Board of Education Meeting - March 24, 2026

001Nice to see. Welcome everybody. And I see a pack. As always, we're just going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. start off with some recognitions. >> Yes. Excellent. Always a nice way to start a meeting. As we head towards the spring season, we um we do have more frequent recognitions and student awards to talk about. So, I would ask Heather Golden to come on up and she is going to introduce our two CAS and CIA scholar athletes of the year for Simsbury High School. >> All right. >> I'm not going to try to read this too much, but I wanted to make sure that I

002got all of the accolades correct. So, um, I'd like to take a moment to recognize two of our outstanding scholar athletes from Simsbury High School, Sophia Smith and Maximum Stoloff. If you guys want to stand, >> in order to be selected, obviously, you have to be a graduating senior with a minimum of a 3.5. You must have participated in a CIA sponsored sport for at least two years. must demonstrate strong school and community service and must exhibit integrity, self-discipline, and serve as a positive role model. So, if I get this right, Sophia has put together an incredibly consistent and impressive career across three seasons. She's been a three-year varsity athlete in cross country, earning allconerence honors each year and serving as a captain the past this past fall, while also being named to the all

003academic team every year. In indoor track, she again competed at the varsity level for three years, earning all state recognition as part of the relay and allconerence in the 3200 this year. In outdoor track and field, she's a three-year varsity athlete, earned all conference honors, and served as a junior captain, all while maintaining all academic recognition throughout those three years. >> FANTASTIC. And Maxim has a similarly well-rounded and dedicated career. He's been part of our cross country program for four years, competed at the varsity level as a junior and senior and serving as a captain this past season. Um while also earning all academic honors. He com he also competed in crosscountry skiing for three years, reaching the varsity level. Probably would have this year had we had cross-country skiing. um in outdoor track and

004field. He competed for three years, served as a junior captain, and is running this spring as a senior captain. So, both Sophia Maxim represent what we hope for in all of our student athletes. We're very proud of both of them. >> Okay, >> thank you very much. >> Sue, I'm gonna kick this next one to you. >> Terrific. We have a DECA contingent here tonight. So, DECA is a career and technical education student organization and it prepares students in the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Uh, students participate in a number of competitions. They've already gone to a state competition. I'll give a couple of stats on that in a moment. And they will be participating. MIT the students that are here this evening there's actually 14 of them will be participating in the

005international career development conference and this is what about 25,000 students participate in this Mr. Stanwood. >> Yes. And >> grown some US cities like Nashville, Tennessee can no longer host it because we're so big now. >> It's amazing. So that's at the end of next month in Atlanta. And I want to recognize the four all 14 students who will be competing, but about seven of you are here tonight. Uh we have over 90 students in DECA at Simsbury High School. Just last month, 20 of those 90 students in the junior and senior year were um inducted into the uh business honor society, which has been terrific. Of those 90 students, 32 competed at the state level, and nine of those 32 either hit it out of the park with a gold, silver, or bronze medal.

006So really incredible. So, if I can have students representing DECA, if you can all stand and I've asked them, I said, "You can introduce yourself." I know. Check out the the blazers. Really sharp. >> Really sharp. I said, "You can introduce yourself and say why you think you're here, or I'm going to have Mr. Stanwood embarrass you." Um, and I would like to introduce Mr. Jeff Stanwood. He is our DECA advisor and a teacher of many of our business courses at Simsbury High School. So, who wants to start? >> I can start. >> Awesome. >> Hi everyone. My name is Elizabeth and I've been in DECA for three years. I am the CFO of our club and I run the school store and I'm competing at the international career and development conference for financial consulting.

007>> Thanks. >> U my name is Yeshuan. Um I this is my first year in DECA and uh I'm going to ICDC to participate in the principles of finance uh roleplay event and I'm really looking forward to it. Thank you. >> Hello everyone. I'm Henry Fifer. This is my first year in DECA and I'll be going to ICDC for the Thrive Leadership Academy. >> Hi, my name is Claire Abiel. I I will be competing in ICDC for the career development project management project with >> Hi, my name is Baldra. I'm the president of Sinsbury High School and Claire's my partner. I've been participating in DECA for four years. >> Well, my name is Hannah. Um I've been in DECA for two years now and this is my first year competing. Um I was able to

008place for the gold certification for the school store. So I'll be competing in nationals for THE FIRST TIME. SO JUST TREMENDOUS growth of our DECA chapter again through Jeff's leadership and our students just knock it out of the park. So good luck. >> Good luck >> at the ICDC and can't wait to hear about all of the accolades. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you for coming. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Thank you everyone. Great job. >> Great leadership. >> It's always they always look like should I stay Can I go? I told him I said go. >> Um, next up uh is public audience. Anybody? >> Great. Okay, moving on to committee reports and communications. Eva, how are you? >> I'm good, thank you. How are you? Um, the first thing I have is from

009the high school. The boys hockey team is advancing to the semi-finals and they've had a really good season. Um the the first ever Polar Plunge was on March 12th and despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing, um a lot of people ended up coming and SHS raised over $8,000. Great. >> Um yeah, it was really awesome and that's a 50% profit. So like in total, everyone raised $16,000. Um SHS advanced culinary students competed in the Connecticut Restaurant Association's new ProStart cake decorating competition at Moheaggan Sun. Um, Nora Abdel McGee earned first place and Kate Kaden Nunees took second place in their representative creations. Um, and opening day for spring sports was last Saturday. So, everyone's back on fields and courts and things like that. Um, and the spring choir concert is next Wednesday, March

01031st at 7. Um, and then the only thing I have for elementary school is Latimer. Um, Latimer had a PTO Zumba night on Friday at the school for the adults in the Latain community. Um, and they're working on different opportunities for parents to connect with one another similar to Zumba. Um, the sixth grade and teacher volleyball game is also coming up within the next few weeks. So, they're thanking Henry James for that opportunity. >> That's all I have. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Steve, >> I'm all set. Sweet. >> I'm good. Thank you, >> Josh. >> No update this time. >> All right. Um, we don't need to update anything tonight right now. No, >> you can just tell them we met. >> Well, we met the personnel and negotiations committee. We met earlier today.

011Um, uh, we are in negotiations with our pair of professionals and, uh, secretaries right now. So, more to come in a few weeks. >> Uh, policy committee back a couple of weeks ago. Neil will give you all the details. We have a few policies that will need to go through several readings before we can adopt them. And, um, that's Oh, we're meeting Friday. Perfect. Awesome. >> Jen, >> all set. >> Terry, >> all set. >> The Simsbury Cultural Enrichment Committee I had shared with the board brought Holocaust survivor Ruth Winer to speak to all students in grades four, five, and six. So, it was a a bit of an inist field trip. So, Central School joined Squadron and then Tutin Hills and Terapville just joined Latimer Lane last Thursday. it. Great feedback from Miss Winer.

012She collects questions from students ahead of time, then she picks a couple and has students on a panel with her and read the questions. Uh she was incredibly complimentary of our students and the behavior and the thoughtfulness of their questions and just what great audience participants they were. And likewise, the kids uh wrote many letters of thanks to Miss Winer, and it's a great relationship that was made possible due to our cultural enrichment committee. So, I want to thank them in particular for making that happen for our kids. >> Absolutely. Thank you. That's great. >> Yep. >> Uh hiring season has begun in the Sbury public schools. We posted a number of positions due that will be retirements and other things that we know we need to fill for next year. um and spent the

013morning uh with a crew of us up at Yukon where all the students from the NEAG School of Education, both bachelor's degree, master's degree candidates, were lined up to chat with us and many other districts and we um were really pleased with the quality of candidates we saw. We're trying to rush them back in here for some interviews. So, um, was a good day. I mean, good. The process will carry out. We're going to try to be aggressive and be out there early to find the best talent. >> Just a quick reminder about the first public hearing for the budget, which is on April 7th at the library at 6 p.m. >> Good. Thanks. We had a successful budget presentation um March 14th at the board of finance. Um as Amy mentioned, we have the

014public hearing coming up where they'll move the budget on and you get you get uh the opportunity to present that uh forum. I do want to mention that we have received the entire board has received I've received Neil has received uh several letters from parents of the Latimer Lane community uh concerned with the possibility that we may uh make a reduction to an elementary school section there. You'll recall in our last budget meeting that we had before approval of the budget. We didn't target any particular position but mentioned there's several across the district that we need need to continue to keep an eye on that if we did reduce we'd still be within the guideline. Their concern is it would be at the higher end of the guideline and that's one of the challenges that

015we have that we've talked about, right? We're trying to move forward a budget. Um be as lean as we can this year to hit the target of the board of finance and use our policies uh in an effort to do that. Uh the reality is and we've shown the data, our class sizes the elementary level are really as good as they've ever been. So it almost reestablishes a new norm and the thought of going up towards a higher end of a guideline definitely becomes more of a challenging conversation than it was say five six years ago. So um Neil's responded to each of the emails that's come forward. I I feel like the parents expected that we would mention that here tonight. So I did want I did want to bring that uh bring that

016forward. >> Great. Um, so next up is the approval of the minutes of the February 24th exec session. >> I'll move to approve the minutes. Second >> second. >> Thank you. Um, any discussion? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Just one abstain. >> Okay, one abstension. Uh, so then we move on to the approval of the minutes of the February 24th. Move we approve the minutes of the February 24th meeting. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Two two exceptions. >> Hi. >> Um, moving on to personnel. >> Oh, sorry. I was distracted. >> They're doing a switch out. They're switching out student reps over there. Yeah, there's actually a number of >> Okay, good. >> Sorry, Cedar. >> Um, a number of uh items

017that require your attention tonight. Um, a few uh retirement uh notices from some stalwarts at Simsbury High School. John Madano has been an English teacher there for 29 years um and is um planning to retire in the fall. John has been one of the AP English teachers for about the last 15 years. He was a staple in the ninth grade uh uh group and he's um been a a coach of both crosscountry skiing and rugby uh overtime just very active in the community and John um uh has reached the time his wife Kathy who also taught in the English department retired last year so John is joining her uh in retirement. He's very active in giving the superintendent advice on the weather and when to make weather. >> I miss that. I miss that. We

018>> have him to blame. >> Uh and Cara Wescott has been a special education teacher in Simsbury. Almost all of those um 35 years were at Simsbury High School. She did do a few years with Sue in the middle school um and before coming back to the high school. Um Karen was scheduled to retire next year. Um so she had already been on the three-year list, but she did um decide uh 35 was enough. So we have her for the rest of this year and then she'll be enjoying retirement. And the motion is there for your consideration. Go ahead. >> Move that the board of education accept the retirements of John Madano effective October 30th, 2026 and Karen Wescott effective June 30th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I'll just add Yeah, thank you.

