Farmington Board of Education Meeting - 04/08/25

001[Music] Good evening everyone. Team showed up. Happy April. Didn't feel like it outside when we all came in. I'd like to call the meeting uh the regular meeting of the Farming Board of Education for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 to order. And we'll start with the pledge of allegiance, please. 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. Thank you. We'll move on to uh item four on our agenda, the approval of minutes. Uh first up is the approval of the uh February 1st, 2025 BOE budget workshop meeting minutes as presented. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion, comments? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Next

002up is motion number two to approve the February 3rd, 2025 uh board of education regular and budget workshop meeting minutes as presented. Motion. Second. Although any conversation, I'm sorry. Discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. And then lastly, um motion to approve the March 3rd, 2025 BOE special meeting minutes as presented. Motion. Second. Any discussion on that? Just want to check something, guys. You want to go take it real quick. Um, okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Um, I'm going to abstain. Abstain. Okay, fair enough. Okay. 8 01. Okay. Sorry. Did you want to move up the profile? 701. Circuit. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get that over with. Um, okay. I'd like a motion if we could guys given that our our friends from CBRE here if

003we could uh rework our agenda a little bit and move item 6B up to make it uh 5A motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Motion carries. So we now have in front of us item 6B, the Cape Search Firm. I'd like to invite Jack and Mary down uh to present uh the the results of the um survey as it presented as it pertains to the developing the leadership profile for our superintendent search. Yes, please. It's nice to see everybody again. Thank you. Thank you for accommodating us, moving it up on the agenda. That was very nice. Um we should start by saying what a pleasure it has been to get to know um Farmington, its system, its students, its um constituents and the passion that people feel

004for education, the quality of education students receive is really noteworthy and exciting. Um we're going to go through the results of this um and we'll move through as quickly as we think is prudent but um giving as much information to the community as as we can in the process. So um you had um between March 17th and April 1st, we had 14 interviews and focus groups and spoke through those with 66 people and we had 260 people complete the survey. So especially through the survey had some pretty robust participation and I just want to give a shout out to D Barasi for really helping us spread the word especially that last minute push on the survey was terrific. So I'm on page three now of the profile. You had a total of 326 people participate

005and you can see the breakdown um in as far as the interviews and focus groups go. You had um 20 administrators, 16 parents, um the nine board members, only eight teachers, eight students. We had a fabulous, again, a fabulous group of students. Um you should be very proud. Um and then you see greater participation through the survey. So that was clearly an easier way for people to participate with 152 parents there, 67 teachers, 25 community members and then support staff as well. So what did we find from this? Um we'll start with strengths and um you you'll note that we indicated how many times we heard each thing we we talk about mentioned. Um, by far the the most mentions were the strength of the teachers and administrators and staff in Farmington, the dedication, unwavering

006dedication to student success, um, relying on refining their teaching methods and collaborating with one another, embracing professional development and really fostering a culture of lifelong learning. Um the administrators including district leadership really work to support staff providing resources and encouraging a spirit of innovation in the district. I can't tell you how rare that spirit of innovation is to find and there's just a passion for education in every classroom. The next most mentioned was um academic excellence and rigor and there were 50 uh sorry 70 people who mentioned that with your high academic standards in Oh, Jack, I was going to let you talk about that first one. I'm sorry. Did you want to say anything? Not a problem at all. I want to reiterate some things that Mary has said. Excuse me. First of all,

007it's an honor and a privilege to help you people uh help the board of education identify the next superintendent of uh Farmington schools. We have come to know so much about Farmington with interviewing parents, focus groups, residents, um teachers, administrators, board of ed um and I have to tell you my best day was interviewing the kids. Um, you should be so proud of those kids. They can speak to the global models. They can speak to the common cores. They can speak to so much. I had to ask them if they'd been brainwashed. They knew I was absolutely kidding. Um, they were just very, very sharp and we were assured that it was a cross-section of that school. So, um, I I want to also let you know, uh, Mary and I look at the data

008through slightly different eyes. I'm looking at it as a superintendent, retired, and as a candidate. What will it feel like to apply for this job? Um, I want you also to know that Mary is um incredible in analysis of data and um the amount of time that she puts in on looking at all of the survey, all of the focus groups, all of the data is just incredible. Um, so if you don't like it, it isn't her fault. It's really what came in the door. And if you do like it, it is her fault because she's written it. In any event, I'm uh pleased to be here and very enthusiastic about helping you. Thank you. Thanks, Jack. Um so, in terms of academic rigor, um you you know, you have um extraordinarily high standards for

009academics here and want to make sure I mean it's so interesting even to hear the students knowing that they should be pushing themselves. They articulated that with us. that is a spirit throughout the community and you know your graduates leave really well prepared for higher education with many attending um top schools and um because of your commitment to that academic rigor. Um the next most mentioned was innovation and willingness to try new approaches. I actually had an I was traveling around the country at one point in my career and I would often ask mass state meetings of schoolboard members how many of them felt like their school districts were innovative hubs and no hands would go up in thousands of people in the audience and I think Farmington should be incredibly proud of that spirit

010of innovation that's alive here with um forwardthinking approaches to education cutting edge edge instructional methods and technology uh projectbased learning initiatives with students really tackling real world problems and working collaboratively to come up with solutions. So next is diversity and you'll hear some challenges in the next section as well and it's often the case and you will find that there are strengths that have challenges as well. um this this community is more diverse than I think most people appreciate who are not in Farmington. And um people everybody we spoke with talked of valuing that diversity and the importance of cultivating an inclusive environment where every student feels um seen and supported. Next was the strong community and parental involvement with 32 mentions and the partnership between the schools in the community. Parents deeply invested in

011their students education. Support that you receive from local businesses and organizations. Um which helps students by giving them mentoring programs and internship opportunities. Um and students have both the academic and real world experiences as a result. and the the um culture of shared responsibility um between the schools and the community. 25 mentioned and you'll know that note that this is cited as a challenge as well but special education and support services with a real dedication to meeting the unique needs of each student and teachers collaborating between special ed and general ed to ensure that the the classrooms are inclusive of all students so that they thrive. There were 20 mentions of your music, arts and extracurricular activities. Um, you clearly nurture creativity. You have an outstanding selection of music, arts and extracurricular programs, broad range

012of clubs and athletics and a lot of participation in those. Um, so students are developing their leadership skills, their sense of teamwork and their personal passions outside of academics. Next with 20 mentions was the global citizenship and holistic education. Um, and you focus on ensuring that your students are compassionate and globally aware. Uh, integrating social and emotional learning across all grade levels. I noticed what looks like, uh, one of your tools up on the whiteboard here. um at work that u people talked about going into kindergarten and see some mood meters and then seeing the appropriate uh age level corollary at the high school level and you you hit me anytime you want to say something I changed everything I want to say after reading that board okay so you'll jump in yeah I would

013just make the point that we're over looking at strengths and you wouldn't be here if you needed to have someone tell you about the strengths of this place. If you don't know it, there's something wrong cuz it's unusual. Um it's it's got a spirit of wonder. Um and we're happy to talk about some of that, but I think the challenges and the characteristics that you're looking for might be worth spending more time on. Okay. So, I'll move quickly through the rest of your strengths. All right. So, um obviously you have a state-of-the-art high school. this room. I mean, how many schools have blackbox theaters? My son would have loved this. Um, and people in general, you you'll hear negative about some of your schools, but that um in general they're well-maintained and comfortable and secure

014um and a safe and positive learning environment, you know, um a welcoming environment um with a strong emphasis on mental health health with counseling services and wellness programs and in general a thriving community that nature that nurtures curiosity, resilience, and a love of lifelong learning. Okay. On to I I try to look at all of the data from a perspective of student services. How are you doing with student services? Curriculum and instruction. How are you doing with curriculum and instruction? How are you doing with finance? the things that I would look for if I were a candidate here um and 30 years younger, but that's another story. I uh of course well I've already told Bill that the superintendency is an easy job and Kathy's had it made. Um and I think he knows and

015I know what a joke that is. Um I'm happy to talk with you about what I see as the challenges. Thank you. Yeah. And and as we start um considering the challenges, I would also um just emphasize how I know you know how much you have to be proud of and you know how large Kathy's shoes are to fill. Um it's going to be um challenging to find the right person to to move into that role. But take these challenges in the spirit that I think Farmington um demonstrates, which is you're never complacent, right? You're always pushing yourself to to grow. And so this is in the spirit of continuous improvement. Um the first the most mentioned and I think this did not come up I will say in our focus groups and interviews. We

016we compared notes and did not recall this really coming up. So it must really have it really was through the survey that special ed came up as a a major concern with 44 mentions and the main concern is increasing is in is funding. Um and there was mention of staff shortages and some high turnover rates and the need for an inclusive and supportive um system and greater collaboration. It was mentioned as a strength, but it's also mentioned here as a challenge. Um, the collaboration between special ed and general ed teachers. Um, the next mentioned was teacher retention and morale. I have to tell you that Farmington is not unique in having this mentioned and I have found that in the aftermath of COVID, this is almost always right up there as a as a top

017challenge. Um but some people I mean 42 um talked about teachers feeling overworked and undervalued. um that push is and I actually was just at a conference uh where people were talking about having this kind of a culture a culture where everybody is working really hard and really pushing and how sometimes it's the stress is a little too much and in the aftermath of COVID that stress is burning out some people. So just something for the next leader to be aware of. Um let me address that one. Um, I think what's happening in Farmington is the striving for excellence is enormous both on kids, on teachers, and on administrators. And every group praises all of those. So there's no obviously weak chain. I think that uh if teachers are burning out and I think that's

018happening nationally, maybe you do this. I would encourage governance at the governance level to have exit interviews and find out why people are leaving. Um, they'll be honest. You do? Pardon me? No, I'm asking. You do. You do. Okay. I think that's important to know because obviously some are retiring, some leave the profession. Um, some go for where there's more money. But at least it's important to know. I think the um I I tend to think that the interest the the level of work the level of effort is enormous and I think it's self-generated. I don't think it's coming at them or they would be more critical of leadership and they aren't. I think there's a selfgenerated uh desire for excellence and you can't get it better than that. Yeah. We also heard about the

019Farmington way and that came up in terms of the next challenge which is there's concern that there won't be sufficient resources especially since what we understand of the Framington way is you provide that excellence and you do it on a shoestring you budget you do you you're not um squandering any nickels in this community. Um and federal and state funding cuts are a concern. um local reluctance to increase education spending and the pressure on school resources came up um especially in special ed. So those two are kind of linked but the recognition that you get great service on very low budgets. The next was student behavior and discipline. This is another one which will be no surprise to you is true across um across the country. Um again in the aftermath of COVID behavioral issues

020and disruptive classrooms have been a concern. Um and people are looking for enforcable behavior standards with additional resources to support the um social and emotional learning of students. Next mentioned and this was a strength was um diversity with 30 35 mentioned it as a strength and 31 were mainly expressing concern that the new leader understand how important it is that the schools continue their efforts to ensure that all students arriving at your door your doorsteps are um valued and regardless of where they come from and the need for someone who's going to actively support and expand initiatives to promote that sense of belonging. Um, next was high expectations as a challenge. Um, the pressure on educators to balance the academic rigor with um cultural and political considerations. um the just the importance that the um

