Regional School District #19 Board of Education Meeting

001You are good to go. >> All right. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the regional school district 19 board of education. Can we start with a roll call, please? >> Sure. Deborah Hulkran >> here. >> Tony Patikio >> here. >> Janice Janice Chamberlain >> here. >> Sarah Smith >> here. >> Tim Ror. >> Morgan Donaldelsson >> here. Greg Greg Miller >> here. >> Alan S >> here. >> Nick Lonza >> here. >> Kathleen Trey >> here. >> Arthur Christensen >> here. >> And Julie Marshall >> here. >> All right. Thank you. Welcome everybody to yet another snowy night. >> Yeah. So, um, is there any way that the public is able to speak, Sharon? >> Yes. we had put out, not that they can speak, but there was a Google doc that

002was uh connected to the agendas. Um, and let me just pull that up real quick because I've had it up. Been look I've been looking at it all night. Oh, here comes Tim. Let me just refresh it. All right, Tim is here. >> Yes, and right now we do not have any public comment on the Google doc. I'll keep it up and we can check it at the end of the meeting as well. >> Okay, terrific. Thank you. All right, so let's start with committee reports. Uh personnel, >> you're muted, Janice. >> Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Um personnel did not meet. Um a couple of things. Um Jillian is going to uh do another little poll to see when people are available to um organize a meeting, a personnel meeting for um the end of you

003know end of March, April. Um we have to we definitely want to talk about the uh the superintendent written part of the evaluation and working on that document. So you want to do that. Um and I believe also we will be having begin to have meetings when we come to uh administr teacher negotiations which are coming up believe it or not. So that's will be happening and I think currently there are um we're doing rounds of interviews for the um um assistant administrators position. So that's that's in process. >> All right. Thank you. policy >> policy met on Thursday. Uh we spent the bulk of our time designing uh a survey about the grading and reporting policy and its current state um that will be going out to teachers tomorrow. As a matter of fact,

004um looking forward to the feedback we get from that survey. There was also a little bit of feedback back from the cell phone um pilot that was out. Um, it was all positive and it's kind of making us rethink the direction we're going with the cell phone policy. So, there's more to come on that. We did not have time for the AIA policy, the student activity fund policy, or the um library policy yet. So, those are still um waiting to go. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next meeting is March 19th at 5:30. >> I'll be there. All right. Finance. uh finance met prior to this meeting. Um overall um we well we we there are two I I'll start with there are two motions on the consent agenda tonight uh for consideration by the

005um the regional school board. um one is the quarterly reports uh financial statements for quarter two um with the dated December 31st 2025 you'll be um receiving um and then the second is for um the the finance committee was recommending uh the appointment of our auditors um as well um we reviewed the quarterly everybody should have received the quarterly in the documents that Jillian circulated prior to this meeting um we um reviewed the quarterlys and o overall things uh the it looked fine. Um in terms of expenditures, we are our extended school year and special education uh transportation are trending over budget. I think let's see you can find that further down. I think it's on page five and six that's referenced under the expenditures. Our revenues are looking good at this particular point in

006time and our vocational grants are higher. Um and the health insurance fund that's train that's basically shared by the town Mansfield board of ed and region 19 board of ed um that is still trending well. We did um we had more claims and so that has the the total balance is reduced somewhat but we um seeing a 25.5% increase in in um um the quarterly expenditures but overall the balance this fund has to be approximately 2.1 million. That's also noted in your report. So we're that fund is still looking good. Um the other area that we're keeping an eye on as well is um the um caf uh cafeteria fund. Again, this is a this is this that's on page 10. Um if you look at that, you'll see that that's also shared, I believe,

007by Mansfield and and region 19. Um we are doing better there. We only have a deficit of 40,000 for the whole um for for the total budget which includes like I said Mansfield as well and we are Amanda is suggesting and we need to discuss this in our finance committee subcommittee meeting in for the future suggesting that possibly we we absorb our portion of the director's um salary into um the major operating budget which would help to bring this um this this bas this account under control or at least in balance more in balance so that was one of the suggestions that she had. I don't know if anybody else has any other questions at this point but those were the major points that we wanted to identify. >> Janice, we also we also uh

008reappointed the um auditors. >> Yes. And I said that was on the that's on the consent agenda. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Uh curriculum >> curriculum did not meet, but we have a meeting scheduled for March 12th. It's a Thursday at 4 PM. And any curriculum committee members, if you have things you definitely want on the agenda, please email Sharon and me. Um and we'll be circulating an agenda um very soon. That's it. >> All right. Thanks, Morgan. uh building committee >> building did meet just prior to this uh this meeting. Uh it also included Ryan Ellsworth uh town manager of Mansfield. Um and Amanda joined us as well. So that was good. Um main discussions continue to be around a star depot uh facility. Um part of of the

009meeting uh this round was to review uh lease renewal for the current space uh at the bitten school. Um so extending beyond the July 31st um term end of our current lease additional year. Um so we'll work through some of the details of that extending it out uh from from there. Um so that was you know certainly it' be good to get that in place. um at least buy us a little bit of time. Um further discussions on site, specifically the um Route 32 site of the current Bitten School and potentially acquiring the rear portion of that property. Ryan, you know, has of continued to um map that transaction out and no real roadblocks that we see. Uh confirmed that there is no water or sewer there. So, our development would need to include provisions

010uh for that. Certainly not not a a no-go, but make a little more challenging. Um let's see other aspects of that. I guess that's mostly it. We're going to work out some of the financials what that means. Um in terms of you know just real early budgetary uh development budget reimbursement um and then um sort of uh amortization over time and how it compares with our current expenses associated with the leases that we have um and compared to uh you know the you know not having the program which is really not being considered but it's certainly um what we need to compare against. So that'll continue. Um, let's see. We had uh HVAC plans teed up. Um, though we didn't um that got tabled for the most part uh to our to our next meeting.

011That's uh that wraps it up for this week for this month. >> Any questions for Tim? Janice, >> you're muted. >> Yeah, sorry about that. Um I no I don't have a question for Tim but I just can I go back to finance because I think one of the things that Tony brought up I should add back to um add in about the um the auditors appointment of the auditors. >> Go for it. >> But I can wait or Okay. Um the yeah the only other thing I wanted to mention and I should have mentioned prior when I was doing the report on finance um the auditors this is the the third year of their contract. Um, and so next year we do have an option to go out to bid. Um, and so I

012wanted people to be aware of that as well, the board to members to be aware of that if they have any thoughts about that as well. So, thanks. >> All right. Terrific. Thank you. Um, EDJ Tony. >> Yes. EDJ met on uh February 12th. Um, there's a pretty lengthy uh minutes in your package about um about what we discussed. I'll just briefly go over it. Annually we review the our guiding principles uh to determine if they need to be updated or also just to refresh ourselves. We also had some new members. Uh we decided that we did not need to make any changes um uh this year. Um we also discussed the a bill which is now pending at the general assembly um on school breakfast and school lunches as you may recall during co

013Sharon correct me if I'm wrong was it one or two years where we had free breakfast and lunches right for all students >> I say I want to say two >> yeah I think it was two years um that ended Um and a lot of that was funded by money we had from the what the uh COVID related funds right? Yeah, the ASER funds >> we have been uh during that period we experienced that there was um larger um participation in in the meals programs and we have been with with a lot of other organizations in the state um working to try to get ideally all of that restored. So, so free breakfast and lunches for all students. But, um, the proposal this year is for free breakfast for all students and free lunches for

014all students who are already getting free lunches under the federal program, but also for those who are on the reduced lunch program. Um it's not everything that that a lot of people would like, but um it it's was in the governor's proposal proposed budget. It's now been um raised as a bill uh HB5214. Uh they had was a public hearing on the bill last week. Um the universal breakfast had widespread support. Um as I do think also the the expanding the lunch free lunches to include those students who are now getting reduced fee lunches. One of the issues we face in Connecticut um that is a federal standard and the cost of living in Connecticut is higher than in a lot of parts of the country. So the reduced fee lunches were still not really

015meeting the needs of a lot of families um in Connecticut. So, so this would help that as well. Um, the way it would work is is schools would offer those and then they then they would apply for reimbursement from the state and I believe the in the governor's proposal he set aside $12 million which would fund um that for this coming year. So in the pack in the agenda tonight, I think it's the last item is a recommendation that came from the EDJ committee that the board act to support this legislation. Um and uh and vote on that um which would enable any any of us who are making public comment or written comment. I have made written comment uh at the original hearing to acknowledge the fact if it was approved that that the

016region 19 board has approved it. I think it's valuable to to have that. So that will be discussed later. Um, we also discussed the review of the 2026 uh security plan. When gosh, Sharon, this was the year you came, right? 2020. >> 2020, >> we had a um school resource officer program in place for a year. We had a lot of um push back on on having um armed officers in the school in after one year we voted to resend that program. But part of that resolution uh was that every year the board would review the school security staffing uh plan, which we now consider to include not only um the unarmed um security staff we have, but also the the mental health staff we have. Um and Sharon reviewed this at the last budget

