001Justin, can you take your time? Joe Abdullah here. Greg Cava here. Vicky Salon. Stephanie Colnik. Angela Merulo. Alex McNottton. Justin Angley here. Jen Pod here. Jane Sergeant. Peter Tagley. Mary Weber. Christine Widig. Thank you very much. So we are going to start uh our meeting with uh recognition of our visual art students. So Dr. Ragreed. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Always a special uh night at our board meeting when we get to celebrate our wonderful student artists. Students, when I call your names, come on up. I'm going to shake your hand, give you a certificate, and then if you uh would please stand in front of your artwork, um and then we'll be able to celebrate you. I'll say a few words about your piece. And we're going to start with Mabel Mariano. Mabel is
002a seventh grader. So, in this watercolor landscape unit, Mabel, who's a seventh grader at Chipog Middle School, learned to mix more natural colors and to create more depth through her shading. Wonderful job, Mabel. We now have Leila Coopermanman, ninth grader. So, in her introduction to drawing and painting class, Ila, who's a ninth grader at Chap Valley High School, learned visual storytelling strategies and created a pencil portrait that ex expressed mood and told a story. Wonderful job, money. Now we have Cadence O'Keefe, an 11 pottery student. Cadence is obviously a student at Chapag Valley School and gained an understanding of design concepts such as form, structure, space, color, proportion, composition, and function. She also explored technical skills, processes, and materials involved in creating functional wear using clay. Wonderful job. Now we have William Jasinto. Not here.
003Okay. Well, I will talk about his piece of artwork. He's a second grader at Washington Primary School. Learn he learned about complimentary colors as well as warm versus cool colors while creating his sun and moon portrait over there. He first painted his portrait with watercolors and then added patterns and details with oil pastels. Great job. We'll celebrate him later if he comes. Ryland Kernan, Booth Free School. Ryland is a second grader and she learned about the work of Henry Matis. He explored complimentary colors and used tempora paint to create his own mat her own excuse me matise inspired painting. What a wonderful job and Quinn McCormack. Quinn is a Burnham School kindergartener and she learned about texture and shape before creating her unique texture monsters with temporary cakes and oil pastels. Beautiful job. Great job
004to all of you. And I'll turn it over to Mrs. Cody, thank you, Dr. Bradley. We're going to take a quick recess so we can come around and look at the beautiful artwork and there's some refreshments behind. So, let's take a moment. Um, we're going to move on now to public comment on agenda items. Is there anybody who would like to say anything? Okay, no one. Great. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is there anybody who has any looked over the consent agenda? Any changes? I want to say that I found them to be a very nice read. Um, there was there was some character in these draft minutes and I really appreciate it. Made it a fun read. Oh, well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Wonderful. Okay. So, moving on to our
005first presentation for the strategic plan year end report. Then I think you're going to put that up there on the screen. So, um just to let you all know this is yes, this is part of uh two evenings to share um what work has been done and what has been accomplished uh as a result of our first year with the region 12 strategic plan. And I know um the document you were all given it was a digital in digital format with tabs to various sections as you see and it uh really articulated just a quick review of the development of our plan. But most importantly um in the analysis section we honed in on the strategic um action steps um that were implemented in our first year. Year one, if you recall from there's a
006key in there as well, was primarily uh investigative in nature. Um meaning we looked at and reviewed our current practices and programs, but we also talked in detail about what gaps we needed to fill or what areas we needed to improve upon related to all of the priorities. And that was powerful learning, family and community engagement, diversity, belonging and well-being, and innovation and delivering value. And as the summary noted, there's a summary there. Um, we really truly did leverage the expertise of our leaders, uh, our staff and members of the teaching and learning council to critically review and assess the commitments that were outlined within each of those four priorities. So, our team uh really did a great job and they looked at future opportunities for students, programs and services that would improve um things
007like support systems uh would foster achievement and enhance social and emotional growth for our students. You each have a copy of the document, but we do have it on screen as you see. And we've highlighted areas that we will refer to this evening. Tonight you're going to hear from our leadership team. Uh and then on May 19th you will hear from the teaching and learning council. Um everyone took various facets uh to present the work because there was so we found there was a lot that we really did achieve this year. So I'll turn it over to Carrie and the team. Uh good evening everybody. Uh so the the four of us, me, um Don, Emily, and Emily, we're going to just talk through some um items from the strategic plan that you'll see pop
008up just a little further. Ben, I just want to make sure it comes up. So, we we're not going to talk about everything in this plan tonight. We would be here for a long long time if we did. But we highlighted in blue up here a couple of items that we're going to talk about within each of the four um the four areas, the four goal areas and within the various commitments just to give you sort of a sense of some of the things that have been going on. We're happy to answer questions about anything you might want to know about, but um in the interest of time, we wanted to just sort of point out a few items. And as Lori said, more of these items will be discussed at the May 19th board
009meeting when the members of the teaching and the learning council come to. So there will be there there will be even a second part to the update. I'll start out first um in the um Ben just go back uh to the Yep. Perfect. So I'm going to talk a little bit about um this very first thing you see highlighted here, identifying potential instructional strategies to improve teaching and learning. And it is related to keep going then scroll down just a little bit. It's related to focused professional development opportunities for staff. It would f it's related to the districtwide focus we had on learning targets and checking for understanding. And it has led us into what you see down here on the bottom a plan for next year. So I'm going to talk about all of
010that at once. this year. Um, over the summer, we decided to zoom in on a couple of instructional strategies that would feel universal to all of our staff. That means no matter what you're teaching, no matter what content area, no matter what grade, um, you can use learning targets and checking for understanding every day with your students to help them understand what they're learning and help them be judges for themselves about how well they're doing with that learning. So all year at every professional development session this year, we um came back to that again and again and had cohorts of teachers meet with each other to zoom in on that. And between professional learning uh events, they were working practicing some of this in their classrooms and then coming back to those professional development days
011and updating their their colleagues that they were grouped with. So that happened all year long, was very successful, and had a great impact on um classroom instruction. So we're going to keep it going next year, which is the plan for next year. We're going to keep going on learning targets and checking for understanding, and we're going to add a couple of new choices for teachers who maybe are feel ready to move on to something new um or who are interested in going in a new direction. So, that's an example of sort of zooming in on a way we're going to get better at instruction, picking out a couple of key strategies that all teachers could benefit from and how we're going to keep that going so that it doesn't feel some like something brand new
012next year. We're going to continue the work and just build on that. I'm going to step aside because also within this category, there's an update from Emily. So looking at identifying um contining and making visible models of quality work. We use models to uh support instruction and led students to apply their new learning skills and reflect on their progress. This was either through writing projects, math problem solvings and other examples that they might use to display their work and their understanding on model. We also used the work of Ron Burgger that inspired teachers to increase their exemplars. So teachers had their own exempl exemplar work or they use student work that were exemplars to show students and model um success. Teachers then implemented a critique style of lessons where students can identify key attributes of
013quality learn. of the center of the critique lesson is either the student book model or a teacher made model or something from uh perhaps uh their textbooks that they're working on. And from that the students and teacher analyze the piece and then they progress into sort of what we call an apprenticeship kind of process where the students begin to use the models to apply those techniques into their own writing. Um so we especially saw this u modeling um uh you know uh priority in reader responses uh when they're doing their writing projects and problem solving in math and through their discussions. Go ahead, John. Good evening. And another item we wanted to focus on this year was doubling down on project-based learning, which you remember is helping students get excited and invested in learning by
014working on real world problems that move them and interest them and having them share their solutions with the with the community. And the deliverable that we wanted to shoot for was helping uh supporting teachers encounter protocols for task design so that they would have better exemplars to help them design PBL assessments and implement them. So um multiple times during the year at the beginning of the year and since we've had sessions with teachers where we've collected a bunch of um what the experts consider exemplar models of of project based learning, what the components of it are, why they matter, and then teachers were invited to compare it to the ones we're producing and either improve uh design new ones or improve the ones that we're um currently using. All right. So, next, um, Ben, you
015can scroll a little bit. Next is, um, this this section of the strategic plan was all about vision of a learner. That's something you're going to hear about from the teaching and learning council on May 19th. So, we can keep going. And then, um, I'm going to talk about this a little bit. So, as you know, uh, a year and a half ago, I believe, the district purchased, um, Linkit. It's a subscription-based data warehouse that we now use to house all of not all almost all of our assessment data. And one task that came out of the strategic plan was using that data that was being stored in the warehouse to actually drive instruction. So this year um we've gotten much more proficient I would say all of us much more proficient at using link
016it at getting the good data in there because the the the way you use it is only as good as the data that goes into it. So you've got to be very good at getting the data in and then you've got to become proficient at running the reports and then you've got to work with teachers uh and give them time and space to work with the reports and say okay so we see you know this is how our students are doing for example in their literacy development where do we notice that students might need to be challenged because they're surpassing the benchmark where do we think that students might need more intervention because they're not quite hitting the benchmark so on a regular basis um all teachers in grades K through 8 met to look
