001Good evening everybody. Welcome to our meeting this evening, May 18th. We're getting closer and closer. Hard to believe. Justin, can you please call attendance? Where is Justin? Oh, hi. I don't know. She keeps moving. >> Yeah, >> I'm not used to that. >> I'm the mediator here between these two. >> Joe Abdulla. Victoria Salon here. >> Stephanie Colnik, Jesse Leeman, >> Angela Machulo >> here, >> Alex Mcnauten here, >> Justin Angley here, Jen Pod >> here, >> Jane Sergeant, Pete Tagley, Mary Weber, and Christine Widig. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to public comment on agenda items only. Is there anybody here that would like to make a comment? Step up to the podium. No one. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Did everybody take a look at the consent agenda, Alex?
002>> After missing police the last >> Oh, no. >> I really gave it up. >> I bet you did. >> I found nothing wrong. >> Oh, good. Anybody else? No. Good. But I'm glad. I was a little surprised too, Alex. I'm not going to lie. It's okay. Okay, so moving on. Since there is no changes, uh the presentation for Spark, we have um Paula. Yes. And Abby, I'm sorry, Emma. Sorry, Emma. Sorry, Emma. I am Paula Conway for those who don't know me. Um, president of Spark, which is our prevention council. Came here a few months ago. I think Mike Croft was with me um to get permission to uh conduct the developmental relationship survey um for our students. Um and so now we're here to present the results. Um this is Emma Hollis. She's
003with our Connecticut, Western Connecticut coalition and she's going to talk about that for a second. >> Great. Thank you. Um, you can advance the slides. Thank you. Um, so just a reminder for those of you that don't know me or the regional behavioral health action organization, which I assume many of you don't. Um, I'm Emma Johnson Hollis. Um, a mom here for a couple students of SHP. Um, and I'm also uh one of the behavioral health directors of Western Connecticut Coalition. This is our um this is our mission and we also really work hard to promote wellness through behavioral um change in our communities. So I have the privilege um working here in the community that I live. And just a reminder really quickly um we got this survey approved right before COVID right uh
004and then we got the first iteration of the survey two years ago. So that was our baseline and now we're moving into our um second iteration of this data. So we're very excited to keep moving with it. Um as I mentioned uh we are formally uh the prevention council of Bridgewater Rock Washington. Our mission is to promote self- advocacy, resilience, and connection in order to improve mental health, reduce substance misuse, and enhance the quality of lives of um of those who live and learn and work in our towns. So Emma's gonna Emma's a master at the data. So she's going to explain the survey a little bit more in more detail and and go over the results of the survey. >> Okay. Thanks. Um for those of you that are not survey people, just bear
005with me. Um so really again, we started at a baseline in 2024. We're here reviewing uh what has changed, what hasn't changed, and what do we hope will change. Um we use the search institutees developmental relationships instrument. Uh we'll find out a little bit more about that in the next slide. I'm going to be very transparent with everybody. It's a little jargony, so um just bear with me and we'll talk about it in in plain terms as much as possible. Um, and really what's most important here is um, we're we're taking a look at developmental relationships. And they're defined as close connections through which young people discover who they are, build agency, and learn how to engage and contribute to the world around them. Um, and the truth is we know that relationships are really
006the basis of forming us as people. Um, and they have long-term thriving health indicators down the road. Oh, and one last thing and this is this is not this was just advantageous. We did add a new uh component called the sparks um which I thought was really interesting. Um so we'll talk about it a little more. It's more interest uh it's more um geared to what individuals in the school are interested in. So here's a quick snapshot. Um I will not bore you with this but here are the five key elements of the developmental relationship survey. Um they explore a lot of different facets and really what it comes down to is um through through this instrument the five uh key elements are really the recipe for success and successful relationships for our young people's
007lives and truthfully everybody's lives. Okay. So, let let's take a look. What's it look like? Go ahead. Um, okay. So, we are scoring really high on SEAL. Um, this was not a surprise to me as a parent of some students here. Uh, and it is not dissimilar to what we had last time. What's really important here is the fact that we have moved the margins from moderate to strong um self-identity in social emotional learning. Um so we really like that. With it being said, these are teenagers, so they're self-reporting. Um and they do have elements within the report that share, hey, there are still areas that we want to work on. and we want to grow um through our tenure here and this is all through Cassell's um social emotional learning competencies. Um to no
008surprise to anybody, the the next largest takeaway was the challenge growth. Um so here are some snippets uh what what what does it mean to challenge growth here at Shap? Um, our educators expect us to live up to our full potential, right? Uh, they push us to go farther. They take they insist that we take responsibility for our actions and help us learn from our mistakes. Um, when I think about Shapog, this is, you know, the caliber of work that I experience with my young children. Uh, well, my middle school and high school children, not so young. Um, but as a culture, I see this as well. Um, so it's really nice to see that reflected in the data. Here's some highlights uh through changes. So like I said before, social emotional competencies while they
009are high, they've actually improved since the last iteration of this report. Um, and so did our students identification of strong developmental relationships. So and and you will have this data um available to you after this meeting. What we see is this shift between moderate uh where where the overwhelming majority of students identified moderate developmental relationships. We had a pretty decent increase to strong um and that conversely the moderate section shrunk. So that's exactly what we want to see. Do you want to take over? Um so this um I believe was also similar to um uh the survey from two years ago um in terms of an area of focus. It's continued to expand possibilities um for our students. Um so ways inspire me to see possibilities, expose me to new ideas, introduce me to people
010who can help me grow. Um so it went it improved from the last time, but it's still an area that we can do more on. And so it kind of ties into our greatest area of concern which is that 19% of students report experience of bias um and or discrimination from peers and or adults. So again like that number's down which is good but there's still room for improvement. And I think the last time we came here, you know, we talked about, you know, when you look at our population, it's pretty homogeneous, right? And um as as a student who may not be white, may not be straight, um may come from, you know, a two household family, um we just have to be mindful of those those minority students. um making sure that we
011are bringing in different voices and we are giving students different experiences. Um because our world and our children here are kind of in a little bubble which is great in a lot of ways. Um but the world is so much bigger and we want to make sure that they can experience some of that um and know that there's more out there than what's here in this little building. Uh full transparency, this slide is not very lovely to look at, but it is really just those four core measures of substance misuse within our student population. Um really what the saying is what this is saying is that most of our students don't use drugs. Um our alcohol use total sample from last time has nearly halfed. Um which is good stuff. Uh the caveat is always
012this this is a very small uh sample size. So halfing um that number can be very easy. Uh with that being said, what we are seeing is a downward trend in substance misuse across the board. Um, and then those that have stayed the same, cannabis has generally stayed the same. Um, and believe it or not, I think vaping has increased slightly. So, uh this was the new measure that we we um added which is sparks and um it measures you know what interests and values um our students have and I think especially since an area of weakness was um expanding opportunities possibilities. Well, what do our students want to what are they interested? What do they want to learn more about? So, um, 66% of our student population reported sports and being physically active was
013important to them. Um, 57% reported nature and being outdoors. 39% creative activities. And then you could read on. Um, and I think when you think about that, that kind of reflects what our student population is, right? Like we have a pretty strong sports program. We have the aggra science program now um which you know uh for our nature and outdoors students um and then our drama and music is important to a lot of students as well. So this kind of just confirms I think what we already know about a lot of our students. So based on those things like our recommendations would be to create stu student focus groups. How can we um tap into those sparks and and tap in bring those into everyday learning? Um how can we strengthen peer culture, belonging and
014response when someone um experience experiences bias or de discrimination? Um and then lastly, generating opportunities for students. Um the other thing I would add is I would also love to see um the administration uh you know check into our teachers sparks um because I think that a lot of time is missed and I think when you have a teacher who is motivated um you know with something that's important to them that translates into the classroom. So I think um you know finding what people are passionate about and and then bringing that into the classroom. And so a couple examples that I've just seen recently um and I see Maryanne Maher over there. Um and you know one of her classes and I don't know which I know I think it's an AP class like she
015does um a lot of the you know going down to the elementary school kids doing some creative things with that and it's all math related. Um but that's a really cool way it's a real life experience. um versus like you know what I remember a lot of math sitting behind a desk with a calculator. Um you know obviously our AG program we're really fortunate to have that where kids constantly are getting hands-on experiences. Um the steep rock project in sixth grade I think is wonderful. So activities like that that we can again generate some passion um in our students and our teachers. And I think the ask also for our our teachers would be like what do you need? What resources do you need to help you do this? What are your big um asks?