021schools stay focused on highquality curriculum that prepares students for the future. Uh and you again hit me if you want to say anything else. Um the next mentioned was parent student expectations and community involvement. Um this is another factor that we've seen growing tremendously and that is parents um challenging authority and challenging expertise of staff. This is not unique to Farmington. It is happening in other places as well. People presenting conflicts over curriculum, over discipline, over school policies. And uh so it's important to find ways to you know make sure that there's strong trust um clear behavioral expectations and clear discipline policies that protect students and educators. Um parents would like to see transparency in and communication and an active role in their children's education which we know many believe that you were providing very

022well. Mary, maybe I could just add one perspective. You guys have an incredible community with skills, articulation. Um, I'm sure at times you'd like to say, "I wish you didn't talk so well or much." Um, but you've got a lot of brilliance out there that that will come to bear as they always do. Um, when people have great expectations, that's wonderful. You never attain it. The second you attain it, you need somebody else to come in and take over. Um, and I think you've got people that want great expectations, want high achievement, want excellence. Um, that from my perspective is what's most desperately needed in in any challenge to find people that absolutely have a vision of excellence that they want excellence. And if people don't mention also love of kids, you say next. Pardon

023me. And now we also talked about the next item as a strength of facilities and infrastructure. There are 23 respondents who um talked about aging buildings and we know that that you know that that's true at the elementary level especially um and some outdated facilities hindering that um the learning experience and the importance of prioritizing facility upgrades moving forward. There were 19 people who specifically mentioned mental health and student well-being. Um students and teachers have been dealing with um increased mental health challenges as you know. Um with a high academic pressure and social stress um there are and postcoid um there is some sense of high anxiety and burnout and the need potentially to expand those health resources we know you've been providing. Um now this has really comes up again here political influence on

024education. It's referenced in a prior section but um just the importance of staying for this new leader especially to to ensure that um evident the education strategies are evidence-based that political agendas are not interfering with that and that you're keeping education above politics and supporting students receiving the best possible learning experience. next mentioned. Did you want to say well just there's so much happening in Farmington that people are terrified that it might change. Yeah, some things have to change always because the world and the planet is changing. But you've got so many things that are going so right. Um a lot of the people internally are terrified that who can fill those shoes, who can take it to the next level. Um and you've had turnover. So that there is um a dilemma of what

025has to be maintained and supported and what can change. The fact that you're in this building um we've been at a lot of school systems lately and people are proposing high schools that cost two and three times more than this one. You've done an extraordinary job and I know you've got elementaryaries to deal with. So there's going to be challenges along that line, but you've done a phenomenal job. um and it needs to be m that part needs to be maintained. So um there were 17 mentions of parents some parents, teachers and students feeling a little disconnected from decision-making processes. Um and the administrators are just encouraged to make sure that they're enga actively engaging um with constituents and really listening to concerns. There were 13 mentions of AI on social media as a challenge.

026Surprise, surprise. Um, confess. Yeah. I mean if if it weren't for Chachi PT you would not be reading a report right now because it is although all the data that went into it is only Farmington data um there's no way that all those data especially from the survey could be sorted to and themes generated so um they have been it I mean there are wonderful educational benefits and there major educational concerns as you well know that people are just wanting the new leader to be mindful of. So that's it for your challenges. Um any questions on Do you want to stop there for a moment or just for a moment? We'll get you want us to move faster. Are there any questions on there strengths challenges? I can represent you there quite a few college

027calendars but before we get open it up so I just want to make sure you end at the end there. You accumulated all the data and you represented I'm sorry and you presented uh the strengths and challenges through chat. So these are summaries provided by chat GPT or is this stuff that you drafted? Both. Okay. It's both. Okay. All right. Okay. I'm going to open it up. We'll start on that side. James, um I I guess my one one question is one thing that I think of is the timing of of all of this and like some of the themes that come through. Um what's the concern with like the recency bias, right? We just had and this is right, wrong and different. Not trying to get political, but obviously we had a change change

028in administration in January. Um a lot of turmoil, a lot of things have been said, done. Um things still to come. Um, I think some of that comes out in this report. So, had this been done six months ago, six months from now, would it look different? Would it be different? So, I guess wanted to get your comments on that. You probably have a better sense of that context than we do. And I think that's a an astute point. Um, so any survey or any meeting with staff is rooted in a moment in time, right? So, um, I think that's a very legitimate observation. James, if I could take a little shot at it, I think Kathy's done amazingly well navigating Farmington through political fiascos. Um, I don't disagree. As I I I said to

029someone in another town, you sure don't get a candidate sitting out there and say, "So, how do you feel about DEI, you know, because everybody means something different by those three letters. Um, how do you deal with kids and deal with instruction and deal with curriculum and not deal with politics? Um, I think you've done wonderfully at that and you all deserve credit for it. Your governance team is there, the administrators are there. Nobody was wrestling with the issues that you raised. Thank God. Um so I I think that's part of the thing of need needing to maintain that distance. We see some places that get just get buried in trivia or viciousness or Thanksgiving dinner with relatives. You know that you can't have certain things. My wife has a list of things that I

030can't talk about. Um she always has it. No, never mind. Um it's it's a great question and it's difficult to navigate. Somehow Farmington has navigated it very well and I leave credit where I believe credit is due. Um and that needs to be maintained. You don't get buried in national politics or in in uh I don't know. Did we answer that James? I think that's Yeah. I just I I just wanted to commentary on just just the thought behind you know the last couple of weeks right this was done in from mid-March until you know a week ago you know and thinking in my head of what's happened during that time frame when some of this some of these answers responses could have been influenced by that so I was just curious you know what

031your what your thoughts were on it we certainly didn't detect I don't think we detected a real political strife among your parent among different groups not during focus groups So, people may have saved that for the survey. Yep. Angela, I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, I was just going to ask, and some of us were talking about it before, in terms of response rate that this is, how would you benchmark that from other, you know, um, searches that you've done? Is this a good response rate? Is this above average, below average? It's above average and probably just about right for your size. Okay. So on a percentage-wise, you would say this is a good amount percentage of people because, you know, we were thinking of it in terms of it's a it's a good amount of

032people, but then based on how many families and students there are, you know, of course it seems low knowing that these things are always skew a little bit lower than you would hope. Um, so percentage- wise, you do feel it's good. I would say we were disappointed in some of the turnout for focus groups in particular. I I think one problem was we didn't know that there were parent teacher conferences going on when one of the focus groups was offered and but there are always going to be challenges for parents to get there. I think what was most important was that they had the opportunity to participate and those who did brought a lot of wisdom. So and if I could uh one perspective is sometimes the it is the quality and sometimes it's the

033quantity. uh this isn't a researchbased number of people. We think there's certain people that are more apt to answer the questions or fill out the survey. On the other hand, we've had focus groups in other communities where one person shows up and the conversation is positively brilliant. Um someone who really understands the situation of what's happening. So we we didn't find a weakness in the data. Um some of it is might hurt a little bit. Some of it might be very you should be very proud of it. But I think it's real. I think that most of what's uh here is representative of the Farmington community. Thank you. Um I think you touched upon this, but a couple of the areas where we had strengths and then we have the weaknesses around, you know, special

034education and the teacher retention. I think that's kind of nationally, right? Um I think from a budget and financial constraints I think we're very fortunate here. Um we have a great relationship I think around what concerned me was around the local reluctance to the increase in education spending. I think we work hand inand with our town and to get um you know the allocations that we need and do adjustments but I think there is definitely a a good relationship there. So that was kind of a a little bit of a surprise there. So maybe more of education or I know we're very transparent in the process. Um so I think that's an area that I could take and understand that we need some maybe folks who spoke to that in maybe the survey if that

035number of results was needed more transparency or understanding of the process. But that was just a surprise. Everybody sees their part of the elephant. and very few people and you are exceptional have to see the whole elephant. You have to know that the basketball team has some bearing on math and English. Uh the caliber of the school. Um whether or not the lawns mode has a an effect on whether or not the population thinks it's excellence going on in that building or they aren't competent. Um, so there's a you're you see a lot more than a lot of people that come with a relatively narrow perspective and then they get on the board of ed and they say, "My god, I thought I was just here to worry about the band. You're telling me I

036got to worry about scores, placements, uh, HR. Yeah, it's a it's it's a big job and a big image. And you know, we see the people and some of the data will show a narrowness of perspective. You expect it." And we we had one candidate that said, "I can talk to you about high school. I can talk to you about elementary school. I don't know what the hell goes on in the middle school." And he was a candidate for superintendency. Um, middle school is a different planet. Elementary is very different than high. And somehow you need people that know it all, that can really relate to it all. I would also just say that I I think there is great appreciation for that collaborative approach between the schools and the town. Um the Farmington way

037uh is where we heard about the reluctance too. So the Farmington way is we want the excellence and we want it to be at the lowest possible cost and that that's putting pressure on people. So that's what we heard. Any other questions before we move on? It's not really a question. It's more of a commentary and it's a little bit of what everybody said so far. You took some of my questions. Um I guess what I struggle with and I know you touched on it a little bit is that there's such there's contradictory information between the strengths and the challenges. Um and in looking at the strengths there were there there's a lot of positive the numbers are higher there too in terms of the mentions. Um, and I just struggle with the narrative like

038how do you how do you talk about Farmington in a way that I I agree there there's some challenges people whether what they said is true or not true this is how they feel but you know I don't want any candidate to look at Farmington as like we don't have like rampid discipline issues throughout the school district, you know, or um we we do a lot to support social and emotional learning. We do a lot to support special ed. And um I don't I I'm I'm almost struggling with the word challenge because this is a school district that um believes in and supports continuous improvement. There is I've said this to you before there is no ceiling to learning and excellence in Farmington and that needs to come across right. Um, so some of the

039things that are listed in the challenges I feel like those are things that we're continuously working on, right? our superintendent and our administrators, our teachers, they're topnotch and I think anything that is listed as a challenge so to so to speak would you know we're we're either aware of it or those are things that they're continuously working on. Okay. If I if I could um at one of the meetings I said something challenges doesn't mean that you guys have goofed something. It's looking at the candidates and they need to know and you wrote it down when I said it, what will keep them awake at 2:30 in the morning because those are challenges. Passing a budget every year is a challenge. uh hiring, firing, uh student discipline. That's always a superintendent's challenge. And all we

040were looking for is how do we communicate that to candidates that this is likely stuff that you'll be wrestling with that you'll have to deal with or to say to you, you need to look at candidates that you think can deal with those things. You can deal well with those things because that's the job of the superintendent of schools. Yeah. I think it's also important, I think you mentioned this, that um our community, parents, teachers, administrators, there are things that are very important that they want to have continue. And I I guess it's comes under a challenge, but like to me that's just part of the work and the continuous improvement um in taking Farmington to the next level. Um, and I guess that that's where I started with, you know, the contradictions between the

041the strengths and the and the challenges and how you develop that narrative. Well, it it comes out of our asking specifically about so what are the challenges that are going to face this new person and that's what the question was in the survey as well. So these are the responses we got from people and uh you're right the strengths had many more people meant like on teachers for instance um and I you know people could see the same thing as both a strength and a challenge. Mhm. Um like that pushing that sense of pushing for teachers is great and the kids talking about pushing themselves is great and and the challenge is to ensure that they are still emotionally healthy and and doing okay. So just to acknowledge that um is where how I would

042interpret that. You want to say anything? I would only say I think looking at a candidate you're looking at values and you can't say what are your values but you're making judgments because th that call every day is based on values. Beyond that it's an understanding of excellence. Um as a graduate school instructor I've asked um 093 candidates uh if you were God you could do anything you wanted. Um what is your vision of excellence? And I was met frequently with dead silence. They said, "No one ever asked us that before." Um, if you don't have an image of of excellence, you don't belong here. You know, and and that's one of those things that I think is wonderful. What are your values? Do you like kids? If they don't mention kids, there's something wrong.

