Board of Education Meeting - September 30, 2025

001everybody to the board of that ice box. >> Yeah, exactly. Yes. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance as always 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. [Music] >> Are they there? >> They're there. >> Oh, all right. >> Walk up music, right? >> We should have had a little walk up. >> Fill right in. [Music] All right. >> You got a turnout, huh? [Music] >> Well, welcome everybody. >> I don't have my >> So, we'd like to welcome >> Coach Bont, Coach Rick Bontanovis, the coaching staff, and a bunch of the kids here. So, this is long overdue. >> Um, we have a little tradition here lately as we've we've had a great

002kind of run in the girls sports side at Simsbury High School to bring uh state champions forward uh for recognition. So, you guys played that big game after the year already ended. >> So, we didn't get a chance to do that. So, we wanted to do that early on in the year. Um, so it was awesome. So, I have a couple I talked to coach this morning. I got a couple couple fun facts to share. All right. So, um, this is a team that made it to the state championship game the prior year, >> lost to Massich, correct? Yeah. >> And then beat Massik in the semi-finals. >> So, they finished 18 and three on their way to a state title game. We were at bunch of us were at that game. Awesome environment uh

003down at Fairfield University. >> Um, and really a dominant dominant performance over Cheshure High School, which is Coach Rick's alma mater. anyone else where where where he where he and mine. So it was kind of uh >> kind of made it even even sweeter. So um a real dominant performance by the kids and this is just a super talented team. There were six girls that made all conference. >> Wow. >> Six girls that made all state. It's just unheard of. And I believe 10 to 12 starters coming back. So the expectations are not low. Expectations are not low. Um, but wow, they play the right way. They play for each other. They play with great motivation and spirit. Um, coach, you've done a great job and your coaching staff with the program uh since you've

004been aboard and we we couldn't uh couldn't thank you guys enough for what you do in in the school spirit. So, awesome job. Look forward to seeing some more games. And, um, we had some exciting news, too. One of your top players just committed to Princeton as well. >> That's right. She's kind of big time things going on with this program. >> Doing homework. >> Yeah. Can we get a quick picture? [Music] >> I don't know that the banner's up yet. Is it? It's not up. >> No, it's not. >> It's trying to get out of there. All right, let's say lax. One, two, three. Lax. >> Lovely. >> Thank you. >> All yours. >> Thanks for coming out. We know you're busy. We're not going to >> Thank you so much. Thank you so

005much. Thank you. Byebye. It was nice to see you all. >> Hopefully we'll see you again next year. >> If you have daughters, they should have a lacrosse stick. >> I hope you know I've been recruiting. >> Might as well. >> Awesome. >> Thank you, coaches. >> Everybody, have a good night. >> Like a fun fact. We should make that fun. Every meeting should have a fun fact. >> There should be a fun fact. feeding me so many fun facts. I got it now. >> Well, that's great. >> Great. Almost as much as October. There's some fun facts. >> Oh god, you love this meeting. I forgot. >> I don't think we have public audience, but just let me No. Okay, perfect. Uh, >> we have it if we had public. >> Exactly. >> Correct.

006We just don't have public. >> So, uh, committee reports and communications. Let's start with Eva Berry, our our latest student representative. >> Yay. I'm happy to be here. >> Welcome. >> Um, from Miss Sidell, I have three things. Um, first, the Choices Matter program from the Connecticut Highway Department is coming back to uh the high school to speak with students 10 and 11 about distracted driving as they come into new licenses. Um, and the seniors, which was my class, had this two years ago. Um, and we're doing a different program for us in the fall. Um, the music department is also hosting the Nothing But Treble. Oh, this is Night of Talent. I'm so sorry. The music department is hosting Night of Talent on Friday the 3. Um, and staff members are performing. Mr. Kasi

007is doing pull-ups. If anyone's familiar, um, do go. It's going to be exciting. It's for the friends of San Music. Um, and then we have PSATs on next week on October 8th for 9, 10, and 11, and it's a half day. >> Good. Great. >> Thank you, Josh. >> Um, as far as committee, uh, thank you Katie for getting the comm's committee meeting set up. So we're going to have three again this year. October 24th, January 9th, April 24th. So we'll stagger those around when we have activities going out. So more to come once we have that, but those are on the calendar. So that'll be good. And then just not committee related, but just to kind of Rick and the lacrosse team, just kind of a shout out there to them. Not only is

008like a great team and a great thing he's doing there, but I know he and his players are involved in like this grow the game initiative in town. I'm I'm on that with them having coached lacrosse and like they're putting in their time on Friday nights to do like these clinics over like the Christmas vacation to do these clinics for like the youth program. So again, it's not just a team that's doing well in high school. It's a team and a coaching staff that's like committed to the game throughout the town. So I just wanted to throw that out there. It's very commendable what they're doing with kind of what they have and you know trying to make it best for the whole town. So appreciate that. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. Uh nothing committee wise,

009just great job seems very relax, >> right? >> Yeah, just a quick update um for for the personnel and negotiations committee. Um we are well into our negotiations, our talks with the SEA um and we wrap things up next week uh on Thursday with our mediation night and yeah, it should be another three-year contract. So things are looking good. >> Great. Great. >> Yeah. Um we had um opening with um Cab and the commissioner came to speak with us on the state board of education and uh this year the commissioner's message I know Matt you when you went to your school opening with the commissioner superintendent you heard the same thing and it's about locking unlocking life locking unlocking lifelong potential. So, the commissioner spoke about many things that are happening within the state, test

010score, gains, attendance, and and a number of different investment, Connecticut investments, and and a number of things. Um, you can all go on the the Connecticut STE portal and has everything about every district um you know, in there, including attendance and curriculum and and what have you. So, so it's always interesting to hear the commissioner come and give her back to back to school report. Um, on the correct front, we have a great school opening. We have 9,100 students in climbing and we that that are our correct students within our schools and programs and and um we have 700 bus routes. So, that is quite a feat for a district um to to be able to handle every year. The more important thing is is that um on the legislative front again this year, I

011know I always sound like a broken wreck beading the drum, but um if there's a special session this year, which many of you heard about, you know, this could include the pieces of the leftover ed reform from last spring after session is over, school security changes, um again, a civic seal on diplomas, high school graduation require requirements. Um they're constantly tweaking that and they're including PD in that. Um they're legislating another mandates council even though we already have one and we already have existing mandates. Um and this is where we are again the lack of magnet funding and we're starting off the year just continuing from last year. So so that's where we are with that. So, it's always great to start the school year off with some positive legislative news. >> Nice, Jen. >>

012Yeah. >> Thank you, Sarah. >> Um, we had a we had our first curriculum meeting this morning >> and so I can just give you a quick update. We um the high school English language arts spoke to us about a couple things. One, um the writing center. We had um Linda Mayan Myin um talking about a new tutors book to teach tutors to tutor better and and to and classify and a consistent um system of working with the English language um class helping the kids write better. Um, and I wrote notes and they're all too small for me to read, but um, they uh, she has 25 students that actually work in the writing lab, which I thought was really interesting and very and they are doing it, some are doing it as their capstone.

013They're interns. So, this all goes as it's all programmatic and it's very, very cool. And you know, I think her message to us was we're really trying to get the word out so that kids feel comfortable going in there and getting the need the stuff they need from the um tutors and from the teacher who supports them. Um so it was great to hear it. It seems like it's really positive um and it's a really important I think piece to because you can go whenever you need. You don't have to go for a long period of time. You can go for one paper or you know a whole class if you have issues. So or help need a little bit of help which we all do. Um and then the other piece was um they

014have a couple texts that they're trying to work into the new curric the curriculum in AP language. So um we are uh looking at those reading through them and more to come on that. Um really exciting was Jacqueline Patella and Amy um Kepler >> Cleber. Cleveland um and they worked really hard with a fabulous group of people a fabulous whole committee of people who worked all summer to put together into one handbook study skills handbook and they're putting study skills in Henry James and they're working hard to get that aspect of organiz organizing students Google classroom um and how to use it better and how um and this is available to all parents too. If you want one contact James and they can get one. Um, but it was they've already had a meeting and

015they had a lot of parents come to the first meeting to discuss it and the kids are working on it in the in school. They worked it on it the first couple days and it's I am really excited about this. I think it's a really great place and great um a ton of resources and um ideas for kids to help them in a very simple don't stress way. You know, smarter not harder. >> Yes. So, >> they use their knowledge and wisdom for working with middle school kids. They've been consulting with outside supports for students who are experts in the area. So they took information from them and they provided general study skills but also study skills that are very applicable for certain content areas. So they will be teaching into these skills within the

