001[Music] Good evening everyone. I want to welcome you to the Britain Board of Education regular meeting of April 7th. It's 6:01 p.m. Um, we all stand for the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for [Applause] all. Would you have President Barbara Marino here? Vice President Diana Reyes here. Secretary Anthony Kane with the C. Mr. Salvador Escobales here. Anthony Kane with the K here. Mr. Joseph Listro here. Miss Annie Parker here. Miss John Pina here. Mr. Jose Rivera and Miss Tina Sant. Those are excused. Thank you. Um just want to take a brief moment of meditation and like to ask the folks um keeping their thoughts know Mr. Marvin
002and his family please. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next we've got public participation. Public participation. I have two folks here on the list. Margaret Keelline and please um, folks, you have three minutes for comments. Thanks. Hi, my name is Margaret Keith and I'm a proud New Britain High School graduate of the class of 2016 and I served as my class president. I am also joined tonight by our class treasurer, Matt Lewiki. It has recently come to my attention that Mr. Pierce has started the process to reallocate any funds in the class accounts of graduating graduated students into the general student activity fund for current students. I am not sure about other alumni classes, but I know the class of 2016 has over $6,000 in our class account, money which we raised and were told could
003be saved for our reunion. in this case a 10-year reunion since our 5-year reunion was not possible due to CO. In my communications with Mr. Pierce, he cited best accounting practices as the primary force in needing to zero out alumni accounts. I have reviewed the board policy on student activity funds number 3403, which outlines governing principles that must be in accordance with Connecticut General Statute 10237. New Britain's policy does not specify a time frame in which the funds must be used. Many other local school districts have rightfully elaborated on legislature policy to establish clear practices on a time frame for accounts to be closed out before being absorbed by the general school account. In efforts to benchmark best practices in our school district, I have gathered the policies in a few other school districts including
004Ansonia, Ledger, and Simsbury and will share them all with you via email. The three affforementioned districts all allow funds to be maintained for at minimum a first class reunion. I would support New Britain in developing a clear policy moving forward, but retroactive decisions are unjust. My classmates and I worked very hard to raise this money. At no point in time were we informed by our class adviserss or the five principles we had during our four years at NBHS that these funds could not be maintained. I have not been privy to the paperwork that Mr. Pierce asked class adviserss of graduated classes to sign. In fact, the appointed person to sign on behalf of my class was not our class adviser during the period in which the funds were raised. I have reached out to this
005staff person to clarify and the response is somewhat vague. However, it if it is under the guise of a donation, I know that board policy 3280 states that all donations over $500 must be approved by the board and I have not seen review of this matter in previous board minutes. While I am sympathetic to the needs of current students, I do not think justice lies in taking away the money from former students, especially given that maintaining these accounts has been a decadesl long practice. I hope that the board can find a way for our class to be able to use these funds for the purpose for which they were intended. Thank you. All right. Next on the list, I've got John Bour. Uh good evening uh superintendent uh members of the board. Uh tonight I
006want to bring to your attention a matter of fairness and inclusivity. One that we really uphold uh or that we claim to uphold as a district. Uh the school district recognizes Christian and Muslim uh holidays by closing school. Yet it does not extend the same recognition to the Jewish community for closing for Russia Shana or Yonapor. This is not just a matter of convenience. It's a matter of equity, respect and inclusivity. Russash Shana, the Jewish new year and Yonapor, the day of atonement are two of the holiest days in the Jewish religion. It is central to our faith and to spiritual lives as Jewish families. Yet Jewish students, staff and educators are choose to force are forced to choose beyond their uh between their religious obligations and school and work. Meanwhile, students of other Abrahamic
007faith are afforded the uh ability to observe these holidays without penalty. New Britain prides itself on being an inclusive and diverse city and our school district should uh reflect these values in practice, not just in words. uh by not closing for these uh two holidays, there's a double standard uh in place. I understand that uh some may argue that the Jewish student population in New Britain is too small to warrant the closing for these holidays. However, equity should not be about numbers. It's about fairness and ensuring that all religious communities are respected. If the size of a faith community determines whether a holiday is recognized, then we must ask the following question. At what point and at what percentage does a group become worthy of consideration? Religious freedom and inclusion should not be subject to
008a numbers game. Further, we must accommodate various cultures and religious observances by recognizing those holidays beyond uh what we have uh right now. Other school districts such as Hurford, West Herford, and New Haven already recognize uh these holidays by closing schools. Uh, I urge this board to demonstrate its commitment to equity by revising the school calendar to include Russashana and Yonipur as district-wide holidays. Let's ensure that Jewish students, educators, and families are given the same respect and recognition as their peers. It is time for New Britain to align its policies with its values so that no student or family is ever forced to choose between their education or their faith. On a separate note, uh I want to comment on the flag policy. I don't completely agree with everything in the flag policy, but uh
009props to Mr. Kaine uh for years of compromise uh talking with different various parties to try to forge uh a compromise. Uh so in uh when it comes to this policy, I hope that you uh adopt the amendments before you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. There isn't anyone else on the list, but is there anyone else that wishes to speak before the board? Go once, twice, three times. Okay. Thank you. Um, at this point, I'd like to entertain a motion to modify the agenda. add two items resolution. Okay, sounds sounds good. We have two items to add to the agenda. If I could have a motion. So moved and second. Second. All those in favor? Any opposed? Okie dokie. So first off, um, April is autism awareness month, so I just wanted to read
