spring I don't I don't have anything else to add at this time we are working on our eighth grade celebration we've received 63 responses three kids and their new models so if we don't receive some we will be calling those families individually right now we're looking at 17 that we'll need to call and that is May 28 May 28 30 head oh no no go on kind of like what we did with the high school what one thing I guess I should ask to early this - did you get any feedback from parents about the online they hated it they liked it they didn't care did you haven't gotten any feedback on that probably the biggest piece of feedback that I got from parents business we were to do this again which I hope we never do is to have a single platform across the board because if they go one thing for fifth grade and then something else for seventh that's quite a bit for him so are the biggest piece is is it one is they want back did is to have that single platform I'll just add that I think I mean I think parents really appreciated that work that teachers put in that was true there was some technology glitches but by and large and I think people were very supportive but also kind of ready for the end to come but we really have strong participation a lot of support I feel like it was overall really positive anything else from Athens High School with the area get here you you hear me now yes okay technology glitch what do you think a couple of things real quick most of you guys already know about the graduation date that's been set that information that we can hopefully receive forward on that as well but we're just going to be a wait and see at this point time hopefully with with everything out there this can go forward as as as it is we are going to go outside it'll be something different I want something to be neat for the it's something that they can remember it by and give them something to hopefully in the when they're my age they can say hey we did this and nobody else ever got to do this so that's what we're trying to do there had great positives on the honors and local scholarship reveal night tons of parents have already even called and said that's the way it should be I I just laughed I say well that'd be something for everybody to talk about but they really really really liked it and I've heard that day after I heard from probably eight ten parents and I've heard other people say that they really really liked it as well so those are just a couple of the highlights I would reiterate kind of what Matt had said I hope we're not doing this but I think our teachers have done a tremendous job you know there's always you don't realize the amount of technology that had to be used to do this and the kudos to our technology people they did a tremendous job of helping everybody out and when you're thinking about and it's every teacher that needs help it's every administrator that needs help in in all of this process and with all the different kinds of things that technology wise we stayed pretty consistent with type of technology that we were trying to use and just an advanced the whole bit into the second week but awful proud of our teachers for what they've accomplished with the kids they did they did the matrix of lessons more and that kind of stuff and I was proud proud that they did that hopefully we're not involved in this but you never know what's going to be happening in the future so we'll be ready for whatever occurs and we'll we'll put together the best plan would possibly can thank you guys for your support as we proceed on this year I have a question about graduation yes sir the rumors going around and I've been asked that only people allowed to graduation will be the immediate family for each student is that correct or is that just a rumor that's just a rumor we're going by the faces that the governor has given us in the third the third phase is June 1st through the 15th that's 90 people the phase after that has not been given a number so it could be it could be a hundred or it could be as many as we want it we don't know the answer to that that question we are just that's when it's going to open up and we have no answers at that point in time we've talked to the County Health Department and we've gotten approval to proceed on based upon whatever the governor and whatever else might happen in the future so we're still playing everything by ear but that's that's my hope is saying you can get it everybody there and it could possibly just be the kids and the students they could even come back and tell us we can't have it there were then at that time we just don't know that answer we just know based upon the phases what we can do at this time okay so how about class pictures that they were kind of organized did we figure out a way to help them get that done they're pretty much done the if you go online to our normal website where all the pictures are at there is a senior picture site where all the honorees have showed up and taking pictures I don't think there pleaded yet with the real club I think there was just a few of them that hadn't been able to show up yet but there's some pretty cool pictures on their dance go on there and what did you happen to do this green screen picture where you can actually create a class picture without everybody being there like to do for sports events you can take everybody's picture individually and put them together and it looks like they were all there at the same time did we happen to do that I I don't think so I don't know positively but I haven't heard anyone talk about that Jane I can ask sandy but she would be the one that would know because she's the one that's running that for us you have to have just a special screen behind them okay you're talking us you're talking above my paygrade on that usually they do that multi media right before graduation again kudos to sandy louts and then there were a number of people that helped out with that I think latina Tommie Harris I need a couple of the kids I think even remember who else and Abby's leaves are Gary Wow Sandy's even came and helped out so and it was so she yes it was she got some really good pictures in spite of the cool temperatures and the and the wind so it sent out samples so that kids could never bring something if they want to do I mean they have options yeah lots of cool pictures if you get on there anything else I don't have anything new we're just wrapping up the year I can't say enough about what everybody's done to support this time like all the other administrators have said and shout out to my sped staff and to Christy Hess because we had to adapt on the fly to be able to get ie Pease held and signed and returned without doing anything with paper so but we got it done pretty quickly and Christy Hess was the master of figuring all that out fast and it's very pretty smooth so we only had to mail out I think like three packets and that wasn't that's not that so my curiosity for you is how does this affect maintenance of effort will be okay on maintenance of effort because we're paying salaries mostly but that is something that is being discussed nationwide because they're very everybody's very fearful of that and federally they have given zero relief on anything it meeting dates or maintenance of effort so the federal that was not hoping it all but I think we'll be okay with this for us like the starting of the bridges program this year and all of that stuff we had some initial costs we also had a retirement so we can use an exception there when Sharon retired last years we have that's new this year so I think we'll be fine we have two questions okay Thank You Lindsay thank you thank you oh I'm sorry I it's my fault couple of things to share if I could yeah just want to give a shout-out to my tech staff they've always worked hard but it seems like we've got first shift teachers second shift teachers early in the middle of the night teachers and we're trying to help everybody we can and when they need it it's like working with kids whatever time that is we've had to make some home visits and drop stuff off at different places so they've just done a great job and like I said we're are a lot of our tech support has ended up right in the home trying to help kids connect to their own home internet and do different things Monica scooter Craig Kuhlman worked with the hospital we didn't get a chance to see that social media we did some 3d printing of door cloth and a screen tap and it got a chance to present that to James in the hospital staff last week our entire crew attended a full-day Microsoft team's training last Thursday it was all virtual based that as we continue to look to potentially grow that this summer for whatever's to come but also just in general for teachers to use it I echo Matt's comments we went to keep it simple with StarLeaf our internet files and Microsoft teams as well as the iPad management that we kind of need to help teachers kind of narrow in on two or three things that they do between this online learning to fire them so we're prepared to do that the last thing is sue parks and Donna Bolin had put together a PowerPoint that was shown at the first the other day of senior honours night Craig Coleman compiled that put some music to it it went out today in social media and it's already being picked up by the state Department of Ed as a kind of neat way to honor our kids but also show what their vocational ideas are their post-secondary plans and what pathway they were in as part of the Kansans can and I can and that's okay ste has already picked that up and started sending it out in their social media last thing I want to share with you is I did not include it last month and I'm gonna apologize for that and I wanted to make sure that you all were on board with the idea that our seniors for $100 would be able to purchase their laptop that they've had since their freshman Eder we would take it back in check out next Monday and Tuesday or check in we would clean that up get rid of all of our lights and software and then give them recommendations for how to get Microsoft Office as a student antivirus and they would basically have that laptop to take with them into their college experience when we tell the kids and if they care of the machines do a good job of managing them then they'll have a good device to take home to seniors and this group has done a good job of doing that so I'm just looking more for objecting the objections than anything to be subject to doing that or continuing that tradition like we're in favor thank you very much yes are we going to do for the kids who don't turn their computers back in how well kind of have to go in search of change well we'll have to make some calls we may have to make some home visits and we hope we hope that's not the case we hope that's not the case that we're doing but we don't we're not dealing with very many of those we've got Monday and Tuesday from nine to six that we're gonna promote along with the elementary middle school parade and then Wednesday is going to be kind of our final collection day we are going to follow all the Cova guidelines as we collect basic maths clubs they're going to put them into bags we'll let those set for a few days and then following week we'll start a very thorough clean and then guys we're very worried about how quickly we need to get them ready to potentially be checked out so we're going to we're going to put all of our attention and our some accrue on giving all devices ready or checked out whenever that may be if we need to do something like what we just did okay that's serious there's only someone who's not going to turn it back in we did we did Shane through working with Tracy and Greg Marshall we did put insurance protection on all the iPads that we got at the elementary school so with that way we are if it's something being stolen if something gets lost we are able to file in an insurance program on the high school we all you always have that we always keep that insurance so those are insured so let's say a family just takes off and goes on the run we file a police report and that goes to an insurance company the middle school machines are older as you know they're kind of some enemy down machines and so we don't self insure those but you know got bid if we have a situation where 10 iPads and 10 high school laptops take off on this we do have recourse with our insurance okay hold list to begin the information there that I've shared with you we made public I'm not going to read through those individual items unless you have any questions several start you first maybe they'll just keep stay outside yes yes yeah we are going to as as time goes on from one stage to the next or adjustments to stages occur but we're going to be in touch with dr.
