001Uh, welcome. Great to see everybody. Great to see everybody. Uh, as always, let's start with the pledge of allegiance. We're ready to United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Starting with recognition today. All right. Always good. I'm going to give this over to Sue to tea up Shannon Gier. Yes. So excited to have our K12 director of fine arts, Shannon Gier, here with us today. And it's become an annual event where she shares an overview of some of our students work and the incredible accolades that they've received. So this is just one other time where we can celebrate the incredible work that happens by our students at the direction of our incredible faculty and staff. So with
002that, Shannon, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time and um for your support of the visual arts and all the arts of course. And I have some some um student work to share with you that was honored um at the Scholastic Art Awards this year. Um again, we have a very big range of media and process and it is a um opportunity for students to compete um grades 7 through 12. So um so we have uh print making and this is grade eight. Um this is one I just want to highlight because it did win a national award um which is just um out of a across the whole nation this piece was picked um and it's a grade eight drawing. It's extremely detailed and um you can can probably tell we're
003sitting up close there and see um see the the hard work in detail. Yeah, it's amazing. and that one a gold key and um the student did a print making piece. We have the fish sculpture. So 3D the students get to explore 2D, 3D, and believe it or not, while this may look like it's actually three-dimensional, it is a colored pencil drawing. Wow. Wow. And that is a grade eight student. And um yeah, exceptional. Wow. Um and this is a photography, digital photography. And this student won a um a gold key. and you can see his portfolio um Nana's portfolio exhibited um tomorrow night at the art show as well as Maddie Cresmo who um who was also recognized for her sculpture. This is a um ceramic sculpture that's very refined and um and built
004with metallic glaze. And then that is a a glass fire a kilfired glass sculpture that's on top to represent the um people know what a CD was back in. Um and you can also see Jane um Esamelia's uh piece at in her whole um exhibition of work at the um art show and she won this for her fashion piece inspired by um women in science. Um this is one of my students in um in digital photography uh Skyler Glyman and um she created actually we're just talking about this today because she took those pictures of the fish out of her fish tank which was amazing and there's just wonderful narratives and stories behind every piece. Um these grade 12 pieces is Ella Jansen. She's going um next year to be an art teacher. She's studying
005um in Massachusetts College of Art and um all these uh inquiries and themes are of the students creation because they've designed it and the teachers have facilitated it and she was recognized multiple times. We have Sasha um photography and it's really just a fabulous place where students come together and um learn from each other um learn new skills. This is a glass fused and slumped plate. Every individual piece was cut and arranged and it's an extremely tedious pro process. Um jewelry. So you could see like the very comprehensive program that we have that kids get to choose from. I don't know how they choose because it's so much. Um but I feel the same way they did because I that's how I was when I was in school and I I never left. So So
006thank you so much. I never left. And I say every day how excited I am to to work with um the kids. Cedar can tell you because I tried to get him back into the photo room, but he's a you know talented everywhere. So, one of the things that I appreciate most about Shannon her and her department is they all maintain their cuttingedge practices as being practicing artists and they just had an exhibit, what was it, two months ago, where various artists in our department were featured and exhibited their own work. Um, and I always appreciate that because they know what it's like to put on an exhibit. They know what it takes. They know how important it is in selection and again they just keep on the cutting edge of best practices. So congratulations
007able to put themselves out there. Yeah. I will tell you because all the elementary had their work in the Henry James Gallery and then the 7 through 12 teachers exhibit at the Windsor Art Center and I did get a few um comments back when I said yeah you have to do an artist talk and they said like what? They were like we're oh yeah just like we ask the students to do and they'll do for their capstone present capstone presentations and we did a panel and it was just like um and I think everyone was so thankful because it reminded us that's always our place of social emotional wellness and connection and um and so it re ignited some passion of what and why we do what we do and so thank you for sharing
008coming out appreciate it. I was also going to share the Cass award recipients, although and I apologize for using my phone. They're both not here um this evening because they are busy. They are taking AP exams. They are the captain of the the track team and their uh various commitments. But I did want to honor their hard work. Um Lisa Ael shared uh a comment about Quinn Robinson who was the performing artist. um pro and Quinn is a dedicated member of the music and performing arts department and they are four-year choir member and has participated in numerous honors ensembles and the regional and state level. Additionally, they participate in the student le a cap ac capella group and ono and are a member of the triam. Quinn is an active member of the theater department
009and this year is the vocalist in the SHS jazz band and they will be majoring in vocal performance in college. So, that's very exciting. And um and we also in the visual art department honored Grace Wallenberg. And Grace will be studying visual arts at Yukon. So, she's super excited. Um she was also, we just found out, the recipient of the Avon Arts Scholarship for $1,500, which is a really competitive scholarship, and that will be celebrated in the next month. And her work will all be on display. I invite you all to come find me. Send me a message if you want a personal tour. I'll either set you up with the student or I'll bring you along um if I see you and and just celebrate all the hard work of the students and the
010teachers. But thank you so much. It was so nice to see all of you and I appreciate the time. So I just say I I appreciate every time you come before us. Your your passion for these kids and their work is so infectious and I I just I love And we should come back every week. I mean, every that's how I feel going in to work. I It doesn't feel like that. And like um Sue mentioned with the teachers, they it it's a it's it's I'm so grateful every day to to be in that space and we have an amazing administration. So it can't be better. Thank you. Thanks for that. Shannon, one last thing. When is the art show? It is the art show opens tomorrow evening. Y and it is um it will
011open officially at 6:00 and it will be open till 7:30 and then on Thursday we open at 8:00 a.m. We're open all day. We'll close down a little bit for 2:30 to take a break and then we'll be back at 5:00 and at um let me just get this right. Give you the right hours. I want to get because there's some complications. There is a um award ceremony at 6:00 where students will be recognized and we have a new element of a commitment ceremony that was proposed last year by students that really wanted to have the a similar honor as the athletic um students. So the kids that are signing to commit to art um in the future will have a special highlight and celebration and that was student led and student driven and we're
