001[Music] okay good evening everybody I'd like to uh open this regular meeting of the school board it's September 3rd the time is is 6:01 p.m. uh can we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please Mr py Kan can you please lead us in the pledge which one uh you got to be speci i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you words roll call please President Joseph L here vice president Barbara Marino here secretary Diana Rees here um Anthony Kane with the SE yo Salvador Cales here Anthony K with K here miss Andy Parker here miss John P here Jose Rivera here and Tina s thank you and now for a moment [Music]
002meditation thank you uh now item e public participation I would like to remind the audience that uh public participation each person has 3 minutes to speak to the board the board is not allowed to respond um first person on our list is Carol Lang sorry about that we are having some noise up here my name is Carol langis I'm employed by the New Britain school district and I've been employee for 28 years as a special education par educator I'm also the president of aft local 2407 the par Educators um we've had some um issues with the start of this year and I want to share that with you because I don't know how much information you have and I should say good evening everyone I'm sorry I'm a little nervous the issue was with cutting
003the Sesser funds approximately 15 par Educators were not rehired for the year in New Britain this problem was compounded because many par Educators in the specialty programs were not board Paras but were agency Paras so that left a lot of vacancies in the special programs the timing is what is a big concern for a lot of the Paras the district has known for two years that those Esser positions were going to vanished they were going to be gone um and they would have to be replaced they also could monitor the loss of agency Paras as well as board pars who resigned or retired throughout the year and the summer most displaced parent Educators discovered they would be assigned new positions primarily in programs for spe special needs students only after they left convocation and went
004to their previously assigned building where they were told they no longer had their assignment the district did not contact the par Educators until the district had a Google meet with some of the displaced pairs on August 22 second Just 4 days before they were to start working with the students the impact that we've seen so far specialty programs require staff who have been trained in toileting feeding safety care and dealing with special medical needs because of the delays many par educators are now dealing with students without that trade also students who need an inclusion par educator may only see one for a very short time if at all so the questions that the Paris wanted to present why were the delays in announcing changes here so much greater than they were in other districts par
005educators are under understand understandably quitting jobs in New Britain to work elsewhere a par educator who was a middle school inclusion paer will understandably leave for another District if in 3 days they must start toileting special needs students without training what is the plan to address these self-inflicted vacant positions if we keep filling special programs with par Educators who are trained and experienced as inclusion Paris we will continue to have people leave the district are parents being told that the district summarizing your comments please sorry your 3 minutes are up can you just summarize sure we just want to make sure sure that the parents realize that their their children are being short sheet so to speak and I want the board to realize that par Educators that are seriously dedicated to their positions can't
006do their jobs because they're Spread Way Too Thin thank you thank you for the time next on my list is Susan okay start any time okay I'm a fast talker and I'm going to use every second of my three minutes so good evening members of the board thank you for allowing this opportunity my name is Susan humanic and I'm the president of the Newber feder Federation of teachers representing the 900 plus teachers in the city I have spent the past 25 years of my career teaching English at new Briton high and have shared my classroom with many special education inclusion teachers and parent Educators so I can speak firsthand about how our lives are inextricably linked as we teach the children of the city I am here this evening to support Carol the district's Paras
007our teachers and of course our students many of whom are behind me as I speak tonight uh many of our Educators live in New Britain and they have contacted me directly and implored me to speak tonight with only 5 days into the school year it is no secret that we are in the grips of a teacher shortage which is most dire in urban districts like ours many of our most acute vacancies are in our special ed programs teachers are running on empty and choosing to resign to take positions elsewhere as we speak four make that five because I had a text come in driving here uh five key teachers and other program teachers have been offered jobs in lower paying districts and they are seriously considering leaving New Britain as a union executive board we
008are doing everything we can to retain those teachers but ultimately we are no match for job dis job dissatisfaction and dangerous working conditions I have a few questions to pose to the board which I know you cannot answer tonight first one have you been informed of the impact of these transfers and vacancies on students themselves secondly what is the district's plan to mitigate the ripple effect on students and teachers when Paris resign due to the unreasonable positions they have been placed in thirdly our parents aware that their children are in classrooms without certified teachers and trained staff to help support them I ask you this evening to acknowledge that with the current state of affairs all staff Who deliver direct instruction and services to students are impacted the children of New Britain deserve better especially
009our most vulnerable often overlooked and most fragile population suffering the brunt of these Staffing shortages daily the districts has known for months of the looming shortage of parent Educators in our schools our teachers were not told that the inclusion par Educators they they expected to Aid them in their classrooms had been switched to special programs until they arrived at school in many cases a summer of planning was wasted because our options in the class are limited by the absence of a parent educator to assist them my advocacy for the teachers and parent Educators is rooted in my advocacy for the children of New Britain if the district is serious about quality learning experience for all children then district and elected leaders such as yourselves must prioritize access to the support these children and their families
010need depend on and deserve so on behalf of local 871 New Britain Federation of teachers New Britain teachers behind me and also the par Educators I thank you for your time this evening and I hope that you explore um how we can mitigate these problems thank you thank you next up Myra Panda good evening just a translator good evening my name is I am a parent and a member at manosas who supports the Immigrant community today I find myself here um I find myself here to talk about my child and my um my my children who are attending newbrand public school I'm here to get more support and to change the type of support that there is here um for the people that don't speak English looking for more support as um as a parent
011right and also more information for the students also for our students and my child to know what to do in a new country um since she's a new or bival how do how to navigate school and education here thank you in high school good evening everybody my name is um Adar himz and I was a student at BR High School I am here because I attended new high school for a year and I experienced it it wasn't easy um I didn't speak the language and there were a lot of barriers I didn't have enough support from teachers and I want that to change for my sister and a few people that I know at the high school thank you thank you next up okay good evening um yeah my name is PE Vanessa cardoso I'm
012a resident of Newber Connecticut um I'm Alum at all of these schools right I'm just here to speak on our group Manas um we're Lally just here because we want to meet with y'all we want to meet with you guys we want you to know who we are and um would love to meet set up a meeting with you guys um some of our members are here and yeah and it's super sad that there were a lot of really important things that were mentioned and again it's not in Spanish right it wasn't said in Spanish and I don't think they right they don't know what was just said right they don't know what's going on and they should know right um and yeah please that that can be the least thing that we could do
013this school year right work with us so we could come and be more engaged and understand what is happening so yeah thank you I'll connect with you thank you thank you that's everyone I have on my written list is is there anyone else in the audience that would like to address the board approach the podium um and state your name and address good evening everybody my name is Martha Flores I'm here because I have two children at the high school and I want to talk about the bullying that the students do in the [Music] schools for example there's a kid that's bothering my my and he doesn't want me to talk about it to the teacher or bring it up to the teacher because he is scared that the other student will keep Bing him
014even worse and I want to know what I can do about it with you guys um because I don't know what to do um that doesn't only happen to my to my child but I know what happens to other students as well yeah I S my my child to go learn right and not to be bullied that is all thank you thank you is there anyone else in the audience that would like to address the board joh anyone else that would like to address the board this time right seeing none we can close public participation and move into item 2 a executive session can I have a motion um to go into executive session for the discussion of attorney Cent privilege documents with attorney Eric Bartlet uh also Mary Ellen Manning DR Sanders and the
015super and the core board second all in favor okay we are now out of executive session and moving on to item three reports uh starting with the superintendent's report good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board it's wonderful to see you again after the summer um so rather than our typical uh District dispatch you have a much smaller uh handout with some highlights uh to share with you I'll get to that in a moment uh thanks to M ler and our Communications Department for that I want to start tonight with some thank yous I want to say thank you to the board of education for having granted the superintendent summer Authority that was very very helpful um hopefully you saw the we did kind of greatly reduce the number of items that I uh needed
016to use that for because we planned ahead this year so thank you for trusting the the staff and me with that it was very helpful to keep things running over the summer of course I want to say say thank you to our custodial and Facilities Crews the uh schools look as good as they can of course the newer ones look fabulous and the older ones look as good as an old building can look so thank you to our custodial and facili Crews I want to say a special thanks to DR Sanders in the talent office for the large number of hes and onboarding and recruitment that they did over the summertime as you've seen in your personnel report tonight it's quite lengthy and uh that does not happen without a dedicated uh group of people
017in the talent office I want to say thank you to really everybody who works at a school teachers nurses School psychologists I can't L them all uh administrators par educators of course um for helping us uh open school despite uh some of the challenges that we we are aware of um school is up and running um as smoothly as possible at this time want to say thank you to Our Community Partners who were providing running everything from backpacks to haircuts for for the children of New Britain some really really wonderful stories there and of course I want to say thank you to our families for supporting their children as they came back to school with us and it was great to see so many once again at the back to school bash as the board
018is aware and and as some folks in the community and the the um staff is aware we do have a few things if if not small things to celebrate about our state test scores so it's really wonderful to see those get released last week and we see good growth we are certainly not there yet we certainly have much work to do in many uh years of growth but to go but our growth rates are very good better than State rates in almost all cases and better than um a lot of districts that are similar to us too so that doesn't go unnoticed and that of course does not happen with a lot of partk work from all kinds of Staff um we've had some struggles with Transportation this week as uh the community is where
