that uh when the subcommittee Met Maria Glenn and I decided um the language is pretty much accurate from what masc Mass Association of school committees uh our our current language was up to date but what we
thought we would do instead is sense all Cape towns participate in school choice we decided to look at their Pages how they inform the public what the application process is what the procedure so we sort of borrowed and
were inspired by the work of all the others towns Among Us and uh decided to spell it out a little bit clearly the procedures so that's why it's went from five to 12 steps thank you so much for the
explanation uh Finance subcommittee we disc discussed um everything prior uh prior to our budget so that is complete there um next we have superintendent
report all right thank you uh so starting off with some recognitions so uh up on the uh start with uh up on the screen folks uh can see the some a group
of students from Mr bro's various 3D art classes that were recognized by the Scholastic art uh Awards so I was actually fortunate enough to see some of these in their sort of creation stages but just wanted to um you know again we
have so many great things going on in Dy and all the different ways that students get to display their talents and their levels of Excellence so just wanted to let the committee see some of the the great art that's being done at the high
school this again the 3D side of art um but these all these students were uh honored by the Scholastic art Awards um up up at the high school that was a little dark it's a little hard to see but see a significant number in
different types of me mediums yeah so I thought that was pretty pretty outstanding um Additionally the uh Dy honor band and advanced grade five band performed yesterday at the Providence Bruins game uh as a great opportunity
for our students uh to have a you know just another great performance uh opportunity and experience as well as an opportunity for our amazing uh or to showcase our amazing dolphin talent and then last week uh in this room right here the Dy Middle School had their stem
night uh it was a great uh event for students and families to engage in learning centered around computer science chemistry and Engineering um it was great uh great turnout and it was so nice to see our students families and staff all interacting in stem
learning moving on to uh the msba school survey so last week um as I previously uh mentioned the msba was on site uh for two days so this was not in relationship to our uh
invitation for eligibility for the MS me small school so every five years the msba conducts a Statewide School survey um it's actually been 10 years because the last one was interrupted because of covid but um every five years
they conduct a school survey of all the school buildings in Massachusetts this helps inform their strategic planning and helps inform their uh long-term uh strategic budgeting and essentially the school survey is a very
detailed um uh look at each building and the best way for me to summarize it is we get a an Excel spreadsheet for every building that has about 350 questions on it for
every single building um and they the msba s sends a contractor out um well first is an an an online interview that happens a couple weeks ahead of time and then they send somebody on site and both through questioning and through touring the
building um they we work collaboratively to get all their questions answered um so uh between Wednesday and Thursday La last week they did this building they did Ezra Baker uh Station Avenue and the high school because Emmy Small's already
been invited in they didn't do that that particular school and I really just have to give a huge shout out to Steve uh foser um he did hours of leg work ahead of time to complete have have the all the questions for this because I mean they want everything from the amount of
therms that each building's using from its eat plant to the kilowatts to the number of classrooms to the number of uh classrooms that are designated as science labs that have heat that I mean that have propane that have running water that have the number of Windows
the square footage of the roof the square footage of the gymnasium like the amount of detail that they want for every building is pretty pretty significant and he did all of it ahead of time so it spent hours again for each building um did hours and hours of work ahead of time so that when the
contractor was on site the meetings went very very very very fast um and actually bought I had like two full days blocked out of my calendar and he bought me hours of my days back so he gets a huge shout out um and same for the principles the principles had like each had like
four hours blocked out of their days because to to support this and um because of all of his work bought people significant amount of time back um and then next in the uh the committee has in their packet um a memo and
then this is like 30 something pages 40 something pages of the Articles of agreement from the collaborative um so this is just to give you a little bit of prep next meeting the new collaborative director hope hansam will be here to give to answer
questions and give you a little bit of further context um but so uh you all may or may not know um well you all do know that um Phil's your representative to the collaborative but I also serve as the superintendent
liaison to um the cap cob collaborative because I don't have enough things that I volunteer for um so um the board voted at their last meeting to admit Plymouth as a new member to the Cape Cod collaborative so that's the first step in the
process however that board doesn't have the full authority to uh change the articles of agreement which is needed in order to bring a new town into the into the collaborative each uh member School
District needs to take a vote uh on whether or not uh and it's a certain I think it's 10 districts have to vote in the affirmative in order for it to ultimately pass so what you have is a memo which sort of outlines this from
the collaboratives uh legal council and then you have the amended articles agreement the only thing that's amended in here is any language pertaining to um the member districts and there's some like clean up cosmetic
stuff in here but it's essentially allowing uh to become a member of the cape God collaborative so in the meeting on the 17th in the school committee's business
you will have uh a motion to consider whether or not to vote yes or no on um allow the changes to the article so I gave it to you now to spend time the Articles agreement time to consider um about whether or not to ultimately to