019That's 64 years of tenure walking out the door. That's uh just appreciate everything they've done for the students. Simsbury. >> Thank you. >> Uh all those in favor? >> Any opposed comments? Great. Thank you. And thank you again. >> Uh Brianna Downey has been a teacher up at Terapville School. Um eight years of service in that role. Um uh primary grades primar uh as most of those years. She was a distance learning teacher during COVID. Uh an interesting experience. Um and uh has been out on maternity leave and this is actually just a notice that she is resigning her position and is not going to be returning. Has chosen to stay home um and be a full-time home. >> I make a motion the board of education accept the resignation of Brianna Downey effective June

02030th, 2026. I'll second. >> Yeah. Any discussion? >> Will be missed. Great. >> Thank you. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Thank you. And then two other um new moms. um one at Terapville School, Carolyn Farra, um who is seeking a um guaranteed non-salary leave for the remainder of this year and all of 2627. Um and then Amy Neperski who is at Tuton Hills School in fourth grade. Her name dropped on the exhibit a little bit here, but uh sorry about that. uh and she is a new mom and seeking the remainder of this year and all of next year. If your maternity leave starts after the halfway point of a school year, you can request according to our policies the remainder of one year and all of the next. So,

021um and then there needs to be a there needs to be a 2-year period before you could do that again. So the no motion is there for your consideration. Um >> make a move that the board of education approved the leave of absence for Carolyn Farah Farah effective February 9th, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 and for Amy Neperski effective February 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 with guaranteeing positions upon their return. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Enjoy the kiddos. >> Uh, moving on. Uh, gift from the Kumatics Corporation. >> Yes, we have two gifts and a new scholarship for your consideration tonight. The first is another generous donation to our high school robotics team. Tonight it's from Kumatics Corporation in the amount of $2,000 to be

022used to purchase supplies and cover expenses of the robotics club. There's a motion there for your consideration. >> Move that the proposed gift to the SHs Robotics Club at Sensbury High School from the Kumatics Corporation totaling $2,000 be approved. >> Second. >> Super generous. Thank you so much. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Thank you very much. >> The second gift is in the amount of $5,000 from the David Crooff and Sydney Hoffman Charitable Fund. This gift is to be used for educational experiences for any students with financial needs and the donation is in honor of Sydney J. Hoffman who is a member of the Simsbury High School class of 1970. There was a motion there for your consideration. I can do that one. >> Move that the proposed gift

023of $5,000 from the David Crackoff and Sydney Hoffman Charitable Fund be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. That's a great >> great scholarship. Thank you very much. Very thoughtful. >> And the new scholarship this evening is for Joe Grace Memorial Scholarship. So, the board, as you know, approves all proposed scholarships available to Simsbury public school students. Uh, Joe was a dedicated coach and teacher for over 35 years. He coached football, track, golf, basketball. He was a health teacher, a math teacher, and most recently a substitute teacher. So he led the Trojans to multiple conference championships and was honored as coach of the year in 1994. But his former players, family members, friends say one of the greatest qualities of Joe is he always championed

024students and guided them when he saw potential on and off the field. So he carried each student in his heart, lifted them up, believed in them, and shaped them into men and women of great character. So in his spirit, there are certain criteria. A student athlete who intends to be a teacher or a coach and truly desires to make a difference in the lives of others. Um, a person who demonstrates a willingness to succeed despite personal challenges or circumstance. and a person who elicits kindness, compassion, empathy, and ambition. So, there will be four scholarships, two this coming year and two next year uh for students in the graduating classes of 2026 and 2027. The scholarships right now, they're noted to be about 14th for each scholarship. Uh they are still collecting funds, but it's just

025over $2,000 for each scholarship. And there's a motion there for your consideration. >> I'll be honored to put that one forward. Move that. Move that the board of education approve the Joe Grace Memorial Scholarship to be dispers dispersed in 2026 and 27. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I just think it's great. I mean, the awards night, having been through it a few times, is fantastic and it's fantastic. So, I I just want to add that um while I was never an athlete or a student under Coach Grace, I married one and I can tell you that my husband and every guy he played football with under coach Grace just loved that man and was inspired by him and my life has certainly benefited from the teachings that Joe gave to Martin because he is

026a wonderful man. So, thank you to everyone who donated. I owe you money to add to this scholarship and um I'm just so glad you were able to do this. >> This would be great. >> You would love it. >> Yeah. >> I don't know if all those in favor. >> Any opposed? Great. Thank you. >> Next, moving on to the cancellation of the 14th April 14th meeting. >> Yep. There's a motion on the table. That is the week of school vacation. And traditionally we have to cancel board meeting every >> I will move to cancel the board of education meeting scheduled on April 14, 2026. >> I've been so kned I am ready to say second. >> Any discussion? I'm afraid to open that one up. >> We don't need to know. >> All

027those in favor? >> I any >> will there be some sort of conflict on the seventh meeting on seventh? >> No. Oh, seventh >> elementary curriculum update. So, there's going to be two waves because we're going to be talking about two specific topics. The first is going to be our new K3 reading curriculum benchmark. So, for that first part, I am going to invite our director of elementary curriculum and assessment, Betsy Gonzalez, to the table. greeting coach LI uh language arts coach Cheryl Piard, also a former special education teacher, and second grade teacher, Kylie Lamb, grade two. And they are going to talk about this shift to the science of reading. We're going to explain that a little bit, do a little bit of a review, a little bit of a teachup, and then share

028how does this new curriculum live K3. There's also been a more recent shift in also in our math curriculum K5. That's think mathematics in kindergarten. It's called developing roots. We will have two additional guest speakers tonight, but I will hold on them and we'll do a transition in between topic areas. All right. So, just as a quick review, how did we get here? How did we get to a place where we have a new reading curriculum K3? And I want to remind the board that there was some significant legislation around the right to read act a couple of years ago. And through this legislation, every school district was required to share what their practices were regarding the science of reading. And Betsy and her team will talk a little bit about what that actually means.

029Each district was able to apply for a waiver to the state to say our practices are directly in line with the five pillars of the science of reading. It was a long arduous process. You'll remember those of you who are on the board. We brought in a big thick binder with a ton of evidence. >> Stays with you. >> Oh, poor Betsy is still having nightmares. Yeah. >> But the result of that waiver was that we were partially granted a waiver. They said in these components, you're knocking it out of the park. In the areas of comprehension and vocabulary, you need a little more something something in order to be aligned with what we believe to be the science of reading. Okay. So, we then had a second task to go and look at all

030of these approved programs from the state. This was really unprecedented for this kind of um required switch to very specific curriculum. It's the first in certainly my experience as an educator. And Betsy skillfully, as she always does, she thinks of systems. She thinks of what um and the the great skill and knowledge that our teachers already have. And then we looked at our choices and quite honestly we weren't so happy with some of our choices to we felt that it was going to be two peace meal. So at the end of the day this very representative committee chose a curriculum called benchmark. It wasn't where we thought we were going but we went there because of its comprehensive nature. So this team of educators is going to talk a little bit about benchmark. They're going

031to talk about how it progresses K3. And again, I want to stress this is kindergarten, first, second, and third grade only. And that's what this curriculum. Um, those are the the students who this curriculum is for. So, they're going to talk a little bit about it, what has stayed the same, and what's different. Uh, we've got a lot of pictures and great ways to show how kids are responding to this curriculum. So Betsy, I'm going to turn it over to you and then Cheryl and Kylie. >> Great. Thank you. It's great to be here tonight. We have some exciting things to share and thought the best way to uh bring this information to you was to make it come alive. So we'll dust off the cobwebs and give you a quick tea shop on what

032this means and what the expectations are. And then we'll hear from a teacher who was practicing this work in her classroom to make it come alive for you. So you can see the experience from a teacher's angle as well as the students. Okay. So, I'm going to take you back a bit in terms of teeing us up for the why. So, thank you, Sue, for setting that up. But I know that most of you have seen in the process, if you've been on the board before, you've seen the rope, if you've heard of the um Scarbor's rope, which was something that was established in 2001 by um Dr. Scarbor to help explain the complexity of reading, right? And that really what we're our goal is when we're teaching reading and the components of reading and

033literacy, we want to become a skilled reader. So the ropes represent all the pieces that need to be interwoven for kids to be able to read well and be able to comprehend. Okay. So going to what Sue was saying about what went well, right? What were we doing well? One of the a big part of what we were doing well because we had done some quite a bit of work in professional development. Thank you for supporting the professional development of teachers. Um is around our foundational skill work. So the word recognition strand which is the bottom part of the rope components of the three components of reading there is really around how do I take the knowledge that I have around letters and sounds apply them to letters and print put those together to understand

