001uh every meeting with the pledge of allegiance. If you would please join me. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Great. Thank you. Uh just a just a word at the top of the top of the meeting. You'll notice Superintendent Curtis is not with us tonight. He's really sick. He's really sorry he couldn't be here tonight. Really wanted to celebrate with you guys and really get into he was really excited about the me of the uh of the meeting tonight. So just wanted to make sure people knew that that's why he's he's not here tonight. So with that, let's get into the recognitions. Let's get into the fun stuff. >> Terrific.
002Well, we'll start with the high school boys soccer team. So, as Mr. Tindle just said, Mr. Curtis was really excited to recognize all of you and he said, "I have some notes." So, I was reading the notes and it's actually a playbyplay of how he remembered your championship game. So, I'm going to try to do justice to that. He said, "I need to say that it's freezing cold." He said, "We had an opportunity to attend the championship game on a blustery night." He said it was an unreal environment. Several thousand people, amazing community support. He said they were down 01. They were tied going into overtime. Then they were down in overtime and then they tied and then they won on penalty kicks. That was accurate. >> So, I mean, he went he went on
003a little memory lane here. Um, and then he also uh included and coach I don't know if you were aware but you had a parent reach out to Superintendent Curtis on your behalf and he shares this and I think it's a a quote worth sharing. I believe strongly in accountability and I've always felt that the climate and culture of a district and team are the foundation of everything. At the heart of this leadership in my opinion leadership in life is everything. It is often the difference between success and failure and it shapes whether individuals and organizations rise to their potential. I have always believed that where there is a great leader, there is a great organization. What coach McCulla has created with his program is a powerful example of what happens when great leadership is
004taught with intention to players. So certainly this evening, gentlemen, we celebrate your win. we have a glimpse of the hard work that goes into the championship and I also see coach Slater and coach Randon there as well. Um and we know that it is about community and working together as a team. So on behalf of Superintendent Curtis just want to congratulate you for incredible job well done and for the pride that you brought to this community. Thank you. >> On behalf of the coaches and the the team, I'd like to thank you all very much for this recognition. Uh it certainly means a lot to us. We couldn't do this to your point without tremendous help. Um we really appreciate the unwavering support of Principal Cidell and athletic director Golden. So that that was instrumental
005in any accomplishment that we achieved this year. We're thrilled to add another championship to the history books here at Simsbury High School, a storyried um place for sure. We're also very privileged to be part of this team, part of this community. We know what it means and it takes. We look forward to um defending our champion, our title next year. And uh thank you very much. Really appreciate the opportunity. >> Absolutely. I would also be remiss. I know that Keegan McCulla also earned all state recognition and Ryan Goodwin was named the MVP of the state championship final for standout performance. So, I just want to share that as well. You finished your season with an impressive 154 and2 record, earning five playoff victories, including wins over the number three and four seeds on your path
006to the championship. So, just again, well done. I don't know if we have an opportunity to get a a pick. >> Absolutely. >> Right. We want to make sure that we do that, Miss Wild for uh >> and I was talking to Matt about this, you know, I was at the game with him and and it had been a run of girl championships for the last few years. So, congratulations to you guys for completing the job. Well done. It was a great game. >> Absolutely. >> All right, so let's think of how best to do this. >> Really large team here in make it happen. >> Short guys in the front. All right. Here, guys. Come on in. >> Heather, I'm sure. I'm in the front. >> Oh, goodness. You photo bottle. I didn't really
007mean that. >> Tippy toeach lay down, man. >> Get down, Mike. >> Yeah, you can. >> We don't usually get this size crowd. All right, I'm going to hold you to it now. >> I did not. But I, you know, for these guys, I'm willing to do it. >> There you go. >> 2007. I was I was a young principal >> before I became an old >> really excited >> it took us so long to get Steve >> no I'm glad they got here now we also have a second incredibly exciting recognition >> and I would like to call out Principal Sidell as well as Eli Gold >> recent graduate it and we are recognizing Eli because he has been named as a 2025 US presidential scholar. So what does that mean? Um scholars are
008selected annually based upon certainly their academic success but also their artistic excellence, their technical excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts. So to give you I have come to known uh Eli actually in his last semester of his senior year and uh he's a math guy. He's he's incredibly um talented and gifted in math. So let me give you a couple of numbers. We had 3.9 million high school graduates last year in the United States. Of those 3.9 million, 6,400 were even eligible to be considered as as a US presidential scholar. From that 6,400, only 161 were chosen. So, Eli was one of 161 chosen. An incredible honor. Um, Miss Sidell will tell you a little bit more about Eli, but I'm going to hand it over to you so we can do justice to Eli's
009accomplishments. >> Similar to Miss Lumpky, I went on a deep dive of this and uh award and it is one of the most prestigious high school awards. Um, this one is the highest honor of a graduating senior in the US that they can get. Um, and as she said, this is around academic excellence. So, one of the first things, it's an invitation only. And the first invitation comes based on your SAT scores, not your super score. It's the one and done when you sit. So, that invitation came to Eli. And I wanted to let you know, Miss Garza, one of his um favorite people, his guidance counselor is here today who they then went through a very rigorous application which includes, as Miss Levkkey said, essays, transcripts, all of that information. So this information should
010have come out in about miday. Um it didn't come till September and the emails were flying with the accolades. So I also wanted to let you know that um this is a very talented individual both in the classroom but also musically. So we have um Mr. Ksky here who can attest to this as the winner of the US Navy Band Young Artist solo competition and and performed in Annapolis in May. So a huge honor. so many opportunities, but he was also a finalist in the Hartford Symphony Concerto and honored by the Nutmeg Symphony. Um, so there's so many pieces to take a look at this. And then the fact checker came out today, >> 20 AP exams taken, all scoring a five. Was there more than 20? >> 20, right? 20 literal like unbelievable. um
011anything we could provide. Ate up, took the opportunity, and then some even to go to Yukon. Um and and Miss Garza said to me, the last presidential winner in Simsbury was in 2008. Um so we are super super excited to have Eli here. Family is here as well. We've been emailing and trying to to nail down because he's a freshman at Princeton. busy individual and super excited to have you here tonight to officially recognize your unbelievable accomplishment. So, CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN. We're so proud of you, so excited for all that you'll do at Princeton. and please come back and inspire our our young people in 9th, 10th, and 11th and 12th grade because your story is truly inspirational. Thank you. >> Yes, we would love the picture with the gold family and with all your hero
012teachers. Help everybody. >> Exactly. >> And guidance everybody, all your supporters. >> Let that sink in for a second. 20 >> point one without me and then could you do one with Thank you, >> Mr. I want to get one without me. I'll thank you very much. >> Thank you. That's exactly that's how we >> There you go. >> Lovely. It's all your >> You guys are so cute. >> Yes. >> Unbelievable. So, congratulations to the entire gold family. >> Eli, what are you majoring in? >> Uh, probably math. >> Good for you. Congratulations. >> That's what we're asking. It's >> You started before your time at Central High School, right? >> Yeah. Okay. So, I took one in 8th grade. I took three in ninth grade. Um I think three in as a sophomore,
013then seven as a junior and seven maybe six as a senior. So then that should add out to 20 hopefully. >> He taught him music. >> You do the math. I'm done. >> So in eighth grade, you were taking a high level math course at the high school or something, right? Uh, I actually self-studied um AP Cal BC and took the exam. >> Wow. >> As an eighth grader. >> So when he started at Sbury High School as a sophomore, he'd already completed all of our advanced math. So he was studying advanced math at Yukon. >> Wow. >> Great job. >> That's amazing. Great. >> He did. >> Are you still playing music? >> Of course. Yeah. I I do more music than that at this point. >> Oh, good for you. That's good to
014hear. Joyful >> Eli, please keep in touch. And to the entire gold family, thank you for >> sharing with Eli with us in this moment. As I shared with you, please don't feel obligated to stay >> and we can open the door. >> Eli, we're going to keep in touch. >> Sat down and chatted with Eli. >> Yeah. All right. >> Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you guys for coming. Appreciate it. >> Great. >> That's so good. >> Good to see you. You guys should be trying to brush up on my math. >> Let me just I just want to just want to tee this up a little bit for board members and probably for folks who are listening and watching us as well. Typically, if you follow kind of the flow of our
015our calendar, right, this would typically be the start of the the um the budget kind of meetings, right? But, you know, I don't want to shy away from this, right? We there was an article that came out in the current before the holidays. We got some some inquiries about it, right? And uh we thought we'd lean into that a little bit, right? Because those conversations typically came to well, what are you guys doing about it? How are you guys handling culture, climate, and how are you handling these kinds of of issues that we take extremely extremely seriously? Um so we switched it up a little bit, and that's what you're going to hear tonight. How do we handle client? There's we had a fantastic presentation that was going to talk about this. We got a