016content classes as well as in their some of their connections. So it's exciting. >> It's very exciting. It's very needed and I think we could all >> take a short-term class on it. >> No, that's great. We talked a lot about studying, how to study on this board and so that's really great. >> I was thrilled and they did a great job. >> So, well, every student at Henry James get one of those. >> I think they all have already. >> They have already. >> They already have the first couple days. They set up um they have and they worked on setting up Google classroom getting involved in their invested in setting up their own Google page for how they can and um what she said what was interesting was that um everyone's going to

017have a checklist of their classes and their things so that they can still check things off even though it's like a paper instead of a a digital piece they can actually still check it off as having done it. And she also said that there's a app connect where you can see your kid's name. You put in your child's name and all of his classes will come up and so you'll know you'll be able to check in with that too as a parent. >> Excellent. >> It was pretty cool. >> Yeah, it's great. They worked very hard to develop consistent expectations for Google Classroom because they were finding with well-intended teachers that it was looking different on the kid end on the parent end and that's hard to manage. So creating those consistent expectations is going

018to translate to clarity for kids, for parents, and for teachers. So certainly more to come, but some significant summer work that the group of educators did and shared with us today. >> That's great. >> Appreciate it. >> Very good. >> Nothing additional right now. >> Yep. >> Tomorrow's October 1st, so Laura Shelman and I will conduct the annual count ticket of the children. We're looking forward to it. Um, and we'll be here in two weeks to tell you how high we counted. >> You line them all up. >> Not that. >> Great. I don't have anything. >> All set. All right. All right. Just keep rolling. >> All right. First on the agenda is the approval of the September 9th uh meeting minutes. I I'm sure everybody's looked at them and reviewed them. >> Use

019our study skills that we just talked about. I'll make a move a motion to approve the minutes. Great. Is there a second? Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I oppose. >> I abstain. >> One abstension. Um on to personnel. You know, we have two um early in the year resignations that um we need to talk about. One is uh squadron line teacher Juan Gonzalez. Juan has been with us here in Simsbury for seven years. He did um the first decade of his career in a more urban school district, came to Simsbury and has kind of had the calling to go back to the uh urban setting and and um you know that experience at the end of his career. So, uh Juan uh was with us until September 19th. We are

020using one of our building subs to fill in in that class. And then we're uh Meg Evans has begun the hiring process. So um Allison Murphy Shay uh was in a role. It's a hard role to explain. She mostly um we have to facilitate PPTs at all the private schools in town and some of the um uh magnet schools. Um and she does some PPTs at Sbury High School. So, um Allison moved to uh North Carolina this summer. Um and in a second you'll see that we actually found somebody highly skilled to replace uh a difficult job. So, congratulations to Allison, but she did um resign that position in August. >> So, we need a a motion, folks. It's in front of somebody. I move that the board of education accept the resignations of Juan

021Gonzalez effective September 19th, 2025 and Allison Murphy Shay effective August 11th, 2025. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Um I'd like to I don't know Alison Murphy so I can't speak to her but to Mr. Gonzalez Gonzalez. He was an excellent teacher, really wonderful for our students and it's sad to see him go. Anybody else? >> All those in favor? >> I I >> any [Music] second action that requires your vote is a guaranteed leave of absence for the year. Brianna Downey became a new mother. Uh she's in grade one at Terapill School. Um, and this was a situation where we had hired a teacher at Terville School last year who we had to >> um, uh, do a reduction in force because it was only a one-year appointment. So,

022this is kind of the completion of the plan to keep that teacher around. Um, and Briana will be taking this full year with a guaranteed to return at the start of next school year. >> Great. I move that the board of education approve the leave of absence for Brianna Downey effective August 25th, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 with guaranteed position upon her return. >> I'll second. >> Great. Any discussion? >> Uh, all those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Great. Thank you. >> Um, and then just appointments that don't require your vote, but I'll go through them quickly. Uh, Beth Dooy is the first one. This is the person who we uh are going to um replace Alison Murphy Sha's position. Um Beth, you know, very complex work running complex PPTs and that's

023exactly the work that Beth was doing in Hartford for the past decade. And then there was some um reconstituting of positions in Hartford. she was looking for an escape valve and couldn't believe that this job opened up. Um and so we um brought Beth right in here and Maggie and Katie Crystal met with her and um she just started I believe last week. Um Tara Pagliero is returning to us. She was a speech and language pathologist. This is a very small part-time position um 0.4 so it's two days a week up at central school and covers that case load. And then Jonathan Prell uh you may recall at the last meeting we had a math teacher at um Henry James resign in the first three days of school. Jonathan is a recent seems very high

024grad who know >> went up to school in Maine. Um he was uh and uh excellent. He coaches track for us. He was an excellent track athlete all state in high school. He's still going to continue doing that. Um, and he he got both a certification in elementary education with a concentration in math up at the University of Maine and uh has been a middle school math teacher for the past year and is excited to return to Henry James. Um, it doesn't he starts tomorrow, but he already has been here. He met all the parents on open house night. Um, and John is super excited. and I'm looking forward to having him at Andrew James. >> It's great. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Uh acceptance of the gift from the Grid Iron Club. >>

025Yes. There's actually two gifts for your consideration this evening in accordance to your policy. Any gift that exceeds $1,500 requires your approval. So the first is from the Sidsbury Grid Iron Club. It's a gift of $3,000 to offset the costs of light rental for the grass fields at the high school. So, there is a motion there for your consideration. >> I will move that the proposed gift of $3,000 from the Simsbury Grid Iron Club be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Just we appreciate it very much so their kids aren't practicing in the dark. U >> uh all those in favor. Any opposed? >> Great. Thank you. Next one. >> Great. The second is from the PTO organizations of all of the elementary schools specific to their cultural enrichment committee. So, this committee is

026in charge of bringing cultural programs to all five of the elementary schools. Last year it was Latin beat dancing, Japanese drums and bamboo flutes, as well as poetry and motion. So this year coming up will be Chinese acrobats and Mexican dance and culture. So these are very high energy programs. They're always loved by the kids and staff alike. Uh the gift is in the amount of $21,51 and that will cover all programming this year at all five elementary schools. There's a motion there for your consideration. >> Move that the motion. Josh, you >> move that the proposed gift of funds from all the elementary school parent teach organizations to provide cultural programming to elementary school students be accepted. >> One second. >> Second. I'm going to second. >> Any discussion? >> Just this is such

027a wonderful thing that PTO's do every single year and they bring such incredible programming. We're really lucky and really appreciative of all the effort that the PTO's take on their shoulders to raise this money. So, thank you. >> And it's a lot for that committee. That's a big committee that has to >> all the schools and stuff. It's kind It's a good committee. It's nice. >> It's a lot of work they do. >> I remember mine. That's how fun they were. Like I remember exactly. >> That's awesome. >> No better endorsement than right there. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Great. Thank you. >> Academic report. We uh welcome the high school team here this evening. It's great to see everybody. Um, Miss Sidell, we have Georgia Robert, Ken Parah, assistant principles.

028>> We're going to do some wave switches. >> New I know. I'm just saying new Scott Redmond. Welcome, Scott. And um Mr. Stillman as well, our director of counseling. So um while uh Jen, your favorite report is 101. This is one of my favorites. An opportunity to hear um the results from Simsbury High School last year as they align with the strategic plan and new kickoff this year in terms of what their focus areas are. So, a lot of great things going on and certainly an opportunity for the board to ask any questions that they have. >> All right. Backwards, huh? You set me up. >> Just wanted to see if that was >> That's our presentation. >> All right. Well, good evening everyone. Um, >> that's it. >> Fire over them. excited to be

029here tonight with you to share with you our school report that closes the 2425 school year. Um, and we'll also take an opportunity to share with you our priorities for the upcoming year. As Mr. Curtis just shared, I'm excited to have our whole team here. Um, inclusive of our newest member, Scott Redmond, that we've put right through the gauntlet. We weren't going to have him, you know, present anything tonight, but we actually found that every picture of the slides that he will be presenting, he was there for. his first week was quite action-packed. So, all right. So, to sum up the year 24-25, it was really about setting the foundation. When we think about some really important foundational elements, they came um last year in terms of our systems. When we think about those systems

030in the classroom, our cell phone policy, huge foundational element that got put into place, kids are really good about it. Um and that was a huge piece of the work from last year. that inclusive of our attendance policy, making sure that we really had students thinking about the importance of the minutes in the classroom, the impact when they're not there or if they're late. Um, and also really making sure that our students knew that we're not an open campus. Um, that there are certainly opportunities for them to come in late and to leave early as they become juniors and seniors, but we do need to adhere to our policy. So, we really made sure that those are clear. our students and our families. We've found when we make the expectations clear and we really outline