Lightfoot via phone perhaps and figure this out that would be helpful or if Ursula or somebody can text with him that would be good I am yes okay well in the meantime let's go ahead and get started since we are at 6:00 forty I call to order the Oswego community unit school district 308 virtual Board of Education meeting can I have a roll call mr. baumann here mrs. Doyle here mrs. kroner here mr. Lightfoot miss morkan here mrs. Moyer here mrs.
Mize has been with us for her entire teaching and administrative career she has a strong background in elementary specifically primary instruction this huge welcome to the preschool to Pine Tree when we needed to expand beyond maple and white oak and she's looking forward to embracing this new challenge likewise knowing that white oak was going to become a preschool and no longer be a kindergarten through fourth grade school in the 2122 school year mr. Gatlin is thrilled to follow mrs. mrs. Mize at Pine Tree mr.
Gomez who will walk you through the registration form hi everybody welcome to the live stream I'm glad to be here to help you figure out and now fill out this course registration for as best as I can so let's get started okay so the for the purpose of this whole exercise I will I'm fill it out as if I was filling out myself all right so um right at the top we just asked you to put in your email address there we go next up we have this little disclaimer right at the top saying all students take four curriculum classes in English social studies science and math and also all students are required to be enrolled in health physical education and one of our to our options this form mainly focuses on the elective options that we do offer at the middle school which is what you will see later on so we have the format for the student name as last name comma first and as well for the parent and guardian name and we do ask that you just type in your phone number as well so just in case you need to contact the reason so next up we have your current school so if you come from a school that's not listed on here just click other and type in where you're coming from type in put in multiplet and let's go down alright so for art so for this year which is due to us we have to new we have two different our options at the middle school so one being your traditional art such as drawing painting printing collage and ceramics and sculpture which is studio arts and we also have a second option called media arts which is more geared toward digital photography photo editing graphic design more the contemporary type of art so we do offer both and we'd like to know what used to is preference would be for either a medium of art so for this case I'll choose media art next up we get into the elective exploratory so if you want to know more about each of the classes that listed down here there's a link that will send me to a program of studies and see because you can see a glimpse of what each class is really about so our elective exploratory is the middle school meet for one semester every other day as you can see before you even choose your choices for your electives there's a disclaimer saying that if you do decide to take a world language or music ensemble those classes take precedence over the elective choices which means that we'll be putting you in either world language and/or your ensemble class first and then we'll add in your elective choices so first up we have dance for me and I'll dance no that'd be my fourth choice drama third choice intro music will be my first choice and then hold percussion a secular choice just easy as that you just let us know your preference for all those I know that I've gotten a few emails from parents asking if we do offer the dance over PE requirement so having danced fulfill that PE requirement so we do honor that one caveat is that you have to be taking a world language and/or a ensemble class in order to have that replacement we just don't have enough options in terms of electives to have that replace PE without you taking world language or an example class next we get into the world language so you'll up up top it shows the four language that we offer at the middle school as well as we do offer a special curriculum for native speakers of Spanish with a which kind of coincides with the honors model this is the big one that I tell out of our students is that if you don't take a language in seventh grade you're not able to take a language to high school because our the way our languages work is that you take a little bit of it in seventh grade and you take almost like a part two of it in eighth grade it's a just a continuation of what you learn in seventh grade so right here right up top Chinese is my fourth choice French we missed second Latin is third and Spanish is first so just like your elective options just to make them your first choice to your fourth choice and if you have a if one of the languages above that you chose for example my first choice is Spanish if I'm a native Spanish speaker i would put let's management even language so that we just natural other native language speakers and last but not least we have our music ensembles so we do offer three different music ensembles at the middle school we have orchestra band and chorus so for Orchestra and band we asked you of at least one year of being in the band class Orchestra class in the elementary school or lessons there are obviously option exceptions Debian made in the past so if your student really really wants to join in this ensemble being connecting you to the band orchestra teacher and maybe being at that situated we also have course which does not has no prerequisites to join chorus and sing with the group of threats and forming a new band and in the bottom we just talked about on some of our math options that we're going to talk about more in the future but definitely wanting to focus on the elective options that we do offer at the middle school does anybody have any questions so I know one of the questions that I have received was in regards to if you had already completed a paper copy of this form at your elementary school and um Holdings close so quickly that the copies are in various places or so in teacher classrooms at the elementary school is some are in an office we're not sure that any have actually made it to our middle school so we ask that if you did complete a paper paper copy that you please still complete this online form because we may not be able to track those down due to the building's closing so if you can please complete this and certainly if you have any questions or if you forget something that even completed on a paper copy we're happy to answer any questions for you or walk you through that but I did want to clarify that because I've received many questions in regards to that and I'm not seeing any other questions in the chat and are working with our guidance Department to develop a virtual step up for students we know that that is you know big time to be moving to middle school and to not be able to come to the school and walk around and see our classrooms and check out the whole building so we are putting a virtual tour together and we will have that up and ready hopefully by the end of May very beginning of June so I don't know if you and I speak to that at all mr.
Brill do you want to maybe walk through some of those things first sure thanks Rosa so we actually just talked a little bit about this in the finance committee meeting which was Curtin directly prior to this meeting as everybody knows it's hard to plan for what you don't know but what we do know is that regardless of how we come back to school whether it's traditional things will be changed or in some kind of hybrid that people talk about and there would be a heck of a lot of planning for that or distance learning 3.0 as we've been calling it on the leadership team there are a number of things we have to be ready for physically in terms of a healthy and clean environment and also in terms of technology so I'll just talk through a couple of quick things and then I can certainly turn it over to either the roses Jen or mr.
Galvan presented on the textbook and we decided to move it to this meeting in addition we've added two weeks for additional public comment following last last month's meeting and just to recap the teachers have looked at a number of different texts and Buchan with teachers around the country who teach this particular full-year AP course of course would cover approximately or would serve approximately 25 students and we've since gotten some copies out to faith and I think faith you would ask what we have a debate people would like to see those the process is such that it originates with the classroom teachers who teach the subject material they go through a process of evaluating a number of different resources then they share that with their department chair who's usually involved in that process as well and then to Maureen Reed as the curriculum point person at the high school it then comes to my office with Jeff's significant assets to the Board of Education curriculum committee at this point we need your you to forward it on to the Board of Education - at which point it will be voted on as to whether or not this would be the the text to use in this particular course I move that we forward this recommendation of the textbook to the full board for approval okay do I have a second I second okay discussion question Marlene that besides faith was interesting again a copied a book or reviewing it you know it's not unusual for that to happen what is the process for notifying the public that it's that it's available other than the meeting that is what is outlined in the policies that me these happen during curriculum we've had some special requests over the years to look at I've done some presentations like with an online resource that we've had a teeth for TCI some of you remember that from years previous and we come at different schools are at the board of education and we've equaled out to parents and put it in principal newsletters that we were doing so and even at that have not gotten interest yeah some policies gonna take up because it's we've been talking about this in the past somehow get the word out better and so the policies see if there's a better Avenue but you know I love them I say you can't communicate this enough but you know being us the virus I'm preacher number one people are not really coming to these meetings to look at our textbooks and usually when there's not a serious event going on unless someone does kind of me and they don't know about it so we're gonna fix that but the current the current policy is is okay okay okay thanks and then if you don't mind can I just ask you a couple questions about it first of all I'm sure it's for textbooks it reads incredibly well I really have to commend the authors on their style because we all know what textbooks can be like in this just for a course like this I'm just a question I have is is I know it's a year-long course and the author's mentioned for example Montesquieu and lock and and Aristotle I is there any room for a reach reading original source documents as they are also using the text to kind of understand where those authors in their different philosophies their political philosophy because I should think that would in which their appreciation for these different forms of government sure absolutely so that the text would be a starting point for the course content and then you know the teacher would be building beyond that and incorporating some primary source materials this class actually though just as a quick just so we have it correct is a semester class so um which is unusual for ApS but it's how most schools handle this particular court and we really want we didn't want to shift from that because we wanted to encourage as much enrollment as that in this as possible and the semester approach felt a little bit better for encouraging student enrollment but so there there will be some time for supplemental materials if you've probably had a chance to look at the case studies at the end that will a lot of time and effort will go into those case studies and a comparative analysis between the sixth main things that are um but it has blue mantle material that the teacher can include will try to capture that as as much as we can in a semester course and and the instructor will probably pick and choose the areas where they feel like they can do a little bit of a deeper dive into some source materials like the ones you mentioned okay and this course then is like an intro to comparative government so they will they they bypass say 101 course or what's the intent with this so these students these students will have taken either AP United States government or civics and so they will have a foundation and government generally speaking and then they'll be building on that within this coursework but then as far as the overall purpose of this course it is very much I mean I mean you look at the the textbook it spends a good deal of time outlining some of the fundamental concepts and political science so it will be taught very much as building off of what they've learned about American government and providing an introduction to various styles of government around the globe with an emphasis on the sixth case study countries okay all right thank you those were my primary questions that I had so I guess we're up for vote so the motion on the floor is just lost my agenda the motion on the floor is committee recommendation to full board of the new tax cases six AP Edition all in favor aye okay it's moved thank you thank you thanks for letting me read that and review it all right and we now move into informational items so first up is grade three all set results thank you to informational reports tonight one is the grade three olsat report very similar to the sixth grade report I believe we reviewed in January we administer the oldest lenin's school ability tests all set to all grade 3 students data from this test has really helped us determine either support or enrichment as