043They're quoting chapter one in some leadership book. Um, if if they don't say, "This is what I think we should be like as a community." Um, and if you don't buy what they think it should be like as a community, you say next. Um, this will not be an easy job. Um, there are a lot of towns that would be a lot easier. Um, because you are committed to excellence, academic excellence, sports excellence. We get the whole nine yards from people. And that's wonderful. Uh, when you get out of bed in the morning, forget the 2:30 concern. you're if you're happy that it's Monday because you get in there and you like it, that's what you want to do. That's your mission in life. That's what we want to find. We also know your administration

044is lean and people work really hard. So that's another part of it. I'm also right now I think everybody else has really touched on it. And um the two biggest challenges being special ed that's statewide and so is the teacher uh and morale and that aspect. So sure who is ever coming in that's going to keep them up at night along with the budget. Yeah. And if they aren't there's something wrong with them. Um you know it is values ultimately it's not just simple. It's what do you stand for? Do you really love kids? Do you want to work with children? Do you And when when those high school kids know your superintendent, how the hell do you do it? You know, it's wonderful to hear that they've known her for 12 years. Um that's

045a a difficult task. And uh you've got administrators that back at Fortunately, they aren't saying, "Oh god, it's Tuesday. Kathy will be around." They we didn't hear that. No, we didn't hear that they dread um that walkth through. Uh we hear that they look forward to the conversations, the discussions, and you can't ask for more than that. If it's a learning community, we're all learning as part of it. Uh so I congratulate you on that, but recognize the strengths are frequently the weaknesses and the weaknesses frequently are the strengths. It can be both. Erica, um thank you. I'm I'm gonna take a little time, not too much. I'm going to try to um so I saw this um in very different perspective, but I I conduct a lot of focus groups as I'm living. So,

046you know, I the I think I heard you say earlier, you know, might sting a little bit. Yeah, that's you know, when when we are asking the input of our community, sometimes we're going to hear things that we don't necessarily agree and we don't necessarily like. Um and I don't usually like to use the word challenges. I usually like to use the word areas of improvement, you know, areas of growth and that very much reflects our community and so forth. Just one point of clarification. I I heard you at you throughout the when you were going through the strengths and then the areas of growth. Uh you mentioned at times you said you mentioned that it's uh 85 mentions or versus people or individuals. So is this mentions or were these 85 people that said

047that? I just want to clarify. They were mentions. Mentions. Okay. So these were themes that were found through the Okay. So that's that's a very signist difference than saying 85 people. So the the mentions is one um you know so for the growth to me I I mean or the strengths um that is very I I see a lot of that is very true and from conversations I see from you hear from parents and staff and so forth you know I none of that is to me um a surprise. It's just it's just a we we do we strive to uh not only be um address our educational the needs of the educational needs of our children or students but we are also innovative you know the the throughout this what I you know I

048kept seeing about the behavioral health and mental health you know we're piloting something that's and I see this across the state there's many schools many districts that are hungry to have a behavioral health mental health partnership that's an innovative approach right So, I think those that these there's a lot of great strengths here that so many other districts are so envious of. Um, and so it's I'm not concerned that somebody coming in is going to say, "Oh my gosh." Because Farmington has a strong reputation of not only having that high uh caliber of of of you know uh looking for that excellence, right? And striving to improve our educa the education of our young of our students, but also that reputation of being innovative, right? that a reputation of being a team player to the

049what Kathy has done, you know, um all of that uh with the the leadership. So, I'm not concerned that as somebody who would be looking to apply for this position is going to say, "Oh my gosh, no, look at this. I'm not going there." um in the sense of areas of you know areas of improvement um you know as a few people mentioned I think James you know your point about um the temperature like the point in time I I think that that is a ripple effect I think that this is not not just Connecticut I you know and I don't want to make it political but I I think that there is a lot of anticipation for the unknown like I don't know what's going to happen and as a parent you know in

050our community and a parent who's very much motivated and and very active in their community they and wants to see their child succeed educationally these ch these every this unknown can be very much impactful to how I'm going to answer these questions. Yeah, definitely. I don't know how if my child is on the spe a 504 plan or if my child is classified as special education and IEP plan and I'm hearing the national rhetoric about uh dismantling an educational department, of course I'm going to be concerned as to what's going to happen in my district for my child who's on an IEP plan or a 504 plan or has to have some educational accommodations. Of course. And so I think that there is in these areas of challenges you're going to see both because I

051believe that that's probably the temperature uh concern and anticipation that that parents are feeling the community is feeling um you know the the retention and staff workforce that's what we're hearing also across the one of the we're seeing uh many retire in the educational field. So yeah, that is a concern. If we're hearing that as a parent, okay, I want to I'm concerned or as a educator, I'm concerned about uh morale and I'm concerned about retention of of teachers, you know, are we okay? Um and then the last thing, two things in regards to budget, I and no disrespect to the board of ed. I am on the board. We're on, you know, but I think we could do better in com as a board of ed in communicating, going out to the community, going

052out to PTO meetings, going out to the schools to actually communicate about what's happening around because yes, we put we post things. Yes, we invite for public comment, but this is we need more. we need to be engaging more out into the community uh to inform parents about the how we're striving to create a healthy budget. Um I don't think we're doing enough of that. So um but I so I see these as areas of improvements. I think that this is this is actually you know um a good space for us to take this and it may sting a little bit but I I think we can learn from this. Um I'll wrap it up. You talked about Mary about this document is going to essentially put out into the world what various stakeholders believe

053to be the challenges that the new person who's going to come into Cathy's position are going to have to face. And what I'm and and while I agree with Erica that it's always good to get feedback that's that can be challenging to you and it can you know make you think you know perhaps in ways you never thought of. There is some stuff in here though that is just not aligned with how we do things and and and so what I would ask you is as you go out into the world with this with this document, how do you tell a candidate? Well, there's people out there that think that um uh local uh there's reluctance at the local level in terms of financial you know support when we know in the last two budgets

054our budgets passed without any push back from the council. So that that you know that's that's something that that's not not necessarily accurate. But by the same token, historically there have been issues in the past where this has been a battle. So I can understand that. or the special ed piece, like Nerica said. I mean, what we're doing in special ed is is is is as cutting edge as any school district in the country. Yet, how does a parent I'm sorry, how does how does a prospective um uh candidate take away uh from reviewing these challenges um that we are actually on the cutting edge? So, walk me through how you're going to deal with these opinions that are authentic and reflect people's actual sentiments and how do you reconcile that with the actual facts

055on the ground as you're trying to draw candidates into the into the interview process? I actually think it's potential fodder for the interview process to um in to talk about the various perspectives about it and what you can even share your um your perspective on it. Um and I don't I don't think honestly that there's anything in this report that would deter a candidate from wanting to be here. I think if anything people would be very excited except filling Kathy's shoes because it's always easier to find some to follow somebody who hasn't been as successful. Um, so it's um I do think that James is right that I mean you think about where the state has been recently about its funding for special ed and that likely drove a lot of this which may also

056be why it wasn't in the interviews and focus groups. It was in the survey that happened around that time. Yeah. Right. Um, so this document will help think about the candidates who are going to fit you most effectively. Um, the best match for you now. Um, and it will give people a bit of a heads up, but it's fodder for further discussion, deeper understanding. Um, you want to add to that? just that the the document usually whips up interest among candidates. The applications are due tomorrow, so there's not going to be a whole lot of people that read the document and then decide if they want to apply in Farmington. They're going to have to have decided by tonight sometime or maybe maybe by a week ago. um yet to help shape your interviewing process,

057your screening process. Um I think by then candidates surely should have read it and we really get quite positive comments from candidates during interviews that this really helped me understand what the stakeholders are thinking. the stakeholders might be wrong, but the fact is I I just have relatively seldom heard special ed is wonderful. In most cases, people are looking for more help, you know, and that's not a terrible thing to say. Uh but so, you know, I mean, you have to deal with that. Um and and it's it's money. It's a I mean that is a lot of money if you want to go oneon-one uh with a lot of kids. So just realize what role this can play. It's probably not going to be marketing Farmington to come and apply because they won't get

058it until tomorrow. I'll just end I'll just end on this and just kind of what I what I want to say to Kathy and Veronica and Dan and and DLC and the entire district is that I think you heard tonight from our board um our concerns about how these challenges have been conveyed. Um but there's not one person here doesn't think we have the best school district in the state. Mhm. There's not one person in this room or on this board that thinks you guys don't work as hard as you do and and with extraordinary outcomes. Now, we're all proud of the work that you do on a daily basis. I just want to make sure that that's that's clear. Um, and then we will move forward. Bill, I would say I concur and I

059think Jack does too. I think that it has been incredible to see what has happened here and to um to know how how it's affected students and we need to reflect what we hear through this process because you do have people out there who may be misinformed but have concerns. So, right can take it from there. You want to go with the profile? I'm sorry. You want to go with the profile? Profile. Go on. Yes. So, so we asked the first couple of pages. So, we're on pages 10 and 11. The first two pages are really right out of the survey. Um and of your participants in the survey, it we looked at both their number one um characteristic that they expertise that they'd like to see in a new leader and then added the

060top three choices that people expressed. And you'll see building trusting relationships with student, staff, and community is by far number one of their first choice. I will say the next one is one and this is really reflective of this community. We never see this as number two but it was has a broad base of knowledge of educational issues and practices is is your the second most desirable expertise. And then um in terms of first choices sharing that district-wide vision of excellence, I'll tell you it's all too rare that we see that one up in the top three. So I think those um really are reflective of where you are and what's important to the community. Now what changes a little bit and I think it's usually number one or two is communicates and collaborates effectively

061and I think that's not number one or number two in your first choices or in number three because you do it so well. So there's an expectation of that in in just about every other search I've done that's been in the top three. It is in the top three when you go to the top three choices. Um, but I I just think it's that's all very interesting and unique to you and a a real um a really nice reflection on you. In terms of qualities, the top um choice and again this is all too rarely the number one is keeping students growth and well-being. The primary focus, trustworthy, honest and respectful. And then um they flip a little bit between first choice and top three choices um accessible, approachable, and visible. So if we take

