Welcome to the Monday, May 4th, 2026 meeting of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School Committee. Please stand and join me in the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States to the standy. >> Thank you. May the fourth be with you.
I had to do it. Uh welcome. We'll start with our student representative report. And I see Miss Deo. Welcome. Hello everyone. Hope everyone's had a good weekend. Um, so not too much has developed since last week. Um, AP
testing has begun. Um, I believe today was the first day. Actually, I know I know today was the first day. Um, last Friday we had National College Decision Day, May 1st. Um, we wore like our college sweatshirts and we took
pictures. It was very cute. Um, so today boys tennis um is at Old Rochester. girls are at Nucket. Um, so we got a lot of sports going on. There's 18 days left for seniors and 36 for the rest of the
student body. Um, this week, and I'm not sure if it goes for the month or just this week, but it's National Teacher and Nurse Appreciation Week. Um, and I was going to say the joke, but I can't anymore. It wouldn't be funny.
So, that's it. Thank you, I'm sorry I took your joke. I should have looked at your notes. Uh next we'll have an evidence uh presentation for the superintendent evaluation from Dr. Smith. >> All right. Good evening. Uh first, thank
you again for the additional week to get all this put together. And uh the committee uh has a copy or a link to this presentation uh via email um as well as link to the evidence folder with all the the linked evidence on this
presentation is I'm not going to click through every piece of evidence tonight. just in respect for your time as well as some of this uh evidence is really just for you all to look through as it um is um you know some of its internal
communication but again for the committee to be able to to review and look at but I am going to go through this uh you know review everything that's presented tonight again the committee has access to all of this information if for whatever reason you can't access anything just shoot me an
email um I'll be happy to change any permissions but it should be So, you should be able to access everything. Um, you should have gotten uh the documents for you to complete for your individual evaluations from Sarah uh the end of last week or the middle of last week.
Uh, and I'm I'll show you in a second as well as the in that in the folders are the quoteunquote directions for just sort of remind you the process. Um, the rubric to use for evaluating the superintendent is in there as well. So
everything you need should be all in one place for you to uh should be one-stop shopping. The the you're going to see a summary of my goals, but the details on the goals are in there. So again, everything should be in one place for you as a committee um to be able to um
to do uh your job, this one this part of your job. Um and uh and I think what the the chair is looking for is for committee members to have uh your portion to Sarah by uh Monday, a week
from today so that then the chair and Sarah have next week to do the summary report so that by your next meeting that can be presented and voted on because again one I don't see the individual ones the one summary gets presented by the chair the committee has discuss on
the one summary presentation then that's and you know potentially could get amended but whatever you all ultimately decide and vote on that's the evaluation for the superintendent I know for a couple of folks this is new so just just quick highle summary of the process all
right so um just a quick review there have been four goals that I've been working on throughout the year that you all uh approved way back in August and then to each of those goals you all each approved uh focus indicators that are attached to each of those. At the end of
the day, what you're evaluating the superintendent on are the standards. Uh but we agreed couple years ago when we talked about this evaluation process that we would tie the goals to the standards so that we're working the superintendent working forward towards
uh moving some goals forward, but then we would tie those goals to the actual standards that you're responsible for evaluating on. And so when it comes to the standards, you know, you're going to mark progress, you know, met um significant progress, some progress, etc. But then at the end of the day, you
also have to provide a rating on four different uh standards. And each of those standards has an indicator and you all determined uh uh or approved the focus indicators uh on the rubric. As I mentioned on here are linked just
some uh references or some other documents for you, the detailed version of those goals. So those were just the high level sort of summaries but each of them had specific action steps. So that that document is linked here as well as I gave a similar similar one of these
presentations at the midyear in Februaryish. So that do that um which has additional evidence linked to it and additional descriptors. That slide presentation is linked here. Like I mentioned that quoteunquote doc the directions document is linked as well as
the uh about the rubric the that actually has the different ratings and the uh the language for sort of what qualifies each of the langu each of the ratings is also linked here. Okay. So looking at the four goals, the
first goal was focused around communication and the main purpose of this goal was to really try to expand communication channels uh that we uh expand upon existing communication channels here in the school district. um and trying to find
other ways uh to both receive and express information u uh to stakeholders uh that are relevant to um to those stakeholders and as well as inform the decision-m process here in the district. So beyond what I've already shared, uh I
had mentioned that we had conducted a climate survey and that I was using focus groups um to follow up on those uh that climate survey data. Uh I still have one more group to meet with. Um and I've been summarizing the themes of
those uh focus groups as I go through and we'll use those the those themes from the focus groups in uh planning this summer. So when we get back together for leadership retreat, uh the themes that come out of the those focus
listening sessions will be one of the topics that we'll use. Uh we focused on two sort of main areas or the the focus sessions were focused on two main areas. One was around student behavior and the second was focused around staff involvement and decision- making. So
we'll bring that back to the leadership retreat and use that for action planning as we find them what are the common themes across all six of the focus staff focus groups that I had. Second um was around two listening sessions that I had with the community. Um so like the
broader school community it was really focused on school community mostly parents but it wasn't all parents. Um and I've I have shared the summaries with the school committee in separate separate communications already. Um both
those uh sessions we were also able to record. So we were able to share those digitally with families that weren't able to attend in person. And so there's a great way not only for us to receive information but then also disseminate that information to families that weren't able to attend in person. And
then this year, you know, as the the budget itself has become a significant point of communication. Uh and so beyond the traditional ways that we've communicated around the budget, we really looked for some different alternative ways to communicate around the budget. Uh was able to work with the town of Yarmouth to get on their podcast
this year. Uh and then we scheduled a communication or a listening session. Again, we were able to record that listening session and share that out with the community at large. and then designed a short informational video
around the the budget uh which created another multimedia way of sharing information. So, and then in-person presentations to uh the ar senior center, excuse me, Rotary presenting at both town meetings once tomorrow night.