017at linkit data uh so that we could be keeping an eye on how our students are progressing and then make some decisions about the kind of help they need whether that's you know intervention or challenge that work will continue um we're right now waiting for our SAT scores to come in they literally should be in any day now and we will get the SAT scores and then we'll we'll work with the um high school teachers too to be looking at that data So this so we have really um behind the scenes I think really grown a lot in our use of that data warehouse that the um district subscribed to and getting much more proficient at allowing it to help us make datadriven decisions. All right, next I believe is facilities. The facilities. Yeah. So,
018I'll have uh Nicole talk a little bit about the CIP and all of that, but just also know that within this uh particular commitment is all of the ASOS that we brought on. That was one of our goals uh where we would place them in the elementary buildings and then of course building the vestibules u to make our building safer. So, that has all been accomplished uh through the strategic plan. Nicole, um, one of the things that we, uh, started to do at the beginning of this year was to to develop our five-year capital plan and then continue to improve it. And one of the things that we've realized is we need to, um, shift and have a 10-year meal plan because there are a lot a lot of capital needs need to be addressed
019in order to do them efficiently. Um, and also to um, do them in a way that it's affordable. We'll be shifting that to a 10-year plan and we're currently working on that. That's a deliverable that we come to the finance and operations committee very soon. Um, one thing that we're right in the middle of that we had the finance and operations committee. I'm short that we had the finance and operations committee um see at the last meeting was um the preliminary plans for the um renovation of this space that you're sitting in. Uh new furnishings, new flooring, new paint. Um it's become a project that got larger than we thought it would have started, but it's going to be a really fantastic space when we're done. Um we're almost to the point where we're going
020to get the teachers um and the library needed specialist input now that the plans have been roughed out so that we can talk to them about how best to utilize the changes we're making instruction to support our kids in this space. Um so we want it to feel like a learning comment and that's the goal that we're trying to attain in the space. Um, and one thing that's not specifically listed here, but that I've spoken to the board about, and we have decided to um increase size of a project is we're working on redefining the servery in the cafeteria um so that we can uh change the way we produce meals in the cafeteria to hopefully produce better quality product for our kids for lunch. Okay, that was priority one. And that was not even
021all of priority one because we you still have some updates coming from the teaching and learning council. So, um that's really exciting stuff and um I hope you're getting just a little flavor of some of the things that have been going on. Uh there's even so much more we could talk about. All right, so we're going to priority two. And priority two is um can't yep family and community engagement. And Lori, I think you were going to talk about commitment number one. Yes. So, under uh commitment number one, you'll see review current communication strategies and interaction engagement with uh um our stakeholders. And there were a lot of things we've done throughout the year, but two that I wanted to highlight. One I think very important was the establishment of the intermunicipal elementary committee. um
022that included um selectmen and um community members from those towns as we and staff and leaders um on the education side to look at what do we do with our elementary schools moving forward. So that's one I think huge accomplishment still going not over but ongoing. Um, and then the other is just really looking at things that we already have in existence like our current publications and there are many that we put out. Um, and we really started to hone in on thematic, you know, making those publications something that people would like to read about our schools. Um, what and it's all like this one coming out is related to the strategic plan and and innovation. Um, and the one prior to that was priority. Um, I'm sorry. Thank you. Powerful learning. Um, so we're
023trying to really make sure that we use that as a vehicle so people understand all the wonderful work that is going on in our schools. So that that's only a slice a small slice of all the things that come out of that. But those to me are two that the intermunicipal committee is a huge one. Really good stuff. All right. And then commitment two is another one that you're going to get an update about on May 19th from the teaching and learning council. And then I think when we get down to commitment three, I think Don has an update on that. Well, we know that um senior project has always been uh the jewel in our crown here for a very long time and we spent a lot of time this year working with our
024stakeholders to make sure that we reinvigorate it and we've met um am I talking about the next category? I'm the least charming one up here. Yeah. Okay. I'm in green and uh it's not coming through to me for some reason. I got new glasses here. Something Okay, I'm on the right topic. I I do want to talk about this. I wondered if I was in the wrong. Um so uh having those discussions helped us reexamine where we're going, where we've been and where we're going with senior project to make it relevant and important still to our kids in this in this time and place. So there's going to be some pivots next year that we've talked about with teachers and parents and students and with our teaching and learning committee to focus more on the
025doing of the project, engagement in the project, and helping kids get through with a greater sense of satisfaction. So that um led to a deliverable of actually a revised um senior project experience for next year. But another part of that is how we're going to market the senior project to the community. And we've been getting we've been working with and getting a lot of support from the SSP at the foundation to help us reach out to the including Miss Pod's help to reach out to our community beyond the school to advertise the projects and have people come back in and look at them. We're actually creating a little marketing brochure for the students who want it and we're going to get help from the selectmen and the seniors to push it out all over the
026town and hopefully invite people in to come watch the projects like I understand always used to happen um in the past. And the last part is we wanted to make sure that we're reconnecting kids with bonafide experts uh as their technical adviserss. And I think they fell into a a habit recently of going for what's comfortable, a teacher or an adult that they know in the building who's certainly a good resource and a good relationship for the student but might not necessarily have the technical expertise to help the kid connect with those kinds of things. So the first thing we did was when we had parents in the building, we asked them to fill out a form telling us about their their zone of expertise and whether they'd be willing to share it with students
027in senior project. and we've shared that with the kids and the teachers and we're going to widen that survey um very soon and we're going to support kids in making connections even if it's online with experts all over who can help them make make their projects more bonafide and robust. Okay, moving along to priority number three, diversity, belonging, and well-being. Don, come right back because you've you're you and then Emily. Well, we've been looking at climate data for a while and we want to make sure that the school is a place of inclusion, a place where everyone feels loved and belonged and that work is ongoing. Um and one of the things that happened here this year that help is going to help that forward is we hosted the Berkshire League climate summit and that
028uh is to the credit of uh the combined group of assistant principles who lies with each other in the Bergkshire League and they all talked and planned this event where all the schools in the league came here. Each school brought about 15 kids with them and first they heard a big keynote address um in our auditorium by a woman who's a veteran of the Marine Corps and an educational leader and she spoke about um leadership and education and belonging. And then every school including our own designed several breakout groups that students could choose to attend. Our link crew helped put those together and our link crew helped do the ice breakers to connect everybody to each other with the support of Mr. Stinson. And then in those breakout groups, they were able to choose sessions
029about diversity, inclusion, belonging, leadership, um those kinds of things. And everybody reported that it was a really good day and gave us and I think our sister schools a lot of good ideas about how to improve climate. Under um the commitment one under priority three, it was to develop a school culture that can be really safe between students and staff. And one of the things that we've worked on is to investigate transition. So a committee of the counselors, administration and teachers continue to explore the researchbased programs that we reside in. So first we had counselors implement some sample lessons after we narrowed down which programs looked most feasible for our district. They brought them into the classrooms and they asked for feedback from students, teachers, and anyone that was involved in the lesson. They then
030brought the feedback back to the committee and we debriefed and um that information would for students and staff were taken into consideration. So the committee determined that the second step for advisable for us Um so going with that um just climate adding on to what Don was talking about a little while ago um we do have administer and analyze the school climate surveys with students staff and parents in the fall and the spring and um Emily and and I both did that all of our schools we met with staff we received some feedback um some examples was there's so much to do and you know we feel like there's not enough time in the day. So, we've done little things within our building just to make teachers feel like we value their time. Um because,
031you know, we wish we could give them all the money in the world and all the vacation time as they want. And, you know, so um Emily had done some things to support our teachers. Um for example, instead of buying a mug at Christmas, you know, I offered 20 minutes to cover your class, you know, whenever you want, whenever you need. Um and so the teachers were very grateful because they feel that it's definitely something that they needed for us like you know um then we also um listened to the parents feedback that they felt like which I'm sure most of you as parents can relate to is your child comes home from school. Oh, what did you learn about today? Nothing. So, parents said it's really sometimes hard when you especially in the offer
032grades when your communication might be more monthly or not every single day or weekly. Um, so what we did is we talked with uh the students about where they feel like we could communicate with parents and get more information or teachers. And so it might be sharing a little bit more information in a teacher newsletter or we've been doing the week uh weekly question and for each grade there's a question specific to the content they're learning which will hopefully be a very direct question that opens up that conversation with her child. We had a very survey with students. We asked the student talking about and they're like well you know they didn't really know but we wish we had something to prompt them let's talk about question but also how you can continue how was