016great group of folks in the room to discuss that. But I just I just wanted to kind of put that out there as that's kind of why the the the kind of the change in the the program if you will a little bit. Um with that we have as we do every meeting public audience. Um if anybody wants to get up and say anything. Um, >> yeah, I that's the reason why I'm here was just uh kind of a response to that. Um, I >> sure Darren Brunstead, 166 Straten Brook Road. >> Can I see you next? >> Um, that was just I was I because of that article and um because uh we uh I'm part of a multi-racial family in Simsbury. We moved here in in 2011. So that that concerned me and
017um in talking to my kids about it was it was it was clear that there were some incidents um that they were dealing with on a uh you know a regular basis in school. Um and we talked about it more and it seemed like there was this kind of undercurrent of a casual racism that kind of exists in society as general, right? And it's not it's not unique to Simsberry. Um so we just wanted to talk about that specifically. um about racial slurs that were happening um uh in school and how they were dealt with and uh and generally when they're brought up um they're dealt with. But the problem that that that I find is that again there's kind of like this undercurrent that often goes without notice and how that's being dealt with
018and how that makes uh like my family feel um and probably how it makes other families feel too. >> I appreciate it. >> So So I wrote Matt Curtis and we had a great hourlong meeting and it was it was great. And then I was uh Anette Belmonte, the the uh principal of my kids school, put me in touch with uh Taya and we had a we had a great meeting too. And >> I just I'm confident that having a rubric in place to deal with things can be different in reality and actually how they're dealt with and what continues to kind of exist under the surface. And my fear is that um from my impression you've hired a very capable, knowledgeable, wonderful human being that cannot do this work. This is my impression without
019all of us buying in and constantly making sure that we're here to support a person in that kind of role. It can't be as I've seen happen like at my workplace where it was just the right thing to do. So they hired a DEI person and then as soon as that became controversial they sacked that person and no real work was of of any purpose was done but people could say well we have a DEI person right so I want to what I want to ask just is that we support this person who who who knows what to do it seems I mean from she she's extremely qualified in the position that she's in. But she can't do any of that alone. We have to we have to be an active part of that. >>
020Absolutely. I I greatly appreciate those comments and it it's a perfect segue actually into kind of what we're what we're doing tonight. So, um Diana, do you want to >> um Yeah, I'll get up. So, I'll come to >> and then we'll and we'll get >> Yeah. >> So, uh Diana Gley, 78 County Road. Um I want to just say hello. Um I'm Diana Yisley, board of selectman in the town, also liaison to the board of ed. Um in addition, I'm also the liaison uh newly back to the DEI council. And what I wanted to mention is that the DEI council, which many people don't even know may exist, does welcome people to come to public audience. Um and this was a topic not specific to this. it was brought up, but there were several
021um conversations that were brought up of underlying currents whether in the school district or in town and trying to figure out the best way to to address these and um making sure people feel that whether it's through the board of ed, the board of selectmen or DEI um council that they have a place that they can go to voice concerns that they may be um experiencing in town or concerns that they may not be experiencing but have regardless. and we want to make sure that not only do they feel heard, supported, but that these things can be addressed and that we're not just going through town um pretending that these things do not exist. So, I just wanted to get up say hello again to my board of ed friends um but under this particular
022um topic make sure that people in town in this room here and you know at home know that there are avenues to go to um you know that we do care and that we want to be proactive. >> Thank you for that very much. >> Dana, would you just could you mention sort of when those meetings are and how people can find out about them? >> Yes. Um so the uh we are working on our new website by the way um to have make sure that the calendar is always updated but the DEI uh council meetings are on Mondays sometimes conflicting with my board of selectman meetings but I will do the best they are on the first first um first Monday of the month at the library at 6:00. >> Thank you. Thank you.
023And then the board of selectmen is usually every other Monday six o'clock at downstairs at town hall. >> Great. >> Here we go. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We'll go into uh anybody. Um we'll go into our committee reports and communications. Start with Eva. >> Uh the first thing I have from Simsbury High School, our midterms start uh this week and then Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. um which means that semester 1 is closing. Semester 2 is starting the musical you're in town which is where I came running from and why I was almost late. Um is approaching opening night which is on Friday uh January 30th and then we have another set of shows the next week. Um additionally we have a pep rally on January 23rd
024to start semester 2 and also feature me singing for your town. Um, and then SHS is excited to welcome the class of 2030, which is the current eighth graders to eighth grade night next week on January 1st. Uh, students and families will get the opportunity to learn more about many of the elective course offerings at SHS and take their first tour of the building. Uh then at Henry James, they're ready for the second year of parent teacher conferences which are being held on Tuesday, January 20th and Wednesday, January 21st by appointment after school. Uh both days are ear early early release days for Henry Dame students. Um and then this Wednesday they're having their annual volleyball tournament, which is the snow date from the last time that they could have done it. Um yeah, usually
025it's the day before winter break, but that didn't happen. Okay. And then, um, eighth grade science classes are going on a field trip to the Yale Peabody Museum. Uh, the purple team went on January 7th, orange team is going January 13th, and green team is going January 17th. Um, Tooten Hills is getting ready for their winter concert uh, with which entertains families with student performances with strings and band. Um, Latimer Lane has their encouraging words Wednesday where they do positive messages, quotes, and shirts across the building. Uh, they're also launching their cultural calendar, which is a list of holidays and celebrations important to the diverse Letterlane family. Um, he sent me a link, which I can email to Mrs. Wild if you would like to see it. Uh, the bienial multicultural celebration is coming up
026on January 29th at 6. uh family presentations from 30 different families covering 20 different countries will be there. Um which includes dancing, food, stories, and just generally sharing diversity. Everyone is able to attend, so if you want to go, you can. Again, that's January 29th at 6. Then Squadron Line is also in their winter concert season um where they have grade five and grade six have a winter concert. They also have um performances from the choir, the band, and the orchestra. Then professional development, they have an early release day on Wednesday for professional development, and they're meeting with Deacon Art for session on belonging as well as spending time collaborating with coaches regarding our upcoming units of study, assessments, and student growth. Then they also have a ski club. The PTO is running ski club
027um partnered with ski sundown. And then the seal corner for January and February is social awareness month. So they will spend time over the next two months focusing on being able to take the perspective and empathize with others including those of diverse backgrounds and cultures. And finally uh central in December Central School continued to focus on both strong learning and a positive school culture. In classrooms students grade K through six worked on reading, writing, and learning using the new literacy program, the Benchmark Advance. um and teachers are helping them with that sort of new instruction. Um they also focused on caring and respect similar to the other schools holding two S AI LS I don't know if that's supposed to be sales or readout the things um assemblies that highlighted the character trait of trustworthiness
028and recognized students who showed honesty and responsibility. They also participated in the Hour of Code. Um, and there were holiday classroom celebrations. And then the fourth grade students attended a Harford stage program right at school. Um, and they're working on building strong instruction with strong student culture. >> Great. Thank you. >> Anything tonight? >> Silia. >> Great. Josh, >> uh, yeah, just a couple things. Uh, communications committee will meet next Friday. We'll go over a couple topics including talking about the communicator for the winter um edition that'll be going out. So have more on that in our next meeting after we meet on the 23rd. Then also just wanted to make mention and thank um coach Rick and the girls lacrosse varsity and JV team. They ran a clinic for the youth lacrosse in town
029on January 2nd at Day Hill Dome. So I think that we recognize all the sports we have here. But I think it's really special when like the high school kids work with the youth. The kids love it. I think it kind of connects the whole community. So, I know him and his team do a lot for that and a lot of the teams do, but just wanted to shout out and appreciate that. I mean, January 2nd, right, you're wrapping up a lot of things, but they took three hours out of their day to go to the bubble and work with the kids. So, that was really cool. >> That's great. >> Is that the new one on day? >> Yeah. >> Right. >> I think I'm all set. I mean, we're not up we don't
030have anything updated on the finance committee from last week. I mean, >> I'm all set. Uh Jim, >> I just wanted to clarify on there. So this Thursday and Friday, just for anybody who's watching, this Thursday and Friday and then next week, Tuesday and Wednesday are half days for Simsbury High only. >> Correct. Correct. >> Tuesday and Wednesday also for Henry James to do conferences. >> Okay. All right. And then um I love the ideas. I do have to say that Terapill Schools also during their concert series is coming up and that is also happening this next week or this week tomorrow. >> Tomorrow and then I love that Vladimir Lane idea and I look I will ask later on. I love that calendar idea. That's a really cool idea. Thanks for sharing it. >>
031Um I have a PSA. We are having a Martin Luther King Day in Simsbury celebration as um since we've been doing it since >> 11 >> 10 2010 2011 >> 2011 >> and it's um yeah it's been going on for a while. So anyway, we have a great day planned um we have John Mills speaking and we have the uh Simsbury uh gospel choir and um we everyone's welcome two o'clock at the first church. Ty, am I missing anything? >> We dragged Ty into the committee this year. Thanks goal choir will be performing along with um a children's choir from the 7th Day Adventist Church and they're adorable and they're actually this year they're actually going to sing a song with the gospel choir. >> So cute. They have to admit to give you an