012continuing the tradition. you're all invited to see. So, thank you. Thank you, Shannon. [Music] All right, we have one more recognition and I know Maggie, you're here to present tonight, but we have our new student reps if you wanted to introduce them. And thanks for coming out because I know it's super busy. I told them they just have to memorize that big packet, so they'll be fine. Right. Um, no, I'm excited to um introduce to the board our two new student representatives um for next year. So we have Cedar Kinich Griffith who is an academic um exceptional junior. He comes to us with lots of different experiences. So multiple honor societies. He's a part of um French in the world language department. Also artistic talents come forward. His performing arts. Um you'll see him also
013in the jazz band and um also a three-year student council treasurer. So part of the student council and the student body and then the extracurriculars for sure. So excited to have Cedar and you know when we met and did the interview his perspective around some really interesting things that he wants to bring back in terms of students who struggle with um with dyslexia and so he has a perspective that he um really highlighted very eloquently in his interview and in his essay. So excited to have you with us. And then Eva Barry. So, Eva Barry will be our second representative next year. Um, also an academically exceptional uh Simsbury High School student, also a part of multiple honor societies, including um the International Thespian Society, Triam. Um really passionate about the arts. So, gospel choir,
014but also part of the rowing team. And do I have this correct? You were have experience as a farm hand and a lifeguard, too. Yeah. See, so there's just like you, you know, we try to pick and think about some things that when the kids come forward that have multiple avenues that they might be connecting with. And um in our interview with Eva, it was very interesting. She brought to light something from our uh program of studies that we have actually dug into about the science AP sciences with the lab and the amount of credits. So something that we've been talking about and um really left an impact um when we met with both of these students. So excited to have them sit in that seat next year and represent all of our schools um
015as the board of education student representative. Great. Welcome. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great. We are good. Okay. Uh public audience you guys can leave. You got three minutes. Please state your name and your address and 3 minutes is floor is yours. Yeah, you you guys can leave. I mean you can stay or leave wherever wherever you want. Yeah. [Music] Um before my time starts, I'd like to say thank you to all of you for allowing me to share. I left a copy of this with everybody and I just want to say that I I before you start my time that I believe most adults and most children are awesome. You know, there are always some bad apples in the school district and that's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about every teacher or every kid or
016anything like that. I think I genuinely believe that people are good, but I've had some bad experiences. And the purpose of tonight, I can't read all this tonight. I can always come back and read the other half. But the purpose of me coming here is to ask you to please tell teachers and educators to stop gossiping and spreading rumors without any um thing that's substantiated. Okay, I'll begin everything I'm my Okay, my name is Patty Gonzalez. I have address confidentiality protection from the federal government. So I don't give out my address, but the district has it. Um, everything I'm sharing with you today can be substantiated through emails, documents, or or court records. I was on the NAACP legal redress committee because my daughter's African-American, and she wanted to check it out. I do background
017checks, so I joined the committee to be of service to the NAACP. I also help women men who are victims of domestic violence by assisting them through the legal system. This includes writing court motions and doing background checks. I background check everybody, even including judges. Um, and I I learned that from my attorney, Norm Pettis, and I think you might know who Norm Pattis is. He's pretty um he's well known throughout the state. Free speech matters in public venues, but you cannot violate children or a family's privacy rights as an educator or school employee via rumors or gossip. The following is nowhere near the number of incidents my family has endured with unprofessional school employees and/or administrators. First, parents need to know that all 169 districts, school districts in Connecticut are represented by one law
018firm, Shipman and Goodman, affiliated to Chris Murphy, US. Chris Murphy and I used to live on the same street 30 years ago. So, I know him. Um, his father, Scott Murphy, was the managing partner at Shipman and Goodman. This Democratic law firm writes the policies and state statutes for all school districts in Connecticut. They own monopoly control over our children's education and legal rights. This is why educators are not some educators are not afraid to abuse our children with impunity. Over 400 teachers and school employees have been arrested in Connecticut over the past 10 years or so. I attend Cobb meetings, which is Connecticut Association of Board of Education. I sneak in those meetings all the time because I know people. So, I've gotten a lot of information through them about teacher abuse, teacher bullying,
019and ongoing crimes against children. In addition to DCF has been under federal supervision for 35 years in the state of Connecticut due to their overt malfeascence and incompetence. Connecticut school districts fearlessly use DCF DCF as a tool to intimidate parents and families. They have they have never intimidated me because I've studied public corruption in Connecticut for decades. My experience with Connecticut school districts is one example why so many parents homeschool their children. I've written about overt malfcence for years, including teacher bullying and abuse. We have lived in Sims. We lived in Simsbury before my daughter was enrolled in school. We moved to Farmington because it was closer to my work. In 2004, my mother passed away when I was contacted by the school district for a PPT meeting. I thought I should go in spite
020of my mother's passing. My introduction to the school district in Farmington at this PPT meeting set the tone for the years that followed. A woman by the name of Karen Barasi asked me to bring my daughter to this PPT meeting. At one point, Karen Barasi asked, "Which race is your daughter?" I said, "Well, her father's a black man, and I am Puerto Rican and Italian." Karen Barasi replied, "Let's see which race will get us more money from the government." I was flabbergasted. The only person who laughed out loud was a social worker named Cindy Leech. In 2018, Karen Rossi, can you give us a few point? Yeah. No, perfect. Well, let me and then she was um Karen Barasi was forced out as superintendent because um she was under criminal investigation for knowing about child
021abuse and neglected to and failed to report it. U I'll come back and read the rest of it, but I just want to say that um uh Georgia Robert has been harassing me and I just want the board of education to always to tell her to please leave my family alone. It's really causing me a lot of mental anguish and I just don't want to be bothered by that woman. I've been trying to speak to my son's counselor, his Spanish teacher. They don't call me back. They claim they email me. I don't know where those emails are going. On their end, they can see on my end I cannot. And I believe they believe that. But I need to communicate in order to help my son. I need to communicate with the teachers. And I
