001Let us know when they're ready. Okay, you're good to go with live streaming. Okay, perfect. Um, all right. I'd like to uh call our meeting to order at 5:39 p.m. The AMD Board of Education Communications Committee meeting. Um the first item on our agenda is approval of our um minutes from our March 11th meeting. Any changes or edits? Okay. All right. Um, so we would need a motion to approve. Oh, Donna, hang on, Donna. Let's see if I can unmute you. Donna, can you hear? Yes, I think she's just stuck on mute. Oh, okay. Let's try this again. Okay, now Dana made the motion. So, we're good. All right, great. Um, the next item on our agenda, um, hang on. We need to do a vote. So, um, in favor, uh, Carol, yes. Donna, yes.
002And Dana, yes. Okay, great. Okay. Um, next is public comment. Um, I don't we didn't public comment. Um, and the next item is preparation for the BOE budget um, Q&A session. Um, So, um, so this will be sort of how the virtual ones will get run. Um, so I will, um, actually have my camera off and I'll be renamed as AMD host because I'm not supposed to be part of it. Um, so we're skirting a little bit. Um, but there's just no other way to to run it. I'm having a hard enough time doing it on my own as it is. Um, but um, the participants when they come in will be on mute. when we're ready to start, we can um we can actually admit the entire waiting or they'll be in a waiting
003room. We can admit them all at once. So, we'll probably admit people, you know, right at the start time at 7. And then um we'll just have to prep them that um you know after we sort of give kind of the overview um and we switch to Q&A at least if it's virtual um they would have to do their little raise their hand icon and then I would be able to um to call on you know to to ask them to unmute um and then I can remute them when they are all done with their question. Yeah. So, so Jen, I actually um so I connected with Sadir last night to talk about um uh that last week and he he asked me um if you were going to join and also last night I
004think up until this point I didn't realize that after last night you wouldn't be able to join or or respond. Um, so I'm actually having second thoughts about us having like it just being us just because, you know, people might have uh very detailed questions that that we may not be in the best position to answer. Um, so so I just wanted to share that, bring that up in this space and just see what you know thoughts. I don't know Dana or Donna if you have thoughts and I know that when I asked Sadir he was like I think he sort of agreed and said you know he could do the 20th 29th and 30th because I was like oh yeah Jen will be there but I didn't realize that like Jen cannot talk during
005these sessions. Well I mean and that's why I really I thought that it would be best if there was a a communications committee member and a finance committee member because the finance committee members have spent far more time in the budget. Um, I honestly don't think you're going to get detailed questions because I don't think outside of somebody who's from the town finance committees and they've already had their chance to to come to me and Terry, you have people who have read the budget document more than you have read the budget document as board members. So I you know I still and I think you know Cat when she drafted the question she drafted it from the perspective of I'm a you know sort of a PTSO mom and this is what I want to
006know about the budget. Um so if you kind of look at her questions I think that it's reflective of what you would expect to get from the audience that we're putting it out to. Um and I think it's you know and I think it's you can come up with some scripts you know that like the purpose of the meeting is really to answer highlevel questions to encourage people to vote in the referendum to make people feel comfortable with the process that the board goes through to develop the budget um that you know detailed specific questions around say you know financial practices or I don't particular programs would it you know that that wouldn't be appropriate for the board. Just think of it in terms of operation versus like but like if it's a real detailed
007operational question maybe more about the budgeting process then that's not what board members are necessarily going to be involved in. That's what our director of finance is involved in. But I I I mean I don't I I don't know. There are no questions in the Google form. Nobody's submitted anything, so I don't even have a gauge of what people might ask. Um, so you know, I you you mentioned the AFC, but um, Sadier is part of the AFC and he was he he he was uncomfortable. He's uncomfortable joining without you. Um, so I'll I'll just say that. Um, Dana, were you saying something? Yeah, I I was concerned as well. Um, and Deb said she couldn't be part of it. So, I just told that to Sean and I said, you know, I I'm a
