Board of Education Meeting - April 28. 2026

001Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Any public audience? >> No. Thank you. um committee reports and communications. How are you? >> I'm good. How are you? Good. >> Um I only have one elementary school today. So um Latimer says on Monday, April 20th, they held their dedication of the Abigail Zatune Family Foundation library shelf. Um Abby was a former student at Latimer Lane who passed away last year. Mr. Lozetti and the family worked together to find a way to honor Abby and her love of reading. The foundation donated $1,000 to establish a full shelf of books, which will be following up with $250 per year in the future. And then at

002the high school, um, grade 10, they had the career fair on the 22nd, which was really popular. All of my sophomore friends from practice liked it and thought they learned a lot. Um, one of them got an internship from that, so that was awesome. >> Then NGSS was on Wednesday the 23rd. Um, DECA left for Atlanta. Um, and they returned on the 28th, which is today, right? Yeah. Um, and then school counseling held a community college workshop where 25 SHs students completed applications and started their FAFSA. And then the music department went to Barcelona over spring break. I didn't go, but everyone that I know that went had an awesome time. >> That's great. >> It's such a cool pictures. Katie sent pictures. >> Yeah, they were fun pictures. That's crazy. >> Steve, >> uh

003I I'll be um going to the sustainability committee next week. Uh Matt provided me with an update on the solar projects for Latimer and the high school and I'll be answering any questions that they have on that and I'll be able to talk more about that next time. >> Great. Thank you. Thanks. >> Josh, >> uh yes, we had communication committee met on Friday, April 24th. So, just some highlights from that and then I'll have minutes we can put in um for people to get after. Uh went over the vision of the graduate videos uh with Dave Prine. Uh final two in the series are global citizen and self-directed learner. They're both being handled by Miss Lavoy's digital media class made up of mostly 10th and 11th graders. Our global citizen is going to focus

004in on world language studies and how that impacts students as a global citizen theme. That's nearly complete. targeting to have that out in May. Self-directed learner, we're going to center on use to voluntary acade academic structures and opportunities. Uh that's currently being filmed. Goal to have it by end of year. It'll be cut in a close. If not, it'll be released in the early fall to wrap up the series. Uh, as far as the district website goes, uh, sites being built out, uh, there's a core group, Dave Prinstein, Jeremy Marin, Curtis Nton, and Katie Wild, uh, involved with making sure that's going to be up and running. Administrative walkthrough was done recently. Uh, just some things we discussed in the committee meeting, right, the search functionality, we kind of hammered that home again, make sure

005that's being heavily tested so people can get out there and find what they're looking for. uh new website will be easier to maintain and build out. Uh it'll have a link through the parent square app to the website and then we talked about the savings that exist with streamlining this under one umbrella for the communications in the website and once everything's fully established and up and running it could be an annual savings in the 15 to $20,000 a year range which is great to have something newer, better, more efficient, easier to use and save money is is a slam dunk. So credit to Dave and everyone involved there. Um, then we talked about the spring communicator. Spring edition will be going out soon. Sometime in May, it's looking like went over some topics. Katie and

006Nil will be finalizing those, but we'll have things in there like educator of the year, parent educator of the year, information on grant recipients, student honors, the section with the student voice that everyone likes to see, um, and some information connecting with the community. So, uh, that will be coming out soon in people's mailboxes. And then we established that we'll continue on the cadence of meeting October, January, and April for the comm's committee each year. So, um, good meeting, successful group this year. So, appreciate everyone's support on the comm's committee. >> Uh, I sat it on my first wellness meeting. I'm sure Sue will talk more about it, but uh there's a new compass plan program that's been rolled out for farmtotable um ad efforts to try and get more farm to table and more

007fresh produce and local produce and other items in our school nutrition program and it was good meeting. Um I think that is all I have to report. We met a while ago. I can't remember if we had a meeting in between on policy but I'm sure Neil will address that. Yeah, >> we come in in front of the whole board tonight. >> Okay, good. So, that was a good meeting and that's all I've got. >> Jen, >> I'm all set. >> Um, we did we had a great communications committee. Thank you, Josh. Excellent report. >> Well communicated. Um, we also had a curriculum meeting. Um, and uh, it was it was robust. We talked about a lot of stuff and we didn't even get everything done. So um we talked about connect and uh Mr.

008Redden shared his presentation on current practices and on comparison of schools and other districts. We also talked about staff feedback. He's going to reach out to survey students and develop a a scope and sequence of what we want connect to look like as we go forward. So be aware. Look for when >> I was going to say, have you thought about making connect not the same group of people all the time and like switching who you're connecting with. >> Oh, >> we did speak of that. >> We thought that maybe a few times a year we could do it more interest based as opposed to our standard connect. And um but thank you for that feedback. That's good to have. >> I've had people ask me about that if they were ever going to switch

009in on their own. Well, it's not we're not anywhere near any decisions yet because he's still gathering info, but um we want to make it better. >> I also think it'd be helpful to like connect intergrade wise if you were to do like activity based do like in the middle of your grades because I know none of the freshmen which is probably bad but like and I'm pretty social like I do a lot of activities and I don't know very many. >> You seem social. >> Um those are great points that we'll make sure um we get back to Mr. Ren. Um, and you can give them to him if you run into him. >> Yeah, >> because you'll see him before I will, >> I'm assuming. Um, and then we also spoke about capstone.

010Mrs. Limkkey gave us a uh provided current enrollment and projections for capstone 2026 27. Um, and we talked about some comparison districts and how many still have capstone, how many are uh gave give up capstone. We have 22 require it, two have it as an optional, and 11 have um say no. but it um no longer require it. So, it's just things we're still discussing and um how it looks in our lives, how we work with it, how we try to make sure everyone can benefit from it because it should work for everybody. Um and a lot of discussion on that and the uh capstone showcase at the high school will be on May 20th and you guys, everyone on the board is welcome to attend. Um just let Mrs. let me know if you

011want to go or or to look at the list if you want to see which ones you might want to go to. Um and then we will um meet again so that we can finish because we're looking at the curriculum platform and vertical theme updates. So that will be on a next next curriculum meeting. >> Great. And as Eva knows AP research presentations have already begun and it's been a pleasure being able to be >> they're fully over now. That's right. The last ones were >> our papers are due tomorrow. >> There you go. There you go. But well underway. And >> do you have to go? >> No. >> Early on. She was one of the first. She was one of the first and just so impressive to see the research that our students

012engage in and how they present so eloquently, succinctly and really showing those vision of a graduate skills. So that's been incredible. And as Jessica had shared, we had a wellness committee meeting. Every three years, we have to do an assessment of our practices. You'll actually see uh some of the outcomes of that in policy where we look at both our wellness practices and our policy based upon recommended best practice. And as Jessica shared, we've been hearing that there's going to be a new instrument that the state would like us to use in conjunction with Yukon and it has recently come out. So we pulled the committee together and we'll be doing a baseline. They've asked us very late in the game, but we adapt and we'll be sharing some of our baseline practices and we'll

013see how this new tool helps us to get better at what we do specific to our farm-to-table efforts. So, thank you, Jessica, for being a part of that. >> Yep, we we are um coming along with hiring season for those positions that we know um we definitely need to fill. We've closed out about six or seven of the positions already um based on the retirements. And um in particular, I wanted to note a process that actually soon led more than me, which was for our high school science department supervisor. Um there had been an there's been an interim uh wonderful uh actually former West Hartford um department supervisor named Mike Rollins helping us out this year on a part-time basis but we had not filled it since Heather Golden became the athletic director. So ran

014the process, conducted interviews and um our internal candidate Mike McCain uh who's taught AP bio chemistry uh AP environmental science um emerged as the candidate. You could just see the trust he has in his peers and it was a terrific process and we want to congratulate Mike on becoming the department chair. >> Great. >> Okay. Thanks. hear much more from you later. >> Okay, >> I do have a report. >> Excellent. >> So, you see, we upgraded the technology in here. We are all wireless. Um, so going forward, I wasn't planning to give out the Chromebooks and I'll just give you a packet, a paper packet. And if you have any trouble viewing on either way, let me know because we can adjust that and we just need to see it work out a couple

015things with SCTV and be all set. >> Awesome. It looks great. Looks great. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Katie. Um, I think as you well know, most of what I've been dealing with is is related to the budget. We'll get into that conversation uh later. So, I got really nothing to report. >> Yep. I would just say Jen and I had a uh PTO leaders meeting uh in this room uh this morning. We invited Dave Prinstein >> uh to follow up on kind of Josh's information. He did a run through of kind of the website build and we got some really good feedback which was good. We wanted to get some voice in that uh a lot around the functionality and just the searchability of things. So, uh, he also went over

016the similar AI presentation to get, uh, some conversation going around around those topics. So, it's good to bring that group together. We had several, uh, weather cancellations over the course of the last several months. So, it's good to be in spring. >> Great. Yeah. >> Now, it will snow tomorrow. >> Not too much. >> Great. All right. Um, first on the agenda is the minutes of the March 24th meeting. Just want to point out um uh u Steve did not depart uh at 652. That that's although it's not you don't have a fresh copy. Um it's been deleted uh from the from the minutes. >> Steve, we just wanted to see if you would catch that >> just this morning like I'm like what? >> Um can I get a motion? >> So moved. Second.

017Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any oppos? Thank you. >> Uh non-renewal of non-tenured teachers. >> Yeah, this is the time of year by May 1st when any teachers that are not being offered a contract for next year. Um need to come before the board. Both of these were interim positions. Uh Dena Krueger, the science teacher at the at Simsbury High School, was actually picked up the two classes for the year that Heather Golden, so she was a part-time knew that it was only for this year um and was well aware that it would be a non-renewal. And then Britta Gotberg is a social worker. We actually have a school psychologist on um child rearing leave for the year. We weren't able to find a one-year school psychologist, so we used her counseling

018services as a full-time social worker. She's fabulous. If I had a job, I'd give her one. Um, but we will keep Ra in mind um as we move forward. She had a great year. Um, but she knew it was for one year. Move that the contract of employment for Dina Krueger and Breida Brida Gotberg be now renewed effective June 30th 2026 and the superintendent of schools designate is directed to advise such persons in writing of this action. Second. >> Great. >> I just want to say thank you for their dedication to Simary students. These are always we know although they knew was coming these are never easy. So um any other discussion? >> Great. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Great. Thank you. >> Uh adoption of healthy food and beverage for >>

019I know you're going to fight over who gets to read these notions. >> Um it's >> the annual exercise. This is an annual exercise where we read lengthy motions into the record in order to get um to attest to that we follow the healthy food and beverage in schools act and that therefore we get um some reimbursement from the state for every meal that is served uh under the guidelines of healthy food and beverages. So there used to be three motions every year. They consolidated it down to two and so um but they do as returning board members know they need to be read in full. So let's take one at a time. I think >> I don't mind it. >> Thanks. >> God bless you. Uh it's easier than jumping in on the small

020ones. Um move that pursuant to CGS section 10215F, the Simsbury Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in schools under its jurisdictions and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school store vending machines, school cafeterias, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or by non-school organizations and groups. Great. Thanks, John. Second. >> Second. >> Great. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Great. Second one moved that the Simsbury Board of

021Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10221Q of the CGS provided that the following conditions are met. Number one, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. and three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and interolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the

022end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food stands. >> Second. >> Great. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Any post? >> Thank you. See you next year. >> Uh a few gifts. >> Yes, we actually have three gifts for your consideration this evening. And as a reminder, any gifts that exceed $1,500 have to be approved by the board. So, the first is a gift to Latimer Lane School from its PTO. The gift is in the amount of $4,976 to be used to paint pickle ball lines on their new upper playground basketball court. There's a motion there for your consideration. Move that you go ahead. Move that the proposed gift of $4,976 to Latimer Lane School by the

023Latimer Lane School Pent teacher organization be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I Great. Thanks. >> The second gift is to the Squadron line community from their PTO. It's a gift in the amount of $4,000 and the funds will be used to help defay the cost of Camp Jewel which is coming up for them. They take a spring trip. So there is a motion there for your consideration. >> Uh move that the proposed gift of $4,000 to Squadron Line School by the Squadron Line School parent teacher organization be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I have a question on that. Is there any way to do we know off and I'm sure you don't know off the top of your head, but do you know how much it

024is per family at the different elementary schools? Is it always exactly the same or is it different? >> It's not always exactly the same depending upon things like this, right? Different gifts, but there's definitely a range. I have the breakdown for elementary and I'm happy to show you. Thanks. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor? >> Any oppos? And the third is a gift from the Jean Cox Foundation in the amount of $3,000. It is to the high school robotics team once again. And this gift is going to be used for registration fees, team clothing, cost of materials, travel, meals, and marketing. So I know that there was a question last time. We were getting many of these gifts to the robotics team and this year the gifts have totaled over $14,000 and this

025gift for $3,000 is here with wording for your consideration. >> Move that the proposed gift to the SHs Robotics Club at Sbury High School from the Gene House Foundation totaling $3,000 be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Can I ask what the Gene Hos Foundation is? Is that outside the district or is that from the >> I'm not sure whether it's within Simsberry or not, Steve, but I could certainly can look more into that for you. >> I'm just wondering. >> Okay, >> certainly follow up. >> All those in favor? >> I like that. That's three great gifts. Just want to make sure we express our appreciation. uh acceptance of the lab or lane renovation project. >> Yep. So, this is a formality at the end of a construction project in which you're receiving state

026reimbursement. Um and obviously we have been closing the books on our Vladimir lane renovation for um tell you know punch list items and things. Um it has now been closed out and accepted by the public building committee. Um, and then you need to um vote to close it out so that when we now we're ready to turn in all the paperwork to the state to get our reimbursement. And one of the things that has to be in there is a motion from the board of ed that you've accepted. So I'll >> move that the Simsbury Board of Education accepts as complete the Ladder Merlane renovation project as new. Parenthetical 128-011 RNB and parenthetical. >> Any discussion? >> Just so exciting. >> Congratulations to you all. >> Great project. >> Yeah. >> So excited to see

027it. My walk through is going to be >> uh all those in favor. >> Any oppos? Thank you. Perfect. Be nice to close that one out. Um >> nice to get the reimbursement. even nicer. Um, >> before we move on, just a quick thank you to all the PTO's for all that money that they've raised and donated. I know it's a lot of work and it's wellreceived and appreciated. >> Uh, absolutely. Amen. On to the school counseling report. >> All right. Welcome, Mr. Stillman this evening. And I'll have uh Sue kind of te it up and it's great to see you, Greg. >> Thank you. Great. >> Thanks. I was reflecting, Greg. It's been over two decades since you and I have worked together and a little walk down memory lane. I when Neil had

028the the great insight to hire me as his assistant principal at the high school, my office was right next to school counseling and it's now a career and counseling center which is aok. It afforded me the opportunity to work on a daily basis with school counseling and to see what they do every day to support students in the myriad of ways. And so tonight, Greg's going to talk a little bit about that. It's been great to see how Greg's sphere of influence has evolved in the Simsbury public schools from school counselor to now director. and he is going to share with you a recent vision that the department worked on. What do we want the school counseling to be all about at Simsbury High School and he's going to talk more about the school counseling

029standards and how Greg's position spans 7 through 12. Sometimes we forget that, but he oversees school counseling at both the middle school and the high school. and how he's asked his school counselors to get messy with these standards and they fall within three domains. There's the academic domain, there's a domain of career, and there's a domain of social and emotional. So, he's going to speak about their work this year, what they've uncovered, what they believe they do well, and where are their opportunities for additional program growth. He's also going to share with you some very recent feedback from this year's seniors specific to school counseling and what are they saying? Where can there be opportunities to celebrate and also additional opportunities to do better? And all of this information is um really influential in formulating

030future focus areas for the department. So he's going to end on those as well. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to you, Brick. Thank you. Um, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be talking about the school counseling department with you all. Um, just so you know, this is our counseling teams. We've got uh on the one side all of our high school counselors uh and then our three middle school counselors over on the right side. So, >> and I just want to assure you that Mr. Hall is smile. I've never seen his face look like that before. He smiles all the time. If anybody's seen the movie Zoolander, I think that's the that's the look he's going for there. Um, we'll move on off of that. So, at the beginning of

031the year, um, principal Sidel had all the department supervisors. She asked us to, "What is your vision? What is your department vision?" And, um, we didn't really have one. We we in our minds, we had one, but we didn't really have one in writing as a school counseling department. So, um, I'll give you a second to kind of look at that, but that's what we came up with as a department, um, as to what our vision is for for being a school counseling department. All right. So, as you're probably aware, academic departments like English, math, science, they follow standards um that are either given to them by the state or or national standards. And and that's they're trying to get all students to meet those standards uh at every level that they they go through

032in in school. Um what you may not know is that school counseling also follows a a framework. Um we follow the Connecticut comprehensive school counseling framework um which outlines the knowledge and skills that all students uh should develop by graduation. Uh so this framework is what guides our programming um and we deliver this through classroom lessons. We deliver it through group work uh and certainly through individual student meetings. Uh I think it was a couple years ago Sue which Sue has that each department do is do a curriculum review. Um and we were up a couple years ago. So, uh, it was I had only been a director for a couple years. Um, so getting right into like let's look at what we do. Um, cuz you never just want to do the same thing

033over and over and over again. You always want to look at are you meeting the needs of the students? Uh, and do you have to make changes in any of those areas. So, um, we've been doing that for the last couple years, really diving into what we do, uh, and really the last year taking a a deeper look at the actual standards of the school counseling framework. Um the school counseling framework as Sue said it really is broken into three domains. You have the academic domain, the career domain, and the social emotional domain. Um and what we're going to do, what I'm going to do in the next few slides kind of talk about each one of those and what we're doing in each each area. So in the academic domain, uh we continue to

034work with students uh first and foremost on their academic planning. Um ensuring that they have enough credits that they need to graduate. We want to make sure they're challenging themselves appropriately every year uh and making sure that they're setting goals uh for the immediate future and for uh the future down the road. Uh this is something we brought up uh back in the fall um that I want to show again. Uh it's been an emphasis of our school and certainly the school counselors u making a push um in their their work with students to increase the number of students who are not only taking but succeeding in AP classes. you know, we we would love for every student to take an AP class before they graduate. Uh, and we're up to 80% of last year's

035seniors completing at least one AP course uh before graduation. And I think even more importantly, as you increase the number of students taking AP courses, a lot of times you might see performance go down. Um, but we're actually seeing students continue to excel in the AP classes. Um, so 89% of our students that took an AP test or took an AP class scored at least a three or higher in one of those AP exams. Um, so that's a really good marker um, for our students. Uh, because if you don't know, AP tests are scored on a scale of 1 to five. And three is usually the benchmark for earning college credit. So if you're scoring three or better, you're doing a nice job on on the AP exams. Um on the other end, we also

