001yep hang on I've got the live stream it takes a minute it says it's live but then I have to wait for it to work and it's going it's going yep hang on okay got the live stream all right so it takes a minute it says it's live but then I have to wait okay got it all right we should be all set all right we'll call this meeting to order at 6 33 pm um and move to approval of minutes which I guess is somewhat difficult because Christina has left the committee so I approve it by myself is that how that would work no I think you just I think people who weren't there are just going to have to trust and not um abstain from the approval um or else they're just going
002to sit in limbo so that would be my recommendation so we would just need one person to move it forward for approval and then the three official committee members to vote to approve it okay I I'll second okay so you're actually technically a first okay and fine and then because we're live I have to officially call the roll so Donna oh sorry Miss Schuster yes um Dr oladelli yes and Dr Turner yes okay public comment I have received no public comment and we did not have anyone request to participate today by two o'clock P.M okay all right so Communications committee planning um so that actually Dr Turner was the document that you had shared with me um do you do you have quick access to it because I can scroll around and try to find
003you have quick access so I was just trying to think what we might need to reassure people on some of the issues that we've been having all right let me see if I can give you permission to or maybe I can share it in the chat oh wait here we go I know how to do this okay participant you should be all set to share your screen actually okay share the screen hang on my system is objecting to my sharing the screen I need to go through my preferences let me just send the link Jen and then you can do it because I don't know how deep I'm going to have to go in preference sharing okay chat an option yes it should be okay all right and I will try to get that figured
004out okay um yep do we have um um did Pam send the um this out is this also in our the link also in our no because this honestly was just an internal communication between me and Dr Turner so um the meeting link like to join to uh yes I think that Pam did not know that you had joined Cara which is why I forwarded it to you uh okay okay yes she did not know that you were appointed today okay um okay so now you should be able to see up on the screen um I think Dr Turner's brainstorm on topics to potentially communicate about so I had hoped that we could use a Central document as a way to brainstorm things that we could be addressing and to think what we needed I've
005run into trouble with apparently a document that we share is an illegal meeting therefore I guess it's just I'm sorry I am hot the attic is hotter than my house the um meetings are going to have to become the brainstorming planning assigning things and things are going to have to be more slow as um Amy's considering joining and Carol is new to this today I think that we should talk about Dr byerson said that we need a purpose like explicitly put out for the committee and we had come up with purposes earlier on but there are purposes that I think that we're running into trouble executing and it might be helpful to talk through what we can actually expect to do in a non-emergency kind of way going forward and if we cannot collaborate on
006a document I am feeling as though having us discuss the issues that came up at the board meetings like the previous one or recent ones and deciding what we will work on this month that we could perhaps discuss at our next meeting would be a useful thing to do I liked what Paul was saying last night at his meeting and if we could come up with responses to some of the concerns people raised for Paul to communicate or me with the communications work that might be good I feel like something I really cared about a lot was an open Forum but I feel like with the divisive and repetitive upset people have been showing now might not be the time to launch an open Forum so talking about this as a planning document I want
007to talk about what we share about the way in which we share it I think is also important to discuss if everybody on Communications or even on the board is aware of the process that Paul has been putting out his Board of Ed chairperson sort of newsletter but basically the day after the meeting um he and I will collaborate in drafting what goes uh to his newsletter and I know he tries to address sort of a summary of what happened at the meeting so certainly the most recent newsletter will include um that we table the motion with respect to the um what to do with the unexpended funds that we um discontinued continuing education the policies that we moved forward for adoption as well as the ones that went to Second read and then we
008just kind of try to lift a couple of sort of of the more positive pieces out of the um board report that would hopefully generate some interest in the community and I think kind of highlight particularly the achievement area since that's one where we've been criticized for slipping even though we seem to have data that suggests we're not so definitely like the National Merit Scholars were recognized from last night that's part of the the newsletter um and the reason why he and I do that on Tuesday um is because the deadline to hit the um town newses is literally this Thursday so our board cycle lines up really nicely with that to be able to turn it around but we have to go super duper quickly um so I think one one thing we so
009we so his job seems to be um really getting the information into the newspapers and into the print Publications and um so I so I think we have a couple of we could potentially have a couple different roles um one being communication internally within our community um like the school population of community um because we don't send a lot of letters through Swift K-12 from the Board of Education and that may be an Avenue that we can work in and then I also was thinking of some of the like one of the challenges and I just wanted to say that I have joined uh okay online I I'm a little bit on the move as I'm listening on to this uh if that is okay I will I will remain on it as I'm um
010on the move but I just wanted to let you know that uh if that is okay I'll do that I I you absolutely can join and participate and I have recorded your attendance as as part of the minutes so okay great I've already learned I'm glad to hear that Paul is doing this on an ongoing basis and clearly things have changed since we first started to structure the committee so but you know I'm I'm I'm wondering like I think you know I I know so we're rolling into to budget right and I know there's a lot of thought around communication about the budget um I I almost think there there are some pieces like like we could almost consider on like a 12-month cycle is is sort of what I'm like I'm thinking because if
011we meet once a month that's what we're able to generate but when I went to the Woodbridge towns Dei committee one of the biggest things that I heard from them was they didn't know that they could vote in The Amity budget there was a perception amongst and I heard this repeated multiple times there was a perception that The Amity budget the referendum was actually only open to like Amity families and that's kind of a fundamental like and I don't know how we can communicate that but that's a like that's a fundamental misunderstanding that really has a huge impact on what outcomes are so I was thinking of like what are some of the the the things that we have seen um that that kind of more globally we could be able to address at points
012in time during during the course of the year um because I think that Mr Davis is really responding to public comment that happens at the meeting summary of what the Board of Ed decisions are um particularly highlighting things that directly impact the towns and then kind of trying to get at some of that academic achievement information um without believe like again the newspapers only published so much so kind of trying to keep it within a column or two so Jen and and Jenny although I've been on officially on this committee since Inception in order for it to form this is the first meeting I have actually been able to make so my question is you know what is the goal and the vision that Jenny had for for the committee and I think that will
013help us determine if it's going to be more of a um like a board's Corner type of thing so I'm hearing that Paul's going to be responding more to the public comment in more of an immediacy and this might be more of a way for the board to communicate um you know when we talk about the budgeting process because you're you're saying that there is a miscommunication about how the budget even how the budget's developed and the role of the community and how you want to communicate with the process is how it votes or how the community votes but I think you know is it going to be a quarterly type of situation when we talk about all the policies that we've done the the votes that we've done and why we've we've made the
