Welcome to the Monday, October 6, 2025 meeting of the Dennis Yammer Regional School Committee. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you. Um, as we reorganize and work on our student representative report, uh, we don't have super representative this evening. Uh, we'll move down to, uh, the superintendent evaluation. >> All right. So um
uh the committee uh well as you'll find in the packet some a um documents. So this is in August the committee voted to approve this the superintendent's goals which there are on the second page of the um documents. It's just another copy
of the goals. And so to support the committee in evaluating the superintendent, you'll find some documents here. This is um stuff that you've had in the past. But so the first is a memo just with the reminder of some of the steps in the process, the timelines
um and uh and an explan or a reminder of the explanation of the process, right? And which some of which I'm going to go over here in just a sec second. So that the first uh what or one page double-sided is a memo that goes over all this
including on the the second page or the back side of the front page is the some important dates which on on the uh shared calendar of upcoming agenda items. These are on these dates are on there as well. But
on the 23rd of February during your meeting on that date, I'll do a midcycle uh evidence presentation. Then on the 27th of April, I'll do the final evidence presentation. And then that is to prepare the
committee for by May 4th. Each member submits to the chair uh their individual ratings of the superintendent along with any narrative descriptions. And then that's so that the chair with the support of the school committee's
recording secretary can compile all that into one by the 18th that then the committee votes on by May 18th. Um so again the next is copies of the goals which the committee approved on the 4th
of August uh which include the goals, the key actions, the intended outcomes and the focus indicators. Um, we did find a couple of typos in the focus indicators where I had incorrectly transposed the indicator um coding. Uh,
so it doesn't change the indicator, but like for example, there's a couple places where I had like 3B where it should have been 3A, but it didn't change the um the actual focus indicator itself. Just quite frankly, it was just a typographical error on my part um that Sarah caught. And then what you have are
the supporting documents that will help you when it gets to the actual evaluation. So the next is the actual rubric that's used to determine uh proficiency. So just again and this is all in the um in the the the directions
but the committee provides ratings uh on my goals. uh so how am I progressing on my goals and then ratings on four standards and an overall rating so when it comes to the rating on the four standards that's where the committee agree to the focus indicators so to help
just with the focus uh any of the indicators that are not this area of focus or this year's area of focus have been stricken through I think I just turned that into a verb um struck through stricken through um anyways um
and then the focus indicators are highlighted in yellow. So that this just gives you the continuum from unsatisfactory to exemplary on um the state's terminology on what the superintendent should be doing in order to meet um you know the goal here is proficiency. Uh and so again for each of
the focus indicators that are part of each standard. So, for example, this year I'm focused on 1B instruction and 1D evaluation under the standard one. And then that continues for each of the standards. And then the last thing that's in here
for you is once you scroll through the rubric is the actual document that you will complete when it comes towards the end and and you can you're going to get um Sarah's working on turning this into a typable PDF like you've had in the past. You'll get that very shortly. So,
you can start entering this at any time um because there is stuff that gets presented throughout the course of the year, but you'll each get a copy of this. It's also in the folder. I know I shared uh a folder and a link to a folder with you all on Friday when I emailed you all that has all these
documents in there as well. So, you have digital access to them. Um but this is the form that you will all uh individually complete and then then a similar version of this gets compiled by the chair for the overall uh uh
evaluation that I I don't see your individual ones. I see I see the summary. Um and but and then what we did slightly different for this year as opposed to actually and by we I mean Sarah did the hard work and I said that looked great.
um is instead of uh striking through everything, uh she actually just um took out any of the indicators that weren't the focus areas and just left you with the ones that were the focus indicators for this year. Make made it a
much more visibly um more streamlined look and gave you more comment box area quite frankly to work with. Um, and again, you don't have to use the digital format. If you prefer to handw write your any of this stuff, you can just do it all paper pencil format. We'll take
it however best works for you all as a committee. And that again was just sort of providing you all with a quick update on that, providing you with the next round of resources and uh through the chair take any questions that you all might have.
