001Let's start with as we do the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Great. Thank you. recognitions. >> Recognitions. So, first and foremost, we welcome Cedar to the table as our student rep. So, thanks for being here today. >> Absolutely. Thanks for having me. >> We'll hear more from you in a sec. But we would like to acknowledge Jill Jill Devita who is here with us. So, I am going to make you stand up. I am so sorry, Jill. >> But Jill has been named our 2526 Kathleen McGawan teacher of the year. It was incredible uh to have Jill speak at convocation. So before I get into that, a little
002bit about Jill. Uh she came to us just a couple of years ago, but with over 16 years experience in two other districts uh as a classroom teacher with incredible expertise in literacy. So, as you know, a couple of board meetings ago, Jill came and presented on structured literacy and on the science of reading and how that's evolved to our K3 curriculum. So, when she's not here being recognized, she is in classrooms. She is rolling up her sleeves. She's literally on the floor with kids engaging them in the best literacy practices. And so it's no surprise to any of us that she was named Kathleen McGomery teacher of the year. As is customary, our teacher of the year comes and gives a convocation address. And Jill was all about the stories and who is going
003to tell our story as educators. So she started with some reflection of some of her own teachers that were just incredible in her development as an educator and then she skillfully brought eight other students from the youngest to those who have graduated to share a little bit about Simsbury educators and how they are a part now of their individual stories. So there was many a wet cheek in the audience. Incredible. But we're just so excited that Jill will be representing the Simsbury public schools across the state and hopefully the United States. So >> thank you very much for the honor and such a pleasure to be here and it's really a team. So I'm so grateful to work with Sue and Neil and you know the staff at SQL and all the language arts consultants.
004So thank you so much. Thank you. >> Yeah, we didn't. It wasn't a complication. If you get a chance, did we tape it? >> No, I don't believe we did. >> But I could show Jill's comments. >> Yeah. I I mean, seriously, the the students again, the graduates to I don't know how the how young the youngest was, but boy, >> third grader. >> Those guys, everyone with the mic and full of the full auditorium. I mean they they just crushed it. It was great. >> It was really great stuff and the message obviously was fantastic as well. So >> absolutely great testament to to to >> to you and and to those teachers that they spoke about that they had. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Anyone for questions? >> All right. Public audience.
005>> Seeing that we don't have any public audience, we'll move right on to the committee reports. start this with you. >> Um well, >> and welcome by the way. >> Uh well, uh so far the school year's off to a pretty pretty great start. Um fall fall sports are just started. Things are going great. Um the first home football game is this Friday on the 12th. Um open house for all grades is um next Thursday on the 18th. Um our first spirit rally is coming up next week on the 19th. And then the homecoming dance on the 20th of September, um, weather permitting, is going to be moved into the courtyard at the high school. >> Oh, exciting. [Music] >> Yeah. Um, that's all I think I have. >> Great. No, thank you. Appreciate it.
006>> Josh, nothing at this time. >> Excellent. >> Brian, >> I don't think we're reporting at this time now for personnel and negotiations. No, we're good. Thanks. Um yeah, just briefly was kind of crazy summer, a little bit of training for me, but um I just thought I'd start off the year and tell you some quick four trends that are shaping up this school year. Um enrollment, as you know, um as budgets tighten, federal policy is going to persist and persist. um tech relationship drive specialist ed special ed improvements and of course the AI spread um in the footprint in the school. So those are just some of the big things that are coming off the table federally and um through the state and down to local. >> Those are some four big big issues
007that are coming our way. >> Thanks Jen. >> I um have nothing to report except that Terafll is turning 100. Yes, they are. >> And so there's a bunch of events. I'm pretty sure there's a website. I get it through because I have a kid there, but I think there's a website. There's like a event I think Friday the 26 at like well and then something else going on. >> I think Saturday, the next Saturday afterwards, I think there's going to be birthday cake. >> So keep an eye out. >> Big cake. [Music] It's marked above the front door with 1925, >> right? >> It's got a big >> This is exciting. >> It's very exciting. I mean, this is this is great for the school and for >> Yeah. When Central School tour 100,
008we celebrated for like four years. >> Well, we can do that here. >> I can get all of the events from Steve Madison and share them. >> Yeah. Which that'll be great. Happy to do that. >> That'll be good. >> I I think we have the wrong name plate here for Neil. I think it's supposed to be Elton John, but >> a picture later. >> Some of some of us are glad convocation. >> So, I uh am going to save it for opening school report. >> Great. >> Awesome, Jason. >> Sure, >> Katie. Okay. Um, just a couple things for me again. Welcome back. I know when we last were together in June, we talked about meeting over the summer. I just kind of quickly wanted to say that uh and we were going to
009obviously we're going to gear that towards budget financial kind of discussions. I can't tell you that we had a lot of conversations between us the board of finance or I should say myself Matt and the board of finance board of selectmen there have been a lot of conversations that have happened over the summer. It just it just didn't kind of coales together. It wasn't necessarily ripe for a for a meeting, but I just wanted to assure you that those conver those conversations and discussions um were happening uh I should say with Amy as well. Um and we'll probably get into it very soon, but I just wanted to let everybody know that that's why we didn't meet over the summer. Just didn't quite get together. And then just really specifically, one thing uh I just
010want to mention to the senior parents, it's senior night, the virtual on Thursday. Um, so if you have a senior in your family um at the high school, as do I, you should tune in on Thursday. Great. Thank you. Uh, first thing on the agenda is the approval of the June 10th meeting minutes. [Music] >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Any vote? Great. Thank you. Uh, approval of the August 26th special meeting. I'll >> make a motion. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Great. Thank you. First call Neil. >> Yeah, we got a bit to work through here, but
011we always do on the first meeting of the year. Um, so we'll begin with the ones where you need to take a vote, which is, um, we had four resignations over the course of the summer and early fall. Uh, Laura Colby has been with us for three years. She is returning to be with her family in South Carolina at the end of this month. Um, Keith Berthume is the most adventurous among us, as many of you know. He has been a fabulous chemistry teacher, big positive elementary school culture at Simsbury High School and he is uh working in an American school in Copenhagen and he moved to Denmark. >> Wow. >> So, um took a big adventure in life. So, congratulations to Keith. >> Carrie Levery, a special ed teacher at Latimer, has been with
012us for two years. She's relocating to the Boston area. And of course, Jeff Penny, uh, as the board knows, after 14 years in Simsbury, uh, nine of those, I believe, as our athletic director, decided, um, to exercise his academic site again and, um, became the principal of Torington Middle School. So, congratulations to Jeff. Um, and the motion is there for somebody to read. move that the board of education accept the resignations of Laura Colby effective September 30, 2025, Room effective June 30, 2025, Gary Lever effective July 31st, 2025 and Jeff Penny effective August 19, 2025. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh any discussion? >> Oh, we're losing some top people >> and years of experience. >> Uh all those in favor? >> I I >> Any opposed? >> Great. Thank you. >> Um two retirements
