001[Music] the New Britain Board of Education providing students with a high quality education the time is now 7:30 and we are now calling me so 6:30 I am sorry I am an hour ahead and we are calling this meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance like mr. gay if you would lead us there is no facts now just pretend pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Terry okay all right miss burger miles if you would please call the roll here thank you all right we could please take a moment of silent meditation thank you sir anyone signed up for public participation is there anyone here who would like to address the board anyone here who
002would like to address the board last and final time anyone who would like to address the board thank you very much public participation is now closed we're now going to move on to the superintendent's report good evening good evening actually tonight it's a little bit different and I've tried to UM I know thank you I don't know I think people probably can hear me regardless I'm not even I know this past month and actually since the beginning of the year we've we've had discussions around the number of School Psychologists that we have not been able to secure to be in our school and so tonight mr. Spalding is actually going to take over my superintendent report and talk about redefining the role of the school psychologist for the new britain students Karen so that's it
003and I'm gonna turn it over to you mr. Spalding thank you good evening you have you have the handout right here Mike there's no math so I don't know and while while he's bringing that up I think he just means to redefine the role of the school psychologist and get support for them actually I think we love you Jeff told you we love Jeff okay so this is redefining and valuing the role of these colleges but why let's start with the why the districts started at the school this school year with nine vacancies district-wide three positions have been filled yeah one is still open at the high school that leaves three remaining schools like vacancies at the elementary level conditions add the fact that this is a shortage area and students social emotional and behavioral
004needs or semantics within the district Thanks three what for the applications our situation in New Britain Brittany Kroll responsibilities that our psychologist served within our district they serve as a school psychologist but they also serve as a PBT coordinator and both of those roles by the way have a a compliance component to both currently we have six vacancies at the elementary schools listed here all of these members all of these schools are served by school psychologists and they are in a dual role the state of Connecticut states a school psychologist quote make a significant contribution to the learning and healthy development of children and adolescents especially in school districts that fully recognize their value and their services this really speaks the best practices and a clinical focus school psychologists what do they actually do well
005they conduct evaluations they support students IPs usually in a clinical capacity as a related service they teach pro-social behaviors to students take counsel students they run lunch rooms those social groups they meet with families and other stakeholders they facilitate deviation with students we just recently had this at EC this week we had two students in ten altercations one of the parents were was a the district placement and we talked about having the psychologist come in and work with those two kids you know make the placement work psychologist event psychologists are responsible for evaluations that's a large part of their role the chart here indicates the number of initials and we evaluations that occurred in each elementary school last year the average initial evaluation takes between 6 to 12 hours or in day to two days
006to do that's from you know administering the testing interpreting write and report and then you know providing that evaluation to to the team another piece is crisis intervention if we needed to scale up psychologists in that area this chart provides specific data as of last year so you can see we had 47 to 1 1 calls last year at the elementary school I think that number is actually kind of low because Lincoln was unable to provide accurate numbers based on the person who was slated to provide that information they left the district so we didn't have an accurate number okay it's probably much higher with 22 911 calls and we had 151 DC a referral cluster then because the role of PBT coordinator so lastly as I've mentioned the written school psychologists are responsible for
007the role which is not directly related to their position that of a PPT coordinator they're responsible for maintaining maintaining the records facilitating those meetings the compliance piece and it's a daunting task in 2005 while actually in 2016 the district Management Council which is our Boston had done an analysis and Hartford Public Schools and they provided a report two years ago and one of the things they recommended there was that in Hartford to school this teachers will respond crying doing the people keep ETS for their own students so they might have twenty to twenty-five kids that they were responsible for and they were responsible for management managing the meetings they found that that that was not an appropriate use of those services and they recommended that they go to a facilitator for the meanings now take
008New Britain for example where you have a school psychologist running these meetings that responsible for just 20 of 25 kids they're responsible for the entire building Plus at least 550 TPT's a year depending on the school so at this time I'd like to introduce John Ortiz who's a psychologist in the river and he's sorrento who's social worker at small eat to give their perspectives on the car roll and the challenges that they are facing right now your current model here internal so he got home he said sorrento doesn't the cheese it's all Denis Serrano thank you just for the press huh so thank you for having us here I think if anything I'm having a face and a voice is very important he's tall okay so it's Denis around on this is my 13th year
009in New Britain district as a school social worker I currently was transferred over to Smalley elementary this school year we do not have a school psychologist so basically as a social worker it's a trickle effect so right now I can do some of the roles of psychologists PVC coordination and social work I'm good but I'm not that good and when we're talking about PPP coordination we're talking legal ramifications we're talking with specific needs of our students that require specialized instruction and that is of the utmost important of who are we putting in those roles um yes I'm meeting the gap I'm meeting the need but it's very challenging for me to do my job with fidelity and consistency and give my hundred percent to those students that I have to serve when we deal with
010social work it's not only our IEP students but it's school-wide it's not only school-wide it's the parents it's the siblings it's even supporting teachers in their time of need so I am in support of having the role of penis-illin taters because the job Warren's a person that has the time and the train to be effective in that role thank you thank you thank you [Applause] hi I am Jennifer Ortiz and I'm a school psychologist at D Loretto school this is my seventh year and I want to start out by saying that I'd love new brain and I love my and I love my school but the role is challenging and I think that being that it was my first job out of grad school I kind of just assumed this is how it is and