062that and go into and let's go into a little detail about what each of those means, including the comments from your um survey and interview participants. uh on page 12, you want somebody who's building those trusting relationships across the board, students to community, creating um supportive and authentic environment. Um trust, communication, empathy at the core. Uh recognize the expertise of teachers and support staff. Um consider the effects of intense work. Um being transparent in communications, being supportive and firm. uh with especially with parents or students who challenge educators. Uh again, that's that may come out of a moment in time, James. Um somebody who listens to all voices and ensures that students, staff, and parents feel valued and heard and prioritizes community engagement. In terms of broad base of knowledge and educational issues, this person

063has to be forward thinking with a proven track record um and knowledge about staffing schools. Um really strong and instructional leadership. Again, special ed comes up here in terms of a strong background in special ed. um knowledge about district needs um and the obligations that you have to u meet students needs. This person really has to be a visionary um and a a great problem solver. Again, somebody who communicates and collaborates with who's deeply connected to people, really loves people and is able to unite constituents focused on community engagement, communication skills, and collaboration. Um and then again the district-wide vision of excellence and innovative instruction with high expectations for all students and a real focus on excellence. Um people don't want to be swung away from the direction you're heading. They want the person to

064come in and um understand first of all, but um and share your vision uh and then and then grow wherever you're going next together with the community. Um so somebody who supports innovative instruction. Um and again keeps student growth and well-being the primary focus. Prioritizing student growth in a safe and nurturing environment. Um balancing high expectations with support for students. Encouraging accountability and personal growth. Um school safety policies that maintain firm discipline regarding student behavior. Um supporting teachers in maintaining order. Again, somebody who's accessible and approachable and visible. and uh somebody of the utmost ethics and integrity. Um committed to standing up for what's right in the face of controversy. Um respectful um honest and transparent and trust and supports staff. So somebody who inspires trust and demonstrates leadership ensuring that the needs of students

065are always the forefront of decision making. to run through those quickly. That's good. Thank you. You know, I would only add that most of those characteristics, a person can't come in here in a month and build them. Trusting relationships is something that's got to be constant work on. And um you know, I used to joke that superintendent would say 10 months, a year, we're great, and then when it's budget time, oh, we got desperate needs. um believability, reliability, honesty is really important and you can't say we're go we're golden uh but we need a 8% budget. Um how do you how do you find that excellence in a person? How do you make those judgments? You know how they say that people don't care what you know until they know that you care? How do

066you make your judgments with these candidates to know that they would put their heart on the line? To know that they would care deeply for every kid in town? Um, that's the judgment. Do they have an image, an idea of what excellence looks like? Do they really know or do they think excellence means everybody stays off my back? No. Uh, you're looking for a leader, a collaborative leader, someone that's into participative leadership, not a dictator. Um and and that's a challenge and that's what we're hopefully can help you find and choose. It's going to open up real quick. Any last questions for the board? Okay. Do you you need confidentiality statements? Yes. Okay. Um so that we can share applications. Um if anybody has them, you can give them up. Great. Yeah. Thank you. You're

067welcome. You got Thank you. I printed them. They're on my paper. You can't see an application until it's filled out, right? So, Andre, you'll send Yeah, I have almost everybody's on my printer at home. I'm sorry. So, I will email them to you. I'm sorry. I know it's stuff that I have. This is an important I have mine. Andrea doesn't have I'm okay with that. Thank you. I'll try to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak. All right. Thank you. Thank you guys. Okay. On to our next item on the agenda. Back to item five. Uh uh this would be 5B. It will be elementary enrollment committee update. Kathy superintendent report. So I'll just begin. Um March is board of education appreciation month. So we've have some items for you. A nice scarf. We

068were going to give this to you in March. It's but it's like February today. So you can enjoy the scarf. We also uh D has designed this beautiful new folder for our recruitment and for other um events and we included this beautiful lovely map of Farmington uh that was done by the town and so hope that you enjoy this. Sarah. Yes. Good. Yeah. Well, the the town did the map, but D did the folder. So, all right. So, on the elementary enrollment update, uh Dan uh has been leading the enrollment, the elementary enrollment internal group to prepare for the transition of families from East Farms to Noah Wallace. We've accomplished a great deal. I just want to recognize everyone who's been working so hard um on this uh project of ours. um you know, Matt,

069Sam, we have Brian, Zero as part of it. Uh our two principles, Nicole, um and Carrie and Veronica. And we could just go on and on with everyone who's involved and just trying to do everything we possibly can to make this an a joyous and wonderful welcoming transition. Um, and so Dan's going to provide an update of what we're working on now and then any next steps we have. I just do want to highlight how many events uh the families have already participated in at Noah Wallace. Carrie has invited them to all events and they've had some special events just for those families as well. Thanks. Um, so yeah, we're moving along and I think the process is is going uh very well. Uh currently we have approximately 60 students um at East Farms planning

070on transitioning to Noah Wallace. Um there is some flexibility with our enrollment. So we have been able to reach out to current third grade families and you know if they um allow them to make a request per kind of board policy that if they want to remain there just for that fourth year um so they're not kind of jumping you know right from there to to Westwoods if they can provide their own transportation. And so we've got some of those requests and the goal is uh probably later this week, next week, we'll be able to respond to really all the requests that that that we've received at this point. Uh and making sure obviously we're balancing enrollment between the two schools. Um you know, uh as Kathy said, really a lot of people uh have

071done such a great job. Really want to highlight uh the collaboration between Nicole Vber and Carrie Huber as far as kind of the communication and the coordinating there. They've really kind of helped making that a smooth transition. And also on a highlight, Kristen Wilder, who's our uh family engagement facility, who reached out to every family to talk to them, make sure they were aware, see if they had any questions, any concerns, and really did a great job kind of documenting that and really sharing that across the board so we can kind of look at that and address some some concerns there. So, I really want to give her some kudos. Uh so just part of that transition, Noah Wallace on uh February 13th, they did host an open house where of the 60 families about

07250 of them uh attended. They had no walls had some student ambassadors kind of give this the families tours of the building. Even got a chance in the gym to do some cosmic bowling which was a big hit. And um so they were kind of worked through there and then for the remainding of remainder of the year as Kathy had mentioned too the PTO has invited all those families to to Noah Wallace events and so even I was talking to Carrie this morning they had an event over at Bushnell at the carousel um uh the carousel there at Bushnell Park and there was a handful of current East Farms families who participated in that. So, kind of already starting that transition transition, getting to know, you know, new students and things there. So, we thought

073that was really wonderful. And, uh, there's going to be another playground play date, uh, at a date to be determined. They're kind of waiting for the weather to get a little bit better. Uh, but once again, just continuing to offer those, uh, opportunities to to help with that transition. And then just from an infrastructure perspective, uh, we continue to work on preparing Noah Wallace and Westwoods. Uh Westwoods is in line to uh uh create a prek uh playscape. Uh that the designs have all been created at this point and so now just finishing the kind of the bidding process and and and uh but that should be slated um to get done and and hopefully done by early summer. So so we have plenty of time with that transition. And also um uh we have

074Sam uh Kapatrick who's you know helping with obviously the Westwoods there but also working with the team looking at the bathrooms at Westwoods because ideally designed uh for fifth sixth grades and now we're trying to get them down for the prek. So there's some you know some plumbing that needs to get lowered and some sinks that kind of get lowered and and looking at those options that that are there. Um, and so same thing having that and we're really kind of looking to be able to do most of that with our internal uh staff to to be able to do that. Uh, and then, you know, working on the the logistics piece of things, you know, making sure that the teachers and staff have boxes to be able to move things from one location to

075the other. uh you know timelines and all those and also taking advantage of the classrooms so that you know when once we empty a classroom um you know it' be a great chance for us to be able to kind of put some new carpeting in some of them put some a new fresh coat of paint on there so really looking to be able to kind of do some upgrading there and then finally just looking to also just do some uh furniture purchasing you know um Matt Sam and myself we did a tour of actually all the elementary buildings to see okay we're going to need a a a set of second grade furniture here we might need a first grade furniture here. We have an extra one there. And just really kind of looking to

076see what our current inventory is, but then at the same time um you know uh kind of uh you like I said make any purchases for where any gaps there might be. So so really just you know moving along and once again a lot of logistical things um uh going in there but but overall I think it's it's going smooth and and all all the phases should be ready for a great uh opening of the 2526 year. Happy to answer any questions. I was just going to u mention that maybe you want to also talk about the transition to the preschool because Katie Blur has been a really instrumental part of all this too. Yeah, Katie has been great. Um you know and I think once again part of that collaboration is talking with is

077um you know Katie really kind of talking with Carrie a lot and kind of hey what can I expect? how, you know, how do I, you know, this she's been really great about space and looking at that space and trying to figure out, okay, you're happy to, you know, take this space, but some of that is, okay, so now where do I move, you know, the staff and and really being uh, you know, really flexible and creative about uh and being really welcoming um to having this program join them and even thinking about the the curricular possibilities, right, of how do how do we incorporate, you know, having the fifth grade, sixth graders kind of working there, mentoring and different pieces. So, um, so yeah. Uh so Katie's also done, you know, a fabulous job

078um kind of, you know, making sure that we have a smooth uh transition. Questions? Um I know you mentioned for the East Farms Noah Wallace transition that you reached out to the third grade families because of that one year, but I know last year when this was all coming about, there was a lot of like concerned parents, not necessarily third graders, just in general. Um and we had advised them, you know, there's a policy that they could apply for the exemption. um have we received a lot of those exemption? Like have we received a large number or a small number? Are we going to meet those exemptions or can you give us an update on on that? Yeah, so uh the the largest portion of requests have come from current third grade families um you

079know going uh you know going to fourth grade, you know, that that piece of it. There's probably been a handful of you know uh K12 requests in there. And so same thing, we're going to kind of take a look at those to see um you know if we if we'll be able to honor the requests just because of uh once again whether it's uh class balancing class sizes and you know and other factors that that might play a role. So hopefully but um you know there like I said there haven't been as many there. We we're you know uh what was interesting is from you know kind Kristen's takeaway and and you know this is the the the probably the best part about Farmington Public Schools. They're all great elementary schools, right? So, so you

080know, a lot of the families were uh and for some of them too because of the the you know, kind of the the redrawing of the maps know Wallace is going to be closer to where they live. So, some of them were even excited about that possibility of like, oh, this is going to be great. You know, shorter bus drive, shorter there. So, really a decent portion of them once they kind of process through it uh started getting exciting. And then then the open house, you know, made them feel very welcome. And so once again, anytime you have change, anytime you have any type of thing, there's always going to be a little bit of anxiety and trepidation or really sometimes with change, a lot of anxiety. Um, but you know, the staff has really

081done a wonderful job to try to, you know, honor some of that anxiety and trepidation and and and really kind of help them wi with that piece of it. So, but ultimately, yeah, there's there's been some uh, you know, requests, but, you know, not a lot. And then, like I said, we'll get those on a case- by case basis to see um, if we're able to approve any of them. Okay. And then anyone who does get I'm calling an exemption. I don't know if that's the proper term, but they have to provide their own buses. There's no bus service. Well, their own transportation. Yes. Yeah. They only Yes. Transportation is completely on them just because it's just not feasible, you know, for two or three to have a you know, kind of two bus routes