036want to always be focusing on targeting uh struggling students and making sure that we have interventions in place to help those students out. Um at the middle school level and the high school level, we have team meetings um where we get together and talk about those students that are struggling. Uh they get brought to the counselor's attention or counselors bring that to the the administrator's attention. Um the first two are are middle school um uh team meetings. The hands up is when middle school counselors go to the red team or they go to the green team and they meet with those teachers and they talk about certain students that might need a little bit more support. Uh the student support team is the middle school counselors with the school psychologist, social worker, and administrators. Uh

037and they're going to talk about students who are getting counseling support. uh how that's going uh and if there's anybody else that needs additional support. SIT stands for student intervention team. That is both the middle school and the high school. They both have a student intervention team. And again, that's another team meeting. Uh counselors, school psychologists, teacher, department supervisor, uh administrator who meet and again want to make sure that they're finding students who might be struggling uh and who may not be getting any support. uh and seeing if there's support that we can provide for them um to to earn to um improve. Um the next thing MTSS uh that stands for multi-tered system of support. Um we're always we've always been looking to support students and and the acronyms kind of change uh every

038couple years like like a lot of things in education. Uh the the new acronym is this MTSS and it makes sense, right? you you have different levels of support that you want to provide to students. Um so in a nutshell, the tier one uh is really for all students. All students are going to get classroom level instruction. They're going to get counseling support. They're going to have access to certain help centers that we have like the math lab, the writing center, uh we have afterchool tutoring center. So all students have access to those tier one supports. But it's important for us to make sure students are aware of that and parents are aware of that. So really getting that word out there to everybody um that all students have access to these supports. Tier two

039is where when we have these SAT meetings, these hands up meetings, we might have students who need more um specialized support, more targeted support. Uh and we have academic resource centers uh that are small groups that we have teachers that are there to work on math skills, reading skills, uh study skills, organization skills. Um so that might be a that's not available for every student, but that is uh if a student is really struggling, uh we can target those students and and instead of going to a study hall, put them in some of these supports. And then tier three is where you get into students with more significant needs who might get more intensive individualized support. And usually this is in the form of special education um that might go through a PPT process and

040uh and eventually uh land in special education for more individualized support. One area that we've always uh had a focus on at Simsbury as long as I've been here is the post high school planning process. We still have about 90% of students going off to two or four-year colleges. Um, and obviously a lot of of other students looking at career opportunities, military opportunities. Um, so we always want to be um re-evaluating how we're doing this process. Uh, and that's going to be a big focus of ours as we finish out the school year and head into next year is really um how are we doing with that post high school planning process. Um, just so you're aware, we we start really start the process at the beginning of junior year around November, December. Uh, we

041meet with all the juniors in small groups and we kind of kick off uh telling them what what the options are after high school. Um, we have them, this year we had them get onto a new program we have called School Links, uh, which, uh, we used to have a program called Navian you might be familiar with. We switched over to School Links. So we had all the juniors uh log into school links and do a career assessment, look at some post high school uh opportunities there. We then have all of our juniors we invite to a post high school planning meeting with their parents. Parents can either come in or we can do it through a Google meet. So the counselors have a more individualized meeting with with all their students and their parents.

042After that meeting, we'll meet individually with students throughout the rest of junior year. And then we come back senior year, have small group meetings with seniors to talk about uh more the logistics of the post high school process, how you complete applications, what the timelines are for everything. Uh and then after that meeting, we schedule individual meetings with the seniors uh to really, you know, help them get to that finish line of of doing what they want to do um for for applications or or you know, applying to the military or whatever they might want to do. So that's kind of where we were with in a nutshell of what we've been doing. As Sue said, we did have a survey uh at the middle of the the school year for our seniors to ask

043them how we're doing with the post high school process, what's helpful, what are some areas to improve. And most of the students, they do like the individualized meetings. They do like having their parents in there um and really having an individualized meeting and then having us check up with them uh throughout junior year and into senior year. um they felt like they were really supported with the application process. I think that's that senior meeting where we kind of walk them through creating a common application account, looking at supplemental applications, how do you ask for teacher letter recommendations, what else you need to do to apply to a college. So, they really felt they had a lot of help with that. Um that the students seem to like the shift to school links um as a

044tool for college and career planning. I see Eva nodding her head over here. So um and and we're still uh still getting used to it. So as we continue to get used to it um you know hopefully we'll be able to to help students even more um with with school links. And the the fourth bullet I really like um the students f find that our counselors are supportive, patient, honest and knowledgeable. And uh those are four good qualities that I like to see in our in our school counselors. So areas to improve um they wanted there was a desire to start earlier. This is always a tricky one because we've I've done this long enough to know that every student is kind of at their own pace. You have some kids that are ready to

045go freshman year and want to meet and talk about it and you have other kids that you bring in junior year and they want nothing to do with talking about life after high school. They just want to be in the moment right now. Um so that's always tricky. Um but what we do uh what we did start last year was reaching out to parents and saying when do you want to come in? Um, so we used to start the junior meetings in January. We now start as early as November. So if if a parent student wants to get going a little earlier in the process, um, they can sign up to to come in in November or December and not have to wait all the way to January. So you you run the gamut. Some

046are like, we'll meet in April and others are are ready to go in in November or even earlier. Uh, more help connecting interest to majors. That was an interesting one. And that's coming from the senior class. Um we started the career fair last year. So the senior class has did not get the career fair. Um the last two years we've done our career fair. And I'm hopeful that um that that is helping students kind of connect their interests to careers and then the careers to what majors you need for those careers and it might help them in their their college planning process. Uh and then last financial aid and scholarships. that's always uh going to be important for students to to know about. Uh we do have a really um we have it's not called

047the financial aid meeting, it's called a uh how to pay for college uh presentation that we do every fall that um I wish more people would go to, but very informative. We have a financial planner who comes in uh and really gives families good advice on how to plan for college. And it's even better to come if you're a middle school parent or a ninth grade parent um cuz that's when you really want to be doing the the planning. Um scholarships, we uh we promote scholarships through school links. We promote scholarships in uh Sidell's Midell's weekly newsletter. Um and we we do them in the morning announcements. Um but again, what one of the things that we we want to get better at is really figuring out what's the best way to communicate this information

048to students. They don't always check emails. They don't always listen to announcements. Um, so how do we get that information to to our students? >> Excuse me. >> Last question on this previous slide. The targeted interventions. >> Just curious just high level at the various tiers, right? Tier three maybe not as much because that's more like a you're there's a plan, right? >> Tier one, tier two. What's the receptiveness from the students when you approach them and like when where do the parents get involved? I'm just curious. You're you're trying to target them, but how are they receiving it? >> That's a great question. I I think it's interesting. A lot of a lot of the supports are you are given to the students out of their study hall. Freshman and sophomores have study hall.

049So, they had to go to study hall anyway. If you put them in a targeted support, they're probably okay with it. They're going to be in study hall anyway. they might as well get a study hall where they get tutoring support. Get to junior and senior year, they have open periods. You take away an open period and give them support, they may not like it as much. So then it comes down to really the student, do they realize that they do need this help and that it's going to benefit them? They're more likely to buy into it. Um, but yeah, once you get to the high school level, it's always about the student buyin. they're less likely probably to listen to their parents or listen to their counselor or listen to their teacher. Um they

050they need to believe in it and buy in it themselves. So um that said, I do think we have students who are um very agreeable and and do want to do well. So I do think we have pretty good buying. >> Thank you. >> All right. Second domain is our social emotional domain. Um and we are not unique to this. Um we've seen an increase in social emotional needs particularly anxiety and depression. You see that across the nation a lot of it as a result of of co um that has been an impact that you're still seeing uh as these students get into the middle school and high school level. These challenges often impact uh attendance and behavior. So the the symptoms of the anxiety and depression come out in in behaviors and come out

051in um just willingness to attend school. Um you'll see a reflection of this in the number of 504 students. Uh 504 students are directly um case man uh the counselors are the case managers for 504 students. So you certainly have students who are in special education that have anxiety, depression, other disabilities. But this is just looking at the 504 students uh that the counselors manage. And you'll see the increase from just 2122 all the way to 2526. not only the number uh of students but what percentage that is of our overall students and of that um so you see the 213 current students with a 504 plan uh 50 of those students have a 504 plan uh related to anxiety or depression. So 504 plan is you know it's an accommodation plan. So we are

052putting in accommodations to try to support these students um both in the classroom, out of the classroom um sometimes with counseling support. Um so just want to show you know that that it is it is a concern but that we are trying to address it. The spaces intervention um that's something that I I wanted to share with you. That's something that we created three years ago um as a result of really how can we support students with anxiety. We were seeing students who just weren't even coming into the building because they didn't have a safe space to go when they felt anxious. So, we created a room in the building and we call it spaces. It's right around the corner from the the school counseling office and students can go here. They can either be

053assigned there in lie of going to a study hall. Um, if it's part of their plan, they can go there during times of heightened anxiety. So, they might be doing really well, but then have a week where things aren't going very well, and if they have a period where they're struggling, they can go there and just take a break and and and and get some support and calm themselves down. Um, or we can also use it as a room when a student's been out for school and having a hard time coming back to school. It can be a transition place for them to do a half a day in spaces, get some work done, be back in the building as we try to transition them back to uh getting back to class. Uh, and you

054know, we we really like what we've gotten out of this. The kids seem to be um doing well that go into spaces and utilize it. Um, and some of them have transitioned back to back to the classroom and all they need is that that every once in a while um a space to go >> staffed. >> Yes, we have a it's a tutor position. Um, it's Chris Le. He's been there for a couple years now and you know really really good with the students. Um doesn't have a counseling background or anything but we do have um we have a school uh school social worker who works with um a school psychologist who works with that group. Um if if a student doesn't have a school psychologist already attached to them. Um and then the counselors