033your day nothing think of something that you know something that I think stood out to So they started to view that. Um the other thing too that came through was um there was sort of concern about had a discussion about how much effort they can put for effort or I've been giving enough effort I'm giving all the effort I give. Can I give any more? But the question is you believe you have potential notary. So just doing things like that will clarify the parent and there was a lot of other things uh students voice you know recess might be tough for them because you know just initiating things with friends. So maybe more materials were purchased for recess to just really help kind of focus that play into structured activity. Um, so there was a
034lot that came out of the survey and looking forward to continue. Part of this also is looking at data and figuring out what students needs are, what patterns we see in student uh, attendance and in this case when they're visiting our counselors, why they're visiting our counselors and what we learn from that uh, and how we can use that to design better uh, interventions. So, in terms of the data for student visitation to counseling at Chicago, there were 1,834 events up to this date. Now, we of course don't have that many students, but an event one student can go multiple times and when they check in, they can check in for more than one reason. And they're asked when they check in, you know, what the reason is for the visit. So of those events,
035540 of them fell under the category of academic plan. The general category the counselors created academic planning, schedule planning, general questions or scholarships. Um 54 were to get an alternate setting for testing. 275 were for college career planning or resume. And then there's a category for students who feel um certain kinds of stress uh in the moment whether it's anxiety, panic attack, need escalation, stress or reviewing 504 supports for any of those challenges and there were 833 events like that which is significant. And as we were watching that statistic build over the years, it's one of the data points we we turned to when deciding to ask you for support for a social worker because I think some of those cases can be handled um better by a social worker. And um 132 events where
036students were um either called down by the counselor or they didn't articulate a reason on the sheet when they came in again for a total of 1,834 events. And looking at this data, we hope we can realize next year how we can maximize counselor efficiency and um make sure that they're doing the thing they're mostly trained for, which is that college and career uh preparation step. There was also a question about um the number and quality of anonymous tips we got. And that might sound like an isolated little strange thing to put on here, but I believe back when we were looking at all our data, we saw some feedback that it wasn't clear that students really knew all the different ways they could report things like bullying. And of course, what we want is
037for them to trust an adult enough to report it live, which I think mostly happens, but sometimes students don't want to do that or they feel they need the the um that platform to file an anonymous tip. So in response to that an advisory went we went through training reminding kids on our pro process and the software we have to let them file anonymous tips and I think that they got the idea but to date we've had only one anonymous tip and it didn't lead to um a verifiable or actionable event and to put that in context um in terms of reporting of bullying those kinds of things the normal wave this year we've had four we look at these things to decide um whether their kids believe they can tell a trusted adult about
038their problems in a family way, tell us about their problems. And we'll continue to look at that and make sure they know all the different ways they can report their problems. So, moving up to commitment three. Yes, Dr. Reed. So, um just to if you recall, we um put together a diversity recruitment plan and that was mandated by the state of Connecticut. You all approved that. We got on the table from the state. That was part of our priority or our commitment through the strategic plan. Um and one of the things that came out of that is the ways and the tools that we could use to help recruit uh and to run that recruitment process. Um, and then what we've we've done a lot of things that we didn't do before, we we put
039all of it on Indeed, on Handshake. We've really branched out. Um, as well as going to uh not just online, but other fairs uh in person. Don and I went to one um was it just late last year, I think. Um and so um those are just some of the things that we've done to really start to um kind of make it uh larger and broader in scope than we have before. Um we also post in um universities around the state. Um and that that has helped a lot. We've gotten um you know some employees coming from those actions that we've taken. Um and then one of the other things was uh looking at um a team of colleagues that we have in the state um to kind of put out the word when there
040are um when you have like you know six teachers in your district and they know that they have let go teach features. That's another way to do it. in places even across the border um where you kind of you know we're a small state. It's better to go out and look at you know other states as well. That was another thing that we you know do now that we didn't do before. Um so there is a litany of things that we've done to really try to widen that um that scope that we have in hiring um as part of that. That was it um for that. All right. And finally, we're coming to priority number four, which is innovation and delivering value. Commitment one of priority four is set for a year two start. So,
041we're leaving that off the update for tonight, but we'll take a look at commitment number uh two. And there are some things on here that the teaching and learning council are going to update you on on May 19th, but both have updated instructional strategies to deepen um student engagement in the classroom. And one of the things that we implemented this year is the primary partnership with Chicago with our elementary students. And that has been just such a wonderful experience just under one kicking that off. Um a lot of our students in fourth and fifth were very excited to go to Chicago and we've just seen a lot of growth in the year's gone on. We've done mixed groups. So all students from Vernon and Washington had mixed groups. So it just really gets them knowing
042everyone within their district and then um the teachers were broken up and a lot of students that were really nervous about coming up are now so excited to go. We had a lot of students with anxiety and they just about coming up to Shap. And I think through using the planetarium, going to visit the animals and learning about plant life. We just done so many hands-on activities thanks to the staff at Chicago um that our students really are excited about going up each time. Um and each time there's a new experience or a rotation of group. So each time something different. And then the last one we have coming up will be um a whole kind of just bonding experience with some student swims. So they're looking forward to that. Um so staff have also
043given us feedback after every visit. Um we touch base with the teachers. They share their feedback openly with the staff at Shog and also us and then we make adjustments as we move forward for each visit. Um another um program that we all participate in all with our K5 students was the residency. Um and this was with uh students um they were able to use movement and improvisation to interpret a Native American story. Um we are incredibly grateful to um the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the town of Washington for sponsoring this program and to the um program for offering this experience was very unique to the students. Uh they all enjoyed it. Uh they were fully engaged had opportunity um to invite parents to come and they also included them in the process. But
044I think the highlight of this is not only the creativity but the interpretation of the story and knowing the story elements and then using movement to communicate that story to an audience um with really you know very little sound. It's just all movement and it was pretty incredible and I think the students uh enjoyed it but they also um had to communicate with one of each other's grade levels. It's like crossrade level experience. when they came in other grade level had to know when to complement their movements was really great. So thank you so much. Uh and at Chap first thing we want to talk about uh on this commitment innovation is how we're trying to again reimagine instruction. And I talked before about projectbased learning. And if I if I list one or two,
045I run the risk of annoying or offending all the people that I don't mention. But Steep Rock sure is a good choice for um to get across what we're trying to do. And in that, our sixth graders are working with a team of teachers to actually get out in the community and have an experience that's rooted in science and literature and history and the outdoors. And they're going to develop an actual um guide book, like a trail guide book for Steep Rock that people are going to use. So the reason that this is sort of on the poster is it's a real world problem. Students are learning by the doing of solving the problem and the product is going to be consumed by people beyond the walls in the school. That's the gold standard that
046we're aiming for and um that's going on in our classes and that's a wonderful thing. And then the other thing is we're continuing to try to move forward with the opportunity that the college and career accelerator provides for our students. Uh the students who did it this year had a good year. We're still in the pilot phase. The participant amount is still small. We had at the front end of the year four students who wanted to be in the pilot. They all reported a good experience, but two reported that the bus ride was too ownorous to Torington. So, two remain. Uh now, but for those two, it sounds small, but don't let that occlude how mighty it is for those two. They are going to get um a certificate in computerated drafting and nine college
047credits. And we think that as we go forward, uh, we'll find more opportunities within our current resources to run some of these classes here on our campus, which I think will raise interest or find partnerships with local schools who are closer that will cut down on that bus ride. And we'll probably offer some more pathways beyond just the computer design one that will help kids um, get involved in that. So, I expect more to come on that, but it is an example of how we're trying to improve the experience of our kids by giving them more choice and more opportunity. Okay, I think that brings us to the end of our update for tonight. Um, I hope that gives you um, you know, a little bit information about some things that have been going on
048that maybe don't always come back and get reported at the board level, right? things happening in classrooms and in schools all of the time. But the strategic plan has been a guiding document for us as we uh you know make plans, we come up with ideas and um you know we're always checking ourselves against the plan and saying how does it fit in? Um I'm happy to take any questions but I know we've got more presentations. Okay, as you were going through the plan, did you did you run across anything that you would change or that you felt maybe you could have done differently? Um, I I do think we had a lot of conversations clarifying some of the commitments and really talking with our team of administrators as well as the teachers who were
049especially those on the teaching and learning council who worked on some of this and really thought well what's what do we think they meant by that and how can we take this more broad statement and take action on it while sometimes we had to be a little more specific. So, I think you'll learn a little about some of those decisions when the teaching and learning council come on May 19th. I also think we, you know, we changed portrait of a graduate to vision of a learner. That was one change that we made. There are some items in here that I don't know that were necessarily part of the plan at the beginning, but they we realized like, wow, this is a great thing we're doing and it fits right in with our strategic strategic plan.