017meeting. Um and we'll have in several other budget meetings. My the goal would be that when we go to the public hearing on the when we go to the board uh April meeting appro approving the recommended budget, we would include a resolution acknowledging that the board has completed that review of the security program. So we still have a couple of budget review meetings where people can ask questions about that and the costs associated with that. But just a heads up that that's where that's where that will go. Um the the other thing we discussed was the let's see in in connection with that there was questions and concerns raised about whether there was student any student um anxieties or concerns about the potentials. you know, reading the seeing the news about ICE officers and other

018other schools and jurisdictions, whether that was something that was impacting our students here. I think Sharon, you indicated that is a concern. Um, and um, we just wanted to get a handle on that. Um, again, the the minutes the minutes uh discussed that as well. And then finally, we we our last item was to was to talk about additional ways we can engage in community involvement and engagement both to uh uh parent groups as well as to the student affinity groups and student groups um to to kind of make sure that um they're aware of our guiding principles. if they have concerns about anything that we're not addressing uh or basically or basically if there's other things we can do to support them. We're going to have another meeting on March 24th at 5:30 before

019the public hearing. Uh 5:30 and that will I say im immediately precede the public hearing. Um that's pretty much it. >> All right. Any questions for Tony? All right, seeing that we can move into student reports. We've got Theo. Theodore. Do you go by Theo? Theo and >> Aisa. I can I'm not reading your name. >> Did I say that right? >> Yeah. Okay. Whatever order you want to go in. >> Yeah. Um I can go first. I have like a couple things to cover. Um I think students are definitely still transitioning with like the weather and into the second semester. Um SATs and PSATs are coming up soon. Um I know the plans for March so far are pretty exciting. We have pep rally in the works. College decisions are coming out. We have

020blood drive, spring dance, exciting things. But I think the thing that's causing students the most concern just from what of um I've been talking with students and students have been coming up to me with questions about the reassessment policy. Um, I think there's been some inconsistencies with at least through the the different course levels with um the reassessment policy. I don't know if it's like faculty based or if it's just like an inconsistency throughout the math department, but um for example, some of the ECE courses like AD Cal 1 and 2, AD cals, AP stats, or APAs isn't EC, but AD cal one and two. Um the opportunity for reassessment is on the back of the next test that you're going to take. And I see like some students have had concerns about um it's

021hard for them to focus on the test that they're going to take because they're so focused on the reassessment and reassessing the next test that they a lot of students run out of time to take the test or they or they don't even get to the reassessment. Um or the other issue I'm seeing is that students are focusing so hard on the reassessment that they don't even get to the test entirely and then that puts students behind because it's a cycle of like constantly trying to reassess and reassess the next test. Um, and so for that, I think the question that I posed was um, especially because in comparison to like the calc one and the honors classes, the reassessment course is a little bit more lenient. It's a little bit more at the students

022leisure and the teacher's convenience. You can take it your study hall. You can reassess um, in the class even. So, the question I was going to pose was, does the course level matter for the opportunity for reassessment? um just because as of right now it doesn't really align with like Yukon's um guidelines for assessment, but it also doesn't align with EO's guidelines for assessment either. So, I think that like students just kind of need a better grasp of where like the guidelines coming from and um how to navigate that um throughout the reassessment process. Um and then I also like that I had um something a little bit lighter was the blood drive. I know that's coming up. Last year, me and my friend co-chared the blood drive that was successful in raising over 90

023pints of blood. We had close to 100 donors last year, which was really exciting. Um, that's coming up March 20th. We're in the process of collaborating with the Red Cross and working with some of the allied health students to get that up and running. Um, we also wanted to cover the NAS proposal. So, two of Eio's three NAS proposals that we pitched are um are going through. We're going to be presenting on March 6th at Clark University. um that's around the corner. It's Friday. Faith and I are doing a presentation. Um and I think Kayla and Hassan are also doing presentation as well. Um so that's fun. That's going to be a good opportunity. We've been interviewing Dr. Doretta. We've been interviewing some of the teachers a part of the teachers racial justice organization just

024to get a better sense of what some of the policies are regard regarding like microaggressions and regarding racism in our school. Um so yeah, that was just my little synopsis. >> Great. Thank you for the feedback overall. I'm sure that will be that was heard by the committee members. So, thank you. >> All right, >> we said a lot of the um the important things, but um I just wanted to say that uh we found there was a pretty long search for um an outdoor track coach. That was a big worry. There was not going to be a program, so we got that. Um a lot of members from the staff and members of the community stepped in to help coach the team. Um, and then for the cell phone policy, I was going to

025say that um, from the student side, there haven't been any bumps in the road. I don't think I haven't heard like any outrage from students uh, personally in my classes and that I've asked. And obviously, the teachers are loving it. So, um, I think it's going pretty smooth so far. And then I just wanted to restate the thing about the grading policy that I think um there's not there's so not um I don't think people are so much upset about like what's going on. they're just confused about um like how as as Aisa was saying like how the difference between taking a Yukon level class or a EOSmith level class um changes that and how like maybe students could have or would have um like if if there had been more communication about that like

026changed their course load or taken a different course load. So I think there's just um yeah that's definitely I think that's the biggest like bump in the road in terms of um like policy from the board right now for students. But yeah, that's that's all from me. >> Again, good feedback and all those things are going to be taken into consideration as we work our way through that policy. >> Yeah, great feedback. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Okay. Um, do we go right into the special report at this point? >> Sure. >> Okay. All right, Ashley, you're there somewhere. >> All right. Let's see if I can share my screen. >> So, I'd like to I'd like to introduce um Ashley Rue, who is our newest director. She joined as the

027math director um and the CTE director in December. So, she has had a steep learning curve and she is doing an absolutely amazing job. And so, welcome to Ashley to um her first board of ed presentation. >> Yeah, welcome aboard. Oh, thank you very much. Um, yeah, so my name is Ashley Rue. I'm the head for the math department and career and technical education. Um, I just started in mid December, but before that I've been working as a math teacher um, in the EOSmith math department for the last 14 years. So, I'm not new to EOSmith. I'm just new to this role. Um, and it's been fun to kind of, I don't know, expand what I know about the EOSmith community and kind of get to do some new things. So, I'm going to start

028by talking about math and then I'll switch to CTE later on. So, the math department, we have 11 teachers. We offer 20 different courses. Um, seven of those courses are concurrent enrollment. So, most of that is Yukon. So, six of them are Yukon courses, one is Eastern. Um, and then we also have a four-year graduation requirement. So, students are required to take four full credits of math. Um, the only exception to that is if students take calc 1 and two and have already completed that, then they're waved. Um, but honestly, most of the time when kids do that, they end up taking multivariable and then going off to Yukon and taking courses there. So most of the students, it's not like they're saying, "Oh, we finished early and I'm just going to stop doing math."

029They tend to continue on. And so I want to start by looking at some of our SAT data. Um, so the SATs are coming up. They're supposed to be tomorrow. Now they're going to be March 17th because of all the snow days we've had. Um, so this is our data from last year. So 2025 I'm looking just at math. Our school average score was a 519 which is better than the state average and it's better than you know the national average but it also means that we only had 45% of our students who were meeting the benchmark score. So according to the SAT the benchmark is a 530. So, we're not far off from that, but we're not there. It's something that we definitely need to be working on and improving. And I'll kind of

030talk about that a little bit more. If you break that down a little bit, so I broke it down by race and ethnicity, you can see this top row just shows all of our students. So, that's the same score I just showed you. Um, but then when you look at it by the different race and ethnic groups, the white students are pretty close to the average, not really surprising considering that's 67% of our student body. So that's the majority of the students. Um, you can see that the um scores for the Asian students are higher than average and then Hispanic and Latino and black and African-American are both lower. The next thing I wanted to look at was growth over time. So this is looking at the same group of student. I'm looking at the

031most recent SAT. So last year's SAT. So the current seniors, this is their SAT score and then the PSATs that they took when they were sophomores. Um so on the PSATs, 41% of them were meeting that benchmark. and then on the SAT we went up to that 45. So I think it's something to say that our scores are improving. So I think that reflects well on the school that the students are getting better. I obviously think there's a lot of room for improvement. Um but if you look at it, you can see how we're right on the edge here. So, I really think that if we do like kind of some targeted support and really focus in on this more, it shouldn't be unreasonable to get us up over that hump. And I think we

032could make a lot of progress in a little amount of time. It's kind of a similar um like piece of data, but I wanted to just show when you look at the different classes kind of the different data that we have and how they compare. So this red line here is the class of 2026. This is what I've been talking about because they're our only class right now that's taken the SAT and there's their PSAT data. If you look at the blue line, that's the current juniors. So we have PSAT9 data for them and then the PSAT PSAT9 is a test that we administer to the freshman. So it's put out by the college board. It's designed for um you know freshmen um but it's kind of so that we can see some growth over

033time. So you see with the juniors their percent that are meeting the master uh the benchmark staying kind of consistent. And then for the freshman and the juniors, I don't have any or not freshman, juniors, freshman, sophomores. I don't have more data for them because all we've had them do is take that PSAT9, but I wanted to put it on there just to show how there's variation between the classes that you can see just that, you know, I think sometimes we like lose sight of the fact that it's different groups of students. So when we're looking at growth over time, obviously we're looking to get all of our students consistently performing well, but I also think there's something to be said for we want to look at where the students are starting and how we're

034helping them to move forward. Um the other piece I wanted to add in is this looking at these SAT domains. So, the SAT breaks their topics down into four main categories. Algebra, advanced math, problem solving and data analysis, and geometry and trigonometry. Algebra and advanced math make up about 70% of the test. So, they're each 35%. And then the other two categories are a total of 30%, about 15 each. Um and so this is showing what percent of our students are in the different you know categories mastery categories basically within each of these domains. I think from a teaching perspective and from a you know kind of what can we do to help our students improve this information is really valuable. I look especially at like algebra, how we have 27% of our students are

035in that approaching mastery category, meaning that if we could just get them to move a little bit up, then they should be in that green meets exceeds. Um, so what I did is this data is everybody all together. It's our schoolwide data for the teachers. I also shared it with them on a student by student basis. So I had a spreadsheet I shared with the teachers that list out every kid how they did on each individual category. And then I have them all tagged by their course and by their teacher. So the teachers can go through and look and say, "Okay, I want to look specifically at my students and say, "My students are really struggling with problem solving and data analysis. So, let me focus in on that and give them some focused review.

