that's coming and I've ordered for I order two for center school and two for the high school so as soon as those are in we will be utilizing those as well that is several thousands of dollars so I can assure you that I'm needing to transfer money as we speak right now today I authorized that John looked he went directly to the actual maker of it as opposed to even dealing with you know what would be a middleman so we're hoping that by doing that we might get those sooner rather than later you'll see it on the next month's so again we're going to need to add that would be like a it's peace and we may need to be adding money to the supply budget before it's all said and done because I've ordered that it's already in the classrooms disinfectant cleaner in spray bottles and to be honest the brown paper towels that we use in schools are about as useless as nothing when you want to wipe something up just being honest and so we've ordered a lot of paper towels so that we have I'll offer real paper towels to use we've not told the teachers that they need to do it we have simply given it to them should they want to we have ordered a lot of extra gloves and we have those available all you can see my teachers right there shaking their heads yes available as well if they do want to spray if you've ever been in an elementary classroom on any given day they'll have a pretty good idea what that might look like by the end of the day with little people so you know we have that expense we have had to order more tissues we have that expense and to be honest other expenses that right now I might be anticipating in my head that we may have I mean should it get so bad that we have to bring in a cleaning service and not just be able to handle it ourselves god forbid our custodial staff gets sick we would have to do that I mean I'm happy to come in and clean and I certainly will do that but we're gonna need more than just me to do that and I got some pricing on that today and that's approximately a thousand dollars in classroom that doesn't include the hallways that doesn't include the cafeteria that doesn't include the gymnasium or any other large occupancy spaces that we have so there's that later on down the agenda which I'm here somewhere did we make the changes the additions so the event did we thank you I'm sorry I apologize so that's where we stand about so we'll need a motion to approve the transfers pleased we have a motion to approve the transfers thank you soon do we have any discussion so the but before be given today does not reflect numbers per se program education evaluation is the same approved and revised last month when we got the transfers yeah I'm not sure why that's a great question and without Casal being here could you see if we get assault on the phone and maybe we could just get an answer to that I know she just right and then under fiscal services systems management it shows adjustment seven dollars but then denotes the side says transfer twenty bucks in the last count increase problems right but the truth budget amount was two hundred and eight thousand five hundred one the revised budget amounts 228,000 is only twenty thousand higher whereas the notes it's a great question without salt here and right now so I mean I can get you answers to those questions I can't speak to that I'm sorry it was projected to not be spent so well or yeah I mean that eleven thousand maybe in another area like that could be an electricity right or whatever that we may have savings in so maybe that's why it shows up there as that number i right now it depends if you see what i'm saying because it encompasses a lot of there's a lot of lines in that budget book under operations and right and I guess my final question is you've already made those repairs right we had tip you you so I guess you authorized those looking again tonight exactly yes would you be willing to just send me the questions and so that I can give it to castle in writing so that she proposed - oh I'm sorry 2d transportation transportation did meet yesterday we're nearing the end all winter sports have ended last month and then spring sports are just starting up track has already started their preseason at the beginning of the month and so is baseball they're starting captain's practices softball tennis and golf are starting practices in the next few weeks but the games will be postponed before or after April 30th because of the virus and SATs for juniors are March 25th sus - less than two weeks away or three weeks and the dance the semi-formal has also been canceled or postponed until the virus is kind of content i-80 successful ski trip happened in February as well as well as one of our best drama productions The Addams Family and finally the scene [Music] I would like to share with the board that effective this evening to Bolton public schools will be closed effective Monday until further notice I'm hoping that it's only for two weeks but at this point I'm getting ahead of myself but it's growing a virus so I'll stop there and I'll finish when we get down to karana virus update so this point I'm going to turn it over mrs. Gould Snyder and she has some awesome staff to introduce to us tonight to tell you all about our amazing preschool program so this is guaranteed to take your mind off of budget transfers and the virus for a few minutes and it's gonna be so I'm very pleased to introduce a few members of my peaceful team Katie Collman is our the district's occupational therapist amanda molly is the district's speech and language pathologist and Kyle Osborn is our early childhood special education teacher and they have presented a great presentation for you we're really excited about it and really excited about our program so if you don't know anything about it first of all thank you for having us we're really excited to be here to tell you about our autumn preschool program if you look in the left that's our preschool classroom quite a busy place during the morning and we took a picture of our door that we decorated for Bolton 300 so happy 300th birthday Bolton did all the work is really fun to do stuff I just wanted to show that off so what are we we are a play and language based preschool program we have an integrated classroom meaning we have students were to complete development years along with students who have special needs it's a mixed age group so our students run anywhere from three years old all the way up to five years old during the year that can change students turn four sometimes students are a little older than they may turn six we run five days a week from 8:30 to 11:30 and we follow the Bolton Public Schools calendar we do offer special education supports to students who qualify that might be delivered through myself as a special education teacher students may qualify for occupational therapy they may qualify for physical therapy often they qualify for speech and language therapy and sometimes they also require support from a school psychologist or BC VA which is a board certified behavior analyst and pending student need we also have a pair of professional supports in the classroom so our schedule throughout the day we start with the morning routine students come in they unpack their things they sign their name to practice writing and then we start our day with circle time we read stories sing songs do calendar talk about the weather then we move on to centers and snack time this is the bulk of our day where students are playing throughout the classroom yeah we everyone participates in cleanup time then we do a music and movement before we either have indoor recess or outdoor recess pending our weather it's all a really fun and busy day we just had our screenings and child find this week which was a lot of fun there always occur in March so we'll talk about our screenings first our screenings are used to determine our typical PR models for next year class again they incur they occur in March we advertise through posting at local medical offices request at the town hall it's part of our Public Schools website and it also go home goes home as part of the electronic backpack through BCS um depending on how many students we have interested in the program we schedule up to four one-hour sessions the session is a current our preschool classroom and they're set up like a preschool day just condensed into one hour the students come in we have a little short circle time we do some centers and then we sing a song and they go back to their families and it's led by myself as a special education teacher Katie our occupational therapist comes home and our speech pathologist comes and ethical trainer participates as well we do observations we're looking at cognitive development language skills social skills play skills as well as some fine and gross motor skills is what we're observing and then based on screening results typical peers are chosen for our next year's class our child find occurs simultaneously parents participate by telling us we have a son or daughter and I'm concerned about their development so they come in for the screening as well and we all do the observations and depending on what the parent concern is that one teacher may pay more attention whether it's speech and language event that will listen more closely to speech language whatever the concern might be and then following that observation we notify parents formally if we want to move forward with having an IEP meeting or if there's things that they can do at home to support their child's development so it all depends on what we observe that day which way we want to go so um we use the creative curriculum and it corresponds with the Connecticut Early Learning and Development standards which is Connecticut what can I get tells us preschoolers should be learning in preschool there are nine areas of development and learning we teach social-emotional skills language skills literacy skills kids are exploring the arts science and technology sorry no mishap with math and social studies but we're teaching physical skills cognitive skills and math and social studies so as far as social-emotional skills the next few slides go through each major area and we kind of pulled out just a couple examples for you so you can kind of see what might fall under each area we're really working on helping the students establish and sustain positive relationships which they definitely do with adults and peers alike in our classroom and then being able to participate cooperatively and constructively in group settings so what we're looking at is most finding that fine motor trait so all those little muscles of your fingers on your hands super important especially as they're going into kindergarten for those pre-reading skills presented in preschool and it also you'll see you over on the right yeah balance skills so that's physical therapy that usually does that obviously and email comes in once a week and does a gross motor group so kids are exposed to that but you know developing that through to go out for recess exploring the playground things like that and then looking at language we've got students from the preschool who have varying levels of language abilities we've got students who communicate using pictures and symbols and signs all the way to students who can speak in full sentences so we meet them right where they're at and we support them and help them grow that middle picture right those are they're called packs which are the which is the picture exchange communication system that top row is a sentence trip and those are things that they can use to request for things such as snacks or desired items in the preschool and then the bottom is kind of an example of a visual schedule for students who need a little bit more structure that helps them as well the next are cognitive skills the first one is using classification skills can they sort out things match things that are similar another area we're looking at is being able to engage in sociodramatic play can they pretend and that is probably their favorite thing to do in dressing up playing with the kitchen Center and the babies the next Center is I mean the next section is literacy this is your traditional language arts skills just at a preschool level really looking at developing knowledge of print and that it's invaluable to them and being interested in it and also comprehending and responding to books and other texts and the next one is mathematics again it's your traditional math being able to use number of concepts and operations can they recognize some numbers make patterns is the one on the right and being able to count and understand that one is one object and we're also working on science and technology using scientific inquiry skills asking questions why does that happen the children on the left are displaying with ramps and how things roll down the child in the middle is exploring what happens when you throw a leaf over the fence when it's windy out and when it's not going to go and then the students on the right are digging into a pumpkin and seeing what's inside and getting their hands on those the guts at that pumpkin seeds and all that gooey goodness so just being able to understand typical properties of objects and materials and in the last is social studies being able to demonstrate simple geographic knowledge they really enjoy looking at maps surprisingly in globes and then showing a basic understanding of people and how they live they really enjoyed having the police officers around school Trouper content has been great he comes over and talks to the kids and let them trying his hat so you can see that there and then we always have the firefighters from Bolton come visit us once again and they loved being able to shoot the water hose this year that was really great I thought you would enjoy this because I don't know if all of you get to come to our Veterans Day assembly but it kind of goes along with social studies so we had the pleasure of going to the Veterans Day assembly but we tape our singing because they get really shy once they get up there and in front of all those people so [Music] [Laughter] and then the art they really do enjoy exploring in the art area I don't do a lot of canned art projects we do some around holiday time but really just allowing them to have materials and see what they come up with is the beauty of preschool and letting them be creative and they come up with some really wonderful things and you can watch their drawings throughout the year go from a head with the arms and legs sticking out of it on the left to us something that looks like an actual person by the time they graduate and go on to immigrants so that's really fun to watch um what's wonderful about our program is we do have a lot of student supports and I could not do this job without them so I'm gonna pass it over as we get to each like okay um so just introduce myself again I'm Amanda Molly and I'm the speech-language pathologist for Bolton Public Schools and I'm in the preschool for an hour a day so I come in and I'm servicing not only my students on my Teasle but I am providing language models to all of the students in the preschool I typically use a naturalistic play based approach with my students so I'm right there on the floor with them modeling and helping them you know use their language and naturalistic opportunities you use books we use toys pretend play puppets I also do a lot of therapy during snacks and I also have some friends who learn through just discrete trial instruction which we'll talk a little bit about in a few slides and I hope support the language goals that are being implemented that way but I absolutely love working in the preschool and I think it's so rewarding to help them you know develop their speech and language as they grown from first entering preschool to an IV and these are just some things on the slide that um we helped develop and in the picture this student is working on developing their language so they're using pictures of the snack that they brought in today to request more of what they have um it's a nice motivating way to help them learn how to use language so fine money first so again Cady Coleman and the occupational therapist and who's also Daniel O'Connell who's the coda that also helps out and so what we're kind of looking for here is well I have an IQ I have a Flemish job because you know you can do all these fun things during centers and so kiona we work together a lot to change things up in the center so things around holidays or special events they're coming up to make fun things so we're kind of looking again those small small muscles that are slower to develop there sometimes can be really tricky for our younger kids so again it's really fun to see kids come in sometimes at the age of three and then we've ready to go to kindergarten and how much they've grown you know the thing is that they were really struggling they first came in so and we do things like putting pipe cleaners oh wait they have a different name stands in a cone there shopping some feminists at speeds stringing worsening buttoning and cutting and drawing and writing and then Sandy Bell who wasn't here able to come tonight she does the gross Twitter so she's the one that does the 30 minutes a week gross motor group so she helps the balance trains overall coordination we also do the Olympics twice a year and you have fun yeah we do a preschool than fix big preschool Olympics at the end of the year a discriminating fun thing to work on all this to practice and just