019want to thank M Gonzalez and Mr Valerio most especially but every member of the transportation department for working on that and of course uh as I just said you have a brief written update with stories about our academic growth um I want to say thank you our convocation was very well received again thank you to the staff members who help pull that together and a lot of other nice features that you have here um Miss Langer has done her best to make it interactive for you there are some QR codes that you can scan if you haven't seen some of the news coverage I guess I would also just give a very brief uh remark I know it's later on in the uh agenda in in your packet um we're seeing what we think might
020be some enrollment growth and at this point it's just anecdotal because enrollment numbers won't be official until October 1 and then verified on October 15th but um in speaking with Mr uh Pierce at the high school last week based on where that school currently is and how he predicts based on past to see it grow most notably in October and November he suspects that the high school might reach 2500 students this year um and also anecdotally from Mr procop looking at uh some of our enrollments he's seeing less of a dip going into sixth grade which might indicate we don't know for sure yet but perhaps that indicates a few fewer people choosing Nik schools over our own so that's just anecdotal at this point but um I wouldn't be surprised that when the official
021data comes in that we do see a little bit of an enrollment BM and and I would choose to interpret that as goodness so that's my report for this evening Mr one of my concerns is always that high school being too large and people are always saying well it could handl doesn't have as many it it's Peak and I think it it's peak in the past it was only like 2200 students no it was over 3,000 3,000 so now you're talking 2500 so it sound like it's creeping up there again so as the board might remember I was a visitor to new Bron high school at its peak in in 2006 when I was here for an accreditation visit and it was legitimate that that passing time was not enough time to get from one
022end of that school to the other and and if the kids were doing everything they should and and not Dilly Ding and not chatting to friends it was legitimately hard because we that was a concern we saw back then and so we some of us took out our stopwatches and tried to walk it so um yes I know it's had that many kids at it but would you want your own child in that school with that many kids in he actually had to go outside in order to pass to go to the other end of the building because she couldn't get through the doorway right there were times there was sub teach and learn the crowd would push me and my me push me the crowd was so big yeah it was too big for
023me it was very akin to like a a New York City subway at rush hour like a concert or a concert yes so call it the mall at Christmas yeah right yeah back so the board's engaged in strategic conversations right now about uh what the programming is you want for new Britain's kids and how the buildings are going to serve those programs and you know what we'll see again this is anecdotal at this point these are guesses from Two Gentlemen who have worked here a very long time um but it's possible that we might see that bump whether or not it's due to the magnet schools we're not sure yet again but um it it it can factor into those strategic conversations that we're having about how the board wants to implement its programs and
024and use its buildings okay none of them had it as bad as us D I'm just saying that you guys all had a chance to walk one foot in front of the other over there we were there in the early 90s when we all had to hustle like push people out the way against class just but which is why we're strong to be sering I started through teaching in the '90s in this SCH I remember like I said no not a substitute teacher you were able to sit in a chair we all had to hustle from class just saying I would I I would have to move the hallways the hallways were all uphill just my mother uh you missed me by a year I I was an 89 boy so I was out of
025invting now I guess I just told you my age started High School started I started High School you're younger than Dr G for oh I didn't say that all right moving on to committee reports uh there I think was only one committee that met um and that was policy finance and finance and finance okay yeah we met in June after the last regular meeting we addressed a couple more mandated policies that are in here they were loow hanging fruit really um and not intertwined with anything else like what is left on the mandated list that came reviewed before so we will be get cracking on those again shortly yay happy so really in the water Finance uh Finance met two weeks ago um we discussed um the upcoming renovation pass renovation to Smith School and
026the addition of a pre facility at Smith School we looked at some architectural drawings discussed uh do we want to have two buildings at Smith Smith campus do we want to have one I want to call I really want to call it one one large building but maybe two buildings with a conne connection together we looked at all the the grounds how laid out and in the end we kind of I don't say recommendation but we are putting forward the one large build one large complex with the two separate buildings connected by one because it made more sense for uh HVAC and some facility U Staffing sta well staff staff about custodia a lot of the behind of scen stuff made sense to have it as one big building um I express some concerns for
027the ground itself cuz you would lose some of the green space but they assured me that or be uh losing in some green space they will be making up for others um and the biggest concern though was parking one the um as somebody who's visited that school quite a bit and is a serious concerned about parking and buses because the way the school is currently set up is you are competing with buses back and forth and the way that the architectural design is going to be is buses are going to loop around yeah so it's going to solve a lot of problems we have with um the ground itself once this building is designed and we also discussed um our Cent swing space concerns do we have thank you any board reports um I have
028one I always try to be positive in board reports but over the summer I did have to um try to sign um a friend up for um adult education and I have to say I was not thrilled the process every time I went to a try to enroll them um I was just simply given a QR code and the QR code just basically brought me to a flyer no what's the information no sign up online not even where the classes were or any costs were involved details just a QR code to a flyer and then when I called up for information sign join us on Facebooking to see when classes start that's it um and then because he doesn't have Facebook I had a joint on Facebook and because I was traveling about the summer
029he end up missing classes the sign up period for classes um the process itself was I thought was very behind the technology scenes um I I'm still getting emails from 2014 when I assigned went to one enrollments that year from from un St Joseph's for master degree program for card I filled out and I'm thinking for some of the um our adult education students who are really trying a second chance in their lives we want to be encouraging them not just hand a QR code hoping that they follow up on their own why can't we have a database where they you know we take the information down and we follow up at a later date with them take their information down and have them sign up online and then we contact them in the future
030do everything we can to encourage them and I found the whole process very discouraging even to buy the to get a copy of the G all need is the G g d so I'll just go on gd.com and take the test online and see if you need see if you even need to come to us no sitting down offering help suggestions and then to buy the book we had to pay cash only because you quote the board doesn't that's the only form of payment the board lets us do so two things I hope you'll you know encourage your friend to reach out to me when they have that much trouble and um it's not true that we only accept yes in fact when I mentioned it when I said I know that Mr Richardson will
031mention that to Mr fer tomorrow thank you for reporting that yeah because as I said maybe the board could change it oh you know anybody in the board oh yeah I do know somebody in the board her whole tone changed I mention the board member I thought from a boss so I'm sure that Mr Richardson will mention that to Mr F tomorrow thank you anyone else missing I try I try to Loop in the positives you get a positive here we go I had a fun time at py orientation so not just that all the community stuff and all the wonderful stuff that we did out in the community let me just tell you that Mr rocket made it exciting and fun and included for all of you who know that I drink nothing but
032coffee normally made me a cup of coffee as payment for translating for the families that were left behind you know like kind found their way over there to the center area while he was doing the second wave of the orientation cuz he did two waves back to back so wave one and we were out there and hustling and then I found out the people undercover low key that actually do understand Spanish because we were able to help out families by right here right here and point and take them over there and that was fun and I actually enjoyed it um just getting to know them and they were bringing you know like the older kids that have gone a plasy and the young we had so much fun and the coffee just listen for coffee
033I will do whatever and translate whatever you want in a couple languages I'll Google so they made that so much fun so we got to sit in and he um was talking about the things that you know what and to see the staff and be able to connect with the students and the families and that's really what I do it for I want for our families to know that we are also in District and you know invested I have my kids in school School District we all have families that are tied if not that we went to and that we are here and want to hear what they have to say so I don't call somebody a stakeholder no there are families whether or not it's an aunt raising or a family friend you're still
034coming to support your student I want to be able to do that and then also just encouraging um everyone this is the New Britain Herald August 27th 2004 and it is our mayor Aon Elizabeth Stewart speaking about building education here in the city of New portain the only reason why I am pointing this out to because that is a testament to the wonderful relationship she has with Dr Gasper um and I'm not he doesn't even know I was going to say this I'm just saying that this is really she served on the board before becoming um our city I want to say our city manager she's our mayor but being able to actually take a look at that so pull that up building the beacon of urban education here in the city of New Britain
035and constantly encouraging our education and our families to be able to to speak um to us and be able to actually make that connection last and final um I just wanted to thank you for making it even while I had Transportation issues thank you very much for making it um very easy and seamless for my children to start school this year which are at New Burton High School so thank you very much as an IND District parent I just want to say that okay and we're going to do a petition to make you greeter for city of New oh my God I just oh that was so much fun it was me and Gibson Gibson low key was like ah see 100 oneing okay so I was like screaming out in Spanish he was okay
036I'll take you over there so he was reading their schedule they printed out their schedule and he was loved it that was so much F send a letter to the mayor ask next time send Gibson Barbara was right there listen we all had a good laugh because we had families that were actually telling us about their experience here and watch come the only thing was next time I made an not next time we need to make sure that we have like a PTA a PTO but it first time I like Lov it hey anyone else reports just really quick um I was really happy to participate in the first day of school I went to two different schools where I have family and um d r did a great job with their kindergarten entrance and
037a big background where the kids could take pictures and it was it was great and I saw our Deputy um superintendent Ed Smith um so it was wonderful seeing all the families and the happy faes first things go yeah the the back to school bash at w Hill was amazing there's just thousands of kids and families there um Community organizations all the schools represented um and then there's other back to school there's so many back to school events that happen um it's pretty amazing what the community puts on um and all the donations um so this time of year is just really special um there's a lot of great energy um and then yeah the first day schoolers I also participated but I wasn't visible to the public I think someone in the audience might