014decisions the way we have so that I think the first thing before you start talking about you know and I understand you might want to have topics that you want to discuss we want to talk about achievement we want to talk about the budget we want to talk about what policies what we have and and then also maybe even the vision for the board and the board's goals well I was most interested in having a way in which the board responded to public concerns it feels terrible as a board member to sit up there and say nothing when people comment and it feels pretty bad to not have a way that we can say look here are the concerns it might take a while but here is the board's reaction response we're listening we're not
015just ignoring your concerns right so I Envision this as responsive to what is going on over time but also strategic because if we aren't responding to these accusations that amity's focus on diversity has made us academically slipping then it undermines our argument for our budget right I feel as though for people who might not be into every little social media argument that comes down just hearing that there's a lot of upset about these things makes you think what is going on and if we don't have a measured School Board this is what is going on with our achievement Etc I think it's easy for our fears and confusion to feel that void so I see it I guess sort of three-pronged one part responding to things that are not just one little bubble but concerns
016over time talking about good things that anybody is doing so people notice them and I've just lost my brain what was the third I don't know it will come back so I I I like those I mean I I think those are spot on Jenny and um the only thing I'm wondering is if it like how we how this community how this committee functions and work together with Paul because I I think it would be stronger and better and less confusing to the larger Community to have one like you know we don't want to have anything separate from Paul um and I was thinking we could and I guess this may go back to like where we envision um like disseminating like whatever we we write up right maybe it's not the town papers um
017but if it's a town papers and I say it's like one piece together and maybe you know we can work together with Paul and Jen or if it's something separate then I guess it doesn't it doesn't matter but but I do think you're right um you know um making sure we don't allow people to fill in the blank right um is is probably best and there's there's a lot of you know things that are sort of going well and um yeah and we need to highlight those things so people know that um if I gave a little history of what I asked our attorney what we can and can't do um because I think initially we talked about this to respond to public comment because of um negative perceptions that were appearing on social media
018and that sort of inability for any of us to kind of like stop it when it was like a runaway train um um so I think we we initially had asked and actually this whole thing happened very like over the most innocuous um thing um we wanted to write the press release for Paul's um uh appointment at our election to being the board chair and so um it was actually Christina who wrote a very nice document um she shared it with um at the time Donna Jenny and I because Donna and Jenny were on the communications committee um we did a little editing we sent it to Paul and said hey this is about you do you want to like edit your own press release and then um and and then I wrote to the
019board's attorney and said you know we had a shared Google Document we drafted it together it's the press release for the board chair and he said that's an illegal meeting so um that's when I started to sort of say to the board's attorney like okay what is it that we can and can't do and how can we go about making a Communications committee and he basically said that anything that we write or draft has to be done as a group if more than one of us is working on it and so it has to be in public session um and then um ultimately the board's policy still directs only the board chair or the superintendent to be the person who sends the communication out so I think initially our proposal was anything that this committee
020drafted would still go to Paul and Paul would ultimately make the decision of what to release what not to when to do it and what media it would be in because in that case we're at least holding true to our bylaws and Carol to your point it makes it still really clear that there's one person who's the voice of the board um as I think about how to operationalize this again I our initial thought and and Jenny my and Donna might remember this was being able to respond quickly so we were like oh we get a complaint if we do a virtual meeting we post it within 48 hours we are able to get together and draft something up um but Donna I'm intrigued by your idea of a board's corner because that might be
021a venue that we could literally establish on the website where we could collaboratively come up with some ideas of what we would want to post in that board's corner and kind of hit talking points and I think through this committee maybe assign tasks to people like you're gonna go write this one and you're gonna go write this one these are our talking points excuse me and then with Paul's approval we could have information sitting in the Sports Corner um it's small it's not big it's not out there but when we need to lift that information to send it to the greater public it's already like there it's almost already it's like pre-drafting messages so um like last year right when we were in the budgeting process we we wrote some sort of open letters um
022or we didn't I've had nothing to do with that because that would have been illegal at the time the board wrote some open letters and um but but we could reference those letters and honestly the greater press when they would call me up I could reference those letters and say the board already took a position on this you can find it on the website this is where it is um that may be an a nice start for us again we're a baby committee and we're trying to do something that No Other Board of Education that I can find has ever attempted to do um so it's okay for us to go through some Growing Pains but um that that idea is somewhat intriguing and I think it could be manageable for you as you first
023start to work on this process thank you go ahead I just wanted to say that uh I hadn't saw you thought of the word the word's corner but uh that what Donna said was something that was quite uh resonant with the kind of uh thinking I had as well and it looks like you seem to approve of that what I I wanted to say was like you know complimenting uh to pause uh thoughts that he's going to write that is going to be a little bit more quick and responsive to the uh things that you know is coming up in the uh in these meetings uh and that might require a quick address out and what we can do is you know both take the ideas that are coming from the community uh either through
024the public comment meeting or things that we are hearing and then create perhaps a her wish list or not a wish list a a longer term list of the kinds of things that we might want to talk about some somewhat informed like public comment but sometimes informed by other things from outside people are asking and and then you as you said like you know uh put it put it all on this uh Birds Corner we've been using a frequently asked questions format uh you know in in a few of these things uh which I think might be a flexible way to do it uh it's uh so that like you know we can connect a bunch of questions uh so it seems to me like if you think that this bird's Corner thing is there
025I think it could it would really be a nice complement to uh what Paul is currently doing in terms of more immediate response uh so I just wanted to Echo that I kind of really like the idea and that is kind of what I was thinking a little bit as I was coming into the meeting and it was nice to hear that from Donna I think that sounds like a good thing and it would capture a different set of people than the people I was thinking of who are the board packet board meeting attending people there are clearly some people who are reading the board practice and I was thinking perhaps we could use a board packet like the facilities report we could have a Communications report that talked like was a place where we
026shared what we'd written over the month and wanted to share so people would get it there they could also find it on the website on the board's corner and that maybe this could be a way of making people feel that the board is being more responsive to concerns and more transparent with what's what we're doing and people were able to find it in a different media right and follow these in the newspapers I uh Donna I think you were you were trying to speak oh no I was just thinking I was just writing uh maybe topics or subtopics that we could talk about like you could say board happenings and you could just give instead of going through the 90 pages that we have in our votes to say What policies we've approved uh what
