BOE Budget Workshop

001it is streaming so you're all set great thank you very much all right good evening we're going to call the meeting of the region 15 board of education for Wednesday March 3rd 2021 to order can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mary and before the meeting begins I have a question can you hear me yes okay Mary is this a regular meeting of the Board of Education a special meeting or a workshop meeting uh this is a workshop it didn't say it on it doesn't say it on the uh yeah well it's it's it's noticed as a regular meeting because it's up on

002we have it up we post it in the beginning of the year so it's a it's a workshop meeting for Board of Education members only uh it's a workshop for Board of Education members and we have invited people to present to us on the budget tonight so all right but it doesn't say that on the agenda Mary no because it's it says it's a regular meeting that it's a because we noticed it as a regular meeting in the beginning of the year I'm reading it I don't see said regular meeting oh it just says meeting of the region 15 Board of Education right okay all right so we're gonna move on Richard um don't you think you ought to mention that it's a it's a a budget Workshop meeting and not a regular meeting sure

003I will thank you so much I appreciate it and put it in the minutes please yep we'll do thank you so much okay so it's only for the Board of Education members to speak Richard we are G to let let's get the meeting started and we'll get up to the presentations and then we'll discuss that okay you're out of order right now I'm out of order yes okay I'll shut my mouth thank you um the mission of region 15 a collaborative Community committed to Excellence is to educate every student to be productive ethical and engaged in a global Society through proven and Innovative learning experiences supported by its strong Community who decision- making is based in the best interest of all students um before we begin tonight um I'd like to extend a warm welcome

004to our principles that are here with us tonight um I was saying uh when I came in it's so nice to see you because we normally don't have people in the meeting with us and we haven't seen um many of you with covid so um and it also is not lost to me that it's almost been a year um since we've been dealing with with covid and I wanted to start this meeting with a note of gratitude um I'm sure you know Josh and Carrie and Joe have heard me talk about how much I appreciate um and how much the board appreciates everything that has been happening to help schools stay open um but you have been essential to our schools being open during a pandemic um you have all rolled up your sleeves to

005make this happen um you have stepped in as substitutes when you've been needed um you've gotten tree stumps so kids can have a class outside you've been directing traffic sometimes in the pouring rain and you've laid duct tape on Floors to make sure desks are appropriately spaced so in this time of chaos you have been there for teachers and for students and you have helped things feel as normal as possible for our students and our children um and we appreciate all your efforts and your dedication to our children and you have certainly been acting in their best interests so thank you very much for all your efforts during this very difficult year and now I'm going to turn it over to um Mr Smith for presentations on the budget good evening everybody um before tonight's

006meeting I did email some of the board I emailed all the board members but some of you are are here um so you should have received the draft answers to the questions from last week uh the majority of those questions were asked and addressed during the meeting some of the questions did come in since the meeting so we tried to capture those uh some of the answers to questions from last week will be addressed in tonight's presentation so I didn't go into detail in the uh written question and answer document uh this document will also go on the website and will continue to add to it uh if you have questions that uh aren't addressed in these written answers please send them to me and we will continue to do that um I wasn't going

007to go through each question tonight uh you have the written document if you want to ask any follow-up questions uh we can do that uh towards the end of the meeting if after uh the principal uh the presentation from the principles and uh Dr chetta those questions aren't answered the only Aster I would say is that the question Mr speiro asked last week about the per student um I actually have it done for region 15 Mr speo but uh it's a number in a vacuum and so I want to be able to give you that data not just for region 15 but how it compares to districts around us and so that information uh we're still Gathering so I will have that for you when we meet next and I can send that out to

008the board ahead of time so you don't have to wait until uh next uh two Wednesdays from now I believe is our next budget workshop with that did anybody have any questions they wanted to ask tonight that aren't in there or clarifications I know you just got it so uh you probably didn't have time to review it okay so with that I would um too many screens open here um so with that I will hand it over to our elementary principles to take you through some of the budget items that um are are impacting their budgets and I don't know who's going to start I think it's Miss pelet um or Miss forish um I guess before I head to miss forish I would just want to say thank you this is her last last

009budget presentation here in region 15 and uh I hope it's an enjoyable one for her it doesn't happen a lot that people really look forward to their last budget presentation so thank you miss fores it does help when you unmute sorry about that thank you um Josh good evening members of the board Mr Smith Dr Chipeta Mr Martine and members of the community that are joining us virtually tonight we are here to present an overview of the elementary budget proposal for the coming school year on behalf of the four Elementary principles I want to thank the board and the community for your support over the years your support has enabled us to continually improve teaching and learning so that we can maintain the high level of achievement that the region is so well known for

010in our budget this year we are asking for your continued support so that we can maintain quality programming at the elementary level thank you Mrs forish I want to thank um this is Chris warmer the principal Long Meadow Elementary School I want to thank all the members of the board and the members of the community who have joined us this evening to talk about our plan and our vision for the budget for the 2021 22 year um an expression that I found myself telling teachers at Long Meadow is it's not that we're falling behind and it's not that students are falling behind what we are doing collectively as a community is we are surviving a global pandemic and although some people would be reticent to say so in many ways we are thriving as a

011result of that pandemic with new leaps into technology and other things we'll touch upon this evening there's a a great proverb that we are reading in fifth grade as we read the book Home of the Brave and the proverb is after the sandstorm the Stars remain and I want to make it clear that in the middle of this pandemic the stars or our mission what we dedicate our work lives to here at Region 15 never falters and never fails and is always on our Horizon as we look towards it so I I won't repeat the entire Mission Mrs Manel did an excellent job of doing that but I do just want to share out some of these highlights from it that we continue to hold very dear to us for example a collaborative Community working

012together as administrators as parents as teachers working together to educate every student we have not faltered in our constant daily driving to reach every single student no matter their level or type of ability in all of our schools to offer Innovative learning experiences that are supported by that community and finally every single decision from the minute to the the big ones that affect the entire district has always been based on what is in the best interest of all students so just our mission is always always Our Stars that we don't forget thanks Mr War my name is John Romeo I'm the School principal at gainfield and I'm delighted to start with academic highlights as it's noted at the bottom of the screen we've been in schools since September 1st and we feel that that is

013a a big highlight for us that that we've been in school when when many of our neighbors across the state and across the country have not been able to achieve that but really more importantly we've been in school and we've been focusing on academics the first three bullet points talk about math and uh English language art and because we have a math coach at the elementary level math coaches at the elementary level reading coaches at the elementary level our focus on English language arts and Mathematics has not wavered if anything I'm in my fifth year here I think our professional growth has been the most this year we've seen coaches side by side with teachers helping them more than ever in math and reading and we've seen a real growth with our teachers so we

014wanted to highlight that um as we began our budget presentation to let you know how proud We Are of the work that's been done this year and that continues to be done hi everyone I'm Heather pelicon I'm the principal of middleburry elementary school and um as John mentioned about um English language arts and math we've also been continuing continuing our implementation of the ngss standards which are our science standards as well as our social studies framework um and I also really wanted to highlight that social emotional learning support so it has always been our work um in region 15 schools particularly in our elementary schools that we are really fostering a foundation of social emotional learning for our students this year it's been more important than ever and we've had to look at it in

015different ways at times because not only are we um struggling and and faced with the normal social emotional um impacts of of students this year we also had to work with covid impacts so um and it has really helped us being in school since September 1st like Mr Romeo mentioned um we have been able to to work to deliver consistent um curriculum and education to our students as well as those social emotional supports where um you know if we were um in a further remote environment we may not have been able to do so so we're extremely grateful that we were able to um begin school on September 1st and stay here so I'm going to um so when we go to the next slide you're going to hear more about um the beauty of

016the covid impacts this year so um to me the uh social distancing and cohort recommendations of the CDC um we had to make a few changes to our schedule Furniture uh needs and space utilization social distancing and ensuring students who were in cohorts impacted arrival and dismissal in both cases this required that we scheduled more time at the beginning and end of the school day for arrival and dismissal to meet those guidelines and to run in an efficient manner um special schedules were also impacted again we needed to add time in between special classes to provide for cleaning and disinfecting and for travel since most special Area Teachers travel to the classrooms so that the students stay in their cohorts um the lunch waves also needed to be expanded so that there is sufficient time

017to clean and disinfect in between lunch waves this is really expanded the lunch waves which run from the late morning and until later in the afternoon so for example at PS on a regular school day lunch starts at 10:50 and it ends at 1:50 social distancing impacted our use of furniture for the most part in an elementary school our younger grade classrooms had tables that in the past four students were be were able to sit at um so as a result of the CDC guidelines we needed to purchase flexible Furniture option options and additional desks that could be separated um to meet those guidelines for social distancing and making room for the furniture that needed to be separated to accommodate the distance we were um aiming for um we used we had to change how

018we used our classroom spaces our meeting areas needed to be eliminated as well as small group tables to meet room for classroom setups that allowed for distance between students at at all of our buildings our cafeteria spaces needed to be modified and in some cases additional spaces added added to accommodate the CDC guidelines for example at PS um our art room is an Annex we also utilize the stage space and an Mees the gyms the cafeteria and yet with all those things that we had to do um we still continue to really have a sense of normaly and to to implement um our programming um through all of the efforts of the teachers and um staff thank you Mrs forish the other three things that have been impacted by covid have been materials professional development

019and teaching methodologies the in normally a classroom is a community and you often share common materials like wipe off markers boards pencils flare pens Etc in this case due to covid we have had to individualize almost everything possible so we've had individualized markers things like Bridges manipulatives for math have been packed up in little Ziplock bags to make sure that the least amount of people touch them is possible when we share books we sanitize before we sanitize after and we have a room where the books go to get quarantined for a few days so that any germs have a chance to die off before they are shared with another student in the area of professional development um it has looked incredibly different this year much of it has been virtual or kind of like this

020Board of Ed meeting a small group of people spread out over a very large space we have prioritized the professional development this year working with central office to really emphasize safety at its core and then to focus on what is the absolutely necessary core academic instruction that we have to focus on to do the best we can do this year so some initi initiatives have gone by the wayside in order to prioritize those things and make room for others in terms of te teaching methodologies this is proba one of the biggest challenges children learn best through interacting listening to their peers bouncing ideas off of them we are constantly reading body language when we communicate with each other in a conversation that is challenging on many levels when you're wearing masks when you're spaced out

021and you can't even sit in a circle for a morning meeting the way you're normally used to in Elementary School uh we continue to hear from all of our teaching staff that one of the greatest challenges is having to be in the classroom teaching a lesson and you have maybe 15 12 students in front of you in person who are very real and need your time and attention and then you have five to eight students who are on a laptop in tiny little squares right in front of you for those of you who have children on the call maybe more than one child if you've ever had two children at the same time asking you for something and they both want you right then right now you have a little bit of an idea of

022what's that like and then kind of emphasize that by 10 and know that this is also your job you're being evaluated on so the good news is that as I have gone into classrooms at Long Meadow and I know my peers have too to observe teachers we are finding ways while remaining safe to do things like pair up and share to listen to each other read and to share our ideas with each other it's not the same as it was and we look forward to getting back to normaly but these are just some of the ways that covid has had an impact on the school that we perform every day so I have the next slide to start off and this slide is in regards to the kindergarten through fifth grade coaching and teaching supports

023that are being offered throughout the district um this is going to be brief for us to present because Dr Chipeta will be going into this in much more detail during her own presentation but just to kind of give a brief overview the math coaches have been positively instrumental this year in navigating both for teachers and administrators how do we best deliver our curriculum whether it's the Baseline math facts of addition and multiplication or whether it's conceptual ideas like using language heavy word problems they also Bridges this year came out with a modified curriculum in light of the pandemic and what's been going on and the two math coaches on this slide again have been instrumental in helping to navigate the Waters of that modified curriculum how does that make sense in the day-to-day implementation of

024our curriculum finally we have worked as a team with all of our coaches throughout the district to help teachers and administ ators to look at data in a way that is really informing our best practices so then when we go to that next lesson that next unit we are truly basing that on where our students are right now and what they can actually do thank you Mr wouth um our reading Consultants um are also a great support to our teachers there's one per building and the role of our reading Consultants is to support the district's vision for reading and writing instruction by supporting our teachers in the planning process and guiding them to use both formal and informal data to inform their instruction and meet the needs of the students this year um their work

025has really been again you heard how much time we had to put into our schedule for different things to meet our covid um you know our CDC guidelines and so our reading um coaches have really been working with our teachers to look at each unit of study and really um focus on the most powerful learning standards within them so that our students are um continuing to move along the Continuum of learning um as they would in any school year so their role is extremely important in our buildings we also have an interventionist in each building and the role of the interventionist is uh to be an instructional leader in terms of the achievement of children and when we think about our classrooms our grade levels we have children in in multiple tiers we have children

026who are performing at or above grade level children who are performing near grade level and those that are performing a little bit below grade level and the interventionist work side by side with the classroom teacher to develop strategies to help all children move forward um this year like um unlike any other year the the workload has been doubled because not only are we doing that for children who are in school but the remote Learners which which uh creates an extra Challenge and a challenge that they've certainly risen to our interventionists are also the data experts in the building and really help um our teachers to unpack data and and help the the instructional leaders unpack data in a way that we can make meaningful instructional decisions so again um these are really key people that

027help move our mission forward so this um year actually around January we have Incorporated a technology integration specialist Joe peralt um into our k um in our actually our prek-12 um classrooms and in doing that we um you know the district recognize that our teachers um could use support on how to better integrate technology into their lessons um this is something that has always been important to us in our region is is recognizing that technology serves a purpose and can enhance our curriculum but more so than ever this year we have a variety of platforms that we'll talk about a little bit more later when we um speak about technology but really showing the teachers how to enhance what they're already doing and on a tech on an um on technology so for example um

028he's teaching them how to um how Tech can be used um in a lesson to improve instruction and also their delivery and develop an expensive toolbox um so they're they're having all these tools placed um in their laps in a very quick time so between March and now we've we've included a lot of Technology um and we have to figure out how those can enhance our lessons um and utilize our current curriculum and integrate them together so Mr peral has just um begun his work with our teachers and we've already noticed um a very large impact um and we also work with Dr Aaron Burton she's our teacher in residence for diversity and cultural competency so um just like Mr peral um Dr Burton works with all of our schools um at in the elementary

029level um in addition to a lot of community supports and District supports um she works to coach our teachers by working to provide resources support for teachers in areas of equity and inclusion and she also collaborates with teachers to diversify their lessons help them choose texts um to um enhance our classroom libraries as well as working with them with with read alouds and also um teaching and modeling lessons so for example Dr Burton just finished um some work with my fourth grade students and my fourth grade teacher um can't say more about what amazing work Dr Burton has done with her students and working with them to create um identity poems so um so we've really you know embraced the coaching role in our elementary schools and this year have been able to add a

030few more um people to that coaching role so um the coaches have really worked to enhance our teachers practice as well as um The Learning of our students in a very short time okay so um we're going to talk a little bit about the proposal for an assistant principal at Long Meadow Elementary School um I've been a building principal for 19 years and I learned very early that to Be an Effective instructional leader I needed to establish a warm and trusting learning environment in order to do that I needed to build positive relationships with teachers staff and students in the building however it takes time to build that trust by being visible and getting into the classrooms it takes time to meet with and discuss teaching and learning with grade levels and individual teachers it

031takes time to connect with students by getting to know their names and a little bit about them however over the years I can say from experience that the size of the building I was leading had a direct impact on my ability to dedicate the time I needed to accomplish this school well so in terms of our day-to-day responsibilities want to help paint a little bit of a picture about what we do um day in and day out and how the size of a building could possibly impact that and I'll talk a little bit about managing the building and I I'll take you back to to any morning here in in region 15 as a principal enters the building you be faced with the unexpected and it's one of the things that makes our role so

032exciting but also quite challenging um On Any Given morning you could come into the building and be short a sub or two especially this year and be thinking about how are we going to get all our classrooms covered frequently my custodian meets me um very early in the morning to let me know how the building is running if there's any issues and things range from small issues to bigger ones this week we had a first grade classroom with no heat at 7:30 and we knew that little ones were coming by 9: and that needed to be fixed um sometimes our wireless connections are not what we'd like and we know we have stat meetings and things coming up and we need to get the building up and running um we have sometimes get calls from