allow Plymouth into into the um into the collaborative um and again hope hansam who's the new director will be here she's you should see her calendar she's got to hit every single school committee meeting in the month of March because this all has to be done by April 1st I
think um and to get it to the department Ed in time uh so uh I think that's about it trying to look at my notes see if there's anything else I had to mention um articles changes no um I think that's
it oh all right briefly I'm sorry I didn't hear that first word there's 722 Pages a read and you could to the collaborative board of
directors is one member school district for the for the board to meet needs a quorum and it's fortunate for the zoom meetings that we can actually not have to drive drive from Provincetown to uh Osterville in order to attend a meeting
uh so attendance is high relatively speaking but it's also a comparison a chance to talk with other school committee people about their home issues and their needs for the collaborative collaborative answers a lot of difficult questions about costs and transportation
for sped families and and and the appropriate uh academics needed for for Success so it's been my my honor and my pleasure to have been on the
board uh 20 years or more but Paul hiton the executive director was an incredibly organized individual uh and it comes from a family of sped directors and sped teachers he's
turned it into quite a uh quite a show piece and which in right now in our backyard you the old LCM building has been renovated so I did talk to the new director about having a tour
by the Dy school committee membership to take a look at it when at a convenient time so any questions I'll be glad to pass them all on you notice I don't try to P it myself as the answerman but rather
the conveyor thank are you raising your hand or clicking your pen yes Mr Glenn uh just I understand this is a kind of a emergency type of addressing an issue
but do we go over a um this agreement periodically and the reason I asked is because I know like the towns have asked about our regional agreement and I know that that was supposed to be done periodically every 10 years or something but I'm wondering
if this is also um something that we do yeah the collaborative agreement yeah um yeah I I don't know the answer to that question because I'm I'm just learning I've only been serving as the liaison for I don't know
since I forget when I signed on but for a little while um so that would be a good question for hope when she comes next week um she and but I also she might need to get back to you because she's she's been doing it less time than I have I do know uh she mentioned at the
last board meeting um that she they will likely be back within probably a year or so there's other things in in the agreement that they'd like to address I know the superintendant have had some conversations about like looking at some things in the agreement uh and that
she's open to consider in as a new director and working with her board on so there's um there's some possibility that they'll be coming back with but this is like an a bringing Plymouth in is like a thing that they're working on right now um but looking at the overall
agreement is something I know she has on her strategic they're working on strategic planning so it's something that they're they're considering um so there's a good chance within the next year or so they'll be back with some other changes for the for this committee to and all the other committees to consider um so but that would be a good
question for like if there's supposed to be a regular review cycle I haven't gotten into it with that level of detail I read the section that applied to my job and some other sections because I'm not a voting member I don't have a vote I just am there to bring information back to the superintendent do we have that type of
uh thing on the calendar in the future for our agreement with the towns uh we do not I know a oh we off the agenda not really on the agenda that's not on the agenda the the document we're looking at says it was
revised in 2015 and this is the first revision since then in 10 years so I I don't know what their policy is for revision but this specific one says it's 10 years old there if I may add there is a rather
complicated series of monitoring and mentoring responsibilities from the state to the set of collaboratives around within the State there's a necessary to compare notes and adhere to
certain standards uh as you might expect Dee does it for traditional schools and the Board of Education or the department of education does it for collaboratives as
well yeah so any any other questions I would I would assume we can ask Hope next week prior to to our vote uh next we have school committee business business or our consent agenda which is the minutes of February 10th 2025 move the consent
agenda we have motion a second all in favor say I any opposed any abstained perfect Bill requisitions and payrolls which are in front of me calendars um since we voted and have passed the um budget I would say we do not have a
meeting on the 10th next week um so on the 11th and the 13th uh we have half days for all schools and those that do participate will have parent teacher conferences uh we have a school committee meeting on March
17th then looking ahead to April um on the 18th a half day for all schools and the 21st to 25th will be April vacation looking forward that far um and then I know we talked about the um Advanced
band being yesterday in Providence Bruins I know uh I'm not sure about the high school but I do know that the Dennis Yarmouth intermediate band similar to that band is going to be marching in the parade this Saturday um it's something that's really big the
Intermediate School is looking to start we know how great of a program the high school has um and they're looking to have their first event of marching um which I think they'll be on a float but some of us wish we would be and some of us may be on a float uh instead of
marching but uh it's great to see the continued stuff with our AR and as I said we do have dates in March um that we'll make public for the two um musicals for the Intermediate School the middle school and I know we discussed the high school having there so we'll
make sure that all of those dates are published uh and public comment we have anyone looking to speak for public comment seeing none or at the next the last part I move
we adjourn motion and we second all those in favor say I