Pope do we have a second okay we have a second by mr. hunt we have any discussion on this side mr. hunt mr. Hutz I chair votes aye that's 4-0 our next one is our update of the center high school graduation requirements as item discussion so I've actually turn it over to mr. George this is a discussion item we had a while back trying to make some changes to our graduation requirements and with some different changes we wanted you found it was an appropriate time to make that changes for it so mr. Jordan would you share what we're doing here we're trying to do absolutely Gary yes okay excellent yes so with the change of me currently there is a five credit when semester requirement for a computer application which is related course these are kids learning where they use Microsoft or Google Documents spreadsheets at an event and then a five units or my credit their technology they either take a PE class or a class of adaptive technology we are simply changing getting rid of those two requirements and adding those to the electives to get kids more choice on what they could take along the way to be on a CTE that the appear on occasions the computable course it really isn't updated for kids are learning those things way earlier and by the time they guys we're one of the few districts around that is hung onto that requirement it is this is not the lower the graduation requirements at all it simply moved them for more category in deal to be elected for the Duke more opportunities to take other Gordon thank you Mike and the reason we put this is discussion in the high school or center high school has done public hearings situating solicit input as well we just want to put it on here just so we're fully disclosing you mean transparent unless there's questions or changes Jeremy you know or money there's hardly anyone in the state you deserve this birthday you spit moves where you leave that kind of thing there's no one around this you on 1/3 to the 20 is pretty common first school they're still on a big Thursday and then on walk schedule right Ramat or and I agree with mr.
Blaine has developed at the high school then similarly at the because we do have interventionist opportunity at the middle school at the elementary school we're looking to add a few math tutors those would be non-certified folks in terms of how they would be compensated you may hire a certified teacher that is not is doing the true the role but the that's where you can see the cost is much lower than it then for multiple people that are part-time and so that's that's another piece again your risk with with the TESOL teacher or the tutors or the math and Rebekah's is that you you risk not meeting the needs of all of your students that's that's the bottom line with that and then the handwriting text was such a minimal cost and it's already part of our program we needed to continue rolling that up through the grades and ensuring the full implementation didn't make sense to touch that the cross-country coach while we already have a cross-country coach there's an incredibly popular sport at the middle school we handled it with the 70 or so students with the one and so we're trying to look at opportunities and so I have that now as a reduction quick sidenote with the savings we've just realized in the student accident insurance I think this is an area we probably might want to replenish and take that off the reduction list and then the security service well that was a recommendation from one of our one of the consultants in taking a look at security it was really a security service to not only secure for safety in general maybe maybe checking in at doors at after-school games and things like that it was more a security service to secure the property and be walking the buildings because our custodians should be cleaning there they're not to provide and not there to provide security although they're there to help and keep an eye on things and so it was a recommendation it wasn't a immediate need or threat or major recommendation the security task force was a big part of that discussion so they certainly did opine to suit my recommendation to reduce that but again this is you know we only have so many dollars and we need to get to seven hundred and sixty nine dollars so the investments with a lengthy answer here these these we've lived without them so we have to sometimes you have to finance your goals and you have to yeah you have to delay what you need to do and so that's the thinking that went into it's very simple athletics we heard quite a bit from our contingent constituency heard quite a bit from our board members that this was an area we really didn't want to go near which was all the social emotional reasons that we talked about athletics or any activities for that matter where students are able to be part of a group be part of something bigger than themselves set goals be part of the team and just learn so many great life lessons it's just such a healthy activity we didn't want to get into taking away athletics so I'm not recommending that we touch middle school athletics which does include our war training literally number one in the state Unified sports program and it wouldn't make sense to perhaps leave middle school sports and cake freshmen sports out or have eighth graders who've missed out on all these opportunities and then they go to high school next year and say hey welcome to BHS now you can't participate it's just too it's just too important to kids and so took that off the list and work really hard with Ken on the numbers and pulled out the recommendation for participation fees didn't want to go there again heard from people that this was a regressive tax and believe me it's one of the first for me it was I thought it was low-hanging fruit when we really started digging into the budget and obvious when you first got on the board we dug in and we were able to take participation fees out in the first budget that we did together so we don't want to go back there and then the next part is increasing taking a look at class sizes we have very low class size guidelines here in Brookfield that we're proud of and really work hard to stick to the kindergarten and grade one sections these are additional sections we were adding for increasing enrollment to really stay at I think an average of 19 18 19 kids in a class we are able to again these are not existing sections if we don't add the extra kindergarten section to go from it would be nine to ten and we reduce one of the requested grade one sections we planned to go from eight sections to ten and just make that nine sections who reduce those two we save a considerable amount of money and as you can look the average class size estimates are still 21 point one and essentially 21 for both K and one so I think that's very reasonable it's a modest increase and so again trying to balance priorities and make hard decisions that's the thinking that went into that we even heard from miss mrs.
Huntley depending on how this the budget goes she was able to the next year to I would be coming to the board preservation requirements until you know this baking and then also to your point mr. Howe to one of them changes for this is we did have some changes in staffing that allowed us to with this credit not if we remove this credit allowing us not to rehire that position and not feel that FTE so it actually helps us so the kids get pushed out into other electives so we're not replacing the person who typically had the schedule with this now even more dire they are yes every alright anything else on that thank you alright so that brings us to action item authorizing the issuance and so geo bonds do we have a motion on this we have a motion to approve by mr.
Larson when a borrower comp crackerjack kindergarten teachers have said you know she would rather have every resource you can have and lower class size but whatever happens we're professionals and we'll make it work we're all in it we're all tough time this year and so these are the tough decisions we have to make we wouldn't touch any sections in grade 3 or 4 this is how we'll start to get at the no reduction in force of walking but earlier you add the Spanish not taking that out you don't move the grade 3 in 4 sections you get to a point where you're not reducing or laying people off which is really another priority I heard from our desire I heard from from the public and from the board and then finally you heard me mention that st. Joe's has has closed and so right now under the way the state law works the PUC the local public school has to fund the non-public schools nursing services and so we provide one full nurse between San Jose and a Christian life Academy with San Jose closing it only makes sense the logical decision that we would need a half nurse to handle Christian Life Academy there is one caveat though student needs change on a dime as we all know in many times nursing services fall on the under the auspices of pupil personnel services which also is under the umbrella of special education and so there may be needs that arise at Christian life where it is demanded that we have to have a full-time nurse for a student or two that may have very significant health concerns so we always just need to be ready for that but it's a logical step to take that out at this appointment and then with the reduction of the two sections of kindergarten and grade one there's not a need to increase the PE section the point one so I said that's an easy aligned reduction and then we took a look at you know reducing extended duty again that goes into what Rosa was asking dr.