have a fun time with all the skills they've learned to you and throughout the year um you may not know but we also have behavior support in our classroom Sophie Mayer is there BCBA again and that stands for a board certified behavior analyst she does come into my classroom she completes functional behavior assessments when we need them to determine the function of a behavior we have a challenging many of you that were trying to help with and that basically looks at why a child engages in a behavior what's the function of that behavior what are they trying to engage to gain from engaging in it she also helps develop individualized behavior plans for students that may need them I mean she consults with us as teachers all the time and she helps implement specialized learning programs one that we are using in our classroom right now it's called the peek program it's a discrete trial intervention program what that basically is is an extremely structured program that takes skills it breaks them down into their smallest smallest parts and then builds from those smallest parts until a student has a greater range of abilities so it's extremely structured so you have to see way and there's a specific leveling of where you start and having progressed up through a skill but students you can see through the bottom on the far left hand side this student is working on identifying letters so the direction was touch Q and that student had to touch Q and that's working on what our identification the next one in is match theme so the direction was match same and that student is matching blue balloon to the next the next one was they're working at man identification that student was asked to touch cert so that student is learning what articles of clothing her called the last picture is not discrete trial that is just another tool that we use to help students who may struggle with behavior first we're going to do this then you get to do this and those pictures can change um and then the top picture is also another way we can help students with behavior and that is a token board first you do this and earn all your tokens then you get to do this so that's a nice and Dragonstone board usually tailor that to what the child's favorite thing is this one student likes knights and Dragons pre-job thank you very much well we had a question I apologize we don't test the public school know the state has birth to three programs and if a student is in birth to three they may then qualify for special education under the public school system but the public school does not do birth to three we only start at four years old they have a transaction made possibly there's a transition meeting that needs to be held before they turn 3 so we do a transition meeting and then we have a PPT of 50 they're gonna come for services it depends it really it changes every year some years we have no students some of the years we have 4i which is a lot for both so we're really very happy we have sufficient capacity for the number of students who are applying each year as far as typical peer models or special education students for both per both right now we have one classroom and are we turning the waist yes yes it depends every year how many kids are staying how many four-year-olds we have staying on for their second year so it really depends on this year we had 1314 around there yeah somewhere around 14 kids came for the screening and you may be able to take I might be able to take 8 this year which is a lot and some past years we've been able to take 2 depending on how many kids because we also have to leave seats for students for coming in from birth to three so we find it gets projected out up to a year and a half or two years prior to the child coming to us at age three birth three lets me know that there's somebody on horizon who's receiving services so we always going to leave a couple seats just in the event that they come and qualify so what happens to those special needs students who can't get into the program especially these students have to get into the program the program was primarily designed for kids with IEP s so it's a reverse model program so we have the typically developing kids or the peer models so we fill with them and we have to start a year with a 50-50 mix so if we have six kids at the IEP s we have to make sure we have six kids - without IEP to start the school year so the kids we always have to kind of anticipate that we're going to have a couple of new referrals through the year through our traveling process okay so when you said you had 14 applications but could only accept a those were the 14 word for the peer position so by law we were required to find a space or any child who qualifies as a special-needs pilots that card correct and what would happen if that number you have one typical peer for each special-needs child should begin the year we're required to start with 50/50 but after the year goes on it doesn't happen that's the same for any classroom so what would happen is say we had 50 children with special needs do we have the capacity for you know classroom that size it would have to make the capacity because we would either have to program here or we would be obligated a I'll place them don't place them so we would make the capacity - we're doing our best and luckily not house what we've never had 15 for everybody but that's why we always do trench the numbers off a little bit lower than beginning of the year because we know that over the course of the area the students will move into district or child find children or birth the three kids that we don't even know about those parents may not get permission for the state to let us know the altar for three kids so we always leave them home thank you all very much school climate update all right so we're here to talk to them about how to keep a positive school climate and we have major objectives so we teach and reinforce positive behavior that's something that happens throughout the district we call that our PBIS model they also emphasize the importance of Tiny's and character recognize excellence maintain a school culture positivity and foster sense of community and also most importantly all this work leads to our and supports our for Trevor graduate so in high school I started the year meeting with our ninth grade and tenth grade students and we actually took a tour of our school where I reviewed the expectations in different locations of our school and I was also able to review our student handbook with those students I do a a modified version with some of our upperclassmen and I start with ninth grade and tenth grade at the beginning of each year we continued this similar model at both the center school we start at the beginning to here do it even mr.
alfano do I have any questions from the public at this time make I have one question sure I know what grade do they take bio in you said something about them taking bio what grade are they taken by Owen primarily the majority of the students taken in tension okay but it varies - it depends upon the student but majority wise its tenth grade thank you I don't know why I lost you I can hear you but I lost you did you hear my response to the question yes I did are there any questions from the public there are none okay so at this time what I would like to do is turn the meeting over to Alfano our businesses administrator who's going to just discuss our proposed budget for we do have a question from the public okay anyway the question is is there any update regarding the coronavirus in what respect I'm not really sure want to retype that question and send it to me I will respond to it but we aren't we're getting no response we want to now as far as the school pounder is concerned there is nothing definitive from the Department of Education as the governor stated the other day it's indefinite I'm not really sure what that means but there's been nothing as far as the Department of Education regarding when we will return to school when given that information I will present that information to the public any other questions okay so I'm going to turn it over to mr.
Harrington yes mr. Demming yes miss Spitzer I'm Anne McDonald I approved for zero next on our agenda is our school choice votes dr. Morris do you want to introduce this i think there's item 2a a new business yes yes so our first order of business after that is to vote to temporarily suspend policy B EDH which is our public comment period and just as background the rationale for this is right now we are still working on figuring out a technical solution to enabling public comment and until we have that solved or addressed we would like to temporarily suspend public comment for for this meeting any questions discussion no mister Oh sir I have the chat window open and I couldn't see your hand up there um mr. Demming yeah just briefly to say that I think given literally the state of emergency that we're operating under it makes sense and if I'm not mistaken I believe this is consistent with what the Town Council is currently doing and you know there's nothing that prevents us as we move forward depending on how long we have to be meeting remotely to figure out a way that's that's Amina bowl and manageable and certainly there's a lot of different ways that public can get in touch with us I would still encourage anybody on any topic even if it's not related to the current emergency situation to contact us at school committee at arcs org or just contact us our individual school committee emails are also on posted on the website so you know we remain open for business and open for input from the public it's just that I think as we're ramping it up and starting up on this it it's just another layer of complication that doesn't make sense so that's it and I just to add to that I on my and my walk this morning I ran into a town councillor man Dido hanneke and I understand from her that they are working on a solution for Monday's meeting to be able to have public comment so more more to come on on there so we'll be learning from them as well as our own experience here any other comments or discussion okay so I'll make I'll make the motion um I moved to temporarily suspend policy be EDH on public comment for this meeting of the Mr School Committee is there a second second end by Miss Spitzer there any further discussion okay so moved to a vote mr.
Chiara and I get on the bus and you do the bus lessons with the students a happens in the cafeteria happens minier it happens whenever student needs 10db teaching you want food our expectations of behavior to be very clear also a special note they look a little young there but on mobile center school our 5th graders get the great pride of being safety patrol they came last year to celebrate that so it's another moment of modeling but they also acknowledge students in the morning who are showing those expectations and the other students love getting a park ticket for that so for emphasizing the importance of character new this year in our connections block we have students that set both personal and academic goals we revisit that once a month so we check in with the students to see how they're doing as always our bigs and littles program teaching use to partner with our underclassmen students as well as our new students to Bolton high school planning activities throughout the school year to support their needs a large component AppleInsider school to meet the needs for all of our students our second step lessons those can happen from kindergarten through eighth grade and it's a tailored curriculum that we've really found great success in being a problem solver thinking about having empathy and our middle school students they really get to experience at my age a perfect level it changes and it's consistently done throughout the building and we've noticed a lot of great response to that we also look for catching students with park tickets which are used in two different ways and both schools partnering with the Sandy Hook promise and we do the start with hello week which they boot up into October we do a lot of activities at fall inside our school having people just recognize the importance of smiling at someone stars having a conversation with somebody training it's hard at the middle school level but it was so many different than you normally even having those moments to learn about someone else that we're all feeling included we had our student council and student body look at what activities they wanted to participate in in September for start with hello and most recently was say something so we had our students agree that they will not be revised to ender they'll stand up for bullying and if there's something uncomfortable that they see they will say something or the trusted adult in our building and as you can see those are a few of our pictures we have a bulletin board out in the main lobby as well with more pictures of our students oh one other thing if you have a chance and you're passing down the the main hallway our PBIS team monitors this each month we put new student names with some positive achievements both academic and personal achievements that our students have accomplished throughout the month at the high school we recognize our students some activities during connections and this year we had our teachers vote on to students that they felt each in their classes that they felt demonstrated student improvement we also have had those some of those students come down if they recognize her for really being a leader and following our school rules and most recently for quarter two we recognize all of our general and high honor students at Bolton cider school we have to display cases is one way that you can quickly see some recognition when you enter so we recognize those for both academic honors sports and club honors as well as at the elementary school level they have our top dog or a little doghouse there which students get recognized and a lot of times if you walk the hallways those tickets might be hanging outside but every two weeks or so those tick the awards change and people can stop and you could read what and the reason why people are getting acknowledged those students get called down and we really enjoy celebrating why and they're going above and beyond in different places in the car in the school so we're also participating in indoor decorating contest that's recognizing our bulletin on 300 and new to Bolton high school were in the planning stages of a PBIS student team we recognize that we have our teachers that are involved what we'd like to get a student team together that will meet with administration once a month to address some of the cultural issues at our school for positive school climate as well as some of the academic recommendations that they might have just to hear that student voice a little more and so what we can do to support some of their concerns at our school in Oakland Center school we have several school assemblies kind of a tradition between Veterans Day the winter assembly and the end-of-year assembly and we are in year three of our Busters community showcase which has been really great bringing together the student in this becoming more and more leaders in the showcase this year so we've been really excited about that our door decorating contest that of the preschools 300th birthday one is adorable and they're going up and the middle schoolers are really get stepping up theirs and it's just been fun to see how they're learning and thinking about bringing the history of bold into life on the doors so it's great when we have that common theme throughout the building and we have fun day fielding is always a great one and especially when we have the upper grade students support they help run a lot of the events with the elementary school students and our walkathon obviously obviously we like to recognize our staff are all the good work they're doing and our PBIS team has hosted three lunches we are also hosting something called a complimentary cart we do this once a month where we make some coffee and a big hood and our staff tastes postcards and they write complimentary notes their students and we mail them home to the parent that's been received very well and parents like you know like getting something nice that about their child in the mail and actually in a mail so we started that last month and tomorrow is the second time we will be actually hosting a complementary part obviously stop appreciation our student council gets involved and we try to recognize our staff every day during our staff appreciation week we'd also phone fair school and have a variety of food opportunities to celebrate between lunches we tried different themed things throughout the year a fun one that's become a little bit of nutrition as March we do a special potato and I know I said that laughter it's a very exciting one also we have been starting something new is this year at the beginning of each faculty meeting staff members are given the opportunity to put a little shout out using what's called a padlet and it can be anonymous but it's nice to see and have those moments for people to put it up and writing it's just up on the background it's been great so we do so many things but we just wanted to remind and show that everything we do to build a sense of community is to support our work portrait undergraduate to make sure that we are helping them how do those citizens to have that understanding of where they are in their community and to support each other you