Hello Dolphin Community,

One of our District's five Core Values is Community (you can learn more about our Core Values here). A recent survey of staff on our Core Values identified this value as the one that we are doing the best job of bringing to life each day in the district. This was on display in a very real way in our PreK through 7 schools this week as we had our parent teacher conferences. This is a great opportunity to strengthen the partnership between student, family, and school that supports each child's success. At our Intermediate School, student ambassadors (pictured) greeted and supported families in navigating their way through the building. At our Middle School, this is the second year of implementing student-led conferences. A process which takes advantage of the natural maturation that occurs during this time in a child's life and has the student take more ownership of their own learning. It becomes their responsibility to present their current learning to the families as well as their goals for the year. 

The home-student-school partnership is one that is not dependent upon parent-teacher conferences. While this time in the year gives a dedicated moment in the calendar to pause and "check-in" on student progress, please know that there are a wide-range of opportunities for you to stay engaged in your child's learning throughout the year. If you have questions about your child's education or schooling experience, but are unsure about who to contact, please be sure to check out our Points of Contact Page. I keep the link always in the bottom of this newsletter for easy access. Also, please know that each of you can stay up-to-date on your child's schooling through ParentSquare as well as by setting up your PowerSchool Parent Portal. You can learn about signing up for ParentSquare here. This will allow you to both send and receive messages to your child's school in your preferred language. You can learn about setting up your PowerSchool Parent Portal here. The Parent Portal allows you to access your child's grades, see attendance information, complete annual verification for emergency contacts, see your child's schedule/assigned teacher(s), and complete other important processes for your child. 

As it states in our description of our Core Value of Community, "We are one united community. We foster teamwork and partnership among students, staff, and the community." Here in D-Y we appreciate our partnership with families as we all work together to support each student during their journey from Pre-K through graduation. 

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Marc J. Smith, Ed.D

Superintendent

As part of a recent grant that they received, the Cape Cod Collaborative created a Family Resource Guide. The guide provide collects a wide range of available supports in the region (crisis, mental health, health, food, etc.) all in one place should any family need to access one of these services. 

You can access the guide by following this link. The Collaborative is currently working on having the document translated into a variety of languages and we will share those once available.