013for the board's vote. Um one, uh Melanie Mihan, who is our uh big part of our elementary curriculum center as a writing and social studies um coordinator. Uh has been in Simsbury for 17 years. She's actually been a part-time consultant and she's going to retire from this position and continue to pursue some professional responsibilities that she's done um over time. And then Julia Warren is a longtime grade one teacher at Squadron 9, has had um some personal challenges recently that have made a work life balance difficult and is able to take her retirement and she's doing so. I'll move that the board of education accept the retirement of Melanie Mihan effective October 3rd, 2025 and Julia Warren effective August 4th, 2025. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? I would just say
014again that boy that's a lot of a lot of experience walking out the door. I just want to express our gratitude. Uh all those in favor? >> Any opposed? Great. Okay. And then the last ones that need your vote are um these two notices, as you know, in the teachers contract, there's an opportunity to let us know three years in advance of your retirement that you are going to do so to allow for some um planning on our part uh on the administrative and staffing side of things. So, two of my favorites from Simsbury High School when I was the principal, uh, our social worker Meredith Brockbank, who is currently finished 14 years, and math teacher Janice O'Donnell, uh, who will round it out at 20 years by the time she retires. So, the motion
015there is for their 2028 retirement. Move that the board of education accept the notice of intent to retire Meredith Brockbank and Janice O'Donnell effective June 30th, 2028. >> Second. >> I will second. I didn't know if he said second it. >> I thought you said I second it. Wait, you're not allowed to. >> I second. >> Uh any discussion? >> Again, that's a lot of experience. Just appreciate that we have for three more years. Um all those in favor. Any opposed? Thank you. >> And then for your information, no note necessary or no vote necessary, sorry, but this was the hiring season for um the Simsbury public schools. In total, there are 26 educators represented here. Um I will also note that at your special meeting that you approved the minutes of um we hired
016Scott Redmond as our new assistant principal at Simsbury High School. um and uh appointed Heather Golden to be the interim director of athletics and student activities. So, two administrative moves as well as these 26. Um and we'll be talking more about them in the school opening report, but um an excellent hiring season and I will have more to say in just a few minutes. >> Hold me up. I'll just save my question. >> Sure. All right. Um, acceptance of the gift from Terafil, the Terafll PTO. >> That's over to me. So, in keeping with your board of education policy 2311, any gift that exceeds the amount of $1,500 needs your approval as the board of education. So, tonight for your consideration is a $3,000 gift from the Terapell PTO. These funds will be used to
017help defay the cost for grade six and their campual trip. There is a motion there for your consideration. >> Move that the proposed gift of $3,000 to Terapville school by the Terraville School parent teacher organization be approved. >> Any discussion? >> Super generous. >> Um, all those in favor? I >> Any opposed? Great. >> Thank you. >> School year opening report. >> That's back to me. Sweet. >> So Neil, Jason, and myself will be facilitating this school opening report. We'll start off with me from the Office of Teaching and Learning. I'll share with you what our priorities are as related to the strategic plan this year. just can't thank you enough for that great work in developing the new strategic plan that'll take us to the next five years. We're really excited to what the
018future holds for us here in Simsberry. So, I'll highlight where our areas of focus are. And I'll also share with you some of our student performance data. How did things go for us on measures like the smarter balanced assessment on the next generation science standards and on the SAT? And after some student performance, I'll also talk about convocation, too. That's where I get to show you some fun pictures. Uh, I'll hand it over to Neil. He'll get into new teacher orientation, more of the operations side of things, give you a snapshot of the school opening enrollment, and finally to Jason who will show all of his glitzy pictures around all the work that got done at all seven of our schools to beautify things and make them even better than they already are. >> Great.
019>> All right. >> Awesome. So with that convocation, you know how I love a theme >> and I always have to plant the seed with Neil early, but this year's theme was what are we going to learn? What are we going to launch? And what are we going to lead in our new strategic plan? So we took that and we went with it. I forgot the cutouts. I have the cutouts right around if you want to take pictures. But here are some of our teachers. Um, Neil always gets in line and he we had some walk up music for him, Elton John's Rocket Man. So, you can see him over there on the right enjoying that. Got a lot of laughs. Um, those center pictures, we asked all teachers to think about what they want
020to learn, what they want to launch, or what do they want to lead in their classrooms or throughout the district. and they put that down on a star and gave it to their principal and got a swag bag uh in collaboration with Sigma is our insurance partner. So, everyone got a hat and some other great things to show their pride in the Simsbury public schools. And finally, want to thank uh science leaders Jim Compton and Heather Golden because they put together and then launched two rockets as we launched into the year. So, I was pretty excited about the theme and what I'm more excited about is the work, the excitement, the passion that our teachers are showing and how we will just bring Sim Spirit to the next level. So that gives you an idea
021around convocation. Uh relative to our strategic plan and the new strategic plan as a board, you decided to keep the four main goals the same. So they are around student performance and success, a caring and compassionate school climate, and a premier workforce. What changes are the actions and the work that we want to prioritize and accomplish this year. So, as a reminder, under student performance, there's been some more significant curricular changes specifically at the elementary. So, we've adopted benchmark advance as our curriculum for reading. So, that is launching this year and we're entering into the second year of our think math, which is our K through five math curriculum. So, doing a lot of additional support. Just because it's the second year doesn't mean that we titrate from that support or the coaching. Um, and
022I'm really excited to show you in just a moment some of our results from those curricular shifts. And uh, then as you know, we have reinstituted a curriculum review and we take on a couple of departments each year, but the one major department is our English language arts department. So, I'll be working very closely with Betsy Benzelis at the elementary level as well as Emily Drago, who is serving as our department supervisor for English language arts 7 through 12 and will be sharing with the curriculum committee developments around that review around our caring and compassionate school culture. We're in year two of encouraging words. That was a really fruitful campaign around how do we speak with and about each other and we want to continue that good work in year two. We're also looking at
023our tiered interventions and supports. There was some significant work done at the secondary level defining what does intervention look like? How do we tie the intervention work to the priority standards in each content area. So again, we'll be providing some updates there. With a premier workforce, we are in year two again of a new educator evaluation plan. So teachers are formulating goals for which they are most passionate. Um those stars that I had teachers fill out a convocation, that is really great framework and groundwork for what teachers want to talk about more in their professional growth plans. So excited about that work and how we prioritize our professional development uh opportunities that we have whether those be in our grade level profession learning communities or when we have a full district professional learning day. Uh,
024one of the things that I'm most excited about is that we've decided that we need to get smarter and better as leaders around work around intervention because if we were getting it all right, we would be closing even more gaps. We're doing a great job. I think we can do an even better job. So, my teaching and learning team along with Neil and Matt, we interviewed a couple of different people that are experts in this field. and we've landed with a woman named Katie Novak. I can send you more information on Katie, but she is a nationally and internationally known expert on these topics. So, she is going to be working with our administrative council throughout the course of the year to build our understanding and our skill in thinking about how do we take