tracked suspensions bullying incidents and seen a decline since we've instituted I can speak that tracking our data I look at the data and I have noticed a substantial decrease in out-of-school suspensions in-school suspensions and detentions this year compared to last year as well as the year before you know we always have areas of improvement and that's something that our PBIS team addresses and we also addressed that each week during our PLC's jarrell and data as well but also we do like an adorable activities we did one last year work who is the staff member that you trust that you can go to as students each wrote down a staff member in the building we looked through all of them we found like two or three where there wasn't somebody which is alarm bells a little bit so we do some personal activities like that but also the data analysis in one thing too is looking a lot at the data that would take in one thing that we'll also notice it will look really closely to see if it's a frequency of a student and one of the number one things that when were responding and supporting teachers but also I'm our wealth is to help them learn from it so we do a lot of analyzing our data to make sure that the same student is not having these same struggles in the same location you know we always act we look at you know where are these things happening why do you think they're happening and we work on them with that to help with those thank you how you smell now scheme for the next generation accountability report hi everyone in your packets I'm hoping that you do have a chart of spreadsheets that looks like no I mean I need to make sure you have this that's just the actual results from each school you have the districts report sorry about that there's checking to make sure I'm one of those crazy because so I honest no lies so yeah they're the copies Tuesday we can speak specifically about the each school glad I checked so each year we do have this report this is the big overall data the big picture data the purpose of this data is to track our progress help our schools and district make improvements look first courts recognize successes hopefully promote transparency and to also make sure we're satisfying requirements or that there are 12 indicators and these indicators here and show our academic growth our achievement our growth and please note that on the your presentation be that your I'm sorry to catch that before I sent this those did when they started first started so you actually have the first year of growth is on your presentation in front of you at limits 15 so they've been looking at this for a few years now so we now have number you'll get growth data assessment this patient have Santi ISM and the list goes on to make the point that we don't just look at one thing about a child we're looking at an overall picture best that we can through data for it it's another way of looking at students where you see a small H that's small H I'd like to clarify that because that doesn't mean a high needs population and that is a group that includes low-income families English learners or students with disabilities so there's multiple categories that fall into high knees so when you hear that many people might make some assumptions it's a larger group than we sometimes see sometimes it's large enough for us to get some information sometimes it's not not so much so we'll talk about that as we get into our report so in in this report we get two scores you get an accountability index score and then we get a performance is that score and those are levels just how we our next chart is our district report for 1819 and as you orient yourself to this report you'll notice you'll have your index rate which we had talked about you'll see what are the targets were the state had identified Thank You Christine the points that we earned the maximum number of points the percentage of the points and then compared to the state and Christine is passing out the district as well as CSV HF the district report compiles both schools together so you will see data on a district report that you may not see on the other schools just because of the different pocket for that our overall district score this year is enough percentage of points earned that's the one that we look at is a seventy nine point one for that new this year you will notice on the district report there is a 2 e and two F that is a new category where they're looking at the overall proficiency for essentially English learners we will not at this time see a score in there we do not have a cohort large enough you need at least 20 students to get a cohort in certain group so when you see scores missing from that state in any of these reports it means we don't have a group large enough to meet the state criteria otherwise information could be considered identifiable to the public so having a blank there doesn't hurt us it doesn't help us it's a nothing and so on this chart sorry so you have the entire chart in front of it the next page continues with the district report where it talks about our gaps so we have no gap across the district for English language arts math we continue to have a gap science no gap we don't have a graduation cohort group large enough to give data they also track our assessment participation grade raped and we're doing great students I have highlighted on the presentation just a comparison that are not even a comparison or just I'm highlighting our two schools and where they fall this year once again Bolton high school was identified as a school of distinction for student achievement and also a great improvement so last year we were not notified we were not identified as a school of achievement but our great improvement is so nice to have that little mark again I also like to notice that the categories are how we look at the school's Wellness Center school also is that a category 2 which is your second highest rating which is an improvement as well so is there some nice overall general statements about our school so if you'd like to take a moment to look at the individual schools this would just be your time your next page is the high school for that so you'll see lots of gaps in our data because I can never understand nothing you'll hear this almost every time I give us a report based on that's related to our our school actually every time you're gonna hear it you really are artists our groups are small we're a small town we have small groups so we always need to take our data with that in mind you will see larger fluctuations because we have smaller groups our testing data the SAT data is based on one class so here's that might be 75 kids sometimes I make the 85 kids or more or less so it really will go up and down and so sometimes we'll have a cohort that will give us information sometimes we want so for big picture data when we talk about transparency of the state for big districts yes for us we go digging we can get that information to be an individual student reports so it doesn't help when I come to the table thank you here because I can't give you that information so please know just because some of the information if it's something that there's student data around that we can see that it's just something we don't encounter for publicly for that so questions with a hasty you mentioned that high school because we're not going to see high need students yeah there is info about the chronic absenteeism I need students do you know why so I feel I don't because you're talking about so with absenteeism you're looking at a larger group than just this yes I do I can answer that issue yet I can't answer that because absenteeism is looking at the entire school your chronic absence so you're not just so in the SATs over looking at one class so when I look at like your ELA performance and next I'm talking about 60 some-odd kids but when I'm looking at my absences I'm looking into absences at the entire school of all 300 something students versus right does that help thank you gave me give me a moment to get all them my pieces of the public educators another piece I do want to point out here with the high school I just want to make a note of this if you look down to my numbers are cut off but it's down to the preparation for CCR percent taking courses and the percent passing the exams so we we actually do have a nice opportunities you've been afforded nice opportunities for our students to be able to take some courses that afford them some college opportunities and as we've talked about in the past with and to see us losing those opportunities please know that that may impact our number next June so that had nothing to do with anything we could do we've been trying well we know in fact that it will because we have two courses this year that previously were articulated through MCC and this year we were not allowed to articulate them for MCC so we already know in next year's data we will be seeing a different our different numbers so we're just you know record test as an awareness and we are still continuing to work with two options for next year that would be to any other so the big piece with that it actually comes down to where our stalls overall score gets it's on that particular area the Essex so in order to get one of the criteria you have to have it the benchmark the state benchmark or both math and ela and I give you honest that's our math that is so that's the work we've been working on that's going to be at the end of my report of where we need to continue to work you have to get both of those benchmarks and that's one of our lower scores where for students passing both so it's not the passing so if you were in one of the MCC courses or your AP courses or any of those courses our students are doing well there we can see that data so this is actually the bigger tier one work the math work that we've been talking about and working on so that is that's where we are with that that's how we're talking not score because based on going deeper into the data that's what it's telling me yes okay so you'll see my recommendations at the end of the presentation and finally it's certainly one that we will continue to work with please remember that's based on this year's class or lecture last year's class for that so every year we're going to have that continued work we're always looking at how we support those individual groups but our numbers we really fluctuate when I look at the trends is one or two children right yeah so I just point it up so yes these are data compared to when you look at the state's data looking at thousands yes yes data looking as you'll see there more areas where we do have some so you mentioned that the Heinie's student cohort is actually I guess it could be overlapping but it just secondly Hui the state does report the sub scores looked at whether there are deficits in one group over well scores by our free and reduced versus special and versus is that we mean by those three groups so I think that's the first thing Beth and I do when we get our scores this may be good scores it's one of our favorite summer hobbies when the hands up yes we do we do look at that and again it comes down to knowing our individual children who is those pieces of it and individual factors behind it the harder piece with that to be honest our free and reduced is not a so that is a hard number to put a finger on that's confidential information on it very few people who are allowed to even know who that individual is right that's a federal yeah so you know we sign away all sorts of waivers to even know who's on that list so that is so Beth and I look at that list and then we make some decisions so because just very few people are so we do look at that again II so the need of each it so we can really look at individuals for that so yes we do for that then I would like trends wherever we can find them Yeah right which is really to your question right and we are consistently looking for trends you know what what does it tell us about the individual child but then what does it tell us about the overall picture and our overall programming and Sarah's going to speak to that militarily at the end yes thank you I would like to point out that one of our areas of increased 70s as you since you brought up the high-needs group is that that's actually an area of growth when we did a comparison that that was overall and so if you wanted to know what trend about that particular group that was an area of growth from last year or that so overall any other questions yes so growth is looking at so every student each year earns a scaled score the big number score and based on your skill score and your grade we anticipate that Maria will grow X number of points and next time she takes this test they put that number up so you every individual child has a target score and so that is how you're doing on hitting to your target of the score to hit that score so if you're one point away from that score you don't hit growth so while it's very good and we do look at it and last year that was actually an area of huge celebration for so this is again where arcs are small numbers when you put it into a big big picture is is kind of the transparency a question in small districts I'm just going to be honest it's really hard for us we really have to then dig in what does that mean so certainly that's an area we've had quite a few meetings on we brought in the specialists are we missing anything well who can we get who's a few points away we're really interested in our people showing growth and the ones who aren't showing a growth are going down those really worried us overall because to not to be knocked a little bit it could be at one point miss so I just I do want to show that a good event you know Dan you feel good that day there's that factor too right it's one in time yeah and yet great so yeah but we do look so correct so for that's good yes and so that's the other thing I do want to point night for it when you looking at your gaps their gap indicator no no I the nose right if you have to Cheeseman didn't miss we do not have a gap of DCs but you have a district when we put all of our students together we have a math gap so math is still our area so let's go on to where we want to grow unless there's any more specific questions all students who take the test in this Princeton you showed up the day the test cave and you could start taking it tomorrow you betcha and so as co-chair of the assessment and accountability committee for superintendents in the state ajit who is the chief performance officer for the state is our partner in that committee and we have been asking for the last several years to for them to create a data base for us for us to see longitudinally our students who have been with us since the beginning versus the whole kit caboodle and we that will be it was just released just released it was just like last week it was just released so eyes good you know we haven't we mean with all due respect we're in coronaviruses right season and so we will be digging into that because that's important data for us to certainly examine because that tells us information too that's important definitely for us to them the webinar about it hasn't even half the record and at first glance I was able to shoot of superintend tech just repay I can see this and raise what we can see quickly so I think it will be helpful for when we do some data analysis actually to your point or some of those other so these we push with that because that's a good information for us to yeah actually that's a bit more hopeful work so as we i've talked about already we're gonna continue with the LA and map at the various levels you know it's just we need to science while we did well first time out the gate of science I'm gonna be honest we're gonna just have to stay with science that science test is hard the science curriculum is really solid so while we we came out strong because we've been working towards it for a while we want to continue that work toward science we talked about the college and career-ready yes to continue networking with the area colleges and universities as well as this ongoing look at the alignment with the SAT so going to your question probably regressive and then back to absenteeism they're always working to make sure all students can have access to an education here at school because this is the best place for them to be after the appropriate setting for them so we're always working very hard and I cannot say how many meetings I know that our staff was sitting out there I tend to make sure all students we will continue on that trajectory or this next year so the data is based on the s back for the elementary and SAT the assessment data is yes so the performance data is and then you have your other data so when those are your and then the science is the NGSS science test so that's a separate test growth is looking at your work within those assessments the English proficiency brings in any data they have on email students and that's called the last links assessment which our students take but again our cohorts in that large amount we certainly know that data and sister pals who is our person in charge of all that keeps us always informed as to where we are with that and working to make sure we believe those students chronic absenteeism is of SNC's maja students and we have our committee superdelicious working with at the career and college readiness he's we've spoken about high school graduation and secondary entrance and there's a fitness ISM that mrs.