038know why um were you dressed as a vegetable what were you close close he was a great fuzzy okay it was it was a lot of fun um as it always is um and then I just also want to mention I'm really looking forward to having our student representative back on the board yes they're coming we're we're going to make that happen one way or another because it was so valuable for the board I think last year um we learned a lot we were able to implement some of the things um some of the ideas they had so um hopefully next month we can can have three individuals for no you um on that I do have some inside information so I know that that's there's more students who expressed interest this year um apparently
039I guess maybe then years's passed so that process is happening as we speak great um but uh also I know fall sports are starting up at the high school um encourage people to go out support the teams the bands the cheer leaders uh first football game home game next Friday evening at the high school um and uh the parents get involved um just please any way you can PTO ptas whatever's at the school um be involved in your kids education as much as you can I I was just going to say um the one thing I would like to see if it was possible at some point because there are some models of this that exist on the school districts is I know we have the high school kids but I wouldn't even mind seeing
040an upper middle school kid you know of of you know the right steel so to speak who's willing to do it to try it um I think the more we do that and that's good to just sort of get those that age group sort of connected I mean we have our we have our I just think that you know the Middle School sometimes for us are a little bit of a unknown you know area because we don't hear enough about what's happening with with with that area of kids and again you know there's concerns about certain schools versus others I think just if we could reach down maybe to an eighth grader that's going to be transitioning in nth grade or something like that you know it's a wonderful idea but I think it's actually
041described in policy though the student the student Board website I think they I think they may policy but we know we know we have someone that can work on that well you folks can change policy you folks can change policy when you choose to policy there's 5,000 just do 5,000 one yeah right yeah we're already doing five grand it's a wonderful idea but just like yeah heard of it in other districts were they also incorporate something school kids either that or some type of listening session where we can talk to them and hear them out any other board reports football fundraiser Friday sorry wait now when's the first game again next Friday so fundraiser this Friday first game next first Friday I think that's a girl spot is there but there away first football is
0426m all right moving on to item four um clim programs spal so as Mr spalon comes to the podium um as the board's aware you're this is the way in which your job is very similar to mine and we we have Sometimes some incredibly difficult decisions to make as things evolve since budgets were made we we have to make some difficult decisions so uh there's a presentation tonight by Mr Spalding that um is important that I do support but it's also one that I'm sure will generate some questions good evening everyone you hear okay so I'd like to start the superintendent mentioned the number of students at BR High School toping potentially topping 2500 right now in special education students with IPS in this District both in and out of District including magnet schools we're
043over 2,600 those are the official numbers um which brings me to what we're going to talk about with respect to client um right now our children with autism or almost we're almost at 450 and more than half of those are in a program um I want to bring you up to date on some changes that have occurred with with respect to students who are in the uh between 18 and and 22 years old so when we last met we were required to provide special services Transitional services for students between 18 and 21 um there was a lawsuit so a couple years ago uh where the state was challenged they were not following the federal law and they were required to provide those services to 18 to 22 last year legislation was introduced which required um
044a child who has a young person who has their birthday after July 1st the 22nd birthday we are required to provide those services for that full school year so if Mark's birthday is on July 2nd and I turned 22 we get almost another full we have to provide another full year of services so what that means is for many kids who are in our clim program our Pathways program at the high school for instance students who will need this level of support and by law we have to go we have to propose transition service we have to go to PPT and have those conversations for some of those kids potentially we will have them four five and even six years Beyond High School okay what I am proposing and what the superintendent just alluded to
045is our current model is unsustainable right now we are providing students $6 per hour and and a job site where which is part of their education so legally we are not required to to provide to pay for those Services those kids are techn those young people are in school um most of the districts in this area are not providing any dollars so for instance Harford isn't um Newington isn't um I if you have a if you have your information in front of you'll see some of the districts that are some provide a mid a Midas stien such as Southington which is $1 a month originally we thought this was a good idea that it would help with you know with respect to learning banking skills and things of that nature but looking at this now
046and where we're at and the numbers that I anticipate coming down the pipe again I don't think this is sustainable Let me Give an example for instance right now at the high school in the key program I have 43 students that that are there right now that will be moving into into clim and in the next year or two I have 60 students in the path Rise program so that's over 100 at the elementary school in key alone right now and k k through 5 there's 126 key students alone so our numbers are just going to continue to grow so think of it for instance like a four-lane highway going through a center city where now we're going into two lanes through a center city which occurs in many places we're going to bottleneck we
047are going to need we are going to need to support these kids in a different way and so what I think is a better way for these children for these young people is more more Staffing more adult support more coaches all right so we've just entered into a program with CW resources here in town which by the way water bear used for years as their sole support for kids um for transitional services we had client so we have partnered with them we now for instance kids who are are very are very you know have extreme needs for instance who can't be supported in climb and I provided some information on on on the program um we've partnered with them where um they will be able to support these students at a fraction of the course
048about $18,000 a year we only get charged when the students are there so if they're absent we don't get charged we provided one of our job coaches to go over there they provide a job coach they work with them in different capacities um many of these kids stay on board as adults later they transition into DDS Services if they do do need some um job skills that they can go back into the community we can provide it that at Clin so it's a it's a really economical way but it's a better way for the kids because it helps transition them into the community after they leave us and it gives us another another uh you know slot on the Continuum to give kids support where right now um for like I have about five kids
049right now that if I didn't have a program like that I'd be out placing them at about 90 to $120,000 a year some even more so so so um what I'm what I would recommend is that we either totally um remove this you know the $6 an hour um and either go to a very nominal stien um that would be my recommendation I think um our our resources would be better spent supporting kids with actual staff who will be able to assist them so that's actually in tonight's uh packet for for your Bo so the the the job post that's found later on in your packet um as a new position request this is exactly what we're proposing is a savings on the wage side for these students so that we can afford to to
050buy to to to pay an additional job coach to support them so we're not taking from one we proposing taking from one program to give it somewhere else it's really a level of support that we want to increase and given the tightness of every budget in town um this is again it's not a proposal that neither Mr staling or I enjoy making right so we're sometimes we're forced to propose to you things that we don't like but that we think are necessary uh I have something to say sure first of all CL was designed for a totally different client J from what you work now it was we had three PRS that has we want for school that was over we had another that was a classroom base where they went a couple times and
051then we had CL which was our lowest functioning student so when you Chang things and you added in this other group it made it a lot larger than it should be and we were given sement before when CL was written as a grant it included a s for those kids and that money it was a small amount it was $3 but that meant a lot for the kids they got paid and they could buy whatever it was could buy with sometimes they help out their families too so I think we really need to separate that group of kids and the ones that you're putting in with them now there two different Beast you got these very low fate kids and then you got the kids from the outside placement they need more of a medical
052type of setting that's different from what clent is so to take from these kids and then to add another job Co a job coach can only work with so many students and you're saying it looks like the numers are going to grow I I don't know I I think we're going diservice to those kids there are not many programs that we have that help benefit those kids and that one program that we've had for many years and we figure out how to pay it so when we raised it to $6 and we add a lot more kids then it was bound to so let me I can answer something if I may just to clarify for the board please with is fing the students that are going to climb now are in essence we have
053a legal obligation to provide those Services it's not as though we can choose keep some of those students back at the high school or unless they're in an out placement I would assume correct so you know at at Once Upon a Time Klein was very selective of who they were um accepting into the program all right um when I came on board correct but we and Tony Ritter is here and I'm sure she'll concur that um we have a leg legal obligation to provide transition Services based on their need regardless of the disability we have to have those conversations all right many students were able to graduate even kids with on on the autism spectrum but clim was not accepting all the students it should have been and it was and it would potentially put
054the district at liability if someone would challenge that and right now clim we have clim higher which supports high functioning students we have we have a kid right a student right now um at a community college we have a student who is at the college at the University um auditing classes um and I agree with you that we need to grow the um Continuum so for instance there probably should be something at the high school we need to have those conversations where some of those kids could also go to be part of those same sites that the clim students are going to we need to do that the way it was run before I will argue that it was not done in the best way and that's why we um stop that but that doesn't
055mean we can't look at that again and we should look at it again but with respect to this um our numbers are going to continue to grow we don't have the same numbers that we had 5 6 10 years ago we just don't and we have to be able to provide more opportunities for them and um and again to the superintendent's Point um you know I I I'm going to be coming forth with a budget in the next month or so and part of that is going to have a conversation of probably growing staff at client because of the number of students that we anticipate going in right now the numbers changed a little bit since the proposal because some kids um were discharged but right now we have 30 students I'm going to guarantee
056you that will go up at least 10 to 15 and I have 10 students in the high school right now that because of their disability would not be able to be supported by the client program so this program at CW will help facilitate that otherwise those students go out to places like oakill Etc like that so I agree that we need to have more in the Continuum um but clim is actually supporting more students now as it should have been probably earlier can we still offer a stien and job coach so I'll be honest so again if we were to do something like our neighbor Southington something like that a small stien we could probably do that um but again so right now if we were to do a stiens based on the number of