034that they make words and then be able to word read words and that's that psychic recognition getting into a bank so that you're reading automatically and fluently so that you are doing that well so that opens up your ability to then to comprehend right so then you have your top part of the rope which is talking about various levels of language comprehension and it's that in itself is complicated as well so when we had these presentations in this whole experience with the state and as Sue said there were some errors in our instruction not in terms of not being there in terms of depth so how are we going to get better at this and one of the things that Benchmark did for us was really give us that opportunity after a year-long pilot with

035a group of teachers as well as all of us language arts consultants with along with Betsy and Sue. Um this benchmark advance gave us that it is a comprehensive program. we were really looking at it through the lens of comprehension and how can we dig dig deeper with compre um with comp and vocab but it also gave us a little bit more and Kylie's going to take us into the classroom and explain that a little bit more in the life of a a student and in the life of a teacher but for this purpose that one image kind of shares the big picture of where we are and because we are still teaching all the components of the re of reading the image on the right is what are we doing so we're still teaching

036every component of re even though tonight we're focusing on that comprehension and thinking about comprehension and vocabulary and building background knowledge. Teachers are teaching all of the components of reading and most of the components of reading are now coming from benchmark advance. So that was one of the things that was what we talked about was the peacemail piece. We could have done it in various ways, but this really gave us a throughine thinking about teachers at the table, what they thought and how they felt about teaching it, too. Like, how could we do this do this well? Um, how could we coach it? >> How could we lead it? And how can how what are kids going to be able to get out of it? So, that's the history there. Now, here's okay, this could

037get this could get very complicated and I know I only have so many minutes and those of you have sat across the table from me in these presentations, I tend to talk a little bit. So, I'm going to stop. I'm going to scale it back because I want to tee it up for um Kylie. I'm not going to completely stop, but I wanted to give you so good, better, and different. I do I just wanted to have a little representation, something to look at in terms of one of the big things of a benchmark advance is it gives us the um we study topics across the year. Okay? So, not only are we studying the genre uh within literary standards, but we're studying genres withinformational standards. And this happens to be an example of our

038unit 5 technology unit, which we're just coming out of right now. And what these units do is if you look across the top of that cover sheet, kindergarten through grade three are studying technology in some way. All of them targeting an essential question and that is the grounding of the learning for the for the kindergart for those grade levels for this unit which is about three to four weeks. All right. So they all cycle through. If you look down, this is where we really are targeting the comprehension and the vocabulary. So these are standardsbased targets. If you look on that second um second box on those columns, these are all of the very explicit skills that teachers are teaching across the unit and we are checking in and assessing along the way. And then at

039the very bottom is your building knowledge word bank. So what do we know about building knowledge? We know that when we grow knowledge, we build our vocabulary. we get we get deeper in how we understand a topic and then we take that now a kindergartener is going to take that from K to one to two to three right so our teachers this year in the mastery that they what they do in the classroom um took this year one in grades one two and three without any previous so right the with what they have done in building knowledge with children for five units up to this point has been phenomenal Okay. So, we really have the opportunity to spiral skills across the year and get deeper and across the year and what we're asking kids to

040do. Okay. Does that make sense? Any questions? Okay. The second page of that document, just so you because you have it, is the second grade continuum. So, that really shows in the across the days of a week, across the three weeks of the unit, where are those skills being taught and when. And then Kylie is going to take us through one of the and she has some fantastic stories thinking vision of the graduate. Right. That was another thing about benchmark advance is we really could see the competency competencies come alive within the work that kids needed to do or are going to be doing and were asking them to do. Okay. >> So I'm Kylie Lamb. I teach second grade at 2N. Um you're going to see a lot of pictures because I think that's

041the best way for you to really visualize what's happening in the classroom. Um what you see in front of you right now are really the tools that students need to be able to do this work. Um we start off with students having a student booklet. So this is like an example of one of the books that my students currently have. And within there there are all of the texts that students need in order to be able to access the lessons. Um students start off with setting goals. So, if you look up, my students set goals about building knowledge and improving their reading. On there, there is a fiction and a non-fiction unit so that you can see what both of those kind of look like. Um, students are using pencils to annotate their text. They're

042highlighting vocab words. They're jotting in the margins. They're having conversations about text. Um, and the entire unit is building on each of those things. Um, and their knowledge is really just like skyrocketing. It's awesome to see. Um we also have a blueprint which you can see um which we have one for every unit and it is a way for them to kind of anchor their learning. There are vocabulary words that students are using across the unit. Um they're using them in conversations and writing and it is great because next year we'll see that these vocab words are also building upon as they go throughout the curriculum as well. Um, and the blueprint is a really great way again for them to anchor their learning. It looks different every unit depending on if we're in a

043fiction or a non-fiction unit, but for every text that they read, there is some sort of way to wrap it up so that they are getting some sort of like a global perspective from what they're reading. Um, which is a great connection point. >> And they love those booklets. >> These I'm >> They're great. They really are great. They really do love them. Um how many units are there? >> There are nine to 10 total but we are able to the year one we are teaching in K and one through K1 and two through unit 8. >> Okay. >> And they rotate. So we start with >> different packet each unit. >> Everything is different. Yeah. Every every unit is a new booklet. Um and we rotate from informational to literary. So we they go

044back and forth. So those skills like we just met today like we're looking we're starting unit another a literary unit. We're looking back to the the unit two um two units before to know where we're going next with the kids. >> I need it back. I'll pass that around you. >> Um so I thought it would be helpful to kind of take a look into like what one lesson might look like. So this was a lesson on inferencing and students are working together to again they're annotating the text. They're circling words. Um, the great thing about Benchmark is it's really explicit. So, it's giving them the step by step what they need to do in order to learn that skill. As Cheryl said, we're spiraling through skills. So, this isn't the first time that they're

045seeing this. They have done this a few different times and you can look at the map that she shared throughout that unit, but also they're doing this again in our next unit. So, it's not just a oneandone. and they're really able to kind of digest the skill and kind of keep going through it. Um, Benchmark also has a lot of really great resources. So, they had a little anchor chart within the teachers manual and I just took that and made it into a little card for my students so they can physically have that in front of them. I added some different sentence starters for them because we're really working on building our conversation and the sentence starters were recommended within the teachers manual as well. This is what my students needed. my teaching partner might

046have not needed something with sentence starters and that's okay. We're doing what our kids need. Um, and it's great because they can use this tool as they're going throughout each time we're doing this. Next unit it might look a little different or maybe we're using the same one. I've used this for two units now. Um, so this has been really great. Um, and because it has those specific steps, you can see like they're being asked to underline what the text says and take their knowledge to come up with some sort of an inference. Um there's a lot of teacher autonomy within this which is great as well. Again like I can do something different than my teaching partner in some capacity depending on what my students need in front of me. Um you'll also see

047that it's about a 20 minute lesson. So we still have a chunk of time where students are then going into their book bins and reading and transferring their skills within authentic text. Teachers are pulling small groups during that time. Students are working on all of the different strands of the rope as well. um to make sure that they have all of their reading skills that they need. >> Can I just ask one more second about the um the autonomy that >> Yeah. >> And are you hearing that from all the teachers? I mean, is that is that a comfortable place for the teachers to be? I think >> it was something that was really important to our teachers is they wanted clarity about what to teach and how to teach. And this is so explicit.

048It's explicit for kids and it's explicit for teachers. So, when we're unpacking these units with teachers every month, Cheryl just did it today with one of our teams. Um, >> tired. It was me. >> And they are they really appreciate that opportunity to think about, okay, so here's what my kids need to know be able to do. What do we know about the students in front of us and how do we need to adjust a little bit based on the kids that we're teaching? So there is that flexibility built in which is we're responsive to what kids need and that's the most important part >> and I think in year one terra like when you think about that autonomy there is a lot of learning right teachers are learning at a high rate to start

049this work so I think now unit five went four three like as we got in in a couple units under their belts they felt like okay right I now I could lean on benchmark now I can bring me back to the Right. Back to the picture. I can be a teacher and I know how to teach and this is what I'm going to do because I know it's what kids need. >> That's great to hear. >> Thank you for Yeah. >> Sorry to interrupt. >> No, you're good. >> What grade is that book that you gave us for? >> What grade? >> Great. >> Second. Yeah. >> They really appreciate looking at something on paper. >> Yeah. No, it is great. They love it, too. >> Helps with the comprehension. >> Does I'm sorry. Does

050this come with a whole package like for differentiated instruction for students who are not on level? Are there alternate materials that you would use? >> So we do what's based on what students need, right? So it depends on the kids that you have in front of you. You might be differentiating your whole lesson for students, but there are also opportunities for other sorts of text. There's steps to advance, which is the special ed version of that. Um, and they do have differentiated text within that. Go ahead. I was sorry. >> There's a lot of what benchmark another thing that they do really well is there's a a ton of resources. So that's one of the thing when it came to professional development with teachers is how do we do this slowly when so when teachers

051are ready right um we brought special education teachers were at the table our interventionists were at the table our English language tutors are at the table there are access they have access to um materials that are >> part of this program >> as part of this program in order to be able to differentiate to retach to page to um access points for the text if it it's not there yet. But yes, it's all part of the program. Sorry, did you want to? >> Um so here you're going to see a little bit about students really building that knowledge. Um as you see when you look through that magazine, they are building they are reading multiple texts on the same topic. Um and they are revisiting those key skills throughout. There is a really strong emphasis

052on student conversation which has been absolutely like marvelous to witness. they are really having really great conversations um talking about the text and they are writing about it as well. So they're able to annotate directly on the text which they think is the coolest thing. Um they're also using graphic organizers to support their thinking. Um, and we really wanted as teachers an engaging curriculum and this is a curriculum that allows students to talk to each other and to look at the same text and to share and that has something that has been really great. Um, their knowledge has really skyrocketed. I'm share a quick story. The other day I had a meeting and I left for a sub and I left a read aloud and the readaloud was a book called CC Loves Science. It's

