001I can't wait for us to go back into the library. I'm very eager to go back there. So, uh, thank you for joining us tonight. Tonight is Monday, September 17th. Um, Justin, Mr. Angley, can you please take attendance? >> Sure. >> Joe Abdullah >> here. >> Victoria Salem, Stephanie Colnik, Jesse Leeman, >> here. >> Angela Machulo. Alex Mcnautton here. >> Justin Angley here. Jen Pod here. Jane Sergeant, >> she's not here. >> Okay. Um Pete Tagley, Mary Weber, Christine Widig, >> she's not here tonight. >> Um so I would like to um have Dr. um I want to call him Dr. Don, but I'm not going to do that. Dr. Shells um to recognize our visual arts students. Good evening everyone. It's nice to see you all here. I didn't know where you were going
002with that, Jen, whether it was going to be Dr. Strange Love or what you were going to say, but >> Dr. Don, >> well, what one of the happiest parts of my job is to have the celebration that we're about to have here together. And I always say if I'm lucky enough to be at one of our concerts or one of our plays or with our fine artists, I say that there's really no greater gift that a school could give to young people than to teach them to play a musical instrument or to act or to engage with the fine arts, to paint, to draw, to sculpt, to take pictures and all the other ways that you can do that. And I think support for the arts comes back to us in building people who
003are whole and empathetic and creative and confident. And I think that the artwork we see here tonight is a testimony to that. And we're very proud to know that um this is an amazing return on our investment in um supporting the arts here in region 12. And I want to thank parents and our community members and our board for supporting the arts here so that our students have the opportunities that we that we see them have. And what we're here to do is to take a look at some of this amazing work. And I've been given a short commentary on each artist. And I'd like to read a little bit about um the artist and the work of art and then maybe ask the artist to come and stand near their work of art. And
004then at the end, it's customary that we usually take a little uh break and let the audience uh circulate around and appreciate the art and share some refreshments. Okay. So, first from Booth School, we have Maisie Wheeler. Maisy, are you here >> tomorrow? Uh, students discovered the colorful world of Enri Matise and learned how artists use complimentary colors to make their artwork stand out. After studying Matis's goldfish series and noticing his bold color choices, students created their own vibrant paintings using tempora paint and paint markers. I love this. They they uh study something worthy of emulation and then they become the artist that's worthy of emulation themselves. So, it's wonderful to see. Maisy's attention to detail here uh and craftsmanship exceeded the expectations for the project and her painting turned out beautiful with complimentary color
005usage. Congratulations on producing that amazing work of art from Burnham. We have Chelsea Rice. Chelsea, are you here? Come on up. Welcome here. Students discovered how optical illusions can fool the eye and make flat artwork appear to move or pop off the page. After studying artists like MC Cher and Bridget Riley, Chelsea created her own optical illusion. Uh uh then she used um Sharpies and colored pencils and uh added highlights and shadows with black and white pencils to give her piece a 3D effect. Chelsea focused on making bold highlights and careful coloring in with each Sharpie. And that is so good. I feel like I could fall into it and I want to I don't want to go too close to it. Congratulations on this amazing piece of art. From Washington Primary School, Luke Farmer.
006Luke, are you here? Come on up. Hi, Luke. How are you? Uh students uh cho chose a favorite animal or pet to draw and paint. After learning about warm and cool colors, they applied their knowledge by giving their animal one color family and using the opposite color family to create a striking background. Luke showed great care with both his drawing and painting techniques and his understanding of the concept. Is that your dog? Oh, that's what's your dog's name? Rosie. I love it. Okay. Congratulations on your achievement from Chapag Valley Middle School. Penelopey Smart, are you here? Hello. Come on up. Eighth graders learned how to shade different media to create a range of values. They then created block prints to demonstrate the technique of mark making. Penelopey created this beautiful beach landscape by carving a
007block and printing over watercolor painted paper. Both the carving and watercolor demonstrated her high knowledge of creating value. That sounds like a complicated technique. Congratulations from Chapag Valley High School. Quinn Hurley. Hello Quinn. Uh Quinn explored abstract photography by playing with composition, texture, color, and form to create images that focus more on thought-provoking imagery than on representational realism. For this for his animal project, he combined two different photos using Photoshop editing tools to make a seamless, creative composite that really shows his attention to detail. Congratulations, And finally, also from Chipog Valley High School, Lee Cohen. Leah. Okay. What Leah did uh in her class, students learned strategies of accurate portrait drawing and experimented in shading black and white media. To culminate their learning, they use visual storytelling strategies to create portraits that communicate a story.