008little uncomfortable. Are you? And he said, no. So, I'm going to leave it up to that. You know, I mean, I have the onepage form I bet the onepage flyer that Jen has sent out about the budget um to I guess the public and whoever else wherever else has been showing up and I'll take that with me. I was hoping we would get some type of scripted questions. I can go back. Are the questions that the PCSO people were talking about, are they are they in the meeting notes? because I did read them, but I thought I saw something in there about them. So, I um what I can do for you guys is so Cat put together like a list of like very basic questions and um then what I could do is remember
009every year where we had assembled like a document where people could ask questions and Terry and I would answer. We have like two years worth of that and the numbers might change slightly because they were some of them are specific to the budget but some of them are about that highle process of um like the budgeting. So you could have all of that as resources to refer to. Um, let me pull let me pull that stuff together um tomorrow morning and send it to everybody so you could see kind of how much information we sort of have on just questions and answers. Um, it's probably a good like 10 pages of ideas. that will be and Dana, I'm letting you into the meeting now because it seems that you're here. Once I'm in, I'll hang
010up. Okay. Yep. All right. And then I have to ask you to unmute, I think. Okay. All right. Everybody should be good. Somehow you got muted again. All right, I need to hang on. I need to figure out how to unmute everybody because this is just not working. All right. And Okay, Dana, you should be able to unmute yourself now without me asking. Okay, now now we're all set. Yeah. So, Jen, can you can you remind us how this came about the idea of having board members have web forums? Um, well, it was remember so as of like right as of last night, we can't advocate for the budget anymore. We can't say we meaning me, Terry, the principles, we can't say this is a great budget. It's an awesome budget because we're going to
011get a Tesaw teacher. Oh, it's fabulous because we put in this extra money to support field trips or um to have the late bus run for the middle school kids. We can't advocate for people voting for the budget. Board members can. So, you know, what ends up happening between now and and um the referendum date is we send out the date of the referendum that that can go in the principal's newsletters and we mail out the explanatory text which is very dry and it doesn't really list like it's you know this is how many FTEEs we have, this is what we added, this is what we cut, these are the major drivers and this is what the budget looks for the town. Um, so it doesn't ha it doesn't have the kind of um passion
012behind it to get people out to vote. And I and and we have had I mean every single with the exception of last year when I think it was a lower budget and I think and there we have run sometimes I mean obviously close votes and a close vote um isn't comfortable for us and um and obviously if it ends up being a no vote it just means cuts. Um, so it was really the idea of trying to close this gap between April, between now and the referendum where you can still talk about it in a positive way that it's doing good things for kids, that it's going to benefit not just high school students and middle school students, but you know, facilities work and long-term five-year plans in that area benefit the kids who
013are currently in the elementary schools. Um, it's getting that messaging out because we we can't do that anymore. So, if we had these meetings before yesterday's public hearing, we could have had to. Yes. Okay. So, maybe for next year, let's try to do something before this so that we're not in a predicament. And I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe no one's going to ask questions. Maybe we're not gonna have anybody come to our live session. I have no idea. I think orange I think people are going to come because I've heard rumblings of people saying that they want more information. I haven't gotten specifics, but um I just think it'd be better for you to be part of this. Right. Well, and I was going to ask Carol how comfortable she is without
014Jen or anyone from administration being a part of this because personally I would not be comfortable answering questions around the budget. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm not comfortable and maybe I I I totally missed that like yesterday was the Jen mentioned it, but I just didn't I thought it was like sometime later on in April. Um but um yeah, I mean I think it's I think also to just again we don't know who's going to show up, what questions they'll have, right? But if you do have people show up and what we don't want is for people to show up and have questions and they're like, "Well, you're useless, you know?" Right? Like why, right? I I I took my time. I mean, mine is virtual, but like um you know, I'm here and like,
015"Well, what questions can you answer, you know?" Um you know, I'm glad to hear that Sean is like very comfortable, right? Yeah. He was like, "I I'll say what I can and that's it." I think, you know, that's the other position. It's like the framing right like this is like high level board member but also like parent community member um you know um detail questions happy to take back to the administration um so I don't know I I I am torn I will say that there I do have some discomfort um knowing that um you or Terry like cannot um cannot be there Um, so you're right. And we still have the PTO's so we can still send out information if we choose not to move forward with these. And because I think the last