010a resolution from the board. um regarding this. So whereas autism spectrum disorder is a complex lifelong de developmental disorder that can impact an individual's social skills, communications, and relationships and can vary in severity based on the individual. And whereas autism is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the United States with one in 36 children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. In the consolidated school district of New Britain, we have I believe you gave me this number. Five 557 students, roughly 5% of our students identified with autism on their individual education plan or IEP IEP, excuse me, not good at reading long things. And whereas autism disorders can affect all persons regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, or geography. And whereas there is a continued need for awareness and acceptance of those in our community living
011with autism and the uniqueness of their neurodeiversity through improving specialized support opportunities and education, employment, housing, healthcare, and long-term services. And whereas April is recognized as autism awareness month to increase awareness about autism signs and symptoms and promote acceptance of individuals with autism. Whereas during April 2025, the aim of autism awareness is to celebrate differences and build an inclusive society for individuals with autism to live fully through connection and acceptance. Now there therefore be it resolved by the New Britain Board of Education that said members hereby recognize April 2025 as autism awareness and acceptance month. Thank you. And the second item you care to entertain a motion to accept that motion to accept second. Okay. And all those in favor. Any opposed? So and the other item that we are adding I recommend a motion
012from the board to adopt June 13, 2025 as the official graduation date for New Britain High School. Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor. Any opposed? All right, we've got that. Moving on to reports. Up, sir, superintendent report. Good evening, everyone. Um, as always, we have a number of really fine things to celebrate. But before we get to the celebrations, I just want to once again encourage everybody who's here with us tonight, everybody who's watching, students, staff members, parents to uh advocate for the school's budget. And I I say this with uh perhaps all seriousness. Um I'm not one to get overly animated or emotional, but um as I've said to the board previously, this is my 10th year serving as a Connecticut superintendent, and this is the budget about which I'm the most
013worried. Um, I do very very strongly encourage everybody who's here tonight, parents, students, uh, staff members, family to, uh, very politely and very respectfully advocate with the common council for support of the board's budget as presented. Um, it's not unique. Uh, you can read plenty of stories about other districts with such struggles. Uh, unfortunately, it tends to be the urban districts of Connecticut who have these struggles. Uh, but I do hope that everybody will consider respectfully and politely communicating with common counsel about your support for the budget. Uh, and I appreciate it if if you do so. Thank you. Now, of course, to the more optimistic things. We always like to use um superintendants uh report to highlight our latest edition of the district dispatch. Really uh excellent, really inspirational stories this month. in the
014building the beacon article. Uh really nice celebration of two fantastic middle school students from Slate who are already leaders in our head rising program and we really hope that they will go on to become educators and come back and serve right here in New Jersey. Additionally, uh featured throughout and also on our social media, it's a great time of year. If you haven't already, please do get out and enjoy things like the production of curtains at the high school, which was wonderful. Music concerts, art shows. It's a great time of year in a school district to be celebrating what our kids do so well. Wonderful story on page two about our football students uh going and and volunteering at Holmes Elementary School to read to kids. Really heartwarming story. I want to pay special attention
015to somebody who received one of my coins. Uh, Miss Kushman received it at Smith School for her excellent work. But even more notable was a young name, Hunter Turk, received a recognition from one of his teachers, and I was happy to present him one of the coin. A friend of his was injured while they were fishing together, and this young man knew what to do and hyped out with his friend on his back. Really nice story of of good kids doing good things. Page six. For the first time ever, we have a first place a first place victor at the New England Wrestling Championships, and she just happens to be a female. Really great story uh about uh Cadence Atkinson. And some of the updates that you'll find that have already been on our social
016media. Um I think it's a it's a trademark term, but I'm going to use it anyway. three repeat for our marching band at the St. Patrick's Day parade. I'm not sure if it cost me $5 to say the words because it's trademarked, but it's funny to say anyway. Uh on on to the right of that page nine, it's always a wonderful thing that we host the uh unified basketball tournament. I was able to attend briefly there. Really great story. And of course um I want to extend the condolences that were extended by the board president. Um my condolences to uh the family of Yadreel Marvin and and his friends. Very sad story about a student who fought very hard for very long. So with that, Madam President, it is my report for this evening. All
017right. Thank you, sir. All right. Committee reports. We start with policy. Um policy Matt. Uh we do have three new policies on the agenda. Uh which were recommended by Pave. Uh we also have one on the agenda which is uh just a small revision of our black policy. Okay. All right. Personnel. Yes. So we have four items on the consent agenda. Three job description. Actually they're all job description job for people service manager. Finance. um finance. We met two uh weeks ago. We received two donations on behalf of the district from three parties. Uh we also did a few pers including we started working on uh remodeling the uh wait room over at the high school. We also had an update on the uh homes remodel and started talking about this uh Smith school remodel