008Leah chose acrylic painting to display her story of the relaxation and coziness of her home. And when you come down and see these, you're going to be wowed. And um I just want to say to all our student artists, it's wonderful to see that you have this fire burning in you. And I hope you keep it going. And I hope that it's something throughout your whole life that it'll enrich you and make you happier and know that you have something that you love and that you can turn to. It's nice to win an award, but it's also nice to do this just because you know you love it and you're going to keep doing it because you love it. Okay, so thank you very much. Why don't we all get together and gather? We'll take
009a short break and gather down here for refreshments and to celebrate the painting. I'm sorry I had my back most of you, but I'm always my best. Again, thank you to all our wonderful artists and their beautiful artwork. Thank you for sharing it with us. We'd like to move on now to the National FFA Convention uh for Megan Barry and the Aggra Science students. Welcome. >> Should we move the artwork so we can see? >> Good evening everyone. >> Hi. >> Thank you for letting us have an opportunity to come speak with you guys about our experience at the National FFA Convention. Um this year was our 98th convention. We will be in Indianapolis for the foreseeable future. And I've brought with me a few students. We're going to take a moment um by saying
010their name and their grade and what part of the aggra science program they participate in. Hello, my name is Claire Weaten. I am in 11th grade or a junior and I am a part of plant science. Hi, I'm Tula McCraan. I'm a senior and I'm part of food science as well. Hi, I'm Tatum Car. I'm also a senior and I'm in animal science. Hi, my name is Hannah Coelloo. I am in animal science and I'm currently a senior. Hi, I'm Cammy Tissi. I'm currently a junior and I'm in the animal science pathway. >> Hi, my name is Elelliana Quivley. Uh, I'm a senior and I am in the food science pathway. >> Good evening. My name is Daniel Baxter. I'm a junior and I am in the food science pathway. So, they're going to share
011a little bit about their experience here in a moment, including our CDE team results, which we are very, very excited about this year. Um, but I wanted to take a moment and just to give you a little bit of context on our trip. If you mind going to the next slide, please, Ben. Thank you. Um, so we did take our own bus yet again this year, um, which is always a fun adventure. It is a 15- hour bus ride one way. Um, so it is a very very long ride that we divvy up into two days essentially to make it a little bit more bearable. We took 27 kids out to Indianapolis including our meat evaluation team, our food science team, the parley pro team, our officers, and then delegates from a couple different grades
012who are there to attend the convention. So I'm going to turn it over to the kids to share about their experience. So overall, obviously the trip was amazing, but we just wanted to highlight some of our favorite parts, um, which included the expo and college career fair, which had over 300 colleges and businesses represented. So you just kind of walk around, you shop in part of the expo, and then you go into the career fair, which is a lot of different agricultural opportunities. You put your names into different raffles. We actually had a student win um about $1,000 worth of Milwaukee tools in one of those raffles. Um and then on our last couple of days, we go to the rodeo which is hosted for the FFA. So they have big FFA signs everywhere. Um
013actually a few of us got to sit on one of the bowls and take some pictures. Um then we go to the Indiana Zoo, um which is a wonderful zoo. It's really really beautiful there. Um we got to see lots of different animals. You'll see pictures of all those animals later. Um, and part of what's cool about the Indiana Zoo is you actually get to go not super close to the animals, but you get to take really nice pictures because it's not super fences everywhere. Um, obviously one of our favorite parts would be meeting FFA members from across the US. Um, if you do follow us on Instagram, we do have a video of all of the back of the jackets from all the other different states. um which we did have some people from
014Hawaii um New Hampshire which are some of the smaller states um and District of Columbia. And then um we go to the giant opening session which does have a big dance party and then we did have a special speaker um Eric Johnson which gave a very nice speech which is just the big general session. Um and then usually we would go onto a tour. So last year we did Eleno. This year we would have done a tour, but we did have um one of our FFA members um placed in the top 10 for food science. So instead of going on the tour, we actually went to the second general session to see her get recognized with that award. Um so you'll see up on the board just some pictures from the general session. We do
015have kind of in the middle the blue shirts which had um all of our different sponsorships on the jacket. Um and you'll see pictures on like the bottom right and the top left. That is the general session. So that had all of the different states there and they have someone from all the different states walk up onto the stage with a flag to represent each state. And then you'll see just some pictures of those different colleges um and different careers. So basically one of our first nights landing in Indie, we had our alumni dinner which was at this restaurant called Buas. It was an Italian dinner. We had a mix between salad, chicken parmesan, baked ziti, fetuccini alfredo, and we had the best cheesecake for dessert. So to all our alumni members who are sitting
016here today, we want to say thank you for sponsoring this dinner. We all had a great time. One of our students on the trip got to celebrate her birthday with us in the restaurant. Her name was Amy. We had a really great time at this dinner. We all got to have a free meal. Who doesn't want a free meal? But we just want to say thank you again. Uh so I'd like to quickly introduce the next three contest teams. Uh I am very honored to not only be a lot of these students teachers, their FFA adviser, but also the coach of each of these three teams. Uh these three teams of students not only stepped up to the plate to serve on these very competitive academic uh various agricultural pathway driven contest teams practicing most
017days every day after school and then competing at the state contest. But all three of these team won first at the state contest last spring that qualified them to represent Connecticut at the national convention with over 70,000 FFA members in attendance. So these guys not only achieved such high level uh recognition at the state level but also for Shap. These are the next three of our total of five historically teams going to nationals for contest teams. Uh so they are again making history every day that we're here. Uh our first team is parliamentary procedure. Uh this team is composed of a bunch of different students. Uh we have two lovely students right here. We have a graduate Quinn and some other students Julia Indigo and Kenny. This team won bronze at the national level. a
018very competitive contest. They did fantastic for our first time ever competing in the Parley Pro Contest. We had a lovely co-ach who is Michelle Dah who is a parent of one of our students as well and is a former FFA member herself who helped co- coach these guys. So, I thought I'd turn the mic over to two of our lovely uh Harley pro peeps as I call them, Hannah and Cammy to elaborate a little bit about their contest experience. >> Hi everyone. Um to start off, I just wanted to say that um I'm currently a junior and I've been doing this as a freshman and um I've been doing this in since my sophomore year actually. So it's been a long journey and I'm really proud of how we uh ended up. I could not