027were um something is you know even a section call what we're hearing and you could say in in those areas we could talk about what we're hearing as far as concerns or even having some type of you know ask the board ask the board and people could submit their questions of ask the board you know what does what does the budget process look like or you know things like why is the budget process take so long how is this affecting our our mill rate the fact that we we tabled a vote just and why we tabled that vote and and I think it would be very clear it could be clearer as to you know we've always given money back but now we're considering instead of giving the money back to the town to fall
028under their purview we're saying although it may be a little sloppier or not or a little growing pain instead of the town getting the money back we're doing it because this way it stays in education and goes directly to the taxpayer inside of the town and trying to explain concisely what took us maybe a half an hour among us to discuss and I and I think what one thing you know that will help is is again um and I'm pretty sure that we've been doing this I've never really checked to see if you guys get them um but um our instructional technology coach Mr Davis um is um the one who's helping us to construct some aspects of the website and he actually builds um like a newsletter um that that is um the other
029Mr Davis's Board of Ed share newsletter and I think he forwards it out to to the board members do you guys get that I don't who is who is the audience for that so again it's what it's so it's the work that Paul does um literally today and tomorrow um to draft a news like a newsletter that he then sends out as a press release we send it out to a press release to all of the local newspapers um some will pick up just one article like one blurb on his article um others will publish it in its entirety oh um it's just online some it's in the actual physical paper that comes out um but it's really intended to be a summary of the board meeting and the work that the board is doing
030but at the same time and and we're still kind of I think we're still learning the power of our website platform but um like there's a way people can subscribe to get the newsletter so you don't so unlike Swift K-12 right if I send a letter out the only people who get it are people who are parents of Amity kids because that's the way that works this is kind of like where you subscribe to something and as long as you subscribe subscribe to it you should get a copy of it so uh like a sense person could subscribe to it and get it even if they didn't have a kid in the school so how do how does someone opt in to I don't know because we just started learning how to use this feature
031on our website this year um but I think we've been trying to send them to the board members but if you're not getting it that's helpful for us to know because we'll have to figure out how to unblock that because you should have received at least two newsletters at this point that yesterday be coming from would they look like they're from you or I don't know what they look like they're from I don't recall getting either anything no that's good that's great information for me to bring back to see what's happening in the the to get the hang up but um but yeah I think you would want to see what he's been putting out because I think it'll give you a gauge for where the holes still would be that you might want to
032fill on a board Corner versus his kind of summary of the significant events that happened at the last board meeting is okay I'm sorry go ahead Jenny oh no go ahead Donna oh no I was just going I'm I'm thinking uh so it would be beneficial to know all the types of communication and the sources of communication that come from the school and this is a great example of not even knowing that this was available it sounds so a lot of things are changing and that this is a district-wide working on this right I mean there's there's a point where you know I I've heard from some friends who say that their District over communicates and then you over saturate and no one no one reads but if you you have one spot even if
033it's on the home page and I don't know if this is uh something that's been considered or looked into but if you have a spot on the home page that says you know even Communications where people can go if they if if they deleted something that came from the Swift 2K system so it's archived and you can go back in and you can you can look but I I don't know if um who handles the communications for the the district under the superintendent or if it falls under the superintendent or um assistant superintendent or whose responsibility that is but that would be helpful to know all the types of communication that are coming out yeah it's it's um we're not a big enough District to have a plan per se um so it's a little
034ad hoc um but um we could at least I mean again that may be something we could summarize so people know what to look for because it can go anywhere from Google classrooms that the administrators have set up for their kids um the student government who sends the student newsletter out which contains a ton of information um the weekly newsletters that come from the principles this the sort of whole districts with k-12s that I will send out but we also have the ability all kinds of individual Communications come out through um Swift K-12 so the 200 some odd Connecticut automatic admissions letters will go to our seniors individually but through that process um so it's it is there is no one particular and then you look at the website like I said where you know
035between the um we have the um tip lines um so you've got the Frog tip lines the student concerns tip lines and now that we're finding some of these other strategies where we can get some newsletters out um you know it's it's something that we're working on to try to improve um even just the website but it's it's again we don't have dedicated Personnel to do that so it's kind of like an add-on extra job that everybody does when we have spare time there's a swift 2K head and you mentioned before that there was there was some kind of glitch going on and I haven't gotten anything in a while um we think the glitch was fixed they told us it was um but um but it's hard to tell because when you're not getting
036anything then you don't notice it something's broken I I know when I like I used to run tests to like my personal email and they weren't coming through for the longest time and now they are again so I think it's corrected but um right so you would you would see what's called you would like seed your list so you would seed your email distribution list to make sure that it's coming through and it looks like you know what what you plan to send out actually looks the same when yeah eight or nine times until I'm happy with it so but for the longest time I wasn't getting the tests I get the test so I think it's fixed so um because that's when I that's when I started to notice that there was maybe something
037wrong so I I've two comments to everything we've been talking about so one I think the board's corner is a great idea I am wondering if having it on the website is is uh the best place or the only place for the for the the topics that we've talked about um writing about so I think the people in this goes back to sort of like lifting up what our district is doing and the things that are going well right um and I think being proactive on a lot of different topics um I think the I think the best place for it to reach people who are like Beyond like our parents and you know uh people that are sort of really plugged in and come to meetings is the town paper um and I'm wondering
038if we can negotiate with um we're not negotiate but collaborate with the town papers to you know to have like a corner reserved and maybe it's a blend of you know Paul's responses to uh public comment and and and like and like here's what you know when you talk about the National Merit finalists and talk about um you know our District's performance and math and you know how we're doing well and you know um we didn't see such a huge drop maybe during covet like things like that but I think I think we're really limiting ourselves to and I'm and maybe it can live um in a different sort of format on the website so maybe it's like really short as you said Jen they might may not be a lot of space but like
039something more pointed bulleted and and maybe something you know um like a longer piece um adding on to to what Paul does and maybe we can sort of work together with Paul but but I I was thinking more of what I I also thought something like a board corner but like in the in the town papers and I didn't know that you know each town would pick up like maybe a blurb or maybe publish it in its entirety I thought they would just publish like the whole thing so no that's good to know but but again so like this week's was a little as I was drafting helping to draft up the newsletter it was a little sparse so we had room that we could have added stuff if there was stuff I could have
