001uh the trial will get there. I'm sitting there in the salon just doing intake paperwork like >> I know so much about it stand by the behavior of the students. >> Yeah. No, we'll >> send me that info. >> Okay. >> I think we should start early. We have a long agenda. >> That makes sense. Kind of like I can always stick to the lesson plan. >> Well, a well-groomed teacher who knows me. So it's not >> fire child's mind is ready because there's an opportunity for learners Katie voted every time but opportunity like happens >> and sometimes it comes in unexpected places >> so a good teacher for the minutes >> for all the other ones she goes with everyone else. Okay. So, I'll just education. Okay. impressive. >> It was very impressive. >>
002I might help you. >> Well, you know, with with you know, board and batten paneling, chip laughing, things like that because I really enjoy doing >> I just saw a really cool. It's called Roman Clay. >> How are you? >> Good. How are you? Thanks. joint compound. I mean, so you do >> you get like this certain consistency, then you roll it on the wall and then you take a triel and just kind of do whatever it kind of gets freaking awesome. I >> might, >> you know what I mean? >> I know. Just to give it a go, make it, you know, kind of look like the next project. I got to build a room. 13 closet. >> What? You don't like me anymore? >> I don't know. I'm over here today. I am
003always musical chairs between us. >> I know. I'm >> the only one I feel like >> four years of that. >> Oh, you move one side to the other. >> One day it's there, one day it's here. We had today like where's everybody going to fall? >> Like everyone kind of bases it off me. >> Dana tonight. Okay, I know where I am. >> There's not a whole lot. >> I guess if you're LKM or something pretty close to the middle, >> then you have the chair. >> That's exactly the issue >> like finance. Do >> you know what I mean? It's like it's >> for me it's math >> it is. >> See what >> or an alternate at least >> there's no I don't like that. I don't like that. like that. So,
004you're just avoiding something sometimes, you know. >> All right, let me >> just ask. Um, she's up there in the back room. Thank you. >> Maybe she has it. >> Oh, there's one more. Um, Even swap. She was a real and we are coming up on the I just remember the do that, please. It's a couple steps. Messed it up. I did. There we go. Okay, I got it. Get it straight. I'm usually pretty good with those kinds of things. Good evening. The Amity Board of Education regular meeting for November 10th, 2025 is called to order. 6:30 p.m. Asking everyone to please silence their phones. I remind members, staff, and guests to respect the business nature our meetings. Comments may only be made when recognized, and applause is appropriate only in recognition of an individual,
005a group honor, or special presentation. I thank you for your cooperation. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, before we move on to the approval of the minutes, I have an item uh for the board's action. Uh this is a request uh to add an additional item to the budget or to the agenda, excuse me. Uh it's a new vehicle. Uh it would be added under finance at A2. Uh so that's a new vehicle under finance um at A I I guess it is. Uh uh the reason this was not on the agenda is because we didn't have the information. It came in late
006after the agenda was published but we have talked and discussed uh the issue. It involves a uh purchase of a truck which we've talked about before. So uh with that uh can I have a show of hands to uh anybody uh in favor? Everyone who's in favor please raise your hands. Extensions. Objections. No objections. Okay. >> Um, do we need the mo a motion with a second? You made the motion. >> I made the motion. >> Did we need a second? >> I think we need a second to add an agenda item. >> Okay. We move on to number three. Approval of the minutes. Board of Education regular meeting October 27th. We have a motion to approve the minutes. Make a >> motion. That >> I'll second it. >> Dana, thank you. Uh any uh
007changes, questions, concerns? If not, you call the role, please. >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss Iller, >> yes. >> Mr. Hartzorn, >> yes. >> Dr. Kernicron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi? >> Yes. >> Mr. Reed? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis? >> Yes. >> Mr. McDonald? >> Yes. >> Miss Link, abstain. >> All right. The next item on the agenda is public comment. This time, the board would like to invite members of the public up to the lectern for public comment. Please state your full name and address. If you are a student or under 18 years of age, please state only your first name. Each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes for public comment with a maximum of 20 minutes per meeting allocated for any one item. Speakers are reminded that presentations are
008to be made in a respectful manner. Personal issues related to students or staff are not permitted and derogatory language which maligns the character of staff members, board members and other members of the public is unacceptable and not in keeping with board policy core values. Please note that as a matter of board policy, the board does not respond to public comments or questions immediately, but may discuss the subject and respond if appropriate at a future time. If there's anyone here for public comment, please step up to the lect turn. Um, good evening everybody. Um, members of the board and administration. Uh, a few quick things >> for for for the record. >> State your name please. >> Yes, of course. Sorry. Uh, Robert Lyn 956 Lane in orange. Um, so a few quick things. One is
009we have a ninth grader who just started at high school and therefore has learned about the lake bus. Um, which takes him about two hours to get home. Uh, for reference, I work in Greenwich. It takes me about an hour and a half to get home. And anybody I tell that to, they feel very badly for me. Um, so it just seems an an excessive uh commute. I'm sure this has come up. Um, I did see some conversation about extending the bus contracts and I couldn't really make sense of it, but um, I'm sure there'd be a lot of parents interested in if there was some option to provide support for that program to uh, lessen the commute. The second thing is I believe this is the last regular meeting of this version of the
010board. So, I'd like to thank everybody who's served for the last four years or in the case of Miss Iller, eight years. uh which is just mind-blowing to me. A lot's happened in the last eight years. Uh so yes, uh thank you uh to all of you who have served. I noticed that a couple people uh perhaps uh wrapped up early. And the third and last thing is it is uh Veterans Day tomorrow. So I just wanted to acknowledge uh it's tomorrow. Please thank a veteran. And uh of course there's the military wall of honor. If anybody hasn't seen it, it's uh over by the cafeteria, I believe. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else who would like to get up and speak a public comment? >> Thank you. Hi,
011I'm Jenny Turner from Bethany and I just wanted to real quick say since this is the calendar meeting, I understand it has been such a pleasure having kids who are stressed out of their minds and exhausted and catching colds and so on. Having the calendar this fall with so many one-day breaks throughout it just to give the kids time to breathe and sleep and catch up on the all the homework they forgot to turn in. and it's been really great and I hope very much that you keep these holidays that you've added and perhaps do add in the Chinese New Year instead or in addition and thank you and as Rob said, thanks very much for everyone who served. I know it takes a lot of your time and a lot of meetings. Thank you.
012>> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Michelle Tenny, Orange, Connecticut. I'm here today as a taxpayer, community member, and someone who deeply cares about the values and education we're providing in our schools. And I think you know that my face has been here many, many, many years. Um, although my son has graduated, I'm still pursuing proper the words I'm looking for, but um the values and education superintendent's policy proposed policy to limit who can object to certain books in our school libraries to only parents of current students. students or students themselves is unacceptable. Let's be clear, taxpayers fund this district. We pay the superintendent salary, the teacher salary, the building costs, and the library itself. Every person who contributes to the tax fees has a rate to have their voice heard. and how those funds are
013used and what materials are being made available to the public institutions, especially those shaping the minds of our next generation. And while we're at it, let's ask the question to nobody seems to want to answer. How is pornographic or sexually explicit material related to curriculum? It's not. There's absolutely no educational value in exposing minors to adult content under the guise of literature. Calling out those materials is not censorship. is protecting our children and maintaining basic decency in a taxpayerf funded school system. This policy that's been suggested to you would silence a large portion portion of our community. grandparents, retired educators, residents without children in the schools, people who have invested decades into this town and committed to pay for the education system throughout all of their taxes. Excluding them is not transparency, it's control. Our
014school libraries belong to the public. not just a select group. The minute we restrict who can speak, we've lost accountability. This is not about banning books. It's about ensuring age appropriate materials and preserving public oversight. If the superintendent believes only certain people have a voice, maybe then she has forgotten who she works for. >> She works for all taxpayers, not just a small subset of them. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else who wishes to make public comment? >> If not, we move on to item. There's somebody else. Okay. How's everybody doing? >> Good evening. >> Seth Arnes. Uh Bethany, you want my address, >> please? >> 619 Bethmore Road. Paul, you can come over. We're going to have raviolis tonight. Um and I'm going to be late, so >> talk fast. >> All
015right. So, uh I agree 100%. taxpayers, anybody that's paying taxes in this town should have the right to vote on anything. Uh, that's exactly what she said. Um, so if you go online with some of the books that you know are being introduced into the school system, uh, it mostly says, "I'm sorry, but I cannot help you with providing interior illustrations of the book Two Boys Kissing by David Levathon beyond what the publisher or rights holder of have publicly released." So, I mean, that's a little weird, you know, just to I mean, I I don't mind the fact that books can be put in public libraries, but in the school where my kids, if when they were younger, could get a hold of them, I I ju I just don't agree with uh some of
016the things. And you know, you know, you get little pictures like this. That's cute. You know, it's two guys. Let's try something else. Of course, whatever. That's fine. you know, but when you get into books that are in a school and I'm going to read this. Um, I got a new strap-on harness today. I can't wait to put it on. It will fit my favorite dildo perfectly. You're going to look so hot. I can't wait to have your in my mouth. This is going to be in the library so I can actually say this. I'm going to give you a of your life. then I want you inside me. So I I wouldn't want my kids reading this. I would I don't have a problem with it being in a public library where a parent
017can sign it out for them, but being in the school where kids can just pick this up and see pictures of someone, you know, giving what you you could pretty much see what's going on in this picture. >> Um, >> look up at what he's showing. >> Excuse me. >> No, look up. or or or this. You know, I don't think it's appropriate for our children that are in 7th grade to be able to pick up a book like this and see something like this. And if you look at this kid's face, but I can't feel anything. This was much hotter when it was only in my imagination. You guys got to figure some things out because I would not want my daughters looking at this. I have no problem with gays. I have no
018problem. People have have looked at me differently than I am. >> Miss Mr. Harkness, you have another 15 seconds cuz it started the clock before you started speaking. I agree with, you know, views of of of everyone and I I don't have a problem with transgender or gay or lesbian. I probably have more gay and lesbian friends than all of you in here, but I don't want like my I wouldn't want my kids subject to being able to open a book and showing someone with something in their mouth. Like I think it's wrong. I I think it's really wrong and I think everyone needs to like really think about it. Um but thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um and I'm leaving because I'm late for dinner. All right. >> Anyone else? >> Now we
019can move on. Uh number five, presentation of the uh CSDE next generation accountability results 24 2024 2025. All right. Uh, good evening everybody. So, every year sort of around this time I present about our next generation accountability results. Um, often it's um in conjunction with our budget presentations, but um the data actually came out a little earlier this year and I thought I would take advantage of making November 24th a little less long by presenting tonight. So that way um you go into that meeting um aware of uh how our students are performing. Uh it's connected to our bylaw um 9132.6. that part of my budget presentation is a review of accomplishments and then also objectives for the subsequent school year. Uh you'll see um information from NextGen built into our strategic plan. Uh so
020this is uh tied in uh to our budgeting process. Uh quick reminder of the reason that we have accountability systems. They help us track progress. They help us make improvements. They show us where we need to put our our money or supports for our students. recognize success um promote transparency and they are also part of state and federal requirements for school districts. Uh we talk um about the nextgen accountability system. It was developed by the state of Connecticut uh so that um we can present a more complete picture of a school district. Um something like a US News and World Report strictly looks at SAT and AP data. It doesn't really include and anything that um would be part of the middle schools or even really address any students outside of say 11th and 12th
021grade. Um it doesn't look at arts or PE or graduation rates. Um so that's really what the nextgen accountability system did as when the state of Connecticut developed it. It was really to kind of get a comprehensive picture of a school district. And I've always said it's it's for us in education, it's very much the standard that we're trying to measure oursel up to um because it includes so many of those other facets of education that we value. Um the other thing that um has happened is over time they keep adding to this report. Um so there's like um a whole section too and I think we're up to like 2F or 2G at this point because they just keep adding more data points as more data points become available. So, it's really kind of