019be more proud of a team. We had some last minute polls for our competition team. Um but I'm super duper proud and I'm definitely going to miss our practices after school every day and um everyone on this team was so dedicated. They put in so much hard work. Yeah. Um, also we because of this like competition, we are now able to actually help other students with their parliamentary procedure. Um, as well as we are planning to like introduce more students to it and have them compete in starting a baby conduct team so then they can hopefully compete at nationals when they're in their like sophomore, junior year. So, we're hopeful that it grows to a bronze team to hopefully a golden team at some point. Along with this, um, a lot of the parliamentary procedure
020competitors were also given the opportunity to join the parliamentarian association, which is a really cool opportunity and I'm super excited to join it. >> Yeah. Um, we get until free membership until the age of 30. So, woohoo. [sighs and gasps] Um, but I honestly want to say this was like a great experience for us. Uh we got to actually practice a lot of our public speaking skills and it was really fun meeting other states although we couldn't talk to them that much because of the competition and all that. Um it really showed how teamwork can bring you to this form and honestly it was an amazing experience like always. >> Anyways, thank you everyone. >> Well done ladies. Uh our next team is our trying to remember what's next on Marines. uh meat evaluation. So
021meat evaluation contest is very cool because this one is actually conducted offsite at Purdu Purdue University in their meat cooler in their meat science department. So these students also got kind of a little bit of a college visit in combination with their contest. Uh this team was composed of four individuals, Rachel, um Claire, Tula, and Tony. Tula and Cla are here today and they're going to speak a little bit about the contest. Uh also very proud of this team. This team also plays bronze as a team. Uh, and we also had two individuals that were bronze, Tula and Tony. And Rachel and Cla also got silver individual. So again, all four incredible members worked really hard, many after school practices, sometimes at local grocery stores in the meat department being able to evaluate cuts of
022meat. So they put a lot of effort into this team and I'm very proud of them and their performance. And I'm going to invite those two ladies to come speak on behalf of their contest experience. >> Hello. So the competition we started off with either the team activity or general knowledge. So we had a team activity where we had to basically evaluate how much we need in a certain roundup meat if >> Yeah. So basically we just there was a lot of things that we had to study on for the different events. We had to look at uh pig carcasses and beef carcasses and put them in ranking order. Like one thing that could make it better or worse is like too much fat on one place and not enough fat on the other and
023that but you could not notice that and you could get be deducted a bunch of points. So that's one of the harder things. Uh we also had to identify 40 meat cuts. There's um about a hund more than a 100 meat cuts that we have to study and memorize the um the cooking method where they're from on the um animal's body uh the animal and what the professional name of it is called like sirloin or t-bone. So yeah, it was really hard and it was really cold because we were in a meat locker for like the whole day. But yeah, it was also really fun. We had a lot of practices and we'd been studying since like fall of last year. So, it was really fun to come out here and compete because it's once
024in a lifetime experience. And props to Claire because she was an addin and she got higher than me. So, literally such a good job on her end. So proud of her. Also, something fun I want to say about all our winning teams. If you look right here, we get these really fun little pins that we get to show off that say National FFA winner. And when Elelliana talks about food science, she has something big in store for you guys about her pen. Yeah. So, yeah, we had a great time. [laughter] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Well done, ladies. They did such a good job for being in a basically walk-in refrigerator for the entirety of the contest. Um, so well done, ladies. Uh, and last but not least, we have our food science team.
025This team did phenomenal. Not only did this team, again, do a fantastic job at team collaboration, especially with two of our four members being college graduates, having to communicate with them through Zooms and group texts and stuff, but these students also blew everything out of the water. Not only did they get silverplacing team, we had two bronze individuals, Dan and Marco, and we also had two gold individuals, Nina and Elelliana. And Elelliana did so well that she was actually uh recognized to be in the top 10 individuals. And at that time in the banquet, they pull the top 10 aside and say, "You guys are going on stage in front of 70,000 students in four hours to figure out what what placing you got specifically." And that's when we made the executive decision to uh
026miss our uh previously scheduled tour to an aggra science career place so that our whole our whole u aggra science group could go in support of this student. So we got to watch Elelliana walk on stage get recognized for ninth individual again in front of 70,000 students um for this contest. So, not only did this team do a phenomenal job at prepping, but again, that team collaboration and these individuals, um, Elelliana again was third place in the state for the state contest. Mina, the other gold individual, was first place last year. Mina has also been on the team for two years now. So, a lot of some of these teammates have competed multiple years and finally got to this level, which is incredibly u high level recognition. So, I would like to invite Dan and
027Elelliana up to the stage really quick just to give a little bit of context on their experience with this contest and for Elelliana to brag about her fun new pin. >> Good evening again. My name is Daniel Baxter and I actually was an add-on. So, about in May, there was a decision that the former teammate that went to the state competition was not going to compete. So, Miss Stavenport graciously said, "You know what, Daniel, you're cool. I'll let you compete." And I appreciated that cuz I was really hungry to go back to nationals cuz I actually did it last year and it was a great experience. I did not do as great as I wanted, but this year was an awesome opportunity and I feel like I improved. >> Uh, hi, my name is Elelliana.
028Um I actually this was my first year doing food science CDE and I didn't really have any prior experience to to food science. Um I had joined like the CDE practices I think um like early spring late late [clears throat] winter and yet again I didn't really know much about food science but from the first practice that I attended when we were practicing general knowledge I was just um immediately drawn in. it was just um a pathway that I was really interested uh about. Um prior to that, I was also an animal science kid. So that was really all I ever knew. But um yeah, joining the CDE, it actually inspired me to um join the food science pathway because um after I graduate um um I do aspire to uh go into nursing which
029is a obviously um a STEM career. But um I find that in found that in this pathway pathway there is um a really strong intersection between like the scientific concepts you have to learn in food science and the industry in general um along with the stuff that you have to learn in nursing. So that's kind of just my food science background and how I kind of got interested into the CDE. Um and then into like the um outline of the contest. So at nationals we had a uh two team events. One of them was a product development event and then the next was a a team safety audit and then we had six individual events. One of them was a 50 multiple choice uh problem test. Um and then a five multiple choice math practicum,