hunt do we have a second got a second by mrs. Pope I know we have a discussion on this because then we had a Koosh rule on the phone the board members have any questions to begin with yeah I don't know who sure has anything to present this certainly other than if there was questions we want them on but last meeting he shared the idea that it might be a good time to enter the bond market we looked at some needs coming up the purchases possibly purchasing some school property the planning for the new school and then possibly if we had a city match I believe the board said can you bring this back to give us the flexibility to go after those dollars at a cheaper percentage and so that's this item that's come back you will see it's a combination between originally it gave us flexibility between our 91 bond and then our o8 bond and I think the new thinking from khushu from cfw is the idea that we might issue the bond funds from the tow eight and keep the more flexible bond for layer but it does this this resolution doesn't it does not allow us or the board to exceed that 15 million dollar which does leave us more access to more bond sales later when it comes time to actually build the school with some matching funds so I don't know khushu or Craig if there's anything you wanted to add to that with you thank you very much summary the summary is very accurate the only the point of any conservative further down the agenda is the there's also a concept of a refinancing they were trying to avail yourself of which is not specifically discussed last time but there is an option indicate the taxpayers are some towers over there so being we would under the economy of scaled it to be under that under the same time but for this particular item your summary or synopsis which was very accurate at an alibi any board member questions on this um I have a question on F and G together given but we're said about if we made the decision we want to switch to the 2008 on this gives us more flexibility the way these two are worded I see one that says we're capping at 15 million F but G at 11 million so the way these are worded is that gonna if we pass it in the storm is that going to allow us the flexibility to switch from the ninety one bond or we logged into the ninety one on the way this is working so Cooper will correct me if I'm wrong but F is purely the sale of bonds for those three items we talk about locking us in to 1991 I think it says 91 or not to explore the Oh 8 bond but not to exceed 15 million so in any combination that we came up with whether it was no dollars out of the 91 and XML and then the refunding is a totally separate amount we're looking at what we had issued right gears back and then we're just refined so if I just want to make sure we didn't get tripped up in the wording yeah cursor is that correct that that would not make a difference if we end up selling or issuing on only 208 and not a combination of both where are we okay with this resolution correctly the reservation only is not to exceed amount it so if we choose to issue zero against that anyone on the resolution to approximately 320 and $24 for $100,000 suicide mission keep in mind though that 1919 one these taxes will only take him after the 1991 fog tax rates drop down where it shall be up to next year that's the only time these doctors will get in so even this bond sale is actually going to result in the drop of the overall tax rate for doctors in their community I do and then one of the things and I know I've had this wrong teacher will tell me but I believe this is right right now if this is something we want to do right now the the interest rates the bond markets and low and then I know ku sure didn't bring this up this is me bringing this up this day there might be a little bit about certainty because we just had the main revised but we didn't really have the may revise if we think about the way that we collect taxes may revise usually as the revised of a January budget after the April 15th tax revenues have come in well they put off tax date till June 15th so it may realize this year is another guess we're not actually going to see tax revenues probably until we have maybe our first ever to live right which is normally I think they can actual they're actually July 15 so yeah so we're gonna have our first ever August revised after the year is turned so there might be some turmoil so it's my thinking and you know I'm thinking if we know that we have low rates now and this is something we want to do we want to do it sooner rather than later because we're not gonna want to deal bad numbers come in July 15th and we have an ugly-looking August rebus who knows was that that's going to do for the markets so if we want to do this might as well we have an advantage rather than not know what would happen is that fair statement to surety in the market and that could maybe we could find ourselves in a more challenging position to be able to sell bonds in the future there's not a guarantee needed even though it is very interest rate today we could find out those that even lower it in the future but most likely there's more about it needs to come out and that bad news protected ability and our abilities are long the future all right we have a motion in a second we've had some discussion is there are there any other questions and anything come in over the computer Carol no all right it sounds like we're ready mrs.
ruby about which is kind of the extended duty which really is the curriculum writing folds right in with the same logic on the professional development and we looked at reducing that to make the budget work again it's less curriculum work that gets done and the curriculum professional development teaching and learning that's our business that's the backbone of our or work but perhaps some of that savings from the student insurance that we just found out about today could be put back there to make that less of a reduction that guess what's the $769,000 I hope that was helpful yeah so it's also important for the public to understand that some of the numbers that we have here are already reduced in a previous sort of iteration and deliberation and of this budget so when you see like for example the extended duty that still is a reduced this that still is a reduced item this is just you know in this round of sort of budget deliberations a further reduction of 5300 so you know I don't want people to think that's sort of you know we're just trimming off a little off of extended duty we've already as dr.
Pope hi this is poker boat sign mr. hunt all right mr. Hamm votes I chair votes on that resolution passes forth to zero that brings us to item G do we have a motion on item G so we have the motion for mrs. Pope the second for mrs. Anderson do we have any more discussion on this item do we have any audience participation do we have anything I think we covered all right so it probably covered all of this in the discussion on the item F mrs. Anderson all right mrs. Anderson's outside mrs. Pope hi mr. Pope loads I have Mr Hunt all right mr. Ahn go outside chair vote sided that resolution passes 4 to 0 it brings us to our last action item item 8 the resolution for California Office of Emergency Services designation of applicants agent and we have a motion on this item do we have a second we have a second by mr.
Ruby pointed out before we've we've really cut into some things already what you're seeing here are just additional additional cuts so I think my my only concern is is really the the math tutors I feel I know that's it's a new investment but I you know the risk you mentioned about you know not meeting the needs of some students troubles me I know we've we've seen you know our math scores you know I think our kids need help in that area Rose I'd have to agree with you especially going into the situation that we're in now they're predicting about a 50% decline in math proficiency for the students coming in in September so I would say that that's very important to put back those math tutors and for sure given the circumstance that we're into yeah I'd also like to say the cross-country coach I think is very important I think 70 athletes to one coach is not acceptable and it puts us in a very bad position with title not and time online so yeah yeah enjoy that was it was so nice to hear when he was very excited when he called me know ken is not known for his exuberance but he was very excited to find a reduction today in the indian surance so i was thinking that's a--that's a really very easy area to find that and be able to take that off the reduction list with that in 58 and 59 hundred dollars savings and insurance again when you can see on the actual management operation those are those efficiencies when you get the opportunity you certainly want to be able to utilize that I think we can get that back back into the budget John is there anything that we if school were to be like fully closed again in the fall is there anything is a tan you know come September that we might be able to you know maybe add back into the budget sort of you know like because if we have big savings and transportation again you know could we have math tutors that are that could maybe work distance and so we can you know something yeah Rosa I would say you know that's something again you know you've heard me say this before we have we this administration this this Board of Ed the former Board of Education we pride ourselves on being agile and versatile you know we really do this is something we've talked about in my superintendent report I was talking about all of the you know the contingencies and flexibility we need to have in our thinking to be ready for the fall if we were to be fully distance-learning there might be a savings for sure and and you can you can order see from from Ken talking about it a little bit and Bob's or or can I significant savings when you're closed I mean there just is but we also need to know on the other end of that there you know there's always a yin and the yang if we're in school this the the reopening school team is going to be working there may be resources we really need yeah just doing some skin some not some simple math but some simple just taking a look and planning the partitions that may need to be purchased additional tutors additional staff because you have to socially distance and you can't just have kids by themselves you know when people socially distance in their office is very well it's not easy it's not it doesn't even come close to the challenge of trying to operate a school you have adults duck walk or even wear masks they'll spread out you could put a partition up they'll come in at different times they provide their own transportation you know you can make it work I've been part of the town hall meetings in getting ready to reopen Town Hall you know that it's under mr.
hunt you have any board questions comments on the side just a comment this is something that Lisa came across we put in place it will allow us if we have cost and we might go recoup money through FEMA to relieve the pandemic cost associated with it we don't know of any right now but it puts us in a place where it's on your desk come up we would have this approved and ready to go to request funds from the state so it's kind of like our usual cheaper options yeah yeah all right under action the work there yeah it just carried over from the previous censuses very well it's to start the discussion hi mrs. Anderson I'm mrs. Pope I misspoke books I'm mr. hunt hi mr. hunt fence on a chair vote side that resolution taxes board is zero which brings us to advanced planning our next meeting date is Wednesday June 10th at 6 p.m.