The only comment I'll make is it seems under proficient in almost all of them. Half of the paragraph is in bold. I'm not sure why. Uh it's probably just the way it is on the site. I don't know if you were force shadowing your um rating, but for some reason it just half of all
the proficients are in bold. >> So that's from the So the state and you'll see that on the teacher rubrics as well. The state really wants educators and I use it in the very very broad text broad sense of the term from superintendent all the way down to
classroom teacher to really focus on proficient right and you'll hear I' I just said it a second ago you'll hear the department talk about this proficiency is a high bar so really want to they really deliberately draw your
attention to proficiency the way the actual new teacher rubrics are actually designed and the new principal rubrics are actually designed is they actually pull all the proficiency language out and put it front and center. And so you
actually don't have a uh landscape um rubric like that that moves from left to right. It's actually all front and center. The proficiency language is all at the top and then at the very bottom they give you the left to right for for the other pieces because they really
want to lift up that being a proficient educator is complex has lots of parts and so that's in the they haven't revised the superintendent rubric in a little while so this is you know still sort of in the legacy format but it is
again to draw your eye on purpose to the proficiency language. >> Perfect. I just noticed it and wanted >> I didn't I didn't do it. The state did that. >> I'm just >> it's just what draw me drew my eyes there. So I wanted to make sure I asked the question. >> Thank you.
>> Um so we have all the rubric evaluations. Next we have the subcommittee representatives leazison report uh for first one school committee leance the select board as we mentioned filled a couple days ago last week. Um the town
meeting will be on Monday uh November 17th uh here in our auditorium performing arts center. Um uh we will be meeting with um different uh parts of the town uh regarding the warrant in
regards to some of the things through the school between now and then um and we'll communicate that um as we meet with them. Anything from the town of Dennis? Um, Miss Venus, >> our our fall or special town meeting is in two weeks, October 21st. And
interesting enough, there are 21 articles. So, here at 7 p.m., >> thank you. Um, next we have uh there was a capital improvement subcommittee uh meeting that was held and Dr. Gillson has notes on that. If you can provide
those for us. >> I will. Um we talked about the uh two capital improvement uh projects that will be for FY27, one in Yarmouth and one in Dennis. Uh the major project in Yarmouth is going to be the Emmy small
feasibility study. The price tag uh is going to be 1.5 million. We ballparked that by looking at M MSBA data and uh the MSBA data presented was between June and October of 2024
and those price tags on feasibility studies were anywhere between $800,000 and 1.1 million. So by the time the study comes up in FY27, the 1.5 million seems like a realistic
number. Considering that the square footage um of Emmy Small is 45,600 square ft and the price tags on the 800K to 1.1 million were 73.600
square ft or uh 73,600 square ft. There was another one in that vicinity 91,600 square ft and another building for 79,000 square ft. So then we talked about the directions the capital plan
was going to take for FY28 and beyond. We have several projects that are in uh dire need. Um and we are going to uh prepare them so that the school committee we discussed how this we
wanted to prioritize the projects and it was the feeling of the subcommittee that we would do a presentation on the total capital plan with priorities being established by um our internal personnel
and then we would look to the school committee for a vote to approve the capital plan. So that's in process and the subcommittee will have meetings throughout the year. >> Okay. >> Any questions for Dr. Gilson? And I know
we talked about in part of Dr. Smith's um goals and evaluation, but we did switch to the system that the town of Yarmouth does to putting all of our items um FFN and all the items that we have throughout the schools into a system with a cost and the life
expectancy so that we have a plan and expectation of when they may need to be replaced. you know, some of us, like I know my refrigerator is 35 years old, but if you bought a refrigerator 10 years ago, it's probably uh already needs to be replaced. Uh but, you know, chillers on the roof and things like
that and other buildings. >> I'm going to add one more thing. As I mentioned, there was one project for Dennis that we're going to focus on this year, and we need to do a feasibility study on Ezra Baker. And so, we're going to put that up for FY27.
And that's going to be a study that will address ADA, the American Disabilities Act compliance, uh looking at the life systems uh for mechanical in uh electrical and plumbing that are existing in the building. Uh fire
protection and security. So, we're going to look at where uh improvements and renovations are needed and then we'll look to that plan should um advise us on any future projects coming up and how to cost them out.