033Mr Martino that bus routes are compromised due to Fallen trees or power lines and buses are going to be late we have teachers lined up at our door who need our time and attention and there's always parents who are calling and and also need time and attention and so every morning we're faced or not just every morning all throughout the day we're faced with those kinds of issues and I Echo the I've also been an elementary principal for for quite a while and the the size of your building directly impacts your ability to handle those issues with the attention that they require and um it's not lost on any of us at the elementary level that the challenges that Mr wouth faces at long metal or greater than than the challenges we Face simply by

034the number of building the size of his building more classrooms more buses more parents more children in terms of behavior management at a building one of the things that um that all four of us do at the elementary level is we build relationships with students and the behavior management system in all of our schools is not an assembly line it's not you know this child broke a rule we issue a punishment and and we scream next it's investing time with children to help them learn from their mistakes it's reaching parents to establish a team approach to to helping children make good decisions and again the number of children in your building it impacts your ability to do that in a way that that we have come to expect here in region 15 and then the

035last thing is just student meetings um the biggest part of our day the best part of our day is our interactions with students and how well you know your students really impacts the climate of the building and I I think we all take great pride in knowing our students well enough that if Sally gets off the bus and and seems like something's off that you can invest the time to help her get back on track whether it's doing it yourself or getting some support in the building and if you you know your students well enough you can tell just from his child walking down the hall that something's not right and you can offer support but on the other end of the spectrum we want to provide support to those students who are excelling and

036you even with the mask you the smile on someone's face when you say hey Billy I I heard you did a great job on your social studies project I'm really proud of you the fact that our students know that we know them well enough that we care about them to do those kinds of things and we all do it I'm not saying that it doesn't happen in a build big building or a small building but there's a Tipping Point where the building becomes so big these issues of running the building the behavior management the building issues that it takes away from from the ability to do it this the way we can in a smaller building and one of the analogies that we use is that if we had a class size of 17 we

037can do things in a certain way if you have a class size of 27 you're still teaching you're still doing science and social studies and all those things but 27 is different than 17 and and we certainly think that the numbers at Long Meadow are different than the numbers at the other schools so on the leading learning side of um of P principle ship this is really where we got into this career we are Elementary principles we are principles in this region because we really enjoy being instructional leaders and instructional leaders come with a lot of um a lot of different areas that sometimes when we're working on that managing part all that Mr Romeo just spoke with you about and and the community building piece that um Mrs Forest spoke with you about sometimes

038this could be that that lost component because when you're bogged down with all the day-to-day managerial pieces not to mention um in the day and age of covid um which there's more on that managerial side you can almost lose sight of that leading learning portion so I just want to walk you through what that really looks like in the life of a principal so um as principles you know we do meet with teachers team so what does that look like so we are able to lead grade level meetings so we really utilize that wrap time in the mornings um as well as throughout the day at times to meet with grade levels and during our grade level meetings we might be talking about um srbi practices or individualized students to make sure that we're meeting

039those student needs we're working with the teachers on goal setting and and checking in which is how they're doing in their curriculum and they pacing um we're also um doing some informal student learning and check-ins maybe making Social Work Work referrals if if necessary teachers need time to be heard and just like Mrs Forest spoke about building relationships with students in the community it's extremely important to have that time to build a relationship with your staff and if you don't have that time to build your relationship with your staff you do not have those Partners in learning that you need um we also have a lot of instructional initiatives that we work with with our staff members so all of that curriculum that we spoke about in one of the earlier your slides you know

040with with the curriculum we need that time to meet with our teachers and to collaborate together so we have our reading Consultants our math coaches um Dr Burton we have Mr parole we want to be able to work with all of those coaches and all of those teachers together to make we are collaborating to deliver a common Vision to our staff and to our students in our community um we also me individualized meetings um sometimes we talk about how our um how our offices can almost be like a deli counter you need to take a number because there's so many people lined up to speak with us and in a building the size of Mr wouth for example his Deli line is a little bit longer you're going to have to wait a little bit

041longer to have access to Mr wouth because there's just always needs and we really work on having an open door policy the four of us really find that extremely important and um you need to have that relationship with the teachers where they can come and speak with you at any time um in small groups or individ ually um in addition to our staff meetings individualized meetings we also do observations so we are the evaluators for our staff members so we are required to go in and do a certain amount of evaluative um meetings within the classroom but that's not the only time that we go into the classrooms we really want to make sure that we're going in all the time to make sure that we're building that relationship with our students and getting to

042know the classroom teachers and really understand what's happening in those classrooms the more classrooms you have the less time that you can be in those classrooms um and we also work together um Mr Romeo mentioned our interventionists who are really the cruxs of our our data collectors but as principles that's our role as well and we work very um closely with our interventionists and with our team to make sure that we're interpreting data understanding data and driving our instruction to best meet the needs of the students um and in order to do that we need time with those people and if you're being pulled in a lot of different directions and Mr wor will speak to that um in a little bit if you're pulled in too many directions and you aren't going to have

043the time to have substantial meetings when you're talking about these sweet little children in our schools um you need to make sure that you take the time to really understand the whole child and they're not just a number they're not just one data point they're a conversation they're multiple data points they're um getting into the classroom to watch how they are within the classroom having the time to speak with your school psychologist or your social worker your Special Education team all of that takes time and that leading learning piece is sometimes what can be sacrificed when there is such a large um student body and or staff to work with thank you Mrs pelicon so um I get the pleasure of talking about kind of the ripple effect and how this all plays out my

044colleagues I think did an excellent and eloquent job kind of laying down the foundational necessary skills for any effective principle to exist which is that that community building and connections and then Mr Romeo Mr pelicon really talked about the two sides that every principal manages throughout their day so in all honesty the greatest factor to any Student Success is having the right teacher in that classroom highly qualified experienced teacher research states that the next greatest factor after that great teacher is an effective principle hands down so what happens is when we go to what Mr was talking about with the managing piece of it when building issues come up a heat issue a water pipe burst a kindergarten is having a very challenging day two things occur sometimes simultaneously the first thing that occurs is

045that the right side of that equation Mrs pelone discussed the leading learning instantly takes a back burner because you need to focus on the emergency right in front of you which is either a hurt child emotionally or physically a building that immediately needs to be taken care of or something else and you are that second greatest factor in that school who needs to take care of that the other thing that happens is while maybe I am administering care to a kindergarten who's having a challenging day something else often pops up I'm very lucky all our schools are very lucky to have a group of people within our Circle or radius people like the ones we mentioned earlier in the presentation the math coach the Reading Coach the interventionist these people are building wide School psychologists

046and they do step in hopefully get a moment's notice to help with particularly student issues that occur throughout the day but what happens when they step in even though they're well qualified is then they then step away from their regular day-to-day responsibilities so then you have this ripple effect where everyone's duties become spread very thin and when you end up having to kind of be pulled in the direction of the managing and away from the leading learning and then you have other staff members who are filling in that Gap it does sacrifice the Integrity over time of the ability to effectively lead that building thank you so our next slide deals with technology and in terms of the professional growth for teachers it's certainly not limited to Reading Writing and arithmetic we've seen an explosion

047in terms of our teachers capacity to utilize technology in the classroom to meet the needs of our Learners and I'm going to start out with the software um we've seen teachers use programs from Google Classroom Symphony math Raz kids if if you're a parent these These are um programs that you're familiar with as well and as Mrs Manzo mentioned a year ago when this began our teachers weren't as comfortable with this technology as they are today we asked um teachers at the elementary level to provide a self assessment from one through four um are you unfamiliar with this program are you a beginner are you competent Could you teach others as as a level four and certainly at the beginning of this pandemic we have lots of ones and twos we have lots of teachers

048who are proficient with technology but we're learning new technology um today we have teachers that are threes and fours and and one of the the examples that I'll highlight is our school counselor who is um a fantastic school counselor but a year ago was a novice in terms of Technology she teaches others now she's um as proficient in Google classroom as any classroom teacher um welcomes uh students virtually to her lessons and this happened through the um cleal collegial approach to to learning that teachers have they're helping one another we have coaches um we have we spend nights and weekends learning and and and boning up on our skills so that we can meet the needs of the Learners and it's really been very impressive to see all the different software programs that our teachers

049have learned to meet the needs of Learners both in the classroom and remotely and Mr Romeo just mentioned that in the classroom and remotely so teachers have had to um teach in three different ways this year so they're teaching the children in front of them they're teaching the remote learners but they're also teaching simultaneously so they'll be teaching the classroom of Learners in front of them and also those who are um zooming in or using their Google meet to attend their classroom from home so with that we also needed to make sure that they had the proper equipment to be able to do this well and efficiently and we it's not without growing pain so at the beginning of the year we were recognizing wow teachers were teaching but the kids at home can't hear

050them um or you know the laptop how do we use multiple screens or how do we bring the laptop up where they can see themselves and see the Smartboard at the same time and see the Learners at home so we went through a lot of growing pains at the beginning of the year to make sure that we were teaching those remote students efficiently and also not losing sight of those in front of us so in order to do so we needed to make sure that our um actual technology was up to par and um and efficient as possible so um our elementary teachers now have new teacher laptops which is wonderful so the webcams work really well the sound is better and they're also able to keep multiple tabs open at the same time and

051not crash their computer so that was a big bonus that they now have um new teacher laptops we also are using Omi directional microphones so this was new vocabulary for me this year and for a lot of it a lot of us so it's this cute little um microphone that could be placed near the teacher or in the center of the room and it's actually picking up more noise so that doesn't tie the the teacher directly next to the computer they can walk around and the students at home um who are working remotely can still hear the teacher and or hear the conversations that are happening within the classroom um we also have webcams that um can be utilized in different areas of the classroom um instead of just through the laptop so we have

052the on through the laptop but we also have other ones that could be plugged into a USB port on a desktop for example or face in another Direction depending on where the teacher is teaching so for example if one of our kindergarten teachers um is teaching at the Smartboard but then also moves over to the easel to do a shared reading lesson they can angle that webcam to the easel to make sure that the students who are working remotely can have a visual as well um and we also are utilizing document cameras um in connection with our smartboards in the classroom and so the students in the classroom can see um for example they aren't gathering at the at the teacher's feet anymore to hear a read aloud so the teacher may be placing that

053read aloud under the document cam camera so it's displayed on the Smartboard so that all of the students can see the text um in person and at home because we can stream that to home um in terms of the students um this is something that we've been hoping for for a long time and I guess if we're to think of something positive from covid um all of our children now have laptops I remember sitting here a year ago at the budget presentation explaining why we need more Chromebooks and Tada a couple of weeks later we had a reason so we all have Chromebooks now which is wonderful um and our students um as young as preschoolers are utilizing those um devices to work remotely if necessary um I have two four-year-olds in the preschool program

054myself who are um zooming in for remote lessons um when needed and they're able to utilize that technology as well as our oldest Learners um so those devices have really come a long way and our children have come a long way um we used to be really concerned that our kids were not learning even how to type and now we have kindergarten and first graders who are typing up a storm and creating a Google doc and slideshows so we've we've really made immense gains in a very short period of time um and we've also been given the ability to bring the devices back and forth as necessary to facilitate remote learning opportunity ities so some of our older students might be taking them back and forth more often um our kindergarten first grade second grade

055students for example might be bringing them home just when we're seeing that snowstorm approach or um around the holidays when we had our remote learning week those devices are able to go back and forth but it's also the ability where if a child goes into quarantine or a classroom goes into quarantine they're able to take those devices home and pick up on remote learning without a hitch okay class size um overall research shows that students in smaller classes perform better than compared to their pairs in the larger classrooms um the research shows that they learn faster and they perform better because they get more attention they have more opportunities to participate and the teacher can give each student more individualized feedback we're very grateful to the board and to the community for supp reporting budgets

056that have maintained manageable class sizes in our elementary schools um over the years so we'll touch briefly on our balance approach to the unified arts and as many of you know at the elementary level here in region 15 um students are exposed each week to um classes in art physical education library media and music and the puzzle graphic here is just um kind of a nod to putting the schedules together at the elementary level is is a puzzle and um in some ways it's a simple puzzle um for example for physical education at the elementary level our students are in a six- day rotation for specials so every six days they visit each of their special classes um so physical education two out of those six days so we know every classroom at the elementary

057level will have two PE classes over six days and then some of them are a little bit more complicated and I'll use Library Med media as as one that's more complicated so certainly there's a need and uh for our students to visit the library on on a regular basis so once every six days there are there are classes that go to the library on a regular basis and we refer to that as the fixed schedule but our library media Specialists live a double life because not only do they do their fixed schedule but they also have an on demand schedule and so an example for this is um Mrs pelone talked about the Chromebooks that arrived um very early this year so if you can picture a kindergarten class room where we're unpacking Chromebooks and

058giving a laptop computer to a 5-year-old and helping them to log in just type your name I don't know how to spell my name so the Librarians to the rescue the Librarians came in with with Badges and taught our children our five-year-olds had a log in this couldn't happen once every six days and when we think about the on demand schedule we needed all our very our Librarians to have a presence in kindergarten in first grade every day over six days over 12 days over eight days so their schedule is a combination of those fixed classes and the on demand classes in terms of Art and music children have in different grade levels have the opportunity to visit the art room or the music room either one time or two times depending on grade level

059as we think about music in the upper grades um students have the opportunity for their General music class but also for a coral music class and um we put this together in a way that we utilize the the staff that we have we look at the number of class sections in each of our schools the number of um staff members that we have and and we put the puzzle together it doesn't always fit neatly um in in the best of all worlds we'd each have one art teacher and one music teacher and one PE teacher but it doesn't always work out that way um sometimes I shouldn't say sometimes for each of these we need to share between buildings so I might have a full-time PE teacher but I need a few more classes so

060someone from Mr wormus building comes over one of those days to help out with PE in my building and my art teacher might go over to PES one out of those six days we also need to balance to make sure that each of our classroom teachers has their prep period which is covered during the special time every single day and that's a task that we work on during the summer that we make sure that every child has an opportunity to visit every one of these specials we make sure that every one of our classroom teachers has a preparation period each and every day and we make sure that our that our special staff is um Liv to the best of um of our ability thank you Mr Romeo so as we wind down our presentation

061I just want to preface this Slide by emphasizing that in spite of all of those covid impacts that we listed that we talked about in spite of This Global pandemic and in spite of schools looking so different than they have we really have I believe done more than just survived what's been going on and continued to do so so so in light of that in light that we not only have been able to keep schools open and deliver Core Curriculum and do so in a way that is diverse and engaging and meaningful to students our budget drivers this year really try to capture that and continue to move forward it's a simple set of budget drivers for the most part we hope to maintain our current programming and the high quality education that has not

062stopped even despite the pandemic we hope to refresh our classroom materials our libraries the bridges math program is now around five years old so it is time to replenish those materials we also want to maintain our commitment as Mrs forish had said to class sizes to make sure that we have the optimal golden ratio of students to teachers and last but not least as Ro Mr Romeo said so eloquently we want to maintain that balanced approach to unified Arts to those fine and practical Arts so children are very well-rounded and don't just have to see themselves academically in the classroom but also can see themselves as that athlete that artist that musician and find their passion as they move through Elementary School and into middle school so we did it and that doesn't just mean

063we did it in completing this presentation but we did it we have taught during a global pandemic and we are so very proud of our students first and foremost and our communities um we really appreciate the support of all of our parents and um the support of the students and the support of all of you um as our board um and even with our challenging year like Mr warmouth mentioned you know we have still managed to maintain gains we've managed to um build relationships with our students and families we've managed to make learning fun and in in elementary school that's first and foremost we want the kids to enjoy being in school and be happy each and every day and when you walk into any of our schools you will notice that the children are

064smiling giggling playing together um they are what bring us life and as as teachers and administrators um when we were away from our students we weren't happy we want to be in school with our students and we're so very proud of what we've accomplished this year and we're so very proud of our students and families and um with the budget that we've presented you um for next year our goal is to maintain that Joy of learning and the high quality of Education that we um give our students here in region 15 we're going to continue to recognize students needs and Foster further growth we're going to um continue the um recognizing the needs of our community um and the needs of our teachers and really focus on that collaborative community so we thank you very

065much um and our favorite slide is next any questions thank you thank you so much um for that presentation uh does anyone have any questions oh yep Heather Rogers I'm sorry I'm looking at you on here sorry go ahead Heather uh first I want to thank you all for that presentation um truly appreciate it very informative and my first question was about the bridges math program was this a refresh replenish not replace I it's it's absolutely not replaced what we what we've seen over 5 years with with anything um you begin to some things break some things get lost and we're we've asked each of the teachers to do an inventory of their materials and say do you need extra Spinners you need a dice um you know what do you need so that your