057students we have right now if we were to use the let's say the stien that they're doing at Southerton that would be $4,500 this year if the program doubles next year that would be you know over 9,000 right now job you right now um I'm down a couple I have to get that for you I don't have have to top of my head um I'm down two at the moment the thing about the job coaches too is you know we can pair them up with students so depending you know depending on the site you may have one job coach with several students it's not like having a par it depends it also depends on the work site and what they're doing and kind of support they need so you have the job coaches and you
058have par too right not at the client at the job coaches and and we've had in the past where students had significant needs I've had again again it's depending it depends on the students's disability I had you know I had related Services we had speech services for some students we've had you know we have social work services for some of those kids which that didn't exist before I brought those related Services into the program they didn't exist now they do so again it depends on the indiv individual I of the student is there a ratio you have to have student to job coach it depends on the site you know it depends you know like the soda company it's just one at St Leonards it's a couple more it depend again it depends on the
059site that they're working in and right now we have three teachers only and that's okay for the moment but that you know again with the numbers that we're anticipating we're going to be coming back to this board um asking for additional support because as as the numbers grow we're going to need additional staff to support support those CH those young people they're not children they're young adults sure I'm just curious because I'm I'm hearing your side mhm and I trust your side plus I also hear what DDS and you know for a fact that I get on Transitional services and almost kind of like CU I have to buy in here and here in order to make sure I'm making the best decision for my child children cuz I have three and path [Music] when
060you hear what DDS tells you it's not matching up with what I can hear you logically saying here so then I have to ask myself then what are we doing to chase DDS for them to be able to better support you in your help in you're helping the student because to me you're providing a form of vocational support right it's like on the job vocational support that's part of their education that they're going to continue to get which they need they clearly need but how are we chasing that so since the law has changed DDS is is pretty much Drawing the Line in this hand if a if a student or young person is severely impacted so anyone let's say under a 70 IQ for instance along that we are going to be they're going
061to be required to educate that child now there are others that you know depending on the data we can push back on those some of those kids can go into vs services and and the program that you know so CW for instance resources some of those kids are some of the most impacted kids a lot of the people that work there as disabled adults get DDS services so it's a really good transition in that instance right um but we have students now right now who I know of who are actually you know part of the client program going to work sites they're also have part-time jobs and fast food restaurants here those are students that probably don't belong in clim so we're going to have those conversations right because if you are able to if
062you're employable right if you're employable that's part of the three pillars of of Transitional services right you have um um you know work all right uh postsecondary education and then independent living right and that's what clim is supposed to be it's supposed to work in those three areas if someone can demonstrate that they are employable then they're employable and then we have those conversations DDS is not going to get involved with those kids because they can go out and work maybe BRS and we would hook those kids those students up with BRS we have those conversations um but DDS is different and for those students who really need that level of support they will be with us until their 22nd birthday or Beyond get some sort of compensation back from DBS are they able to
063offset some of the expense they they will not they will not they won't at all period so by we had these are these are conversations that you know we've talked about superintendent an excellent question it was basically a passing of the responsibility correct from a state agency to each local local school board when they oh no no their their their commissioner didn't stutter and it was the same question with right less F words and M Mr will corre me where I'm wrong but several years ago it was a we the state interpretation was upon the 21st birthday and then it changed slightly to the at the end of the school year of the 21st birthday correct and now it's expanded even further to uh to the the school year in which or theal year in
064which the 22nd birthday occurs and and unfortunately no there was no additional support or funds coming to local boards said so you're on exactly the right uh path but in our interpretation the state agencies don't care what I'm being told as a parent is that you are being supported and I know that that's not true because I ask questions that we would we would concur no now it's not that they don't support us at all I'd send you a Christmas card too they support you when when we go from you know several years ago where these Services ended again according to the Connecticut ction upon the 21st birth day even if that was in the middle of the school year to now the complete fiscal year of the 22nd birth day it's potentially twice as
065much Service as some of these kids maybe maybe were getting and uh without having seen the documentation that they are quoting I think Mr scalding and I would disagree with anybody at the state who says we're getting a conditional supporter services when the law basically passed on an un has a guy that's actually saying repeatedly and a chick at the local level who saying it repeatedly and I was like no Mark didn't say it sorry not good when the when we received the the when the new law came down with respect to um you know the 22nd birthday going beyond that Beyond you know as the superintendent just described you know we were told um by a high ranking member of the Bureau of special education that we could probably find those dollars in our
066Ida Grant however ours pretty much all of it pretty much all of it is now um slated for personnel and so you know and you know and I think as a as a district we probably should be going down to Harford and and testifying and and um at some point in the future we've had that conversation we'll be talking to Dr Gasper about that but um again our programs are growing and I think this is a a smarter way and a better way to be able to support more students with the adult support and and certified staff that they're going that we need now and that will be meeting in the future in the next few years so just to kind of bring this back so you know with regard to some of the remarks
067that were made a public comment earlier we do our best job that we can planning 18 months ahead when we build our budget these are needs that have changed somewhat recently over the summer they continue to change so we don't like coming to you with proposals like this on your very first meeting of the school year but the needs are changing and and we have a duty to address them and and our duty is to present these things to you so what Mr scalding is requesting and I'm supporting is that the board consider taking action this evening if you take no action then the student compensation will stay the same $6 an hour however I'll say the the followup from that is um and the staff here will back me up I'm working on training
068all of us to say we no longer find money there used to be a thing in these offices where we found money there's no money to find so if you choose to to keep the student conversation the say I will tell you the job coach is necessary and it's necessary because if we didn't pay for the job coach we'd be paying five or 10 times as much for out Chistmas so that'll Le Mr Spalding and I to look at programming and find a cut outware that is uh perhaps more palatable um again that's why I gave you the preface the introduction to this topic that I did neither Mr spaling or I enjoy or like or want to make such proposals we have the hard job as management to propose stuff that we hate but
069we think is is what's needed to to carry things forward so the the action we would ask you to consider tonight is again if you take no action the student compensation will stay the same the other two points of action would be in the data that you have in the handout some districts have no compensation some districts have a very small amount per hour some districts have a stien of source that's based on monthly or or or annually and it's because we want to take those monies and put them back into services to these same kids just in the different can I just um say this and and I'm sorry just honest to God real quick so much of this is about the compensation in the dollars but at the beginning of the conversation was
070really the students and the families right and that part of it and making a decision because ultimately you have to have ppts around it I would like to see that this conversation happens earlier on when your child is legit walking into this program coming into a Pathways program as a nth grader we need to be having these conversations so that way if in future we ever need to drop down the the compensation amount in order to be able to afford the additional staff that we need it's not sticker shock because as parents we're ready for it it's almost crickets when you're in there saying what is it going to look like and staff looks back at you and goes well we'll have to wait and see we'll have to wait and see I'm like listen
071you know Fair fact the kids walking in the door special needs needing all the support I would be okay with there being a drop in the dollar amount of compens and this is just me personally as Mom because I know what it costs because I've asked those questions our other families may not know how to ask those questions but it's okay to them to be able they're not going to know how to but we need to be able to give them something but we know we can't keep giving them $6 knowing for a fact that we have more kids that we need to be able to support and the staff that we need the specialized staff that we need to be able to provide them with I want the coaches I just can't I don't
072know I don't know I I guess that's along lines of the question I had I it's it it's I understand the business of it and and the need of it the part for me that's a little difficult having gotten cornered at the grocery store and the whatever all else and what the hell are you Bor with the board thinking about this you know this is something that's been here has there been any kind of conversation with the families of these students that are getting these funds currently to say hey here's the tradeoff here's the whatever I mean you know we can sit here and make the difficult decisions it's an excellent question I'll give you a direct answer the answer is no because it's it's board action and and we're not in a place to
073or at least I don't like to talk about about hypotheticals with people before before we know and again it's a it's an excellent question for the elected officials that's why we're bringing this to you tonight I will say also um about not quite half almost half the students this in the program right now are knew so there's no expectation they don't even know that they're going to get paid those were conversations that ever occur so it's kind of the ones that have already been there and I suspect some of those students would probably leave and go into the workplace um you know at that at some point um some not all a few a few that's all well and good and I but I agree with you that but it's it's something I guess it's
074the I'm I'm Focus having gone to orientation at blasy and whatever and and meeting families and talking with families and we keep talking we've had conversations about bringing families in and the parents and so that they understand it's I don't want to make a decision on something that excludes them having the knowledge up front um it may very well be a nonissue and and that would be great but I I guess for me to be able to make a final decision I'd like to know that families are aware people are aware that and and again could be a nonissue but I'd like to check that off my list before I get qued at the grocery store again saying you're not paying my child anymore you know my child's I'm not getting this anymore yeah I
075mean for us it's a small amount of money but for them it could make the difference other thing right other thing is you said you're not sure if there was some opening for the coaches that there may be two opening why are we hiring someone if we can't fill what we have already and do third thing let me just say this the third thing is I'm I'm okay with luring it but to like just cut them off like that you know I I just don't think that's right to do that so yes we do have openings but that doesn't mean we don't have a need and we will fill those openings but we we anti again anticipating the number of students that we have which is more than last year anticipating the need for a