Dunn's leadership it's very straightforward what you need to do it's very different in a school and so I don't want to get too sidetracked here while we might have savings if we're not in school and we don't want that to happen of course yep we're likely gonna have expenses and you know I don't want to even think about quantifying those at this time we're not there yet if we're in school or in a hybrid some kids are in some kids are out you know every other day all these things that people put out there as logistical opportunities so I just wanna put that out there as part of the conversation for people to be oh yeah it's a good point I'm sure even if we have savings you know math tutors are gonna just be scratching the surface of what we really need very good chance of that the other thing I wasn't I mentioned to the TESOL teacher I mean our demographics are changing you know I can't imagine kemon doing all of that testing all of our you know ENL students and you know our need in that area is just gonna continue to grow and it just seems that we're not doing our due diligence if we're not going to put that back into the budget to help you know some of our most needy students yeah - Joyce point you know let that I do hear that a lot about increasing SL population kid I don't some maybe some of the principles maybe give some insight onto what that looks like or maybe Maureen or John like how true is that is there a quantity on what the increase is I mentioned last month a lot two weeks ago that we're probably going to have I think Emma gave me a number of could be as many as 15 new students keep in mind that while that is a real number we also do such a great job and it gets harder with more kids with the number of staff we have that many of our kids exit but kids continue to move in so it's just a projection we don't know and again that's endemic is so different than anything we've seen we don't know families are gonna be moving in together you know what oh how that's all gonna work out here and broke though we just done that if it's moving to be a lot more like you know how many kids like kind of in this program toll like how many is so the only one we have right now is Kevin as far as a t soul right in three kut'rs and Kevin three tutors and about a hundred I know that I'm not the you know in front of me but it's our bottom so over 100 have we also have another TESOL teacher we had kemon does not service students she's she oversees the k-12 language program and the k-12 ESL program we have one full-time TESOL teacher and we have three part-time tutors - that are paid for out of our operating budget one additional that we pay for out of a grant and we we are doing well in terms of how our students are performing we were about our date I looked at the data with kemon earlier this week because we got our test results back it's about the same but we are anticipating you know the the one TESOL teacher is itinerant over the four school buildings and the tutors are apportioned to work certain hours and days in the different buildings chemin works with providing professional development to regular ed classroom teachers in the buildings and works with providing making sure that our TESOL teacher we talked about pd being important getting professional learning and support as well as the tutors we put in for this TESOL teacher because we believe that in order to provide the students with the service that they need that it's very difficult for one full-time teacher to service four buildings with the support of three Paris so we asked for it because we felt that we needed it and every single year our TESOL population goes up as john said it is true we do exit people but as they as they exit as I'm making this number up as five exit eight come in so it's you know it's not an equal in an outflow that we've seen historically we just for you know you weren't on the board previously we have we recognized this need for an additional TESOL teacher years ago when we put in for two TESOL teachers that we cut one and um it was kind of a trade off for Paris and our Paris are wonderful but we do need another TESOL teacher but if we're not able to have one we will do the best that we can do what about Amy Debbie Jen and I'm sorry I know you just asked them that can I just jump in really quick and I'd like to really look at putting some of the the pulla heads back in you know and still looking at eliminating the elementary Spanish and really considering the you know st math and the science kits the cola head things we're gonna get now I'm reading it now right so Joey the polar heads were getting we're just right we're buying it with the the budget under run this year and so we're just taking it out at next year's budget - right okay so we're getting all those we're definitely getting all those it's just coming on in the budget so you know I mean obviously none of these things are good to lose and we could all make arguments for all of them I guess I'm hearing you know from from John thinking what is he what is he what is most essential does he think that the district needs and what are things that we can wait and then I do hear that we do have - I'm hearing that the untenured teachers we do may need to make a decision to let them know because that's a big piece we we got to keep our good people we don't want our untenured teachers applying for jobs and looking elsewhere during this sort of unsettled time so I do feel like we need to make a decision and I I think overall I would support John's recommendations in and John just for my own clarification just because I want to make sure the reduction in kindergarten and grade one those are new those were additional ones right so that we're not actually we're reducing correct currently have we're just not adding correct the one kindergarten section and the two originally it was two originally grade one sections those three total sections at Center School were proposed new sections based on projected enrollment you know not well projected kindergarten enrollment in actual none enrollment for grade one so there were new sections it would not impact any of our current teachers in terms of it would reduce those sections it wouldn't affect the current teachers that it rose it can I can I ask some I feel like we haven't really talked about the math and adventurous yeah enjoy yeah joy just said 50% I forgot what I heard I remember the 50% yeah they're saying they're estimating a decrease in fifty percent proficiency in math more than Eli a lot more than mila i mean that uh you know i always kind of viewed i well you know it's not ideal I've always kind of viewed the Spanish K through six program kind of a you know the more efficient of these painful cuts because it adds more social studies which is you know good and now I see that we can add more social studies and math I mean my baby Mike on the the proposal if we were to eliminate the Kasich Spanish was we we by contract that there's a lot that goes into it we went around and around for a long time last last time so I don't want to have to revisit all of it but we our plan would be to do curriculum in we develop a curriculum extension opportunity and science and social studies but we'd have to backfill that with two teachers right okay I just want you to know that that's that's well that's the that's the one seventy eight and one of them is not four hundred thousand dollars that's why it's only a hundred eighty tumor right well act and it wouldn't but it's science and social studies not math that's all I'm talking about the math and event venture list and the tutors like you add those tutors in yes get them back by cutting Spanish right yeah that's so I am correct in saying that we did my proposed license in math by the K through six exploratory bathroom and that was in my proposal last week and I didn't sense the support from the board that that was something the board wanted to do I didn't get I mean I guess I think I was always on that contract now you kind of put the numbers on it it's easier to say so I write for yeah I know you know we had those numbers there as well and so that that's an annual discussion we have when we get down to this crunch time right it's there every single year so I mean I think it's it's it's unfortunate I know that no matter what we decide tonight we are going to upset a group of people except for cutting the investments and I think people you know unless they're intimately involved with sort of you know what we talk about in these meetings I don't you know but because we're so intimately involved in all of these investments to me those are really important because they they are our path to the future they if we completely eliminate and abandon any sort of plan we're gonna come out of this Cove it'd you know crisis you know really far behind and I think in a really bad position and I think we are unfortunately just we're in this position of of having to upset some people but we have to remember you know that we have to have a plan we have to have to keep thinking of the future so you know as painful as it is you know I I do think we need to look at some stuff that we have and maybe prioritize what we need over it is there does it make sense at all I'm trying to work the numbers in my head does it make sense at all to consider reducing Spanish for just kindergarten and first grade maintaining Spanish 2 through 6 instead of K through 6 you know and getting a savings of you know I don't know I know they're not it's not a whole position the kindergarten and first grade but would there be enough savings taking a piece of Spanish out that we could perhaps save you know the math