needed for students on an individual basis is not an assessment that relates back to our curriculum but rather taps into student abilities both from a aural standpoint and a visual standpoint you can see on the report that I believe was shared with earlier that our average LSAT score for the 246 students that we tested was 104 that would a hundred score 100 would be exactly the 50th percentile we were at the 85th percentile that is slightly down from from the previous years again similar to the sixth grade not anything that would be of significant concern to us the table below that shows or breakdown in each of the quartiles and again if it was 25% in each of those boxes that would be evenly split across the quartiles and you can see that were fairly close to that with our largest chunk being in that third quartile the 51st to 75th percentile so again really this is an assessment that is used primarily at this age level as we're trying to decide what kind of supports an individual on the supported end or enrichment and assuming that gives us one more piece of information about just really making those decisions so that is the whole sad report for this evening does anyone have any questions on those results okay no question just uh my shirt checked earlier I don't have access to documents roles that the other summer agenda but not urgent and I confess I don't either so I was listening extra carefully do you Kevin that for you right now Oh awesome thank you I don't know there's no questions right for the next report then I'm more than happy to share my screen if that helps at all and guiding through the report is that something that would be yeah you're gonna why don't I do that for the last Lynch report if if faith if you were ready to move on to that report let's move on that's great okay so give me just a second okay that successfully shared yes okay Europe okay so on an annual basis our English learners take the loss Winx assessment this is a state requirement and this gives an overall indication of language proficiency the score range on each area of assessment is one through five with high five being the highest level of proficiency for students to be exited from being identified as an English Learner they must score at least a four on the literacy portion which is reading and writing combined and an overall proficiency and on the combined overall poor first let's say they need to score for word above on that so this year we had 51 English learners that were assessed as you can see now down in this section we had several students who met the exit criteria which is always a good thing 10 overall 24 student and that simply means that they have met language proficiencies that really will allow them to to access a curriculum that at a proficient level we also have included low trying to scroll slowly for you of the 51 students assessed we had 33 of those students who took this assessment last year with us in Cheshire the reason that number is down is we do have several students each year who exit needing being identified as an English Learner so they wouldn't take it from one year to the next we also have students moving in and out so over 51 students who took the assessment in Cheshire last year you can see that a significant portion of students made gains from last year's assessment to this year's assessment with the low end being 71 percent of the students to 88% of the students we had also a good portion of students make a full band of growth so that's that's moving from say being scoring at maybe a level 1 up to level 2 or level 2 to level 3 the individual reports went out to these families in April it was actually one of the last things we had prepared prior to our remote learning we did pause on sending them out just a little bit until we got ourselves up and running but these reports were mailed out to families in April and it gives the individual results for each student as well as the indication of whether students will continue receiving he'll support next year whether they met the exit criteria so that is brief I can start presenting a brief overview of our lots of Link's testing any questions from ana Tony Kevin how long does it usually usually take for how many times does the student usually need to take the test to get to proficiency there's there's a wide range of answers and it really depends on so many different things how how much exposure does the student have to English prior to enrolling a typical benchmark would be five to seven years for a student to become fully proficient in a language we don't often see our youngest learners who maybe enter as elseis kindergartners stay in as being identified do that long because as a young learner who is exposed to English in a classroom setting for a period of time they are picking up the language at a pretty quick rate and as they're learning early literacy skills they're gaining that in the first language but it can take up to five seven years first to to become fully proficient in the language again there are also other factors that come into play but I would use that as as an average okay and how do these numbers compare to previous years so I actually don't have comparative data right at my fingertips for that this is also something that the state using the last links in this way and this version of assessment is relatively relatively new they've been doing and I think for this version of it for about three years and it's just not coming into our accountability index of course just at the moment when they're doing that they've weighed that and that for this year but I think we're in about three years of this platform I don't have all the historic data right at my fingertips but I do know when meeting with Pat castle and Kristen Castellano at the elementary and middle school on the number of students who I met the exit criteria and the number of students who showed banner growth were both they were both pleased with the progress that students had made of that so that that's the benchmark that I can can tell you tonight and I'm more than happy to go back and look to see okay comparative comparative data on that but I know that we were pleased with the level of gain and what emergency okay and that was gonna be my follow-up if just a almost a gut reaction to the numbers if you okay all right all right next area of discussion the remote learning feedback I believe you all have access this link tell me if you do not yes okay so about the goal was on the 29th of April we sent a survey out to our students much like we did to our parents and our teachers and we had 703 responses not really what I was hoping for now I believe people when they say that our students don't like to check their email that they're much more apt to use things in an so I can appreciate that we had a similar representation between eight and twelve percent from all of our grades across grades three through 12 and some of the things that we ask them about were you know how has your transition to remote learning been and again we kind of put that into three buckets was it challenging eighteen percent said yes was it manageable sixty-six percent said it was manageable or was it easy and about 22 percent said that it was easy when we asked about we were we're trying to get at what this next question was how can we take this information to help students and what kinds of things do we want our teachers to know because this is all this environment is very new and the question was how clear are the expectations and directions for what you need to do in remote learning so a teacher who is used to giving so much orally to now have to translate that into written assignments we wanted to see how that was going and so fifty-three fifty-four percent said that it was clear 43 percent said that it was somewhat clear so we're looking at let's see 96 97 percent saying it was clear somewhat and then not clear was that under five percent remainder so we took that information to our teachers to help them better communicate how easy has it been to make contact with your teacher sixty percent said it was fairly easy 36 percent said somewhat and then the rest said not not easy it's it's been difficult some of the feedback from the from the teachers was that this is difficult for everyone in that you're used to getting your you raise your hand or your teachers right there moving around the room moving around the room giving on-the-spot feedback and this certainly is more difficult I have a question at two o'clock and I send an email to my teacher she may have a list of you know other emails that she's responding to so that's gonna take a little little more time so we're thinking that that may have been where some of the now some of the challenges most of the correspondence I have had with my teachers is we're trying to get an idea of where are they spending the most time how much of this is about feedback how much of this is about an assignment and how much of it is other and we found that the technology was only a small small sliver sixty five sixty six percent was about an assignment which we think would probably be on target and then 22 percent is about feedback on something they've done what we're looking at now is digging into how can we help our teachers to provide feedback in the digital world in this remote world so as we think about next year as we think about the rest of these weeks as we think about professional development our team has been looking at ways in which teachers can provide feedback to students in in is much of a you know to cut down on the time limit of that as possible so that's an area of focus for us most of my correspondence with my teacher has been knowing exactly what to do with with an assignment and then we have I'm sorry this is this is not clear so we again pulled told students and a lot of them it was about assignments sixty six sixty sixty six percent twenty two point seven percent was I'm not seeing the hair I apologize I'll have to get you that I'm looking at the same PDF you are and it's not as interactive as as my document so I'll have to pop into my document the next question was about connectedness we are very worried that kids aren't feeling connected that we want to make sure we're providing them opportunities to be connected so you've heard a lot about videos you've heard a lot about individual Google meats and some telephone calls so when it said the question asks while I am not physically attending school with my teachers and classmates through remote learning I feel totally connected which was twelve point three percent of students so a the smallest number somewhat connected over seventy percent and then not at all connected 17.2% so our hope is that with additional with the addition of the cameras that this really lends itself more to kids feeling connected with their teacher and with others and while I'm looking for the answer to that other question for you because I really need to find out what that 27th 22.7% is do you have any questions for me Marlene thank you no questions I think some of this was reviewed Thursday night to sardis these students so Thursday night was the parent survey right yeah students so the reason Milly as it seemed some of the percentages more or less correlated I think almost as well sort of parents are saying in terms of responsibility was too much too little just right those nice it Lucy I think moving forward if we continue to do more online learning the fall depending what happens then you'll see I would try to find out a way to solicit more feedback from the students you know it's be nice to have them all I know it's tough I am pretty sure my daughter won't really respond us as an app emails that is but you know we fight for the four ways in think agent more but that's a girl yeah Tony that's a that's a great point I envision us having an additional survey before the close of this year specifically around planning for next year and what I'm thinking is asking for the teachers help in that and sort of having it you're not as part of an assignment but here I'm gonna give you five minutes yeah yeah please do you know please do this then I think we can get an increase in the number at that point in time we didn't really want to put another requirement on them but going forward I think we might need to to go yeah help you know help themselves I think they won't mind that it's understandable not putting more on that right now slow way that was it thank you okay you well I don't want to hold you up I'm gonna continue to look at this I pardon me if I'm so close because I'm looking at my tabs at the top the next item that we we put on the agenda was the Memorial Day music events and I invited John tuner to be here with us tonight because he had a really great idea that he had shared with Jeff and I as something that we could do in lieu of the Memorial Day Parade so it's not going to be a parade but I'm gonna turn it over to John so he can tell you a little bit about what he and his music department are working on thanks Marlene good evening everyone it's good to see all of you in isolation these are the one time this is the one time that we can connect and appreciate that opportunity I want to share my screen real quick here see if I can do that here I've got too many things here my computer using one monitor yeah let's see if you're seeing a PowerPoint now yes all right okay I'll put you in the mood here put the American flag up well think positive thoughts for Memorial Day and as we're looking at that well the music department came up with an idea and actually this this came from another colleague of ours that is happens to be a parent here in town who's engaging in the similar project in their town but what we'd like to do is present a Memorial Day performance and this well obviously we'll be honoring the memory of the brave men and women who died while protecting our freedom and serving our country and it'll be a solemn performance but it will also be coming together of our students and community the music departmental engage in a unique performance on Sunday May 24th 1:30 p.m.