066program is is um as serviceable as it needs to be and so depending on the grade level depending on the teacher um we just look to to get some additional materials to to supplement their program thank you some some of it has also gotten lost in covid um so some materials were sent home and you know the the 10 cubes that were sent home maybe five of them returned five of them got eaten by the dog so there there are some things that just need to be um to be you know replenished a bit thank you and go ahead so once again I want to Echo thank you thank you guys for coming here and presenting this to us um I saw in one of the slides and I guess I guess the first thing

067is a question do we have one math coach or two because there was two on the slide and then I just want to talk about like right one is in the budget for next year what is the thought on what that would bring to your guys program and the students with an addition of an extra resource that could be spread right between the four schools but just Clarity on that one versus two now I think is important you want me to I can take that sure you want to talk to that yeah so um currently we do have two math coaches one of them is a K4 math coach and I'll talk a little bit about that in my presentation tonight to too so that K4 uh math coach goes between all four elementary schools

068our second math coach is a 58 math coach so um he works with all the teachers in all the math teachers in the middle school but also works with the fifth grade uh teachers um ate at all four elementary schools the um thinking behind adding another math coach um is that we would put that in elementary because right now that that K4 math coach covers 72 classrooms um which is difficult um as you could imagine so um putting in another K4 math coach would um you know would uh absolutely help improve um you know and and be able to work with more teachers more often right now you know it's it's a if we do the Cycles seeven cycling through 72 classrooms takes a long time and um I don't know if any of the

069elementary principles want to talk about what it would mean to them I think you know going back to that um that instructional component of of our day you know when we are collaborating with our math coach we're all kind of um looking to utilize her at the same time um so it would really benefit us to um be able to um allow her to work more closely with some of our our teams um particularly um we mentioned with the curriculum earlier that Bridges has almost repaced the scope and sequence a little bit having the time to spend with the teachers to discuss that um presenting at our staff meetings attending more of our grade level meetings digging deeper into Data more feet on the ground um to make sure that our teachers are getting that

070support necessary um and um utilizing the resources and also really focusing on that problem solving and really understanding um the the math standards even even more deeply through some professional development and when and through my presentation I'll talk a little bit about like how we we see that impacting next year and our work for next year and sorry I just had a follow up um I think it was just a question right so it looks like PES are these kindergarten projection numbers or actual enrollment today because it's like 21.7 just seems really high um from a kindergarten perspective higher than numbers I think that we've seen here as a district or like what's that tipping point where that would change that to four and that maybe probably a Josh question yeah so they're they projected

071numbers right now um we're in the middle of kindergarten registration and so we've had the initial kind of pass uh that we monitor on a regular basis now uh right up through August uh we have 21 would be a little high if they all show up I think um gainfield has the highest projection for uh slide in front of me but um for kindergarten if again if they all show up um we have been seeing PES Trend a little higher over the last couple years um kindergarten projected though for I'm sorry you said kindergarten that so yeah so kindergarten sorry PES doesn't have a class size projected to be higher than 20 with the exception of grade three which would be 20.3 that means out of the uh four sections one of those sections would

072have 21 and the others would have 20 um the 21 I believe is gainfield here yes that 21.7 so that's where we have that kind of contingency teacher built into the budget so if all of those te if all 65 of those students showed up and class size was at 21 that's where we would come and put that uh that kind of contingency position to turn that into uh four sections which would bring kindergarten back down to that 16 so what's the Tipping Point is is an interesting question you know is it 64 is it 65 is it 63 um I think that's kind of the the purpose of putting that contingency teacher in there is that we have that ability to say um if there there may be another pressure point that shows up

073and so let's say that uh 63 students show up um at gainfield but um over at um Long Meadow the 60 the 86 students in grade three are really 93 students we may have a conversation to say that position is a higher pressure point than where we are at gainfield but having that contingency teacher allows us that flexibility based on who actually shows up in the fall and I think one of the challenges right now is uh with covid there is uh the housing market is pretty crazy in middleberry and southberry right now um I've heard from realators people taking their house off the market because it's actually like overwhelming the amount of um sellers that show up um we have people every day that that contact us that they're planning to move here and

074they're talking about enrollment but we don't know how many of those people are actually going to show up we also don't know uh some families chose to pull their kids out of Public School this year and homeschool them uh because of uh medical concerns or other reason uh how many of those students are going to come back this year next year like there's some factors in next year's projections that although these are kind of non-co there's no covid lens that we layered over the projections because I don't think there's any um psychometric data on what that looks like uh there is the possibility of that impact so that contingency teacher allows us that flexibility all right we have H Sharon adct and then Heather Rogers hi this is Sharon adct just uh first and foremost

075a comment and that is just to to thank you for the presentation but also to thank you for all the work that you've been doing um clearly uh you've spoken to it but I think you've demonstrated such agility this year with the fundamental you know um driving force of just being a tremendous stewards for the the students and uh education and for the community so thank you so much um the question I had when I look at the enroll data and the class size data um you know the range in student numbers range from 323 at Mees um up to LMS with 543 um and when I did you know just some quick rough math you know there's you know anywhere between a 38% and 60 68% difference in the student ratio right at some

076of those other schools relative to um lmes and where I'm going with this is I am a I'm a Believer right that if the bandwidth gets too broad from a leadership perspective your ability to really be effective starts to decrease I'm interested to see um how they the administrator to student ratio Compares at the elementary scho sorry at the elementary level currently versus at um the middle school and high school where there are assistant principles um because that would help me to understand how um the different schools are structured and the level of leadership and support that has been infused in there to to offset some of that leadership burden um that clearly has been conveyed by uh the group of you this evening I do actually have um the actual data I don't have

077that in my presentation um but I do have a chart in one of my files that I can look for I mean off the top of my head approximately and I know that um uh Mr bernardy and Miss Murphy are on the call too I believe the Middle School enrollment is in the 330 range 340 range um oh sorry I'm thinking of uh hold on here let me not speculate and let me pull up the enrollment presentation um so that I can speak in specific or Jen I don't know if you want to chime in and tell me what um so right now um mm's current enrollment is 428 students 420 and do you have um and I apologize for not knowing this but what how many assistance then do you have to that principal

078would there be one assist one principal right one principal and one assistant principal for 428 wow okay and so when you get into like I would say that each grade van does have some some nuances where you know the Middle School um there are three grades instead of six grades uh with Long Meadow but there're also the children are different the Dynamics are different and you know the the other piece with the high school so if you went and looked on like the Ed site there are administrators kind of connected to the high school number um like Mr Nelson who handles K12 they're kind of originally farmed out of the high school but they're scope uh like the um math department chair is 612 so even though like they're part of the high school they're

079they they span more than just that building the athletic director for example again tied to a high school administrative number but works with uh K12 health and PE in addition to his role as the athletic director so um the cleanest kind of comparison that you're talking about I would say um if you look at again not Apples to Apples in the roles that the assistant principles do um but from a a ratio of numbers um and then I did do just someone had asked it's in the Q&A for tonight which I'm right before the meeting so but if I believe it's like the last question 17 if you pull back from any particular school like What's region 15s overall student to teacher Ratio or student to administrator ratio and when you look at that that

080includes that administrator ratio includes people like myself and and Dr Chipeta and Mr Martino who have you know no direct building connection to students but um the overall District ratio is one administrator to 167 students um just s point of uh reference that puts us 165 165th out of 200 schools uh when you look at 200 districts that includes some some uh charter schools at the state level but uh the state average would be 1 to 129 um and again that is a a overall number it doesn't mean that um all of those administrators have direct student responsibilities but just from a a the ratio piece kind of gets it's it's a point of data but that's where I think it's so important to to hear from the uh Elementary principles tonight the work because

081I think it gets lost a little bit in that and that's why it's important to have those numbers but decisions around things like budgets um I think are colored through the the actual work happening in the schools and kind of the U qualitative stories that you heard tonight but that question is uh was asked and I did put that so you have that kind of Statewide level as well no thank you so much it just seems that there's just such disparity from in the size of lmes um and like I said I can I can understand that that must be um for lack of a what better word it becomes quite challenging and burdensome to be able to try and accomplish everything that you want to do when you have very limited time and resources

082to be able to do it so I appreciate you taking the question thank you sure go ahead Heather Rogers thanks I wanted to actually piggy back on Shannon's question about the enrollment in kindergarten because that usually is kind of the wild card um I think not knowing how I don't know if you have an idea of how many people or how many families chose to hold their children back another year of prek or send them and then my other con conc would be if parents that did send their current kindergarteners decide that they may want to hold them back one year retain them for kindergarten again what that does to our numbers um I would be more concerned about them choosing to hold them back in kindergarten for another year had you not given them

083the best opportunity at a as normal as it could be during a pandemic um kindergarten experience the fact that they've been in since the beginning of September M um which I don't think in August I was that confident was going to happen um I feel like that's less of a concern but still still a little bit of a concern to me that we may have a larger than what we're expecting group of kindergarten students across the board and plus like you said with people moving in so I guess the easier part of that is really the the question about kind of repeating kindergarten there's um a lot of research shows that that's not really an effective way um our our schools have been in our teachers have been really diligent I think there's students that

084uh were addressing challenges this year and kind of the value of spending an entire year again in kindergarten with that same material again it's not a universal piece I'd have to say that there are probably some uh case-by casee conversations um but overall that is really not the solution to this year and that's you know uh I know Dr chapet is going to talk about it again tonight and I talked about it on Monday night the we're not going to be able to go back and remediate nor do we need to go back and remediate 3500 students who have gaps in this year because of covid that is a a global issue and there are days that I'd like to go back and and redo them um but we're going to move forward and we're

085going to fill out those gaps and we're going to be strategic about how we uh move learning forward but we're not going to go back and kind of retach all of the things and and the experiences that that Co has you know and as uh Miss pelone said there there's some positives that happen and we're going to celebrate those and build upon them so that piece um I'm I'm less worried about I think we have a pretty good handle on that um you know I think if if every uh High School freshman was to redo freshman year I'm not suggesting that and I know that our freshmen don't want to do that um but that would create huge just bottleneck issues within within the high school space and um Dr Jones it's okay breathe deep

086that we're not gonna do that um but uh I think that that piece I can speak to with with pretty high level of confidence that I'm not worried about that piece the question about kind of the the parent that decided to kind of red shirt their kindergarten and start next year um we have some knowledge of that but it's hard to to project and the other piece is some of those parents may decide to put their student in first grade next year kindergarten is not a mandatory enrollment piece students you know so some of those parents may say we learned from home my child's ready and we may have to have some transitional work for some of those students again I I can't answer that question today um so we're kind of prepared to adjust

087as necessary as of today there's no indicator that we have where we're going to see a um 50 or 60 of those students that are going to appear you know I think that the good news about how we built um the projected enrollment for next year is when we looking at class sizes of of 16 and 17 in some of our schools that we do have some space uh for students one of the challenges that might happen is we're pretty flexible with families about um where you go to school in kindergarten so if you're a family that lives in the GES region but wants to go to school in the PES uh for family uh Child Care concerns or your daycare is over there or for whatever reason we are usually can be pretty flexible

088we may have some less flexibility as we go into next year and students may have to um more so attend their kind of local schools again it's March uh those decisions are usually made somewhere in mid July when we have a pretty good handle on what our kindergarten class sizes are um but as of now we have some Flex space and again if I wanted to be kind of um more aggressive with our budget we we really had four kindergart um Elementary enrollment driven reductions we could have taken and we've left that one um as a contingency plan so I mean we do have a little bit of um Flex space if if that starts to happen and the projected number for for gamefield next year uh it's been four I think it's four years

089since we had a Kindergarten class that size and again it's not out of the realm of possibilities but if you look at a two or threeyear Trend um that would be uh an outlier of where we've been the last few years thank you other questions Heather DWI go ahead and then Steve and then Tom um hi and I guess I just like to Echo again you know thank you for all of your flexibility and hard work this year to to keep these schools open um I my question is about the um the LMS uh assistant principal role and I think it would be the the first assistant principal at an elementary level certainly I seen and I I don't know um if we've had one in the district in any recent memory um but I

090just wonder if you could talk a little bit about how that role Works um sometimes when we talk about administrative roles we say well this is the you know this is going to be their responsibility and it's you know one two three this is what they're going to do um or does an assistant principal at an elementary school is it more of a shared responsibility um you know certainly I can appreciate there's a lot of work to go around at lmes um but I guess I would just like to understand a little bit more how that would work thank you I can speak to that um if we if you kind of cast your mind back to the slide that we had about a daily a day in the life of a principal at any

091of our elementary schools or any elementary school in Connecticut or Nationwide for that matter you you always have those two key components that you are dipping into as you go throughout your day the operational managing of the school itself which brings with it building issues discipline student meetings parent phone calls Etc and then you have the lead learning or instructional leader part of your day which is meeting with teams to talk about best practices looking at student data to say where can we do better and where are we doing very well a an assistant principal and the reason why the solution is not to just put more people into that situation is that when I said that principle is the second greatest factor of success or failure within a school the person who needs to

092step into any principal shoes has to have the same certifications qualifications and experience as that principal does it can't just be someone to help you know for example as we mentioned before with the preschool or just with buses or just with you know some other level it really has to be someone who can help evaluating teachers running grade level meetings calling parents back when someone has a challenge in day and we need them to you know to come and have a very serious meeting about that um so that assistant principle we we actually talked as a group about what would that look like at a place like Long Meadow and we talked about that assistant principal in the beginning really helping with the day-to-day operational parts of the school because that would help that person

093him or her to really build and Foster those relationships and connections with the families and with the students then as they grow and learn um about the staff and working with them they would further step into evaluative positions having been an assistant principal in other districts my role was truly to step in as the principal when that person wasn't available and we split equally evaluation of Staff running grade level team meetings looking at data running things like serby or RTI and ppts and things like that for students so really the position is one that could be almost um synonymous with the principle at a different level though I hope that answers yes thank you go ahead Steve uh so I I would just uh first of all say to uh Mrs forish that it's uh

094been a pleasure having you present to the board these past 10 years uh on budget topics and um and and occasionally not budget topics uh and thank you for all you've given to PE students and to region 15 and the community thank you very much um as I'm um listening to this the presentation I'm I'm feeling very um I only have one like very specific question but I'm feeling very um very glad or very I don't know confident or just pleased that I finally feel like you know we're as a district at a place um that that you know I'm really glad where we are I I I appreciate Miss picone's point we sort of alluded to necessity is the mother of invention we have have these Chromebooks but uh you know sort of out

095of that but um districts that are responding well to the pandemic certainly there's socioeconomic factors but even like a a similar District to us may or may not be responding well because it it it would depend on the structures that are already in place like you're going to you're having this crisis hit and you're going to have to work with what you have like you can't we have a crisis so let's build some teams and then and then fix you know how we're going to like that those structures were already um in place uh and I think um that's a testament to everybody it's a testament to um decisions made in the past and District leadership uh for example um we've uh when when you uh mentioned about the unified Arts teachers um as the

096enrollment decline of the district that was such a just that never correlated well to like you know we either had too many or not enough teach and we never could and now you know these these schedules are all aligned and you're able to with um as Sharon might say agility or fluidity sort of be able to to to mix you know mix and match sort of the puzzle to get everyone um what they need and it feels like you know now it's like it's great you've got two P fizet classes and you've got a regular Li a standard library media and then you got the pull in and you know we were you know we' we've wanted that for a long for a long time um we've uh you know we've as a district you

097know went through a lot to get to Bridges so it's a very to get bridges for the elementary school and it's very pleasing you know one of the reasons was because gez just maybe you know like look they they put out this thing this module and you were able to readjust that's exactly what I want to hear that's exactly that's why we one of the reasons we did it and now you we we're able to capitalize on having this this um structure in place um and uh even working again the comments on the coaches very reading and and and math coaches very much appreciated that that they are being utilized more than ever before um you know those coaches are resources not to S them personal but they're very you know very they're very very