076group of students have really you know High needs that are going to need some additional one so these students here you have one person who will be supporting them in this program a partnership that we have with CW if those students were outplaced most of those students would be getting a onetoone par in whatever program so a couple of these students would be slated for kill I that's a that's a year round program and we get build all a cart for every service and so in that instance we would be getting bill for a par fulltime or a job coach whatever the situation is um you know if you if the board is so inclined to keep something then I would recommend um you know and you have a bunch there and you can see
077we we actually are the highest paid ones we if you look at the numbers the next one would be Hamm in at $4 an hour for our kids that would be 96,000 the current crop we have right now I would look look at something like a stien like Farmington has or um or or more like Berlin Berlin has an $80 a month stip in southern and has a $15 a month siphon um you know something along those lines would be comparable to what our our neighboring uh districts are doing um they would have they would have the opportunity then to receive something and they'd have the opportunity you know we use that they go for banking so when they got their typen they would go for banking which we've been doing which is fine they
078don't you know check's going to be smaller but that's okay um and I understand where you're coming from but again we're providing them an education and we're not required to do this and um uh but we have been doing it so maybe we look at it in a different way so maybe a stien would be better and again that's most of the districts that are doing anything are doing it right now um but again if we're looking again at our growth numbers folks if we're looking at the numbers that we anticipate um it this number is just going to continue to grow exponentially we take effec the board chooses to take action decide to do it or next month of course we would you know on once there was a decision we would communicate it
079as thoroughly as as possible so it's early in the school year so you're not getting used to the old checks that is correct yeah but we're we're still not hold on so we have an idea of how much per wait it's per hour right correct we pay $6 per hour I'm sorry I'm just I'm thinking out loud to try to be able to kind of just work it out my head we have a staff need on one side but on the other side what really is that issue is the compensation Market am I right in that think that right yes the balancing of those two tens two years ago was two years ago and yeah two yeah when the superintendent first came on board they made so the state determined that $6 an hour was
080we decided that as a board you local decis I want to said something about $6 let me tell you they they make a recommendation we did at the time because many of our students who are out of District placements were making that or more you know but our goal is to keep the kids in District correct so working at the goal of we're keeping them in District right but we still have a staffing need correct right okay but okay okay okay and given the numbers again looking at the numbers that we expect in the next 5 years that we'll be going through that program and the level of need we're going to have is this is this a sustainable model I don't think it is I agree there's one option to keep the kids currently
081rolled with the compensation so grandfather Li in um and then we move to the compensation for that's too much thought I couldn't write my head around that I think it's an excellent thought basically of phasing out I think that you might we might run into some Equity issues if two students are assigned to the same job site they're doing roughly the same work and one would be getting compensated one would yeah I early in the school year that better start could could sorry I will say as soon as we can let's switch it over to the new uh the sien a sien rather than an hour on average how long are they working when you're basing it $6 an hour say right under 20 hours a week working hour no no no but I'm saying
082as the needs change that's why I'm asking working 4 hours a day 20 hours a week hours they're averaging right now I think we could do math on 20 hours a week10 hour a week okay 240 240 every two weeks so right now for this year if we if there was no board action with the current number of students we currently have we don't get any new students nothing changes we're looking at $130,000 for that at $6,000 correct no changes correct theoretically speaking slightly slightly 12 129.5 okay then 36,000 left up by the ID correct yes so theoretically could cut that in half and incorporate the potential for at least one job coach right is that it would certainly help to offset it it would correct and is that a number obviously fles that number
083out so we can to's point a more informed decision right because I agree with a lot of the carts I think the money is secondary I mean operationally that's the problem right we always find ourselves in a with these operational versus interpersonal and Community sort of decisions right so the issue is and I suspect and I have parents here that could back it up right like I I would think that the money aside the fact that that there is sort of um a predictor for some potential employment in that population of students means yes a lot to the student but I would also gather that means a hell of a lot the parents and so yes if if in a pinch and communicated well we have to go to a more drastic stien based thing
084yes um I don't know if I would want it to be zero that's for sure because I think the signature of that program still has a lot of sort of good reputation behind it in new so I guess just for the sake of expedience I'd asked you Mr President what what would the board prefer if is there definitely no action on the on this matter tonight there will be action or the board would like to request we come back next month with detail we should take action now it sounds like a motion to reduce to $3 an hour hour okay so um see I mean my only con I mean the numbers I mean I as long as you have a good interpretation if those numbers are enough for us to make that decision that's
085all I would say will it give us what we still want certainly would help us offset the cost of that coach and again the coach is serving these same kids um and then Mr spaling and I will sit with Miss Alano and find out how to reallocate the the remainder if you chose to go through $6 to three um two questions if I may just looking through quickly if I'm doing the math correctly the average student in the program is earning around 3600 a year is that we're doing $110,000 per or total divided by the0 we need one two 240 every two weeks so between 3 to 4,000 180 days so if we reduce that to $3 an hour 35 then we'd be between 1 to2 ,000 per student per year and we're looking at
086districts like Farmington doing 500 we'd still be two to four times as much as a town like Farmington laboring I'm we looking at Farmington for instance right I mean right now our kids are earning maybe seven times as much as a kid in Farmington is is that reduction of $3 going to be enough because if if it's not then any action we take tonight we're just going to have to revisit next month or potentially have some other car so if we were to pay if we were looking at the total cost let's say for these these um samples that examples that proved here um so Farmington would cost the district $155,000 the Farmington example as would Rocky Hill all right um and Windsor Locks um hamen which is $4 an hour would cost $96,000 right
087um our neighboring District Southerton $4,500 Bristol has nothing um middle ten would cost us $42,000 Berlin $24,000 that gives you an idea they have an $80 a month stien that would cost the district for the 30 students that currently participa in this that would cost the district $24,000 but I think to the question about would it help offset the cost of the coach to the potential motion for $3 an hour my advice to you as your superintendent is perhaps that's a good step for the remainder of this year and when Mr Spalding composes his budget for the 25 26 year we may have a different proposal froming that for you and that would be something we can communicate obviously much more in advance yeah because that my my secondary concern tonight is in the space
088that we provide whatever decision we make tonight we can draft up a better communication plan now kids be coming next year will know in advance what be you know we don't enjoy bringing these things to you at last minute but sometimes things change quite quickly well I I I mean I appreciate the homework that Mark and everybody else has done I mean my only concern of this too is like you got Newton no I don't know what that means I mean I mean I know it's none but how many kids is at I don't know right I mean I would have felt better like I'm not anything on new Mark I'm just say to make decision right but if you look at like a district like Harford which has more students than obviously they're not
089doing one either right so but you know just magnitude wise I mean you know are we arguing about comp but but Bristol and Hartford are very similar to our population I would agree so I believe we would have to um add a motion to the agenda and move um second you already know what he's going to say say I don't agenda agenda item so you just say you know make a motion to add an action item whatever whatever beat I have a motion to add action item to adjust the uh hourly compensation for clim students that would be item is it 4ba 4B I move second is seconds right and can I have a motion to adjust the hourly wage Mr a vote on the adding can I have a vote to add this item
090to the agenda all those in favor opposed exensions motion passes now can I have a motion to adjust the hourly wage of clim students to $3 an hour second sorry Sana all those in favor by saying I opposed any exensions motion pass for consideration we know these are difficult conversations please have these conversation with parents earlier enough because mine started as a stupid question when I called DDS and called their feet to the fire and the girl looked to the guy and I was like oh I got I got to follow that guy nobody had an answer and they also didn't stutter that was upsetting very upsetting and not supporting of Staff it was the bottom line and W contribute anything but if you want some referrals to a good day for we'll send that
091no no no no no okay moving on to new business I'm actually going to um ask for a motion to amend the agenda and move item um o o to the topor I see our attorney back there I'm charge an hourly so only if it's $ sorry turn S it's a long day a little bored of humor so this is just so I would I would support moving the agenda item up if the board would consider doing so do I have a motion to move second favor signifi by say I opposed exensions okay um starting with item o this is um informational only buing and Title 9 legisl legislation update presented by m j good how are you attorney we oh no this is separate though from that oh sure I'll pass okay all right
092more paper well this is interesting this good read okay okay all right nice to see you all um just so you know what I put in your packets just because you are board members and I know how informed you all like to be um I provided a courtesy copy of our legislative summary from 2024 which also includes excerpts um from a PowerPoint that is just the PowerPoint is specific to your bullying policy and also the title 9 policy that I believe you are looking to adopt this evening Dr Gasper if that's correct informational this evening just informational this evening polic committee okay so I'm happy to answer any questions but I'll just jump ahead first to the bullying policy and I am working off of just a few of the PowerPoint um slides but I
093do understand that you recently adopted a bullying policy um just for purposes of clarification there have been some confusion and many school districts have experienced this confusion last year there were legislative changes that charged cab and you all know cab the Connecticut Association um for Boards of Education that charged them to adopt a sweeping comprehensive policy that changed the way that we approach bullying in general basically the premise was many of our school administrators are spending a lot of time quote investigating this term bullying and let's educate people on more restorative practices and not have the word bullying or bullying investigations end up being so punitive towards our students but is there a better way to approach this um so that it's less burdensome to our administrators and less punitive to our students so cab
094was charged with that task cab did develop a policy last year the policy however though while there are many changes to the bullying um statute they didn't really provide a protocol in how Boards of education and our administrative staff are supposed to implement that new policy the leg legislature also said that for this school year the 2425 school year adopting C's policy was discretionary for next year the 2526 school year it is mandatory so many school districts were confused and thought that we had to adopt it this year where it's actually the requirement is for next year what you did adopt is almost a hybrid between the current bullying law and the coming bullying law and our recommendation to you right now is because we don't have the protocols or the regulations that have yet