alfono and he's going to talk about the proposed budget for the 2021 school more thank you the overall budget for this year's 57.9 and millions year-over-year the tax levy is approximately about 30 6.2 million and I'll talk a little bit later in regard to the percent increase the taxpayer in fact we have about 1.7 million dollars in what we call capital projects the two main projects are reboiler replacement in schools number three and school number five we are actually going to have a bid opening on April 7th in regard to those two projects so I'll keep everyone posted in regard to have that benchmark to what we're budgeting in regard to some key appropriations and some trend lines in regard to over the last three years our instruction is up about a approximately two million dollars a year over year and that includes special education and tuition to other schools tuition to other schools is the main driver in regard to why we're up incrementally year over year and also we've added new staff approximately six to eight staff so those two components tuition paid to other schools and additional staff was the cause of the increase year over year we also seen a decrease which helped us balance our budget this year in regard to poor employee benefits it's down several hundred thousand dollars year over year and that's essentially we are moving to a state prescription plan in 2021 from the current Bennett Card private prescription plan so that's actually good news for everyone not only the budget but for individual staff members one of the other items that increased a year over year is our transportation costs and again we have more routes we have more special needs students that need transportation so more routes more students equal more aides and more drivers so our transportation is up about 150 thousand dollars year-over-year our revenues also there correspond with our transportation our up the tick also year-over-year because we get schools like Palisades Park portly and Fairview who pay us revenue for transporting their students to some of the same schools that we transport our Cliffside Park students in regards to revenues I spoke about the local district tax levy it's about thirty six point two million dollars it's up about a million dollars a year over year and that's about a two point nine percent increase and on an average assess home value of about three hundred and sixty three thousand dollars that's about a seventy three dollar per annum increase to the taxpayer we have no debt service coming in 2021 because we made our final payment in July of 2019 again that helps us balance the budget our tuition revenues are up several hundred thousand dollars year over year and that's essentially from the tuition receive in regard to the Fairview students that come into our high school both regular students in our resource room students have helped us increase our revenues several hundred thousand dollars a year over year so again net net we're up about a million dollars in the total budget a year over year in regard to revenues and a lot of that has to do with the tuition incremental tuition revenue we just spoke about and we also got incremental state aid year-over-year increase which helped us balance the budget for the public's know-how and the board our election has been moved from April 21st to May 12th it'll be a mail order ballot only there will be no site visit will be mail ballot mail order ballot only and that'll be May 12th 2020 and that has been moved from April 21st that's pretty much it mr.
Harrington yay mr. Demming i / ue / yes miss fit sir hi mcdonald i carries for zero okay so now we move on to the school choice vote sure so at the last meeting we had the school choice hearing what was my recommendation is to be remain a school choice district really looking only a great kindergarten and a pretty limited number of students you talked in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 just because we know with future building projects and in future other plans we want to make sure we're not boxing ourselves in in terms of the infrastructure but with 8 to 10 students we certainly we feel comfortable and confident we wouldn't be doing that and it maintains both the financial impact of school choice but also the community impact of school choice which both of which are in my opinion are positive so my recommendation is that there be a vote to for the amorous public schools to be a school choice sister for the 2021 school year and of course if those questions are come so I'm you to myself but if there's any questions I'm happy to get any questions from the committee mr.
Sussman so there's lots I'm holding tonight okay my second question is or data if you have a child who needs not meeting your targets well that's one so we have our whole s RBI process CS where we're meeting so that's one venue of where we have these opportunities we begin in the summer where we have people come in to members sorry yes staff members come in to crunch the data because actually we don't get the growth data for so our students will take the tests assume we won't know about the growth a lot pretty much so we have a couple staff members who come in and crunch the data because we know the calculation how they this is a target and you run Excel and we can figure that out and then the compare and so from there we then identify our students who like to target so we starting here we go ahead and we start the year VCS is very diligent about setting the year off of the meetings so the teachers know the first day starts off with a meeting with Daryl why don't you talk about how you set like the subtest within smarter balanced because it breaks down some scores and that will also look at like correlating assessments that we do during the year like the I ready assessments our students before we would it look like leading up to smarter balanced so this is an analysis from many different angles was it a bad testing day but all along the way they look like they should have met and one of the subtests can we strengthen that's our VI process also strengthens those areas and nobody just keeps circling back that's the great thing about these so decisions are made right to secure view board members as well whether or not classroom teachers going to focus on certain things for in-class focus for tier 1 tier 2 would be part of an intervention type class specifically geared towards those areas that need to be shirt up if you will so that they're where they need to be and then tier 3 instruction is far more intensive than the tier 2 or the tier 1 and that's usually very small groups often with reading consultant or write and with some additional supports in the classroom as well for both tier 2 and tier 3 students so we kind of all depends on where the student falls and you know what what the situation is and that's for all students all right that's available for all students you don't have to have an IEP if I go for you I'm going through any special process you go through our process this is what we do for every child mr.
román Geno is there any questions from the public any questions from the board on the I have one question you gave a cost for an average home valued at three hundred and something thousand dollars I don't know many homes inside that evaluated three hundred three thousand what about for our home valued at maybe five hundred thousand what's the increase can you hear me now I hear you can you hear me or did you hear me okay you said that was the increase for a home valued at approximately three hundred and sixty three thousand what about for a home that's more like five hundred thousand well then you just you do it you take a ratio Christine if the house was doubled at three sixty three three one hundred and forty six dollar a year yep okay so twelve dollars a month yes I think of it if your house is half of that you'll get a thirty seven dollar increase you have some double that average assessed value you'll get right 22 for not 146 dollar increase okay thank you let's make it clear that that's just a board of education portion of the tax bill you got to consider the county and you got to consider the borough if the borough goes to have a tax increase that's correct there's also a difference with the assessed value and then the value of the real estate value right correct correct benchmark so you know the public and the board can have an idea of based on what we're looking to approve the impact on the taxpayer it's directional but it's relatively accurate any other questions from the board of the public okay before we look at our consent agenda I just want to say a few words about our virtual learning that's been going on for the last week and a half I have to commend our our teachers and our support staff for the great job that they've been doing in providing our students with some great experiences using Google classroom more and more teachers are now beginning to use Google neat so they're seeing their students or they're teaching a lesson with the students being able to view it so you know as we get into this I think teachers coming more proficient in terms of what they what they're able to do and so far it's really going very very well I would like to mention I know we have a lot of support from our parents but it's very important for them for our parents at this time to really hold us and make sure that their children are taking part these learnings every morning it's very learning for them they make sure that the students are interacting with the teachers that they're following up on assignments because we're still going to be issuing report cards grades 6 through 12 are in the process of beginning the report report card process now I think the report cards are issued somewhere around April 7th in that range ever have it in front of me and then in June we'll be issuing the 3rd semester of our K through 5 grades so students are still going to be graded they're still going to be assessed on the work that they complete teachers are checking it though the help that we can get from the parents from home is essential to this whole process as I mentioned or the governor talked about it being an indefinite period we really don't know I guess a lot of it depends on what happens in terms of the number of cases and what the governor decides to do as far as business is a concern so as I get information I'll share that information with the board and also with the public just a note that every day on our website I do do a daily update to keep parents informed of what's been going on information thing you should know about all the things I mentioned today is that we do give a break and go breakfast and lunch at school number three last Monday the first day we started it we handed out about a hundred and forty lunches today we handed out five the word is getting out there that lunches and breakfasts are available at school three and more and more of our free and reduced student we'll continue to do that in this whole process if any parents who might be out there listening right now have any questions they can call my office or they can email me directly and I will get back to you in a timely manner okay at this time I would like to look at the consent agenda page 2 of our consent that Jenny I'm just gonna pick a couple of different items to review bottom of page 2 - sulie is a basic math teacher at school number 2 we're courting her effective March 1st 2020 at Step MA for the remainder of the school year she's taking over for a maternity leave top of page 3 Chris Ventura who's a middle school social studies teacher was on a family leave and he returned west Monday March 16th so he is back working with the students second revolution down and immuno spen a part-time guy secretary with us and our child 17 will now be 10 and a half months full-time she'll also have somebody's next-to-last agenda and Simon who's been a bus driver for about 17 years and has done a very good job with us has submitted her letter of retirement we wish her the best and she will retire effective June 30th page 4 on the consent agenda we have a resolution the second resolution down recommended to to suspend without pay employee number five two nine three for two days watch ball for March 13th underneath that we have some volunteer vomit we're going to work with our middle school softball let's hope I'm being very positive that we will have a shortened season but hopefully we'll get back to being able to do some types of high school sports before the end of the year page five we are approving the school calendar as I mentioned before that will be posted to our website tomorrow for the community to see we are accepting the science scores for grades 5 8 and 11 you have a couple of bullying incidents that were investigated and as per state guidelines we are stating them in a resolution that they were investigated as per state guidelines and on page six we have a number of policies and regulations that we are proving tonight most of them are revisions and they will be posted to our website sometime tomorrow or Friday the updates will be buildings and grounds as you know a lot of these submissions probably will not take place you left them on the agenda in the event that we do get back and some of them are in in May or late April or in June so we're leaving them as is difficulty hearing so the budget will be completely by now carry notified us last week that they moved the date first to May 12 then after moving the date they decided to do bye-bye mail only so the residents will be mailed a ballot and it has to be mailed back prior to May 12th so we should get the results on matron but it'll be valid by mail only receiving those ballots and will they anybody registered to vote will get one everybody registered to vote will get one I'm not really sure the county did not give us that sent out by the Board of Elections right County did not give us any date or timeline as to when that will be mailed my budget newsletter will state that is going to be balanced by mail only as I do every year I'll do a swift reach to the community about voting obviously this year the message we'll talk about or it will speak to filling out the ballots mailing them back thank you and if we get any other information from the Board of Elections we'll pass that along [Music] anyone else on the consent agenda so before before I have a motion to accept we have any questions on the consent agenda from the public well what am I want and the question from the public is what am I going to do with the student test scores I guess the question really is what about the test scores if you read my update today these New Jersey student learning assessment which is the park has been officially cancelled for this year what they're going to do as far as well there are no results for this year I'm kind of surprised that they completely canceled it because they there'll be no statistic less of a statistical spread than a compare from year to year but the state may decide to do something else but right now we know that the science and the literacy and math assessments are officially canceled tonight yes a question about assessment but not the statewide assessment while students are learning from home we will not be giving the benchmark assessments correct that's correct thank you No okay so at this time I would like a motion to accept the consent agenda I make a motion Thank You mr.