016thing you want to do is have the community feel as if they don't have their questions answered and the perception of the board to not be in the know. And of course, we're not going to know the details. That's not We're not going to know line item by line item. But again, I don't think you're going to get those types of questions. Um because I don't know, but is that a risk we want to take? So, well, so now you have a decision to make because you have a a a Q&A this Thursday night at 7 that has been sent out to all of the PT. Now, I don't know how much they shared it. I know that we could see it on um our like PTSO pages. Um, but is it something that you
017want to pull back from? Um, because then we have to get that messaging out. It's an easy, you know, I mean, or we go forward and um, and see what happens. What are your thoughts, Dana? I don't know. I kind of feel like it's a bad look if we pull back. Um I think we do it and I think you know maybe in the beginning just say this is a highle you know question and answer session if we can't answer your questions we will bring you answers to these questions you can leave us your email or whatever and we can get the answer and give it back to you. I think pulling out doesn't look is a bad look. I think if we get a question that we can't answer, it would be better to
018say this is something that we have to get back to you on and leave it at that. I don't think we're going to get a lot of high level. My first inclination was we weren't going to even get people. Mine mine's in person. So to get people to actually get out of their houses or, you know, once they're in from all their events and after school and work and whatever, I don't even think I don't even know if anyone's going to show up. I did hear a lot of buzz about it in the town after we started after it went out PTO's and so then I was like but again everyone it sounds great in theory to go to this but at the moment of it happening it's like I'm starving I just got in
019from work I don't have you know who knows I think it's a bad look to pull back I think it's a better look to say I don't have an answer for you on this this is a highlevel question and answer session I will get an answer to you and And maybe one so I think um I think if we you write sort of a an introductory paragraph you know I and Carol I mean you you first of all you can say I am only one board member I am not represent you know I'm here to sort of walk people through this but I'm obviously not all 13 board members so I'm going to answer you as best I can right but I'm not going to be able to necessarily provide the answers that all 13
020of us could provide because you don't have you don't have 13 collective brains sitting there. Um and then I think you know and I think again if you say that it's going to be a highle overview that obviously um your ad you know the school administration particularly the superintendent and the business manager have many more details you know um you know as to how the budgeting process works. Um, and you know, if there are questions that can't be answered, you know, give them the, you know, standard board of ed email address and they could send their questions in and I'll get them and I can answer them. Um, and then, and I know we hate sort of faking it, but if you say, you know, we had questions open, um, you know, for submission, or
021we're going to start with some basic questions and use the ones that Cat developed because they're they're low enough level that they'll set the expectation for the bar of what you're going to be able to answer. Um, and and where are those questions? I will send them to you guys. I it's I'm working on my laptops and so it's hard for me to run the Zoom and pull the files at the same time but when the meeting I think that's going to be important for us to have Carol are you by yourself so Sudir doesn't want to do it I am by myself I mean it it's like like I said I'm torn but I'm I'm also like not new to sort of I I'm happy like I can set set the expectations um I
022just I think my worries like people coming away feeling like, well, that was a waste of my 20 minutes. But, you know, they can drop in, drop out. But I think I think if I'm going to do it, sharing some like questions to begin with is the way to go to like not leave like an hour of empty space for people to just dig in the recesses of their brain to come up with whatever, you know, great or nonsenseful question that they might have. And I totally agree. And I feel more comfortable having Shawn because Sean's on the board of finance. So yeah. So that's the thing like um you know Sadir is not he's not available tomorrow. Um Donna Schlank cannot she's on the AFC as well. Um and and actually Jen I don't