016what would you love to do with your class that you feel constrained that whether it's financially, you know, whatever that you haven't been able to do that you would like to do. So, I think those are things that we would love to see um the administration and board, you know, encourage our um our teachers to do and students. And I will I'm going to end on this. Uh we we're going to end on this. Um outside of the recommendations that SparkCC would like to see embraced. Um uh as Western Connecticut Coalition in partnership with Spark um we also recommend engaging in hope healthy outcomes from positive experiences. Uh it is a training through Tufts Medical and it really gets into how do we intentionally shape the experiences our young people are having um to really
017promote those long-term health benefits. Um and when I say health, it's not just physical, right? That's emotional, that's spiritual, um that's workplace health, um financial health and the like. So, this is uh this is an incredibly potent program that kind of flips the script on adverse childhood experiences and um helps us create a framework where we get into positive childhood experiences and and how that really benefits benefits our entire community. >> Yeah, thank you so much. um this has been really um helpful and I'm glad that you guys came back to sort of tie at the end what you um shared with us at the beginning of the year just to tie in a little bit Paula about what you were talking about with asking the teachers maybe a little can you just I don't
018mean to put you on the spot but just some examples of maybe or just of maybe what other schools have done just to give a picture or a vision of what just so it helps me to see what you're thinking. >> So, I hope my husband doesn't get mad at me, but I'm going to bring him up as an example. >> Yeah. >> Um >> he would love to bring some of his kids to see Brock as a physical activity. Deeprock. >> Deeprock. >> As a physical activ, you know, for different physical activities and um it's hard to get transportation and we all know how expensive transportation is. Got it. >> So, that's a that's a road that's a right like I can't do this because of this funding. >> Yeah. >> Um so things
019like that I think that we have just within the state of Connecticut there's a lot of great museums that are actually for free. Um a lot of different activities that are inexpensive but transportation many times is a block to that. Um and then the same thing for like our elementary schools. You know enrichment is again like bringing things in which I think Shapag has done a good job at bringing different speakers in and all that kind of stuff. Could we do more? I think always. >> Um, but it usually it's a cost thing, right? So, um, so that's where >> I would love to see at some point, you know, again with maybe it's every department like, hey, do we have like is there like a big ask that we have not not you know
020in terms of programming like this is what we would love to do. >> Yeah. Um, and maybe it's like a the world's, you know, no limit and then maybe something that's moderate and like can we incorporate any of this into our our our classrooms. Yeah. >> Maybe it's collaborating with other departments, you know, um, that kind of stuff. >> Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you. Can I say um and that does resonate with us Paula and happy to tell you mostly pushing on an open door because we're trying to move in that direction and we've had a multi-year project that will continue into next year called leaders of their own learning with a fellow named Ron Burgerer. Emily, you're shaking your head. And um he operates on the principle simple but powerful that engagement
021is somehow about tied to choice and control. and when people have some choice in what they're studying and they can do it in a way that's projectbased and applicable beyond the walls of the school that you get more inspiration and passion which so we we have a lot more to do but we do buy into that philosophy and then I had a question if I could the slide you had about um teen use of controlled substances it's really interesting because we know it's a problem but the percentages self-reported are relatively low there happily and I remember a marketing campaign it's old it's probably 10 or 15 years old now. Although for all I know, you two invent created it. But there were these posters that you put around school because I think what kids are
022buffeted by the idea that it's peer pressure that controls them and they have to do this if they want to be cool or in the in crowd. And these posters said, um, oh, I I guess I have to do these things because everybody else is doing them and I won't be cool if I don't. And then at the bottom it said, probably not. And then it gave the statistics like you just gave about how prevalent or not it really is. I wonder if that's there's so much we could do with what you presented. But that one just hooked me because I think about that a lot whether we can say to kids guess what here's what we're seeing in terms of what's happening and the number is low for a good reason because it's not
023healthy. Emma's always good at whenever we look at the data and always saying uh more kids than not are are are not doing drugs right or or drinking or whatever and it's going to the peer pressure when you talk to a child it's most of your friends are not doing this you know so I think it's that reverse I don't know reverse peer pre pressure or what it's called but um I think stressing that that it's actually it's not everyone is doing it it may feel like that but it's really not It's it's the majority of of your classmates are not using using drugs or not, you know, drinking alcohol. So, >> and when we if you do end up looking back in the data, it says a part of that priority ranking matrix includes
024do your peers disapprove of you >> using alcohol or vaping? Um and resoundingly across the board it is generally yes to some degree we do see it you know developmentally it makes sense for going towards 12th grade um some of that shifts but when we take a look at the self-reported uh percentage of use which um is cleaned and the the the bogus uh surveys are taken out uh so it's pretty accurate and then the gap of that perception That's where the change happens >> because we we especially as adults cannot keep saying things like, "Oh, they're all vaping." Well, the truth is they're not. Um, you know, so normalizing those conversations is really important. Thank you. Um, Don, you just made me think about this, but and I'm assuming this probably happens in focus
025groups with kids if we can get there, but by and large to everybody, do the rep the finding the reports of the findings get like shown to the kids like do they sit down and they get to figure out what happened in the survey that they took? Um we that is definitely a big ask for us is to be able to intentionally and age appropriately um use the data to kind of springboard a further conversation with um with our students so that they can take a look at well what does the data say? What do I experience? Can we triangulate that and kind of be a part of that advocacy for leadership? >> Yeah. I just think that even that one slide where you showed that certain percentage of kids who feel bias like if
026you're kind of reporting that on your own that may feel a certain way to you either really big or really small and I just I think as a student I'd be interested to know what the other students are reporting and seeing or it might be enlightening to go I didn't know there was any bias and oh my gosh 19% of the kids think that. Um was there any were there any more specifics on that like bias in relation to any particular type of >> Yeah. So when you when you um get down into the actual data um it it talks a lot about demographics um in terms of what type of discrimination is happening uh through that person's experience and then also where that discrimination is coming from. Um, so there again there there is
027a lot more to that. Uh, we like to be very intentional with how we share sensitive data like this. Um, as I'm sure everybody on the board understands. Um, so sitting down, I think in in more intimate settings and kind of parsing through that and and sitting in that tension is going to be really important for strategic long-term planning. H well, I really hope that you're able to be able to sh find ways to share that information with the students. So, we certainly encourage um that to happen. >> Yeah, let's be in touch on that and make sure that we partner, which you've always been a wonderful partner, both of you. So, I want to make sure that I'm equally wonderful. >> I can't be as wonderful as you two, but >> we debriefed quick