interventionist or the math tutors or TESOL teacher what it wouldn't be all of those but we've explored that talked about it part of the part of the issue is like we talked about last week is the backfill on Elementary so if the priority is exploratory we're all language and that's the board's priority if the board's priority is more more social studies in science time then that would be the plan we would go with if we eliminated center school and huckleberry Spanish the problem to what we've asked the same question you've asked every the problem with that is that part of the equation is not a budget savings so if it's strictly a you know there's priorities here in value and that's the board needs to decide that but you're not going to get a budget savings because you have to have a backfill at the elementary school this actual savings dollars comes from the positions at the middle school because you're able to move the students around and not have to have an a.1 for one teacher backfill no and it wouldn't make sense to have a Spanish program at the elementary school but not have it for hittin sixth grade and then starting again that wouldn't make any sense so that's we that's been bandied about over the years as well but it's a great question you know when you're trying to you know problem solver can I ask a question about and maybe the elementary school principals might be able to answer this but so I see you know we have NGSS science kits for for those for our elementary grades how is science and you know how is the time for science and social studies being allocated now and how would you anticipate it you know changing I mean in addition obviously if we get rid of Spanish we have like a whole extra period every week to do something but I'd like to understand first like how you know are we are in are we in a crunch time right now for in the elementary levels with science and social studies I think we already answered that we said that they would be getting more time for socializing science first like seem type but is it a problem how they're doing it now it's at the elementary I understand in the middle school it honestly seems to make perfect sense science and social I have always been on the back burner and they have they don't do it every day I mean it's it's been neglected for years so I don't know how we keep supporting a program that only gets proficient low proficiency for an exploratory program but we're willing to sacrifice science and social studies I don't understand why we keep having this conversation I mean if we want to put academics first and I know some people are very passionate about it and I know people are passionate about certain things but we keep going around and round we're trying to protect something that we're scared about what people are going to think it's not we're scared about how people think we're trying to protect it because it's a good freakin program our children have no proficiency yet it doesn't make sense you can measure think the proficiency and you can measure things on the wholeness of the child and you guys have heard me give my speech about why why language is important for young children to get exposure to language we never entered into this program to make our kids proficient professional Spanish speakers we did it because it was good for the kids and so you're talking about it like it's a fungible thing it's not just a fungible thing it's a good thing and I understand your point by the way on trading it off against other priorities I'm okay but don't discard it not people are gonna get angry at us it's a good program and we talked about this early on in the budget process we said if it's not working we need to fix it we don't need to get rid of it but I think and I think this is what how we fix again working for at I think it's working for what we expect it to be we don't expect it to be a language program we expect it to be an exposure program and as we know the young line develops I mean you don't just not talk to a baby because they're not gonna converse back no you talk to a baby because that is how their brain develops and it's good for their brain development to have that exposure to those multiple language sounds those have you know implications and and that's really an investment long long term that's if we value it you know and I it is very it's difficult to me because I I see the value in even an exposure program but you know I I do want to hear from our elementary principals in terms of how is science and social studies you know how is it happening now how would it happen ideally we can certainly turn it over to Melissa or Mary Rose did ever like this universe so from center school perspective we as Joyce said we there we're always kind of fighting for time for science and social studies so it becomes a lot it's easier at the elementary level to embed the concepts into literacy and look for those kind of interdisciplinary kinds of things so we're you know we're doing a nonfiction science units and we're talking about the science that's in the happy Sofia the standard you mean that that kind of thing so it's easier to embed it I think at the at the elementary level but it's definitely something we are looking for time to make sure that we're covering all the standards adequately and at huckleberry we four days a week um is allocated to Stan's or social studies which is about 35 minutes a day four days a week usually the teachers teach science or social studies in cycle so they may teach a science unit and then switch to a social studies unit you know for example in fourth grade they actually do a rotation where the kids go to the classroom different fourth grade teachers so I mean we're always looking for more time that you know time would be great but they are doing either science or social studies four days a week huckleberry I should say to the deaths at least been my experience in in other dishes I've worked as well I don't know if that's being experienced about but that that's kind of how it has been that there's science the alternate science especially sometimes it's by the day sometimes it's by the unit so there's definitely that's I don't think that's necessarily unusual at least in my experience working in elementary schools in Connecticut and my colleagues and that kind of thing talking with them but it's again it's something that we would love time for it to do a lot of different things and certainly especially bizarre them Oh guys I I had a thought as I was looking at us that may be a reasonable middle ground if I could give up you know just share that with everyone the I always approach questions like this with two things in my mind one is what do I have and are we going in one direction or another and I'm only I do value the fact that we have a program that we've developed over the years and we've gotten investments we'd like to make or need to make I should say to the benefit of our students so I don't just discard programs lightly unless there's truly a heavy priority I don't just I don't eliminate jobs in this environment unless we can avoid it to be frank so it really is valuable to think about our new investment those jobs we don't have yet it's a bird in the hand versus a bird in the bush type of thinking there's an option in here though knowing that we need more support in TESOL and we need more support and math to maybe take a half step on the on the Spanish language program leave it as it is at the elementary school for this year we don't have to make a massive shift from from Spanish to something else in elementary school right that's just that's a that's a curricular decision we should have our keep committee go look and is that a better trade often we can do that at the rate and pace that we'd like to do it and not as part of the budget and it's a zero budget savings you know the whatever we decide in elementary school I would suggest that's where you've got the very popular program it's where it has its most positive impact for kids as you get to the middle school we're talking about fifth and sixth graders when you go look at the statistics I sent around to everybody on the amount of hours we actually want to but top districts in all the comparison group on the amount of language we're providing the fifth and sixth graders and in particular I remember this discussion when mr.
so sorry interactive listen June 3rd I believe was also on the calendar but that was before we'd established our schedule because L cap and budget used to take two meetings you would do a public hearing and then do that that requirement is not in place ok so what we were hoping if you guys are okay that we would not use that first June 1 Lisa would present the budget with there's an L cap over the document we have to do it's a one meeting thing instead of holding two and then I'm not sure when the new out when the new budget finalizes we may have to do another two but at this point we don't need both this is a short run of it if I got against the freshmen is with this time would this date work this June date will will work for us for company because we're working off with the main realizes so it actually gives Lisa a week longer than she usually gets oh okay you have to have it ready the weekend before so it will help July month off this time around is there just too much going on at this point it's scheduled to be dark but I thank you for that was one of my things we may have scheduled especially coming to but don't know but we can cross that yeah get to it any suggested agenda items for that next meeting yeah okay and we don't have any reason to continue closed session do we have a motion to adjourn [Music] mrs.