030uh customer complete sheets, product specification, and then we had sensory evaluation where we had to do aroma ID and then a triangle tasting test. And um it was really really hard. It took uh months of prep. Uh you know, for the team event, we really uh we did a really great job. Um we worked together really well and um yeah and then um the next day we ended up having a uh awards ceremony just for food science and then I had found out I had placed top 10 and they ended up giving me a separate little pin with a ribbon on it. Uh so that was really cool. Um and then I also got a cash reward but I'm not really sure how much I got. Um, they gave me like an envelope saying that
031I had to like put my, you know, social security number and then like all the other details in there so I could actually claim it, but I'm not going to find out how much I actually get until I get a check in the mail. So, that was kind of the most annoying part. And then when I asked them how much each individual got got, they kind of just uh ignored me. So, yeah. Um, yeah, they they just want to be mysterious, I guess. I don't know. But still, uh, and yeah, that's pretty much it. So, they used to give out checks, but I have a feeling enough kids lost them that they needed to mail these home after the trip. Um, but again, that team did fantastic. And also with each of these teams, you're
032hearing a lot of uh the last minute add-ons is because we had a few individuals that could not uh continue on to the national level because they were either graduate who couldn't take time off of school or students who had to drop out of health reasons. So, we had at least one member on each team that was a lastminute add-on who had to learn all of the content in a fraction of the time. And those individuals, I thank for not only stepping up to the plate and helping fill this team, but also putting in the time and effort and discipline that it took to get you up to that level. And we have a few of those individuals here tonight. At least Claire and Dan were some of our last minute add-ons that pulled through
033and and did fantastic with the time that they had. So, in a nutshell, all three teams did fantastic. We're incredibly proud of them and we look forward to having future teams compete at this level and a lot of these kids are already explaining that they really want to help co- coach the next group of kids which I'm very excited for and again seeing that peer mentorship is why we do this. So I'm going to give the mic on to our next uh FFA officer to explain a little bit about the last components of our trip including the rodeo. Okay. Hi again. Um so our next component was our last day at Indie which was the FFA rodeo and zoo. Um, ironically, the Parley Pro people had to miss like the first quarter, almost half of
034the rodeo, but we were really happy because we were able to see our results. Um, but the rodeo was very fun. We were able to see like um, how do you say it? We saw like bull wranglers and all that. And I love every year it's the funniest thing, but um, the rodeo clown makes it like incredible and so funny. And this year it was just even better. And we were able to see so many like different events in a rodeo and a lot of us sometimes don't get that experience because we're from Connecticut. So this was a very interesting thing as a lot of us had our first rodeo that day. Um another thing was our Indianapolis Zoo as um Tatum said beforehand. It was a great experience for us to actually pet some
035of the animals like the kangaroos um and a lot of the other animals and we were able to look around, have fun. Um, I think me and my group kind of rushed over everything just to see every animal, but it was a very good um, opportunity, especially as all the FFA um, members were there too. So, we were able to see other states, communicate with them, and have a great opportunity to talk to them and find out different things about their states and honestly communicate and have networks with them. >> Oh, um, sorry. Um, we wanted to first say thank you on behalf of all the Chipog FFA students that went to this nationals trip and for all the future FFA national trip students. Um, we really do appreciate this opportunity that you guys allow
036us to do. Um, it kind of helps us grow every year and we are able to prove that our school is so good and great and it shows us that um, if we really put our minds to it, we can really do it for the school. And it's amazing to see how many students we have now going as we started such as a small program and now we're growing and getting bigger and getting recognized like Elelliana getting recognized at our national stage. We keep on growing and I hope that this continues on and that we can make you guys proud. >> Thank you. you want to speak? >> Just wanted to thank you all for the opportunity for having us here tonight and if we can help answer any questions about our trip, we would
037be happy to do so. >> Does anybody have any questions? Alex? >> Yes. You uh one of you mentioned that there were 300 businesses and colleges represented at this. Did any particularly the seniors make any contacts with these uh colleges or businesses that they might follow up with next year? >> Um actually not me personally but one of our other officers, our historian Maggie. Um she's not here tonight unfortunately. one of her top schools that she did apply to, Sunni Cobalt Skill, actually reached out to her while she was there and ended up taking a picture of her little badge so they could stay in contact because she saw that she was a member of the FFA. Um, and they do give specific scholarships to members of the FFA. >> I have one other question
038which is not quite as serious. If I agree to get on one of the bulls, could I get a jacket like that? [laughter] I think they uh I think they might have a t-shirt just [laughter] >> I don't know yet. But >> the jackets are so cool. >> Thank [laughter] you. >> Anybody else have any questions? Mary, >> thank you so much for your presentation and we are really really proud of you. >> Thank you. You've come so far in such a short amount of time. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm just so um um impressed with the way how comfortable you all are in speaking uh to all of us. I honestly I know that this is part of your the your program in terms of public speaking, but not just in terms
039of being able to speak publicly, but the ease in which you are. I mean, you joke and you laugh. You're actually all very funny. Um, and I just thoroughly enjoy the way that you can joke and and with banter with each other in front of all of us, which just really makes it so much fun when you do present. So, thank you so much. And you, as Mary said, you do make us all so proud. But you're just also um you just all seem so happy in the program when you're here talking about it and that makes me happy. So, thank you so much for sharing your joy with us. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And Dan, you are super cool. >> Hey, so what a fun night. Um, moving on now to
040public comments on agenda items only. Do we have anybody missing, Ben? Okay, great. Moving on to the consent agenda. There anything on the consent agenda that we Alex would like to or anybody else, not just Alex. I mean, I always look to Alex. I didn't get a chance to really dig into it, but uh I did look at the high points and I found no no uh nothing that was out of place. >> Anybody else? I don't think anybody else. It's just that Alex likes to Okay, so nothing. We will stop the agenda. Great. Moving on to the presentation for Quebec City, Canada. Hi, welcome. >> No, I'm thrilled. Welcome. >> It's actually really exciting to see these kids that I've seen in the world language classroom context present. Um, anyway, I've enjoyed them tremendously.