032update. Um returning board members will be a pres will remember a presentation I did about a year ago related to some legislation around air quality in schools and some pretty significant requirements that school districts had to implement. Um one is testing that happens every every school has to be done every five years with a significant assessment. I do want to let you know that we did central school last summer um and we're on um for two more schools this coming summer that we've budgeted through capital non-recurring that will um receive the once every 5-year inspection. But also, you may recall that because it's got a ringing name um that there's a program called tools for schools which is an annual maintenance. And um the first time we did it, the board had to actually vote
033to accept that we had done the tools for schools, but it's actually an annual update. So I'm here tonight to report we did our annual update. Um Carol Mitchell and the business office uploaded our new documents by January 1st, which is the statutory requirement. So basically what tool to tools for schools is is a checklist system about air quality. So there's checklists about things like um cleaning in normal classrooms, about pest management in the school, about HVAC systems in the school. And the head custodians and our maintenance people go through this rigorous set of checklists and you know that it's about best practices for how you maintain good air quality in schools. And so um it's a self assessment, but it's a really good process. And I want to thank our head custodians and Kyle
034Loveland and um Carol Mitchell of the business office who work through all of that for us. And if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, go to the air quality index. It's on the front page of our website and you can look at every school and know that we are paying attention to air quality in our schools. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> I'm good. You've covered everything in our update. So, thank you. >> Great. Um, so next on the agenda then is the approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion to I'll make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Awesome. Uh, any discussion? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Great. Thank you. >> Neil, back to you with personnel. >> So, a couple of items um tonight, a couple
035for your action. one is to um accept a uh a retirement that has been announced for the end of this year. Kate Cristallini is our one of our French teachers at um Simsbury High School. Um she, as the exhibit says, she's been with us here for 15 years in Simsbury. However, my first year teaching at Farmington High School was in 1992 93 and I taught one of my English classes in Kate Cristini's classroom. Um, and uh had to go all the way across Farmington High School. They they made the new guy walk all the way across the school. But I was um I got to meet Kate however many years ago that is. Um, and she helped out a new person that maybe gave me a few classroom management tips when I really needed them
036as a new teacher. Um, Kate has been um, after all those years in Farmington, she made a transition to Simsbury 15 years ago, which not a lot of teachers do. Um, you know, I remember our world department uh, chair, world language department chair saying, "Are are are you open to Kate Cristini coming in?" I was like, "Are you kidding me?" like um so Kate not only has been involved in French 1 2 3 4 and five at Simsbury High School but she's also done taken our students to France probably half a dozen times and we have a really robust sister school program in France and Kate and her crew that she puts together have probably hosted French students half a dozen times who come to high school uh suary school for a week so just
037been a tremendous uh force for the last 15 years at Simsbury High School. Her 15 years at Simsbury, but her total is 38 years in education. >> Uh we have her for the rest of this year. And congratulations to Kate. And the motion is there for your consideration. >> I move that the board of education accept the retirement of Kate Katherine Cristini effective June 30th, 2026. I'll >> second. >> Any discussion? >> We're going to miss her. >> Absolutely. Thank you very much for all of your and your commitment to our students. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. >> The other that requires your action is a resignation. Um Tara Daly was was a a special education teacher that we hired pretty late in the summer um from me. She
038was working up in Massachusetts looking for a change. Um came here to Simsbury right as like Labor Day was happening. um and uh had did some good work but didn't quite feel like it was the right match for her. Had an opportunity to return to her school in Massachusetts and she took it. So you can see she's only been with us four months. She resigned her position um just before the holidays. So need you to accept her resignation. move that the board of education accept the resignation of Tara Daly effective December 23rd, 2025. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> And then the last one is um a guaranteed leave of absence. Congratulations to Sarah Grant who is an art teacher um both
039at splits uh time between Henry James and Simsbury High School. has been with us for 3 years, recently gave birth uh to her first child and has decided as per our um policies that she will take the remainder of semester 2 um and will take next year under um parenting leave and will be guaranteed for a return to her job in um the fall of 2027. So, the motion is there for um for Sarah. >> I'll move that the board of education approve the leave of absence for Sarah Grant effective February 2, 2026 through June 30, 2027 with a guaranteed position upon her return. >> Second. Any discussion? Congratulations. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Any vote? Great. Thank you. Okay. Great. Um, moving on to the strategic plan uh update and that's
040kind of why we're all here tonight. Do I turn it over to you first or >> turn it over to me and then I will turn it over to the assembled team here. So Jeff, as you shared, the article provides us the opportunity to share the proactive work and the efforts that we are making so that the sense of belonging among our students and our staff continues to be positive, continues to be something that we're proud of. And how does that connect to student engagement, to staff engagement? How does that connect to the data that we look at as educators to say are we making a difference and are we making a difference in the right way and where are we doing well and where do we still have to make improvements for all students
041and all staff here in Simsbury. So tonight, it also affords us the opportunity through a strategic plan lens to give an update on goal two, which is in regard to our compassionate and connected school culture. And you'll recall we went through a very rigorous regs also revising that strategic plan to say, okay, here we are now. here is where we want to be and what is our roadmap to get there. A huge part of our schools certainly is the teaching and learning on the academic side, but that can only happen when we have environments that are supportive of all of our learners. So tonight, our director of equity and access, Dr. Dr. Tyresa Bachelor will start us off and sharing some of those efforts around engagement, some of the data that we continue to look
042at and then we will be providing specific accounts and stories of how this work is living K12. So she is joined this evening by social worker at Terapill School Erin Naspo, principal of Terapill School, Steve Mattis, principal of Henry James Memorial School, Scott Baker, and principal of the high school Maggie Sidell. And they'll all give specific glimpses into the work that has um been accomplished certainly and that is still at the forefront of what we need to do. So with that, I turn it over to Dr. Bachelor. Good afternoon. Um, I want to thank people who spoke during public public um, comment and shared that they are a part of the community, proud of the community, but recognize that there's still a lot of work to be done and that we have to do the
043work together. Um, so in that spirit, I'm going to try to not talk as much as I usually do because I really want you to see what it looks like in schools. Um, as I always share, my focus is K12, looking from the balcony view. Uh, lately I've also, um, started to look down the street and around the corner at what's coming in. Um, making sure that I'm sharing information. Um, so compassionate and connected school culture is really about fostering something within our community. Um, we are not exempt from issues or problems or for people making mistakes or behaving badly or needing to be redirected. All of those things happen. Um, and so I'm going to showcase the positive, the great things that are happening, but I also want to share um what what's tough
044and what's hard about the work. So 2024 um the summer 2024, our students who were with us for the summer, our eighth grade students um started to talk in our focus group about what it feels like to be in a school where people are using words that are harmful and and harmful language. And so I challenged them to work with me to find something that we could do about it. And from there came the launch of the encouraging works campaign. As you remember, it started last year in 2024 before legislation came around our school climate plans before people started talking about being proactive. So, this really came from students. Um, and it did put us in a really good position to understand the work, to frame the work, to look at the work from a
045K12 lens. And so, the result is our pledge, which I go to. Um, that's my go-to. So, it was created by students. We started with our fifth and sixth grade students and then it moved to our middle school students and then our high school students um kind of finished it but we have this encouraging words pledge and the hard part is continue to to lift it and and make it live every day and there is some fatigue. So I'm I'm also being honest about um the fatigue with our teachers and our students like oh here comes Dr. B. She's always talking about that pledge. Um and so I've had to learn to step back and really take just the words of the pledge and ask the students to do the work. Um so that's what
046you're going to hear today or this evening rather. So first I want to talk about student engagement and um belonging is is at the core for our students. Part of having students um own what we do and how we change things that are not working is to give them voice. So, we've really tried to move from student advocacy, which I talked a lot about last year, and that's really about having students have a voice and being able to be self-aware and identify what's working, what's not working. Well, we've really moved from advocacy to agency to where we're saying, you know what, you're you're the only people who can really solve the problems. And I say that because some of the spaces where these conversations that are harmful is happening is not in front of me.