095been drafted by Cade to stick with the current bullying policy which you have there which is our model policy and then next year in the 25 26 year transition to the required C policy and between now and then we should be getting a lot more information as to how cab expects Boards of education and our administrative staff to implement their policy so right now all we have from them is kind of this overarching policy without any real guidance as to how we're supposed to implement that policy so what you have in front of you is our model policy for bullying and our recommendation for now would be that we continue to follow that statutory language and then for next year we transition to the required policy and that gives us a year between now and
096then to also train all of our staff on what they should expect in the coming year because there will be a lot of administrative changes so if I just add some context so um with with my support Mr Richardson and M Soler put in a lot of effort and a lot of good faith effort into the modifications that we made recently based on the model policies that cave had at that time we thought we were doing the right thing we thought we were ahead of the curve which was the right thing for kids but then subsequently we're learning that really it's not yet clear even at the state level so that's why P so you know casting no blame but this is where we're at at this point we want to be as compliant with
097law as we can so that's part of the confusion here is we thought we were on the right track because we were taking it from state level groups state level authorities and it turns out that maybe they weren't ready to even give us the guidance that we were using when we made those modifications that sounds like circular logic but I want to be always transparent with with with you all and what your administrative team put together is very well written and very comprehensive um and you were trying to be proactive but we've just um unfortunately are are still waiting for further guidance so I applaud how proactive this team has been um but again I think it might premature because we don't want to have to train our staff on a policy this year that
098then will ultimately evolve and change for next year so I happy to answer any other questions on bullying um if not I can just give a quick high level overview of the title mind changes yeah sure it so if I looking at May to this the definition of bullying seems to be expanded well in your in in in this Shipman's model of things and it's not a bad thing I it just seems to be involved a lot more and the reason I say that is because I recall in discussions that we had last school year and looking at the policy some of the um complaints were not valid buling did I that well I think I mean attorney R would give a much better answer than I when when we heard about bullying tonight in
099public comment I think where um students and often parents get disenchanted with bullying is is I guess you might call it bullying with a little B versus a capital B so the legal definition of bullying to which we are investigating is often quite different than uh parents talking to their kids oh my child is getting bully which often mean you know being picked on or picking on each other back and forth so there's the kind of general term my child is being bullied which of course we don't want that to happen either but the the parent who's perceiving that and then they get a bullying investigation that is not verified the parent then gets disenchanted and dis appointed because they feel like we didn't do anything no we did it's actually very timec consuming and
100laborious for a school administrator to do that investigation um it just doesn't meet the legal definition of what a verified bullying incident is and that also doesn't mean that that school administrator is going to take zero action it just means we have a duty to tell the parents this was not verifi a verified Act of of bullying according to the state definition and yes you're right M Marino that as part of what's changing in the policy because it seems a a little bit more drawn out here than in what we put in in May and and actually I guess for me some of the scenarios of parents complaining about bullying could be found in one two or three so perhaps that is the current law the model policy that you have is the current law
101right because again it was discretion AR to adopt C's policy which did have a sweeping change of the definition of bullying so what you're looking at is good law for now until next year right so that is verbatim from the statute but I think to Dr Gasper's point where I think parents um either get upset or disappointed in how whether or not something is verified is the bullying statute is per se not a disciplinary statute there's nothing actually in the disciplinary statutory Provisions here in Connecticut that talk about what you have to do if bullying is or is not verified and in fact the spirit of the law particularly next year when we have to adopt Cab's verbatim policy again is not to label students not to be punitive in nature but to move towards
102our restorative practices and find more supportive measures and to enhance the overall School climate and so I think to Dr Gasper's point and I get it because I I meet with many parents uh we represent many administrations who have to deal with this issue I think that that sometimes is the confusion that it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to result in a punitive measure for the alleged perpetrator so for our context and the the law that'll take effect next year attorney rer is the definition of bullying broader or narrower so it depends how they implement it administratively what they've now done is they've take a very comprehensive definition of bullying which you have right in front of you and they now will have two buckets of thought one will be what is described as bullying
103and one will be described as challenging Behavior bullying will now be defined as an perceived a perceived imbalance of power which can be very subjective and that's why we're waiting for the regulatory framework to further flesh out what that means then there will be a another category Behavior called challenging Behavior which will not meet the definition of bullying but again hopefully will allow administrators to say we went through our policy it didn't meet the definition of bullying however it does fall into this category of challenging behavior and here are some of the restorative practices that we're going to recommend cuz it doesn't quite me the definition of bullying so I do think you will actually probably have less verified incidents of bullying under the new definition um but I can't challenging behaviors but challenging Behavior
104won't be a verified incident of bullying so I think you will have more that will fall in the camp of challenging behavior and then we're just waiting um to hear from cab as to then one how we investigate both categories of behavior and then what is the outcome and what is Our obligation with respect to sharing that information with parents and students so that's really what we're waiting for the policy that you have in front of you outlines all of that because the statute is very clear right now as to how we're supposed to address a bullying complaint now so unfortunately we're just right now our recommendation is comply with that model policy until we get further guidance we are working in consultation with C to help with the administrative guidance so I am hopeful
105that um in a few months we'll be able to share that with you thank you we know that's a heavy topic and it's quite complicated it's complicated for staff too if you want to move on to the title n so I'm happy to move on to the title 9 um I'm happy to answer any specific questions so just so you know the title 9 regulations that were adopted in 2020 have been significantly overhauled so now we have 2024 regulations which took effect this August 1st so that means if there's any conduct that is brought to your attention that happened prior to August 1st we have to use the old Title 9 procedures the 2020 procedures anything that would come to your attention August 1st 2024 and Beyond we use the new procedures um the training
106is now an annual requirement if you are a title 9 coordinator or you are going to be an investig Ator which will probably be several of your administrators because you are such a large school district there is also an annual training which is about 3 hours um we are actually hosting a webinar tomorrow um that I think some of your personnel are attending and we also can offer individual training to answer any individual questions because it is a significant uh undertaking for our administrative staff um what you have in front of you is the model policy that covers all of the regulatory changes from 2020 to 2024 and it would be our recommendation that you do adopt that policy because you don't have much discretion with respect to adopting that policy so just like our
107DCF policies or just like our bullying policy there really the state and federal government has not left you much autonomy um in tailoring those policies to achieve what you might want to see in New Britain you you pretty much have to adopt them verbatim and failure to adopt the policy and failure to follow the Federal Regulations would lead to significant liability for any school district um I'm happy to either walk through some of the significant changes or if you have any questions I'm I'm more than happy to answer them um I do in the PowerPoint that you have in front of you um Slide Five on does give a very um just brief General overview of some of the changes so we we do plan on bringing this to the policy committee as well so
108um obviously both of these are are critical policies that that will get implemented often in our school district um so we want to make sure we do it right staff as attorney Ritter alluded to we've already begun the training process so um thanks to our good guidance from Shipman we're aware and we're working on it but the task is large um I have a d question who's the T coordinator for us respons oh you do okay okay Cod timeline coordinators which makes sense of District size Miss Manning and Mr spolding gotta and Dr pleas back up try toid eye contact over there at each School would also recommend that you have one or two administrators who are trained on being investigators um who would work in collaboration with our Title 9 coordinators typically we don't
109necessarily want the title 9 coordinators to actually be the investigators at the school building level because we need them to be able to confer with our administrative team at the building level and I think just attorney M from the context of the board if there's a change in Administration in the Oval Office we might be be right back at this again sometime soon you were you were telling us that if if there's a change at the federal level at the presidential level yeah so anticipa the pendulum might swing correct if there's a different Administration in the White House in November I mean it would take them some time because they'd still have to go through the whole administrative rul making process um but in another year we could be back here training our staff very
110differently um the other thing I should mention and I'll continue to update you Britain right now I do not believe that you have been named on the list but there is a uh federal court case now that has been filed by the moms for Liberty who have concerns with the new 2024 regulations because they do offer uh broader protection to the lgbtq community so that is a lawsuit that has been filed in several places across the country many uh Connecticut school districts have been listed as um an enjoined school which in essence would mean if a mother of Liberty if someone who is a member of that organization let's say had a child at New Britain High School you would find yourself on a list which just would mean that the US Department of Education
111couldn't per se enforce an investigation that you undertook in accordance with the 2024 regulations if we find any of your schools on that list we will let you know cuz we continue to monitor it and if that happens we would in the first instance recommend that you work under the 2020 regulations however the court process May uh have evolved at that point and so we may have different information so this is just the information that we have right now but remember in Connecticut we've always had for decades now protection for um gender identity and expression sexual orientation and so we would also be applying our state policies which would offer significant protection to those protected classes but just something to keep on your radar um and we continue to monitor that as that evolves any
112good news you don't normally invite me for good news unfortunately Mrs Parker unfortunately [Music] any other questions for attorney R okay thank you all very much this is [Music] yours what are you talk about at the next policy meeting this is come on huh all right moving on to item a can I have a motion to approvement from the regular Board of Education meeting on June 3D any comments those are we ready to vote all those in favor signify by saying I oppos any exensions uh moving to Item B report of personnel transaction as I st in my report I want to say thank you to our talent Department you can see the large quantity of work that happens over the summer it's quite extensive I mean filled a lot of the heart to fill