018as well. Got some updates on that. All right. and curriculum. Uh two items on the consent consent agenda. Um if you love a teacher, construction one, child development one and personal finance is item A and then um updates to the uh history of America of course um as requested. Okay, thank you. Board reports I do want to say the St. Patrick's Day parade in Britain contingent and the band everybody was into the band. Loved the band. They were a huge hit with everyone on either side of the street and we took up all the street a section at one point in time. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was great. I would say I was also at the Ed Rising conference. Dr. Sanders was there and among it was great to see the middle
019school kids there but uh the high school kids showed up. Uh they did a great job. I was one of the judges and judging one of the women. But anyway, it was, you know, it's good to see like, you know, just the kids sort of like really into like what it takes to do a lesson. And, you know, it's like I've seen these presentations like year after year get better and better. And you know, Miss Marquez is phenomenal when she's putting into those kids and pouring into those kids about like how you're ready when how to be ready in front of kids. It's really really cool. It's a great time. lots and lots of kids. But they bring kids out as well. And I attended um local heroes program at the Boys and Girls Club
020and with the middle school when they invited. Oh my god, they were middle school. But I was so impressed and we did a few activities. They asked us some questions. But I was so impressed with the questions they asked and the fact that when you ask them a question, they gave you full answer like they knew what they want to do when they had finished high school and that whole thing. So through the trio program in Central and they had a couple of Central students cheerleader cheerleaders and then one guy who's a cheerleader and um I was very very impressed. Um, last Wednesday attended art show and band concert at the high school. Um, and once again like floored by the talent uh that's out there. Um, and I, you know, just as an aside
021play with the band as a guest performer and the music was more challenging than stuff I've played in years. So, um, definitely leveling up there. Uh and then when uh Thursday evening attended um uh Vance um and they had a reading uh what's that camp what's the camp vance camp Vance the name but um I saw miss the last one um and great turnout uh a lot of families a lot of parents out there with their kids um different reading activities throughout the school very well attended so kudos to to the events yeah I I was at the blood drive on driving and I walked through to see all the art displayed tonight. We've got a lot of talented young people in our district. We really do. Very affordable. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very talented. Anything
022else? All right. Our student reps aren't here tonight, so we'll cruise right by that. We have a presentation on school climate survey. Yep. Thank you, Madam President. So we have with us tonight um Miss Kada Solad and Mr. Ty Richardson who will take us through the results of our school conduct survey. This is an annual survey that we conduct in accordance with state. Good evening board members and superintendent Gasper. Um like Superintendent Gasper said, we'll be sharing those findings with you today. What we're going to do is we're going to go through and show you what's working really well for our students, our families, our staff. What were some trends across all stakeholders and then why we believe those things are working. Um, and then we will also share our areas of growth. What were
023those trends and what we're what are we doing to address those areas of growth? So, I'll go ahead and start with our students. What's working well? I just wanted to share this was survey was sent out to was shared with all our grades 3 to 12 students. We had 56% of our students respond. Um something that's really working well is relationships. 82% of our students believe their teachers care about them. 74% of our students say their teachers push them to think critically. 74% of our students set learning goals and track their progress. and 74% of our students regularly fe uh receive feedback from their teachers. Those were some areas um where we are doing well. Moving on to our families. This is what's working for our families. Um we got 11% of our families um
024share feedback. This was sent out to uh all parents in the district. Uh it was shared out in multiple ways. So, school climate and leadership is really working with our families. 87% believe their child's principal is a good leader. 84% feel their child's school is safe and welcoming. And 85% say their child feels safe at school. When it comes to student experience, 76 or 77% of our parents agree their child has opportunities to be successful in school. Do you have a question? Did you say 11%? Yeah. Yes. definitely on multiple languages, I'm sure. Yes. Yes. Yes. And it was emailed by the district. It was shared, encouraged during conferences. Um, and also administrators did their own communication. So, we'll move on to what is working well with our staff. Uh, here we had 60% of
025the staff responded. Uh 83% of staff agree or strongly agree that their leaders are genuinely concerned for their welfare. 83% believe their principal or administrator is a good leader. Um and when it comes to instruction and feedback, 89% regularly provide feedback to students and 89% challenge students to use higher order thinking skills. Mr. Richardson will share out trends. So trends across all of our um constituents first of all in um leadership across stakeholders for staff, parents and students, you can see that um all of us are in the 80% range. The staff believe their principal is a an administrator is a good leader. The parents believe their child's principal is a good leader and the students believe their principal is a good leader. So I think that's a that's very telling for our district and
026and what we have to offer with our leaders in our buildings. Um the takeaway school leadership is widely respected which means principles have strong credibility to drive change. Teachers are supportive and engaging. You see our staff, students and parents. Again 88.7% of students um or staff provide students with regular feedback. Um we want that a little bit higher right that students 81% or 82% believe their teachers care about them and parents 77% feel their child has opportunities for success. So the takeaway there is that teachers are seen as caring and effective. Um they create a strong foundation for improvement student and engagement and achievement. Student engagement and achievement. More trends um trending in the positive way. High expectations for student learning. Um 89% of staff say they challenge students to think critically. 74% of um