047It's not in front of our our the parents. It's in these spaces where where kids um are talking to themselves. They actually have a culture outside of the culture that we know of. Sometimes they're having conversations and I can be sitting next to them and really not sure what they're saying. Um so I've really we've really put it in the hands of our students because we believe that they have the answers and we believe that if we give them some um encouraging words and tell them what we want and what we believe that then they'll do the work. So, some evidence of that are these programs that we have here. And if you look to the right, you'll see our sixth grade students at one of the elementary schools. I've had every school has a
048team that's worked with me to identify some students that they want me to read to kindergarten and first grade students. And the purpose of that is is so that they I'm sharing with them this is what the fifth and sixth grade students say you need to be doing. You need to be working on. So, they've chosen great books um with a focus of belonging, encouraging words, and I go and I read these books to the kindergarten and first grade students. Um but the fifth and sixth grade students don't realize is that it also reminds them of our expectations just because I'm not in front of you all the time reminding you of this. It's supposed to be already instilled within you and sometimes they they forget. Um, so that's a great project and um, Latimer
049Lane was the first school um, to have my visit and I had Clifford the Big Red Dog come with me and the the kids loved it. At the picture below, this is an example of what our middle and high school girls do in their women's and girls empowerment groups. At the middle school, it's girls empowerment and at the high school, it's women's empowerment. And we start at the beginning of the year with asking them what are some of the things we need to focus on? What are the projects that you want us um to support? And they gave us a list of things that some of the things that we could not possibly do in one year, but it was a road map for where we need to go with our students. And so we
050constantly come back to that. Um, we also have our sixth grade lunch bunch which includes our students that are in the choice program and also students that are not in the choice program. So, as you know, one of the programs that I oversee is our open choice. We have the largest freshman class of open choice for all of the districts. We have 18 students and I'm very proud of them and they represent different cultures, different abilities and they have a voice. Um, but they but there's also other students that live in Simsbury that need that support. So, we've been able to grab other sixth grade students and and bring them to the fold. And when I start to look at the show you the data, you're going to notice that the cohorts of students that
051we've spent the most time with in our after school school programs are the students that have the less suspensions are the students that are coming to us um giving us the ideas of what we could do better. Um and so we need time to spend with those students. We also have our equity council which is still in full effect. So there's different equity councils. We have one at the high school and we have two students that are very welcome, very supportive and then I sit on the DEI town DEI as a liazison and there's two students that are involved there. Um and for tutoring and mentoring, you'll see how tutoring and mentoring the results of that work when we put t tutoring and mentoring together. Um you see how that's increased our AP scores. So
052that's what student engagement looked like. And I think what I want to share about student engagement is that um if we think about how we can see every student as an individual and we give them the opportunity to to voice who they are through identity, through their culture, students are more likely to talk to us and tell us what's really happening. And that's what I'm really trying to get at. what's really happening in those spaces. So, next I want to talk about staff engagement. Um, one of the things that we've done differently this year because there is a lot of shifts in the legislation around challenging behaviors around the definitions of that which I'm going to talk more about in a bit. Um, but we've implemented school climate leads so that each school has one
053person who is the champion of climate who make sure that they have the boots on the ground. Um, principles, I love my principles. They they work with me, but they can't do this work alone either. Um, and so having a climate lead to come together representing the school. They get to share with each other um, things that they're doing in one school. Um, they also look at data with me. Um, so they're really a support system. Um, the second thing I want to talk about is state interviews. And state interviews is something that, um, we started last year, but we really, um, we're really putting into motion with all of our new teachers the beginning of this year. So, when we have new teachers, we really try to support them because we know that it's
054important for them to stay. We're investing a lot of time and energy into the Simsbury way um for them, but we want them to stay. So, I meet with them one- on- one. Um it's it it's an easy way for them to share how they're feeling, if they have a sense of belonging, if there's things that we could be doing differently. And some of the questions that I ask them, I remind them of their launch and what we promised them we we were going to do, who we said we were. And I asked them to to be honest with me, are we who we said we were? Um, do you have any regrets coming here? And it takes time for them to have those conversations with me. So those interviews don't happen until December and
055into January because I spend time going into their classrooms in September and October so that they could see me. They could know that I'm partnering with them. They they know that I'm a safe person. They know it's not evaluative. I also try to make sure that I do it after evaluations. Um, and it's it's really a time for them to to share um how they're experiencing our district and they've been successful. Three people um did not have a state interview and um I I keep coming to the door saying I'm a safe person. Just come and talk to me. I don't want to be alone. >> The other the other and I bring food. I I do bring food. that's important. >> I bring food. I I bring books. Um, and what I do with
056some of that information is I don't give the individual information um to teaching and learning team or to our superintendent, but I have come up with some themes of things that we could do better for different groups of of people. Um, and so we can put that into our professional development or into our plans for next year. Um, I know I have to move a little bit more quickly. So gathering sessions um we have employee resource groups but we've moved to gathering sessions and these are times where we're f focusing on staff wellness um if our teachers are not healthy and socially aware then it's hard for them to pour into our students. So some are one of the new gathering sessions is for families that are supporting people who are aging or who are
057disabled um because that is where many of our staff are. So these gathering sessions happen four times of year. Um everyday speech training, we had a great training when I gave some some real solutions to behavior. Behavior is how students communicate with us. And and sometimes the way that they communicate with us um is is hard, right? I've been a a teacher for a long time. I was a principal for a long time. So everyday speech training is not just about the platform. It's really about what do you say even what do you say when it doesn't work? Let's be honest. So, when the curriculum fails and a student needs some tier three um support, what does that look like and what does it sound like? And then um the biggest has been our restorative
058circle practice. And we have three schools that have gone through rigorous um restorative circle training and we have two administrators who are going to be doing that next. So what is new is um public act 23167 and it's all around school climate. The school climate improvement plans essentially is a plan that every school has to have to show that they're focusing on social emotional learning. They're addressing challenging behaviors and that they're providing a tiered response to behaviors that could be bullying. it could be um anything that um that could be challenging that would that we need to to address um in most of the time outside of the classroom. And so this new legislation came and I was like, "Oh, we got this. We already have our encouraging words. We're already doing our training. Um
059we already have our climate leads in place." So, I felt really I still feel really good about these school climate improvement plans because I feel like it's the work that we're already doing. So, part of the school climate challenging behaviors um there's three shifts and I'm going to talk about that chair in a minute because that chair is there for a reason. Um and but the the three shifts is one the definition of bullying behaviors has changed. So, the bigger term or umbrella is challenging behaviors. Um, and I work very closely with Mr. Sullivan. Um, he's really great at the legislative um, speak and talk and that part of making sure that we have everything done. And then I think I'm I'm really good at the the human aspect and say, "Okay, well, this is
060what it's going to look like, right?" And so, um, together I think we make a a great team. And so when in the beginning of the of the summer when we had our very first our very first meeting looking at the definition of bullying and challenging behaviors, it it was it was hard. Um and one of the things that we asked we then we were in this room and I did a four corner activity and I asked the principles what is hard about this and I will tell you what the principal said was I'm afraid of getting it wrong. Um, and that shows the the people that that I'm working with, they they want to get it right. So, the definition of bullying has shifted also tier tiered response. And that language really means that
061um when we're dealing with behaviors, challenging behaviors, the approaches move from preventative to more targeted to intensive as needed. um and making sure that all of that we know what to do for all of those tiers and and when to expect it and when to enact each tier. So that was the second shift. And the last shift again, we already have that being proactive. Um not that we do everything well, not that we have all of the answers, we still stumble and there's some some areas where we're still looking for the best strategies, but we know that we have to use a proactive approach. So, our professional development, you see that seat there. We're really putting ourselves in the hot seat. Um, when I met with the principles, we had the chair there, but I
062also had an image of their face there. Um, we have everyday speak curriculum, professional develop, unpacking challenging behaviors, the technical versus the adaptive leadership parts of behavior. But I think though the the most for me when I knew that we were doing the right work was when I saw principles being vulnerable um and having conversations and case studies because when I say I put them put them there at the seat our case studies behind closed doors is really what's happening in our buildings and we're talking about um what we could have done differently. Um what's the next step? what what do we do when we're not finding a solution? What are the resources? What do we do next? And it it really talks it really speaks to a culture of learning and a culture where
063we want everyone to belong and where we want everyone to be included. Um our restorative circles is not just restorative circles, but it's also understanding restorative practices, understanding how to put restorative practices in place. And then the another big one is our procedures and protocols. I can't stop everything from happening. I I wish I could. Um as parents wish that they could, as teachers wish that they could, >> some kids make mistakes and and some kids are harmed. And so what the first thing that I wanted to make sure is that I can speak to if harm happens, do we know what to do? Do kids know who to talk to? Do parents know who to talk to? Do teachers know not just who to talk to, but what to expect? And so that continues
064to develop. We do have procedures and protocols in place, but that chair is really for us to check in and see is it really is it really working. Um and and I I can tell you that we're doing the work, but I'm going to tell you, I don't have enough data to tell you what we've put in place from September to now is working. I do have some data that I'm going to share with you. Um but that's an area that we need to continue to grow on. And then collaboration. Of course, we're continuing to collaborate with each other. Um I want to talk to you again about pro what's proactive. So one of the ways that we're getting some proactive work around belonging around us um not using harmful language around everyone having a
065sense of belonging. One is just to bring people um into the spaces to talk about differences and talk about them in in a in a positive way. Um, we do have an increasing educator diversity plan, which thank you for approving. And that's one area that we haven't excelled with. So, we don't stop and say, okay, we have not hired more people that are d that are diverse. We look to see what other ways can we bring diversity into our buildings. And so, we're able to do that through the triple E program. It's a grant. It was a total of $123,000. Um, and it's used K12. Everything that we try to do, we try to do K12 because we have to start with early enrichment and then we have to move with the students through middle
066and high school. Um so some of the things that are coming out of the grant is our readaloud visitors where the readaloud visitors come to kindergarten, first and second and third grade. Um we have a creative writing group and we have Harford Performs coming um for Black History Month. For grades four through 10, we have tutoring, mentoring, Harvard performs, and um for our high school seniors, we have something that's called the senior launch workshop where our seniors um are going through to three uh different programs to um to have them learn about self-management, um anxiety, and and I'm not just coming up with these things because I think they're fun things to do. We actually went and looked at the data of what the students told us in terms of their belonging and their stress
067and their anxiety um in our our year- end surveys. And so that's how we came up with the workshops that the students are doing. If our students go through this the senior launch workshop, the students that are in choice will receive a laptop. One of the things that students said that they were fearful of is not having what they need to go to college. So that's one of the things that will come out of it. students that are not in choice um also have the opportunity to join a writing competition. Um so we have a person coming to do um some writing um with students. And lastly is our family support. So making sure that we have time for our school counselors to be available on the weekends and after school for families. So how
068do we identify families? First, we ask students um and then second, we've been talking to our school counselors about families that might need a call in the evening. So, those are some of the proactive approaches. Now, I'm going to celebrate and brag a little bit. Okay? So, I remember coming before you and talking about um AP courses, and this is not um I am not taking credit for it. The only thing I'm taking credit for is being able to identify tutoring and mentoring and bringing this to light so that everyone else brings the strategies and and gets um engaged. But as you can see, when we do something for one group of students, it impacts all of the students. It kind of changes the culture. So, um, our academic advancement for AP courses has has