Demming yeah I just just briefly comment but I appreciate the way that we're using school choice at the elementary level topping off the spaces and the the teacher resources that we already have and not adding space and resources and as dr. Morris has said in multiple meetings it enables us hundreds of thousands of dollars of services and staff to enrich what we have available for fraggle and so I appreciate that we're using it judiciously and you know I'm happy to vote in support any other comments or questions somebody want to make a motion and I I will make the motion and I move to approve the school choice proposal - for immersed to remain a school choice district for school year 2021 so I am moved by McDonald second and by Deming I'll go the other direction miss Spitzer you're muted hi Spitzer aye mr.
G yard bcx scheduled for 2020 2021 this presentation is to take a look at our current schedule potentially moving to schedule 1 starting time when dismissal time where this came from as part of the workroom for the 2020 to 2025 strategic plan just looking at daily operations scheduling all of those pieces report is small schedule if you look at this next slide these are all the schools in the state that are set up similar to us K through 8 we called them we found out their dismissal arrival time desk them a bunch of questions to kind of figure out how they run and all of them are on a single schedule público used to be on split and then transitioned over to a single schedule but they're all currently in the work that we did we looked at a lot of reasons why why why should we do this why should we put this in court one that came out was looking at that idea that the municipal students can see a little bit interviewer look for those earlier periods also increasing our staff ability to run things after school they have a lot of elementary teachers are really interested and want to do things after school but are limited by that ability so that was a benefit also the idea of having a convenience for parents with kids across those two age ranges and right now it's running with no additional cost which was a big point for us to look at we also talked about that what would the impact be for us having that k-8 spectrum when we're running professional development when we're having those meetings when we're having that collaborative learning time so now that we're all on one meeting time currently we would then be able to work moving away from we have four possibilities currently so we would be moving to just two as well as there would be an impact we do know to attack sports games would start and as well as just the sport schedule another point is that KT students would be on the bus together but currently many middle school students to take the elementary school bus on the and the afternoons so that is something that happens more often than many know about so we do have that already happening at the school the most common question is can we what's going on with the buses that all the kids on the bus as what's gonna happen with the bus times so superintendent Hecht myself asked the bus company can you do an analysis is this even possible what the bus runs looks like what would be the bus run times so on the left hand side you can see our current BHS first pickup current bcs first pickup and on the first one all the way to the left this is part BHS that includes our current middle school kids so good way to look at this is look at that first column versus the last column and that would show you middle schoolers and what ended you getting to schools or getting picked up picked up so 620 and 734 so it's anywhere in the range of 40 to 60 minutes later that they'd be getting picked up in those fours 810 arrival time to begin school 3:15 so that a little wiggle room for meat ends at 8:15 for you know any late pieces when the bosses are free down in the road or whatever the case may be to get the you know to start school for a 57:34 middle schoolers 8:30 nothing proposed BHS so arrival timing took bold in high school at 7:15 right and we were able to carve out a little extra sleep time for some high schoolers depending upon their bus run and the changes to it based on moving the middle schoolers off the high score and as you can see in the great mom it's not a lot of time I don't like it and one or two buses it's no time but we still be able to craft a little bit once we know specifically yes no still same start time high school because we need the same end time in order to participate the buses arrive at anywhere between 710 7:15 from all three towns actually downtown buses a little bit sooner students are released from the Commons at 7:20 in the first class begins at 7:30 - so this really doesn't change our morning routine at all so kids are getting school of sympathy and then they have 17 minutes before class starts do not take advantage of the bus not having to get to school and have an opportunity but sir sorry have the bus arrived 10 minutes later we have to have an opportunity to a surprise not that all students take advantage of that but we have to have that built into the we can't have a bus arrive at 7:30 and start at 7:30 to because then we'd be disadvantaging those students so that's part of the built-in time no we have the electric resetti that's solidified what these are just thinking 8:15 to 3:15 is what we're thinking correct because one of the issues becomes the after-school activities and the sports right and so we need to end in enough time so that we can at least have sports with work and start to be honest right because you're not going to any middle school that has lit fields that just doesn't exist so Darryl did a good job of canvassing all of the teams that we play and we would be able to actualize it there may be an instance or two or kids have to leave maybe ten minutes early from their last class but it wouldn't be every time and this would enable them to still be in the league that we play in and to play in the sports if we did the 850 to 315 East thank you sudhi sir may we put a survey out to the parents and this was the results so as of right now 16% are our supportive of the idea well the surveys closed so the survey as a result the search these are the results now um support and 32 percent said no several of them make comments one saying that no because I need to know more information so we had that moment and we got a lot of great feedback from the parents and informations for both the Afghan those this is very important bringing this forward tonight because we thought we had a pulse put this kind of reassured me and when I was thinking basically how a coverage to the parents this is a very important piece some of the we went through the first question with yesterday now would you be in favor of a single start and dismissal time and that the second one was open in to her parents we give some questions I wanted to go in a certain way and some of the concerns that were raised were these are the most common ones I would say this 90% of them were on these four topics buses with kth students together as mrs.
Coe yes mr. Ito yeah yes yes drink or dad yes Kelly yes yes okay our next scheduled board meeting April 22nd is on work session April 29th is our board meeting to the public again depending upon the circumstances we will notify the public as to whether or not we would be allowed to have a meeting in public or it'll have to be virtual a little early to determine what's going to happen but as I said before before I call for a motion to adjourn please check our website on a daily basis for updated information please download our Co side Park app from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store for also notification and again we ask for you our strong partnership which you've always done in the past to help us to help your children with this virtual learning at this time I would like to take a motion to adjourn posting the motion shall we yeah second thank you very much be safe thanks everybody be safe
Demming hi mr. Harrington I'm McDonald I carries four to zero next is the student opportunity plan act vote sure still the background on this is the in the fall as was talked about at the amur school committee the Legislature passed the student Opportunity Act you know I'll say personally and professionally I think it was the right thing to do it will not merit a result in the amorous public schools getting funds that that weren't anticipated the exception perhaps of tarter although that I think that's a it's a moving target so we'll see how that that goes but as a requirement of the student Opportunity Act each district and the Commonwealth had to come up with there has to come up with a student Opportunity Act plan and what you're seeing for a Murs is for all three districts actually because we're not getting significant new funds it's called the short form so it's a two-page plan for districts getting over a million and a half of new income which there's about four or five of them in western Massachusetts like Holyoke West Springfield Springfield Chicopee they have a seven or eight page long form it was much more detailed but there was some acknowledgement by the Department of Education which I appreciate that there would be some differentiated expectations for deserves it had large streams of revenue at least it looked at the time coming in versus districts like our own so what you see is a two-page document which was the expectation of the Department for districts like ours it as I said relatively brief it follows kind of their template so all their their templates in blue and the writing of the district was in the black font and I think the short story is there is a question about whether this date will be pushed back it was really due to be voted by April 1st that being said the plan has already been developed shared by our administer tene shared with every parent Guardian and every staff member for feedback in maybe two three three weeks ago I believe in the my newsletter so if the committee is comfortable I you know voting to move forward that's great if the committee would like to wait it seems like that time little pushback but for me the inertia is it's been drafted and if the committee is comfortable I just as well have it submitted because we think it's it's there it's right for a district that's the right direction to go in we could always go back and make an edit later you know and revise it as things change with our budget or other matters but it's really up to the will the committee whether you want to take it up tonight and have it voted or you'd like more time which it looks like will be granted by the legislature to vote at a later date any comments or questions from the committee seeing mr.
Ahmed mentioned earlier it already happens a lot with sports and clubs and Walmart Club and kids going from one thing at 2:30 and then getting on the 3:30 buses with the little kids it happens all the time we have really before issues so just people didn't know that that airs a lot of the parents that they would not be favorite we were go to one schedule to make it 7:30 to 2:30 time because then I would have the little guys coming in at 7:30 exactly some this is a battle one that we already talked about but it was interesting to me through all of them cause maybe there was something that we missed but we've already thought about this one is the parking lot may be very crowded at arrival dismissal now because everybody would be arriving in dismissing at the same time so we would be having experts come in to do an analysis and give us suggestions recommendations of how to use our entrances and exits is the best that we could we have a PMO we do but I want to get the professionals also there too setting flow patterns and traffic patterns and will be the best exposure with school safety as well we're using the least amount of exits that makes sense but just really get those recommendations as long the fact that all the teachers would be arriving and in the parking parking their cars their teachers would be in the same set up a lot of parents showing up I think it's correct I think it's likely we'll see more maybe ride the bus because they're breaking it on together and mantra deck you go to work yep another concern that was raised was the start time for sports and clubs so that's what we can't miss the schools that will play against and it would be a small amount of time with occasionally having to leave early for a game and then some of the positive that came from the feedback again aligned with faith and we're also looking at or c-max top common trend a lot of that looking at the logistics of having multiple students across the grades and a family as well as that later start time and one that came up also was thinking about those early release days that we have the benefit of knowing that both of my children whether they need one in sixth grade and one in fourth grade are leading at that same time and I'm making a plan for that early dismissal thing it's a common planning it's not fair of what to do with one and have to go back for another or who's going to be where so and then quite a few parents commented that now they're happier that their students in sixth grader is going to be on that Elementary run rather than being with the high schoolers that they're currently so you know those always logistical II the first color just so every that was probably over 50% of the positives was I have a kid at 3rd 5th and 8th right now you know working family trying to get everybody everything together now a middle schooler could help with the younger ones even and people went that much detail with what they were saying that's actually our students are you proposing that for this next you yes I'm not sure that we actually definitely do but I really like it to whether we need to or not all those favor so mr.