>> And that's great news. I know we've we've talked about it and I know we're in a new building now and we're already started the process with Emmy Small, but the discussion is Ezra Baker as well, right? Our other other town and other partner. It's a 90-year-old building and that building will never fall down. It's
made of pure brick. Um, however, it's a 90-year-old building. So, everything interior-wise, again, as you discussed, is not necessarily ADA compliant, fire suppressions, all those type of things. So, um, you know, the discussion with the town of Yarmouth when we were talking about Ammy Small was have we talked to the town of Dennis about Ezra
Baker and, um, there was some engagement and there wasn't, you know, discussions ready to have with them then. But I think by doing our due diligence and finding out, you know, what we need to do, um, and then having the discussions with the town of Dennis of what is found and, you know, see what their plan is as
well, um, for the future. So, it's it's great to hear. I know from talking to both towns, they're looking for us to have more in-depth looks at our properties and our capital plan. Um, you know, it's a lot easier if you know what you're purchasing ahead of time or maybe purchasing and have a number rather
than, you know, calling whenever something breaks. Um, and we've always had an idea, but I think, you know, taking the next step and literally looking at everything we have at every property and having a a better understanding of when we might need something. Mr. Martin,
>> was there a price tag for the feasibility study for uh, Ezra Baker yet? I will tell you I did something very similar to this in my previous district and the price tag we had seven
people or seven firms that bid on it. We set a price tag at $250,000. So that's not was not MSBA determined. Emmy small is MSBA supported and in the
pipeline. So I'm sure that that that will be um comparable and sufficient. So >> yeah, and we want to clarify that sounds like similar terms, but they're two very different things, right? So like one is
a full like the MSBA process is bringing on an owner owner's project manager doing site study studying the possibilities of consolidation getting close to and through schematic
design like it's a whole different process where this will be a just a designer and the designer will come in study the the area and give recommendations and cost estim estimates. It's a much smaller scope. I mean, it's not that's for precursor.
>> Yeah. It's a precursor to where you might ultimately end up. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But it's mostly just addressing the four points that you that you had mentioned. The um the life systems, ADA, compliance, fire protection, and security. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um, again, I know
both towns have asked for this and I'm glad that over the last couple years we've been able to get to a spot where we are now and we'll continue to to do our due diligence and, you know, be great partners for both towns. Um, so they can better plan um whether it's their free cash or what things that they
have to put in their capital as things come up. Thank you for that, Dr. Gilson. Um, uh, superintendent report. >> All right. Thank you. Uh so want to first start with a couple of acknowledgements. So two uh dolphin
shoutouts. Uh first is to our food service department. The uh two things that have happened over the last week or so. One visible and one yet to be visible but will soon be visible. So first uh the salad bar at the Ezra Baker
School opened this week. It was either this week or the end of last week. Uh they've had a salad bar in the past. Uh but the new service station um was put into place, so upgraded the service station, allowed for expanded salad bar offerings at Ezra Baker. It's been part of the innovation school for a while,
but the equipment was um getting tired, needed to be replaced. So, uh Miss Powers was able to get that done over the summer, get it up and running. Um, so, um, so again, it was great to see that that expanded offering for lunch at Ezra Baker get up and running again this
year. And then I was recently informed that our food service team signed a contract with Chattam Fish and Lobster Company um, which means we'll soon be serving fresh fish um, at um, some of our lunches. We're starting at the high school, be one of the only I think we
will be the only um school district on the Cape offering fresh fish as part of our lunch service. and it just just really um really goes a long way like you know uh Rooney in particular but she's got an entire team working you
know my direct interactions are mostly with Rooney but um you know they do a a great job providing innovative um forwardthinking nutritious and delicious food for our kids right and really um you know we pay a lot of attention to the percentage of kids that are
accessing our our lunch service program and it's really really high Um, and it's and a lot goes to the work they do as a team. Um, to to ensure that our kids are having not only access to food, but just access to high quality food, thinking about innovative ways to get interesting
food options in front of kids. Um, so just a great shout out to them. And then the second shout out goes um the power of Instagram. I was uh informed by my Instagram today or yesterday that it is National Principles Month. So, I really just want to give a shout out to um our
principles. The it is one of the toughest jobs um pretty much period. Um the responsibilities for our principles grow each year. Um you know, we ask them to be the leaders of learning in in their schools. Their office is often