025this to scale with um our staffs in the coming year. So that's where we're focusing from the strategic plan. Certainly there will be more board updates and reports whether that be through curriculum committee or here with the full board. But we're really excited about that that work. So as far as our student learning data, we know that we have different public markers here across the state. We have standardized assessments that are given in grades 3 through eight as well as grade 11. So just as a reminder, it's smarter balanced assessment. they dropped the C in consortium, so it's ESBA in grades three through eight and that assesses both literacy and math. We also um assess around the next generation science standards and there are specific assessments given in grades five, 8, and 11. And I'll
026share those results with you. And the good old Scholastic Aptitude Test, the SAT, that's given in grade 11. So I will share with you the our student results. We are um excited to do so and to share the growth over the course of this past year. So we've it's become more customary for us to give you some rollup data in both ELA and in math. So what I've shared with you, those percentages represent the percentage of students meeting or exceeding what our goals are around student learning. And then I've also provided you a number that gives us our DUI ranking. So again, it's a rollup first of grades three through six and then grades seven through eight. If members are interested in knowing how a specific grade level did, I can also share that information
027with you um either now or in the future. But here's where we are. Our ranks are climbing in the elementary out of all of the 19 districts in ELA. With that combined rollup, we are at number two and number four in math. We keep climbing. We've seen a percentage growth of in both of those areas that we're really proud of. Um there's a direct correlation. It's now two years in a row with the think math. Um those classrooms that were in pilot the year before, we are now in full implementation. One thing to note specifically in elementary, our grade six ELA is number one in our dirt. Um and we did so very very well there. So we continue to see increases in both ELA in both math at our elementary to transition to middle
028school. What I want to point out here our math in seventh grade is the highest percent. 72% of our students were at or exceeding goal. It's the highest it's been since the inception of ESPA for grade seven. So, we're really excited about that. We would still like to see those rankings specifically in math up a bit higher there. Um, our performance is better right now in seventh that it is an eighth, but it's better than we were last year. We saw growth. We saw movement and certainly more work to come. We will continue the uh great instructional work that we're doing, the curricular work that we're doing. So we align guaranteed curriculum with strong instruction to get even better results of student learning for all kids. And that's ESA question at the end. >> Well,
029um we ask questions at the end. Maybe you can see all the the data set that would make sense. So for science again we assess in grades five, eight and 11. We have a continued focus in strengthening grade five. Uh but we saw definite increases in that grade five by almost 4%. So we're really excited about that. And in our DUR rank, uh 8th grade dropped a bit. We're still performing at a high level, but we have a little bit of introspective work to do to see what happened there. That is typically not where we perform in high in in science in ETH. So, we are working um with both leaders at both the middle school and certainly Heather Golden as the former department supervisor. She's now in the interim role as AD. We're still
030picking her brain taking a look there. But the the high school continues to perform well third in our DUI. But we really want to be looking at what is the alignment with the middle school curriculum to the high school curriculum and is there something that we're missing there or is this just a blip on the screen there? And then finally the SAT. What I wanted to share with you this the story of this class is the growth of this class. It's better than other classes. Yet, when you look at those percents, specifically in math, you might go, "Okay, that's certainly not where we want to be." I would agree with that. But what I want to point out in both ELA and math is that there is almost and exceeding a 10% growth of where
031the same group of students performed on their PSAT. So overall certainly we want to do better but the growth that that particular cohort has made we were extremely excited about >> and this this is this year's seniors right >> this is this year's seniors the data is based upon this year's senior class. Okay, so that's where we kind of landed in our data questions. >> The couple slides back, this slide for the grades three through six. >> It's like it's hard to I love this the numbers, but it's really hard when you don't have the actual numbers of what it was last year. Like do we know what it is? >> We do. >> Where it came from? >> Yes, we do. So if we look at the roll up from last year in ELA,
032we were at 77.8%. So it's an increase of 2.2%. Our DUR ranking stayed the same. >> Okay, so that means everybody probably bumped up a little bit. >> Um, and again, I have the specific DUR rankings by grade level if that would be helpful to share with you at another time. And then in math, uh, we came up 1.4%. And where were we on the dur the the ranking? >> Uh we were at three and we went down to four. >> Okay. In the younger grades. >> Yeah. In the younger grades in middle school. Uh last year we were at 73.4% for ELA for that roll up. So we're up 2% overall. And for math we were at 59.8%. So we're up 6.7%. Do you know what that ranking was last year? >> Yes, last
033year was 15. So, we're up three in both ELA and math in our rankings. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> On on the same slide, so I think you said the seventh graders were ranked first. >> So, that means there's an issue with there was an issue with that eighth grade. This year's freshman. >> Yes. I wouldn't They weren't ranked first. The seventh graders had the highest performance of any seventh grade since ESPA. >> Okay. And yes, we saw lower performance in that current eighth grade cohort. >> That's correct. >> So is that we just monitoring it or I mean because obviously they're this year's senior or this year's freshman. So are are we what are we >> what are we doing about it? >> Apparently. Yeah. >> There's two things, right? We have
034to look at that cohort. Just as we were focusing on the SAT cohort and we saw that growth, >> there are very specific instructional moves that we made there to to see that growth. We're doing the same thing here and we're digging in. Who are those kids who were at the cusp of hitting that mark who were far below and then instructionally and intervention wise, how do we continue that growth for them? Brian >> Sue, can I have a question on the SAT slide? >> Math. >> Yes. >> 55.7 at or above. What would be considered like at or above? Like is that like a a tangible number or is it a >> It is a tangible number. It's scoring on the math section of the SAT. That's a bit of a higher threshold than
035it is for ELA, which is 480. >> So, I thought I remember that being the case. >> Unlike the way you think about college applications and taking the SAT multiple times and I use my best score, this is just that one Wednesday in March when they take the test. >> This was last year's Yeah. juniors, >> this year, seniors. So just to give you a sense of the highest score in the DUR, they're at 63.8%. The highest performance in our >> D. They need to lower the math number or >> Yeah. Because when when you're coming in sixth place essentially and just over half your people are scoring a 510 or above, that means it's tough to get a five like they need to ease up on that test. >> So back to middle school,
036right? Just you mentioned that cohort, right? And just the numbers gone up for seven. Is there anything that's something we talked a lot about last year too and I obviously the numbers moved up. Is there anything you point to to like it's pretty notable difference that group going out and that group coming in. Like is there anything you'd point to to say like this is what's making the difference because right I think look you're not used to seeing Simsbury like in 12th or whatever we were 15th right >> 15th last year. >> Yeah. That's so and then right and we always say it's the same kids right so it's second fourth you look at the high school so is there anything you point to to say like this is what's maybe moving the needle >>