053a picture book. And I walked back into the room to the sub holding up the book and reading it to the class which is on a little girl who loves science and wants to be a scientist. And I walk in and everybody's looking at a student who has the student magazine in front of him reading something from the text to support his thought on something he was talking about in the picture book that the sub was reading. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is exactly what we want to see." knowledge building at its finest. >> Yeah. I mean, their knowledge was there. He was able to take something from that into a conversation about a picture book. So, they really are excited about it. Their knowledge has really been built and it's been

054awesome to see. >> There's a lot of I mean, I just because this is second grade, I'm just going to share a kindergarten story because we live in the land of bears, right? And our very first unit was building knowledge um in in animals and for in kindergarten. And it was our first text was all about mama bear and how she was taking care of her baby bears. And the kindergarten teacher, the amount of emails and pictures that she was receiving because they were engaging in conversation at home with their parents about what they were doing in school and what they were seeing in their yard was priceless. Right. >> So there's a lot of that happening really connections to the real world which is amazing. >> Yeah. This is rolled out across all schools

055now, right? We're not no longer piloting. We're >> pilot. >> Nope. Full in. >> Yeah. Full implementation. >> Kids can write directly in these books. So, we're just getting new versions every year. >> It's like the old days when we were >> I know, but there was like a math remember there was like some controversy back then that kids couldn't write in the books directly. It was years ago. >> We let our student these are consumables. It's part of the process. That's part of >> we're not making copies though. You know what I mean? Like so it's it's a >> there's something to be said about materials making the connection fine motor writing in the books right there material access that is really enjoyable and ownership the kids have an ownership to it. The task

056of annotating a text is pretty high level. And I remember walking into Kylie's class at the very beginning of the year and it was a lot of modeling, a lot of patience, a lot of practice. It was okay if you got a couple of words down and then went in recently and to see where her students are now. And this is work that we started in first grade. So to see what we're asking kids to do at a pretty high level, we chose this program because it was also rigorous and it was rigorous enough where it met the needs for all of our learners and there are lots of entry points for all students. So it builds background knowledge. So it doesn't matter if you have a family who talks a lot about technology and

057you know a lot because of your your experience. It doesn't matter. All kids are learning and growing together. So from an equity standpoint to an access standpoint um to a high level skill development, this program has done a really nice job and our teachers have done an amazing job um giving their time and effort to really internalize what it means to make it come alive for their students. >> Yeah. Um so each unit we have something that's called a culminating task which is a way for students to kind of wrap up their learning. Um it's something that's built upon each week. So, they might be answering one or two questions, which is in the magazine as well, but one or two questions um to kind of wrap up their learning in some sort of a

058way. It this is another really high piece of engagement for students. Um and it's really just celebrating the skills that they've learned. Um the student Emma is a real one of my students who came up with that wall for our bulletin board. If you stop by to you'll see it, but she fully came up with that. Um so in this particular unit we worked on some fiction skills and one of the particular skills was lessons that you learn in stories. Um so students really take the lesson from the story and work on applying it. They are applying it to a real world scenario. So they might be talking about friendship or not boasting but the picture of them is like something not boasting at recess and boast was one of our vocab words and not

059boasting at recess is something we are working on. No, they are using all of these sorts of skills to kind of wrap up their learning and it really ties a lot into our vision of a graduate. I mean, they're using critical thinking skills, communication skills, self-directed learners, um, global awareness, all of those things in order to do these skills and they really enjoy them. Um, and it's different for every unit. So, every unit they're not making a sign, they might be doing different things. This unit we're working on designing a robot. Um, so yeah, it's pretty engaging. They enjoy it. Um, and then there's also a lot of hometoschool connection with this curriculum, which has been great. There's lots and lots of different resources that we can provide for home support in any capacity. So,

060one thing that's happening is at the beginning of every unit, uh, families are getting a letter with a little bit of information about the unit. Um, the magazine also goes home at the end of the unit, which has the take-home activity calendar for students to continue practicing some of those skills in some other engaging ways. um which has been awesome to see. Um and as I said, Benchmark has lots of different tools that you can share. So some of the skills we were working on in the beginning of second grade were pretty basic skills of who is the character, what is the setting, that sort of stuff. And now we've gotten to the point where we're working on a lot of inferencing skills. So, I was able to take some of the recommendations from Benchmark

061and make a letter for parents to go home that I sent at conferences so that when they're reading at home, they can have some of those conversations around inferring. Um, they also have a lots of different other resources. So, I took some of their work to help with fluency and made little fluency folders for some students to go home. These are this did not take me a lot of time. I mean, these are bench this is benchmark material here of different words that students can read. these passages in here. Again, another benchmark material that students can read. So, I'm able to kind of combine some stuff that we've already had because we were already doing good teaching. This is something I already had, and combine it with benchmark to be able to provide resources to

062send home as well, which has been great. >> How much of a unit is done in class versus home? Like 95% done in class and like a little bit of stuff at home or >> I mean, we're doing all of the teaching at school. These are just like supportive extra things. >> At the end of each unit, is there like a take-home like thing or like a >> Yeah, there's a take-home activity calendar which is actually on the back of So, it comes home on the back of this and it's optional, but it goes home with students so that they can do some of those activities. Yeah. >> And yes, Jess, this is year one of implementation. Um, so we have been busy and hard at work since last spring where we had our first

063professional development session with teachers just to engage them to get them to understand the framework of the program and the goals of the program. That work continued. We had reps from the company come out in August um and provided training for our teachers before the year started and then every month at least once a month our coaches are meeting with grade level teachers and we've created some documents that are very helpful so that all teachers are learning a similar approach to the planning and thinking and understanding about the unit. So there's consistency within a grade in a building and across the grades within the school. So, we have a lot of consistency. That was really important to us to ensure that we were implementing this program with fidelity. Um, our coaches have intentional schedules that

064they send out each week to their teachers letting them know where they're going to be and what they're working on. So, we call it opening rooms of the house. So, as you're moving into a new house and you've got to work on rooms one at a time, we started with comprehension. So every teacher at every grade level had the support of a coach in the classroom modeling uh lessons, co-eing, doing some work together to help teachers feel comfortable. Um and then we moved on to phonics and worked on that. We worked on small groupoup instruction. We worked on what's in the toolkit and what teachers have access to to explore the online platform. Um and then certainly what teachers need. Each month after we teach a unit, our coaches sit with teachers and review assessment

065data. Um, we look at a body of evidence to see how students are responding and what they need so that we can differentiate and pull the right materials that teachers need to put in front of their students. And we've partnered with our principles to help them build knowledge and capacity around this so that this teaching it looks different and their look fors are a little bit different when they're going into classroom. So, we want to make sure that they are wellversed in what they should be noticing and seeing to support their teachers. And what's up next is a survey. We want to survey our teachers to find out how it's going, what their experience has been. We've gotten over the hump of that change in the new I think we're we're definitely coming out on

066the other side of any implementation. and the the feedback has been pretty positive. But we want to know how teachers are their thoughts around opportunities to integrate reading with some of our science and social studies units. We want look at the number of assessments because there's a lot of assessment opportunities in this program and we implemented this with fidelity this year. We want to see what's working, what are teachers really using to inform instruction so we can make some informed changes for next year. So, we're excited to gather that information and we'll bring our teacher teams together to review that information and make some real-time adjustments for their curricular calendars and assessment plans for next year. >> When's that going on? >> It'll go at the beginning of April. >> And and this is all

067amazing and I think this is great and K through three is great. >> So, what happens to four, four, five, and six? So, our students are responding quite well to our curriculum in grades four, five, and six. Um, we have to think about this curriculum as uh learning to read and then reading to learn. So, we kind of flip that when we get into grades four, five, and six because we're doing a lot of foundational work around phonics, vocabulary, um that language comprehension work, which is all part of that K3 program, which is what that core expectation is of the Right to Read Act. In grades four, five, and six, our students have opportunities to read lots of different texts of we want to make sure that we build in some choice. We want to

068make sure that they have opportunities to read in clubs, and we have opportunities to integrate across content areas. So, we put we've put together well, our core curriculum continues to have all of those elements um and those pieces to support those readers and the older grades. And so the the stuff the big binder and everything was all just from K through nothing, five and six. >> The state legislation was around K through. The reason for that there's significant research that students if they are able to really hone certain skills in those five areas that we talked about by grade three then the likelihood of them continuing success in literacy is astronomically larger. >> It would be >> it's proven by research. So that is why the focus specifically like you've got to get it done

069by grade three >> otherwise you see impacts potentially negatively that continue to evolve >> as a parent who has seen this not work out as well and so I love this program. It'd be curious. I'd be curious as a board of ed member like if we see an uptick at all in learning disabilities around reading and phonics and comprehension or if we are somehow saying the same. >> We're keeping a very close eye on that catching things because you're asking. >> We're closing the gaps. >> Quick question. The special ed materials that you talked about for differentiation, are those part of the core program? is that's >> they're part of our supplemental resources that our interventionists have access to to utilize for students if the goals and objectives align appropriately. >> That's a separate buy.

