001y yep okay great okay we are good okay great all right I'd like to call the uh March Amity Board of Education Communications committee meeting to order at 5:34 uh the first order of business is the approval of our minutes from our February 11th meeting any changes or update uh for the minute no all right um can we see a show of hand um I need somebody to make a motion motion okay I'll make okay I got that for Donna and then um let me just do a quick roll call um Donna yes uh Dana I would like to abstain but then you won't have the Quorum right oh no if as long as we have a majority then the abstain doesn't count so you can abstain okay and Carol yeah okay all right great
002moving along um I don't think we have anyone here for public comment um so the next item is um the communications plan um so cat I'll turn it over to you okay Pat are you gonna want to share your screen um let me just make sure I can do that hang on one second all right so you're gonna share JN um no I'll uh make you a co-host and then you should be able to share okay yes I do all right so you should have sharing rights now okay [Music] um I hope this works can you do you mind sharing I'm still having issues with this for some reason let me grab it um hang on I got to think of the best place it might just be in my email all right give me
003a second I got to close a window so I can see here I put all the important things there we go all right I got it hang on some reason it works differently on these calls I don't know if this is the most updated one because I know you and I had some back and forths um for a while so I'll open this but if the board can know that it may not be the most updated all right there I want to share okay can I see it okay yep so there was an updated one you um you know I made a stab at doing some Q&A which I knew was going to have to be updated uh so this will not have the updated Q&A but very much the same otherwise so what I
004put together was kind of meant to be like a this is how I always put together Communications plans like if I get hit by a bus the next person will be able to pick it up and execute on it so the idea is that I get hit by a bus and then you have this in your hands um so the first step we you know all this we discussed in our last call the first step is putting something out locally in the media that's not just so much like advocating for the budget but also just teeing up the fact that there's going to be some Communications about it and encouraging people to take advantage of the opportunity to vote for the referendum giving them the dates Etc so it's sort of a broad overview um
005if you want to scroll down a bit and I don't know if you want to take time to read it now or later but it's coming from you Carol and of course you could edit it as you saw fit and we have to tweak the dollar amounts because it did change again as of last night so um but that we can easily edit and it's also saying you know this isn't just for people who have kids in the school this is about the entire Community I think that's a key thing uh and actually something I have in my notes from like maybe two meetings ago like that people don't know that you don't have to have a kid in the district to vote so this would be for the local newspaper kit yes so go
006ahead it probably would go out like this Friday because um it's roughly it's mid Monon when I have the deadlines for their Publications so I'll send a copy that's updated Carol to you um that um that has the right numbers and then you can make any other edits um I'll do that tomorrow morning when I get the real numbers from Terry um there was one other date on this list of dates that I had I think it was a public meeting and I wasn't sure whether that was relevant or not if you wanted to include that in the list of dates that people of yeah the April 7th is the public hearing and that's like where people can come and still speak about the budget before we put in final numbers um we have a
007second meeting on May 5th with just formally opens the referendum it's more formality than anything else and while people are certainly invited it's not nothing changes because like the ballots are printed and if they speak out against it it's still going to be the exact budget number that we presented because we're just opening the referendum so I don't know that one is as critical to list but the April 7th is okay okay but April 7th gen if people it's just to listen like the number the the numbers are set as of last night technically the board could still take feedback and make an adjustment if they got an overwhelming amount of public comment um it's it's it's never happened in my six years here um but it is the the whole idea of the public
008hearing is to hear from the public and if necessary the board can still opt to make an adjustment because by that point we haven't printed anything yet and that is the that's the board's public hearing s yes great because I know um just in the regular lecture hall it's it's actually the night of a regular board meeting um so we just do it we started at like 6 usually we do it for essentially 30 minutes and if it runs over and then we just have our regular board meeting afterwards gotcha can you add the time to the meeting for the public hearing yep I I can I just want to double check those with Terry and uh okay make sure I have them right we might also add if I didn't include it already um
009the URL for board information in case there's more information we want to post there for folks who are not accustomed to attending these meetings like the location maybe right maybe a description of what the public hearing is since we have come across um residents who are not aware that as a resident of one of the three towns you are entitled to vote on the budget and so I didn't read the letter fully but is it somewhere in here that every registered voter in the town has an opportunity to vote on the school budget yes it's right below the dates we encourage um it's it's up top too it's above the in oh yeah it's above y it's right at the top of the page actually right in the middle of your screen okay right to
010vote it's kind of buried people do bullet points you know this cat what's up um I would maybe lead with that on top make it um but this is going one yeah yep if if you're I mean if I understood what Jen was saying uh prior to us beginning is that not everybody votes so if you want to get out the vote you have to at least let everyone know that it is their uh right to vote on the budget yeah we can add that to the we can move that up to the first paragraph oh right yeah thank you and then we can reiterate it at like during the last paragraph again right even it's something you know make sure you haven't marked your calendars we want to hear from you for feedback during
