001And we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can you hear us? All right. And you're all set. Yes, I can hear you. >> Okay. >> All right. Do we have any added agenda items this evening? I don't believe so. >> No added agenda items. Um um but the board may want to consider moving the student rep uh report towards the end of the agenda. Our student rep is added track meet and he's um going to be a little bit late. Um um so I know it's usually one of the first things on the agenda. >> Do you want to break between public participation? You
002can do that and your motions. >> Sure. Well, I'll make a motion to move the student representative report to between liazison committee reports and public participation. So it would become 10. >> I'll second. >> All right. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay, motion passes. >> Who was the second? >> Kateather. >> Heather was a second. Sorry, Fran made the motion. Heather seconded. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have the minutes from September 24th. I would entertain a motion. Make the motion to accept the minutes from the 24th. September the 24th. Second. >> All right. There's a motion made by Betsy and seconded by Denise. Any um further discussion or corrections or items to mention in the minutes? All right. No further discussion. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >>
003I'll just abstain just because I wasn't here. >> Okay. Heather's going to abstain. And Courtney, are you all set with the minutes? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> All right. Next on the agenda, we have public participation. >> We have a public >> I was going to say, do we have anyone from the public who would like to speak? >> Mr. Public, welcome. >> Are you just joining us to listen or listen to that? >> Okay. >> All right. And then we move the student rep. So, next we have the Broadbrook Elementary School report on the chat. Just give me a moment there. >> All right. Well, right by us. He was ready to go. >> Down on the agenda a little bit. Have to wait until we're orange and then we'll
004let you know. >> You're good to go. >> Not my best. >> Oh, he's said he just raised him. on track, huh? >> All right. So, um, we're here tonight. We wanted to, uh, introduce to you two new programs that we've started at Broadbrook School to help cultivate a positive culture and attendance. Um, so being possum and biscuits, best attendance club. So, we'll be speaking about those this evening. So, um, as a reflection of the portrait of the graduate, um, we're looking at ethical and responsible citizens. Um, obviously, if you are here, you're a reliable citizen and you're able to, um, be doing your learning and recognize, making sure that we're recognizing them for doing the right thing. U, we want them to be great communicators and act in the ways of kindness and making
005sure that they are part of their class and part of the teamwork. Um they want to have a growth mindset where they are resilient in their behavior and also showing up daily. Uh lifelong learners self monitoring and self-regulating themselves and also critical thinkers uh positive solutions and solving attendance challenges um for themselves. >> So these also align with the district goals um with goal one which focuses on instruction as well as goal two which focuses on equity. So with the cap being possum um students are behaving then it will maximize instructional time reduce disruptions and if they're coming to school then again it will increase their learning time and help to build that routine and sense of belonging within the school. Um goals two equity um copy and possum you're reinforcing respect and belonging recognizing
006all students uh and both of these programs um we're working to engage staff and families as well with the attendance club um of course we're looking to reduce those gaps in attendance and if students are coming to school then they're certainly going to feel a part of the school community as Matt was saying in the previous slide. So why are we focusing on behavior and attendance? Um, as we know, strong attendance and positive behavior support access to curriculum and relationships. Um, attendance is one of our goals that we have uh as a school to have less than 10% chronic absenteeism. Um, and then also we want to be able to recognize our students positive behaviors um in order to build their confidence and their sense of community within the school. So um the positive behavior
007recognition program caught being possome uh this actually came as an organic thing through our staff. We had a staff member uh last year about middle of last year who said I have an idea presented to the entire faculty. Um the entire faculty took to it. Uh so last year it kind of started in smatterings. Um some grade levels latched on to it more than others and as we started the year this year uh we said we're going to do this whole school. So um staff are working to actively catch students and it can be any student at all who are uh meeting our behavioral expectations demonstrating positive choices. The students receive a paper paw print. You can see this young man holding up his paw print as recognition. They write their name on it. They
008put it in their bucket in their classroom and then every Friday during lunch uh names are pulled out and those students receive um a small little token or a sticker. Those names are then held for each month. Um students are then celebrated with a photo opportunity with biscuit which is a big deal. Uh and those photos are hanging um outside in our showcase outside the cafeteria for all uh around the school to help students um think to themselves about how they can earn a paw. For those students who are youngest who can't read all of these words yet is that idea of how can I earn a paw can help to signal to them what they need to do. But for those students who are a little older who can read these words, um it