023know that the 28 the week of the 28th is going to work. I don't know that sad will agree to um a session like without you or maybe you know if we do host these two these two sessions he'll circle back to say what was your experience because he shares the same concern. Um so and then wait I just had a thought and I lost it. Um it'll come back to me. Um don't worry. So, you were saying something and and um but um but yeah, I will I I think um and remember I think we designed this I think when Cat originally sort of wrote sort of the game plan, it was for an hour and then based on your feedback of making it short and sweet in like 30 minutes, I think she
024scaled back on sort of the questions and is essentially anticipating, you know, a set of sort of opening questions and when those are done, a very brief opportunity for people, you know, I mean, you obviously don't want to cut people off, but I don't think it was intended to be this like a long two-hour type of meeting with tons of really detailed questions. If honestly, if they had wanted that, they should have come to the public hearing last night because that would have been the place where me and Terry can like really dive into that. So this, you know, I think and I think maybe that's the other the other um, you know, like again, it's really about your chance to advocate for why it's a budget that, you know, deserves the community's support. And
025I know Cat has like a little closing paragraph that she wrote, you know, sort of a thank you very much for attending type of thing. If you have any more questions, you know, this is where you go. and then sort of a, you know, please, we really hope to have your yes vote on May 6, you know, kind of the the the the plug for the actual purpose behind all of this to really kind of get people to vote in favor of it. Yeah. I I mean, and I Yeah, I think um I don't I see this as like an opportunity for people to like ask questions um more so than like or and get them to vote. Um so I don't know. I don't see my position as like not at least publicly like
026um you know yet. But here are the great things that like the budget is supporting. Here's why it's at you know this level. um here's what the percent increase is really due to. Um but I think beyond that like um the fact that we're having the session to begin with I think is a clear signal that like yes, we want you to vote and support the budget. Um, but I'm just trying to make room for like for folks who may not be like, "Yes, I'm in I'm in agreement with the 3 point I can't remember where we are, but 2.93 2.93 2.93." Um, and yeah, and we'll get a sense. I mean, Dana, I I sort of have the same feeling as you. I mean, think about it. Our spring community forums, which we run
027now for two years, are have very low attendance. Um, Thursday night is another production of the play. It's sports all over the place because everything has been rained out. Um, so I really don't know what kind of attendance we're going to get. Um, it may help that it's virtual because people can join from other locations. So that might be the difference between yours, but we'll have a sense of like the fact that there's no questions submitted at this point is also telling. They they've had that ability to submit questions and there aren't any. So, I really don't know what to expect. Yeah. So, I Dana, you raised a good point about like at least pulling out for like Thursday night is like a bad look. I think we had a bad look. Yeah, I think
028Jen and I had a really good um meeting with the PTO and PTSO like leaders. Um I was impressed that they showed up. Yeah, many of them showed up and they were really engaged. Um so and I think it maybe the beginning of sort of a closer or better sort of relationship and um I don't know open up lines of communication right between um them and and and the board. So, um, for that reason, I think primarily, um, I'd be willing to host a lone Thursday. Um, I think if it doesn't, I think if it doesn't go well or like it goes, you know, a different way or like people really want really detailed questions, I think we should revisit the additional like Dana and Sean unless Sean and Dana are like, "Nope, we don't
029care." Like um well I think I think the other thing I think if nobody shows up or if we get one person we can also revisit if we do anything on at high plains after vacation because I mean if people can't come to a virtual meeting which is more convenient than going out I'm not even sure what we would get for an in person but at least you know I can hold off on on sending any info to the PTSOs until that point. And maybe for next year we do one virtual before our public hearings because that'll give them the opportunity to have us to have you behind us for answers and we may not get anybody like nobody came last night so you know we may not get anybody. Maybe we just do one
030virtual next year before. I think we'll get a couple of um PTO or PTSO members. I mean, maybe a handful. I I suspect we will. Um, but Jennifer, um, what I think I would need is like because I I think that people might have questions about like what are the things I I think some people may just have questions about like what's happening like what are the things the budget supports like what are the great things happening at Amity, right? Like what can I look forward to for my children? Um, yeah, I feel fairly certain that like a question like that. Um, so if if I could get, you know, a couple of talking points about like like I know the library renovation is happening and like that would be great and I could talk