022and and I think that because um you know, my daughter was called a um at um in Farmington, and that's why we moved back to Simsbury. My son was called a by a woman named uh Ernst is her last name. She said she it was a mistake and apologized to me. So my daughter's a in Farmington and she my son's a in Sbury. So things like that. No, there's documents. No, no, but listen, it's documented. It's not hearsay. But this is why this is why I'm upset. All I want is respect. I don't want anything special from anybody. I just want my children to be respected and because they spread rumors and gossip that has set the tone here in Simsbury for the way we're being treated and and it's frustrating. But um I'll come
023back and read the rest of it. I've been very responsive when you and you can touch base to me and we'll I think you're great, but it's just that people don't respect when you told when you told George Robert to leave me alone. She just started her back up again. Forgive me for swearing, but it's very frustrating. Let's go. Let's go talk, you know. All right. Well, I'll come back and read the rest of it. Like I said, thank you again for listening to me. Okay. Um, any other public audience? Okay. Uh, committee reports. Raphael, how are you? I don't have um much to report honestly. Um, for Simsberry, we're actually in the middle of AP exams. Um, Raphael, can you speak just a little bit? Oh, sorry. Um, for Simsbury, like uh the high
024school, we're in the middle of AP exams. Um, there's me as well. Um, there was a recent event for vaping and nicotine awareness for parents and upcoming events are junior prom May 17th and then senior prom May 30th and all the graduation things. Um the on May 28th there will be a new event called um in a heartbeat where somebody's actually going to come in to do free heart screenings for Latimer Lane. They hosted a district-wide unified sports program and were actually recognized as a unified champion school committee. So over 50 students participated across the district. Great. Thank you. Um, no updates. We do have the communications subcommittee this Friday, so should have an update at the next port of event. Jess, no updates, correct? Not tonight. Well, we're winding down on the state in
025the federal level and um and the state level is kind of quiet. We're done um in June with um Connecticut General Assembly. So you know that we're getting that 40 million increase in in the sped excess cost and we're getting the 8.7 million to maintain ECS funding for next year on the federal level. Um besides the fact about the department of education but at in NSBA we're really urging the appropriators and senators to boost that investment in key education that we talked about all year and some of the real important funding priorities. We sent a letter to four of um the the senators. Rosa Deloro is one of them. And the real funding priorities are going to be title one elementary secondary act, ID IA part B state grants, the Perkins career and technical education
026state grants and the real areas of concern now are the research and data initiatives and also teacher professional development and preparation grants. So these are the areas that we're very concerned about. we're urging them not to, you know, cut or re reduce anything because these impacts and cuts would be detrimental throughout for students throughout the country. So that's where we are um at this present time. So thanks. Um nothing okay. [Music] I'm sorry. I'm all set. All set in your folders. I just want to point out to board members that you have the 2324 district profile and performance report. So in March of 2024, I gave a presentation to the board that reviewed what this report really is. It's always lag data. So we're always a year behind, but it gives a district report card
027on 12 different indicators. If you have any questions after reviewing it, please feel free to reach out and I'm happy to answer those questions. But I wanted to alert you to its contents in the folder tonight. And I would just add that when we were framing out some of the dashboard concepts for the strategic plan, this really is how how it's evolved over recent years. Gives us a nice comparative point with other districts and has some real nice markers on it. The challenge is it's lag data, so it's never current, but I think it's it's a good benchmarking document for you to be familiar with. And we have an early release date tomorrow for professional learning. Just a reminder of families. Excellent. Yep. Uh hiring season is going well. We have filled almost all the
028open vacancies at the middle and high school and getting to work on some of the elementary including our principal search for central school um which has gone exceptionally well to this point. We have um finalists in for interviews tomorrow and uh an exceptional uh set of finalists and the goal is to be appointing a new central school principal at your meeting in two weeks. So great. We are on track. Oh, that's real. That's wonderful. Okay. Excellent. Um, I just wanted to say congratulations and just a gr just a word of gratitude to everybody around this table for the budget and getting that passed. Obviously, um, you know, turnout wasn't the greatest. We'd all probably like all to be a little higher, but we it was passed, you know, um, and that was from a lot
029of hard work thanks to Diana on the board of selectman as well, our partners there and the partners on the board of finance. I've said it a h 100 times, you'll hear me say it one more time. I think the collaboration between the three boards this year was the best in my years on this board and uh just appreciate everybody's hard work and pushing that over the finish line. Always does feel good to get through. Um one thing I wanted to share, we had the uh grand opening last week of Farmington Valley Transition Academy. So I thank those board members that came. Uh really nice uh evening. Diana was there as well. Um, but a beautiful facility in Riverdale Farms. Finally have uh a program in all elements of the program. It's been a successful
030program over the years that you can feel really proud about now with really a state of state-of-the-art facility. So, um, members that haven't been there, we should definitely uh get you there and get a feel for that program a little bit more and what that facility looks like because I think it's uh program is just going to get ready to continue to take off. Well, the program's great. It's so nice to have it back in town. I think it's really nice and have some of these these adults. Yeah. You know, be able to commit connect with the community and find places to work and and the options right there. Right there in their community and the Riverdale Farms. It was great to see so many graduates of the That was great of academy there. It
031was a really great night. That was awesome. Glad I went. A lot of hands on the scissors as they went to cut the ribbon out. The very large I was a little nervous for a second, but I got it. It was okay. That was excellent. Scissors were very big. Card got done. Right. All set. All right. Thank you. Um, first on our agenda is the approval of the April 22nd uh meeting. Well, approval of the minutes of the April 22nd meeting. Anybody want to make a motion? I will make a motion. Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I Any post? I'll abstain one abstension. Thank you, Neil. Personnel, two items for action tonight. Um, one of which came in just after April vacation. Um, in that our English teacher, Kathy Robbins, has decided
032that 2025 will be her last school year. Um, 27 years of service in Simsbury. Um I I would say one of the finest teachers of writing that I've ever met in my life. Um and she has been this the center of our team that teaches um a AP um the junior year AP English course, AP language it's called. And we have literally over a hundred kids every year who pass that college entrance exam and or college level exam. And Kathy's been a huge player in that. She This is a welldeserved retirement because she doesn't have to correct any more papers. She will be missed. She will be. She will be. I make a motion, please, to accept the retirement of Katherine Robbins effective June 30th, 2025. Is there a second? Great. Second. Uh, any discussion?