113positions to MTH are we know we know that Staffing continues to be a concern at at all levels and All Phases all types of Staff but it is not for a lack of really impressive effort by the talent Department um I would like to say something uh this is great work that you've done here my concern is we lose people when people find out at the last minute that these major changes that going to be made and I think with the pars I I think they feel not Valu because they're always even with the um when you have the professional training they just are never in the forethought in terms of what they see they need to have people trained to handle the special needs kids in in in those programs that after from the
114school and they haven't been trained so why not the first three days of school when everybody else is sitting in the meetings they're watching a video we should be training the people that have not been trained so that they are able to do the job so that you only have three or four people who are trained to do it you're not supposed to touch the students unless you've had training and so you're bringing in substitutes and different people when you don't even have the regular St train and I just think we need to pay more attention and make them feel more value I don't feel that we and I that was throughout my whole career as a teacher and having parents and I'm still seeing some of the same stuff they there's no way they
115should walk in that building thinking they have one job and find out they got a totally different job you been moved to a totally different school I would want to quit too I be looking for another job too because this happens over and over and over again and somehow we've got to do something different if we want to keep the PS I completely agree with you only because I had to lived through the loss of Staff last year and it was hard and I only found out when I Was preparing um reward baskets for my staff because I do that um you guys have seen me like take pictures and share them but I actually made staff baskets um and that's how I found out that one was out to injury and one was out
116to serious illness which meant from three and three we were down to two and two plus a teacher the bigger shock is incontinence training that nobody seems to know about but is such a big part of special education it really is and that shifts when they get to the high school level it really does our staff doesn't know and it really is culture shock and it shouldn't be and I would do the dip too and I just and that's the one thing I keep hearing from my Paris staff and even from special life teachers that they wish they could be able to support their staff one and two is the staff themselves actually saying I wish I could not fear of you know I'm going to lose my job or the agency is going to
117replace me because so many are in there through an agency like we're not able to get our own staff through regular prospecting I just don't know what's going on but I feel it I feel it three in Pathways and you feel when one person is missing your kid needs to be there and present we expect them to be there but I expect my staff to not be just feeling that frustrated about going to work no I want them to love my kid the same way I love my kid and sometimes they just need that that help I thank you any other comments okay this was uh informational only U moving on to item C enrollment report now that I think about I just saw one thing I didn't want to talk about I know in
118an effort to bring some positivity I try okay well try to balance that right I will say and this is only work I mean selfishly this is work that I was connected to prior to passing on to a different districts um I'm starting to see this and I'm happy to see that the Investments we're doing with the alternative halfways are starting to come back again and I know there's a lot of work done by Mar Ellen by Brother DeAndre Sims DR Sanders so I you know having been uniquely connected to that where I see you know uh crack residents that are finally here Shameless plug I was one of their instructors good or bad I don't know asked that but um and um I also see on the list of former student I'm that age
119now so um I'm not going to name names and put people on theast so to speak but at least it's it's nice to see that some of those alternative pathways are starting to you know pay the dividends because to be quite honest I'm concerned because I want to make sure that that we keep the pedal down on those programs as well I mean yes we want from the EPs and the universities but I think we will be uniquely more relying on some of those Pathways as we move forward which is a good thing I don't think it's a bad thing it's just you know I'm glad to see some names on there um that are from like non-traditional sort of pathway I'm moving on to enr report as you see it's the first of the
120year so you'll see no change from other reports in the year um and I just gave you kind of anec so we know these numbers will grow we're still taking our registrations as I informed you in my weekly update we are flexing staff and I'm approving overtime staff to get kids registered as quickly as possible do you want to oh my God no it it was just back to the retirements list because I just wanted to say thank you to Mr fernance for just being an amazing person but it was only because even though I kept reminding my daughter about the importance of saying somebody's name right he was the only one that threatened suspension and she kept calling him Fernandez um and so I just want to air hug him right now because the
121fact that as of November one our whole district is going to change the support that he gives to the adult community is going to change CU I just I love that man all right thank you that's all I to uh I believe we vote um to accept the enrollment report yes um all those in favor oppos exensions item D can I have a motion to approve of mou between csdnb and local 871 you Federation of teachers to modify and extend article 412 substitute teaching for the 20242 school year district and move second and jealous this is unchanged from current conditions it is there will be a change with the new contract negotiations but that doesn't take effect until a year from now okay all those in favor signify I I opposed exensions motion passes item
122e can I have a motion to approve an mou between csnb and local 871 new BR Federation teachers to modifying sent article or instructional staff work year work day or parent teacher conferences grades k6 for the 2024 25 school year District second again unchanged from the current conditions all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed exensions motion pass uh item F motion to approve mou between csnb and the new Federation PA Educators local 2407 AF AFL CIO to amend language and article 11 section 5 regarding professional development that's required 7 second any comments questions I just say this is uh to address another new state law requiring districts to offer par Educators 18 hours of professional learning that it bumped up against some of our existing um contract language where par Educators were
123paid extra for extra professional learning so we had very productive conversations with the union and this clarifies how those two pins interact all those in favor signify by saying I opposed extensions motion passes item G can have a motion to approve a new position request recation job coach soov second this is the position that was discussed earlier this evening any other comments on this but just to be clear we're not going to be putting a drop that date on the positions that we still have open no we continue to recruitment hire so we're opening up another one but still are down too we anticipate we need to fill the vacancies which we're working on and this additional one to serve the need of the kids all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed
124exensions one exension okay this says it's funded by the ID I the the whole position well based on the discussions tonight it'll be at least partly and we'll be ready to to talk to you about that at a later date once we analyze the uh the finances okay and motion uh to approve recommendation on renaming Brickside Extension Center I'll move second right I'll explain this one um uh Brookside Extension Center is the curently former Butler Building um we have the president of this Ro point to myself um d p as well as principal Mar and principal birdie and uh Richardson to a committee to rename it we sought out names from par at uh Brookside to come some suggestions from there we we got a whole L probably about 25 name possibilities from there we
125narrow it down to two possibilities of William mamera and uh J de brown Springer um we then uh put out a survey to the public um through Facebook email very different me we had the survey open for 2 weeks and the vote was roughly 73% to 27% in favor of Gerald de brown Springer um this will be named so the committee decided to recommend to the board that the uh former Butler Building bookid station C we want to call it be formerly named the Geraldine Brown Springer Academic Center um and one thing I would kind of a preview one two hard policies I will be um recommending discussing with you Barbara is why is everybody picking on me tonight well no they're very short is I would like to U one concern that came up
126quite a bit during our discussions is um we currently don't have a bow a policy for naming a building um for somebody who's still alive um it had come up quite a bit in other towns um you want to have that that you should never name a building somebody going to live in you never know what's going to happen um what do you mean well something might commit a crime or something like that well I mean I you never know the night is young yeah um in our policy that some towns some towns have a policy that you don't a facility is currently live we don't have that uh also I would like to see a policy where anytime we have for our buildings we currently don't have any kind of policy for all our
127buildings you Dr G when you first came one of the first things I said Dr gas was a list of what our schools are named after I would like to see some kind policy that every school have some kind of display whether it be uh something formal displays or simply a poster for that their kids drew of what the the school is named after huh that's the history teaching but but yes I mean we have a school in town named after um one of our school founders of the city who's also opposed the revolution we have so many different the stories that we can tell about the people in our town but these kids don't know so I would like to see some kind of display in our schools and I would like to see
128it for it's small policy simply that there must be some kind of display could be a student may display or something formal there some kind of some kind of display in our schools so we recommended during the meeting that we make two of those things policy so I'll be writing a small policy and at some point I'll be passing this coms um I I just I do have a concern naming buildings after people who are still alive and Mrs Springer was my middle school assistant principal slave she lives two doors away from me so she's a neighbor you know W door when I passed by but um have we ever named a building after someone St history most of the buildings in town were recently deceased giletto was originally Slater school and after Senator that
129senator Frank deeto died of a heart attack they named him a couple months of his death that was the most recent um when John small when small school was named after John SMY he had been dead for almost 100 years so yeah usually long dead or saido he recently passed away but government building municip buildings are named up the people are still alive very rely likely to commit rarely rarely start looking where they live the Bri I I think I don't understand no I well part of my concern is that when you have someone who's still alive they're well known in the community so it becomes somewhat of a popularity contest of this person's still alive a lot of people in the community know the person because they are still alive and it's nothing personal
130like I said with Mrs Springer it's just that's the you know as someone passes away their their memory becomes more distant unless they've achieved a great deal everyone knows the name Abraham Lincoln or frerick Douglas even though they've both been dead for almost by Martin Luther King because they you know of of the what they've achieved so that's the concern is if it just becomes a little bit more of a popularity conest because so many people still know the person because they're alive they're in town they're at stoping shop they're at church and in this case um Mr mamera passed very recently and he does have the street name leading up to um palaski named after him and I believe that was while he was still alive think street is I don't understand that I
131don't understand living yeah what that we kind of do if you want us to vote on something well no you're free to vote how you choose to vote that's my op can we um understand can I ask members of the committee about M Springer M Mrs Springer's reaction to well I did ask um principal birdie um did he reach out to the family he said that um he's been in touch with the family um they're not opposed to the idea they ask is she okay with it or she's not opposed to it that's all he can say is um um I do know that uh person Mar said that his secretary is for order and she she like the idea name so U their family is okay with I they're okay with it what was