069really increased, um, especially for our students that are in choice and for our students, our Hispanic students. So, um, you can see that we're all in the green there. We still have we still have work to go um, and closing, but you can see that we're closing the gap. Um, so there's two things. one is the number of students that are enrolled, but the other things that we look at is the percentage of seats that they're taking up. Um, and so the the different types of courses that they're taking are important. >> Um, to next, >> yes, I'm reading this right that 2024 2025 school year, we had zero students with IEPs and zero choice students. And now this year we have 25% of the students with IEPs in an AP class and 80% of
070the choice students in an AP class. Is that right? >> Yes. >> That's amazing. >> Happy graduations. >> Cut it out. Well, some of the some of How did it happen? It it happened because first we made people aware of of what AP courses are um and the support that that they were going to need. So, it's talking to counselors about how do we identify students and support them. It's also our SEC SEAL work around time management um self-manage self-management. It's also not just having students um access giving them access to tutoring cuz they weren't going let's be honest. So we have for tutoring I'm like we have to shift this no one's showing up but shifting it to be tutoring and men and mentoring. And then the last thing was actually having um families
071talk to their kids about who they can go to if if if they you know if they need help. So that's why having the counselors available during the evenings and on the weekends is helpful for those conversations as we get ready for next year. >> Are the that is just the cohort enrollment is just seniors this year or what number because it's just only 40. It says 44 with IEP. So obviously it's not the whole school. >> No, that's that's how many that's how many students. Yep. That's how many students are take are in that cohort >> in one class. >> And what is the cohort? >> Senior class. >> Okay. >> So this is the change from their junior to their senior year. >> Yes. >> It's fantastic. >> Yeah. >> What I think
072is also fantastic is the reduction in suspensions. Um again we have the largest um freshman class for um for open choice and if you look at the last column most of the students those 18 students are participating in an afterchool activity whether it's tutoring and mentoring um I'm sorry women's empowerment or men's empowerment um equity council there are these are the students that are at the school until 5:30. These are the kids that are in my office in Miss Grant's office that are there um waiting to be in activities. The cohort that I'm leaning on most right now are the juniors. The seniors seem to be a a little tired of me. And I I do want to share um one story. So, I was looking at the data and I was like, who's that
073one student? when I find that one student. Um, and I went and talked to the one student, the the one student that had a suspension. It was for not going to um Saturday school for being late. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Um, and you know, this the student feels horrible, but I'm like like this is this is your data. I'm going to present this and we could have been at zero because of that. Um, and so, you know, really making the the data real for the students. So, I think I shared a lot about the things that we're doing to be proactive in our ongoing work, but um there's three things that I just want to say before I turn it over so that you can see what it really looks like in
074the school and how they've taken the encouraging words and taking this and and have have made it really live K12. Um, one thing that we have to continue to talk about are the expectations. um what is expected behavior for all students? What can you expect as a parent if something harmful happens to your child? Um what can teachers expect from us with support if they're dealing with a challenge behavior. So a lot of focus on expectations. The second is our protocols. We have sometimes there's so many protocols that we don't spend the time to talk about what's working, what's not working. And so that's when I appreciate parents coming to talk to me and saying, you know, this was my experience because every experience is meaningful and I have want to listen and hear every
075experience. Um and to know whether our protocols are are working or not. And then the last is support. We have to support one another. Um and we have we and part of supporting each other is also being honest with when we need help. And so I need help to continue doing this work. and I do this work with um my colleagues. So now I'm gonna turn it over to Erin Aspel and Steve Madison. >> If we have a question, should we for you on what you've reported? Should we ask you or wait till the very end for anything? >> You can ask because if I don't know the answer, I'm going to ask. >> Um I was just two questions. Was the sixth grade lunch bunch is that all elementaryaries or is it just one
076school? >> It's all elementaryaries. So to Nisha Grant who's our open choice leazison who by the way was open choice lean of the year for crack she's absolutely amazing so um she rotates each Friday so she spends Monday and Tuesday at the high school half day at the middle school Wednesday we're both at the middle school Thursday half day at the middle school half day um at at Crack or Hartford and then on Fridays rotating between the elementary schools And then I just wanted to clarify based on public audience before and and then something you said just to in case other people are watching and don't understand the the the program that was talked about during public audience was a DEI committee that is a town committee. >> Yes. >> But there is also a
077school committee that is the equity council. And those are two different things. >> Yes. They're two different things. >> There's actually three. There's the town. There's our district equity council which Tara sits on as a representative and Dr. Bachelor facilitates and then the high school has their own equity council as well. >> Okay, great. I just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you >> because it's this is community like the school is a part of the community. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Well, thank you for having me back. Um I know there's some new faces. Um a couple of years ago, Steve and I had come to give um an update. We were very excited about a new program we had initiated at Terapill, which was a student equity team at the elementary level.
078We had been doing a lot of work as staff on our equity work and we really wanted to get more student involvement, get some more student perspective, and really some student leadership. So, I'm excited tonight to give you a few updates um as to where that work has gone since we last talked about it. Um so, initially our work on the the student equity team was really focused on some of our equity walks. I think you guys actually participated in an equity walk at one point. Um and just continuing some of the making sure that students can really see themselves in the libraries, in the classroom, in our hallways. Um that was year one. Year two, Taia did me a solid and introduced the encouraging words campaign K12. Um that was really fantastic because and
079we can probably advance to the next one. Um because it gave us a really good focal point. So we used our student equity team to introduce the encouraging words campaign to the entire school. Um, so they proudly created their own encouraging words t-shirts and introduced the pledge in an assembly. And then we really challenged them to do some reflecting about where and when in our building is it the hardest for students to consistently use encouraging words. Uh, and then we wanted them to prioritize what are some things we as a group could do about that. Um so they the not surprisingly from data um we they also identified the bus as a challenge and so they launched a climb on the bus campaign um which again was really trying to show the link between the
080the climb which is our character ed program and encouraging words that these are not two separate things that these are really embedded within each other. And so the um catch that they used was that we are starting and ending our day with encouraging words. The minute you're stepping on that bus um that that's when we're really getting that pledge in in the forefront. So that was one of the initiatives that they uh worked on. They also noticed that there were two problems that sometimes people slip and aren't using encouraging words. And then the second part of that is that when other people heard that, nothing was really being done about it. And so, uh, we took the book, The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade, which is a very sweet read aloud if you're not
081familiar with it. U, they recorded it and then they pushed that out to all of our classrooms. So, um, the students like to hear the older kids read. Um, so that was really nice. And then it gave our teachers a way to uh teach explicitly into what does it mean to be an upstander and to make sure that our students really understood that the encouraging words pledge has two aspects of it. That it's not only that you're trying to use encouraging words, but that when we slip, when we make mistakes, as people do, that people are trying to correct those mistakes and are speaking up. So, um, that was a a really cool, uh, aspect of what they were working on. Um, the other piece that they noticed that is really impactful is learning differences
082in the classroom and kind of the comments that people might make to each other. And so, uh, this equity team, you might remember, was in charge of doing some of our heritage bulletin boards, uh, for the heritage months that we celebrate as a district. they decided that it would be really great to also include a neurodeiversity awareness bulletin board. Uh so we have that every spring and that has really given our students an opportunity to take a look at some incredibly successful individuals who many of them know for their accomplishments and to really be able to see themselves. So there are people with autism, with dyslexia, with ADHD. Um, it's been really neat to hear kids stop at the bulletin board and say, "Oh my gosh, that person has ADHD. I have ADHD." Uh, we
083one of our students advocated that maybe he should be on the bulletin board. I said, "Come back to me in a few years when uh when you can be." Uh, so that is something that we're doing uh every spring now. And uh that bulletin board is Tarfield loves all our learners. And uh that's one that I think the kids were really passionate about and that work is continuing. Right now they're working they have each classroom is assigned to create a new year's wish through a wordle of encouraging words. Uh so they're really looking at what are ways that we can keep this work going as Tia said that it is not a oneanddone. It's not just you throw the pledge up at the beginning of the year and you hope it it goes well. It's
084something that we have to keep living and trying to find ways to have our our students do that work. Um the other exciting work that we've been doing this year with TA's assistance is our community circle work. And uh last spring we actually started reflecting. We had a uh very difficult grade five uh spring and our students were really struggling with challenging behaviors and it was really impactful and we started to think a little bit about okay what does that look like when they become sixth graders and are the leaders in our building? What does that look like when we send them up to the middle school um and they're faced with other transitions? So, we uh started to think very strategically about how we could support them. We had our grade six teachers start
085to meet with them. Uh in the spring, um we had Dr. Bachelor came in and did some work with them. Uh she brought in uh an inspirational speaker, Kendrick Moore, who uh really helped them develop this phrase of locking in and getting themselves ready for leadership. So, as we were ending the fifth grade year, despite all of the bumps, we were really trying to set them up for this different leadership experience and expectation for what it would look like when they returned in the fall. Um, then over the summer, uh, we sat in on, um, some trainings with Dr. Bachelor along with our, uh, sixth grade teachers and our school psychologists to get trained in running the community and restorative circles. And really that training was a commitment that this was how we were going
086to support uh this grade level that had some unique needs. Um we went into it very uh strategically knowing that we thought that uh the community circles would be a good way to try to create a safe environment to start building um some better respect and some listening uh that maybe hadn't been happening as regularly as we had wanted it before. Um and certainly doing that work then enabled us to prepare for the inevitability of um some slip ups and then giving us a way to be able to address that more in from an angle of how can we heal, how can we repair, how can we have this group come back together after feelings have been hurt, after people have been harmed. Um how can we move forward as a group? So that has
087been um really I mean I think for me professionally this year that has been certainly a highlight in the work that I am doing. Um we have been incredibly grateful to Dr. Bachelor who could like in her sleep come up with circle prompts for you um that might take me 10 minutes to come up with and and she just rambles it off. So it's been really helpful. There's been a lot of ongoing work and commitment to that. So, our continued work um you know I I thank Dr. Bachelor and all of us here in this room uh for the commitment to this and and I can surely say it's definitely working. It it is working. Uh I see small improvements with with it uh without a doubt. I mean our continued work at at the
088elementary level you know we all do the everyday speech that's our tier one instruction of social emotional learning. Um, it's not every day because of our our our curriculum and how how the needs and and are are there, but we're we're able to do it at least two to three times a week. And when it's necessary, teachers will stop what they're doing. We'll go into it. We use the everyday speech curriculum to help us, you know, with some of these with some of these behaviors. Um, encouraging words and then words we don't say. This is one of the things that we came on with this this year. You know, our kids are really good about knowing what encouraging words are, but in our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, we really sat down. Taya came in
089uh you know Aaron was there as well and we had a meeting with our with our fourth, fifth and sixth graders on words we don't want to be saying you know and why we don't want to say those you know and reasons for that and that really helped and we challenged our kids you know let's go through this whole year there's slip ups and there's mistakes but we really are doing a a better job this year uh with those words what we don't want to be saying I think it helps because you know kids reflect on them they go back and when we have to do that that restorative practices I think that means a little bit more because of the background we gave them, you know, at at at the start of a year.