011the public hearing on and maybe just fold them so that they sort of stand out a little folding and stuff like that doesn't work because it doesn't necessarily go through that way in the publication paper it they don't have a different right they don't have a different font or anything not necessarily no about making know we tried things like that but um it doesn't it's just whatever type face they have some of them will do it but but not all of them do right but it's no there then there's no harm in doing it and if they pick it up they pick it up if they don't they don't okay uh so I have a question um and I know that like putting links in print material is just I no no but can we
012and I'll read read this tomorrow when you send it Jen can we in Does it include information about the like Q&A or is that are you thinking like that would go somewhere else like an e like if there's an easy if the I can't remember what the URL is for The Amity board but like you know you can view questions and answers about um the budget and The Amity Board website something like that um yeah so I think at the bottom to your point we should include you know for more information including Q&A or whatever it might be um that's very easily done yeah and and it and the way that it's built is that it's all just linked On The Board website like if it just goes to the main Board website um trying
013to get it like putting excuse me putting an individual link to each PDF document that then is associated with the budget isn't as but if you shoot them to the Board website they'll see the section on the budget and then they can go there for all the other information yeah I think that's fine go ahead down oh no and again keeping in mind the the print Publications like it the shorter simpler of a URL it is because it's not like it's a live link so it just has to be something they could quickly type in to their computer if they saw it right Jen you also mentioned that you know during the public hearing so maybe for people who haven't voted or don't vote a lot and since this is a piece BL out maybe
014a description of what the public hearing is is not a board meeting where they get to hear about the budget but they actually get to back and forth in a live dialogue no they do not it's just it's almost exactly like public comment public comment yeah really so um can you describe what that looks like yes so we open it up and then we invite the public to talk about the budget I do like a short presentation and then the public is invited to discuss the budget how much time is allotted for it um as long as for as many speakers as there are who come what time what what um you said this is a regular board meeting night correct yeah so if it's longer it just pushes out the beginning or the start
015of meting okay in in the six years I've been here I've had one person come to the public hearing okay I mean could we say instead of a public hearing it's a Donna's point about like what you know what is that um well technically that's what like by election laws that's what it's called oh okay you can call it a public hearing but just say you're allowed to give public comment and your voice will be heard yeah maybe a sentence after just giving a little bit more information about um what that public hearing is this is an opportunity to you know provide public comment on the um the board's proposed budget or something like that yeah I think it would be good to to put the word public comment in there because public hearing I
016don't know I kind of get the feeling like it would be a dialogue so I think it's important to communicate that you're not going to get a feedback oh it's an opport for public comment on the budget right on the proposed budget that the board approve to send to the voters for their approval in a referendum I don't know yeah I just think it's important for there to be some type of public comment language so that people understand it's not a dialogue because it does kind of public hearing makes me feel like it is a dialogue I don't know that's what I would think but maybe people that are used to read no I would think I would think that I would get a response from someone yeah yeah because I'm concerned that we may
017we may have a lot of people from Woodbridge there because they're getting hit the hardest so they may have a lot to say about it and so Jen you're saying this would not be an opportunity for A's to go with questions no Q&A just comment right it's really just it's observational and then what happens is then there is an agenda item in the subsequent board meeting where the board can discuss the budget and potentially take action as a result of the comments at the public hearing so it's separate and removed from and it's not a back and forth if there's like a little description that probably already exists about what's expected at these things we can link to that as well like what to yeah I mean we have like a policy on public comment
018which essentially the public hearing is the same thing it's it's a very specific public comment session so we can probably pull some of that language so I can work on that okay I'm just writing like a placeholder here does does your letter say anything about um the overall percentage increase and the responsibility by Town based on enrollment I didn't chance to read not in this one yet but then there's other subsequent Communications coming remember this is the first of like six or seven Communications this is just kind of the the initial shot okay when is this when is what's the timeline for because now we're talking about April 7th so what's the timeline and how many hits are you going to have between now we're March 11 well I think if you give cat some
019time to go through her Communications plan we'll get that answered okay I will sit tight then all right you got it okay so we were thinking Jen submitting this this Friday right yeah most likely I think that's a good date to make sure it hits all of the deadlines and I was you know hoping to defer to y'all about dates as well but so let's scroll through to the next step which is connecting with the ptso leaders so I put together a message so that we can reach out to these ptoo leaders and invite them to join this group on a conference call um um wanting to get their support and cooperation and using their distribution lists to send out an invitation or an FYI about upcoming Q&A forums and so one they've got great
020dist distribution lists um they are themselves kind of like ambassadors for the school and so they're good people to have informed about what's happening um and and two I think also um having a conversation with them versus just sending them an email it would probably result in more action on their part it's kind of easy to ignore or forget about an email versus having an actual conversation and when you're asking for their support and help and I think it's a great opportunity I don't know if the board ever meets with the ptso but it's a good opportunity for further collaboration for communications I think that's a great idea yeah so I think what we should should do and I think we should probably pull our resources like through email for this I can get the