So, it's a little for future casting. Um and then obviously all the school committee but that was sort of already our traditional methods. Uh so then going off of actually it was something Miss Beimis had said to me uh at midcycle around sort of how do I
forget exactly how it was phrased but basically how do you know it's working was the gist of what uh she had asked and so I started thinking about sort of measuring the impact and so looked at several different data points
for this particular goal and so when when you go on as of few days ago when I went and grabbed this data, the shortformational budget video has been viewed 348 times. So, um I can't tell if you know that's one
person viewing it 348 times. Um but it's been viewed at least 348 times. Uh and then the information session uh was 411 times. Uh then the Yarmouth podcast I don't you know you can see the YouTube views but they're
also on multiple other channels right so it's a podcast so you can get it on Apple podcast Spotify podcast you they they so that was a little bit harder for me to get the metrics I just know it's in all those other places um then looking on our parent square platform that was something that we
rolled out this year 99.4% 4% of our families are reachable on the platform. Uh as of again a few a few days ago, 14% of the families have have elected to receive that communication in a different language. Six uh percent
excuse me 14% in Portuguese, 6% in Haitian Creole. Uh feedback from our ML pack. So our ML director uh did uh listening sessions of her own during her um ML pack meetings. Um one of the
things that she asked about was uh parent square and one it came back very highly rated as being very user friendly. We had other mechanisms before but they noted that this particular mechanism was even more user friendly for them. Um and then 55% of our users
have engaged with a message in parent square and you know if you figure a lot of families there's at least many families is like two people in the home right so if if 55% are interacting with at least one message that's we're
fitting a hitting a fair number of homes that are interacting with a message right so it's one thing to just to see it but then they're like because you can appreciate you can respond like this this is a back and forth tool like mine when I send one out, it's one way. I I don't receive messages back
from the three or 5,000 potential recipients, but you can like appreciate a post. It's like liking, but like at the teacher level, you can if you can message back and forth with your teacher, right? So, that would be another version of interacting. Um, so
again, 55% have um interacted. And then I shared a bunch of data, again, it's linked there around our social media presence. But no matter how you split it, whether you're looking at engagement, interaction, views, and or the amount of time actually spent on our
content, all of those are up. Uh, and it just shows that we're building a consistent brand um and gaining traction around positive uh engagement around DY. Um, so just that our that the time that we're spending on this is working and people are spending more time seeing
about all the good things that are going on in DY. Next was uh a focus around improved tier one instruction for every student. My particular focus on this was around working with the leadership team around
the newly adopted uh observation and evaluation tools. uh that was co- uh adopted between the there was a a team of leaders and uh teachers that worked already a year ago to adopt a new
revised method. The school committee adopted it. So this year is the implementation year. And so my role was working with those leaders on uh calibrating. So what what does it look like? We've got one of the one of the pieces of it is a new observation and
evaluation tool which is much more concise. It's focused on four areas for um that we're observing when we go into the classroom. And so throughout the year I've been we have a dilc stands for the dentist with the leadership council. It's when I have all the leaders
together once a month. And so we've been working on observation calibration. I've been running training sessions around what is it we look for when we go into the classroom on these things? What does feedback look like? One of the goals has been to provide uh more frequent um
specific tailored feedback uh to uh staff. My last one that I just ran was in March uh at our March meeting. I'll continue to meet with the principles monthly. Our focus of those meetings is also on this. We're using a particular text to focus on how we
provide that feedback. What does that feedback look like? What do the feedback cycles look like? what do the meetings look like when we're having um providing that feedback and then their job and then we also talk about okay how do they then bring that back to their assistant principles right because my job is to work with them their job is to work with
their assistant principles so I'm helping them with their leadership capacity with their assistant principles and then another piece another layer to this is we do district learning walks at least three times a year per school uh and so those are non-evaluative right so
you're not so but we're using the same the same language and again that's another uh method to calibrate. So when we go out and we look for like one of the pieces is around learning objectives is one of the things that we're looking for consistently. We're going out in
broad teams and looking and collecting all that data and then we're coming back and we're not then saying, you know, the this individual teacher. We're saying, what are the patterns that we observed across, you know, let's say we might have gotten out into 30 or 40 classrooms
over a two-hour period? What are the patterns we observed in principal X's school? what's the feedback that we're going to give that particular principal about how then they can take the next step in their school in a broad way for professional learning um and to help
them uh and any decision- making that they need to take the next step. So what that's resulted in is as of April 28th when I pulled the data because one of the focus areas is around more frequent feedback sort of in the traditional
teacher observation model a proficient educator might have gotten one longer observation once a year and like all the research will tell you that one piece of feedback once a year is not really
effective. The goal is for us to provide shorter observations more frequently and give more concrete here's like one small thing like when if you think about it like athletic coaching, right? You don't tell, you know, a soccer player like everything that they need to fix from the beginning of the soccer game to the
end of the soccer game. You talk about here's like one specific thing that I want you to work on and when you work on that thing, I'm going to give you the next specific thing that I like you to work on to improve overall our performance in the game. and taking a similar approach
to instruction. Here's one thing that I in one concrete actionable thing that's going to help improve practice and that you and I can both agree on you uh that we'll be I'll be able to observe the next time I come in and then we'll work on whatever the next thing is and
whatever the next thing this idea of continual improvement that we all can get better. I can get better as a superintendent, principles can get better. everybody can continue to get better at their practice regardless of where they are. And but that requires frequency, right? Um so we're we've as
of this time, as of April 28th, we conducted 90 more observations than we did all of last year. So we're ahead of pace, ahead of schedule. And then similarly, when we look at the learning walk data, we've been comparing learning walk data. So what it's hard to see um on the screen here, but what you have on
the top is from one of our schools. um is February versus April. And if you could see it um but it's really small, it is on the top you'd see data on um two you'd see like the amount of or the percentage of classrooms that have
learning objectives posted. Um and so at the top it's I now my contact rotated and I can't see the number but I think it was like se Yeah, it's like 45% but on the bottom in April it's up to 80%. Um so again that that
was a focus area for this principal. So you know we collected some data in February which is our mid our second um observation in that particular school and part of the protocol that we use is to uh talk about glows and grows. What
did we see? and give the principal some um suggestions on how he or she may uh bring ideas back to the faculty and then they enact them and then we come back. Right? So you can see here like focused movement that the principal has made on
and then this is data that we're able to bring back and you can see the movement based upon um again the learning walks. We're not giving those individual teachers feedback, but we're giving the principal data and it's like a problem
of practice. We're working it with the principal. Then the principal is then has information and suggestions from all their colleagues on what they can do in between the learning walks which are usually like from one principal to the next. They're two or three months apart. So then it gives the principal some time
to enact something whether it's through their faculty meetings, their early release times to then till the next time we come back. Third goal is around uh organizational effectiveness and planning and this one centered around uh
improvements to uh operational effectiveness. This one really kind of aligns with our second um strategic objective. And so, you know, part of this was working around or trying to improve some of our antiquated systems. I've talked a little bit about, you know, some of our processes that are
really still paper driven. Um, Dr. Gillson's talked about some of the things like that she's done with like grants management that came out of our audit reports. Um, and so one of those is the uh things that have occurred since the last time we were here is the
development of the uh capital uh plan. It's ready to go. It's it's just waiting to get all the way through the um it's been to the committee and it's gone back to subcommittee. It's waiting to um I know that the the subcommittee was scheduled to meet um ran into a conflict. So that the the capital
planning subcommittee just needs to meet again and then it'll come back to the to the full committee for approval. Um, and then the um, a leave approval is one of I've met I've told this story multiple times before, but if somebody
needs to take a day off um, sick time, personal time in DY, they fill out a piece of paper. That piece of paper floats its way through the system until it ultimately ends up on the payroll coordinator's desk and you end up with a stack of them like this and then they get manually answered in the system. Creates opportunity for human error. If
there's any questions, it has to go all the way back sort of through the system in order to where the question can be answered. Um, creates all sorts of delays in the processing. You know, does somebody have the appropriate amount of time? It's hard to track because, you know, it takes a while for it to get all the way through the system, etc. So,
we're in the process of um a phase out. We've begun a phase out um or yeah, phased roll out, not a phase out, a phased roll out of a new system. So, the first part was opening what's called employee access. So, Dr. Gilson's team has led the opening of employee access.