011I and I had a really good team to support me and learning that process but what we're seeing is time and time again we're hiring very competent school psychologists but they don't have this background so there's a huge learning curve and this isn't what they imagined they'd be doing as a school psychologist so after a few years or even less time they're looking for other options I give him give them that clinical piece I think in terms of crisis we will drop whatever we need to drop to make sure that we respond to a child in crisis where I really feel like I'm not supporting my school is the teacher consultation and that's really probably the most overlooked with the most important part of what we do because if I work with a student I
012help that one student with one problem in one minute but if I work with the teacher I can give them tools and strategies and interventions to use in their classrooms for the ongoing feature so that's why I think we should consider this model because I think that it's consistent with what other districts are doing where school psychologist is really focusing on this traditional role as opposed to the PBC coordination and I also like the aspect of having one person who specifically trained in this and able to provide residency with the way that IEP srvv to do they're taken care of okay and this speaks to this next slide here so over the last five years the Hawker public schools lost to school psychologists and we lost 22 and that same group the DMC group when
013they did their analysis the one area that they gave Hartford commendable was under school psychologists the way they were remaining that model there so I just want to point that out so if you take the left but what you know due to the shortage of School Psychologists middle if you take the last five tires in both categories there was a approximately $20,000 difference in salary so I estimate under this proposal between a I mean theoretically if you bought every one ahead of first step you could save up to a hundred thousand I think realistically were probably looking at maybe the 30 to $40,000 saving under this model that we're proposing today okay suppose plan we would hire so we have six vacancies right now at the elementary school mm-hm so we would hire a social
014worker to replace the school psychologist at sunrise and those services would be provided the evaluations would be provided by the school psychologists there with the social-emotional piece the clinical piece would be provided by the social worker and then we would assign each elementary school to to each psychologist of two elementary schools which we currently have with the sole role of supporting students and then we would utilize five elementary vacancies to hire the PPT facilitators or specialists with the sole role of managing ppts there would be no additional hires at this point so it would be simply filling vacancies you know we're in an interesting period here no we had talked about possibly doing this when we had a couple of our vacancies we thought spin is something we can roll out but because of the
015large number we've really had to take a fresh look at this so you know when when life gives you gives you lemons you make lemonade and so this is our this is our lemonade here so you can see if the first column has the number of spent students currently and we paired up schools to make it as equitable as possible and then the second column has what the third column or other has the number of PV teas last year and the third column has the number of evaluations those could either be initial evaluations or trials third year we evaluation so every three years you have to do in a reevaluation of a student with an IEP you don't necessarily have to do any full evaluation with every student but that gives you an idea as
016to the number we have we I was not able to determine how many rebels and initials from those numbers but starting now we are going to have the schools take a running total of those on a monthly basis so next year we'll actually have that data broken down even further so you can see they're very similar the one area where you might note that there is a numbers are a little lesser the dealer out of Jefferson total and part of the reason is we had those are last year's numbers with respect to the evals and the number of PB T's but D Loretto actually has like a 28% increase in space students we expect that number to go up but that is the pairing that we don't that we're looking at and this is gonna
017be fluid think it's going to change you know kids are gonna move so it sort of just depends we're gonna be monitoring this on a monthly basis to see how it goes the other thing the way this this position is we're written it's written also people can also perform these duties outside of the district so we have kids that are in our district programs so an individual it doesn't have a lot on their plate might be able to go to a little clinic or arraignment Hill and conduct DBT there as well so this is a lot more flexible position than previously a district so you know I'm asking you to approve that these six positions technically does anyone have any questions and need any clarification at this time I see Learning Center Hey what services
018the okay to the preschool because we left the preschool out here we do so preschool is a little different we have a preschool team and so on we have a we have a preschool assessment team in the district that does all of the evaluations so we have a preschool at Lincoln rel Gaffney and D Loretto so we wouldn't be having any evaluations conducted with preschoolers once the students are in the program if we have if we have a situation which we do from time to time where the students need intervention for midea behavioral intervention plan put in place an FBA to be done we do have we have an assigned school psychologist to Gaffney that is that is responsible for Gaffney but we have a PBT coordinator that's going to be taking off of her
019plate the PP T's that she's been conducting so she will have some time to be able to provide some of the necessary intervention services over at over at ELQ which is what you were asking about and then we have we do have a PBT coordinator over a track that that's going to be assigned to doing any PPTs if there were program reviews and in terms of Lincoln and dealer ed o there is a school psychologist that is assigned to those buildings well K is part of this phone because that will be just actually part of also next year a little going back there whenever school so all right so for instance last year if you look at the number of ppts at let's look at Chamberlain Smith they were 358 it's small advance 343 do
020Loretto Jefferson last year go to 51 and that goes down so that tells her how many they were last year well there could be you know there's initials there if a parent requests one if you have a student come in for from another district you do an intake EBT program reviews it just sort of depends it's fluid and ever-changing distillation of those are very reasonable numbers though so we have an out of district specialist right now that's handling all our addition PB T's and she's handling numbers that are very similar to this and she's not in two buildings she's in you know half a dozen buildings from you know Manchester down to up to Litchfield so you know that's a very manageable number I just want to point that out and if you look at