055also work with the students in there as What is this the same person like so student might be having a great fine and then one week is it the same person that they saw the week before or >> Yeah. Yeah. Chris is there the whole time. So, you know, I think the kids really uh uh really do well with him. >> Do you have data on how many different people utilize that space? >> Um it's it's about we do I don't have it in front of me. There's probably 10 to 12 that use it regularly and then another we have kids that go in there to um take tests um for an alternate setting because you know being in the classroom is a little too much. So you have another you know probably six to

05610 that use it for that and then you have another probably five to seven that come in um you know as as needed. So um I have there also the Henry James kind of starts uh they do some lessons around mindfulness around stress management. So I just wanted to make sure that you know they they do some nice um kind of baseline teaching of of um some stress management down at the at Henry James. Uh the domain that really became our focus the last couple years um was the career domain. Um, and I think we've done a really good job with it. Again, it starts at Henry James. Uh, they do a career lesson with both the seventh and the eighth grade. Um, they've done some different career uh bringing in some different careers to

057to speak with students down there. Um, our big thing like like has been mentioned a couple times last year was the uh implementation of the career fair. Um, we really felt like sophomore year was a good year to target. You come in as a freshman, it's really about adjusting to Simsbury High School. Then once you get to junior year, we're already talking about post high school. So, it's like what do you do? When do you kind of hit them with careers and give them some career exploration? We thought sophomore year was a good time to do it so that they can learn about careers, explore careers so that by the time they get to junior and they start thinking about life after high school, they've already discovered, you know, maybe a passion or, you know,

058something that might interested them. So, what we did is we brought in uh 30 careers uh ranging from engineer to chef to teacher to carpenter to welder uh collegebound, non-olbound careers. and we set them up in both gyms and we did a lesson a month prior with our sophomore class where they went into school links. They did a career assessment. Uh they learned about interests, values, skills, how that pertains to careers. Um and then we kind of showed them what careers were going to be at the career fair. And based on what they already knew about themselves, based upon what they learned in that career interest inventory, we had them choose four careers that they wanted to see at that career fair. We wanted to avoid the whole job fair career fair kids just walk

059around for two seconds and they just talk to their friends. So we structured it where they had 12 minutes at each of their four careers. We put 12 minutes on the clock and they had to go to table two, sit there for 12 minutes, talk to the to the person there. We also had an index card where they wrote down questions to ask to try to get them engaged with the with the career people and uh you really love it. The the people who have been there Diana was there and uh representing and um having the kids engage with community members. Community members love it. They love coming back and and kind of talking about their careers. Um and so we did it last year, we did it this year. um and really got a

060lot of good positive feedback both from the students and from the careers. Um the trades panel that was something that one of our counselors Amanda Torni um put together. She she um wanted to get some not non-ol uh careers uh for students who might not be thinking about the college track. And she um in our conference room D172, she got an electrician. She got someone who works for sprinkler maintenance. She got a carpenter. She got someone who works at aircraft maintenance. Excuse me. There were about seven or eight different trades that were there and she had um students who were interested in that sign up. It was during the lunches and we had about 25 students come down and meet with the different careers um and really interact and and some of them I think

061you know got got some inspiration to potentially uh you know move move forward with uh with those careers. The uh Trojan Community Council is something that Principal Sidell has organized. I don't know if anybody's spoken to the to the board about that, but this was a focus of hers last year to um really focus on post-secary readiness for all students and really understand the multiple pathways to success after high school. Her goal really is to create a interactive website where students and families can go on and and not only learn about careers, but learn about the courses that we offer, learn about the opportunities that we have through internships and um activities and how it all relates to each other. How do what we do currently in the high school relate to future pathways, whether

062that be college, career, military, whatever that is. So, um we are working on that. Um and hopefully in the next few months we'll have something operational. >> This is also and I'll give you a break your vocal cords around training. Uh there's also a big push of this movement at the state level as well and looking at what does local industry where is this kind of intersection between high demand, high skill, high wage and how does the Department of Labor work with the Connecticut State Department of Education to start making sense of this and to start working with workforce boards and look at what they are calling industry related credentials or recognized credentials. And how do we offer our students these opportunities, whether they be through the general curriculum, whether it be through their elective

063areas or some additional opportunities to really get experience in and a leg up into some postsecary planning specific to careers. So I would guess we would be providing you some in uh additional updates on those industry related credentials what the state is where they are looking to have schools enter into these conversations but also these practices. So, it's great to see we're already ahead and being thoughtful about what that means because at the end of the day, we want to ensure that each one of our students has a postsecondary plan and recognizing that that can look different and it will look different for each individual student. >> Thank you. Um, last point up there is uh we're excited for the prospect of adding a career coordinator position at at the high school. uh looking at

064making it a tutor position, so a 29.5 hour position. Um I think we've been doing a lot of good things at the school uh independently related to careers. So the counseling department puts on the career fair. Amanda does her trades panel. The capstone has students doing internships. Um assistant principal Georgia Robert took students on a field trip to see um some some construction. Um, but everybody's kind of doing it and then going back to their job. Um, it would be nice to have a career coordinator to kind of tie it all together and be a central person to um kind of take on all of this, support all the different uh parts of the school, um, help with career preparation, workshops, resume buildings, field trips, uh, create some of these career panels. Uh, and I

065think it would be really nice um, addition to our school. So hoping h open to uh have that as early as next year. >> Is the career coordinator position focused on non collegebound careers or all careers? >> I would want it to focus on all careers. I mean that's that's our big even with the career fair it's at the end of the day whether you're going to go to college or not go to college the goal is to have a career right. So learning about careers understanding careers is important for every student that we have at the high school no matter what their pathway is going to be. Um, so I I think career is is for everybody. So I think it's going to be a focus for for all of our students. >> I

066wish I had one of those. >> Do you see that as a a position to for every so every student would touch this this career this career coordinator would connect with every student or just >> Yeah, I don't know. I mean I I think it's that's still I would hope so. I mean I would hope at some point it would grow to that. Um but I think with everything you start small and uh and then you grow it as as you go. So um certainly creating opportunities. >> It's probably the indirect influence. Yeah. >> Right. As Greg said, trying to tee up and to combine some of these efforts in different lanes. So, it might not be I'm connecting with you as the school counselor or the the career coordinator, but there is some cohesiveness

067to opportunities that I might engage in. >> So, maybe indirectly more at first. Um, but it's it's exciting to see how we can potentially utilize some of this uh resource specifically to areas that they want to put some additional attention to. Mhm. >> And I'm just to be clear, just because you know me and I have ton of questions always, I'm waiting. I'm biting my tongue and not asking any questions until you're all done. Is that okay? Or should I ask along the way? Which is better for you? >> Why don't you give me one right now? >> I have a loaded question, >> right? Because I can wait because I don't know if you're going to cover it. So I can wait. >> What would you like to motion to wait. >> Back a

068couple slides ago, a couple slides, a couple slides ago, you did the freshman the meeting. Do you do you talk to parents because you mentioned that counselors will notified not they or let no parents know about the tutoring services like that math group or things? So, is that part of some type of freshman meeting? Because as a parent, I would say I I wasn't really aware until my kid needed it. But is it something that we mention at the freshman level so that parents do know along the way? >> Um I'm trying to think because we have the freshman orientation meeting at the beginning of the year and I don't know if specifically we talked. >> Yeah. So my honor, the science honor society runs a lot of the science tutoring and I'm also in

069the writing center and we have tables at that freshman orientation. So if they choose to come up and talk to you, that is readily available. And then the letter that comes with freshman orientation has us in it and like contact >> to parents. That's what I'm worried about. Not about this. Right. So I'm just wondering if parents know that that's a you a a thing out there. >> It's in the letter that comes along with freshman orientation which parents are expected to like >> be a part of. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then the other thing way back when you said something about like majors and and students had said that they didn't know like have we ever looked at or considered like University of Delaware whether or not you go there or not has

070a crazy cool website about like majors and like what are your interests and here's an idea and here's what kind of jobs this could lead to and here's stuff that like do could we utilize other ser other sites to say hey here's a bunch of ones Maybe you can go check it out on your own kind. >> That's the community council. That's what >> school links does that too, right? >> That's the hope of the community council. Yeah. >> But >> yeah, and school links does connect to the the careers to majors and but I'll take a look at that. >> U you can do careers to majors, majors to schools on school links, which you can't do on Navian. >> Yeah. Navian I agree. I hate >> but I'll look at that. U Delaware.

071I mean there's certainly a wealth of knowledge out there. >> There's so much that reinventing the wheel that's so >> All right. Um, all right. So, you know, when you look at the school counseling framework and the standards we want to meet, it's important to ensure that we have guaranteed experience. We always want to talk about guaranteed experience for students. Um, it's a little harder as a school counselor because you don't have a classroom every day to uh create a curriculum that we're going to cover this on Monday and this on Tuesday and work your way through the 180 days. Um, so we have to try to do it in um in our individual meetings. We try to do it in our group lessons or classroom lessons um to try to give everybody these guaranteed

072experiences. So, um with Henry James counselors, we made it um a goal a couple years ago um to meet with all seventh graders by Thanksgiving. They they have big case loads down there. Um but I wanted to make sure you know the two years go fast, so make sure you meet with all those seventh graders and prioritize meeting with them before Thanksgiving. And and they've been able to accomplish that goal the last couple years. Um they also meet with their students through group lessons. Those are some of the group lessons that they do in seventh grade and then eighth grades. Uh sometimes they do those in connections. Sometimes they do them uh pushing into classrooms. Uh and they also partner with the wellness uh department with some of those like the mindfulness lesson. Uh they'll

073partner with wellness uh oh down at the bottom there again some of those uh group meetings that we talked about earlier. Um they do a lot of collaboration with administration, teachers, parents, outside professionals. Um a lot of behind the-scenes work to try to support students as well. Uh with the high school, that's kind of our our process. Again, I I mentioned it earlier. Freshman year is about orienting to the high school. We get to our freshman right away um to try to give them the information of where are your supports, what are the goals you have, how do you how are you successful at Simsbury High School? Um, so we try to get to them right off the bat. Uh, sophomores, we just did our career uh, lesson with them uh, in the career fair.