022expanded over the course of time and it does provide accountability for um more people than just the math and English teachers. Um, again, back when um sort of all of this uh tracking of data started, it was really centered on um Connecticut Mastery Tests and those were English and math based and those were the only people who really ever had to worry about how kids were performing. So the idea behind this is to um provide more accountability to all of our staff um in the areas that they teach. Um so there are 12 indicators and I won't go into a whole bunch of detail about this, but there's um definitely indicators connected to academic performance uh to absentee um rates to how well we're preparing kids for um post uh college and career. um you
023will see that they um pull out um information for what they identify as high need students. High needs students are um just put into one larger category, but they include students who are identified for special education services um multi- language learners and then also students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and would be um considered lower socioeconomic. So all of those are bunched into a category called high needs. Um the indicators also include graduation um both sort of how many kids are on track at the as ninth graders as well as how many students actually graduate um post-secary entrance um physical fitness and then also art access. So um I've done this every year sort of a comparison to the previous year. Um and I I it doesn't matter to me whether the percentage
024points go down by 10 or if they go down by 0.1. I just put my arrows up. So that's a quick visual so you can see where we had um changes. Um I am pleased that our math um performance for all students uh showed an increase um as did our science performance and we'll talk about that and how we uh got there later. You will see a lot of decreases in the growth um area. So that's kind of measuring how kids um progressed from one year to the next. It actually uses data um from the prior school year. um the English proficiency 2E and 2F, those were brand new to us last year. Um so that was the first time that they measured um indicators for u multi- language learners and so we're just kind
025of trying to um wait into the water um in terms of that performance. Um um chronic absenteeism has continued to show um improvements. We've been working on that for a couple of years. Couple places where we sort of flatlined because we were already at the top. um can't get much higher than 100 on this report. So, we just kind of maintain status quo. Uh we have um more students who are um passing the exams for college and career readiness. Um and our six-year um graduation cohort went up. Um we have great participation rate for our physical fitness. 93.4 is really um pretty high. Um decreases in performance in um the arts access which um Dr. Dr. Perry Carlson and I have to sort of look into because that doesn't compute with us and make sense
026to us um in terms of we offer arts to all of our students. So, we're just trying to figure out how that that number came about. And then overall a um percent drop in the total accountability score. Um when we look at the DURG data, uh you can see um and I've put this graph up many times. uh for the most part DURB B uh schools kind of all cluster between 82 and 80% um in terms of meeting accountability and when I say cluster that is a very big chunk of schools that um generate about the same accountability um results. Um it is sort of interesting to me that all the gray bars are all K through 12 districts. So they have data in grades 3 through six that we don't have in our um
027data set. Um Bethany Orange and Woodbridge which are the yellow bars on this graph are all strictly looking at the 3 to six data. So they don't have the information like on graduation cohorts or arts access or um college career readiness because they don't do that. I would gather I mean you can basically tell if you sort of put us all together like and we were K to6 we would cl group right out where all the other derby schools kind of kind of um end up performing. Um so uh the other thing that the accountability index does is it um places schools into a category. So, what you just saw on the DURG, this is district data. Um, but it actually will then break it down and each school gets an accountability index and based
028on that accountability index, they're put into categories. Category one being the highest performing um on down to categories four and five, those particular schools actually have intervention from the state to make improvements in terms of how their students are performing. The other um odd thing is and this is where that high needs group comes into play um is that if there is a achievement gap between high needs and non- high needs kids. In other words, if the non- high needs kids perform significantly better than those students who are special education multi- language learners or free and reduced, they will automatically drop you down one category. Um the same is true if there is a significant difference in the graduation rate between high needs and non- high needs. And then it is also true if you
029have less than 95% of our students participating in all of the state assessments. Um so that has an impact on the school categorization. Um so if we look um we did not have any of our schools per with less than 95% participation on the um assessments uh due in large part to Jill Plant um who I think literally chased children through the hallways to have them participate in the tests. Also due in a large part to Mr. Brandt and his staff who really helped parents understand the importance of taking those assessments. Um, we did not have any achievement gaps at the middle schools, but we did have an achievement gap at the high school. And I will show you sort of where that was. Um, and we didn't have graduation gaps. So, um, our schools
030were all placed into category 2, but because of that achievement gap at the high school, they actually dropped from category 1 to category 2. So, they really were among the highest performing schools in the state. um other than that achievement gap. Uh so again kind of a comparison because I think this is good news from last year. Um Bethany Middle School was a category three and they moved to a two. Orange stayed at that two level and um last year the high school was a category three. They moved up to a two um and would have been in category one if we didn't have that gap. Uh so what does this mean for us? Uh the good news is is that um Dr. Dr. Perry Carlson and the um and I along with the administrative
031team and input from the the teachers, we've really been working on a trying to make improvements in these areas sort of long-term plan. Um so we always want to continue supporting the places where we're strong making sure our kids do have the arts access, making sure they do have those opportunities for college and career readiness and and taking AP classes and dual enrollment courses. Um, we're doing a lot of work to strengthen our vertical alignment with the Bethany Orange and Woodbridge school districts. Um, we have been, as you well know, doing a lot of curriculum revisions. Um, algebra 1 is before you this evening, and it's the start of our math curriculum revision um, work. So, that's going to be critical and important and really ties into that vertical articulation with the elementary districts. Um,
032we're starting to do student work protocols with common assessments because now that we have curriculum that have common assessments, we can start to look at the student work to help us improve um outcomes in terms of um our our day-to-day instruction. Um, we had a lot of success with incentivizing the next generation science standards test. Um, you'll remember um Mr. Hower, particularly at the high school, had this big bump in scores. And when you offer raffles for free parking and prom tickets and things like that, it's amazing how much more time kids um spend on the test and how much better they perform. Um we will present to you a a potential new middle school schedule, which will have many more opportunities for intervention as part of the school day for our students to help
033those kids who are struggling. Um and we are continuing to work on our um conditions and understanding of highquality instruction. Um we will continue to look at expanding dual enrollment and career pathways. Um you'll see in the budget that we are looking to for support to add a program to offer certified nursing assistant um certification at the high school. Um we are continuing to use our district and school data teams. um we will that actually those teams will meet to reset our two-year goals around this data. Um and we'll use that um going up to 2028. Um Mr. Brandt has invested a lot of time in providing special education teachers with explicit strategies for teaching reading. Um again hoping to work on that gap that exists between our high needs and our nine high needs
034students. you've done a great job of supporting our multil- language teachers. So now we have two in the district, one who can work at the high school and one who spends her time in the two middle schools. Again, working to address that gap between high needs and non- high needs. Um we are going to do start to do some more um training and support for co-eing, which is where special education teachers work with regular education teachers in the classroom so that students are being provided with appropriate grade level content. Um and then the special education um department is continuing to work on student goals in their IEPs that are strongly aligned to the um Connecticut core standards which drive our curriculum. So a lot of things that we've already put into motion to continue to
035improve our accountability results. Um but that is the report and I'd be happy to take questions. >> Board members questions. Uh Carol, >> thanks Dr. Buyers for that presentation. Um I have um two questions. One, so the special needs group in it includes a diverse group, right? There's like uh free and reduced lunch and some other things, right? Did the data team or did you take a look at sort of where within that group you might want to focus interventions or efforts? So the probably the greatest proportion of that group would be students with IEPs. So that's why when you looked at the strategic plan, there are three very specific actions that are all directly connected to special education um department. Um they don't actually split it out for you. They just say here's your
036lump of high needs kids. So they don't parse it out for us. Um, and some of them can actually really fall into two categories. So, you could have a special education student whose family also qualifies for free and reduced lunch. So, they're kind of like double high needs, but they don't recognize that either. But just solely knowing how many students we have in the district who have IEPs compared to how many students we know who qualify for free and reduced lunch compared to how many students we know who are identified as multil- language. it's the student the special education students is the biggest proportion of the high needs group. So that's why there's a lot around special ed. Um my second question is um you mentioned specifically like interventions at the middle school level and
037you know um I was thinking you know why wouldn't you um sort of highlight interventions at the high school level because that's where the gap is >> um >> in performance you >> well it so I yes the gap is in performance there but also if you go back to the chart like that first page that growth area we didn't meet that for either high needs or non- high needs students and that's where again intervention may come in. I mentioned it solely because we are also simultaneous to everything we're doing we are going to present um an opportunity for a revised middle school schedule and when we do that one of the benefits of this new schedule what we're considering is we have a lot more opportunities to provide intervention without pulling kids out from
038other classes. So, it's just kind of a it's going to be a highlight of that new schedule that we propose. Um, at the high school, again, because of your work, we have interventionists who now kids remember our schedule. It's part of their classes and like their schedule that they they go to and there's attendance and things like that. So, we've made good progress there, but it's really connected to this revision of the middle school schedule. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Other questions? Anyone else? Dana, >> um, when you talk about interventions and pulling kids out and how does that relate to the unleveling and with more diverse levels in each classroom? >> So, are you a different way? All right. So, are you are you pulling kids out that already have IEPs and need
039help or is there because of the unleveling and there's kids with different levels? Is that, you know, is that become an issue where the kids need to be pulled out because they're not able to maintain? >> No, this these would have been students who were already identified as needing support and would have received it regardless of whether they were in a level class or an unlevelled class. >> Okay. >> Does that make >> It does. And then the the co- teacher the teachers that are coming in to co-e what is their what is their purpose of being in there other than is it for kids that need additional help that aren't being pulled out or how is that? >> So ideally one of the strongest models for providing support for students is to have the
040content still be grade level content and to use the skills of special education teachers to help those students access it. So if it does not actually benefit a student to um be exposed to let's say English materials that are in sort of a fourth grade like level when they need to be the state still expects them to do seventh grade work even if they they need support to do it. So, so co-eing is really it's a strategy where the special education teacher can provide accommodations and modifications in the classroom so that the student is exposed to the grade level content that they're expected to be able to know and do. It's a different model than taking that kid and pulling them out into a special education setting where they're they're not necessarily getting the same
041type of instruction. um and where that is going to be at the level where they're performing at and it may not be the grade level content that they are expected to to do. >> Kathy, >> so along that line, right, the same way you were talking about the the co-teer, >> right, the interventionists, are they in the classroom? So they're aligned with how how the teacher is teaching the curriculum and the curriculum that they're teaching. >> So um a little bit of both. Um but very much aligned. Actually it ironically all of our interventionists. So both the English at each middle school and now the math at each middle school are serving as the content leaders for their respective departments. So they are very much aware and aligned with what is happening in the classrooms.