098easy to find on the budget um and uh you know we can see that they are essential I mean as you mentioned classroom teachers first and foremost but this this teaming with them they're they're essential and we can look at our vision and go we're supposed to educate every student and make every student feel welcome and we have theories of action which these coaches support so it's very easy to sort of see you know from this whole alignment that okay this is why we need you know we could use you know three more math coaches but you know we'll have to do with one uh it's very easy to demonstrate to the community the again from top to bottom why we need them how many we need this is how you know we're just not

099handing over keys to the kingdom like we're this is gradual um so uh it it it just that that's I mean I'm just I'm just I feel like we're in a good place to to um when Co hit and and it's great to have a budget presentation where we can just sort of see all this alignment my um specific question um has to do with uh the teacher evaluations I unless they were suspended I I thought from for presentations past that as principles you have to do so many observations of teachers and then I'm thinking like you know how it must have been very difficult um at lmes and I I wonder um would an assistant principal also I mean if it's a duplicate role would they be able to conduct those and um is

100that something that has um maybe suffered uh with the lack of uh you know with the high ratio because it's it's and I'm concluding um it's it was very very typical of region 15 to build a school and then not put an administrator in um because that's just how we would make decisions right and now we're making decisions based on research and data and presentations and goals and history and and looking at things year after year um so while I wanted qualitative evidence to no I wanted quantitative evidence but I got sort of qualitative uh you know anecdotal reasons as to why you know we need you You' very you know much elaborated very well on why we need an assistant principle and I think because we have all this other alignment and all these

101other success stories that it's it's it's easier to believe that this is a necessity and not just say well it's been that way for so long like you know now you need you know so so I think we're now in we're victims of our own success I guess if that's even and I think so it's great to be able to to have all this so that so again just back to my question about um how how did uh what's the impact on teacher evaluations so yes um as I mentioned before when I was an assistant principal myself I did take on a hefty amount of evaluations as did all the administrators in that building and the expectation would be that an assistant principal could also take on that role it would not be immediately out

102of the gate it would be after a time as Mrs Forge talked about to develop that collaboration that community and those connections with staff um in answer to your earlier Point Mr serani about kind of how have the observations gone this year or historically um you know I I don't want to give anyone the impression that all those things of operationally managing the building also of lead learning haven't been occurring at Long Meadow they absolutely have like my colleagues I start my day very early and I end my work day very late and there's time for family in between but you know we are very much on almost all the time and collaborating with each other and I have very lucky to not only have the support of people within the building but also of

103my colleagues here at this meeting who I very much lean on heavily in terms of this presentation alone so the we're very lucky this year the Connecticut state department of education has reduced the quality and the quantity of observations to be only informals which are take much less time on the part of an administrator to observe and then to do reports on um the downside to what happens at Long Meadow is that while observations are my favorite one of my favorite parts of the job where I get to sit down with the teacher and say this was an excellent part of your lesson I have one tweak and an article for you to read and let's try it out together the hard part for me the challenge is following up with that teacher to then

104say I'd love to come in on Thursday and see how that's going and us to have a second conversation about that that is harder for me to get to and when you have another person who can also be taking on that workload of evaluations then you do get to follow through on those initiatives whether it's a observation of one person or it's a districtwide initiative like a new way to look at math through the bridges lens for example does that answer your question yes and super quick then so the reduction to just informal requirements of observation that's it like a covid thing or was that in place before that was a covid thing the Connecticut State Department of Education also changed the emphasis for the teacher slows or the student learning objective they're year-long goals

105for this year they're not academic for this year for elementary school okay thank you all right we've got Tom Marks and then John cookson all right thank you can you hear me okay yes okay good first of all thanks Steve for sharing that Insight uh considering how long you've you've served I think that's a really interesting perspective and uh really encouraging to hear how encouraged you are so thank you for sharing that and then to our principles here tonight uh thank you for the wonderful presentation and just the excellent leadership ship in the most challenging of times your community is immensely grateful so thank you for your service uh my question is um the focus of your presentation a lot of it tonight was reviewing the the minor miracle of making it work this year

106and again we're we're immensely grateful for that um and then when we look at the budget driver slide a lot of that language is maintain maintain maintain this excellent standard of Education that we've put in place my question to you is uh I think everyone on this call is hopeful um that next year's learning environment looks different than it does today um so if the optimists went out and if we dare to dream and next year does look if not exactly like it did a couple years ago much closer to what we'd consider a normal school year um are there challenges or considerations that this board should know about regarding transitioning back to what we consider a more normal learning environment and if so um are there Financial impacts to those challenges and do you

107feel that those are supported in the budget that you put forth thank you again for for everything um I don't mind taking that I think that we've learned if if nothing else to be nimble and we um we would be really happy to go back to the way that things were um and we are prepared to do either so when we were building this budget we really made sure that when we were looking at um that puzzle piece of our specials schedule creation for example we have um kind of looked at it in both ways saying does this budget um request what we would deem necessary if covid is still in place and or if it's not and we are able to make it work both ways so we're we were really building this budget

108to make sure that it's reflective of either type of learning um next year so luckily there would not be um an impact in either direction um based on covid um so if we are to need certain materials that are covid based that's built in but if we are able to kind of go back to the way that things were in some areas we're able to shift and utilize the funds um for that purpose so so we are we took into account both of those scenarios and we feel really confident that our budget um requests are found um in either direction great thank you all right John cookson go ahead just one question um basically based on lmes how many students does prek and special needs add to the population at lmes so um one of

109the kind of interesting things about LMS I don't if you can hear me with my microphone here but um is that the enrollment at uh in the preschool increases over the course of the year because that's a three and four year old program students age into that program so while we may start the year in the 60s we often end the year near a 100 and over the course of the year you may pick up 30 to 50 students um so we for the purposes of the conversation here I did put on the expected enrollment that 95 number because historically that's where we Trend by the end of the year um and then over the course of the year we sometimes add Paras we sometimes add staff based on the needs of the children in

110that room the other complexity this year is that we have um as part of that program a typical peer program those are the tuition students that come into that program in addition to um the students who qualify uh for that program uh under the the state regulations so we've been able this year we've had to restrict the number of uh typical peers that tuition into that program because of uh some of the uh size requirements the staff to student ratios that were reduced by the office of Early Childhood for covid so um that program could expand larger if we had more space but as of now we're factoring about 95 students so what I'm saying here is that it is a unique situation lmes compared to the other schools because they don't have that with

111the student population that's the unique things of getting up to the number that we have and and where we are at that's why sorry that's why the assistant the assistant principal I feel is still an important issue at lmes based on what's going on just even for one program we not saying it's one program but PK is is responsible and a lot of responsibility for what's there there's no doubt about it well in the logistics that we spoke about before so unlike it instead of just thinking about it as a school that is mathematically bigger by 30 to 60% um or the ratio I think you also have to just be aware that there's a whole another bus structure because the preschool program has a midday run that the other schools don't have so there's

112another bus run in the middle of that um again there's students coming in and out of that program because it's not like kindergarten where you start the year uh there are three-year-olds that uh start the year as a two-year-old and begin that program all different points during the year because that program is driven by a special needs component there are ppts and other structures that again put pressures on the structure of that building and it's a good it's a good concept that building was designed to have preschool there it's good to have a typical peer program and students that are going to begin that building as a three-year-old and be in that building for seven years it's the only building we have where that's even possible and there's a lot of positives to that but

113it does create a whole another logistical structure around lunches and snacks and every structure that every other school has this one has all of those plus an independent program that runs within it that adds an additional layer of logistics so my question really is saying that the importance of an assistant principal at LM Mees is going to play an important part in what we need to do with prek and where it is going yes and I I would say that you know um this is the third budget I've presented this is a topic that was brought to my attention as soon as I got here one of the challenges of our preschool is that oftentimes it runs as a program within the school because in part some of those observations some of the other administrative

114tasks uh you have other people who aren't in that building every day supporting it which is a positive thing the downside of that though is often times um it creates a structure where some of those folks feel like they're not a part of the building but they're almost uh an add-on and one of the things that we've been working on around welcoming and inclusive schools is that Long Meadow was built as a prek-5 school it was not built as an elementary school plus a preschool program and by Staffing it appropriately and giving them enough supports I hope that we can realize the reason that building was built the way it was and the the planning that went into building it uh we have to have a pre- program it's a mandated structure for us as

115a school district when lawn when Long Meadow was built it was designed to host that program um but then again without any um hindsight I mean I'm I'm the new guy still here you know I mean I wasn't a part of I don't I wasn't here I try to walk in other people's shoes I don't know why those decisions were made but uh we haven't been able to realize a true prek K5 building because we haven't quite yet realized the Staffing structure that it needs to have and so that's where um we've tried to build a budget that's responsible and um kind of to Mr Mark's question you know I would never bring to you a budget that I knew out of the gate didn't fund our schools the way that they were supposed to

116we're stewards of of this community's educational system and so I wouldn't bring to you a budget that was too low um because I knew we weren't going to fund our programs to what we needed to do so when we we built this budget in a responsible way and if there's ever a day that I have to come before you with a much higher number because the alternative is to make you know would be to cut um resources that our principal say they needed to to uh run their schools I'd rather kind of fall on that sword uh than to look at our parents and students and administrators and say um sorry I'm gonna take that out of the budget you know we would come to you and and that's the idea of being transparent and

117honest and then us collectively are going to have meetings like this where we talk about what that means financially to a community and whether or not that's something we can support and if we can't then collectively we need to have the conversation of where that balance is um so that's kind of why this year was We felt that there were enough um Financial supports to bring forward a budget that was sustainable and and kind of correct some of the the programmatic uh weaknesses that we felt existed in the district yes because looking back this came up in 2014 15 and 16 and for whatever reason okay we knew back when and it continues to grow every single year um at Long Meadow Elementary School so thank God we're addressing it again in this year and

118it plays a very important part and what is happening in Long medal Elementary School and protecting the PK program which is also mandated by the state of Connecticut thank you thank you John does anyone else have any other questions before we move on um I see actually I um I do have one question myself um for Miss pelacone um and I am cognizant of the time that we're taking up here but um we're we're doing we're approaching our budgets differently now um with Mr Martino and Mr Smith telling us that we have to look at um not having a Band-Aid approach to our Capital um in region 15 and instead like being more proactive and uh the mases parking lot is a big budget item this year um I was wondering if you wouldn't mind

119speaking to that I have heard Mr Martino talk about it a lot um and Mr Smith but I was wondering if if we could hear from you because it is a big budget item this year yes thank you for bringing that up um so the mes parking lot we joke that it's um going to swallow up um a small child um a large child a large car um and as the days continue our parking lot gets worse we have several potholes that we have been um trying to patch and um remediate over the last couple of years um we have resorted to pouring concrete in the holes um to make sure that um when our our plants were not open because of the cold that we were able to um try to fix a few

120of the components um after one of our more recent ice storms we now have a giant crater um that is at the end of a sidewalk that coming from the staff lot that we had to spray paint and put cones around to make sure that um we don't fall into the hole as we enter the building every morning um you know we also are utilizing black top areas and and parking lot areas for our children for recess time um when snow is in the fields the kids are playing on that black top area and we need to make sure that that's also safe for our students and that there aren't cracks um we have some students who utilize Walkers and wheelchairs to make sure that they also are able to um effectively utilize the the

121black top area so there's a lot of different um pieces um it also tends to settle in strange places so also the way that they um did some of the drainage in the current parking lot um Mr bantino and I do believe it's the original parking lot to the building that was built in the 80s um so a lot of it has also settled in in various Corners so um the spaces where the children get off the buses or enter in and out of the cars at parent pickup areas um are typically where a lot of our potholes are falling as well and big puddles are forming and we have to kind of Hop the kids over the puddles that are settling in so it's in um it's in a state of disrepair so we've

122tried a lot of different repair techniques over the past couple of years it's my fourth year here and it's been in pretty sad shape for the past four years and it just keeps getting worse so um we're at the point now where um no matter what we try to do to patch it up and make it look pretty um we we we can't do that anymore it's it's just really at a point of disrepair thank you for explaining that I I appreciate it so what you're saying that we got a few more years right oh yeah yeah you might be looking for me one day as I've fallen into I disappear that's that's where I am it it sounds like quite a liability but thank you very much for explaining that I appreciate it are

123there any other questions for the elementary principles oh John cookson go ahead I have done two functions down at Mees and I must tell you I stepped in one of the holes one of the holes I stepped in if I had a 20in shoe on okay it would have fit just perfectly into it but it definitely is a definite Hazard and a liability to the region 15 District we've been lucky no one's got hurt and the Band-Aid approaches over the years are finally at Johnson and Johnson can't repair them anymore so I'm just telling you we have to do something with it and get it fixed plus the drainage underneath is not helping at all either there's a lot of collapsing drains and everything that are going on down there so it is definitely a

124part of the overall budget and it definitely will not to say anything nothing against the southberry people don't get me wrong but it definitely will benefit middleberry 100% thank you I'm willing to take anybody that wants to go um we go during daylight hours just to make sure everybody's you know safe um and please public if you're watching don't drive through during school operational time um our security officers will be concerned but I would encourage if people feel that uh they want some more information we'd be happy to to show that parking lot to them and and walk around and I do think that at uh next week's finance committee we can show some preliminary plans that were actually done I believe in 2002 uh with that parking lot repair in mind 2002 huh yeah

125there was actually there was actually an addition looks like set up for mases at one point we found some plans related to that it was kind of interesting all right well thank you very much um for your presentation uh this evening um it was very informative and I have to say I really appreciate hearing Miss pelone said uh we want to be in school and that shows it really shows and we really appreciate it and I know like Josh talks about how many kids are coming to school and it's it's just phenomenal so thank you for everything that you've done to help our kids be in person so I guess um Mr Bernardi and okay yep good evening and just want to thank the board for the opportunity for Miss Murphy and I to present

126the highlights of the middle school budget while she's um getting the presentation shared for for those who are viewing uh live in person and for those who are watching at home I just wanted to take a moment and to commend our elementary school colleagues uh for their outstanding the outstanding work that they're doing uh behind the scenes front and center each and every day to position our students to be successful um they join us in grade six equipped with skills ready to go and it's a testament to the leadership that you are providing in your school so I want to thank you for that um I also like to say that uh their depth of their presentation creates challenges for us because we're trying to avoid the redundancy of sharing the same information uh so

127trying to be efficient with our time uh but also Not Duplicate what they shared so eloquently um so I did want to say thank you to you publicly okay um I'd also like to Echo Mr Bernard I'm getting e EO anyway um his words and I'd also like to ex I think are you able to hear me okay okay that's better thank you so I would also like to Echo what Mr Bernardi said and just um you know just show some appreciation to our elementary colleagues um what Michael said about our kids coming to us prepared and ready to learn and to take on the challenges of sixth grade we witnessed that each and every day and um we um are very grateful to all of their hard work um I'd also like to thank

128the board of education for all of their support superintendent Smith Dr Chipeta Mr Martino um in supporting um the middle schools this year and all of our schools in in this entire process um I think we all know that um you know region 15 I feel has done a phenomenal job in preparing our students for uh an adjusting to this new environment that we're teaching in um supporting our teachers uh delivering upon any of our needs um and leading the way for us so I'd like to express um heartfelt gratitude for uh the leadership in the district and thank you so much uh so this is a go so miss Manzo began the meeting this evening with uh highlighting the region 15 mission statement and this mission statement guides our daily work as a leadership

129team as a school team uh also in the development of our school budget so what is a budget a budget is the the resources that a community devotes to provide the resources that we need in school our for our students and for our staff um as a lead building leader in region 15 as a parent of re in region 15 uh as a community member in region 15 our school systems are those that we can be proud of and that's what we would like to celebrate the ongoing work that is collaborative in our community to provide just a quality school system where each and every child is position to be successful and can succeed okay so we can kind of continue into um some of the highlights of our budget and this is just an

130overview um of some of the things that we include um our budget development process reflects the uniqueness of our current year and you know as you've heard from the Elementary uh presentation this evening there have been so many um adjustments and adaptations that we have all made to make things work and we did so um and our teachers did so with um just great enthusiasm great courage and you know have great flexibility so um our budget proposal reflects a relatively flat request across the departments in both buildings um a lot of the initiatives that we are um including to mention in this budget presentation have already been underway and we are continuing that work I think what you'll see layered upon that are um is a lot of the new learning that has been occurring