Cheu as well as Lindsey payer to make sure that we are meeting all the guidelines so again thanks to them thanks to all of our health care providers and and every day this evening Paul kept sharing information over at 19 the greatly appreciated so we're just making sure being very cautious make sure that we can say because we don't want to go backwards at all we want to keep going forward so anyway any other questions by the knee of the other dates and we have done the status that the staff recognition date that's going to be there is deep May 21st at one o'clock so I'll be just like that and like we did for the senior honors tonight I'll do a live video we'll save it and enemy watch it or one but we have a number a retirement service people that we need to recognize for 5 10 15 20 years and so on and so forth so anyway that kind of tied in with down below there so we do want to recognize those people as much better we can be together but we'll be together in spirit and on video at their convenience as well Haman comes up here again and those proceeds go to F of a that's the land or the high school baseball softball field so after that out of technique Doug Brewer contacted the people they've been interested in the past and so in order to do that it is on okay so it got put out on the website today and we are receiving some cares funds from the federal government on safe or to basically just compensate anything that we have expense wise from code of 19 it's probably not going to cover everything that we've done if I could most likely will not but you know hopefully again will help out we would like to look at some school districts have shared with us information that they wanted they have basically looked to give those involved in the I guess in the line of duty if you will a hazard pay type stipend for those employees so this would be again food service and drivers those people who in there and haven't complained all and they've just done the best thing for kids make sure we have kids then and so it will be about 10 to 12 people approximately and we were proposing possibly getting a $500 stipend for those people I don't know if you have any objections do we still keep feeding about the same number every day there for a while they were averaging about through we the State Department asked us for survey information on how we were doing continuous learning one of the questions they asked for how many breakfast Sunday lunches are you serving the week basically a specific makin was like 2 or 3 weeks ago and that count for us was 1100 and 1400 lunches Chloe served that week and it was just amazing I've seen lots of I mean like people put on Facebook what else is one less thing it's just one less thing I've seen with the new strong library so just make a motion I will have to probably do that and I stay for their junior paycheck and I will definitely make sure that I make them your before they sign off for the year I think 21st will be their last day for lunches and I think that's that any questions for you you're a vacation lead discussion yeah we head into the year recognition as well there's some awards there that again just for your information where we will recognize for the people again we've got some retirees and insert years and that we have one for 25 years to teach their parents as well and that's saying you get laid yes so that list is there you can join us on the video or watch the replay please do so vacation payout hey this is against strictly due to the code of nineteen situation 12-month employees during this time we have here not been able to take leave and since we are not able to take leaves that's spring break essentially we and that will start back up June 1 June 1 only the first day that we can return to leave and technically but we have a number of employees that if they were to use their leave they would be gone so many days in June that we wouldn't be able to carry on the functions that it gets really busy especially in the central office for us to do the things that we need to do to wrap up a budget here and begin us started a new magic year so again with this one-time exception we would look to basically make sure that every 12-month employee they fill up their leave base and then after their Li banks are full then we pay them for their days so make sure they can continue to do business these are the hours above the banks I don't know if you have questions or if I can answer anything is that we always it's emptiness is under go forward right right tip the policy states right now that you could use it if you infuse it if you're thankful Frank and Ellie carry over 20 days and so that's that's what it's for we've done it one of their time in the past for one person when we were short-staffed and she was about to take off and we felt like it was homey there she would have paid out for that it's custodian and 12-month district offers that moment yeah yeah late for example I wouldn't use all of mine I've taken like every Friday off and another person in the district office they would have shook the whole month of May off to use their yeah we typically always try to use our at least are we keep our bank but we use are actually occasionally prior to them just you spend win some districts are allowing them to roll it over there's a lot of stuff being obvious might be different so the cares funds that you're talking about that we're going to do those in there please are these funds that could also be taken out of that fund related and yet there's a lot of different thoughts there we've ever get some people haven't allowed just this one year to max your main guy and then some but these are people that typically are gone that much so that they've got to use the lead for next year and the stuff that then and then the additional days that they worry that they've already accumulated here on the data and on if you go so they they almost said now I mean a lot more leave they've got to take this following next year or they're going to lose it so it's that's one option trying to think of other options that there's just a number of different if you roll it over just give them those extra days those days would it be good [Music] and the district office pretty hard back to back to back people have been here a long time and their brakes are full I mean I've been there eight years so Hospital we have the same situation but we also have those make sense for this I just don't think [Music] the one thing - there probably will be some try to get out of here so now we back to the mass number right right so June we all have them and again though that they care Zach fun funny it was for anything : actually related there's like 12 different guidelines they give you that basically encompasses anything that relates to this I'm pushing to approve a one-time payout vacation leave due to Kobe 19 for staff who have full vacation money banks and still have vacation okay she passed 70 very board members some questions that were posed to me about tuition reimbursement and we changed how that cost and read in January I'm gonna bring up earlier than the 19th a pretty crazy but I just want to make sure that if we can get like that some of the communication that all the staff about what changed in it we went from two per year but that doesn't exist anymore and just get that out foods for who you know they just got sent an email I'm interested in this and then the policy out anyone change and I sent it out I want to say this that we worry possibly I can't remember exactly when because we were coming up to May when we were looking for potential tuition reimbursement and ease nobody has sent me anything in response so right that right now I don't see anybody is interested this year so but I sure I can I'll get you guys an updated set it out one more time because I staff as well as TV 2 and we have a completer yes awesome yeah anything else results report then those chairs will be back on here as we review the results reports I've asked them to look at one or two items from the results report so that they feel like they're they're either very proud of or maybe one or two items that they would like in this area and they have some comments coming up for you guys you actually have some questions as well so like business finance webform 4219 is just like Stacey on there Stacey are you on there yeah okay here we go yes yeah a couple reasons for that you know one is we are doing consumer finance and business essentials at two different times but art artifacts class has grown tremendously in the human growth and those those three things now are kind of competing them competing with each other along with national international and some of our F FA or vocational agricultural areas so what that was one of my areas I was going to talk about accounting I wasn't really going to talk about consumer find out but those are some numbers that I'm pushing to grow but I think it's going to only grow as the push starts to occur we had one teacher has one there there one year and this one is getting ready to start her second year so I think that has a little bit with what why that occurred if that answers your question and okay I'll go ahead and talk since I'm already on if that's alright just a couple of things I really wanted that was kind of one of my things that I wanted to tell you about on the numbers there we do have some other numbers that are looking very good like the human growth and stuff but on the vocational educational piece in the agricultural area the CNC machine has started to become a a good product that we bought and she is starting to use it with more kids learning how to program that CAD machine and I think next year we'll have our first kid going out at least as of right now we have a kid that may be going out to deal with CAD machines themselves in one of our businesses around town so I'm excited to see how that is promoted but the Academy's team has kind of given him the ability to move out into that field so that makes me feel pretty good that where he and we go we had a lot of kids using it but he became pretty petitioned as well the other things we had eleven students in the Career Connections and on-the-job training will hopefully have more this year but I think Kovac 19 is going to play a big role in who gets to go out and who doesn't and what industry they get to go out in and all that guys so I mean we'll just have to play those by a year and that number can go down and it will not be because we don't have kids wanting to go out it would probably be because some businesses will not be able to go out our kids will not be able to go out because of that so I just wanted to kind of reiterate that to you so when you see a number but 11 it could go to 15 it might go back down to 8 or 9 just take a few of you are involved there's no post as well big species involved in that those are just a couple of things that are going on in those areas I didn't know that you guys had any questions or anything but I just wanted to touch base with you guys on that anything else yes ma'am okay thank you thank you okay from the middle school standpoint you know when I look at the extracurricular activities compared to last year we had better participation across the board even if it was one or two students one thing that we know is the more involved and engaged dance kids are in school the better that will do academically so ultimately I'd like to see these numbers increase drastically and some of that is inviting kids and getting to feel comfortable getting them to be be part of a team than any way that we can the results report from the elementary is basically just reporting on the programs that happened in cooperation with the Burlington rec center they were really excited about their track program how my kids signed up that didn't get to happen but you know this is wrong getting a lot of practice that staying at home we know all of those programs just have so much value to keep kids active and working on social relationships so we're looking forward to when all those things can come back into play and I'll tell you I'll tag Allen here at the end in terms of high school activity programs our student population was actually down a little bit but our participation rate stayed roughly the same right around the ninety percent again we're looking at that that GPA of you know like mr.