132that last name or may those two mix up book his secretary is U I think you got some information that's what he say any other comments well I just noted Jerry worked in the school system she was a teacher at the High school she was a guidance counsel at the high school and in middle school and she was assistant principal and she had to well I should say she had to fight the community had to fight when we wanted to name her principal a slave school and you said she was the second second second woman second woman the principal of immigrant there was big talk about they she'll be committing any crimes in before the second woman principal ever in a Brit history just to be clear I don't think that she is either that's
133not my my concern that's I agree with your okay we ready to vote all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed any extensions is that where you get that two names motion passes I know from when we had Catalyst remaining ceremony that this will take effect I think in July you get go through the Old State process yeah we should not change names in the middle of the school year all right I'm moving on to item I have a motion to approve contract between csnb and teaching and online resource for certified staff to use artificial intelligence to create lesson plans and differentiate lessons to meet student needs districtwide for $39,600 move second discussion I just have a question did we have a we have a policy for AI did we
134we talked about it right we talked about it we don't have a we're making purch just ask I what did I do um that is something I think that's something that actually had come up Vasquez is working with an expert in the field a gentleman by the name of Matt M who works for uh at Advance right now it's in the works but it's ever changing I know I will say this particular tool was brought to us by one of our teachers um and some of us were initially skeptical but it is very powerful and it's not about plagiarism it's not really avoid some of the fears it's going to help our teachers do what they need to do better I think it's a very well invested uh just under $40,000 I'll admit I've used
135AI um for lesson planning I've used AI for pacing guides but at the same time I'm a little skeptical about AI being used so well it's going to be used in exactly the same way you said that you just used it Mr K training right you're right I mean this thing's about 4 and a half years old for the record like we're just getting on and out for the things people are wondering like this wasn't yesterday there teach been using this for about 4 years roughly and it's what I know what little I know about that particular ever evolving it's it's very very powerful it's it's so we we've had an expectation for a long time that teachers differentiate their lesson plans which basically means write three or four lesson plans for every lesson cuz
136you're going to have students reading at this level and this level and this level what this tool does is allows the teacher to say here's the standard I'm teaching this is the level of rigor I want please help me write three separate approaches to to address the three different levels of reading that I have in my class that would be great in the inclusion class exactly right Parker write the paper for all the students we had in there as a special a teacher trying to come up with a different paper for each student was very difficult you're exactly right what this lets us do is keep the expectations High lets the teacher focus on thinking about her kids thinking about her kids needs and lets the technology do the actual production of the lesson plan
137suggesting questions suggesting activities making sure everything stays linked to a grade level standard that we're not accidentally lowering the standard for our kids well that's why this company is reputable that's why we're recommending this particular company this is much more savvy than just going to chat GPT yeah Gemini exactly so it is something that I recommend to the board all right all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed any extenstions I would just uh give an intro that a few of the coming um items are regarding um School Improvement Grant purposes uh moving on to item J motion to approve contract between csnb and bridge the gap educational consultant to provide coaching services for special education teachers Chamberlin Elementary School in the amount of $29,800 some second question Chamberlain's needs assessment what so
138as a Sig school a school Improvement grant school they have to do a special a separate needs assessment so that's what's being referenced there and then that's vetted by the state and the state basically says yes this is a good needs assessment any other questions I had a question and now I totally lost it I'm going to back to my question I all those in favors we got one any extenstions motion passes all right item K uh motion to approve contract between csnb and CRA to provide coaching and instructional support in the area of mathematics Chamberland Elementary School in the Mount of $1,520 questions comments good all those in favor by say I opposed exensions motion passes motion to approve a contract between csnb and Chris root to provide professional development training and restorative practices
139at Chamberlain Elementary School in the amount of $10,500 some can I just ask this is the only school that we're doing this with because of their needs assessments whatever plan so it's an excellent question and the grants actually require something called supplement not supplement so which means the grant has to be spent on something that's above and beyond what the district is providing to everybody else uh gotcha so we can't use the the we can't use the grant to pay for services at other schools that are not this six we say si and we can't use the grant to pay for something that all the school all the other schools are getting from board funds and we use the grant to pay for there that would be called supping gotcha thank you of course just
140made it look like one getting it and what about everybody Hing these guys to do no that's that's a great point and it's a great point for the whole board to understand because I'm sure you might get those questions from your constituents and when you choose to accept Sig money or commissioner Network money you're saying these schools are going to be different right the state has identified them as qualifying for for Sig or qualifying for we call it comnet because of their performance level and things like that so it's expected that yeah those schools get something that's different than the others right so when you're asked in the supermarket just to say the state made us do it and a lot of the St have okay be some the teachers asked that question too because
141you know people would say how come some are you know I always to say you accept the check you accept the P that to exactly some of the stuff is yeah all right all those in favor signif by saying I I opposed exensions moving on item F motion to approve purchase order and bid waiver between csnb and bump armor to provide Chromebook cases for all elementary schools districtwide 45 any comments or questions I just have one question yeah we spend all that money they won't give us the cases it's a purchase that we have to when the kids lose the cases uh do the insurance cover that yes my son broke his case Point get okay probably the most important purchase of the whole night right brother I know all those in favor signify by
142saying I opposed exensions motion passes um item n financial report for June 30th 2024 through July 31st um any comments or questions oh yeah sorry how about she's already looking at me sideways um I guess my most burning question is on page uh was 84 of the packet but um page page page two of the operating budget detail line itm 55 69 how do we underspend 300% and get 1.8 million as a um we receive the excess cost Grant so it's a reimbursement to that line [Music] item okay that's actually good news this year we got more oh no I lovely news but I'm looking at it as a business person I'm go how do you wonder to spend 300% um we got more to to do credit words do we got a lot more
143money in excess cost reimbursement than we had been told to expect awesome that that keep it coming that works um and my other question had to do with the retirement retirement contributions it was a 1.3 negative and and is that are we expecting any what page please um well that's page 83 of the package but it's the first page of the so the 1.3 so the benefits roll up into one account and so um throughout the year um it it's budgeted for separately and yes it it does look like it is a 1.3 negative but as a whole the the Ben benefits um did not go over budget this year actually we were able to sweep what we needed to into the Self Insurance account and covered all of our expenditures it just looks skewed
144on the report because of the way the budgets are allocated in each individual line item well because I remember one of the earlier reports and you got up because you like hit you with the question about getting contributions back in and whatever so that we had a a huge negative early on but that's why I was just looking at the correct it's how the accounts are swept so I know it skews the numbers a little bit so our contributions are swept directly into the Self Insurance account on the city Side okay so we don't necessarily see them in our line items okay so it does make our numbers look a little skewed but for 23 24 fortunately we did meet we did we we did contribute the full amount and we met our expenditures and
145we're not overexpanded in the health insurance line items okay cuz in well in the health insurance count though it says it's a 5 with fringes and insurance correct like I said it's all skewed just because of everything was swept directly into the self- insurance account on the city side and that's something and we'll be fixing that Pi we we will we will correct that in the current year and not correct how we do business but correct how it's reported how it's reported absolutely cuz that's we've never had a an audit finding on such things no no no no no no it's just because it's swept through the payroll account it hits a liability account and we have to sweep it so it just flows through differently okay I got on account by um 47% correct
146so the the worker comp account we have been under budgeting for that line item which has been corrected for the 2425 budget so yes it it was a little hard to predict in terms of what our expenditures would be only because we're we can't predict what the claims are going to be for the year um but again that's this year and the current year the funds have been reallocated to appropriately a fund each account each line item and the same P plus moners 74% bu monitors down 53 53212 oh yes yeah so that line did exceed its budget it did go over for transportation but there there um in terms of all the transportation accounts as a whole because they received the excess cost reimbursement as well that line item went over but in terms
147of as a whole transportation we did receive excess cost and if we look at um if we go to the 55100 line item and um if we look at those Transportation accounts will see that um there are available funds they're underexpanded I think for contact is important for the board members to know that something like bus monitors is tied to things like out placements and we know how variable that is and that's all under special education Transportation that's all under that umbrella I notice the substitute services with our new lender was over as well correct that's because we are increasing our fill rate so and consequently we're going to see a higher expenditure in that line item yeah that's one time when it's good news to be over Bud yeah no I I'm not I'm
148not discrediting that just I know we didn't set aside the million um okay the only the only B job kind of um when we get the big packets I know the the register we get the full list of transactions is is sorted by check date check number check it is it sorted by check run date I I guess my my ask is going forward that we sort that by vendor name so that we can see total amount paid to a vendor during a period of time that instead of having so all Amazon's together all you know gas and heat and gas are together all whatever is together so we see by item which to this it just sorry I and I comp right because you can see everything then lined up matched to the high
149high and thank you for all you do appreciate that even answering all my questions all right anything else oh yeah anything else on the financial report hey all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions passes and moving on to our consent agenda is there anyone that would like to take anything off consent okay um thank you want to S it back to Poli don't leave it Tony um we need to approve the consent agenda um motion to approve consent approve all those in favor signify by saying I opposed exensions consent passes um any other business promoted by law your turns all those in favor [Music]