131and um this budget continues to support that new learning as well as the initiatives that we have currently in place um there is one reduction of A6 U full-time employee at MMS and that is due to program enrollment and um if you have questions at the end about that I can certainly address those um but again um the budget request across the middle school is basically um a flat request but to say that we are continuing to support all of the initiatives that we have and um a lot of the new learning that is that the pandemic has brought upon us especially around the area of technology so as we we approach the budget development process we collaborate uh both between schools principal to principle but also leveraging the support of Department directors instructional coaches

132feedback from itls and reviewing our our local cost centers in each department level to identify their needs uh identifying where we need to uh allocate additional resources to shore up any challenges that we're experiencing but also looking at the parity between our schools to ensure that uh the requests that we're putting forward at roshambo and at Memorial are in alignment with one another collaboration is key to our work uh Miss Murphy and I are on the phone almost daily talking about uh needs that we both have um issues that we'd like to address both within it from an instructional layer but also in terms of programmatically looking at schedules looking at equipment looking at a professional learning that needs to take place with our teachers um and folks around the table get together and talk

133uh pretty openly and candidly about what do our students need on a given day this this is a very unique year we are living in very unique times and we're uh accepting students where they are and it it requires both our teachers and our schools to Pivot to be nimble to adapt uh and really take time and effort to care and provide for what where the students are to help them grow and succeed uh as we look to next year just in terms of uh areas that we need to leverage you heard from our uh Elementary School counterparts about the onetoone student access to Chromebook initiative this is something that we as a district have been discussing for a number of years and it is it's it's finally here and it's really spear just allowed

134us to springboard a lot of the professional learning for our staff it wasn't just providing students with access to technology it was an opportunity to utilize that technology in meaningful ways in the classroom our students are on their Chromebooks to receive instruction to access resources classrooms look different in Middle School especially the very different in terms of how students are accessing the information they are definitely not just reciting information they are applying they're thinking critically they're adapting they're presenting information they're accessing a variety of Technology tools that allow them to communicate their learning in a variety of ways um coupled with that we are beginning an initiative to Rebrand our library media centers and this is going to we're at the infancy of this work thinking about our media centers now that our students have

135the technology at their fingertips how are they using utilizing spaces within our building that they long before always went to to access the technology how do we now look at those spaces differently and create what essentially is the Hub of the building where do they access that media and having a trained um expert in the field of helping guide that student learning uh in the media center so it it it calls for a rebranding and a rethinking about how those spaces are utilized so just to elaborate on what Michael just said in terms of um rebranding our library media center into more of what is considered to be a learning comment the philosophy around that has to do more so with having a space that traditionally was used for students to visit to consume knowledge

136now it is going to be transformed into a space where students not only consume knowledge but they also create knowledge an example with of that would be um U for example in their Capstone projects that students are working on this year um we have a group of students who are studying the effects of um like stress balls and things like that and the idea is that students choose a project that interests them they do research and then there is some sort of um application process some real life learning perhaps so in this specific example um students to be researching what those uh the effects of those stress balls would be um you know for across um a certain population of students so they're actually testing those things out in the library right now they are

137using clay and sand to make their own and create their own data set so that is kind of an example of right now in our um small start on this so far where they are creating knowledge um but we look forward to continuing um that work into the coming year so a piece that's important also to know that in our efforts to identify efficiencies within our budget we're not compromising the delivery of services uh we're not creating impact on students nor staff we're also enriching the experience and if we go to our next slide we're looking at our the focus of the instructional practices at the middle level that are are supported through this building budget one back sorry there go so much of this work is a continuation of where we are and Dr

138chiaa will likely be sharing the ongoing professional learning that is reflected in her budget uh access to coaches you've heard through our elementary presentation that there are math coaches we have reading consultants in the middle school as well who working very closely with teachers to develop and enrich their practice exposing them to new techniques all designed to uh deepen the understanding of students in the work that they're doing in the classroom we have ongoing work with a consultant who's uh helping our uh teachers to polish the craft with readers and Writers Workshop in ela we're continuing to purchase additional highin reads both in our library media centers and our Ela classroom libraries we want to put those texts in the hands of student students really to have deep uh conversation and discussion those titles are

139carefully reviewed and crafted and they're around particular themes so students can have conversation with their peers and at a high level we also understand where students are and understanding that we need a variety of level texts uh we have opportunities to conduct assessments uh throughout uh K8 to have an opportunity to understand where the student Readiness level is trying to understand Lexile scores trying to have a better match to position students to pick up books that are just right for them but also Pro provide a creative stretch for them in the classroom to partner with their peers uh we have targeted professional development to support differentiation in math we know that students uh in terms of the proficiency are learning math differently and that's is building on the the the the work that's happening at

140the elementary school with their Bridges program uh students no longer just worrying about understanding algorithms do they have the ability to apply to to dive in to identify what is a a problem asking them to do how are they communicating their learning in a variety of way using math skills um and and and working to address students of all levels so math coaches understanding that teachers are at different levels and understanding where they're on the Continuum and providing targeted professional development around shared best practices and and and working side by side going into the classroom demoing a lesson uh having an opportunity to provide safe feedback uh for them to continue and grow so going along with what Michael um was saying with this and kind of pairing it with some of the challenges that

141we are facing due to the pandemic um there is a whole another Le level you know layered on this that um we see an increased need for small group instruction we see an increased need for differentiation and our coaches have been pivotal to that work um the professional development the professional uh dialogue that teachers are having um I think has been tremendous around addressing those needs and there has been such a new layer of learning um for the teachers this year especially in the area of technology and using those technology tools to help um facilitate uh student collaboration and student creativity um one of the examples that came up in the um Elementary presentation tonight we see also at the middle school in terms of what that looks like in a classroom so right now

142we have uh teachers who are teaching to students who are in front of them teaching to students who are um remote Learners exclusively and then teaching to both groups at the same time and that simultaneity is it's difficult to manage and um I think what we see are some new innovative ways um you know whether it be they they're Tech in terms of where you position a computer in the classroom and who's helping um the students who are learning remotely for the day to utilizing more um newer Technologies such as you know breakout rooms but with all of this um you know the fun you know what we are delivering is basically um continuing to work with these programs that we have um been implementing over the past few years so um that work continues

143um we're very proud of the teachers and all of their efforts um but it is um you know I think it has stretched us in many ways but we have grown tremendously um just light years in terms of Technology um so the next slide actually talks a little bit more about the technology and if I can get it to cooperate with me I might be able to yeah it did it okay last time we had to press it and then it Advanced too far um so we have been very fortunate and grateful to be able to have a onetoone allocation of Chromebooks at the middle level and of course um we were very close to that over the past couple of years um but certainly the pandemic has brought that to the Forefront of a

144need and we are able to um to have that and it's been wonderful what that has done though it has um transformed the way we do instruction so again um with the example that um I just mentioned in terms of how to manage the online Learners with the in-person Learners uh we are continu to Brad in our understanding and utilization of new software and um this includes um you know new items as well as things that have been um with us in the past such as new zala Discovery Education and tools like that but we're also adopting new programs such as jamb board um Cami and parek um the Google Suite which has been around for a while but um we are fully utilizing all of these tools so the amount of learning has just

145been um just tremendous and um it's just looks completely different from where it was so um pretty pretty amazing so I think one of the pieces that is also important and I I I I can't Echo this any any louder than possible is that our our teachers have been learning at exponential rates as well if we think think about the the backdrop of what this last year has been in terms of where our teachers are our teachers were very proficient with technology but no one anticipated the idea of teaching to students in front of you students at home students teaching simultaneously and adapting their traditional teaching methods in ways that could make the learning accessible in a variety of different formats and it almost seemed like every other day there was a new tool was

146coming out teachers were exploring they were collaborating with their colleagues they were saying I heard that you tried this approach in your classroom and you had some great results from your students I'd like to learn so one of the challenges that we face is identifying time time for teachers to work through that learning and part of our Middle School schedule we have that time built into their day but teachers have a lot of things on their plate so how do we provide additional opportunities for for teachers to experiment through you know after school time for common planning time that they have during the day from their own personal time to just learn these tools so they can help serve their students and going into a classroom I'm Amazed by the new techniques and tools that

147they are showing me to how to make learning come alive for the students in the room and our students are becoming much much much more proficient and we know that our our our kiddos in Middle School are very text Savvy but to have them sit down and and explain to an adult uh someone who is fairly fairly strong in the area of technology and really communicate the ways in which their learning is becoming much more accessible to them and they're able to present their learning and and communicate it in a variety of ways is really one of the exciting aspects of a onetoone initiative that um and coupled with covid that has allowed us really to grow tremendously at the middle school School level and deviate from the traditional textbook and move more towards a

148techbook in open source material that teachers are now accessing to make curriculum more relevant exciting engaging and really enriching the discussion for our students you want to start that so I'm G I can start this one so this is my now 21st 21st year uh in education all at the middle level um and I've been proud to say that the teaming model is the single most important structural piece of middle school education what does teaming do it provides common time for both teachers and students to collaborate and determine how best to support students uh for their academic and social emotional needs students share the same teachers teachers share the same students in their classroom so it provides that Synergy to really know the students well and plan for uh their learning I think now more

149than ever we are looking for opportunities for the information to how best serve our children uh we know that students are coming to us from a variety of experiences uh we know that uh the current pandemic has created challenges at home we we know that it may have created challenges with their learning uh in the spring of last school year so how are we working collaboratively and having a a support structure in place to not only understand that about your children but how do we plan mindfully with with our colleagues to ensure that students are demonstrating appropriate prog appropriate progress and growth uh and that's not something that's easy that's not something that we take lightly and teachers need the time to work collaboratively with their peers to to review student academic progress to catch

150students before they fall in those cracks um and and and and to identify strategies to help them be successful this this team approach is not just the math teacher the science teacher the English teacher the social studies teacher the World Language teacher but it's a Cadre of folks around our building using interventionists and reading consultants and math coaches uh administrators school counselors School psychologists to Rally around our students to ensure that they're demonstrating appropriate progress and growth and when we do see challenges that need to be addressed we huddle back again around that student looking at work how do we identify supports that that child may need um what are some interventions that the student needs to be successful partnering with home in that process so I I firmly believe the teaming model is the

151approach that helps support students the best and I think given the current climate given the current situation that we are that that is the most appropriate model to support their ongo and growth to to catch students before they fall so over the past year we have uh talked a lot about the structure of teaming versus the teaming philosophy and we've had you know different enrollment you know fluctuations across the buildings and you know recognizing the uh the importance of maintaining um a teaming philosophy and how do we do that within um the confines of enrollment and what that dictates to our structure so um the philosophy Michael just did a nice job of talking about in terms of um you know this approach of teachers who share uh predominantly the same group of students who

152are able to then meet in uh during common times to talk about that student from the perspective of the whole child so social emotionally as well as um academically and being able to then provide a very um tightly woven or tightly knit safety net for those students to provide um enrichment intervention support and just really getting to establish a rapport um with our Learners so that they feel comfortable and joyful coming to school every single day which is exactly what we want so at RMS and MMS we do have different um size populations that dictate to us a little bit different structure but overall we each have one core academic team at each grade level who pred predominantly share the same group of students and this allows for teachers to um you know as Michael

153said know their students very well and design instruction um and activities to meet the needs of all students across all the disciplines it also does this while maintaining class sizes um within um what we are comfortable with as a district um so um one of the um you know big conversations facing us this year is social emotional learning and I think just as an overall statement um first and foremost is to say that learning is an entirely social construct it is um you know there is so much that we recognize now since the social piece of learning so much of it has been Stripped Away from what we do um even just in you know our presentation format this evening um there's so much that um interacting with a screen um can't replace in terms

154of you just personto person interaction and so much of what we do in classrooms relies on that and that's just for the academic piece I think what we have seen this year um you know is obviously there is a a a stress level that affects us all um but we also see that you know students um they're isolated um you know socially we ask them to and that's absolutely um an athema to what they are normally naturally doing at this age in their lives um so they um there is that sense of isolation there is um you know the the inability to see faces because we're all wearing masks and you know the structures of learning have changed um we have been on quarantines we have been remote um here and there but I can't

155tell you and you know what a what it means to have kids in school um one of the things that was so wonderful to notice after we came back from the holiday um the winter break and we had the ex you know the extended um remote learning time at the tail end of that when our students walked back into the building and our teachers were out in the hallway seeing their faces it was it it was like a parade of just very happy people all around and as much as we can't see faces be and smiles because we're all wearing masks you felt it in the air and it was just such this warm wonderful feeling of having our kids back with us and it it just it it it just underscores you know our

156purpose for being um this is our business this is what we do and you know this is you know like to quote um Mrs pelic this is what makes us happy and you know we have the best jobs in the world working with kids and so that it's just really heartwarming to see that and to have it recognize and that's something that I do hope last that recognition and that awareness of being grateful for being in school so um the way we approach social emotional learning um now and as we move forward this is going to become increasingly important is that we have to have a lot of different ways to reach kids and some of the programs that are mentioned on this slide um one being our advisory program um this is something that

157we have been working to get up and running um with our teachers and it is a way to create small communities of Learners who have um you know adults in the building who they can have a a special and strong rapport with to as go-to people in the building and as way to provide small Forum check-ins on various things um we we can hold advisory sessions for uh backpack organization um just a check in to see if there's anything that is going on just to get a pulse on uh student life we can also uh check in on which is a new one for us the organization of their Google classrooms and catching up on assignments because Google Classroom has proven to be an entirely new learning experience for for students too it's um not

158it's not a user friendly always tool um there's a lot of organizational skill that is required in navigating it that all becomes part of the support we can offer students in an advisory program um we also are very grateful to have uh Dr Burton in her role so that we can um make sure that our curriculum is very inclusive and welcoming to all students and she has been uh tremendous in um planning lessons with some of our teach across the middle schools and we look forward to continuing that work with her um and of course our my slide is cut off here sorry but um our work with the guidance department and providing the push and services of Developmental um guidance and how they visit classrooms but um I think you know the need is

159going to continue um for the general population on a certain level as well as targeted intervention for many students and those interventions are becoming more um more common deeper and broader um so that is going to continue to be a a big Focus for us in the in the coming years I don't think it's going to be just next year I think it's going to be um for a long time you that so we just wanted to say thank you for your continued support of the middle school students and staff uh also supporting student programming and you know leveraging the work moving forward is is important and just to Echo what Miss Murphy had shared uh our students are adapting in very unique times um and we know that there are supports that they will

160require and are we have great confidence in uh our staff positioning them well to ensure that we can not only catch students but enrich them and allow them to continue to grow and Thrive uh so we don't wanted to thank you for your support and we're welcome to take any questions that you might have thank you very much U Mr Bernardi and Miss Murphy that was very helpful and informative um does the board have any questions Steve serani can start uh thank you very much um Miss Murphy Mr bernardy um just a couple comments uh so it's a a flat budget um yet uh there's a lot of a lot of um i' say enhancements or improvements going on continuation of good work and I really like the idea of rebranding the the media centers

161uh so thank you and um it's uh good to see that the teaming model isn't um under siege like maybe sometimes it it might appear to be at least uh to board members at budget season uh my question would be regarding teaming uh you mentioned a core team um is there are do you have to be cognizant like are these teams based on um academic capabilities and do you if if they are do you have to be cognizant of sort of one team being looked at as a you know a team with um specific needs thank you I can take that one at at roshen boo we have one team per grade level so the all of the teachers at that grade level share those same students so there was no variation that exists between

162a team in previous years we had multiple teams at each grade level when we had larger enrollment and in those settings there were no disparities between the teams either so same General makeup of the students who are served on either team but for uh this current year we have one team at each grade level and that is what we're projecting for next year as well any other questions did John cookson did you have your hand raised not presently oh okay all right anyone else any questions all right thank you very much um Miss Murphy and Mr Bernardi for your presentation I particularly appreciate hearing about the social emotional learning um you're definitely singing my song um I think it's so important for these kids uh to have that in-person learning um to help with that

163and again what you guys are providing students in Middle School is helping them feel a little bit more normal in this time of that's a really hard time so thank you very much you're welcome thank you thank you oh all right John go ahead I have just one question for you how many students are remote learning totally at the middle school level 70% I mean 30% 20% per at the last time I looked it was 17% on remote so 83% in person and I believe that's about the same for RMS how low did you start at when we began this oh that's a good question um it was probably about the same but it fluctuated so much that it's hard to kind of um pick a number that was static in time um but it