So as of today or um as of actually a while ago, everybody can access employee access. I'll talk about that in a minute. And then we're in the process of rolling out um digital leave um yeah digital leave again. I'll talk about that on the next slide. And then
um and then while was not sort of originally a part of the goal as Dr. Gillson and I have come to work together, part of our communication and as getting to work our time working together. what has sort of folded its way into this goal is working on consistent
communications and practices for um financial updates um and both internally but then also with you all right you've come to get regular quarterly reports the way that those look that they're consistent um and so again just really
trying to have these consistent um approaches to the way information is shared u and that whether it's you, whether it's the finance committees, the select boards, and then whether it's internally that everybody can can start to expect things
in a consistent way. So the these measurements are a little bit more or they are more they are entirely output driven versus outcome driven. I was having a hard time finding like what would be the specific metrics to measure these. So I looked at like what were the
things that were created. So we have um a phase roll out of employee access system. So at this point all employees can access their paycheck and they can access their W2s so they can get into employee access and then at this point we have an increasing number. So at the
central office everybody puts their leave in um and there's approval mechanisms. So like Dr. Gillson as example I'm her supervisor. So if she needs a day she puts it in now in the system and I approve it. Uh we've now
rolled that out to the principal level and the administrative assistant level and the assistant principal level. The next fa phase will be then to test it at a school level because it's it we'll start at a school. Um but you have to you know it's all about making sure
everybody has the appropriate supervisor so that when so and so puts in a leave it goes to the right person and then from there it gets all the way flows through the internal I don't really understand the yeah it's like a thank you that's the word I was looking for. It's a workflow so make
sure that it gets all the way to the right person so that ultimately it ends up sort of in the the payroll coordinator's cache so that she can then fi hit the final button and that it ends up in the system and you know Tomas's leave gets assigned to Tomas and doesn't
get assigned to me. Um but that Tomas's leave got approved by Dr. Gillson because um Dr. Gilson's Tomas's supervisor and in some places it has to go through two people. Um so it's about making set up to go through two people before it gets um to where it needs to
go. Um so we're again we've been slowly rolling out all that stuff. Um again a systematic report to quarterly reports. Um and then you'll see uh a memo for uh standardized
process for sort of extraordinary leave requests. All almost all the contracts, the collective bargaining agreements have um agreements around when people can request for um personal time, um unpaid leave, etc. So, I've
been really trying to be consistent about how I approve those as superintendent. So, drafted a I originally had just put out a memo, I mean, excuse me, an email a while ago, but I realized, you know, we've had a lot of turnover since then. So, uh, I drafted a memo that will now become a regular memo that I put out once a year
just to because, you know, we just there's a natural turnover in staff. So, if you weren't here when I sent the first email out, you don't know about the process. So, it's really about making sure that people understand that this is the this is the process that we go through. Making sure people have enough lead time. Um, you know, I don't want somebody putting in a request to
take some personal time that they already bought tickets for and it's in two weeks when I need four weeks to be able to go through their personnel file and um, and they probably shouldn't have bought tickets for something that they don't know if they've got approved for, right? So, I just want to lay all the
expectations out appropriate and that's what this is uh, meant to be. And then the last part is about uh, capital um, is drafting a capital plan. And then the last goal was centered around um the uh it's really the third it third third
iteration of this goal. We've been moving excuse me rolling out our uh safety protocols and building off of an infrastructure that was here and sort of maybe revitalizing an infrastructure that was in place. Uh we
put in place our our standard response protocol. I love you guys. For the last two years, we also put in place a technology based app that helps uh
us implement that uh that protocol uh through again through an app uh just went off earlier this morning um for holds at one of the schools. But like so like district staff like myself get notified when anything's going on across the district, but then a school based
staff gets an alert uh when it goes on inside their school, tells them what to do. We can account for all the kids. Um and then if it's a certain level of an emergency, the emergency goes out to emergency responders. Um and then the next level is reunification. So, if we
had a big enough type of an event where kids had to leave the building and could not go back in uh and we had to put those kids back together with their families, that process is called reunification and there's a uh
it's part of our standard response protocol with I love you guys. I love you guys has a process for doing that. Uh so we started this summer uh with some of us getting trained in that process and then our uh tech provider raptor I keep pointing to my phone. They
have a uh they have the I love you guys protocol as an app uh add-on as well. So we are this um this summer we there the very so our last day is June 25th. So on
June 29th, we'll be holding a training for uh all of our all the um affected staff to uh get trained in the app implementation. Plus, we'll run a largecale drill uh to be able to
implement um the the reunification protocol in the district and then we'll start running our own drills uh next year. So uh all that that has been planned. The date's been set. So again, these are outputs, but this summer we attended,
there was a lot of several of us that trained attended a joint training uh that was put on by DY, Barnstable, and Cape Tech. Uh and then it was from then that I learned some key stuff like I can't be the reunification lead because I'm going to have to be doing other stuff in that type of an emergency. You
know, imagine like sort of some of your worst case scenarios like a plane flies into a building or like just some giant fire or God forbid, like an active shooter scenario. Superintendent's going to be involved in so many different things. They're not going to be able to be running reunification. Somebody else
is going to have to be running reunification while I'm managing the whole scene. Um, so I had to establish who was going to be the reunification lead, who's going to be charging that specific part of it. And it can't be the school leader, right? So, because the like if a school is affected, let's say
it's this school, you know, this school is going to be managing the kids and the staff that are affected by whatever the crisis is that they're dealing with. So, they're going to be in charge of managing the the students and getting the students from place A to place B and managing the needs of of everybody
that's involved in whatever that crisis was. So, you need another team that's in charge of running, you know, greeting the families as they come in, being in charge of all the accountability measures. There's multiple steps that are involved. So, it's really going to
be a central office function. That's largely who's going to get trained along with support that might come from other schools. Um, and then so again, I assigned a central office staff member to be in charge of it. So, established who that person was going to be. Um, we established incident command structure
gets who's going to be in what roles. Um and then um establish the training date which is again is for the Monday >> pretty much yeah the last Monday in June. Uh and then all the backbone stuff that needs to be set up in the app has been set up uh so that we'll be ready to
run the training uh in June. And next step is just going to be to recruit some volunteers but we're going to do that when we get a little bit closer. We're going to use high school students and families to help us run the training. Um and will be off and running. Um we're going
to have joint um we're going to have public we have a our public safety partners will be um joining us to talk through like you know in a full scale like police will have a role they don't run the reunification but you know we'll
need help with traffic support you know uh uh fire will have a role um in you know as needed to provide medical care you know as needed. So, we're going to have all those partners there observing the drill as well. Um, so then we'll
have a large debrief after it's open. Our our safety team is already made up of uh public safety u members as part of our safety team. Uh we don't always have the higherups um at those meetings, but the higher-ups are going to come and observe the um uh the the the drill
because again, if this was a big event, you know, the chiefs will be there, the assistant chiefs will be there. So, we want to make sure that those people have an understanding of what this process looks like so that um we that they have all their policies in place and all their procedures in place and that
they're thinking about their training so that you know we're not all figuring this out for the very first time. God forbid we have one of these events. >> I'll take any questions. Any questions? Yeah, I just have a I have a question as
it pertains to the um employee access. Um I just wanted to know is that something where who has access to um change and correct and update the employee hierarchy to make sure that you know for people who retire in the middle
of the year and people who you know hire on Paris you know pier leave you know turnover and such like that so that you know that we don't get fall behind. Yeah. So um it happens in one of two places. So it happens either with our payroll coordinator. She actually has
played a key role in setting up the system like in and the approvals and the flow. Um and then it the like onboarding and offboarding of employees happens in our HR department. So we have two staff
that handle that that portion of it. Um so yeah. So I think that answers your question. >> Yeah. I just I didn't know whether it was whether we had to, you know, notify like the third party that was kind of overseeing everything or whether or not we had, you know, multiple people that were able to kind of access this if
somebody's not available and such. So that's >> Yeah. No, it's handled internally at this point. Yeah. >> I'm not even sure exactly how to ask it, but I think so. We have these four goals which
are all intended to improve the education that we are providing for all the students whether it's how we communicate with their families the tier one instruction their safety streamlining you know internal
processes so what are the sort of big picture factors what are the big picture measurements that we can look at you know we look a lot at MCCast data but that has so many variables and
you know we we're really striving to improve the reputation, but how will we know when we're getting there? Is it looking at student retention and recruitment, students not leaving the
district, students coming back to the district? Is it or more anecdotal stuff coming from the feedback parents and students and not necessarily anything you have to answer tonight, but um yeah, that's what I'm thinking about.