042>> Thank you. >> And they will push in but they will also pull out as appropriate. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> But the intervention is program is still where that's where the kids are scheduled to go. That's not selective. I need to go. >> Okay. And Donna, >> so you presented some data and then you presented strategies how you're approaching that data. And I'm just curious compared to last year when we did this, are there anything highlights in the way you're approaching it this time that's different from last year? >> Um, I do think that the vertical articulation with fifth and sixth grade, um, Dr. Perry Carlson's really been doing a lot of work in that area because I think as we rewrite the curriculum, we're realizing where some of our shortcomings
043are in not being a K through2 district. and it's um it's really helping us to strategize what we have have to do. So that's a a big piece of that. Um I do think that the um opportunity for co-eing again it comes with this new middle school schedule. Mr. Brandt's been very supportive of this of having of aligning special education teachers to the middle school teams so that we can be better at co-eing. That's all kind of new. Um, and we're just getting started with that work, but that's definitely something that's a significant change from where we currently are, I would say. Um, and then, um, looking at the high quality instruction, again, that's that's a new topic that we're bringing up. Um, but really, what does it mean to provide instruction that challenges kids
044to rise to the level that they're expected to perform when they take these assessments? Thank you. >> So those are three highlights. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Buyers. Appreciate that. >> Uh we're going to move on to number six, the three A's, academic arts and athletics and portrait of the graduate focus presentation. Uh professional learning day, AI wisdom from students and Dr. Perry Carlson and AI Council. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um while Dr. Dr. Buyers is bringing up the presentation. We wanted to share with you last Tuesday uh November 4th, our adult learners came together here at AMD and our learning together was focused on artificial intelligence. Um it was a remarkable day. Um and I think one of the highlights was the entire day was designed by our AI council. Um
045and Mr. Clark is here with us and he's a member of the AI council and we thought it was a good opportunity to just take a step back and share with you what is the AI council, what's their purpose and what are their goals and then we'll tell you a little bit about the actual November 4th professional learning and also we got to hear from our kids which was the highlight of the day I think was really hearing from our students. >> Sure. So, um, hi, my name is Ken Clark. I am one of the high school librarians, but I'm here in my capacity as a member of the district AI council. Um, so, as Dr. Perry Carlson said, we just had this full day professional learning last week that was focused on AI. And
046just to kind of put that work in context, um, this is actually the second time that we've done a full day on professional learning, um, focused on AI. And both times it was planned and um delivered uh by the AI council, which is a district-wide group of educators that consists of myself and my colleague at the high school, the library media specialists um at the at both middle schools, our director of technology, Mr. D. Roza, as well as our district uh technology coach. And so we came together in um August of 2024, so a little over a year ago. And um our goal is really to facilitate the the um the use of AI throughout the district and to do so in a really consistent way. Uh we do already have a technology committee, a
047district technology committee. Um but you know that that committee has a lot of work um to do uh a lot on their plate and with the way that AI evolves so rapidly we wanted to have a group that would be able to meet a little bit more frequently and a group that would really be able to just focus in on the unique issues um that arise when you're talking with talking about AI. Um so we kind of set a three-year goal for ourselves. Um last year our goal was to teach the teachers. Uh we figured that before kind of rolling things out to students, it would be important that teachers know, you know, how to navigate some of these um the new AI landscape uh with students. Um so to that end, um members of
048the AI council uh attended a wide variety of conferences and workshops last year to kind of learn as much as we could possibly learn. Um sometimes people call us the resident uh experts, which is a term that I'm not super comfortable with because I don't feel like an expert. There's always a lot more to learn. Can I brag about something for sure? I'm gonna I'm gonna brag because I know Mr. Clark isn't, but every time we go to one of these workshops in the within the state, I come back and I tell Dr. Buyers, >> I I say our team could be leading this work and and facilitating the professional learning and the conference, the work that they do is really remarkable. Um, and to say that we're kind of staying, you know, afloat, I
049feel like we're kind of pulling ahead a little bit of everybody. Um, and when I asked them, I said, "Is there any way November we could focus on AI?" They said, "Well, we did that last year." I said, "Maybe again because I feel like we kind of can't keep up." Literally, they just off you go. They designed, facilitated every single workshop. There was over 35 workshops that teachers got to select from. Um, and it was just really a remarkable day. I'm going to put your slides up here. >> So, this is just the the membership on the council. Uh, the folks I mentioned before, um, these are our goals. As I said before, we want to implement a unified approach across buildings. We found especially the library media specialists at all three buildings found that
050we were kind of the people that folks would go to with questions and it was a lot and there was a lot to learn and we wanted to make sure that we were kind of handling things in a consistent way throughout all three buildings. Making sure that teachers were getting the same answers to the same questions, making sure they had access to the same resources and professional learning. Um, and it also made it a little bit easier for us too to be able to come together and kind of divide the work up. um and also enabled us to do more. So, we're very we're very pleased that we were able to do that. Um and it's been pretty successful, I think, so far. Um so, as I said before, we had that kind of three-year
051goal, year one being teach the teachers. And so, a lot of what you see on the screen here is what we found ourselves doing a lot. Answering questions about academic integrity, ask answering questions about what is acceptable, what, you know, what can I be doing in my classroom, what should I be doing, how can I do something more effectively? Um and then you know how can I use it to restructure my lessons and to embed AI um which is really something we're trying to focus on a little bit more this year. So in our year two um our goal shifts from teaching the teachers more to teaching the students which is why we're we're talking more about embedding AI. And on that note for this um professional learning that we did last week we really
052wanted to see kind of where are the students now? What do the students need? What do they know already? Um what do they want their teachers to know? And so what we did was we organized uh student panels of six students each in all three buildings. Uh we recorded the panels. We asked all the students the same questions. They had the opportunities to respond or not to respond. We asked them to be as honest as they felt comfortable. And uh we recorded those and we kind of stitched together um clips from all three panels by theme. So, we made five different videos that were organized by theme and then we kind of used those to structure the professional learning day that we delivered last week. Um, I believe Dr. Per Carlson is going to show
053you or play for you some audio of some of those uh students. >> All right. And the students were asked how how do you use AI? >> I use AI mainly outside of school to study. I ask it to make uh problems for me to solve. In school, I would say I use AI for before a test or while doing homework. If I'm unfamiliar with a certain topic, I will use it to first explain it to me and then generate more practice problems based on that so I can understand it better. >> Inside school, I use AI to make comprehensive study guides for myself. And outside, I use it to summarize news articles. So, inside of school, we've been using AI recently to help us write short stories in English class. And outside of school,
054sometimes I might use AI to help me write or take notes for like dance. >> Outside of school, I just I don't use it period. I And in school, I use it. Everything I know is possible on Google. I try to scroll away from it. I try to find things with sources that I can site myself. I use AI to generate um math practice problems to help me study. >> Like outside of school, instead of like emailing a teacher, sometimes I ask Chad GBT for help. >> I use AI in school to make study guides. So if I get a study guide for a class, like for chemistry last year, for example, I needed to study a lot. So I would take a picture of my study guide that I completed at Master Complexity to
055make me new questions. And outside of school, I'll use AI or like so like if I'm home alone and I forget if you can put ceramic in the microwave, I'll ask, "Can I put ceramic in the microwave?" And it just gives me a quick deter. >> AI helps me understand the news better and like stay updated with the times as I can summarize different news articles if they're like say really long or like have lots of huge language. Uh outside of school, um I use AI when I'm for like research and stuff. Um like if I was like cooking or like I was on a trip and I needed like fun stuff to do, I'll ask like oh what are fun things to do in New York or um like I want to make a
056tamu like what are the recipes or whatever. >> Um AI is kind of like a tool like a teacher kind of like outside of school and in school and it could like help you with a lot of different things. It can repeat itself as much as you need it to and it can teach it to you in multiple different ways. So if you struggle to understand something in a particular way, AI can teach it to you in another way. And I think that since you only have one teacher for one subject and if that teacher the way that teacher teaches isn't the best for you, AI is a very good source or tool to help you understand that subject. And then the next prompt that the kids were given was um this is what I
057want my teachers to know and mind you this was you know 250 staff in the gymnasium because as Dr. buyers mentioned at Miss Lumis, we had no lights in the auditorium, so we brought everyone into the gym. Um, and the teachers were able to see the kids' faces. So, we're showing you the audio, but it was it was it was really wonderful. >> There's a 5sec delay at the beginning of >> what I want like teachers to know about AI is that like it's not like all that. some other stuff can actually help you like study and like break down problems. >> I wish that my teachers can know that um there is an effective way to use AI. It's not always going to be that the use of AI is cheating. It's sometimes going
058to be that the student is using AI to um maybe grasp a idea or subject that they don't um understand. I wish um my teachers realized that AI like it has been used for like really bad things and that encouraging a like too much use of it could be like really dangerous especially like in a setting such as like a middle school where there's can be like bullying or cyber bullying. >> Most people don't use AI as like a tool to like cheat. They just use it as a tool to like extend their learning and get more resources. And I kind of wish teachers understood that even if we're like on an AI browser, it doesn't always mean we're trying to tell it to do the work for us. Like sometimes we're just trying to
059get it to elaborate, especially when the teacher's already working with someone else. >> Um the whole I do think that AI isn't going away. It's um it can be very helpful. It can be very useful. It can be very efficient even in a good way, not a weird way. from in a classroom setting, if they're teaching how to use AI, they should also teach that some AI models can be biased. Obviously, most AI models are going to be biased as they're made by a human in the end. And these models are trained by a human. So, they're going to have some else bias. >> Kids are going to like find ways to cheat. Like even if there wasn't AI, I'm pretty sure like the teachers when they was kids, there was kids cheating back then,
060you know, before there was AI. So I think if you find like something that kids are using to cheat like AI and teach teach them that like if you use it like this this and that you know can help you instead of just cheating you know like sometimes I feel like kids will like cheat and not even realize they're cheating. Um and like if there's like a dedicated like course or like a um something that the teachers can like teach us on how to use it properly um I think that would be very beneficial. AI is not always right. So teachers should know that um if students like copy AI, they're probably going to notice. >> Something I want teachers to know about AI is that most students really do value doing their own work