164it increased as we got into the late fall with where we were about 60% in person and 40% remote and that had a lot to do with um various quarantine periods as well as families making the choice to um do remote learning because they planned on getting together for holidays go ahead ran we are just under 90% who are in person each and every day uh so we do have some fluctuation from students from time to time um but roughly 90% of our students are in person so what you're telling me is that the in school that we have been fighting for and doing is working very very well at the middle school level and what you're doing now is working and we must maintain it to maintain the in school participation that we had

165had have had and your budget shows that that is what we want to do am I correct in my assumption absolutely yes thank you thank you all right any anyone else before we go on to Dr chiaa all right Dr chetta it's all yours thank you so good evening uh Madam chair members of the board and administrators thank you very much for the opportunity to present the assistant superintendent proposed budget for the 2021 2022 school year and I just wanted to take a quick second to thank the elementary middle school principls for their presentations this evening and I'm hoping that um I'll be able to reinforce some of what they spoke about uh this evening so this slide should look familiar um it's one from the budget presentation that superintendent Smith uh showed us it's

166really the 50,000 foot view of the Reg leg's mission and vision um then down to the theories of action and more specifically then to the Strategic objectives and I wanted to show you those strategic objectives um on a larger on a slide with larger font um because really all of the things that are listed here these six really play into this assistant superintendent Department each one of these touches my department so building the capacity of teachers through curriculum writing and professional development so developing and promoting that culture of data collection being able to use that data to help individual students or meet their needs um being able to bounce forward and bounce back from uh a global crisis helping manage and maintain and develop resources that we need to maintain a safe uh in uh

167learning environment and really working together towards a common goal um using shared resources discussing efficiencies and really providing opportunities and instructional paths that allow students to pursue areas and invest in prep prepare them for options after they leave our high school um so before I go into the budget I wanted to talk a little bit about school during and after a global pandemic and so um you probably have heard Mr Smith kind of joke about this is our first Global pandemic so we're trying to figure out how to maneuver this and that this really isn't something that they teach you in um pre-service programs or even in a leadership uh course although probably now after this they will um the US education system really wasn't built to deal with an extended shutdown like we've seen

168uh you know during covid-19 and I just want to say that our teachers and our administrators and our staff here in region 15 have done an amazing job during this time and so when you take a look at research um and there's a lot of research coming out lately about the effects of a global pandemic on a school system um the research says that generally students struggle more with learning mathematics compared to reading during a pandemic and there's some research that even says on average students experience substantial drops in reading and math losing about three months worth of gains in reading and about five months worth of gains in math students in the lower grades so Elementary grades seem to suffer more academic loss than stud students in Upper grades when we're working in either

169a remote or a hybrid environment there will be greater variability in the um academic skills and the knowledge that among students than we've ever seen in the past before and that's that acade academic Gap or achievement Gap that we see um you know in school districts and another thing is about mental health concerns um chronic stress actually changes the makeup of your brain it changes the chemicals and the physical structure of that and that interferes with learning it interferes with cognitive skills like um attention uh memory concentration and creativity and so what can we do about this and so um uh Mr Smith has talked about that acceleration versus remediation and I want to spend a little bit of time on that um remediation their primary focus on remediation is looking at the concepts from

170the past and being able to master those where acceleration really is um strategically preparing students for success in the present and so rather looking at a whole bunch of items that students have failed to master acceleration ready students for new learning it t those past Concepts and skills are addressed but they're addressed purposefully in a context that that then help with future learning although acceleration um that acceleration model does revisit some basic skills the skills are laser selected and I really like that word laser selected um it applies right it applies the new content right away to the new content and things are never taught in isolation and we've learned that teaching things in isolation helps um students don't really remember um so if if we only focus on remediation students will never be able

171to catch up and we'll always be behind so although you might be asking yourself why I'm sharing this with you when this is supposed to be about my budget presentation um the reason I am sharing this with you is because um the superintendent's uh proposed budget actually incorporate some of these words or phrases and so I wanted to talk a little bit about those before I actually showed you the accounts and where they're listed so in order to do this acceleration versus remediation we actually need to determine priority standards by grade level in course and we actually started some of that work last spring and that work will continue this school year and it'll continue into next school year and looking at that laser likee focus for the prerequisite skills that students have to know

172so that we are able to move forward we're also looking at using formative assessment and using data to drive our instruction um and I'm not only talking about data like from the nwaa map assessment or the end of the unit assessment but also formative data and formative data is data that we use for our instruction it it helps us determine where students are at the moment and where we need to go moving forward you've heard um differentiation and individualizing instruction for our students I think in all the presentations tonight and so those things really are about um you know making sure that we're addressing the needs of students that are in front of us and what that may look like in a classroom is that you may see students working on different tasks in a

173classroom um it could also mean that while uh most of the class is working on something teachers are pulling small groups and you heard the Middle School mention about small groups or you may see some students working on enrichment or additional supports we're going to continue to Pro provide those additional supports when and if needed so intervention will still occur um special ed will still occur students that need um just a little more support in in the regular classroom will get that support and the social emotional well-being is just as important as academics and I think you heard that through the different presentations tonight um we're going to we're actually um looking at taking care of students social emotional needs as well as their academics and we've been doing this for a few years with

174our work with restorative practices our work with the ruler training we understand that both students and staff more than likely have experienced some sort of trauma this past year and that trauma shows up in many forms and so it could be things like not being able to concentrate it could show up as not being interested in anything it could be it could show up as being unusually quiet or even unusually outspoken um and we need to be able to recognize this we need to be able to work with the person on how they're feeling we need to be able to help both students and staff learn how to regulate and we're looking at this from a strength based approach for teaching and learning and so uh this year we've talked a lot about using a

175strength-based approach to teaching and learning and we're going to continue that through next year so I wanted to quickly talk to you about what that actually means and so while I hate to read slides I really do think that it's important um to make sure that uh you know that that we understand like what's here these are a few examples of how a strength-based approach towards students and with ourselves as Ed Educators um help and so um a strength based approach says that kids do well when they can and they can when we teach them how to do that and when we operate from a belief in this we develop strength-based stance in which we believe that every student can succeed we shift from saying oh that kid just won't learn to that kid hasn't

176mastered the skills yet we begin to wonder what skill is lacking rather than saying he won't why won't he stop acting out and we start by saying let me help you instead of getting frustrated and giving up but this is also um useful for us as Educators so teachers do well when they can we also turn the same belief about empathy and positive belief towards ourselves as Educators um as we grow as professionals we collaborate with one another and you heard that um throughout tonight throughout the presentations but we also need to remember that we have to support ourselves around this around skilled development we can turn around from saying she just doesn't get my teaching style into I wonder how I better can communicate my intentions with her or saying things like they never

177let me take the initiative and saying like how can I better Advocate my ideas we all do well if we can so starting from that place of strength of possibility and openness we make space to learn skills together and we all do better and and so on our journey of acceleration versus remediation um to continue on um one of the things that we do is we provide staff with supports to meet the needs of Learners um of all of their Learners and we do this through professional development opportunity which brings me to my first part of my uh of my proposed budget so um as you can see this slide is about training and development services so professional development for staff and so as you can see there's no increase from last year it's the

178same amount of money um and so what does this include and you've actually heard a lot about this tonight so um in the budget the the first item listed is um ngsx training and so as you may remember over the past few years we've been working on implementing the Next Generation science standards in all grades so uh K through 12 we dedicated two PNC meetings to actually learning how the teaching of ngss is different than any of us have ever experienced in a science class class and really from what our teachers have been trained to do for the next school year we'd like to continue to support our teachers in the implementation of the ngss through attending an ngsx training it's a five-day training that helps support classroom instruction and uh goes more in depth

179about the Next Generation science standards it supports teachers in modeling and constructing explanations of complex phenomena just as their students will do teachers also learn how to use classroom tools such as productive talk and planning small and whole group discussions to help them create a classroom culture in which all students share reasoning with the the rest of the class and build on ideas of their classmates we'd also like to continue the professional development on readers and Writers Workshop K8 and you heard a little bit about that this evening um we would like to continue the work with both Ela at the middle school and high and uh Elementary levels and over the past few years we've been working on um readers and Writers Workshop with an with an expert uh the expert actually worked at

180Teachers College and we've been working on um the structure of of readers and Writers Workshop on assessments on conferring with small groups of students and on lesson plannings the outside consultant also worked with our um reading Consultants on what does it mean to be able to coach and to work with adult Learners in addition there have been some sessions where we also worked with Elementary and Middle School principles on some of those same things so on assessments and on the structures of readers and Writers Workshop the next is our professional development for Middle School mathematics so the professional learning for Middle School mathematics will include the incorporation of the mathematical practices into our daily lesson planning we'd like to continue developing our common assessments that we started last summer which are assessments that are not

181only common across grade levels but across schools we' like to incorporate differentiation within our classrooms and being able to scaffold our work so that we can reach all Learners Additionally the math coaches have been meeting um and would like to continue their professional development with an outside consultant to also help uh work with adult Learners and actually at our next PNC meeting so uh next Monday we'll actually have an update on science our science and math work here in the region so you'll see about $2,000 listed for AP training that we that we put in the budget each year and so that training is for teachers who who teach AP classes um and it's usually based on High School enrollment into the AP classes and if more sections are needed and if we need to

182train more teachers we have that money available um to send teachers to training and again that's based on the enrollment um of students in the AP courses you'll see next listed professional development for middle school and high school social studies teachers and for high school English teachers so we're hoping that um to have this professional development will teachers will will develop an understanding of the essential elements of a highquality curriculum document and un and have a deep understanding of standards and practices which includes actually unwrapping the standards so going through each of those and prioritizing them and you've heard us talk a little bit about like that's how we're going to do our acceleration is prioritizing some standards and they would do this for each of their units and then being able to actualize those

183standards through instruction what do they look like in the classroom as we're teaching them and that last section in there is um contractual reimbursement for Teacher coursework so um in the contract each teacher who has completed a master's plus 30 semester hours shall be reimbursed for each credit hour completed beyond their masters 30 and that's at a rate contractually of $220 per credit and so this amount hasn't changed from last year and so I showed you this slide last year and probably I don't know maybe even the year before I just keep adding on um how much money we spend on professional development and what what percent of the overall budget it is and it ranges in you know in the past years from thousandth of a percent to hundred hundreds of a percent um

184and I even remember talking to you at one point saying that you know how some people mentioned that schools should be run like a business and so if that's true many companies spend a lot more than hundredths of a percent on training um on training their staff so we're thinking that the the amount that we listed here um is is not unreasonable so I go back to that slide about acceleration versus uh remediation and if we continue with that one of the things that we do is provide our staff with supports to meet all the Learners through instructional coaching and you heard a little bit about that um this evening and so again while I don't like to read slides to I really do think that this is important there's a lot of research out

185there that ex that expresses the importance of having instructional coaches and so re research has found that instructional coaching had a greater impact on instruction that almost all school-based interventions including student incentives teacher pre-service training merit-based pay General professional development data driven instruction and Extended Learning time actually in fact they determine the quality of teachers instruction improved by as much or even more than the difference in Effectiveness between a new teacher and one with five to 10 years experience and similarly it does have an imp act on student achievement so student performance improved with instructional coaching regardless of whether the teacher was a novice or a veteran and so you've seen a similar list um like this this evening um which this this is a list of all the instructional supports that we have here

186in region 15 and they range from our coaches all the way down to our building and District administrators who are there to support teachers in instruction the ones that are highlighted um or bolded are the ones who spend the you know their time majority of their time working with teachers and so we have those uh the reading Consultants listed who a few years ago their job changed to be more of h a coach for English language arts we have our math coach who um you know I explained before Works in 72 classrooms across all four elementary schools in grades K through four we have our new middle school math coach who uh Works across the Four elementary schools at grade five in both of our middle schools we are interventionists and while they work with

187students they are sometimes the ones that also work with our teachers and they're in each of our elementary schools and our middle schools we have our teacher in Residence uh for diversity and cultural competency and she works again across all of the all of the uh schools and new and new I think uh since January is our technology integration specialist who's funded through a grant position and he works uh also through uh all of our schools and then we have our department chair so for Math and Science and Humanities who just last year started working with not only high school but also middle and high school and our director uh for fine applied technical arts and our director for fizzed and and uh and health who also work uh k12 and so I wanted to

188talk a little bit um about the teacher and residents and although that's not listed in my budget that person does work through the assistant superintendence Department and so that this position was actually introduced through last year's budget so this current school year is the first year that it's been in existence but um we felt the need for it um because we've been doing this diversity and inclusivity work since the spring of 2017 and um doing all of this work we realized that it just couldn't be um the people on that committee and the assistant superintendent doing all of the work that we needed someone who was able to dedicate their time to doing this work with the teachers and with the and uh with the the committee the um teacher and residence works with teachers

189as we said before in grades prek through 12 to ensure that the region 15 curriculum is welcoming inclusive and I underlined and I bolded that because I um there's a misunderstanding that this person has their own curriculum and I wanted to make sure that that's loud and clear that this that this person does not have their own curriculum they actually work through the region 15 curriculum to make sure that we are that that is accessible to all students and that it is inclusive of all students and that students can see themselves in that curriculum she provides professional development to staff and I purposely listed staff because it's not only teachers it's Paras it's administrators um and at times it has been working with some students um it's ensuring that we have welcoming inclusive environments for

190all of our students not just some of them um she assists with our equity and inclusion Council meetings and works with the small groups within that that Council and part of that is to be able to foster a community where people feel that they could participate and where people feel that they're supported she writes and distributes a monthly newsletter that is inclusive and it's sent out to teachers and to the community and that that um newsletter not only offers free professional opportunities for people she shares different information about various cultures she spots spotlights the work that teachers students are doing and that she provides updates on the work that the equity and inclusion uh council is doing we'll actually have a more detailed presentation of this work and of the teacher and residents to the

191full board in May so the next person I want to talk about is the mathematics coach and so um you've heard this a few times so we currently have one in grades four that works uh in grades uh K through four at the Four elementary schools and we have Middle School one who works with not only teachers in the middle school but also fifth grade teachers and again our current elementary one which is the reason why we're asking for a second Elementary coach is that the current one works in 72 classrooms um and the Middle School works with this uh seven Middle School teachers and the elementary teachers in fifth grade so these coaches support teachers in a variety of ways so it's lesson planning it's with understanding skills and content that they have to

192teach it's inst instuctional strategies and I mentioned a few before like being able to differentiate being able to scaffold and meet the needs of all Learners which becomes more important um uh you know this year and into next year and being able to analyze and use data for instructional purposes what are the data tell us how do then we how then do we uh work with students about uh what that data shows us so my the next budget number is um about curriculum writing and team mentoring and what you'll notice is that um there is a um a decline in that so uh there's about almost $10,000 difference from what we asked last year to what we did this uh what we're asking for this year so the first one is contractual so um TEAM

193stands for Teacher education and mentoring program and so new teachers across the state actually are given mentors uh for the first couple years of their teaching uh career and so according to the um contract here in region 15 those mentors get about $870 per mentor and so that's in the teacher contract for next year and so um we we set aside some money uh to be able to cover that while the state gives us some money to cover they don't give us the $870 to cover it totally so that's why there's money in every year listed in the assistant superintendent budget to help with that um world language is curriculum writing that we're going to do over the summer so as you see thank you to the board who uh pushed through the uh Italian

1943 so we're going to be developing that this summer and we're also going to revise cultural Spanish we're looking at some revisions in our Global Communications b class at the middle school level and this will be so that Global be is a class that is occurring in both of our middle schools right now it's just um at Memorial a lot of the high school English work is revisions so we have the curriculum in place um we're going to twe speak it a little and we talked um a couple PNC meetings ago about the curriculum process and part of that process does include revisions and so uh listed here are five courses that we will be revising this summer in addition to that we'll also be uh revising our advanced placement psychology class here are all

195the middle school and high school science and math classes that we will be revising and so um we're looking at revising middle mle School Math middle school science and then the different courses at the high school that are listed there over the past couple years we've uh phased in the revisions of our developmental guidance curriculum so the past couple years we did Elementary starting with um primary grades then Upper Elementary so now we're moving into develop uh revising our developmental guidance at the middle school level and um there are some revisions here uh for PE and and health and one of the things I wanted to point to is the revision of grade one Health and the development of grade two health and so in conversations with the elementary principles some of the things that