040pulled from so that's so to me if the board creates a board corner and you hi I mean highlight all kinds of things or if we have to I mean again we've got those awesome videos that are up on our website that I think nobody looks at um but they highlight some really amazing cool programs and so we if there if we had to even translate those into kind of like words but then when we have a a sparse month um we could like pull stuff over from the board corner to fill into what is essentially Paul's column that helps us um and again I think if we think about the um types of things that some of the challenges that we know we're going to hit as like we come to things like budget
041you know why does it take so long why is there always a surplus who gets to go vote um you know if we have those pre-drafted when the time comes to write the letter then we can just lift those out of the board's corner and put them into what goes into Paul's Board of Air Board of Ed sheer summary point piece of media you're talking about you would put it in that's why I asked who does the communication and what's going on with the communication so we're more like cross marketing which you would see and all products that are out there and done well and um so you're talking about for the principal's messages you just say hey there's a board's corner you can sign up here when Paul does his piece um in the
042paper he can say hey there's a board's corner you can find it here and you can opt in to get it so that when you push it out you're not flooding people who don't want it and just would want to unsubscribe and I would um so that you don't find as a situation I I would do it quarterly because Paul's addressing immediacy when he does his pieces and with PR how PR works is you send it out and they decide if they're going to pick it up so it's just a press release and they say hey I'm going to pick it up it's newsworthy I have a spot to fill I have some remnant space however that would work um so you want to do any type of communication that you have and you might
043want to do just an initial hey through a swift 2K once you're up and running and you're comfortable and you worked out your kinks you would send it out to the community and you you can even just do a blurb as to say you know in the board's Corner we're going to discuss sport happenings the budget process um and we have to decide I would decide you know what we're hearing because social media really does um get information out there and it's not necessarily accurate and I think that we have to decide what we're going to give air to oxygen to what we're not going to give oxygen to and how legitimate it is and if we hear the same you hear one time it's you just let it go but if this is a
044constant thing we're hearing then maybe we need to decide how we're going to address it so you're thinking of doing the board quarterly or the board Corner quarterly um I think that initially it gives you time to set up a process to work it out it's not as if you have an entire communication staff so I've worked in many different Industries and one where you're talking about an insurance industry where you have to run everything through compliance and sales pieces take months to do versus Industries where we are under a deadline and you are very much putting out fires and that can be really stressful and it's very hard to keep up especially when you're not talking about a dedicated staff but we're all volunteers and you want to make sure that it it doesn't
045Peter out because you're asking too much of people quite honestly maybe what would be fair is that we continue with monthly meetings but instead of setting a bar so high that every month we generate something we sort of blend the idea of monthly meetings but with a quarterly deadline it will certainly give us the time to work on things and to kind of end to Donna's Point think through the process the process part I think is going to be the the tricky part because um us discussing what we want to write about who's going to do it has to be part of this public discussion even though we could in theory we could say you know Donna you're gonna write kind of the introduction of what the whole board corner is going to be about
046these are the talking points we want to have that we can do in public session and then Donna you can go off and do that send it to Paul when he approves it it gets posted up so I think there's room for work to occur outside of the space but I think in the effort of trying to function under public you know we're we're a public meeting um to function under the public meeting there are things we have to decide in public and then kind of direct individuals to go do I think you have leeway because if it's the board's Corner then you as board members can certainly generate some of that content and especially if it's approved through your board chair you're not violating the bylaw that you have that he's the communications person
047I'm sorry uh sorry uh does that mean that only when you allocate one person uh that person cannot get feedback from others in terms of finalizing do you think you cannot have any collaboration on a document between more between two board members committee so even within the communications committee yes because luckily we're doing it in a public meeting right if we were sitting here typing and live streaming it it would be fine right yeah and and that's because that just seems like a strange way to how could one ever write a document uh without uh iterations and feedback uh so something seems amiss I understand the thing like you know being there must be a process for people to generate Communications uh collaboratively uh I I don't know something seems unnecessary well there is the
048it's going Beyond a typical board's role um Boards of education do hire communication Specialists they hire PR Specialists to do this work on behalf of the board um but in this case we don't have one and you're sort of trying to fill that Gap in but your public officials so all of your work has to occur in in public what would it take to hire someone um as far as even just to get it started and get it off the ground expensive right yeah expensive and when push comes to shove and you have to pick between a teacher and a PR person for a budget I'm going to guess the board is going to go with the teacher and that's the hard part PR people you find them in large districts you find them in
049rests um we like I have a person through caps I can call in a crisis and she will help consult with me but like it's not like a like it's you know uh it's literally a life preserver when you're drowning um but um that's why a lot of smaller districts like us we we don't have that because when push comes to shove you're gonna make choices for kids not for Communications right I I would say start out small and decide what we find to be um critical and perhaps also running it by the entire board because and that's a lot of people and I get it and I'm not saying run Every Word by them and that's why you have a subcommittee but I think just even the idea and maybe during our next meeting
050Jenny you could run it by the board and just say this we met and we're considering a board's corner and we're gonna maybe just focus on four areas and of those areas you know uh you know we're going to talk about the area so we'll say you know what we're hearing uh board happenings um if you want to talk about student achievement if you want to talk about the budget and who gets to vote on the budget and that's great to say hey don't forget to vote on the budget you know you know when you do a timing for for this to go out and and then you talk about how and and tell them how you want to communicate you're going to you you know we're going to say that Paul's going to deal
051with urgencies and we are going to also do press releases on it but I think opting in letting parents know going out to the principal and and the newsletter that you have going out that we weren't on so I think this if you if you give it time and you work out the Kinks and you don't put pressure on yourself you could have something that develops over time and and maybe we can start to buy like when we meet deciding on a topic and just you know depending on who has time that month like drafting a short piece or points that can either sit for that month for when you know Paul has there's like space and the town paper or in his his piece that goes out um Jen if it's I don't know
052this is if Paul is open to it we can also think about like how his um his like weekly or monthly response is structured and maybe it can be structured in a way that like every month it's not a huge lift I mean I agree with you Donna like that we shape ourselves time but at some point can we think about restructuring how his is presented so that like the topics we come up with and like The Talk The the points that we can draft out could just be plugged in um to see if down like long down the road if there would be interest in um like an Amity and I don't know if this already exists um Jen but an Amity newsletter like something like it could be once a year and you