036Or they could also look and say, you know, I'm part of the geometry PLC. I want to look at every geometry student and see what they need to focus on. So, this is kind of I think the data that's most valuable for us in trying to come up with a game plan for how to move forward. And the other thing, one last thing on this is the SAT has or the college board has lots of resources on their website. And if you go on and you look at the College Board, you can look up each of these domains and they give you sample questions within each score band. So you can look and say, "Okay, right now I'm I don't know, I got a 450 or I'm in a this middle score band for advanced

037math. What are the questions that what questions am I going to see if I want to move up one level? And those are the kinds of released questions that I want teachers to be kind of using more in class. The last piece of data, um, I wanted to be able to give you some data that was broken down into some different subgroups, um, other than what the SAT has. Um, so this is looking at our just our EOS Smith grades. So I'm looking I looked at the 2024 2025 school year and the year end a um averages for their math courses. So if you look, you see um when we break it down by gender, it's basically the same. The female students are getting on average 2% higher scores. So that seems pretty similar. um

038lunch status. You can see there's more of a gap there between our students who get full who have um full pay lunch versus free and reduced. I combined those together. Um race and ethnicity is similar to the same trends that we saw with the SAT data where the our Asian students are performing better than average. Our Latino students are performing a little bit below average. And then in terms of the EOS Smith data, the white and black students are kind of on the same level where with the SAT data, the black and African-American students were a little lower. Um, and then special education, you can see we've got some gaps there too between our general ed students, our 504, and our special ed. So in a perfect world, we would want to see all of

039these bars just be perfectly level with each other because everyone is performing the same. That is obviously not where we are. And so our goal now is kind of what can we do to help us move forward. So a couple things um in terms of our department goals. Uh the number one is that we want to do a curriculum audit. This is something I've been wanting to do since long before I was in charge. I've been saying this for years that I really have been wanting to go through and look at what's all the content that we expect students to know and learn over their four years with us. And specifically looking at, you know, what's the content, you know, on the common core, what's the content on the SAT? and really looking and saying,

040are we covering everything that we're supposed to be covering? Do we have any overlap between courses? I think especially through COVID, a lot of our stuff kind of got jumbled up and I think some topics got lost, some topics got added in, and we really need to just take a little time to go through and kind of clean that up. Um, and then we'll also look at some alignment between levels of courses and saying, you know, if I'm in algebra 1 at the college and career level or algebra 1 at the honors level, am I seeing the same material? Are we covering the same content? Kind of where are the differences there? Um, and kind of going from there. The other piece is just being more intentional with our SAT preparation. So really making sure

041that every course is using released problems in their lessons. I really want to see released SAT questions on student assessments so they're getting more familiarity with that. And then also giving kids more opportunities to practice using Desmos. So Desmos is the online calculator that the SAT uses. Um, and students who are familiar with Desmos and are good at it and know kind of how to use all of its tricks are going to be at a huge advantage on the SAT. So, that's something I really want to make sure that we're giving our students these tools, you know, so they can work smarter, not harder. And then the last piece is expanding our access to higher level math classes. So, I'll talk a little more about that. So, I mentioned before that we have 20 courses

042in the math department. So, this flowchart kind of maps out the general progression of our courses. You'll see off to the side I have computer science. That's because the computer science courses don't count for math credit, but they count as kind of part of the math department because they're taught by a math teacher. So we have two intro to computer science classes and we offer AP computer science. But if we look at our math classes, you say the first kind of three three courses here, algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, that's where you really don't have any choice. So you just kind of go in that order. After you've completed algebra 2, that's where you can start to make decisions about what you want kind of based on what are you interested in doing after high

043school. So, one option is to take pre-calculus and then go into calculus and if you can also get to multivariable. You can also do statistics. As a former stat teacher, I feel like stats is the most important class. I think everybody should be taking it. I always encourage kids to take it. Even when they tell me they want to do pre-calc or calculus, I try to convince them to take two math classes because I really do think it's that important. Um, and then we've got some of these other elective courses. Um, AD discrete math is another Yukon ECE course. They cover some like just random, it's why it's called discreet, different math topics. They right now they're doing voting theory. They just did some financial math. They do some really cool stuff. Um, we also

044offer financial algebra and then we have some semester courses of an intro to statistics and trigonometry. I highlighted in blue or outlined in blue all of our courses that get um, college credit. All of these are Yukon except for calculus one that's Eastern. Now the thing to notice when you look at that flowchart is that depending on where you start in the flowchart, you know, kind of defines how far you can get. And so by the nature of EOS Smith being a regional school, our students come in at different points and because of that it means that they have different amounts of access to those higher level math classes. And so, you know, if your sending school offers geometry and another school doesn't, well, then you're going to have different access to math classes throughout

045your high school. So, I just want to show you that and then I'll talk about kind of our plan to address it. So, kind of your standard entrylevel math class is algebra 1. So, if you take algebra 1 as a nth grader, then this is your general progression. you'll take algebra 1. Then as a sophomore, you'll take geometry. As a junior, you'll be in algebra 2. And then your senior year, you could either take pre-calc, and that would prepare you to take calculus in college, or you could say, "I'm going to do statistics or some of these elective courses. Now, if you start in geometry as a freshman, then you can take algebra 2 as a sophomore, pre-calc as a junior, and take calculus as a senior. And if you start in algebra 2, then

046you can make it all the way to multivariable as a senior. And we get students every year who do this. We also have students who come in, you know, even more advanced than this. But this is kind of our general three categories that students come in at. And so what we wanted to do is try to figure out a way to make it so that all students have the ability to take calculus as seniors if they're interested. And so our response to that was we've offered this summer math acceleration program for the last couple of years. So we've been offering honors algebra 2 over the summer. Um it's free for the students. The only thing is that they have to provide transportation. Um but other than that they don't have to pay for anything. Our

047first year that we did it we had eight students who participated. The next year we had 23 and then last year we had 16. And kind of the purpose is to make it so that all students have access to calculus as seniors without having to double up. So before this program, what students would do is if they really wanted to take calculus, they would take two math classes in the same year. So generally they did geometry and algebra 2 at the same time. And it's not awful, but it's a lot. It's a lot of math for a kid to be taking. and it also kind of clogs up their schedule that then they can't take as many electives or other courses that they want to take because they're taking two math classes. So, this option

048lets students get to that same point without having to take two math classes and deal with all of that. Um, this year we're going to run the program again, but we're going to expand it and offer algebra 2 and geometry because what's happened in the past is that like last year we had a lot of freshmen who participated in the program. So, they had just taken algebra 1, then over the summer they took algebra 2. That was our only option. But then when they came into EOSmith this fall, they said, "Well, I should be taking pre-calculus because I just finished algebra 2." But they also hadn't taken geometry. So, what ended up happening is some of these students still had to double up. And geometry really is a prerequisite for pre-calculus. So, it's hard for

049them also because they had to kind of learn this material at the same time. And it's just been a little bit messy. So, we're really hopeful that if we can offer geometry and algebra 2, then the students can all just kind of continue along on their progression with the next appropriate course. And so, that's something that we've been working a lot on and we're really pretty excited about. Couple of other things. Um, there's been a big department focus on just providing our support to our struggling students. Um, I'm sure you've heard lots about all the different academic assistance options that students have at EOSmith. We have tons of data on this and track all our usage data. And the math department is by far the department that uses these academic assistance options the most. So,

050we're really utilizing those those supports. Um, the other thing I wanted to point out is every year the teachers make professional goals. So they get to pick something that they're interested in and kind of work on it over the year. And they can really pick any topic. And this year I have a number of teachers who are working on different ways of providing extra supports to students. So a lot of them are making extra help videos and kind of picking topics that they know historically students have struggled with and they're making short little recap videos for the students. so they can look back and get some extra help. Um, another teacher is making study guides of different topics and then uploading them to an AI platform that then will make them into flashcards and we'll