028last week with Mike and Sylvia. So, and they great they're on board with that. That would be wonderful. >> You know, over the summer, we're going to take some time and organize and and all that kind of stuff. And hopefully in the fall we can um we'll have a plan for the fall. >> Okay. >> I have a a couple of questions and apologies I came in late. So, if you already covered it, I will catch up with my colleagues. So, just tell me you already covered it. So, two things. One, uh do we have any thoughts on how we could get the sample size up? because obviously as you acknowledged it's sort of hard to really understand what that data is telling us when it's so limited. But then the second question I have
029is it seems like it's a trend now that young people are drinking less. They're not taking legal drugs as much as maybe some of the prior generations did. But some of the underlying issues are still the same, right? So self-esteem or lack thereof and a different kind of peer pressure. So this whole looks maxing thing or peptides and all of these other non-FDA regulated things that are really taking off because there are underlying insecurities there or you know just this focus on some sort of enhanced performance. And so I'm curious if you're starting to tailor questions that are really uh or if there's a way because I think last time you did the presentation I asked a question and it seemed like a lot of these were sort of stock questions. You didn't have a
030lot of flexibility in how you answered uh ask them. But I do think that you know even if it's feedback for I forget the organization that um sort of puts the survey together but maybe we need to start asking some different questions to get at those underlying issues. So I I think in regards to the sample I think uh we're just a small school. I think for the I I forget the exact number but I think most of the students did participate. So it just is we're a small school. So if if it does drop by half it could have been 10 and then it's five. So like do you know what I mean? So um compared to like a new Milford or Danberry or you know they have h you know 10 times as
031many kids as we do. So, so their their ability to uh decrease in percentage is going to be a lot harder just because their sample size is bigger. Um, and then in regards to those other things, um, yeah, I mean, I think it's a constant and and Emma can answer this better than I can, but like a constant like catchup game. um you know because even in terms of like the different drugs and things that are out there, the Zen, the the little pouches are are becoming more popular and um that wasn't, you know, something that's on there, but it's it's easy to conceal. Um but really high like nicotine content, very addictive um but that's not on the survey yet. So it it's I think everyone it's a constant like catch up catching up
032game. Um, I think ultimately like with our organization, um, regardless of what the addiction is, whether it's a drug, alcohol, whether it's gambling, whether it is a social media addiction, ultimately addressing the mental health aspect of a person is what is going to help with uh, addiction in general, right? So, um, and connection is a huge component to that. Um, so that's where I think that all ties in with the sparks and, um, and community and all that kind of stuff. If you have anything else to add and and we would love to collect some more data through qualitative and quantitative approaches, right? So, this is numbers, but um we're not going to get that information um about what's happening until we get some focus groups, you know, on on the schedule. Um so, yes,
033it all matters and the roads all lead to the solution is in, you know, our community and in our relationships with each other. question. Um, with regards to do we have like a schedule set of how many times like the current funding is going to last to do more surveys or do we have like you know a fiveyear or whatever roll out at this stage now we've done it how many times twice so we can start to build a benchmark to continue to go forward. What's >> Yeah. >> Do you need additional funding for that? Like how long is that currently going to last? Well, so we get so we our funding our funding comes we get a large chunk from you know the Western Connecticut Coalition. Um we have an opioid grant which I
034don't know how long long that lasts for but um yeah well so so I'm I'm giggling because um a part of my role is the funding. Um so a as right as of right now the way that the funding is set um is our three towns in every single town in the state of Connecticut where regardless of where you live um receives a certain amount of funding um to do work with prevention. So long as nothing changes federally um that that funding will continue. Um that being said, we we are pretty well verssed in diversifying um to make sure that what we're doing here strategically continues regardless of the funding source. >> And I think um when we did the survey two years ago and then this time I we think every two years is
035a good amount. It gives time for you and us to implement strategies on improving these things. Um, so our goal is in two years to come back here and and do this again. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. Thank you so much. Any else has any questions? >> Great. Okay. Strategic plan teaching learning council Carrie Snowden and staff Hello everybody. Good evening. Um I'm here tonight to give you our end ofear update uh on behalf of the teaching and learning council. Um this is a group that I am very proud to work with. Um Ben, can you go to the next slide? You'll see all the members of the group. You can see that we have membership uh teachers and administrators from across the district at every level and in most of our content areas who
036come together about twice a month, sometimes in person, sometimes on Zoom and have taken on several of the goal areas of the strategic plan es especially within powerful learning and also innovation and delivering value and they are making it happen um with teacher voice through collaboration. Um being really thoughtful, trying things out, getting feedback and trying something different. Um they have done great, great great things in the very short amount of time that we've been together. This is our second year. Almost all the members are exactly the same for the second year. and I uh value their work so much and really appreciate that they give this time to some really important goals to really help our district move forward. Several of them are here tonight. And so on the next few slides, actually Ben,
037one more slide for me. Just want to remind people these are the four goal areas of our strategic plan. And we really in this with this council zoom in on the first one and the last one. So you'll see that on the next few slides, but I asked them to come here tonight so that they could give you an update on the work that they've been doing this year and what next steps might be. So I think we're going to start with subcommittee number one. We have four subcommittees. Um, and Emily Jud is representing that subcommittee. So go ahead, Ben, you can go to that next slide. Great. I think you guys have two slides. >> Yes, thank you Carrie. So good evening. So um my membership on the committee would be Mike Croft, Linda
038McMillan and uh Monica Bham and myself. So we were charged with commitment one and commitment three under the priority powerful learning. So um the commitment one was to establish a deep understanding of teaching and learning committed to engaging students promoting personalized learning and supporting high academic achievement. And the deliverable was to create a collegial learning walk to share and support best practices and classroom innovation. So this year we were able to develop a district-wide protocol for collegial learning walks. We've established a purpose for the learning walks which is primarily to grow a culture of uh collaboration around teaching and learning um and also to integrate the best practices um from Ron Berger of um a leaders of their own learning and some other things that were identified on the survey that uh teachers took for
039teaching and learning in 2025. We established a structure and expectations for the learning walk. Um we um identified methods for information gathering as uh colleagues are doing the learning walk and guidelines for the collaborative discussion following the learning walk. We took the learning walk and we shared it with the leadership team and we gained input from the team. We made some adjustments. Um, and then we also obtained the commitment from the leadership team to implement this learning protocol in 2026 27 throughout the district. Um, the next slide will show commitment three and commitment three um really honed in on using student performance data to make informed decisions and modifications regarding instruction. And here the deliverable was to create a framework um for mutually agreeable tier one instructional strategies by grade level. And so here what