061because like most students really know that when it comes down to it, like a test or something, they're not going to have their AI. So most students don't just get an assignment and immediately turn to AI. It's usually like the last thing that they turn to if they don't have time first time out or they don't get it. But most of the time students like try to do on their own first. So, I think one of the um one of the students you heard said it best as as we're trying to grow our capacity as adults. Um the ultimate goal is that we're providing and equipping our kids with the tools and skills they need um so they're prepared um and they they can use AI successfully. Um I know Mr. Clark mentioned some of
062the workshops that were offered. These were a few of the workshop workshops and as I mentioned there was over 35 um and staff got to choose which workshop they wanted to attend. Um and at the close of the day we provided staff with a survey. Um and this was just some of the feedback from staff. Um so it was it was a really positive great day of learning together. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us. Um but we think it was a really great >> is ongoing >> ongoing. Yeah. So any questions? >> Questions? >> A comment. I think one of the biggest things that just stuck out for me was the student that mentioned that they they were using it to learn it the way that they learned it. >>
063Because I think one of the things that's become very apparent is that not all students learn the same way. Even if they don't have an IEP and the way the teacher teaches it just may not be clear. And so I think that's huge because I see that being a big benefit to students. if they walk out of the classroom, there's not enough time for it to be reexplained the way that the student wants it to be explained, but they can turn to that to say, "I don't understand this. Explain it to me." >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, David. Very helpful. >> Yeah, just to echo the same thing, the um what did the one student say? It's it's not they know that they don't have the AI when they're taking their test. So, they're not
064It would make sense. Okay, you know, chat GBT, do my homework. What's the point of that? They understand that at their age. They understand that. They just help it. You know, when I when I write emails or or whatever, I use it to use better words, right? So, you're not repeating the same, you know, words over and over again. It just enhances your work a little bit. I think they're using it right. I mean, it's sounded good to me. Did they know they were being recorded and it was going to get played? >> They didn't know they were being recorded. >> Did they know it was going to get played to teachers and the board of education? >> They didn't know about the board part. We did tell them beforehand though >> going the opposite
065of him. A lot of them talked about the cheating aspect. Have you guys found that a problem? Like I probably would have been one of them in high school. >> Me too. >> We had our ways. >> Yeah. I mean I think I think teachers are wrestling with that now. But I think as we we're continuing to learn what platforms are the right platforms to use. For example, Magic School, right? And we need to know what's data privacy, what what's the state recommending that we use. We're trying to stay really ahead of that. Um, and then also just working with kids and informing them. It's kind of like what Mr. Hart just said, you know, when ultimately in the end you're going to be assessed and we want you to have the skills and knowledge
066that you need to be successful. So, while this is a great resource or a tool for quizzing yourself or making a study guide or polishing up maybe an email or something that you're crafting to a teacher if you need to reach out for extra help, that's great. But ultimately in the end, you know, we're trying to teach them that it's not a it's not a motive. >> Kathy and Carla, >> I think I think it's very interesting that one of the students recognized that these are created by humans and there will be opinion. >> There will be opinion and so you need to think, right? You need to think and use multiple sources to find your own truth. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Carla. I loved hearing the student feedback. That's just >> such a
067gem. I was wondering if there was any um conversation about students understanding the environmental impa impact of AI. Um it's something that comes up in my classroom a lot. Um when I'll encourage them to use a tool for something and they'll say, "Well, I'm using too much water." Um is that part part of the conversation? Are they acknowledging that or understanding like maybe they don't need it for every little thing, but they should Yeah, I would say that's definitely a concern that many of our students have expressed to us. Um, and so we, you know, when we as librarians and members of the eye council try to push into classrooms and and work with teachers, we do try to at least spread some awareness of that. Um, I think that we want to encourage students
068to use AI in a way that isn't frivolous. >> Um, because there is a cost to it, right? So, if you're going to pay the cost, you want to make it worth that cost. Um, but I also think that, you know, it's really difficult in a world where AI is increasingly being embedded into things that we don't even really have a say in. For example, if you do a Google search, you know, you're at the point where you don't have to seek out the AI. It's just there. There's really no way to even do a traditional Google search anymore without uh engaging AI. Um, so I don't have I don't think any of us really have the answers to that yet, but we are definitely encouraging our kids to be aware um and to start,
069you know, thinking with that in mind. >> And even in our keynote to staff when we kicked off the day together, we talked about while artificial intelligence is great, um, it doesn't replace human intelligence. There has to be a balance of the two. So to your point, >> okay, Sudter, last question here. >> Okay. Yeah. No, this is great. Thank you. Uh so I just had a question about one of the points that was mentioned about creating AI resistant assignments. Uh so what would be an some a couple of examples uh of AI resistance? >> So you know there are a lot of there are a lot of traditional I would say tasks that you know it shouldn't surprise anyone AI can can complete pretty easily. So, what we're trying to do with teachers is
070with that in mind, have them redesign some of their their tasks and their assessments in a way that will make it more difficult for students to kind of bypass their own original original thought and use AI. Uh, in a way that is going to require them to, you know, engage with the work a little more personally. >> Right. >> If that makes sense. >> No. Yeah. No, I I I got that. I was just trying to think like, you know, for English, what could that be? or something like you know what would that be but that's fine we can always talk about >> I think we're definitely trying to in English for example we're trying to encourage teachers to maybe um create more authentic tasks and when it comes to writing I think you know
071AI can't reflect in the way that a human can um and AI can't AI doesn't know all the things that you know a human knows about themselves so I think bringing having the students bring their own voices into the writing a little bit more makes it more conducive ive to them uh you know avoiding >> the challenge I always find is that the average of AI is actually pretty reasonable that a teacher cannot really figure it out right whether it is actually done or not and u and so in any case this is not an easy question to think about like you know but I was just thinking about the process by which uh we're all thinking about it and collectively learning about what actually works thank you >> uh I don't know I'm sorry
072I didn't >> okay you you might have um touched on this already but I just wanted some clarification ification and you know like everything else it can be a beautiful thing and then there's another side of it that can be very dangerous and and you know to more of a disadvantage like cell phones we're figuring out with kids now so forth so part of all this training for teachers and students how much of it is towards sort of the the negative side of AI in terms of you know um abuse of it and um you know are going places where are getting information that they really shouldn't have etc etc I mean It's just it's like fast forward information track and um so I get concerned about that in terms of handling all that and
073if um how much of the training for is the safeguards of all that and you know if you go here this is possibly the consequences of that in terms of >> exposure so forth >> one of the I think one of the AI council's greatest achievements so far has been to uh to craft um what what have now been adopted as our district AI guidelines that sort of map out what responsible ethical behavior of AI looks like. Um, and that's something that we're asking teachers to develop and, you know, put into their sylli, put into their uh course assignment sheets to review with their students in the classroom um to model that kind of behavior. >> So that is developed. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. And and and then it's passed down to the teachers and
074then passed down to the students and all that. Okay. >> Yeah. I mean AI is a really powerful tool, right? But just like any tool, it can be used for good or evil. So I think that what we are trying really hard to do with students is show them how it can be used ethically, show them how it can be used effectively in a way that is not going to be harmful to themselves or anyone else. Um and then you know hope that they will follow from that. >> Thank you very much. This is an outstanding presentation. Very very important. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate the work. Uh we're going to move on to number seven. uh presentation of the uh 2026 27 school calendar and we're not going to get into a long discussion
075because we're not going to be voting on this. We want to give people an opportunity to review. But my first question, Dr. Buyers, is this calendar developed in coordination with the other local school districts? >> Yes, it is. We sit down together with a calendar and we work on it, all four of us together, so that way it is aligned. Um, and I would say that um, it is probably compared to the last couple years more aligned than any of the calendars that we've had. Um, you will in in no small part because many holidays fall on a Saturday or a Sunday next year for some reason. Um, so uh, we start on the first um, our first day of school is the same. Two half days on that day. Um, you'll see the holidays
076in September and October. Those are all aligned. Um, as is the professional learning day in November. Thanksgiving is aligned. Christmas break is aligned. Um, the M Martin Luther King holiday is aligned. Um, the one difference is in the February break, AMD has the Friday off uh that the other schools do not have, but the Monday and Tuesday are aligned. and that you remember was to help us have a more robust senior um unpaid experiential learning program. Um we have the March 10th day is designated as the Eid holiday for AMD. It is the professional the spring professional development day for the teachers in the three elementary districts. So they are also they also don't have school that day. Um the um Good Friday holiday is aligned, the April break is aligned, and the Memorial Day
077holiday is aligned. >> Okay. Uh is there any specific question that any board members have? Because if not, uh we can move on. And if you have questions that come up over the next month, uh you can get those to Dr. Buyers. We will be voting on the calendar at the December meeting. I believe >> that is correct. >> All right. Thank you on that. Uh we move on to discussion and possible action on setting 2026 graduation date June 11th 2026. That is uh Friday in uh June. And it is not the last day of school for the school district. I believe last day of school is the 14th. >> No. Um this is for this year. >> Okay. >> So for this year it is the last day >> last day of school. Okay.
078I was looking at this year's calendar. Exactly. Yeah. >> So, it's not a Friday. >> No, I think it's a um >> Thursday. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Um and it's the 181st day. No, it's a two Tuesday. >> No, it's a Thursday. >> It says 26 here. >> So, yes, it is. Um yes, it's this spring's graduation date. >> Great. Okay. So, uh just to remind everyone once we set this date, this is a firm date. If uh snow days occur, uh the school year is extended, but not for the seniors. We still will have graduation on this date. All right, we have a motion to uh have graduation on June 11th, 2026. >> I'll make a motion. >> Carla Kathy second. >> Okay, any further discussion? >> Can you call the role, please?