033All those in favor? Any opposed? Great. Thank you. And then the other one just came in this week. Marty Brookner is a special education teacher at Henry James. Has been with us for 17 years. And this is that notification that she is doing three more years. So, this retirement is out a bit, but the motion is there to that even 20. Gets that even 20. Move that the board of education accept the intent to retire of Martha Ruckner effective June 30th, 2028. Second. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? A lot of years. We appreciate it. Yes. Um the strategic plan. Yes. Excellent. Um I I'll talk to that. The last uh couple meetings you the board's had an opportunity to review um the strategic plan document. Of course, several of
034you were on the the committee as we worked our way through um what has been a developmental process starting last spring through the summer and um up through February. So um I know Sue took you through an exercise. You and I were at the public hearing that last meeting. got some feedback, has incorporated that feedback uh into the final version. So, I am really excited tonight uh to put this final version of the strategic uh five-year plan before the board. Um I think it reflects a lot of the priorities we have talked about uh in the last year or so. It's certainly reflected uh what the committee believed in. Um and I think it really sets our course uh from a strategic standpoint, from an alignment and coherence standpoint moving forward for the next five
035years. So, we're very excited about it. Uh, there's a motion before the board tonight to approve this and then we will start talking about the communication plan and the priorities and and the work to come. So, a lot to be excited about. I will move that the Simsbury Public Schools 2025 2030 strategic plan be adopted as presented. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Um, all those in favor? Any opposed? Just want to say thank you. This is a big big this is a big lift, a lot of work. So, appreciate everybody's everybody's contributions to this. Thank you very much. [Music] Um, next up we have uh information and reports. First off is uh Maggie with I assume it's Maggie, right? With the Trojan Community Council leadership team report. All right. Got a little ahead
036of myself. Yes. It's good to see you, Maggie. Um, as the as the board knows as well, one of the priorities we had talked about at the end of last year was reestablishing what had formerly been called like the leadership team at Simsbury High School. So, Maggie has renamed that. We have a couple board members um that sit on that committee um where we studied some different pathways uh for post-graduation that Maggie is going to talk about the work of the committee and give us kind of an overview this evening. So, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to share um the work that our committee um really took on this year. It's going to be a two-year project. Um and we named ourselves the Trojan Community Council. So, this group um
037is a group of individuals that includes um parents, students, teachers, um it includes members of the board of education, and then we also brought in some community members to speak and some um you know, in different areas that we felt like we needed a little bit of a teach up or a level up on some things. So, it was a really great opportunity. I'll speak for myself. I learned so much. Um, I had the opportunity to connect with a lot of people. So, our question of practice was really around the opportunities for our students postsecary after they leave Simsbury High School. Are we preparing all of our students for the different pathways for success? Um, so we feel as though we do a really great job for our students who are going on to a
038four-year college. Um, wondering about the other pathways. Is there information for students? Do parents feel like they're in the loop? Do kids even know what the options are for them um as they leave Simsbury High School and go on to the next section of their life? So, our goal, it changed a little bit over time um and morphed. It was really to develop a comprehensive program of studies and website for students and families that offers that clear, accessible information on all post-secondary options. we wanted to make sure it was aligned with career clusters. Um, and there's actually some new information out about that. The student interest, so the student interest, they do the Holland theme that really tells them a little bit about themselves and then what are they interested in in terms of individual
039skills. Um, so that was our goal. So we started by taking a look our current clusters book. This is broken up into six different sections and there is new information out given the changes in the industry um around the different clusters that kids might be interested in. So one of our questions was to take a look at these new revised that you could either it's in your packet. It's either the circular or you can actually see that it's broken into this is the same thing just in a different format. So our current clusters, we have six of them. Uh biomemed science, business, communications, culinary, engineering, and humanities. We've learned through our process that there are some different ones out there and are we heavy in certain areas and light in others? So that was one
040of the pieces that of work that we did this year. The other thing was to really ask ourselves, are all of our post-secary options um available to kids? Do they even know what they are? Do they know what a successful gap year looks like or if they want to enter the workforce around certificates or um different apprenticeships or trade schools? We the trade schools have become so competitive um because kids are realizing that maybe four-year college right now, but maybe it's in a year or two from now when I found out what I'm really interested in. Um so that was one of the pieces. We were really excited. We welcomed Patrick Flity. Patrick Flareity is the assistant director of research and information from the Connecticut Department of Labor. So, he came in and he he
041and his office, they're responsible for this um career pathways book. So, you have a copy. I I um it's like the yellow one. Yes. Um Jess's got it right there. Yes. This book has become so helpful. Didn't know it existed until this work started. We now have stacks of them and you're actually will see them in classrooms with post-it notes. Um what this does is it really shows all of the um the different industry trends and what's available out there. If you've got a certificate, if you've got a two-year degree, you've got a four-year degree. Um on their website, you know, what's hot, what's not in terms of industry trends right now. So, he came in and shared with us a lot of really interesting information. Um we learned a lot about this book and
