Superintendent reports mid‑year progress on curriculum, safety and communications; committee debates adding ELL director and middle‑school math interventionist

Dr. Smith, superintendent of the Dennis‑Yarmouth Regional School District, told the school committee on Feb. 10 that he is roughly halfway through his first year on five district goals — organizational effectiveness, K‑12 math implementation, early literacy, public relations and school safety — and described steps the district has taken or begun to take on each.

The update included purchases and systems work to support long‑term planning, data the superintendent said show early gains where the district focused K‑5 math supports, and plans to shift the district’s early‑reading materials toward approaches aligned with the science of reading. Smith also outlined safety work led by Officer Pascarosa and a new hire in communications the district has placed in a newly created community relations role.

Smith said the district has bought EZCIP to build a long‑term capital plan, convened an intermunicipal budget work group with town finance chairs to start budget work earlier, and created consistent procedures for budget and curriculum adoption processes. He said K‑5 math supports produced measurable results: where the district targeted K‑5 math implementation, it showed a roughly 5‑percentage‑point gap closure relative to the state, and similar gains for students with IEPs and English learners in the grades where supports were concentrated. "No effective reading program can ignore phonics instruction and phonemic awareness instruction," Smith said, describing the…