021contacts for The Amity ptso people what I can't get the contacts for are the bow ptso people so I have Bri so that's what I'm thinking if we can sort of use our resources you know danth you can sort of kind of parse around and try to figure out who are and I'm assuming there's three ptso or ptas in no probably four in Orange um and I think the people we would really be looking for are like their social media leaders we don't have and maybe their presidents and the social media leaders but um and then I can I can probably manage Bethany myself because it's a pretty small school um so if we can kind of assemble that list of emails and it just has to be probably by the end of this month
022um which would give us time to send this out and for for us to have the meeting before the April 7th cut off date I don't um you you can attempt but I think it needs to come out from the PTO I don't think they're going to share email addresses with us yes to no no no I'm not asking that I need emails for the people who run the PTO so I can okay okay so you call them pto's not ptso well we call them ptso because the old enough kids are's but the little guys tend to be PTO because they're girl okay so hopefully out by the end of March yeah and Cat on this will probably um changed from Amity to boa bwa all capitals so it's all the elementaries M yes got
023it and then we'll just list it as PTO ptso leaders yes so I am for timing shouldn't this go out earlier so that you can actually schedule a call or zoom and then that gives them time to pull together whatever communication they want to put in to their list to so that they have you know they can get it on their calendar prior to April 7th people are very busy so just I'm I'm trying to be respectful of all the time that you guys have to put in to get the ptso contacts so when I have them we'll send it out I mean I can sort of put it that way as soon as we have the full list I can send it out um and then um and then the the other piece is
024really and I could be wrong but Kath the the intent is that we're really going to ask them to repost our content right to to sort of share our content to a broader audience yes I think pretty good at that yeah hence the big ask um you know we're asking them to take the time to put together an email and so um I think I put uh yeah and I already drafted a note that they could use so that we can just make it as easy for them as possible right if you can just if you have the language then it makes it very easy it's just basically getting their interest in sending it yeah you have right here so you have a couple things built into this okay so I'm making slash PTO pts
025yeah and then when we go ahead K I was just gonna ask because I put this in a couple places when we have these C a forums those are also open to the entire all voters right not just families yes the the problem is is we don't have a mechanism to reach all voters right and um and honestly the ptso don't have a mechanism per se to reach all voters so it's really going to have to be we're going to have to sort of rely on kind of our web which extends to a certain level and then there web to extend to a certain level and that's about as far as the webs go yeah and maybe I don't know if someone had time or the opportunity to hang up in like a couple bulletin
026boards in the libraries um but that's why I was going to put together that QR code for the for the flyer so that people could just hold their phone up and get the info for submitting questions and whatnot well there's also the wdtc too which I think is meeing tonight so if you can get to Ellen and you ask her uh how much um she can put out there that would probably be a good idea yeah to the non-families in the note that I'll send out to all four of the pto's in our in my town did you want me to just put a note about you know brief note saying that it's we would like your um we would like to send well actually you just need the emails for me to the yeah
027and then this this letter that's sort of that the top of the page here is what we would send to everybody and I think um Carol you and I would sort of pick a a date and time for a quick Google meet with or you know teams or Zoom with all of them um I think that would as long like I said as long as it's before April 7th that would be appropriate and we can just kind of reach out to them inform that way um and then it's not a board meeting and then we don't have to post anything or anything like that we can just have a normal meeting yeah that's what I was gonna ask so it would be a board meeting if like me Donna Dana right like all of us
028met with okay met with like PT ptso members okay y um yeah I mean I also want to say so a couple things like cat so I know the the first letter for the um the town papers um is for me is that preferable to like the whole it coming from the whole committee what is your I don't know what is your approach right I just think it's always more effective to have one human being or multiple just human beings like a name so even if it was multiple names I think that's okay but versus like just the committee or the board oh yeah yeah I mean the other option would be for it to come from Paul yeah I just I what I do think is because your orchest you're meaning the this committee
029is orchestrating sort of this communication Blitz in the month of April I think that idea of having it connected to this committee as opposed to the board as a whole may help streamline the information but frankly Paul could just as easily send it out as well well I like the idea coming from the communications committee because it's to me it shows that there is a real effort by the board to have individual people who are focused on the work of getting the word out and being transparent I would I would opt for either the board or Paul because he is the chair and that is his role Dana what do you think I agree with that because I feel like you know it's it kind of I think it also is a little bit more
030like official having a be Paul not that you or I or Carol wouldn't be official I just think it's a little more official coming from Paul being the chairman okay I think I'd probably if it's okay with you just insert some language up top that says you know our Communications committee will be and then following on with the rest yep I think that's fine okay okay when do you think um when would op optimally these ptso leaders be sending this message out like first week of April about the virtual forums yeah I mean I it's dependent on when you guys you guys being the communications committee set the dates for those so I I do think that making a decision of the date and time because then cat can start to get that information plugged