050So, they've been added. I wouldn't say too much, but here and there a few little things. Lori, I just gonna say just it's a living document. It's a living document. Yes. Thank you. Well, and it is and I can I just add to that because we were talking a lot about technology that you don't see as a you know a special category. We went back and forth about that and now there's a subcommittee working on AI how that will uh you know play a role. So we've we haven't left it out. It's a strategy. It's a tool. But then as we went back, we're like, I think we might want to um you know, update it as we go along so it's a little bit clearer in the document. I think um I know that
051at our admin retreat this summer, a a a very important first topics topic is going to be the strategic plan. And I believe you might see us come to you with some recommendations after the admin retreat about some things we might want to suggest or recommend in terms of tweaks or adjustments. I don't see major recommendations but just here and there things we want to spend a little more time on things we may want to push out because we want to spend a little more time here and there. So some you might hear about some small adjustments after that. It's so amazing to sort of watch this come to life over the last several years of creating the plan and then bringing it to life. So I'm amazed at all the work that you all
052have done just in year one and it's really exciting to see kind of the excitement coming from all of you. So thank you so much for all of your hard work. Really appreciate so much for your attention. Thank you. Hey Ally, please. Um I'm here to talk about uh the the department goal. Well, it's a small, it's a collaboration of special educators, uh, related service staff, and myself. Every year, teachers and administrators set goals, uh, for the year. And, uh, over the years, I've had some teammates, as you know, as as I've done other goals. I've had some of my friends from Chicago join me in our work. And through the course of I think last year's um, conversations, it started to sort of give me an idea about what I'd like to do. And
053then of course the Chitika strategic plan um with power for learning um sort of led into a sort of a perfect fit um for this work. So um Ben do you want to go to the next page? So this is my team. Um so I have two school psychologists, six special ed teachers from Shepog. Um we we have nine teachers here at Chupog. The other teachers have a very valuable goal. They're working with our 11th and 12th graders and we're working very hard to work with them on their transition to to to life after Chipal. So, um, as much as we would enjoy their efforts on this goal, um, they had other things to do this year that I found equally important. But that is the team that's working on it. And I think our
054question really be became how do we not only um, meet the complex needs of our students but also help everyone thrive. And so while we are looking at this through a special education lens because that's our department, obviously we want this to impact all learners and some, you know, if we're doing things to to meet the needs of our most challenged learners, then we are certainly going to touch upon the needs of of other learners. So um we look forward to hopefully in the future gaining a few general ed team members and that's part of our goal here. Um but what we do know and what we thought about was the greatest impact on student achievement is effective teaching. And we do know that our students needs academic and social emotional have seemed um to
055grow in complexity over the years over the past few years. And we know that we're working on um powerful learning as part of our community. Um oh perfect. So looking at that, um, we developed a three-year goal to ensure that all our team members here at SHPOG, general ed and special education, have the training, supports, tools, resources that they need to engage in powerful learning for all students. Um, particularly for, but not limited to our specialed population. Um, so this year was a bit exploratory um because we weren't exactly sure what we thought our general ed um, colleagues needed. So there was some action steps that we uh took uh as the group took upon us and sort of divvied up the duties but we met with teachers, counselors um general ed and specialed teachers
056um to understand what they felt they needed to sort of bridge the gap or bridge the divide of of where students are coming in now, what challenges they're facing and equipping the teachers to to be more prepared for that work. So we met uh at the special ed department meeting level. We met with the middle school grade um level meetings. Uh we met at uh our our department leader or our instructional leader met with the leaders of the high school to get to garner some information. Um and what we learned was that certainly they're looking for more um professional development around differentiation, the assisted tech technology tools that that we have, but also um what tools what other tools are out there to aid in supporting students. We learned that they would like more um
057resources, more leveled books, more um perhaps assisted technology, um more hardware, perhaps more software. Uh they're looking at more specific student instruction, uh or or information. So we need every year my our special education staff at the start of every year meets with our general ed colleagues to share information about each student so that the general ed staff are prepared to implement accommodations that are part of students plans. Um that gets done every year but it is uh at the start of the year a very packed time. Um and so we understood that we're we needed to look at the way we're we're sharing data. Um so so that was also a piece of um information that we received and also people are looking for more disability specific information to aid their to to aid
058their um knowledge and more collaboration and more collaborative time. So with finding that out we divided up into smaller groups our goal committee and we looked at um surveying the school. We want to get understandings of um people's beliefs, their understanding, their their feeling of how their capacity, how they feel skilled enough to do certain things or what they feel they need support in. Uh we we a group of us decided to work together on just disability information. How do we get information knowing that lots of information goes out at the start of every school year? Um how do we get information about specific disabilities, particularly the ones that are more present in our population of students? How do we get that information out? We're still grappling a little bit with we know what we
059want to do, but we're not sure exactly uh the right way to do it. Understanding that information overload also isn't super great either, but but we're working on that. I'll talk a little bit more about that. Um and we also wanted a group of us wanted to work on things we want people to notice. Um we called them concerning behaviors. Not that that that there's anything wrong with the behaviors, just things we should pay attention to because these changes in students may signify something much larger that we need to get ahead of before we have to react to it. So, so we divided into those committees to do that work. Um, and we've also that survey that we we developed has been administered right before the vacation and that group is is continuing to look
060at the data uh related to what they've received on that. But some of the deliverables that came out of those sort of conversations uh we came up with a student profile summary. So each year we we we share accommodation forms with teachers about what teachers should be doing to support general eds uh to to support special ed students participation in the general uh curriculum. Um, so, uh, this year we developed a form that hopefully is going to gain, um, hopefully is going to allow for people not to be overwhelmed with how many students they're hearing about those first couple of days. So, we came up with a form that we developed that has not only um, not only the challenges that student faces and the goals and the objectives, but also their strengths, their interests,
061um, strategies that work for them. And we're doing that right now with the current teacher, special ed teachers they have because here at Chap each grade level, a student is assigned a new case manager. Some people may say, well then you don't know the student as well each year. But each case manager works at every grade level and becomes an expert in that grade level. So we see the value of that, but this form hopefully will be able to inform not only the general ed staff, but also the new case manager that will be taking over for the students. So we've developed a student profile summary and the teachers have been diligently working on their case load of students right now to have those ready for the end of the year. So at the start
062of the year that can be disseminated along with the conversations that we're having with teachers. We came up with our concerning behavior worksheet. Um and we've worked with Carrie already a little bit about how are we going to work um the time spent to share with our colleagues about our specialized students. How are we going to work that out? Sometimes it works beautifully when you're talking about, okay, the ninth grade team meets with with at this time, but maybe the seventh or sixth grade team is meeting simultaneously. That normally works fine for special ed teachers and general ed teachers, but my related service people, my speech pathologists, my psychologists, my OT's, my PTs, they have kids in all grade levels. So, by doing that, we're not always getting everybody at the same time at the
063table that need to be together. So Carrie and I have worked a little bit around what that that day is going to need to look like, whether it's the first day, the second day of our PD, but we've looked at um what that's going to look like. We've also looked at sixth grade obviously is a big year. We those students are coming up brand new from our elementary school and nth grade is a big year because we're actually not just taking in our eighth graders, we're taking in ninth graders from other towns. So our hope is is that I can uh is that the sending towns will also fill out the student um profile that that we have created. we're going to rely on them to do that. But that's our that's our hope. Um
064so that's where we are right now. The remaining things that we want to do for the rest of the year is analyze the survey data and and share it and and get it out there. Um because some of our work will need to start looking at what what people um need. Yes. And and what um and what they believe in as far as you know how we work together and how we can work better together. Um, we want to determine next steps with the identified needed training. So, how do we figure out who who is going to do some training for us? Do we have capacity within to do it? Do we have to go to specialists on the outside? Um, we're going to coordinate with Carrie and the high school principal for PD opportunities
065and schedules. Understanding that all this PD won't happen at the very start of the year next year, but we do have half days, we do have staff meetings. So understanding that um we're going to have to be systematic because there's so much to do um it's not just this um I'm going to have to allocate some grant resources for um the necessary professional development that we think that the teams think they need. Um we're still working on strategizing the best way to handle the way we're going to share information um about disabilities is through infographics. um some of my uh teachers that have a real interest and passion for technology and and making things look pretty and simple and and and concise um are working on that. We're trying to figure out is it best
066to have that like five or 10 minutes at department meetings or five or 10 minutes at a faculty meeting or do we do we actually have a document or do we put out a newsletter monthly or do we put out a Google classroom where we say here are all these resources. We're still trying to do that because but with so much going on we also don't want to overwhelm. We want it to actually feel like well received and not like, oh my gosh, how are we gonna keep our heads wrapped around all these things? So, we're working on that. That committee is still working on best way to uh work through that. Um, and we're going to begin to recruit some general ed staff. I definitely have some people who spoke up at their team
067at the at the grade level meetings or at the at the high school level meetings and the counselors that spoke up that I wonder if they would be willing to sort of jump in on our um goal for next year because I do think the more people we can get as as part of this group then the more likely it is that when this goal is over in year three we have a committee of of a a team looking at this constant continuous growth and and improvement So um that's uh where we want to go for the end of the year. We hope to have the survey data out in user-friendly format for SHPOG. Um we hope to have a list of PD opportunities um for SHPOG um maybe not exactly the schedule but you
068know where we think we want it to fall in the course of the year and we want to have those documents about specific uh student specific um I'm sorry disability specific uh information uh to be ready by the end of the year. So for year two, I think our goal like where it'll exactly go, I think this is where we want it to go, but it may go in different directions. It may we may delve deeper into one area than another, but I do see we need to implement that professional development plan and start creating um you know plans around who's going to help us with that. Do we have people in house? Do we need to get people out of house? Um we're going to allocate those resources to support the indicated needs, assisted
069technology, materials, equipment, hardware, software. um get those general ed teammates um share information with families about the goal and and ask for their support around the goal and maybe give them ways they can support the goal. And we have some beginning ideas about that. Um as we created our concerning behaviors work worksheet, we wondered about how it likely would be good to not only share with teachers but parents to be aware of these things and to alert us to things they're noticing at home if if we're not noticing it here. Many of our students that have challenges are a little bit of internalizers where they're not always necessarily showing us their behaviors but just struggling with them within. And so um garnering parent uh you know um family help is an important piece of the
070goal. And then finally um get student voice right obtain their voice. What kind of things do you need to meet expectations? What is missing here? So that's what our hope is for next year to to to grow this a little bit um to make sure families and students are involved. And then year the next year, the third year, just continued implementation of the plan. Hopefully, it'll grow to be something that's sort of a self- sustaining committee that just looks at how we can get better. Um, I do think, you know, what we're doing here is very good work, but we can always get better and things change, things get more complex, and um to be able to have a culture of problem solving and um and uh student focus is the goal. So, that's the
071work. Any questions? Thank you for that. I love like all the work that we're doing around um this program. We are kind of known throughout the state as having such a particularly wonderful special ed program. Um so I love that we're continually working and thinking about ways to include. Um, I want to echo how exciting I am, excited I am about you including GenEd teachers and how important that is. Kind of something that we've learned through education over the last few years is how generally what's good for neurodeiverse students is good forum our neurotypical students as well. Um, so meeting the needs of those complex learners um from special ed and adding that to the gened teachers ability to provide neuroirming classroom strategies I think is going to be really important and helpful. Um while
072this presentation is focused on Chipog, is there something different for well so elementary? So I so my goal is just around Chipog right now. The largest population of special education students is here because we're 6 through 12. It's not that I don't plan to do this work at elementary, but they're working on separate goals right now. So I'm sort of I do see this moving down like when we get a model that works well, I do see this moving down. I also think there's some some more innate there's just challenges at Chicago um that are a little different than the elementary because you're talking about you know 8 10 teachers um as opposed to that one. So I don't I guess I had to pick and choose where I thought let's go after the complex
073one and when we can do it in a really complex place let's let's bring it down and figure out how to make it work at the elementary level. Um so there is a plan certainly to do that. Um, and then is there a way also to I don't know maybe you've already done this to like survey some of the special ed families as well to kind of pinpoint how was that maybe you know ideas for professional development or areas in particular. Yeah, that's a great plan that I think that's will be year two things strategizing how we can involve families because I do think that's an important piece of this work. So that along with the engaging them and sharing the information we're doing a survey makes really great sense. Thanks for doing this. Absolutely.