037I think focus and attention on a guaranteed curriculum on common assessments that we're all using looking at and saying where are students performing and where are they not yet and how do we go back and use this information to teach differently because if we're saying certain skills are paramount then we have to have assurance that we are going back, circling back, trying again. There's also some very they did a lot of spiral review with students in both the seventh grade last year and the eighth grade last year. Um, so how do we come back to some of those skills and keep practicing? How do we continue to make those connections? Uh, we also started using a different uh data platform, something called as you may know as a parent. I am not going to say
038that that is the cause. I think it's more correlational right now yet. We've learned a lot from our use last year and we are adjusting some of those practices. So, more to come and certainly more that I can update you on as we continue to focus on that area. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. Sue going back to the SAT um July over here now you mentioned you said something that this year or this year senior this was the best results that you've had that you had in a while. No, what I shared was that this year seniors made considerable growth as a cohort when compared to other cohorts. That 10% growth from PSAT is pretty significant. We're really proud of of the of those kiddos. They uh worked hard. our teachers worked hard um and
039I think we've seen some nice growth results because of it >> and especially coming out of co just a few years ago how many years have we been out but you know it's five but still these kids it's really remarkable where a lot of districts haven't caught up you know in in any way shape or form and here we are already exceeding that so that's quite something >> great >> okay on to Neil >> so we're gonna focus a little bit on uh the staffing and on just a snapshot of enrollment before um I turn it over to Jason Casey. This picture represents all of our almost all of our new hires. That is a tremendous amount of work um through my office. But I also want to acknowledge how much work the principles and
040assistant principles and department supervisors put in to hiring in that many positions before they get onboarded and my office with Sydney Freelinger and I. So um we had uh started in we start that process once your budget passes. We know it still needs to go through referendum, but by March we sort of know where the board of ed budget landed and that's where we start advertising positions and when we come back from April vacation that's basically the brunt of recruiting season. So um we hired some of these teachers as early as April um and we hired them as late as August. So um and you could they we had some difficult areas to hire in this year and couple of family and consumer science positions, technology, education, which can be tricky. Um and we brought
041on several new staff members for our new path program that will eventually open at Two Farbs Village. So, um, some unique hires and I feel like we did a really good job, um, bringing them in. And again, that in terms of screening, paperwork, interviews, demo lessons, I mean, there's a each one of those hires represents hours and hours of work um, by folks out in the in the field. So, once we get them here, we do a three-day orientation. Day one is the Sue and Neil show for the most part and then it goes from there. Um and we do a welcome. Um really happy that uh one of the things we get great feedback on is we bring three of the teachers who were in their chairs last year and speak to them about
042the kind of support they got in Simsbury what was most helpful, what was most challenging and they just ask questions of these um folks who who we invite back. Um they have a number of uh presentations around our vision of a graduate around some of our equity work. Katie Crusula gets them for two hours and does sort of a special ed in Simsbury 101. Um and Dave Prinstein does um technology work with them. Um and we really the Sue is the one who gives us survey at the end. We get tremendous feedback and we get feedback of uh how the best ones are. We've had orientation in other places and this is amazing. You know, they they really praise the program. I think we've gotten uh gotten it just right uh for where we are
043right now. Those who are brand new to the profession do one morning of it in team training which is the two-year program to basically as a novice teacher be trained in four modules of learning environment instruction assessment um planning and then there's like an ethics and responsibilities module and they complete those under the toutelage of our retired teacher Jan Sans and their mentor teachers that they are assigned. The famous cultural tour of Simsbury that uh is the get to all seven schools in an hour and 15 minutes. And then this year it ended at the flower bridge where we had an ice cream truck parked for them. So that was uh their cultural tour. Uh we pointed out a few other spots, but um and then we ended after three days with a roundt session
044where anything that they need to be able to talk about before they head out to see their kids the week. This happens on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before convocation. So that's that. I'm going to give you a little bit of uh just some rollup data about their experience. We were fortunate that just over half of these we were able to hire in that starting point of their career from either zero to five years of experience. Um that is infusing new talent into our school system. It also gets me on Amy's good side because it helps the budget. Um, and we um we exceeded what uh my marching orders were from Amy in terms of uh it's a statistic we called realized savings and we realized more savings through these hires than was the goal. Um
045but in some areas we did bring in experienced people. Um and those are some of those harder to hire areas quite frankly. We um we uh found that we went with more experienced people in terms of this is another Yeah, go ahead. >> Just say that that number I was going to say I like seeing that. So I you know kudos to it a nice spread. We had talked about this in the past right about like feedback stuff you hear from people right you don't want like if that zero to five was 100% yeah Amy may be very happy but like there'd be a question of like you're in is that too much youth at one time. So a lot of credit to you to kind of have a nice you know spread of that.
046So >> well and I always that was a mantra when I was the principal at the high school that I said a healthy school faculty should have people in their 20s 30s 40s 50s and 60s like you should have it all in your school and um you know we we strive to do that. So >> nice job. >> In terms of their um academic preparation, this is now I would say a trend. More are entering the profession with their master's degree already. Um they they um get it before they even start teaching. And certainly at our Connecticut schools, that's a real trend. So if you go to central Connecticut or Yukon, almost every resume I get from those kids is like they already have their master's degree, which helps them in terms they still are
047a relatively economic higher, but you know, the master's degree on the teacher schedule is worth about 5,000 more salary dollars for them. So um it makes a it makes a difference. um and uh including some with the sixth year column. So those are our new teachers. I just wanted to give you a snapshot of enrollment before the big show in October 10. >> I can't wait for that. Um it's my favorite. >> I kind of get sad because you never react to any of my stuff, but I won't take it personally. So you >> you can see that um we are down a little bit in enrollment. We're back below 4,000. Um if you look in the bottom right hand column, the district total K through 12 is 3980. Um on the October report, I'll
048also report out preschool. Um but this was as of that first Friday of the school year. Um, one thing that you'll remember from budgeting, so K6 is down 40 students and you will remember that we were budgeted to save two teachers. Um, that we were going to go down two teachers. Even though we're down 40 students, we couldn't go down two teachers the way that the cohorts. So, we still have exactly 110 elementary school teachers, classroom teachers. Um, we did realize some uh staffing savings at Simsbury High School through um just fewer kids um in in um it really was really more last year. We were still able to do um some savings there. So if you flip forward one more, you can see it's a decrease of 81 students from last year's October enrollment