031them for people, they're really great about adhering to things. Um so that was certainly a foundational element from last year. Also, our student intervention structure, how are we supporting students if they've got um additional needs. Um so those things were all part of our work from last year. Establishing clarity, making sure that really clear expectations, protocols both for teachers, for students, um for all of us and our expectations of each other were set forward. Also foundational element of our culture, making sure that we're setting some really cool traditions in terms of our school spirit, but also listening to our students around what they want. Um so those things all really set us up to gather what we've been calling our year of momentum. When we left the year last year, it was really a relief

032because we had done a lot, but we also knew what the work was moving forward. And that's really where we came into our theme for this year, which is gathering momentum. The idea that these small wins, the consistency, you know, really honing in lead to powerful results. And we've already seen a lot of these and there's certainly more to come. So tonight, we want to showcase the results of the year really in two major buckets. and then we're going to share with you our priorities for the upcoming year. So, in student growth and success, um we'll start with our AP celebrations. This slide to sum it all up is really about um students accessing opportunities to stretch themselves. Um these numbers are super super impressive. So, last year we had 491 students take at least

033one AP class. If you remember, AP is really available for 11th and 12th graders. We have a few opportunities as a sophomore, but 491 students took that opportunity and many of them taking more than one. 1,061 tests were taken and 89% of those um the students achieved a three or better with 912 of those tests meeting that three or higher criteria. So that's really really high. Um last year um it was 84% achieving that and now we're up to 89%. Um, and again, this is one at the bottom. 80% of our seniors who graduated last year took at least one AP course. It was 63% the year before. So, what we've seen as our students really taking that opportunity to stretch themselves to to really step out of their comfort zone. So, that change and

034that shift, I think, is really really impressive when it comes to our AP. The next generation science scores are very, very consistent. this this particular test we continue to showcase just very strong results being third in the DUI with 85.3% of our students reaching goal or above goal and if you can see over the past three years it's all within two points 1129 was the average score 1130 1128 so what that tells us our teachers have clarity of expectations in terms of the curriculum they know how to help and support students and they really have that alignment of the curriculum um and their assessments are showing what the kids know, what they need support with, and how to consistently do that over time. I think the most impressive data on here is our subgroup data.

035When we look at our percentage of special ed students that are at or above, we're the highest we've been in three years with 62.5%. I like to see it out of a fraction. Those percentages are great, but how many students? So, that's what that is. That 30 out of 48 students were at or above goal. 100% of our students from the choice program were at or above and it's the highest score in three years of our students of color um achieving at or above goal. So, this one certainly continues to knock it out of the park, but it's our sub um our subgroup data that's really really impressive. SATs, we know this is coming up um in terms of our PSAT, which is that prerequisite in English. We had um this is a year of

036growth. This particular class really what I want you to focus in on, they took the PSAT last October, the SAT in the spring. The amount of growth throughout the years for this particular cohort of students was really impressive. It speaks to their consistency, those small wins, but also about our teachers and where they hit those instructional marks to help students from that beginning threshold to where they ended up. So in English, we were fourth in the DUI. At the PSAT in the fall, we were at 79.6% being college ready. By the end of the year, this particular cohort was 83.4%. The big thing too is when you break it down and look at the domain scores, those are those little scores within the whole expression of ideas went from 66.1 to 85.5%. So they really

037honed in on instruction. Um the English conventions is another area that we've struggled with in the past that also had a significant increase from where the students this particular cohort was from the previous year to the end of the year. I can't say it enough. the um I put at the bottom the teacher they're in you know they're they're honing in they're watching how kids are doing we did use which is a platform we did use different interventions to support kids and we use the resources from college board that allowed kids to see the type of questions that they're being asked because many times they're just phrased very differently than what they're typically used to when it comes to math um we were ranked sixth in the DR and again this particular group of students

038um I don't think it's the overall performance that you know is really staggering or we want to continue to improve but this particular group went from 44.6 being college ready to 55.7 again those subgroup um that those domain scores algebra we know kids need to have when they leave us that shift in the algebra subcore from 31.8 8 to 52.5 is really a significant growth. And I do want to say that our students from the class of 2025 who graduated this past year, they certainly performed higher than the class of 2026, but the class of 2026 grew more. So that to me just shows the work that they put in over the year. So yes, you can certainly look and compare those two cohorts comparative to each other. But when we look within, I think

039it's really impressive that our current seniors, the amount um of growth over the course of the year was certainly something to be um celebrated for sure. And again, we did a breakdown and looked at particular teachers, how those teachers, where their kids were from PSAT to SAT, and it was mind-blowing. something that we're also going to be tapping into to say to teacher, hey, instructionally, what did you do? How did you shift this? What So, there's so much to be gained and learned from those um both in English and in math. So, that's where we landed the year and I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Stillman to talk a little bit about SAT and other areas of growth. >> Um, so as Maggie just mentioned, the SAT scores were just up there. That's

040a March test. We always uh administer the PSAT in the fall, usually the second or third week in October, and we administer that to grades nine, 10, and 11. And really what we say to the students is the P stands for practice. The more you practice something, the better you're going to get at it. So, we really want all grade levels to take it seriously. Um, but also know that there's multiple opportunities to take the PSAT and it's all going to lead to your preparation for the SAT. Uh, last year, uh, Maggie had, uh, some students who put on a night with for some parents, uh, that were invited to come. And what the students did, they did a great job of showing how you can take your PSAT results and prep using the available

041tools uh through College Board, through Khan Academy, uh and really for for free. Do some SAT prep to get yourself ready for uh the March SAT. And there's plans to do that again uh this year at some point uh in between the PSAT and the SAT. Uh the SAT being administered on March 18th. All right. In terms of the uh the counseling department, it's always our goal as a counseling department to uh ensure that all of our students have a post-secondary plan that aligns with their interests, their values, and their goals. Uh and I want to show you a little bit of how we did last year and and what are some of our goals uh going forward this year. So during our application season, as you can see, n 17% of our graduates were

042accepted to a most competitive college. Uh we've deemed the most competitive college a combination of the top 50 universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges using the US News and World Report rankings um which is a well-known ranking list. Um we had some individual uh colleges that you know were impressive. We had students accepted at Princeton, Colombia, Harvard, Cal Berkeley, Williams. We had two at Georgetown, two accepted to Yale. Um, so some really uh, you know, according to US News and World Report, some top top colleges out there. Um, I say that because for us it's about finding the best fit for our students. Um, so whether that's one of the top 100 colleges, whether that's a state school, whether that's going across country, um, we want our students to seek out those opportunities. Uh,

043whether it's academic, whether it's location, whether it's a financial decision, what's the best fit for those students? Um, and it's not a four-year college for everybody. Uh, we had almost 10% of our students go to two-year college. Uh, again, with the state, uh, two-year college program, uh, being a free option for students right out of high school, uh, it's a great opportunity for students, whether they want to go for two years or continue after that, um, to continue for four years. >> How many students went to tech schools? >> Uh, it was a lower percentage this past year. Um I think it was only a couple. It was only a handful of students that went this past year. Um so we're at 90% of four-year uh and two-year military was 1%. The the remaining um

044percentage there remaining eight or nine% was the tech schools uh going right off to work uh or um still deciding what they want to do, taking a gap year and and figuring it out. Um, and that's the last bullet right there. >> Can I ask you a question? Do you have any of those numbers for last year as it compared? Like are you >> Yeah, so um I the most competitive college that was around 19% last year. It always hovers around that 17 to 20%. Uh we were lower in the four-year uh graduate. It was 76% going to fouryear and it was 14% going to two-year. So, the combination was still 90% going off to college. It was just more two-year uh last year than it than it was this past year. So, >> thank

045you. >> Y [Music] this might be for Maggie. I don't know. For the SAT scores, >> I remember this conversation last year. What do they consider college ready for EL for English and math? What What is that number? >> Yeah. 480 and 510. at the SAT >> English. >> No, the SAT it goes up for it's 530 >> reading and 480 math. It goes up from >> 480 English and 530 m. >> 530. Okay. So they it's a higher number for math which that's I remember this conversation. Yeah. >> And I don't have an answer for why. >> Yeah. >> That is >> it just >> it's also >> reinforces why our numbers aren't as good. Statistically, that number represents the likelihood of a student achieving a C or better in a college math course.