196we talked about was revising grade one and putting Health in grade two and having that be more of a social emotional focus and you heard a lot tonight about the need for making sure that our students are um are you know socially and emotionally healthy and we're looking at putting that in grades one and two next year at the elementary level so the next budget is supplies and so one of the things that you may be noticing is that there's a significant decrease in supplies and so you may be asking why is that happening especially in the time of uh you know during a global pandemic well that decrease is actually due to science supplies so the for the first couple years of for the first year of an implementation of a new uh curriculum

197or a new program those supplies come out of the assistant superintendent budget um after the first year those that amount or that uh the school is responsible for those supplies um but um I don't want you to think that that $ 55,78366 every single year and so um so uh that amount of money the 55783 that um is declined in my budget isn't necessarily things that we have to buy because we already have them things like beers um things like trays uh things like rocks so things like that are um things that we don't have to Contin have to buy every year so what are we actually spending the $221,000 on then um includes the new high school course thank you to the board of education for passing that um which is the Drone experience

198the journey over space and Horizon and so that $122,000 actually includes um the curriculum and the um the materials that go along with that that course you've heard a lot about um libraries tonight at the elementary and middle school level and so um money has been put aside to replenish or start to replenish those at uh both of those levels and you know Mr Bernardi talked about the variety of books that we uh you know that we need to do that both the variety for interest and the variety for levels and over the past few years what has happened is when we needed to cut things we cut the money for the libraries and so as you see we're trying to um put that money back in to be able to build that up I

199mentioned a few minutes ago about that social emotional curriculum for um grades one and two and so there's some money put in here for any materials or resources that we would need after we're writing that curriculum this summer um the next budget is textbooks and so um uh thank you again to the board for uh approving the textbooks so that that's for the high school advanced placement for physics 1 and 2C uh for next school year and so our my next line item is is assessment testing and again it hasn't changed from last year um that's for the PSAT that uh we have at the high school for nth and 10th graders and also for the last links which for English language Learners and that's actually a test that that students whose first language is

200not English um take when we use that to determine their level of English acquisition so other purchase services so you'll see that it declined by $8,000 but that $41,000 really is for the curriculum and instruction audit and I wanted to spend um a lot of time on on that so the next few slides are based on that so the actual official title of the audit isn't curriculum instruction audit it's system governments organizational quality control and design delivery alignment of District curriculum for region region 15 schools so a mouthful um but uh this would be fi Delta Kappa International in collaboration with curriculum Management Solutions Inc so they would do uh this audit together they've done over 450 audits in more than 48 states and in various countries around the world so they review curriculum documents

201but they also review other information and anything that's written written they can uh review a month prior to the visit so they don't actually have to be here to review um stuff that we have in writing that they're going to ask for there will be a team here in the district um for four days and they say that they will visit every single classroom and that they will meet with a variety of stakeholders and so those stakeholders include board members they include administrators they include teachers and support staff they include community members and parents and if you can't make one of those meetings they actually have a survey that they'll send out and you can answer it through a survey um they do provide a comprehensive report within 90 days when they finish their last

202site visit here um and they have more more than 40 experience more than 40 years experience doing these audits but over 20 experience or 20 years experience doing audits in districts that are similar to ours which I think is important they actually provided us with a 22-page document that explains all of the work um that they would do um if we're able to have have this this audit so there are five audit standards and I wanted to go through um each of these and I I'll try not to spend too much time on them because you can go back and and read through this presentation but their governance and control um uh Direction and clientele expectations and clientele in this case is student expectations and staff expectations um three is uh um connectivity and Equity

203fourth is about assessment and feedback and five is about productivity and efficiency and so while I'm not going to read all of these to you I just want to highlight some of them so when we talk about governance and control um they're actually going to review the scope and quality of policies and planning across the school district and so they're going to look at a um a curriculum policy framework um they'll look um about you know a direct and uninterrupted line of authority from the board to the superintendent to central office to principles to classroom teachers um they'll look at documentation of the school board in central office planning do we have goals and objectives do we have a mission over time um you know those are just some of the things that they're going

204to take a look at the second one is your know Direction and learner expectations and so they're going to look at the curriculum and what concepts and skills knowledge vocabulary are we expecting students to master they're going to look at um the curriculum Focus they'll look at instruction they'll look at student work um and any other evidence um you know that that they can that they can look at they're really looking at like what we're asking students to learn and how we're teaching that to them third is about consistency and equity and so they're going to like I said they they plan to visit every classroom in the region they're looking for Equity of curriculum in courses and access and opportunity do all kids have access and opportunity to any course that they would want

205to take you know we're talking about the high school they're looking at allocation of resources um they're looking at at a a curriculum that is clearly um explained to members of the teaching staff and building administrators they're looking at professional development do we have a plan in place what does that plan show and how does that help improve uh teachers craft they're looking at if curriculum is monitored by central office and by those at the building level um fourth is about uh sense assessment and feedback and so um they'll actually analyze the quality of our assistant of our existing assessments and how they yield essential data regarding our students performance and achievement and so they'll look at how well our assessments are are aligned to our curriculum so they'll look at our formative and summative

206assessment practices and I talked a little bit to you before about our format you know what formative assessment is um they look at the knowledge the local validation and the use of best practices for curriculum and program assessment um they'll look at how do we examine how well specific programs um are actually doing in the region and how do we determine like our learner outcomes as a result of that they're looking at if we have a database where all of our um assessment data is housed um so and and they'll give us feedback on that fifth is about productivity and efficiency and so some of those things are um you know are there actually planned and actual congruence so do they you know do they match among our curricular um objectives results and our financial

207allocations do we have a series of interventions for our students um our school facilities well uh kept well do we have a support system that functions in a in a a systemic way and is the district and school climate conducive to continual learning for all students they actually have standards for their auditing team and so the people that come out to visit and come out to talk to all of us um our former superintendents all the way down to uh classroom teachers and they actually have worked in a public education setting that's similar to region 15 um they they have the principle of Independence so that means that none of these people have like a vested interest in region 15 um that none of them have actually worked here or currently work here or they

208know anybody that's worked here um they you know while there'll be a district rep that kind of coordinates this process um we're not allowed to like influence them in any way um they are remaining objective um you know in reviewing all of the different documents and they're going to triangulate uh you know their fi their um their findings they'll work um in a systemic way um they said that they'll use standards that are that are based from that curriculum management um group um that does the curriculum audit they're not normed in a sense that they compare one school to another but schools are compared to a set of Standards not to one another um they'll focus on and select those finding which they consider to be the most important in helping us move forward um

209and that there'll be full disclosure so they're they're going to maintain their confidentiality and they must reveal all relevant information to the district except in cases where such disclosure would compromise the identity of any employee or um or people that um have a connection to the system so we put together a draft timeline if was to happen so um over the summer you know this current summer we would provide them any written documents that they wanted to see so there's a curriculum documents policies um any anything that they would request we were hoping in October is um that they would do the classroom visits have meetings with um all the different stakeholders or provide that survey to stakeholders if um they weren't able to come to the meetings they did say within 90 days of

210their last site visit that they would be able to provide us with a report and so that report would include suggested areas of growth and a timeline they're actually going to say here are some things that we think that you can work on and here are the most important ones and then phase that in over over a couple years and we're hoping to get that um that uh report back within 90 days so that if there are any budget implications for the following school year we'd be able to make sure that that's included in um our budget and part of our budget drivers for the following school year so overall um the assistant superintendent's budget or request for next year has um uh you know has gone down or decreased a little bit we stayed

211as um fiscally responsible as we can by um you know without um sacrificing any of the programs that we have and as you can see we've gone down for by about um 27% but um I just wanted to say thank you to the board and thank you to the teachers and administrators um you you know for being able to do this work and working together to determine uh what the budget should look like for next year thank you thank you so much Dr chiaa um does anyone have any questions yep Heather dwire you're you're up thank you very much Carrie um I can't remember if it was your presentation last year so I'm sorry if I'm asking this question in the wrong place but we had we had discussed um in Prior PR presentations about

212the need for for a data coach and and so I appreciate that through your presentation we're talking about using our data and learning from our data and making adjustments Based on data um and I I guess I just wonder if you can talk a little bit about whether that that coaching role is still a need need or is it something that has kind of been um integrated into to other pieces here so so Josh feel free to jump in but um one of the things that um I even found as a classroom teacher is that I needed to look at my data and to have someone else look at my data and then come say you need to do this was really difficult and so um uh one of the things that we have been

213working with the coaches on is how do we help teachers understand their own data because um they know the students in their classroom they know if it was a bad day when that test was taken um you know they they know the ins and outs of their students so um one of the things that we have been doing this year is working with our different coaches in our um administrators to say like what data do we want to look at um we um we have been working on having common assessments and one of the things is which comes first the chicken or the egg and we've talked about this at the elementary um principle meeting a few time a few times do you have the data coach and then get the data or do you

214have the data and then get the data coach and so um right now we're saying like let's get the data let's get consistent data um let's have these common assessments and then we can have someone who um you know who's that overseer and who really could like pull reports if we ask them we do want teachers and administrators and even you know Josh and I to be able to look at data and say you know this is where um we think you know our school should go our classroom should go our teacher should go you know but but we all need to have an understanding of that data I don't want it to be that one person that kind is the keeper of all data and comes in and says you know you kind of

215need to do this um that being said once we get all of these things in place it would be nice to have someone who's able to pull data for us but that person isn't the one that goes in to say you need to do this this and this with your classroom I would just say that we did have a data coach here last year for a good part of the year and um the idea that the Chicken and the Egg kind I like when Dr CH and I have the same words in our heads um and that same conversation is that through that process last year what we found was that we didn't have enough uh District level kind of consistent data points for us to really work with teachers and kind of Coach them

216into how to analyze data so we're just in the proc process of completing the second map assessment now so at the end of last school year we backed off on that data coach uh we kept that that that was paid for out of a grant it wasn't in the operating budget that's the grant money that when we got to January of this year and said we needed really technology integration that's where that money was reallocated to that Tech integration coach that's now in classrooms helping teachers so the idea of having that flexibility within that Grant to um kind of seed a position and see how it it it applies and then pivot when it wasn't working so kind of to Dr Cha's point is as we I don't know if we're building the chicken or

217the egg but whatever maybe it's the egg that we're we're creating now with our data points um we'll have a body of work that teachers understand and have a knowledge of some of that map data some of the common assessments the um audit uh that we're hoping to do next fall will help further inform like we know there a lot of initiatives that we want to move in but you can't move in all directions at once or nothing's effective so you know that outside view of how to prioritize some of the work and to get some outside perspective as to this is where you should kind of focus your resources that then we can uh build into uh whatever position we think is needed and whether or not that's a a part-time full-time whether it's

218more of a technical position or more of an instructional position those are the pieces that feed into that um what I what I hope you see through all of these is that through line connecting the dots between uh teaching and instruction and you know I appreciate the the time that everybody spent tonight um just as I I think you walk away understanding what's in the budget it's not a number it's not a percent it's how we run our schools it's how we teach all of these people that spoke tonight have a vested interest in the work that happens every day and while you know tonight's getting a little long I appreciate the the understanding that I hope you all walk away with as to what that dollar amount does and what it funds within our

219schools thank you for explaining that does anyone else have any questions John cookson go ahead question for you how much time does the math coach Wass traveling between the schools covering all this ground couple hours every single day or do they D speed limit I swear speed limit every time no so actually um that was a conversation that we had like how so how do you get to different buildings and one of the things that um you know we worked with uh principles and with the coaches to say that it probably is best for you to spend a day in a building so that you're not spending time like driving back and forth and getting stuck in traffic and you're not speeding um to get there so um we did say things like you know

220maybe it's more beneficial to stay in one building and and meet with multiple grade levels while you're in that building rather than traveling back and forth throughout the course of the day that's not to say that never happens if there's you know something that you know that's an anomaly that we need to get to but we we tried you know to work it out so that they're in one building for for the day so the economics of keeping a person there one day does work sometimes and other it doesn't but it would concern me the time to go from South bar on I 84 to get Mees don't kid yourself it'll amount to an hour and by the time you get into the school to organize yourself it's a half hour you could waste two

221hours out of the instructional time just by traveling and putting it together never mind the parking lot right oh yes yes the parking lot you won't get out of your car no you got you got to go out and change your flat tire that you got in the hole going at MES all right just just out of curiosity so economically it could be beneficial thank you thank you Sharon adct I see you have your hand up hi thank you so much um Sharon adct here I just had a question how do you clearly uh from a math Coast perspective you you've you've made the case about the importance the value that they bring how do you independently assess um how the work that they're doing how it integrates into the school um do you evaluate

222uh feedback from the teachers is it based off of how the children are progressing based off of Assessments um what's your take on how you independently evaluate the effectiveness of those math coaches in the school so they actually um get evaluated the same as teachers so um you know for this school year it's the informals but it's more than that so um we I meet weekly with them um just as I meet weekly with the reading Consultants I meet weekly with um the teacher uh um in Residence I meet weekly with the technology integration specialist so we meet um often and so we discuss what they're working on um I you know I talk to the principles about what the coaches are working on and we have conversations about you know here here's the work

223that we um need them to do we have conversations together so it's me the principal and and the coaches um it's me the principes the coaches and the department chairs so there's a lot of conversations that happen in addition to feedback from teachers and so um there have been many um conversations with teachers saying I'm so happy fill in the blank of any of the coaches I'm so happy that this coach was in my room here's what they helped me do or I'm so happy to have a thought partner in you know I was thinking of doing this lesson but I just needed to run something you know to have a a you know conversation with about how to do that so um it's it's a lot of different ways to evaluate them um you

224know eventually we're hoping it you know it directly impacts student achievement as I I read you that slide that it eventually does um but this is only the second year of the elementary math coach the first year of the middle school math coach um and it's only the second year of the reading Consultants being a full-fledged coach so um we're in the initial stages of that um but you know in talking to all the different stakeholders is it's been very positive that's great thank you when do you think that you'd have enough data kind of maybe this is the question how there was to to really understand uh you know clearly this is new but when do you think you'll have enough data to really understand the the impact of um these coaches so if

225it wasn't in the middle of a global pandemic I might be able to say you know within you know within a couple years but that being you know that being said um we are going to take a look at some of the data that we do have and see you know comparative to if we look at the map data from last year you know spring we can take a look at the different uh levels that happen in the different times that we take it this school year um you know I don't know Josh if you want to add anything to that but it does um oh go ahead I would say I I try not to disagree with Dr Tia very often but I would tell you we have a lot of data already on

226their effectiveness I think when you look at student work that's coming in across the district when you sit in um grade level meetings with coaches or with teachers and you look at assignments that students are doing when you listen to the language that teachers and students are using and kind of to to Dr T's Point regardless of the coach they're working with we have a lot of evidence that the language of uh mathematics is changing because of our math coaches and that's true of our teachers um the the the technology uh interventionist when so I mean the evidence may not show up in um an esack test as of right now because we don't have esac from from last year and this year's esack data is going to be really interesting because I don't think

227there's any real comparative piece to it it's it's an anomaly um our map data this is really the first data set that we're going to have but I would tell you that there's um a lot of very clear evidence when when when you talk to grade level teachers about mathematics instruction it is very clear to know the teachers that have spent the most time with our coaches um and that's true um of of the impact of our our Middle School coaches our our Elementary School coaches so I think the evidence it may not show up in a bar chart but I would say like evidence and it's not anecdotal I mean there are certain key words that when Dr Chipeta meets with the math coaches and I was in there the other day talk when

228they were meeting and I I popped in um and they were talking about how they analyze some of the the map data that's starting to emerge that language that they were talking about in that room is going to um penetrate into our teachers psyche and they're going to be able to talk with much more confidence about some of those pieces so like to me that's evidence that the work of those coaches is um being uh pushed throughout the district and that our teachers are are understanding things at a higher level uh and then that shows up in student assignments when you get that Pi newsletter um slice of pie newsletter that goes out and you look at the student work that's happening in there that's evidence that our coaching uh is having an impact across

229grade levels and across the district and part of the reason those newsletters are so important for families is because that is the evidence that uh instruction is not just changing but it's also being um kind of standardized across the district so that I know a first grader at PES is having a similar experience to one at Mees and so um I think we sometimes think and I'm probably guilty of it um you know that that data is about um just kind of being able to show uh historical growth over time with Statistics but I think there's a lot of evidence and and information that we can gather through those newsletters are a great example um if you went back and looked at that slice of pie over the last two years even through covid um