>> Yes. So, I don't know whether to answer your question or go with what you said not to. So, >> if I didn't want to put you on the spot, if you have some ideas on that tonight, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, I just want us all to be >> thinking about that. >> Yeah. So, I mean, interesting for when I
get to superintendent report. um like maybe something uh to discuss like over the summer to think about um some it's it's part of it's a little tricky for us to think about um sort of the cycle
right so like like I'd love to to have conversation around like you know like what do we want to tie to because I do think I should have something and I think Marilyn's even hinted on this like like
what's what is my effect on student achievement or to your point around like we could look at school choice in and out data but then we would need to just think about how and it's and it is possible um the timing right so like MCCAST data
isn't going to come out until it's going to get some of it's going to get released in the summer and the then the official data but so do we move the superintendent evaluation timeline to a different timeline than what it currently is. Um, do we you do
have the option I'd have to look I forget exactly how many years I have to have been doing the job, but you do have the opportunity to move it to a two-year cycle. I just can't remember how long I have to have been doing the job for a certain amount of time. I don't I don't remember what it is. It might be four
years. You might be right. Um and so there there are options um for but I know other superintendents who are on different um evaluation timelines because their committees want certain data to be in right so you know we could
investigate what that is and what that timeline would be so that you know I'm not I I don't have like summitative data to present because it's not going to be in yet. Um if that's the committee wants some of those pieces to be included in here and goals to be centered around
some of those things then we could I do have like last year's school choice data u but again it's all again I'm not opposed to any of this just we we want to think about it holistically right so if it's if you want to do something around retention um
but I also have to think about like what do I affect right so like last year's school choice data is is last year right so you know in place, when does that goal start and then like what's the what's the direct impact in one year on
school choice? Right? So, just sort of like thinking all that stuff holistically through. Again, not opposed to any of that. Just sort of thinking it through from a timeline standpoint. What's the direct impact in one year? Um or is there a different metric? >> Yeah, I think it would be hard to say
sort of year for year. Okay. wait until them cut stat rolls in do your revel like I don't think we can say that but you mentioned before looking at trends >> I think that's what's important here is to look at you know this is you know the third time we're doing this and maybe on
the fourth or fifth time we can look back and do sort of a cumulative assessment and say what have the trends been in your first five years right and it's it's hard to make change so quickly but um trends over time would be
important to look at. I think >> yeah, I think you know obviously for this evaluation it may be different but as we we talk about the summer programming and we look at the goals for next year I think you know the question is is there is there a metric right so you know do we have 3% less students
that you know migrate out of the district um you know do MCAST scores overall go up 1% what whatever it is I think it sounds like looking for, you know, some metrics. You know, if you get this, you meet, if you get this, you you don't meet, if you get this, you exceed.
I think, you know, some of us who have done other types of evaluations have metrics, but it's it's hard to say, you know, like for the website, you could say that our, you know, last year we had 2,000 views and this year we have 5,000 views. I know there's some things that you have data on, but not necessarily specific ones for the, you know, the
four points this year. Great great ideas and things to look at as we again as we work on this again. for the next next year's goals. Anyone have any questions or or questions about how to fill out the form? You can reach out to Sarai. It's
it's a PDF fillable thing. Check the box, type your comments, and then Sarah and I review those privately, and then we we make one uh evaluation that we vote on publicly. We discuss it from top to bottom um at our next meeting. Um and
the reason for the timing, I know we talked about moving talk about, you know, do we wait for MCCAST? The re the reason that we do it is we do it the typically the last meeting before there could be a change in our committee. So before the last election happens, so that the people that are voting and
doing the evaluation are the people that have been in for that for that full year. So specific data if you're looking for >> No, but the full committee, so the Dennis elections are on the 12th, right? Our next meeting isn't until the
18th. I'm looking at the calendar, right? >> Right. Our individual reviews would be in, but it wouldn't be the same exact people voting on the 18th or whenever you bring that final report back. It wouldn't be there's a potential for not to be the
exact same people ratifying it. >> Okay. Then uh next we have our literacy curriculum adoption for grades K to five. >> Good evening. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you tonight about HMH into reading and why we should
adopt it as our K to 5 literacy curriculum. So, you may remember from previous presentations from both me and our STEM director, Betsy Ponius, that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has placed emphasis on districts adopting highquality instructional materials. High quality
instructional materials provide a strong foundation for all students, particularly those from historically underserved groups like students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Materials are rated as high quality when they are aligned to standards. support teachers to make real learning real
world relevant, provide datainformed individualized supports through evidence-based practices, and are culturally and linguist linguistically inclusive. Desi defines curriculum as the sequence of student learning experiences that teachers facilitate using curriculum
materials as a foundation, not a script. A high quality curriculum contains both the resources and the learning experiences aligned to content standards organized in a systematic and comprehensive manner and include scaffolds for all learners to ensure equitable access and assessment tools to
monitor student progress towards proficiency. There's no one-sizefits-all curriculum that will meet the needs of every student right off the page. Planning effective instruction requires preparation, collaboration, formative assessment data, and most importantly, professional judgement.
The district has an established process for ensuring the adoption of high quality instructional materials. This slide provides an overview of the steps followed in selecting the literacy curriculum for grades K through 5. The complete document can be found on the district website under the office of instruction tab.
I would like to thank the committee for their commitment and perseverance in following the process through. Caroly, Kevin Deon, Cheryl Greon, Valerie Kelly, Mary Cronin, Jennifer Domingo, Meredith Henderson, Lisa Coocha, Michelle Dawson,
Kyle Clement, Jalan Sylvester, Sarah Heisner, Kirsty Hilton, Mara Meis, Kelly Renzy, Adrien Bogle, Erin Lubash, Neilie Martin, Colleen Frasier, Megan Higgins, and Alex
Lagodinos. The committee had agreed to consensus as our decision-making pro progress pro process meaning that it would be highly it would be the majority opinion or general agreement. This gave each member the opportunity to share their reasoning and explain their
choice using specific examples from the program as it related to our rubric. Of the 21 committee members, 19 chose HMH into reading. My view Savis and Amplify CKLA each received one vote. And here are some of the reasons why the
committee chose HMH into reading. Go back one. Uh the curriculum strongly aligns with the appropriate grade level Massachusetts ELA learning standards. The key components include explicit systematic instruction of phological awareness and phonics instruction, daily
instruction, writing and grammar, and the use of both authentic trade for vocabulary and comprehension and decodable text for reading. It incorporates proven instructional practices supporting foundational skills, language comprehension, and reading proficiency across grade levels.