051quiz the kids and do these different things. And kind of now our department goal is to see if as more teachers are doing this on their own, if we can create a common place to store all of these resources. So, we want to make a common page that will list all of our courses and put all of our extra help resources and videos and things like that together so that students can get help with their current course, but they could also go back to previous courses and access those materials. So, maybe I'm in pre-calc and I realize that I really should have learned something in geometry and I forgot it. I could go back to my geometry like geometry and look at those extra help videos and kind of remind myself of what's happening. And

052so I just think it's pretty cool and it's completely like teacher initiated. So it's just totally based on something that teachers have wanted and found a need for and are doing on their own. Um two other pieces we have two student organizations. Um we have Mu Alpha Theta is our math honor society and we have our math team. Um the math team competes every year. They like win all the time. They're very good. Um Mu Alpha Theta, their main piece that they do is student tutoring. Um we have over 60 students in our organization. Um, and what's great about our honors society is that we have um both honors and college and career students in it. So, there's no like requirement that you have to be an honors student. All you have to be is

053a student who likes math, wants to help people with math, and has generally been successful in their math classes. So, that's something great. Um, and then we also do different events. We've got we're very always into Halloween. We dress up. We decorate the hallways. The kids do themed questions. Um, and then we have Pi Day, March 14th, coming up soon. Save the date. And here's a picture of all of us at our Halloween. We were uh Disney villains was our theme this year. >> Any questions on math before I switch gears to career in tech? Yeah, I have a question for you. >> Yeah. >> So, how long are the summer courses? >> This year we're hoping to do six weeks. So, last year I think it was five, maybe more like four and a

054half to five. And the feedback from the students was they needed more time. So, we're hoping to do six weeks, four days a week uh for four hours a day. >> Okay. And you feel that short amount of time could replace entire years worth of geometry and algebra 2. >> I think it can. I think it's hard. Um I think it works out because the students who take these courses tend to be our most motivated, stronger students. And so if there's any gaps, they can fill them in. Um, but we actually just met with the students yesterday and did a little focus group and I was asking them, you know, are there things that you didn't learn that you should have and they really couldn't identify them. So, they really thought that the course had

055covered everything they should have known. Um, they we have the kids do it on an using an online program called Alex. And the way that the program is set up, obviously I haven't done it yet, but I'm pretty sure you can set it up where you can assign specific skills. So, I've been sort of playing around with it and really making sure that it lines up with everything that we're covering in our course so we can really be confident that the kids are getting all the material that they should. Ashley, can I just can I just add also the the program gives them a diagnostic >> so that it it assesses them on what knowledge and skills they have and then sets up um modules based on what their needs are that takes them through

056lessons. So, it's it is it's personalized to the needs of the kids and based on what they shared and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Ashley, yesterday. Um the work isn't just isolated to those f four hours that they're that they're in the building working with the teacher and working with the program. There's work that they need they need to do at home as well in order to complete those modules and to um and to be prepared. >> Right. So, okay, if that's the case, why not make the why not give those courses an optional half year? If you were confident that this program could do it in such a short amount of time, that equates to about a half half a year worth of worth of work rather than a full year course.

057So, why not offer that instead or in addition to >> What do you mean that they would take that during the school year? >> Yeah. So, for example, if you're you believe that the algebra 2 course over the summer provides them with enough skills to move forward in a short amount of time, why not have that be a half-year course for some of those more motivated students? >> I I mean, I will say I'm not super familiar with the program yet. right now. I think I don't feel confident that they're going to learn it at the same level that it's going to be as good. But I I see your point. So I feel like I need to see what this looks like over the summer how it goes. But I think that is something

058we could explore. >> Just mind would just weigh in on that. So just provide perspective. So I um took a couple of calculus courses over a summer during my undergrad. Um they were intense. They were very short. They were super successful partly because there was a focus. There was a single topic for a period of time. So, and I don't know what whether the science data behind this or whatever it is, but I could see and I and I learned way more in those short summer courses about calculus than I than I had in other scenarios. So, again, maybe it's just me or whatever, but um I found that I was I was very successful in that scenario. Again, I would owe part of that to the fact that there was such a focus and

059a consistent application of that topic. And I think it's a little different than juggling uh a number of topics and fitting this in between there. So, there's something there maybe in terms of how it works out, but it um just as an anidote in my experience, um I got a lot out of a course like that. I think it'd be hard for kids to focus and put that much energy into one thing during the school year amidst all their other classes. But it's something I mean it's an interesting point. I think it kind of goes along with the same idea for why people argue for block scheduling that if you take fewer classes and you have less to focus on then you can really dig deep and focus more. Kind of all comes together with

060that. I had a question about one last one, Sarah, then I'll stop. >> Oh, sure. >> Um, would you have the same kind of confidence in a in a pre-calc summer course? >> My initial answer is no. I feel like pre-calc has so much content in it. It just seems like it would be really hard to cover all of that. But I don't know. I mean, I'd have to look into it more. Um, but I think that seems hard. I think, you know, I know that our students who take AP pre-cal, they are really pushing to get through everything during the school year. It seems like to me like it's just too much material to condense down, but I mean, I'm sure it's possible. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Sarah, you had a

061question. >> Okay. Yeah. I was wondering, um, Ashley, who takes the courses? Do you have kids who have maybe um you know they're coming from a a school that did not offer them uh a lead step you know into the into what we offer? Uh do you have kids who maybe failed algebra the first time and you know would like to do it in the summer like this? Do you have mostly honors or is it everybody? I so it's designed to be an acceleration pro program. So it's not really for students who have failed the course and need to retake it. >> Although I do wonder if that might be something we could explore in the future. Um and we also aimed like we're aiming to have it be for students who didn't have access

062to these courses, you know, kind of based on their sending schools or wherever they started from to kind of get them up to a level playing field. Last year we tried to open it up originally to only students who would kind of qualify under those qualifications and then when we had more room we opened it up more. It's been mostly honor students who have done it but we have had a few um college and career students and I think that in the past what's happened is some of those students have struggled more and haven't been as successful in the course. But I think that the problem could be if you're coming from algebra 1 at the college and career level and you're trying to jump up to algebra 2 honors, that's a big leap where

063if you're going from algebra 1 and then you go up to geometry honors, I think it's a much more manageable jump. And so I think that this year those students could be a lot more successful because I I think it's reasonable to say I can go from algebra 1 CC to geometry honors and then they'll be able to take algebra 2 honors at EOS Smith over the course of the year with all the extra help supports and then I think they should be fine. So it is open though you you allow as do you sit down and try to uh figure out who would be able to manage this before they they come into the program or is it just kind of you have to be open to everybody who wishes to try? >> In

064the past we've done it's basically open to anybody who's interested can sign up. We've never maxed out our numbers so we've been able to just take everyone. I do think that we need to do a little bit more with teacher recommendation and just having getting more feedback on the students and making sure that students really are going to be successful. And you know, we've had students who started the program and not really understood quite how intense it was going to be and then weren't successful or students who really signed up and it was like just not a great fit for them. So, I hoping that we can kind of clean out clean up some of those hiccups. Last year, we did our signups very late, so it's all very rushed to the end of the

065year, but we're like looking to start signups within the next few weeks. So, what's nice is that this year we'll have a lot of time to really review, check, and then also that gives us time to really market this to as many students as possible. And I'm going to ask teachers to kind of look at which of your students have signed up and are there other students in your classes that you think would be good candidates for this that aren't signing up and trying to get more students interested. I mean, it's not for everybody to take a class over the summer. It's a big it's a big time commitment. Um, but we just really want to make sure that everyone knows about the program and like take like really seriously considers it. Thank you. >>

066I have one one last question. It doesn't sound like this is available to incoming ninth graders. In other words, eighth graders who are transitioning. Is that correct? In the past, we've only done it for current EOSmith students. We've had discussions about whether or not we can open it up to incoming eighth graders, but we haven't made any hard decisions. And if we did, it would only be if there's space, you know, permitted. you know, our current EOSmith students will get a priority, but then we could open it up. So, it's possible. >> Okay. >> And um actually, I have a couple of questions, too. Um and uh I wanted to go back to your um the first slide um and some of the data that you showed us from the SATs or not the first

067one, but um a few of those. Um, and uh, some of those breakdowns into categories were uh, um, kind of revealing, but there there needs to be context around some of the racial categories specifically, right? And so I was wondering what those breakdowns might look like, and you might not have the numbers to hand, or maybe you do, but um, like what's our performance on the SAT with students in the honors track for math and the ones with uh, the college courses in math? I think that would be a useful thing to look at. Um and the other thing is what about by sending school um like Asheford, Willington, Mansfield um what are the comparisons um there as far as like who's making it above you know making it above the 45%. Um and um

068I asked that too because to go back to the question about if those programs are available for summer. One way to kind of I would think to kind of look at some of the gaps that are emerging right at the beginning. Um actually sorry that is another question I had is are those gaps actually at the beginning too um in those kind of like P9 tests? Um and uh uh if they are at the beginning, one way obviously to kind of for EOS Smith to come uh remedy that would be to offer a summer program that's not necessarily remedial um but but does kind of move everybody onto a standard page um and is is kind of pitched more as a refresher um or a sort of norming um if uh there's certain groups of