070>> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's a separate purchase. Yeah. >> Yeah. But still through benchmark. >> Yes. So, I mean this sounds incredible and I can't wait to see the survey results and I'm curious to see what tweaks you guys think need to be made after implementation. Has any of this process and and the knowledge you guys have gained and experience um made some giving you guys some food for thought for four through six and how you might want to change the current curriculum we have for four through six as a result of this because this is a really different style of reading and learning than with the four through six. And as these kids grow and they get to four through six, what do we need to change, if anything, as a result

071of what you learned here? >> Go ahead. And I'll follow up. I I just because of our when we move into grade three and how we start to transition kids from the beginning of grade three coming out of grade two through grade three and the skill work that they're doing. They're really coming away from the bottom part of the rope >> and continuing to build those five areas of comprehension and language comprehension as they continue to be a skil like most to your point the data right by the end of third grade we have that skilled reader at the end of the rope. So we are really our priority at that point is continuing to think about the comprehension work that's necessary and that that um foundational bottom part of the rope isn't necessarily part

072of your core curriculum at that point. Does that make sense? >> It does. I'm just wondering if anything that you've learned here has sort of made you think, oh well maybe we should do things a little bit differently 456 and does Benchmark have a 456 program that you would want to implement? >> They do have an intermediate program. Um, but they one of the things that it's gotten us to think about is that opportunity to integrate even more to think about those topics because our we have a rich social studies and science curriculum and how do we connect that through more content and more vocabulary development utilizing our approach to teaching reading in those upper grades. So, there's some work that we're going to we'll be kicking off this summer to start to explore what

073that can look like and really start designing those integrated opportunities for some of our uh reading and writing and science units with writing as well. You mentioned the data and maybe super when would we expect to see I don't know if it's standardized test or metrics or when would you expect to see it all sounds promising and rigorous and I like the hands-on element but when would we expect to be able to say okay year one of implementation a little soon year two when would you expect to see results of like how this is stacking us up from those more visible standards >> probably starting in year three quite honestly you might have a a bit of an implementation dip that's not uncharacteristic. That's what I would be looking for, but markers along the way

074that we had been using or even new markers that are saying that we're closing the gaps. Right. >> Thank you. Um sort of sorry sort of to what you mentioned before about the uh autonomy of teachers that this uh or the autonomy of teachers in the classroom that this uh program allows. Um, and I'm just wondering what to what extent um you think that this program allows teachers to individualize the education for certain students who might struggle specifically with certain areas. Um, and then you also sort of mentioned the um differentiated materials as sort of like a separate package. Do the teachers have access to those um to possibly um apply to uh specific students who might have specific needs? >> Great questions. Do you want to answer the question about autonomy? Yeah, I mean

075I think that there's a lot of autonomy. We're all following the same like structural framework. We all have the same teachers manual. We all have the same lessons that are within the manual, but the way that you might meet the needs of one group of students versus another might be different. I have a very different class makeup than my teaching partners next door. And so the types of supports that I might put into place for my students might look a little different than theirs. the teachers manual has in it. Um, it literally says like if students are showing success with this, here are some conversation points. If students are struggling with this, here are some conversation points. So, it has both of those sorts of pieces in there. It has um sentence starters, different sort

076of structures within the manual of different things that you can pick depending on what your students need. Um, so you're teaching the same learning target. The way that you're getting there is the same. you're teaching the same sort of step-by-step skills, but the sort types of supports that you might put in place might be different. >> Interesting. >> Um, and then also just really quickly, uh, you sort of, uh, talked about like the folders that you like might send home to parents. Is that just like a general thing that you have set up, uh, like any like one specific one folder of like things that you send home to any parent or is that individualized to the students to help uh, parents? uh like if you observe a student struggling in a specific area, would

077you put together a specific um materials for parents to help uh supplement that at home? >> Yeah, I think it personally it depends on students home life and what they need, right? Like if they're having a harder time at home, I'm not going to send home, right? But I had students that needed to work on fluency and they have very supportive parents that are have a lot of buy in. And so this was something that was all review stuff that we've already learned for them to build their reading fluency. Um, and there's information for parents like I can pass this around too, but information for parents here on like how they can use this folder as a tool to help them. I did not send this for everybody because not all of my students needed

078to work on that. It really depended on what students needed. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Um, you mentioned a strong science and social studies curriculum. I've heard a lot about the reading curriculum. Has this caused you to go back and re-evaluate the writing curriculum? Is this how how much is this integrated with the writing curriculum or is that just sort of on a separate track different? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. This program does have a writing component to it and um that is not something we're using right now for a few reasons. Um we have need time to study it and to really look at what are the skills that are being taught and how does the approach to the instruction align with our district approach to writing and our our beliefs about

079writing instruction. So there's a piece that we're exploring through a subcommittee that's meeting right now um as we're studying writing K12. Um and so the what we've seen with the writing component in benchmark is it's around structure and it's around helping students write sentences with strong sentence structure so that they're applying their grammar, they're working on their spelling. We have some teachers who are trying it because they have found an opportunity to fit it in to their day. Um, and so we have that's one of the things we're going to talk about and something we're asking in our survey about um teachers thoughts around um those lessons if they've tried them, how they've worked. Um, and then we'll have a grade level conversation with our big bigger district uh committee that's meeting who's studying this

080topic. >> Two questions. I I and just to add on just one anecdotally the the high school I feel does an incredible I would not be able to survive Simsbury High School. I think that it is their English and science and social studies. It's almost like everything is tied so much to writing that that writing piece. They're writing essays in science. they're writing essays in everywhere now versus when I think when I at least was in school. And so h being able to implement something like that down to a four, five, six or down to at least seven and eight like I think is critical and to you. We are our vertical team and I can give an update in our curriculum committee but we are looking at what is our scope and sequence of

081writing K12 and we're specifically looking at grades 2 4 6 8 10 and this work around benchmark and benchmark writing it's like a subcomponent of this larger conversation that we're having. I think it's great really timing. >> Just one quick question on the workbooks. Do you take them back and grade them or mark them up for the kids to learn from what they've done? >> Is that how that process works? >> I mean, we have different ways of looking at what their evidence of their learning is. So, as a classroom teacher, like I'm looking at this as a way to understand what they've learned. I'm not I'm personally not writing in this because it's theirs and it's something that they have a lot of ownership of. Um, so that's not something that I'm doing at

082this point in time. I don't know if that's some where that we're planning on going. >> At the end of every unit, there's an assessment and the assessment assesses students ability to independently apply the skills that they've taught they've learned within the unit. So that becomes more of the formative data that the teachers are looking at to evaluate students application and level of independence with applying the skill. >> No problem. As you You talk about how this is rigorous, right? I kind of asked about the test results, right? And I'm all for pushing for more, better, higher standards. When you're putting something, maybe this is your Betsy just overall, right? When you're putting something in, you know, going in, this is probably going to be more rigorous, a little more hands-on, but the goal is

083to overall have better scores throughout. You're probably, is it safe to assume when you do that, you may create a gap somewhere, right? Not everyone will keep up at the same pace if it's more rigorous. So when you put stuff like this in place and we're doing those markers and those checkpoints, how do we know that while like the engine may be up ahead that like the caboose if you will is still supported? I'm just curious like again not just this but just overall. >> Thanks for asking great questions. Um so this isn't the only piece that our K3 teachers are working on. So this comprehension when we talked about it being so explicit and systematic in a way that in our primary grades we've never been so explicit and systematic in teaching these highle

084skills. So to infer to teach a seven-year-old how to make an inference when they read is pretty sophisticated. >> Absolutely. >> So we don't need them necessarily to be doing that reading on their own yet in grade level text to be applying that skill. So while they're reading and having they listen to text. So some kids listen to it and demonstrate their understanding of their comprehension through listening. And then we also are pulling students in small groups and they are reading books that are appropriate for the skills that they need to work on. So for some students they're phonics skills, for some students they're higher level comprehension skills. So that's where the differentiation comes in. There's another part of the day. So, this is actually only 30 minutes. And so, there's another part of the

085day where Kylie's pulling small groups of students to give them another lesson around the skills that they're working on, where they are at the time, and she knows where she they need to be by the end of the year. So, she's constantly kind of doing that dance to to figure out what it is that she needs to leverage to get them to that next level of independence. >> That's very helpful. So you said 30 minutes. So they're getting through that whole booklet in the equivalent of like 7 and 1/2 hours, right? If every unit's 15 days, 30 minutes a day, that's a lot to cover in like 7 hours. >> Your cop instruction like how you >> Yeah. I mean, yeah, a lesson is about I mean, some are 20 minutes, some some are shorter

086than others. I mean, if you look at the grid on there, there's uh language lessons which might be 15 minutes. Um, yeah. I mean, we're we're cruising through this. We're >> and we're on and it's impressive. >> You kind of have to transparently like you don't want to be on the same text for 5 days. >> Yeah. >> That's not Then the engagement piece is lost, right? So you you're they're revisiting the same text multiple times throughout maybe the same day, maybe across two days, maybe across three days max. But once you hit that point, you're moving on because you want to keep that engagement. >> And this visual may help you just to see the parts of a day. So when we build schedules with principles for instructional minutes and how time is used,

087all teachers have these blocks of time in their schedules each day where they're delivering different material to get at these skills. >> And just one little add-on too is that one of the things I think that was a struggle for teachers when we started, we knew that this was going to spiral across the year with the end goal of meeting grade level standards, right? So even though we might be teaching certain skills within three weeks, that was a shift for teachers knowing that we might not get mastery, that's not the goal. The goal is the end of the year. So we are exposing and reexposing in those three weeks are giving that that first experience for certain skills and then they're seeing it again. >> And it's it's a mix of fiction and non-fiction >>

088alternates every other unit. >> Great. Kylie, thank you so much. Did you get all of your materials back? >> I did. Don't worry. >> I don't want anyone to be disappointed. >> All right. Thank you so much for that. >> The second uh significant curriculum shift has been to math. Now, we are in our second full year of implementation in our newer math curriculum. It's called Think Math. However, with one caveat, in kindergarten, which we're going to talk about in just a moment, it's called developing roots. So, if you hear developing roots, think math. They're aligned curricula, but they call hey a little bit big. Okay. So, we wanted to provide a year 2 update. And here from Vladimir Lane, we have Aaron Sullivan, math coach and fourth grade teacher. She's seen many different grade

089levels. Yes. And rolls where I'm staying. >> Um so just a little bit about our two programs um at the elementary level related to math. Um a few years ago the state had added some legislation that we had to have some components of play-based learning in our primary grades. And so developing roots in kindergarten is the perfect program to get at what those goals are and those expectations of play-based learning. And Erin's going to talk a little bit about that. Um, but it's really where our kids are learning foundational math skills and they don't even know it. So I love when kindergarten teachers tell stories about the fact that like, I don't even think my kids realize they're doing math right now. So um, and they'll say that, too. So it's it's great to hear.