The materials include targeted strategies and scaffolds that help students develop the skills to understand, analyze, and engage with various texts. The program incorporates writable, which provides targeted practice aligned with state assessment rubrics and utilizes authentic
standardsbased writing tasks based on the authentic text and prompts. It enhances student capacity to consider diverse perspectives and it has effective and rich methods to measure student progress including formative, summitative and weekly module assessments that are and it is also
aligned to NWA MAP growth providing teachers with data to form flexible groups. In the memo shared on May 23rd, 2025, it was announced that the curriculum review committee had chosen HMH into reading to adopt as the district's literacy program. In order to ensure that the
full implementation was successful and to give the district ample time to budget accordingly, one classroom at each grade level in grades K through three and two classrooms, one from each PLC, grades four and five, were chosen to pilot the program in its entirety. We invited all classroom teachers, special
ed, multilingual learner educators and interventionists to submit their interest in serving as the HMH interreading pioneer for the 2025 school year. Responsibilities of this pilot of the pioneer participation included implementation of fidelity following the
scope and sequence as the scope and pacing is outlined using the resources as directed participating in all professional development in meetings. Administer the assessments as directed providing honest and constructive feedback on the various elements of the program. collaborate with the colleagues
also piloting both vertically and horizontally to expect learning walks and observation from school and district administrators and to provide support and guidance for their colleagues in year two. I would like to thank the following individuals for their participation in our guided
implementation of reading. Kindergarten teachers Jasmine Schultz, Susanna Kryser, Stacy Greyel, and Emily Gallagher. First grade teachers Danielle Cash, Neilie Martin, and Alex Lagodinos. Second grade teachers Renee Lee, Adrienne Bogle, and Anna Ramsey. Third
grade, Holly Mitchell, Kylie Winer, and Colin Kelly. Fourth grade, Laura Smith, and Mara Misac. Fifth grade, Michelle Dunn and Kelly Renzy. Additionally, there were sped and multilingual learner educators and intervention teachers who participated based on their teaching
assignment. And last but not least, our four literacy instructional coaches who are here in our audience, Kate Bavino, Jen Demango, Meredith Henderson, and Lisa Coocha. This graphic shows the general flow of the daily literacy block in grades K through three. There are three strands
of literacy literacy learning during the whole class instructional block. Foundational skills, reading and vocabulary, and writing and grammar. As teachers begin to develop their instructional routines, the small group rotation becomes a part of the instructional model. We will be
implementing 120 minute literacy blocks in all K to3 classrooms so that there is ample time for instruction and assessment. Here is the instructional model for grades four and five. Starting mid year in grade three, the foundational skills shift to word study and continue on in grades four and five and are taught
three times per week. The literacy blocks will be 90 minutes for grades four and five. Along with all the instructional materials, HMH also provides helpful supplemental programs to support student learning. Amira is an AI powered evidence-based intelligent reading
assistant that listens to students read aloud, assesses their proficiency, and provides personalized one-to-one tutoring. It is grounded in the science of reading and acts as a digital tutor to accelerate literacy growth, offering micro interventions, dyslexia screening, and detailed reports for educators. It
functions as a benchmark assessment and dyslexia screener measuring reading proficiency without taking up instructional time. Amir listens to the students identify skill gaps in real time and provides immediate scaffolding for phonics, decoding and fluency.
Waggle is the K to8 personalized adaptive learning platform designed to build foundations and accelerate skill growth using AI powered technology. It offers interactive lessons, targeted practice, and educational gains aiming to increase student engagement, and provide immediate feedback. Often used
for independent independent practice, intervention, or small group instruction. Using MAP growth scores, students are automatically placed into groups to provide personalized skill development. Finally, Writable is a comprehensive AI powered writing platform designed for
students in grades 3 through 12 aimed at improving writing skills while saving teachers time on instruction and feedback. It serves as a tool for structuring the writing process, offering scaffolded assignments, peer reviews, and AI
assisted grading to assist both students and educators. I wanted to share a quick snapshot of some data from our Pioneer classrooms. On the left is the percentage of students in those classrooms who have achieved proficiency toward their grade level standards as of April. I'd like to
call your attention to the percentage in green. parentheses next to grades three, four, and five. That is the percentage of students at each grade level who achieved proficiency on the 2025 MCCAST. So, while the current percentage of students that proficiency is currently lower in grades three through five than
K to2 due to those larger gaps in foundational skills and learning, our pioneer students are performing at a higher level than previous years. I'd also like to give an honorable mention to the data for foundational skills. Module assessment data for foundational skills has consistently been in the 80
to 100 proficiency range all year from mod module one. I thought you might be interested in seeing some examples of student work. This story Joe the Dancing Pig Superhero was written by a second grader at EHB.
Can you buy tickets? Of course, honey. When is the competition? said Mom. Two months from Saturday, I said. I just can't wait to see you on stage, said Mom. Wait, wait, Mom. What did you just say? Stage. You know I have stage fright. Unsign me, please. Quick. Honey,
two things. One, unsign is not a word. Two, once you get signed up, you stay signed up. Oh, I said. Day of the competition, he had done great practicing. All he had to do was worry. Now, our last dancer, Joe the dancing big. Mom, can I have sunglasses so I
can't the audience. Of course, but only if you promise to do your dance. I do. And he sure kept that promise. The end. Here are two examples of responses to text from a fourth and from a fourth grader. Fourth and fifth grader. This is a common task that students will
encounter on MCCAST and has been an area of growth for some time. I'm not going to read them aloud to you because they are in your packet and much easier to read than our friend Joe the Dancing Pig. But I will say that the pioneers have consistently remarked from as early as module one that they have never experienced this level of student
writing output. Last month, we asked pioneers some reflective questions to allow them the opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts, and suggestions for implementation next year. We asked about use of the platform and resources, pacing, instructional practices, student
learning outcomes, professional learning and coaching support and insights from their year using inter reading. I have pulled a few from the results so that you can hear it directly from the teachers and not my version of the events. Not all results were sunshine and roses. Teachers did express their frustration with technology glitches,
pacing challenges, and resource management which were consistently mentioned. But in summary, here is their best advice to colleagues who will be implementing next year. For pacing and scope, do not try to implement every single part of the curriculum. Focus on key skills and high quality tier one
instruction, prioritizing pacing and getting routines down before adding components like skill groups. Aim for module two or beyond. Take it one day at a time. Expect to take time to master potentially until December or later. and give yourself grace with the process knowing that the curriculum spirals back
to content. For preparation and organization, they they suggest established materials and routines before starting as organization is a major factor in smooth implementation. And finally, on collaboration and mindset, they advised to trust the
process and be open to new ideas. And don't suffer in silence. Talk things out with colleagues and coaches as collaboration and training support are important given the program's extensive resources. Using the feedback and suggestions from the pioneers, the copious notes taken by the instructional coaches, and the
expertise of the HMH professional development team, we are beginning to map out what the first year of implementation will look like. We will start this spring by meeting with each professional learning community in grades K through 5 to give them a formal introduction to the program, provide them with the timeline, and answer their
questions as best we can. Teachers have been asking since December when they are going to receive their materials. So, we want to provide them with the voluntary opportunity to meet with their instructional literacy coach to unpack, review, and organize the many materials provided. The school year will kick off with the getting started session to
introduce teachers to the structure, essential resources, and implementation recommendations. Early release days will be used strategically, starting with the technical training for the supplemental resources. The October professional development day will be dedicated to the supplementary resources, Amamira, Waggle, and the
performance suite. So that using their end of module one assessment data, fall map growth data, and the foundational skills data from Amira to learn how to use all of that information for instructional planning. Weekly sessions with their instructional lit literacy coach and professional learning
communities will be used for unit and lesson internalization, pacing and planning, resource management, troubleshooting, student work analysis, and co-planning. This list is not exhaustive, but a representation of how teachers will be supported. Tonight, I am sharing our recommendation
for adoption of HMH into reading for grades kindergarten through 5th in the hopes that the school committee will approve our request for a five-year contract. This week, I will be submitting our for the prison grant partnership for reading success in Massachusetts to offset the cost of the program materials and professional
development. And here are the immediate next steps from now until August. And any questions, Dr. Smith? So, the only um and I realize now in
hindsight that I forgot to mention this um in my communication to you on Friday, but just for reminder, for clarity, um it's not approval of the curriculum. The reason it's before you as a committee is
because it's a five-year contract and by policy, anything longer than a three-year contract requires school committee approval. Um the the the funs already approved through your END motion. So, it's not about funding. It's really the five-year contract commitment
uh to this. It's their five-year licenses with this is included uh the consumables like we purchase it all up front. Um but it's committing to this particular group. It's a five-year contract and we we can't do that. I can't sign that as school commit as
superintendent without uh your blessing as committee. Just just wanted to clarify what we're looking for for approval from you. If and when you're ready to make that motion, that's what the motion is for. >> Any questions, Mr.