041So, I'm back here again to ask for one more shot at getting the Quebec trip off the ground. I did things a little differently this year because last year there was a lot of buzz and the kids seemed really gung-ho on the idea, but I think when uh the rubber met the road and parents had to write a check, the enrollment um really was too low to make the trip a go. So I decided to reach out first with a survey and so I did that and I did a Google survey at the beginning of the year and because the kids seem excited again and also these things tend to cycle through and the enrollment changes. Um, and I got some good responses and I paid most attention to the last question which which was
042after hearing all these details and all the logistics. Now that you see the price tag, are you still very interested? And I got about 18 strong responses. We need 20. I also had two parents who expressed an interest in going along and I know I can get my hubby to come along if it means we get over into the 20 to 24 range. So, uh, we changed up the, uh, agenda or the itinerary a little. Um, but I'd like to put it out there one more time and see if if it works. And if not, next year I'm, you know, probably going to think twice about it. So, okay. Did you have any questions about the updated itinerary or the notion of putting it out there again? >> What is the price? Do you have
043the information in terms of the >> Well, I had attached the itinerary to uh I think the paperwork that he sent to central office. It looks a lot like last year's. Um the only thing the promator uh director changed up a little bit was there were some new activities that they were offering uh that were a little bit more interactive. The kids get to act out some legends in a kind of improv session. Uh they get a hands-on cooking class. Um, but it's still the four days, the 19th through the 22nd. We leave early in the morning on Thursday. We come back around 10:00 in the evening of the Sunday. Uh, and they get a very consolidated many of the times it's guided. A few times uh, self-guided tour of the city, activities, sledding, a
044lot of the old favorites are there as well. And the prices still they honored from last year uh, in the range of $1,500. Got it. see it. Yeah. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? No. Okay. So, we just need to move the approval. Okay. And I have a motion to May I have a second? All in favor or discussion? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Any extensions. You have our blessing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I hope it I hope it happens >> for your support. >> Thank you. >> Great. Moving on to the Connecticut State Accountability Report. That would be for Harry and Doc. >> Thank you. And uh there is a slideshow. Ben, I don't know if you could put it up or and while he's doing that, of course, one of the
045things educators talk about the most is what we can measure and what we should measure. Uh, human beings are obviously complex things. It's hard to find one thing that measures every subtle nuance of a person and so we're always trying to find indexes that help us understand the multiaceted nature of people and measure things that are good for their whole development um and good for society too. So in our state um the legislature and the department of education got together and talked with educators and parents and students and tried to come up with a tool um a set of um benchmarks that help us tell deci help us um decide how well we're preparing our students to reach their full potential and to move on to their full potential um after they after they leave
046us. So, what you're going to see tonight is a summary of the key metrics in that report. Uh, how our kids are doing, how our school system is doing on this next generation accountability report. You can click the slide, man. Thank you so much. Um, one of the things that's um, interesting and I think authentic and good about this is that it's not just about a snapshot of a given score or a given outcome. Although that's here, it doesn't shy away from that accountability. It also talks about things like growth and how people can develop and what other things we should be doing with kids to help them become actualized and reach their potential beyond just I shouldn't say just but beyond reading and math scores what are the other ingredients in helping a person
047develop and become successful happy and and and actualized. So when we we use this data, schools, teachers um and students use this data to track our progress relative to other schools in the state. It helps us know how to um design improvements. It shows us where support is needed. It promotes transparency. This is you could see these metrics online about any district in the state. uh and it's a good outside check on the our teaching and learning and how well we're doing with it. So, a lot of benefits come with this. Um I'd said before that it's not just about um achievement, although of course it's it doesn't shy away from reporting on that. It's also about how our students are developing and growing. So, it provides a more complete picture of how a district
048is doing beyond just its test scores. You'll see a metric in here later about how well we're providing access to the arts for our students. We saw a little taste of that tonight. But in terms of across our district, how well is that happening and I think that's kind of refreshing because it shows that people understand there's more that goes into [clears throat] helping a student grow than might otherwise meet the eye. And uh it helps us understand that we don't want to be myopic in the curriculum we select and things that we're doing with kids. We want to take a very wide view of the things we're exposing students to and helping them um learn to love and acclimate to. So this was all developed by the state department of education. It again was
049with in in consultation with educators and students and parents and it just basically encourages us to take a look at these different areas and decide how we can improve on them and how we can make sure we're making the best opportunities available for our kids. So Carrie has actually harvested the data and we'll now take you through um our report. >> All right. So on the on this slide you see these are the 12 different indicators that are measured uh through the state accountability report and um as Don said you can see this information for our district as well as any other district in the state at the public edite website. It's uh www.pub-edsite.ct.gov and you go under the accountability tab. you could get all of the information I'm about to share with you. Um,
050on the next few slides, we're going to review region 12's performance in these 12 indicators as compared to the state of Connecticut, and we're going to look at the date trend data over the last four years for both the state of Connecticut and region 12. So, this first slide um, and this comes right from the Edsite website is the overall accountability um, index. And this is going to be the pattern on the next several slides. On the left hand side you see the state of Connecticut and on the right hand side you see region 12 and then these are the data points over the last four years starting in 202122 school year up until the 202425 school year. So overall you can see our trend is slightly up and that our scores are generally above
051the state average um in Connecticut. That's overall this slide and I I purposely kept if you see on if you're looking at this on a screen or if you have it printed out on the right hand side of starting on this slide and moving forward there's a little definition or description of exactly what the data is that is represented. So um this is the overall performance index. This tells us about basically our state testing and how our students are achieving on state tests. So, there's a line for language arts for all students. There's a line for math for all students. And then there's a line for science for all students. If you go onto the edite website, you could also click on and see our high need students and how they're performing. I don't know