021it if you look middle school right now our missile last year and they had a that's a very manageable number and as far as an RPG Tebow's TPT's oh that's all so it was so there's there two components there's having a social worker do the PPT coordination and then the other piece of it is how many students you have per school psychologist once you've relieved them of doing the PPTs but they still have all the other value [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and I think we were talking earlier today as well I mean so this is a roof of folks that apply for this they they understand and I think to know to give kudos to our current school psychologists to say they'll go for specific reason and and coming here shouldn't be that this is what
022they're doing they they are committed to their craft and they should be able to work work in that area and these five folks - I mean there's someone that we can really train well it's hard to it's hard to take a school psycho social worker out of the building to give them updates because they're working in real time with kids that's not optimal either these five or six folks will know this is their role this is what they do [Applause] okay thank you [Applause] Policy Committee we basically went over the new policies that are under new business talking about just updating our wellness policy to include some guidelines regarding recess and just minor revisions to our parent and family involvement policy in our grants gifts and the bequest that should say west' policy we did
023also look at adopting a new policy around a crowdfunding just to give some more guidance about that since that is a big new thing and it's probably a good thing for a step of policy on it yes thank you operation we did 23rd getting a new truck first snowplowing where's mr. moomer yes it for the Lord I'm getting serious um I will probably get this wrong about Smith we closed out that project correct and then dealer right Oh roof we put we submitted or we closed it out yes we are gonna take in some branch for $2,000 from shale or automotive for safety initiatives and then another thousand dollars for summer enrichment excellent and curriculum but back policy for one second did you mentioned the seal of biliteracy one oh we've got enough we had
024gotten an update on the seal of I illiteracy that's correct sorry thank you okay and that that one didn't me because we had a mid month meeting correct well we give up and then the audit but there was one this month right right right say pay are working just right board reports any activity ladies first for shaving I'll report in might in my dates job at the library three librarians from New Britain Public Library came and did a presentation to the scene teachers at envy you last week you must Amy leaky and I met with the mentoree group and Martine librarian met with middle schoolers just to share materials that we have share some of the program that we do we are contributing every month to the steam newsletter that goes out so hopefully makerspace
025next month I think so will be honest were showcasing some of our regulars we have signed Saturday every month that is always well attended gets on a waiting list and a lot of our materials the books that and the good thing was that as I was pulling books to Brandeis was looking for some specific books and they were had been checked out a whole bunch of themselves I think that the kids are being made aware of some of these things and they see things at the library you know they're inclined to pick them up and take the wrong thanks anybody I just kind of get back to the board we I did have a chance to meet with Ray more regarding the overcrowding in a couple of schools it was Chamberlain homes and Jefferson and
026you know somebody with a construction background I think where's the money on portables is something we should avoid each one of those schools has the real heart it has the real estate to expand and even if it's all these small additions I think that should be the way to go I also attended the City Council's bonding meeting and express our disappointment daily projects we've been putting in year after year have not been considered for bonding and I also expressed that I would like to see a better communication and not pointing fingers at either side just better communication and the city and the Board of Ed as far as communicating what our needs are for our projects and our buildings and our overcrowding I also let them I love that so I'm hoping that we can
027we can increase that and have a better communication in putting together our projects and keeping an eye on when the city is putting out for bonding so that we can get included in some that I just have fun stuff to report homes did an awesome like trunk a tree mmm-hmm before and then our boys football team they will just in one Friday senior night this Friday hopefully they will pack the stands for them mm-hmm no rain please Oh girls volleyball when I left they were winning they lost one game but they were up by four Lenny just poked his head and I couldn't just favorite the number to see what was up we keep moving into the gym I attempted these do the red OH Halloween night I I'm sure it had a better name
028than that I'm sure it did but they were over 150 families represented there and I did drive by Smalley and saw that it was jam-packed and I saw amazing pictures over at Smalley so if it was up the same night so I saw all the cars parked in the parked in the parking lot and then when I got home I was able to look at the pictures and it looked amazing so hats off to the schools who are really engaging our students and trying their best to reach out to families and we also had a trunk retreat at Saint James with the North oak community and that was well attended there was over 150 people there as well and kudos to the altar persons and folks that were there I think we're doing a great
029job of trying to service different pockets of our communities in general and it's just nice to see the community members out rallying around kids and their activities you found him yes I'm sorry I can't see you down there very quiet but that's okay you know over time we won't be talking about the process any concerns issues with girls are there one in one right now oh nice and we also had a very good discussion with superintendent sarah miss Eminem's Sims and Jimenez Sims that is like I can't I don't know why my mother can't be that and mr. Pierce about equity and the courageous conversations that are gonna be forthcoming that was really enough I think it was a great conversation to start but just looking at how we communicate with one another and how
030we try to embrace the diversity that is New Britain and help our students to advocate for themselves and really have a voice in understanding and being empathetic towards one another and rallying around different things that are important to them and doing it in a way that is respectful and that could come to a resolution I think that was a great meeting that we had okay old business I'll entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's contract ex the contract is a contract extension discussion so just okay discussion I just it's such a weird way to be sitting I feel like I can't everybody if they're raising their hand they can't see yeah yes last time yesterday which I think it's happy for would you vote on this less time just because there were so many people