074Um, great questions and I echo everything you know that you questioned. Um, I do want to thank you for all the hard work that you're doing uh to this very important um part of our our district. Um, with that being said, how many parents do you have par educators do you have in grade 6 through 12 here? uh refresh my memory because I you know I know I've Yeah. So there's there's 23 districtwide. I would gather we have about 10 6 through 12 but I can get specific information. Yeah, that's fine. And what sort of um PD are you planning for the PAR educators? Because PAR educators are really in the forefront and while the while the you know the classroom teachers are extremely important I'll never negate that. uh par educators are working with
075those students and um you know what sort of uh plans do you have for um educating and training you know are you doing you know behavioral training are they or is anyone getting certified you know RBT training or anything like that yeah so I would say probably the work with Paris has been ongoing it's not just part of this plan so um we have uh with our half days that are scheduled um and the beginning of the year PDS. We've done work with Jane Brown to talk about increasing independence in our students. Um we've done work with ESS to talk about disability specific disability uh disability specific information like autism and and um and and we had Jeremy Ferrellin to talk about autism as well to our pair of professionals along with ESS presenters to
076talk a little bit more about sort of um strategies and and characteristics and and tools. Uh we have done other work with ESS around um behavior management. We've had our behavior um the contracted behavioral agency we use um Larry Bonup and um behavioral consulting associates they've come in and they do uh training as well um for our paras. Um so you know we that was the sure thing that over the last few years every you know I I've been sure to schedule that work. There's also a tool that we use through master teacher which is the there is a program that has a par educator um section as well that they can use. So if there is something specific right related to because so many of our paras work with so many different types of
077students. So there are lots of tools on that that might be 45 minute sort of seminars. Um so if we complete things early there's also student to para educator time that we set aside on those half days too um to try to encourage um student specific information and um uh challenge like u to bring to the forefront challenges that I'm facing in the classroom as a par educator and have the teacher and them work through those strategies. So time has been set aside for those students as well. That's why I talk um about sort of everybody as a general education and special ed team. Um that that that they wouldn't just because they're not um the teachers that I've surveyed on what kind of tools do they need to get to to make sure that
078they feel equipped for the diverse needs. Um I feel like we've been working with Paris for a while. It's not to say that they, you know, everybody needs training. Um but I do feel like one thing that's been off of my plate a little bit. Um because uh I would say most general educators know me as Ally, the person that runs the PPT and will engage with them when there's a student specific challenge. But when I went to go see them, it was exciting and fun because I said, "No, you think of me as Ally, allocator of resources and what do you need and what what what do you need to be better at what you do?" Not that I can promise everything that you have in your mind to you, but I am I
079do write a grant every year. I do um we do think about like proactive approaches to keeping students successful in our buildings and so what you know so look at me in a different way today look at me as if you could have anything that you needed to help people in your classroom what would you need so that was um that was how I was approached and then when I brought it back to the committee they're super invigorated and energized the the teachers right now my my my special ed team um not just teachers the psychologists they were really excited with oh they need at I bet you I could do this or yeah you're right the way we do it is sort of you know it it's it's short at the beginning of the
080year and not only that we have a lot going on at the beginning of the year maybe we can memorialize something a little bit better so it's sort of given like oh we can that's simple we can get that out you know we can share that that's an easy fix and then there are harder fixes you know that that so we decided to try to meet the easy fixes this year so you need more student specific information piece of cake we can do it this way you need um more training a little bit more complicated Um but how do we get that? Do we feel like we have the expertise between the specialists in our building and um some of the consultants we use uh or do we have to go outside? Um so doing
081that kind of things those are a little bit more complicated. Um but everybody's the people in the goal group were really excited and I think I felt when I was meeting with the grade level teams um there was an excitement for them as well that um you know if if you could help with this or you could strategize that. So collaboration as well you know that that's been thought of and and we've worked with Sophia Veles to um see like when we're scheduling things if we know we have a co-teer in English let's make sure they're free. So we did that this year. That's not new, but you know, when you have a co-teer that's co-eing four subjects, it's hard to make sure they're free whenever you have, you know, four four teachers are free.
082So we're sort of thinking high stakes. Which ones, where do you feel more comfortable? Where have you been the longest? What do you need the most help with? How do we get you planning time with that person? Thank you. Thank you. I think that collaboration is key for all members uh involved. Um and just one more question. Um, as far as assist of technology or BCBA, those are consults outside of the community or do you have people in house in the district? And how they're contracted out. And how accessible are those? Yeah. So, our contract with assisted technology, we work through CRE. Um, and we have an assisted technology consultant that we've had for probably at least the last eight years. Her name is Nicole Matali. Um, and so we contract with her. She comes
083in twice monthly. I think I contract 20 sessions with her. She also jumps in and does some trainings from time to time. So last year she met with the senior class uh with with um Mrs. Davies um just to say, "I know you're leading us, but here are tools that are universal that are out there that you can use in college. Um so we have Nicole. She's been here for years and she I contract with her 20 times a year, but I've also added days for her to come and do PD. She's jumped into some of our halfday PBS for the Paris. She's she's done some assisted technology training with them as well. Um our behaviorist is also contracted. Um and so the behaviorist can uh work up work with us for I mean we
084can go more than 10 hours a week but normally 10 hours a week has sufficed. He also I can go above and beyond with the contract to have him come in and do some trainings which we have done. Um but that is um so he's he's here weekly or his group is here weekly. Um and so uh he has varying from year to year but three to four um either RBTs or um other VCBAS that will come out and support us um within the district. Yeah, it's all Sure. EMTT training. Do you how do you go about that? Yeah. So um we have a team in each building. Uh I would tell you that I would say almost every special educator is trained. Um but but there are al team of general ed you know
085there are general educators that are trained there are nurses that are trained there are psychologists gym teachers um uh assistant principles principles um so they're trained and years ago we used to have to send out to PMT to Middletown to get that done uh we have two three in-house coaches uh that can reertify every year so every February professional development um and para educators are also trained right so we have we probably have upward of upwards of 40 plus across the district people trained. Um and we reertify um in February um and as we hire new people on board if the potential is there for them to have to be a part of it um then we send them to Middletown and then we get on the cycle of February training. So some people got
086sent to Middletown this this October when they were hired and got retrained in February because we just want everybody on the the same cycle. Working very hard. Thank you. Any questions? Any others? Great job. Thank you so much. We have um the Chicago Valley Partnership. Hello. I'm not your typical teacher. I'm just letting you know. Um Tammy right now is passing out um our presentation and I just want to say that at the end of this you will be quizzed and if you pass me go home and if you don't you're going to stay here. So I'm just going to explain who we are, what we are, what we do. Uh we had a presentation years ago. Um, but just to do a refresher, um, I want to thank Mary for coming down and visiting
087and popping in and seeing what we do, um, and hanging out and chatting. And I'd like to thank Lori for letting us come here tonight. So, um, here is So, here's our program, and this is in your packet. Um, so our program serves students that are aged 18 to 22. they've met their academic requirements and they need to further develop vocational and independent living skills. After years of planning, training, and consultation, our transition program became a reality in the 201819 school year. Um, thank you to Allan. Um, so we had a lot of training prior to this um, and transition um, and stayed banged. Anyway, let's go on. So, our goal is to equip our students with the tools and opportunities needed to build an independent, fulfilling future. We support this by connecting them to
088community and state resources, empowering their decision-making, and strengthening their self- advocacy skills to help them navigate their life plans with confidence. When our kids leave us, we want them to be independent, as independent as possible. Yes. as they can be. Um, and that's what we're doing. Next page, please. Where can you find us? We are located at the lower. Um, that's our blue. So, see this? You know, you've um you've arrived. Thank you. Um, so if you see this, then we're home. If you see this in the parking lot, we are home. And we we call that the hub. So, we're at the hub if the vehicle is in the parking lot. We've also called the car Mary. I just want to share that because it's a Chevy Travers and we thought Mary Travers would
089be kind of a good good name. So, get it. Okay. Um, so, um, and we were very lucky actually to get that vehicle. When Ally said that she will work on getting whatever we want, Nicole and Ally really Yeah. worked worked their magic. And when Ally said, "Well, what do you want?" And couple way back then and I said, "A car." Yeah, that's not going to happen. Okay. Well, what do you want? A car. That's not going to happen. So it happened and it's it's like just broadened our scope, broadened our independence. Um we've really because of that are able to do things that we were not able to do prior. Okay. I may may say one of the things that we're going to do. Absolutely. So you may see us around the district at