dealing with human resource issues. Um they have to maintain general order inside the building. Uh their community and public relations officers. Uh they have fiscal and f and facilities responsibilities. Um and that's just to name a few of
their responsibilities on a day-to-day basis, minute-to-minute basis. And in my from my my opinion as superintendent, um we're blessed here in DY to have some of the best that I've ever worked with. Um and I'm personally proud to be their superintendent. Um and I think we're fortunate to have them
leading our schools. So, just a shout out DY shout out to our principles as we um pass through um principal month. Um and the so that moves on to the FY27
budget planning process. Um so, just a quick um update in your packet, you have a uh timeline for the budget development process really starts uh for you all where you get involved in the process. So you'll see we'll have our first pre
uh public presentations for you right when we come back from the new year. Um uh but I did want to sort of just let you know that work has already begun uh in among the leadership team the to you
know for us to be able to build and prepare the information that you need for your decision-making process. Dr. Gillson has analyzed our process from the last couple years and she's already made several recommendations for enhancing the process. Some things I'm personally really excited about. Um then
I and I know our team's feeling supported very supported about her presence this year. Um and then we also have uh which has become a practice for the last couple years. one was sort of born out of necessity and then we carried the practice moving forward. But
we already have preliminary joint sessions set up with the chairs of each of the respective um boards committees from each of the towns and the leads, you know, so my counterparts on the um on the personnel sides of each of the
two towns. Uh one set for October and then another one set for January. You know, the October is really preliminary, just a a sense of where we sit for expense. This year's last couple years have been really stable on the expense side, but this year we've we've got more unknowns, right? We're heading into a
teacher contract negotiation year. Some of our other bigger contracts are up as well. So, it's a good to start those conversations early about what is known and then what is unknown. Um, but then by January, um, the revenue picture starts to become a lot more clear. We
deliberately have scheduled it for when after we'll have the governor's numbers so that by then we'll be able to have a much clearer picture. Um, and I know the towns have appreciated us having that ongoing conversation. It's been much more helpful because their budget process is ahead of ours. So, the
earlier we can start the conversations, the better. Um, and then the last the turf field update. So, if you were to go by today, um you see the base stone is all graded on this upper field. So, the lower field has been open for a couple weeks now. Um
I was saying to somebody on the way in, my my dad referees soccer and his retirement and refed a game out there this afternoon. Um but uh anyways, no, he did not. No, he was wearing his wearing the appropriate shoes. Um but
the uh and over the weekend, so they are there is weekend work. Over the weekend, our uh designers were out testing the So, the grading got finished at the end of last week. So, over the weekend, they came out to test. So, the it passed all the drainage tests. Um and then there's
some grading, some spots where like it's a little low in some spots and a little high in some spots. So, the the builder um has to come back and do some leveling. Um so once that leveling gets adjusted uh between today's work and tomorrow's work that it'll be all ready u for them to start laying the carpet
down on the upper field. Um and then that field as folks may remember has a track around it. Um so that track uh will get reinstalled. Um and then there will be ready for the
final bit of fencing and so by the end of this month we should be ready to go. I do have an update for the committee on the district's litigation around the original design, but I think that's best for an executive session. So, I can schedule uh work with the chair to
schedule an executive session for uh updating the committee on uh because we did meet with uh district council today. So, I do have a little bit of an update for the committee on that. I think that's it. Take any questions through
the chair. Any questions there? And the track was asphalt. Is it changing to something different? So, it's still asphalt. >> Yeah, it was just um I know there was a a design change. I just didn't know if it was material or distance or >> No, the track was um there was some
under um I am losing the term, but there's some spots where the track got compromised because of the the the the problem with the >> lack of drainage. Yeah. >> Yeah. And it was like like undermining
of the track. Um and as part of the um the way the track was um and this was all decided ahead as part of the bidding process and the designing process but the way the the
the fix was done so that so as not to impact because we really wanted to minimize the impact and disruption on school service. So, you know, as a Station Avenue parent and as a now DYI parent that if we had
blocked the originally, you didn't have pass through traffic back around behind the building back here. Um, and because they used a lot of that as a staging area, and they used some of it over the summer, but we definitely did not want to have that blocked off this summer.