027students say teachers do push them to think. Um again this is grades 3 to 12. And our takeaway um our schools promote rigorous learning which can be leveraged to um further boost academic success and I'll talk about that a little later with our DLK um priority as a district. Overall positive school climate for staff 76.5% feel safe in their buildings and parents about 85% say their child feels safe at school. Um this differs a little bit from K to 5 and 612 when we or 35 and 612 when we look at our data. Of course the takeaway is while student safety concerns exist staff and parents generally feel comfortable um in our with our school environment providing a stable foundation uh to address student concerns. Oh, I'm still on the why we think all these
028things are so positive. Right. First of all, we want to start with relationships. You saw a lot of great information there from our um leaders in our schools. We believe it's it's them that create the positive relationships that we see happening with between our staff, students, and families. Um leadership PD that we have from central office to provide to our staff um around hacking school discipline. We model some of the things that we want to see from top down as a district down to our students. um our SEAL curriculum and restorative practices that we participate in as a school district. We have challenging curriculum. Again, our priority as a district is focusing on DO and rigor. And so that shows in our um our uh data as well. We have a common vision developed through
029school growth plans that build on continuity across all of our schools. Everybody has a school uh growth plan that looks the same, not identical with each of their goals, but the format is the same for everyone. We have strong systems and uh structures for collaboration that goes down to each school have an ECT time where teachers have um the opportunity to collaborate with one another for academic and um social emotional support. C school climate every um school has a school climate plan. PBIS. We all are engaged in PBIS as a school district um through the leadership of our assistant coordinator of school culture and the MTSS team that we have developed for the district as well. We also have behavioral support staff included in professional development right now on restorative practices and that includes BSAs,
030deans, counselors and other support personnel. So we have some areas of um where we're shining and then we have some areas where we can grow. Right? So when we're looking at areas of growth um as you guys noticed in the previous one, parents and and staff feel safe at schools. However, only 68% of our students feel safe at school um compared to the 76% of staff and the 85% of parents. So there is discrepancy in those survey results um between the stakeholders. Student engagement and enjoyment of school only 55 um or 56% of our students like going to school each day. So that's another area where we need to really address and only 40% of students believe their peers are respectful and kind reinforcing concerns um from staff and parents. So we'll see that um
031is also an area of growth coming from the parents and the staff about kids being kind to each other and being respectful. So you'll see it here in families the So So what are we doing about that? We're going to get there. Yeah. Jump the gun there. It's okay. Um so again um 69% of the parents believe students at their child's school are respectful to um towards each other. There is also an area of growth in communication engagement. 29% of parents disagree or strongly disagree that they receive regular feedback about their child's learning and 30% do not receive positive communication um about their child. This is out of the 11% that you found. Yes. Yes. And sometimes, right, the ones that are not happy are the ones that will tend to respond. It's kind of
032like those reviews you see on Yelp. Um, so areas of growth for staff. Uh, again, 56.6% of staff believe students show uh respect to each other. So that was low. That was another where it came up again where students um are not they don't feel students are respectful to each other. And then professional learning opportunities. 40% of staff are not satisfied with professional development opportunities provided. Is there a difference in those between grade levels like the middle school, elementary versus high school or was because this is overall? This is overall. Yes. Okay. So, we didn't see different a spike somewhere in a lower because this just averaged out. This is averaged out. Yes. Yes. So in what section? I I'm I'm just what you just looked at the student respect and behavior only 56.6% of
033show respect is that and that's across definitely through definitely as the grade level goes up that goes down. Okay. Right. So in our 612 group we see a lower percentage of students that say they're nice to each other. Right. We see it in elementaryaries as well though. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Trends. So again, going off the trends of what Kada just talked about, um peer respect is a major concern. Um none of our principles were happy with the results that were found here. Staff only 56.6 um believe students show respect to each other. Parents about 70% that's the highest one feel students treat each other with respect. and students only 40% believe their peers are kind of respectful. So all three groups report concerns about student behavior and peer interactions with one another. Discrepancy in
034safety perceptions between adults and students. While our staff and parents feel that they're safe in buildings, only 68% of students feel they're safe at school. Um adults feel safer than students do. That's our trend there. Uh we have gaps in communication and engagement. Only 29% of parents that were surveyed do feel they do not receive regular feedback on their child's progress. Um parents also 30% of them do not get positive communication from schools and students only 55% like going to school each day showing disengagement. Schooltoome communication and student engagement need to improve. What are we going to do about it or what are we trying to do about it? Um, my favorite slide. The state is mandating that um all schools starting in uh July of 2025 have a climate specialist. We are already have