049and it was about 60 students below the projections which um were saying that we were going to come in at 4,040. Um they got the kindergarten more or less right after I asked them to adjust it last year. So they were better on that. Um, and some of this is quite frankly I just think fewer people with young families are moving into town. I think the real estate market is hard for people in their 30s, you know, like it's hard to buy a house here. Um, and we'll see where that goes. Um, but much more to come on October 1st. There's also a trend and and I'm seeing this in the high school. A lot of kids are reclassifying and going to private schools for sports and >> yeah, >> which is a whole another
050conversation, but um >> we saw a little bit of that at the high school this year. >> That is a there's an uptick in that. I'm from what I've seen. Weird. >> Three three kids difference last year. >> Yeah, Neil. >> Right. Right. Right. I I think that's a interesting observation on the housing market. I'd be curious too. I know you keep track of those numbers. We hear a lot about the development and the development. >> So it feels like there probably it's there's been enough development now probably most recent years to see like is there something there that this development's not turning out students the way people may think it is, right? Like then you talk about there's whole other conversations. there's whole other conversations. If there's this development that's not turning out families,
051that's not turning out students, then what exactly is happening there, right? I I'd be curious on that because >> and I'll I'll have all of that for our October meeting in terms of where the development is, Josh. >> I see why Jen loves it. But yeah, that'll be interesting. >> That's when we get to hammer Mc Malone and Mc Broom or >> There's no way that's right. Uh, >> they missed the boat on that one. >> I'm in conversation with the town uh planner George uh about this one that's going up on Iron Horse. >> Um, it's going to be called Luminary. Um, it does not have as many twobedrooms as you would think. So, there's going to be like 180 units, but only um like about half of them are going to be two-bedroom
052units. So, I don't think very many kids are going to come out of that. >> Yeah, >> we uh and you may want to save this for October, but it's a significant projection. 60 is a that's a that's significant. Like, what are we what are we doing? >> Would say compared to 4,000, it's nothing. It's but um you know they're they're going to claim a 98.5% success rate um because 1% would be 40 kids. So um they've been that far off two years in a row though. So they would have been further off if I didn't ask it. >> Sure. No, that's why I know that's we I think we we talk about this almost every year and that's why >> kind of bringing it back up. Well, we should if if if we want
053to use a different vendor, that's something we should talk about at budget time >> because I have to budget ahead to keep using Nest. >> How long have we used them? >> We went back to them after Malone and Mc Broom went out of the projection business. >> But the guy who worked at Malone and McBroom >> who we liked, Patrick came and presented, he's now back working for a different company. seem to remember there being a Neil Sullivan system to this. >> Well, it was more accurate. >> We'll talk about that with my severance package. >> And with that, let's transition now. >> Just a quick I was just a quick um I know there's always last minute changes. Are you do you consider us fully staffed now? Just >> uh we are waiting
054for some people that we have hired. >> Okay. >> To um start like Mr. Redmond starts next Monday. um and another uh special ed teacher starting next Monday. The only place we are not staffed is where the math teacher just resigned. Right. >> So um but Mr. Baker had an interview today that he texted me and said it went well. So >> awesome. Thank you. >> I I don't want to deviate, but I'm just cur before I forget this because you know I'm going to forget this in a 10 minutes. Um what were you saying before that you see the uptick in the numbers? Oh, I just from >> students >> potentially kids like their sophomore, junior year going to a prep school for an a sport. >> And >> so you finish 10th grade,
055>> right? >> You're a good sport basketball player and you go repeat 10th grade, >> right? >> At a private school. So now you still have three years of high school. >> Correct. >> That's nothing new. >> No, it's nothing new. And we're in the mecca. We're in the mecca of private school. Yeah. >> So, it's not a >> I'd be curious for October if we could put a little asterisk. That decrease is big at Henry James. >> Yeah. >> Which you didn't touch on. >> So, I can't wait. >> Okay. >> Stoked. >> Super stoked. >> Have you set free questions today? >> All right. >> I did my asterisk. >> There you go. >> All right. Over to Jason. >> Now, I feel bad that I don't have data. I don't have numbers.
056Did you have pictures? >> You have pictures. That's right. >> So, yes, Ladam Rain at long last um the public building committee uh accepted the substantial completion of this project last night at the previous night. Um this time last year, an entire hallway was closed off and now it's a real school. Everything's ready to go and um was talking to the principal and he's quite excited about it. Next one. Central Elementary. If anyone hasn't driven by here lately, I encourage you to do so. Uh, we replaced the sidewalk as well as these stairs. I think I have a second picture of it. There. There you go. Uh, we also widened the bus lane. There was an issue at this school where if buses were coming and going at the same time, there was a little
057bit of a jockeying to get them around each other. Um, but we uh shaved off some of the some of the island and now uh buses can can get through there. This was part of our new paving plan to do an every other year capital project like this to to get on top of these kinds of things. Uh we're always adding Chromebooks every year. This year the number is 840. Um they're all in and running. Next up, uh, one of the big technology things this summer was to move to Windows 11. Uh, this October, Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10. So, uh, we've done the majority of our, uh, desktops now, and we are currently picking away at things like administrator laptops and and some computer labs, but the vast majority of our desktops
058are now Windows 11. uh security upgrades. Uh we've added 15 more security cameras to our school buses. We had five, so now we have 20 of our buses out of the fleet of 29. Um if a principal does have an issue for one of those remaining, say nine buses, uh it's easy enough to change the number on the bus and move a bus with a camera into whatever route needs it. So we're in good shape there. The plan is as we replace our diesel buses with propane, part of that process will be to add this camera package into it. And then additionally on the security side, uh we're spending roughly I'd say about 200,000 on camera upgrades. One of the first technology projects that I was involved in when I started here was going from
059zero to where we are now with security cameras. We had none. Uh so as with me, they've all gotten a lot older and so we're doing this major refresh to to get them going. Uh there's one other security piece that's in the works. Uh Dave Prinstein has taken the lead on doing some training with staff on uh email security. We are seeing a lot of as everyone is seeing a lot of spam and and malicious email coming through. So making sure everybody recognizes it when they see it and not click on the links is a big deal. Next slide. And maintenance. We made some spaces really beautiful this summer. Uh the amphitheater at the high school got a complete overhaul. Uh new seating, new furniture, new flooring, new painting, new I mean it's just an
060amazing space. Uh this this particular space took a pretty big hit when uh during COVID years we had people using that as a place to eat their lunches on a carpeted space. So not a good combination. >> That's not the big one right when you walk in on the right, is it? >> No, this is the one in the back. in the back. >> Uh the big one in the front we did stage lighting. Uh so in the auditorium uh it's been on my radar to get these incandescent stage lights out of there. Uh more costefficient, less chance of things bursting into flames. Uh so now we have LED based >> which is always good. >> It's always a good thing. Uh LED lights for the for the stage. So, uh, um, that's in place.