009does define specifically what they need to do uh during the course of the day in order to earn a paw. So it could be being safe, walking calmly in the hallway, being a good friend, sharing supplies, somehow going above and beyond by doing something extra for somebody, being responsible or being respectful. So >> Biscuit's best attendance club. Um what we've been looking to do is to try to get our overall attendance every day 95% here for our students themselves and then we also want to get our chronic absenteeism to 10% or less. Uh so one of the ways we try to do that is to find okay how can we excite students about coming to school? Um what is the one way we can just say okay what can we do to make sure they
010want to be here. Um so what we did was we started this incentive program. um it recognizes and rewards students not only in their class but as a whole class but also as a whole school. Um so particularly today we actually did our individual one. Students were able to come and we played bingo during their specials time today. On Wednesday is their um time that they have a secondary opportunity to do a special. So we use that today as our opportunity to play bingo. We told them why they were there. We explained to them, you this is for having great attendance. We played the bingo. Um did a little number sense with that with some of our younger ones. We started figuring out, okay, wait 72, 72. We really had some fun with that. But
011what we also did in thinking about that is one way we were talking students is first rule of the the activity was we're all here to have fun and it's not everyone's going to win and that's okay. Um but what we wanted really to say is we're happy that you're here every day. This gives you an opportunity to do something a little fun. If they did win the bingo game, they picked something small out of the prize box and they brought it back. But really, it's a way for them to know that we care, that we want them here. So, we're really trying to build routines and build that understanding that we want you here, and if we're here, there's that reward. At this age, sometimes it's that thing, but we know that not only
012is it that thing, but being in class is going to help them to increase their um instruction and what they can learn. >> There are 272 students at bingo. >> So, same no at the same time. So, what we >> No. So what we did was we um each grade level had their >> specials time. So um it would be so grade two would come down, >> they would sit, they would do their game, then we went back and then their next the next grade level went in. So it was K through four. Okay, we got it today. >> Um this really helps to elevate our school climate to really bring everyone in, increase the number of recognitions per week, not only for the possum but for the attendance. Uh we want students to know
013that we care about them. We want them here. It goes along with all we've been talking about in our seal that we're building this community and we just want everyone to know that they are recognized and cared about here at Broadbrook. So any questions? >> Will you guys be presenting a followup to this with the absenteeism and uh >> Sure. Absolutely. So, what we also do is each month we've been sending out a letter to families to kind of let them know where their students are. If you actually also walk by the um our main entrance, we have a looks like Biscuit playing basketball. Um and each grade knows per week how they're doing in their percentages. And actually, one of the other things that one of the students asked me to do, which was
014one of the fourth graders until he realized their grade wasn't the highest, was to rank them so they know where they are in the ranking of the top six. Um, so he realized that all of a sudden he was in sixth place. I went, um, I got to start talking to my friends. So, but it it it lets them know kind of I mean there's always that competition. And I think kids want to have that competition, but we want it as a whole school to be above that 95% and then that chronic absenteeism to be below 10%. So yes, we can bring that back. >> Y what is the rate that we currently are at here? >> We ended the year at 12. Um our So it's a little bit different right this moment. Um
015if you have two or more absences right now, you're chronically absent for the year, >> right? So it's go. So right now if I'm correct we were at 16.1%. >> But that doesn't take much for two days to be absent. Um really it's like I said it's a hard one. Our overall attendance we were at 49 40 94.9%. So we were almost at that 95. Um >> 49 I thought no no sorry >> 94.9%. I sorry about that. 94.9%. um really close to that 95. Uh and then really what we're trying to do is also target those grade levels that are having the most difficulty. Um we do notice kindergarten can be tough, first time in school. Sometimes they're getting through those initial illnesses. Same thing with prek. Um one of the big surprises this
016year was really our fourth grade and number of students that we heard were going to the big E and that affected the number. So, but now that that's over, we're kind of hoping that that's going to come back into into a a regular number. >> And then this also fit with our MTSS process because grade two um started off the year struggling to meet the number 5% mark. And so through our MTSS process, we met with them to create a tier one action plan to help um ensure that students were coming in and that targeted them specifically. >> And that number has increased since >> has increased. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Is this taking the place of what you were doing last year with the grade? Every month's one of the grades got a
017special whatever because they had this. >> Yeah. So that's going away this thing. >> What we rec what was recognized is well one this aligns the same with the middle and the high school. The middle and high school are doing something extremely similar to this. It may not be biscuits club but they're doing something very similar. Um but so that we we made sure we had that alignment amongst the from K to 12. The other part that we really recognized is that it kind of left out all the other grade levels for those students who were participating and have been here. So it really recognized more students than less. Uh we still have a whole school incentive. So if we are at the 95% by the end of the month, then we're going to do