052if you can see those sort of whited out tabs at the top, but it becomes very complicated. And so, I chose to not put those on this slide because the graph becomes difficult to read. But if anybody wanted to, you could absolutely go on the website and and click on those tabs and see. So you'll see there's, you know, if you look focus on region 12, the right hand side, there's been a little up and down in achievement. We saw that when I did the, you know, our achievement report of a few weeks ago, a little bit of up and down in different areas, but always well above the state average, of course, in terms of our percent proficient. Yes. Sure. Yeah. >> Um, can you just quickly uh qualify what exactly a high need
053student means? Is that like any student with an IEP or you know what qualifies a student? >> Um, high need students are students who uh are receive uh free or reduced lunch or are English language learners or have an IEP or 504 plan. Correct. Well, they're part of the all students which is represented here. And then also if you wanted to see their performance specifically of that group of students, you could click on those tabs. Sure. All right. So on this um on this slide you see academic growth. This is one this is I think a one of the values of the accountability index is that we get credit for growth. It's not just achievement, but are our students growing? I also happen to think academic growth is a leading indicator. It's going to eventually
054if we see kids meeting growth targets, they are going to hit those achievement targets that we want them to meet, the benchmarks. So, you can see the trend is certainly up since 2022 23. That's where you see that dip in the in the graph where 57% of our students were meeting the growth target. Um, as of last year, 68 almost 69% of our students were meeting their growth target. So, that's a great data point to see because growth means we're heading in the right direction. Kids are growing. Next one is chronic absenteeism. Remember on the left is state of Connecticut, on the right is region 12. And this is a graph where we want to see a downward trend, right? We want to see a lower percentage of chronically absent students over time. Um, so
055that that that's a good thing that it's trending downward. I do see that little sort of dip back up. Uh, at the in in last year's rate, we went from 9.1% chronically absent to 10.8% chronically absent. And that's a data point that all the principles are um thinking about and looking at. We want to, you know, this this information just came out a few weeks ago, but we do need to sort of dive into exactly who are those students and what are we doing to make sure that we are keeping our chronically absent rate as low as possible. Um, next slide shows college and career readiness and it is about the the blue line is students who are taking by the way 11th and 12th graders represented on these graphs. 11th and 12th graders who
056are taking highle courses like AP um or s two CTE courses in one career cluster or two workplace experience courses in any area. And then the orange line represents students who are passing exams. Again, 11th and 12th graders who are achieving benchmark on SAT or on AP um or are earning dual enrollment credits. So you can see state of Connecticut's on the left, region 12 is on the right. And again, this is a nice upward trend in both of these areas. That was a big, if you remember, a push for us last year was getting more um Yukon ECE classes of made available to students, which we have done, encouraging more participation in those classes, and also participating, you know, just a few of our students, but still participating in the ED advanced college and
057career uh readiness um program, the CCA, college and career academy, >> the college and career accelerator >> accelerator. Sorry, I knew there was an A. I just couldn't remember that A. So, I think this has been a focus area for us and it's it looks like it's represented well. Um, next graph on track uh to high school graduation and graduation rates. State of Connecticut on the left, region 12 on the right. And these are both uh measurements of 9th graders. The the blue line is percentage of nth graders earning at least six full year credits in the year. And then the orange line are ninth graders um percentage of first-time ninth graders who graduate with a regular high school diploma in four years or less. So this is our graduation rate. And even though you
058see a dip there, we're we're in the middle to high 90s um all the time. And remember that when you have um when you have less than a 100 kids in a graduating class, which we almost always do, every child is worth more than one percentage point. So even a couple of students who take a little extra time to graduate are going to show up in this graph in a way that's noticeable. Uh next is post-secary entrance. percentage of the graduating class who enrolled in a two or four-year post-secary institution in any time during their first year after high school graduation. So that's trending upward, you know, from 2223 where we were at 63% of students doing that to last year 81% of students. uh physical fitness. The blue line is the students rate of
059of meeting the benchmark in the physical fitness uh tests. And then the orange line is our participation rate. Participation is something we really worked on last year because the state's way of calculating participation had been a little tricky for us to pick out. In high school, kids can do this test any time in their four years of high school. So tracking that has been tough. But we think we cracked the code. And so I I see that we got 100% participation which is very important. And then that blue line is the rate of the the students who are meeting the benchmark on physical fitness tests. And I see that little downward trend there. And then the last indicator is arts access. Another thing that we were paying attention to percentage of students in grades 9
060through 12 who are participating in at least one dance, theater, music, visual or media arts course in the school year. And just a little bit of a of an uptick from uh 23 24 to last year 2425. And that's the last slide. Um, happy to answer any questions or anything. >> It's interesting, isn't it, to see all these many dimensions that might not always be accounted for. I mean, you're trying to build Renaissance people. You're worried about their physical fitness, whether they have access to arts and culture, and also how they're doing in their core courses, and how they're growing. And so, >> yeah, >> I just had a question about uh slide seven, the academic growth slide. um which you said was a leading indicator for achievement. It says on the right that this
061is for students in grades four through eight. So is that can we extrapolate that the whole district looks like this or is it only targeted at grades four through eight? The data point that they're collecting there are Smarter Balance uh growth rates because the state sets um a growth target for every child who takes the Smarter Balance test which is only taken from third grade through 8ighth grade but growth targets only set starting in fourth grade because of course they have to use the third grade as the baseline. So that that is specifically a measurement of growth for that group in that specific test because the state calculates that growth point. We monitor growth. I don't know if you remember from you know when I was here a few weeks ago and presented academic data.