031that's absolutely correct this is the extensional extension well it says extension it does the current contract it doesn't have language about so yes you may correct sir um I would entertain what we can what we can do because there there were some questions I'm not sure if those have been entirely hammered out never love what we've done the past both with when new superintendents are hired and all that as we authorized the President to enter into negotiations any any final contract would still be approved but we can take a vote and that basically gives people the authority to go through that and bring a finalized contract cuz there were the few concerns that we raised up but I don't think we had anything finalized yet right so the motion would then be to give me
032negotiation authority Authority and negotiate on behalf of the board and any final contract would still have to be approved by the board but it basically just signals what most members said expressed that we do have the desire to keep dancing on for the other year and it's just sort of the final details ironing out that we were looking at me right so we're not voting on that piece just extension so they look well he didn't actually motion it so can you motion it the short version that's good okay I would motion to amend because we don't actually have a full motion really but a motion to amend our current motion to authorize the board president to enter into negotiations with the superintendent regarding a one-year extension of her contract final contract subject to approval of
033the full board yeah okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed okay and now we have to vote so that was the amendment so that is the that is actually the just permission permission so now we've given myself permission that sounds silly and now too we can hope to just point at the point of clarification we amended the motion right to authorize you we actually need to take a final vote to authorize you right yes yes yes so I vote a vote to get authorized yeah so that was the amended motion and now the most the actual motion is to give me the authorization so all those in favor things but no now we've amended it see Robert's Rules of Order right yes all those in favor say in my face
034saying aye those opposed all right next a policy Oh entertain a motion to approve the policy zero five to three point zero zero equity and diversity motion to approve discussion I just speaking about some of those tough conversations that we're having and looking to ever increase our ability to communicate yeah with our very diverse background this set some very lofty very lofty but I think region reachable goals and I think it also puts us in a way that's going to actually hold us accountable and make sure that we're it's something that we actively work on rather than just say it in our core values by putting in policy or holding ourselves somewhat accountable to make sure we're taking the steps to deal with some of these tough issues and I think it's a good the
035board as a whole point of privilege I just like to read the second paragraph which is the belief of the board and why we are putting this policy why we are working on this policy since the Board of Education believes that the responsibility for student success is broadly shared by district staff families our community and our students own efforts achievement gaps between white students and students of color are unacceptable if we are to meet our mission and vision statements and our moral obligations to our students their families and our community as a whole these gaps are contrary to our belief that all children can learn and succeed progressive lenses I really can't see any more adult behaviors must not contribute to achievement gaps or create barriers to success adult behaviors must be concentrated on characters
036characteristics elimination of gaps effects maybe I should do this with these lovely lenses Lib Initiative gaps particularly those that are predicated on a student's race ethnicity home language personal characteristics or culture and uninsurance of educational equity between students the board superintendent and staff commit second conducting and equity and diversity impact assessment on all future policies that have a significant impact on student learning and resource allocation this commitment also includes conducting assessments on policies that are periodically reviewed and updated through the policy development process that have a significant impact on learning and resource allocation the purpose of this policy is to establish a framework for the elimination of bias particularly racism and cultural bias as factors affecting student achievement and learning experiences and to promote learning and work environments that welcome respect and value diversity further
037the purpose is to establish particular actions that the district shall take to address disparities and educational opportunity and achievement so okay all those anymore discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed excellent I would say the most motion to approve see five new policy five one four five point five three transgender and gender non-conforming students and staff discussion yes the definitions which she is referring to our gender identity transgender gender expression gender non-conforming cisgender gender fluid gender minority gender transition bullying and harassment and it breaks it out so that we can really decide where it is and where it falls and I agree with you that does help any other comments I just want to say that this this is an issue that I feel very strongly about I have a relative
038who's gone through the process my nephew of transitioning and I was very active with communities including LGBTQ and transgender throughout college I have several friends who identify as transgender and it's something that we we tend to ignore in society and in schools and I was actually really impressed because this is one of the policies we reached out directly to staff about and I wasn't sure what we're going to get back because when you bring up these issues in school environments it is often a very uncomfortable conversation people who do not have any personal experience with this often feel out of their depth there are lots of misconceptions that are out there that are very harmful but the feedback that we got from staff the people who did feedback it's very positive should we have something
039very thoughtful and articulate staff members who really were thinking about the this issue with death and I think if we can have those tough conversations with our colleagues as educators and as a society we can move forward with understanding I think most of the concerns people have are a lot of the concerns that I hear come from not being familiar with the terms not being familiar with people and we're very much talking about human rights the way transgender is spoken about today is the way that homosexuals were treated you know three four decades ago the way minorities and people of color were treated you know Wow yes I'm like today yesterday but we're talking about some of those similar things where we dehumanize segments of our own society and our students and that's just morally