082going to different schools in in a in a you know, kind of a similar location. Okay. Thank you. I was You had your hand up. Sorry. Yeah. Uh my question was just do you have um a timeline for when you're going to make decisions about this? So the goal is going to be uh hopefully uh hopefully by either the end of this week or early next week uh we'll be able to do that because I know the elementary teach uh principles at this point uh right after April vacation start looking at you know the pre-placement and kind of start having some of those conversations. So it is important for them to be able to um you know have that information. Uh you know at the same time we're waiting a little bit because once again

083if depending on the request you get kind of determines it right if all of a sudden you get a lot more requests and there might get to a point where now we can't honor those requests because it's going to put an undue burden on maybe a grade level at either East Farms no Wallace or or so on. So you're trying to get a good sense of what that number is so you can make um so so we don't unintentionally like you said put some pressure at at one of the schools uh specific grade level. One more question. So it sounds like the bulk of the requests are coming from the third grade, the current third grade. Do you have a sense that if you're going to be able to accommodate these requests, would it be

084for all or just partial? I'm cautious. That's a tough question. No, no, no, it's fine. I know. I am I'll I'll I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to honor the third the current third grade families to fourth grade. So, you know, barring, you know, a late rush of requests or some other factors that on to be honest I couldn't even think of at this point I'm cautiously optimistic we will be able to honor those requests. Thank you, Dan. This update's fantastic. So, thank you. The question I had was around were there or has there been any challenges that were unforeseen that kind of come up that have not been you've not been able to resolve or not planned for in this whole transition? And then yeah, no, you know, uh, hats off to really,

085you know, I really want to give a lot of credit to the committee work that was done last year, you know, even before I got here, you know, as this kind of project that you kind of uh uh take ownership of, you know, the the communication that occurred at this level and the meetings and, you know, the meetings, you know, that are still, you know, I was able to watch them on the website, right? So to feel really informed about the process, I think there was a really tremendous amount of transparency with the process and so I think all those things really built built a level of trust um that that in there and so and being able to to have it articulated uh of about you know the wise and everything there. uh you

086know as far as you know you know the the interesting part is now looking at you know what I would probably say the uh you know to your if I had to answer that question some of the secondary things we're kind of looking now know Wallace actually might be benefiting from parking because you didn't realize how much staff is at prek um and so they'll probably get so then you worry a little bit okay will you know we get a little tight at Westwoods because of there but I know there's a lot that's a little bit further out you know so so so those are some of the kind of like the, you know, unexpected things, but I don't think anything that would be um, you know, insurmountable in any way or anything that we're

087we're, you know, it's going to keep us from being able to meet that timeline. Just certain things that you're like, "Oh, that's an interesting thing that I don't know if we had really thought about, but but uh, overall nothing like jumps out at me as a as a major uh, concern." Awesome. Thank you. Anybody else? Erica, I just have for prek. That's prek three and four, right? Is that for the Westwoods prek? Yeah, prek. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And what's the capacity for how many K students? What's the is it'll be uh you know I don't know what the final number is. I think right now it's going to be four classes that that are going to be there. So you know I'm I'm 99 total. Yeah. That's across the district. Yes. 60. I think it's

08860. In the 60s. Yeah. And then do we have already are people I know in the when I remember when I years ago when I had prek here at actually at Urban Abins they had it there. Um I know there was a wait list a wait list and so I don't know if that's still something. Yeah. So we're we've done the lottery. So okay. Yeah. Wow. Yes. So we've gone through the yeah the as we like to call the randomization process where we allowed you know for for there um and that's another thing that you know from last year I know it's not as much with this. Um there was some feedback about that lottery system and and the process in there and so we took some of that feedback and incorporated that and and

089to this point while I think you know obviously you know you're hoping to to get in even some families who who weren't able to get in we haven't gotten any what I would say you know the the angry emails you know just obviously disappointment but they also know that you know there's this much demand for this many spots and so I think they appreciated uh the modifications we did in that process to try to make that as transparent as possible. Uh so that's another thing that once again a lot of that work was you know to to be fair was done you know last year and and and kind of in that transition. Great. Thank you Dan. Awesome. Looking forward to it. So uh we just wanted to give a little update on the 2025

0902026 budget approval process that there there is no advocacy at this point uh in the budget approval process on our part or anyone's part for that matter when it comes to the town or the board of ed. Um but we are uh we just had our town hearing our second town hearing last night. We will have a town meeting coming up uh the Monday after vacation, April 21st, and then followed by an early May referendum May 1st. May 1st. May 1st. Yeah. Um and so Dan just wanted to provide an update. Uh our budget is at the operating budget is at a 4.65%. Um but there was some there were some changes to the capital improvement which we talked to all of you about, but we're just wanted to make sure that we were keeping

091everyone informed. Yeah. So, uh really just um you know, as Kathy mentioned, we just had some of the um changes to the capital uh planning uh from that. Um and and so once again, we when you took a look, we identified some of those areas in there, but we know we believe we'll be able to, you know, kind of um not have that overall impact, you know, still be able to kind of continue to make the progress that we want on on those pieces. So, anybody questions? All set on the professional appointments, resignations, and retirements. This is the time of year that we start to see uh certified uh resignations for a variety of reasons. And it was mentioned uh talking to individuals about the why. And by law, we do report that to the

092state. Um so that is something that we do. Uh as a district, all school districts do. uh faculty uh might be leaving for promotions to other districts uh or positions in other districts. There are eight resignations in this meetings report. Okay. Deeper learning. Uh on the deeper learning uh uh what you'll see is academic and music highlights, celebrations of learning and learning that focuses on real world connections aligned to our vision of the global citizen. All right. Okay. Um, next we're on to item uh six uh of our agenda, unfinished business. Um, a budget impact budget update. So Dan Dan. Yeah. Uh, so a couple things. Typically I, you know, uh, when I've done this before, I was kind of like, okay, really nothing. You know, it's early on in the budget process, but now

093as we're moving, um, you know, through have a couple pieces. one is uh you know not in the we'll put it not in the great news category. Uh there was a lift over at East Farms Elementary School. It's kind of the one that's right there the by the main entrance there uh that takes to the gym. Uh that one uh had some issues but kind of beyond repair. And so we're we had to put in um an order for for a new one uh at the cost of about $50,000. And so we have that set up lined up to go that'll right uh they'll come in and do it right after school gets out um and be able to kind of do that swap. We are going to uh be able to uh put that

094into our kind of major projects and and do that so we don't need to go into capital to to make that happen. So um we're happy we're going to be able to at least kind of keep there and not have to kind of go into capital. Um so I'll kind of lead with that but I'll lead to some some better news. Um where we are right now currently with budget um is we're trending well. We'll talk a little bit more with the the financials there. Uh but we're trending well and and as you recall at the time when the the budget was created last year, we budgeted excess cost at about 59% because not expecting to know where it was. And so then when we um when the state comes out in, you know, I

095think it's around November, they let us know where it's at. Uh and it was right, I think at that like 60% uh piece. a lot of school districts who had, you know, planned for 65, some even 70 were were and and had some difficulty there. And so the state looked at it and as you may recall, the state put in about $40 million for the whole state um to help with excess cost and they moved that percentage up. So that was going to for Farmington come out to be about $300,000. We still haven't received that the you know, kind of the money there and where we are budgeting wise and and feeling pretty good. um we think that large chunk of money um will um you know we'll be able to have that kind of

096toward the end of the year. And so really at this point where we're we're anticipating is is making a recommendation for uh something that actually Farmington I don't believe has ever done is create what's called a non-lapsing account. And so what that is is the the board of eds allowed to roll up to a maximum of 2% of any excess money that's in a budget and uh put that in on so it could be specifically has to be for educational purposes and you know the the thought process right now for that recommendation where where it lands and where that where that allotment is considering where there's a lot of concern about federal funding and where it might happen. this could create a level of a buffer that if somewhere along the lines whether it's any

097of the grant, you know, some pieces in there that this could kind of help offset that piece. Um if not, as we we all know, sometimes there's other surprises that that come up and this can kind of help um you know, offset any surprises uh in that in that budget process. And so, um, you know, I'm not, you know, we don't have a obviously we don't have an exact dollar figure now, uh, we're kind of looking at, but that's kind of where we're, you know, where we're kind of recommending and and and looking to go with that. So, um, that's just kind of want to, you know, as as we get closer, uh, to the end of the year, we'll be able to probably give you a more accurate number of the kind of what

098that recommendation would be. Um, but just kind of wanted to put that on everyone's radar and and see if anybody had any questions or thoughts. I would just say that by way of context, the town has been able to do this for a long time. They have like these these savings accounts for lack of a better way to describe it, but school boards have not been able to do that. And that's as a result of recent legislation, right? That we can do this now. Yes. Yeah. Typically at the, you know, at the end and um at the end of a budget season, anything that the board of education has left over gets turned over back to the town for the town to have that discretion as far as, you know, its use. In this case,

099like I said, the board of ed has the ability for up to 2% um for this non-laps account for specifically for education purposes. Terrific. You know, many of my my colleagues have this and have had it. I I would just say uh going forward, there's a little caution with a non-lapsing account. It could be used to reduce a budget in a budget year, like the next budget, and then you're trying to make up for it a year later, and it it could be uh pretty challenging. And a few of my colleagues have dealt with that. So I always, you know, would that would be my caution going forward is um it's really there in my opinion for issues with probably the three big things that are really volatile for us, which is special education costs,

100uh issues with facilities. We just had an example of that. $50,000 not budgeted. It can be much larger than that for other issues. And certainly self- insurance can be a challenging uh and very volatile area. So when we think about those three big areas, that's really what I would look to uh when it comes to this. Um and with facilities, a lot of it is safety and security and and things that can, you know, pop up that we need to address right away. but using it to then, you know, create a budget and lean on that can often have devastating effects in future years. So, it's just something to keep in the back of your mind as you go forward uh with a non-lapsing account. Thank you, Bill. Yes, Dan. I just didn't hear what

101you said was at East Farms that you're replacing. A lift. Oh, it's a lift. Oh, a lift. Lift. Thank you, Dan. Can I ask because I was I saw that in the um weekend update once and I was like thinking about it like have I seen it? I'm assuming it wasn't ADA compliant because they have that back entrance to the gym that's like outside. You know the door that opens outside and that doesn't have stairs. But is it that wasn't that wouldn't be enough. It had to be inside to go down. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, that's that's true. It has to be inside and accessible like every other even though they could easily enter the gym without using stairs through the back entrance. Correct. It would require a student who needs

102to get to that same location to take a different route and we want it to be accessible for all to take the same route. So, okay, those I I believe it probably happened when the school was uh reopened at one point and had to meet uh you know updated ADA requirements. Yeah, I was just thinking through that when I saw that. Okay, thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Dan. Okay. Um item 7A, annual audit report. Uh, as you know, we engage with the town each year in an outside audit of our financial accounts, our financial processes, and um, Beth is here, our business manager, and Dan. They'll provide some highlights of our 2023 2024, no, sorry, 2024. Wait, what am I saying? 2023 2024 fiscal year outside audit. Right. Yeah. So, I'd like to welcome uh