Demming uh yeah just I mean I know this is small money compared to the overall budget but I do appreciate that it's targeted at math intervention given how many different student groups that affects and that we're rolling in a new math curriculum at least at the sixth grade level so I appreciate that it'll be interesting to see what this becomes in future years even though it is small money from what I understand of the student Opportunity Act there was supposed to be targets that does he provided or at least the Commissioner provided that these were then drafted towards so without those targets it's a little hard to understand exactly what they're looking for but I'm assuming in this year they're not going to be that picky so happy to vote for tonight yes and in even prior to the the crisis that were in the health care public health crisis were in they were pretty clear they weren't gonna have all those ducks in a row before April 1st that we were supposed to do our best and know there was a multi-year plan I think now that MCATs and generals and that's probably being generous at the moment I think you know I think there's a lot of things the state will have to figure out and this is relatively low on the totem pole but you know for me I believe you know we believe in everything that's in the document for all the reasons mr.
chair and I would ask that maybe you know on Monday when we were the only ones here working that you know we worked on crafting the message out to families I would just like to say I did not get to thank you all for your service business is part of it I do appreciate so much all of the great work that you do and the amount of time tremendous service that goes without recognition and certainly without a long day without any payment to be honest I've spent a lot of hours so your gift is just a small token so for the last two years now we have been healthy food certified and I am requesting through our food service director that we did that again last year we received four thousand seven hundred and sixty eight dollars by being healthy food certified that we would not have received otherwise for our program we've already received our first payment this year of two thousand seven hundred and fifty one dollars and we inspect our second installment to be paid out in May it is her recommendation as well as mine that we healthy food certified again this year as it does bring an additional revenue for our food service program by merely following the guidelines and then I would ask that you then if you would be so kind as to improve that and then approve a motion for exemptions because we need those for all the great activities and things that happen after school hours as well please yes I would like it to be two separate motions and they have to be exactly as I have them there for you was the guy he's given by the state I totally get that and I sent back to the food service director that are you sure you can't modify this so that it reads a little bit and I was told no thank you would you please say it exactly like that so that I can then spend the minutes that directly say that I'm just a part of Education I would like a motion or healthy food certification that person moved that pursuant to CGS Section 10 - 2 1 5 F the order education on governing authority certifies all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction not accepted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State page 3 of 6 against State Department of Education Department of Education the Connecticut nutrition standards during the period of July 1st 2020 through June 30th 2021 the certification shall include all food offered herself to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines school cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non school or musicians and first okay do we have any discussion of those words well the second paragraph gives us flexibility or an after-school hours which is what we're seeing so like when we have a basketball game and they want the kids want to sell Gatorade and chips they can do so and the state allows that exemption if you approve it correct correct yeah no and I all I can say is I'm sorry because I guess not my you you have it totally healthy could start to image exceptions often all I would sell to students of food items that do not meet magnet nutrition standards and beverage is not listed in Section 10 - 2 - 1 Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend - the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold on vending machine or school store an event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Interscholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end location is being held as we know the next generation science Indians came out a few years ago our ninth grade science has not changed in many many men we were looking with the revision and the support from crack you know we didn't know what resources to do with me because in the k-8 science world they move the text box to the scientists at a school they just went right back to yep we recommend that you have a premier resource so in looking at and our science department really diving in and looking at what's there and what those bees are asking our students to move they really feel the move just everything asked for to our a school night right now so we have two levels of general science in ninth grade and we really split the class about half with that and so I would like to the science department has asked that we consider to text this text to being a physical Earth and space science for the more general population everybody packs the science great mascot and this is one text that they can move forward and review there is a second text called the integrated science third issue text which would be considered the honors level text who would like to have access to both classes both and vice versa there's layout in this text that could support well this would be the primary text for the so our app would like to move forward for first reading so yes so right now way to split it that makes it with my estimated cost ended up it's gonna be less numbers no this year we needed approximately 75 books I just don't know how or never to go into fall and so when I keep forward trying to figure out what it is about this we're looking at between about 12,000 to 15,000 tasks depending upon how many of each we need because of course the this particular text workbook is $99 attached advanced that honors Texas we have this budget in the choice thank you so we would have enough so that Webber's a whole new general science book have enough for this another doc with a few extras so should we come to a unit or a child in another box but that text is available for that particular because the books are lined well enough that eyes are going to be able to not a strong one movies there are digital resources but that would not be the primary no we're not working not going down you say they have some online resources to cope there is but that's not their primary some of the other and they don't change anything these fields foresee and well there's some major changes in science our last text is over 50 people Donna text around here a lifetime my next hope would be really looking at the digital resources you know that that's our reality we are sitting in this in-between world wherever we can the 300 yards education resources the college level that's moving our way we see it coming we're just not thinking well it's nothing we're not there yet there nothing in the whole world for right in general with this science standard resources because the standards are new yes sir vetting it right so there I mean there are things out there but we're not just jumping on just because it's out there we want to make sure it's been vetted in its no no we will get the digital aspect to it it's not as heavy as some of our our elementary tests so you like I would that's the first reason so astronomy we have been looking for three years for an astronomy test that would be appropriate for our Facebook of course our current text is basically a glorified past like working with NASA so that's a great resource that we do have in Fulton the supplement the word finally found a text that he didn't get his over to the science department suppose the curriculum committees to review as far as if that hits the relevant issues of an astronomy for that we done an analysis went back after some conversations we run about fifteen kids section so we'd be looking to purchase approximately impacts or about twenty four for that as well as he always various reasons like the other ones there's some online resources with this this is a a an elective for students so it's going to be mostly our juniors and seniors and sophomore given pressure minutes for the top exactly we would really like to target those necks request because she's so excited set of books that will be moving forward our the ready maps continuation this is just last year adopted ready math program or work as they were called for ready classroom kt through five and primary and after you waited the year because the company last year we were dating for wanting to adopt to push this program forward however they did not have the online he says they do with elementary know of anyone development and elementary students and those experiences are very best online resource this will not have that vast online resource so we are asking to move forward with first read of this particular work contexts if you do want to take a closer look anymore the first people to come to the board event to preview attacks this is something they're made to look at online because ethic they have not put out actually April is when they're anticipating to release their striking new text but these all the information they've just reorganize it and then the online house piece is already there yeah the beauty of this program is that every year again I'm eating there anything else you'd like to add about why we would like to do this for we've seen this huge growth our students and our staff especially I'm Justin sitting with perfect teachers today he one of the things that they are noticing our staff is National Council of teachers of mathematics here put out the best teaching practices of math and what you need to do to teach math well and they'll they're sitting during analyzing them and they know this it's the program it monsters and supports all of that so it's really hard to help teachers say this is how to teach math well when the program doesn't help them do that they the teachers now can notice and say how do I do this because it helps me so they're seeing that one thing with this a great visiter waiting to hear is they are updating it so our upcoming that our upcoming sixth graders the their core working text will align similarly they'll move up with a text and a format that is exactly the same as they're getting right now in that fifth grade it is extreme but it's just going to be that enhancement so this is ready mathematics what we will which it's not out in print yet to look at really beginning reading class or which is what we currently have k5 they just even so it's just it's coming in the third stream Lea responsive to sound the needs of teachers and staff so it's a wonderful program the cost for this will be a five thousand seventy dollar program now that they've heard raid level four they've all three grade levels so whole innovation labs five thousand and that so when I went back and look at what our typical ask is or are not in our budget who supplies timer as we tried to Instagram this is actually a little bit less or equal to what we're always looking at because we were always trying to supplement with programs that weren't matching so we saw a pretty large reduction even after first year of the rollout of the elementary of past's or you need to supplement the other supply so we're anticipating that this will just keep us pretty much equal to where we've been with our math budgets we're very excited about this [Music] relaxed so we would like to purchase this for all kids rates because really as we move up it's going to be a combination this is a barrier we have worked to align to the math standards what our skirt seventh grade teacher is currently doing because we have had actually already been integrating aspects of it so we'll see a more integrated approach in 7th and 8th and then slowly move into them the next year already in the Navy the other aspect that this allows us to do with review more excited about we will be able to identify for all students really at the end of this year really solid feeling of who would be able to start identifying toward step artifical pre-algebra group and start grouping or assigning appropriate lessons and learning to a group to really start advancing their learning earlier they're ready for it identified ready right and the program does that easily for all staff so we're really very excited about being able to do that earlier because what we were finding with our practices that are threats of agreement is getting all the stuff that needs very non-standard if you if we're targeting your child to go into algebra 183 they're essentially doing two years of heavy lifting in one where it's really our kids who can do it are doing it but we're out it's really unrealistic ask and we're seeing that with our upper-level kids and we're talking earlier about one of the areas we're looking at this is one of our repairs our action pins we need to start earlier making sure over spring these all kids earlier and because we have a lot of fomenting takes special needs students may be struggling and this program will really help with them but it will also help with those really advanced the other really exciting things that Sarah explained to us teachers say look back and we'll have access to the seventh or sixth grade materials and pull a lesson it might be a second lower level or slower pace and use that with the struggling I would just to speak to a question earlier about the growth and how they all students rose we've been finding in our k5 is that the program and the women higher rating diagnostic and the ready classroom is set up is to help the teachers know how to move all stirs so all levels are given something to work for and a Mac it's not just trying to move populations that are maybe an intervention or a difference also or pushing all students and finding ways to support them and that's what's really important we're looking at now we can extend in middle school during those week periods and those times that we have to push students and I do want to be clear we're talking about the aspect of this there's a lot of teacher ability as well so if I know that Jessica is really one of my star students and she's just not performing for whatever you know for whatever reason that teacher still housed the ability to very easily to adjust or maybe just because that student that have a bumper up just a little bit because you need that little bit we can do that and that's another lovely aspect about this program were many of the computer based programs you're a little bit time by where the program sets that tracks there's a lot of the teacher interaction with us and I find it to be really they called it blended by design they really have acknowledged the teachers very well these will be available at the board event for each student work a work this is around right over text yeah and then we have so every teacher does get a large teacher resource this they don't get new every year it will be after substantial change with this they send it to us but if the lesson is updated all of those resources are also a push of a button online so it doesn't ever even have to carry this one you can access everything at home likewise with all of this and then there's all the additional online resources that's thank you very much yeah all right power billion statistics just put this together so again Matt as we talked about earlier what a few years but also what's really important that we need more electives in math for students so we have a general pathway for all students so the reality is or maybe how's that has some basically the skills they're now being asked because I miss at that Common Core she's really very aggressive even if it's a school and our turn Arthur Kipps we did our best every district the SAT about third of that and probability and statistics if you're not taking AP statistics is pretty much chapter thirteen and while our high school teachers don't just follow the math book as it is when you're teaching the octave geometry classes they may have a probability or statistic aspect they're working to rearrange and they're not finding that as they're rearranged angle maybe it's better if you just also offer a class so it's not that we're going to remove it from all the other classes it's just not going to have this heavy of a focus so we can really do Algebra one really do algebra do and really do our geometries and Akhter probability as well as an elective so this is a class that would be open to all its all students in freshman gonna be special freshmen sophomore juniors again for all those students or those students in mathematics would probably be recommended by a teacher to pay this would be pretty awesome okay or honestly some of those kids went with ap statistics this course was built backwards from the AP statistics of this will give students a solid foundation so should they want to access to be able to enter into that particular ad class so those are all the basics behind again together and develop this curriculum we have motion to discussion yeah I mean so if there are leftist or leftist run between about 15 you know could be small six on the first year up to 15 to 20 oh thank you for asking great question you know this was written with the assumption that we will use our current resources and teachers have been charged though to if there is a better resource out there to please take a look again a curriculum should be right before or understanding the standards we can do this without any purchase the server just yeah they and we've spoken that would be really do a community response to be able to work that purchase should be tested so you might see me next year [Music] g4 with delicious we have my resignation a small share bottom HS donation the high school very generous donation of tools happy very happy these new to us I might add so nice thank you it's a nice combination of a couple items of a replace some of our aging pieces that were not part of the building project and older stuff and two things that we have never had access to before that'll give you no chance for students to be exposed to equipment that we would never have a chance to purchase and offer them a mrs.
dummling said we believe that we need to do more and provide a more equitable outcome for it particularly in in all subjects but particularly in mathematics and if there was no student Opportunity Act we'd be doing the same things that we're talking about doing here so it's a it's a box that might get a check and we can send it off and they may not look at it for months but from our perspective we if the committee agrees we'd rather check the box then have to I'm seeing nodding heads so I'm taking that to mean that we would like to move to a vote if no one's going to make a motion and I will um I move to vote to approve our submission for the student opportunity plan act is there a second Harrington just change it up a little moved in the second and is there any further discussion seeing none we'll proceed with a vote mr.