031into all of these graphics and and flyers and posts and everything like that um and so I do think we probably should set I think you know two virtual and maybe one inperson um attentive to you know maybe one morning one lunchtime one evening um I don't know like I'm just trying to think or you know how people's lives are structured and and you guys know better than I do sort of the life of a high school middle school mom because I've I've left that behind me now as to when it's like easiest and best to uh to sort of have opportunities like that I think just to just I think the sooner the better um spring sports are going to kick in and then we're going to lose people people are not going to
032want to put time into this I know because my Baseball season starting but I also think um I don't know how it were we in the afternoon for people I guess maybe the young the young moms with the young Youngs would that would work but I feel like after dinner is like the better time because just speaking from where I've been in terms of middle school now and high school it's just works over you know we're we're we're kind of before spring sports are actually formal so games haven't started but maybe practices and I think half an hour is the minimum is the maximum I mean I think any longer than that you're going to lose moms cuz I know I have just like Carolyn just like Don I have six things waiting for me
033to do as soon as I'm done because I went from work to this so I'm thinking half hour after dinner and as soon as possible before the spring sports schedule starts to kick in what are your thoughts I was just quickly gonna say what are your thoughts on recording these so that some folks can watch them whenever it's comedian for them or recording one of them yeah I mean I I I think I think that's okay I mean I think if if if there are people that aren't going to watch it because they just don't have the time it would be easy for them like I know myself when I jump in bed if I have to read something I'll jump in and read it so maybe that might be a good option I don't
034know what do you what do you and Donna think Carol yeah I'm I'm I'm fine with recording one of them I don't yeah I don't think we need to record all of them um I do think we I think we could easily record the virtual meetings the inperson one I think is harder to do but if we recorded the virtual ones we could definitely manage that yeah I agree with that I have started to find more success with like a 12 noon meeting like people seem to be to foro their lunch and go to a meeting you know there and so I do think that I would suggest at least one of those be kind of a lunchtime opportunity so for parents of younger kids kids that's actually like a noon time meeting or sometime
035like midm morning I think people are willing to sort of carve out like a half hour out of their morning or from 12:00 to 1 I think for parents of younger children the entire evening is a wash um so for for like I mean I pref I'm like you Dana like sometime after dinner right like my kids are older now but like before if it wasn't if it was anytime after 400 p.m. like forget it yeah yeah yeah I think that would work I think one 12:00 lunch meeting and then the other two be you know maybe I don't know maybe a mid morning one and then an evening one so when do you think these are going to happen when do you project you guys just have to pick dates I I think that
036I think I mean remember your critical window that you're trying to Target is April 7th to May 6th when we send absolutely nothing no social media posts no Flyers no communication like we go silent from the district level and you you you're we're sort of losing this opportunity where it's going to be fresh in people's heads come May 6 so somewhere we have to kind of get that ramp up now remember there's an April break in there so you definitely don't want to touch that um so that's the 15 the week of the 14th J yeah hang on let me pull up my calendar I mean I think what you're going to want to look at is the week of April 7th yep so any time that seems even like early um I think honestly
037April 21st for sure that week um and then and Cat maybe this is up to you this is something you can like I don't know if it's better to do it also maybe two meetings during that week and then one during the week of the 28th then that we those are like the two weeks right before everybody votes the signs will start to be out we'll get the referendum vote now signs will be scattered around the town by the week of the 28th um you know it'll it'll be fresh in people's heads I think we if possible and I know it's just a couple weeks away maybe like three weeks away but I think having something the week of the seventh even if it's small if like if one of the PTO or ptso are
038like responsive and like if there's a meeting that week or like if they're meeting virtually I think having something that we can you know in addition is well I mean if you if you do three Q&A sessions 30 minutes each and you do one the week of the 7th one the week of the 21st one the week of the 28th and you just have to pick a date in which time it's going to be offered yeah um you know and you can't and that's the other thing is that we can't really use school property for the Q&A session so you might want to think about maybe you do it at one of the elementary schools um or maybe you do it at the library and you'll get in person one you mean yeah yeah yeah
039um just just just for my own knowledge so who would be answering the questions whoever members of this panel who are yeah I think we were discussing last time that if we had ones that were Town specific we'd have that town M there um otherwise I think just based on availability with everyone's schedules and then a little bit of dividing and conquering who whoever's on the call and I honestly think at this point if we're really targeting a 30 minute session so cat put together sort of like broad level like the Q&A questions that people really should be asking if they're not really deep in the weeds of the budget which most people are not deep in the weeds of the budget um so because I would not I wouldn't I don't know that I
040would feel comfortable answering certain questions that you know maybe I'm not 100% familiar with so I think what you could do and and and and maybe two of you I mean and in that case maybe we do have sort of two people who can play off one person asks the question one person answer I don't know but she's she's she's got a list of of and these are questions I think if I'm right cat you sort of went back to the Google Docs from years past and kind of gathered and gleaned questions to sort of Hit the main themes of what Comin that and also just me as a mom in a school district what would I ask who's not in the weeds um so kind of like just gen generic questions and then the
041ones that you guys have that you know are going to come in I think we'll have a variety of questions right like so they're probably going to be people that will show up specifically to ask that like I don't know really super de like detailed question that um Jen you would feel obviously but I think you know other people may just ask like you know why and want like to hear perspectives from another parent who happens to also be a board member right um and why you support you know and just to hear I think that you like you're in support of of the budget but that's my thinking I mean I don't know I don't know if um the board has done this before but that's why I that would be an attractive opportunity