103Beth Habber, our business manager. You know, she does such a wonderful job. Um, you know, really for me giving an opportunity to highlight some of our staff to kind of see, you know, their level of expertise and and be able to talk a little bit about our audit. So, I was excited to welcome her here. Um, so yes, it is the 2324 audit. Um, and it was performed by PKF Okconor Davies who have been our auditors for the past few years. Um, all board of ed members should have received copies of the federal single audit and the state single audit report as well as the comprehensive annual financial report. These reports can also be found on the FPS website under finance and operations page. Um, you can click on the audit information which is then

104linked to the town website. Um, the town the auditors do come to town council to give their presentation. So, I will just keep it to the highlights which is that it was a clean audit. Um, information on grants can be found in the federal and state single audit. Um, and uh, information on some of our other funds which all ended positively can be found in the annual comprehensive financial report. So, if anybody has any questions, you know, just gonna I want to highlight and brag a little bit for uh, Beth and and Don and Kathy Sheldendrick, Dondriggs and Kathy Sheldrick. the the previous year report there are they sometimes they give recommendations the recommendations don't prevent you from getting a clean report they're just recommendations as kind of best accounting practices uh some of the

105ones are a little bit challenging because when you know they're I call them a small but mighty team and there and so some of the things are about redundancies and and there and so some of those are challenges but the year before they had I believe it was six recommendations and then this year three of those recommendations have been removed because they have been able to kind of meet those recommendations so it's just down to a few recommendations with once again just um more uh you know they would probably require more staffing to kind of create you know kind of these these extra levels that while you know ideally would be best practices you know kind of there um you know not preventing us from being able to do it you know kind of back

106to that report you know the town wants us to be able to do it at this level with as lean as possible and so you know it would probably make us a little less lean to to remove those three recommendations but as I said they don't prevent us from getting the clean for another clean audit C after all these years. Number 16. 16 for 16. Undefeated. Undefeated. I just want to also highlight Beth and her great work. She has been really the steady in that office. We've had some changes and Beth has always been the stable force. She's someone I go to often and ask lots of questions and she always has all the answers. So, I just thank her and the whole business team uh for their hard work and uh just their their

107commitment to excellence in everything they do. So, thanks Beth. Great job, Beth. Okay, I need a motion to approve the 2023 2024 annual audit report as presented. Motion second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Next up, Connecticut Healthy Food Certification. So, uh, as a school district, we participate in the Connecticut Healthy Food Certification. Section 10-215F requires participants in the National School Lunch Program, including each local and regional board of ed um to take action annually to certify whether we are going to continue to be enrolled in the healthy food certification program. and Dan's going to answer any questions you may have about Connecticut healthy food certification. Uh much of this is federally required, so it's in a lot of ways a bonus for us to have

108this at the state level as an additional uh source of funding. Yeah. So, I'm happy to take any questions. um you know as we kind of put there you know uh I would recommend for us to approve uh the healthy food certification uh piece and then uh if if that is approved then we go through and and continue with the the application process that I believe is due by June 1st is the June 30th. So, we have till June 30th for submit the the application. Anybody? Okay. Um, I need a motion. Um, okay. It's It's a lot. It's a lot. Yes. It's a lot. I need um pursuing Canadian General Stat. I need a motion. Uh, that required. This doesn't I'll do it. Do you want me to do it? Sure. Go ahead. I'm not

109sure I read it. I'm not I'm reading it right. Go ahead. Yeah. You take You take a shot. I move that pursuant to Connecticut General Statute Section 10-215F, the Farmington Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. Okay.

110You need a motion for that? Well, I moved for it. So, you need a second. Okay. I need a second then. Second. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. You're up again. I'm up again. Okay. I move that the Farmington Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an

111occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. Second. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. One more. All right. I move that the superintendent be authorized to sign the healthy food certification statement as presented indicating the Farmington public schools will participate in the program for the 202526 school year. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries.

112Thank you. Good job, Andrea. Uh, next up, uh, 7C policy updates. Kath. Yes. So, we have a few. We met as a policy committee uh, recently to go over these. So, I tried to summarize them on this chart. So you could see um three uh policy 3514.1 is disposal disposal obsolete or surplus equipment and materials. And really Shipman just uh did some revisions to this for more clarity and some small edits. Um the next two policies have to do with Governor Lamont's uh recently signed into law public act 25-1 which among other things addresses immigration enforcement activity in schools. So that is both uh 1250 visitors and 1420 and 1420A school security and safety on the Connecticut school climate policy. This is a pretty significant uh revision in 2023. The general assembly passed leg legislation

113uh now codified at the Connecticut General Statute section 10-22A making significant changes to statutory provisions related to bullying. I actually have uh a document that I just received today that just goes over a Q&A about this. Um what's required, you know, what is school climate? How do we define it? And um a lot of this is already in place in our district. Uh one of the requirements is restorative practices. We've been trained in our our staff has been trained in that many years ago and that's something that we practice. Um and you know that is something that is very uh important within the school district. It's not something we use all the time. There are many different strategies we have when issues arise uh with students and our school climate. Uh but we uh are

114in line with that already and in compliance. We already have uh a coordinator that uh within um safe schools that requirement and we also have our school climate specialists. And so there's a few changes to what we do right now, but it was a significant change in general uh when it comes to Connecticut and um how we'll look at bullying in the future uh with challenging behaviors. That's going to be that's a new term that is used a lot within this policy and within our administrative regulations. Uh the uh CABE actually was charged by the uh legis legislators to create the policy and Shipman created the administrative regulations for us. On graduation requirements, there's a slight edit to adhere to revised FAFSA timeline uh for that particular policy. in policy repeals, uh elimination of position,

115uh that is redundant and really uh the collective bargaining agreements uh really outline um the elimination of a position and how that all plays out as far as uh movement of individuals within the district or layoffs. Um and then 3510 operation and maintenance of school facilities. This is a redundant and outdated policy and really state laws and requirements uh you know are the places that we go to uh to think about those things and in our um re facility reviews and other reviews that we do like roof reviews, tools for schools. There's just countless items that we uh are required to do. I I don't think the reviews are a requirement, but that's uh something that we do in Farmington to ensure that we're proactively planning uh maintenance and facility upgrades on an ongoing basis

116through our operating budget and through our capital budget. Uh lending of equipment, this is outdated and no longer a practice for us. Lending equipment has a lot of challenges to it and um it's not something that we uh do at this point. So for a variety of reasons, liability, other things, but um that's also outdated. And there is the new policy which is related to the Connecticut school climate policy which is restorative practices response. And both the Connecticut school climate policy and restorative practices are effective July 1, 2025. So, it's important for us to um you know adopt these policies so that in summer school we're adhering to these new requirements. Okay. Um questions, comments? So, I have a few questions. So, for the Connecticut school climate policy under policy updates, there's no red line

117on that. So, is that a new policy or uh which one? Sorry. um 5131.911 and 5131. Yes, that's brand new. That's the new law that I was speaking. So why is it under the update section and not the new the it's going to take the place of the bullying one? Um so it's an update to the bullying law. Um and you'll you know we'll we'll see that kind of fades away and this policy now takes its place. This is just how Shipman looks at it as far as policy updates. Um, but because we already have a bully in policy, this takes the place of bullying policy. But we don't ever we've never had a restorative practices response policy. So the bullying policy is now like 5131.911 takes the place of another policy. It's going to

118sunset another one which is bullying because the this whole school climate has to do with challenging behaviors and and bullying. Do you know what um policy number it would take the place of? I I could find that out and I would come to the board with that in the future. I think we are this is our first reading and we would, you know, talk about that. I'm actually waiting for Shipman to give a little more clarification on it. But this is how Shipman uh categorizes policy updates and new policies. It's just the way they did it. So, we just we just did what they had as far as what they provided to us. Okay. And then it mentions a survey that's going to go out to um it's let me see if I can find

119it in within that it says like there's going to be a school climate survey for the school year commencing July 1st thereafter. Can can you explain that a little bit or who is that survey to and what what would information would be? So the survey goes to all members of the school district so families, students, faculty, staff. Uh we already have a climate survey. We use that for strategic improvement. Um that's going to be released very soon and we do it in the spring of every year and I would assume that you would do it in the spring of next year. This school climate survey. Okay. Then and then that would then uh inform strategic improvement in the school development plans and our program development plan just like the survey does today and we've had

120a long history of doing surveys. Is there a component of this where um so looking at the new one, the restorative practice response, you know, I like the idea of having something to reference and what we're going to do where I'm not seeing the other side of it and maybe I'm missing it. there's a lot of like information on like the child or individual who's being like removed or um like the restorative action for and like all the resources that they're going like available to them which I'm not in disagreement of but where do we have anywhere what about the child that's being affected by the bullying so like is that child offered these same services of you know I highlighted something that I saw here they're not limited to intervention restorative process, therapeutic resources

121available, mental health support. I just want to be conscious of if there's a disruption or whatever. I mean, it could be anything. We don't have to talk specifics. There's, you know, a whole class of students or it could be a whole class of students. It could be a single individual who also have social and emotional needs based on whatever action took place. And I wasn't captured in here reading through it. It was a little dense and I have to admit that. I don't know if I got through it sufficiently. Um ho how is that captured or how how if someone approached me and said this is what we're doing for to look at you know a process for the the the child that needs restorative action how are we taking into account the child other

122children that are being affected by this action. Yeah. So if if there I mean before this law is even in place we do that. So basically if there is a disruption in a classroom that rises to the level where students either had to be taken out or that student was taken out and it was disruptive enough that you know the teacher felt there had to be a conversation with students. The teacher can have that conversation. And if the teacher feels like he or she needs or they need more uh support then a mental health professional from our school would go into that classroom and help with that conversation or the principal uh might do that as well. So there are those practice are are pretty firmly in place. Uh I think where we have challenges

123and that was probably articulated earlier is uh we also have a very high standard here in uh at the federal level of furpa and that's always a challenge for us when it comes to uh student confidentiality and you know uh we we can't always share everything that with other families. Um, so we're very careful about that. But certainly if we felt it was disruptive enough, uh, a letter would go home. Uh, you know, potentially, but it would all depend on the situation. It it would depend on the actual situation each time. Yeah. And I'm not saying that we're not doing that now at all. Yeah, I just I'm having trouble reconciling voting on something where I feel like there's two parts to this and I'm like we're creating a policy or adding something for like

124one side of it, but I don't know if I like to your point, it's both happening now. So, shouldn't the other side of it somewhat be included in in this? Again, that's just my first reading of it. Um, I'm happy to take a look at any additional information that comes, but that was just kind of my initial uh response when I was reading through that. Um, I do have a question on another policy too that was on here. Um, the one for visitors and I know it's mostly because of um what you had mentioned. There was just one clause in there that was added that I mean this is really a total visitor policy, right? Not just for immigration authority. Like that's how I took this policy. So that line that was added that says

125like visitors upon arrival security. I'm the biggest proponent of security measures and keeping the kids safe. But it says like it was added in refraining from engaging with students and/or staff except as permitted by the school officials and consistent with the purpose of the visit in question. That just seems very not welcoming to me. Honestly, I'm just going to be honest. So like if I I'm not talking immigration at all. I'm talking just someone's in a school for a classroom event or something. The way that's taken by the letter of the law, it would be like you go to your child's classroom, you do not you have blinders on, you don't look at anything. If you see your neighbor in the hallway, you're really not supposed to talk to them. That's how like honestly it

126reads to me. So, I was just wondering why that particular like clause was added there. Well, I think it's just generally on a sec safety and security side of things is to ensure that there are some kind of uh like outlines to people because it I guess we always have to plan for the worst case scenario if something were to not go well, we would reference back this policy and say, you know, your intent was to do this and then you did this and very clearly in our policy it says you should be doing this. you know, that type of thing. So, I think that that is the intent of adding that language to ensure um you know, the safety well and well-being of all members of the school community. Um I I certainly understand

127how you could, you know, feel like, oo, that's harsh language and I I think that, you know, we are um a school district that is very welcoming uh when it comes to families. Um, but it also has to always uh, you know, safety is our number one priority and security. And so, you know, that language is in there, I think, in case something were to not go as planned. And then we can reference the policy as something that's very important and that, you know, all members of our community need to follow the visitor policy. Okay. Thanks for the clarification. Just to clarify the question about the policy number. Actually, the current policy is actually the same number. So, it is currently 5131.9. So, I got it right. Thank you. I knew they were sunsetting it.