035that established. All of our climate um specialists are engaged in receiving um restorative practice trainers. We have training for that going on now and we'll be participating in that over the summer. So that's a huge step for our district. We are in year one of becoming a positive behavior interventions and support school district. So this is only year one which is considered a lot of a planning year when we roll out PBIS to all of our schools. And um one of the key components of PBIS is having expectations for each building. And when we talk about respect, I want to say maybe 90% of our schools have respect as an expectation um in what they're rolling out. So, we really want to focus on that be um to make sure that all of our constituents
036are respectful to one another, especially studentto student interactions. So, we're providing PD to administrators, conducting walkthroughs with feedback at each of our schools that's currently happening now. And each school gets individual school support because some schools are further along than others when it comes to roll out of PBIS. Um we have the say something anonymous reporting system. I'll be doing a separate um report and presentation on that in an upcoming board meeting, but that's been really helpful when it comes to identifying caring adults in each building as well as students um sending out tips when they think one of their friends are in danger of um a life-threatening situation. We have surveillance cameras in all of our buildings. Um a focus for our principles is to create a plan to ensure they provide teachers with
037regular feedback about their child's learning and positive communication. So this has been a goal of many of our princip uh principles for the last couple of years. You can tell from our survey even participation from parents that there's a gap right now between um family and school um when it comes to certain things like some schools have higher PTO presence than other schools. Some schools get higher survey feedback participation than others. Um we've seen this as a trend across our district and there's just ways that we got to help improve um in those areas. I know our two middle schools tried um uh sessions with parents on the yonder phones and social media. That hasn't gone over very as well as we've um liked to see it. We got one more for each of our
038two large middle schools. So, we'll see how that goes as well. Um the PET committee is also working hard to address prof professional development for teachers. One of the slides that you didn't see here was that um some of our staff members feel that professional development across the district isn't um worth uh what they want from or they aren't seeing what they want from our school district. So, we're working with PDK to help that. And then we're partnering with CBOS's and um our assistant coordinator of school culture just had a meeting with CBO CBOS to talk about our restorative efforts and our PBIS efforts at each of the schools so they know how to interact with our kids moving forward. Uh this is our presentation right now. Uh we'll take questions. Um could you just
039outline the components of restorative practice as we roll out to staff right now? So right now we have all our climate specialist um and or a social worker from the school going to training to become a restorative practice trainer. So they come back and they turn key the training to the the staff so that it's districtwide. Um the idea was right I'm one person so I need a little bit of support. So they're getting trained and when they finish the training they will get all of the materials needed to bring it back to schools and be able to to train but I'm meeting also with them to debrief on each session and kind of really saying okay what are we bringing back to our district and how are we going to roll this out so
040there's consistency across. So what are the main tenants of this? Oh, okay. Right. Right. I'm sorry. So the main tenants are really like around um therap questions, right? So having mediations with the students, conferencing with them, being able to um have uh mediation, it could be student to student, it could be student to teacher, um or even admin to to teacher or student. So being able to have those mediations between them, but also being able to cultivate empathy, repair the harm. The big part of it is repairing the harm, right? Um and making sure this doesn't mean kids don't get consequences, but they have to be logical consequences that they can learn from, right? Um if a kid does something and we send them home, they're suspended that they actually learn something, right? So if
041they trash a room or something, the idea is that they actually clean up the room and then they able to get into a circle with their class and apologize and let and be able to hear the students out about how it affected them when they were in the in the setting. So, it's about a big part of it is repairing the harm and being able to be uh hold them, you know, accountable for their actions. Um, so that's a big part of it. But cultivating empathy, having a growth mindset, um, those are all part of the the tenants of restorative practice. Anything you want to add? No. Okay. I I appreciate that. Um, it sounds like a very balanced approach. Um, and the reason I asked the question to be to be frank is because
042in years past having children who are in the district who were, you know, middle school, high school, I've heard that the inconsistency comes with a consequence where kids may apologize, but there's really no consequence attached to it. And it's sorry, but there's little meaning behind that apology or making up for it if there's no consequence to hold them accountable and the behaviors, you know, the behaviors don't change. So, I appreciate the balanced approach because I think it can be very effective if something. Okay. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say a huge part of this whole piece around restorative is adult accountability. Um, growth mindset with adults have to change it. It has to be a full buyin from all the adults that's related to it because sometimes adults hold grudges against students
043and that's not where we want to be, right? So that's a a major component of it is that growth mindset for adults that they're able to look at what a student did, have a student apologize, apologize on their part if they've done something wrong, make amends towards each other in a circle up kind of environment and and move on from the situation. And sometimes for adults, as we all humans, um it's hard for that to happen. And I was just going to add it's really important to close the circle. sort of if a student does get pulled out and they're talked to, right? There's a conference between, let's say, the dean of students, they go back. That conversation has to happen with the teacher in order to to to come back into the classroom. Right.