Enda and dr. ruby brought us the discussion fifth grade in particular still has the double need for language arts and sixth grade and seventh grade it starts declining away and that's when you can start introducing more and more see more and more language that's why world languages traditionally started as seventh grade type of program so one thought would be half our investment in fifth and sixth grade there's two positions take it to one ask mr. Renda to go look at how the scheduling would work and how can we have some reasonable amount of world language for fifth and sixth graders but it's lower than we have today it would probably still be competitive against what other districts do and not disappear completely save half of that amount of money and invest it in some of the the needs we have up above and and maybe we put I wouldn't put it the high-school intervention program because quite frankly we just made a decision on redoing the block period so that we could have more direct teacher intervention at the high school and I would actually considered putting some into some TESOL support or the math tutors to be frank and the math tutors at the elementary level and so I think there's a room here for a half step as I guess my point mister you're looking at me really weird like oh no no I don't mind I just I want to be one person that s you know both the specials from I've been sick that could happen but I have to say if that was the case then it would cut we wouldn't be able to have the amount of push in that we currently have it at the end up being it'd be different the amount of time I know you'd end up what you'd end up doing is probably trading off the push in and letting the science and social studies start increasing with those with those teachers and that's where it's going to be most valuable in my opinion is as you start getting the kids are at the age we're getting the more advanced texts and the more original content stuff it's really you know that fifth and sixth grade is a transitional period if you're going to go invest in more hours and science and social studies I think that's where I'd do it first before I go start doing it at the kindergarten first grade second grade level that's just me because I mean I've had a wife who's been a science teacher and she said getting kids in the youngest grades it's not as valuable as it is those fifth graders she says are very impressionable and if you can get more of that stuff in there instead of language and still do some language right maybe in the special so the UNH block you know you got something that keeps the language going but you acknowledge that we we got some momentum early and we're bridging to the full program in seventh grade and I hear what you're saying I just want it again just clarify that we did talk about if that was the case that this students in specials again we could do those things but if they taught those if we didn't have the budget but we had the time you could have it for a semester in but not over and then not have it again the rest of the year or held at the end of the year so it wouldn't be consistent enough to continue to you know be not as much knowledge I guess is is the way um we talked phone and again I'm just giving you an idea of what I'm making but racing the fact that it's an exposure program not a skills program okay and I think that's that idea can be explored to Bob's client with the cave committee and certainly miss miss Holly is not with us tonight but that's just i'm not comfortable saying that yes we're going to go back and make that decision that has to be explored as a curriculum and instruction decision that we would have to make we seem to be willing to throw away the program altogether without going through that process so that's I'm kind of going down to middle Court middle ground here but I quite frankly I looked at your list of recommendations and I would embrace your recommendations as you presented them and keep that program and keep the bird in the hand and and not be investing in not progressing right I'd love to progress but we wouldn't be progressing in a really difficult budget year but but it's if as a second alternate is something that's a small step in order to get a little bit of progress doesn't bother me too much but I wouldn't eliminate a program that I think it's valuable very you know with a stroke of a pen about to summarize your thinking perhaps were able to eliminate one world language position specifically at the middle school to where you and Dean were just going back and forth and we could use those funds to fund a specific investment I'm going to say it very clearly if we put your proposal to a vote I would vote for it yes board is uncomfortable I offer that as an alternative to a thank you John I see the the note by the way I agree with Bob I just want to say that before we move on to another question I see the note at the bottom about Deb on which part do you agree just so we're clear I'm in favor of keeping K through six Spanish if we can't keep the whole program I think Bob offered a good alternative so what I wanted to move on to is the note at the bottom about if a kindergarten teacher and a first-grade teacher are removed from the budget the there's money that we don't have to spend on supplies furniture and textbooks so is it correct that that the numbers that you have in the pulla heads are not reflective of reducing the kindergarten teacher and the grade one teacher I believe they are I better let me take this one because I'm the one who pushed them to put that foot on there so Deb in the poll ahead we took that money out of next year's budget right we said we were gonna spend it this year right if we don't have those sections we don't have to spend it in either year right right so but the fact it's important for our budget considerations it's already out right because we said we were going to pull it forward so you don't have any further savings by by by not having those sections because you already took it out you thought you were gonna pull it ahead and so now what you're just not going to spend it in this year instead of next year that make sense but wouldn't that free up twenty three thousand dollars from this year maybe we guess it would actually let us under run our budget more this year right so is there something else that can be saved with because we can't the polar heads are on all these you know one-time non-recurring purchases so we can't you know take that and use it for a position or or something like that because you know it's all of our under one's just gonna revert back to the down well what like why couldn't we use it for like instructional supplies under Spanish or handwriting texts because it's just gonna create sort of a bubble the next yeah what what that does if we use this year's additional funds from the under run to purchase non one-time things in next year's budget just for the sake of reducing the budget which I appreciate where you're coming from what happens is it creates a false lower budget next year and then when we start this discussion again in December and have to put the real numbers back in of what we actually need to spend and then he proposed increases and those yeah it looks like a bigger increase you got it's a false increase in and you've been part of this board for a long time now you see even the budget to actual conversation we have due to freezes produces so much confusion frustration anxiety all that you know between the different count elected boards well we're trying to you know so that's why we're using the pull ahead strategy for just those one-time pieces we don't want to continue you know we're looking long-term you know the art of the long view and we don't want to confuse the budget going down the road okay yes the rationale behind it so the other thing I'm looking at I I know it's not a lot of money but I can't I don't quite understand the reduction of point one FTEs for the PE teacher because overall our enrollment is up over last year right or this over this year and we're adding one additional section at center school so do we still need a reduction point one we took that we took it out right if it's me taking them yeah so we if we were going to add three sections we need to point the one-tenth FTE of physical education if we only add the one section we're not going to need that so that's why you wouldn't need the the cost of the point one PE goes away so like that was an ad Debbie and we don't need it anymore okay that's what I thought was my question I didn't realize it was an ad before and now it's okay I got it yeah I'd like to respond to Bob's point if I could you know about the being value you know it being valued and that I mean if it's sold value why don't we call a world language program why on the call Spanish program seems like we've gone back and forth we don't know what to call this it's so valued we call it world language and Spanish program just seems hasn't been very organized for very long I mean I'm new the board here but also I want to make the point that you cut the Spanish program you add back in a math interventionalist three math tutors the cross-country coach and you still $50,000 left over I mean this is a I mean how do we how are we gonna say to the town that we care about equity when we can add to our math science social studies add to our cross country codes one for seventy kids one coach for seventy kids we have to add another coach there I mean it's only 2000 bucks but we can add a math interventionist three tutors and a coach and still fifty thousand dollars left over if we cut the world language program or Spanish program or whatever calling it I'm not saying don't value foreign language cuz I do but that's kinda I mean I I got to come to a responsibility here of we can add to the math to Joy's point 50% reduction I don't know where that stat came from I love to know if it's you know how true it is or you know we could back it up but that's that's that's significant I think we got to talk about that 50 now now we're talking about what do you want to add back in with fifty thousand instead of what we have to cut additionally a question to you and Loreen regarding the math interventionists how what kind of effect will that have on special ed maybe I think you know I think Gina is on and I think I'd like to ask Gina to answer that question I'm perfectly happy to do it but I think she can really give you on this perspective from what what the we know we know basically that as regular education students who have gaps and math we need to provide them with intervention under the state s RBI guidance documents however that being said there's a bigger impact from a legal standpoint in special ed when students are referred to special education and there's certain paperwork and as the director of special services Gina can you please speak to that yes you know we go to PPT and there is a student who has not been provided intervention within the specific area it is very hard to identify them the learning disability because we have to show that it was not a lack of instruction so the intervention piece you know is significant when we when we are identifying students we do have to make sure that it is in a lack of instruction and we can't do that if we don't have the intervention piece for the students and so current that's a current need that we have because what there are two forms in the state of Connecticut I'm sure other states have their own similar forms but we have what's called a reading worksheet and a math worksheet and those are documents that need to be filled out by the regular education department so classroom teachers and interventionists that are in regular edie when a child goes to a PPT and if they're having problems they've gotten you know poor assessments they're having problems in class week but we haven't provided interventionist in a in a structured way we can't feel the forum because it's the state forum specifically asks you provided the intervention how many times a week it was provided for what amount of time and what was provided and right now we're having challenges with that because while we can today they're getting help from their teachers we really don't have the human resources to provide what is detailed in the state s RBI guidance document that's correct that then becomes Gina's problem when she has children that are referred to special ed we're all set with that meeting we have that well under control but this is a district need in addition to providing services to students that they need in meaning the mandates in special education all right so does anybody have any specific questions I mean I feel like we're gonna we're gonna just beat around the bush and we have to we have to just get to a point where where we make these actual decisions I mean Rosa do you want to ask is is if who's in favor of voting for John's recommendation just to get you can actually just we can actually just vote on it and then you get a sense of the group yeah I mean can I can I just say well we're kind of just add more thing so I inquired about cost savings for appliances that are used in the classroom so that could be nine thousand dollars that we can use to save positions that directly impact students I don't know how that works though with the budget as far as finances because that would be a cost savings in the future Joey would you like me to just respond to that because I was I really appreciated that question sure and especially with you being the chair of the facility committee I think it's really a great question so I think overall that is something that that's an estimate that that I provided to you guys from mr.