128So, currently it's called bullying and safe school climate. So, it takes the place of it of that. That's why it's an update. It's taken the place of a current policy. Thank you, Dan. No, you're welcome. I guess I guess theoretically we could have just redlined the entire current policy and then just propos it would have just been so complicated for them to redline the whole thing and start over. But I wasn't I knew they were sunsetting the bullying policy and so I'm very happy that it was under updates because it's replacing the current policy. I'll take a look. Thanks again. Oh, you're welcome, Phil. Yes. Um I had a question on um on the restorative practice responses. Are the response times like for example if a student's removed it's notifying the parents within 24 hours

129is that based on current practice or best practice recommendations from shipment? Because I was just thinking about that like if somebody's child's removed from the classroom, I would think you would want to notify the parent as soon as possible. Like if the if the child went home and told their parent before the parent heard from the school, that could lead to Yeah. You know, I I would say like our practice is that we tell we would call right away. I think Shipman is writing policies for, you know, something happens and it happens at the end of the day and they couldn't get a hold of the parent right away. So, they're trying to give a little bit of room there, but typically, you know, if we couldn't get a hold of the parent directly, we'd

130leave a message, we'd send an email. uh we would want to and typically too if the if it was so disruptive at the end of the day typically we'd want the parent to come pick up the child and not put the child on a bus or you know whatever that might be but I think that's just uh a way that shipment gives school districts you know the acknowledgement that not everything goes perfectly every single time and there's there's some time there. Okay. Thanks Bill. I just wanted to add I think to clarify I think what um losing my mind here. Um what Angela was saying is in the policy it really talks about the challenging behavior but the individuals or other individuals that were subjected to it. It does not talk about what support services

131that they have. So I think if I'm mis is that clearly what you were saying in I mean I know we're doing both of them. It's just why do we why are we only doing a policy on one side of it? I mean there's two sides to this whatever the issue is there and I know we've gotten feedback about that and you know um yeah that that that is can I so on the policy side um this was something that was required that K write it. So I don't have a lot of flexibility on the policy. It's it's written into law that we are to utilize CAB's policy. Can can I just also comment um restorative practices is meant to be holistic. It's a it's a there is a it's a whole model. It's an

132evidence-based model and approach. Um, and it does address not only the I don't like to use these words, but the the person who bullied, but also the person who was bullied. And it's also about the culture and and so if it's a whole classroom that's disrupted or anybody who's been um impacted by the situation that occur, these practices are to be implemented within that anybody who was impacted by that. It's an approach. It's a it's a very um holistic approach to addressing behavioral health and be uh you know the the incident and um restoring the harm um and doing that in a very you know a the sort of therapeutic approach a very um addressing everybody that was impacted by that. So, it's uh I don't I know that um a few you know there

133I don't it might be good to um share some of those what that model looks like because it is a very much evidence-based intervention that is that's very specific to how to address it's not just about the bully. It's it's not it's not just about the person who's causing the harm. It's about everybody who has been harmed. Yeah. And I actually now that I'm reading the reread this Yeah. the one number 11 it does say and see ensuring each student has a role in repairing relationships and reintegrating into the school. It's a very effective model and approach. It really is and I I think sorry I'm just this um I think Farmington is ahead of this because we've done em social emotional learning. Social emotional learning is one of those pillars in the restorative practices

134and we're really ahead of that because it's yes I mean we this was something that a lot of what happens is to have the goal the core documents we have it really drives our our practices and we we try not to exclude students from school that is a state priority. It's articulated to us that school exclusion is not the only strategy when students are exhibiting challenging behaviors. Restorative practices are one like that's one of the interventions that we can uh you know utilize when a student has challenging behaviors. And when I describe the teacher talking to the classroom or a mental health professional or the principal those are the types that's what we were trained to do many many years ago and we continue that training as new people come on board because it's important

135that everyone be aware of that. That helps to deescalate issues. It helps students to, you know, regulate their emotions, whether they're the students who watched this happen or the student who actually exhibited the challenging behavior. It also reduces harm um if some harm was done. You know, it helps to heal and reduce harm over time. And so, and they're good strategies for life that students can learn. And I I know that at um one of the a really successful grant at Noah Wallace was the peace path. I used to use that as a principle in my own school. It's it's a path that two students go on to try to repair harm when harm has been done. Those types of strategies are really powerful and they enable our kids to become independent problem solvers and

136understand conflict and resolution without having um you know adult intervention every single time and those are life skills. So um you know we're we were really fortunate to be early in the adoption of restorative practices. It makes it very easy to implement this new uh policy that takes the place of the bullying policy. Uh as that sunsets and this is a more comprehensive uh policy that really articulates um some new features that we will have and then some things that we already had in place. Um but we've already met with our DLC. We've gone over this. We're going to have Shipment and Goodwin do some training with everyone. So, it's going to be, you know, well planned on the implementation of of all of the requirements within the law. Thank you. Hey Kathy, would you

137be able to just clarify just a little bit more on the on the on the training piece because you said training multiple times, right? You said when you bring people on, new people on um you just said that the that Shimman's going to do some some ongoing training. Is there like any requirements for like how often that the the faculty has to go through training? in in some trainings. Yes, the state has this is my just my pet peeve. It's why I need to become a lobbyist of some sort. I don't know. Uh but the state likes to mandate training to teachers, to educators. It's one of the things that has been difficult in the course of my career to see PD time taken for more of a like you just have to do it.

138It's compliance when it takes time away from the types of things we're talking about like we want to do restorative practices. It's not a mandate but it's something that we think is very important for our students. It takes time away from the innovation side of our work. Uh so we have many mandates for professional development. Um and you know it could be mandated reporting, it could be bullying training. We have every three years you do this, every two years you do this. So we have a whole system called safe schools um that we have to update every year and you experience some of that. Um those trainings are online trainings that each uh teacher and each staff member, anyone who works with students, anyone employed within the school district must take these certain trainings and

139they're pretty significant. As far as restorative, it's, you know, part of the induction process. We're really fortunate here in Farmington be team-based. So when someone no matter you know what certified position you take in Farmington you're part of some team and that team is part of inducting you in kind of the daily practices of Farmington but we also have school-based induction and district level induction and we're engaged in a project right now that Veronica is working on to update our induction programming because we want you know this idea of knowledge management. You want to make sure that when people come into the district with very specific core documents and a specific way of how we work with students and we put you know students at the center. We want those on who are onboarding coming

140into the school district to get really strong induction and that includes things that Veronica and Eric will do and each principal does with their coaches and then what the the teachers team does with them. And so there's a really nice, you know, wraparound to induct individuals. But it's a moment in time I think that we recognize we want to update and make sure that you know when Veronica meets with a new teacher because Veronica observes every new teacher. I observe every teacher attaining tenure and we want you know when we're having that observation and and discussion you know we're we're looking to hear about what was induction like what were the challenges you know what really helped and we did see because I'm doing four-year uh tenure observation right now you know it takes some

141teachers four years to become tenured if you're transferring and already tenured in another district it's two years. But for those four-year uh tenure teachers, they came during a very interesting time, which was co and we couldn't get the substitutes to give them time to do district level induction. It was really challenging. And so we're we're reflecting on that and we're really trying to you know think about induction and try to create some new opportunities for student uh for teachers. In the past teachers who were first year in Farmington went on rounds instructional rounds in their first year. It's like a very powerful learning experience. We weren't able to do that during co we didn't have enough substitutes. If all of you were going to be on rounds you're all new teachers. I need a substitute

142for each one of you. And if I don't have those substitutes available, which we had a shortage, I can't actually do that induction, which is so powerful for a new teacher. You know, it brings them to, you know, the district level and has them view things and it just opens their mind to to the ways in which we, you know, prioritize uh teaching and learning here in Farmington. So, thanks. Yeah. Well said, everybody. Can I get a motion to approve the policy updates listed below for first reading as presented 3514.1 disposal I'm sorry the right yeah disposable of obsolete surplus equipment materials 1250 visitors 1420 and 142A school security and safety 5131.911 and 5131.911A Connecticut school climate policy and 6146 graduation requirements motion second any further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I.

143I. Opposed. Motion carries for nay. Oh, I was voting nay. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Uh, next up is the policy repeals. Sorry, I already went over those, right? Any comments, questions at all about that? Can I get a motion to repeal the policies listed below for first reading? 2152 elimination of position 3510 operation and maintenance of school facilities and 3514 lending of equipment. Motion second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Um new business 5153 Restorative Practices. Can I get a motion to adopt policy 5153 restorative practices response for first reading? Motion second. Any discussion? Any further discussion? I should say. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Nay. Motion carries. Okay. Next up is the just one other update for policies. Bloodborne pathogens. The administrative

144regulations were updated for technical edits from shipment and we've updated those regulations on the website to reflect those changes. Okay. All right. Item 70F, non-tenured teachers report. Well, Kathy already previewed Sher previewed it a little bit because um I was going to start off by just saying that uh this report includes two things. One, teachers who are being tenured um at the conclusion of either 20 months of service or 40 months of service. So, just the two years and the four years that Kathy referred to. Um, and you can see there that there's 39 teachers, which is a pretty high number. So, again, referring to what Kathy was talking about before in terms of the onboarding and all the training that's need that needs to happen, but these are some of our these are people

145that came in during COVID. So, it's even it's even more impressive that they continue to to be with us because that was a challenging time. Um but um I also wanted to highlight something else from earlier in the evening which was just what a celebration it is to welcome these 39 um people on board. Um you know that that when he was really talking about that vision of excellence, you know, that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about teachers that we think are, you know, excellent um that we've had a chance to have here for two and four years. um that we're really thinking are um contributing to this district um you know contributing to our students um well-being and um you know excitement about school and so we're very excited about the teachers