069students who aren't up to um the standards of uh algebra 1 for example. Um, and that, you know, is is kind of bringing down those first scores. I know that was a long kind of question and comment, but >> I agree with you. I think it would be awesome if we could have a summer program to kind of get kids like on board and kind of up to where we want them to be. I've also thought about it in the past for students who want to like move up a level between CC and honors. there tends to be at least one unit of material that they haven't covered that we then tell the kids, you know, this is what you need to learn. Here are some resources, have at it. But it would be great

070if we could offer some more like summer programming or other things for to kind of support those kids. That's something we've definitely thought about before. We haven't made any plans, but I agree. I think it could be really useful. Um, I don't have data on the SATs linked to the towns and things like that. I feel like I should be able to get it. I'm sitting here in my like Excel brain worrying like, oh, how can I run this? Um, so I feel like I should be able to pull it together, but the SAT like from the College Board side, they don't have that information. So, I pulled everything from College Board, but I think I should be able to piece it together from Eio Smith. I think I can import it and because I

071I mean I said that I have all of the students scores with their breakdowns. So I think all I would need to do is add in sending towns and things like that. >> Okay. >> Can I just make a quick No, sorry. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Oh, I was just going to make a quick point though. Like I I worry a little bit about these bariate relationships because um socioeconomic status differs by town. So what might look look like a difference that you can conclude, oh the math instruction in town X is not as good as town Y, it may just be the effect of socioeconomic status. So I think we need to be careful when we make those relationships. >> Thank you, Morgan. That makes sense. Um yeah that but I think that

072that additional data I mean it's the way we've got it separated out is the way we've always separated these things out and the more we know the more help we can provide potentially and so that was a great presentation by the way Ashley thank you so much >> yeah I just had another kind of follow-up question the um the question about like data and how it's um the the bariant that Morgan brought up I think that is a really um helpful uh bit because there are different socioeconomic statuses too. But um I guess my point is that um by kind of grouping it without like by grouping it just by racial categories, we we kind of just leave race associated with scores that are elsewhere. And that those stereotypes are really damaging, too. Um so

073I'd rather have them sort of pegged to groups of students that you can kind of think about broadly. So if it's Ashford or Willington or Mansfield that needs support um like as and we know that as a group um like those students are coming in and largely need support that could be really helpful um just for getting those um performances up but um uh I think that's yeah what I had to say mostly about that but the um I would love to see the data and also the other question um I had about the the um numbers that you were showing is whether the SAT scores were also correlated to grades. Um like are is it really that the students who are getting A's are they all kind of exceeding the benchmark or or you

074know how how does the grade how are the grades working in those courses too? Um and is it easy to identify students who are getting like C and below as the ones that are kind of dropping down um on the SATs? >> Yeah. So that I mean is more data that I don't have, but I feel like I could piece it together. I know I've seen in the past kind of scatter plots of here's the kids, you know, Smith grade versus the SAT. Um I would probably break it down into the students who are taking the CC classes and then the honors classes so we can kind of see that breakdown. Um, but then that's also where you get some interesting information where you have your students who have a terrible EOS Smith grade and

075a super SAT or vice versa could definitely give us some more info. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Excellent. You want to move on? >> Sure. So, career in tech. Um, so I'm in charge of the two departments. I do math and then CTE. Um, I feel like when I took over this job, I knew a lot about the math department and I knew very little about career in tech. And it's actually been really fun for me to learn all about it. Learn about these different courses. They're so much fun. Everything they do is like very hands-on and real world. And not that math isn't really fun because I do think it is and I love it. But it's just been really like interesting for me to see a different side. So, career in tech,

076we have offer a lot of different courses. Um, I organized these all into career clusters because that's how the state organizes everything when they talk about career and technical education. So, we look at these different groups. And so, I grouped our courses into those same categories. I'm going to go through and talk about kind of each of our broad groups of classes. So, first up we have business. So, we have two teachers who teach our business and finance classes, Kelly Rondo and Christina Small. Um, they've been doing a lot of really cool stuff in their classes. Um, couple of highlights they wanted me to point out. Um, they did a financial reality fair last semester and then they'll do it again this semester with the students. Um it's kind of like playing the game of

077life but with real numbers and much more realistic. So the students were given like um information or maybe they picked it and they it would be you know your job is a teacher, you make this much annually, your partner makes this much. So your total budget is this. And then they had to go around and they could pick like where do you want to live? Um how much money are you going to save towards your retirement? and kind of those big general normal budgeting things, but then they also had to make um decisions about smaller things that I thought were fun. It was like, you know, are you going to shop at the organic grocery store? Are you going to go to the discount store? Um what streaming services are you going to sign up

078for? You know, are you going to do all these streaming? Are you just going to do cable or just this? Um, so it was really fun and the kids had great feedback afterwards about, you know, budgeting and things that they had no clue about and had never really thought. Just a really fun activity. Um, both Kelly and Christina have invited guest speakers into their classes. So, they had financial advisor um, zoom in and talk to the students about investments. Um they've also had some entrepreneurs come in, um family members of students who talked about how they started their own businesses and kind of the logistics of that. Um and then our sports and entertainment marketing students just took a field trip to the Patriots Hall of Fame. They're actually there like two days before the

079Super Bowl, which was probably for the best. Um so they did an activity where they had to like redesign the Patriots logo. So you can see they're sitting here doing their like redesign and then presenting and then they got to tour around the field the um hall of fame. And then we also have a school bank that's studentrun. Um they handle all the money transactions that students need to do during the day. So like paying for field trips, paying for prom, things like that. Um and then DECA is our student business club. Oops, wrong way. Construction, carpentry, and architecture is all taught by Earl Loggston. His class is like entirely hands-on, projectbased. They do really cool stuff. Um, so they've built a ton of different projects. They make picture frame. You can see the student

080standing here in his picture frame. Um, they make these cool speaker boxes. They have these fancy decorative shelves. They do cutting boards where you splice all the different wood together and has these beautiful patterns. Um the architecture students are making currently these prehistoric home designs. So I went in the other day and this is what the kids were working on. They were each student had picked a different type of prehistoric home and then they were building a model of it and then they're going to present and share so that every student will learn about all the different models. But it was pretty cool. Um, they also use a program called Chief Architect and they'll design their own home design, their own homes as kind of their final end of the year project. We actually have

081a set of virtual reality goggles for the students that are supposed to be able to hook up to the chief architects. The students can put their VR goggles on and do a virtual walkthrough of the house that they designed. We've been having some technical difficulties getting it set up. So, we're really hoping that pretty soon we can work out the logistics because it's just a really cool opportunity for the kids. Um, video produ production is run by Jeremy La Point. Um, the students do uh run a Panther TV as our student news comes out every couple of weeks, once a month. Um, they highlight different things going on in the school, clubs, organizations. Um this picture down at the bottom in the last episode they did a cooking segment and the kids like made cookies

082and then they did a taste test. Um a group of students is currently right now working on making a promotional video all about Eio Smith um that we can use for you know sharing with prospective students. Um and then some of the students are also working on making short films and they're going to enter them into this quiet corner film festival. um where it sounds like in the past we've been pretty successful. Culinary is Alaniskin. His kids are always doing very interesting things. Um at the open houses, so both in the fall and at the eighth grade openhouse, they made food and served it to everyone. I couldn't believe it. I was at 8th grade open house last week, two weeks ago, and I looked over and a kid was walking around just balancing a

083tray and handing out food. It's very official looking. Um, they also do a little school restaurant where they serve like full meals to staff so they can practice, you know, designing and cooking and serving a complete meal. And that's always gotten rave reviews. Um, and then I actually went with them on this field trip to the culinary Olympics at Yukon. So, they got to um the like different chefs at Yukon each made different like meals and food. So, the kids got to do a taste test and they had to analyze, you know, what are the flavors you liked, what do you not like, that kind of stuff. And then the afternoon the chefs competed in like a chopped competition where they had to take ingredients and make meals. And so our students got to watch

084that, but then they also had to like pick their own ingredients and talk about how what would you do and how would you handle all of this? And then last but not least is our manufacturing program. The manufacturing courses are taught by Andy Shetland, who's actually a teacher in the math department and career in tech. So he's dual certified. Um this year the only course we're offering is manufacturing for industry. It's part of the YMPI pipeline, so youth manufacturing pipeline initiative run by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Initiative Board. Um, next year we're going to offer introduction to manufacturing. We've offered it in the past, but we haven't done it for the last few years because of some staffing issues. So, we're really hoping that by offering that intro to manufacturing, we can build up interest

085in our manufacturing program. Um, we've also been working on a partnership with Yukon's Navy STEM program. So, they work closely with Electric Boat and kind of bridging the gap between Electric Boat and schools and getting, you know, just promoting more manufacturing and engineering and things like that. Um, right now we're about to start this Sea Perch is an afterchool club um run through Yukon's Navy STEM program where they're going to be doing underwater robot robotics. So, it's like an eight-week program. Somebody from Yukon is going to come over and run it, and the kids are going to build an underwater robot, which seems very cool. Um, and then these pictures are from some of our visits to Quinnog Valley Community College. They have a beautiful workspace with tons of manufacturing equipment. So, our students have