061We did a partial roof replacement over at Tutin Hills, and that's substantially complete as well with some wrap-up work. Towards the end of September, we'll have that completely done. Uh, we got a lot of bathroom renovations done, which were in, I would say, dire need, especially the boys' room at Terafll. If, uh, anyone's familiar with what that used to look like, it doesn't look like that anymore. Um, so there's some shots of our renovated bathrooms. We did a few at Squadron. We did Henry James as well. Uh, next slide. Uh, we did roughly 20 locations of floors and painting projects. Uh, that's central on the right there with some new flooring uh, at the main hallway and then also central on the left of one of their classrooms. But districtwide, we did a bunch of
062those to uh, spruce up the place. And that is my >> station. Great. Wow. >> Um, any questions before? >> I just want to uh commend you that that looks great. And I just, you know, we this board spends a lot of time talking about capital and having conversations with our friends at other boards about the capital. And I just want to remind everybody that this is what we're talking about, right? This is we're talking about remodeling bathrooms, roofs. I mean, this isn't we're not talking about bells and whistles. We are talking about things that provide the physical plant to have the best possible learning environment for our kids and and that's what we're talking about. It's just I just wanted to take a second to remind us what we're all talking about when when
063we talk about these these projects. So, thank you. I greatly appreciate it. >> So, that's wraps up school opening. I'll just add two more things. And we just found out this week that um the state set aside money for capital um non-recurring type projects. So, every town's going to get a little grant around that. It looks like uh ours is in the neighborhood of $170,000 for next year. And um Jason's uh stewardship of these projects is incredible. The man in the field making a lot of this happen is our supervisor of maintenance, Kyle Lovelin. And his ability to get projects done is it's a great partnership. It's astounding. Um we're we're so much better at this in the three years that Kyle has been with us. Um and I just want to recognize that. >>
064Awesome. Thank you. >> Great point. So overall, terrific school opening. It's great to hear kids and teachers back in classrooms and see them out on the fields and in the hallways in the auditorium. And we're looking forward to a tremendous year. Great. Uh the second report is going to be about NEASK, our new the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. So, I'm going to invite up to the table principal Maggie Sidell, assistant principal Georgia Robert, and Spanish teacher Amanda Kazeratski. Amanda and Georgia will be NEASK co-chairs. So, what we wanted to do this evening is just provide an overview relative to the NEAS process. They've made some changes to the process and the standards. So for those of us who were around at the last dennial visit, there's a an extra helpful thoughtful step
065called the collaborative conference that will be happening about this time next year. So Maggie, Georgia, and Amanda will be talking about some of those changes. They'll be talking about the work of the high school this year to engage in a self-study and what that means and to have you put some dates on the calendar a year in advance because again our collaborative conference will happen in October of 2026. So just to kick us off, NEAS stands for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. It's the oldest regional accredititor in the US and it accredits over 1600 different schools, public schools, independent schools, even international institutions. So, we have um some overview slides. I do want to give them credit because I'm like these are really good graphics. I'm just going to steal them. So,
066some of these slides are are directly from them. Uh but this process is a peerreview process and it's a an opportunity for us to do a deep look at our practices. We'll discuss those a little bit more. Uh it really is a process that emphasizes growth. It engages this is not an I gota process. This isn't you pass or you don't pass. This is about these are standards that we believe in as an accredititation body. We want to engage with you as partners. We want to help you uh either validate your areas where you want to get better and smarter about the work that we do for kids. But it's authentic. It's real. It's valuable. And uh all four of us have gone on visits. We've been a peer reviewer in other schools in Connecticut,
067in Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts. And it's just something that we believe in. So, with that, I'm going to hand it over to Maggie, and then we'll all take a little part in shaping out this update for you tonight. >> Great. Thank you, Sue. I wanted to start by saying thank you to both Georgia and Amanda. Um, as being the newest to high school, um, one of the first things that Georgia actually looked at me and said is, "Hey, you know, get on that list and go out and be part of this process." us and it was the best advice. Being part of it and really seeing this whole cycle, this 10-year cycle um to be part of what we're kicking off this year as a leader um has been so insightful and so helpful.
068So, we're at the um self-reflection part. So, we're at the beginning of this 10-year cycle um and we are participating in a um an opportunity to really look through the lens of these five standards um through all of our stakeholders. So, we are going we actually started this today. our staff took the survey um to get their input on how they view um many of the different standards in different ways. So, we're at this very beginning part where we're taking stock of all of the things that we have, the things that we think we could improve on um and really looking at it through the lens of these different standards. So, there's five of them. Next year, what will happen is we will invite different educators in for that collaborative conference um in October of
069next year where they will be looking at the evidence that we've gathered and taking a look at the areas that we think we're doing well on, areas that we think that we need to improve on and giving us some feedback on that. Um after that, we get to put that plan into place. So we'll have the opportunity to really set up some action plans and some ways to really um do the development and growth of those priority areas and then we'll come back around and we will get that denial visit where they'll give us some feedback. They'll then give it to us in one year and three-year increments. Um so we give to you know we get to say hey here's how we're doing in the action plan. These are the things that we've put
070in place. These are our next steps. And they give us that critical feedback um along the way and then we'll start a new cycle again. So, I'm really excited about the opportunity to take stock. We've also teed up a lot of things um knowing that this was coming, having participated um and our priority areas really just meet us where we're at in terms of the self-reflection that we're participating in this year. So, what does it look like? We are in the process of gathering evidence and information. Our department supervisors are really the um the steering committee. they are helping us to gather the evidence in the five different standards. There's some priority standards in different areas. Um and they're setting those up and working with us to help us to really look deeply at what
071we have in place across those five different areas. Um so this will include as we say up there the surveys. So teachers just had the opportunity to take the survey. We have the students coming up and they are going to be surveyed coming up on October 7th. And then we're going to be launching the family survey coming up. So I will actually have a video coming out and be sharing that along with some information around open house. So we are excited to take the input um from each of those different stakeholders as well as looking at we've what we've got in place as it relates to intervention our curriculum um how the physical plant is you know do things really are they in place to allow students to get what they need in terms of
072their day. So it really looks across many different facets of the educational experience for our students. Um we're going to rate those principles and those standards saying hey we're really this one is really in place this one is developing or this one really needs improvement. And some of them are you know things that we have really well um you know situated the vision of the gra you know do you have a vision of the graduate that you have in place that all stakeholders are aware of? We obviously have that. That's a really strong one. Um, so we'll take a look at each of these and then we'll draft a report, a narrative that goes along with our rating. We'll get that back to our teachers to say, "Hey, this is what we've collected. Are you
073in agreement with this?" And that's where they will have the opportunity to vote and give us feedback. And then we'll be ready for our visit when we come together um as a collaborative conference next October. Um, we'll share with the committee. They'll have the opportunity to go out and take a look at classrooms. They're going to look at what's on our walls, you know, how does the physical plant look? They'll go on a tour. We'll have student representatives walking them around and they'll be able to really immerse themselves in the data that we've collected, but also our dayto-day um as best as you can over a two-day period. Um, so again, having participated in that, it was really, really awesome. you get that that all the information to study before then you get to see