031about that like on my own. Um um I think I know enough about it and like can talk about like the benefit of like a beautiful library that's like designed in a way to like enhance like use by the students things like that but like other things um that might be a good might be good to mention right so that parents of elementary school children might be like oh that's fantastic that yes happy to support this budget that's like you making these infrastructure change or changes or whatever that my kid one day is going to benefit from. Yeah, I mean I think we can and and again um you know we can focus in on on things that at the middle schools because that is what would benefit elementary parents first. Um so um and
032and my presentation last night had a bunch of those things. So like um obviously I mean the library media centers would be upgraded at the middle schools also. Um, we're looking to do some improvements to middle school athletic fields. You lead with those two, you're in good shape because that makes everybody happy. Um, you know, and then adding the late bus so that kids at the middle schools have an additional day where they can either get extra help or participate in more extracurricular activities. Um, adding some support to offset the cost of field trips, which they take a ton of field trips in the middle school. um and um you know supporting the onetoone devices because as soon as they come into seventh grade right they get their onetoone device that's not necessarily everybody's experience
033and if they do they're getting Chromebooks not like really you know like you know actual computers um you know um things like the the teaw teacher probably don't have as much movement because that hits such a limited group of people. Um but like um Tutor.com is, you know, that's going to be able to be accessed by everybody. So the ability for kids to have, you know, access to an online tutoring resource ubiquitously if they need additional help outside of school was is something that we added new. Um and so yeah, I can those are sort of like some of those middle schooly types of things. Um because yeah, I think you know and we can I we can talk a little bit about the high school because obviously we have other parents there, but if
034we're we're getting broader community, elementary parents want to know what's coming for the middle school. All right. Um, so yeah, I will send I will send all like you and Dana and Sean just it's it's going to be a pile of information, probably a lot to process, but I'll give you a priority order of what I think it the order you should look at it and what I think it helps with. Um, and uh, and I think it will it will be enough information that I think it will get you through a 30 minute question and answer session. Oh, is it 30 minutes? That's how we designed it because we originally said an hour was too long. That was asking parents. It is an hour is too long. Too much. So, and again, I think
035you can open up with that. Just say, "Hey, we just really wanted just third to give you 30 minutes of our time to answer some questions about the budget." Again, I think when you structure it like that, they it sends a message that this is not about going through the weeds and going to line item number 853 and figuring out what it is. Um, all right. Uh, anything else on this item. Okay. So, we'll look for that information. So, Cat the the um one pager or two pager that Cat put together and then those things that we can mention that would be to help people sort of connect benefit, right? Yeah. Um for their future um AMD students. Um all right. Um the next item on our agenda is the session of the spring community
036forum. So that is scheduled for May 5th. Yeah. I think it's 6:30 to 8, Jen. Yep. Yep. All right. Um so, wow, we're less than a month away actually. We are. And so, um the good news is I think I have put together the panelists. Um, and I will during spring break next week work on sort of an overview presentation of, you know, sort of like that what's great at AMD, did you know kind of theme that we had talked about. Um, and I'm, you know, I'm going to try to cover, um, I'll sort of group it into the three A's, but then I'll pull extracurricular stuff, um, like clubs and, you know, sort of all the clubs and activities that we have. Um, I'll hone in on some of our unusual classes. Um, and
037so I'll just kind of build that. My intent is to make it like at most a 10-minute presentation. Um, I am not sitting on the panel. Um, because I'm probably a little too far removed from sort of being able to talk to this. So, I can actually help facilitate the community forum. So, like I can run the questions um if we get presubmitted questions because I know that's always been sort of hard for everybody to sort of manage and then kind of direct and answer them. Um so I can definitely help as and Shannon isn't I don't think Shannon is going to sit on the panel either. So she might be available too. So in this respect we can actually be more useful to you guys this time around. I think it would be really