Swanson your please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance with liberty and justice for apologized I'm assuming that everyone else's was off new mine was on and I just realized it at the end I apologized okay so we have no public comment this evening so we can move right on to item 5.1 board member comments who would like to begin I can't tell if there's no board member comment or are we trying to hit mute I think we're all trying to be boy I'll go ahead and go okay I just want to say that I know my children are very excited for it to really be the last week of school and I'm sure many people are feeling that same way that we've kind of run a marathon lately but I don't think the race is over yet I just I do want to acknowledge all of our not just the fifth graders moving on to sixth grade who are missing out on some fun year and activities and recognitions and also our eighth graders who will be moving on to high school same thing there but especially our high school seniors and their families who I know are struggling right now and I just want to acknowledge our administration for working really hard and both our district administration as well as our high school administration and how they're really trying to make as much as we're allowed to have happen happen for these kids and I know that graduation and cancelling prom and celebrations and all these things it's it sucks it's certainly something they'll never forget but I don't know this remember in a positive way or not and I just appreciate the efforts to try and accommodate everybody and I'm sure you're getting hundreds of emails expressing opinions on how things should be done on very broad spectrum and I just appreciate trying to work hard to make make it as good of an experience as you possibly can and knowing that it's not ideal and it's probably not going to be ideal and that things are continuing to change even everyday with new announcements from the governor and that where you're trying to work around that but still give family something you just got it no I'm trying to get it well we hear you Brent I really that's that's all I know I'm good thanks all right anybody else have anything they'd like to add I will can we also remember that although we're all very frustrated not to take it out on your administration at your buildings or your teacher fruits or you were people when you're going out for Mother's Day for food I think important to remember to be kind especially now my kids are excited to be done anyone else all right I'd like to make sure that we don't lose track of the the very exciting thing which is that kids are gonna be done with another year and even though it's a very strange end of year and it's not what we want it's not what any of us want it is still something to celebrate so I hope that everyone in their homes is able to provide a celebration for their students I'm completing the very first remote distance year that we've ever had that's something to be proud of and it's been a big challenge but I know that all of our kids have been working really hard to still learn and to still grow and I know that all of our staff has too so I would ask if everyone can take some time to make sure they celebrate their students this is still a big deal to be the end of the year and frankly I'm I'm also very excited to be soon done with home school assistant teaching um and I do think that we will have a good time this summer despite things looking different than we planned I'd also like to congratulate our graduates our fifth graders our eighth graders but most importantly our high school seniors this isn't what we wouldn't want this isn't what anybody wants so I appreciate all of our administration taking the time to go through the plans as thoroughly as they can giving as much opportunity to maintain some of the key points that people are hoping for well it's nothing that we want it is it's it's it's a plan that's more open than other districts and I really do appreciate our administrators for working so hard to come up with that one of the things that is I'm a little sad about is that we won't have an opportunity to celebrate our retirees this year and our employees who are celebrating their 25th anniversary and I don't want to lose sight of the fact that we are losing a lot of good people to retirement this year most notably I'd like to make sure that we recognize mr. Wayne finishing his final year as principal at OHS and I want to express my gratitude to him that we are going to miss him greatly and we have appreciated everything that he has given to our community for the last 14 years but for right now that's that's all I have and so we can go unless anyone has anything additional to item 5.2 board committee reports I think that's just me yes I believe that that's just finance yep we had a finance and Facilities meeting virtual finance and facilities meeting on May 5th and that was relatively successful for being a virtual meeting pretty good attendance so that was good we had Bob Lewis presented some of our options for refinancing some of our bonds that have an issue that are coming to you and he presented several four different options on how to do that and there were lots of questions by the committee and we they as the committee as a whole had asked if he could come back and present a couple more options based on some of the questions and comments that they had had and so we're gonna try and squeeze in another meeting and a May beginning of June so that we can go over those as a committee prior to making any kind of presentation to the board I'm not sure we don't have that scheduled yet though so and then they also had a lot of questions Christy presented and we're gonna get an updated presentation tonight I see from her on the cash flow update and there were a lot of questions after that but most of those were in regards to the transition program and I refer them to our last board meeting where we did talk about some of the plans that were trying to put forward for that and then I also we just talked about how we have no idea what the beginning of the school year next year is gonna look like but we are actively working to find a solution for that program that is running out of space they were very concerned about that and what I was like to take over to notes and yeah that was I mean for a quick rundown of that meeting that was those are the two main topics that we talked about but like I said we are gonna try and have another board meet committee meeting end of May beginning of June to go over some other options for those fun refinancing and just to clarify Ruth this is that we may have an opportunity to refinance some of our debt service bonds to lower interest rates yes that is correct and potentially significantly lower interest rates hopefully based on the numbers that he was giving us so did they record that meeting I believe so okay so is it the one district website I'll check out okay thank you Thank You Ruth I have a question if you may huh in the conversation about refinancing those debt service bonds at a lower rate at what time frame was the extension how far out would they have to be extended wait so from how I was reading it it didn't look like extending the timeframe and he like to a later date just changing the numbers in between if that makes sense all of the documents that he presented to us were emailed out and I agree I don't think he was extending in any of the four options that he presented but that was one of the the requests of the committee members was to look at extending it further I would just say that while you know we we do want to make sure that our committees are able to look at these things I'm I'm a little hesitant to spend too much money on any particular direction further with his services until we've had a chance to look through what that the topic is as a board as a whole and you said that you're looking to have this scheduled in the beginning or the end of May beginning of June it looks like our next meeting is June 8th perhaps we can have instead mr.
Gatlin also has a phenomenal background as an elementary teacher an instructional coach and assistant principal and a principal and he's looking forward to this new challenge so with that we recommend an accrual of the personnel report thank you thank you for members you have before you the joseline Cruz payrolls [Music] I move that the board of school trustees approve the minutes of the regular meeting on April 13 2029 executed safe sessions on e4 13 and 8 for 29 2020 claims to zero zero four two through two zero zero four three two zero one eight nine one zero zero zero five seven seven eight through nine one zero zero zero five nine four seven two zero zero zero zero zero one six two through two zero zero zero zero zero one seven one two zero two zero zero zero three zero zero 307 316 318 341 through four 22 payrolls for April 17 and May first 20 20 March transfer memo 2020 quarter one financial report the personnel report and the donation report as presented second pushing my sending second baby back are there any questions or comments all in favor pesticides well my comments are I'm going to congratulate miss Mize and mr. Gatlin for accepting these new roles as the preschool I personally interests the world just thrilled by their decision to your head these new new journey for both our agent our preschool we - I'm still encouraged today I had the pleasure though to wait for half an hour [Music] laughter and still use angle hard members of the board you have in your packet an updated enrollment report as of May 6 2020 you can see that our enrollment has stayed fairly constant from April of course we're watching this closely and looking at the number of students that we continue to serve even though it'd be remotely I would point out to you we have seen some growth in preschool and I thought that might draw your attention and that we as you know are evaluating students constantly throughout the year as they turn three into our preschool program and you can see that we've grown a total of nine scoot students in preschool over the last month those are students who their evaluation was in process at the time of our closure so our staff held meetings to get those students place but they have not actually started with us but they are enrolled so I was curious at that when I looked that we had added nine students in preschool while we had been closed but our staff has continued to do that virtually for students that were in the in the process of an evaluation so we continue to track our enrollment closely and are working through processes to start to get some feedback from our parents about returning enrollment for next year so we're getting geared up for enrollment for next year at this point that's all I have thank you thank you I thought I'd highlight something a little bit different but yet related to what our staff is doing during this closure so you know that we have students that are accessing their curriculum both online and via packets while we are closed one of the things though that I wanted to highlight was the supports that our students receive to address their social emotional or mental health needs and those continued even while we are closed as you know we've had a partnership with Cummins for many years and what that partnership allows is for Cummins to use space and our buildings to serve our students and they're able to do that particularly for our students who are Medicaid eligible at no cost to the school district so I was working with talking with PEG Murphy who has kind of spearheaded this program and over this school year come and served 210 students in first semester and 231 students in second semester to help meet their social emotional and mental health needs at no cost to Avon schools other than just providing them space in our building the other thing that mrs.