So, we brought the construction vehicles in through the back road in the high school. And that meant they had to go over the upper field to get down into the lower field to dig it up and take everything in and out. And that meant lots of passes over the track. And so, they knew they were going to disrupt the
track and a lot of heavy machinery, etc., etc. So, replacing the track was always part of the remediation um plan. >> And then the flag, I was told, was being delivered. The flag pole got delivered last week.
>> Perfect. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Which that goes all the way back to like the original I just know from a particular building committee member that >> flagpole is very important >> that that was supposed to have been part of the original project. Yeah. >> And the truck.
>> The truck as Mr. Glenn would always remind us. Um thank you. School committee uh business. So again, I just just said Mr. Glenn's name. Uh with Mr. Glenn's resignation, um all of the school committee uh subcommittees are
appointments. Um as of right now, the decision is not to make any changes. Um so the appointments will stand as is. uh those that he's a member of uh will be whether one less person um as someone is put into that role uh we may I may
revisit it and reappoint or if uh work seems uh over uh a burden uh to a specific committee at that point I may assign um but currently we will move forward with the appointments as presented uh previously without uh Mr.
when and then uh there's no consent agenda, bills, requisitions, and payrolls. I know there was an email today with the PDF. So, as a reminder, please make sure we look out for the emails uh with the bills and
requisitions and that we're e-signing them um in a timely manner so that people can get paid. Uh and then calendar, school committee topics. So, I know we had two back-to-back meetings. Our next meeting
will be on October 20th. We'll discuss uh a possible high school field trip. Um we'll have a revisit of the high school parking lot policy based on our discussions we had with them in August. Um they're ready to um discuss with us
and then we'll meet uh two times in November. Um and then December will be wonderful MCCAST presentations which are always fun divided by uh age groups. Uh there is no school this Friday, October
10th for teacher professional day. Um and there's no school on Monday either, right? Doesn't say doesn't say no school, but there's no school on Monday, October 13th. Um our next school committee me meeting, as I said, is
October 20th. and then half day for all schools and then K to 7 we'll have parent teacher conferences on the 21st and 23rd of this month and then we're ready to move into November. It's kind of scary. I also know on the 24th uh the
middle school has its first school dance in this room which is exciting as well. Um anyone in the public looking to speak for public comment? Oh, just got a Yep,
>> we have a mic over there. Um, >> we just >> got to make sure the green button is pushed. >> Ah, yes. Um, I just wanted to say um, you know, good work that you're all doing. Um, and I know you'll be looking
for a new member and I just had a question. Are there any particular traits or background you're looking for in that in that member? I notice we have, you know, hospitality executive, we have a nurse, we have an attorney, we have a teacher, you know, we have all different kinds of
experience, but is there is there anything that skateboarding or whatever that you feel is necessary for the for the missing link? >> Um, it's it's typically people who who want to help the community and the schools. doesn't we have people from all different things and people that I've
served have served all so um you know it's just once the select board has information on the process if they could share it with us uh sometimes we're the last to know so that we can make sure that we can share it with the public as well um because I feel like there's been
times in the past even when I went for an open seat um it was hard to know um what the process was um so you know we would really enjoy the opportunity for there to be a large um interest. I think
when I ran there was five of us uh and one was selected. Now the times that there was a couple but I don't know if the Dennis was similar but um >> nothing specific you know people that >> I just wanted to bring that up because on on our agenda for tomorrow night it's
listed as discussion but then possible vote in parentheses. So, I thought if any of you wanted to be there in public comment or if you had any input that you wanted to send with me, anonymous or not, I'd be glad to take it. Thanks. >> Thank you so much.
>> Okay. Does anyone want to make a the final motion? >> A motion to adjourn. >> Second. I think it's a friendly motion and a second. No, we are we all those in favor say I. I. >> All oppose, all abstain.