090the schools because having that car has has enabled our students to be able to deliver the bail for the district. So they are they get the mail at the um central office and we go and deliver it to each schools. So that gives them a good interaction and an intro to a job and it helps the district. building lifelong learning. Some things that we work on daily living and planning. For example, what's the weather like? What types of clothes should you wear? Work, leisure, that's a big part of our life. Cooking, writing down appointments, knowing when they have to go to the doctor, um even even work. um using a planner or personal device. Budgeting for the week, the students all have their own bank account. Um that's something that we do when they enter
091the program and we ask them to have a bank account hopefully at Union Savings so that we can walk right across and get done what we need to get done. So they uh check their bank balance, they deposit their paychecks, they withdraw, they deposit, they for the week they budget and we say, "Okay, well, how much money are we going to need for Friday? We're going to go here. Um this is what we need to figure out." So that's part of what they do. They budget for the week. Uh we work on community safety, crosswalks, parking lots, um unknown people and emergencies, lifelong fitness and healthy habits. Currently the students go to uh Nimover Fitness and Aquatics and they work out twice a week. Um about an hour, maybe a little bit more depending. Um
092sometimes we can stretch it and they all have they do a fitness plan. They know what they have to do. um they may need a timer. They may need um a card that says what they need to do or they have it up here. So um we get them going with that and then they fly shopping. We go shopping for food, we go shopping for clothing and we do gifts. Christmas time is a big the kids have to plan that out. They have to determine what they would like to get uh their family and figure out the cost of what that may be. dining out, fast food, they're always picking McDonald's, um sitdown restaurants, and takeout. So, we've done all of those and um it's really good practice for them. So, it builds on their
093functional skills um where they have to read the menu, they have to determine, you know, the amount. Again, budgeting comes into play. Do I have enough money? Well, I have my debit card. That usually is one of the comebacks. and I say, "Well, when we both say, "What do you have for cash? You know, you need to bring cash." So, um, that's that's fun when they do that. They like them. Um, also state resources. We tie into, um, we have a good relationship with people at DDS, uh, at Level Up and at BRS. Level Up starts here, um, with the transition, uh, with Sarah Burns program. um and level up. They come in and they talk to the kids and they do interest inventories. They talk about work uh and and uh BRS is when
094they when they leave us if they go into the work field, they will go into BRS. So I have tight close ties um with all three of those um counselors. BR is the Bureau of Rehab Services. Sorry, not embassy and special ed. Um um so as I'm saying collaboration with state agent Thanks Ben. Um we support families in preparing their students for life after SVP. We're we've developed a transition checklist. That was my goal this year. Um that outlines the essential steps to be completed before a student exits our program. So I have that checklist. Um, and actually we had one before it was draft form. I really tweaked it down. I matched it up to what DDS had um similar and I just broke it all down. They um there's some things on there
095like um who has guardianship? Have they been um do they have their state ID? Um bank account, all of these things. Are they registered to vote? So these are all things that we impress upon the students. Um, we also collaborate I yeah well we collaborate closely with the state agencies to ensure that each student is set up for long-term success. So we serve as a conduit between the school and the state. So the resources our community partnerships we have students that have worked at all of these businesses and then some. Washington Food Market. If you go in there now, one of our students is currently working. She is stocking and she is also being trained as a nation. So, and and she's doing wonderfully. So, if you go in to the Washington Food Market, we
096may see her a Washington Pizza House. We've worked at HomeGoods, Washington Supply, Roxberry Animal Clinic, Salem Covenant Church, the Mayflower, the Mayflower, um, Reach Preschool, and Aspatuck Animal Hospital. We just secured the congregational church. So, I have to go up and set up a plan for that. I just want to say a quick thing about our partnerships. So when we set up um to work at Salem Covenant Church, I walked with um at the time Pastor Linda was the pastor who just recently retired. Um when I sat and I talked with her, she before she knew the name of our program, she like or didn't really realize the name, she said, "Well, this is going to make a wonderful partnership." And I was like, "Okay, this is this was meant to be." Yeah. And it
097was it has been a great partnership. Miss her very much now she's retired but it's still a wonderful wonderful place for our student. So when they go to work they um they get paid wage. So they get paid like everybody else out there which is amazing because a lot of transition programs pay like um so Ally has been really good about that and has really she's aware that the kids you know hey you got to go out to work and like anyone else like minimum wage they have to fill out a time sheet they have to uh add up their hours they have to ask the job coach us to sign it and then they sign it and then it gets submitted to Alex so So, it's just like working a real job. If they're
098out that day, they need to call. They need to call the business and they tell them that they won't. Um, if they're going to be a little late, they need to call. If they have something planned prior to, they need to let them know ahead of time. So, just like a real job, I just had a kind of uh next slide then. Thank you. I just kind of had to toot our horn about this because I'm sure a lot of you have not heard about this, but uh back in 2021 um after COVID um Subaru has this um it's called the Love Project and we were a recipient of all of these backpacks right here. And what they did was they um it's a campaign where they focus on giving back to the community and
099one of those areas is education. So um um um got in contact with me and said I need to know what your kids need. You know what what do they need? What could they use? And my first thought was we had we had talked about it. We brainstormed and we thought, wouldn't it be nice if they had a backpack that they could take to work so they could put everything in it? They could put their water bottle, their lunch, whatever they needed. So, they ended up putting in um I mean, for example, there was a calculator, there was writing utensils, there was an apron. So, when they were cooking, there was a word search book um with bars, there was water bottles, there was a comb and brush, mirror, deodorant. um deodorant, um some word
100search for like leisure time. Yeah. So, it was it was really cool. So, we got four of those backpacks. Um and we still have some left actually. Um all right, interested. Yeah, the future students. So, here's some of our community based work experiences. Um pretty cool. We're working with everybody and um within the Washington market. Next slide, please. Thank you. Uh community based instruction. So, our instruction takes place in the community. Yes, we do stuff at the hub. However, most of it is out. We're out. Um so, one of our students had to find spices for one of the recipes we were doing. Um, so we went shopping, um, going to the bank, putting in your debit card, getting the balance, checking it out, and then going into just local businesses and seeing what they
101have to offer. So, lots of pictures here. I like I'll just frame them all on. So, community outing. Um, we've done so many different things. We like to be outside a lot, so we try to do a lot of hiking when it gets nice. Um we'll take the kids hiking hiking you know with that focus on fitness and being healthy. So um you know a lot of there's field I don't know if anyone of you been to that it's really um we went we did eagle watching at the observatory bowling with um vessel transition so we met up with other transition programs. Um, this is Christmas obviously. Um, popcorn. She's pretty excited. How about you? They love the cave, the railro where the railroads used to go through. Well, so we hiked up there and
102they loved it and we met up with birds and her kids. So, we do things with others as well. Um, next page, please. Thank you. Uh community volunteering at Chesnick Grove. So we went to Chesnut Grove. Um we're going to go again in May and we volunteered and with them we made um floral arrangements and um they had fun. They loved it and they were kids and the kids were talking back and they really interaction. Yeah, it was a good um so they had a good time. So we do volunteer. Next slide please. Oh, thank you. fitness at its finest. So, this is where when we go to the gym, they work out on the bike, you know, the stiffer. I don't know about that one. Um, and then riding a bike as well. So,
103they all have the routine. Okay. So, this student here became a first-time voter. So, what happened was um she registered to vote when she got her state ID. We took her and so she she got to vote in this election and it was just very exciting, you know, and she like, God bless her, you know, um, let her through everything and told her what she needed to do and how she needed to put the envelopes and how she needed ceiling. So then she came down afterwards after Jamie dropped off the sorry after my student dropped off um the envelope. Sheila came downstairs and brought her a sticker and she thought she you know it was the best thing since slice. So she did vote in last page. So this is us. Yeah. So we we
104like to have fun. We like to have a good time with the kids. Um um obviously we are serious as well. However, we do like to have fun and we see that you know they're they learn really well. You have a little bit of sens that was our outfit for delivering mail. Yeah. So that this is us though. We're team SVP. That's what we call. Does anyone have any questions? Mr. Cobble. Yes. How are your alums doing? Do you hear back from them? No. Yes. One of them texts me Every night. Oh, not that one. One text me a lot, too. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So, um I've reached out to them um you know like during their birthdays. Yeah. You hear back sometimes it takes a couple days and then you'll ask they'll ask you
105a question like the one that texts me every night. Well, how are you tonight, Mrs. O'Neal? You know, and um and um I'll write back to him. I'm doing well. How are you? you know, I just fed the chickens or whatever. What are you doing tonight? And I never hear from So, so I go along with it. I, you know, do the questions and yes, so we do hear from them, which is rather cool. Rather, well, thank you very much. One of the most important things we do appreciate your Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, I just want to piggyback on that, Greg. Um, your program is simply amazing and I need to let you know that I am very very close uh family friends with one of your alumni and she I have the pleasure
106of driving her to her day program every Wednesday morning and I bring her home every Wednesday afternoon and you and the program are always a topic of conversation. Okay. She's almost 24 years old and she still talks about what she learned in your program and she utilizes what she learned in your program daily. So I need to make sure that everybody understands the importance of this program and how it stays with the students and what you are doing is priceless. and she still talks about you. You know who it is. And um and I can't thank you enough for giving her that opportunity and for teaching her everything that you have taught her. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to cry now. Oh no. It's amazing. It's amazing. Right. Thank you.