040we did and this is preliminary. We started to identify and create a sort of teaching and learning uh handbook. Um so we were able to come up with um some uh ideas for the table of contents and you can see some of these things here. Um, and I think honing in on looking at the curriculum and instruction, uh, leaders of their own learning, which would highlight Ron Burgerer, and also instruction in English, language arts, math, science, and talking about methodologies there, and then honing in on project-based learning, which is one of those ideas that were highlighted in the survey 2025 that we did, and so forth. And so our next steps we're hoping to do is import information and actually develop the content. So that's our goal for next year. Okay. Um any questions or
041comments? >> Uh Emily, I have a question. So when you say import information, is it just taking the actual student data and matching it against this TOC? Um it could be but I think like say for example vision of a learner like that information is already accessible in the district we want to take that information and now put it in this handbook. Got it. So that's kind of importing things that things that we already have knowledge and information about and then obviously researching and sharing up areas that that we don't. >> Okay. So this is the outline. You're going to take all of the content you already have and then fill in the gaps. >> Exactly. And then add to it. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Right. Great. Thank you so
042much. Thanks, >> Carrie. I think we're envisioning that this kind of guide book would be invaluable to a new teacher coming into our district, but then also help all of us be on the same page about expectations around um instruction and resources. All right, we're going to move on to subcommittee number two, who um focused in on vision of a learner, and we have Mark Peters and Kate Eddie here to talk about their work. Good evening everyone. Also on uh subcommittee number two are uh Don Shell Sylvia Sylvia Olette, Beth Hosking from the elementary school Washington Primary and Logan Msina who is in our middle school. He teaches one high school class but he's kind of our middle school representative on the committee. So this year uh our committee is focused on developing a vision
043uh the vision of a learner. Um and this is districtwide. Obviously it starts with kindergarten and goes all the way through 12th grade. Um last year we worked on developing what we are calling the learner competency categories and by the end of the year we had four and this year we clarified we started the year by clarifying and refining those and de also adding a fifth. Um so the four that we had at the end of the year last year were engages in creative processes, acts with courage and character, solves problems ethically and communicates with reason and empathy. And uh at the high school level about 15 years ago, the last time that we were preparing for NIASK, we developed the guiding principles and uh our core values and and common >> core values core
044values and guiding beliefs. And these four are really kind of similar to those except they actually expanded a little bit more. So we had um engage in the creative process which we still have now. Acts with courage and character I think is kind of a building on and developing more the idea of answering a call to citizenship. Uh solves problems ethically. We had solves problems and we've added the ethically. Uh and communicates with reason and empathy is comparable to defending conclusions conclusions and judgments. Um and then uh it was decided that we should add a fifth one that is develops positive relationships with self and others. So the next step was to develop some kind of rubric for measuring these competencies. And so the first thing that we did was we analyzed neighboring comparable districts
045rubrics in order to see how they how they laid it out, how they organized the rubric and even defined those competencies that they had and many of which are very similar to ours. Um, and then we created a collaborative template for staff to contribute words and phrases that would define each competency so that we could have everyone's input, which we felt was particularly important since this is districtwide and we wanted to hear from the primary teachers and of course, you know, all the way up because, you know, in order to to capture every student's um level of development, >> we've facilitated a professional development session in which all region 12 faculty and staff um were able to provide input describing learner behaviors for each of these CAT competencies and we've been reviewing the faculty and
046staff feedback. Um, and we're working now on um consolidating it into a rubric which uh several of us are going to be trying to refine over the summer so that we start the beginning of the year with something to offer to the faculty and staff again for them to put kind of a final say on. >> And then we've also been having uh Linda McMillan's graphic design class work on a graphic. This is just kind of u holding a placeholder for us here right now. Um we wanted this to be something that comes from the students themselves. Um and so that's part of our goal next year is that we'll have a finalized graphic. We'll have our grade level band rubrics for each of these competencies and uh we hope to on the November professional
047professional development day um start to have faculty and staff work on how they will present this to students and align assessments in their classrooms with the um meeting the competencies. >> Thank you. Sorry. Any questions? >> Questions? >> No. >> I love the idea of having the students participate by have making the graphic. I think that that's really wonderful. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you so much. >> Just want to say that you may have heard this referred to as a portrait of a graduate. In other places there, that's another term. We specifically chose vision of a learner because we want to focus on developing learners, lifelong learners that that go from preschool all the way through 12th grade. So that was a specific word choice on our part. >> I also
048want to just say that I appreciate that they're going to be working on this over the summer. Yeah. >> So, thank you. >> Yep. >> Um it's a big job. They got a lot of input on that PD day and sifting through it and trying to really synthesize it is is a big job. >> Go ahead. So I know this is part of our like NASCA accreditation that we have to do every now and again like it was used to be portrait of a graduate now vision of a learner and I this and and I love how the staff gets involved in this because it really is kind of our ownership of how we want to kind of disseminate information to kids and how they participate in it. But on the flip side, how do
049kids participate in knowing that these are kind of their core competencies that they're working on? And I and I I know we talk about it in the classrooms and it used to be on posters kind of up in the library and elsewhere. Um but I'd love to see how the kids engage in it. I mean it's great to have them involved in like the design of the logo, but how they see themselves participating in each one of those core competencies and then how we also communicate that to parents and letting them know from even an elementary school level because those seem pretty highlevel competencies. How do we distill that down and simplify it for an elementary age kid and say this is really what we're building and it starts at a young age and this
050is kind of that red line that we see through. Um I think you just described exactly what we're working on next year that's getting embedding some of this into the curriculum. Where does it already exist? Where are we already developing these skills and dispositions? Where are students already having opportunities to display these skills and dispositions? And then where do we need to add more? >> And not just like at this at the high level, but even not birds level view, but how kids can really like use those as touchstones as well. When I'm doing this assignment, I'm really, you know, >> I don't know, maybe not acting with courage or you I don't know solving problems ethically like >> not just as a lesson as part of the curriculum, but how is it applicable? like
051those are just they're kind of heady ideas and h how how does that become applicable in like an everyday life? >> Yeah, sure. And and as the process unfolds, so it it seems rather ethereal now, right? And abstract. As you go through it, it becomes more operationalized, more concrete. I mean, even in the committee that Kate and Mark are on and other folks, they were already starting to talk about the last couple of meetings, well, what would it look like if kids were doing these things that line up with these descriptors up here? How would we know them? What are the look fors? Um how would we measure it? >> How do we determine that they've graduated and they fulfill kind of these tenants? >> Well, the next step is development of rubrics that actually