>> Thank you. What happens if uh we get to year three and the results are not satisfactory? So, we would still be in a multi-year contract. If there was something wrong that the vendor was doing, then we could we could file for like a breach of
contract. Um, we would have to do some uh soularching on what it is that we're um doing, but I would at that point we would definitely be considering about whether or not we're going to reinvest um after the after the three years. Um,
so yeah, I don't >> best practice it's generally at least three to five years before you see any significant change. Um, it's not going to happen overnight. You may see might see a bump up front, but it takes time. Think about our gap that's in our upper
grades because of the some of the lagging foundational skills. So, it's going to take a bit to fill those gaps as the students move up. But shouldn't we see immediate results in the earlier grades, kindergarten, first grade? >> We have in in those pioneer classrooms.
But um we have to look at it as a as the >> I understand looking at it holistically. We should expect results in the earlier grades that are good and then as you said there's going to be a lag in the later grades because their previous foundation was not as
good. So there has to be some work done there to bring them up to speed. But again, I'm looking at the overall picture. U if the results aren't there in kindergarten, first and second grade at the end of three years, which would be
realistic, right? We should see really good results by the end of third grade. >> Yes, we should start to see results right in the beginning. Um and you know if we point to the work the concentrated work that we've been doing in math similar approach um not only and we've
learned lessons from the approach that we're taking in mathematics where the sort of the I guess maybe traditional I'm not sure I even really like that word but sort of the way we've always done things in
public education is buy a new curriculum give everybody one day of learning PD on it on the first day of school, you know, right prior to the first day of school and then good luck, God bless, have a nice day. Um, my colleague in
another school district calls it hope and pray PD. Um, and then be shocked when you don't see any results is and is not a strong method. What we've taken a different approach with the math. Now,
it sort of was a reinvigoration in the PD because the was already in place. Um, but we've over the last several years taken a focused uh multi-layer approach on professional development. So, training for principles, training for coaches,
training for teachers to ensure that everybody's on page on the same page and now, you know, we presented data, we're it's working its way up through the system, but you're starting to see it now in the third grade scores, the fourth grade scores, the fifth grade scores. So what we've learned there is
how we're approaching this from the start. And so we would expect to see yes initial results like what you see just in the pioneer classrooms. We would expect to see that across all K12 because you know we've had this conversation internally. One of the
areas that we see in the data is foundational skills as as an area that our students are struggling. So we theory of action is if we put something in place that's going to address that immediately, we're going to start to see some immediate results in um foundational skills which is going to
prop up uh some of the reading achievement issues immediately and then the rest is going to need to work its way up to the system. >> Okay. And I I look forward I I imagine there's going to be some serious evaluation within the classrooms from the team that's out there as to how the
implementation is going and whether that the uh the educators in the classroom are following the protocols that are necessary to attain the uh achievement and the goals that you set for them. >> Thank you. So I'm curious, you know, what what the
big changes are from previous curricula to this one that make this one, you know, so successful so far at least in the trial and you know why it became the you know the choice going forward. You know
certainly I have no expertise in this area. So I'm looking for instance at the instructional model for K to3 whole class instruction foundational whole class instruction and guided practice build knowledge language
foundational skills reading vocabulary writing and grammar and then these small group rotations literary literacy centers small group activities and then independent practice. So that sounds really just normal to me, right? That's
>> probably what happens most of the has already been happening in our classrooms. Um, is it the quality of the materials that's different here? Is it the additional supports? What makes this bigger and better than previous? >> Um, I think as I mentioned there's a lot
of pieces to it. It's um the current model we have we have readers workshop, writer workshop and then phonics and word study. So, it's similar um planning within the founders of penel classroom was a challenge because there's so many resources that you have to pull from and
it's up to the teacher to be able to identify for each student based on their guided reading um data where the students are at and what skills um need to be um focused on within their instruction both whole class and and
small group. HMH has a kind of a more wraparound and everything is connected and the data collection alone because it's uh much of it is digital. It automatically pulls
that data in um and gives the teacher that not only that whole class view but student by student where they're at within the standards, the writing standards, reading standards, language standards. we have access to data that we've on a daily basis that we've never
had before. One of the um uh charges I've given to the coaches is that they are to be collecting that module data weekly u weekly assessment data and end of module data constantly and we have a chart that we keep. That's how I know that from the beginning our reading
foundational skills data it's been well into the 80s and 90% from the start for proficiency. um and it measures it. It's subjective the teacher it's the um because the
students submit their their responses digitally. It's already keyed in. So it's not up to there's no there's no chance for error because we know technology. Um but it's already aligned to the standards. You know what each item is aligned to what standard. teachers know that from the ve very
beginning when they're planning. Um, so it's more thoughtful and comprehensive approach. Not that it's easier for teachers, but it's it is all in one place. And a lot of the resources that they provide give the teacher that roadmap that then he or
she can use their professional judgment. They can move groups around. They don't they're not like this must be this way, but it gives them a place to start rather than having to start from scratch every time. That answer your question? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> And I'll be looking forward to be able to showing you that data once we start
getting it. Um, which pretty quick. You shook your head at me. Um, I had a just a couple of quick questions. Um, the the supplemental programs of Amira, Waggle, and Writable um are all AI
>> guided I guess. I supported or whatever. I mean, is there I guess I I guess how much is it reliant on AI and how much do the teachers have the ability to kind of oversee and make sure that what's being spouted out of there is actually
accurate. >> So, it gives a cursory overview. It'll give you like for um Amir that's the that's our dyslex that would be our dyslexia screener that's required by by um Desi >> and Amir is actually rated meeting all expectations. So it's highly rated
according to Desi. What we have found is that um gives the teachers the ability to the students read the text gives the teachers the ability to go back and listen to what the student read so that he or she can then hear the student like Were they skipping words? Are they
messing? Are they um getting to the end of the word and not um pronouncing it correctly? Are they reading too slow, too fast? So, yes, it gives you a score, but we have access to all of the actual student work to be able to verify. >> Okay.