107I'm so glad you got to uh do a presentation. Um, you did one when I was first back on the board and I I really I'm glad that people that have come on since have an idea when we talk about the Chicago Valley partnership that this is them. Thank you. Thank you for visiting. Thank you so much for presenting. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Wow. So much goodness tonight. It's really amazing really. So, moving on to reports and recognition. Uh, I start with mine. I have a little bit to say, so I know we've been here a lot tonight, but I just wanted to go over a few things. I wanted to actually start my report just talking a little bit about what Lori had been municipal um, elementary school committee. And I really haven't
108shared much here and I apologize for that. mostly I think because we're just trying to um piece it all together and it feels at times when we leave the meetings it feels a little um complicated. Um but at the same time I also feel um that the work that we've been doing even though we've met I think three or four times now Justin four four um I I I'm very hopeful just about working together as a as a team. I think it's the first time to be able to sit down with all three towns. um the first selectman, community members, board members, and just really talk about uh the three elementary schools. Um and so the the the goal we always seem to go back and forth between survey, presentation, and survey. And so um
109the goal is is to we're working um all of us at the table to create a uh survey that we will present to our uh stakeholders in the three communities once we uh give a presentation of a PowerPoint. And the PowerPoint is again collaborative. Everybody has um stake on this uh PowerPoint. We're creating it together. It's online. We're sharing it. there's ownership among all three communities and everybody that's at the table and that's really exciting and it's the first time because it can be a really um sensitive subject for all the three communities. I feel that we've been really working well together to try to um uh listen to what the three communities want um and to really uh support each other so that we can find something that everybody can be happy with. And
110really what we need to do is present information to the three communities um to inform them, not to guide them. We're not steering the vehicle. I always say we're just simply presenting information and then allowing the communities to make their decisions based on the surveys. So we're working on the um questions for the surveys because again there needs to be ownership among all three communities with very three three different um visions and maybe not. We don't know. We won't really know until we decide what the communities think and feel. And the um goal is is to once we get the surveys get a real sense of how the community feels, communities feel. So then we can move forward with whatever that plan is. It's not um helpful to spend money engineering and designing something without
111knowing that we have buyin from all three communities. So that's really important. Um and I think that that was been the goal. So, I just want to thank everybody that's on the committee um for their hard work um their patience. I think that it's been um exhausting in a good way. Uh but I'm really hopeful that we can uh work move forward um the three communities and and um find a happy happy medium to so I just wanted to share a little about that. Um, I also wanted to talk I know there's been some questions and concerns and this is certainly not my area of expertise, but I did want to just touch base a little bit on um, one of the concerns that I've been hearing about is the iPads that are in kindergarten
112and first grade classrooms. Um, and there's just been some questions and concerns. And I think that the misconception is is that somehow iPads are being handed to these kindergarters in first grade and they're sitting in a corner and maybe they're just playing games and that's obviously not the case. And so I just really wanted to be very clear that the teachers are using iPads in the classroom. Um it can be a powerful tool when done thoughtfully and that's what our teachers are doing instead of relying on technology just for the sake of it. effective. Um, teachers use iPads to deepen learning, to personalize instruction, and to engage students in a way that traditional uh, methods sometimes can't. So, they can plan carefully, choosing apps and activities that align with learning goals rather than, uh, distract
113from them. So, uh, they're also set with very clear expectations for the responsibility of how to use them. Making sure the iPads are tools for creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, not thoughtful um integration ensures that technology supports uh real learning and um not shall shallow hair um haircuts, shallow shortcuts. So really this shortcuts, haircuts, shortcuts, whatever it may be, but I just I you know I it's a tool to really allow our students to um uh certainly they aren't a replacement of books, right? It's helped to enhance reading um math. And so I just really wanted to and again I'm not the expert but I just wanted to reiterate some of the um importance of of these um iPads and tools. Yes. I I also wanted to say that um without those iPads during the
114pandemic we would have been lost. We would not have been able to even have anything for the for our students to do. So it is important to have that if anything like this should happen and if we have to for some reason go uh online learning again you know it might be different things that we I think the emphasis is really about more the kindergarten and first grade which of course they use it but I think that the I feel like the the misconception is that somehow that's their learning tool. It's um one of the uh tools in the in the bag so to speak to allow um and also too it's this is 21st uh 21st century techn learning. So we want to make sure that our students are um up to par as
115with all the other districts and not only our state but throughout the country. So I just wanted to share a little bit about that. Um and then the other uh thing I would like to share is again um I had a really wonderful opportunity today with our senior center to go up to uh Chicago here today with the aggra science students and we made floral arrangements and it's just again such a wonderful opportunity to um engage with the students and a way that I don't normally get to see. It was really a one-on-one experience with our uh senior community and the uh students in this class. I sat down with three uh seniors actually while we created um my flower floral arrangement, which of course didn't look like everybody else's be um a little bit
116more wild with my my floral arrangement. But um I was so enthralled with these students and I loved asking them what they were doing next year, what their interests were. Um, we just talked a lot and I mean it's and I know this sounds so silly but it's eye contact. They were asking me questions. We were laughing. I was watching other students engaging with other of our senior communities and and when we all left everybody was so thrilled and also again just so impressed with the students and how they um interact with our adults and our communities that are outside their comfort zone. So it was just a really amazing and we had some pretty amazing flowering. So those are my So I just wanted to add to the piece about the technology there were
117I mean just to clarify there were some comments on a social media as a post. So this isn't necessarily a widespread concern. Um so I just wanted to clarify that I didn't read them but but just hearing I think it's important to make sure that we um provide clarity around that. And one of the things that uh Carrie did was go out and ask the teacher what do we have and how are those software programs used. There's a wonderful document that they put together. I said, Carrie, we need to put this online. So, event soon we will um just so that parents can see with all transparency the kinds of software and programs we use. But something you just said, Mary, um that resonated with me that was we learned a valuable lesson, not just
118in region 12 or the state, across the nation during COVID that we were way behind. Um, and it it really scared a lot of educators because the students were further along than we ever would be at that point. And so we definitely learned about all those software programs because we explored and had to um and so you know the comments about well you know students need to really focus on reading and writing that's what they're doing with their iPad or their any kind of device. Um, and I can see that's an immediate reaction. But if you think of the alternative, years ago, it was stand and deliver and worksheets and workbooks. I mean, this is just one tool to engage students. And if you can't engage kids, then they're not learning either. So, I, you
119know, I think just thinking more clear having more clarity around what what its purpose is. Um, and you're right, Jen, they're not just sitting around on their devices all day. there's a purpose behind it and it really is learning. So I just wanted to add that. Yeah, I think but that wasn't all my report but go ahead. Well and and to just like continue on that like thread is that I think the important thing there is the thoughtful use because we also do know our kids and how sometimes they like run away with their knowledge of how to use technology before we as parents or teachers or caregivers know how to keep up with. So that is something I think just as we continue to use it is that we need to continually be, you
120know, on the adult side figuring out how we're monitoring that because kids do find ways around things. And I think, you know, I'm sure there are parents who have I I don't know about the Facebook post. So I don't know if it was like a personal like you know whether it was an anecdote or something about like I'm just you know wondering or you know projecting onto the group but um you know I'm all for using the technology but again at those with those little fibs and and figuring out they're just so quick at figuring out how to get around things and how to get to websites that they should or shouldn't be on. It's figuring out how do we monitor it? How do we make sure they're using it appropriately? how do we monitor
121our time with it? And really like doing both things, right? Maybe using some of those older, you know, ways that are difficult to engage kids in. But, you know, we've also had people come up and talk about how with more use of technology, we are struggling with attention spans and we are struggling with how are we how do we continue to engage them without screens as well. I know it's a tricky line to walk, but I appreciate that we're having the conversation and adults are still, you know, caregivers and teachers and parents are now talking about it as we've, you know, I think, but I I just also and I know it's your report. I want but I also do encourage community members and all of us to ask the questions, right? We can assume