040something I can't support as a person or as an educator so if this policy is one step towards removing those stigmas and accepting people for who they are what they are I support it fully yeah yes as a father of a trans graduate of New Britain high I strongly support this I've also been reached approached by folks from the Burton pride John Board couldn't be here today because he's working on a gubernatorial campaign hmm I think next at our next meeting but he wanted to express his support for this policy as well I would like to just Express I've expressed this before at several other meetings and I've expressed it to this board and I know John board and I have a big respect for him and you we're friends and I had I to
041have family members you know homosexuals that I love dearly but I have expressed before that on this topic I cannot I can't I have to oppose on this I it's my personal conviction and I just hope that I'm also respected for my personal opinion on this topic so I cannot perfect I just want to state that I think as a society as a whole we need to embrace everybody's individuality when we agree with her or don't agree with it I think it's in a sense it's a little shame we have to draft the policy to protect people but if that's what it takes to do that then I'm for now my personal beliefs I don't think I would bring to the table here for myself only um but I would just say as a whole
042of what our city needs and I think what our state and community needs across the country is this type of support for these people and any other people that are going through tough times or any types of discrimination as well so I'm going to support this and I want to thank Nick because I know you work very hard on this and I think it's well written Norm's go hand in hand wasn't necessarily on purpose but the fact that we disapprove a policy of equity and diversity if we're saying that we're committed to equity then we have to include all people in that equity and I think that this really just kind of goes very nicely with it I was thinking yes sir I did also just want to add that while this definitely does sort
043of reaffirm and give protection to those students who are transgender I think it also gives our teachers a much needed framework for how to deal with these difficult issues because I know in my personal conversations with educators when I go up to them I ask them what would you do if you had a student who came up to you and came out as trans and how would you deal with that and a lot of teachers greet them with jeez I don't know I've never really thought of that or you know so having a policy that at least gives them some groundwork that could maybe start some productive conversations and the buildings as well and you know get people thinking about this and we did talk in policy about how there would be a need going
044forward to training they have training and professional development around this just like we do with other issues with you know any of our populations we have training around all of all of the other things that we do in the schools so this is something that we do realize there's going to be need for discussions and training and things like that so don't think that that's been forgotten but also I really would encourage that educators to start to have conversations around this and seek some of the resources that may already exist in your building there are people more people than you probably realize who live with know of and are active in this community or have connections to it who can help educate so please reach out any other comments okay all those in favor signify
045by saying aye those opposed no policy five one four five point five three is approved okay please check look at the consent agenda and see if there is anything that you would like to remove request an ad I was going to look for I was looking for attendance myself it was so for the next one I will put a request in to that to make sure that he secures it from the newest person who is submitting it right attendance Onix absenteeism so there's so there is no report to be rideable at the moment word good trip and there you have it thank you all right Eddie item sir well she mentioned the other partnerships in the donations already said that so I shouldn't have to remove it again we trying to become strategic okay I'm
046actually gonna do these three first oh all right I want to chain the motion to review items F G and H as a cluster in that order and then go to back to the top of the order so we're going to start with F which is to approve the revised job description of workplace learning liaison could I have a motion there is a paper in the package minor change you want to come up and highlight the changes and I'm gonna do all three together so you just gonna hang out there for a little bit yeah we compare our existing there are few items that we added function but the whole idea is we're looking at to support an overarching description any questions okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed thank
047you I'll entertain a motion to approve the revised job description up the citator of extended school hours programs second and can you give us just a brief update about that sure that position was held by CPC 17 years tires mm-hmm as overtime her job evolved to more elaborate with grant-writing analysis for after-school programmes ensuring that we have funding and supporting our partners for writing grants for the summer learning for extended day learning so the updated position has changed job description change encompasses some of the okay any questions and the funding source for this one is 21st century okay all those in favor signify by saying all right all right those opposed excellent all right motion tools I wouldn't shoot a motion to approve the proposed pay increases for the Family Resource Center step all right
048that is in the packet in this folder Orange currently our salaries are at our C's staff our part-time funded through the FRC grant it's $16.50 when you work on some of the websites the average in Connecticut is $19 per hour and I shared on this on the spreadsheet Windsor and Dan bear as well what they play so the difference of what we're paying our Family Resource Center part-time staff is could be anywhere from a dollar fifty or three dollars we have had a high turnover in this position in which this position we want our read the role includes engaging our disengage families are keeping our families assisting them in navigating into the schools which is crucial to the relationship so the turnover has been as opposed to be a problem in that department and we
049like to show that we are competitive and put some value into that position in a compensation if you look I shared with you the average annual payout and the behind the grant is twelve thousand five hundred and forty dollars if we were to increase it to $18 at the low end it would be thirteen thousand six eighty a variance of 1140 dollars is not a large change it is but it's a substantial to be competitive with our surrounding towns and it's also again funded through the FRC grant if we're to increase it to 20 depending on the experience the average annual would be fifteen thousand two hundred which is a $2,600 difference from what is existing but it's again it shows you a lot I do want to add a little component on the bottom