079>> Miss Bradley? >> Yes. >> Miss, yes. >> Mr. Horn, >> yes. >> Dr. Kron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Steven, >> yes. Mr. McDonald, >> yes. >> Okay. The motion carries unanimously. Uh we move on to discussion and possible action on board 2026 board of education regular meeting schedule. We do this every year. Uh just to call your attention to a topographical error on the uh days. This is uh the title in our u uh packet which said 2025 board of education regular schedule meetings. It's 2026 and uh with that uh as you could see there are uh the uh regular schedule meetings are the second Monday of the month with the exceptions of the three that are listed. Um and uh this carries us
080through uh January 11th of 2027. All right. Any questions or concerns with these dates? I have a motion to approve these as the meeting dates for 2026. And Kathy, thank you. And Pat second. >> All right. Call the RO, please. >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss, yes. >> Mr. Hartz, >> yes. >> Dr. Kron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Bella, >> yes. >> Dr. Odor, >> yes. Yes. >> Motion carries unanimously. We move on to uh number 10, correspondence. And uh I don't remember a whole lot of people sending us stuff. >> I don't know. Everybody's been quiet. >> Oh, okay. >> Great report. >> Uh number 11, uh chair's report. Just just a couple of comments. The was mentioned
081earlier this is the last regular meeting of this board. Uh we have six people who were elected uh last uh Tuesday who are returning uh reelected and four new members uh and some of them are in the room tonight and we welcome you and looking forward to working with you and thank you so much for your dedication to our students the students in the district. Uh we will have our next meeting uh as uh mentioned uh a special meeting on the first steps of our budget development. Uh I do not believe there will be any votes taken on that particular day. Uh this is an early presentation uh of the departmental requests. Uh so uh we'll have an opportunity to look at those uh ask some questions if necessary and uh then we'll leave it
082to the administrators uh to work with the department heads to look at that and determine uh uh cuts that may be necessary and probably will be necessary. Uh the next meeting after that is December 10th. Uh this will be our first bianial meeting. Uh the new policy is that uh we will have a bianial meeting. The first order of business will be oath of office for our newly elected uh members which will be given according to our policy and state statute. Uh and uh secondly the uh election of officers. All of our officers uh stand for election on that day and they will be for the first time two-year terms. Uh so those will be the main things beginning with that meeting and then we will have all of our uh members including our new
083members as part of our regular meeting for conducting business from that point on. And we're going to miss some of our wonderful people that have worked here with us for a long time. Uh Andrea and um who else is missing? Okay, Christina is missing and uh I I would like to say that they did great jobs. uh uh Andrea for eight years and Christina for four and uh contributions and participation in the board were outstanding and Carla and her friend Sean uh super outstanding and first of all Carla eight years it's you served your time. Uh and Sean we're sorry to see you leave the board. Uh, I have to tell you and uh I don't compliment people very often about uh things that I think are unusual or outstanding. You are probably one of
084the hardest working board members I've ever seen. And uh the amount of effort and time that you put in and the learning experience that you had as a board member here, I think will contribute to you and our community for many many years to come. So I thank you so much for that. Okay. And uh that's the chair's report and we're gonna go on uh to aces. Do we have anything on aces? Uh >> so Paul, >> yes. >> How are the new assignments made? So >> he's a great rep on finance, right? >> Right. Uh well, very honestly, uh uh the the assignments are made by the elected chair at the time. uh and uh that will be up to the new board, whoever that person is, and then that person uh would work
085with the board members. So, I'm I'm assuming that most of you would either like to stay where you are, may have some other goals or ideas and uh maybe if if you would like and if you you people would all approve, uh I'd be happy to collect information. and I'll send out a notice to all of you as to what you would like and uh if necessary pass it on to the chair at the time. >> Is is that okay? >> Okay, I'll get something out. >> Good idea. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> Asus. Um not much to report. Asus is um the current executive director will be retiring at the end of this year. Many of you here probably know that um Tom's uh retiring. So, we are in the process of
086looking for a new executive director. So, we'll see. I mean, when new EDs come on, they come on with, you know, different vision, things like that. So, we'll wait to see what um what that looks like. >> Okay. Thank you. And and Carol, while you have the floor there and Donna is not here tonight, uh >> the early start. >> Yeah. >> Um committee. So, we um had the opportunity to meet with the uh BOA superintendent um this week actually. um no last week. Um and um got some time to share. We had an infographic um that we shared with them on the benefits of um you know delayed school start for high school students. Um and just invited them to think about uh the information we shared with them. Um and invited them to
087like just be in conversation with us or explore with us. uh the option of possibly starting late since that would have budget implications for everyone. So, um they had a couple questions which I thought was great. It shows that they're thinking about it and there may be some interest. Um but we'll wait to see. They'll let us know. They'll let Dr. Buyers know at their next meeting. >> Yeah, we I gave them sort of a two-month period knowing that they were changing their board and that they needed a little bit of time. So, I asked if they could at least give us some sense of where they're thinking by January. Um because then that would guide where our work goes. >> So, I guess we're on hiatus until >> Yeah. And uh you know, ju
088just some of the things that I I spoke to Donna on the phone today and had nice discussion and she gave me some background and information. uh for our board members. Uh medical evidence seems to point to the fact that our kids do need some more sleep and uh particularly teens uh adolescence uh would do well with the extra time but there are so many other things that are involved in the process here. So it's it's a balancing act and uh there are challenges and that's why the committee is there and uh appreciate uh you and Donna and all the other members uh who are working on the issue and the superintendent. I thank you >> uh Cab'll get back to you next month. >> Uh yeah, just uh want to mention something about uh
089the meetings coming up and >> Yes. So, we have um actually there's quite a few meetings coming up. Um we um partnered so um you'll remember there's a statute that says all new board members have to be trained. It used to be optional. Now it's mandatory. Uh so I actually worked with the superintendent in Woodbridge. We both share Bam and Moses as a law firm um for our board business. And so we're going to join our new board members together on November 18th. Um and attorney Dugis will give them their introductory new board member training. Um there's also a new board member orientation that CAB puts on full day in December and so um I've already had some of our new board members register for that. Um the CAB convention is coming up um at
090the end of November and um I think that Dr. Perry Carlson and I will be attending um and uh we'll bring back any good information from there. Can't remember if you signed up Mr. Mcdana, did you? Excellent. Wonderful. >> My daughter would like to attend. >> That's right. >> Um and then the only other thing I wanted to um let you know is that um the Amity School District um won the um CABE Award of Excellence for Educational Communications for the calendar that you receive every year and were recognized for um for the work that our National Honors Arts Society does and some of our administrative assistants for making the district calendar. Very nice to hear. Uh okay. Communications. >> Um we did not meet last month. Um our next meeting will be December 9th.
091>> Okay. Uh curriculum uh uh discussion possible action on approval of revised curriculum. We uh went through these before I believe. Uh this is recommended the recommended approval by the curriculum committee. Uh this has been discussed. Uh are there any specific questions uh that need to be asked at this point? Uh can we have a motion uh then to approve uh the revised curricular for all four of these advanced pastry introduction to computing computing college writing and research which was formerly writing for college and career and algebra 1. Who's Dana? A second. >> Second. >> Michael. Okay. Uh, call the roll, please. >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss Iller, >> yes. >> Mr. Herzford, >> yes. >> Dr. Kronicron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis,
092yes. >> Mr. Mcdana, >> yes. >> Dr. Olle, >> abstain. >> And Miss Schlank. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> District health and safety. Um I spoke to Donna today. I haven't uh she didn't have any information. I did discuss one thing with her and uh this um uh a concern that both she and I had is uh um maybe to work on developing clearer standards for parents as to when their kids should or should not come to school during illness. since COVID uh you know we have parents who say my child woke up and their nose was running should they go to school or uh there there seems to be much more uh concern about sending a child to school that's sick than there was before co and uh that that's uh something that
093maybe parents could use some guidance because I I don't think we've come back our district may come back better than many, but I still don't think uh we're where we were before CO. >> We're not quite in the same attendance. >> Okay. >> Space that we were before CO. That is correct. >> All right. So, uh that's another one. District technology page eight. It's our monthly report. Um >> well, I just had a question. >> Oh, yes, Don. I'm sorry. >> So, you made a good point. And is there something we're going to suggest? Are we suggesting that there's some kind of like guidelines for parents that go out to parents in terms of that? Are we >> Well, that that's the question. I >> Mr. Brandt along with Dr. Germaine and the school nurses
094will work on that. We'll send that out as part of our weekly newslet. We get to flu season and things like that, right? >> I didn't know if it went. >> There's usually a nurs's corner in every weekly newsletter that our principles send out to our families and usually that guidance is already in there, >> but um if people don't read to the bottom, they don't see it. So we we may bump it to the top or send something separate. >> I I would I was going to say sending some something separate this especially this time of year may be helpful and people pay attention to it. >> Yes. No, Mr. Rant already heard and is is on it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh technology which is on page eight. Any questions? If not,
095we'll move on to facilities facilities page nine. Our monthly report is there. A lot of projects uh in process. We have not met but a lot of projects in process with the bell systems in the middle school. Um probably being one of the highlights. We did have the issue with uh the lights in the break center which we'll address in a little while. uh also with a truck for facilities department that we talked about last month. Uh and then everybody's favorite topic, we have another retest November 22nd of the micro grid. So I'm going to ask everybody to cross their fingers now for as much help as we can get. Okay, any questions? All right, we move on to finance and possible discussion and possible action on contracts over 35,000 which is on page 10.
096Uh we have uh two things to uh work on here, transportation and the new vehicle. And uh >> so I would ask you to refer to the handout that I put on your um place tonight. Um page two of that that starts with contract renewals. >> This is this is also in the packet that was originally this part. Okay. >> This part is the the transportation part is. >> So, uh we uh met with the owner operators. Uh as you know the region um is in a unique situation of having owner operators and they have two years remaining on their contract and they had asked for an extension and Bethany uh and Woodbridge boards of ed along with AMD have a joint contract. Um so we met with them, we had a couple of meetings.