018a dress down day or some kind of activity so that we have that. So, we're still looking for the whole, but we're trying to make make sure that we're recognized more >> because I know last year, I mean, it was it was very popular for Evelyn because the second grade won like seven months, you know, they they were like, >> yes, >> and I didn't think last year. I'm like, well, you know, that's great for them, >> right? >> But the rest of the kids are kind of not getting the pajama day involved. >> It's like today all these kids who came to school, they were playing dolphin. Yeah. they got recognized. >> So what about the discipline referral rates? What did that look like for last year? >> Um so it was higher last
019year than it is so far this year. >> Okay. >> Um so we are tracking that on a a weekly and monthly basis um through our MTSS process. >> Um we have um some individuals uh who struggled last year or continuing to struggle this year that were putting plans we had plans in place for them at the end of last year that we're continuing those plans and in some cases changing them. Um but that's being looked at very closely through the MTSS process and in fact we just met on that today. So yeah >> well I think it's I think it's really interesting that the staff was the one who came up with the idea and to have the whole school invested and the staff all invested it whole school idea is commendable. It was
020great that they that staff member felt comfortable enough to bring it up to the you know the entire crew and yeah and everybody else latched on to it. Okay. >> All right. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda we have the curriculum report. >> So um good evening. So curriculum update um this evening um we'll go through uh some of the achievement from our ASPback um performance uh this past spring. U go ahead. Next slide. So a couple of things I'm going to I'll update you where we are right now and then I'm going to kind of ask you to take a look in your packet um because there's a couple of slides I want to um remind you of that um were in place several years ago and
021it gives you kind of a full picture of where we were and where we are now. Um so uh much in this kind of couples alone what Laura said. So what we're currently doing reviewing data um our last curriculum council we talked about our MTSS process. So continuously looking at our data identifying deficiencies and then making adjustments as we see the need. um continuing to focus on improving our achievement and then aligning obviously our instructional practices to helping students succeed wherever they might need um additional supports. So, the problem um and this is something we talked about at our last curriculum meeting. Um after reviewing all of our data, um our problem is East Windsor students are not demonstrating consistent or equitable growth across subgroups and meeting grade level expectations, particularly in math and ELA,
022as evidenced by persistent Oh, go back. As evidenced by uh persistent proficiency gaps on state and national assessments. So before I kind of delve into this, um, in your packet on pages 14, um, it mentions the previous problem of practice. And that previous problem of practice at the time was our students across all tier one instruction were not hitting standards, grade level standards, um, in ELA and math. And our goal at the time was to be in the top third of all alliance districts by the spring of 2025. So the charts that you see following that past problem of practice signifies the growth the growth we made. So you have 2018 um and 19 school year and then um this past spring which is 2024 and 2025. So you very >> say that again. I
023was blown away by the increase. >> It's Yeah, it's um I'll tell you it's something I know um Patrick, myself, the administrative team very proud of. Um and it's Yeah, it's a clear it's a clear picture, but I go back and some of the conversations we've had at curriculum council and here the MTSS process that was the problem and we've, you know, we've done a great deal of work. We still have a tremendous amount of work to do. And one of the things that we think will uh help us get to where we need to be is by focusing on these subgroups because when we say all of our students, we do mean all of them. Um so it's something that we are going to obviously um have these conversations. um talked a great deal
024at our curriculum council last week about the um the subgroups, how MTSS is broken down, how we go through that data process and it's going to um help us kind of get to the root of this problem. Um so um couple of the solutions. So it involves building teacher and leader capacity. Um we talked about MTSS, we've talked about professional development, how to do um MTSS. It's a real system and we'll be talking about that at an upcoming MTS or curriculum council meeting. Um continuing to strengthen tier one. So we talk about tier one as the base for our students. Uh but then obviously um over the last year or so we've talked about tier 2 and tier three. What are the additional supports students need on top of what they're getting every day in
025the classroom? Um and that's really um that conversation and then monitoring obviously that subgroup performance. think I think like those graphs I think are amazing graphs to get out like what are we doing with those or how can we get those out to the community to the parents like >> what is I don't know if you guys have thought of something like that but I just was looking at those graphs and I'm like wow that's really amazing to see the progress and obviously we're still recognizing that it's not where we want it to be but I mean you can't deny that that's amazing progress >> I think we've talked about this a lot who's who's seeing that like who's knowing that we know that, but like other parents probably in the district don't know that.