146who are here and I think that you should just know that this is a process that happens just by time like people in the state of Connecticut are tenured by just achieving those many months in the position and being asked back that for next year. Um but here we really have a process where we ask um principles you know um you know show you know let's celebrate show you know bring us into a class sometimes I do them mostly Kathy does them but there were have been a lot so you know I've had a chance to do some of these observations of teachers um and so it's a real celebration when we go in and then we're able to talk to teachers afterwards to welcome them on board and say congratulations for achieving this um

147designation here. Um and so even though by statute it sort of acrru to them naturally um there is a process that feels very celebratory here and um you know just looking at th those names that are on there. Um I'm very proud to have all of those teachers be Farmington teachers um here and have achieved that designation. Um so the other thing that um is part of this report um is uh several teachers who for various reasons um we um we are uh suggesting for non-renewal and I just want to go over those re those reasons because it's important to know there's a variety of reasons why somebody might end up on this report. Um so one um reason would be teachers who have part-time status and teach less than halfime. So that would be

148one of the reasons. Uh second is a one-year contract for a leave of absence of a regular teacher. Um so those aren't regular contracts or like a letter. Um and so uh those teachers would be on here. Long-term substitutes who have worked in an assignment for more than 90 days uh in a row. Um and then finally teachers whom we are non-renewing based on uh the professional judgment of the evaluator. So those are reasons why um we we um somebody might be on this uh report. Um uh these teachers, just so you know, were notified that the board has a statutory obligation to vote on this tonight and they were told that this meeting was happening tonight. Um the teachers uh will also receive a letter tomorrow notifying of the decision that you make tonight,

149the action that's made tonight. So again, I want to just emphasize in this case um that I've already enumerated the reasons why the board might take this action. Um but I want to make sure that this action should not be construed in any way based on a finding of incompetence or even poor performance of any of these teachers. So I just want to specifically point that out um uh before you take this action. So I did want to list those reasons and then let you know that. Any questions? I think Veronica you mentioned it. So these are not teachers for part B that you just were describing that were going for tenure and like didn't get it. This is a se completely separate thing or is like I'm trying to understand like the relationship here.

150So when you said so it's a kind of a double question. The 39 that got tenure. Yes. Did anyone not get tenure or everyone that tried to get tenure gets tenure? Not everyone who um so tenure doesn't cruise to you by time. Okay. Right. So those are people that you know were here long enough but I was describing how we also have a process that you know elevates that experience um here. Um but certainly there are teachers for a variety of reasons that don't achieve tenure. So yes you would see um teachers on here that did not that are not going to achieve tenure. They these are um because if a teacher um once they achieve tenure we're talking about a termination. So, these are teachers. We're not talking about termination. We're just talking about

151a non-renewal here. Okay. And then I don't know what was done in the past. So, like obviously there's different reasons you said for part B. It could be a one-year contract. It could be a long-term substitute position. Do we try to if if it's obviously not a performance-based issue and it's something else, which we don't have to get into. For any of these, I don't know. Um, do we try to put these people into other positions? Is that a goal of ours or not? Those are two separate like concepts. I'm just thinking of this wrong. Um so if there is a position then that's available um then sometimes we do encourage teachers to apply for it again. So they would have to apply for that position and then they would be part of a process

152in order to um get that position but it wouldn't happen naturally for many of these teachers. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I get a motion to approve the con that the contracts of employment for teachers listed in section B of this report be non-renewed for the following year upon their expiration at the end of the current school year and the superintendent uh be directed to advise such persons in writing of this action. Motion second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. The motion carries. Section eight, consideration of the assistant superintendent of finance and operations report. Dan, so um take a look. We have uh January and sorry back here we have our January and February uh financial statements. Uh and and right now once again we're we're trending very well. Uh

153you'll see end of January was uh 21,000 and then February I think it was 7 8,000 in there. Um but we're not as concerned about that. I think what you start seeing now is as we get through January and February, we've half halfway through the year, you start moving from looking at trend data to actual data, right? And so as you start getting into the actual data, you can start kind of getting um you know u you know a better sense of how where lines are going to end and where you're going to go. You know there's accounts where we encumber money for anticipated expenses, but then we get to see where where they go. And so you you know the the January to February one you know some of those just come in where

154um once again special services is probably the most volatile one where you know sometimes we'll have a student who maybe is receiving specialized transportation and as progresses you know that gets removed and so the incumbrance that we took for that gets released and so now we get some of that money back but then all of a sudden another student might qualify for um you know um an outplacement and so now there but the The the part that's kind of also important to know there is then when you have a student let's you know I I'll use an outplacement as there at this point now the outplacement isn't for 180 days where now we're down to you know 40 so so the hit isn't as as much right so there's not these huge wild fluctuations um

155that are there and so um like I said it helps us kind of narrow down where we are and then the other piece that that you'll see um on those pages is as we you know excess cost uh grant is perfect example where you know we're starting to apply those projected revenues to to those pieces and and um um you know kind of there. So uh based on like you said where we are um and and where we are you know kind of through the actuals and and you know we still take a little bit of trending uh in there uh we we feel comfortable that that um we're we're on a good pace to to finish the year um well. Any questions for Dan? Okay, great. Uh, can I get a motion to approve

156the Janu the January financial statement report as presented? Motion second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Uh, and then can I get a motion to approve the February financial statement as report financial statement report as presented? Motion. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Up next, uh there's no executive sessions, so we'll go into the report of committee chairs, personnel. Andrea, um we have FBA negotiations coming up this summer. I know central office is gathering some information and just waiting to hear for when we're meeting. Okay. Uh policy. Oh, yep. As Kathy brought forward, we um met last Monday and um brought the recommendations forward that we voted on this evening and we'll see them again for a second reading

157and no other updates. We don't have a standing meeting. Thank you, Beth. Curriculum, uh our next meeting is April 28th at 5:00 PM. And communications, Beth? Uh nothing to report. Okay. All right. Item 11, report a committee leaison. Correct. No report. Uh Sylvie's not here. Uh and I didn't get an update from her, so we'll just pass her. Um superintendent's inter intercolastic athletics committee. Andrea, no report. Um public uh Farmington Public School Foundation. James. Yeah, just a just a quick update. uh we skipped our our March meeting or didn't have our March meeting, but it was right after the uh the trivia be had another successful trivia be um at the beginning of Mar or the end of uh February. Um the uh the group and the board um is is currently looking at at

158ways to continue to expand it um obviously get more attendance um and um and increase the funding that comes out of it uh to support some you know pretty large grants that might be coming uh coming down the pike. So, um the board meets tomorrow actually to re review um current um grants that uh grant proposals um and uh should be voting on that tomorrow. Thanks, James. Focus. Angela, no update. Cafeteria and Nadine. Yes, we just met um prior to the meeting today. Um everything went well. One of the action items uh from the prior meeting was around reviewing the snacks for K through 4. Um, so they're going to they've met, they've had discussions, and they're going to have a meeting specifically to review those snacks. Um, so I think the recommendation was K

159through one, there would be no snack, two to uh grades two, second to third. Um, yes. and they're looking at the actual nutrients in the um in the snacks and then based on the elementary school principles they'll decide what will be brought into for snacks brought brought in from out brought in from outside. Yeah. Okay. As part of their core snack snacks for purchases purchases through Chartwell. Okay. So taking a look at Got it. Yeah, you know, there was there was a uh we realized through the CAPF advisory committ that there was kind of this discrepancy across the schools. You know, some were allowing this purchase of snacks in first grade, some were allowing them until second grade. And so we agreed that they they should all kind of, you know, follow a consistent pattern

160in there. So they they met, they worked with Chartwells and and agreed to um allow the purchase of snacks at second, third, and fourth grade. Um and then the next step is really kind of trying to come up with a consistent list of what snacks that they would allow for the purchase across the the schools. How come? What's the what's the the rationale by not allowing first and second graders to go? Uh well, it was really more the kindergarten, first graders. Uh what they were finding is a lot of times, you know, they were, you know, just disregarding their their regular lunches. Um you know, and going right to the snacks and and as do I. And and I would just say I think that Chartwell's done a great job with the diversity of the

161type of foods that they're planning each month and so forth and also integrating with the FHS transition academy. And in March they worked on kind of a you know having offering certain meals um available for sale for the teachers and they delivered them and took in the money and I think that's a great way um you know to integrate into our school into our school. And then lastly I did um talk about how can they integrate the culinary here at the high school in some of their um planning in the future and they were very open to that. that came out of today's meeting is to look at opportunities as well. So, awesome. Thank you. Thanks, N. Great efforts, Marty. Yes. Uh, April 26 is a townwide cleanup. Uh, you can start collecting trash uh

162now for then. Um, there will be prizes collected from uh donated by Fork and Fire, Naples Pizza, Wooden Tap, Farm to Mini Golf, and Ice Cream, and Bollywood Dreams. And they're going to split them into categories. So family, individual, community, and charitable contribution or organizations, businesses, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Democratic Party and Republican Town Party. Great. So awesome. Thank you. Unfortunately, we won't be there. No, we have a meeting that morning. We do. We do. But that's why we can collect it ahead of time. That's I'll save my sofa. What's that? I'll save the sofa. Community council for Equity and Inclusion. America. Uh, we have a meeting on April 30th. Thank you, Bethy. FHS building. Uh, yes. So, the committee last met on March 19th and we're pretty much down to once a month.

163Okay. Kind of coming to the end basis. What's that? Kind of coming to the end more or less, I suppose. I mean, we're still paying invoices and last minute things or last, you know, final things on here on this building, but the 900 building, we expect to get a tour for the committee, I think, for the next meeting or soon. I know that Kathy has been in there and we have a better idea about the progress and but it's really coming along. It's definitely a space that we could utilize for board meetings, too. You we have more meeting space there. So that's something to think about for the future. Cool. Okay. And we meet next Wednesday. Thank you. That's our next meeting. Andrea, superintendent search committee. Oh, we had our presentation tonight from Cabe on

164the leadership profile. Um applications are due tomorrow. Um so we'll be receiving them and reviewing them. And our next meeting is April 21st. And that's that what time is that meeting? It's like at 4:00 I think. Right. I think four. Right. Our goal is try to get out of there in time for the town meeting. Town meeting. And then we meet again on the 26th of April after that. Right. 24th 25th. 24th 25th. 24th 25th. 24 25 26. Okay. Right. 25 26. Okay. Busy week. It's a busy week. Okay. Which kind of thwarts my report of the board chair. I was going to say we only have three more meetings left in this school year. We'll have a fourth meeting. Of course, when it comes time to select a superintendent, we'll have a special meeting

165for that. Uh, in terms of anything else, re really, um, not much to report. Uh, I do want to, uh, talk about briefly the stuff that we've seen in the news about, uh, correspondence from the federal government regarding, um, school districts compliance with various uh, orders or uh, regarding and around uh, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um, we received guidance from the state of Connecticut that we've got an extension of time to respond to that. That's not a letter, by the way, that's addressed to us. It's a letter that's addressed to the state. The state is charged with accumulating data. Um, so I don't have anything further for anybody at this point other than to let you know that that there was something in the news that we had to respond by this week that's been

166pushed back to the end of April. Uh, and the state of Connecticut's working on it, so we'll deal with it when the time comes. Um, I have nothing else to report on. Um so uh can get a motion to adjurnn. Motion second. All in favor? I we're adjourned. [Music]