090So through a lot of fun and a lot of play and a lot of conversation and collaboration, kids are doing some amazing things starting in kindergarten. And then think mathematics um is a Singapore approach to teaching mathematics. It's something our teachers are very used to. Um our former program um followed that same pedigogy and so it's very familiar to our teachers. It's called math and focus. Um but it certainly allows our students to extend that learning through problem solving. Um, it's really rich in in problem solving and language development. Gives kids opportunities to use visual models. I was in a second grade classroom today and to see how fluid kids are with representing problems in different ways and with different representations. It's pretty amazing. So, I'm going to kick it off to Erin and take

091us through what's been happening. >> I'm actually very excited to talk about it because when you go into math class, it's so engaging and so fun and it just feels so good. And that starts in kindergarten. So, as you have heard, kindergarten is a play-based program. And what that means is the students are learning through playing, but in a very structured way is that they're exploring, practicing, and reflecting so that they are consolidating skills and then acquiring all the skills that they need to be successful going forward. And so, I just wanted to paint a picture for you what it looks like in kindergarten in bits and pieces throughout the year. Um, one of the things that they start with at the beginning of the year is something like this where on um the kids

092have to discuss whether they like a cat or dog better. And it seems very simplistic, but it's actually developing listening skills. So, the kids are they they turn to the person next to them. They have to ask the person, "Do you like cats or dogs?" Then they have to listen to the response. They have to ask follow-up questions. And they have to politely agree or disagree. So within the first weeks of school, the students are already learning how to communicate and collaborate. Um, and along those same lines, they are learning how to take turns, learning how to get their materials out responsibly, and it's very structured that way. And then they jump into the games. And the games in the beginning of the year are really building understanding of place value. So they're familiar games.

093There are things like bingo and gold go fish and matching games, but they are all um have representations different representations of numbers and place values. So when students see a teen number, they actually understand that that's made up of 10 and some more. Um and then uh as we move in through the year, they get into measurement. They're using paper clips and tiles to measure so that when they get a using a ruler in second grade, they understand that one on a ruler actually means something. It's a measurement of a sort. Um, and they're using the vocabulary all along the way. Um, which is really quite spectacular to see. Right now, what they're in is story problems, and it might be one of the most adorable things that you'll see, but also the most impressive.

094Um, we have kids at Latimer dressing up as ladybugs and they get, you know, a pile of cards like this and they are in a group and there's sort of a director of the play, if you will. And the director will say, "Okay, you are the five ladybugs." I'll show you this one. You are the five ladybugs and you two will be the ones that fly away. And, you know, the kids really want to be the fly away one. So, they act it out and they end with a question. How many ladybugs are still on the leaf? and then they write the mathematical equations to go with these story problems. So it's really building that understanding of what is a story problem. Um and then when they are working on um after they play and

095they practice, they have this beginnings of a journal which is such a big proponent of our one to five um program but they start in kindergarten and this is a story of problem about three officer police officers and two had to leave because there was an emergency and so there was one left. Um so and they were you know given the they had to create a story that would reflect 3 minus 2. Um so quite impressive you know for our little kindergarteners and they end the year and right now they'll be in fact fluency and starting to build that that those math fluencies that are so important. But they end the year in geometry and the teachers learn that um if a child who's five can know what a Tyrannosaurus Rex is then they can

096know what a rectangular prism is. So you'll see the kids sorting them and they will actually be using words like this rectangular prism has eight vertices and eight faces. So they're using that terminology as early as as kindergarten. Um which is fantastic. So the students are learning to become learners, but they're also learning all these skills that they need to be successful as they continue on in school. Um and I just wanted to talk a bit about our assessment and data review in kindergarten. So uh we have universal screens that we give three times a year. uh those are usually done by math coaches and tutors to check in but the teachers now have been checking in more frequently and we discuss at uh our PLC's where our students where do we need to go

097what is our small group work that needs to happen um so that we are having the kids move on to where they need to be. Um what is great about this year is the teachers now have been through it a year and they the teacher manual is pretty dense with a lot of information and activities that teachers can prioritize um and they've done that they know what works and um they've been through it so they can actually spend more time on what the children are doing and how they're learning. So they each time the children are engaged in their play, the teacher is doing learning interviews. They're using checklists. They have notation and they're listening in as the children play these games. They're asking questions. They're looking for misconceptions so that can guide them too

098into the small group work that they need to do. Um and lastly, our K1 transition, we noticed that um the feedback we got from first grade teachers was that the initial assessments were very challenging for the incoming first grade teachers. And it wasn't so much about students. It wasn't so much about the rigor as much as these students hadn't taken any sort of pencil to paper assessment. So something as simple as you know flip the paper, you have one kid flipping it like this, another kid flipping it like this, you know. So they just needed these simple basic test taking skills so that when they are taking their first assessment in September, um they have some experience with it. And you can see up there just sort of how very basic they are, but they're

099learning like circle the picture that shows a leaving problem which is what we call a subtraction problem. um so that they have some test taking skills that are very age appropriate for for them. >> Our first grade teachers were very excited to see this and our kindergarten teachers felt great about it. So they actually create the kindergarten teachers created these um assessments that we'll be giving a little bit later in the year. Um and the first grade teachers were grateful that um the team had come together and thought about something that was developmentally appropriate that would set students up for success. And so now we're into think math. Um as you I hopefully you saw that with uh developing roots we have some precursors set in place. The kids are already communicating. They're collaborating. Um

100they're writing in journals and that makes the transition a little bit easier. Um, but as we think about our lesson structure, what's great about year two is that regardless of what school you're in, if you're in fifth grade at Squadron Line, first grade at Latimer, you're going to see the same lesson structure. And as you go into year two, the kids having had it before, they jump right in to it. Um there has been a tremendous amount of coaching support, professional development, principal walkthroughs and also the online uh resource that we provide for the teachers is amazing. There's I >> two thumbs up >> lesson thumbs up. >> Yes. Um Sarah Schaeer, who is the founder of the program, actually films herself doing lessons. So if teachers are sort of unsure of how this lesson

101is meant to look, they can watch that. There's PD lessons for teachers. if they're unsure about a strategy or concept. So, that resource has been fantastic. So, uh as we are moving into year two and the teachers are so um wellversed in the structures, we can start to dig a little bit deeper just like with the kindergarters into how the kids are learning and what strategies are using and how they're thinking and communicating. So as K through three has sort of focused on reading for their professional development, we math coaches focused on grades four to six. Um to make even each element of the lesson structure just a little bit stronger. And what we focused on are two parts. One is the anchor task and structured discussion and the other is journaling. So Deb is

102going to talk to you a little bit about how the anchor task and structured discussion and journaling live in the classroom. and Deb is a fourth grade teacher. >> Best grade ever. Um, so just to piggyback on what Erin was saying, this being the second year of implementing this program was amazing. The the, you know, last year we spent so much time teaching into that structure and this year we were expecting to do that and then we didn't have to, which was awesome. So we got the program up and running a lot faster than last year, which was great. We didn't have to do so much teaching into how to be a math student. They already knew that. Um, so we start every single lesson every day with something called an anchor task. And the

103anchor task is a problem solving opportunity. The kids work in groups of two or three. They use these props. They use vertical ones. These are the ones I believe you bought for us. Thank you very much. They're awesome. They have a graph on the other side and they're very they're awesome. Um, trying very hard carrying this around not to erase the good work. Um so we start with the anchor task. The kids have this problem. They are working in their small groups. The vertical boards are all around the room and they are talking, collaborating, problem solving, figuring out the problems are often maybe something they don't quite know how to do yet, but they can build upon something they do know to try to figure it out. And so I go around, the teacher goes

104around while that's happening. I have a clipboard. I'm taking notes. I'm peeking in. I'm listening to what they're saying and what they're doing. I'm watching what they're doing and if they're really stuck, I might leave a little like tidbit of well, what did we do yesterday? And then I walk away because it's really not a teacher centered time. It's a student centered time and they are trying to figure this out without a teacher intervention. I am looking for mentor examples. I'm looking for misconceptions. I'm looking to see which kiddos are glazed over and not quite getting it. Um, I'm also looking for engagement. So, we have one marker. Each group gets one marker and so they're to share the marker. And so, if it's my idea, I should not be writing. I'm explaining my idea

105to Erin and she is writing it. She's recording it. So, I'm making sure they're following that. They're pretty good at this point in the year. Um, and anyway, I go around, I'm jotting everything down. And then at the end of that, we come and we meet on the rug for a structured discussion. I will invite, you know, board, my boards are all numbered. I'll board three and four like as I'm going around like, you know, bring your board up when you come when we come up together and I just kind of give them a little tap like and so they bring their boards up and then the kids kind of uh for the most part lead the discussion. Obviously, I'm massaging it. Um, but they're leading the discussion. They're explaining how they what they did

106and why they did it. And my favorite thing to do is to pick someone who did it wrong. and and the kids are fine with that, which is great because we've set up that community and that understanding. And we I'll have a few go who got it right. You know, we had a strategy that worked and then I'll have a kiddo, a group that just had a little miss there. And what I love is when they go to share, they're usually like, "Oh, wait a minute." And they figure it out and it's so awesome. That's my favorite thing to do. And they're so good at it. And it I don't I don't It's just so exciting. I was saying that to Erin when we were talking like you guys come any day and you come