026The community doesn't know that. And so I feel like >> this needs to get out and like those graphics are just a very easy thing to see. It's not hard to see and I don't know that Facebook's going to get it everywhere either, you know? So I and usually we just get picked on because we're not where we're supposed to be even though no one wants to recognize that. That's amazing. So just food for thought like something I think that really needs to be thought of whether I don't know if it's like a newsletter or an email or something but the graphics you can't deny and I think it's easy for anyone to read those but just something that I think as a whole we need to work on making sure that's getting communicated to
027people better. >> Yeah, I don't disagree. >> Yeah. Um, so >> I don't know what sort of followup maybe we can follow up with that because I feel like we bring it up a lot, but I'm not sure that in the end. >> I want to make sure that there is something that happens with that. >> Claim for sharing that. >> I mean, I feel like we have in a number of ways. I mean, we were recognized by the state for our achievement. We did put out correspondence to all families. I mean the data that Daryl's speaking to is why we were asked to participate on the release of the state assessments being one of four districts. We have put that out. We were one of few districts that were asked to participate at the
028legislative u um I want to say panel um uh with the state and uh the past April based on the progress and work we've done um in the district regarding science reading. I can tell you I talked to uh um Mary Conway who's our um our consultant through CAPS and um which is Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent and um their partnership with the state department of ed uh as we're do the second cohort of science or reading and she was just stating how much she loves working at a district uh our district the work that we're making and excited about um you taking that working with us and taking that work um further into uh the secondary levels. Um um >> I think I mean >> for everyone like cuz like I don't I
029aren't reading this whole article about like some people don't get that that's like this big deal that you were recognized for that. >> I mean I can tell you like we put the articles out in the Village Voice. Uh we highlight the work in the annual report. Um, I mean certainly open to uh suggestions. Um, I mean this is recorded. It's on uh the website. Um, >> I don't know like something I know we already have like open houses and stuff and we have like teacher conferences coming up but I have this like even like a little on board of when people are coming in and we're celebrating the progress that we're making here. We want to show you guys and it's like a visual or something and you're going to get a lot of
030these. At least the parents in the community are going to see these when they're going to conferences or open houses and things like that. And it just may be like you're getting hundreds of people at a time. I mean, sometimes people aren't even opening their emails like honestly, right? So, it just might be like an easy visual graphic of something that could be >> an article about about the awards that you get is one thing, but the visual of this is my child's progress is just I mean, I wasn't even associating this with with that award. You know, it was just to me like, oh my god, this is such a great progress. >> Especially when you hear people in town saying, you spent all this money and what are we getting out of it?
031Well, this you are getting this out of it. >> Yeah. >> Is there a way to kind of do more plain, you know, there's such a thing as plain language, right? Um, and so what I'm thinking as you discuss, as you're talking about this, graphs are going to mean not a lot to a lot of to a lot of parents. They'll mean a they mean a lot on the state level. They mean a lot to us because we kind of we're kind of looking at that kind of stuff. But how do we and I'm not quite sure the answer to this. How do we communicate in plain language what it means for your child? >> I think in plain language if you took five years ago >> for and you know like let's look here
032we were and here we are. >> Yeah. Where are we going to go? >> Is it possible to perhaps take this whole presentation and put it somewhere prominently on our website >> and we can just link to it. >> You can just link to it. I mean that's >> in the past few days there has been I mean just talk about it because why not this whole thing because niche put out their things. Yeah. and niche the the forprofit marketing firm who wants you to work with them and pay them is not the harbinger of our reality. Um but we don't have anything that you can go say to the people who are getting just a little about this here. go look at this. And and honestly, I think in all of the presentations that
033we get from Daryl relative to our progress, and we all know we have work to do. We have work to do. There's absolutely no doubting that. But in four years, we have come a tremendous way. We went from being number five to being third from the town. That's not an easy thing for our staff, our students, for anybody. And we really should be able to get that out to people. Some people will go find it and other people who just want to be negative. We need to be able to get it. So you say, "Okay, here. Okay, fine. You look at whatever niche is telling you. I want you to go look at this and show see that we went from the bottom of the rung to the top of the rung in four years.
034Um and and we rightfully are admitting we still have work to do. Um so maybe if you could just put the presentation somewhere that we can just link to it. >> Yeah, I mean we can definitely put on the website. And one thing I also want to put out as far as like the Lions district um too is that's like our um comparison group and um I know it states 36 um uh districts. What I think sometimes gets lost in that number is those 36 districts represent 44% of a total student population in Connecticut too. So when you have three out of 36, you're talking about um almost 50% of the students in Connecticut. Um, can I ask another question, Harold, back to our our um what we're going to do? So, I could be
035wrong. I'm looking at this as we've made great strides over the past four years to get us to that tier one where we are our our teachers have come along, our the whole system has come along to get us to this strong point where we've reached >> and so now we are at the point where we can start diving down into those areas where we we definitely have issues with the equity and the gaps and all of that. Um, and I believe that we're at that point to be able to do that work on those subgroups and not jeopardize what we're doing where we were. Correct. >> Correct. Totally. Yeah. And that's and um I think it was the previous slide Norin that it's the maintenance of tier one >> right >> is is prominently