052become a tool to train students like any other rubric. The value in it is it helps make clear for students what the target is and how they're going to meet it. So it's yes, I mean this is a lot more complicated than a graphic and some philosophical statements. It's a this is the fountain from which the rest of it flows. And then the process as it goes forward is um making helping students see that knowledge is a seamless web that all these things are part of the every project they're doing in art class, in gym class, and science class. And here's what it looks like when you can do these things. And here's how we're going to help you get there. And part of that the the ulterior the unsoul the least soulful part of
053the reason for that is NAS wants it. But the most soulful part is we think it's good for kids and we're doing it anyway. Yeah, >> that's right. >> All right. Ready for subcommittee three. Um it looks like Dylan Stacy and Chris Tani are here representing that subcommittee. They um are going to talk to you a little bit about work they're doing in math. Good evening. Uh, as we spoke last year and we come back again this year, subcommittee 3 chose to focus on using student performance data to make informed decisions as well as modifications regarding our instruction. Where we started last year, we began with identifying a core problem within our district that we would like to address. We found across multiple different data points that math in general with fact fluency as a
054specific being an area where we could target to focus on to provide more instructional support to staff to be able to support our learning for our students. Uh last year we decided to start by researching different programs. We researched different curriculums. We looked at our own curriculum that we are currently implementing here in region 12 and we found that there was a lot of pieces that aligned towards our teaching of math fact fluency but that we would like to support it with a little bit more through ulterior motives. So we found a choice we chose to go with a program called facts wise. This is a program that has two different components that we found which we really like that's simple easy to implement. Something that is researchbased that we found to be critical to
055our values that we held true. Um the design is multimodal. So we found that through concrete pictorial and abstract approaches as well as a logical sequence of goals we can reach all students and all learners at different levels. Um one of the big standout points that I think appeals to all is the cost effectiveness of this program. No hints there. Um, so we started piling this in a K in a fifth grade classroom in the spring and we found some exceptional feedback. We're looking to um use that data that we finished up as our reaching out point to transition into our second year of this goal. Um yeah, like Chris was saying, I think something we were really cognizant of was we didn't want to give um a complex sort of difficult to follow curriculum
056to our classroom teachers and say, "Okay, we've identified this problem. Here's how you're going to solve it." But at the same time, this is now kind of a burden to them. Like here's a brand new program that might not be easy to follow. Factswise that we found is very simple. It's designed to be implemented just 5 to 10 minutes a day. And so another issue that we had was trying to find the time in our school day where we're actually going to add this to our schedules. Um we're going to have to take something out or make our math block a little bit shorter in order to implement this. This is great because um it's uh designed to be daily instruction but really really short. Um so like Chris was saying, it ticked a lot
057of the boxes. We've gotten really positive feedback. So the next step um for next year is piloting this program in um multiple classes. So, we have um teachers that are volunteering to pilot it in uh K through five um one teacher per grade level. So, it'll be interesting to get feedback from all of those teachers, but also to compare perhaps how those students are doing versus the grade level equivalents who are not implementing that program. It'll be interesting to hear what the teachers have to say about if they notice a difference just in um not just fact fluency with their students, but also perhaps how that affects just general math. um knowledge and the progress with their students and how that compares to in years past. Um one of the other challenges that we were
058been talking a lot about this year was just how to uh assess how the students are doing. When we were learning, we did a lot of flashcards, math minutes. Um and the research suggests these days that that is not the most effective way to uh have kids practice but also to assess them. And it really should be more of almost like an interview style the way we do running records with reading. And of course that takes time. So right now we're we've been talking about it, but that will be something that we talk about the beginning of next year is what's going to be that great balance between something that isn't going to be um incredibly timeconuming but is still going to be informative enough and we feel like um you know a valuable use
059of our time to get that data from our students. Um and then just similarly similarly trying to figure out how exactly and where exactly we're going to implement that within um the math block or our daily schedule um as a whole. So any questions for us? >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thanks. >> Specifically, this is all elementary focused right now. Uh which is where a lot of fact fluency is developed. So it makes sense that that's a starting point. All right, last subcommittee number four. We have all three members of subcommittee four here. Amy Tastani, Ed Bolinsky, and Maryanne Maher. And they are the the subcommittee that dipped into that that final pillar which was innovation and delivering value. And they want to share a little
060bit about their work. >> Hello, I am Amy Tastani. I'm a fifth grade teacher at Booth. Um, and the joys of both my husband and I being on the committee. So, thank you for enduring the chaos of my my kids in the background. Um, all of whom are region 12 kids coming up. Um, so we have focused on three different pieces. Each of us kind of are spearheading um, speaking about them. Uh, my kind of pet project has been doing a more of a within our district collaboration. Um, we started last year with primary partners, elementary, fourth, and fifth would come up um, four times throughout the year. Last year was science-based. This year is more humanities based. But we wanted something that was a little bit more um, personal for the students. So, last
061year, Maryanne brought her math honor society students down to each of the fifth grade classrooms. We did a little bit more of just a vague project. students were given a million dollars and had to work with their high school buddy to figure out how to spend that money. Um give them more of a concept of how much is a million dollars. Um this year as we were working and looking at it, we wanted it to be definitely more standards aligned. Um not only um for fifth grade but also vertically as well. So we worked on creating a project for the students to do um we called it operation gridlocked. They had to chart points within a coordinate grid, calculate the distances. Um the high schoolers used the distance formula to show them how you could
062calculate it if it's not just on a straight line. Um and then they had a sudden turbulence that they had to re um calculate their um their navigation plan. Um and they had a lot of fun collaborating with it. Um Ben was there taking photos at all all four of the fifth grade elementary classrooms. Um, and it's a nice opportunity in which the high school comes down to the elementary school. So, it's kind of the opposite of primary partners where they get to come up here. Um, and it's also just that smaller. We had like two maybe three students per high schooler compared to primary partners when they're in groups and like of between 15 and 20. Um, so our future goals is we would love to expand this to maybe other subjects or other
063grade levels. Right now it's um two years in a row we've done fifth grade to high school seniors. I think you had one or two juniors in the mix um with your math honor society. Um and some of that too is just out of convenience. Maryanne um manages the math honor society. I'm a fifth grade teacher. Um but we'd love to expand to other subjects, other grade levels. Um whether that be like music intra district, um even physical education. I could imagine our kids loving to work with some of the high school students. Um and then uh another goal that the math math honor society has is to host like a family math night for elementary students um after hours again very vague idea a lot of ideas to get flushed out there but um