090Um, commitment to our climb program. That's our character ed. That's character lives in in my behavior. Um, you know, we do the pledge. We have our climb assemblies and climb activities. Uh, we do the pledge every every climb assembly. So, the kids are seeing it. They're using it. It's in our classrooms. It's hung on the wall. Um, and and and so that's gone a long way as well. uh at the start of the year um we give a survey to our families uh about what things they celebrate at home whether it's holidays, religious holidays and what we've incorporated it as a community calendar. I know I know Latimer Lane has is is kind of kicked it off. They started a year or so ago or maybe two years ago we we took it on and
091uh you know the first of the year we put out on my weekly uh email uh about things in school that we're celebrating and then we have morning announcements about those as well. So, you know, kids see themselves when we go our classroom diverse libraries. I think Terafll has done an excellent job. The kids see themselves in books that they read. They see themselves on pictures on the wall in our classrooms and then that's really gone a long way. And then obviously the work with Deacon Art has been tremendous. Uh he's speed dial for us sometimes. He comes over, he gives talks to our kids. Um and and then he really does a good job with different pers a different perspective of where what he's done in his life and kind of that wise wisdom
092of of instilling that in some of our kids. Uh and our students do look up to him even though there's a tremendous age gap. Don't say tremendous. I didn't say tremendous but there is an age gap. >> He could be watching this. >> That's okay. That's okay. On Sunday so uh but they do respect that. But he has >> he has that unique ability to to kind of it's just another tool in our toolbox that we're using uh in Simsbury that that does definitely help. >> This picture is right before the students all asked him for his autograph >> right there. And those are some of the books we have in our in our library. >> Um and then here, you know, we we go about is this working? We sit in our classrooms as
093adults and and and we put this all together and and ta is it working? And so we surveyed our students and and these are some of the things that they that they said uh you know at the end of the year about encouraging words and and is it making a difference? So those quotes right there you know speak a little bit about you know what what our kids think about it forward. I want to add to that we had a um part of the sixth grade curriculum right now they're doing some TED talks and one of the students came to me uh to interview me because the topic she had chosen and they could choose anything the topic she had chosen was um advocating for encouraging words and why it was so important and so
094she had asked if I would go in and hear her presentation and I don't know what was more moving listening to her give the presentation or seeing her friend in the front row who had a little card up saying, "You've got this. You're going to do great," which I could have used. You could have given me a solid on that, friends over there. Um, but so it's definitely living and and breathing and important to the kids. >> That's great. >> Thank you, Erin and Steve. as as they transition from both seats and Scott and Maggie come on up. What I I do want to say is that Terara certainly is an incredible example of this work and it is happening in all of our elementary schools. And what we want to make sure especially when
095we center ourselves on belonging is that there is the ability for school cultures because all schools have a very unique culture of their own to be able to make it theirs. Right? So it's not about all right everybody has to do this across all five elementaries. This work has to be organic to continue to be real and impactful for those individual communities. So, we could have had any one of our elementary schools come up there and share similar great work that they're doing and also some of the challenges of this work because as Tia said, it's always that balance of moving forward and also recognizing that it's hard. >> Steve, I have a question. Um, the the encouraging words program, is this is that a like a a pre-made program? Is is it from a
096particular resource? our students developed it. So >> they developed it on their own. And is it in every is it in all of the elementary schools? >> It's in every school K12 K12 and Starbucks. Um one of the things that so we had a committee of parents um to support it to get it out into the community because we knew that um kids would take it more seriously and understand it if if it is their part of their community. So there's one the board event, there's one downstairs. Um there there it's everywhere. It's terrific. >> We actually funny story uh we had some swag made around encouraging words and leaving your positive leaving it says leave your mark on the swag and I was out shopping not in Simsbury um after a visit from my
097parents and I had someone stop me and say can you tell me more about what that is? I didn't even share this with you. And I had the opportunity to share what we were doing and they were like, "What school is that?" Like, I need to bring that back to my school district because that's pretty incredible. So, it gives an example of how we can be great stewards of this work and live this work not just in the schools, but out in the community, too. >> So, the leave your mark actually came from seniors. seniors um worked with some students from Yukon and they designed the Trojan um head to look like a fingerprint because they were the seniors leaving so they wanted to leave their mark. So that's why leave your mark is the
098slogan. >> All right. >> Good place to start. I do enjoy following Teraphil. Um and um I think it is important to say that you know we're we're reporting on work that has has gone on in the past couple three years or so. Um but proudly say Terapil I want to say it's almost 20 years ago now is nationally recognized as a school of character um way back. It's work that I think has grown out of that school and really you know how how one school can impact an entire district. how it really um grew from when uh my predecessor Chris Murdock was was there and and started a lot of this heavy duty character work at the elementary level. So, so this work's been going on for decades um in our school. I think
099it's important to acknowledge. Um so, to just go back two years ago, something that we at Henry James um noticed with our climate committee is exactly um speaking to what I think Mr. Bernstein brought up in public comment is that 99% of what we're seeing um when we enter into when students are harmed or where there's a difficult situation with kids started as a joke. It started as we're just playing around. It started with just language that kind of is pervasive amongst the students. You know, I think when kids get to middle school, um, if we think a 20 minute lesson in connections is going to go up against four to seven hours a night on social media in terms of influencing the school, that's not going to do it. And that's kind of what
100we we decided. And so, um, we came up with a, um, a pledge that we wanted students to take. And so, the way we went around it is started with saying like this is not a joking matter. these are things we don't joke around or kid about. Um, and the adults didn't say, you know, you can't say these words or you can't do this. What we had is we put a Google form out to all the students two years ago. Um, and said, just give us three words that when those are said when we're kidding around, things start to escalate or people start to feel harmed or you feel uncomfortable. And so, every student gave us three words. We dumped them into a spreadsheet. And then on this um like word diagram we have the
101larger the word is the more times the students identified that. So very clearly students are identifying the right things when you look at there in the bold like the boldest of the bold words um come up. And so then in connections class, we had activities where students talked about these words, talked about making a pledge and every single student signs the pledge in their connections class um as as a uh a testament to not joke about these things. And so um we keep continue to come back to them. We're going to get all students together for like a midyear reset meeting to talk about um not only this, but you know, the halter tops and the and the being on time to class and all those um fun things that we get to talk about
102in middle school. Um but a centerpiece of our conversation is going to be coming back to this pledge that they took at the start of the year. Um, and it's extremely helpful. I know Steve talked to of the importance of having something to point to to say, remember, we talked about this when issues come up because they do come up and and students do make mistakes and they slip up. Um, and we have an activity that we use and protocol when students do mess up in any of these territories where they do some reflections um, and they use this as a tool. We have like a black and white tool and they actually I back them up to elementary school a bit and they have to color in the some of the categories that they
103um that they slipped up in and do a little reflection on the back of it. So um we will do a reflection on a refresh on this um every two years. So next year I'll give that survey out again and then students will select the words because the trends change, the things shift in terms of the things that they can joke about or how they're being influenced by social media and that sort of stuff. So, we'll do a whole brand new poster and we'll launch that again um in the in the fall of next year as well. Um it's been extremely helpful. Um and I think this is something I'll point to some of the data that I presented earlier on in the year at our annual report. Um that I do think this is
104responsible for a good portion of that data showing so much improvement. All right, move to the next. Um another improvement we've made over the past years is we used to have like a safe school climate committee and it kind of encompassed culture in there as well. We spun that committee off this year into just a culture committee. Um and so this committee is just looking at culture whereas um the other committee is looking at a lot of safe schools data and that sort of stuff. Um so this committee um our our goal at the outset was more student leadership and ownership of the culture of the school. Um and so one of our things we've done um is put students in charge of the observances and celebrations in terms of how do we educate um
105students in real time about the cultural significance of events that happened throughout the year. So again we did a survey. Dr. Bachelor helped me out with this one. Um in the calf we had um treats and students surve um filled out a survey in the calf um about what do you celebrate at home? What do you wish we celebrate um at school? What would you be willing to help us celebrate at school? So, a whole comprehensive um survey in terms of of culture and getting where our students are. We took that created a list of observances that we should be making. And now, as we're marching through the year, we've got student volunteers creating slides. So, like our first slide um we had up on our monitors and everything was for Three Kings Day. I
106have a sample of it up there. So, a student um created that one. And as we move through um the year, students will be submitting slides for us to then use as um ways in which we can educate and celebrate um each other. Uh like a Holocaust Remembrance Day is one that's coming up um that the student. So like students identified that as something they wish we would mention. So they know like um the things that we should be that we should be observing which was pretty cool. So so that's something that a new outgrowth of our culture committee. The culture night is something we've had very similar to Latimer Lane celebration. Um it's a tradition we do in the spring. Um every year since co it's gotten bigger and bigger. We're about ready to
107outgrow our um our cafeteria. So be careful how much I advertise on. Um last year we had two problem. >> Yes, it's a good problem to have. We might have to like jump into the gym or something. Um but we had over 200 people attend last year. 20 countries were represented. Students were doing performances. Um you can see like the dress that they ca some students came in and did some traditional dance um and all kinds of stuff. We share food um stories and and all you know all sorts of celebrations. So that's a probably one of my favorite nights u of the school year. Um but we put that in the hands of the culture committee. This one teacher was running that culture night for the past three years. So we've gotten her some
108help um with our culture committee um in order to uh keep that keep that alive. Great. >> You go to the next one. So, just some continued work that we're doing in our our wellness curriculum. Um, we are really fortunate a fortunate middle school to have wellness every day. I say that every opportunity I get in terms of how thankful I am that the board supports that. Um, because middle school is that time where you're really setting down a lot of those life habits, whether it's for wellness or healthy decision- making. Um, and so our everyday speech curriculum lives within in our wellness curriculum. Um in addition um we continue to engage in staff training around culture and climate. Um we recently had staff engage in um some anti-semitism um workshops that was in December.