074The juniors, we do the post high school planning, the individual meetings. Uh, and then again, seniors, it's it's really kind of doing that post high school work uh, and then working with them on transitioning to life after high school. Uh, and along the way, you see course selection, future planning, constantly meeting with those students uh, to make adjustments to their schedule. We meet with students every January to go over here's where you're at. Here's what you need for next year. Here's how you can challenge yourself. Uh what are your options to take at this school? So that's the kind of that course selection future planning that we do with all of our students. >> I have a question on the seniors, the individual college meetings. Is there any push from your students or your parents

075to move that to junior year? Because your a lot of kids at least in my experience are working on those applications making decisions about where to apply during the summer between. >> That seems a little late to me to meet for the first time on an individual level. >> No, we meet with them >> middle of junior year. We're we meet with juniors >> for like a planning >> juniors and their parents with an individual meeting and then we meet with juniors in this like throughout their junior year. Um >> so is the senior just refinement and training? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Senior was like >> this is what your common app should look like now like here's where you should be. If you're not there you need to get there. >> Right. >> Okay.

076>> The junior year was more like this is common app. This is college. you have to go, you have to apply. Like, >> yeah, the the individual meeting, senior year, it can run the gamut of a student coming in after that group meeting right off the bat. They might come in and say, I'm ready to apply. Here's the four schools I'm applying to. I'm good to go. Here's what I need from you. Or it could be, I'm still lost. I don't really know where I'm at in this process. And then, you know, we kind of meet them where they're at. But that's not the first time we're having an individual meeting with with our students. >> Gotcha. Um, all right. Uh, last slide here. Um, just kind of our future focus areas. Um, all teachers,

077counselors in Simsbury, uh, they have to come up with a professional growth plan every year. That's, uh, in the fall. They they come up with a plan of something that they want to do. Teachers might tie it to, um, something that they want to get growth out of their students in a certain area. Um, what I asked my counselors to do this year was to find something they're passionate about that they want to learn about that they can bring back to the department to add value to the department and also to the students. So, I like what our counselors came up with uh a wide variety. The first one is what Amanda came up with the providing non-olbound career opportunities and she took that personal professional growth plan and created the trades panel. Uh we

078have two counselors working on building our alumni network. Um we have great alumni who go off and we cannot connect with them. Um we we don't always get their email addresses. We can't get we can't get in touch with them with their Simsberry email address. They go off and do great things but they don't stay connected all the time. So uh we want to try to build that alumni network. We've thought about um creating a LinkedIn page um to allow students to to connect with us that way. Um, School Links allows you to get their personal emails when they graduate, so you can get in touch with them that way. Um, we'd like to use that alumni network to survey students post-graduate to see how um how Simsbury High School prepared them for life in

079college, life after college, um how we might be able to do it better. Uh we want to create that network so that when kids are looking at colleges, they have students who might be at those colleges. when students are looking at certain careers, we have former students who are in those careers. Um, so that might take some time to build that network, but we have started that uh last year and continuing to to build that this year. >> This is also a newly defined action step in our strategic plan. Good >> as well. So, we have that connection to the strategic plan in this work. >> Good. Uh, one of our councils are looking at AI in the college process. um how do we need to educate our students what not to do? How can

080we use AI to help in the college process? How can we as counselors um use it, not use it? Um so they're ones looking in in on that. Um another counselor looking at clarity around 504 accommodations in college. When students go off to college with a 504 plan, you know, what do they need? How what time do you reach out to the college and let them know about it? Who do you reach out to the college? um what kind of accommodations are available in college that may what do you have at high school that may not be able to use at college and vice versa. Um so someone we have a counselor who's going to try to put together like a one pager uh that we can educate parents and give to parents um as

081they have senior kids going off to college. >> Great. That's really interesting and that's like just from a data standpoint something I'd be interested in looking at is comparative Durk data whatever it is about that percentage of 504s right because if you look at our percentage of 504s it's like almost 18%. >> We have 20% of our high school population is special ed that's almost 40% of our students are receiving some sort of legal accommodation. I'm just curious how that plays against comparative >> Yeah. It's comparative to Farmington and Avon. I know that. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That'd be good for us. Well, not you, but for us to take a look. >> That's why he's looking at me. >> Great. >> Um, before you move on the 504s, are those students spread across all

082of your counselors or they >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Um, and then the last one, um, we have a growing ELLL student population, too. And we have a counselor who is um working on how do we support them in high school and also how do we support them with their post high school planning uh as that approach might be different than uh a non-ELL student. Um means >> English is a English is a second language really English English learning language um so yeah non-English-speaking students that we have um and then down there as as for our department focus um you know increased personalization I think you know our counselors are busy and there are a lot of um I I've always said it that sometimes as a counselor um you spend 80% of your time

083with 20% of your students. Um, and we want to make sure that we are also focusing on those other 80% and finding time to meet with all of our students. Um, and finding ways to increase those personal and it could be something as simple as making sure we have designated times of the year like I did with the middle school counselors where we are scheduling students to meet with our counselors. uh as oo because if you wait and have your I'm going to meet so and so at this time and then something happens that gets put on the back burner but if we can schedule those in you know we can guarantee some of those those one-on-one individual meetings um with the post size go ahead >> a couple questions on that so um do

084you start out with one counselor freshman year and that counselor continues on >> yes >> okay and then the second question is what's the case load per counselor >> it's about 170 to 180 per per counselor which is a good number. Um it it is it is it is a good number but still >> yeah but um >> thank you. >> Yep. Um, in terms of like the post high school planning, um, one suggestion that we had kind of thrown out there was, um, having putting something out there to the to the students and the parents before the meeting. Um, where we kind of ask them questions about what do you want to cover, where what are you looking at right now? Um, so that we can kind of fine-tune that post high school planning

085meeting before um, we have it. Um and then it doesn't become as generalized, it becomes a little more personalized. Um the MTSS supports, that's something that we're going to be partnering with the rest of the school um to continue to look at what kind of supports we can use to uh develop or or tweak or better um to help our students out. Um want to look for ways to help students with resumeé writing. Um I look at resumeé writing. It's a nice obviously having a resume is nice um for when you're applying for a job or you're you know looking at a college. I look at res I want to teach even from freshman year. What is a resume? It's it's what you do. It's those activities that you do. It's your passions. So having

086freshman kind of understand the exercise for a freshman might be what do you want to see on your resume by the time you graduate? And it's more of a goal setting for a freshman. And then sophomore, junior, senior, do you actually add those goals that you wanted to have on your resume? And by the time you're a senior, you now have a resume that you can use as you go off um to life after high school. >> I think what you're saying implicit what you're saying too is the importance of having those items on your resume. schools are not looking at just grades and that was express you know with two kids that both times it was expressed yeah >> uh very loudly that they're not look they're looking at what else you're doing so

087again I like the resume I mean you guys hand out a nice a template that works and that's great >> I think the I like what you're saying the importance of having that resume and importance of >> doing other things to build it is >> you don't want to get to that senior year and say okay here's a resume template and they're like I only got three things to put on this >> it's about freshman year >> what is your goal. What do you want that resume to look like by the time you're >> I like that evolution, Greg, right? Because it's about learning about yourself, too. And totally having just kind of been through this with a a guy in college, it's all like too much, too quick. It's like, no, >> that curve

088would have been very helpful. >> In doing that, do you worry that you're going to create like crazy anxiety about what your resume looks like? Because I know that I personally my entire high school career like that is all I could ever think about in school. So, do you worry that starting that as a freshman year, you're just like encouraging that? >> It's it's such it's a good point. It's always the balance we were talking about a little earlier of like have do you have that college meeting earlier? Some people want it earlier, some people want it later, right? So, it's like it's the balance of >> can I just enjoy freshman year? Am I already thinking about college at that point? But you don't want to also ignore that and then they haven't done

089those. So, I think it's about how do you frame it? Um, and maybe it's not talking about it as this is we're creating your resume now as a freshman year. It's more of what are your goals to achieve in high school. You know, what do you want to see? What do you want to accomplish? And then that might build year after year. But if >> I could humbly recommend a slight tweak to that, too. It's how you how you present that resume, right? not not literally but you know these kids whether it's because of this or or what have you um that the whole presenting themselves how you interact in an interview how do you how do you talk to somebody how do you network >> right >> I think that's kind of been a

090lost arc with some with these kids they don't know how to start >> that's what we like about the career fair is really we have the kids write down questions and the goal is to ask at least one question to one person there and that's part of it you know Sue and I have talked about mock mock interviews you know, do you start you having some mock interviews and it for some kids they might interview with a college, other kids might interview for a job, you know, other kids it's just about having a conversation with an adult. Um, so um it's good >> use some of those on telephone. >> Good life skills. Good. And I think that like um I will say like I just did a and I know this is a small

091percentage but I just did a college tour whole week long where we went and saw a bunch of colleges and to your point about the anxiety stuff with freshmen. I will say that there is and there's come some kids I think that just innately have anxiety about that and come in. My daughter was more like you. Um, but for the the students I was with, they were like, "Oh, I wish I knew this was more important freshman year, you know, joining these clubs or trying new stuff." And so, I do think there's a balance there where, you know, >> having some more encouragement around not just this is your resume, but just what are you looking to do? How do you become a well-rounded student? what opportunities are available for you to to try and