>> Um in writable, it's that cursory like I give the example if it's a response to text >> and the prompt asks for a claim and evidence and the student gets their answer. The cursory, the AI will give it that first level of
feedback. Did a nice job in your claim sentence, but you how about find going back and finding some more evidence. So, it gives the kid a chance to go back independently while the teacher is conferencing with students. They don't have to sit around and wait for the teacher to get to them, but the teacher
is the one who ultimately grades it. He or she has to go into the program to finalize the grade and give that more specific feedback. Thank you. Um, one more one more question. The, um, the
implementation schedule for 2627. Um, I guess how much the way that this looks now, it looks like there's a boatload of support and professional development and such from H.M.H. and they're going to come in and they're going to, you know, make sure
that this is implemented, you know. So, how does that follow through the life of the contract? And how much of this professional development are we going to get in year two, year three, year four? Is it going to kind of taper off until the end of the contract or is it going
to be kind of static where the teachers are going to have this much professional development and support? So the PD is um for year one that that the um PD that's included in the contract. As we move along based on our
data, then we make our decisions for what additional PD we need. One of the things that that we will have access to every teacher for the entire five years, it's called Coachley. >> Um and it's access to an HM expert. They're they're called coaching. Our
coaches right now actually um work with our J Taylor um >> one of them >> uh one of them um they meet with her every Friday so that they can be learning about u the program bringing questions to them that's coming up from
the classrooms but every teacher will have their own coachly coach that if they have a question on the fly they can there's like an instant messaging option and you can schedule meetings we envision having a coachly coach ing each
the literacy PLC's to help guide the teachers especially in year one but this is available to us for the whole five years >> in addition to what the coaches support and then any PD that we determine based on data and teacher and administrator
feedback we need from HMH the PD I don't want to say it's not inexpensive don't get me wrong but in the scheme of things it's the most affordable part of it you know the resources. You're paying to either have them come here or do virtual PD. And the
virtual PD is actually very good. Um so we have options that once we're in it, we can make our decisions based on what we're seeing. >> And so this um let's say I mean what about um teachers that are yet to be hired? You know, if we bring on new
teachers, do they get this year one level? >> Yeah, they have a um forget what she called it, but they they have I want to say I'm going to say implementation light and that's not what I don't mean like it's a cursory look at it. It's just not obviously full group. >> We're doing it with amplify ELA. We
we're going to have some new teachers. We need to train those teachers so they will get >> a day of training before school starts. So that would be a regular part um of our PD cycle so that every teacher had what he or she needed.
>> Thank you. Thank you very much. So I I fully understand how this is foundational and also meets the standards particularly K through three but around grade four you have students achieving at different levels. So what
opportunities for extension or enrichment uh are provided within this or would it be teacher supplemented? Um so um the Waggle supplemental resource does offer it's not just for remediation. There are extension
opportunities in there. At the end of each module there's a um performance assessment that teachers can determine based on the the data of the students in front of them whether it's a whole class or it'll be an extension activity for certain students. Um there's also
scaffolds built within the lessons. Um, like I said in my presentation, no um lesson is one sizefits-all. It gives you the objective, the materials, suggestions, and then the teacher puts the lesson together knowing the students
in front of him or her. So, it does provide um for both our our students that have some gaps and our students that are ready to fly. like to make a motion to approve the five-year contract for HMH
um into reading. >> Second that we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstain? Passes. So,
congratulations and we look forward to progress. Thank you very much. >> Turned it off. Next we have subcommittee representation report school select board. Um Yarmouth uh successfully um
got the right to add our budget to uh the ballot. So that will be on the ballot on May 19th. Yes. May 19th. Yes, May 19th for Yarmouth. I got all the towns up. And then uh tomorrow is the Dennis town
meeting in the uh performing arts center right next door. Um 42 items on the docket. 47. I'm sorry I cut out five. Tried to save you an hour. Um it will start early for them. Uh Yarmouth usually starts at
6. Dennis will be at 6 p.m. Um with 47 items. Um, most importantly to us will be the request for an override uh on that ballot which will be a week from tomorrow uh is will be that ballot for the town of Dennis. Anything else from
the town of Dennis? Perfect. So uh please uh anyone in the town of Dennis please come and support uh that vote. Uh next superintendent sport recognition of donations and acknowledgements.
>> Thank you. All right. Um start with some recognitions and some acknowledgements. So, uh, first, uh, the committee was copied on an email, uh, but I want to officially recognize a donation that was made by Mr. John Jameson of $5,000. the
donation the school committee does not have to accept because it wasn't made to the district but it was made to the DY band parents organization but it ultimately helped fund uh students participation in the recent WGI uh world championships for the winter percussion
uh so again just want at in Dayton Ohio um I know based upon our earlier conversation before the meeting started uh Mr. Martin was made sure all the equipment got out there um donated his uh probably his back and um backside uh to make sure the the truck got all the
way out there and back. But again, it was a $5,000 donation to the band to uh uh parent organization to fund some of the last minute expenses to that trip. So again, thank you uh to Mr. Jameson. U copy the email is in the school
committee's packet. Uh next, um just want to also in the packet for the committee, last year the school committee approved the renaming of the gymnasium at the station Station Avenue Elementary School to be named the
Patricia Watson Memorial Gymnasium um after a long time uh Station Avenue physical education teacher, Patricia Watson. Uh so the small team has or the small team that brought that petition forward to the committee has been
working with building leadership a designer um and the family to get the P plaque created to get a location in the gym um as well as get uh a plan organized for a dedication ceremony. Uh so uh in your packet is an invitation to
the dedication ceremony which will take place on May 22nd at 5:00 pm in the now um renamed uh Patricia Watson Memorial Gymnas. So you are all invited um to come in to the dedication if you are
free and able. Next uh want to thank another donation again that you're as a committ not going to accept because it didn't come directly to the school district. But um the Yarmmouth location in Papagenos had
a reopening um of their store and um as part of that reopening they uh all the proceeds from that reopening they donated to the the five PTO's um in the school district. So it was a total of just under $6,000 that they raised. And
so it ended up being um just under $1,200 that went to each of the So again, just thank you to, you know, I say it all the time, our local businesses, um do a great job supporting the schools. you know, here you're, you know, between the two different donations, you're talking about um
almost $11,000 in donations just in um one day to go support two different organization, two different organ Well, yeah, two different organization groups um uh you know, two different versions of parent groups that do so much to support our kids that are coming from
outside agencies. So, outside groups. So, again, very much appreciative of that, um support. Uh and then lastly, I just wanna um Ava mentioned it, but it is uh teacher appreciation week and nurse appreciation week. Um and this
time of the year that u you know I pause to reflect on uh teacher appreciation week but and not but and um go on to recognize there's there's a week or a day for just
about everything, right? So, you know, in my the email that I sent out today, you know, recognized that last week, I think it was last week, we had lunch hero day and there was school bus driver not too long ago. Um, and in recent days or weeks, we've had um school counselor
week. Um, we've had administrative assistant um week was during um April school vacation, I believe. Recent celebration for principles, um educative support personnel, and you know, many more. If I try to list them all, I'm
going to leave somebody off. Um, the important part here is that as a school district, we are an effective school district because of the people. Um, you know, I've been as I've been presenting on the school budget. One of the facts that I share about the school budget is
that 72 cents in every dollar, every budgeted dollar is spent on people. And that's because what makes the biggest difference for our school community, for our students, for our families, is the people that are in the in in the school district. And so, you know, I
spent some time trying to go through and thank each group particular group, but in summary, what I really want to say here tonight is that regardless of what people do, this week, this particular week is focused on on teachers um and
school nurses, but the And they they are um there's people from our teachers who work with our kids every day to the support professionals um who are in you know maybe big picture teacher roles but like our therapists
and our counselors to uh to the people who bring you know feed our kids every day to bring them back and forth to school to the administrative assistants to our leaders to our custodians to maintenance staff and again I'm going to risk leaving somebody off the list but the reality is there are people. Everybody who works in our district um
plays a key role to making sure our district runs um makes a plays a key role to making sure the kids are successful whether they work directly with kids or not. Um and if it wasn't without for wasn't for the people who show up to work every day, Dy would not
be what it is. Um so again, this is this is teacher appreciation week, but it's important for us all just to pause and appreciate all the people um that make DY uh what it is. And you know I close by saying like and it's a tough time to
work in this industry right this is a you know you don't have to go very far to find um people are saying not so great things about our industry as a whole and you know you don't have to go very far to find people who just want to
say some not so nice stuff about DY um but what I have to remind myself is it's not a big group right it's just a loud small group and you know I know we talked about it last meeting but over the last couple of weeks I've had some really positive uplifting things that I
just have to remind myself like one of them was I know we just talked about it last week was being at the um the DY Hall of Fame spent like four hours with people just gushing about this district and the decades worth of influence positive influence it's had over their lives and that was and none of them
talked about like oh it was because it was like this really great building or this really great like piece grass that I loved. It was all about people, the people that influenced their time that was here. And then at ontown meeting floor, it was the same thing.