044Right. Thank you. So, I'm aware of the training. You said there's a climate specialist for every school and the social workers. I guess so. I'm sorry. Yeah, I can I can clarify that. So, there's um a climate specialist doesn't mean it's an additional position. It's the roles and responsibility. So the um assistant principles, the schools that have assistant principles, that's the climate specialist but are smaller or alternative programs that don't than the social workers, the the climate specialists. Yeah, I I'm I'm aware that so um are there you said you were debriefing with them after the training. I know that was recently held. Are are they going to have opportunity for them to meet as a group? In other words, you you put them back into the schools to now train the rest of the
045folks or is there going to be opportunity for them to come back and meet and you know support one another in ours? No, I do hold um climate uh meetings with them. We've had about three. I think our next one is May 9th because the last um one of there's two prerexs to the restored the advanced training where you become the trainer which is in June. Um and that last one is April 29th and we're meeting I believe it's like May 9th um as a group at Slate Middle School. Okay. Yes, sir. You mentioned there that one of the concerns was the uh 40% of parents uh seem to be positive communication and you mentioned that the area is low. What steps do you have planned to increase that? Said the principles already be pushing
046for that. What ways are you guys planning to increase that number? I mean so that lies with each um school and how in what participation they had from or what situation they are in based on their own specific data. So I can't speak to what each school is going to do, but each school will have to have a plan to address what they're going to do to have more communication especially on the positive side um from their for their uh parents moving forward. I know one of the things that the high school is doing next year is they're actually pushing they're they're making sure their parent teacher conference happens during the midpoint of the um of the semester or the quarter because they want to have that that um that gap to where families have
047a chance to to or students have a chance to either get better at what they're doing or family has a chance to ask questions before their grades actually come out. So, we think that that will allow more families to come in during parent teacher conference to have a touch point with um teachers as needed. And just to be a little more specific, um Mr. Richardson, that's something that you and Miss Burllo will build into principal's goals with you as their evaluators. Yeah. for next year. Yes, Mer. One of the things that I used to do that first week of school, I contact all my parents before the kids had a chance to act up and and make that positive contact cuz it may be hard to find one later if they already met you in
048that situation where you're saying all these wonderful things about the kids more willing to stop stuff later on. So, you can do that. That just be my own personal goal with every unless to make sure I call. So I know that there are some schools that do that. The principles have, you know, within the first, you know, two weeks, you have to make contact with all parents, but I don't know. I can't say if it's consistent across the district. A good suggestion. Thank you. Yes, sir. Um the Oh, uh has a question. Um I know that only so much can be taken from 11% return with parents. um teachers and students who took it. I'm assuming higher numbers because they were like in school when they when they took the survey for information. That's correct.
049Students while they were in school and staff was afforded the opportunity. Okay. As well. So higher numbers both of them. I think we are over 50% of the students participated. Okay. And higher than that over 60% of the staff participated. All right. Were there any other I know you talked a little bit about disagregated trends looking at high school versus elementary. Were there any other things that popped out besides behavior whether it be feedback or um special ed families or anything like that that may have become apparent um nothing that I can think of. Yeah. Just curious. Thank you. Can we get her on Uh, yep. Tina, I feel like I should be by a tree. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Um, um, first off, thank you very much and
050I apologize to everyone that I'm not there in person. CJ tested positive for COVID and so I am at home with him instead of coughing on everybody over there. Um, and so my question for you is this. Thank you very much for that presentation because I was eagerly awaiting that. Um, and so I understand that I am I am trying to wrap my head around the 11% of our um, stakeholder families that only responded. My question for you is this, the separation or or how the special ed, which makes up almost 25% of our district, how was that factored in? Can you speak to that? and then kind of going forward what the next steps would be um to extend that because I will share with you that um like Annie Parker, I actually started
051the year off making sure that I made contact with my staff, but they've always um been very proactive about that. I've been very lucky. My staff actually does contact me first at the beginning of the year. um sometimes even before the school year starts and we do have a plan for uh you know kind of going forward contact not only establishing the contact but getting to know the kid at baseline so that way if there is anything that is um that they would foresee as challenging or that they have any concerns about that they are welcome to get a hold of me but um I just be able to put that out there um so thank you Annie for saying that earlier but also back to my question how are we getting them to the