064that that was the work we did this year hands next you're on >> right hello our second um our separate task basically stemmed from an old binder that used to be in this school about two decades ago And the binder was basically for our uh senior project and it basically was meant to link community members to students to help them develop a project. Um we took that idea and we want to basically modernize it. U we want to digitize it and we want to bring it back into the school system um and try to really develop those community relations that we used to have um especially with the staff um within the district. Um so we've been uh chipping away at this idea and it's been developing um over the last year. Um we've already
065started kind of developing networks uh relationships between schools and the extended community. Um we basically uh tried to um map out how this data is going to be collected. Um how are we going to actually uh bring in community members and keep those relationships. Um, so we've developed a um, uh, Google forms and different ways of trying to get this information. Um, figure out what information we actually want from these people. Um, and then how can we integrate that into um, learning here at Chap. Um, this kind of went towards our meeting with um, the SRO uh, at Chipog and basically uh, wondering about the vetting process. Um, obviously we want our kids to be safe and we don't want to just get anybody off the street. Um so our we we really kind of
066focus is this is more going to be a um a kind of a resource for for teachers. All right. And our idea here is you know how if our teachers are teaching a subject area and they want to have a professional be a guest speaker. Um if we want to develop some professional development opportunities. Um if we want to give some kind of field trip or some other type of um you know information maybe like if I know a plumber and I want to bring my kids to go do a plumbing lesson. we'll have a resource there that I can contact. Um, also bringing in that community aspect. Um, we were also very concerned with doing all the work in developing this and then having it forgotten, you know, or maybe nobody who's going to
067who's going to keep this list, who's going to update this list, who's going to make it um, you know, who's going to keep it updated for the future. Um, and Carrie um, she automatically uh, yes, she uh, um, volunteered to basically keep this within her department. um we're going to come up with some ideas and how to actually like send out annual um checks with these people to make sure that they want to still be involved with our school system um and uh you know keep that relationship going over the years. I think we found it's important that these people know like we're not saying we're going to contact you. We just want to know if you want to be a resource that can be contacted. So, we want to make sure that um if
068a parent or a professional, someone in the uh community um wants to support our school, they'll have that opportunity. Um so, next year, what we really want to do is um determine the best method of sharing this list with our teachers. Um how to keep it updated like we just talked about. Um enable staff to suggest resources and how to add. This kind of is linked to the vetting process, but you know, if uh any teachers here know of anybody that could be a good resource for our school, um how to get them on this list, um we talked about the uh um the very successful career um the career day that we had here at Chap. All those people are going to be great resources to have on this kind of list. Um and
069so basically we want to um establish this f this framework uh next year um and then populate this um and start the process of getting some community members here so we can utilize it in the school system. Thank you. >> Okay. Um the last part of our goals has to do with inter interdisciplinary course and learning opportunities. So this has gone on in our school on more of an informal basis. We wanted to try to firm this up a bit and this came out of a conversation Ed and I were talking about when he was at his last school and how much work that Agg had done with other departments and I had worked with some of the A teachers relative to math lessons and I was saying to him well we should pull science
070in based upon his past experience. So, I would like to say we've accomplished this this year, but what we tried to do was um we had a goal of developing lesson opportunities um between my department, which is math a department and Stephanie Chuck's department of science. Um but we had quite a few snow days as you might be aware of. So, every time we felt like we scheduled this, this got changed. So, um Carrie did say she's going to put this as part of our PD next year when we come in because we're very excited about doing this and continuing the opportunity. Um last year I had spoken a little bit about math for the trades. It's definitely a course that um Ed and I are very interested in looking into to see if we
071can offer here. We do think students would be interested in this more for like the 2728 school year but working on the curriculum next year. We did find some of this um curriculum and sort of course exists out there some in colleges some in high schools um just so we can elaborate that um what we've seen like specific for shap tailor that and to see what we could do with that and see how many students would be interested um we did do a little survey and there definitely are students that are interested in that so that's something we want to pursue next year um math and society we had shown the counted out movie and Mark and Kate and myself we actually facilitated session during PD thanks to Carrie where we showed the movie to
072all the staff and just talking about um the counted out movie talking about the importance of math in society and going into the future um if you're not really proficient in math or have this um I guess foundational knowledge of it it's going to be very difficult for careers for students in the future and I thought who better to talk about this and the humanities teachers um so we came and did this together and we want to continue on that um with the teachers here. So, looking at some sort of class or in just incorporation into schoolwide curriculum, which I think some teachers have started to do. Um, but you know, talking about a class, I mean, I was saying it would be a dream if we could co-e a class with humanities and math.
073I think the students would love that. So, maybe that's a pipe dream, but something like that to offer, I think, would be great. Uh, the staff, as I said, view the movie. This year they are taking into consideration students viewing the movie and seeing what we can talk about. But in the meantime, even if we can come up with either some lessons and classes or courses as a whole, we think that would be a great addition to the current curricular offerings for our students. Any questions for our committee? >> No. >> Thank you, Marian. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you all so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to say thanks to everybody for coming tonight. Please feel free to exit at this point because I know it's been a
074long day for all of you. But I I hope that you can hear in their presentations their passion for what they're working on, how they're really invested in this work and um they're really making our strategic plan come to life in our schools and in our classrooms. And I think that is so critically important because it could be a document that just lives on a shelf and it doesn't. So, thank you everybody for being here. >> Thank you. >> Are you feeling good about that? No more questions about that. Okay. >> All right. I think I'm up here for just this. This is just a couple slides. Just want to give you a quick update >> on our technology self-study committee. Um Don is on that committee and Jesse is on that committee uh with
075me. So they can also, you know, answer questions that these are all the committee members. We've got parents from every school. We've got elementary teachers, secondary teachers. We've got um three students, a fifth grader, a seventh grader, and a 10th grader. Uh we've got two representatives from our technology department. So a wide range of people on this committee. Just that's important for you to know all the voices that entered the conversation. Go ahead. Uh Ben, >> here were our goals for this year. >> Um and I'll just say originally all three of these goals were the goals of this year and we realized after a meeting or two that it was just too much to take on and we needed we needed more time. So uh the first goal we have we're just about there.