042for people um I also think that if there's a really out there question that you don't feel comfortable answering it's Dana I don't know if you're new to the board but um saying like hey this is my first time and so you know i' love love to get back to you with you know the I want to make sure I give you the correct answer so I think that's it's a forum for the for people to get the answers and whether they get them on the spot or get them a little bit later at least they're getting access to the information and and Dana you could even ask the person in well I mean whether if it's virtual you might ask them to put the question in the chat um and then we have a
043record of it and I don't know how we'll set up the zoom meeting I'm assuming it'll be just kind of normal like this but um we've done things before were their webinars where we don't really see the people but they can still put chat questions in and stuff like that so I'll have to sort of think about that too um and and and honestly if somebody's running the in person just ask them to write it down um because there's a limited degree to which I can advocate for the budget so answering the questions I have to be careful to make it factual only in my response and so sometimes I'm not so good with that on the Fly it's easier for me to have it written and then I run it past people to make
044sure it passes the test of non- advocacy Kat and Jen what are your thoughts about webinar versus um just having a regular Google me uh you know not Google Google meeting or like uh Zoom meeting um so on one hand if it's like just a regular meeting people feel a little Freer you can like unmute right however if we anticipate that and and I don't but just so we can like really think about this but you know people join to be disruptive or whatever um you know if we anticipate anything like that at all then I think webinar but do we think that webinar would be too offputting and it's worth sort of just trying the virtual meeting with just a regular Z meeting I know such a risk I totally hear what you're saying
045yeah I think what we could maybe do and again this is just how they've set up for me um like when I go to the state department everybody is forced to be on mute and you have to raise your hand to ask a question um and so um so it kind of like the chat you know you don't hear everybody in the background you can hear everybody fairly clearly who's presenting um but I think that that but then you still see everybody's face but mostly we just see like their name because they don't turn their camera on but if I can get Sean to figure out how to set it up so it structures it that way and I they ask to unmute yeah ah yeah okay that would work yeah I medium being still
046being able to see other people's faces regular meeting but you have to ask to unmute yeah have to rec um get permission to record the meeting for anyone who comes I I just have a question no you can just sort of tell people that it's going to be recorded and then have the option to leave if they don't want to stay on a recorded meeting okay camera off or whatever okay okay I mean kind of like the board meetings right we don't ask people's permission they're being recorded but it comes with the understanding that if you don't want to be recorded you don't stand up to speak right but I I it's a little different because it's a public meeting versus we're supposed to be creating a sense of community by having a a Q&A
047so that's why I asked the question I mean we can also consider like not recording them but I mean I think it's fine there are like a few opportunities for people to come um two virtual and one in person so you know it's I nowadays like every meeting I'm in is recorded I mean I personally can't stand it but I mean yeah I hit the okay like you know it alerts you that you're being a and but either way right but we could also do what we have had before I mean these can these questions live somewhere on the website the one that's the ones that they perhaps submit and things that we've answered so that it sort of covers if the choice is not to record information is still there the problem again so
048if you're so you've got a set of questions that cat has developed here after April 7th the questions you're getting I can't like I can't put the answers to oh you can't put them on the website right oh we can't even put them on the Boe page of the so we could we can publish everything up through April it's more that I can't like if you guys get the questions I probably can't write the answers to them you would have to write the answers to them okay and so we could have that Google sheet so there could be a link on the Boe page that goes to you know oh click here to see the list of questions and then at least we're updating a Google page and not having to update the actual website
049that's yes that is has this ever been done before no pioneering Dana I other districts seem to do it but again they don't you know they have one meeting they and and there's is a lot more the social media the sort of they go out to ptso and just have an informal sort of one-on-one with the ptso um not kind of this broader Community attempt that we're trying and we're also just putting out you know multiple channels of opportunity so I mean I defer to to y'all and you might say well one I don't want to record it so that's off the table so these are just options to to play with and we could have you know there's you know even that call of the ptso you know if I was welcome to join
050that like they might have other ideas as well oh for but you know recording is good if you're only going to have the one meeting um but like you said Carol having multiple opportunities that gives you know you look at the invitation you're like okay I can definitely make that one and so you make that you know your mission to get to that one being yeah and I think if someone really wants to they they want to take advantage of this opportunity they'll make one of the three of them work for them and it's only it's a half an hour so um I just want to um do a time I made them an hour so we'll have to change that okay um Jen I'm happy to um even though like we' the group has
051decided it will come from Paul I'm happy to read the the letter and and like add any edits um great yeah I will get that to you at some point tomorrow um it might be in the a afternoon because my morning is a little busy um I I will I will look out for that tomorrow um okay and I have some time tomorrow evening to to read it um and I think and maybe and maybe Carol to save us time because I can see this taking a while if um you work with individual committee members which could also include Mike and Kathy potentially um or frankly maybe we reach out to our three finance committee members um because that wouldn't be because if you're representing Communications and they're representing Finance you're not really having a