gumer but we're very excited to do that for students and at least give a little taste of what it will be like we really want to give you a preview or sneak peek of what you should be expecting at the middle school so this goes from a virtual tour of the middle of school to get familiar with the building without being in the building as well as almost like a mock student panel we have reached out to several seventh grades current seventh grade students become eighth grade students with questions that students may be asking and that we will share that with you in this virtual step update really trying to mimic what you would get what the students will get at the building in a virtual setting okay so we thank you for joining us this afternoon if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email either one of us and we can certainly walk you through this we are looking forward to sharing this stuff update orientation with you and we hope you have a great afternoon please stay safe and be well during these times a good one
Belton from the Finance Committee to talk a little bit about some of the mechanics of how we might go about this we are actually just talking with mrs. Miriam from the town side about FEMA reimbursement and application and so forth so the first thing that we have done it has worked with our nurses and our special education director who supervises the nurses iconic and developed a itemized list of personal protective equipment that we need to purchase totaling about $15,000 that would for about six months something we need to activate soon because of the lead time in ordering such supplies for the beginning of the school year in addition to that working with mr. Caldwell our facility director there are several misters in sanitizers disinfect er type pieces of equipment that along with the product that goes in those equipment wear their backpack from our handheld that we'd get for each building that could help sanitize and disinfect their areas in addition to that there are a lot of sanitizer gel that we want to be able to purchase an additional dispensers to be installed throughout the school looking at about fifteen thousand dollars for that equipment and then working with Eric complan our technology director and dr.
which is the date and time of the Cheshire Memorial Day parade and that would have stepped off right at 1:30 and we're encouraging all of our k12 music students we're members of their school's band Orchestra chorus and general music classes to perform and patriotic selections from their front porch or front yard starting at 1:30 p.m.
spring said we're about 0.7 GPA points higher for those kids involved in activities again it's the best at-risk program I think we have at high school level one of the things we're looking at we've had some petitions or some kids have come to us about wanting to maybe generate a couple different clubs to try to get more kids involved they're going through that process with me and then it will move on to student student council where they'll present their case for the club if they want representation on StuCo so we're working with them on that I just really think we've got to continue we've got a great group of coaches and we're working on how we're gonna make summer work this year with the new Keysha rules and some of the regulations they put forth seven candidates we've got a great group of people working and still trying to keep those kids involved the one of the things that we don't ever take into account we've got kids in theater and other activities that aren't Keysha involved but when you take those kids to account we're well over the 90% involvement so again our kids do a great job and so is our staff getting those kids involved tagging on the last thing our supplemental Committee met one of the things that we need to do for next year or you as a board need to do the Supplemental committee is listed in the agreement has two representatives from each building and then three representatives from that are appointed by the board so the board you will need to decide if you would like to point for that typically and it's been mr.
Lewis come to discuss that at our next meeting for information and then we can as a board provide a little more direction on which scenarios we'd like to have the Finance Committee look through further and I just wanted to clarify we don't pay for his service except through he gets paid when we do a bond issuance so we don't pay you know like an hourly rate for mr.
Murphy was really excited to share is that you've probably seen some of this on social media our mental health team our own staff has been doing some really neat things to help support our students during this closure it's creating videos having a YouTube page that is accessible and Mrs Murphy shared that sense our closure those videos have been act assessed by 1713 students and 1987 adults so our staff is really working hard to meet both the academic and the social emotional needs of students during closure and I just wanted to highlight those for you briefly yes so that program through Cummins is based on their Medicare Medicaid eligibility but one of the things that we heard from our principals and from our teachers is that there were students that needed support who were not Medicaid eligible so so one aspect of the project aware grant has been that we've been able to provide some services for students that are funded through that Grant so that's been a great addition and even while we're closed Cummins has been able to do that via telemedicine telehealth and so that's been a neat thing that we've been able to provide for students so yes they if they become Medicare eligible then they are included in this they can be included in this if their parents give consent and then we also through Project Aware have other means that we can potentially get families connected to those services in many cases our counselors or our administrators or each have to our students and our families on a daily basis and sometimes their discovery and some of our students are struggling a little bit more than normal and so often times it's not necessarily the parent with a student that's a secret going to come in this during the closure rather our counselors our assistant principals or principals are finding out that there is a family that struggling and then they're making those referrals panicky that's good to know that we can as we may hear her friends and family we can direct them to the principal you know provided what they need so they can be serviced thank you well we're going to new business district in process thank you mrs.
Ruby we have identified a strategy for technology not only for students but for our employees or teachers to make sure we're ready at a moment's notice to be working from home and that would include purchasing all new laptops for our faculty and then repurposing existing laptop tops that the faculty utilizes for our secretaries paraprofessionals nurses other staff and that would total about one hundred and thirty thousand dollars this is all in addition to some of the pull ahead items we'll talk about when we talked about the 2021 budget on our second item this evening so there's some mechanics with that the town would like to be involved with purchasing that so we do it all through our purchasing agent we get the best price we can but of course acting on this is paramount and I don't know mr. Beldon you're the chair of the Finance Committee I wasn't not sure if there's anything you'd like to add to that I just wanted to make sure the public and the board is well aware of our thinking in preparing for next year's budget and utilizing the existing under-run from this year's budget due to the school closure due to copa90 so I can oh well let me just let me just add the Tobin 19-under run shir and once let's back up so that we're under running our spending this year because we don't have the schools open right it's not under running salaries really it's it's under running all the things that's around running a school and being in the school including certain things around transportation including our heating bills including a whole bunch of things so it's a little over $500,000 under run on spending this year the town has similar dynamics but the town has added expenditures in terms of ambulance and first responder type costs so both boards the Board of Finance and board of that and I believe the Board of Selectmen are all engaged on okay we're gonna have an under run this year what should we do to be smart looking forward number one on everybody's mind is PPE and so dr.