074it in action and then you get to really work with the team to develop those priority areas. Okay. So, I'm going to walk you through the five standards. Um, as you can see, student learning is at the center. Um, and the vision of the graduate really runs through all five of the standards. So, they're really looking for that vision of the graduate to to drive each aspect. So, um, in addition to taking a deep dive into student learning, they're going to look at resources. So, that's where we get into the capital planning, um, all of the funding and things that we need, um, in our building. Learning support. So, we've talked tonight about interventions that falls under there. Professional practices, um, how do our teachers collaborate? What does professional development look like? And, um, taking
075a look at our learning culture. What does what does it look and feel like in each of the classrooms? This slide here gives you a little bit of a flavor for the overall of the standard. So, when they're looking at learning culture, they want first and foremost physical safety of our buildings. um we that we're setting high standards for student learning and that we all own that vision of the graduate that we're all um speaking that same language and fostering those transferable skills, those skills that regardless of discipline are going to carry students through to career um and college etc. So student learning, they want to see those defined curricular experiences. You heard common assessments earlier. You know that curriculum, the written curriculum, matching the taught curriculum, common assessments. So different teachers, same course, same
076assessment, looking at the data, things along those lines. Um looking for the ways in which um we're seeing our students attain the vision of the graduate. So what does that look like? How do we know that they are attaining that vision? professional practices. Um, we always have a a wonderfully thoughtout um, school improvement plan. So, they're going to want to take a look at that. They're going to want to look at our, like I said, PD practices, our professional learning communities, PLC's. I'm sure you've heard about those. um all the ways that our teachers collaborate. Vertical teams, you know, the way that we articulate with the middle school and all of our community relationships, which we have uh many many of those and how we interact with the community and how they support us. And
077then those interventions under learning support, all of the ways in which um we meet students where they are and help to close gaps and move them forward. And learning resources, time, funding, facilities, um our infrastructure. This is where we get into that state of our building. Um and they really do, you know, walk around and check out, you know, we show them the the boiler and and all of that good stuff. So, it's fun. fun fun stuff. Um, so in those five buckets, there are foundational elements. So these are sort of the most important. You know, if if we're struggling on one of these, they're likely going to tell us that's got to be your focus area. You know, you're not quite there yet, and you really that's got to be one of them. So
078safety, emotional, physical, um that written document describing now this we have we have our vision of the graduate. We have our preparation, passion and personal growth. So we have all of that down really solid um 1.2A that there's a written curriculum in a consistent format for all of our courses and departments across the school. As you all know, we um offer so many robust electives. So, um, that's an exciting piece we're working on. And then professional practices, we always have our school improvement plan. And we have a CTE board. So, any school that offers CTE programming, they must have a CTE advisory board, which we have had for years. Um, I went last year. It's a it's a wonderful, wonderful group that really represents all those community partnerships that we're fostering. It's phenomenal. um learning
079support. We have intervention strategies that are designed to support learners. Um again, we we have a lot of great things going on in this area, but it'll be great to get feedback and learning resources. Do you know our plant um our programming, our services, our curriculum, and again that physical safety. So, um I am collecting all of those great evidence, you know, evidence gathering like our safety plan and all the wonderful work that we have. Um, and that's the phase of that evidence gathering we were talking about earlier. >> So, when the collaborative team comes in, right, they're looking at different elements in each one of these standards, but they're saying, "All right, no matter what you prioritize, if we don't see evidence of these foundational elements, you've got to make it a priority." Again,
080this is not an I got you. This is a confirmation of what we want to prioritize. For example, when I went into for a visit, they had some incredible things going on, but they didn't have a school a school improvement plan or process. And NASA is going, if you're not looking at your student data and your culture data and taking actions to get better like that's foundational for any high performing high school. That's what we mean by these foundational elements. Okay. >> All right. So, I'm going to explain uh just briefly what this collaborative conference will look like. Again, it's not until 2026, so we do have a year to prepare, but um the usually about a week before the collaborative conference begins, the visiting team is going to meet with our uh NEAS liaison,
081and that is Fran Kennedy. So, he'll have a Google Meet or a Zoom meeting with them and give them the download of really what they can expect um how the process is going to work. That way when they get to Simsbury on Wednesday, October 6th, they can really hit the ground running and get started. Um, the first day that they do arrive, they come as soon as the school opens and we start with a school tour, which, as Maggie said, will be led by student representatives, and they get to see all the all the nooks and crannies of the high school. Um, they'll then get to meet our steering committee, which is our department supervisor team, and then they'll get to observe a whole bunch of different classes, which is super exciting. And then at
082the very end of that day, they will have meetings with all of our stakeholder groups. That includes a group of students, a group of parents, and then you guys as well. Um, so definitely want to add that to your calendars. >> October 6, 2026. >> As long as it doesn't interfere with Neil's report. >> Sorry. >> Wow. Days of the week is it? >> That's a Wednesday and a Thursday. >> Wednesday. >> You'll be good. We'll meet on Tuesday. >> Oh, perfect. >> Um, as soon as they uh end their day at the high school, they're going to go back to the hotel that they're all staying at and they're going to get started right away. And what they're doing is kind of debriefing the day. What did they see in these classroom observations and
083they're going to start reading the narratives that our team wrote about our school. They're going to take a look through our data through the surveys. They're going to talk about their debriefing with those stakeholder groups. And then they're going to start writing their own report on those standards that Maggie and Georgia mentioned. Um they're going to write well into the night as we know this because we all did it our uh last year. And they're not going to be done writing. So the very next day on Thursday, October 7th, they're going to come back to the high school where they finish their report there. And the reason why they get to do that is so that they can kind of um they can ask clarifying questions, they can ask for more evidence, they can ask
084for anything that they may not have seen or maybe didn't understand, they can ask us. Um so they come back to the school to finish that report. They after debriefing as a team they they kind of look at what are those areas that our high school should be focusing on. They go through those foundational elements and they um all agree whether we are meeting them or not and then they debrief with us and the SHs team about their findings um of their report and the past two days that they saw. How many people are on a visiting team these days? >> Six. >> Five or six. They really try to get six. >> Yeah. >> But sometimes it's five. >> Do they like stay together throughout the day or do they divide and conference? >>
085Yeah. >> And usually it's a mix of teachers, administrators. >> So for those of you who have been around for the big dennial visit, right? This is almost like a pre-assessment. It's a smaller team. It's a smaller amount of time. And the reason why they put this process in place is it gives you an opportunity to adjust if you need to. It gives you the opportunity to focus and decide, okay, over the next couple of years before the larger visit, where do we have to really zero in and work hard in these foundational elements or otherwise? Um, and they'll give us feedback. if they think that we're off, if they see something different as a priority area, we'll they'll have a conversation with us about it. Um, I've been on visits where we've confirmed the
086priority areas and we're like, we think that that small potatoes like your your higher leverage to to get better is actually all of your your efforts should be we think pointed in this direction. So, it it truly um is a a collaborative effort, a peer review. Amanda, I know you just wanted to kind of summarize what the team will do. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, the visiting team really has four main objectives and that first one is to make sure that those foundational elements are genuinely and authentically correctly rated. Um they're going to give us feedback not only on those foundational elements, but on those five larger overarching standards as well. They are going to probably validate what we find during this current year um in our self-reflection. They're going to validate what those focus areas