036listed there at the top because that can't get lost in translation >> we can't shift correct you have to maintain >> you have to maintain that big >> yeah and if you go back several years I mean we've talked about you know even when we first introduced I ready and some of the literacy or the math assessments we talked about triangulation of data. So that those were those were things that we never had and we weren't able to properly look at our data to determine what we were doing. Um but now that we've got some of those pieces in place, um it's it's far easier to do. Um and the next several slides, and I don't want to minimize it, but it's it's there. um go through the English, the math and the science uh
037trends over the uh over that four-year period gives you the number of students who are at or above um or meeting this grade level standard and then the students who are um still below goal. Um and that obviously that's um those are huge shifts. I also put on the bottom of each of those slides some of the things that we've put into place. So for instance, ELA, we've changed the curriculum there, changed the resources, math the same, science the same. Um so we've made slight adjustments at each one of the um levels. So elementary, middle, and high school. Um so I have all um all fate that that's going to obviously continue and the practices we've set up here in district with our walkthroughs and our professional development and our willingness to kind of have
038open and honest conversations. What's working? what isn't um that's going to that's going to keep us moving forward. You want to kind of skip through those? Um any questions? I don't have any questions. I just want to commend every you Laura. Well, you're the only ones here. The rest were there because he took from 2019 to 2025. We have made tremendous progress. Granted, we're not where we want to be or where we should be, but we have made great progress. And it took a lot of work from everybody from the administration all the way down to those kids. And everybody should feel proud of themselves. And we're being able to put graphs like this out that show if you put it in and you put the time, you put the resources and you you have
039the supports that are necessary, you can achieve. Now, unfortunately, it's a slow process, but it's a process that's working. So, thank you. >> No, kudos to the board. I mean it's a lot of you have a lot of support here. So um that's much appreciated. So >> I obviously with the build 100% of all kids would be but like what's the realistic like level that you would ideally want it to be at? Like what's the realistic level that >> so I mean yeah realistically yeah I want um you know I want all of the students to perform. Now whether that's realistic or not you know um but I'll I'll use terms from the MTSS. So MTSS considers if you have 80% or more >> that is your tier one. >> Okay. >> Um so anytime
040something falls outside so attendance I think um Laura referenced if we have 80% of our kids coming every day that that's good. Once it gets below that that is a tier one issue. So it could be for Broadbrook, the middle, the high school, whatever. But you can take the same concept and use it whether it's behavior, whether it's academics or what have you. Um it if you focus it, so you know, we talked about looking in and diving at this data. If you focus it into one classroom, is the attendance in one classroom better or worse than, you know, maybe a whole grade level? Well, it's a tier one issue in that class, but maybe not necessarily the whole grade level. So, do you need to provide those supports across the grade level or just
041that class? So, really kind of diving in um and taking taking a look at it. Now, 80% I'm I would not be happy with 80% of the students at or above because that means 20% or below. Um but, you know, if we're going to look at, you know, overall systems, that's really kind of where we where we look at that number. much to focus on. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. You know where to find me. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Oh, sorry. Did we say student report was actually number 10 that we asked or is it the sub and then >> and then student report? Okay. >> So the on and subcommittee reports do we have any leaison reports or subcommittee reports from our committee? Um just report quickly.
042Most of you were there. Um we are working hard to try to get a communication plan put together and I think that's where we're headed um at this point. If if we stopped and looked I stopped and looked prior to the meeting at as to the goals that had been set by the board of selection versus where we are in the process and we have accomplished. Um we still have um some hard decisions to have to make um and probably can't be made until spring because that's when the um legislative session is done and at that point we know how much funding we will get. There's no point in torturing ourselves on more decisions as far as what we're doing. We there there's no more design that needs to be done or anything like that.
043um no more no more more money being spent on that. But the but the public needs to be engaged I think is what the whole committee really felt is the most important. We've been saying it for a couple of months but I don't think we've been really listened to real well um by some of our um partners um because they seem surprised that that we want to communicate and and that is where we need to go. Um they're they're planning possibly to have um some kind of forum where the public is invited to come in and um share their thoughts. We'll do some kind of presentation or something um with some professional help to to make sure we get the message clear and correct. Um that was really the big focus I think of that
044meeting. Um, anybody else that was there can certainly very very sorry. >> No worries. >> No, it was not you. It's just a general state of the day. I think that's um that's all I have. >> So, I have a question. Um cuz I know this has been addressed in some of those ad hoc meetings before but none of us to my knowledge have still met the consultants the like the golden egg we have tried >> my what has been the barrier with that is it just coordinating with them in terms of our ad hoc meetings because I know our ad hoc meetings kind of get more like I'm I'm confused cuz I feel like it's the same conversation I in the bottom. >> Yeah. I mean, so what was explained from CSG is that