price out of glastonbury kind of a friend of a student kind of made a connection with mr. and tubes kind of reached out to us and after the passing of her husband and really wanted his his joy his very beautiful fairly new equipment put to good use so we were very happy to help her out so so for several weeks now tactic with our Eastern Highlands health district have been receiving updates that in contact with Jim Rupert our Emergency Management Director our team here tonight and I have spent a tremendous amount of quality time together over the last moments trying to be as prepared as we can for what could possibly may happen on Monday I participated in a emergency preparedness phone conference with the governor with the head state epidemiologist with the Commissioner of Education and heads of all the other main departments overseeing this health crisis in our country and in our state information was shared at that time I did share communication I've shared now for communications with families over the course of the last two weeks the last being this evening and that is why I apologized to my late arrival to the board meeting but made the decision to close school for the next two weeks and if possibly maybe indefinitely and it will depend on the spread of this virus we had a call this afternoon at 4:15 with the Commissioner of Education by way of an update for superintendents after the governor's conference news conference today at 3 o'clock announcing additional information the virus is spreading from the western part of our state towards our way the state of Connecticut has not utilized the closure of schools to stop the spread of a virus since 1918 and it is clear with this virus they send all of the information that this see and the state email Jaques and doctors in State Health Organization's have at this time that the more proactive we are at the beginning stages of infestation the better off we're going to be and that has been seen in countries that took a rapid proactive approach versus a country like Italy that did not and now the entire country shut down so my response this evening was in response to that to the information that we heard in concert with other communities around us so I'm just going to read you the list Vernon Bolton East Windsor Somers Ellington Penfield Windsor Moran B Stafford Suffield Manchester South Windsor a belief Hartford I know correct magnet schools have closed and I believe the list is going to continue and I'm certain that there have been others east of us yeah where that's happening market is that I may not know yet because my phone's been blowing up and I you've been trying hard to pay attention to the presentations tonight as well as to what is going on in the outside world around me so that being said I also want to share with you that our staff led by our administrators has done a tremendous job at looking at whether or not we were going to have the ability to do distance learning while we went in if we were going to close and while I think that our staff has done a great job in the last few days of pulling together resources really the last two weeks right and in and in examining what we could do we have to also be concerned about equity and accessibility and I can't so we were giving two options I the Commissioner of Education on Monday one was should we need to to simply close and one was to apply for a waiver from the State Department of Education to provide distance learning to our students however in that waiver we had to assure that we were providing equity and access to all our students that we were addressing all of the needs of our special education students that we met the requirements of our contracts and both myself and the chair of the Board of Ed we've had to have signed off on that in good conscience I cannot tell you that we could do all of those things at this point in time and it is incumbent upon us to be sure that we provide equity to all sternness so having said that our staff is going to utilize the resources that you can put together to be able to provide supplemental materials that parents you know and students can access at home during this period the governor issued a Weber votes to 180 day rule that if we have to close and make up days we have to make it up to get to 180 or we have to make up days all the way to June 30th and then if we still haven't gotten to 180 by June 30th those additional days will not be required to be made up next year because that happened to a district and then I think it was last year or the year before then in 180 days by June 30th and the following school year they to make up those things that they didn't get to so at this point we are closed for the next two weeks resources will be put out there to the best that they can by staff tomorrow being that it's a very short amount of time initially I thought that we would have an early release day on Monday and be able to do some prep time for staff but that is just not possible any longer I am NOT going to suggest that we take away is not my recommendation to take away for vacations I think that we're going to need to open our windows and clean clean clean should we even be able to come back to school in two weeks so we will likely if we only have ten days out we will be going tilde so if we did just a hundred and eighty days which would mean that we could end school on the 15th and that is when high school graduation is planned for anyways because that's one hundred and eightieth day of school we would end on June 22 Monday June 29th as the hundred and eightieth a school I recognize this is not ideal but I think it is imperative that we do everything that we can possibly do to prevent the spread of this disease because this is very very serious and we are taking a lot of steps you heard me allude to some of those before about Queenie in the building and getting extra cleaning supplies extra actual cleaning apparatus so that we can address the issues as they unfold that's what I have no because you made that decision and at that point in time that was the 188 days school can if you want to no no no no I know but but because we made the decision at the point where we needed that was the 180th day of school and by the state law we're allowed to do that what we're still under the restriction of gatherings less than 100 I don't know and to be honest we haven't quite gotten that for you in our discussions but we have two weeks now to talk about it got some time yes we do so there are no expectations for staff to be teaching or communicating or grading papers it's just like if if it were a snow day because they're gonna have to make up the days we have we have already had all of our PD days unfortunately because it would have already exercised that but you know this is different than when we had snow tober a number of years ago right that was before we had a lot of professional development days it was before we had vacation so we made adjustments I wasn't here then but I know in my own district we made adjustments in the school calendar because it was early enough in the year and probably sue could speak to this too right we're days were taken away or teachers at PV days at the end of the year or other wrong time or whatever the case may be but we are not you know in that situation right now the other thing that I now need to examine with John is of how how i cool down Bolton center school the last several weeks of June because not upstairs if we get some really hot days you know so we could be looking at early release days you know in the middle to end of June depending upon what the weather looks like then so you know we're examining we'll be taking a look at that next right now we were trying to get through the first part of this crisis so did I leave anything out tomorrow limited quite some questioning at the same time I think they like we saw the handwriting on the wall and we've had some of that pre vacation kind of restlessness we've had that in the building we will take some time tomorrow to clean our lockers out make sure we packed up our stuff talk to our AP students that they will be doing some work right because they've got to get to the AP test and the AP teachers will communicate to them how they'll be providing that so we'll be doing some of that busy work tomorrow we'll have a busy day so we do have the SAT day that we have scheduled so that's the original date that we selected and there's a date in late April that is the the backup date per the College Board but they have given us some latitude and we'll be communicating with them next week that we won't be here on the 25th and we'll stay tuned to see when it gets in it they've been good though that it they used to be very very rigid but they're giving us some flexibility for this I couldn't word it better it really found that free summer high-energy whether it's out a little bit of here what they're hearing at home and on the news or just the unknown so the others definitely a higher energy in the building I have a communication that I received this evening that I will sort of like that's right a talking points on how to talk to your kids about this then I'll be sharing with families tomorrow to be honest I need to get the word out and get down here so this is I have already communicated with the parents that I just go to schools have some two weeks it actually says it definitely but hopefully dress two knees cuz we want to mention it smarter balanced next fingers but yes so apparently smarter balanced testing is allowed to go to June third gene is on the conference call today with the governor and did say that if in fact we needed they will seek to have extended to June 30th that's place where we another all right we will adjust accordingly as things as it stands right now we're not scheduled to start until great so yeah so working on that I've been working on that all day with Heather there are components where we need some waivers for the federal government and the state is awaiting that waiver but in the meantime we devise plan administrators worked on information today we're not sure if we're going to be doing like daily you know come daily for our free reduced lunch students or if we're going to supply them with a few days worth in my inclination and my preference would be for a few days worth I just we just have to be sure that we're going to be able to do that so we're working on getting that set now Harford for our choice kids chrec is going to take care of getting the word out so that you know like how they gonna get to Bolton to get it so that would be provided in Hartford at various locations and you know our Columbia students couldn't my calls on my way mobile tonight it's cynical obviously for tenant to talk about what that will look like and will they you know they very kindly take that on there so that the families don't have to travel to hear but if they or listener I'll go do a drop-off whatever it needs to happen Oh so we are working on that basis yeah so I'm not sure I don't know how else to answer that this is a very in flux situation I did communicate with our staff tonight before the decision was made to close that we currently we're not going to be utilizing a distance platform at this time that may change I don't know and it's really going to be contingent upon you know how we get to staff and are they going to can they come in and there's a lot there's a lot of pieces to it along with the equity and the access piece for students because we're having to you know because we're not a one-to-one district and we don't provide a left to offer Chromebook for every student although we've done some surveys and you know informations been sent out we've been gathering that information so I guess that's a stay tuned that that's not a closed discussion because I did put that out to staff today that this is what it is for the next two weeks and because that was the guidance from the State Department of Ed although they've offered the waiver thanks this commissioners straight out said today they are urging us to simply close because of the equity and the access issues presents and it presents a host of legal issues as well policy 3160 last year we had some good discussion about this policy and what we felt should be the amount not to proceed is on the back page of the policy for the overall budget transferred by the superintendent at the time it seemed really reasonable this discussion that we had in that amount currently that we have in the policy equals twenty eight thousand six hundred and thirty two dollars Shipman and Goodwin our attorneys Milan policies suggests that it be five percent I thought that was ridiculous last year I understand why now they have a much higher percentage than what we agreed to based on what we're facing and what may have to happen in the next coming days and knees so I'm asking that you take into consideration changing that and amending this policy I don't think it should be five percent I think that's too high for the amount of our budget but I feel that it certainly needs to be more than 0.2 percent based on what I have described to you this evening that we're dealing in that way we went to 0.2% 28,000 $632 well reads like a dandy single transparent but I'm trying to seek further clarification on that from Rebecca because I think we still may need to clean this up a little bit and we talked about that in meeting the other day yesterday I seems like a month ago even about our categories because I Amy to just confirm that are these categories that are recommended because if they're only recommended we'd rather be categories that fit how our budgets actually laid out or these categories straight out of statute I just haven't had two seconds do you think the statute I'm sorry but I haven't so up I have two weeks to have this conversation come up we're transfers probably if you look at each one has if you were to say well you have to treat it there's one lump sum then potentially face in order to do that it doesn't mean that we are not going to be informed just means that if something comes up two weeks before was given to me she can take action so I would recommend we go from zero point two or what's going on I think so oh okay yes I moved to amend policy three one six zero paragraph beginning superintendent authorized to make some transfers as necessary as urgent need transfer third line at that paragraph zero zero I had this conversation I wonder if past we had threshold $10,000 last four years you know at once or twice a year or maybe and we increase it to this amount and that is money for our district Lord some it seemed to me the entire burden see pandemics for example we would have to consider something like this a temporary change particularly a lack of clarity about exactly when this applies to crisis maybe say the end of the year questioning much smaller transfers I consider perhaps with hindsight to this what was necessary [Music] extreme circumstances off see why that would be necessary and I think it's the language is clear says urgent leave the transfer prevents more than anything in the change passionately that caveat that you're concerned about is there that saving it you don't think they can transfer preventing us from meeting in a timely fashion is a very [Music] that's me that's not very you know like like should we say maybe we should try if it is above certain level try and have an emergency meeting whose would almost all situations staff comes into the high school one morning and discovers place it has to be done right away virgin extreme urgency I think the original was five percent indicators probably what's happening around other districts as well most and I think there's inherent to let me Sandra I too have a concern about since they trust us about this much it concerns me I think making it a temporary at least through the horses period and and I'm gonna be honest you guys think that two percent is really too big of an amount to swallow and you you gotta make it 1% because you guys sleep at night you know do what you got to do but then if I call and say I need an emergency meeting you got to come I don't know what else to say right and I love you all dearly and I really appreciate all the work you do but sometimes it's like herding cats I'm side at the end of the year [Music] so why don't we just amend it to be to be examine it in June does that work even a second effective also perhaps public what's the chance the second meaning to I mean I think it's a fine idea if we can in fact me right because the same maybe well no no I admit that part I mean like at that point coronavirus why are we even going to be allowed to do actually do that today so we figure something out where it could be well I think you've talked to Rebecca about that today and there has to be a place like a public place that's right the way they come to and do the reading right which may become problematic right if the school is closed I asked you about big screen Oh on the field I don't disagree I think it's a great idea but I hear so what we're running into like in two weeks it was an access issue because it's a public meeting everybody has got access to it so for you guys to all zoom in would be legal if it's okay your bylaws but the public has to be able to view it and you can't guarantee that they have that look Rebecca said you have to be able to write we can always cancel it right based on the circumstances but so like I'm wondering two weeks from this Thursday is March 26 and schools are closed so we can do it I mean we can have it here right gonna miss you have video you got well that create an issue if you're saying to close but you're you're opening your school I'm just giving a reception that for the gathering good speakers yeah I did what's up correct yes we could we would be opening the building up we just feel yeah yeah we could do that we can hold it there be a conference room so we do my Jeff simply contain all those chairs up so you have to close for charity and bring this higher and after the meeting sir that's a work space could we possibly do Wednesday the 25th instead of Thursday why don't we just play that one and see so I'm posting call to order and we will have coronavirus update adjournment I don't know if you need to vote on that or not so why don't you just go ahead and do that just in case the chair just special meeting okay no we don't mind not for the 7:05 [Music] Scotian all those paper