076Based on best practice, recommend key ideas to be included in the district's vision for technology use with students. Answering the questions, what is our vision for effective technology use, instructional technology, and what technological skills and attributes do we want to develop in our students? So after we had four meetings, four two-hour meetings, and we um came to a draft set of beliefs and commitments that the admin team is now going to work on and and flesh out and make a framework. Next year, our plan is to conduct a self-study where we sort of take a look at what our vision is and what's actually happening and figure out how to get closer to our vision. you know, compare the actual to the to the vision and see what we can do and then think about
077next steps. You know, if we want to improve, if there are improvements that need to be made to get closer to our envision, what are some steps we could take to do that? So, that's the work the committee will take on next year. That is it. That's my whole set of slides on this. Does anybody have any or Jesse or Don, do you want to add to anything or does anybody have any questions? I mean, I'll just say that it's been a really uh eye-opening uh set of meetings and thanks to Carrie for your leadership bringing together such a wide uh group of people, you know, particularly students and their perspectives and then parents and a lot of faculty I've never met before. So, it's been very informative and uh I feel like a really
078great process this year. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah, a healthy process and um the committee in order to do its job well it needed to have a range of viewpoints represented and I think many different viewpoints along the spectrum were represented in the room. A lot of rich discussion a lot of time dedicated. Carrie did create a great structure, a functional space to deliberate and talk about this. And we were able to just take a look at, you know, what do we believe about how technology can advance or inhibit what we're trying to do with kids, how it can be um a tool or an impediment, and how are we going to move in the right direction? And you know, we've got a lot of work left to do, but I feel good that it's
079a such a thoughtful process. we could cut to the chase and, you know, pull some mission statement up. We're not, that's not what we're going to do. We're gonna think about this and make it right for region 12 and for our kids and our parents. So, thanks to everybody, Jesse, who gave so many hours to the committee and I'm looking forward to continuing the work. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, moving on now to reports and recognitions. Um, uh, board report. I'm really going to just not say much tonight just because I know we've had a lot of information um, this evening. A lot of really wonderful information. So, I just want to thank Carrie for um, bringing a lot of information to us tonight. I really appreciate it and to
080our amazing teachers who came this evening um to share that with us. I always appreciate when our teachers come on an evening especially with four children in tow. >> Um and I I know and I took everything not to go and um hold the baby. So I Yeah, I almost did. Anyway, so I just always I'm so appreciative of that. >> All right, thanks. A couple of quick points and um we're getting into that busy part of the year where the uh news cycle is going to ramp up. So you'll probably see a resurgence of my sometimes annoying Friday updates as we get into the heart of the end of the year here. >> The best ones, >> okay? Uh and a few things now that are updates are first of all, we've had a
081really nice experience with concerts the past several weeks that there's a middle school one coming up, but I was able to attend the elementary concert that it was a packed house. Those kids were making wonderful, wonderful sounds. And I saw the high school concert, same thing. And I always say to the audience, thank you for supporting teaching your kids to play a musical instrument or sing. So those were well attended and really good events. And outside we had the fine artwork of our students um hanging that showed what they could do in the art department as well. So it was really great evenings for the fine and performing arts here. There was a successful plant sale out of the Agra Science Academy. They raised a lot of money. They had a lot of foot traffic
082and Tyler was happy with the level um of the sale. And again, our students um produced um flowers and produce for charity and worked with Judea Gardens especially locally in order to make good things happen, which fits in with our theme, which um I don't mean to sound pie in the sky. I mean for it to be grounded. Our theme region 12 for a better world. And our teachers and our kids are doing that. The prom is up happening this weekend on Sunday at the Heritage Village. The juniors and seniors are excited about that at Chapag. The FFA banquet meeting is uh Friday evening, so that'll be nice. Um and the the middle school play took place over the weekend. It's the first one I've missed, but I had to be up in Rhode Island.
083So, but I learned I I heard about it. The interesting thing, we've spent a lot of time this year honoring senior projects, right? This middle school play this year was the senior project of a senior who wrote the play. She aspires to be a playwright. She's been very involved in theater here, um, musical and dramatic theater, Cadence O'Keefe, and she wrote a play called The Final Bell in which it's about a school where some money went missing and the kids play detective to try to locate the money. >> So, I missed a good one. And finally, um, the last few days, K to5 students have been making their annual pilgrimage to Shap to get tours and learn more about what goes on here and what they can expect when they attend Shap. So, it's a
084busy time in the schools and I'll try to keep you uh current. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Treasures report. >> I'm going to do what I did last time. I'm going to combine the treasures report with the FNO report. But I'm going to wait and do everything under the FNO report because we just had an FNO meeting uh earlier this this evening. >> Okay. Um Agra Science Committee Mary is not here this evening. So we will um pass on that curriculum. Justin, >> so we just had our meeting um earlier tonight. There's a couple of things that just want to share with you guys. Um so at our last meeting in April we had asked um Carrie Snowden to sort of give us an update on the sequence of classes or or the pathways
085of certain classes. So we spent um or she gave us an overview of what let's see science department said they are pleased with the way um their sequence of course goes with which seems unusual to a lot of us who you know took a earth science biology chemistry physics sequence. we put physics first, but they seem to think that it's working and the the test score data definitely shows that. And on a side note, do you want to add what what you were contacted? This this is actually kind of cool. So, >> um, just recently a a STEM coordinator from, I believe it was Region 17, another school district in Connecticut, reached out and said, "Hey, we noticed your scores have really grown, your NGSS scores have really grown in the last few years, and
086we want to know what are you doing over there?" So we got on a zoom uh me microoft Steph who is the department leader for science and she picked Steph's brain pretty much about the different things that our department is doing that's helping our students scores grow and grow and one of them was an introduction to physical science in the freshman year really the our science department believes lays the groundwork for better success in chemistry and biology and the other sciences. So it's just a nice little pat on the shoulder I guess. >> You know we were toying with the idea this might be cosmetic or semantics but toying with the idea of actually renaming the course so it doesn't give off the aura. You know people hear physics and they think something's out of
087out of whack here but introduc intro to physical science is more in line with the actual project of the course which is more reminiscent of an earth science type thing and seems to scaffold well up to the NGSS test. So, >> plus we told them uh before that Zoom that we have a $50,000 consultancy fee which is pending. Well, >> per hour. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That's great. >> So, the next department uh was the humanities department and Chris Dennis reported that they're pleased with um the nth and tth grade um heterogeneous grouping and that does kind of change as you get more into the AP ECE classes in junior and senior year. Um we also got an update on the honors challenge which um you know students undergo a deep year-long research project. Um
088it based on what we were told it it seems incredibly rigorous um and just teaching excellent research skills um and higher order thinking skills for our students. counseling department. Um they are going to update their senior survey which is given through Naviance and really talk about you know what are you know to the outgoing high school seniors what are your post-secary plans and then why you know how why did you choose you know going to this school or going into the workforce. Um so that uh those data points will be presented in the fall. Um then we had spent some again at our previous meeting uh we talked about um math pathways and and reviewing data and we we had a a robust discussion just basically on how uh our students are performing on the