042how it connects with the Holland themes. So the kids actually use this and then this book is actually all organized by your personality and interest types. So if you are um a part of the artistic theme, there's actual these all connect together. So that was one piece of new learning and these books have become very valuable. Um I actually watched a case manager working with a student the other day sharing his interest um and then what options are available to him. We then had um Lesie Carson. Lesie is the career and college readiness coordinator for West Public Schools. She is someone who took an older version of a program of studies, took this information and um made it into a new program of studies that's organized differently than what we have. And so we asked
043her about her process and how she went about doing that and learned a lot from her um and gave us some ideas of how we're thinking to revise this to actually help kids to see what the core classes are, what their cluster or electives are, and then how does that translate into a certificate program, a two-year program, a four-year program, so that they have that in front of them and they've got the opportunity to ask those questions. Um so she was really interesting. She came um out of the goodness of her heart to uh we've picked her brain. I've been on several calls with her. Um she was um they met her at a at a conference. So um we really got the opportunity to connect with some outside people. One of the things that
044Leslie talked a lot about community connections. How do we get our kids out into the community to have internships and have opportunities? Um so she shared a lot um that they do with like electric boat and other people there. So what we did over the course of those first three meetings was to do um some research, do some learning and then last night was our final meeting. Um and I asked the committee to give us recommendations. Um and they really asked, you know, I asked some specific things. Do you think that our current program of study should be reorganized? And I asked them, "Do you have any suggestions for um using the clusters?" Like, "Do we do we, you know, should we ship these? Do we have all of these or should we make some
045changes? What do you like from the Westbrook program of studies?" And we also looked at Southernington High School. They have their website broken up also by different career clusters. So, we did a bunch of research. I have an intern this summer who has a background in web design and design. So, she was there last night helping to take all of our information and put that together. It's our same teacher who's aspiring to have her administrative certification and she was the one that helped us lay out the strategic plan. So, we got a a great designer to help us. She was so excited last night. She was human brains and taking a look. Really pivotal people too of our Greg Stillman, our director of school counseling. we had another one of our school counselors there because
046their role in this is extremely important. Um so I just felt like over the course of the four meetings their partnership, their work um and the students when we talked to the students we said what do you think about this? They're like that's not written for us. I don't even know what that is. Like I don't I don't know what what that is. That's a lot of words. So getting their perspective they didn't really know this existed. This is more of a marketing brochure that we've given out. we haven't really given it to them and they were like this is really interesting. It's a one-page document that's visually appealing. So, they were pretty interesting and they know how to look further as we go deep. But I will say with down the clusters one I
047I just want to point out that though we do give it or at least I every single child has gotten it in eighth grade. Like we do give it to them. We give them this cluster. No, no, no. They get both. They get the clusters. They get the clusters too. Yeah. I've gotten it three times now already. Okay. I didn't know how to get to it last year. Yeah. They stopped it. Stop printing it. Oh, they stopped printing it. So, you make you make an interesting point about community connection. Sue and I met this morning just in prep for this meeting about the strategic plan, which gives us a unique opportunity just to naturally get out in front of different audiences and that would be good synergy to take the strategic plan back out to
048the chamber of commerce, Rotary, some of the larger business organizations along with you and talking about this and trying to to really get some synergy. I mean, it's just a nice natural opportunity to do that with real purpose. You know, one of the good things that I think it was Westbrook, I don't think Southern did, but certainly Westbrook did it. So, they have their their equivalent of the program of studies with the clusters and they have not only the classes that you could take, but the um in the clubs you could be in, but also the comm the community partners. So, they're listed right there, which is which is really helpful. So, Greg Stillman and his department um they did a career fair this year for our grade 10 students. They had so many people
049that connected with them and then when we sent out a thank you on Instagram, we had a bunch more people say, "Hey, I would do that next year." You know, I would love to be a part of that. So, that natural opportunity for more community connections. Um and the kids, they first of all, they took this what are your interests? Yeah. Right. Then what they did is they wrote down, okay, here are the people that are coming. what's my first choice, second choice, third choice. So, they had a plan when they went in. They didn't just mill around. They went to a specific one to hear their the buzzer went off, they went to the next one, and then they had a free opportunity. So, we really tied it to um their learning and what
050their interests were. So, um but really exciting. Talked to a student today. He's going to um diesel mechanic school. And I said to him, "How'd you find out about this?" He's like, "My dad." I'm like, "Interesting. Tell me more about this." So, we're just finding the opportunity. Um, and I said, "Did you did you get anything really from, you know, our stuff?" He's like, "A little bit from the automotive." But he said, "No, my dad and I really connected." So, it was an opportunity to just take and see what the kids are are really interested in um and highlighting that even on that Instagram page of where they're going next year. I want them to put their their phone% to diesel mechanic school and I'm really proud of that. Um, so just getting that shift.