038good to make sure some of the things that you tap on are like the the bee farm that we have that people probably don't know. All the things that no one knows about the B farm, the I mean I keep going back to it, but our automotive program is ridiculous compared to some high schools have nothing. Um the construction program is amazing. You know, like Carlo, he got into most of the schools and I know it's because he has so much construction experience where there's not a lot of construct there's not a lot of construction courses offered at reg at other high schools. So, um and and these are things I didn't know, so I'm assuming a lot of people don't know them. Um, I also think one thing that is really cool, and again,
039these are things that touch me, but I still think they're really cool things to bring to the table because most schools don't highlight them or don't have them. I know a lot of schools do have that um, class act organization because is is it required? Is it a requirement? Um, no, but we all like earning the Michael's cup, so it's one of the quick ways to get it. Um, and it does actually help our captain's councils too to kind of it just generate more positive uh vibes some of our and it's a great thing to highlight. I wish someone highlighted it when Carlo came in because this is really sad. Carlo was actively sought after to be on that team or that organization. And he was so overwhelmed as a freshman with baseball and just
040school that he just was like, I don't have time for this. I can't do it. And then he came to me and he was like, I I really wish I But it was hard. You know, he has a learning disability. So just managing baseball, managing homework, and managing being in school was a whole lot for him. But that is a super organization that number one looks amazing on your resume. Number two, as a parent of a kid who actually received a gift from them because he's such a good fan supporter, it makes you feel good and it makes me really feel good about the school. So, those are just some things I think we should touch on. I know they're not major things and I know they touched me, but I didn't know a lot
041about them before I came in. I didn't even know about the extent of your automotive program until I did the the what the visiting day, elected officials day. Yes. I didn't know about that until I did that tour. So, you know, and I'm sure I don't know, maybe there's other things that you guys can bring that I didn't that didn't touch me at the school, but I think they're good things to bring up. Yeah. Nope. I just wrote the list. So those will be some of the things that we'll highlight and just kind of mention. And we have a like a very it's really it's so it's sort of hard because we have so many things we do to try to pull together the the list of panelists who can then kind of like speak
042very broadly to all of these things. Um but I we've got a a good eclectic representation. Um and you know we try to yeah put in people who wear multiple hats at times. So then that way they can talk from different perspectives. I um so what how do we think this is gonna uh work out for the next forum? Um so the topic is like well you know did you know and sort of highlighting like all the amazing things related to our 3A. um like how do we invite questions like in the room people in the room and also um I guess how do we frame things in a way that invites questions I guess is what I'm asking instead of it being like us and like us talking right like panel talking um so
043again I can have Cat work on that she can come up with some um sort of preloaded questions like even very simple things like how do kids join these organizations? How do you decide what you know extracurricular activities kids can have? Because we can talk about that. Um you know questions like well how do you balance doing all of these extra things? Like that's a good question for the kids. Um because we have some kids sitting on the panel. you know, how do you balance being in these things and still doing your homework and everything like that? Um, you know, the other thing too which is really cool is AMD allows kids if you come up with a great club idea and as long as it's legal, let's say it they'll they'll put the club
044together. Like that's a pretty cool thing. If you come up with some, you know, crazy club that you want and there's enough people, they'll do it. Yeah. And I love being able to answer that because people seem to think the adults come up with the clubs and the adults have nothing to do with the clubs. But then they get mad too sometimes when clubs die. Well, clubs die because kids lose interest in them and you know and so it's it's that beautiful eb and flow. But it's really driven by the students and being able to say that is a good thing. Um and it's one of those common misconceptions that we're always addressing. So um so yeah I think you know I think we can come up with even if it's like um you know
045six or seven questions that launch it and I find that when you guys ask the questions to the panelists and get the conversation started then if people are in attendance they will start to ask more questions. I hate to ask this but you know I'm going to So are our student panelists are they the top of the class? Um there so they're um No, they're not. there. But um but there's still going to be kids who are involved in a lot of things because we want to make sure that they can answer questions about a lot of stuff. Yeah, I get that. I just I just want the average kid coming to AMD to see how they can do so well there because you know I I always hear too the top of the class