087should be and then they are going to remind us of all the wonderful things that we know we're doing um that they got to see that for themselves and read about as well. >> Just to clarify, we were on the visiting team like last year like you we all were able to go some to another >> so we all went different places. >> Yeah, it was really helpful. >> It was great. So cool. >> We got to see the other side of the process. Yeah. >> Um and we got to provide feedback to another team and really get the sense of this is an improvement process among peers around common goals and elements that we know make schools better. So it's validating. You also get to steal great ideas and and bring back strength of
088of what other teams might be doing in other districts in Connecticut, but all over New England, which is really cool. >> Collaborated too with a couple of other principles in the Farmington Valley who have um just had their collaborative visit. They've come back from they're getting ready for their dennial. So, it's been great also to talk to them at their different points in this cycle um as we've come together just collegially to say, "Hey, where are you at? what did you find as your priority area to see their narrative all put together um also gave us kind of a where where are we going with this um so yeah the the visit though and being part of these pieces um has been really helpful. So just at the beginning certainly so this full year will
089be again a self-reflection year little mini visit. Next year we'll make sure that you have the dates on your calendar. Um and that begins this tenure process. Are there questions? I have a few questions. fun is on the day who come out and I when you guys are part of the team who who's telling you okay you guys are going to go who are there employees of NZAC and they're with you directing you or and is it all the schools all the 1600 schools that are accredited take turns going as the they >> yeah they reach out so um ask the the governing body reaches out and says you know are you itched that you're a school that's looking for an accreditation. Do you have any interest in participating? So Sue happens to be like
090a lead. Is that what they call? >> Chair. >> The chair. So there's a chair for every school and within the chair lead. So I was actually um I was uh standard number two on the one that I went to. So I was focusing in on that second standard. So as the chair, we met before we took a look at all of their evidence, their documents, and they lead you and they're saying, "Okay, when you're going in, you're looking through lens number uh for standard number two. you're going to be following up and you're going to be responsible for, you know, writing about, um, you know, what you saw as it relates to this particular piece. So, um, they kind of tee you up and they give you all the information. You study it and
091then you go and you participate, um, through the through the lens of the lead. You did ask a question though. Is there a member of the NEAS staff? Will they be on our collaborative conference visit? The answer is no. It's a group of peers. They set the structure up, but they don't actually come and partake in the visit. >> And the all of this is is really an accreditation for our high school only, not for Simsbury public schools. >> That's correct. >> And if that is the case, right? And there are how you said there's about 1,600 schools that are accredited. >> How many public schools are in New England? Like is that I'm assuming that's not very many. Like is this an accreditation that we I'm just being on the jaded part that we
092have to do. >> And so is there a cost that we pay for this accreditation? >> You pay for the >> and you pay for the hotel if people have to stay over. Yeah. Like I >> Interestingly, I was going to be um placed in a hotel in Avon for a district and I'm like I don't save the money, right? So, not all partake in staying over, but you have hotel cost and you have um cost for meals, but overall it's people that are coming. We're not paying a salary anywhere. You have to pay mileage, but you're not paying a salary or a stipend for people because it's a peer review >> and we don't pay any fee to NASDAQ. This isn't like college funds. the other views of some sort. >> There's an annual
093membership fee. >> There is >> nominal. >> I can get you that. >> And is is every single in our DUIR in DUI A B in all of Connecticut, all our DUIs are all affiliated with this. It's required by who? Connecticut or by federal government? Well, if you I mean you need to be accredited high school or your kids like >> can't apply to colleges and I mean so it it's a self-fulfilling prophecy and I mean and schools that used to sort of this used to be much more like you passed or you didn't >> and when a school didn't pass it's ugly. Okay. >> It's like a seal of approval, right? So for you for for a schoolation, you just come off a 10-year cycle then is that >> we did on the website
094and now on the website you're on probation, right? So it is saying that here is >> Maggie. What's that? >> Yeah. >> Here's a process that's been in place for decades. >> There are certain measures of high performing high schools. You have to have certain foundational pieces in place for you to be recognized, not just among other districts, but colleges and universities. Like it's a it's a seal of quality that is a process of peer review and it's really clear like these are the standards that we expect accredited high schools to achieve and you have to demonstrate evidence to do that. >> Yeah. So, it's a it's it's think of it as a quality seal. >> It's not like I guess I'm jaded because I'm thinking of it more like like the governing body who
095does the APs and the SATs and stuff and I don't I know that we have to do that but at the same time it's just a little backwards in my mind. Um but on this so do you guys ever go up to like Vermont or do other other Boston or or do you only stay down here in Connecticut? I I did one in Massachusetts. >> Yeah, Massachusetts. >> I just cheered a visit in Rhode Island. >> I almost did Fischer Island. That would have been fun, but >> do other people like does the north No, the South all the area. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I forget how many the same >> I forget how many regional >> um accreditation bodies there are, but I can find that out for you. I should know that.
096>> But they're not all the same. They have very similar standards to reach, >> but a standard in Florida might be different than a standard in New England. >> Sure. >> Um, and for whatever it's worth, um, because I've gone out to a few recent conferences, I was surprised a couple of years ago, NIA has gotten into other markets. So, they are doing international schools. Um, and they've started, you know, doing districts as a whole. and they've moved into the private realm as well. >> And they do colleges and universities. >> Great. >> Thank you. Appreciate Appreciate your patience and waiting. >> Super interesting. >> Thank you. >> So, can I just one question? I guess >> you seem to have this pretty much under control. Is there anything like is there anything you need
097from us? Like I mean it seems like you've got this and we've got to move in the year but is there anything? >> Yeah. Really it would be to first of all to encourage people to complete the the family survey. >> Um that's something that we're really wanting to truly hear from a large you know body of our stakeholders um from the a family perspective would be one and two would just be when we get to that October 6th and 7th if we can get representatives across different groups to be able to come in and speak. Um, I had uh the opportunity when I would went on my visit, we had several people that were they also wore different hats, right? They were a parent, but they also were a community member. They were on
098the CTE board or they shared different um so I think those would be the two things, but no, I feel really >> do they interview the board anymore? >> Um, it depends. I think they can if they're available if you want to set that up. Like I was able to meet with central office too on the one that I went to. >> Yeah, there will be There will be a pairing up. Yes, definitely. >> So, it'll be that would be really helpful when we get to that point. But, no, I feel like we're prepared and honestly really excited. It's it's helpful to have someone look at what's in your could be in your blind spot or offer you an opportunity to to think differently about something. Um, so I'm excited for that. >> Great. >>
099Nice job. >> Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> All right. Next up is public audience. None. Um, our future is the next board meeting. It's it's actually uh I think on the agenda it says the 23rd. It actually is not. We're trying to work through it. Um, we're hoping to have it lined up for the 30th. Um, but just stay tuned. But I think that's where we're going to end up. >> I would like just to bring up something in uh in old business. Can you just give us an update of the zoning meeting that was the other night that um did they not discuss the building? Was there a meeting Wednesday night? two farms village. >> Yeah. Do you know >> I was just curious what the outcome? >> I didn't get
100to see the meeting. I'm just curious what the outcome was. >> I don't think I have an update for you. >> Okay. I can go back and look at it. Yeah. >> All right. We just need a motion tobody. >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you. Josh second. Thanks. All in favor? >> I thanks everybody. Appreciate it. 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. >> It's about empowering our community, >> ensuring our voices are heard during government meetings, and celebrating milestones >> like our high school graduations. >> But today, SEM faces a challenge. >> Our funding structure is based on television subscriptions. >> And it's no secret people have been cutting
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