Caldwell from the work he did back in the summer big picture just reminding the board that a couple of years ago we looked at in energy savings program that we were looking to initiate it just it didn't work out didn't get off the ground something I think I'd recommend that as the facility committee and you know working with joy that we can work with Dan and Ken and pursue that again one of the things while it may look simple and I'm not suggesting you're saying this Jones and just saying in general when you say oh well if we you know we unplug all the a number of appliances we might save $9,000 typically on that particular estimate of these refrigerators and one of the things that we would have to look at it very strategically you can't just say everybody eliminate because there's a lot of exceptions there maybe and I can't speak to all of us but there's specimens and some we also have lactation considerations in some of these refrigerators so we don't want to just go broad rush and say we're going to take all those out and that's going to save us $9,000 put it somewhere else we have to be very specific it doesn't mean we can't find those savings and put it towards something else but I just wanted to provide that perspective I think ultimately in a more organized energy savings plan that would be a place we absolutely will save right away on but it is something we can continue to look at there's no doubt about it and John if we let's say for argument's sake we approved we want with your recommendations and then is there a possibility that we discover that we're have a little more saving somewhere for whatever reason could the board when that's discovered say with that savings we're going to do X if it's operational savings it's very very straightforward if you're looking I'm not sure if you're thinking about personnel savings at all gen that becomes a whole different complex situation but are you thinking more efficiency savings that we could find and then we could apply them because we definitely could I mean yeah I was thinking more efficiency say yeah absolutely those are things like we found today the savings insurance I mean immediately my thought was with that $5,800 the the first two things I thought of because it's not a large amount of money but we could put that and it was in my mind was Joy's question earlier this week about about the appliances in energy savings we put that toward the the cross-country coach at the middle school and we could put that toward adding back the extended duty that I have in my proposal here I think it's a reduction of fifty three hundred so we could you know we could we could get some of that back most of that back all of it back so it you know those are absolutely areas that as we find them we could apply in other areas keeping in mind again the yin and yang of everything is as the natural progression of the year goes on and we expend our budget estimate we also have cost overruns in areas and those efficiencies many times backfill cost overruns so and we've already taken a huge risk just sort of get to this risk in special education but we know the Board of Finance has put that two hundred ninety four thousand dollars aside for us so we go to them with those needs as I understand how it's going to work mechanically my worry is the salary line savings risk right now we only have that we only know about miss Llewellyn's retirement we don't know of other retirements and if I remember correctly my recollection of 2008 when this one went down and a lot of us remember that when the economy went south a number of teachers who were ready to retire administrators as well looked at their other supplemental retirement accounts and realized I might need to work a couple more years and they didn't retire that's something that could very well happen by this time we usually have a sense if we don't have all of it in writing we have a sense of you know maybe two more teachers or two more you know folks that might be thinking about retirement I have not heard that and our principals are paying close attention to that and we just haven't heard it and that's typically where you get you know you typically get some savings oh that's a big risk so guys weak but we could vote on a budget and have it be subject to the Board of Finance approving their budget right so that we actually have a vote in place and if Wednesday you know when the Board of Finance votes and they say it's the same number it just automatically you know it takes effect so we could go through our voting process tonight I actually think the Board of Finance would find that useful to tell you the truth the or we could take direction vote I think Jen that's where you were heading to which is is this what we would be willing to support if you know when we get there so and and I just offer those both those alternatives and but I do think it's probably useful for us to we're not there's certain things we're not going to agree on so let's go figure out where the mood of the board is only majority one foot or the other and let's start exercising ourselves well well I'll go ahead and make the motion I move to approve the reductions a 2021 2020 2021 budget as recommended by the superintendent okay Bob that's you I got one so does anybody have any further discussions on this and feel free if this is not where you like feel free to vote nay so I'm actually gonna blow this up cuz I don't see everybody on my screen I wanna make sure this the savings John that you were mentioning with the insurance are we able to put some things by a vote to put things back in right now you're on mute you're on mute John we could put it right in you know it's right here in the minutes it's on record that we could amend the emotion to accept the superintendent's recommendation as as discussed with the ad in the ad back of the whiskey near cross-country coach and apportionment of the extended duty you know based on the savings and insurance I'm being complicated with my language I'm sorry joy but it's fifty eight hundred dollars so I mean we can easily get the cross-country coach back take the balance and put that back into extended duty it wouldn't recover the full 5,300 an extended duty but it would get us almost halfway there and then what about Bob's suggestion about middle school Spanish are we gonna go through the exercise of looking at what that would save does anybody feel like that's worth doing I paraphrase Bob's proposal it was an elimination of one position and I want Dean to be part of this he believes that schedule can work you know hey I want to run this when I went into the next cave meeting not till next month when not until next month yeah and I told June the third Tuesday in June what does that date the 16th June 16th yeah I think it's tricky because I think what you brought up before bob is these are real curricular decisions yeah and by just I mean I understand when you're coming from it was a good compromise suggestion but like if we go back to the world language thing for a minute I feel like we need to have an evaluation of the program what's working what's not in order to improve it we're going to do X or we can't improvement it so we should get rid of it and we're gonna do this fabulous steam program or stem program to replace it like I feel like that needs to be a curricular decision yeah and I get though that it is can be a budgetary decision because it's a lot of money and we're in a tough spot so I definitely understand that perspective but I would prefer to be a curricular decision that's my viewpoint I'll just interject and then I'll let the board talk I apologize but that is something just so you know that is something we had miss Holly and we did do that as an overview I don't remember what it was a maybe a year and a half ago but we've gone through that or me certainly can do that again perhaps with a cave discussion first and then maybe or if we don't have the time we can just you know make that work and have a conversation presentation yeah guys I'll by the way I I have some history on this whole discussion on world language and I'll just share it with you all a number of years ago our world language was kind of falling apart and and the all we had was a high school program the Spanish was pretty strong at the high school but French enrollment was falling down to nothing and there was no leadership to speak of and so early on and my role on the board and John actually brought us a recommendation which is the first thing you needed to do was get a leader who was going to own you know by the way the prior board put in this k12 program then but John said we need a leader who's going to look after world language from K through 12 and and they will be our guiding principle on how to do it the first priority that came out of that discussion wasn't let's eliminate anything it was let's add the world language tools that we put in in terms of the automation and the tools and you know the at both the high school and at the middle school right and we've done those those have been that was a big investment on our part and I think it's time for chemin to take the next step up of what what should the next turn of our crank be on the world language program I think it would be a really good discussion for us to have because we were going from a position of weakness on world language to a position where we actually had a speaker come in who said here in Glastonbury we got you know four languages at the high school and we got two languages that go all the way back down to kindergarten so what do you guys come on get on with it and and we were like oh well are we doing something wrong well we weren't doing something wrong but we may not be as thorough and as strong as we could be and I think that's a curricular discussion and I think that's why we have a world language leader to help us lead through that and that's why that's the number one investment we make was to put a leader in place so that's just my two cents worth I I think we can have a vibrant old language program and it will start in kindergarten and some flavor and it'll get stronger and stronger as you get to the high school maybe lots of options at the high school I could see that it's just how long does it take you to get there and a what rate and pace so I would make a motion to amend the motion on the floor if we could to take the savings from the insurance that Ken's told us and revert the cross-country coach to keep it in the budget to revert the extended duty reduction and leave it in the budget and put the remainder against professional development just as a placeholder would everybody be okay with that as an approach yeah yeah so that gets I'd is that good John there's that kind of a reasonable thing from what you were saying yeah what it would do at fifty eight hundred dollars total in the savings so equal seventy eight hundred and we're using 7800 yeah it just may be pennies up and down for the one over that lap yes you know it's fifty eight hundred so what is it for the coach twenty I'm kind of find it good I don't know just make it simpler we'll put in the coach and we'll put back to extend to duty I just yeah it will reduce the the reduction of extended because we won't be able to make it whole on that fifty that's 7815 right that's that's about the savings the total amount of savings is five thousand eight hundred and thirty nine dollars yeah oh I thought it was seventy eight hundred no 5,800 so fill I mean it redo my motion let me just read it we put back the cross-country coach and the remainder of the savings goes against extended duty why and that'll be three thousand three hundred $24 three thousand three hundred and twenty-four dollars we're putting back unexpended doing do I have to repeat that to make it I'm gonna say it very simply I won't I propose to amend the motion on the floor to revert two thousand