parents will be encouraged to take videos and photos and share them with their music teachers in hopes that we hope to put this together in fact I'm going to talk to Mike song meaning after this meeting send them an email let's see if my people help us with this to put together a video collage to be shared out for all to enjoy and participating students and parents will be asked to follow all local state and federal regulations and guidance regarding kovat 19 precautions including social distancing and limits on public gatherings so we would like students to stay in their and their front part the porch the front yard and so on we will post a compliment tracks along with the instrumental parts and lyrics for students to use and learn and then perform the musical selections I will be able to open up the video or audio files and play them or sing along with the accompaniment tracks and that will all start at 1:30 all the links will be up there there isn't going to be a time to sequence but you know students can't we'd like them to start at about 1:30 on that Sunday if possible so that would be a community type event and the rain date for that will be Monday the 25th at the same time the program will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and we're looking to reach out to our Cheshire Boy Scouts if any of you have direct contacts with those folks so if you could pass those on to me I'd appreciate it I know some some parents that are affiliated with the cap of the Scouts but would like to make sure that we're connecting with everyone that we need to and hopefully that'll be a video of the Pledge of Allegiance by our scouts followed by the national anthem right now grace a Zillo senior treasure high school students who has done quite a bit in the choral program will be singing singing that and Greg Bell has put together the accompaniment to go along so people can sing with that recording so that'll be a video actually actually sorry that'll be an audio after that the first ensemble piece will be America the Beautiful and that is for all students to participate in k12 so that's the one piece that everyone is going to be teaching in their lessons in fact that has already begun in some classes already and then additional pieces optional pieces to be performed Yankee Doodle you're a grand old flag I know some elementary schools are working on those pieces and our string students our own mentor strings are working on Yankee Doodle and then the five military service songs are also there the melodies of those and we thought it was important to include those in case students wanted to learn those especially if they had a relative or someone that they knew who had might have passed or currently serves in one of those branches to be able to perform that and then the last part of it will be taps and that'll be performed either a video or an audio by one of our Cheshire high school senior trumpet players I've reached out to John White we as all of you know is a member of the Cheshire veterans Council and he fully supports this project and it matches up really well with what he and the Veterans Council are planning to do over the weekend on Monday at two o'clock on the 25th on Memorial Day the Veterans Council is planning to hold the ceremony followed by a military flyover of Cheshire John said he would try to incorporate our student recordings of the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem and the accompaniment track to America the Beautiful and I think we're going to try and have a soloist sing that as well so he can actually use that recording in the ceremony and then taps at the end of the service and he really supports this project thinks it's it's it's great and he appreciates the student engagement honoring the spirit of Memorial Day so we think it's a great project for our faculty k12 all of our students to do something together since I know students are missing that performance that we normally would have in fact last week would have worked our spring concert at Cheshire high school and and we missed having that performance very much you know where seniors have so we're hoping that students will have that opportunity to perform not together but in spirit performing together so if any of you have any questions certainly ask away thank you I don't have a question but can I just respond oh absolutely so I think it's remarkable I'm so glad that you're doing this and I know how much how important music is to the education process as a whole and so it's fantastic that you've come up with a way to get the students back into their music practices and lessons because it's it's so important to many many of our students in in the district so thank you for thinking outside the box in these tough times absolutely and I know students really miss playing together yeah we have a lot of solo assignments and and they've really missed that that experience of that ensembles so this is not an Istanbul experience but it is something we can share together and and it's a real positive thing for all of us to be a part of so thank you I just like to echo Anne's comments I I have the privilege of living across the street from Juliana distante and I can't wait to hear her sing so she's participating well maybe you can encourage students to participate right there as long as they don't you know get too close to someone else so from a distance yeah but thank you absolutely you're welcome and these arrangements by the way everyone can sing along so you could you could sing along also and other people in the community that the parts will be there for people to open up their PDFs they're very simple to follow along we've got the text right underneath the notes Gregg bells putting down some nice accompaniment tracks for us to be able to follow and have everyone in the community sing along if they'd like to I just want to say thank you as well John I love the idea I think neighborhoods are enjoy this as well so it would be a bright spot in their days and I'm sure for the kids it's being out there playing you know from the heart it's always the right oh great you're a busy guy normally without some kind of a virus going on and yeah so thank you for out put it together in coordinating it I just wondering uh with transitioning to online learning if that's actually helped you or not in terms of maybe in some more time with the kids online I'm not sure how the online forums been working for most kids I know my my daughter's it's fine with it but I hope it gives you a little more time with the kids well yeah it's very interesting because normally my classes are 60 to 120 as you know and this is very different and so being able to connect one-on-one there is something to be said about that and I really appreciate that but on the other hand it'd be great to have a little bit of both if you could have rehearsals back as well and it's especially for students who might not be as motivated to engage in that practice because you know it's work practicing his work and being able to have that that experience of that ensemble it's I know that everyone's missing that so I don't know the marching band folks that I mean the kids are wondering what's going to happen and and I've been talking to Steve Truffaut about what's happening with athletics so we're planning accordingly to be able to do whatever we need to do to be able to adjust so okay well great Annie thank you for popping out through all this I know it's not easy normal times but again thank you okay anyone have any other questions or comments thanks so much [Music] yes question so how how do we the members of just the general public how do we find out about it and how do we get the link and how's that gonna be appetizing because I want to stand from my front porch yeah we're gonna try and post that I'm gonna speak with Kelly lens if I can't get in the Kinect Amaro in the next couple of days to see what we can do to get a press release out and also put put a link up maybe on the Cheshire Public Schools webpage to the files because they are folders the arrangements we we don't have absolute permission to make these arrangements but they are not full arrangements so I think it will be okay no but it's just the melody there you know the accompaniment is not going to be shown we'll just post the parts so I think I'm sorry love the hair and sing as well [Laughter] somebody to videotape me yeah but you know if we could get the details we can put it on the education form we could also get it on the community forum and just continually hit it make sure it stays up there so I could work with Kelly sure yeah if we're concerned about the copyright I was thinking we could just share it internally with anyone with the Cheshire Public Schools domain in that way too so we'll get the word yeah very good good thank you absolutely thank you and then last item is behind the scenes of Cheshire Public Schools during the closure so that's actually a great segue as Mike and John are talking about how we're going to get the word out because we've been working on a way to convey to folks what's been happening because while our campuses are closed our schools are certainly up and running in every conceivable way so we thought we'd start with a small group and then expand out to our full faculty but we've got a couple of videos and I thought I would share just one tonight to give you a taste of what you'll see on social media from the Cheshire Public Schools and so if you give me a minute I will present my screen and this video that I'm about to show you is of our one of our teachers who serves as our technology integration specialist you've probably heard me mention Scott Conway's name before can everyone see my screen yeah okay so here's a taste of what behind-the-scenes of Cheshire public schools during campus closure we'll be looking like hi I'm Scott Conway I'm a technology integration specialist at data and software administrator for Cheshire Public Schools it was seven weeks ago today that I moved out of the basement of central office and into the basement of my home where I set up my makeshift office and I have continued to work from here every day to support the over 600 faculty and staff and the over 4,400 students and their parents with all of the software and hardware demands that they now have in this new remote learning environment and I think one of the best things to come out of all of this was the establishment of a daily livestream I have been providing at 12:30 every day a lunchtime livestream for our faculty and staff to learn more about some of the platforms in the core software suite that we use in the district on a daily basis and it just gives them a chance to either learn something new or enhance their knowledge of one of these platforms and it's been a wonderful time a stressful time and I just hope that we can continue to support the staff and students in the way that we have okay so we have a number of those set to roll we have a lovely one by Amy O'Brien who as you all know is the Doolittle School Principal where she talks about how she spent her day setting up class lists and cultivating classrooms for next year making and I won't go into it I'll show you that that one's coming next but um those are just some examples of what these little behind-the-scenes glimpses look like so folks know what's happening during the campus closure and I did find that piece of information from that survey the 20% was feedback so I'm sorry that you couldn't see it on your PDF any questions so these videos are gonna be on the website and well they'll be on our social media outlet so they'll be on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter who they already are they've been running last several days probably last week and you got a couple hundred views of her video okay do you have any comments no nothing really related to the agenda I thought tonight was great I see the results from the testing both love the presentation of John Connor Kenway from Memorial Day neighborhood sure the ward isn't looking for but we had a few on our street like can't work every night it'll be fresh in here for kids played out there playing I so I'm nothing for the agenda I just gonna ask when do we think all those really pay for gravities didn't fall sleep if they're quite so much needed rest for girls period but what do we think wool has some idea for graduation for high school middle school you can a couple meetings do you guys think will be in the end of May if sooner just get a ballpark a lot of questions I know it's a work in progress not gonna hold you anything just made curious you guys are what we've been doing is analyzing or basically trying to create every possible scenario which is time-consuming and challenging but you know for example I think I shared last week we were chasing down the movie theater see if we could use that as an option the drive-in theater in southern 10 unfortunately we can't you know what we're waiting for right now is guidance from the governor because things you know kind of changed a little bit and we don't want to put out options to our students into the community our parents that really we can't fulfill because of the governor's order so for example like last week you know the kids in my house we're excited to hear that summer camps would be on and then today there was kind of clarification on that that well not sleepaway camp sits only day camps with like 30 or less kids and so you know we want the actual directive to come from the governor should come this week and once we have that our plan is to serve I survey our senior students and parents about what options we can kind of do in it obviously the preference is to do as much as we can in person with the group so you know certainly one of the options will be pushing it back later into the summer fall though we're trying to get some guidance from the state as but when that could be got ya just curious I'm sure you get the same yields I'm getting I'm not sure the middle school and you know the elementary promotion ceremonies are a little bit different well you know they're worthwhile it's a little bit different than a culminating graduation ceremony so you know that's more likely to be virtual in nature got it thank you Jeff sure Jeff along those lines have you is there any any feedback or any advancement on what's going on with the play also are they yeah like the graduation we're still waiting for state guidance around when people can actually get together they're still saying like the gathering of more than five people would be you know through the end of the month era end of next month so unfortunately that would kind of call off the play at this point to that point to the end of end of June so we're hopeful that that will change and that our our students will still have the interest and flexibility to be able to come off and if I can just add students are recording some of their pieces to be able to show it virtually so that will be available and they're trying to adapt to this environment and back to graduation we've had I send something out today that I think was posted on Facebook and that just indicates the timeline of how we've been communicating with students pto with our folks just just trying to involve everyone but like Jeff said to put out specific options until we know when we know it gets complicated [Music] marriage again thank you all for I mean not just obviously working through this fiery situation but but just the planning of graduation your negativities I know it's Morgan's graduation there is a textbook drop-off pick up the lockers a slew of things you sent out I thought the letter you sent out to us parents the high school on Friday you know this is why that's so I know it's not easy buttoning it so thank you and I think you guys are doing the right thing might not cancer sufficient so you know what you know so but again thank you for your help on this and then just to generally your level of communication has been great and you're talking you're on mute I hear well baby's name wishful thinking Tony just commending them on their communication the school community that's all thank you have we gotten any comments coming in I'll double-check again but we hadn't I don't know a mood all right um second I second discussion all in favor aye all right thank you everyone thank you good night Marlene I need
Whitworth representing the activities from the middle school myself and then lately it's been mr. Reid mr. spring and mr. marks we'll just kind of tag teaming to fill that other spot so somewhere for the next school year we'll need to do that make sure to make sure again we're hearing you right you think that we should have Charlie Whitworth Dave Watkins and probably it would either be it would either be me or mr. Reid or mr. spring as a third person most likely yeah most likely since the elementary doesn't have as many supplementals but it just has to be yes basically there's three people that represent on the Supplemental Duty committee administratively the board and state you guys appoint those three positions yes yeah it's something that we in looking through bylaws and reviewing information we're doing yeah well it's been in place I'm going to say before I've been involved with this Dave and Charlie have been through representatives on this so again it's something that I think we just assumed we were on it until further notice but that's what we've appointed before is that one directors and then someone randomly a third person yes this is a yes person but we actually then do it last year so three people have been something into the third spot and no actually I've been taken on that duty and I've been showing up at all the meetings I think it's one of those things that they like having me on that group because if they talk about certain things in regards to finance or you know financial considerations regarding monetary payout for different supplemental positions I can kind of give them information and a pretty quick manner Plus on top of that if either Charlie or Dave were gone that allows the middle school principal and high school principal to be there in the morning his committees to typically meet 7:15 in the morning Darla's typically would not be on it though because again they don't have as many elementary school coaches or supplemental doodle types in there as plus she does not have an assistant to maybe help her out with that morning duty so that's why it kind of Dave Charlie and to speak to it we just had some recent turnover on the committee they've appointed two people so we went back and looked at the bylaws before it was pretty static the same group of people continued to serve but we have new members from high school new members from the middle school and they're still looking for one additional member from the elementary Cathy Freeman is going to serve as the co-chair but she is looking to recruit one additional from the elementary at this time my preference like mr.