092practice. >> Honestly, when you start talking about it like that, then seventh and eighth grade is a good time for them to talk and say, "Look at when you get to high school, you guys, you know, these are there are all these clubs and things that are available to you for you to try things and to and to test them out. But if they know that in seventh and eighth grade, then when they get to high school and they're not thinking about it as a college thing, but as a >> their next step growing thing and trying to try trying to taste and touch and >> feel opportunities, I think um >> I think Yeah. I don't know. Seventh and eighth grade might not be the worst time to start this because if you hit

093it in nth grade, they're be like, "Oh my god, I knew this was coming." >> Yeah. But if you start talking about stuff in seventh and eighth, then maybe it does give them a chance to say, "Wait, I can I still have time to learn stuff and try stuff that doesn't have to be good and I don't have to be good at it." >> That's my thing is like I feel like everyone all these kids have to feel no one can fail anymore. >> When I was a kid, you could fail. You could try things and fail and it was great >> and you learn a lot from that. >> You can't. But now I think it's great looking back. >> I really had a great life in hindsight about myself. No one was taking

094a picture of it. No one was putting it on social media. And I could I could, you know, take a rest. >> Yeah. I could try hockey. And >> here's how you grow as >> So >> always. >> Well, it's true. I mean, I talk to my students and I I talk to them about like colleges don't just want there's a lot of bright kids out there. They don't want just kids who sit around thinking cool thoughts. They want community members. They want what are you going to bring to us? we know what we can offer you, but how are you going to be a citizen in our community, in our college community? And that can start as early as seventh and eighth grade when you're talking to them about when you get to the

095high school, what kind of how are you going to interact with that environment? How are you going to be part of that community? >> So, how are you going to connect? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> How are you going to contribute? >> Yes. >> What is going to be what you're going to take from the community, but what is your value added? and what does that look like when you're a seventh grader versus a ninth grader versus an 11th grader versus someone who's about to launch what their post-secary plan is. >> And that was a big thing the the colleges just drilled that home about being part of a community and what do you bring and you know >> and you don't want to just bring it junior and senior year. That's the big thing

096is like you look at some of the stuff that you know when we're analyzing stuff it's like >> no these poor kids didn't have a chance to really try a lot of stuff because they like oh they didn't realize it until junior year that wait I got to build a resume I got to start putting stuff on it. It's like and then it's not it doesn't have the same capacity for learning and growth. >> I have a question for you. Are you finding that with the rise of AI and and um students who are applying to colleges and also for careers afterwards and so forth, the the the matrix is changing? I mean, they're being funneled into like a big it's almost like a big machine. And are you are there are there avenues for

097kids to to look at and say, "Okay, if I prepare my resume, what kinds of um verbiage do I use that would stand out or or that would um >> yeah, I mean >> rise above." My my fear is that the >> an interview >> you started to see emerging of every kid applying to these colleges with great inflation everybody's got an A, you know, then you take away SATs and make those optional. You take away a piece of the puzzle that was able to differentiate kids and it was all So now you have a lot of kids who kind of look the same and the the new differentiator was going to be the college essay. So the college essay was then going to be the way that you could use your voice and speak.

098You know, this is who I am and what I'm going to contribute and what I've done in my life. And my fear is that colleges are going to think less of a essay because they're not going to be sure if it's the student voice anymore. Uh, I don't know if that answered your question, but that's a worry of mine that um that kids are going to go that route of thinking that they need to use AI to help with their essay and you're going to lose that personal voice that was a big piece of how you could stand out to a college. >> Mine got flagged like I had to go in and email the >> for college >> app and I was like this it's not I just use an M dash in my

099grammar. >> That's the best. I love an M. >> Yeah. And that may be where the resume helps differentiate more too, right? Question for you is everything you like the guaranteed experiences, the the 170 80 on a case load. Just curious, it could be a range, not an exact number. Every kid's different. How many touch points would you say one of our students in those six years from 7 to 12 actually interacts with their counselor? I would say so just talking individually in the office not like in a group. >> Exactly. Right. Right. And that's saying you take middle school separate. >> I would say the high school. >> Yeah. >> The minimum would be eight. I would say two a year would be the minimum. >> Um because you're usually having a an individual

100meeting um at the beginning of your freshman year. you're always you're meeting with them for course selection. Um you're probably having more meetings junior and senior year. So you may only have like one sophomore year, but then you might have more junior and senior. So I would say eight's the minimum. And then I mean there's kids that are >> right. Yeah. >> Up in the hundreds. >> I was worried about the ones that Right. the ones that want to go find the counselors, we should be there for them, right? It's the ones who are a little we're talking about like engaging them, right? Making sure they don't fall behind where junior year it's like, "Oh man, I didn't know." Right. Yeah. >> But if it's minimum of eight, that's I was starting to wonder if

101it was just like four. >> I I do like >> your idea of of more regular schedule. I think that'll be easy. I think that'll help the student. Actually, I think it'll help you guys, too. Just to know that it's on the >> book and what and what can happen is you have a meeting with a freshman and then it it's a snow day or the kid's sick and doesn't show up and sometimes that doesn't get now you don't meet with that kid, right? You know, and then things move on. Now you get into the sophomore lessons and whatever. And so you do the followup too is important of hey they were on my schedule it didn't happen. Don't just be okay that I missed that one so be it. It's like no we got

102to follow up. >> Well technology it should that should be able to that should be easier >> to know okay that kid I got to get back to that kid because they keep popping up on my screen saying >> I missed that one. I got to get back >> falling through the cracks. >> There's always going to be the squeaky wheel right? So every day your priorities are reshifting every day, >> every single minute of every day. >> Right. And I think that's an easy excuse to make as a counselor. You do become reactive when a kid comes in crying and that becomes your whole day is dealing with a a real serious situation. Um but that we can't use that as an excuse to not have those touch points with the other kids too.

103of the three buckets, where do you think where do would you say you spend your most of your time and how can we helpate that? >> Um, I've done this for over 20 years. It was 90% academic when I started. Um, it's now the social emotional is really crept up over the last five years. Um and that takes the most time the you know that is um and and for good reason. You know you really want to support those kids as that's the most important thing is making sure kids are um emotionally well. So >> is that because you guys are responsible for the children with 504s or how does that come up? >> Um >> because I would think a lot of that might be directed to the social workers or the school psychologist.

104the social workers and school psychologists tend to have case loads of students in special education um that they have they have to meet with them regularly. They have to do testing. Um so even though they have small case loads, they are very very busy, very occupied with what they're doing. Um so yeah, I mean I think it's it is it's an increase. I think it's just an increase in um social emotional issues. Um you know, some of them fall under 504, some of them don't. Um, I think in a lot of ways it's a good thing. People are more open about their um their emotional, social emotional challenges. I think 20 years ago those were swept under the rug and people didn't deal with them openly. Now people deal with them more openly and um

105I think that's a good thing, but it also makes more for more uh for more work. So >> I have a question on the the SATs. Do we incorporate in any of our classes whether it's connect or English essay writing for college? >> Yes. The beginning of senior year one of the assignments is to they call it a personal thought assignment but it's a college essay writing. Um >> and that's across all levels of a senior English. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And you present them to your class and your class gives you feedback >> early on in the first month. I think we did it like September 3rd. Well, they're due November 1st if you're doing >> like my personal thought was due September 3rd, I think. And then >> but a lot of

106the time if you're doing early application, >> you're also working early. >> So then my college essay was done probably June 1st, right? >> Um and then it was edited all summer and then came into class as a final draft and people helped me the very end and then it was turned over. >> Can I ask you consider moving? >> They don't even open till August 1st. How did you get your know your prompts? >> Yeah, I was gonna say that to Jess. >> There's always an open prompt. Um, so regardless of what the prompts are in terms of like college the actual questions I did not do until August. Okay. Um, because they like I couldn't know. >> But the actual college essay that goes in your common app, there's always like a >>

107other prompt. So you can >> took care of that one. Okay. >> Um, and then the other two questions on the resume piece and the interview piece, where do you see that living in school? Is that a connect kind of? And >> that's what we're still looking at. Um, I I could see the resume being part of connect lessons. Um, the mock interview is a little bigger because you need to bring people in to do the interviewing. Um, you need space for that. you need time for that. So, that one we're still >> It was interesting. I just had a discussion today with a junior achievement representative and I asked them and they're like, "Oh my goodness, we do this all the time in schools." So, I have two districts. I just shared this with

108Greg to speak with about how they do that because JA will send in droves of volunteers to help us conduct this. So, there's a lot of logistics certainly, but we'll be able to figure that out. >> Nice. Well, thank you. >> Oh, I think Jen's got one more question. >> One more question. I don't know if it's just Connecticut question. In fact, New in New York when I grew up, we and they still today in New York has a program called Boseies. I don't know if anybody else is from New York, but in New York, you can in high school start taking classes for the trades. And so, it's all part of the same thing. So, they split their day between the two places. It's it's every type of trade out there. And so you

109actually graduate high school with a certification of something else on top of your degree. And so I didn't know if Connecticut just has never had anything like that or >> So I mentioned earlier this evening around the industry related credentials or recognized credentials. >> Yeah, >> that's where they're going to go. >> Oh, okay. I believe >> uh that's why we wanted to get um at this work at the ground level to see where it's going, but they're looking at New York, they're looking at North Carolina, places that have formalized systems to in order to make that happen. So >> there there are technical high schools in Connecticut, >> but you have to go to those schools. There's a uh and there is Goodwin College does a partnership program where we've had two kids do

