Dighton-Rehoboth Regional Schools

Good afternoon. Thank you to those who have reached out on the heels of some of the budget tension this week. I do feel for our teachers, nursing assistants, and lunch monitors who are impacted by these discussions. I knew that I had inherited some "projects" to be tackled in my first year, but these financial constraints during inflationary times are significantly compounded by the choices made before my arrival regarding maintaining class sizes in the face of significant enrollment declines.

On a more mundane note, we are watching a storm forecast for Monday into Tuesday. The European model has us getting whacked with the rain and winds of a Nor'easter while the American model currently has us getting a few inches of snow. If it all aligns, it may be another Snowmaggedon.

Take care!

Together ... We Are DR!

Take care,

Bill

Tuesday's budget Subcommittee Meeting was a good opportunity for me to share the valid efficiencies that we found. I believe we are in a position to strike a balance between meeting the $600k deficit that we spoke of on February 28 and fostering a culture that annual 'rightsizing' will allow us to have a more equitable distribution of class sizes. I see this first budget year of the new COLT as dipping our toes in the water to accomplish the primary goal of meeting the bandwidth of our proposed budget (short term) while having our eyes on conducting this task annually (long term). Please keep in mind that our eventual goal is an almost direct cause and effect scenario: every dollar saved by rightsizing can be used for textbooks, security cameras, curriculum, etc.

• John Herald and I met with the state CTE liaison on Wednesday so that we can continue to tap into their resources and knowledge about strengthening our CTE offerings.
• We held our final half-day Professional Development (PD) session for staff on Wednesday. The majority of the session was facilitated by our Curriculum Coordinator team, who provided an opportunity for staff to discuss their ongoing work and provide feedback. In addition to the curriculum discussions, we also used some of the time to conduct MCAS administration trainings and to address other important housekeeping items that needed attention. Overall, the PD session was productive and engaging, and we appreciate the efforts of the Curriculum Coordinators and all staff members who participated. We believe that these sessions are essential for professional growth and development, and we are committed to providing ongoing opportunities for our staff to learn and improve their skills.

The responses from the survey on Professional Development include:

• Positive feedback on the usefulness of time allocated to look into a new curriculum.
• Requests for specific training in behavior strategies, cellphone use, and department-specific PD.
• Suggestions for more relevant and profession-specific PD.
• Requests for more collaboration with counterparts, as well as meetings with content area teams and department-specific meetings.
• Positive feedback on specific presenters and informative sessions.
• Requests for more relevant PD for paras and modifications for sped students.
• Positive feedback on meeting with the Special Education Director and department.

We will improve and make progress based on the feedback we receive, as it provides us with valuable insights and areas for growth.

1 - Did not meet expectations

5 - Exceeded expectations

1 - Not relevant at all

5 - Highly relevant

1 - Not engaged at all

5 - Highly engaged

1- Not very well

5 - Very well

• Tonight, I'm attending a fundraiser in memory of a Beckwith teacher, Linda Sousa, who passed away from breast cancer. Linda's A Better Dream Foundation gives scholarships to our students at DRRHS. Their support has helped many of our seniors live out their dream.
• Today, I spoke with Deputy Chief Ramos of RPD about a serious issue involving their radio transmissions. When RPD is deployed to our buildings, there is no radio communication in, out, or internally. This creates a dangerous situation for our officers and diminishes the level of safety at our schools if the police can't communicate with each other. He's bringing in a consultant this month to see what resolutions can be determined.
• As you may already know, we have been actively piloting an online registration system. We carefully selected a small group of parents of incoming students to help us test the process, and thanks to their invaluable feedback, we were able to identify and resolve several minor issues. As a result, we are proud to announce that we have successfully completed our first online registration. With this achievement under our belt, we are now excitedly preparing to launch full online registration in the very near future.
  

• I was the guest of the Rehoboth PTSA last night and was pleased to share with them many of the positive changes we've seen so far. I was, however, transparent with them about the difficult financial situation we are faced with. There were several good questions including some about the upcoming vote regarding a Debt Exclusion in Rehoboth. I'm not allowed to speak for or against, but I am allowed to share facts. I relayed what Chairman Vadnais said in a recent BoS meeting about the Bristol Plymouth funding negatively impacting their capacity to fund our district. I said, if that proves to be true, we will certainly feel the brunt.
• Over the past year, we have been working with the state on a Corrective Action Plan to address the areas that were identified during the Tiered Focus Monitoring (TFM) audit that Juanita reported on in the fall. As part of this plan, we are expected to seek feedback from all stakeholders about equal access for all students to our district's programs. Parents, students, staff, and administrators will be receiving a survey about this soon.
• Thank you very much for assisting us with our Strategic Planning survey. We greatly appreciate your contribution and support throughout the process. We wanted to update you on where we stand with regard to participation in the survey.

Total surveys submitted: 1,165

Breakdown:

• Students: 767
• MS - 582; HS - 185
• Educator: 85
  
• Administrator: 4
  
• Other Staff: 12
  
• Of educator/admin/staff:
  
• ES - 31
  
• MS - 43
  
• HS - 31
  
• Parent/Caregiver: 264
  
• 138 of ES students;
  
• 127 of MS students;
  
• 94 of HS students
  
• Community Member: 33
  
• Dighton - 20; Rehoboth - 13
  
• 4 of these noted themselves as DR alum
  
• Tuesday after the Subcommittee meeting, I visited the 10th anniversary of the DR Spartans basketball program. This program has been a positive influence on our future Falcons for a decade, and we are grateful to them.