045golden egg is more about like the marketing and that you have to have a plan in place and because um um uh we really need legislator assistance as far as uh going through special uh session to get a higher reimbursement rate. Um um which is not unique to us. A number of school districts do the same thing, but that session is not till April. So from their uh position um until we say like we have the funding, this is what we're doing, then they will market it. Um what the what uh my understanding my takeaway was essentially um um what we are requesting is more like leading into like the referendum as far as okay these are like like the rationale behind like u maybe having choose one project over the other depending on funding
046um um engaging the public in preparation for the the referendum is my that was my takeaway from the last meeting. Um, so with that, I mean, obviously we recognize um that like April and May is too late to really engage the community. If we're looking to do a referendum in the fall, we really have to do it organically, internally, and take the steps uh to do that outside of Golden Egg was my takeaway from the last meeting. >> So, I was going to say, so it seems like there's a loose plan. there's concepts in the plan with the ad hoc. Would it make any sense for the board of ed to initiate some of those town halls because I feel like and it not to discredit anyone here that's on the ad hoc committee, but
047I feel like things kind of just get lost between the time, you know, between the meetings and things like that. I wonder if it would make sense for us to coordinate it just to be more efficient and keep on track with the timeline. I don't have an issue with that. I I think that's a a not bad idea because at the end of the day, it's the board of ed's responsibility to make yeah the tough decisions. The ad hoc is only advisory. So for us to we could do it in conjunction with the board of ed or the board of ed and the board of selectmen because they're the ones that have to call the referendum and all of that and and um agree to the money that we're going to spend on. So it
048could be a a bigger picture of all three. Um I certainly don't have an issue that we've been trying. >> Yeah. I'm just thinking doing something like last year. Mind you, the town hall that we had last year was timesensitive because we needed a vote. Um, but if we could coordinate something simple like that, which just a quick, you know, one-hour town hall um in conjunction with ad hoc, but you know, the board maybe be responsibilities for coordinating that. I wonder if that, you know, I I was confused because I thought that was kind of what we were talking about because Patrick, you had a great idea about kind of tying it in the middle school that we could do something I thought was left was we were going to identify some school events. >>
049That's what I thought too. >> Like essentially they're high and attended be open to all but at least we knew that like like we um hopefully get a high number of uh parents um and families um looking at the school uh calendar. So that meeting was just Wednesday um uh >> but we're still thinking about that, right? >> Yes. So that was >> so like not to rush the process but also like I would hate to see this continue to linger on >> but we do. >> So we do have some opportunities coming up with I mean especially like band and course are usually well attended. Um I will tell you um Mr. Field had the uh the point that a lot of parents have to drop their parents off parents off kids off uh
05030 minutes prior. So there's a window there too where you know you don't have to take a large amount of time but you can get an audience u by piggybacking off of some of the things that are already taking place >> and and I think what we talked about um at our last meeting is we talked about in the absence of nothing that we would be writing a something Patrick and then we kind of we said let's put a hold on that until after ad hoc >> are we still thinking that >> I already had an initial draft prior into that even meeting. Now, after that meeting, there's some updates. >> Um, so, uh, so it is something that I'm going to work. >> I think we should because then it kind of feeds into
051the other again, we can we can talk about the process or what's happened right to date. We don't have to even get into the specifics about the referendum or anything else. It's just the stuff that has been done. And when we looked at some of the timeline when whenever his name is, I can't remember his name, Jinger Leon. Jim kind of put down all those things that had occurred. There was quite a bit that >> there was a lot. >> Yeah. Yeah. I didn't realize it, >> but I thought I I got the impression that Jim was going to help us with the uh public outreach. No, >> I took off before, >> but I mean I I think it would be a matter of maybe somebody needs to follow up on that. >> Well,
052we have we have scheduled meetings. So, we have one I think coming up soon. I thought maybe not. I >> And if we provided the information, were they going to design a flyer or something like a trifold or something? >> I agree. I agree with Gabby and um uh Betsy. I think that I mean I do think that the ad hoc hasn't be involved. I mean, not not only just us board members, but like other people who've been involved. It's been a big commitment. But I do think that optics wise, it looks good for the board of ed to be presenting some information out there because I think that we want to build the parents and and community members behind everything and I think sometimes coming from a different angle may not hit the right
053side of committee that people are following. So, I do think like the board of should maybe put something out at some point and then like maybe see what Jim's got >> and then and then something right away, right? And then if they want to do their trifold like nice, you know, >> we do that, you know, zippy thing >> and he has, you know, that it's it's it's pleasing to look at, right? Um that he could do that for us, right? What do you think? We'll have that conversation. >> I don't we didn't really get because the thing the confusion I had had was I was thinking that the golden egg guy person was in lie of the other person and that the same scope of work would be the same because that's what those
054who was for that >> but but they said that no he doesn't it's not the same scope of work. I looked at what they proposed the scope of work whoever it was before a referendum specialist I guess is different than a marketing group and that wasn't clearly kind of delineated when they said oh they're going to do this instead like they didn't say it's not a referendum specialist >> they're going to do the same thing it's a different conversation obviously it's just move forward let's just move right >> can I um just add something >> sure almost just from hearing uh this conversation is exactly why I think the board of ed should just get something in motion because I think if we don't we could be just waiting for Jim or the golden egg
