Hello Dolphin Community,
One of our newly adopted district Core Values is Community. One of the ways we define Community in D-Y is, "We strengthen each other. We unite, working and celebrating our shared efforts. We serve and include all, looking out for everyone, and we own the responsibility to make our schools excel." This value was on full display this week when D-Y high school was activated as a regional shelter. For those that don't know, that means that the high school became a place for citizens to receive food (3 meals a day), warmth, a place to sleep, medical care, and safety during the storm and the days of clean up afterward.
There were so many people who made this effort possible, many tied to specific disaster relief organizations, or who work in the field of public safety; however, beyond that, there were DYRSD staff who stepped up and went above and beyond to live the value of Community during this disaster. At the risk of leaving someone out, I would like to individually thank those folks:
- I made one quick phone call to Food Service Director Rooney Powers to say, can we open the kitchens and feed folks and her simple answer was, yes. Later in the week, I went to her again and asked if we could also provide a lunch/breakfast pick up service for any family in the district that wanted it, to which she again simply said yes. Over the coming days, Bridget Leahy, Maureen Holmes,Laurel Visceglio, Tabata Castle, Maria Mercado, Sue Giffee, Heather Hall, Jen Pierce, Sandy Ghilardi, Krystal Thompson, Cindi Cote, Brenda White, Joanne Curran, Meridith Webster, Linda Richards, and Donna Rallo each came in to either support shelter operations or the student brown bag service.
- Shortly into the shelter operations, the county level support that was providing nurses ended. I made a call to our Director of Health Services, Kristin Dwyer, and with 30 minutes notice, she and D-Y nurse Julia Fraser were there to cover the next shift. Over the coming days, 109 hours of nursing care would be covered by Kristin, Julia, Geoff Tammaro, and Theresa Covell, all D-Y nursing staff. A truly heroic effort!
- In order for the shelter to even be open during the storm, our facilities and grounds team needed to have it accessible. Prior to the storm, Facilities Director, Steve Faucher, prepositioned staff and equipment to ensure the high school could open and was ready to receive guests. Throughout sheltering they maintained the interior and exterior of the building. Dan Dias, Russ Mealey, Steve Monteiro, Jorge Alvarez, Corey Grace, and Ellie Shallow were all integral in supporting this operation.
- D-Y is supported by a dedicated team of SRO's. This was evident throughout this event as well, as John Tibbetts and Alex Xiarros provided a plethora of supports from safety and security to expediting transportation to checking on power for guests. Special recognition goes to Officer Nick Pasquarosa as the Shelter Commander for running a truly outstanding operation!
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Once the shelter was closed, there were over 200 cots that needed to be broken down, packed, and stored. There were bags (and bags, and bags, and bags) of blankets that needed to be moved for pick up. There was a lot of other work that needed to be done to "demobilize" the shelter and get it ready for the cleaning crew to come in and get the school ready for students and staff on Monday.
With very little notice, we had nearly 30 D-Y community members (students and staff) show up to help break down the shelter and get it ready for cleaning. This mighty team completed this huge task in under an hour! I unfortunately did not create a sign in sheet, so I may not have this list 100% accurate, but would also like to recognize these folks for the work they did; without them it would have fallen on already very weary volunteers and we would likely still be packing up.
Special Thanks to: Jaclyn Cleary, Meaghan McFall, Rebecca Horn, Jason Krystofolski, Salome Zapata, Sienna-Grace Easy, Rafaela Prebianchi, Molly Young, Carla-Ann Gassibe, Maria Campos, Ricky Senat, Riley Ritchie, Robert McCormick, Skylar Hopkins, Catherine Finn, John French, Caren DeCristofaro, Bridget Britton, Kamoya Ferguson, Michael Bovino, Brian Spano, Kerry Cox, Ariana Kmiec, Katie O’Connor, Rafaela Prebianchi, Ellen Flanagan, Franco Calle, Kristina Ashley, Julia Halabi, Elizabeth Pontius, Maria Lopes.... and anyone that I missed (with apologies)
Thank you for your ongoing support,
Marc J. Smith, Ed.D.
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I am sure a question on everyone's mind is, "So now when is the last day of school?"
First, I want to point out that there is still more winter in front of us. This week has been very challenging in many ways, one of those has been the impact on our school calendar. I will be taking that into consideration as future weather events play out over the remainder of this winter.
That being said, so far we have had 6 days cancelled due to weather. the 180th day of school was, in the original school calendar, scheduled for June 16th. When you add the 6 days and account for the fact that school will be closed on the Juneteenth Holiday (6/19), that currently puts the last day of school as June 25th.
Let's hope that there is no more snow in the future.
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For any families with an uncertain immigration status and that may be concerned about the care and custody of their children in the event of a sudden detention or deportation by immigration officials, please see this resource created by the Office of the Attorney General that provides guides and legal options. The guides are provided in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. |
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