053you know uh some like glossy that goes to I'm laughing because we Jenny knows we cut this out of the budget like three years ago because it was so expensive um we used to do it it was called Amity in action it was an eight eight page glossy we sent it out in the springtime right before the budget um and it was kind of like uh highlights of everything that was awesome about the district um but yeah it was an expensive and when we were trying to reduce our budget we eliminated it okay and and honestly we we tried to replace like we tried to use the videos somewhat to replace that as a little more live action but um and and you know I know that um again um Mr Davis coach Mr Davis
054um will push those out through our social media channels because we hope that they reach a wider audience um but it's still not getting where we want it to go um so yeah it's it's funny you mentioned that though because um yeah we used to do that I support bringing that back honestly it wasn't that much in the context of the greater budget and clearly we've got a situation where people feel that Amity is slipping and aren't hearing the good things that are going on yeah so how much how much was it do you remember um it was like like four years ago it was around like thirty six thousand dollars and that was like an eight page spread and then you had the cost of the mailing um and then we reduced it one
055year to like a four page spread um and then we finally eliminated it all together that's more than I remember I thought it was like nine thousand no it was an expensive publication like and again it was one of those like do you want a para educator or do you want a glossy and you know the town does one as well and so maybe there's something you can we can talk to to the first Selectmen and see what they do and in addition I was just thinking that something like you know when Paul's writing his pieces you can add another part or another section uh in case you missed it so in case you missed it and because not everyone's reading well you know we I miss a lot of stuff sometimes um so and
056you so you could you could do that because no one has hours to watch the board meetings and sometimes you do miss miss things that uh perhaps we write in in the paper and you can just say the highlights from even what Paul has it has put together uh you could say in case you missed it and do a do a few and just and if it's quarterly it's fine I I would be intrigued to investigate how much it would be and it doesn't necessarily have to be glossy because when you start you know those printings can be in in the cards the the cards um stock and it can be but it can just sometimes it can be a simple mailer folded with a penny wafer and you're done so there are there are
057more economical ways to do it and you could investigate that but I would be I would just be curious um other ways to communicate to and and I don't want redundancies that's why I'm asking what the school is doing from from their perspective so I mean I would be very interested to see that newsletter and I know I have a stack of old ones oh no not that the one that's coming out from Mr Davis oh yeah I that's so bizarre that we don't I don't I mean well we'll work on that we'll figure out where it's disappearing to and The Ether so when did it when did it start we started it in September so this is our third edition of the boards I think he calls it the board chair updates or something
058you know very plain and and again you know um like there are columns in the Woodbridge Town news in the orange Town news that's why we have such a strict deadline to this week um where I they do publish however much room they can fit everything in so um like I said I think things get cut off but um uh and then they will they will put it up onto their website too I think the MILF is it orange Milford times or something like that I think that's another one that that we're publishing in but when we press release it out it goes to everybody um including the New Haven Register and we finally just got a reporter back to our area last month and so he picked up the budget um the unexpended funds
059conversation so he's been calling and talking to us and the selectman and everybody um which that's been kind of a a dry area because the register is a little bit of a bigger publication but they um they haven't had a reporter dedicated to our area for quite some time but they I think they seem to have finally gotten somebody back um that's good yeah and you know and then we again we try to use our social media So like um that sat um results uh that was I think in maybe the patch somewhere you know we try to repost things that we see showing up um the science research thing which would have been linked to WTNH we try to use our social media accounts to repost all of that information um which is frustrating
060I follow you I'm interested in these things I never see your stuff I see a billion ads instead well you're missing all the good posts about um spirit week then I have not seen a single one let's Circle back to the collaboration just to ask a question I share sadir's concerns about never getting to collaborate unless we construct a full quorum everyone's time thing because I think that trying to do a drafting with six people is going to be harder than two people working intently on it and then coming back and saying does anyone have concerns would it be legal for us to have the live stream going and have two people working on something if no decisions are made um I will ask attorney Douglas that I I think I think and Carol was
061kind of hinting at this a little bit um I think the purpose that we could use the meeting for is this is what we want to write about these are the major talking points we want to hit and that's part of our discussion and we would like this person to work on it and then that becomes our discussion and possible action when we make that decision I think we're very clear in the meeting what we want those talking points to be how you string those talking points together in English language that people can understand that's the work that could happen behind the scenes um but I think behind the scenes where behind the scenes in the sense that whoever we say okay you're gonna go off and you're going to write something that addresses our
062talking points behind the scenes like is some like it's still one person writing it on their own um and I think your two points of collaboration would be that person either sending it to me or that person sending it to Mr Davis because those two pieces aren't collaboration necessarily but the the board any board any other board members working together on that document would be unless attorney would okay two people getting together to discuss under a live stream yes that would be the only other option I I think and I think that the appropriate channel of editing just because Paul is still has kind of a last word would be to go to me and then I can send it on to Paul because then that way there's not even a train of one board
063member to him or a back and forth per se or eventually if there is it can be him to that board member I think that that keeps us aligned with Freedom of Information Act issues would it be possible to send it to you and then you send it to the committee members that's not possible and so that the committee members send you feedback yes but then I'm the only person who can then edit from that feedback yeah that seems crazy no again I'm just trying to figure out a way but well you transmit to us the feedback no not editing but like you know at least the feedback because it feels like it will be very inefficient if we had to come back all together to see the first time the draft and and I
064have a feedback so if there is a way at least four or five look at it and say hi you can add this or something like that and they it comes to you and you summarize it and send it I I realize that it's a lot of work for you as well as others but I was just thinking is there a way through that I can I can again check and ask um yes maybe I'll find out okay okay sorry sorry I'm curious to hear what the attorneys say because if if the decisions are made during the meeting and it's just a matter of like stringing sentences together to address each of the topics that we decided would be included is that still like that's still a meeting that's still not okay that's why I
065think that if we have something we start out small and it's a quarterly piece but I think that consistency in having one voice instead of having um it looked like it was written by five different people right which is which is very important and for Jenny I love how you write I think that the way you put together some of the board pieces and Polished it was was great you know in in my role I had Communications people in my in my life in my work roles so I was more of the operational Logistics and planning and strategy and we actually have people who wrote before us so it's a consistent voice and the message is is very consistent so I I'm just thinking that perhaps you if okay so here Jim if we go