086been there twice and have done different labs and got to test out things. Um, I went with them on their second trip and it was like the most fun I've ever had. I got a little metal block. I got to use the drill press. I loved it. It was very cool. Um, and then I'm taking a group of students back at the end of March to go to a women in manufacturing day that's designed specifically to promote manufacturing to girls and get kids interested in it. And so Career in Tech, their goals are really to kind of continue what they've been doing. They always have a real focus on building pathways, connecting to careers, and really helping kids get ready for a variety of post-secary opportunities. Um, they're always working on making their classes more

087student centered, culturally relevant, incorporating some social justice in there. And then they've also been working on their unit guides and aligning their curriculum, which is our school goal. But I feel a need to point out that for them, it's a huge undertaking because most of the career and tech teachers are the only people teaching their courses and some of them are teaching up to five different courses a semester. And so that's just a lot of curriculum. It's a lot of unit guide. It's just a lot of work for one person to do. And they've just been great about it, I think, is they know that this is kind of the way that things work. And they're just awesome about they've been doing a great job. They've been working really hard and really making some great

088progress on their unit guides and curriculum and all of that. So, any questions on career in tech? >> Ashley, I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um, I I just on your last slide, you talked about incorporating social justice um issues into the program. Could you elaborate on that a little bit? >> Yeah, it was our I'm trying to think. I remember having this conversation. It was the business teachers were talking about I think they were look Oh, wait, no, wait. I can think about this. one of the business classes they have a social justice unit. Oh, and I think it's they had to the kids had to pick different issues related to finance. So, it's things like what was it like like banking practices and or like historical injustices and different things. >> Okay,

089cool. >> Good. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I have a quick question. >> Yes. Um, first of all, if um if culinary ever needs a taste testers, they should let us know. It would be very interesting to get involved in that. >> I'll let them know. >> Okay. Um, but so you mentioned that there was a staff member that was dual certified for CTE and math. How many dual certified staff are there? Just out of interest, do you know? >> In total, I don't know. Within math and CTE, there is one. >> One. Okay. One. He's also certified in physics >> in Oh, wow. Okay. >> He's up at all. >> He's a unicorn >> because And so the reason for that is if there's any plan in expanding uh classes that are you could take

090a CT class and also get math credit. I don't know if that's uh the the near future plan if there's any near future plans for that. >> So right now it would just be you know like if he's teaching a math class you're going to get math credit. if he's teaching CTE, you get CTE. But I feel like, this is my personal opinion, moving forward, things are going to start to change and be a little more broad categories. But I don't know, Nick, we do look for those opportunities. So, right now there's the um the power systems class that's being taught through Agg, but all students have access to taking it. Um, so you can get a CTE credit for it or you can get an A credit for it. So when there opportunity for

091that, >> yeah, they have to pick one or the other. You can't get both, but you can pick one or the other. >> Cool. And then just a comment about uh the the math portion. I really appreciate the data on SATs, PSATs. That was very very helpful for us just to I mean have to refer back to. Um, a comment I guess is just I would be very interested and I know this was mentioned before to compare the grades uh students are getting in classes especially maybe by grade level um to SAT scores and SAT performance and probably that'll be an overtime sort of comparison but I'd be very interested to see how you know 10th 11th 12th graders grades great grade grade performance is comparing to their SAT scores as we sort of get

092that data over time. Yeah, I think that's what Kathleen was getting at too. >> Yeah, >> seeing that kind of data. So that sounds >> I guess I I second that. >> Okay, we'll >> thank you for Thank you for the data and very very helpful presentation. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> I have a sorry I have a question too. Um I was at the open house uh with my son who's an eighth grader and uh he was really appreciative of the food um and the culinary arts students and was utterly impressed. Um the students did a great job showing folks around, but particularly um those culinary arts students were great. Um but also I was uh really impressed with um the work being done um in architecture and construction for example and those two

093classrooms are pretty striking and amazing. Um and but as I went around the different electives um like my son was really really interested in the construction specifically. Um, but the teacher had to tell him that it was pretty oversubscribed. Um, and that there's always like a really long list. And in fact, um, uh, one of the guides bringing us around said, oh, he hadn't been able to get into it, um, until his senior year. Um, so I was wondering what resources you needed to kind of expand options that are really overs subscribed like that because it seems like those are both career pathways as well as passion projects. I mean almost every slide you showed us thought about how these students can make those electives into um or develop into career interests and um and

094sort of future pursuits. So I think those are really crucial. I think it's one of the most crucial parts of of ES Smith. >> I think so. I don't know much about enrollment numbers and getting into the courses because I haven't gone through a scheduling cycle. Um, but I think off the top of my head like the what we need is I mean in a perfect world we need more space like literal physical space that our workshop is too small and we just need more room so that we can offer multiple courses like classes at the same time. So that's hard for us. Um, but then we'd also would just need more staffing so that we can offer more classes because you you know the kids love these construction and architecture classes but there's only

095one teacher so you can only teach five classes and then there's only so much you can do. >> Yeah. So would you say like another um like full teacher or a half a teacher that like splits duties with something else? like how and and are there electives that are unders subscribed or are there other places um that you know could be moved um yeah so I think that's something that we'll have to explore more I feel like right now I don't have enough background in >> student interest and all of that to really speak about it confidently um the problem does come in just with like what their certifications are you know So, you know, as things vary, if there's lower numbers in one area and higher numbers and say construction, well, I can't have

096the culinary teacher teach construction, you know, doesn't work. So, it just gets logistically a little bit messy, but I'm sure we can work things out. Now, culinary also has very high numbers. Not something I be stealing from. Right. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. Any any final questions? All right, thank you. That was fabulous. Um, >> thank you very much. >> There'll be many more questions in the future. I have no doubt. >> All right, you are welcome to hang in with us or leave. That's up to you. Um, we're going to move on to superintendent's report. All right, mine is super quick. We are in budget season. I'm going to highlight a few things that are on my report um that are just kind of different. So, um, number two, uh, Amanda

097and I are still in contact with Peter Prada, um, who did our projections report to kind of see what we can do based on the conversations that we've had about those projections and trying to get some numbers that are, um, a little more accurate because I think all of us are in a place where we're looking at those and saying they don't seem quite right. So Amanda's in the process of taking a look at projections based on the actual um you know students that are in seats in each of the sending towns to see and make a comparison to see how accurate those projections are. Um under number five um and this stemmed from a lead that Tim had provided for a contact to Yukon um just in conversation um to make some connections with

098the star program. So I was able to reach out um so the contact that I had reached out to that Tim had given me um gave put me in contact with Cynthia Castanzo um and had a great conversation with her. I have another conversation with her on Thursday about rekindling partnerships between um EOTAR program and Yukon, specifically between student services. and she was really excited and had some really great ideas about getting the kids reconnected to campus and um specifically some employment opportunities and volunteer opportunities and just having um just a more solid connection to the STAR program and to the Yukon campus. Whether that leads to um you know even a part-time home, I don't know. Um we haven't gotten that far yet, but it was a really positive conversation. And I'm looking forward

099to that talk on on Thursday to see where she's at and what she was able to find out. Um, as the asa and Theo shared, we have two groups uh under number seven, two groups going to the connections conference on Friday. Very excited. Two completely different presentations. Um, one on student leadership empowerment and the other on um the power of a word, specifically the n-word and its impact. Um, a little bit of a followup to a presentation that was provided last year during the teaching. Under number eight, the post-secary career fair was held last Friday. Great event, well attended by kids. They seem to really appreciate it. Have to give a shout out to Tanya Mains who is the um one of the admin assistants in the counseling uh department who this is her this

100is her baby. Um, and she it's it's a um labor of love for her. It's collaborative. There's a lot of people involved, but really she spearheads it and she does an absolutely amazing job organizing it and getting folks in. Um, and she had um, you know, cosmetology people in. There were there was representatives from the state police and a variety of different um, organizations. There was a tattoo artist there. There were just a variety of different um uh representatives from um different employers and um it seemed to be it seemed to go over really well with the kids. Um we are we did post our counseling director position. We're in the process of accepting applications for that. That's a little bit slower going than our assistant principal um position where we you know went to

10192 applications almost immediately. This one's just a little slow going, slower going. So, that process is probably going to take a little bit longer just to give those applications time to come in. Um, we did have our first presentation of the budget last Tuesday. And then following um number 10 are a bunch of meetings and events coming up. So, we have a Ramadan dinner celebration on Thursday at 6 PM if anyone's around. um that is a collaboration between um a community organization and our Muslim student union. Um the rolling average um discussion with member town stakeholders is on March 11th. That is going to be a Zoom meeting. Um that will be it's a public meeting as well. Curriculum committee meeting is on the 12th. Budget review meeting is on the 17th. So any questions