107spend a day math with us because it's fun and um it's really cool to watch them and the questions they're asking and the encouragement that they're you know have for each other. It's just it's awesome. So anyway, back to the structure discussion. I am capturing the strategies we were figuring out and I did not bring one, but I often create an anchor chart like on the chart paper or on the whiteboard. Um, and the kids will use that later on when they're doing their independent practice and then they will use it later on when we're journaling. Um, which will lead me into journaling. So, we in at our school I know four through six districtwide we have made a commitment with through professional development through our coaches to um really strengthen our journaling. Um, my

108team happens to be our PGP. So, we are really strengthening this year. Um, and what the journal is is it's similar to the I didn't bring an actual journal. I should have. Um, it's just a blank book and the kiddos are um I give them uh problems to solve or explain. There's all sorts of journals. I won't bore you with all of that, but it's a great opportunity for me to see formative assessment on the fly. Who has it? Who almost has it? Who's still a little far off? And when they do these journals, I do have some of the samples. I'll explain that in a minute. Um, it's great because then I can the next day grab those. You got it. Great. You might end up in my math journal hall of fame. And

109if you don't quite have it, I can quick grab you for five minutes when you walk in in the morning. And they're usually like, "Oh, yeah. I forgot." Or whatever. And we quickly move on. And then I know that that group of kiddos who are still a little bit off, I can meet with them. And I am the luckiest person in the planet because this lady comes to my room every day for math. So we have two teachers um helping the kids who are not quite getting it. Um it's a drills are a really great way to differentiate as well. You know, we talk about here's your problem. You I want you to talk about or explain or show your thinking or come up with two or three strategies. But if I have a kiddo

110who is kind of in that not quite there yet, I can give them easier numbers. If I have a kiddo who finishes in 10 seconds every time, I'm like, "Oh, I'll show you. I'll give you harder numbers." Right? So, it's it's an easy way to differentiate because it's a blank piece of paper. It's not a worksheet. It's not a workbook. It's not their practice pages. It's literally I can adjust on the go. Um, what else was I going to tell you about? So, um, the journal, the math journal hall of fame, which I can't take credit for this because I'm pretty sure a teacher at Terapil started it. Um, but what we do is I look for those really stellar examples and they have all sorts of it has to be neat, which is something

111we're working on still. Um, it has to follow the the format and your thinking has to be super super clear so that if someone were sick, I would say if someone were absent and they didn't know what to do, they could open up and you could teach them with this. So, I just have I actually didn't bring it either. Oh, maybe I do have it. I do. They also get a little certificate to take home >> that they got on the Math Eternal Hall of Fame. So, this stays out and it's also great because kids who are confused or missed it, they were absent, they can use it as a mentor text. So, it's I don't know, it's fun. The kids love it and they love to be in the math journal hall of fame.

112And the great part is what when they're doing their journals, they really hold my feet to the fire like, "Did you look at those yet? Did you look at those yet?" And the point is to look at them within 24 hours, right? You want to it needs to be quick and immediate feedback. Um I actually will be going in early tomorrow because there's a stack of them on my table. Um and they they are very excited for how did I do and they I had these little stamps that I won't bore you with, but they looked what stamp did I get? And um it's just very engaging. The whole program is I can't say enough about it. I love math in case you can't tell. >> You talk about the communication with families. Do you

113want to talk about assessment? We're just going to go to the last part. So, a really great component of this program, and I I know they explained it to you last year, but maybe you don't recall, is there's something called a home link, and it's a little newsletter. There's a little tiny sample up there. Um, we signed it home before every unit. And what's great about it is it communicates with the parents at home like how we're doing math because I'm sure sure some of you have had this and we we get this all the time where the parents like, I don't understand this math you're doing. This is we always do it this way. So this home link is one opportunity for us to show the parents kind of how we're explaining the math

114to the kiddos and the strategies we're using. It also has at the bottom a little uh you know like things you can do at home kind of um little section. The other way we communicate with parents is we have an assessment at the end of each unit and there's a cover sheet that we have taken from methodology and adapted to simspray simsprayed it. I don't know what we call it. Um, and it's awesome because it breaks it down by the skills the kiddos should have known and learned and the level of there's like four levels of questions. They get from kind of easy to more challenging and then it we give them a grade. So, our grades that we use EM B or A and B and it's a great tool. We send it home,

115parents review it. I have my parents sign it just send it back so that I can keep it on file. But it's a great way so they can see. And I've had parents actually write um because I do have my kids do some corrections at school. Not all of them because that would take forever, but I've had parents actually write on it. They still don't understand number five. Can you help them with that? Which is great. I'm like, "Yes, I can." Right? So, it's a nice communication tool back and forth. And >> it also ties in nicely to the report card. So, we have the report card domains on there. So when the parents see because those domains are very broad, they can see how this assessment relates to their final grade. >> Yeah, that's

116exactly. And then do you want to talk about that and I'll end with that? We're going to go fast and say took a long time. >> Um, you know what we just really wanted to say at the end is that we're very excited about the engagement that the students have and the confidence that the teachers have with this program. And you know, we heard that in the beginning of the year when they're doing so much work in this reading, and that's stressful for teachers when there's so much new material, they would say to us, "We're so glad to have math because they had got it down and and they knew how to do it." Um, and what's really great about this program is that it the vision of the graduate is just naturally embedded. It's

117happening every day. They are they are thinking every day. They are collaborating. They are communicating every day. It just happens without the teacher having to do anything extra and it's just fantastic to see the thinking. >> And we'll leave you with a few quotes that I heard some today, some yesterday. I'm going to use kids name. It's okay. Josiah, that's your idea. What which way should we do it? When they're doing anchor task, we have to do it a different way. And it could also be so they are they they don't just here's the one answer and you can look at the board if you want but you they are so good at knowing multiple ways and sometimes they come up with ideas I'm like I didn't think of that which they love. So math

118is awesome. >> Can you guys see so math and focus is K5. Can you speak just for a second? Don't >> think math but it was math and focus program. >> Wow that was that was bad. So, could you just speak for a second like on grade six? What happens with grade six? >> I didn't even see that. >> I'm just going to stop talking. >> No, you're taking Thanks for the transition. Um, so we have kicked off >> a sixth through eight math program review team. Um, that team includes sixth grade teachers, seventh and eighth grade teachers. It includes our department supervisors. It includes some teachers from the high school who teach 9th grade. So, um, we have a a really solid team, special ed teachers included. Um, so we have a group that

119is has come together. We studied what other high-erforming math districts are using for programs and kind of what's being widely used that's out there both in Connecticut and other other states. Um, we've analyzed a lot of data and we've told our story about our students through our data to say what are we looking for? what do we need in our next math resource? Um, we designed a a rubric that we're using to evaluate the different programs that we're taking a look at. Um, so it make sure that it aligns with our guiding beliefs about expectations for instruction, for curriculum, for assessment. Um, and so we are applying that to something right now called illustrative math. our team studied that that that program um applied the rubric, dug in, identified a unit, and so each member

120of the team is teaching a unit right now that they would be teaching in their current program, which is math focus. So they swapped it out, they're teaching it with Fidelity. Um they're coming together next week and we'll look at their feedback about the strengths, about the areas of questions that they might have. Um, we are going to go back to the core beliefs about this illustrative math program to take a look at what good instructional practice looks like and how did that live in their experience and how is it different from what we may be doing now. We'll also be looking at that alignment from 5 to 6 to make sure it's tight and from 8 to 9. Um, and then we will certainly come back to you with some updates and where we

121are. Um, after this we have another program we're going to take a look at. So the teachers will identify a unit that they will teach in the early fall um using the second program which is uh it's still the illustrative math core curriculum. It's just has some other features to it um and a different publisher sells it. So, we're going to take a look at that um and look at the comparison, determine what we need and what our recommendation might be, and then have our team implement whatever we select upon your approval between midyear to the end of the year next year so we can get all of our curriculum documents together, our assessments together, um and so we're ready to roll that out in the fall of 2027. We learned a lot with this

122last math program study transitioning from math and focus to thank math and we're taking those wins and those successes and I'm going to give Betsy all of the credit because she is brilliant at creating those timelines, being thoughtful about who's around the table and how do we take a unit at a time and come back and get feedback and not rush to a decision that and make an informed decision that's aligned with our beliefs and aligned with what we need to get after um relative to our 68 math performance. So I want to thank her for that. She's applying those thoughtful practices to the 68 math program review and we will pre be providing updates certainly to curriculum committee and then we will bring here to the larger board. Is illustrative of math the name

123of the program like think math? Did you guys look at the think math program for 68? >> Even if there was one. >> Oh, there isn't one. >> They haven't developed it. It's under development. >> I see. >> And we because of some of the discussions that we've had about a 68 math performance in curriculum. We couldn't necessarily wait for that to be developed in order for us to get started in this investigation and research. >> What's their timeline? Well, it keeps on it's it's a moving target, Jessica. So, we'll just say that in we'll just say that. >> So, um you guys looked at a a bunch and illustrative was sort of the one that rose to the top >> used. Okay. Most commonly used and the second program is also illustrative, but so

124can you explain that a little bit? >> Yeah. So, um the core C so the scope and sequence is the same um the the pedigogy is the same. There's another there are two some other vendors who have taken that program and have maybe moved a couple of units around. Um they've created some additional resources with more practice materials, some additional assessment tools that might be helpful for teachers. So it has one's bare bones and the other has more components to it. So we started with bare bones to just focus on what does high quality math instruction look like without the bells and whistles. and then we'll look at the program that has some of the other resources and tools to see how it compares. >> Gotcha. Thank you. My question is on the K through

125five, do you continue do you continue to use Star Math for testing and sort of >> you currently using Star Math twice a year? >> So twice a year you do the Star Math as an assessment because really it doesn't go to parents. It goes it's really just for teachers to identify problem areas or whatever. Right. >> Sure. And so if we're using this is our second year, but presumably there's some that have are in their third year, right? Because there was the pilot years >> some classrooms. >> So if those classrooms have you looked at or could we see like the where their star math reports are now versus three years ago's fourth grade and is there really any type of difference between the two? You know, think math versus >> Yeah. What we