066off let's say I'm gonna take one piece Carol sit here Jenny who and and Amy and then we come back uh in a public meeting forum and collaborate on that is that totally okay okay that's the that's the way to do it so yeah so it's almost like it's and that's why I said publish it quarterly meet monthly but you could literally say okay these are the topics this these are the talking points this is who's going to do it all right that's meeting one go off right come back that's meeting two kind of review collaborate edit throw it up into the public meeting let everybody sort of say give their feedback to sutir's point you give your feedback then and then in month three sort of that in between you go off you make
067the revisions you come back as a group and you say this is the finished product yes we approve okay that goes up onto the board's website right or gets pushed out goes out to a newsletter people can opt in and you say no and you go through you know and it can even be you know sort of like a save to date be on the lookout for in the in the principles um Communications too yep so so I'm sort of mindful of time but I I think it I think we've actually made a lot of progress in the sense that we have a maybe a little bit more of a vision for what Communications committee could do and I'm thinking um you know Jenny when we get to Communications at the next board meeting you're
068going to be able to say well yes this is runs some of these ideas past the board's attorney um just in terms of you know thoughts on how we can construct things what has to be done in public and what we can do sort of um behind the scenes before we get it to the public forum um yeah I would hope that if it's not if no decisions are made on whether this text is accepted that perhaps it might be possible to get editing feedback to produce a better text yeah I'll about that I still think um you know I I still go back to what we drafted for Paul's press release and just his very short email to me that came through the foi commission which was like yeah sounds like you had an
069illegal meeting so um and we really were like it was like the it's a press release about our board chair it doesn't even have a significant board decision attached to it you know other you know it's not like policy or budget or any of the things that greatly impact us we were just kind of writing Paul's bio and I I and I know he checked with with Tom hennick at foi and was like yeah no um you can't do that but I will not ask again okay thank you thinking about how we can productively move forward I would love to have some of these Community concerns about Excellence at Amity and equity and enrollment addressed before we're in the thick of arguing about the budget I feel like that would help with some of the
070distrust that people have about Amity and what we're doing before we're fighting about numbers and I'm wondering Jen if you just see any potential calendar that makes sense for trying to have those things discussed and then be moving into a budget answers and questions sort of mode um can I say something to that uh is this before uh then so I was thinking like you know to uh Jenny's point about equity and uh inclusion and all these issues uh there was obviously a lot of questions yesterday even in the board about like you know what uh what it is and so on and my feeling was a lot of those questions I think uh where some of it at least was answered in the FAQ that we wrote about Dei in the uh and that
071he actually published and I was hoping that maybe that is a good starting point for the administration to kind of fill out a little bit more about the particular examples that we could do so it still is from that previous draft but like you know kind of adding examples and maybe that wouldn't be a good enough place for at least uh you know for the next board meeting for uh the newer folks like you know Sean and Christina to see uh what was discussed or what what is concrete about the particular thing I I was thinking that that might be a first communication thing where you take already something that is there and the administration fills out a bit more texture uh and to Jenny's point about before moving into the budget stuff maybe let's
072at least get one of these issues done well I think I think we have a little bit of a different Vision right now because we're actually trying to we're following um region 15 14. I'm trying I don't know one of those regionaire other region areas has a is pretty far Advanced along their work of of diversity equity and inclusion so we're using their website as kind of a model for constructing one of our own um it's a little different than just a board corner section but we're trying that's one of the tasks that that our coach is working to build um that's a little bit like would it be available for the next meeting in terms of the timeline so that uh the board members questions can be no probably not I mean that is
073what I'm expecting okay so in the timeline yes yesterday we were talking about and I kept asking what is the timeline and what would satisfy people and everybody seemed to suggest give me some examples give us some examples and so in instead of trying to be so complete uh if we give something to the board members who feel then like you know their questions are being answered and maybe they can ask further questions if they want to but at least it will be a starting point rather than trying to come for this more perfect website and people feeling they're in the dark or for a long time I mean so so we'll have pieces of it ready to roll but um actually yeah I'm sort of slowing it down because I kind of want to
074get the board's core values just in general up there first um before we put down and pull the specific um one around diversity equity and inclusion but um yeah I I guess I I I I I'm still utterly not clear on what information people are seeking so I think if it it may it may be better to start with something that we actually have some clarity around as to what the communication is that people want and what we can provide because I'm still not Michael the anecdote was exactly what people want something concrete and a story that they can say this is what it looks like at Amity yeah I don't think they're looking for Perfection because I don't think it is going to be uh uh part of it is that Sean and Christina
075and if Amy was also not you know involved in the earlier drafting so they don't feel like you know a little bit of the ownership in the process uh so but And even Chris had a bunch of questions and my thought was that if at least we give them some sense that there is some answers to this rather than this mystery that is going to be there for one more month uh I I I think everybody feels a little bit more comfortable that's you know that they have a better understanding and then they can they feel like they can represent uh a little better that's not directly the communications committee's uh job but I I just thought that that like I was thinking that if before I knew about how much this would all not
076be appropriate and illegal or whatever I was thinking that Jenny and I could take a first draft or like you know maybe now Jenny could do this without me but uh take this document and then like you know add a few more examples based on just the conversations we had yesterday in the board and and just add that and say well this is what it is and like you know and and if you have nothing major the objectionable maybe share it with the community as like you know this is the first step uh that uh the board tried to do and maybe this can be the first communication that we can do from the board score so I think that's really important and this isn't the first time I mean I remember um like Chris
077Brown had questions like last last fall about this and we we I remember two examples coming up right like what does this look like I don't know if the same question was asked last night but you know what does this look like in the classroom I think that's one thing where we can even though we're just at the beginning of the um uh curriculum Equity audit like maybe an example from that where we you know um how this will sort of play out when we're done with the with the audit like what's the um end result um what does it look like when we think about like teaching what does it look like in classroom instruction um you know what does it look like if we think about some of our um survey results is
078it you know sort of moving the needle and having you know thinking about a particular data point like some you know change in a particular data point um so like yeah I agree like and and I'd like to add and I think I sent a note this morning to uh then as well but I was thinking that expanding on the ideas of equity that uh we had written earlier I was thinking that it is important to bring special ed into the uh into the issues around equity and inclusion uh I think it actually takes just because it is diversity equity and inclusion doesn't mean it's all about race or something uh you know sexual orientation and so on right it is broader than that and I think we need to and by adding and like