051Um, exciting. Um, also like one suggestion um that I was thinking about was like I was flipping through and I also saw this um because I have a personal tie, but for biomedical sciences like um specifically we also have like um a club devoted to prepping students for like the cavaliad. Um I didn't see that highlighted but that made me think that maybe you could have like a section um which points out like what competitions or like things that students could do related toward their even HOSA the we just started the new organization for our students who are in health organization um that's not highlighted here and I actually think that's one of the changes I would like to see is the health um management and we don't have that in our clusters and how
052that's really big right now when you talk to Patrick Clarity and you talk to people in the industry That's a really popular thing that we need to connect um some of the dots for kids to see what they could be doing in the health industry that I don't necessarily think we have yet. So, really excited. We had four great meetings. I did offer people to rejoin next year hoping. Um and what we're going to do is take some of the recommendations that we got last night. Megan's going to help me put some of this together um in multiple ways for us to present back to the team. So if you if I can make a plug I'm glad I was on that page and I'm the person I'm in healthcare. Um the other thing if
053I can make a another plug to get us ahead is to consider adding something in the health area but clinical trials which is something that's becoming very big. So and it's not something that's being it's being taught in colleges but if our students there are high schools that are starting to talk about it if we could do that that would also put them ahead. We just put out a um an if you're interested to our current 10th graders um about a potential for a um certified nursing uh program through University of Hartford. So we just put out some interest is very interesting. Put it out today. Five responses within about 30 minutes. Wow. That's so I was like hm. So that was really exciting. We put it out to students and we put it out
054to the families of the students in grade 10 because it would be when they become seniors that they would potentially part of this program where they would do clinical work and then they would be back um in the classroom as well. So um trying to learn about those opportunities where kids get that um internship in outside of the classroom to see if it's something that they're interested in. They will at the end of that have the ability to sit for the um the certificate. Yeah. So you could come out of high school with a CNA certificate, which would be really cool. So yeah, really exciting. It took us some twists and turns. I just I loved um the learning that we did as a group um and then excited to put people's um recommendations into
055some different options for people to see hopefully with some adjustments for our program of study that will come out. Um we have to have that completed by the end of the year. So December for the following year. I'd like to see some of those changes as quickly as that. Great. That sounds great. Thank you so much. This is exciting stuff. Of course. Yeah. I was going to say Jen and I both sit on it. Well, Sue, obviously obviously, but no, I I we do a lot of cool stuff here. I think this is one of the coolest things I'm certainly involved in. I don't know about you. This is it's really exciting and I appreciate your leadership in this and driving us and just even noticing or understanding that we needed to change up a
056little bit on the fly. It was seamless and I just I appreciate it. Let me Yeah. So, I was just going to say I love this committee. I thought it was really interesting stuff. I do think that it's not just the kids too. I think I just remember when I was first time parent going through that whole college thing to being able to not all kids are meant for a fouryear and so I I think having this type of thing where a family can just sit down and start searching through and looking is so critical so amazing. But that being said, and I have already said it to Matt, but I'll say it here publicly as well, that um I think that the book and stuff are amazing, but we definitely going to have a
057budget issue potentially that we do need somebody like our website has to be like you looked at I mean it was ridiculous even Southernington's high school's website. Go check it out. It was crazy. They actually put it in the packet. It's one of the last ones. Some of the ones that we looked at, I didn't know if the board would be interested in what the ones we studied because I thought it was so interesting just some ideas of what the kids could access and even if it's not, you know, especially you three back there like, you know, there's so many things like that. University of Delaware has another one. There's all these great ideas out there. Hopefully, we'll get there. So, all right. Thank you all. Look forward to next year. Thank you so much.
058[Music] Thanksg Clusters book literally almost 20 years ago. It didn't exist before then. So it was like in my we love you Neil. It might be time. It was like in my second year as differentation that was the last it's really I mean just again the the group there students parents teachers administrator it's and we're all it's just everybody's just jazzed I just really like it so it's really great I just wanted to add one more thing just a shout out to there was a young man in that group that I talked to at the very end he was only a sophomore which shocked and he was so articulate and he was so amazing and so I think student voice is so important. So, thank you for including them as well. Hugely important. Right. All
059right. That was a win, Maggie. Yeah. Equally exciting for post textbooks. Thank you for that segue and your continued excitement. Appreciate that. Wait till the quarters. Wait till the quarter. So each year uh we have reinvigorated the textbook adoption process and before it comes to the board initially textbooks that are proposed always also go before our curriculum committee. So these are texts that I've mentioned before. They are in hard copy behind Josh and Jessica and Raphaela. So certainly you may take a look at these texts. There are three and three only this year. The first is for um 11th grade AP lang and we had the teachers who are proposing these texts come and see us at the curriculum council committee. The second is a graphic novel of the Odyssey not to be used in
060place of the Odyssey but as a way to make sense of a complicated text in a graphic novel way. And the third which is the most exciting is a manual. I wanted you to be able to see the manual around benchmark advance. And to remind the board, benchmark advance is the curriculum that has been state approved to meet the science of reading mandate. Good. So the manual is there for your perusal, but I thought I would put that on textbook adoption as well. So, no motion this evening. If certainly if there are any questions that you have after reviewing the texts, if you want to spend time with them, that is absolutely your prerogative. And we will put these items on the May 27th agenda for potential action. Ju just curious, so with the Odyssey,
061would they read it kind of side by side with the Yes, they may. They may do a little pre-work with the graphic novel. They may do that to just get a sense of plot before diving into the more complicated text. Um, so it was very accessible to students to be used in conjunction with Yeah. No, great idea. We have a student who wants to ask a question. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I make a comment? Sure, please. I used that graphic novel when I was reading the Odyssey and I really struggled with the Odyssey. I thought it was a really difficult text and Spark Notes doesn't make any sense to me. like that was what my peers were using as like a crutch to get through the Odyssey. And I felt that it had inaccurate information
062and it also like wrote things for you. So there's a tab about thematic things. There's a tab about motifs. There's a tab about like character traits and character interactions. And I thought that the graphic novel helped me to understand the story, but I was making all of my own ideas rather than using like a summary source that makes ideas for you. So, I thought I was still able to make my own themes and write the best essay that I could without like having my ideas swayed by that source. Um, but I still really understood the story because of that graphic novel. I thought it was that excellent information that [Music] we need students on our board already making contributions. Fantastic. Thank you. That's great. very helpful. Okay, keep that up next year. There's also a