055or whoever else. I just think it's really important that we as a a board get something out there. >> All right. So, what's kind of next? I mean Patrick's gonna look at some dates to propose in terms of having some kind of informational session at least. >> Yes. >> All right. I'm just I guess my other concern is we're not meeting again this month potentially the board of ed. So, if there's something where you need us to have a special meeting or, you know, look over information in terms of flyer or in terms of setting up a date for anformational session before a concert, if something comes out that you need um a quicker response, just let us know. >> Okay. >> In terms of that, because we're not going to be meeting again until
056early November as a full board. Is ad hoc meeting illegal? >> That's the first one staying. >> Well, we always meet earlier. >> Yes, we have to. That's not an issue. >> All right. Was there anything further on that? >> No. >> Okay. Were there other leaison or subcommittee reports? >> Go ahead. Subcommittee met tonight. Um, and we're not meeting again in October. So, we will catch up the board in November for everything for basically the beginning of the year. Um, things are buying, you know, things are looking fine. Brian is um um he's been focusing on the auditors are coming this week um and get that over with, but um everything's looking the way it's supposed to be looking and we'll have more Ryan will be here with more details in November. >> And
057things are looking good so far as far as the audit. He was saying next week. Yeah, >> the audit visit and he's not aware of any concerns. >> He hasn't they haven't asked him for anything out of what they've been looking at which is good news. >> I think you went to last border slide. Was there anything? >> Nothing pertaining to using to us on the agenda? >> No. Does anybody else have any other subcommittee or leaison reports they want to >> We have cip button. >> It's uh tomorrow we present tomorrow. >> Yep. >> I believe if you still are interested in getting pies PTO can take orders through tomorrow. I bought today myself. >> You go on their Facebook page and get all the information up. >> Okay. Um, Courtney, did you have
058anything to add as far as liaison or subcommittee? >> No. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. So, next on the agenda, we do have the student representative report. >> Look back at our content. >> So, for Broadick Elementary School, they welcomed open 300 families to open house on September 23rd. Students proudly guided their families around school, enjoyed popsicles while transconnected with several community booths, highlighting school and local resources. This month, Robert Elementary School launched a schoolwide positive behavior initiative. Caught being pawsome recognize students who model our pause expectations, practice kindness, act responsibly, work through problems as students in classes earn pause from staff for positive choices. Their names go in the classroom paws and buckets Friday and each month one student per class is celebrated with a special photo with biscuit.
059The program reinforces a safe, caring and positive school community. East Windsor Middle School has been buzzing with activity. Students are gearing up for student council elections and the hallways are filled with colorful campaign posters. After school clubs have officially kicked off and students are already showcasing their creativity through an impressive lineup of 14 clubs. Wow. Pilots include the game club where students enjoy board and card games along with a variety of art focused options such as rock painting, craft club, sharecraft, and sketch club. All of which have quickly become student favorites. Eastman High School would like to highlight the artists of the month. Each month, the art department picks a student. Their artwork is displayed on a bulletin board at the high school and they are fe featured that month in the school's five quick
060things about East Windsor High School parent communication. Um, September's artist was Caitlyn Ruo. Here's what Kaitlin said about her artwork. I started drawing at the ripe age of two when I was obsessed with drawing princesses. My favorite medium to use is any kind of paint, especially watercolor, because my great-grandparents on my mother's side often painted with them, making beautiful landscape paintings. Some of my inspirations from my childhood obsession with princesses and their dresses, as well as niche movies from the 1960s to 80s. My favorite subject matter is anything I find cool or funny, like my dog or historic fashion. Roger dresses specifically. Kaylin exemplifies what it means to be a lifelong learner through her passion for art and her commitment to continuously grow her skills. She's not hiding pride and she's truly >> Thank you
061very much. >> All right. Next on the agenda, we have public participation. again. Do we have any public participation public? >> Okay. After hearing that discussion, do you have anything further you would like to add? >> All right. Next on the agenda, we have miscellaneous. Do you have any miscellaneous, Patrick? >> Um, just that we've had uh two sessions of flag football at Broadbrook. Um, we have 14 uh students participating after school. Deputy Chief uh helped out uh the first session and uh the kids seem to be enjoying it. Um, I was out there at the end uh yesterday and uh seems to be going well and uh kudos to the person who designed for t-shirts. >> They're having a blast. >> And you know what? Just to add on to that, um I find
062it great. I I think there's 14. Yeah, 14. Um in both weeks, parents are coming early and staying and watching the entire thing. So, the kids are down there playing and it's really nice to see the hill with parents and brothers and sisters and whatnot. Um, just watching it. >> Evelyn's having a ball. She >> There's three girls and they're holding their own with those boys. >> Uh, I had a great experience today. You know, my kids are here in town. My youngest at the middle school. He's usually a walker. And I got a phone call. It was like just a little after 3:00 from the school. So, of course, you know, you're always like, "What's going on?" I know it was screened in the main office. And she said, "Gary," she's like, "Sam, Sam