Lewis's services thank you for the clarification on that all right thank you very much item 6 approval of consent agenda unless there's any questions can I have a motion to approve I make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the April 27th 2020 Board of Education meeting open and closed session and 6.2 egg nala to acknowledge the FOIA requests received by the district second mrs. kroner aye mrs. cook mr. Lightfoot all right mrs. Moyer hi mr. Baughman mr. Baumann I mrs. Swanson I mrs.
Abel hurt we have been in some focus on today we just perfectly normal with what's on our last eight weeks that we might not think about the future and the future is going to be here but whether they were writing or not and so I wanted to take this opportunity to share with the board what our planet is going forward for that beginning of the 2122 school year and furthermore this will be quite a bit over review because you have been involved in this every step of the way but for some people in the public if they not been intending or refused to talk about how we intend to then through experiences for our students and we were sharing in the screen so that the me missing my clicker we are going to hurt me we're going to share with the community kind of how this all started this goes way back to the January 2019 board retreat at that point you talked with the board about the need for some renovation as well as some programmatic changes and as always is the case our board is always focused on equitable educational experiences for our students and so we begin that discussion in 2019 and then later that year and may we held a couple of different community presentations about our clients specifically we were focused on our long-term facility needs we know that many of our schools are quite old white oak and maple ar-fifteens years old respectively and we know that in the past several years we haven't been able to maintain all of our abilities quite the way we were used to maybe a decade ago so we knew that it was time to really take a lot to complete a facility we wanted of course to support our enrollment and also think about future growth we do not want to construct another elementary school but we do not think that that is necessary and it is also cost prohibitive so we begin to look at alternatives that would allow us to handle the growth that our demographers says is coming our way but would also allow us to make sure that we have equitable equitable programs across our elementary schools you know it doesn't take an educational genius to realize that when you have very small schools of 350 and very large schools of over a hundred the student experience is by definition boys be different and we want to have equitable experiences and so there were two enemies to have any equitable experiences for our youngsters one was the very disparate very small school and very large school and the other issue was space and so we believe that this program that we are embarking upon will provide long term and high quality so where the first thing is that we looked at because what can we do for our preschool we have a phenomenal development preschool program as well as an absolutely fabulous seedlings preschool programming those programs have been around for years and they're very successful if our students start with us and preschool they tend to very very well and so we know that we wanted to improve our high quality program for preschool and we also knew that any facility changes that we were going to make we needed to make without increasing access to the taxpayer we've done a good job of keeping that very intense rate down you'll recall that the referendum which is not a building referendum but an operational referendum the public gave us the opportunity to asked for 35 cents on every $100 of assessed valuation we got that down the first year of this year in 2020 we got it down below 30 cents and that's what our public expects they expect us to be frugal and careful with their dollars and they expect us to only ask for that which we need so we certainly had no intention of asking the taxpayers to pay any kind of increase or any kind of building projects we are going to be able to accomplish this without raising taxes specifically maple which is currently a very small school and a very old school will expand to closer to the size of river birch can see your elementary will serve around 700 coasters why don't we'll have some modest renovation to become a centralized preschool as I discussed right now our crystal dumpsters are white oak maple they're a pine tree and that's very challenging you have a consistent program with specialists such as oaties PT's speech-language pathologists probably here there and everywhere dragging equipment but to have a centralized preschool to immediately enhance our program will also allow us the opportunity to expand our preschool faces our premium is history as you know we have very few large meeting spaces we're constantly scrambling and this will allow allow us also to add some professional development space or Powys and additionally we mean to expand some of our other elementary schools we're going to be adding a new classrooms to every elementary school nine new classrooms to send more all of that will happen between now in the beginning of the 2021 school year many of our parents and listeners know that we also have some very crowded schools right now River Bridge is operating over capacity with over 800 youngsters and done marvelous job of reusing and revising the use of space so it's going to come very challenging and signore's not far behind them although they have 500 students they are very very pressed on space and so this comedy gear at the 20/20 here there will be two orbitals added to Ritter birch and two portables added to stay more the construction timeline has actually already begun and was scheduled to begin and I ain't know but we've been able to be a little more aggressive starting the construction without students here in our school so if you're driving around the district you see that a maple renovation has already begun in Korea Edition and say more additions have also the gun and then those portables will arrive during this summer it will be on notice on your screen that it won't be until the summer of 2021 the white oak renovation will happen you might wonder how we can do that can be ready for our preschools at the end of started 2021 and that's actually because the renovation is not a significant pathway out as it is at these other buildings were simply out in restrooms to the classroom and readying some classrooms to make them more age-appropriate from preschoolers something that I know our staff members have been very interested in and perhaps our parents will be interested in is how will this redistricting and occur because obviously this is going to affect all of our children and all of our staff members and for those of you who have been around as long as I have you know we have a very strong process that is very fair for redistricting and tonight the process begins with me reviewing this with our school board of Accession over the next month or two we will establish what we call redistricting guidance and these are the guiding principles that our redistricting committee will follow things such as let's move as few students as possible things such as let's try to get some balance in our schools let's make sure that our sixth Elementary School's have some good balance and the diversity of this two popular the experience level of its teachers and staff and let's make sure that we respect natural boundaries crossing 36 is always something we've just assumed avoid we want to respect our feet our schools it's working very well are you know that they will go with their elementary school to a specific intermediate school has specific middle school it provides for a lot of continuity and so that and things like keeping neighborhoods together you know violin in the same neighborhood as twenty other kids I want to go to the same home to true school as those kids so we begin establishing some of those guidelines here this side and then the real work begins in August of 2020 with the selection of a redistricting committee and part of our history has been to make sure that parents are well represented and actually the parents outnumber administrators would be district in committee we have found that even though some district just go back to room revise their find injuries come out and tell what you do over the last five three different things that we've done since I came to in 2000 we have found that involving parents provides for a much richer experience we will ask for one parent from every one of our current seven elementary schools and should be a parent who have some skin in the game specifically a parent who has a student who next year will be in second grade or youngin in other words apparently children may be affected by redistricting those of you have been around a long time to recall that one be redistricting River Bridge the redistricting committee presented two models and one of the parents on the committee said I don't like these models because my child is going to be transferred from our beloved elementary school but these are the best two models for the entire district it was very helpful for our parents to explain how complex this process is how much input they will have to those boundaries and how they have to weigh not just what's best for their family but what's best for most of the students hearings will apply to the only redistricting committee and they will apply here to the central office and dr.