079you know and and iterating over time and like you know making this like screen this is for all of the community right like you know and this is inclusion is really about every member of the community community diversity is in multiple ways like and so on if we can expand a little bit on that and then talk about like you know what I I think we'd already put some of the issues about the curricular Mass examples but we may be building on some of the additional examples that came up yesterday would be good uh I think it'll be really helpful I think it would get the board a little bit more on with us and I think it also gets the community to say oh we just don't know what it is I think we
080need to respond first I think to that so if we want to work on sort of a first area of the corner and if this is the one we want to tackle um if I remember correctly we drafted the statements last spring around the diversity equity and inclusion coach but we never got agreement to send that all out and so while we sent some of our other statements out I don't remember sending that one I don't remember publication no we heard an FAQ on beer around the budget when the budget issues were like we explained what The Amity means and that was what you may have but I think I wrote a much more robust one around the coach and what the work was and everything like that and I don't know and I think
081we didn't have Universal support to send that out and I also so to my point is um if this is something we want one of our committee members to start working on I have at least three foundational documents that I can lend to that person that can get them started because I know I drafted a couple of things um everywhere yeah I don't think we received but I think we did get some feedback right and I my thought was we we need to convert what that might have been written in more administrative speak to something a little bit more targeted to the layperson in terms of understanding and and there is a little bit of that challenge I think you know sometimes we write stuff because you know we wanted to be official and things
082like that and here we can probably translate it into a little bit more uh layperson understanding kind of a thing right like so that's that that's the transition we might need but having your foundational document would be very helpful because at least what we are writing is going to be consistent with what we are uh going to say and then to some extent I think you know it is an interpretation from the board or our understanding of what it is or our uh this thing the administration probably has done a little bit more flexibility in actual implementation thank you if no one else wants to jump on that oh my God I was happy to do it but only one of us can do it so hard you'll get it what'd you say Carol I
083said that's so hard that it's just I'm not but it's awful it's awful collaboration think of it this way Jenny so I can send information to Dr Turner she can draft something we'll come back at our next meeting we can all read I can send it out ahead of time so you get a chance to review it so we can review it we can discuss it we can collaborate we can give feedback then out of that she can revise and then she can send to Paul who can add additional feedback so it's not it's collaborative it's just not synchronous it's not synchronous collaboration and it's not iterative you can't yeah I think we're gonna have to live with that for right now but it's more than what we've had right you know what um Jenny
084what about something that that Carol mentioned and also you know to to to talk about it but then to also I think people really what resonates with people is how it applies and how they can see it applied in the classroom so just the example that you missed carol which that was given last night really helped some board members understand how booking at curriculum or instruction through multiple lenses really helps and I maybe that would help too so not just you know taking the piece the pieces that uh Jen has drafted in the past that we didn't get um unanimous buy-in on but then also the peace around the budget that sit here was talking about but then applying it so not just talking about it but how it actually applies and works in the
085classroom yeah I think that and again I think that's still relatively new right because you've only had this person in place for like two months so that may be something that is partially speculative but partially that we can use good examples but again that's type of that those are the types of questions that doc that one of you whoever drafts it in this case Dr Turner can direct to me because that type of communication is totally hey okay that's legal so the way I think about it is speculative is fine because we voted on some values and when we voted on our values this is our way of the board saying this is what we thought about I mean we don't I think exactly the administration for that but like I think you know this
086is how we thought about as a board when we were voting on these values so it helps us amplify it in some kind of an interesting way yeah in a way that I think is tangible for people I have a question about my running out to look at this I feel like it's troubling to have a school board member go asking for examples from your staff is it possible for you you would direct that through me and then I would either put you in direct contact with them or act as the middleman in a telephone chain and that's what we'll do for just about everything because a lot of what you're going to want to communicate is not necessarily something that I have direct touch and feel on but it would require me to to
087reach out to them and and is there anything [Music] does it have to be an example that like we plan to do like the teachers at Amity plan to do to actually do I mean we're we're just at the beginning is it is it um wrong or sort of insufficient to say this is an example this this is something that we may also decide to do but this is what it looks like not necessarily saying oh yeah this is something we are definitely going to do because the way that we will sort of act upon like the vision and Mission all around us right maybe different and and sort of more targeted to to us right so to give us I don't know I think we may have enough ideas of things we've already started
088okay um that we might be able to draw on those so it may not be an extensive list but it may be a couple of examples okay so by the way sorry go for it Jen sorry I hate to do it and bring up something else because I know that we're way over time but I wanted to ask in our initial process we talked about Communications committee being assigned members at this point made Donna and Carol Amy I very much hope you'll join specifically because Orange right so dear is not sure he has time for this but we talked about a process where any board member could draft something and bring it to the committee so whether or not sudir is officially on it he could draft things right and bring to committee yes are
089there other topics that any of you would want to do some work on in the coming months so that it's not only one topic being moved at a three-month pace work on the Surplus uh as I say on Sprint funds uh thing because I think that is also uh Dennis put me in touch with some of the folks in special ed and we kind of highlighted that there were these three components that are a big part of why we have benefits that have spent funds and like you know getting people to reframe how Amity is quite tight in the way it does its budget uh for most things exploding these three areas and why these three areas are difficult to budget and maybe we need to do a better job even in some of these
090areas but uh clarifying to people like you know that this idea of like uh these percentages and like you know the way you interpret it uh needs to be thought through in a slightly different way and uh so I've been putting in some time on thinking through it and uh I'll hopefully I'll be able to produce something that is useful and Jenny I I I'd be happy to to like draft something um highlighting the good things that are that are happening um and and and trying to sort of respond to the um all the comments about a sort of slipping academically um so marvelous so then we just draft what we can in conversation with Jen and try to get it out enough ahead of the board meeting so that we have time to read
091them before the big billboard meeting Rush and you know and I I and I and again I don't want to believe it I did hear Donna's um sort of comment like we want to have full board buy-in to this concept um that allows Mr Davis to publish on behalf of the board as long as we had his let me see if I can there as long as we had his approval I don't think we need to run every single board Corner article in front of the entire board it because again if if Mr Davis is the spokesperson for the board and he looks at it and approves it um then I don't know that we have to literally get every thing that we publish approved by the board before it goes out there or it'll