046they you know they get all the attention and you know the bottom of the class doesn't and I will forever be a advocate of AMD that my kid came in with a pretty intense learning disability and is able to thrive at AMD and feel like he's doing good and part of it and not he's not one of those kids that's on 42 clubs, the, you know, student council, you know, A+ student, you know, I think that I think that's important for kids coming in to see, hey, I I really can find a home here even though I'm not the top of the class. Because I know myself when I see people and they're like these super high achievers, it's like, oh well, okay, I don't know. I mean, I guess I'll be good there. But
047when you see someone that you can relate to, then it's like, hey, this is cool. Yeah. I actually to sort of frame it what I what Andre and I talked about is finding a kid who was really um deeply involved in athletics, a kid so who can answer a lot about sports, a kid who's really deeply involved in arts so they can answer a lot about the arts. And then the academics we talked about kids who just do either extracurriculars or who are really taking advantage of our elective programs so that way we get and your elective program is great. So that's awesome. Yeah. So that's kind because we were like, how do we how do we even pick? And so that's kind of how we framed it. So he's got looking for for those
048three representatives. And then fabulous. The middle school kids are um they're just kids who've done like cool things like lately. And again, sort of unprompted, just part of like the regular stuff that they do in school, but sort of looked at it in a different way. Um and and so yeah, so we'll see. We'll we'll see how it goes. Do we do we want I mean so typically like our target audience parents, right? So do we think that this might be a forum that we're like parents and kids? I mean because I I'm hearing Dana talk about kids being able to see themselves right and relate to other kids. Um and if that's the case then we should like Well, we've always advertised our community forum and student happenings. So Janet and Sophia, our board
049reps, have always put the community forums into student happenings and invited the students to participate. Ben A Ben Aviad did it last year. Like they've they've always kind of regularly done that. Um and then and and again where I think we could lean into the invitation is t extending it to that PTSO list that I have now and sharing it out with those elementary school PTSO parents also. That would be that'd be good. So, um, so that I think could increase the audience. Okay. Are our student board reps, students, are they seniors, both of them? No, Janet is a junior, so she'll carry on to next year and then we elect the new junior, current sophomore like in the next month or so. Yep. Gotcha. Um, okay. Uh so the only other thing I have
050on that is um you know I think if it's the board's forum I think like maybe Dana or Donna can do the questions but I think um this in terms of like sort of visibility it should be like the board. So we have always had a board member sit on the panel so I haven't picked who that is um because I figured that could be up to you guys to decide. I think anybody who is right now a current parent whose kids are living the amity life would be good because then you can talk about um you know sort of how they how they get involved, how you support them as a parent, you know where your roles come in and and where it becomes just kind of like what they do. Um, so I
051think you know that you have a a variety of num people that can actually sit on the panel and they they've t board members have tended not to often answer questions but every once in a while something comes where um I think you can chime in and certainly we have a couple panelists who also are parents um so we can even structure a question around that about sort of parent involvement and encouraging your kids to participate but without maybe overwhelming them with needing to do extracurriculars and how you provide support and stuff like that. So we can probably structure a question but yeah I think I think a board member can sit on the panel also. Yeah. um that board member wouldn't won't be me, but we can think about who who else um you
052know might be a um might be interested in like their kids involved in the arts or like athletics or something. Well, I mean, let's I mean, so Donna has a student in the district. Frell, you do. Dana, you do. Christina does. Um Carla does. um sort of going down the line. Yeah. Um Sean's are too young. Kathy's um doesn't have any. Mike. Oh, that's right. Mike. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, you you've got at least I think seven people that you can Okay. choose from who could sit on the panel. Well, we should probably ask them soon. Any suggestions before we move on to our last item? Some people to ask? Dana, I would I would do it if if there was enough interest. I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't not want to do it.