046The algorithm behind it, I couldn't tell you, but that's what that number is supposed to represent. [Music] So, one of our goals as a counseling department the past few years has really been to look at our counseling curriculum and focus on career education uh for college and nonbound non-olbound students. Um you know whether students are going off to college or not going off to college at some point the goal is to have a career. So creating these opportunities for students to explore careers uh while they're in high school, we feel gives them a better opportunity when they graduate high school to to know what path they want to take. Um I'm going to share a couple things that we've done last year and some things that we're we're currently working on. Uh one, many of

047you may be aware of Naviance. We've had that program for over about 20 years. It's our career and college uh database and we are switching over to a new program called school links. We've done a lot of research on the difference between Navvian and School Links um including talking to a lot of high schools that have switched over. There's a lot of similarities with the two. You can see the the the college data and and the scatoggrams of how students at our school have done uh getting into various colleges. Uh there's interest and personality inventories that they can take. Um but what people have said is that the interface is a little more studentfriendly. Um so you know we we decided to make that switch over and we're we've already uh our current seniors have

048access to school links and we'll be um onboarding the underassmen uh during the school year. >> Have you tried it Eva? >> Oh it's so much better. >> Okay. Thank you. >> It connects to your common app. So when you're doing college stuff the Navian you had to do it separately. So if you were applying to college in common app, you had to do it. Also in Naviance, you can do everything through common app or school links and it like connects it together. So I don't have to do both. >> Saves so much time. >> So it's so much better. And it was so redundant like doing the Nviance and the common app because the common app is the only one that anybody sees. The Nvian was just for school. So it was like silly.

049>> Thank you. >> Um [Music] I want to put a plug in for our capstone program. We're very supportive of that in the counseling department. Uh they've done a great job of connecting students with internships if that's an area that the students want to go into. Uh just a few that they did last year, we had students work at McClean Retirement Home, State Farm Insurance, Select Physical Therapy, and Eminem Auto. Uh but we had almost 20 students doing internships through the Capstone program. uh Liz McKay and Baron Faithful who are capstone teachers. Uh they also organized a panel on green careers last year. So they had sus sustainable engineering and solar uh representatives come in and talk to students who are interested in that field. Uh they're going to be doing a trades panel this

050year which they did two years ago. Uh and again giving students opportunities to hear from um these careers uh in these different um kind of non-traditional fields. Uh one of our proudest accomplishments last year was our career fair. Um this was something we haven't done since I've been working here. Um and we really wanted to again connect students with career personnel. Uh and what we did was we we targeted the sophomore year. We thought that was a good year to kind of start the exploration process prior to them starting to think more about post high school planning uh their junior year. Um so what we did was we started with a lesson with our sophomores where we had them on Naviance um and really doing an interest inventory and again talking about how your interests

051and your values and your skills can tie into different careers. We then had them identify certain careers that they were going to be interested in. And then a month later, we had a career fair where we brought in about 40 local career representatives into our two gyms. We had each student, they had three careers that they had identified that they wanted to meet with. And then we had some open time where they could meet with uh additional careers. Uh and both the students and the career reps both had very positive experiences about uh the experience and the interaction between the career reps talked about how interactive our students were, how interested they seemed in the careers and our students gained a lot of interest. For some of the careers they talked to, maybe it ruled

052out that career. For other careers, maybe it sparked an interest and some of them went to careers they probably weren't interested in that they now have a newfound interest in. So, uh, that's something that we'd like to continue this year. >> I heard good feedback about that last year from my sophomore last year. He came home and >> told me that he met with someone who owned his own gym. I remember him talking about that and I forget some of the other ones, but overall he said it was well received from the kids. >> So, we we tried to have a a diverse group of uh careers. You know, some were collegebound, some were knowledge collegebound, and just again some unique um we had an underwater diver engineer that was there. Um so just get

053expose stu students to some other careers and kind of broaden their minds. Um the last initiative that uh was started by Maggie last year is our Trojan community council. Um this team was comprised of administers administrators, teachers, parents, community members, students and the goal was to try to identify some of the multiple pathways uh for post high school for students to be able to explore. Uh we dove into some other school districts and what they do. We looked at our own practices and what we do. Um, one of our outcomes that we were hoping to get out of this was to create a website uh that was going to be interactive for students where they could um really again explore different career pathways, but also identify what you can do while still at Simsbury High

054School and still with the Simsbury community to help you better prepare for some of those pathways. Um and Meg Lavoy, who is one of our art teachers and doing an internship with Maggie this year, um has taken that um project on and we're calling the planning for high school and beyond website and she has just gotten started on putting that together. Uh Megan and I meet with her and we're going to try to continue to grow that website and you know hopefully make that somewhere that students and parents can go to um just get a wealth of information. All right. Oh, >> great. See, >> next bucket. >> So, yep. The next bucket is compassionate and connected school culture. Um, when Maggie gave me this, uh, area to do and I started to look at

055the celebrations, uh, I first looked at it and was like, "Oh, this is where we list our AP scholars." And going through all of these things and I realized what a great community to live and work in. when kind of the the standard is to talk about how many AP scholars you produce, how many um national merit semi- finalists you have and how you compete for state championships in sports, etc. It's really um you know, and it's not an exhaustive list. We probably had to work hard to whittle it down to to put some of these things on here, but a lot of excellence as you can see right in there. Some of it is again the things that we we produce every year, which is excellent. Some of them are unique um or new

056to the year. The Tiny Trojans's Play School uh is a wonderful uh addition to our school to see little kids um running around the hallways away from the academic classes, not in the classes. Um but when you go in there and you see some of the students that are working uh with the kids, um they're kids that may be spending time in in Scott Georgia and I's office. Uh and to watch them interact with those kids are just like it's just it's really really cool. Um and the kids seem to love it. little kids as well. Um, one of the things you may not know cuz I certainly didn't know. Uh, I had to look it up. The AP international diploma, we have one of those. Um, that is a student who scores three or

057higher on five or more AP exams. The AP exams have to fall into four different categories that they have. one of which is a language category and it has to be two exams that you pass have to be in two different languages. So you could actually like um AP or AP Lang falls into that but you can't just have two of those. You have to also score higher in that and then get kind of a math and different other ones. And then I think what makes it the international is you either have to be from an international school. Obviously we're not an international school. Um or you send your scores to a university outside of United States. So, one of our students must have done that obviously and and qualified for that. I don't know

058how often we have those. Uh, that was new to me. Um, and in addition to that, the CIA Battle of the Fans, I want to point out that that's great. We won 2425, but it really kind of like we're talking about the excellence of the uh, Girls Latch program of year after year. a student the year before had submitted a video and that got the ball rolling and then these kids came in and we didn't know when the CIA was going to come to a basketball game actually uh and they showed up and we had a great crowd there and the kids ended up winning that so that was wonderful. So you can see a lot of different celebrations there. Um next three slides that I'll talk about are in regard every year we give

059our our surveys to our students to our staff and to our parents. Uh and here are some of the highlights uh of that. I want to point out though that these are great, but I want to remind you from last year um we had incredible growth last year. So to see the growth from where we were last year to this year really is a a 2-year window of of some pretty excellent um trajectories that we've had. Again, that theme of gathering momentum and keeping with that momentum. But these are the families results that we have up here in terms of uh pretty significant growth for my child's school is supportive staying at at a pretty high level where you feel safe in the school. Uh and then the staff at my child school of respect

060for all families again another 10point growth. I want to make sure I'm saying this so jump in if I'm wrong on this but those numbers are not the neutral. >> That's correct. So like if you throw ne So it's not like for 81% 81% is likely or highly likely it's not neutral >> strong and then there's disagree strongly disagree. So there's a neutral category and those are the ones that don't even include that. So it's those are very I think excellent numbers. Um >> do you know the percentage of families that participated? >> We had 189 families participate in that. >> Out of how many were asked? >> Oh >> it's not all four. It is families. It is families. It's all >> families. >> So, it's about a 10% return, >> which is somewhat

061expected. >> Yeah. Dr. Bachelor would say that's within the She looks for a 10. Yeah. Statistically, um I always ask her 10 to 20% is what you would hope for. So, it's on the lower end. I'd love to see more. Um but it's still within the the consideration for statistically um being relevant. Okay. >> Asking you guys a question. Great great numbers overall obviously, but I'm curious So school is supportive 81 safe 84 and then it dips up just a little obviously just a little bit but I'm interested how what do you think is going on there if if I feel that my child's school is safe but yet I'm saying that my child's school well let's just say less a less amount of families have said that that's got respect for all families it's

062just a it's just an interesting tip to me I I think it has to do with the physical safety of the building. They see security, they see an SRO, they see a, you know, so there's that versus a maybe a family respect, a level of, you know, just culturally different or maybe they don't feel as though discipline procedures were fair or something to that, but overall they still feel as though that when my kid is is at school, they're physically safe. That's how I interpret. Um certainly >> I think the comments reflected that a lot of uh discipline felt like people weren't handled or not someone got this treatment and we got this treatment. Those perceptions was a part of that. >> The next slide is the staff uh ones that we would like to

063celebrate and we see obviously some pretty significant growth in the first two in terms of input with regards to professional decisions. That's a pretty easy one to trace to. Uh the state the PGP process, the the personal growth process, uh the plans that the teachers have. We start our meetings actually. We started them this week with teachers really shifted to what do you want to do? Uh in the past, it's a lot has been in regard to hey here's what the school is doing. This is what you should do. It's like what do you want to do? And so individual teachers have done individual goals. The meetings have been exceptional. We've really enjoyed them. We have a beginning of the year uh middle of the year uh check-in and end of year. And the way