Like there was a long line of people just standing person after person after person after person talking about the way the school district has impacted them in a positive way. Right? So it was really really important to be a reminder
of the influence that the people who work here have on the broader and it's because of the people and so I'm just I'm today um this week and beyond I'm very grateful grateful for that and grateful to be a part.
Um, moving on. Couple of uh as a separate flyer, you all have a uh invitation to the legislative breakfast. Um, so it was previously postponed, but the legislative breakfast has been rescheduled for Monday, May 18th. It'll
be 8:30 at the high school in the library. Um, if you uh you're all welcome to join. If you'd like to join, there's technically a link on here that you can't click. Um, so just send Sarah email um and she will uh RSVP for you.
Just you need to do it by uh next Monday. Um so while you're thinking about sending uh Sarah your uh evaluation of the superintendent, you can also say yes, I'd like to go to the legislative breakfast and she can um get you registered with the collaborative.
They just need to make sure we have enough um space for we're not know we have enough, you know, we're prepared for everybody that's going to be coming and as well as make sure We get you as the agenda gets worked out, we get you the agenda out so you know sort of what the topics are that are going to be discussed and everything in case you
want to be, you know, do any sort of mental preparing before the meeting. Um, and then next is the MASC conference. Uh, next year it will not be here. Uh, next
year it's going to be in Danverse. Uh so you know the the um the space is no longer um I mean it's still physically there but uh it's no longer a resort. Um
so MASC has found a new location. It is going to be at the Double Tree in Danverse November 4th to 6. Um registration has yet to open yet but it it's supposed to be opening soon. um once it does open uh we will send it
out to let everybody know. But I just wanted to sort of plant the seed if folks are thinking about going. It's a different level of commitment than it has been in the past, right? Where you just sort of pop in, go down the street to Hyannis, it's obviously a a different different level of commitment, right?
So, I just wanted to put it on your radar, let you know that the location is significantly moved. Um and if you think you might want to go, again, we're going to communicate with Sarah. Um, and it's just a just a different logistical commitment um than it has been in years
past. Um, we'll be like everybody else. Um, and then last but not least, as I briefly mentioned during the evaluation, I did want to, and this may be through the chair, if we want, we could spend a couple minutes discussing this now or we could discuss it at a future meeting.
Uh, wanted to start to think forward towards summer meetings. Um, really had a question. maybe um so first is around schedule last my first couple years here we've done um a meeting in July and a meeting
in August so is that the committee's continued appetite is to do a meeting in July and a meeting in August >> I'm seeing not so I will say that yes we will move to one per month >> then I can work to prepare uh some dates
and then bring that to a future meeting. Um and then the second would be around what those meetings look like. So a workshop and a business meeting, two workshops. Um and we don't have to necessarily decide this today, but then
if workshops, some potential workshop topics would be based upon some conversations that we've had over the course of the year. Um school committee goal setting. We kind of got to that a little bit late this year and I think there was some
conversation about well maybe we could do that during a workshop. Uh the regional agreement was a conversation that was me mentioned to maybe bring back to a workshop conversation and then potentially we could invite some folks from the other from the two respective towns to bring into that workshop
conversation. Um then the conversation just came up around superintendent evaluation and or any other topic that you all might want to have for the work. So we have the committee think about it and then we can add it possibly to next
next agenda and discuss it again with some time if there's any other topics that you want thought about or discussed that works. Thank you. You know just to comment on some of those things the you know the donation
from Papagino's um you know helped fund this week's activities for for many of the schools for teacher appreciation week. I I know station had a chutery board today. I know here at Dennis Sharma school uh bagels help helped us
provide over 134 bagels, cream cheese, uh danishes, muffins, coffee from Old King's Coffee House. I know station has pressed coffee has a truck, their coffee truck coming this week for them. Um the principles here have uh carts going
around the classrooms for teachers with goodies and you know stuff going out through all the district and you know that it's it's really hard when you have multiple students and multiple schools trying to fund raise and you know it always seems like someone's always
asking for money. So it's you know harder and harder uh to raise funds and it's and money is a lot tight. Gas I was in Boston yesterday. gas is 442 a gallon in Boston, 424 here. Um, you know, it's harder. People can give less and less. So, when we have partners that help, it
allows us to continue to do the things that we have done um with less funds. So, it's greatly appreciated. Uh, school committee business. Uh, we just have the consent agenda which has the minutes for March 2nd, 2026.
A motion to second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? Bills requisition payroll. I know as of yesterday I got like seven reminders that I kept forgetting to acknowledge. I think I was the third person. Do we still need a fourth? Okay. So again, uh
be better than me. And when you get the email and the reminders to sign digitally, um please try and do it. >> I know it shows the dates. makes me look really bad when I could see uh who did it and who didn't. And then our school committee list is getting smaller
and smaller. Um so May 18th we'll have the superintendent evaluation vote and then transitions program presentation from the high school and then we'll be honoring our retirees. Um and then having our school committee reor and then we'll have a calendar review
for 2027 28. So was very points and now it's very small. Um I know 18 for seniors, 36 for students. That's crazy to think about. Um anyone from the public looking to speak? Public
comments. Do not pan over. Okay. Seeing none, we have a motion to adjurnn. Do we have a second? Miss Marshall seconded. Get her name in there. Um any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I.
I. Any oppose? Any abstain? I can say May the fourth be with you again because Ava left. Thank you.