097Uh we both reviewed data about what rates were um across the state. We had uh 24 we had data on 24 contracts and uh for the 2728 year, which is the first year of the extension, the average daily rate is $50046. AMD's price, if approved, would be $445 and change. The lowest in that 24 is $357.99 and the highest is $82. Uh we did a little deeper dive on nine contracts in our surrounding area and other regional school districts. Um comparing fivehour day runs and uh the average there is $523.34. The lowest being $4301 and the highest being 802. If AMD's contract is approved, if the AMD, Bethany, and Woodbridge contract is approved, uh we would still be the second lowest of those nine in the detail. So even though these increases are larger than
098we're used to seeing, we're not still leading the pack on this. We're still um we're still having a very economical when you compare us to other groups. And out of the 24, we would be the seventh lowest um of that group. So um Bethany and Woodbridge um have approved the contract. So we are asking you tonight um to approve and we have different rates in here. We have full run rates, half run rates with special runs and relate runs. >> All right. And uh comments from the uh finance committee. >> Finance committee recommended. >> Okay. Finance committee did recommend uh approval. Uh just as a side comment, the uh New Haven Register had an article just the other day that East Haven going through the same process and the numbers were very similar and their
099board members did question the uh level and with the explanations that we got today about the costs. Uh they approved it also. So, uh, we're in a similar ballpark to most of these other school districts with the one exception that we seem to do much much better with the, uh, availability of buses and, uh, outstanding drivers because of the setup that we have. So, very much appreciate the work that our, uh, bus drivers do in providing transportation. Uh, so with that, uh, could we have a motion? The motion to wave the bid process and extend the transportation contracts through June 30th. Uh, I have a question. Um, >> let me let me Yeah, we'll do this >> motion first. Okay. >> Uh, June 30th, 2030 to the current owner operators per the prices listed on
100in the packet. Right. And, uh, Sean makes that motion if we have a second. And Patrick has a second. Uh, and Carol, your question. >> Um, I just wonder how often or if we've ever when was the last time we went to like we went through the bid process. So, I I hear you, Paul, that like the um rates are similar to other districts and yeah, I think our district does a really good job, our transportation system, like I never hear about kids buses not coming or showing up or anything like that. Um, so I think that's fantastic, but I'm also like, okay, what at what frequency do we sort of go back out to bid and see what's there or or even see if there are um ways that we can sort of alter
101um runs or anything like that? I mean it just seems like we sort of renew like every couple years and um yeah I just wanted to ask like at what point do we sort of call us and I guess kind of reassess to see like >> you have to so this is the one place where and we were trying to explain it to the finance committee but we operate on a barter system with the three elementary districts. Um, so all four districts would have to be in agreement of going out for a bidding process because we're all sharing these buses. Um, and I don't believe this district has ever gone out to bid because the owner operators are very unique to this community. So I believe that this system has been in place probably since
102school buses first started running for Bethany Orange and Woodbridge. >> About 70 years. Oh. >> Uh but in answer to the other question, realigning runs and things like that can that can be done every year. >> Uh and uh addressing uh concerns such as uh the length of uh runs in particular way and uh late buses uh which we actually did address uh with an extra late bus at the middle school this year. So uh ways of doing that. Okay. Yeah, >> I just wanted to say something uh different from the bidding process itself. There are sometimes I've heard parents talk about the lack of certain kinds of technologies about knowing where the buses are, right? Uh relative to the overall cost, that kind of technology, I have no idea how much it costs, but
103the idea that you might be able to know and track where the buses are makes a huge difference for parents. So something I just thought would be worth thinking about and seeing what would it cost would the our owner operators be willing to put in that kind of technology. >> So um and again each one of these individuals is an individual owner operator. So we so so we could have one owner operator who decides that they want to install that but then three others who don't. And so >> could we subsidize this in some way or something like you know so that like you know that would be a facility for all of our >> um it's a bit unusual for boards of education to purchase items for a private company and that's what a
104subsidy essentially would be. We I think we've had this conversation for a long time about cameras on school buses and um for and so this is one of the the challenges with the owner operator system is that we don't get to make that decision and say every single bus is going to have the camera unless to your point we purchased it for them. And now a public entity is giving resources to a private company that is for profit. And that's probably not >> Couldn't we put that into our contract? >> Could we put into a contract? Like listen, there's a there's a a stipen for each for each bus. And I mean that would be part couldn't that >> would be part of the cost, right? So again, it wouldn't be you wanted >> they
105they I mean you can require them all to have it on there, but it it in essence then you're going to ask to raise the price because they're all going to have to undertake the software. They're all going to have to agree to use the same software. And again, it's not just AMD, it's AMD, Bethany, Woodbridge right now. Plus, we share those buses with Orange. So the buses that Orange contracts with, if they don't make that requirement, you could have some of our buses that have cameras and GPS and some of them who don't. >> I'm just surprised that they don't have it at this day and age that they don't automatically have them. I'm sorry. I thought that they all did by now. >> That might that might change on the state level if
106the state requires buses to do that. We we can talk to our legislators about that and then then it would become uh required by the state and that would be a different story. >> Then every bus because there's times where there's there's buses break down and then the bus company will use a spare bus. Maybe that spare bus didn't have it on there and then something happens and it just it really could snowball. But if it became a state >> mandate or something, you know, that's it's >> maybe the state could could fund partial parts of it, too. We all have life 360 on our kids. So, even though the GPS, the camera, different story. >> Everyone knows where I am right now. >> Okay. Uh maybe something for the future, but right now we
107have the uh motion on the contract. Uh and uh if there's no further questions, uh we'll call the role. >> Miss Bradley. >> Miss. Yes. Mr. Hartzorn. >> Yes. Dr. Kern, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Mcdana, >> yes. >> Dr. Delay, >> I'm seeing. >> Miss Schlank, >> yes. >> Okay, motion carries. We move on to uh the next one, the new vehicle uh which was uh part of the packet that you got uh today. >> So the um as you know, we had budgeted $35,000 for a to replace the pickup truck the district currently owns. Um, and we were having trouble trouble finding a used um ve uh vehicle that met the specifications that we needed. We had come to
108the board uh in September asking to um one wave the bid process if we bought a used vehicle and two if we were able to utilize the state contract um for a new vehicle to increase the price to $40,000. Um, Mr. Martoni was uh able to work with um Lzius Chevrolet of Waterberry who had the state contract and the base price of the vehicle is $40,35. But there are ancillary items such as spare key, the backup alarm, the spraying the liner and having steps that bring the overall price of the truck to $41,974. >> And fees and uh plates for the vehicle for registration are estimated at $400. So this part we're asking you to approve the contract to purchase the vehicle from Blazia Chevrolet for the state contract price of 41,974 plus the registration
109fees. >> All right. Uh so uh could we uh have some feedback from uh the amity finance? Uh >> Sure. Um I took this one over because this is what I do for a living. Um, I think it's a great price for all those extra added bonus features that we're getting. Well, >> is this a new truck or a used truck? >> It's brand new. >> Brand new. >> We were 35,000 for used. >> Then 40 for used and now we're 41.97. So, an extra two two grand. We get a brand new truck with a warranty. >> Some bells and whistles. >> Back back spray liner. >> Mr. Mr. Marton is a good negotiator, I guess. >> So, they have a good reputation, too. Yeah, that dealership doesn't have a good reputation. So, they they'll
110work with you too with um warranty and helping out >> and finance did approve it unanimously. >> Finance. >> That's that was my >> Oh, that was the question. >> That was the question. >> I got it. So, we started talking about cars in a board meeting. >> Oh, okay. Fantastic. >> We have a motion approve the purchase of vehicle from Blazia Chevrolet uh incorporated for the state contract price of 41,974 plus registration fees. Blazia Chevrolet company. Michael second. >> Sean second. >> Any further discussion? >> Can we call the role please? >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss, yes. >> Mr. Hartzorn, >> yes. >> Dr. Cron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, yes. >> Mr. Reed, yes. >> Mr. Davis, yes. >> Mr. McDonald, >> yes. >> Dr. Oliv, >> yes. >> Mink. >>
111Yes. >> Like the Ford spare keys would have been a lot more expensive, too. >> Okay. Uh we have uh next on the agenda uh we we will come back to that I believe right? Yes. >> Yes transfers. >> Next on the agenda October one enrollment report which is on page 12. >> So page 12 is um the data that's collected on the October one census um by grade level by school. Um we also collect that from the elementary school district so we can get some sense of what the next couple of years uh will look like for the district as well. Uh we categorize our out placements. Uh the students who attend facilities outside of AMD but we also have financial responsibility for to come up with the average daily membership in the middle.
112And then we do show you uh by school the open choice students that attend and if there are any tuition or exchange students which currently only happen to be at the high school. Um the memo that follows kind of tells you how things change. So overall Bethany had a net increase of four students. Orange had a decrease of 19 students and Woodbridge an increase of one student. So percentage-wise, that's a net change uh of an increase for 293% for Bethany, a decrease of 571 for Orange, and an increase of 278% for Woodbridge. So much less drastic than it was last year. Um, a little more evened out. And the bottom of page 13, I show you that if the budget had a 0% increase, how those percentages change, you know, correlate to dollars. Okay, questions
113pretty clear. Uh, and thank you for that. Uh, see discussion of monthly financial statements. This is, uh, begins on page 14. So, I would just um highlight for you on page 15, I've started to show the dollar amount that the allocations will be uh credited in March once the audit report is final and accepted. Um so, by town, those are listed there on 1A, 2A, and 3A. And that's a combination of funds that were left at the end of fiscal year 25 and any unexpended incumbrances from fiscal year 24. Um alongside that in revenue on um line 13 for open choice we by enrollment um we expect to get $7,000 more in open choice funds um though we don't really have any confirmation yet on the state from that but we we do expect to
114get those funds expense-wise a little less on salaries and that's really due to staff turnover vacancies um in between uh positions where people have left and um until we found a new hire. We are still looking for a sped teacher. Mr. Brandt will talk to that when he gives you a special education update. Um we did receive a member's equity rebate for Kerma for a workers comp of 19,372 that was applied to the account and um the changes in special ed and transportation and tuition are related to special ed. Um the other things I will highlight on the forecast is that insurance the claims are still running at 103% but fees uh are down mainly due to um medical prescription rebates that are helping offset fees and um just on the cost savings that um
115Mr. Maron did negotiate uh a savings on cell phones for the district about $890 annually and he and our network specialist Mr. Kevin Keller are working to look research different fax methods and to reduce the standard telephone account. So we hope that in the future we'll be talking about additional savings there. >> Mr. Grant can give you an update on special ed. >> Sure thing. So I shared with uh the uh finance committee earlier we got our final allocation for what would be the fiscal year 25 no 26 28 IDA grant no 25 was this summer 2527 holy cow uh sorry about that uh and it was a decrease uh federal funding decrease to the state of Connecticut so thus all school districts were decreased in their IDEIDA funds that directly support special education students.