064the staff talked about it uh very enthusiastically, which hasn't happened necessarily in the past in regard to my my goals I've set for the year, it's kind of just been this uh rope process that I have to do versus now, hey, I really enjoy reading this book. I'm I'm pursuing AI. A lot of our teachers are looking at and different things. So, I think that directly ties to that. Uh the staff at my school recognized me as an individual. I think those probably go somewhat handinand uh in that and then the growth in the I'm proud of the professional culture in the Simsbury public schools. Uh I don't think it's tied to that one thing, but I think that one thing definitely has a lot to do with it uh in regard to their ownership

065over their own personal goals. >> On that last one, 59% is still kind of low in my opinion, right, for a professional. Do you have any ideas or touch points or comments as to why that is >> that they don't feel personal culture? >> Let me really say it. >> I think we honed in on attendance. I think there were some pieces about people being feeling though as though they have they're not treated professionally if they've been given conversation about attendance. That came up in the comments um because we really did put a you know um an an emphasis on you being in the classroom matters. Um and when you get into significant absences of 1314 while that may not seem like a lot it is. Those are 13 14 days where you know learning

066could be halted or very little is taking place. So I personally from the comments I think it had to do with hey sometimes I don't feel as I'm treated as professionally because I've been had a conversation about my attendance >> and that's up 42%. So they're starting to come to grips with it. >> Correct. >> Can I ask a question too? Um because these are some pretty uh large shifts from 23 24 25. Was the language changed at all in the Nope. >> So they're exactly >> that's why we've kept those ones and I have it over a three-year period. We look at we actually looked at some of the growth over one-year periods and three-year periods. Um they're exactly the same. >> I also think that we've asked a lot of input from teachers

067around curriculum alignment, redoing curriculum. Hey, can you come together and help us to refocus this after COVID? And it got I I think a lot of teachers have felt that that their input matters when it comes to their content, their department, and making sure that we've got things the way that they should as it relates to um what they believe is, you know, good instruction. So, >> and did you have around the same amount of people that you questioned? >> Yes, we had 104 um certified take the survey this year and 92 non-certified. And last year it was almost um identical. It's a little less um on the certified staff. Um but yeah, still hovering right about 100 people. >> What is that as a percentage of the total staff? >> We have a well

068see we have some people who are shared. So I don't sometimes they go on Henry James their numbers and not ours because they're shared dependent. So we have about 123 that I count for like a faculty meeting. Um so we had 104 of those. But I do think that we've got >> it's the majority 100%. We give them time to do it. We basically say at the beginning of this professional development time, please start by taking this and then come to PD. So, they've got time carved out. >> Yep. That's a smart idea. So, >> all right. And then students, uh, and some of the growth that we've seen there in terms of the positive energy, we're gathering momentum. Obviously, we want to get that higher as well. Um, but, uh, the school, we're moving

069in the right direction on that one. I can ask an adult for help. Up to 68% a growth on that. And um my school has extracurricular clubs that I am interested in. We're at 83%. >> That was a new question. Yeah. Which is why >> question. >> Yeah. >> And the wonder that was 579 students that took that survey with the majority being um we had 199 in grade nine, 187 in grade 10. So we had a lot over a 100red in every grade um that took it. Seniors didn't have to, but it was open to them if they wanted to. And we had 66 students who took it from senior year. What do you attribute the less than 50% numbers to on the positive energy? >> They're high schoolers and sometimes sometimes they think

070we're ridiculous with our energy. Um, you know, that's one that had a lot in the neutral, >> you know, and I think when you ask a lot of students who are, you know, positive energy, they're like, uh, you know, so it it's a it was a lot in the neutral. So because you have the two, you have um strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree. So you get a lot in that 50/50. Some days are great, some days are not. >> You also had some protocols change on the on the tardy side. >> People did not love if you bought those numbers. >> So >> our students didn't love them. >> And the cell the you'll see the impact. >> No, you're definitely going to see that. The next two slides are related to school

071discipline. tell the students or staff like you said it was a hunch for each class. >> Is there a way or would you want to just make that mandatory if you offered it like during connections or something or >> we do and sometimes they kids will choose not to >> um but yes I think that's why you had 199 grade stu uh nine and it trickled a little bit um because some students will choose that they're not going to participate. >> That's fine. >> Yeah. But we do carve it out for them. Did you have any challenges? I mean, regarding doing the all these climate surveys between students and families and and teachers that you're going to be assessing for for next year. What were some of the challenges that you got that came forward

072in each of these three >> areas? >> It's coming up. But yes, it is coming up. >> On this slide, did 2223 school year, was it any higher the positive energy or was it even lower? >> 22. Um, I can tell you. Um, I can see it. It >> was very kind of you, Mr. >> Keep going and then I'll find it. >> Actually, I don't understand that what the question I'm sorry, Josh's question about the 109. What was that? >> I was I was asking Maggie and the team was theu it was a good number of students responding, but it wasn't like 100%. >> No, it was 109 of like,400, right? >> Oh, the freshman It said 10%. >> Okay. I was >> I understand families you can't make a mandatory correct staff and

073students who could. >> So we had 109 of likeund. So not every student was pulled. >> No. So 199 freshmen for example who filled it out andund 50 something sophomores and the number went down. >> Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. >> So it was 56%. So it was actually higher three years ago. Um but again when you look at um this past year we had 35% of the kids were who were neutral and we only had we had 4% who said they strongly disagree 10% who said they just disagree. So you're talking about you know 14 cell phone policy the bathroom situation alone are going to offer a little bit small changes. >> Yeah we're not >> can't look at my phone. So with that again the discipline that that's tied into this

074you can you can see the uh difference that that has occurred here we we've stayed pretty similar to the drug referrals the fights have dropped significantly by more than 50%. Um the class cuts have dropped uh in that it's still a number that's high and it's actually a focus of the uh administrative team of our PLC. We're looking at uh class cuts and and and look going to kind of come up with some policies around all of that. uh the number of students went up a little bit. The number of total days went up a little bit. I think that's um tied a lot to uh we've become you're you're getting a lot more discipline in certain things. And um I can tell you like I've had kids have been great. It's been wonderful this

075year. Uh before Scott came here dealing with the older kids. I wasn't dealing with the freshman. And a line I heard was like kids are like drawing at each other a little bit. It's like you ain't worth 10 days. Um, now they know what the discipline is like, all right, I'm not >> school suspension, right? >> Yeah. So, they it's it's working. Uh, and and I think what I I believe we'll see that number go down over the course of this year, but who who knows what can happen in the course of a school year. Um, with all of that, um, explosions have gone down, total days ISS has gone up. Um, we think we're in a good spot. Again, the expectations have been laid out. It's been very clear where we we we don't

076even use that that word that happened of the illness for years ago. We're out of that now. We have set rules. We've we've have expectations and the kids have been responding um very very positively to kick off this school year without a doubt. The momentum is moving clearly in the right direction. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> On that like two things. One on the class cuts y right >> for next year or whatever. This I love this slide. This is I don't remember this last year so I love it. Um, and I love numbers. The 257 to the 180. How many kids is that? Or is it one kid who did 30 30 classes? You know what I'm saying? Then it is five kids 30 classes. >> We we actually could that's

077a question we had as well uh to go through and it's we're on track. We're on track to track as Georgia just said is the line. We actually have created a document which we Scott Georgia and I share >> track and track >> and put names in and look at that. Um >> we're still working on defining class cut too. That's a you think it would be so 35 but if you >> would say that that that that number yes there were frequent flyers in both of those >> could be an elevated number because it's >> yes >> less kids but they're just doing it more often. >> Right. Exactly. >> Right. >> And same with the the numbers of students versus the total days. It's the same thing. That total days seems like it's

078a lot 168 but it's only 27 students out of how many at Simsbury High? >> Yeah. It's a little over 1300. Yeah. >> 180. It's one class cut a day in a huge high school. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> That's good. It is >> interesting. Yeah. >> These are good numbers. >> Yeah. >> You're a numbers guy. That's why >> I thought it was >> But for anyone at home watching this, OSS and ISS is stuff they don't know at home. So >> OSS out of school suspension, ISS in school suspension. >> I think it's important to try to share. So, um, OSS, it's really kind of mandated by the state. It has to be a violent act. It has to be gang activity. It has to be, uh, drugs, has to be

079weapons, um, or a safety issue overall. You can't just, you know, get out of here. You're, you know, you, um, stole a milk. Like, that's not happening. Um, so it's pretty specific to that. All right. And then the next slide, which is really, you'll see the results of this are staggering. Um, and this is tied to the attendance policy which and everyone is a fan of. Um, but it's when people aren't fans of this, we we start throwing these numbers around and people get quiet pretty quickly because you look at the number the the how those numbers have dropped in terms of the tardies and that you have to you have to look at that from a human perspective of interruptions to the learning environment. In September in 232 24 you had 977 interruptions to