230you'll see student student growth happening in our classrooms can I ask one follow-up question just based off of your response um you gave an indication that c you could tell I I can't quote you but you insinuate that you can tell which uh teachers are spending more time with the coaches do you actually look at that and evaluate which teachers are and is it mandatory that all teachers at some point do Engage The Coach can you talk about that level of Engagement is it so with so with any coaching model um or instructional coaching model one thing that there they'll say is it's all about the relationships and the same thing with teaching it's all about the relationship between the coach and the teacher and so that being said um the first year of any

231Co instructional coaching um their focus is to build the relationship with teachers and so we say to work with the people that want to work with you and so um uh you know the elementary math coach last year spent well whatever time we were in school and even during in a remote environment worked with the teachers that that wanted to work with her and um you know she keeps a calendar that I have access to and I can see you know which classrooms um that she's in all of the coaches list the classroom that they're in and what work they're doing with the teacher in that classroom um and so while we don't evaluate the teacher um and how they've taken that work um you know with the coach we you know it's not that

232the coach the coach has that relationship with the teacher to help them um the expectation eventually is that all of the teachers will will work with that math coach but the first year really is to work with the the the um teachers that you worked with that being said it's um a lot of almost all of the teachers have asked to work with the math coach and that's the reason why we wanted another one because it's really difficult to get to 72 classrooms um you know over the course of of a school year and be able to then then follow up and Circle back and you know be there to model and you know um help with the lesson or planning and then if a teacher wants you to come see it and give feedback

233that's really hard to do in 72 classrooms and so that was one of the reasons why we um wanted another one because so many teachers want to work with them I'd say there's a magnifying effect too so you know there's not a direct correlation per se that says this teacher worked with this coach this many times and student achievement goes up by x amount like it's not that because every teacher comes to the conversation with a different uh level of Readiness so you know where teachers that may have less Comfort teaching math grow more teachers that have been teaching math and have a really deep understanding of it for a long time you know maybe just have an almost like a hallway conversation where something's sparked and that teacher runs with it and you know

234that's where I think that like that slice of pie newsletter is a good example of saying you know those lessons are happening across our district they're routed and grounded in uh good mathematical practices and teachers kind of connect to that based on where they're at and so you know there may be a time where we say uh especially we're rolling out some new unit or changing math I'm thinking now of like um our literacy coaches where we might have a new unit being like in those cases they would make sure to meet with all teachers so that everybody kind of gets a consistent understanding but when you talk about professional development part of the coaching model is helping the coach understand how to meet adult learning where they're at and you know it's not like

235the same lesson for every uh teacher that they come into interaction it so like there's going to be evidence but what I hope is that we can't we see student growth over time because mathematic mathematics instruction gets better over time and while the coach is a part of that it also is in large part because teachers come to that conversation and what they take away with it and I think you bring up a good point so there is that classroom embedded professional development where the coach is working directly with that teacher on instruction on lesson planning planning but there's also then those professional development days where those coaches um you know where we have like either a full day or an early release day where the coach is then working with like all of a

236department or all of a grade level thank you thank you oh John cookson I see you ready for another question one other question most the math coach is not here in the elementary school level because of sickness or the covid or whatever happens where does the replacement come from you which I would love to because I was a former math teacher I don't know if you know that um so um middle school math too um so no right now currently if the person is like quarantined or sick um it like that day actually gets rescheduled and so that that's been difficult too we make them zoom in there there is no sick day for a coach they zoom in well if they're out if they're down and out yeah yeah yeah I'll believe that one

237when I see it um also Al I just got okay that I mean that's a good answer to the question I don't need to Wi any further with also on your team program okay with the uh new teachers coming in how many do you presently have under that program in the system um would have to go look at that because they have two years so um the state it's a whole state program so the state actually has um five papers that that that uh new teachers have to write in collaboration with and support from their mentor and so te new teachers have the option they can either do that in one year if they want to or they can do that over the course of two years and so um so teachers could have their

238Mentor for up to two years so I would have to go back and see like which ones are first year which ones are second year but the mentor program comes from the state of Connecticut yes it's a mandate from the state yes okay just just wanted to see overall okay do you use Josh as a math math coach when you need him or what that's a good idea don't ask me to do it I'm too old for it now I couldn't even tell you what it looks like anymore so okay thanks a lot for all your answers right go ahead Tom uh Dr CH thanks for uh another great presentation uh a couple of topics I wanted to cover first I was really appreciative of your post-pandemic slides I found them really interesting and I'm

239very supportive of the uh the areas you chose to focus on um I was really interested in uh some of the slides about the social emotional learning considerations uh I'm grateful that these considerations are being baked into both the long-term plan you know and the budget that you're proposing so thank you for that um and I would just say you know you'd mentioned mental health considerations and I think that's so important I'd like to you know continue to hear progress on that um and understanding this is curriculum and this is kind of student Focus but um not just the emotional health of our students but of our administrators and of our staff um going forward I think that's going to be a critical area so thank you for highlighting that in your presentation um I

240too have questions about the math coach uh two areas uh to discuss the first question is uh if the second math coach is funded um will you be dividing the four schools or will you be dividing the grade levels and can you explain the rationale for you know the benefits of whichever one you're choosing so um so I'm I'm not choosing a loan so that's the first thing so I I did actually talk to um both Ma coaches and said if we were to get another math coach um we have a few options on how we can split that and so um they actually are wonderful they went back and thought about it and took some time and then came back and said um if there was to be another math coach um one of

241the things that we would like is to separate it by school so to have um a a K4 um southberry math coach and a K4 middleberry math coach and so we talked about the reasons for doing that number one they build better relationships with teachers being in two buildings rather than having to do it by grade across four buildings and I go back to the main thing with being an instructional coach is building a relationship and so being able to do that do that in two buildings is a lot easier or a little bit easier than doing that in four buildings so um uh they both agreed that that that the um five through eight coach will stay the way he is and that um if we were to get another math coach that we

242would split southberry middleberry for K4 okay thank you for that background that sounds like a a Sound Decision um and then the the last thing I would say is um I thought uh Sharon asked a great question and I kind of took the engagement for granted um I'm kind of shocked to hear that you know we're Staffing a coaching resource and it's it's at the the teachers's option and I don't I don't want to make a bigger deal of that than it is because it sounds like most teachers are utilizing the resource um so you know I would be curious see however small the percentage the percentage of teachers that aren't meeting with that coach before we make a a decision you know so whenever you can get that if you can find that information

243I would be curious to know and actually yeah and actually um both of the coaches and the department chair for Math and Science will be at our PNC meeting on Monday so they certainly could talk about that but one of the things I just want to make sure um that's clear is their calendar is filled filled from from N9 o'clock in the morning or whatever you know if you're middle school earlier to to the 3:40 in the afternoon and so um again we go back to the 72 classrooms it's really difficult to hit 72 classrooms and so um and and do it well and so um um I would say that at least each of those classroom teachers has met with the coach in some capacity so that could be lesson planning it could be

244modeling it could be at the team meetings or the grade level meetings that the elementary principles talked about so they've had interaction with the coach um the the work that's been done may vary and that goes back to depending upon what uh the teacher would like to work on and again building that relationship with teachers by saying like you know here are all the things they've given menus here's a menu of things that I can work with you on choose one of them and so to say that there are some teachers that have not chosen to work with the math coach um like I'd be wrong if I said that they've worked with the math coach in different uh capacities so that could be planning that could be meeting with the with um the grade

245level and going over some data that could be during a professional development session that happens on early release day so they have all had interactions um multiple interactions with the math coach but I certainly can say to I can certainly can go tally how many different um teachers they've lesson planned with or uh you know that they they have modeled for or you know that they have done like specific um modeling uh techniques with sure and Sharon if you don't mind if I could just follow that that up and just kind of explain the concern not I don't I don't think that's a concern about uh demand and need so much as you know some of our previous discussions as we are looking at data and we're trying to track um the efficiency of the

246coaching you know you had presented some data that suggests there are dramatic differences depending on whether or not you engage a coach so you know as we look at data long term it gets a little messy if we say oh well you know this one student compared to another student you know didn't benefit because maybe this teacher didn't engage you know during second grade as much as this you know students second grade teacher did so um I would love to understand if there's going to be some consistency in the engagement and implementation so all students can reap the benefits which you know are apparently astronomical when you engage a coach so that should be available to all students um you that should be assumed right and agreed and so um what I what I think

247I started off by saying was that when you put an instructional coach in place and this is actually my second district putting in instructional coaches um so putting in an instructional coach the um the relationship is very important you cannot force someone to take on um some professional development that they don't they don't either see that they need to be a part of or that they feel that someone's going to come in and judge them and I think like that's been a lot of the work that we've been working with the reading Consultants on we've been working with um the math coaches on we've been working with all the different people saying that um you're number one not there to evaluate you're there to support and that um we that we need to make sure

248that we have a relationship and the relationship is built on trust and so um we've said that that first year is to work with the people that want to work with you and then after that trust is built it moves on to working with you know with um and getting yourself into the classrooms with people that may be resistant for a whole bunch of reasons um um but I have to say that we haven't really found that there have been that many people that say don't come in and actually there's been nobody that has said don't come into my classroom they've um asked to come you know instead have come in to do different things based on either the kids in front of them their um you know their content knowledge their comfort um you

249know teaching during a global pandemic and all sorts of things so there really there hasn't been any teacher that says don't come into my classroom great I can appreciate that sensitivity thank you go ahead Heather or Mrs pelicon yeah sorry I just wanted to jump in and then support Carrie for a second so I think it ties back to the conversation um that we were having um when the elementary principles presented about you know that role of the administrator and and that teaming approach with our leadership team within the school and with our coaches and you know as administrators we work really closely with the coaches and to um chose some high leverage points within the CL within the school so um administratively we know um you know where our data needs to move which

250teachers and our teams may need the most support which students need the most support based on any curricular changes or alterations kind of where those High leverage points are and they change throughout the course of the year and year toe as well based on that information so we work really collabora collaboratively to make sure that you know amongst those 72 teachers for example that um that Annie is working with that we're really making sure that we are choosing those High leverage points to make the most growth knowing that her time is really precious and there's also coaching cycles that happen so it's not just you know I'm working with you one day or for one week we want to make sure that we're establishing that coaching relationship and really using those um coaching Cycles to

251make sure that we're making gains with the students and with the teacher so um so it's it's really that collaborative approach and not just kind of like a check the box we want to make sure that everybody gets a piece of the pie so and that coaching cycle is is the reason why we were requesting another math coach because if the point is to plan to then watch that lesson or be or model that lesson and then let the teacher do it and then follow up with the teacher that's at least four times right there that you you're with that teacher and to get to 72 teachers to do that four times and it needs to be within a certain span you can't come back like two months later to say oh how was that

252lesson that you did you know like in September like that's too late to have a conversation and to change things so to be able to do a coaching cycle um it's it's really hard to do with 72 different teachers H thank you I see Sharon adct has her hand up just one of the things though I think that really helped me Dr chiaa in your initial response and what I heard towards the end was regardless of the level of Engagement proactively from the teachers to the coach and clearly you you've highlighted the need to build that relationship and the it being a safe Zone non-judgmental you know learning environment what what I heard and correct me if I'm wrong but I heard that in addition you guys are also doing these professional development days where

253that instructional coach is also then communicating out to the entire department so even if a teacher is not engaging them they are still reaping the benefits of that professional engagement because that is being communicated out so in theory you know everyone should be getting some level of exposure correct that was my understanding from from your response I just want to make sure I understood it correctly yes you're absolutely right there right there are multiple access points to that coach yeah all right thank you very very helpful and it sounds very effective and and I appreciate you taking all the questions thanks right any other questions no all right well thank you very much Dr chiaa I appreciate it thank you all right next we're going to have comments from citizens uh the Board of Education

254will recognize citizens of middleberry and southberry and citizens are asked to State their name their town of residence and to limit their comments to three minutes uh for public comment you could dial 6799 the webinar ID is 87 or 6197 6153 the passcode is 69866 this information can be found on our agenda um if you call in um Mr Nelson will call the last four numbers of your name and you can unmute yourself By Di um pressing star six um and that will unmute you and I do see that we have I believe Mr Nelson a couple attendees yes we have two callers so um we're gonna allow to talk phone number 6954 you can unmute Yourself by hitting star 6 and then you can have um you're given three minutes to talk and you

255can please identify ify yourself and their town of residence all right so this a person with the last four digits yep hi we hear you there yep hello my name is John Bowser and I am a over 24 year resident of southberry and essentially I am calling um to follow up on a call I did the last Board of Education meeting uh just kind of reiterating what was said earlier as it relates to the phenomenal job the region has uh uh done in terms of collaborating and putting together a really terrific plan and uh getting the children going here in region 15 to go to school and to to uh really uh put uh our system in a great place this year and going forward and specifically what I wanted to do uh is talk

256about uh this collaboration that's done and how important it is and it's interesting from the presentations to throughout the evening talked about how important the team members were and how they work together and the teaming model and all these other strategies that in today's form of Education uh is critically important to have uh a team that in my opinion reflects the student body and the general population as well and so specifically what I'm going to talk about tonight is kind of marrying the budget and a commitment to diversity equity and inclusion and again throughout the evening uh there was talk about uh equity and inclusion and and so essentially there is a program that had been discuss uh throughout the region and specifically it's called the Connecticut teacher resident program and what I'd like to

257do is just uh ask for you folks consideration and commitment to uh look at this program and there's empirical evidence that uh a diverse uh staff teachers uh really positively affects the community as well as the child child's um educational experience uh particularly once they leave this uh terrific community of southberry that tends to be more diverse than it is here so with that in closing again appreciate your consideration in regards to this specific program and uh ongoing consideration and and continuing your efforts related to uh diversity equity and inclusion thank you again for your time thank you very much Mr Bowser it was nice to hear from you again um and I think there's one more caller Mr Nelson yep phone number 8064 you will be um excuse me you can now talk so

258you can un Yourself by oh there you are you'll be given your three minutes if you can identify yourself in your town of residence hi my name is Christine Kuban And I live in southberry Connecticut um I am a parent um I've been a resident for about 25 years and I'm also the PTO president at pomaro high school um I'm calling about two things um first thing is um student parking at pomog high school as most of you know um student parking at the high school is a source of income for the region and last year um a presentation was made showing our parking fees um versus other um of our peer schools and in that presentation it showed that our fees are significantly higher than all of our peer schools and I believe that

259we are actually the highest in the state um last year our our fees were $250 per car per student um I know that it was reduced this year to I think $225 but versus the average of0 to $100 per student in our peer schools it's still very very high um I would appreciate if the board would consider bringing the fees down to closer to what our peer schools are which is about 100 $ per car or per student and possibly um spreading that over two or three years so not necessarily reducing it from this year to next year but maybe making a plan to do it over the next two or three years so that the impact um to the budget year to year will be minimal um and that would be doing we would

260be doing right by our students by doing something like that because $225 is just way too high um and it's really a huge burden on our young our young students so um that's something I would appreciate you um considering in this budget for for next year um and the second point I wanted to make was that um as you know this past year has I think that this region has done a wonderful job managing um managing everything through this pandemic and the budget presented um by Mr Smith I think is very reasonable and I also think it's achievable um region 15 is a region where academic um EXC is really a priority and I think that that's something we can all agree on um and I think if um if you looked to reduce this

261in any kind of way it would mean larger class sizes or reduced um academic resources at a time when they are really really needed because of um what we've been going through in the last year so I urge that you approve the budget as it's recommended and let the citizens decide thank you very much for your consideration thank you very much Mrs cubation uh Jeremy do we have anyone else that's called in no there are no other callers all right thank you very [Music] much all right all right announcement of future meetings Monday March 8th we have PNC at the high school at 6:30 also Monday March 8th we have a regular meeting of the board of education at the um media center at 7:30 where we will be discussing social emotional learning on Wednesday

262March 17th we will have a board of ed budget workshop at the high school media center at 6:30 Monday March 22nd PNC will be meeting at the high school media center at 6:30 also on March 22nd we'll have a regular meeting of the board of education at 7:30 and also on Wednesday March 24th we will have our Board of Education public hearing followed by a meeting of the Board of Finance um with the Board of Education um that's the board of Finance from both Towns southberry middleberry at the high school media center at 6:30 pm may I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn you have a second second Heather Rogers does the second thank you very much any discussion all those in favor I I right we are adjourned thank you every one