dimly alright mr. Harrington Oh miss Spitzer I and McDonald I carries my vote for 2-0 thank you so much appreciate it and moving on to item D appoint budget coordinating group members this was a question that dr. Morris and I were talking about whether we already have people appointed to this this coordinating group but also given the current emergency in crisis and situation there there is a need for us to ensure that we do have members appointed to this group and dr. Morris maybe you can provide a little bit more introduction on this absolutely so the budget coordinating group is a group that has both elected officials and a more limited number of staff from different departments in the town so the library you know the other town staff the schools and they get together to look at the state of the finances in the community and they're often years and coordinate between the needs of different departments this year was a had been a relatively quiet year so that's changed for all sorts of reasons but including financially and budgetarily so this is a group that we'll be meeting in the next couple weeks we'll be meeting shortly to look at the current situation the financial and again this isn't to minimize the health and human safety aspects of what people are dealing with but we also have to be looking at the other aspects as well because that's we do have a fun age Duch iary obligation in our community and the the impact is significant I think I think everyone can see that if they drive through downtown Amherst and so we want to make sure that the school committee is represented with two members who meet again with other town staff members as well as other elected officials board of trust the library trustees Town Council and I to be honest I'm not sure if it's the Finance Committee or how the Town Council has it as well as staff to be able to have conversations about what the impacts going to be and how we're going to manage it so in the past and that's been a request that I had received from the Town Manager there's typically two members from the amur school committee who sit on this group you know I do want to caught what's the word be honest that this groups probably getting meeting quite frequently in the next four weeks the Town Council voted to extend the timeline of when budgets have to be passed by you know this body to May 1st instead of April 1st that's why budgets not only in one reason why the budget the agenda tonight but this is it's a crisis in all sorts of ways and one of those ways is financial so I do want to be candid that it will be pretty I'm guessing pretty regular meetings over the next couple weeks on the flip side you know it's incredibly important there's a lot of concern about the budgets I'm hearing it from staff as well as community members and what did the implications gonna be and this is a group that really works in Kimber you can bring back to the school committee a broader understanding of the town's finances and how that would influence the school budget thank you miss Spitzer apologies um I just have a question if you could give any guidance on the timeframe do you know if these are going to be daytime meetings evening meetings my understanding is that has not been established historically they were in the morning but historically we didn't have a town council and we weren't in a crisis so I really don't know exactly how it'll go and historically we didn't do virtual meetings which for some people actually makes it more flexible for some less as you experience a couple minutes ago right so I don't think the time has been established historically I think it was like 9:00 or 9:30 in the morning but I would say in the communications from the town manager seemed like getting the group together and then you know figuring out the timing was probably the second element I'm sorry I don't have total clarity on that so I be willing to volunteer as one of the reps on the cordilla group so would love [Music] partner on I'm serving I'm just concerned about my ability being fully present that I have three kids at home to work during the day so I don't know what other people are out there that this is something I have an interest in and I think I'd be happy to serve but I I'm just trying to figure out how to how to like my work mr.
Demming um I mean I'd be happy to be alternative backup if the Spitzer would like to join you and then if what's the meeting scheduled if it doesn't work out very for your schedule you know I could I could step in so if that's a flexible you go wet yeah and can I follow up is this going this isn't a just addition to jcpc which has been temporarily suspended is that I mean just a yeah yeah yeah I was just gonna say so JC PPC talks about capital funds the budget coordinating group typically talks exclusively exclusively but the primary piece is the operating budget not the capital budget well I'm happy to volunteer with the caveat of what I just said that I'm kind of in a unique I mean all of us are in this situation right now but and my partner has very limited flexibility and a schedule right now so to the extent that I can be there I will be able I'd love to okay so we'll proceed with miss Spitzer and myself as being the representatives pending the sched the meeting scheduled for that coordinating group and have mr.
Demming and on-call as backup if if the meeting schedule does not work out with Miss Spitzer schedule sounds good okay I'm seeing thumbs ups great thank you everybody okay so I'm now moving on to our next item which is the School Committee vacancy process there's two items in this which is the suggested interview questions as well as whether and and if yes what selection guidance we would like to offer to both ourselves and and the Town Council dr. Moise I think Lynne Griesemer has called in we came to your image but I see a phone number on mine so I just wondered if Lynne was here because because this particular topic is a joint one between the end topic is joint between the amur school committee in the amherst town council so I just I've lent it here if you could introduce yourself just so that the school committee is aware that you're on the call hi this is Lynne and I did phone in after not successfully being able to come in by Chrome so it's fine I'm mostly here to listen but more than glad to ask answer questions and I'm also taking notes as you have your conversation I probably will mute unless I'm answering a question because otherwise I get an echo great thank you no we would folks like me to project the share on screen the questions would that be helpful yes let me see if I can pull them up give me just a sec and I closed my email so now I have to go back in sorry okay um oh thank you hey you got to it faster than I did and since I'm not gonna participate orally in this part I'm happy to just leave my screen with the questions and for anyone who wants to look at the questions if you click on me and there's a little pin and it if you hover over it it says pin to screen if you pin me to the screen you should be able to just see the questions if you want to look on in enlarger in a larger size so again if you hover your cursor over my over me and there should be a little like thumbtack pin if you click on that that'll pin this image to the screen it actually pinned you to the screen so today hmm that is curious let me see does that help and OH hit the pin on the screen there we go okay yeah yes okay great so this this collection of questions is includes all of the questions that were submitted by school committee members and Town Council members before by a week ago and it has been discussed already once with oh sorry and then ms Greece Meyer and myself met over the weekend to consolidate overlapping questions and collapse them into what you see here this this set of questions was discussed at the Town Council meeting on Monday and after our discussion tonight miss grace Meyer and I are meeting tomorrow to wrangle this into what could hopefully be a final list of questions for our candidates and it's in just to remind everybody about the the processes we'll be meeting on the 14th of April the candidates have until the 31st of March to submit their statements of interest and then we'll be meeting and a special joint meeting with the Town Council on the 14th to interview the candidates miss Brees mer and myself will be asking the questions from this list of questions or whatever our final list of questions will be and that's that's sort of the next next steps of the process and what we want to do is come to that list of final questions that that we can use in interviewing the candidates I think there was also some discussion about holding back one or two questions that the town council president and myself will ask of candidates during the interview but will not be published as part of the packet ahead of time so these adjusting overview of the questions they're grouped into sort of buckets of similar similar angles if you will we're themed attic and then roughly in an order that we might propose asking them during the interview meeting so the first question is is basically about the the reason for applying and reasons for interest and the second set of questions is what is about experience with the public schools the next bucket of questions is aimed at the their understanding of the role of the School Committee and Mike I don't know if you can scroll so I can see the the folks can see the next group the next big bucket is around the MSB a project and our new new elementary school building project and a bucket of questions around current and upcoming issues facing the district in the School Committee there's several in that one and then a last question about Community Engagement and during the interview meeting candidates will get the opportunity to give an opening remark of two minutes and conclude closing remarks of two minutes and each candidate will be offered the opportunity to answer each of these questions with one minute as a time limit for their responses I think some of the feedback from from the Town Council which is also perspective that miss breeze myrrh and I shared but we wanted to bring the full list to the to both groups was that this is a very long list and would be a very long interview for any and it could even if it were just one candidate so ideally we'd get to some sort of prioritization of what are the most important questions are sort of collapsing of these questions that's my personal opinion but we'd love to hear sort of thoughts and comments from from this committee on these questions can I also just add one more thing yes please okay the Town Council also has suggested that perhaps given that we're doing all of this remotely virtually excuse me that perhaps we might want to some questions that we would ask for the answer in writing and others that we would do on the phone so that if there is a technology glitch and we had a terrible one last Monday night that we at least are able to get some feedback from both all candidates besides their letter of interest great so presumably we would go through if there's questions and like I said Miss Mary myself are meeting again tomorrow to to coordinate and the input and feedback from both the Town Council and our in this committee and we happy to make that decision about which ones would be best in writing and which would be during the interview but would love you know any any feedback that you all have on that as well miss fit sir again sorry for the delay I'm still getting used to this I fully agree my first take when I saw this was this is a very long list of questions and depending especially on the number of people who submit statements of interest I could find it a bit overwhelming and in order and also I could think of our our ability to pay attention over a long period of time and I'd hate to be if there are 16 questions and also four minutes of opening and closing remarks total I'd hate to be that last candidate who everybody's really tired and spent on a conference call for hours and doesn't get their full attention so I really would support this idea of breaking it into maybe a written component and a oral component and and the other thing I was thinking is if we could even ask people to like make the videos that we used to make when we you'd go into amorous video do your your statement as a candidate you know maybe we could even have it recorded enough in a way if you wanted to but um I guess I would just start by highlighting some of the questions I think we might be able to cut is that useful yeah so then the number five which is what role does the school committee play in school or district decisions such as math I mean that kind of feels like a quiz you know like we're trying to test whether or not they've prepared but then ideally the answer would be the same from every candidate and that one seems less interesting to me I guess if I had to choose one of the MS ba questions to cut and it would be number 10 but I you know I'm the the other one I was thinking of with the comandante's dual language program I you know I'm curious about this question but I'm also feeling like it's such a very focused question that I'm not sure I'm not sure of its utility compared to some of the other ones and so those would be some of the ones I would consider just off the bat maybe thinking we could we could take or ask for written responses rather than an oral response and I want to thank everybody who's submitted questions and thank you and Lynne for putting this all together I can tell it it's reflects a lot of work on everybody's part so thank you yeah I should add should add when this started out as four pages of questions I can't see everybody anymore so I don't know um if anybody else's I'll just call on mr.