080the learning environment while class has already started. We've cut that down to 295. Still kind of a high number but I mean significantly less than it ever has been and it just keeps adding up as you go through all of that. So we're very happy about that uh and proud of that. It really these policies uh uh have been tough on some people but they've wrapped their heads around them and it's completely changed culture of of our teachers as well of of they are begging us to do something about it because it's just you do it we see it when we do an observation and someone walks I'm sure the students can talk about it you're sitting in class and someone walks other teacher says oh we got to be we it just now we

081can focus on learning so it's really been positive >> that whole tardy thing is for me is always interesting because we can talk about the whole logistics aspect ect of getting to the high school on time. I I bet you that I mean as as a someone who's driven kids there and now has kids driving there, the number of kids that are there at 7 eating breakfast in their car in the parking lot is probably at an all-time high. Yeah. >> Um because they don't want to be late. Um, so and unfortunat it just it stinks that they have to get there that early because of the traffic jam issue or whatever, but in order to not be late, you they know they got to get there at 7:00 because if it's after they're leaving

082the house after 7:10, 7:15, they will be late. >> We've seen a real significant increase in our freshman and sophomores taking the bus. >> Correct. >> We actually see full buses to a degree that we haven't seen in years. Um, and it's interesting because the traffic jam is at 7:05 to 7:10 now and not 7:20 to 7:25. >> Correct. >> So, we have a a a new shift in that time um where it's a it's definitely an interesting thing is people were up there in the cafeteria area. Georgia and um Scott do the front with the kids coming in. So, you definitely see a lot of underassman taking the bus. >> So, I'm assuming students are all meeting their friends there in the parking lot. They're all sitting in the car eating. Yes, they are.

083>> To clarify, not just late to class. I just want to date to school. This is everything like third period, fourth period. >> No, this is just this is unexcused tardies to school. >> Okay. >> Two schools. This is just period one. All right. >> That's why we laughed because TTC's I made that comment at graduation because the kids know tardy to class means, you know, you were in the bathroom too long and you were just tardy, you know, to quick minute to class versus I came in late to school. >> This is incredible. So, I just want to commend you all on this shift and I'm sure it's impacted families and made it difficult in some ways, but to have more of these kids in their seats on time so learning can start. I

084mean, these these shifts are just >> congratulations. Can we ask our student rep on on her feel about it? >> What do you think about it? >> Not to put you in the beginning. Um, but it's it's definitely way better. It's insane. I agree that everybody's there in the morning now. Um my entire friend group I'm in a very nerdy responsible friend group and we're all there. Every single car in the parking lot is my friends. Um cuz we're all so paranoid to be late. Um cuz I would also say that like coaches and and people outside of school have done a really good job in like not letting you get away with it. Um I feel like before if you were late to school, I would come to practice and my coach would be

085like, "H, you were late. It's fine. Now she'll send me home and she'll send people home. So it's like and it's like a >> major culture shift. >> Right. Right. And it's goes the same in like in choir when we have after school choir and I was late or I've never when someone else is late they have to leave. Um and I think that that's definitely made that's why people keep coming um on time because it's so like shameful to have to leave practice because you were late in the morning. So I do think it's been really effective in making people come to school even though it kind of sucked in the beginning. >> Right. Well, sorry. >> Ken, do you think though again just tie it back to the comparison, would that number be

086even lower if you looked at the individual people? >> I have. >> Oh, absolutely. >> We have very we have chronic offenders. Um, and your question about like after the first period, it's absolutely not an issue after the I mean once kids are in the building, 99% of our kids are >> they are >> in class when the bell rings. that >> the 1% is like three kids too who do it repeatedly. That's it, you know, generally speaking. But yeah. Yeah. Um >> we'll see. Yeah, it's definitely >> I just want to reiterate too that if there is inclement weather too and we've noticed there's track, we just say to kids go like they don't have to stop. Like we're really mindful or if a kid has an a unique we had a kid dump

087a coffee completely down in front of them. >> We got you. you know, so there's an element of also understanding that you can have those days too. So >> I found that too. I've also found that like if you have some sort of obscene circumstance like one of my friends, her tire popped and the person in the office like she was too awkward to say anything and then she ended up emailing I think probably you about the attendance and they like flagged her out of it. So it's been like an understanding process. >> Yeah, things happen. I can assure you we get phone calls. I won't even It's >> all right. Incredible. >> I know there's a lot I know there's a lot left. Keep going. >> All right. All right. Um, well, I get

088to talk to you about We're going to shift gears a little bit to our future focus areas for this year. Um, and I just want to say on this slide that our SHs goals are always rooted in the strategic plan and, um, the goals that we've all set together. So, this year, um, just want to highlight one goal that really kind of hits on all four of these, and that is we're keeping that momentum up with curricular revisions. Um, we are using the vision of the graduate and other mechanisms to look at that curriculum, look at the state of it, think about bringing back those common assessments you've probably heard about before, meaning the same assessment across all sections of a course, regardless of what teacher you have. And um we're working very hard on

089that to ensure that we're meeting all of those same high markers that we've already talked about in the presentation but also um hitting those vision of the graduate skills. Okay. So to talk about this a little bit more um we're focused on the common assessments feedback to students. So, another big piece of what we're working on um in the curriculum revision in our professional learning communities is looking at our feedback that students are getting and um making sure that it's actionable and that students know sort of what moves to do next. Um and we again vision of the graduate piece that I've already talked about. I'm going to talk a little bit more about intervention in another slide. So, one of the things I wanted to say about vision of the graduate in terms of

090our instructional focus is one of the most impactful pieces that the vision of the graduate focus area has brought to us is a major um rise in the amount of self-reflection that we're asking students to do as well as goal setting. So we have um through our connect program and through the work we've done in capstone sort of trickling down to foundational courses really ask students far more often to reflect on their own learning as well as to set their own goals. So we have um some great lessons that we brought into connect several times last year that we're going to continue to build upon. It gives us great data as an administrative team as we look to plan. And it gives us great feedback to the um disciplines and the the groups of teachers

091who are working on the curriculum to say, "Hey, our kids are telling us that they've had a tremendous amount of experience with critical thinking, communication, and collaborator. They need some more practice." they're saying they're not having as much opportunity to practice their skills around innovation or global citizenship. And so that's great data that we can sort of feedback as we go through that curriculum review cycle. And one of the biggest celebrations that builds on our work last year is building capacity around our intervention programming. So we have really beefed up all of our interventions and have some new things on the horizon. A lot of this is behind the scenes collaboration with Henry James and great vertical alignment there where we have taken some time last year to really look at what are the students

092at Henry James getting and how do we continue that? How do we continue to meet those needs and build on that at the high school? We also may seem like a small change, but we moved where our intervention was housed. Okay? So, it was like down by the library and it was sort of off the beaten track. What we did was we took our math interventionists and we moved them right next door to the math lab. So what you have in math and English is you have the department supervisor in an office, you have the lab, math lab, writing center, and then you have the intervention teachers right next door. What that's done is improve the access to the discipline content area teachers. So now instead of being on the first floor as a math

093interventionist, you are up on the third floor in the same wing as all of the math teachers. you're next door to the um gentleman who runs the math lab and there's far more collaboration with those interventionists. We have phenomenal people behind those interventions. We're very very fortunate. Um we had a phenomenal math interventionist who was part-time who finally retired. Um she just kept giving us one more year and 20 more hours. Um and I think enough grandchildren came along and she said, "I'm finally retiring. this is it. And we were so nervous and we managed to find someone phenomenal who just comes right into the fold and they really work so well collaboratively um to just watch each other and see what's working. And this is phenomenal uh small groupoup instruction where kids are bringing

094in that work and we're sort of helping them with the work that they have but going back to those skills that maybe they need that reteing on and slowing it down and really getting to the root of where they're going wrong and giving them that onetoone. So we have two math interventionists, two reading, we added executive functioning. So that idea of help with workflow management, project management, how do you study, how do you get ready for these big tests, um how do you manage your Google classrooms, how do you set goals, that is a direct continuation from the work of Henry James. So that is our literacy specialists getting together, collaborating strongly, talking to all of us, and us making that decision that we wanted to continue use some title one funding to add that

095intervention in. It's going very, very well. we found a phenomenal certified teacher who just isn't quite um ready to jump back into the workforce and this was a perfect fit for her which is amazing. And lastly um this year we're going to move that sort of inschool suspension to a little bit more innovative a little bit more um get with the times here that it yes we're going to have the ISS always but we're also going to have some behavioral intervention. So setting some goals around behavior, making sure that we're getting to not just that discipline, but the understanding of what's happening and why and how do we make that better. We have great resources capacity wise. We have um a BCBA, so a board certified behavior analysis who's phenomenal and she can advise us