102that you might have as you're reviewing, please send those to Amanda and I so that we can um be ready to answer those. But again, it's, you know, the workshop piece. We know questions are going to be coming up as we sit around and talk about some of the questions that you have. Um I have a couple revisions to share with you. Nothing major or earthshattering, but just a couple small revisions to share with you that are in the um in in the right direction of where you're going to want to see the numbers go. So, um that is good news. Um EDJ, as Tony mentioned, is um on March 24th, um prior to our um our budget meetings and then um on that same night, we have the budget um the public hearing on

103the budget and then a finance committee meeting that that evening. So, March is um March is going to be busy. And uh that is it for me. >> All right. Any questions for Sharon? I had a question. Um, for the Ramadan uh celebration, is that open to um to the public or is it just a a group? >> Well, I would consider um you guys to be more than than the public. I'm sure that they would love to um to have you all pop in if you would like to pop in. >> Okay. Is it is it at the li in the library? >> It's I believe it's going to be in the cafeteria. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just want I'm looking at an invitation that I got and and my invitation uh

104says 5 o'clock. >> Oh, does it say 5 o'clock? >> Yeah. Thursday, March 5th, 5:00 PM EOSmith Cafeteria. And and um the notice that I saw has a QR code for RSVP because of limited seating. >> Gotcha. I think um for you guys as a limited group, I think that um we certainly can RSVP, but I don't I think a popin would be perfectly appropriate. >> Yeah. The young person who invited me said the same thing. >> Yeah. >> So, just to clarify, it's March 5th, not March 4th. >> March 5th. >> I'm doing great. I'm March 5th is Thursday. Yes. >> Yeah. Thursday. March 5th. Yeah. >> It's the snow days. I'm blaming it on the snow days. No sense of time anymore. >> It's befuddling. >> All right, any further questions? All right,

105then let's move on to the consent agenda. Is there anything that needs to come off the consent agenda? Any concerns? Not seeing anybody bring anything up. I would um take a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved, >> Tim and seconded by Sarah. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> So goes the consent agenda. >> I dropped my agenda on the floor. All right. Okay. We're going to move on next to any new business then. Uh we do have uh one discussion item and I'll let Tony take that away. Yes. Um, as I mentioned during the uh EDJ meeting, um, summary, um, we talked about House Bill 5214, uh, which was presented by the education committee and is now a raised bill in the Connecticut assembly. Um, when we put this

106resolution together, that was before the public hearing, um, I sent around to everyone today, I hope you got to see it, of both a copy of the text of the raised bill as well as a potential revised um, resolution which would instead which which would actually site the bill by its bill number. Um, and I can talk a little bit about this. We talked about this at the EGJ meeting. It's been an issue which we have discussed in the past. Um I gave a little bit of a summary at that point about um the increased participation in school meals we we experienced during the time when there was funding um for universal free breakfast and free lunches. Um this is the second year where the governor has proposed uh free universal free breakfast and expanding

107free lunches to cover not just those who are eligible for free lunches under the federal program but also those eligible for reduced lunches. And as I indicated, because of the dis disparity in the cost of living across the country, um that that's a greater um uh challenge for a lot of families in Connecticut than it might be in other places. So, um this bill is now go going to the joint committee. It will be um considered uh in the session. This is a short session this year. Um, we wanted to propose at EGJ that the board consider adopting a resolution supporting it and and you know, I would propose that we use the revised resolution which does cite the bill. Um, I'm open to discussion on this. I think there's lots of reasons why we

108think this is important. Um there's a stigma attached to families uh many who don't want to apply for for free or reduced lunch programs because um for lots of reasons and there um there's administrative costs involved in administering these programs and there is um school debt associated with uh with students who don't or can't pay who aren't fully eligible. Um, we'd like to I would like to see uh and I know several members of the committee would like to see in the future uh full universal breakfast and lunch. This is a step closer to that goal and um um we think it would be important uh for the for the board to consider and and consider adopting this resolution. So, I'm open to any questions. I would just Yeah, I would just Thank you. Um

109maybe it might be worthwhile just quoting the statement of purpose that's in the bill. >> Um it's what it's what you have in one and two. >> Yeah. >> Uh but it's sort of more together and we if we could quote it directly that might make the most sense. >> Did I not quote it directly? No, you it you switched some words around a little bit, but maybe if we could say it's quoted directly, the state statement of purpose, that might be >> good at the bottom of the bill. >> So, I would that's actually even that is different language that is actually in the bill, but it's I I'm fine with that. You know, we could uh we could we could just replace put the word to provide in the preamble. So we could

110just pick it up with >> Okay. Yeah, you quoted the bill above. >> Yeah, >> I quoted the bill. >> So, if I understand this right, um we'd like to make this have the board um vote on this resolution and um then make that available to our um various representatives and whoever else. Yeah, we could we could we could include it in in uh contacts with our reps and I think at the back of the board package today there is the contact information for the state senators and state reps representing our three towns. So there is a point of contact there. There's also probably additional opportunity to provide written um written testimony. Uh I if if you were to go to the Connecticut General Assembly CGA website and search for this bill by its number,

111uh it will come up with the text of the bill, um the co-sponsors of the bill who don't include any of our our current representatives and um all the written testimony that's been submitted to date. And there's a lot and and overwhelmingly supportive of it with many parties hoping it's the first step towards um potentially in the future full universal free breakfast and free lunch to all students. But uh again this is what's on the table at the legislature this year and it would be helpful um Sharon at this point we don't have any right there's no free breakfast or Yeah. So, um, >> well, so are we able to, um, take a vote on making this resolution final on our part so that we can use it in our communications with our legislators? >>

112Yeah, we can indicate that the region 19 board of which we're members has has adopted u has approved adopted a resolution supporting the bill. Um, I would propose that we use the language that I submitted today rather than the original language. Nick, I I hear what you're saying, but I really did try to pick up the language in in the in the Well, it's not quite either. I I'm willing to go any way you want on that. I I don't think it's I don't think that's necessarily substantive. It's the bill. Whatever the bill says is what it will be and and and really that's what it covers. There was one little thing uh when I submitted written testimony, >> I could not find the actual time on that day. So, I just thought, well, okay,

113uh I'm going to do it anyway. I'll just leave it blank. And surprisingly, it went through. >> Yeah. >> So, I don't I don't understand that. Maybe they were juggling things around that day and hadn't quite put that up. But if that should occur, just go ahead and you know fill in everything else and you can do it anonymously if you really >> feel the necessity for that. >> Yeah. And then also also if you you know would if you contact I I have gotten responses. Um well actually I I got a direct response from Jeff Gordon. Um I got a I got a um um I got a kind of sort of canned response from Pat Boyd. so far, but he said he would he would follow up. I haven't heard it yet, but

114um Jeff Gordon, I believe, is on the education committee. Um and his concern was not so much for the his concern and and and and a lot of concern um is if we're funding meals for families that can afford it, um are we are we spending our tax dollars properly? I think there's I think there are arguments that address that issue um both from the both from the standpoint of administrative costs stigmas attached as well as um as as well as the fact that that greater participation in meals which is has been the result of when when these have been expanded it has has been clearly the case and um you know other states have adopted uh universal free breakfast and lunch and this falls short of that. So, but it but it is uh

115it is a step in that direction and um there's data that supports students perform better. Um they're more alert if they have a breakfast if they and and so I think there's there's lots of reasons why makes sense. It also eliminates the issue of having uh of having food, lunch and meal debt which if it isn't paid for ultimately by the students and their families gets absorbed by the district. Um I don't know how ours isn't that large, right Sharon? But there is some >> large enough. >> Yeah, it's we we've definitely gotten gotten better with with our um meal debt. Um but uh you know there's there's definitely there's definitely still concerns and I think you know part of the concern is that you know our our kids who are who are on reduced

116even you know th those qualifying bands you know um even taking care of the students who are in that reduced in that reduced band um add some relief because we also know that there are students who don't qualify barely don't qualify for support and they're hurting too. And so, you know, those are students that then could benefit from some whatever supports we can provide them. So, um yeah, it's it's definitely a need. >> All right. Well, I would entertain a motion that we approve this resolution um and then um then it becomes something any one of us can use to continue to support this bill. I'm looking I'll make a motion >> and I'll second it. >> Okay. Let's make sure we're identify which resolution, the alternate, the new one or the original one. >>

117The one that contains the bill number. >> Yeah. >> Yes. The new one. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> Okay. Did you get the second? >> I second it for you. >> Is it discuss discussion on the >> Yeah. Any further discussion? Um, do we want to include the statement of purpose? It's just the word Tony. The wording is a little different in number two than it is from the bill. That's not a direct quote. That's my only concern. The the because I think you're trying to quote from the above section, the actual bill, and it's not a direct quote. >> We could just put the A and B language from the bill. Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. >> Um, Sharon, you have a copy of this, so you >> Yeah. Can I'm

118I'm I'm conf I'm a little confused. So, can you see my screen? >> Yes. If you scroll up on the statement of purpose where you have statement of purpose that >> go back to the first page. Go back to the first page. >> I don't see your screen sharing. >> So, if you look, this is the actual lang. Yeah. The actual language of the bill. After my preamble, which ends with provide, you could pick up >> A and B. two, three, fourth, and fifth. The A and B in the fourth and fifth lines. >> Yep. And quote that >> and just put those instead of the one and two >> and just >> and you know I we didn't include the part about the funding uh but that is there. I don't know if we