092be just like policy committee where we get nothing done um so I I think um you know I I think that that will I and again I'll double check but I think that that will help us kind of move the communication even though it's at a slow pace quarterly it's faster than once a year yeah yeah and that's I I think the broad representation on the communications committee is important that's that I agree yeah right so that that that is um I'm not saying I want to slow it down in any way I just want to make sure that whatever is being written has the full support and so more of of making sure that and we can talk about it in open meeting of what is the way something's being communicated that it's it's
093accurate it's factual and everyone is is an agreement I you know I wonder if I I agree with that Donna but I I want I I don't think everyone will be and I think I think that I mean I maybe nice if they were pessimist here but um I think if if everyone is aware of if the entire board is aware of like the topics that we're we're addressing um you know at least they they know that like there's a subcommittee that's working with the chair to to write you know to write these pieces I don't know if we're gonna I don't know if everyone will um so we can't write something that even all of our board members agree I think this communication would be a failure because if our board members go and
094say I don't agree with what was written there I think it would be a huge problem right because it would fail in terms of persuading the public so I think we should make every effort to write in a way that is I think gets buy-in and I feel reasonably optimistic that we would be able to pull that off I think uh so but in any case my concern is that if the board members are seen as divided and like you know go to the public and say that we don't agree with that statement I think the whole purpose is lost oh I agree that that's yeah and again we can always and I think that's a nice idea Carol if we say these are the topics for writing about remember you can always email the
095board of the communications committee chair with aspects of that topic that you hope the communication would address and then that's the way you Channel back where people's concerns might be and and then Jenny can take that information and whoever is in charge of writing it can say Carol people are really concerned about making sure that we get this point across and and and so I think there's a way to get feedback pre-feedback that will allow you to draft something that reflects everyone is yes yeah concerns Yep they're not concerned enough to write it is less concerning a concern right yes like on policy committing the last time you went through I read Carol's concerns I thought I think Carol's done a good job I'm pretty busy I'm not going to go through because since I
096agree with Carol I'm not going to go through and like pick at every little word she said and see if I have any difference with her my concerns were not big enough to bring to the policy chair and I feel like if it's a not big enough concern for someone to bring to the communications committee it's probably not a big deal yep okay another another just one other question is about um so as this takes off you might get had a situation where you have you have public comment and public feedback is that something we want to consider just push it off till later when we have this up and running to maybe think about it I I think let public comment and public feedback be addressed by Mr Davis because he responds literally this
097week fair enough so like so like we are he like if not that we had any public comment or feedback to respond to although we might we might say the board adopted its core values um which include you know but again he like the one around the library books he responded that week in his newsletter and said policy yeah so I mean he I think I think that's I think that is a perfect place to leave it and then you guys don't have to worry about that instantaneous thing he will manage that okay okay perfect so I think if we wanted to put a motion on the table officially um I think you might want to say that we would like to um direct um the superintendent to create a process for a board corner
098on the website and um that we are designating Dr Turner as a point person for the first article around diversity equity and inclusion oh yay I really want I don't know an alarming thing to be called person drafting so how about the First Communication how about the First Communication committee's topic will be around diversity equity and inclusion that's more appropriate okay do we want to say we'll also work on unspent funds and achievement at Amity or okay so the motion is to direct the superintendent to create a board of education website corner with the first three topics being Dei um the unexpended funds and academic achievement or maybe just plain achievement I was thinking about all of the things that people do at the school that don't get as much attention to say the really
099cool theater and music programs okay okay all right so calling the role I would need let's see uh Dr oladelli yes uh Miss Schuster yes and Dr Turner yes okay all right despite the lack of like actual product I think you made a lot of progress which is actually very exciting online Concepts um Dr oladelli I think if you need data around um academic achievement ask me what you want um and I should be able to pull something but at the same time if you want to like I said scroll through the videos and if you like there's so many cool things that happen at our school that we're capturing I think in those video clips that you can start to craft something and then anything else you need I can I can direct um
100and then um Dr Sue here um I I know I saw some of your information from Mr Brandt I think we'll have to probably talk about a nice balance that we can achieve but then obviously Miss Loomis will probably be a good point person for some of your questions that you have yeah so one thing uh to mention like you know I think it communicated a little bit of around the Dei for Jenny but meaning I communicated with you about some questions around Bei that might be useful also for Jenny I think around the school climate numbers I you know we talked a little bit about that data being communicated in terms of percentages as opposed to these raw metrics which nobody can understand or interpret so Mr John Bauer and I are working on
101that um and I think and I'll probably send something that he and I have drafted it's not complete but I'll send that to the board at some point this week and then we'll be able to look and see what we want to communicate out from that it's probably what I'm giving you is more like how we use the data but I think how we use the data could then be translated into sharing out to the the public yes I I I really do think in terms of studying about percentage of people satisfied or dissatisfied uh communicates the idea so much better than I I my gut from seeing that data is that when translated into percentages it will communicate a much clearer story of the issues that we are dealing with so I just hope
102that we can get it in that format and that would be helpful for I think they need to write yeah yes in terms of the not holding an illegal meeting thing I do not have the data background to do that work s with the school climate is going to take us months so it's it's there's so much in there buried in there and so much more we have to request from Dr LaSalle so it's it's not going to be a quick turnaround what I have put together which again is really more for the board to understand how we use it um is just some surface level things okay all right has anyone had it just um under uh another area the I'm sorry if my dog is sparking I think someone's coming home um the
103in case you missed it which would just be a brief summary of uh the chairs um and maybe maybe that's something that's already being done after we look at the the newsletter that Mr Davis is putting together for Mr Davis yeah I I I think that will be one of my tasks going out is making sure that I can get to the board all of that those newsletters that have been published okay and then and then I think maybe our next meeting we can talk about how we use it okay all right does anyone have anything further they want to bring up nothing for me all right do we have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion thanks I will not call the roll but by show of hands I will accept that the
104motion is there we go past I would think that in future when we're not setting up the whole thing the meeting should go more quickly I'll talk to you at the next great thank you Amy we'll probably have time yeah well I hope we see you we need you laughs