050we the United Way's a partner they do an analysis of families that are in poverty and families that are follow me Alice range Alice stands for asset limited income constrain employed which means the individual or the family it just barely made the federal law of over up over the average poverty but it's still I'm not unable to make ends meet in regards to sustainable sustainability if they are they are just living the salaries are allowing them to life check the check but there's no idea there's no room for any extras college funding education transportation or any savings anything else it's still life necessities the analysis was done in New Britain and all the towns in New Britain has two to 62 percent of our families fall in poverty or so as an employer and in
051through the grant the federal funding we're asking that we can lift that up a little bit for our families and who we employ so if you're gonna move it up where you're gonna take away from from the grant we're gonna so probably supplies that's the easiest identifying if we don't have the value in the staff the supply should be sufficient and it's a yearly grant so if this year it supplies and next year but the amount of 2000 is well worth I know I'm gonna take a quick it from somewhere short under make sure that I'm inviting weird stuff is closets we do it's true yes are you looking for us to approve a range of 18 to 20 or you looking for us to set a specific amount I am looking to have that
052position as a range 18 to 20 so that's pretty Susan ago she evening on identifying their skills the skill level and what is that what it says I'm here and the lowest and I do have people the lowest is 18 the highest can go up to 22 so is it a pay increase so H yes it's it's a pay it's a pay rate increase it should be a pay scale or something the word should be in there somewhere here there was four in the position but we currently have one director though so we need to hire four for it so it'll be up a range yes when I first moved to Newberry and I had my young family and I involved my kids into Jefferson Elementary School they had the Family Resource Center and that
053was so impactful for me as a young mom trying to figure it all and you know the resources that provided for for me as a young mom about parenting was amazing and just having my younger to my toddler being able to just you know participate in the programs that they had is an amazing program and I think it is crucial and essential especially for different and the families that we have and the support that they need for sure and I can't afford I know quick question for you so you said this is a yearly grant right yes so when you apply for the grant would you be able to apply for additional 20 next year if you should increase now let's just say you fighting for quality people so then you go up you know
0542,600 ologist that's quite a bit of money is that something that you were able to do the grant had done yes support and in the varieties of other grants within the federal government for sbpp title on title for there's other grants that come in that maybe could offset in regards to the supplies because family engagement has another grant so there were the opportunities if it's released when a federal won't lie for I have this I'm not sure if it's competitive or a fatality that states it's a stake or I think I think if you kind of find what we come to the federal difficulty level I would have added it I mean I know that you guys supply a very quality service and you know when you have employees in a revolving door it just
055creates chaos you need to be able to afford it and pay and maintain a good quality staff so I'm definitely okay yeah so the simple answer to your question is no because this is us actually the Family Resource Center is a state grant it's one of those grants that has diminished as the state has me not funding on the thing great but these are like of just a better lowest-paid hath given the hair part-timers I think it's a critical that we increase this and they put in more than part-time yeah right and if you looked at the for if you're a family the average or the best just for sustainability is $35 an hour if you have a family of four and if we're inviting our families to come in and engage in the FRC
056or be employed we're not and this is a place where there are other funders who may be interested in supporting it there was a we added a Family Resource Center funding from the Community Foundation right in the past right so this local and federal potential to to offset increase it's definitely a need it's definitely a position where we can ensure that family engagement we want to keep the staff members we want to have maintain and sustain those programs and it's needed for a lot of our families navigating the elementary schools or even the up middle and high school it's difficult for some families and that relationship with the FRC staff it's very helpful I work hand in hand with the family support provider at my school and you know in Hartford they're there full-time and
057almost every school husband and we don't have that luxury but if we had it they're invaluable I mean the parents the parents do was surprise party for the FRG person for his birthday because they just appreciate him that much you know with what they could you know but it was a it was awesome to see because they're like you're here for us all the time so I definitely am in support of em resource centers and the work that they do so it's just good to see sure oh my gosh for additional dollars dollars every elementary school middle - has a family in the middle - yeah okay so I think this should be fairly easy although some yeah good oh good I'm just reminding them yes I got you I'm gonna get I'm gonna grab
058it okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed all right okay and we are gonna drop down - Emma - motion to college in a motion to approve the purchase order through the MOU for stem enrichment for specialized programs also providing services to sunrise and transition provide successful innovative robotics program at the transition Center it's an 18 week STEM program it's similar to the first leg of the high school but it's called the first leg of jr. and that's a Lego be for the transition Center from grade 7 through 12 at the sunrise it's a 35 weeks them for grades K for five similar activities encouraging and implementing stem like activities for our students mr. Mercer sir I noticed that we had in our four hand axes evening of a modified
059version which I assume is the one that we are voting on which has struck out yeah this thing is do you explain the reason for the change sure um a couple of things you know having stem our steam experiences isn't isn't based on your location every student and that was our commitment every student will have a stem our steam experience in their time in New Britain some of our students who are at sunrise or TC their least restrictive environment is that program itself and having those students integrate into a large setting might not be beneficial for the student and so always I mean our our goal is always full include but we also understand the continuum of students and their needs so we want to bring the programming to the students who are not able
060to be included in the mainstream any other questions so this is actually it's a actually with this partnership they provide of staffing to come in and it's almost like I'm trying to train a model so they do provide individuals and staffing from any first oh it's a partner community partner certified staff is still present with the students that's that's up for many of our students that's the stabilizing force is having their certified teacher with them but it's a partnership with the community partner and the certified teachers correct team teaching really okay any other questions clarifications comment okay all those in favor signify by saying aye and you're giving an update no lawyer do it go for it right yup I have a hand okay that's not bad back to the top all right I'll entertain