063big Hollywood movie being made with Matt Davis as Odysius. That'll be out next year. Um, okay. So, policy adoption. Our policy committee met twice in um once in February, once in March to um take a deep dive into the policy uh policies that are in front of you tonight and that were emailed to you in the packet. So, I'm just going to go through not kind of the detail that we do at the policy committee, but kind of the why behind these policies. Uh so the first one in the 3000 series is just a clarification around um tuition fees. We take a very limited number of students, usually someone who moves out of town that they can opt to be a nonresident of Simsbury, but pay a tuition fee if there is room in the
064school. Um and the policy exists in sort of two places. This was just clarifying that if that happens, it's not only the per pupil costs, but also any special education costs that come um with that student if a family is going to choose to uh ask for tuition, ask for the ability to pay tuition. So, that's what that clarification is about. We have three policies in our uh 4,000 personnel series. The first one is non-discrimination, we uh city freelinger and I in human resources um about every six to seven years, we ask that our non-discrimination policies get reviewed by Shipment and Goodwin to make sure that all protected classes are captured. And this was um that just that sort of cycle of every you know six or seven years that we and Shipman and Goodwin
065marked it and that that is in front of you. That is the same if you look below we have a non-discrimination policy 4,000 for employees and then you'll see down in the 5,000 series there's a non-discrimination policy surrounding students. So both of those were reviewed at the same time. Um family and medical leave policy, there were some changes um to FMLA at the federal level, most mostly about the number of hours that you have to work to be eligible for FMLA. Um we thought it was going to be a pretty minor change when we sent it to the attorneys. They marked it up pretty good. So the policy you can see um I I think we were not I think we were not using Shipment and Goodwin's model policy. So what you see now is
066what Shipment and Goodwin is recommending. Um and then finally under the 4000 series um reports of abuse uh suspected abuse or neglect of children. This is obviously all employees are mandated reporters to DCF. There was a period of time where DCF had really instructed people uh in the school system, don't go investigate these cases. If they come to you, just call us. We we don't want you investigating. And so it turned into sort of this situation where you couldn't you got paralyzed of and so the legislature wanted to clarify that it is okay to do a surface level investigation but prior to you know making the decision whether or not you can call DCF there's nothing wrong with an initial investigation and the policy is just clarifying that for admin administrators that we don't have
067to just automatically call DCF and not ask any questions. And so I'm glad it's actually this is I don't often thank the legislature for uh dipping into something. This was one that actually made an improvement. Um and then uh I already in the 5000 series I already talked about why non-discrimination was reviewed. The next two are mandates based on 2023 legislation. Um, under school climate, the biggest change is um um a change in the definition of bullying. Bullying uh has been defined of of um acts that that um demonstrate uh certain intent to harm, intent to. Now, the definition of bullying is going to be about any actions that create a power imbalance. So, that's the definition. As of July 1st, all districts had to um all districts had to adopt this plan and they
068had to adopt it as it was written. CAB was charged to write the policy and districts were told you must adopt the policy that the state is. So this is straight from CAB. um the state department of education um basically put came to work on this policy. Similarly, um and there's also now a new definition in addition to bullying of challenging behavior, which is um a a situation where a kid may, you know, we we've had kids who knock things around in a room, you know, sort of throw. And what they're trying to say is if parents are reporting a complaint, the complaint should be a report of challenging behavior and then the administrator can determine was there bullying, was there harassment in here, was so we operate like that already in Simsbury. Uh when
069we have somebody who wants to come forward with bullying, we say, "Look, you don't determine bullying. what we've used a term it's a serious incident and we've given them you need to fill out this serious incident report and then we'll take it from there and so this actually this whole new thing with challenging behaviors is pretty aligned with our current practice in sim it's going to be new for a lot of people in the state because a lot of people put up on their website fill out this bullying complaint and that's not how we've operated for quite some time also one that the the legislature demanded that you had to follow Cab's lead. Okay. Um and then the last piece of that I'll talk about is um the notion of restorative practices. And this is
070the idea of when incidents in schools happen, it's not just about the discipline. It's also about the teach and the repair of the relationship. So restorative practices is a lot about administrators following up to when things happen to make sure that you are um working on not just the short-term discipline but the long-term repair of the relationship and the um uh school culture. You know that. So that is a policy that um so that whole policy both the challenging behavior and the restorative came together. Last one is student discipline. Um there were a number of changes in the legislature about the number of days in which a for which a school district can suspend. like you you in theory you could have suspended a kid internally for up to 10 days prior to this. It's
071now saying you can't do an internal suspension beyond 5 days. It's putting limits on suspension practices in grades K through two. Um and that so all of that was adopted in a piece of legislation that we then had to change our policies. Um, and also in student discipline, you'll see the revised definition of bullying that I talked about in the other policies. So, it was a lot. We we had two long meetings in February and March. Um, Sharon, Lydia, Jessica, and Josh sit on policy. Um, we went through this in great detail and now it gets this is the first reading. Anybody who has questions should contact me in the next couple of weeks. If when you're looking at the markedup documents, I can kind of talk you through it or if there are any
072questions publicly, we can talk about them. Anybody? So, Neil, I I do I have a question. So like the changes in the um restorative I know you know over the years we've talked about just restorative when I the changes in the number of days how does that get pushed out to the district? Is it through administrative counsel? I Okay. Yeah. I review that with the principles. Okay. A lot of these policy changes once approved catch up during the summer when we pull together. Okay. Neil always runs a workshop session one night. Okay. Y anyway else and there'll be time for questions in two weeks too. Great quarterly bud budget analysis. All right. So just a couple highlights on this. Um we bumped it we bumped it one meeting. So this represents really through the work
073through March the budget analysis. So on the revenue side, nothing has really changed significantly in terms of uh dollars coming into the district or projections since we last reported. The one piece I do want to draw attention to, Lydia actually mentioned it um in the opening of the board meeting. If you go down three bullets to special education placement and excess cost, that's representative of the excess cost grant. You'll remember a couple months into the year, we were told we were going to get a much lower percentage of funding. That was going to create a hole in the current year of over $400,000. Legislature has since said they will fix that. So, that will be very helpful um to uh put that back to a much more reasonable level as we monitor, you know, what