five hundred and fifteen dollars and keep the cross-country coach in the budget and revert ken what was the number of three thousand 3324 3324 put back into extended duty I second the amendment okay so yes so if we're voting we're voting on the amended motion amended all those in favor I just make sure an all post our wheat wait can I just ask are we voting on those proposed John's reductions or on Bob's motion no it's on it's on says proposed as amended for this little $5,800 item so so just to clarify I have joy and Mike opposed Debbie were you you're an i I'm an i okay and everybody else's and I am using it was because I feel like there were some scenarios laid out there and I kind of want lay up my own is we remove world language program we add in a math interventionist we add in math tutor cross-country coach is already done sorry three math tutors and we have around fifty thousand dollars to spend that was that was what I'm that would be another option and I know we're not voting on it but I feel like everyone was talking about options so what that's why I'm voting now okay I that's why I'm voting no as well okay so the motion carries five to two joy and Mike if you if you want to I don't know draw up a you know this is pending or to find the official vote on the Board of Finance you know we can we can put another vote before the board if you'd like if you know if you feel strongly about that I mean as it stands now this is this is the vote is official so I mean if you are growing you know of you know we'll put something more on paper we'll make I'll take this and I'll make it what I was saying and then I think a Cayman sorry chemin coming in and talking to us would also be helpful before we vote on this again I think that'd be helpful for everyone that vote we're not gonna vote on it again by the caller well I think I think chemin should also talk to us I know she's presented before John could we have chemin give us a update at the next meeting sure I am also here now if you would like to know how are you been talking about you sorry I was on my doctoral meeting I apologize so I don't know if you want to start over yeah I mean where to go with this now well we have the boat so I you know that and it's great that Kevin's here yeah I mean if you're I know I sort of like just came is you sort of put you on the spot but if and I don't know just to sort of catch you up to speed but we have just voted on the recommendations that you can see on the screen which maintains or keeps intact the elementary Spanish program and at the middle school as well so I think and Joe and Mike you can absolutely step in here and make sure to clarify you know your position but they wanted to see you know I guess the how we might better work this program from a curricular standpoint so that we maybe it's better if Mike enjoy sort of clarify their position on what exactly you need from chemin you guys so I came and I know you already kind of gave this overview once before maybe if you can reiterate again I mention that where our students were when they were tested come seventh grade or at the end of sixth grade as far as proficiency and maybe review quickly what they're exposed to you know through each of the grades or each level so as I presented before where we didn't have any proficiency data before I came in and before I evaluated the program now we do and in grades 7 & 8 we found that students had grown from the novice low level of no level to novice mid novice High through the exposure of the elementary program now in order to as Bob was saying before because I was also watching on YouTube video is kind of doing double-duty grow the program even more what we've been trying to do but unfortunately due to budgetary freezes we haven't been able to is use the extended duty funds to revitalize our curriculum to also include interdisciplinary opportunities so the vision of our program is that students are essentially seeing what they're seeing in other disciplines also in Spanish in a second language context and unfortunately our work there keeps getting halted due to the budgetary freezes you know which is why we are where we are but you know I'm sure that you discussed last time too our students were outperforming those students in the magnet program as well so just based on the programming we currently have now of course in order to turn our elementary program into a girl based program we would have to increase our minutes to have at least 90 minutes a week currently we're averaging 45 minutes a week and that's why it's an exploratory program Kevin yeah can you please explain I'm sorry to interrupt you but it's very important because it's driven by the budget how do you get more time for Spanish and the things you thought about or is it more staff you know that's really the battle we also fight so can you talk a little bit about time right because right now we're up to the limit with our time because if not we start taking from other content areas which is why we currently have an exploratory program if we wanted to add more minutes we would also a need to add more staff as well in order to build a skill based program so as we are right now we're we're kind of you know at our at the parameters we've expanded the program as much as we can with due to the budgetary confines and it's correct that in grades v or spit and six they're getting a push in of twenty minutes but it's exposure to the Spanish culture right it's not necessarily a language so it's a push in the language is a push in 23 minutes every other day plus there is a rotational UNH block which is purely culture and that's 60 minutes for 18 class sessions and do we have any type of assessments that go along with these classes or experiences yeah most formal assessments that the students take and what are those yep we have our portfolio based assessment which is based on our standards of the American Council of teaching of foreign languages the actual standards and we also have the Apple assessment and I put in the budget for the assessment which is possible to test students all the way down to grade one so we do have standardized assessments in order to further evaluate proficiency so could you share those results at each grade level K through six so Kate because I've never seen results of any kind of testing for that yes okay and and this is also done through the student learning objectives and the the group set the because due to the budgetary confinements as well the teachers are only able to test their seat groups so we essentially test groups I'm sorry and their seed groups which is a sample size of their all of their classes so what we're doing what we're seeing is within the novice level we are seeing a growth in the acquisition of the what we call the can-do skills what you can do in Spanish so for example in kindergarten they learn how to you know say their name say their phone number talk about their family then in first grade they build upon those skills to start saying hello and introducing each other to themselves and we get a little more interpersonal and we grow that way I'm sorry this is a very general overview but it's all done within the novice level which is the novice level is novice low novice mid and novice high they don't get to the novice mid and novice high levels until seventh and eighth grade when we increase the minutes to everyday novice low level from K through six however within the novice low level there is an increase in the acquisition of the skills that we would consider to be novice low so they go from having absolutely nothing in kindergarten to being a full novice low student at the end of sixth grade but they're still remaining novice low thorough yeah if you could present to us or cave or you know the data test or the seed group does that change every year yeah the seed groups do change every year that's per grade level there's a seed group of how many students per grade level so it's 50% of the teacher population the student population that the teacher has okay and the elementary level we have about for example 300 students so they take they test about 150 students however the teachers are so devoted that the form of the common assessments that we make the common formative assessments that we make for our seed groups they also apply it to their non seed groups as well so they're what they in fact were I review for them during their formal evaluations is that seed group data that they keep at Excel spreadsheets and what we do is we choose the skills that we want to target and we're seeing for the past three years that I've been there we we see that at least 90% of the students in that seed group are meeting all the targeted skills that the teachers select for that grade level in collaboration with me and is there a curriculum map for the spanish or world language whatever we're calling it so we we are building that map in our atlas curriculum mapping system that's what we've been doing we've completed our year-long context and now we're building our intended curriculum for all our grade levels we are more advanced and more in some areas and others we we have been struggling to advance at the elementary level due to the budget freeze in terms of the curriculum and so in what way we haven't been able to write it because we don't have the extended duty funds and we don't have the prep time minutes during the school day you know that that would be required to do it and it's very challenging also if we don't have the extended duty time for teachers to write that curriculum outside of that extended time right yeah I can't imagine how they would have time to do that and when they're assessing these students isn't during their side push in time or because I can't imagine that getting pulled out to test yep and essentially we've worked to do that so the first couple of weeks they take for example the dipstick assessment where they have students and different stations and you know in one station will evaluate their interpersonal speaking skills whatever those targeted skills are and another station will evaluate their interpretive skills listening and reading skills in Spanish in another station will evaluate their presentational speaking and writing skills and in another station we evaluate their intercultural speaking skills which are both you know how do I behave appropriately to a Spanish speaker or to appear and you know just at a linguistic level the comparisons that they make in English and in Spanish for example this year what we did with our k4 teachers is we tried to compliment the open court program and you know whatever the students came in the same letter sounds that they were learning in the open court program they were learning in Spanish in their in their classes as well so the students could make a comparison and you know I must say if we're talking about equity whenever I walk in and I invite all of you to you know when we can to walk in especially when you see the ell students in our classes where they hear another language they they this smile that they have in their face and then they start talking about their own language like Oh in Albanian we say it this way it's cool that in Spanish they say it this way or in Mandarin all we say this we have this sound we have that sound too in Spanish so you know that that's something that you know it's really good to see when you walk in there as well just you know with our else they start feeling like you know they're an equal playing field they go from context where it might be challenging to them where in Spanish class they start possibly learning about their own culture you know I I know that in the middle school our teachers there have done a great job of connecting with families to bring food in to talk to the classes and actually two of our teachers at the middle school were planning a family night for whiskey near which mr.