063just a walker, but I saw you get into a black Jeep." And I'm pretty sure she probably wrote down the license, is it okay to say he went in that Jeep? And I just thought like it I appreciated her so much for calling. And I just wanted to just say like that's a great gift. And part of being in a small school system is like someone's going to actually see that and know like that that's not the norm for your kid. And I just I just wanted to commend them because I thought that was above and beyond, but she recognized that and he was allowed to. >> All right. Did anybody else have any other miscellaneous items? >> All right. We had a few things in correspondence. Um is there anything you want to mention
064to go? It looks like two letters. >> Uh yeah, two donations and then enrollment. I just noticed like their enrollment from last year that there was >> a bit of a drop from last October. Do we have like anything that was happening or else >> just uh a lot of kids moving in and out? Um not necessarily attending other schools were mostly moving out and in. the ones that moved out and it didn't offset with the ones that moved in. >> So this is this is this October at um enrollment, right? >> Yeah, correct. >> And the other one is last year. >> Well, yeah, the bottom chart is last year for all months. >> Yeah. >> And then the top chart is this year's for October. And you have to look at like in
065terms of like grade three kids last year on June 1st would now be grade four kids on October 1st. Like you kind of have to make that jump. But there were I did notice there were still So like that class, grade three was 72. Now it's grade four is 69. So that class was pretty close. But there were a couple classes that I had noticed as well that had kind of drops >> um from June. >> Yeah. >> From the end from the June to now >> it's about 156 kids. >> I know kids come and go. >> Patrick, do we do any figure out what happened with those 156 kids? Like did they go to >> Cath school? Did they pull out to go to charter school? Um, I can get um it's not
066hard data to pull as far as those that we know that like like as far as our withdrawals and enrollments as far as uh um uh um Yeah. If they went to a we wouldn't even know if they went to private. >> You would know if they went to a private school. >> Yeah. Because they would have their school records. >> Yeah. So we we still know that >> there's like a drop which is and I'm not sure where kindergarten fits into this but in June our kindergarten population was 90. >> Kindergarten is always Yeah. So kindergarten's always unknown. >> Yeah. So I will say kindergarten's always unknown. Um >> but like Yeah. If grade one if kindergarten was 90 and now grade one is 65. That seems like a big >> I just I
067just feel I need to at this point make a small correction. It's not 156 kids. >> 56 now >> because it's just a big thing in the f sorry >> that would be massive sorry >> a lot of kids that's a great I'm just curious Patrick but yeah we can figure out >> yeah I can >> is it it'll take a little bit I don't know if I'll have very next uh me but >> that's fine >> we can get some data on it >> and Patrick we know which case primarily the cho choice kids are in elementary. Is that am I assuming correctly or incorrectly? >> Um I can get the breakdown because they obviously they uh they transition. Um but I mean our total number is the same. No. Um I mean last
068year we had 73 we have 7 this year. Yeah. >> And um uh the preschool is you have to remember that's uh age three and four. So that's not uh like that's not like they're not all going to move the same way. So, you can't read into that as far as preschool going to kindergarten because um a good portion of them are still doing preschool. They're just moving to the older preschool. >> And and could they be from someplace else in our preschool or they're just all East Windsor residents? >> Uh no. I mean, this year we have two um staff members who have Okay. >> kids in our preschool program. We have another uh staff who didn't change policy um enrolled their student in the middle school. I believe we have another one being
069enrolled there in middle school. So staff are taking advantage of the policy to allow um so I anticipate we'll be up to um four um information is still relatively new. Um so um I um anticipate um number of staff will um inc increase now to what extent on that >> but the choice cut off is done right. >> Correct. Y >> that almost looks like I was going to say grade seven said it had 86 and now grade eight has 76. So that's like 10 kids there too. Or grade six maybe it was grade six that I was looking at. Says they had 85 last year and now grade seven is 70 this year. So that's like 15 kids in one grade potentially. >> Yeah. I mean the quickest way to pull the data it
070wouldn't um it would take too long to do the individual withdrawals and um enrollments but the quick way to do it is we can pull obviously we know what enrollment is. We do know what uh magnet school enrollment is. So we would have a, you know, a sideby-side comparison to see if there's how much of a change and then we um we could just pull like from those that uh um withdrew um was there any significant increase with like homeschool and private. Um so those are would be really the two numbers that we'd have to uh do a little bit of research, but it's not a significant number. Um I do know that uh we did have we do have more kids um uh attending uh VOAG u um and uh tech programs. So um
071I do know that there was an increase between Chimi uh tech and um Rockville but not to the finish. >> Uh you know and that's um um but I know because we had to uh accommodate for some increased bus there. >> Do we count? So my question is who counts those kids? Do they count as >> do they count? Do they count as these ones or they >> they count they uh so like if you go to Cheney Tech you counted it's Cheney text you and uh Rockville you >> that's where they >> Patrick on the kindergarteners did we have a lot of anybody requesting waiverss for this year because of that age >> issue deferred to Laura about how many on that >> I think it was eight back in the spring and then
072we just had two we just did. Um I think it was about eight. >> How does that compare to the first year? >> The first year was greater. >> Yeah. >> So it'll probably >> getting used to it now. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I think it's really it's it seems to be just you know perfect to what they chaot. >> All right. And then do we have need for an executive session? >> Okay. So I would entertain a motion to go into executive session. >> Okay. Motion to go in executive session. >> Motion made by Heather, seconded by Fran. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay. So executive sessions. Uh Julie scoring.