089SAT. We did learn that um and help me if I get the numbers wrong, but perhaps 60% of what Common Core teaches, which is how we develop our curriculum, is on the SAT, which means that 40% of what students are learning and may not necessarily be on on the SAT. Yes. Yeah. So, >> that was eye opening for for a little of us. >> Yes. And then finally, something new to report. This is this is actually really cool. Um I guess if you want to so um Sylvia uh Ullette uh was and you guys were working on coming up with concentrations, which is essentially I mean I guess you can think about it as a a major as you would a major if you were in college. So there's certain pathways. There's an education concentration,
090healthc care concentration, criminal justice, business and economics, computer science, fine arts, and food science. And underneath that, each one of these pathways has the same kind of structure. You know, you would do a senior project that's geared towards um whatever your concentration is. Um community service focused on getting kids more experienced in in one of these particular specifics of the pathways. um coursework being aligned with what you're doing and um possibly trying to find a job that will um help you know further that passion. And then another cool thing about this is that um concentration you know your so your concentration will be noted on a transcript or diploma. So um kind of cool. That's it. >> I absolutely love that. I love that because I think you'll spark more interest in the students and
091I think that you'll get a great response from the students because they'll be studying what they enjoy and they will be more focused. I absolutely love that idea. Absolutely. Excellent. Love it. >> Justin, I have a question. So, I know it's an ongoing process, but is there discussion of the intersectionality of some of the pathways? So, you know, I and I think I've used this example before, but my older daughter was told, well, you can't do honors physics because you haven't done this math, you know, and so there's certain sort of prerequisites that will start to impact other areas. So I'm just wondering if you are looking at that intersectionality and the second one is just that accelerated math pathway that I think I find every opportunity to talk about. >> It's um I feel
092like we kind of opened a can of worms here in a good way. Um so you know the the meetings that we have are really just continuations of the previous meeting. So this is something that I foresee us talking about well into into next year. And really what I'm hoping is sort of the the focus of our work as as the committee is to really um figure out what's the best way to to sequence courses and things like that. >> Thank you. Um at advance Joe >> the uh at advance inperson board meeting on May 7th was held at the Lichfield office which I attended. Uh we received an updated version of the May budget and there was some good news as the numbers are a little bit better due to some new grants that
093they have received. Uh our slate of officers was discussed and approved and there are no changes from the current board position. So, next year's board is pretty much the same as this one. Um, also we approve the executive director's one-year extension to his current contract. That's all. >> Thank you, Joe. Um, Alex, back to you. >> Thank you. Um, I'm going to, uh, speak off of my notes because we just had our meeting. Um, most of it had to do with projects and uh, monies, whether to spend them or not or how to spend them. Um, there was a $15,000 transfer for very small line items, $500 here, $1,000 here. Um, basically those funds came out of the fact that the health benefits uh, went costs went down. So, uh, we're moving money from one
094line item to another. Um, we also, uh, discussed the cameras in the all the systems. The servers that function with the cameras, uh, need to be replaced. Uh, basically, they give you a five-year window when you buy them. We've had ours for 13 years. Um, they've had some problems with them. Uh we're looking to uh replace them in both here in Chipog and in the three elementary schools. Um completely out of order here. Um the tuition in and the Sherman uh contracts. We're thinking it's going to come around $350,000. That money will go back to the directly to the towns. Um, so they should be happy to hear that. Um, we're also looking at buying some uh new bleachers for the uh fields outside. Um, uh, we're have some questions about how they'll be delivered,
095whether they need to be assembled, who assembles them, etc. And we're going to look into that. Um the before we uh we're going to put together a list of these items and you'll be able to see them. They'll come in next month's package. Uh I think our next meeting is June 1st. Um so that you can actually look in advance of okay, here are the bleachers, here's what they're going to cost, here's where they're going to go, etc. Um the we have a 10-year plan. Uh um and one of the items that was come up, well, two of the items are new lockers for the Washington primary and paving uh from the stop signs down to the road. Um we're looking at doing those two jobs. Um, and finally, well, not finally, but one of
096the other things we're looking at, um, we've always been requested, they have, the elementary schools have requested food, and we've always had an issue about whether we get a kitchen or not. What we're thinking about doing now is having warming cabinets. Um, and then you know like the bags that pizza come in so that the food can be transferred from here down to the elementary schools and uh maybe once twice a week. But uh would give an opportunity for the uh uh uh kids to get you know some give the parents a chance not to have to make lunch for the kids. And uh finally we discussed the uh the reserve the 2% reserve and whether what we're going to do with that this year. Um and uh that is it questions? >> Yes. uh
097as far as the bags are concerned, you know, for, you know, food transportation or whatever, has anyone consulted the health department to see if that's >> okay to do? Yeah. >> And and everything's fine. They're okay with it. >> Yes. >> Good. >> Now, hopefully there's a chance that we won't even need the warming uh ovens if the food I mean, we're not going to make the food here at 8 in the morning and have it sit around for 3 or 4 hours. It's probably going to be made at 11:00 and 11:30 it's it's in the way. It's on the way. That f 45 minute window for lunch. We're going to have to work out some of the uh who's actually going to be responsible for overseeing uh the distribution of the food etc. Uh
098and that we will somebody will have to get qualified to do that. And uh who does it I we haven't determined that yet. This is not an expensive proposition. It's probably going to be cost for the warming ovens probably about $8,000 >> for the three for the three schools. >> The three schools. Um and uh and the pizza bags. I I don't know how much those are, but that should be negligible. >> Those are about 8,000 also. >> Kidding. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> It's late. Um, no. I think we're not for me. Anybody else? No. Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it. Labor negotiations, Vicki. >> Nothing new to report. >> Okay. Thank you. Policy. Back to you, Justin. >> Um, I'm not sure when our next meeting is. I'm going to say sometime
099in June. >> I don't know either. Yeah. Maybe not. >> Well, either way, we do have uh underneath old business um approval for the second read of policy 511, admission/placement. >> That's it. >> Thank you. >> Uh nothing for me to report since um Carrie and her staff did an amazing job tonight. Uh we do have a a long range planning committee meeting on the 15th of June. And uh that's it. Moving on to old business uh to consider for approval a second read of policy 511. >> And this is the policy again that would bring us into line with the new state statute to the effect that you have to turn five on or before September 1st if you want to enroll in kindergarten for that year. Prior iterations of the statute allowed a
100process where kids could apply for a waiver and they'd be evaluated by the district. A determination would be made. We've done that for our clientele this one last year. So, nobody has the rug pulled out from under them, but we need to bring ourselves in compliance with the statute going forward. So, this one, unlike some of the terrible red line things that I've given you that you'd have to read for 3 weeks, basically just takes away all the language that would allow waiverss and just says you must be five honored before September 1st in order to enroll in kindergarten for that year. That's the amendment to policy 511 that you're considering. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, can I have a motion to approve for a second read of policy 511? >> I so move. >>
101Is there a second? Any discussion? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Abstensions. It passes. Thank you. Uh, there's no new business. May I have a motion to adjourn? Second. Thank you. Have a good night, everybody.