074is is probably the most volatile cost area for us relative to some of those larger tuitions that are on the outside. Um, so that's in there. A little bit more money in the last bullet in the IDA part B grant about 25,000. Uh, doesn't seem like significant dollars, but that does help. We, uh, we utilize a lot of our non-certified staff uh, from that grant, and a little dollars there can go a long way in kind of supporting uh, students as we move throughout the year. If you go to the next page and we take a look on the expenditure side, we're in good shape in terms of of pace of spending comparable to we were where we were last year. Um, one area to bring attention to, it kind of looks funny on the
075report. You go down about three quarters, you see equipment, new replacement, zero spent. Um, that's really the line item we buy our Chromebooks from. We just haven't made the purchase yet. That's all that is. So, those dollars will be expended. Um, they just haven't yet, but I know it kind of kind of sticks out there. Um, the other piece for us to continue to monitor um is pupil transportation um and uh out of district tuitions. Um again, those are volatile areas where a couple tuitions can move the dollars either way several hundred,000. Um so, we monitor that. And then the the last piece in um operation of plant electricity costs. I know everybody's familiar with what has happened with electricity costs. That's an area where we will be uh over budget this year. We'll have
076to adjust from other line items in our final reporting to you. Um but in all uh we're projected um I think Amy shared this u shared this prior to be around a $400,000 deficit which we can cover with the non-lapsing fund. So that volatility is really in the elect you know operation of plant and in the pupil transportation and uh outplacement items. So uh that is what that fund is there for. Um we had some really good productive conversation I think as we went through with the board of finance about whether to use some of those dollars for the property purchase or not. We elected not to. Those dollars now will free us up to make us whole this year which is really important. Qu this is really for the audience at home more than
077anything. So, we just voted on a budget on Friday. Yes. But we obviously don't have the final numbers from the general assembly. It's like the one you just said. So, we thought we were going to have a $400 $400,000 hole. They're going to make it up. Yeah. But obviously, we built our budget on certain assumptions, right? So, that's going to be that's going to come in more favorable to the town than than they I guess they voted on. We we voted on, right? Are you following me for this current year? Right. So, how is that? Well, not the tax like are they taxed more? I mean, maybe this is really a question for the board of finance. Yeah. No, I mean you're you're referring to excess cost which is an estimate, right? So, that's a
078little that's a little bit different than the educational cost share grant where we re we received additional funding. So, that educational cost share grant would have an impact on the the mill rate. this excess cost. It It's kind of just a differential from where we project Yeah. to where to where we land. Yeah. No, and I understand I get I guess I'm I'm If you're at home and then are your taxes going to be decreased by that amount? Are they going to like what does it affect my individual taxes at the end of the day because right we got the money from the state and not Yeah. So I guess the way I would answer that when the board of finance sets the mill rate the mill rate is set. If dollars in revenue or
079surplus come in beyond that they go to the general fund as result. I guess that's really the question. You do not go back and alter the mill rate at that point. Is that what you're asking? Okay. Yep. All right. But that was good because that's asking the question that people at home may want to understand. Right. That's you got this money back. How does that help me? Right. So, you have to make decisions at that point in time. It's usually what the governor presents in his budget and then you work forward. Question. Uh public audience. Oh, great. Um forgot about this earlier. Disley, 78 County Road in Simsbury. Um, I just want to mention and make sure everybody knows uh here as well as at home that on June 21st uh I've been working on
080uh a program um with our chief police and our police department and uh there's going the aging and disability commission. There's going to be a fostering positive interactions between police officers and autistic individuals on June 21st at Westminster School from 9 to 1. This program it's um actually in conjunction with the center for excellence on uh ASD from Southern Connecticut State University um and partnering with local police station police uh communities from Bloomfield and Graanby and some other uh dis uh areas. Uh basically what's going to happen is you can register and I can send the link and make sure you all have a flyer. It's on our website. It's on your website um that you can register to participate in this event. It's both for drivers who may have autism. There there are some
081young adults and adults out there who have autism who are drivers um as well as passengers. So if you have a child or a young adult or adult who has autism, uh you can register and participate as a passenger and they will walk through a traffic stop if they're pulled over. and so they can practice what a traffic stop is going to look like and feel like both from the officer perspective as well as for the individual with autism. Um, and it kind of dstigmatizes and takes some of that fear away. It is also helping to promote the blue envelope program. um which is a program that the the police have here in Simsbury and anybody can go to the police station and pick up a blue envelope if uh you are a driver who
082has autism especially and it is recommended that you keep your documents in this blue envelope and that envelope stays in the vehicle um in your glove compartment so that when there is an event whether it is a traffic stop or a motor vehicle accident or you need help on the side of the road you can then get your blue envelope envelope out and it indicates to the police officer that and the first responders on the scene that this is an individual with autism and the interaction may look different than um what a typical individual may look like and it helps not only the individual with autism but as an identifier for the first responders as well. So that program is going to be gone over. So, there's going to be a quick session inside. Um
083there's two re two sessions. Um they're going to go uh inside uh to just to kind of go over what to expect and then there'll be the practice traffic stop at Westminster. Um I'm really excited that this program is being done and I thank our uh chief Chief Balter and our police here in Simsbury. Um, it's something I'm very proud to do and you all are welcome to come and and take a look and participate and I'm just really excited uh for this program to be out in our community and keeping everybody in our community safe. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Absolutely. Anybody else? Okay. Um, with that we are going to adjourn into executive session. I need a motion for that. Right. Make a motion that we adjourn it to executive session. Second.
084Second. All those in favor the topic to oh to principal to review superintendent the um evaluation of the superintendent. Great. Sorry. I just All those in favor I post great. Thank you. We are adjourned into executive session. For over 40 years, SEM has been the voice of our town, bringing us together through local programming, education, and live broadcast. SEM isn't just about television. It's about empowering our community, ensuring our voices are heard during government meetings, and celebrating milestones like our high school graduations. But today, SEM faces a challenge. Our funding structure is based on television subscriptions. And it's no secret people have been cutting the cord with a shift to internet only subscriptions. SEM receives less revenue even though all our programming is freely available online. We need your support. We need your support. We
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