062Do you remember there were a few slides like um I w I I sort of traced in one of those slides growth of last year's juniors who took SATs from when they took the horizon test as freshman and then they took the SATs as sophomores and then they took SATs as juniors. So we're monitoring the growth of students that way, but the state doesn't have a data point on those things. And so that that number 68.7% on the ELA >> for fourth through 8th graders, you're saying that 68.7% of students did better this year than they did last year. >> Well, they met their growth target and it the growth target is very individualized based on performance from the year before. So there's a formula. This data applies to every single score. And they say
063based on this student's age and based on this student's grade level and this student's performance on the year before in order for them to meet the benchmark at some point in the future, they need to grow this much. So that's those are the students who are meeting their growth target. And I think we want that to be higher than it is, but at least it's trending in the right direction. >> Thanks. Um the question do you know is that benchmark information available on the on the letter that parents get over the summer? I know we get it broken out into like what they scored and within our district against the state. >> Such a good question. I will I don't know but I'll find out and I there there's like a one pager that tells
064tells everybody what every growth target is. So that could be distributed very easily. That's public knowledge. So if it's not on the parent report, which I will check out, I can certainly distribute the the calculation that the state makes that sets the growth targets. >> Yeah, that'd be interesting. And if it's not on like the state page, if maybe I Well, our letters come from the state, so it's not like they come through the region first. >> They do come through the region first. >> Maybe that's like >> Yeah, it could be. Yeah, sure. That would be easy to replicate. Yes. >> Perfect. Awesome. uh question uh CO did CO play a pro a was it involved in these numbers or >> I >> did co make a big difference for us >> I when
065you look back so some of this data isn't even available for the co year you could look back to some of this data precoid and there is definitely a little a dip that follows after co Um, I would say it affected every school everywhere because there was so much disruption and and honestly in a place like Region 12, maybe less so than other places that didn't have kids back in person for the entire year following CO, right? There was a lot of places that did that. So, yes, but also um not to the uh point that other districts would have been impacted. Yep. I think we could still be seeing some of that now. You know, we've got our kids who are in fourth and fifth grade right now. They were in preschool and kindergarten
066during CO, which means some of them didn't have preschool. It means they had kindergarten. They were learning their letters and sounds with masks on. You know, I I still think we could be seeing some of the impact of that of the kids who were so young and doing preschool and kindergarten in that situation. Um I don't know but it hard to draw hard to draw the conclusions, you know. >> Sorry about the physical fitness numbers. I'm looking at this. So h only half of those students who are assessed meet the state's physical fitness requirements. >> Yeah. They run the mile, they do the sit and reach to to measure um mobility. They do, you know, pull-ups or the arm hang. There's four or five tests that they do. Yes. We And we have such an
067athletic >> I that's my impression. >> Community, you know, it's really interesting. What's the age group? >> Um, well, physical fitness tests are taken in fourth, sixth, eighth, and then at some point in high school, somewhere between 9, 9 and 12. >> And that's all the same. I can't I can't see it from trying >> is in that one chart. >> Yes. Yes. >> It's not breaking. >> It's not broken down. >> And what is the percentage? 51% of our students >> that doesn't by the way they have to in or in in order to meet the benchmark they have to pass in all four areas. So just know that. So you could like if you don't make it in the mile if you don't hit the benchmark in the mile you you don't you're
068not considered not physically fit. So just keep that in mind. They all It's a It is an interesting data point. >> It is. >> Those PE teachers work very hard on that, too. They They really do. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you. I have to make it >> poor kid. >> Those poor kids are going to be doing a mile like no one's business. We're gonna be like later. [laughter] >> Oh, those poor fourth graders are going to be like, "You're going to be doing that mile." Um, okay. Well, moving on now to uh uh my report. I unfortunately don't have any much to share just because I think that we had a lot to see tonight and I think that it was lovely to see so many parents and
069students here tonight for the uh for the um artwork and I loved seeing um students here. So I'm not going to share much again. >> I have a quick report report too just a couple of highlights from what I was able to see being out and about in our schools this week. my favorite thing to reflect on. First, I was able to go to a very nice Veterans Day ceremony um at Chipog and they had some several veterans there being honored. One fellow was a Navy fighter pilot and he had kids in the school and there were other veterans there as well and they were honored and he gave a talk about the meaning of what veterans have meant done for our country and the different student groups had made gifts for them and they
070sang for them and it was a really nice uh ceremony. And I mentioned this uh earlier because it connected to what we were talking about in the curriculum committee, but um over at Booth and I saw a really neat lesson um in a fifth grade classroom. Apparently the content was about photosynthesis and it was also about the food chain with ecosystems and the kids were learning about how all those pieces go together. But the teacher was careful to help me understand that that um content was a vehicle to really work on reading. It was kind of a reading lesson to help kids construct meaning about text in the world using principles teachers have learned from our art program and it was very interdisciplinary and the students I heard the teachers ask the students how do
071you feel um making that this is sort of your reading lesson in in the middle of a science class and they said we love it it's helping us read better and access the science better. So that was those were that was neat to see. Um on my end, I'm kicking off the budget process at the end of the meeting tonight. Nicole and I will go over the budget timeline with you. And um when the you know when the schools um dispose of property, whether they um donate it to charity or gift it or otherwise dispose of it, we I kind of make the board aware of that. And we have a small collection of items um not tiny actually probably too big for us to store here is the issue consisting of memorabilia that goes
072back into the history of Washington and a school that we want to preserve and take care of. Um there are two for example two VHS tapes on the flood of 1955. I know there are people on this board who fancy themselves senior members of the community but I don't think anybody here laid eyes on the flood of 1955. Right. or and they didn't even have VHS tapes then, so they must have transferred it to that. Um, old yearbooks, old day books, photos of New Preston from the early 1900s, uh, old year old, um, um, scrapbooks, commencement programs. We want to preserve these things, but we want to let somebody that knows how to do it preserve them. So, we're going to gift these to the gun library that has an actual collection there of historical
073items, and our our community will be able to access it and research it um, as needed. So, we think that's a good thing for both institutions. And then lastly, I have um a couple of personnel items to tell you about. One resignation, Margaret Johnson, who's payroll and benefits coordinator at central office. That's effective December 9th. And one transfer, Michael Korea, who had been a custodian at Chap Valley School, will now be a district-wide maintenance worker. Thank you. Uh, the treasurer's report. Alex, >> um, I don't have too much to report. Um, the audit, uh, how is the audit coming, Nicole? >> Great. So, everybody heard that we're done. We're just waiting for them to put it in print. um the budget timeline you guys are going to talk about later. I really have no other
074nose for the treasurer. >> Thank you. Moving on to committee reports. Aggra science committee Mary >> I I don't think I have anything better to say than what the presentation we had tonight. Tonight that was fabulous. But uh let me just remind you that the bizaar is coming up. The holiday bizaar is coming up. the first week of December and our a kids are working very hard to raise money and they're doing some projects uh and then they have the Christmas tree sale and I just hope that all of us will support it. >> What is the date? >> What time? >> I forget. >> 6 holiday 6 to 6:30. But to get your trick, you get a good one. >> Okay. >> The fourth. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm just putting it in my
075calendar. Great. Thank you. Um curriculum Justin. Sure. We just had a meeting earlier. Um let's see. So, our first item, um, Carrie Snowden gave us an update on the ARC program. So, just a couple of highlights. Um, there's a pri we are prioritizing um, professional development for new teachers and they get to meet with the ARC expert um, three or four times a year. um for K through K through grades K through two um a continued focus on foundational skills um phonics and phone awareness and the core of ARC which is a knowledge based curriculum which is you know very similar to what Dr. Schell was talking about how you're not quite sure if you're in a social studies or a reading lesson. Also, there's um teachers are using new resources to focus on spelling.