052table and getting their feedback or my feedback because I know I had to do the report three times because I have three kids in pathways. Um, and how that kind of all factors in. How are we counting the special ed families in their feedback? I'm going to silence myself now so I can hear your answer. I don't think right now we have it we have data compared to the um special ed students right now. We didn't look at that for this presentation. Um, but one of the things I've seen in the past done because we do our surveys anonymously is if we move to collect information from each family, even if they have it um even if they decline to participate, that we still track who has and who hasn't done the surveys. I've seen
053it more successful to get uh family participation with actually having a student ID number attached to um which survey that the parent filled out. again, they would have the option to not complete a survey just to mark that they actually got the um notification that there was a survey. That helps us reach out more to families that haven't participated. That's just one idea that I've seen work that um we may go down and explore. But we don't have information right now in front of us for the number of special ed families that participated versus not. But like Dr. Gasper said this would be part of our um goal setting with uh schools moving forward and we continue to look for more ways to get more parent engagement. So Miss Langanger is here fortuitously. Can you
054just recount what what are the ways in which we we attempted to get parent engagement? So we did multiple rounds of phone call, email and text. Uh we used our social media platforms. We we partnered with different community partners in the city for them to push it out to the families that they are engaged with. Um those are district level strategies and uh oh in addition to sending to printing flyers for schools so for their parent teacher conference and study. Um and then on top of that I coached the um administrators and how they could do those same techniques so the message would come from both my name and from their name with the hope that maybe some families would be more likely to respond to their administrator. So, um, all families should have received
055it from both of those entities. And if you have children in more than one school, then more than one administrator, um, and and myself. So, obviously, you know, we don't like the 11% number either. We we'll continue to explore and expand our ways of of outreach, but um, at this point, we're we're making, I think, more than a good faith effort, but we'll we'll continue to explore and expand new ways in the future. Is it social media? We're doing that. Very much so. Yeah. It was even tagged. I mean pinned for a while. It was pinned. It was pinned at the top of our pages so that it was the first thing you would have seen if you went to our Facebook page. You wouldn't have to scroll for it. Um but I we tried
056this year with the the text link to families to just make it that much easier. Um and all three of those all those things I I just mentioned were in three languages. Um so we just we have to look at some best practices out there and try to get creative and find some new ways. How about the churches, the YMCA, boys and girls club, those different activities? Were those some of the organizations that you mentioned? Some of them, yes. To be honest, not not. We could be stronger in the faith-based sector. That's an area that we're constantly trying to re up our relationships with. So, if anyone from the board has recommendations for contacts that they think would be strong for us to partner with, please send them my way. I'll definitely facilitate try to
057facilitate that relationship. Boys and girls to put that on. Okay, there you go. And just one question on the survey. Um, out of curiosity, is it a standard survey for all schools in the state as far as the questions go or do we design it ourselves? We design it ourselves. Yes, we do. Okay. It's t it's taken from a a survey that quite honestly that previously we used to pay for. Um we decided that we could do uh just as effective of a job using a Google form as opposed to paying somebody else to do what ended up being quite basic data analysis. So I forget what that contract was scooter. It was it was very expensive. And what was the approximate cost per year? about $78,000. Wow. Whoa. Correct. So, uh we're not we're
058not uh stealing their language, but we we are taking kind of the simplicity of How much is it costing us? Uh that would be zero. It's costing us time. It's costing us time with these good people. Um but it's one of the contracts that I suggested we sunset about a year ago when I saw the quality of of information we were getting. It's not that it's not a reputable company. They are a reputable company, but for the purposes um and I think the other thing uh to Mr. Listro's question is we try not to have the survey be too long. We try to we try to get the information that we think is most pertinent because we don't want a 52 question survey that maybe they don't finish. And so to that point, this survey
059that we um offer every winter is no more than 10 questions. And then the one that we do in the spring is no more than 20 questions, I believe. Thank you. Yes, sir. Um, just two things if I may. First would be going back to what Miss Langley was saying before between phone calls, social media, text messaging. Did we do we know what the return rate was on each medium? We do have that data. I can look into that and compare it to other reports. Sometimes we do analyze like the subject does the subject what we put in the subject line of the different communication make a difference in terms of the open rate and the bounce back. Um we have we can break that out. Be interesting just to see like what you know
060what's working and maybe what's not. Um, the other thing was was an idea and I know um years ago when my kids were still elementary, I know some schools would have Chromebooks outside of every classroom during conferences, during um like spring open houses and kids were transitioning in. Um, and then that way while the parent was waiting in the hallway, they could do the survey. I don't know if it would improve the return rate, but if it's something that's, you know, maybe some schools are doing it to see what the success rates are. So, yes, I was going to say I'm I'm sorry. FSLs um did work like so when parents were coming in, they were encouraged to to complete. They weren't at every classroom, but they were at the entrance of every school. Okay.