052quorum maybe you guys partner like Dana you would partner with Sean hzor because he probably knows the budget document and everything that's gone into it in more depth than you do because he's sat on finance for the past you know four months working on and then Carol you could partner with Su here and we need you know somebody could partner with Donna schlank probably not Donna Schuster because your names all sound the same but uh no I'm just kidding but you know you could you could maybe do it that way and then you have sort of a buddy in the meeting with you um but it's a buddy who actually has representing yeah representing Finance yeah so I don't know if that's an idea that Dana would make you feel a little bit better about
053going through all of this too yeah um well it's interesting because I didn't vote Yes for the budget so it's going to be interesting for me to to promote it but you know whatever remember remember the the B the board um Norms is that even when you don't agree once it's becomes a board thing we get behind it and you can use that you can say you know if people qu if somebody comes at you and is like hey you didn't vote for it why are you here you say right these are our board Norms I can exercise my opinion and then once it's there I supporting it right once the number is fixed and that's it yeah that I think that would be better because like I said it would be nice to have
054someone that's a little more um able to speak to certain things on the budget that I might not be able to and again I might be able to but then you know you don't want to be that one time where you're just like oh I don't have an answer so might I suggest that somehow or another we partner up a Communications person with a finance person and those people together pick the date and time that they are willing to host a forum or a Q&A I'm calling it a forum but host the Q&A I think that's a good idea to me that seems easiest way to accomplish the task um okay and and you know it would be one of those you know one of the you know you might want to like talk about
055which week you pick um we have the week of the seven the week of the 21st or the week of the 28th um so if you you pick a week then you can kind of figure out who's available you know when it's best for for the two of you I can reach out to Sean I'm G to try and um jockey for the first week just because like I said baseball start baseball yeah we'll be we'll be deep and I'm going to try not to miss any of his games this year because he'll actually play this year so um I'll reach out to Sean tonight to see if he would be interested in doing it and if we could pick that you know that week I can probably get you the emails did you want
056me to send you the emails for the four schools to you directly to for the ptso yeah if you could send them to me that's fine I probably can get that to you by tomorrow I have three of them already and again it's not the just so I'm on the same page you want the ptso email or you want the social media person's if even if I get it to even if I have the president's email or like a general ptso it's got to be going to somebody who could pass it on to the appropriate person because a lot of the people a lot of the ptso websites they don't give you the uh individuals you can't contact them directly but I can give you I have three of the general ones right out the
057gate so I just have to get the other fors one so I'll get them to you by tomorrow okay and I'll get you the Woodbridge person awesome thank you um that we can do that so so if I'm clear the three weeks the April the week of April 7th then the week of April 21st and then the week of April 28th those are the three weeks because that other week is okay so yeah I can I'm happy to take the week of the 21st or the 28th whatever like works and I think it will really depend on sort of what the ptso folks like what time they have and maybe when their meetings fall or something and are you expecting that there may be a town that doesn't even want to do you think that
058any of the towns will not want to discuss and won't even I mean if you think of really the only Town one that's impacted is wherever we hold the iners all the others are virtual and essentially anybody could attend we're sort of thinking of it in this town kind of structure but it doesn't really have to be that way right um so yeah so I think it's more you know we're going to sort of divide the labor you know Shawn goes to one Su here goes to one Donna goes to one because that divides the labor amongst Finance if they're willing to and then you know and again there's five people on this committee so we could you know ask Kathy and Mike if they're of their availability um but even if they weren't Carol
059goes to one Dana goes to one Donna goes to one so you're really only committing to 30 minutes as opposed to making it feel like this over helming task hopefully right right I have a feeling you will get a ton of response from Woodbridge just because I mean they're getting hit so which I was I was also wondering too will you will there be a breakdown now with the new number as to what towns are going to be yeah Terry Terry will reproduce the entire budget book like the the one but she doesn't do it until we have everything because it's a lot of paper and then that goes out and we have to deliver like a certain number of copies to every town hall to every Public Library so we'll be working on that
060over the next couple of weeks Jen remind me where we landed last night 2.9 2.93 okay um okay um do we think we have enough on this agenda item for now like next step so I'll look at the letter um when you send it I will send you to uh Cindy's contract information the Woodbridge person tomorrow um that one the first letter at the top will go out this Friday and then we will work with the PTO ptso folks to figure out when well yeah actually that's separate right so we just Carol you and I just sort of need to set a date when we would want to meet with them virtually in a very in formal manner just to ask the favor of them um yeah so we can just do that through text
061or email okay yeah that worked fine so I just have a quick change of plan I wanted to propose um so item number six is like the Run of show for these sessions and I made it out to an hour um so what I think what I can do instead I incorporate a lot of stuff about you know the the purpose of the board and what their goals are Etc I can bake that into the letter that's going to the editor and then when the ptso PTO send out their email we could have a link to that ideally it makes into the paper and we can have a link to it so people can read that so they'll be able to have a pre-read going into what's now going to be like a half hour