096on those things. So, while she won't necessarily deliver the intervention, she's there to give us feedback and say, "Hey, this is what's going on with the kid. Here's what we're thinking. Can you give me feedback on this plan?" We take the plan, we put it into action. So, all of these are um on the rise, going very well. We're really excited about them. >> On the executive functioning intervention, is that only accessible to students who have IEPs or is this accessible to everyone? I was going to say I want that. >> So we have so through our student intervention team it as well as that collaboration between the literacy specialists at both schools. Um I will say right now we probably prioritize nth and tth graders and um not students who have IEPs because they're

097going to get those services in their educational support class. They have a dedicated period for that. But this would be students who might have a 504 plan. Um, so they they might have some of those needs, but they don't they're not um under the special education umbrella. And also just um sort of communication with Henry James from 8th to 9th of, you know, here's this array of services we have. What do you think is the best fit for this individual? And um to the credit of everyone involved, you know, most students once they they might be a little nervous at first, what is this thing on my schedule? But once they get in and they meet the people, um they're very happy to be there. A lot of a lot of the kids want to

098stay in that intervention. So, you know, this also could come from school counseling. You know, a parent calls up and says, "Hey, my nth or tth grader is really struggling with sort of managing all these assignments. I'm seeing zeros pop up. Um they're not sure, you know, what they missed and why. And that might be a time for us to say, why don't we try out this intervention? And basically, it's in lie of a traditional study hall. So, you know, um those underassmen would be sitting in a sort of study hall working independently and instead they're over in this intervention. >> All right. in the next area. >> Um, so I have the next couple slides. Uh, only two weeks in. I was happy and fortunate to speak tonight in a much different setting than

099the last time I was here. It's cooler. Um but through the through the surveys conducted um last year, you know, one of the things that the students really the data shows is that the students spoke to wanting to continue some of the um positive ways to celebrate students or diverse ways that we kind of um kind of acknowledge and kind of improve that school culture. Um Mr. or so and asked me on the way in, you know, what's the biggest difference or and I kind of took it as like one of the biggest positives coming into the the last couple weeks and kind of diving in and it is um the culture when you walk in the building it's different. It's so positive uh welcoming to everybody. Um and I think that the survey results

100from the kids in the past really speaks to that. They want to continue that. Um one of the ways that Madell and I right when I started, we kind of were just chatting about different things to come. um and one of which was like the focus groups and really involving the kids in that process and families. Um what are the priorities and where can we still continue to improve that trend um and I think that'll help us guide our work and and to continue to uh see that progress um within the building. Um I was really fortunate um to dive right in in week one. Um, we had an awesome week. You know, throughout it, those of you who are involved in my interview process, I'm big on student connection. I'm I'm super passionate about

101it and they really, you guys tested me in week one to make sure that that was true. Um, I did avoid the blowup costume on the pep rally. I don't know how, but I did. Um, but the pep rally was filled with such positive energy. Um, the kids were so well behaved. Like, I was going in like, "All right, I'm supervising. My head's on a swivel. I'm ready to diffuse everything. It was so positive. The kids had such an awesome experience. Um and it was in such a positive inclusive way. Um that was really awesome to see in in one of my first few days. Um the homecoming football game Friday night again, packed house, lot of positive energy. Um the kids were so supportive. You know, a game didn't go our way per se,

102but kids had an awesome time. The families were supportive. Really great event for the community. Uh met some new people. met some people I I knew that I didn't know were connected to Simsbury. I knew them outside of town. So, that was really cool, too. And then, um, Saturday night homecoming dance, again, like I just keep repeating myself, but the kids were so well behaved. They're so inclusive. They're so positive. They went and had a great time. Um, I don't know whose decision it was in the end, but the decision to do it in the courtyard, I was like, how are we fitting everyone in here? It turned out so awesome. in the pitcher in the top middle um from some daredevil that I don't know how they got up there but I didn't approve

103it but >> um I mean it speaks to the environment like uh the kids had an awesome time. It it was a really great way for me to kind of meet a whole bunch of people that wasn't disciplined that wasn't you know in a formal classroom setting. Um it was laid-back. Uh and the and the kids, it was a great way for me to meet some kids that were really involved in those um setting up like the pep rally, you know, met a bunch of cheerleaders that had a lot to do with that and the different program uh different groups that were uh heavily involved in organizing that. Uh the structures that I'm kind of coming into, I feel incredibly fortunate. Um and and it's been an awesome first couple weeks and a lot of

104celebration and you can tell that the kids come in the building smiling, having a good time. There's a group that come in in the morning and they have their spirit days for every game and they all dress up and I'm like I'm trying to figure out what the spirit day is for that game and sometimes it's tough like today. But they're all they come in with such a positive energy. It's it's a really great environment to join. >> And our last um area of focus this year is premier workforce. So we talked a bit about this at the previous board meeting with NEAS. So I feel as though um this group is well informed but we would continue to ask families to take the NEAS survey which will help us in our self-evaluation this year

105to really reflect on the things that are going well at Simsbury High School and then areas for improvement. And then also on there is just our continued focus as I'm sure many of us are with AI. Um how is that impacting our students? When can they use it? How can they use it? When should they not? Um and we've been having a lot of conversations. Georgia actually had a group after school of um professionals and teachers, you know, working on things um with AI and then each teacher was asked to very clearly in their syllabus put how they would like AI to be addressed in their classroom. It could be, you know, not at all. It could be yes, use it on homework as a tool or hey, I'll let you know when opportunities to

106use AI will be present. We asked every teacher to make that very clear to students and also at openhouse. Um so the last slide is really the challenges ahead. Um with the increase in internships, um with the increase in really wanting our students to get out and see what's available for trades and all things career oriented, we are seeing an increase in other districts with a career coordinator. Um, so that's something you might see in an upcoming um, budget um, presentation that we're really looking at how we might utilize that person because when you're doing these internships, it's very individualized. It's not like you're taking a class on a field trip. You're making a real individualized plan that takes a lot of time, a lot of coordination. Um, and you need somebody who can really

107focus on what's available. Um, we are going to continue to revise our student interventions as Jordan just shared. We'll continue to look at those. We know kids are going to come to us with different needs and how do we flex and make sure that we've got what's appropriate for them. And then that idea of restorative practices within our inschool suspension. I think that we, you know, we certainly need a place where students are going to have to serve that consequence, but how are we helping them to repair, rebuild, and re-enter um our community because we know that we want them there. We know we make mistakes. Um, but how do we do that in a little bit more of a a systematic way um that's specifically built for our high school students um and not

108cheesy and contrived. Um so and at that I would just say we really feel very very excited about the year. This idea that we've gathered a lot of momentum. Um things are in a really good spot to continue to make progress forward. And um I think I speak for all of us that we just feel lucky to be able to um work in a town that's supported with awesome kids. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> M yeah just there's three goals you're focusing on not the sustainability one like any comments on that or >> I do that more through the lens of like working with our custodial like with Kyle and things like that. So, not a public facing one, but more one that we do together also with like equipment and purchasing. Um,

109we've tried to work through uh vendors now. So, I I Yes, I'm still doing it, but not um >> they're they're leading me more with my input, if you will. >> Got it. Makes sense. Thank you. >> I have two questions. Was the um great questions actually. Did they do you think that the counselors have enough time to meet with each student? Not just because of the workload of the PPTs and stuff. Do you feel like that's at all a challenge to balance that each student is leaving Simsbury High, especially their senior year, having that one-on-one time with counselors? I mean, you could always hope for more one-on-one, but I think we're, you know, good, manageable case loads, and we make it a point to meet with every student every year, uh, at least once,

110but it's usually multiple times for each student. And I think the relationships grow over the course of the four years. And by time they're juniors and seniors, I think a lot of our counselors have really good rapport and relationships with their students. And then on the percentage of internships, you had said 20 around 20 kids had that internship. What was the how many kids were did the capstone that year? So is that less than 10% did it or more? >> So you have not the whole senior class, but I would say probably 80% of the senior class does it. So >> and some juniors or >> some juniors. Yeah. So some juniors could be doing it. So yeah, you probably had about 300 kids a year doing a capstone. >> I would just add that

111in some cases the students might do their capstone embedded within a career but then also do an internship as well. So we have some students who take advantage of summer internships that actually aren't related to the capstone. Um Liz McKay and and Beard Faithful um as well as the counseling staff sort of keep that data. So, we do have outside of the capsule, we also have some internships going on as well. >> We also have inschool internships like the Trojan Tech team and the writing center. And I wasn't really I wasn't counting those as part of the internship. I was talking more about the external community based internships. >> So, I think you have an intern this year, right? >> I will. >> There's someone that has sites to be an assistant superintendent of teaching