061a motion to approve the new position request for the eld teaching she's not she's not big to it so this is again our 9 and 10 grade ninth and 10th graders have an L designate a person on their team we did need an additional L teacher at New Britain High School to meet the demands of the students we serve and so we we put in and the funding sources through local we put in for one teacher there I noticed the description spanish-speaking that I can't answer but I can get the answer for you from Miss Casa de I'm not sure what the why that designation over another but I can find out so it was wide piece all and not bilingual yes Spanish speaking okay you see it oh I got it any other question
062is the roll kind of goes along with that but it's the role of the person you know to teach vld or could you mention the team that made me think of or do they have anything to do with academics meaning are they pushing in more inclusion versus self-contained BL it's out your question right someone and it's part of it I'm looking to mr. Pierce now who could maybe speak to him to the podium are they teaching content for supporting content or just teaching a LP teacher in a position title both says he can't work with the teachers on the team have opportunities to teach those the basic skills first to the recent arrivals in at the same time provide support and nutrition thank you any other questions okay for the discussion love all those in
063favor signify by saying aye those opposed motion to approve the three spread teachers to an MBA chest 0.58 Chamberlin 8.58 key discussion I mean yeah do we does anyone you need a clarification for it or have any questions to ask no these are new these are new positions actually our speaker this because it's not accurate um well we need the t's teachers New Britain High School because right now we're out of compliance would come with in the inclusion rooms up forever compliance with respect to the can teachers contract at the moment okay and they're not safe but we did have a discussion about the additional it's actually should have been one teacher over at Chamberlain and then 0.5 at key and Ralph would like to know if it may approve the three please the two
064high school teachers I'm one for actually 0.5 at flex and 0.5 at Rock and we'd like to re address the Chamberlain at a future date okay right you you allocate approve the number and then you allocate okay what time but you're saying you would need one more wait and I don't know I mean this is not what we submitted but for for total yes this is a name for I 5 what you think so before photo Porto exit is asking for all right we want to Chamberlain because of it there's a need there again 0.5 in place I've ever actually signature and then we need a flex part we need to be able to have someone working those are the two buildings to support kids see none of those programs right now kids are coming
065out of key and they're going into we want flex room where we have the ability to service kids in the building it gap me for instance so they can get that support and if they're not successful having difficulties they're in the same school they can go back into the key program when you move them out to let's say cement it back to their home school there's no support there so this will address that so it's really critical so I'm just an emotion to amend the amount requested to for spread teachers to be allocated by the special education department with consultation with superintendent Sarah okay yes I I'm just a little concerned about this amendment just because this is you know we're looking at ID a part of this and we did get the grant did
066you receive some additional might recently it's not funding no we're just gonna say sure money that makes I mean we can amend the the motion but the discussion would be that when we were told that three you know turned a little green but said yes there's money for but now we're adding another a whole nother body and that I mean if we're lucky they come forward and say oh we have money so that I mean it's you know I just want to put forward that this is it was presented as one point now so I mean if you like we feel been there's three spots and then they figure out where they go yeah and then you could request the one for the next for the other one even though you're probably the host for
067multiple positions and interview anyway there you go right alright so superintendent Sarah's for clarification we are saying that they can post for as many positions as they need and we will approve as many positions as we can afford that's correct okay so to go ahead and post it an interview and find qualified candidates and come back for their fourth position hopefully be with the artist with the special it coordinated position we'll be able to save some money so there you go is your question yeah question doing three or more we really need for why we do need four for compliance we need why it specifically for compliance for four kids in the class for the number four the teacher's contract and also for the kids safety frankly so this compliance and themselves safety well-being we
068only need four four components thank you this right here go into that down there all right all right thank you so four three okay so the motion on the table is for three we currently have a motion on the table can I dress we do have we currently have vacancies as well those are existing positions this was to approve new positions but we do have vacancies those are already posted right at this point so all those in favor signify by saying aye all this posed alright no okay so function to a man to failed now back to the motion on the table we just have to vote all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed perfect three new position and you can get back to get one yeah I could FaceTime Karen
069we're not facetiming leave him be personnel approved new positions one LPN that differ in high school thank you thank you discussion any replacement this is new yes yeah he is not mr. Spaulding Oh mr. Spaulding can you speak to the new LPM let's say it's pretty well laid out in there yeah it's their students there's a student and they currently have a temporary sudden the position man the students probably gonna be here for five years or more maybe more right so this is again it's mandated this student has as hot as a need where they'll need to need the OPM good public so he was wrong I need to read it so she's been in this position for how long and now it's gonna be a contractual position correct or no no PN's do not
070have a contract no they kind of stuff and they're gonna hire a district because of a stud that's him probably we would think right for the student or not very but up here this job is a student with a need for an LP oh yes any other question and the student moves so what happens is and if they don't then that right right so they fulfilled any need there if there is no if there is no remaining need then we no longer no longer need their services right so if somebody else there could be another no there's not what happens to that person I'm not saying maybe we don't need the person you get laid off they get laid off because I need to like not transition we no longer we needed it's a child