062session and so they'll understand you know this they'll have the opportunity to get this information we want them to have that you know the board has the right goals you know on board as they're putting together the budget and why they do and it works and all that stuff that's good sounds good yeah because because I think I think yeah at that point a 30 minute is going to be quick um and and Cat if I understand right we're going to set it up the way we've done with the forums so that they can presubmit questions so we'll have those and so we can build off of pres submitted questions and kind of the script questions that you wrote to essentially put together the 30 minute product yeah and then I guess the committee like
063let me know if you want to have that running list of final Q&A that is made available somehow whether it's a link from the Boe website or whatever we decide yeah I think that would be good I mean I think before these sessions we'd have to like familiarize ourselves with like what are people typically asking a lot of times people will ask the same thing you know if it's already answered can't fantastic um but yeah I think that'll be good prep for us you'll probably have a sense as to what the most sensitive questions will be and so those will be the ones you want to really prep for yeah yeah y um yeah I think so um okay any of anything else on this so I'm going to update this and send it back
064to Jen um and then I guess next steps and then you know Carol you'll take a look at it yeah um all right um we have two minutes left what do we want to do we is everyone does everyone have a few minutes to revisit the topics we generated a few a few months ago for the spring Forum um it's March I mean we can do some of this um we can follow up on the like spring topics um by email but what do you what does everyone want to do I like to I think we could review the topics okay Don you okay for a few minutes yeah okay thanks all right so we uh talked about a couple things for feature forums one was uh like whatever the topic was having a brief
065presentation at the top of the hour um ahead of like opening up the like Q&A um we in terms of topic ideas um talked about you know having a topic related to electives um Athletics clubs um how this ties into college applications or jobs um I think we had also had a conversation about um students coming back um what was that for in the fall that yeah that would be in the fall let so like we typically have a a student panel um around Thanksgiving and so that would be it was an idea we had but it would not be for this spring Forum okay um how about I don't know this is just me thinking as like M of Junior but um ways that schools the school supports or the district supports students like
066postgraduation or to prepare like help them think about like what's next right and that could look a variety of ways right they could be going to the workforce they could be going to TW you know a vocational or technical school they could be going to a fouryear institution or Community College um but what are the like what are the like structures in place to support um students like post High School what are the ways and we can talk about maybe um you know having the fall panel we have our alumni come back and talk about you know their experiences um I don't know what do you think about I think that's a great idea and I do love the fall panel coming back to talk I think what would be really helpful which is this
067is going to sound stupid but I think for the fall panel to go over things that the kids don't realize are at Amity and then you know like the Class Act Council I had no idea about that Carlo was recruited for the Class Act Council in freshman year but he was so overwhelmed with high school his IEP and baseball that he declined it and then he got the T-shirt because he was like the number one fan at the whatever and he qualified for it and he was like I really wish I did it but I really didn't know a lot about it and I was so overwhelmed so I think like coming back and talking about different things that are at the school like even just their their construction classes like Ammon is one a
068few schools that has such in-depth construction classes that really will help you to get into colleges in the future if you're going into construction management I wouldn't know it if Carlo wasn't a construction major but I now know it obviously and the welding courses Amon has stuff that there's other high schools just don't have and I think it would be really good for them to talk about to the underclassman and I don't know the parents I think would have a huge interest in this saying that some of the things that are available to us at Amity that just aren't the normal run-of-the-mill high school stuff I do like your your idea about talking about things post too because I do feel like it's it's hard now to get a job and I think it's great
069to have some ideas of how Amon can support you after graduation so I think that's a great topic what if the topic was something and I and again and maybe cat can message us but like almost like what makes AMD unique or what make like the the whole topic of the panel is that great idea and parents can ask questions about the opportunities that are provided or how we prep kids for postgraduate like I think we would have to give them some ideas of what they should ask questions about yeah um but I I wonder if in sort of the vein of making this a positive spin instead of always feeling like we're on the defense of like we do it a different way like that yeah I think that's right you could even say
070like what makes am unique hey did you even know that they have a whole Automotive shop that you can go get your car oil changed did you know this did you know that like because there I know it's funny and it is but it isn't because I have friends that go to high schools in the nearby towns and like we don't have that we don't have that so you know I think and the whole be program like the honey like there's things that am really has that we that other high schools just don't have so I think I love the idea of what makes you Amity different or what makes Amity stand out and then you can kind of give a couple pull points like did you know this did you know that maybe it
071can be framed about in in a way that sort of um the framing can be the type of student like how we prepare like um how we prepare our Amity students or something like that and like tap into like opportunities I'm just talking off my head right but like yeah opportunities how we like what makes our students like distinct like what makes an Amity education distinct something like that I don't know um we can talk about all those things didn't the girl from Mean Girls come to the school last year like to do a little excert yeah didn't she Jen didn't somebody from the the two leads that were on Broadway doing girls came and did a presentation to all the kids in Amity creative theater about how they that's amazing movie to the musical