061All right. Along with QR codes on the doors when they came in. How about doing some kind of raffle? Have we openly turn their survey and give a ticket raffle ticket and then ask people to donate the prizes? Do we do we have a policy around that? We would have to be careful, but we can we can we can explore incentives like that. Another question. All right. Any other question? Thank you both for presenting. Thank you. All righty. Moving on. Can we support this topic specialist? Absolutely. Lots of questions. Absolutely. All righty. Moving on to new business. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the regular board of education meeting for March 4th? Some move. Okay. Any comments, questions, changes? All right, everyone. Anyone in favor? I I Any opposed? Oh, I
062think you need a motion. A motion to approve. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor? Any opposed? All right, minutes are approved. All righty. We have a report of personnel transactions and extracurricular appointments. You have that before you. Uh it's hard to get quantitative data on things like this from from other districts. I will say though that last night I was having a phone conversation with someone who worked in another one of Connecticut's urban districts and that person's school currently has no second grade teachers. So we are always trying to do better with filling our openings. But I want to once again commend Dr. Sanders and her team for the for the good work that that they are doing. That those were not special education teachers. Those were regularly certified second
063grade teachers. the children attending that school if they were in second grade they did not have a teacher. See uh so the ctost.com I got an email forward to me today about u article on school vacancies throughout the state and I think we were seventh or eighth highest uh state and we only have like 20 teacher vacancies mainly par educators but then when you look at Harford had the highest and they were like 200 something but you've been correcting for sizes they're about five times as large as we yeah and still thinking you look at the some of the districts that were ahead of us like oh only 20 compared to some of these that were way ahead of us so I still think credit Dr. standards. We're always trying to do better. Of course,
064we want to fully staff the district, but these heart areas though. Yeah. And again, I don't want to birdwalk too much as your superintendent, but as I was pulling into the garage this afternoon coming back from the school visit, I heard a radio announcement uh an ad for uh auto mechanics with a $5,000 signing bonus. So, there certainly is a labor shortage. When people ask me about the teacher shortage, I talk about the labor shortage. And it's hard to go somewhere without seeing a billboard advertising that they need plumbers or they need uh HVAC HVAC, they need uh insurance adjusters. So, um right, the the vacancy list is always longer than we want it to be, but um at least anecdotally to what I'm able to to glean talking to my superintendent counterparts, uh I
065believe in Dr. Sanders team is is doing the best job that we can at this point. Accept the personnel transaction. Second. All those in favor? Any opposed? I just feel weird to look at the retirements and I see people my age retiring since we're the same age. Does it make you jealous like it does me, Mr. King? Yeah, but it also makes me feel old that people our age are retiring. We need to We're not old enough to retire. Not yet. All righty. I did spend some money on Powerball a couple weeks ago and you're still here. All right. And then we have item C, the enrollment report trending about where we've been. It kind of fluctuates up and down. We're slightly down from our high in kind of the October, November, December range, but
066that is a typical pattern for us. Just information will correct. Yeah. All right. Item D motion for a motion to approve new board policy P9010 limited authority. So moved. Second. Any questions, comments? [Applause] So this is one of the policies that were indicated in our policy audit. The recommended language here comes straight [Applause] from Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? I All right. Motion carries. All right. Item E, new board policy P9012, legal responsibilities of the board. Again, this is another one that came through the Cape audit and their language suggested language. Move to approve. Second. Any discussion, questions? It's all stuff we normally do anyway, just putting codifying it. It was It was recommended to be added that was All right. All those in favor? I any opposed. All righty. Item
067F, new board policy P902, public statements. This has to do with public statements that would be made by not public participation, but public statements made by board members. Again, this was another item that was result of the audit and recommended by Cape and their language. Motion to approve. Motion approved. Second. Any discussion, comments, questions, concerns? All those in favor? Any opposed? All right. Item G, new review board policy P6115.3 live policy. this we had a request to make a modification or amend the um existing flight policy um as a result of a request by Mr. and was reviewed during policy committee change. I move. Okay. Second. All right. Thank you. Um yes, it was just a simple request. Um driving to high school all the time and seeing the third is always there but usually
068it's empty. So, um, thinking, you know, it would be nice to have a little city pride, a little school pride. Uh, so the request would be to add the sentence at the end of paragraph one. If a school building has more than two flag poles, it should be standard practice to regularly fly the city flag or an approved school flag on the third flag pole. So, it could be the hurricane flag, the double uh red uh field with a black square. um or city Britain flag or you know another school has a flag pole whatever school flag they have or city flag my purpose is like we're right behind you we have the three p flag pole right behind you and we have the city flag right here correct and you may remember what county
069I was in recently I drove by and they have three flag poles in their city flag so I think it's a state of practice for not flying special event flag for example we have city flag flying I think it could be a point of pride you know kids are proud of their school and the city and could be a nice thing to go in. So you got double hurricane flat plane especially for fishing in breakfast and it's double it's not one one is the storm warning to get that two from the superintendent. I would just uh ask if the board consider for this change an effective date in the future just so that if we don't already have in our possession the uh the flags mentioned here that we would have some time to get
070them in without being out of compliance with the policy. Okay. So if we do something effective July 1st that would be plenty plenty of time. Y so request to amend an effective date for this change for July 1st 2020. Tina Tina. Okay Tina are you there? I just wanted to say thank you to uh to Lil Tony for all the work that he put into this. I'm sorry. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. All right. All those in favor. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Did we have We have a flag request. Did we not? It's been honored and that that student made an amendment of the date and that's been honored as well. Awesome. Thank you. I just remembered I already spoke to Mr. curious about that. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All
071right. Consent agenda. Is there anything that anyone wants to move remove from the consent agenda before we go forward? Let me guess. Item H. No. J, please. J. J, please. Okay. Anything else? All right. So, we need a motion, separate motion to approve item J. grant of early start CT new state funded early care and education program combining three existing programs into one seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. All right. Going back to the remainder of the consent agenda. Motion to approve. Second. Any [Applause] discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Any extensions? All right. Uh, is there any other business as permitted by law? So I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second in favor I thank you all. Thank you all. [Music]