endo was nice enough to help us facilitate but unfortunately because of this context we had to cancel it so you know I think this is this is a really worthwhile conversation and I think it is probably best suited for for a committee discussion and potentially the full board as well but for a future meeting we have we have voted so the the vote does pass in terms of the the reductions that were presented so I think it's time that we that we move forward with our agenda tonight so but thank you coming for providing all that information and you know I really I can't wait to hear more about it in the future and thanks for popping in - thank you so our last item here on our agenda other than our three main points is the new school building project I sat in on the NBC meeting the other night not to too much of a major update other than you know what I can give you guys on the budget as I mentioned before is it's just a budget is a little bit over not dramatically so they're working with the estimators to reconcile and make sure that you know everything is does everything that they designed is is priced accurately we still have ten classrooms per grade so right now they're not looking to trim that area you know that those component of the building just yet if it does come to that because you know once they go through this whole process if it gets to the point where you know that the scope has of this project really has kind of creeped up a little bit and this was you know post referendum for it it may need to go back to sort of a town level discussion everybody's just really hoping that it doesn't get to that point the next big milestone that we have to pay attention to and this is something that you guys should mark your calendars for is that the NBC has invited us to their meeting on June 16th which is where Tecton will present sort of the finality of the design development phase they'll show us the all of the most updated markups mock-ups of the of the building exterior interior layout and that will sort of we have a meeting our own regular Board of Ed meeting on the 17th so ideally what we would do is kind of like how we transitioned into design development we will go to the embassy meeting hear the full presentation ask questions and then we will vote officially the very next night and that will transition in a project into the construction phase so I think that would be something well it's something that you should definitely mark your calendars before we got to try to get to that and get you know all of our questions answered and I think Eddie sent you John the the presentation so maybe we can maybe that's something that you can forward to the boards just that we can I don't know take a look at it prior to the meeting in case there's any questions we can formulate ahead of time here and any will have you know there's a lot of work that's gonna happen between now and June 16th so he'll have an updated final design development PowerPoint a couple of points I'd like to add on because I was at last night's MVC meeting as well it's really fascinating to listen to the architects talk about what's what what in the business is called scope Creek where you know you all the user groups we've had so many people be a part of it really getting all the program ideas can't forget that we had a major adjustment in the a projection by almost 150 students once we were underway well after the referendum so adding those classrooms I mean you're talking about probably 12 classrooms we dad it into the scope of this project I'm still remaining almost within budget right now and again I want to be very careful because though this is a public meeting and people watch the project is not over budget this is part of the natural process of design development and working to get everything you can into the program the instructional program and everything you need in that building everything you want in that building right to the allotted budget so there really isn't a desire from by anybody to have to go and have a town conversation as Rose was talking about that would be a last resort kind of a situation what we're looking at is again going back to that fascinating part for example and I don't even understand what this actually means but I know the level of the building is that a number called 403 Eddie talked about bringing that down to I think a 402 right Rosa I think that was what he said and so that takes you know 150,000 square feet at one foot of soil away from the project significant savings they're looking at the driveway looking at the materials inside the building looking at many experience bases always in moving things four inches six inches and when you add that up over that's that kind of square footage you find space and so that's the real fine-tuning they're doing to do everything they can to make sure we come in on budget that's part of the process right now I do have last night's PowerPoint I certainly can forward that to the board be happy to do that take a look to see where things are at this point but the key to remember is that presentation from last night is not the final design project there is still a month to go on did that cover it rosette I thought yeah they do to make you know as part of that whole give-and-take you know we've never been going in puts and takes you know to get to the number you need to get this off yeah okay so any other questions on the new school project all right so let's move on to three main points the budget budget budget budget yeah I guess we really didn't talk about anything else I think the new school update yeah we can definitely you know have people tune into the the MBC meeting maybe that was a good update for people but also John's update about the committee that's gonna be forming to talk about school reopening yeah yeah yeah I like those great up thank you okay all right no upcoming events we do have some upcoming events oh I'm quite a list chair yeah so at center elementary school the spring Book Fair is ongoing until May 31st order online and shipped to home tomorrow Thursday May 21st is another edition of sweet dreams with mrs.
diamond a zoom storytime that starts at 7:00 p.m. there's the alphabet countdown to the end of the year that's ongoing students can share pictures and videos on flipgrid the links for all these are on students Google classroom and miss diamonds daily announcements and weekly updates and also at center there's a PTO meeting via zoom next Tuesday at 7 p.m. and dr. Glazer the school psychologist will be joining in as a resource helping parents cope with challenges they might be experiencing at home for huckleberry their spirit day going on every day this week they also have an ABC countdown to the last day of school students should keep posting their videos also on clip thread links can be found in the Google classroom streams incoming second grade orientation details will be forthcoming by this Friday and Wednesday June 10th is the date for the virtual science fair and Thursday June 11th is the virtual Art Fair at whiskey near we have Friday June 12th to eighth-grade virtual dinner dance and when stay June 17th will be the moving table ceremony details will also be forthcoming on that and also mr.
Renda is asking students to send in pictures or short video of something they're doing outside of school so let's get those submissions in WMS and at the high school upcoming virtual events are the undergraduate towards June 4th at 7 p.m. senior scholarship night June 8th at 7 p.m. senior athletic awards night June 9 at 7 p.m. and at this point those will all be live stream to YouTube and just for scheduling for Friday we're following an early release module and schools are closed on Monday and observance of Memorial Day that's all right so that actually concludes our public portion of today on tonight's meeting board members will have to meet me in a virtual executive session but thank you everyone for hanging in tonight and we will see you and talk to you again soon thanks Rosa thank you hi everyone thank you have to make a motion to enter executive oh yeah I'll make a motion that the board enter into executive session thank you joy for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's evaluation unaffiliated salaries and contracts and security procedures second all right joy thank you I'm all in favor all right all right thank you everyone
first 2020 regular board meeting please stand for the pledge of allegiance in a moment of silence hello i pledge allegiance to the united states of america america and to the republic one nation indivisible with liberty liberty justice board members mr ivy avigdrabo here miss basford here beltran here mr canova here mr daley i know he he's waving mr casper here mr pacinti mr smith here miss danny here we have a quorum mr casper can you read the mission statement sure the mission of the clifton school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world thank you mr casper the next order of business is reading of the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place there are posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 0168.
I call to order the regular meeting a Bullhead City Elementary School Board on Thursday May 21st 2020 at 5:30 p.m. secretary please call the roll Corey Burgess here brandy Dubois present from July Janie Berlin y'all join me for the Pledge of Allegiance can we get a motion to adopt the agenda dad can do it without a second brandy I second Cory Burgess all right let's hi brandy Dubois hi Adam 1.7 superintendent reports dr.
I have a call to order mr. zesty we do a roll call please mr krepo your miss helen here did you hear me no no I do miss ham here miss Harrigan here mr. Martelli yeah mr. Perry Jeannie here mr. white here mr.