112and learning. I met her today. Wow. >> Stop shadowing. Come along. >> Come see what it's all about. >> Thank you very much. Great job. >> Thank you very much. >> Keep up the good work. Thanks, Maggie. >> Thank you. >> All right, Amy with the year end financial results. >> Yes. So, some good news to report this evening. Um, the first page you have your revenues as per usual. There's been no updates to the revenues since the last time I reported out. Um, all of our revenue income had come in by the time we did our last quarterly. So, I'm just going to move on to the expenditures which gives us our um small surplus for this year which I will take you through. So on page two of your expenditure report you have

113what you're used to seeing is your your chart there of your original budget your year-to- date expended for fiscal year 25. Um so you'll see that we had a small surplus this year of about 111,000 which is great news compared to all the other quarterlys that I give you that are projected deficit. So, I will take you through some of the line items that get us to that surplus. Starting with um instruction. So, with our instructional accounts, they were underspent by about $536,000. Um you can see there that there was a few areas that made up the majority of that um that surplus. So, we had salaries through some transitions and retirements that were anticipated of about $281,000. Um, we had some services for data processing under our contracted services of about $121,000 um that

114we didn't utilize this year. We cut back from the prior year. Um, you'll see there that there's supplies of about $91,000. And this is um there wasn't anything in particular that stood out. Um within the supplies it was just numer multiple um supply line items that translated to the 91,000 in savings. It was small savings in the line item itself. Um and then we were underspent in our software account about $38,000. Um so on the instruction side that makes up um about 536. And then going down to the pupil transportation, you'll see in here we're kind of offsetting that 536 right away with the pupil transportation where we overspent by about $417,000. So this is something that you may recall during our budget process. We had talked through our challenges on the special education side.

115One of those challenges was our pupil transportation and that was something that we um corrected going into the fiscal year 26 budget. So hopefully that is the last time you see a deficit in our people transportation. On going down to the next one, the operation of plant we were overspent by about $90,000. Um if you recall during my last quarterly report outs we saw um significant increases in our electricity this year. So the electricity alone we were in excess of budget by about $371,000. Um but we had some savings in our propane account of about $126,000 and then we had some salary savings of about $160,000. Um, moving down to the maintenance of the plant, we were under spent by about $153,000. Um, so the operation of the plant and the maintenance of a plant

116kind of go together. So since we knew we were going to be over in the operation of plant, we kind of held back on the maintenance of plant so we could offset the deficit within their own budget. Moving on to the next page, um, the insurance and the pension, you'll see that we were under spent by about $187,000. Um, This is just the health insurance related to the staffing vacancies that I spoke about under the instruction line item. Um, and then food services. Again, this is similar to last year. Um, we're over spent by $82,000 according to the state of Connecticut. We do not meet um certain educational criteria for our food services director. And until she completes that criteria, um we are not allowed to charge her salary to the food services fund. and

117therefore it hits the operating budget. Um the student body activities account were overspent by about $43,000. Um this is something that I think ended up being a budgeting error that we're going to fix in the upcoming budget, but we'll look into that more just to make sure that slight correction. Um the community services. This is where we charge the custodial overtime and the supplies for our custodial staff when we have um individuals or organizations that rent out our facilities. So when they rent out our facilities, our um custodial staff will go and clean up and get in some overtime for the building usage. Um and there is an offsetting revenue on the town side that funds this. So on the board of you're only going to see the expenditures, but then on the town side,

118there is an offsetting revenue. So, even though it looks like you're overspent, you're getting additional revenue to cover those costs. Um, under the equipment replacement, we were overspent by about $96,000. Um, so for years and years and years, our open choice grant typically covers about $400,000 of our tech equipment purchases. However, in the current year, our open choice choice grant was reduced by um $113,000 and um this was noted in the prior quarterly when we have our 101 enrollment numbers and therefore the operating budget had to absorb the additional tech expenditures leading to an overage of about that $96,000. So, in total, that's how we get to our $111,000 surplus. This was presented um actually if you go all the way down I'm sorry to the non-lapsing fund summary first you'll see that our balance

119as of um we had 860,000 and our non-lapsing fund. We had anticipated utilizing um some of those funds in fiscal year 25 but since we ended up in a surplus position we no longer have to utilize those funds. So, our non-lapsing fund will remain healthy at $860,000. Um, this report was brought to the board of education finance subcommittee at our last meeting. Um, the surplus was discussed with the committee. The, um, members had a discussion returning some of the ex or returning all of the excess funds back to the town as a contribution towards the two farms village purchase. And I believe that's something that they wanted to discuss with you all tonight as the full board. >> Yeah. Is this appropriate? So just a couple things. Thank you for this. I I just wanted

120to point out one one two comments ago on the pupil transportation. I I just wanted to um commend you. We've been talking about this for years and if you think you have this solved that that is a really really huge huge benefit. Um that was as as everybody around the table that is a significant dollar figure that keeps getting at us. So I really appreciate it. And then just a comment as Amy said um just want to make sure everybody's okay with it. You know we at the beginning when two farms village was being considered we had been asked for a contribution and we accept we we were willing to do so um make contribution towards that that that purchase. we were unable to do so because of some of the other expenditures. So, it

121just feels right to to the majority of us to um to to give this to donate this give this I'm not sure what the right word is turn it back to the to the town um to sort of follow through on on that commitment, but just wanted to certainly put it out there for for everybody's discussion or comment if if anybody has any thoughts or push back or whatever. I mean, I'll just give a small bit of context to it. You know, when we were providing updates throughout the year, you'll recall that, you know, the projected percentage of excess cost shifted throughout the year. We thought we were going to see a deficit approaching probably half a million dollars just in that line item alone. That ended up um through legislation being addressed um which

122kind of really put us in this position in the first place. So I think to your point just to support it I think it makes sense with the consistent conversations and the support we got from the board of selectmen upfront uh with the initiative that we all think is going to be very helpful as we move forward. So >> I don't think we need I'm sorry. >> Yeah know I just want to add that in the context of an $85 million budget having an $111,000 surplus given all of the constant shifts from the state is remarkable. It's excellent budgeting work and um it's such a small fraction that to call it a surplus seems silly almost, but >> it's nice to be able to give it back to the town as part of our contribution

123to Farms Village. >> All right. >> I'm all in favor. >> I think I think that sounds significant and definitely put it >> I think it makes great good sense. >> I don't think we need a vote on that. >> No, no, >> excellent. Thank you. >> But I think we're all in favor. I think it's important for them for everyone to know that we are >> Good question. >> If we are all in favor, >> yeah, I was on the finance committee, so you know, I'm I'm on board. >> Great. Community organizations. >> Yes, this is a a quick one that we can always come back to if there are more questions. It's interesting there was some new legislation passed, so we're getting this report in just under the wire, which is um which

124is a good thing. But um the reg the legislation requires a superintendent to report out to the board of ed on two specific things. The names of community- based organizations with whom we have uh anou or a memorandum of understanding with and then also the organizations uh that are the profile of workforce development programs and internships from which the board has partnered with an outside entity. So um Katie was very helpful in uh helping us put together a list in short order. Uh I won't go through the whole thing. You can see the types of um partnerships that we have under number one in terms of memorandums of understanding. So um they kind of they spread the gamut. You can see uh four or five that are with the town. We have several shared service

125um memorandums with the town from you know our financial management services which includes Amy and uh the people in her department um the police department with our SRO's information and technology services which are are shared um part and parcel here uh as well as park and recreation. So another example of that is the Farmington Valley Diagnostic Center. facility. You're certainly familiar with them which is Craun and we all uh purchase memberships to it's uh for diagnostic placement for students that have various needs. Um what we did do is in your folder we put kind of like a next layer of detail just so you have that and you can take that with you and if you have some questions um we can certainly flush out more more detail. There's cost associated with these. I mean,

126I figured it could be a conversation during budget or another time, but we wanted to to get this report out to you. In terms of the workforce development programs, um we have two. There's the STEP program, which is a program for our special education students um that have internship opportunities out in the community um with other businesses. And then certainly we have our Farmington Valley Transition Academy that you're all very familiar with which is our transition opportunities not only for our students partnership with Farmington but tuition students from other districts as well. So quick I know it's a quick over overview again I put some uh supporting information there and I can certainly as you take away from this if there's anything we want to know about more that we want to discuss further we

127can we can do that. but it had a September. It kind of had a due date of when we had to get it in front of the board. And Katie, uh, make sure I don't slide on those things. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, that brings us to the next public audience. I think we're okay there. So, our next board meeting is the 14th of October. Hard to believe. Yes. Hard to believe we're talking about October already. >> Can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> Right. We are ajourned. Thank you everybody. >> For over 40 years, SEM has been the voice of our town, >> bringing us together through local programming, >> education, >> and live broadcasts. >> SEM isn't just about television.

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