076And in addition, since this is the second year teachers have used ARC, um they're realizing that it doesn't have enough writing instruction, so they're able to supplement uh the program with their own lessons. And other news is that benchmark tests are three times a year. before our fire drill which cut short our meeting. We also focused on the dibbles screening which is the screening for dyslexia and basically that has been digitized which makes it um easier for teachers to basically give the test and score the test and hopefully get more accurate results reported to the state. >> That's it. Thank you, Justin. >> At advance, John, >> uh we had a board of directors meeting on November 6th and uh Jonathan presented us with the 2025 2026 budget for uh approval. Um he stressed that
077many programs are seeing reduction in funding due to the government shutdown and of course some new government policies which uh in effect will um drop the budget by 20% which they're looking to try and compensate for those losses. [snorts] the sale of work workspace Connecticut in uh Bethl. Um the deal fell through fell through. So they're looking for a uh a new buyer for that and they're actually considering dropping the price of the property. Um, also Advance now has 12 new EV vehicles for uh their transportation, but there's been a delay in uh the charging station approvals due to Eversource's process. Um, they're hoping to get approvals for the locations in Torington, Lichfield, and Danbury soon. Currently, they're using alternative locations for charging the vehicles temporarily. Uh, that's all I have for now. >> Finance
078and operations. Alan, >> there we go. Um, we had our last meeting uh just an hour before our last uh board of ed meeting, so very little news. Um the boilers in Washington primary, the first boiler is almost complete. Um and then uh so we're running on the backup or the second old boiler and hopefully we will get this done in the near future. >> Thanks, Tom. >> Labor negotiations. Vicki, >> we had our first meeting a couple of weeks ago. It went very well. Um, we are in full swing and our next meeting is this Wednesday here at Chabog. >> Thank you. >> Uh, policy, >> nothing new. Our next meeting is December 8th. >> Thank you. And nothing new to report for uh strategic long range planning. Uh, moving on to old business
079to consider if appropriate, which we already did, so we're moving on from that. And to consider for approval a second read of policy 5114, student discipline. >> Yes. And you may recall we took a look at this a couple meetings back. Um, I sort of briefed changes for you which are just recommended by our council to help the policy keep up with recent events and other laws that have been passed, other policies that have been passed and then Shipman changed it again slightly really to update beef up the concept of challenging behavior. U, so I delayed moving it to the second read until we could get their final draft which we now have that I was able to summarize for you last time. Um um does anybody have any more questions about the differences in
080the policy or any questions about the nature of the policy? >> Did anything change after? >> No, we're we're set now, Alex. So, nothing's changed and I have a motion. You uh approve the second move for policy 5114. Okay. So, Jesse um Joe second. All in favor? Anyone opposed? one has been uh approved for second read. Thank you. Uh new business the budget timeline Nicole want to talk about it? >> Sure. Great. >> Um it is pretty similar to the budget timeline last year. We have not rolled it out yet um to the first selectman. So, you'll see um that we are hoping to have a budget lunch with them in February, the day after the superintendent presents uh the his budget to you guys on February 23rd. Um there's not really anything else out
081of the ordinary. Um last year we did do um a few more sets of meetings with the administration um which we felt looking back just um detracted from their time to kind of hone in and and narrow down exactly what the requests were. So we made that voluntary this year and gave them um the opportunity to meet with us once they're completely finished or by request. So, we've got a few requests and we'll be meeting um with a few of the admins for their department budgets in the next week or so. Um but we'll be meeting um to have their final budget meeting so we can finish our work the week uh before Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about the process? >> Yeah. Um about the workshops, are we having a workshop on the
082same day that we get the hearing? Are we we're having two workshops? >> Yes, there's two workshops. >> So, we'll have a chance at that March 9th meeting. We'll hear it and then discuss after that and then we'll do it the second time. But that >> you'll hear it for the first time February 23rd. So, you'll have an opportunity to ask questions on the 9th and then again um on the 16th. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> So, there's two opportunities. >> That's what we didn't do that last year, right? Did we have two last year? >> I think we did have two last year and then I think one was a snow day. onto it. Got it. Okay. No, I like that. Thanks. That's helpful. Anybody have any other questions? >> No. I think last
083year worked out really well just in terms of being able to I mean, I know it was a lot of meetings, but I think it was really helpful to make sure Yeah, I think we should have two meetings because two years ago we only had one and it was a bit of a perfumeful in at the meeting about approving the budget. So I think it's good that we have a chance to look at it, ask questions, make additions, make subtractions, and fiddle with it. Well, well, I was actually was talking more about the I liked that there was the meetings with the three uh board of finances and then with the PTO's go making sure that those meetings with all three towns were I just think that that just really is really helpful to make
084sure that the three towns have opportunities to ask questions um and have the opportunities to and I just think obviously communication is important to make sure that people are aware that those are um opportunities for them to attend. >> And we were we were really well received by all towns last year. That went really well. >> And I think that's important. I know it's difficult for you guys to schedule because they only each town's boards of finance only meets on a Tuesday and whatever. And so it's not like you have them all within a week, which is I think really nice. >> Yeah. It's just >> scheduling wise it worked out. I think it's important to have those. Um, yeah. So, thank you for making sure that you guys do that. >> Yeah, it's I
085it's I like that too because um then we also get to hear some of the concerns that the people in the schools are talking about that we don't get to hear. They they're talking amongst themselves, you know, and they're and they're problems that they think that are problems a lot of times that are really not. And once uh you or any of us explain that to them, then it makes everything clear and then all the communities have have a chance to talk to you and talk to us about it and so that we can come to you with any concerns that they have. That's really good. >> Or or just hearing their concerns and even not being able to reassure them, but hearing their concerns period is really important. and also hearing our town's concerns,
086the finance. I think that's really important, too. So, um I think it's it's just really helpful. It's Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important. Yeah, I agree. Anybody else? No. Thank you. Thank you. I can't believe we're looking at this. [clears throat] >> No. >> Can I have a motion uh to adjourn? I have a second. All in favor? Fake.