053I would do it if if there was enough interest. But if you need me to be part of you, then that's fine. No, that's I mean D, I think if you did it, like I said, me and Shannon are there to sort of help run the stuff in the background. if we had if if Carol is asking the questions, if I'm kind of paying attention, if people are submitting stuff live and I can at least help with that and then if there's one other person who can just kind of help sort of walk the room, whether it's Donna, Mike, or Kathy, that will probably let us we should be able to run it fine. I I do think we'll have enough fans on deck on this one. Yeah. So, Dana, do you want to I
054think it would be great. I'll do it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um All right. Um and then we'll same sort of um format for like advertising like um just this time I'll I'll send all of the stuff out to that bigger PTSO list. Um I think that'll I think we'll get more especially for this topic. Um and it'll be spring. Uh we may get a fair number of uh attendees. Um, all right. So, the last item on our agenda is the discussion of topics for the BOE chair letter. Um, yeah, and I haven't actually worked on that because we're a week ahead of like this meeting was the first Monday and not the second Monday. So, I haven't even gotten to that. So, that was that was just a placeholder, but I don't have I
055haven't really thought about it yet. Okay. Yeah, because next week is spring break. Um yeah, but if we have topics um besides sort of stuff that comes from our like board meeting like things that are highlighted um I mean obviously we'll put in the budget um information now that we're so I can I can write certain stuff in there um using some of that explanatory text and um things like that. So, it will definitely have a budget blurb because that's the last newsletter that gets published before the budget. Um, I'm trying to think what else we have. I I think we could bring up that we have um a first read of both the cell phone policy and the school climate policy because the cell phone policy was can be high interest. So, I'll probably
056include that in there. Um, I can't remember if in the last one I put that we were I'll have to look that we were getting the grant or that we're on that list for the the grant for the libraries if we because it's legislative. So, I'm not 100% sure, but I'll look because if I didn't, then I would probably put that, you know, that were that were part of the bill to get the the money to do the library projects and it just has to get voted by the the state legislature. I do think I included that though in the last one. And um trying to think of some of that other highle stuff. That's probably it. And we and this is when we get a lot more of like the the rahrrah stuff like
057our math team is going to New England and I've got science kids all over the place and who are going on. So there's probably more of that information that I can put into the the newsletter. Um it'll be the end of the run of Little Mermaids, so we'll have a sense of how successful that was. Um so we'll probably include a blurb about that. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. And if there are any like athletic teams that make it to any I don't know if it's that time of year for like Yeah. No, right now we're just starting. So um yeah, we don't have anything really sports-wise to do. Um so um our you know I can I can't remember. We did our hockey team ended up well we didn't win we
058didn't win win win states so but they won the sections they they did they did um yeah I'll I'll see and I think that was big because wasn't it they hadn't won it in like 15 years or something SEC yeah and then even just to go and get to play at Quinnipak in the in the state semi-finals is sort of a big deal um so yeah I can I can have Ernie sort of help me craft something around that without leaving anybody else out. Um so um but yeah, but sports right now is in a little bit of a low. We'll pick that up more in later in the spring. All right. Um sounds good. Yeah. Anything else uh before we close? All right. Uh, if there's nothing else, um, I'll call our me meeting
059to close at 6:28 p.m. Okay, great. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.