109Dr. Bachelor was there as well. Um implicit bias. Our entire staff's been trained in the past couple years and as well as the restorative practices. Um we engage in partnership with Deacon Art Miller as well. Um he run he's been running our students through a really powerful lesson on how discrimination begins um in the auditorium and then we do some um we do some lessons and connections following that which is very powerful and then when students do make mistakes and issues come up we address them head-on. We have a challenging behavior process that we follow. Um I collaborate with Dr. Bachelor. We've run several restorative circles um together. We did one today. Um uh when um things come up and then it's a combination when we have issues that are that are hurtful. Obviously there
110needs to be consequence but our real focus is on learning and how can we learn, restore and heal um when we when we run into these issues. And then finally, I'm not going to read these. I just wanted um some of these markers I put up that were not shared in our annual report that kind of relate to school culture. um improvements across the board, a net improvement um really on every single measure that goes to culture um both for students and for parents in terms of belonging, valuing diversity um and respect. So um lot I think the data is showing that the work we're doing here is having an impact >> questions. Yes. might have to do it from the >> um Yeah, >> maybe down below where it says 17, >> just get
111off the slide there. Yeah, >> not there. Do like click on the sign >> to 19 on the bottom left hand side. Katie, >> right there. Yeah. Yeah, >> there we go. Great. And if you click on the word uh sim talks it should launch you to my perfect and then presentation. >> All right. So again um wanted to share with you some updates from Simsbury High School. Um some of the things that we've noticed um really speak to public comment at the very beginning um which was around this casualness use of um racial slurs. um that what we were noticing and actually to Dr. Bachelor's comments is that there's a culture within a culture at Simsbury High School, what we're seeing is that students when they get with each other um are using different
112language and um so that really started us with some fall focus groups um with students and again obviously we we know students can give us a lot of information but wait till you get to high school. Um, and you need to get the state of the state from just sitting with students. And not only that, um, you get the state of the state, but you get what kids are going to know is going to work and what's not going to work, what's going to be lame, what's going to be, um, not, you know, really land on students to really see themselves in the work. Um, so we spent a lot of time with students and honestly I was really sad. Um, it took me a lot um to really overcome this sadness around the casual
113use of slurs, of calling people names, thinking it's funny, whether it's a part of music, um, and really just starting to, you know, tune into the lobby when you walk through after school hours in different places and and kids really saying, "Yeah, Mrs. Sidell, it's it's a it's a part of just how people talk." and this idea that slurs can be just used um back and forth because everyone knows I'm joking or I don't really mean that or I'm with my group of friends so of course it's okay because it's with them. Um so that really set us in the fall when we started talking to students um to get that state of the state and to get some real input about how to challenge and change this. Um I also took the opportunity there
114was a specific um TED talk. It's actually from a a TED X kids um that we wanted staff to preview as a potential way to start getting after this work. Um so before even giving it to students, I had staff take a look at this, provided them with um why we were doing it and then asked them to take a look at the video, asked them to give me feedback, asked them to really think through that. We also took it to the community. Um uh Dr. Bachelor took it to the Simsbury DEI group, our equity council, and then I put it in our student or our family newsletter for two weeks saying, "Please take a look at this. We're going to be sharing this and showing this with students." Um, so what we did is
115set up a connect lesson with this TED X Kids video called Educate Before You Discriminate. And this is a really powerful, if you haven't seen it, it's an um it's a a student, her name is Mariah Miller, who shares her experiences in a very powerful um quite honestly appalling, sad way of how she um experiences this this level of slurs and discrimination um and how and when it started at a very young age. So the really great thing about this is that um kids told us how this needed to be organized. They said it really can't be in whole grade levels, too big. It really can't really be in connect groups because those are too small. And honestly, one student said, "I'm the only student of color. If you give this video and we go
116with this, I feel really uncomfortable and it's really going to put me in a position where you're trying to get me in a sense of belonging and I actually feel more isolated and more um excluded." So, that was really powerful. We actually took some extensive amount of time, put every single connect class by grade in front of us, looked at the ethnicity of students in those to ensure that we weren't isolating anybody and found this group of about 20 to 30 students where we teamed up um connect groups in order to show this video and to conduct this conversation with students. Um what we noticed is not only was that supportive of the students in the classrooms, it was really supportive of the educators, right? they had somebody else in there to maybe help or
117to diffuse or to talk or to add to the conversation. And teachers said, "I really appreciated the fact that there was another adult in the room for you to play this seven minute video that's got some really serious, it nails it headon. Um, and it really helped us to have better balanced conversations." And then we took and asked students for their feedback. We had over 850 student responses. Um, and it was targeted. I actually brought some of the work that we did um and honestly some of the most common themes were around the students individual experience and um that it was really grounded in her real life not someone lecturing them saying don't do this right kids said that's not going to work Mrs. side. You can stand up there and do that all you
118want. Until you hit students in the right environment, with the right message, with the right platform, it's not really going to start to have an impact. Um, one of the big things that kids came up with in the was the the n-word pass. It exists and this idea that you can pass along this use of this this slur and this this terrible word to others. Um so it really opened some doors and it helped us to get some real information that wasn't um you know all honestly flowery and fluffy. Um the most common theme was around her experience. Um, and again, a significant number of responses focused on the age of the speaker, when these experiences happened, and then how they're using language casually in their own conversations and in social circles, um, and how
119that's impacting others. That realization of how I'm acting and interacting while I might be in here, I'm actually many times around other people and it's and it's having an impact and it's not a positive one. Um, and then there were some purely emotional responses. kids saying, "Gosh, this is appalling. I'm really sad." Um, so we took a real serious look at that feedback from kids um and what they had to say. And that's also been really helping us to um pick up some next steps. The next things what we got from students was is there any opportunity for us to talk more about this? This can't be a oneandone. So we are starting to do some student focus groups. We put it out a couple of times um to ask kids, would you come in
120a smaller setting where it's less about a a prescribed maybe lesson plan, but more about an opportunity to talk? And I'm actually utilizing an my intern um who is going to be coming to um run these as a student who's or I'm sorry, as a um as a teacher outside of ours that there's no judgment. You know, you're not in trouble. You can be honest and truthful. She's really got some exciting ways to hopefully open students up to say, "Give it to me." Um, you know, your teachers aren't in the room. Mrs. Cidell's not here. No one's here that's going to be judging you, and I'm not writing your name next to this feedback because what we want is honest and truthfulness. Um, not it being, you know, couched in any particular way. So, um,
121next week we're going to be having some, um, students come forward. We have about 15 students, which honestly was my hope that it wasn't going to be 52 because that's too big. um how can we get some real voice to start maybe one of several focus groups to better understand how it's exper language is experienced and then how can we move forward because again the kids are our way of really knowing how to get after this work together especially at the high school. The other piece that Dr. bachelor has brought to us is the idea that this student Mariah Miller used this Sims talk or this um I'm sorry this TED talk platform to get her message out. How do we create some Sims talks some issues that are related to Simsberry students and how
122do we translate that and have them take the opportunity to produce their own um you know monologue around things and how we could do things differently. Um we had 56 students share interest in helping us produce that. Um so we're really excited about that work. Um they will be picking the topic. They will be writing the monologue and then they will be presenting this where we'll be videoing it and um showing it during our diversity, belonging, and inclusion week in March. I know there's some interest of also sharing this down with Henry James um in terms of topics that they might be experiencing. Hey, can you give us a student voice from our own high school that could maybe help us get after some of these issues that they're seeing down there as well? So
123um you know like I said it it was powerful in the beginning to sit with students and understand this undercurrent and um while similar to Scott you know we know when these overt things happen and we're able to really you know consequences yes restorative circles and how do we get after it but also how are we helping to solve um some of these things that are not so overt but do exist in our school community that are truly bothering students um and sometimes they don't know how to stand up and say that to others. That's the other real big piece that we saw um are some possible next steps is to co-create a shared language agreement a little bit further and deeper than the encouraging words campaign. Our students really are saying we need a
124little bit more than that. And then um the possible, you know, uh like a launch of an awareness campaign, think before you speak. And then the peer-led bystandard intervention. What we've noticed and what kids have said is, you know, I I'm not really sure how to intervene when it's part of a song or part of music and people think it's great to just stand up and repeat a lyric that uses the n-word in front of everybody. Like, I'm not really sure how to stand up and say, "Hey, that's not okay. That's not cool. That's not how we do that." Um, so we're working on also how do we build some bystandard intervention, but it also comes down to simple things like um, you know, our athletic director, Heather Golden, the other day students had on