122that if a if a child has an iPad that they're just sitting there zoned in, but we don't know unless we ask. So if we ask the questions to our superintendent and to to Carrie and to our teachers, how do you util how do you use this in the classroom? Tell me how this works. That helps us to really get a bigger sense of of the bigger picture. And so I guess as board members too as we go out into our communities, I also encourage all of us to make sure that we're informing our community members of that. So um you know that's really important. I feel like that's part of our responsibility to make sure that we um uh share the information correctly and also respons 100% right. Communication between parents and the teachers
123directly. If you have a concern, you've got to go there and start there. And we as educators grapple with that very thing. We were just talking about it at during our admin meeting because you know the the book the anxious generation and all of that. Um and social media and how kids get involved in that that that's kind of separate from this stuff. I mean the experts are the teachers in the classroom and know there's a balance right there's a purpose behind it. Um so you know we just we just want parents to know that um we're using it for that group and community. Yes. Okay. So uh just this week's ESPback test going on at the elementary schools. Get grades three through five. Grades six through 8 are doing the ELA portion. Um next
124week next week is math uh in grades six through eight. Um, we also have our district climate survey, uh, which just opened today for, uh, both our parents and our students, um, and teachers. It opened up last week for them. Um, and, uh, it's very important because that's some of the feedback you're hearing a lot about surveys uh, this evening for a variety of things, but the climate survey is a part of our strategic plan. very important um how we're doing and how we can uh get better at it and establishing those positive environments for all of our students uh and staff. Um so that's what's going on this week. And just in personnel, we've had two appointments. Christopher Holly uh data tech specialist. We're very excited districtwide. Um, and Owen Moore, who will is
125subbing, uh, a substitute elementary teacher at Booth uh, Free School. And then we had, uh, I'm just going through the retirements. Um, we will be honoring those retirees here at a future meeting, just so you're aware of that. Um, but we had Stephanie Davies, special ed teacher at Chapag Valley School, Mary Rose Granka, interventionist at Booth School and Burnham, Betsy O'Neal, who's over here tonight. Um, special ed teacher at Chap Valley Partnership. Uh, we have Deborah W, English social studies teacher at Chap Valley School. Uh and we will be again celebrating um well I guess it is celebration uh for them uh not us uh at a future meeting. And then um unfortunately we lost Marie uh to our admin assistant um to Don to the director of facilities um and uh we're going to
126be filling that position uh soon I hope. um field trips. We have uh our students uh from baseball going to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Coopertown, New York on May 2nd. That's it. I have a question. Yes. Um well, first of all, I think it's great that you the kids are going to the the Coopertown to the to the Hall of Fame. I've been twice and it's an amazing experience and I've seen watched games on that field they're going to play on and I think that's a wonderful a wonderful thing for them. Um the other thing I wanted to ask is you you mentioned the ESPback tests are going on now as third graders to fifth graders. Uh those tests are done how but but they're done with paper and pencil and No, they're
127No, they're all online. Yeah. Entirely done in computer. So it is a mystery why we would ever expose the first and second graders to computers. Point. Well done. Well done your treasures report. Alex. Yes. Um we are going through the numbers. Uh it's a little misleading but I'm going to give you the numbers anyway. Last year at this time uh we had uh 12.89% of our budget left. That's under after encumbrances. And this year we have 14.59% left. So we're basically a little over a point and a half ahead. Um so we're in good shape by it. That is my report. Thank you very much. Committee reports. Agra Science Committee Mary. Um, no report. The next meeting is June 6. Thank you. Uh, um, nothing new to report. Our next meeting is going to be
128June 9th. At advance, Joe, nothing new to report. Our next meeting is this Thursday. Uh, uh, finance and operations. Alex. Yes. Um, well, Nicole stole a little of my thunder thunder earlier talking about what some of the things that happened, but uh we had a uh a meeting and uh we went through a couple of different things. There was some uh three transfers. Uh if you're interested, just look into the minutes from the meeting of April 21st and they'll give you the breakdown. And we talked about this room and what we're going to do with it. which Nicole stole my thunder again. Um I know. And the kitchen we we not at this meeting but the one before we had a walk through of of our kitchen and it w it was aside from getting
129locked in the basement. Uh it it was which we did. We did um uh we uh definitely need some work. The one thing that uh uh Nicole did not mention is we took a walk through the art rooms and uh uh and what we've seen tonight uh some of the uh what comes out of it. We're going to need some work done on them also, but this is a future project. It's not in the mix right now like this room is. And this room will be set up so that it facilitates learning. It won't be a library per se. It will be a learning center and uh the furniture will have wheels and it'll be able to be set up in different formats and uh it should be a very good tool for the school.
130And that is it for my report. Thank you so much. Labor negotiation. Uh I don't have anything new. We're probably next meeting in the fall when we have the teachers contract. uh policy. So, we just had our meeting earlier tonight and there's a bunch of things to talk about. Um the first one, we reviewed um the Title 9 policy and Shipman and Goodman has advised us to revert back to the 2020 policy. Then we talked about two policies which are closely related. um policy 1230, community relations, school security and safety. And we reviewed the changes um that Shipment and Goodman made. And these changes are made to provide a protocol if federal immigration authorities attempt to enter the school. Yep. And uh policy 1230 is community relations and this refers to or deals with visitors
131and observations in schools. Um, also these are Shipment and Goodman's revised, you know, revisions and changes were made to determine what happens if a federal immigration authority shows up as a visitor. And motion was made um to bring these policies um to the board for a first read for not the meeting next week, but the one on the 19th. Um, yeah. uh strategic long range we did not meet. So chair uh new business to consider and if appropriate approved non-renewals of staff positions for 25. So you all had I believe you had in your packet the list. Um so I will read it but I just wanted you to know that just because we're uh sharing this um many of these teachers will be taking on other positions uh another year. one is going into
132student teaching and others they truly are leaving because they were building subs and it truly was just that period of time. So just so you know that. So, we had um an a one-year elementary teacher um Elizabeth Acriman, uh Bridget Douglas, uh the Booth Burnham building sub, uh Leslie Volkie, uh who is retired, who was filling in, uh one year for language, uh Brianna Kian, art teacher, uh it wasn't one year for the time she retired, but u most likely will be looking at more time with us. um building sub Emily Lane, building sub Tammy Mcer and um Hannah Pringle who was filling in as an ed assistant long-term sub um and a K teacher kindergarten teacher of one year Chenise Rolls who again most likely so but again as part of what we have
133to do is to present that to Yeah. to consider and if appropriate approve the field trip request to the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in uh October 27th through November 1st. Oh, I'm so sorry. So, I know I'm a familiar face, but just in case, I am Megan Barry. Um, there's two megas in the department, so sometimes it's important to clarify that. Um, so I teach animal science and I have the opportunity this year to serve as the lead FFA adviser. Um, which is a position near and dear to my heart. Uh so we are very excited to be presenting to you guys hopefully the opportunity to take 40 students from our aggra science program to the national the national convention this fall in Indianapolis. Uh we will be busing out again. It's a
13415- hour trip one way and students will have the opportunity to explore our career expo which has over 300 vendors and colleges that the students have the opportunity to speak with. Um our seniors this year really took that away from their trip. It was a major highlight for them. In addition, there are workshops led by students and national officers, which is a really cool opportunity for students to see leadership at the national level. And then we also try to do some fun things tucked in there as well, including a national rodeo as well as um trying to see possibly about doing something like the zoo or breakout room or something that nature to kind of build some bonds on the trip. So, I'm here to help support the trip and answer any questions I actually
135have a question. So, 40 are this year. How many did you How many students were last year? We took just about 30 students last year which were um officers, two winning teams and Peggy like four to five delegates from different grades. Great. Okay. Great. Thank you. I just wanted to move to put it on the do it and I I'll move that we uh approve the field trip uh request at the FFA National uh to the FFA National Convention Minneapolis, Indiana on October 27th through November 1, 2025 and students in grades 10 through 12. Second. All in favor? Well, before Go ahead. I want I think it's exciting that you're taking 40 kids this year and I I think that's wonderful. I think the more the more students that participate in this, the more excited
136they're going to come back and and the better and more exciting the program will be. So, that's excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're excited. We have some um opportunities for kids to help fund raise for it as well. So, that's going to be a big change this year that we're looking forward to. Any other questioning? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. I know. Um I just want to say I thank you all for being here so late tonight. I just want to notice that this is the first time all year that we've been here past 9. Angela, just letting you know that. All year. Can I have them? All year. It's true. I know. Can I have a motion to adjourn? Yes. Always. All in favor? All right.