126can share with you those results. We can also show some initial ESPA results and trends. We saw a direct correlation of those initial piloted classrooms of Think Math with increases in their ESPA performance. >> But they don't start ESPA till third grade, right? >> They don't start ESPA until third grade. >> Okay. So pilot third grade that piloted it, >> but that was probably presumably a pretty small percentage given that there's how many third grades there was, right? >> Isl being incorporated in any way in the elementary? >> Not yet. Not at this time. something we're we're looking at as we evaluate the universal screens that we're using. >> So, whilst we're in this transition for six through eight, right? So, we have some kids learning a certain way and others learning another way like

127as we're piloting with certain groups because it looks like there's phase of two pilots then a smallcale launch of a selected program. So is it is it safe to say that over these this year or two not everyone's learning the same thing at the same time and it won't be till fall 27 we get them all on the same page again. >> It would be the fall of 27 where we would start full implementation. >> Yep. >> We are teaching into the same standards using so the the illustrative piloted units that are occurring right now. It is around content that the teachers were going to use math and focus anyway. Okay. >> So, they're using these new materials, some slight changes in lesson design, but it's to the same skills and the same standards. >>

128Are you piloting across the levels of math like level, you know, math one, math 2? I don't I don't remember what they're called. >> We have a very particular focus on our students in level two. okay, >> are non-honors because we know we have performance issues there specifically. >> Okay. >> So, we are still looking at the opportunities for both levels when you get to the middle school, but our focus, I want to be clear, is to make sure that we're addressing the concerns that we're seeing in level two. >> But whatever ultimately gets implemented will be across all the levels, level one and even without a pilot or this next level of pilot, will that be of level one? It'll we'll be incorporating there's a without going into too much detail there's a an

129it's called accelerated an accelerated strand where they might be taking different grade level standards into one curriculum but it's all under the umbrella of illustrative. So we're looking to use the same vendor for curriculum that meets both needs. >> Oh I see. So it may not be the same exact curriculum, same vendor, but it might be differentiated between level one and level two. Understand? >> Okay. >> And that will be piloted also. >> Yes. >> And I just want So yeah, so six. So we'll hear more like April, May. Is that about the time frame? >> I would say more May. >> Okay. to give it to hear how those initial plans met and then what that's going to look like for fall for a broader in uh implementation but again full implementation wouldn't be

130for next school year it'd be for the following 2728 school year >> yeah know I think that's obviously extremely important right because whatever we do K through five if we're we could be crushing it there right we've got to make that funnel keep them going through to the high And I know we all know that. And then just on the K through 51 thing, just two quick two quick things. Home link is awesome. So I just want to say like having kids with because that it really helps tie it all together. So absolutely love that. And then just real curious, did Olivia's journal make the Hall of Fame? >> Wow. >> It looked really good up there. Like if that didn't make the Hall of Fame, it was like a high standard. >> You know

131what? That is actually that's actually a sample from Tamville. So, >> okay. >> That wasn't my student. >> It was really good. >> Chris shared that one with me when we were said, "What would make a good I have one on my phone. Let me give it to you." >> And Betsy, just on that last slide that analyze grade six through nine data, our nine wouldn't be changing. No, but we want to make sure that whatever we do in grade 8 >> set students up is that so that as we think about trans right >> that's right >> thank you a lot of information >> good work yeah so much >> thank you leave school tomorrow >> you guys have school tomorrow has some journals to I have a 720 meeting >> and journals to

132read before that. Felt good. >> Thank you very much. >> Everyone that was great this one. >> Love it. >> What I also like is on both sides, the reading and the math. >> They both reference vision. >> Yeah. >> And I think too often maybe people will think of vision as a graduate high school thing. And I so I just I really like that. That was great. Appreciated that. Moving >> on down. Let me tell you if they can say >> audit. >> Yes. >> I don't know why you're too. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. So, we have >> we have completed our audit for the fiscal year 2425. um happy to report that we did receive a clean unmodified opinion which is the highest opinion that you can receive.

133>> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Nicely done. >> Um if you start at the top of the page, there are a few highlights that I'll just take you through. The first one is the budget highlights. So in that middle section there, you'll see the final budget compared to the actual budget. Just starting on that first line for revenues, our final budget is 122 million. Our actuals came in at 124 million. So, we had a surplus in revenues of just over $2 million. The majority of this was related to the town side. It's our tax collection rate, our building permits, and our investment income that created the majority of the variance. Down on the expenditures, you'll see our final budget of 124 million was very close to our actual of 124 million. That 111,413 is directly

134related to the board of education. So these are the final numbers presented in the audit report after any and all transfers have been done. Um, if you do pay attention to the town side, you'll know that there were additional surpluses on the town side, but those have been transferred out into another fund at the end of the year. Um, typically to capital reserves. So, right now, what's going into fund balance is the majority of going into fund balance is our um our overage related to the board of education. So all in all, we had a surplus over a budget of about 2.1 million on the budgetary side. If we move down to right under that, it says excess of revenues over expenditures. From here down, this is just going to tell you um it's going

135to show you how you get to your fund balance. And the reason we care about the fund balance is we want to make sure we have sufficient reserves. We're not operating in deficits. um we're keeping in line with other AAA rated communities and we just have a good cushion going into the future. So just starting at that excess of revenues over expenditures on the gap phases. This is the actual operating profit if you will. So your revenues minus your expenditures about 4.8 million. And then right under that you'll have your net transfers to other funds. Some of this is done during the budgeting process. We budget transfers out of the general fund into our capital projects funds. Some of it is also done at year end if we do have a surplus. So I referenced

136the town had an additional surplus above and beyond the board of education and there was an additional transfer added to the budgeted transfers of about 2.8 million into our capital reserve fund. So that was a good contribution into our capital reserves so we can build up for larger projects so that we can fund smaller CNR things in the future. These decisions are made during the budget process as you've just seen um when we had presented to the board of finance and if we had requested any use of these reserves they would be available. So that 4.8 8 minus that 4.7 is an overall contribution to fund balance of about 180,000. So that middle line there, general fund balance as of June 30th, 2025, that 20,848 is our total fund balance as of the end of

137the fiscal year. >> That doesn't in that does not include the capital reserve fund. >> That does not include the capital reserve fund. that was just transferred out of operating into the capital. >> And then just a a breakdown, those last two line items are a breakdown of that 21848. So that first line item where it says non-spendable of the 1.2 million. These are funds that already have a designated purpose to them. So some of them have been prepaid expenditures. Some are accounts payable that were just sitting on the books. So those already have a purpose. They already have a designation. and those are not available um for general use amongst the boards to determine how they want to spend it which leads us to the remaining balance of that 20 million611859. So this is

138our total reserves that we look at every year um to see how healthy our reserve levels are. Our reserve target from the board of finance policy is about 16% of operating expenditures which is exactly where we're at. Anything above and beyond 16% gets moved out into the capital reserve fund and if it's ever lower than 16% we're going to keep contributions into the general fund fund balance to bring it up to that 16%. So right now we're at 16%. We're aligned with other AAA rated communities as far as a credit rating. So we are in good shape as far as our reserve levels. Any questions on that first page? >> Yes. Can I ask in the revenue in the variance? You mentioned that the investment revenue is included. Are there any unrealized gains there? >>

139No. >> That's actual income >> interest. >> Thank you. And the balance last year I see the balance in July 25 is 20 million 611. How much was the balance na last year on the unassigned balance? >> Um the unassigned it's probably close to so if you look 1 2 3 four lines above it ended um June 30th 2024 or it's referenced July 1 2024 of 2168249. I can get the actual unassigned but it's probably pretty close to the 20 million if not a little bit more. Um it's always about 16% of the operating expenditures. >> Amy, just one question. Just curious on the map. So if the variance was plus say 2.1 >> maybe I missed it. Excess of revenue over expenditure though is like 49. What am I missing there? >> So your

140excess of revenue over expenditures is strictly your revenues minus your expenditures. not any actual transfers out of the fund. >> Okay. >> So, we had enough revenue going into the fund. Um, yeah. So, one is more budgetary and then the other one is like your actual if you were to take like a um a commercial account or a for-profit organization, they have their income statement. This is your revenues. This is your expenditures. It's the 4.8 million. And then we net out the transfers of what we do to that which is 4.7 million. >> Got it. So surplus is like raw numbers and then the the other line the 49 because you're getting into GAP you're getting into like accounting principles and things like that. >> Got it. >> Okay. Okay. Um the next page not

141really much to report. This is your capital um fund. It does not include your capital reserves. It's just our capital projects. Nothing really to report here. Our fund balance started at 2.2 million. Our revenues and expenditures were pretty much in line with each other. And then we ended with a fund balance as of June 30th, 2025 of about 2.8 million. There was one other thing I wanted to mention for board members that were here last year for the audit. You may remember that there was a management comment outstanding related to our accounting procedures manual. This was a recommendation by the auditors that we put a accounting procedures manual in place that was completed and we have no longer have any management comments outstanding. >> I feel like we should clap. >> Yeah, congratulations. >> Sounds

142like a win. >> Definitely. >> Well, thank you. >> And who is our auditor? >> Larson and do we have an audit committee or It sounds like a great thing though like audit committee can definitely be the board of >> who's going to audit. >> Always good question. >> With that, let's uh adjourn >> not well into executive session is what I was trying to say. >> I make a motion to go into executive session. Second that motion. Thank you everybody. Bye. >> 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 >>

143like 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, >> 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 Simsbur's history. >> Join us in preserving Simsbury's voice. >> Simsberry's voice. >> Together, we can ensure that

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