125music in the gymnasium. Hey, we're not having music on that use, you know, the nword, that uses curse words, that uses just some little things. Um, and say, and they're like, oh, you're right. I'm so sorry. You know, and they're really starting to notice that um, this is a professional setting. It's a school setting. Um, and we really want that to be a safe setting where students know, um, that they are not going to be, you know, inundated with this type of language that's so harmful and so hurtful. So, um, while I think that we've just tipped the iceberg at some of this subtlety and this casual use, um, I do think that we are on the right track. Um, and I'm excited to gather some more information from students, um, this month and then
126really how is it living and playing out in the months to come. Thank you. >> I I just want to I'm sorry I am a little speechless just because I that was about as good of a presentation as I've seen in my 10 years on this board. So I I really want to thank all of you for your contributions. There is um pro you know there is probably no more important work that we do collectively than what we what we're discussing tonight. We can talk all we want about grades and individual classes but if those individ if those learners are not comfortable >> we'll never get them to excel. So, I really appreciate, you know, we kind of came out of an unfortunate incident, an unfortunate um newspaper article, but I am really glad we
127did this um tonight. So, I just wanted to say that I want to say thank you again for everything that that you all have brought tonight. Um and I also want to say we heard it in public audience and we heard it with our speakers. We collectively have to do this. We can't leave it to the team here. We can't leave it to the teachers. we as a board and us, we're all parents, us as parents who have to lean into this and make sure this work continues vigorously. Uh and um you know because we have to lean into this. We continue to have to lean into this. So that's I just wanted to say that and again let let me open up to any comments, questions um for anybody. I was just curious about
128one part was the the SCSL stuff at Henry James is that in the health class do they do that and they have that >> part of each of their unit. >> Okay. >> And do they do that at all at the high school? It is. Yes. >> Okay. So like that bystanders intervention because that is such a huge and hard thing even as an adult I think it is a really hard thing that it should be something >> that I hope would be included in health curriculum. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> And this has been I mean you you have been working on this a very long time all of you in a lot of different methods. This was a very um it was really nice to hear how you're working together and how you're using
129the students to kind of lead some of this work because I do think that they listen to themselves more than they listen to us on some of this stuff. >> It's really cultural and I think um our our school cultures are hugely important more important every minute of every day. And um I love that you're working on this. Thank you so much. I know it'll take a long time before you feel the true success of it, but it every every every time you have a kid think about it once, you're you're making a difference. And that's the important thing. >> Yes. I I just have a quick question. Um I I I it kept coming back around to um the social media and and the culture that that exists outside the schools or whatever. And
130I and I keep thinking about the parental aspect of this whole thing. And can any of you speak to our any any kind of um involvement with the parent community bringing them in any kind of workshops or or anything that would go on? >> So, you know, we partnered with um our PTC and and have been offering evening events um for parents to come in. We've we've um consulted with outside experts as well um to have parent evenings whether it's talking about cell phones, anxiety, um you know the depression that can come along with it. Um so and the high school's done the same thing where we we offer evenings for parents to have parent education on and stuff. >> I know >> they've been very well attended at the middle school. >> Yes, we
131I mean sometimes at a PTO meeting we've gotten upwards of 60 70 parents coming out for some of our program which is great. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And you and you've partnered with the police, too. I know that they've come and spoken. >> Yes. Just I mean, just this Monday, we had um Farmington Valley Health District and the police come out do a vaping session um about um some of the awareness on that stuff as well. >> And at the elementary level, some of those conversations earlier come in to talk about some of the social media and parents are informed of all of that. Um certainly as we've had issues in specific grade levels related to changes that are happening outside of school via social media of some sort but are impacting students when they
132come back in school. I know our administrators address that head on with communication parents as well. parent meetings. We've had parent meetings with groups of parents >> of talking out and those >> those are scary to start but they always end like it's it's usually the parents are coming for the right reasons and it really works out well >> because I yeah because I I just know there's so many people out there that are just kind of lost. They don't quite know what to do and they would need a good resource to to come in and >> and be educated and be be a part of that kind of culture and communities. >> Can go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say um I know Dr. Ber you give us a an update I
133think yearly and I always appreciate them. They're really really informative. This one was sort of extra special and the level of um concrete information and detail that was just so informative for me at each of the different levels and I I really appreciate it. um this is really important work and this is and each one of you has made a point of expressing that this is not surface level work that you're all doing. you really are sort of reaching down into the weeds of all of this to make an impact and it's it's clear how important it is to each one of you and I think it's important to each one of us >> and I I just hope our community realizes that this is something we really take seriously and this presentation really helped
134to show that. So, thank you for coming all of you. >> I was just going to say one last thing on the I love all this work. I think it is so important. I think it's important and it's amazing about the older kids, but starting younger the way that that they have and what they're doing in the elementary schools, I think it's critical to making long-term change. >> And I also want to say thank you that I've gone my whole life never hearing the phrases restorative circle or community circle until today. And so I thank you. I think this is so awesome and I love that idea. I think it's great especially with kids having to figure it out and come back that restorative circle I think has got to be >> positive and for
135for parents I'm I'm a parent my kids are grown but I didn't have a a son who always made the right choices in school and so I share that publicly. Um, there's even times where he says, "Mommy, I'm so sorry." And I said, "But you gave me beautiful grandchildren, so you're but I empathize and and and I understand what it's like to be a parent of a child who doesn't always make the right decisions. And so our support, especially in our restorative circles, is not to cause more harm. is that when we had our circle today, um Scott and I shared with students that sometimes you can have an go through an experience and based on how people approach or support you through it, you can either become a person who's really mean and nasty
136the rest of their life and don't like other people or you can learn and grow from it. And so we're whenever something happens, we're here to support all of the students, the student who made the mistake and the student who was harmed. And that's hard sometimes um for people to understand. Also, when we talk about all children, it's not just our black and brown students or our students that have challenging behaviors. It's also our students that are doing well in AP courses but are feeling stress and making sure that teachers notice that um and that our school counselors are checking in with them even if it is a Saturday quick phone call. I know you had an AP exam. I know you were studying hard for it. Just wanted to check and see how you're
137feeling. So it's it's everyone. Um so thank you for giving us the time to share that. >> Thank you team. >> Yeah. Thanks >> everybody. >> Keep it up. >> Yeah. >> All kids make mistakes. >> Right. Exactly. You really can't just >> Great. Uh um in your packet, uh this is not necessarily a voting item, but um as I circulated before the new um um committee assignments um there again work through it. Um but that's just for your review. Again, if anybody has any questions or anything, please let me know. >> Um that tomorrow too, Jeff, on the website. >> Okay. Okay, great. Great. Um, and then next is public audience. Another round of public audience. >> Great. >> My son wanted to say something, but I think he it was he he um
138No, but he No, no, he he he's >> Okay. >> He's addressing it to the person. >> Oh, perfect. when she was talking about those um uh uh conversations that are happening in in the hallways and stuff, he reached over to me and he's like accurate accurate that's very accurate. He has some very strong feelings about that. So, I think that >> he's addressing that with awesome right here right now. Um >> I also wanted just to say at at parents, we we are completely overwhelmed with social media. Um trying to figure out how to a lot of how how to deal with it. I mean, when you you see everything from kids who aren't allowed to have their their phones until a certain age to kids who have them in early in elementary school
139and are exposed to all of these sorts of things and um I don't know if the school district has ever thought of um those where you put your phones in the little >> Yeah. But I don't know. But I I know that we we we don't know we don't know we don't we don't know what to do. We're completely overwhelmed and their brains are completely overwhelmed. Oh, absolutely. Uh next next uh next meeting is the 27th right here. We'll probably do a back to the budget to issues. >> And with that, I will >> take a motion to adjurnn. >> Excellent. >> All right. Thank you everybody. Really appreciate it. For over 40 years, SEM has been the voice of our town, >> bringing us together through local programming, >> education, and live broadcast. >>
140SEM isn't just about television. >> It's about empowering our community, >> ensuring our voices are heard during government meetings and celebrating milestones >> like our high school graduations. >> But today, SEM faces a challenge. >> Our funding structure is based on television subscriptions. And it's no secret people have been cutting the cord. With a shift to internetonly 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.
141They're actually preserving Simsberry's history. >> Join us in preserving Simsberry's voice. >> Simsberry's voice. >> Together, we can ensure that SEM continues to thrive >> for generations to come. >> Visit our website >> or scan the QR code on your screen to make your donation. >> Every contribution counts. >> Thank you for supporting Simsbury Community Media, where your town, >> your schools, and your government come together.