072I think that that's like that's some those are things I think the resources that AMD has for your kids that other high schools just don't have what about something to what you're saying Dana I mean make it fun did you know yeah did you know but also have it um maybe not but sort of like ramping it up in a way the did you know um in the board newsletter I think the board newsletter is is so a couple of ideas so um so one thing that um our our web designer social media person and I noticed is that basically there's a lot of good stuff that comes in the superintendence report that sits static and so after cat kind of developed all of these social media posts for the budget Liz and I said
073well we could just literally pull all of the good stuff like we can do a post every you know couple of days just lifting off of the superintendence report because there's a ton of stuff in there about successful kids like there's just a lot that's already in there and that goes out of The Amity like one of The Amity um handles uh yeah it's our Amity Facebook but then it's also connected to our Amity Instagram okay what about other than just social media you know the sort of the did you know so maybe maybe not to your point Jen from the board but just um the school newsletter that goes out to families is there something that does go out to families and you know did you know about the auto shop did you know
074hey the cast The Broadway cast from Mean Girls yeah you visited Amity I mean a new one maybe it's something like that would have been in community happening automotive shop maybe not so much but like definitely when the the Mean Girls people were here I mean Andre always tells a really funny story of one day he's walking in and there's a lady next to him clearly a visitor walking in and he's like hi why are you here and she's the director of the Yale rep and they were putting on MC Beth and she was coming to do a presentation with her performers to our entire AP English classes and the only reason why she was doing it was she was a parent so she just happened to like you know but's like these are the
075weird things that happen at amid because now I literally have the director of MC Beth at the Yale rep presenting to my English kids the performance of MC Beth and so Stu like that goes into he'll put that into the community happenings so sort of he he does a nice job sort of highlighting some of the what I call the weird stuff that happens every once in a while you know what it it can be a little fun so you know just as we you started we started bringing in um students and the Class Act Etc to the board meetings and to Dana's point that I have no idea right but you know did you know did you know and and a lot of these things I think Donna a lot of these things when
076you come in as a freshman parents as well as when you have more so when you have other children so if you have one kid and they're a freshman maybe you pay attention a lot of this stuff or maybe you don't I don't know I just feel like when you come into Amity there's a lot that you don't know about and you do learn it over the four years but there's a ton of things I would have never known if I a wasn't on the board and B didn't ask about and I just think that would be something for for someone coming as a freshman would really open up maybe some of their opportunities and even give our just give Anthony a little bit of a boost like hey you know so I want be
077respectful of time but let me take this idea and float it with my admins and then some of the other people who would end up sitting on the panel um so I can kind of get a sense of what they see being able like the types of questions that they would be asked and what they would answer and then in the meantime um since cat was listening she can maybe come up with some crafty sort of way yeah I already have a couple of crafty ideas um marketing this awesome right a completely different Channel than what we already have but I like the idea of developing something maybe it comes from it maybe it should be coming from the school did you know but I do like that that it's fun it's a little kitchy
078and you can get especially to Dana's Point parents parents who have no idea and I tell you I love The Amity happenings but I can't tell you how many people don't read them I'm sorry they don't I love it I think he does a great job Dana I'm I'm one of them unless I'm like but someone else in my family reads them so even even on the website Dana did you know literally uh did you know and make it make it fun and it can be you know you can have it on social media but there should be you know many distribution channels in which that can be AC accessible not just social media would we be able to do this for the spring one or would it have to be fall I mean all
079of the stuff that that Donna is talking about is sort of like that's sort of later for a fall Community Forum yeah I think we could probably pull something like this to I mean I'm sorry spring Community Forum I could definitely pull something like this together this is a topic that I can lift fairly easily I think okay right and Jen also the um incoming sixth graders right something fun and uplifting and you know all the things that you know whether it's it's the clubs or the little niches that exist and just you know for every want to find their their place I hate to say it too but I know we have to go what about I mean kids maybe students current students on the panel that I like stud talking about yeah I
080can definitely look for that I think um again a little bit Dana to to your point by the time we host the Forum my seniors are gone right um my my my kiddos Who Do Stuff are doing stuff it's like the last two weeks of school but I can I I'm thinking if I talk to Mr downhour and we tap into some of the resources of student gov um there's at least some kids who they can't be they can't be the top-of-the-line kids that do it all they have to be the middle of the kids the middle of line kids that are just not not the S and I hate to say this but not the superstars that do everything and are on every club and every sport someone that's in the middle someone that's
081just or a balance or like you have some representation okay I have a meeting at s y so yeah I think we need to to wrap up and adjourn but we've got some good ideas so thanks yeah I think so I think so um so I'm gonna I'm gonna will you'll wait till get a new uh new version from us Carol yes and then uh Jen if you need topics for the chair's newsletter sorry for the um we will um you can send it by you can do that by email maybe have topics for Paul yep if you could actually send those to me tomorrow um at some point because I'll work on the newsletter this week okay all right all right great um all right so I um I guess I'll make a motion
082to adjourn without objection okay all right thank you everybody appreciate it thank you so