119need to um see that's the A. Okay. All students at a charge. What does it say? Two. >> What is that? Five students thing. >> Oh, five students. That's the line number. That's the line number. >> Yeah. Yeah. The line. >> Bless you. >> And then free or six reduced. Delete the six. So that's directly from from the bill. And so I would I would motion to amend >> to include A and B instead of >> all students and no charge to students. and school lunches. Oops. >> Oh, sorry. >> I'm amending. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, just delete one and two completely. >> Oh, I see what you're doing. >> Yeah. And then maybe just quote it. I just don't want there to be any space between what the bill says and what we're

120>> school breakfast to all students at no charge to such students and school lunches to all students who qualify >> eligible for free or reduced lunch. Yeah. Um and then you can just take out the A and B part right there. >> Yeah. So that would be my motion or my amendment. >> Sorry. Whoever made the motion has to kind of accept that friendly. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah, it's fine. >> Friendly change. >> All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the region 19 board of education adopting this resolution. Say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Well, there we have it. Excellent. And uh that that will be made available to anybody who wants to share it with their um representatives and >> however else we may need to

121use it in the future. >> Yeah. >> All right. Are there any other discussion items tonight? >> Yeah. Um just I'm not sure what the right point is. I was sort of seeing if it was going to come up another place, but I'm not sure how we had agreed to provide updates to uh the board via the ad hoc uh rolling average levy uh activities. Um I kind of forget actually. I thought it would be worth maybe including it in a in a subcommittee update at the beginning um of of these meetings. But um anyway, just uh so it's not a surprise, there is a a meeting with um stakeholders from the from the various towns um next Wednesday, the the 14th. >> Just wanted to to put that out there um make sure people

122were aware of that. Really just trying to get some consensus um around that. Deb, I I know I owe you some feedback. I have your right up right here um on the explanation just kind of put out a you know consensus kind of description of of what we're talking about and and then get through some Q&A and really kind of bring that group together on the same page. So again that's um March 11th >> March 11th. Right. Right. That's open to anybody who wants to attend, but we're trying to get this u we've got a general sense of I think a agreement that something like this would be good and uh this is the more formal discussion. >> And can we mean we probably should get that on like the subcommittee call um at the

123beginning of the meeting just to just to keep you know the board informed. >> Okay. >> So so just so we don't forget it. >> Okay. Okay. We'll add that for um our next meeting for sure. But >> and that will be very interesting because by then we'll have had our conversation with the the other towns. Yeah. >> Is that going to be a hybrid meeting? >> No, it's going to be Zoom only, Sharon. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Right. Right. >> Where is that going to be posted? >> It is. It'll be posted when um Jill It's usually Where'd she go? >> I'm right here. >> I'm here. >> You are? Sure. Um Sure. >> So, post it a few days before. >> Yeah, I have 24 hours before the meeting, but I'll post it

124this week. I mean, it took forever to get everybody on the same page for a date, so I think we're good. >> Lots and lots of work on that. >> It It was Yeah, it was silly. Um, so it Who would be responsible for the agenda? Am I just going to have the most general? >> I can I can give you the agenda. It's it's basically the same agenda as always. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I'll get it posted. >> So, I have a quick follow up on the uh ad hoc committee u public meeting posting. Is there any was there any conversation this month on the process for that? >> Yeah, I got feedback from Ken. Um it was it was a lot of the same research that we did. There's a lot of things

125that are permissible. So what we there it permissible for us to have the meetings um as non-public and like all those things that we talked about. Um, however, I think the decision was why would we, >> right? >> Because it's in what's permissible by Robert's rules um and in general practice is sometimes in violation of certain components of of the Freedom of Information Act and that could be come into question. Um, it might be defendable, but why if it can be co pulled called into question, why would we go there? So, um the decision was let's just post them and have them be um open to the public and have them do and have them do minutes. We were doing parts of that anyway. Um and Ken, you know, agreed with that. You know, initially

126he kind of sent all the information saying, "Yep, it's totally permissible." However, you know, why would we if you know if if we're worried about coming into question with anything with FOIA? >> Yeah. I think it's a no-brainer. >> Yeah. It'd be thrilling to have a good turnout for this. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I agree. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> And And we've And there's not anything that's secret. So >> yeah, >> thank you for uh for looking into it and taking the time to to do that. Appreciate. >> Absolutely. I do I neglected to remind folks that at the end in correspondence, this is a big deal. Um is the uh free dental clinic. So feel free to share the flyer. Um we'll be sending out correspondence about that both for um volunteering

127and for anyone who wants to come and and you know take advantage of the services. Um it's quite the ordeal and it's going to be a big deal for Eio Smith that day. Parking parking is going to be interesting. They're working out all the logistics. Um but the folks who the CT mom um that runs this they they've done it in New Britain. Um they've done it well they've done it in more than New Britain but um they it's it's they've got it going on. They they came in with we thought we were having a meeting with I don't know three or four people and they came in with a team of like 20 um >> and they're 20 volunteers. there's only two people who are paid um through this organization and the rest of

128their folks, all their logistical folks, their engineer folks um are um are all volunteers and um it's really pretty amazing. So, they're going to be coming in over the week of April vacation on Thursday and Friday and they're going to be setting up and then Saturday and Sunday they'll be running the dental clinic. And so, folks will it's kind of first come first serve. You come, they give you a number that gives you a time and then you come back during that time and you come in and they process you. They do a medical check for you. Um it's it's it's quite a thing and um I think it's pretty exciting and and EOSmith is excited to to be able to host it and to be a part of it, but um it's any anyone

129from any of the surrounding communities are welcome to attend. >> That's great. >> Great. All right. Anything else under discussion? Um Sharon, did we have any comment? >> Nope. I just checked. No public comment. >> All right. Any final words that people want to say before we >> Yes. >> I would. >> Oh, okay. Thank you, Tony. >> Yeah. I just wanted to note um and I'm looking at the board and I think Janice, you may be the only one who served with Mike Sabiga on the board of education. >> Oh, that's right. Right. >> Um he passed uh in at the end of January. He spent I believe he taught for many years in the VOAG program at EOC. >> He did >> and then he served for many years as a board member

130from Asheford. I actually succeeded him when he left the board as as the as a member from Asheford. Um, so I just wanted to note uh you know his many years of service. If you go down and see the plaque when we did the the uh building construction addition, his name is on that. He was on the on the the building committee at that time. Um, and um, I just I just saw it in the Asheford citizen and just thought I would raise it tonight. Uh, just to acknowledge his his service and, uh, to this board and to Eio Smith. >> Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Tony, for doing that. I totally forgot about that. I was thinking about him, you know, when it happened. So, >> um, and him as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I

131was around for him as well as a staff member. >> Yeah. Um, >> yes, >> that's right. >> Yeah. I don't know if there we've done this before. Is there any way we could send him a send his wife >> a >> I think I was looking at the obituary and I don't know if they've had a memorial service yet. Um, >> no, I don't think they did. >> I don't think they have. So, there may be an opportunity to send something to his >> Yeah. >> Does he still live in Asheford? I heard that he still had the farm, but that >> they did. Yeah. Yeah, they had the >> He spends a good part of the year away, but Yeah. pop by and see him. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you, Tony. That

132would be that's a good thing for us to know about. All right. Any other comments people would like to make tonight? >> Yeah. I also just had a comment. Um and uh I I noticed along with uh Greg that um Isa, you've been here the whole time and I just wanted to say thank you very much. >> Right. Right. Yeah. >> Um and uh especially on a snowy cold night um to to kind of hang in with us. Um but I was thinking a lot about your um presentation at the beginning of the meeting too and uh I really appreciated that and um so uh and I was thinking about the policy meeting um that uh went on just last last Thursday and you heard the update of that um and you might have heard

133that um we're giving a survey out to faculty um or teachers um uh and they'll get that this Wednesday and uh Arthur I think you can agree that we were also thinking about a way to reach uh students for feedback. Um so if you have any ideas uh for how we might best reach students for feedback um on how the the sort of reassessment policy and everything is going um please feel free to reach out with us and tell us um or maybe you can come to one of the policy meetings and uh give some feedback about how that might work as far as like what questions you'd like to be asked or what would kind of effectively reach students. Um and uh good luck with your presentation and thank you so much for being

134here. >> Yes, thank you. Yeah, know I know there are definitely some students who like even went straight to Dr. Dorado about it. So I think there's definitely students who would be interested in like maybe like a study like not a study group like a student group that to be asked questions. I think that's a great idea. >> Yeah, like a focus group. That might be really nice. Yeah. Um thank you. Thank you so much. >> Anyone else? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Nick. >> Second. >> All kinds of hands. Nick. Janice. Tim. >> Uh, any discussion about that? >> Second. >> Yeah. Um, you pick Tim or Jan. Janice. >> All good. >> Tim. >> I don't care. >> Nick and then Nick and then Tim.

135>> All right. Thank you everybody for your flexibility and for all being here today. >> Thank you everybody. Good night. >> Okay. And thank you