116Um, this will be part of my uh board of ed presentation on the 24th, but a reme reminder that the idea grant is designed to supplement, not supplant, local funding. And anything that is budgeted for in the IDA grant, we attest to as a board of education that we will absorb into our operating budget should the idea grant not become available. uh we have no anticipation that that's going to happen, but we do have uh signs and signals to in to continue to inspect potent expect continued decrease funding of the IDA grant. What's particularly um of note for us is we had an increase in the number of special education students we had year-over-year and still received that decreased funding. Our decrease in complete transparency is much smaller than some of our districts and with
117some of our larger urban set settings that might be around us. Uh but again, there was a decrease in that funding uh and we'll know more uh throughout the the course of the year. Additionally, you have no budget transfers in front of you for this month. You absolutely will for the month of December. As Miss Lumis alluded to, we are still actively engaged in an extensive search process for a special education teacher in Bethany. Um including uh getting support some from some professional agencies trying to identify staff. Uh so there will become a budget transfer to cover those fees. And we do have a unanticipated high-cost residential placement uh that we're anticipating having to um onboard into our operating budget for this year and next year's budget. All good news from special education. >> Any
118any questions? >> So, the agency that is looking for the special ed teacher, how long have they been hired by us? >> Uh so, we don't they're not per se hired. It's a staffing agency that we use to fill general staffing openings that we might have. uh but they do offer a direct hire component. So if we were to identify someone from the agency that we really wanted to hire directly, we would be able to do that through the agency where some agencies do have a a clause where you can't directly hire their staff. This agency does not per se. >> Okay. But how long have they been involved with the process? >> Uh since August. >> And obviously other school districts are having the same issue. And again, we are I will say we
119are very fortunate that we have one opening and we do have a very highly qualified special education long-term sub in that. So, we are meeting all of our obligations to those students right now. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? All right. Um uh CI uh director of finance administration approved transfers under 3000. They're all listed on page uh 45. And uh if you have any questions uh we can talk about those. >> No. >> Okay. Uh the next uh item discussion and possible action on budget transfers over 3,000. Uh and we do have some actions that need to be taken here. Uh Miss Lumis. >> So I would refer you to the last uh page of the packet I handed out tonight that says um November 5th and facilities center lighting is the first
120uh transfer request. Um, the module that controls the house dimming dimming lighting rack and the Brady Center failed on November 4th, as we alluded to, as Dr. Perry Carlson was about to have host all the educators in there and do a presentation. There were no lights that could be turned on, not even the emergency lights. The control module is about 30 years old. It was repaired as much as possible this past spring. We do have a loner right now um in there, so the lights are functioning. our our module was taken back. They are probably one of the last two in the state that exist. Uh they work on a Windows 2000 system and a floppy disc operation. Um so we are looking to replace the control module and the lighting rack and have them
121be compatible with a long-term plan of replacing the the lights in the auditorium with LED lights. But that's a bigger pro project that would be part of the bond package. But we we realize the critical um need to replace these two components um in the immediate future. So what I'm asking for is a transfer from contingency up to the bid threshold. If we we're trying to get a price quote and get any idea of what a new one cost. If it's under 20,000, we'll be able to move forward. If it's over 20, we'll either look to bid it or we will go to a consortium bid or state uh contract if one exists. However, if it fails in an emergency, we will have to do an emergency purchase and we will bring that before the
122financing board as we usually do when that happens. Um, so the request right now is for $19,999. That's from contingency to equip equipment replacement >> and and as inconvenient as it was for our professional development, we were incredibly fortunate that it failed on a day there was no school for students and the only people who were using the auditorium were the teachers and we could easily shift to an empty gym. Um, but I'll remind the board we have the fall uh drama production uh coming up in a couple of weeks. We have many winter concerts that occur for both our chorus and our um strings and our band and of course we have a spring musical uh coming up in a couple of months and this rack and system is the only thing that works
123the lights in the auditorium. So we are at somewhat of a critical need um because we do not want it to fail during any one of those events. I I thank you on that and I assume the uh AFC recommended >> as well. Yes. >> Can we have a motion to approve this uh transfer uh for the lightboard and panel to operate the lights in the Brady Center? >> Donna Michael's a second. >> Further questions roll please. >> Miss Bradley. Mr. Bradley. >> That's all right. >> Go ahead. >> You sure? I was just gonna say, how confident are we that we're going to be able to get this for $20,000? Are we confident? >> The last time we bought one was 30 years ago, so we have absolutely no idea. >> Money's worth last
124time. >> I'm sorry, Lisa. >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss, yes. Mr. Herz, >> yes. >> Dr. Curtron, >> yes. >> Miss Lombardi, yes. >> Mr. Reed, yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> Mr. McDonald, >> Dr. M. Lank, >> yes. The motion carries unanimously. Uh next >> uh the last one is um oh the next one is for the vehicle. Um you remember we budgeted 35,000. We had asked the board to approve up to 40,000. We had not asked for the transfer. And then tonight we had the final uh cost of the vehicle. And so I'm asking for a transfer of $7,500 from custodial supplies for equipment replacement to purchase the new vehicle at the state contract bid list price. >> Okay. Can we have that motion, Mike? And second, Sean. Uh have a motion
125uh to approve the transfer uh for a new vehicle purchased from the state contract bid list but is over budgeted by 7,500 which is the money we are transferring from custodial applies to equipment replacement. Are there any further questions or concerns? Can we call the role please? >> Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss, yes. >> Mr. Arts, yes. >> Dr. Yes. >> Miss Lombardi? Yes. >> Mr. Reed? >> Yes. Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Mcdana, >> yes. >> Dr. Ollet, >> yes. Miss Lang, >> yes. >> And next, >> um the we're asking for transfers for salary expenses. Um we have an extra session section of geometry at AM Middle School, Bethany, that we are covering with um six classes, six period assignments to teachers. We have an intern from Yukon that is also
126doing subbing. And then we had a um extra days for some guidance counselors here at the high school for registering students. So we're transferring between funds to cover those expenses. >> All right. Uh ju just a question and clarification and I think I know the answer. every every teaching position that we anticipate having is in our budget. So when we make up the budget for salaries, we have everything is there. So this one is beyond that. It's an additional one. So we didn't have any money but budgeted for that. >> That is correct. Okay. >> Yes. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> And the is this um as a result of breaking up an existing geometry class to create smaller classes or >> what? No. What happened is when we built the budget
127last year, we thought we would have enough students who had successfully completed algebra as seventh graders that we could teach geometry as part of a teacher's regular five period class load. Um in Bethany, we did not have enough students who were going on to geometry. um it was such a small number that we wouldn't have been able to meet the contractual side class size obligations by creating that as part of the regular five classes. So we had to just do our normal five classes for everybody. And then we're fortunate that we had a teacher who was willing to teach a six additional class and picked up the geometry class for that small group of kids so that they could continue and take geometry. And did did the kids who took algebra 1 as seventh graders
128not um like they didn't do well enough to go on to geometry? I'm just thinking like if you Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> And this is a oneoff, not a recurring. >> Um it >> hopefully not a recurring. >> It it depends. Sometimes when we only have three to five students, it's it's just not it just doesn't work out numerically to be able to build it into our regular courses. Um when we get up around 10 to 12, then it that's about the point when it starts to make sense. So it it's kind of a year-toyear type of thing. um depending on the kids. And so um I I know that we've talked about this and we and we look at it right now like we look right how many kids are in algebra as
129seventh graders right now and sort of try to anticipate that. Um but um we have definitely done it as a six in the past. >> Kathy, >> so so we have three certified salaries, three professional services. What? >> I I'm a little I just don't understand what >> this is where we're finding the money from to cover it >> because it as it says it says to complete the registration appointments. >> So during the summer they worked extra days uh that they had to be paid for to register students >> register students for this class >> this school year. No, it's a totally separate just at the high school just new students registering. So there's three different types of >> Okay. So this isn't related to this. It it is >> there's three reasons that
130we're transferring all to do with salaries. One is for the geometry class, one is for the Yukon intern, and one is for extra summer days that the guidance counselors worked. >> That that's in the commentary on uh the page. >> They're just transfers from >> Yeah, it's just transfer accounts that we have to authorize. >> Uh I think this is the piece that confused me. The technical services, >> it's just where we're taking the money. >> Okay. >> That money that it's going to those individuals for >> I think I actually switched from and to the salary. >> It's going to the salaries coming from technical >> support. That's >> so it's just the from and to is switched. >> That's why it's confusing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's all it's all salary. We got
131a lot of numbers. >> It's the other way around, right? Okay. So, clarification. It's going from professional technical services to certified salaries. >> Correct. >> Okay. Now, we're clear. Now, I get it. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Is the is the section of geometry going to be just for this year? >> Again, it's sort of the same question for for Mr. Mcdana. We always have students who are taking geometry and it always depends on kind of the number as to whether or not we can build it as part of the teacher's regular five class period teaching load or if if we don't if we have such few students then we can't meet the contractual class sizes for all the other classes. So then we have to add the sixth section to to teach
132the geometry class. Next year if you were to have to add it again, we would do the same situation where you >> Well, hopefully we we cut it out of the budget last year like in about February, March when we thought that we would be able to actually run it and then we didn't. So, we we'll do it as we'll look at it as part of our budgeting process this year and we would either budget for the sixth or say no, we're going to have enough kids that we'll just make it part of the regular teaching load. But we can we can end up being wrong which um and and we just didn't have enough kids to have it make sense to to build it into the schedule. >> So but this way is less
133expensive conditional given that uh there's no additional teacher for the benefits and all that like you know you're just adding other. So, so yes, we don't add an we don't add an entire extra teacher. Just a teacher teacher agrees to six instead of five classes. >> And it's not and it's not that difficult for them to teach a six section or like does the quality go down is kind of the other alternative question. Okay, we will >> have a motion. >> Okay, it's getting late. Do we do we have a motion on this yet? >> Okay, do we have a motion to do that, Pat? >> Michael. >> Uh, >> all right. So, the motion was to go from techn professional technical services to certified salaries. >> Yes. >> All right, >> Miss Bradley. >>