110it where they they do half a day here then they go to Goodwin College and they do uh manufacturing there and they've got they get certification at the end of that. >> I just think it was a cool thing because you could still end up going to a four-year school from a school in New York but still have this background information and things if that is your passion. >> Yeah. all about. >> Thank you. >> Hey, thanks. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I didn't feel that. >> Thank you so much. Assignment in the classroom because I know >> everyone checks your to-do list. >> All right. >> When you want people to check them or >> Yes. >> And everyone checks their to-do list based on like because that's how will do their homework because

111teachers definitely post it in the classroom. >> On the to-do list, >> then it pops up in your to-do and I always click on them because I hate when there's something in my to-do and I know that that's like >> I agree. I agree. >> Um >> budget update. >> Yes. Yes. So, transition to budget. >> Um I'm going to frame this out kind of at a higher level. Then I'm going to kick it to Amy and she's going to go through the numbers. So, prior to the public hearing last week, which was Tuesday, I think Tuesday. >> Tuesday, uh, we received some news as Amy was kind of looking through the quarterly report, which they've aligned with. It was a request for the board of finance timing to to get that information ahead of

112time that um, and this is a collective impact from the town and board of ed side. We have seen a we saw a significant increase in insurance claims um catastrophic claims larger claims kind of all hitting at once being paid you know the liability that will need to be paid out. So as Amy analyzed that um she sent forward a rec you know wanted to let people know hey this is where we're at. It's to the tune um right now of an estimate of about $2.6 6 million that are above and beyond what we thought uh we would see during the course of the year. Amy also was clear in saying that's a conservative estimate because I do know that these are going to risk uh reach the threshold uh where we'll receive some stop

113loss, some some reimbursement back. So provided some options at that public hearing. Um, and at the same time that the board of finance received that information about the increase in liability on the claim, they also received information that it was projected that the town would have a surplus in their year end of $3 million. So Amy's um one of the recommend, you know, she provided different things that we could do. The recommendation that you could utilize um different surplus funds and continue with the budgets that we have moved forward. Another option was you could raise the budget by what would be a collective $1 million across both boards. $800,000 to the board of ed 200,000. So that was discussed um at the uh at the public hearing. The decision was made by the board of

114finance to extend it to a third public hearing. Uh increase the budgets really under the guise of can we get a little more information, a little more specifics. um on the spec on the insurance and where we're going. So in that time frame from when we updated uh our boards to the this meeting and to the scheduled public hearing tomorrow uh Amy has sent out a revised update as she thought we will see more stop-loss dollars coming back. The projection for the kind of the deficit or what the internal service fund would have to handle is shifted from 2.6 6 to about 1.6 >> 1.3 >> okay to about 1.3 million um at the end of the day our lane I'm just going to remind people as a board of ed is not to advise

115on what we think the board of finance should do in terms of a budget number or how to finance the challenge. Our ask was could you take another look at your budgets in lie of where this all sits. So I would just kind of say this before I turn it over to Amy. um with the new revised information where Amy has different scenarios to present at the public hearing and to go through where we're in much better shape of the internal service fund being able to handle that $1 million and still move forward with the initial initial plan. The fact that there still is $3 million worth of surplus on the town side to think creatively financially how you want to offset things to keep the budgets flat. I just don't believe we're in a

116position to say, "Hey, the straits are so dire that we need to go back and make more reductions." I don't feel comfortable with coming forward tonight and saying, "Hey, with the financial pieces of the puzzle that are in play, we should be in a position that I think we should take 100,000 to 200,000." I think we did a great job. Uh, in the budget, we have real reductions in the budget. We've reduced 5.8 FTE. I think there's new information presented where um they'll work through this tomorrow night um that I'm hopeful that they come to an outcome that they will not ask us to reduce our budgets and I would say that the board of selectmen uh met earlier in the week and I'm not speaking for them but the result of that was that

117they are not reducing their budget. So um I do not have budget cuts to present to you tonight. I just want to be clear on that. I'll kick it to Amy to any of the kind of technical pieces that I that I've missed and then we can work through work through question. >> One technical question, Matt, just for whatever you're teeing up, can you just explain how this number that's come in is different than that 400,000 we had to visit earlier in the process. Sure. Because it feels like similar, but it must be different. >> Yeah. So, I'll I'll give that a shot first. So, >> uh, when we came back to the board of ed and reduced 400,000, >> um, during our own budget process, >> something happened. >> So, that that was, you

118know, Amy in conversation with um our insurance advisors that said, "Hey, claims do like look like they're increasing." >> Uh, you want to make sure you're covering to x percentage. And we came back and said, "Hey, what's the best way to do that?" Y >> at that point, knowing we were already going to utilize a million, Amy and I didn't think it was prudent to go back into that internal service fund for a deeper dive. I'm really pleased because we had some good conversations on that internally that we didn't go uh that way because I think we would have to relook at that now. Um this is more like hey larger claims hitting in a quicker time frame. I guess that's what feels different about this. So some of the questions are hey how come

119we didn't know? Well, it's in the cycle of of when it occurred, so we couldn't really have known earlier, but it was just more intense, Josh. Higher claims. The other were like maybe a a slower line of, hey, the projections look like they're going to come in. >> That was an, if I'm fair, that was an assumption to be smart. You can get ahead of it. >> This is a response >> to actual payouts that need to occur. Okay. >> Um, and that's why you have the reserves, right? That's the function of the reserves. >> Thank you. >> Yep. I >> mean, I think you did a really good job. there's not really much left. >> Um yeah, I guess um we re I can fill in a couple of blanks. When we originally started

120the process um when the board of finance had agreed to use the million dollars in the health insurance fund claims, we were at about 30% if I remember correctly um 30% of expected claims. Our target from our broker is always you should always be at 20 to 25% of expected claims. So, we were exceeding that number. We've always had really good claims experience. Um, we had our number for next year. There was no cause for alarm to do anything out of the ordinary. So, the board of finance felt comfortable utilizing a million dollars in the reserves. And then fast forward to um the anticipated loss that Matthew talked through, that initial 2.6, this would have brought our reserve levels down to about 18% of expected claims. So, below the what we should actually have in

121there. Um, which is why we wanted to go back to Lockton and be like, is this a spike? Is this a new trend? You know, what is this? Do we need to adjust? So, the good news is is that when locked in came back, I mean, essentially, it is a spike. There are some larger claims, some larger um um individ some larger claims that have hit our stop-loss policy for a larger number of individuals. Um, but the important piece here is, um, like Josh was talking about, when we went from they looked at our claims and we were initially at 11% when we first started the budget process, and then they're like, "Oh, hey, we looked at your trend again. We talked to our actuaries. We're going to bump it up to 14%, which is

122that four $400,000." Um, so they did this one more time. So, we're going to look at it again, make sure we're not going to 16% or 18%, which creates us creates a larger problem for our operating budget. Not our reserves, our operating budget. We're all good at the 14%. I think it may have come down like slightly. Um, so the 14% we're good for this year. We're covered under the new projections. We are at 20 to 25% of expected claims. So, we are in an okay position to still utilize reserves if the board of finance wants to with a combination of say the health insurance fund and the $3 million anticipated surplus. Um, or again, they chose to preemptively tax for it at this point in time. Um and then at their meeting tomorrow, they'll

123discuss whether they're going to keep it within the taxes or go back and adjust um to utilize a million dollars of reserves, a portion of res um and so that's pretty much where we're at. So the board of finance made the request for the board of ed and the board of selectman to go back and look at their budgets prior to receiving any of the updated locked in information. >> Great. So just as a reminder Oh, sorry. Did I cut you off? I just wanted to add one thing because >> I don't want to take lightly the request. >> Um, and I kind of gave the the endgame of of where we stand on that, but we did have conversations internally. We did meet >> in terms of uh, you know, with Melissa Applebe about,

124hey, are there one-time purchases we can put out? Are there some smaller things we could do? And really what it came down to be before I knew we had this new information is the only place we could have a discussion um and feel somewhat comfortable about it would be our own reserve levels, right? Would be our own non-lapsing fund. Um we have $850,000 in that fund. We've allocated $189,000 for this current year budget. Um, but against the backdrop of the of the new information with the volatility still of wanting to be able to respond uh in particular to special education needs or any unknown needs throughout the year, I wouldn't feel comfortable with that as a recommendation now uh as opposed to I know what Amy's recommended. We should look at all these reserve pools

125at the end of the year, right? When when we have a better handle on where we're at. So, I just did want to add >> I appreciate that. That's that's helpful. I just want to reiterate. So tonight our exercise is or the question before us really is do we want to take another look as Matt and Amy's is laid out it does not we we've put forward an extremely lean budget. There are other vehicles to address this need. It does not seem to me at this time that we should um or need to take a deeper dive or another look at this but just want to throw it out there obviously for discussion. When is the statuto when do we have to have the budget completed by? >> Um so tomorrow night if we're going

126to hit the referendum for May 16th which has been proposed if it goes past tomorrow night there is a tentative date for Thursday night if they need it and then we will have to look at moving the referendum date but it's when they close the public hearing that the timeline starts. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I agree. I I don't think it makes sense to >> I think we wait and see how to go. >> Yeah, we seem to have enough >> personally >> funds from other places to cover this spike. >> Can I ask what is like you said we can wait to see tomorrow. Do we have vehicle to call for another meeting outside of the cycle? >> Needed we need to act. >> Yeah, you can we can schedule a special meeting.