071of the district and there was no one to replace instead of being a district employee with the contract with benefits with not getting benefits right did you have eyes all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed yeah it's habit next the precision approved the new position requests people's services specialist out of district liaison week just had a lovely presentation on this kind of emotion all right all those in favor sorry are there any questions I didn't think there would be we have you had a question yes I'm just going to assume there was a typo in the estimated car it's not nine million dollars honestly I don't think it'll II just figured I would make sure that was clear yeah we yes indeed all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed
072excellent Oh motion to approve the revised job description of school counselor school counselor I'm gonna jump up and down do breakfast alright discussion hey me yes sir just for my clarification the underlined is straight through being removed correct so this is easy suggest this is the this is just keeping us in line with the state's new guidelines that were passed on strike there's not going to I thought that was weird anything else so it's interesting we're saying pretty much we don't want novice school counselors in this language okay to be clear I know I'm gonna have to say in looking at the school counselor position I just wanted to make a couple of notes as a certified school counselor myself I noticed that we are looking at both the Oh 60 in Oh 67 so
073the Oh 67 is the graduate is the grandfathered guidance counselor licensed and the Oh 68 is the current school counselor licensed or what they're issuing now and we're striking out bachelors because they don't give bachelor's you cannot obtain a school counselor licensed B with a bachelor's degree it has to be a master's degree and then the other one the prior school counselor experience preferred is is a certain candidate pool that we are looking for so we are looking for those who have been in the field more than one or two years if that's what if I'm reading it correctly yes okay right it does say preferred trust me I ain't no with this and the pay scale is with the teacher's contract yes all right any other it would be nice I've been trying I've
074been working on it for the last picture it's actually a really easy way to wash your buttons it is a very easy way by calling them guidance counselor I get really it's there like one of this just that job itself is totally different Hart was everything there's another thing in here I was reading it over the weekend and they go huh [Music] the council is yeah that's well it is it is what it is yeah mm-hmm no I think it's gone whatever it was is gone the other thing that I was looking for okay any other discussion so all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed we do think we are aim district wellness yes district wellness motion to approve changes to policy six one four two point one zero one district
075wellness I know that we often just do we do two readings on policy this one really has a very minor change of Courts willing to waive that and just go forward we don't have a requirement to hold a policy for two it's highlighted in yellow and it essentially just says that the State Department of Education has guidelines for outdoor recess temperatures and that children can go outside when the temperature is above 15 degrees Fahrenheit including windchill and below 90 degrees Fahrenheit outdoor time should be limited to 20 to 30 minutes when the temperatures between 16 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit and children need to be properly dressed with coats hats mittens or gloves during periods of extreme weather as in the past if there's snow on the ground children must be wearing proper snow suits including
076pants and jackets to play in the snow that's basically just outlining common-sense but it's putting that in there as well and you'd be surprised it helps take the guesswork away from principals who are yes you know worried because it's kind of like canceling for snowfall yeah you always have people complain if you cancel always have people complain if you don't same thing with outdoor you always have people complain if it's indoor recess you always have people who playing if its outdoor at least this gives give some guidelines as to you know what we should be doing and we really want to be maximizing the amount of time our kids get outside but people are still cranky about it all the time do they actually must wear a snowsuit if they're playing in the suno's no
077like sitting it up no way that's it there's snow on the ground great well there's no other groan from November to play in the snow okay okay any other comments questions or concerns okay all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed perfect right propose a crew of motion I will entertain a motion to approve the proposed changes to policy one one one one zero point one zero here it's a family involvement and brief we're mostly just adding a paragraph here but if people would like to postpone this should that happen it'd be lovely okay so I do have a question did we have anyone from the community at this meeting when we went through it were there any other okay all those in favor signify by saying aye motion to postpone for
078a second read those opposed to pave okay motion to prove can i interested motion to approve the proposed changes to policy three two eight zero point zero zero gifts grants and requests each bequest yes the questions like i'd be quickly indeed discussion it is very short the main change is just updating the gifts and donations that are coming through crowdfunding mmm-hmm and it goes along with the next policy which also deals with crown funding but again I'd be fine but I'd recommend postponing this for people have a chance to read through second all those in favor of postponing signify by saying aye aye those opposed perfect and it also make a motion to postpone policy three to eight one point zero zero crowdfunding all those in favor signify by saying aye okay great just get
079rid of the miscellaneous bottom there too all right we did that one except okay motion I'll entertain a motion to accept the deliverable elementary school roof project state project that's complete and authorized facilities to close out the project motion Church mr. Moore you know no you don't have to get up if you don't want are you I just see the smile on your face okay okay okay and that the new system is working swimmingly excellent thank you sir Oh what happened oh no oh sorry volleyball scores all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed excellent we've terminated okay all right and this looks like the same thing from here what is the difference between you two one is a roof project who wants innovation say okay I'll inch a motion to accept to
080do the red elementary school addition and say improve his project and to close out the motion any discussion okay all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed fabulous all right motion to go into executive session for an update on a pending legal matter for the board and Miss Nancy Sarah yes anyone else yes I will let them know all right all those in favor signify by saying aye those opposed we are going to address our last item of the evening in executive session if anyone would like to wait for the adjournment you made yourself [Music]