134Yes. >> Miss Iller, yes. >> Mr. Hudzor, yes. >> Dr. Cruel, >> yes. Miss Lombardi. Yes. Mr. Reed, yes. Mr. Davis, yes. Mr. Mata, yes. Dr. Mitch, >> okay, motion carries. >> We're on to policy. We have a first read on policy uh 6142.101, student nutrition and physical activity, which is our page 48 with a lot of stuff on it. >> Yes. Um this is actually a policy um that Miss Lumis and Miss uh Kovalech, our assistant um uh finance uh director had asked us to update um quite a few years ago that we're just finally getting to now. Um and it's very much aligned with the requirements uh that enable us to receive money from the federal government for the free and reduced lunch program. It's also very much aligned to, you'll remember, every
135spring there's always these three nutritional statements that the board takes up and has to approve about uh the food that we serve and the drinks that we serve and the snacks that we serve after school. So, it it's all aligned to that. And the red additions are the things that um essentially the the federal government are is now requiring that school boards include in their policies. Um timeliness of this is important because we will have our state audit of our lunch program this year and having updated align policies is one of the things that they may look >> oh next year. It's next year. Um >> so getting it done this year is important. >> Yes, it's helpful. Um and and they asked us to do it the last time we were audited and we're
136just getting to it now. So, um, so yes, so that's that's the reason for the change and where all of the red >> all right >> is coming from. >> So that you know, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, uh, get that into uh, Dr. Buyers. Uh, second reads, we discussed this at our last meeting. Uh, there were some concerns. Uh, to my knowledge, no one has submitted any concerns. uh requesting any special changes or >> no. Um when policy committee met um none of the members, chair or myself had received any feedback on the policy. Um I do know that um we had a um individual make public comment tonight about the definition of individual with a vested interest. This is directly from the statutory language that the state legislature um approved
137um in the uh last session. And so um it it did necessitate a change in even what we had drafted originally as a policy. >> Yeah, our our policy uh did give us some options and uh with the goal of allowing uh people to uh make comments and uh express concerns. state statute now restricts us from doing that and establishes a specific uh um person of interest uh definition. >> Kathy, >> why can we not broaden the state? As long as we cover what the state said, why can we not broaden the definition of vested? Because so if if if we were to allow a person who isn't defined here challenge the book, we couldn't actually take the next steps because that would be in direct violation of state law. And we certainly couldn't follow
138through the process and remove the book because the person who initially brought the challenge wasn't legally allowed to do that in the first place. So right now it's a student or a parent >> or a teacher >> who is currently in the district. >> So So it does cover the people who are specifically um going to be concerned about what's there? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Uh >> how about a board member? >> Not really >> if that board member was a parent or a teacher. They they did not they they obvious they did not include that >> board members don't have any standing >> in the definition. So >> okay uh so uh we have the three policies uh and that's that's another part of this. We've separated our one policy into
139three policies to cover all of the state required statutes. And uh uh so we have uh policy 61, 6112, 13, and 14. And we'd need a motion to approve those three policies. Sean makes the motion. Have a second. Carla, thank you. Uh there any further discussion? Uh >> just one quick. Um, it does I was going to say it feels very lengthy the whole process, >> right? >> Um, but it's very cut and dry and if if someone wants it done, follow it step by step and you really can't be denied it, you know, or at least the fair trial that it that it develops out. >> And I just have how do we decide who's on the committee? I know we just we defined chair. Uh, no. It it specifies out um exactly who
140is on the committee. >> It's lengthy, but it's >> Oh, I I read it right >> on page 54. >> The A3. >> Yeah, I read it. >> It's kind of like be this or it could be this or it could be this. Right. >> No, I think it's very specific. Um, >> how do you pick the parents if I can ask? it. >> Yeah, it's it's 3 A through I has each committee member listed. >> How are the parents chosen? How's the te teacher chosen? How's the board member chosen? >> Um >> I think is what she's looking at. >> So, so typically, um so we so >> they're appointed. >> Yes. And assistant superintendent is clear, principal is clear. We have two chairs of our curriculum council. So, one of those individuals would
141be selected. Um the teacher representative would be from the content area. Likely it would be the department chair or the content leader depending on the grade level, but th those um folks are already identified by their the positions that they have. um the parent or the guardian would be um a a volunteer obviously, but we usually when we get people to sit on those committees reach out through our PTSOs um and at least solicit volunteers in that manner. Um the school librarian would likely be the librarian. Um we have four of them and probably not connected to the location where the book was being challenged. So that way they can remain neutral in that process. And then the student would likely we would draw from somebody from student government who's representing the voices of our
142of our kids, but it's it's a pretty specific list of committee members. >> May I make a suggestion to the board? um uh will be voting on this and uh if that's something that's going to cause you to vote no, keep in mind that uh uh we need to have a policy in place and if it doesn't it it kicks back to the state statue anyhow uh which has precedent but um there would be nothing uh that would prevent us in the future from asking the policy committee to uh formulate a uh way of having those people selected whether it's like the librarian selects somebody specific from some group or PTSO president or something like that. So that's something that would meet the state statutes and would not in any way uh make it that
143we couldn't do that, you know. So that's something we can do as we move forward. >> Okay. >> Sorry. And I didn't answer. The board of education would likely be somebody from the curriculum committee. So we would go to probably the chair. Um but yeah. >> Okay. Very good. >> And the decision will be a majority vote or is it like I I don't see that like you know like what is the decision? Is it a majority vote of the committee? >> Um it it's not really a vote. It's that they will review it and issue a written decision and they left that >> to the committee for how they make that determination. She's more like a jury than a, >> you know, I guess a jury has to be 100%. >> I don't know
144whe I couldn't really see it was unanimous or >> so. Yeah. No, it's it's really left up to the committee >> for how they make that choice. >> Also keep in mind with the current policy we had in place for three years, no one's ever challenged it or used that policy. So people have had the opportunity. uh the issue was raised this evening in public comment and that policy has been in place uh for 3 years and no one has challenged any of those books using that policy. So uh as of now that's where we stand. >> Okay. >> I think Don >> um I think you just answered it. I was wondering what was in place now. Um and uh so this is This is what we have to go through to review um
145and consider books in that are presently in this in the district >> if somebody challenges them. Yes. >> Somebody ch this is the >> this is the process. Yeah. So is this committee is engaged at all times or is it just when there's a >> it's just when a challenge comes through then we start following the policy and activate and and and of course obviously over time it changes because different people fill different seats on some of these groups that we draw from who is on it and does it all. Okay. >> Wow. >> What review is done when we put new books into the library? Um, so that again goes back to and it's actually it's not here because it's a regulation, but we have a regulation of how our library and media specialists
146make the determinations of both what to take out of the library collection and what to add in. Um, broadly speaking, um, they rely on their professional um, association, their national professional association. They'll take feedback from students and teachers. Thank you. >> Um and um and then we'll recognize um actually there's a couple professional associations that they draw from and then we'll oftentimes recognize some of the um materials that like receive um prizes for literature and um things like that. But there is behind all of this a process for that also connected to these policies which was actually part of our original policy that went away. >> All right. >> So I'm just want to try and remember I know in the past and even before my seat on the board people came and complained about
147the books with pictures. So if they come and complain at public comment, that doesn't mean something happens where the committee is invested in to try and figure it out. >> There's actually a form, and there has been since we started it, a form that they have to fill out that initiates the process. And even with the state policy, there's a form that the state developed that initiates the process. It goes to the principal and then the principal collects it and starts the review. And I think that's kind of what Paul is alluding to is that since having this policy for three years, no one has ever >> wonder if they don't they don't know that that's the exact way to do it other than coming up here and talking. >> Historically, >> it's on the
148website. >> Yeah. Historically, um I was just uh elected chair and I was sitting next to Dr. buyers and somebody did come up and complain and I turned around to her and said, "Do we have a policy to cover that?" And she said, "I don't think so." And we made one because of that public request. And that was announced at several board meetings and it is on the website and uh I know that I know the people that requested uh those changes were aware that it was done because we did say that >> and and I believe throughout time we've received email you know requests and we've responded that there's a policy please follow it. I believe also at times Mr. Davis has mentioned it as part of his chair's comments if we've had a
149flurry of activity um at public comment and has reminded individuals of that policy and the process. >> So when you say there's a there's a policy and a form, do you respond in the email by giving them that policy and the form as well? >> Mhm. >> Yeah, >> we did. >> Okay. I don't know if we can uh accomplish anything more by discussing more if we have the three uh uh policies here. So uh the motion call the role. >> Sure. Miss Bradley, >> no. >> Miss Iller, >> yes. >> Mr. Harts, >> yes. >> Dr. Kunaran, >> yes. >> Mr. Reid. >> Oh, Miss Lombardi. I'm sorry. I'm using this list now because I know I have to write it down. Miss Lombardi, >> no. >> Mr. Reed, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis,
150>> yes. >> Mr. Mcdana, >> yes. >> Dr. Delay, >> yes. >> Michake, >> yes. >> Okay, motion carries. Now that we have that policy in effect, discussion and possible action on removal of the uh policy 61611, selection of library media center materials and resources that uh is all covered now with these new policies that we have. Uh so we didn't remove it at our last regular meeting because we wanted to have a policy until we didn't and uh uh didn't didn't pass the other ones yet. So uh do we have a motion to remove that policy? >> I'll make a motion. >> Sean and Sudter second. >> Okay. Call the role. Miss Bradley, >> the vote is yes to remove it or no not to remove it. >> Are we voting to remove it?
151>> Yes, that's the what the Yeah, >> the old policy. >> Yep. >> Yes, we're voting to remove it. >> Yes, I got it. >> Yes, >> Miss Mr. Hartzorn. >> Yes, >> Dr. Kun. >> Yes, >> Miss Lombardi. >> Mine. >> Mr. Reid? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mcdana. >> Yes. >> Dr. Ollay. >> Yes. >> M. Lank. >> Yes. >> Okay. That motion carries. Our personnel reports are on page 59. Fortunately, there wasn't a whole lot there. >> Yeah. Regretfully, no special education teacher. >> Right. >> Okay. Uh, new business and announcements. I think we covered that in my report earlier. Uh >> so I' um I I know we don't address um public comment, but um I would like the board to know that Miss Lumis has actually
152been working really diligently with the bus companies to try to address the Orange Lake bus run. Um and I think we had a memo that was set to go out mid-occtober and then it wasn't going to work. So then it was going to be the end of October and we still haven't figured out how quite how to um fix the issue but we are very much aware of it and are trying to work to uh reduce the amount of time that the students are on the late bus. >> Very good. We thank you for that and sure the parents will be pleased when we find a solution. out uh items for the next uh regular meeting agenda uh due to me. This is a reg December meeting uh due to the chair uh by November
15328th. And with that uh I am uh asking if uh anyone has an objection to adjournment and without objection then we are adjourned at 8:36. The best.