127Absolutely. Okay. Do we do we currently >> I I just wanted to let you know that um the board of selectmen does tenatively have a special meeting on Thursday morning in hopes that the public hearing gets closed tomorrow so that we set the referendum language and mailer language on Thursday morning. >> Part of that formal timeline. >> Correct. It's part of the formal timeline. So, if they do not close it tomorrow night, then we would have to reschedule that, but we're >> being hopeful. So, we do have a we do have a a special meeting scheduled Thursday morning currently. >> Great. >> I just wanted to add >> No, I appreciate that. Absolutely. Good. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thanks to Matt and everybody, Amy, the team. It's been a lot of they're they're they're

128kind of under clubbing this the amount of hours they've spent on this over the last couple weeks. So appreciate all the work on this um quarterly budget. >> So outside of the house insurance fund um your operating fund is doing very well. Um just wanted to point out a couple of things on that first page under the revenues for our state grant awards. The second bullet down your open choice attendance and early learning grants. Um you can see that we have an increase of about 244,000. Um we had 10 additional students this year. So we anticipated to be at about $146,000 in excess. Um the balance between the 244 and the 146. Um Melissa explained it to me. We kind of get some bonus money if you will based on um the number of students

129um open choice students in each school. And I guess it's variable from year to year. This year we hit it. They had the funding available. So we are going to get um what is that? Almost another $100,000 um in open choice funding. So that was a nice surprise this year. The next bullet down, the other grant that we we pay close attention to always is our um special ed excess cost grant. So you will see that we are projected to receive about 2.1 million this year. Our prior reimbursement was about 2 5 million. So typically this would be a bad thing. However, in this case, this is a good thing for us because it means our ex well it doesn't always mean that. In this case, it means that our expenses have gone down. So

130we are getting less reimbursement, not that the state is cutting our reimbursement, which is typically the case. So some good news there. Um that's all I have for revenues unless anybody else has any specific questions. >> Good question. Are our expenses on the special ed excess cost going down because we have fewer students who are utilizing it or is it new path or some combination? >> It's a combination. So the state reimbures our audit district's tuition students and then they also um reimburse a portion of our in district. So I think it's the costs all around. I can get you the exact details in the breakout in the ind district versus the outdist um but there has been a decrease in each so our reimbursement is less but I can get you the specific dollars.

131I don't want to talk out of turn. >> Thanks. >> Hopefully there's good more good news down the road because of the news from from today of the governor with the increased money to towns on the town and education side. So hopefully that'll be interesting yeah news there too. Um and then on the expenditure side, again, not much to report here. Um you can see at the bottom where it has total education expenditures. Our percent to date um spent is about 69.34% which is pretty comparable to the same time last year at 68.11%. I think there was only two items that I wanted to point out that are not related to just timing of payments. Um one is related to our health services. Uh to about the third line down. So, our rate of spending

132is higher in the current year. We had some increased expenditures for um nurse substitutes as well as some additional summer school expenditures. And then the other one is just the maintenance of plant. Um we had some increased general repairs in the prior year that were non-repetitive in the current year. So, seeing a decrease in expenditures overall for our maintenance of our plant. Um everything else is pretty much related to the timing of payments. Either it was paid out sooner than anticipated or later than anticipated compared to the prior year. Um and then also as part of my year-end projections, I do do projections for the board of education. We are super close. Um so my projections came in with about within about $4,000 um of the total budget. So doesn't mean it's going to land

133there, but it just means we're close enough where I don't see any major spikes. I don't see anything of concern. I don't see any major um you know bills coming in that either would be offset with some operate with some savings. Um we could either see a slight surplus at the end of the year or a slight deficit but nothing nothing to write home about. >> Just have one question. the um the line for community services. It seems like the last two years we've spent more than we budget every year and I just wondered what's that for and should we increase that budget? >> So yes and no. Um it's kind of the budget amount has always stayed the same because anything above and beyond the budget actually that's not true. The budget and its

134total the board of education under state law is not allowed to take in revenue. So, when somebody rents out one of our school buildings, we have to pay our custodial staff to go in and clean it, whether it's overtime or um the cost of the cleaning supplies, things of that nature. So, we charge that $32,000 to that line item, but there is an offsetting revenue that goes to the town because we cannot take in revenue. So, it's actually a but budget neutral. Um it just shows up in two different places, which is why we've always kept it about 32,000. Amy, question. Um, and maybe it could be new path or something. I'm just curious. People transportation. We always talk about how transportation's going up and that looks like it's down year over year if I'm

135reading it correctly. Any thoughts there? Because I know I thought we had a meeting recently. We talk about transportation could be the next big thing. We've got to like figure out cost because of how it's on the rise. >> But here it looks like it's actually gone down. >> Yeah, it's pretty comparable to last year. The only thing I'm wondering is if this report included the budget adjustment that you all made switching from out of district tuition to pupil transportation. Um let me look at that just to be sure. But no, we're pretty comparable from from year over year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks. policy first reading. >> Okay. Our uh as Jess indicated, Jessica indicated, our um policy committee met twice, once in uh March and once in April to um bring forward

136these policies. Usually there's some kind of legislative demand that is pushing why a policy is coming forward. So we have um five that are coming forward. Process obviously is a first reading tonight. You have time to review them, ask me any questions over the next few weeks. They come back in front of you um in the first meeting in May and then you vote to accept them at the second meeting in May. So, the first uh personnel policy that came forward and was revised thanks to um Cindy Freelinger was our um family and medical leave um policy. It really has to do with the fact that Connecticut FMLA is now available to non-certified employees and that had not we had been um using national FMLA law. So this is a this is a revision of

137the policy based on the fact that educational institutes didn't used to pay into Connecticut FMLA and now this is a 1 half of 1% payroll deduction for all non-certified employees and there are new rules around FMLA. So if you make your way all the way through that policy that's what it's about. um much easier to understand is the next one. Age of entering kindergarten early in this legislative session. Um they put through the the for the last couple of years as you know we have needed to assess uh any students who were turning five in the months of September, October, November or December and make a assessment of whether or not they were kindergarten ready and report that to the families. The state removed that requirement. um Governor Lamont signed it and so now the

138hard deadline if you're not five by September 1st you can't register in schools anymore. So this is as of July 1st this will become our policy that birthday has to be September 1st or earlier. The wellness policy do you want to talk a little bit about that? >> Sure. So, as I had mentioned prior, the wellness committee is charged with doing an extensive self assessment of both our practices and our policy every three years. It's called the well stat. This is an outcome of that committee's work last year. And what it does is it says, okay, does your policy mention this specifically? Yes or no. If it doesn't, we suggest that you add that into the policy. So there are very minor changes based upon that self assessment and that's what's reflected in those changes.

139>> Thank you. The um challenging curriculum was also driven out of the legislative saying that every district had to have a challenging curriculum policy. We had one that was called advanced coursework um and simply changed the title of it to now say challenging. Th this is not a problem for Simsberry. This is basically about that you have to make advanced level honors classes available um in order to um create the rigor that um so challenging is not we don't like this. challenging is about the level of rigor that a school is supplying. Um we made a few minor change the title of the policy and a few other tweaks and that comes before you. And then the biggest new one was um a legislative push last year to say that all districts have to update

140their library policies in a number of like so for challenged materials. um that there has to be a process for that that um uh challenging a display in a school library if um so there was a concern that some districts didn't have very good policy about that. We did have something but this is wiped away the old. This was actually written by CAB Connecticut Association of Boards of Education to be a model policy for all districts to meet that new legislation. We reviewed it. We thought it was fine for us. Um and that's what's in front of you. So once again, those are the five pillars. do want to say that our last meeting and we're going to come back to it in the fall. Um, at Jessica's suggestion as the chair, we also spent

141a little bit of time digging into the class size policy and having a really good discussion about how class size is playing out right now. We don't have a recommendation to bring any new policy as of now, but we will be revisiting that in the fall as a as a way to um I'm going to do a little homework over the summer on some of the class size um implications. So, that was actually a big part of our last committee meeting even though it didn't result in a change in front of you. Okay. So, we read them tonight. We read them again on May >> 12th. 12th and then we approve them on May 26. Any questions in between, please reach out to me. >> I cannot wait to get home and start reading. >>

142Thank you, Neil. >> So, we come to second public updates. Thank you. >> Great. Uh, as was just said, our next meeting is May 12th. Appreciate everybody's tonight. >> Thank you everybody. I'll take a motion to adjourn. >> Move to adjourn tonight's meeting. >> Great in favor. >> Thank you. >> For over 40 years, SEM has been the voice of our town, >> bringing us together through local programming, >> education, and live broadcast. >> SEM isn't just about television. >> It's about empowering our community, >> ensuring our voices are heard during government meetings, and celebrating milestones >> like our high school graduations. But today, SEM faces a challenge. >> Our funding structure is based on television subscriptions. And it's no secret people have been cutting the cord. >> With a shift to internet only subscriptions,

143>> SEM receives less revenue. >> Even though all our programming is freely available online. >> We need your support. >> Your donation can make a difference. It will ensure that SEM remains open, >> continues to educate our youth, and keeps our community informed. >> Thanks to SEM, I've been honing my creative skills, helping me work towards my college degree. >> SEM is crucial for keeping our community connected. >> SEM isn't just here to broadcast local events. They're actually preserving Simsbury's history. >> Join us in preserving Simsberry's voice. >> Simsbury's voice. >> Together, we can ensure that SCM continues to thrive >> for generations to come. Visit our website >> or scan the QR code on your screen to make your donation. >> Every contribution counts. >> Thank you for supporting Sbury Community Media, where your

144town, >> your schools, and your government come together.