001Thank you, Neil, for keeping us on task. [Music] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all recision. All right, welcome Mr. Dvita. We have George Dvita here this evening. George is a fifth grade teacher over at Latimer Lane School and we thought it would be nice to bring George out tonight and uh hear a little bit about some of the cool things he's doing with his students in recognizing. So, I'm going to give this over to Sue who's going to tee it up a little bit, but he uh got his hands around a really kind of innovative grant that he's working with the kids on which is really interesting. So this past fall, George went
002with Melanie Mi to a social studies conference and there were representatives there from the Moheaggan group and they had a grant and George said, "I'm going to apply for the grant. First I'm going to see what it's all about, then I'm going to apply for it and then I'm going to get that grant." So George received a grant and it had implications for students and it had implications for teachers. So, this grant allowed all fifth grade teachers to come together to learn more about the Moheaggan people and how we can appropriately represent their contributions to our state within the curriculum. So, that was exciting. And all of our fifth grade students had the opportunity to attend the Tantequed Museum and see what that was all about and immerse themselves in the traditions and histories of
003Moheaggan people. And that was all made possible because George took that initiative and made it happen for his students but also his teaching peers. So we just wanted to take a moment to recognize his good work. Fantastic. Have we taken the field trip already? The field trip is next this coming week. Yeah, we had they came to us and did a pres presentation for all the fifth grade. That's awesome. Thank you for taking Congratulations. Thank you. Awesome. No, they also gave us a um $1,000 um which was really nice to supplement the library curriculum um with um native people's writings books to tell the stories. So the kids will have that legacy. I it was for the classroom, but I told Mike that we would use it in the library. So, it's kind of there
004for kids for, you know, years to come so that when they do study and do read about native peoples in the curriculum and um they'll have a resource to go to. Good. Right. Great job. Well, thank you again. Thank you. Questionable. Sorry. Um public audience. Anybody committee reports? Um okay. So for Terafel specifically, they had their art show and their talent show and they also had the invention convention and two students will be heading to Yukon. So that's cool. And then um Latimer's doing a whole school cultural program called Belonging Through Dance. that will take place this Friday during the school day. Um Henry James, uh they're halfway through this year's musical, The Adams Family, and then the next three performances will be done on Friday and two on Saturday. Um they also Henry James
005will also have their next parent education series which will be held on April 1st from 6:30 to 8. We'll focus on AI, social media, and online safety. And then lastly, the high school. Um, we had 414 students participate in the Pi Day run. Um, and too bad it wasn't 314. I know. So much better. I guess this is better this morning. Um, and then students also had an opportunity to job shadow on March 19th. Um, and several students took advantage of that. And then also seven debaters on the debate team qualified for CDA finals. And the team plays first in the varsity division of March CDA tournament. So that's cool, too. And then spring sports are underway with 550 students signed up to participate. And then the spring play is getting ready for their spring
006performance. Busy time. Yeah, it's busy. Thank you, Josh. Um no uh no committee updates. Just um basically mentioned the Tarfield talent show. I had attended that and just you know kudos to all the kids for doing that and all the volunteers for helping to put that on right it's a lot of work working with all the kids to make that happen so just wanted to thank them publicly for their work nothing to report I have nothing to report right now yeah it's we're in the right in the thick of the middle of the legislative session so hearings are are continuing um as we speak and um some of the actions are obviously I'm talking about Hartford. Here we are in in the state in um education funding pareducators. Um the working group they want to
007establish a working group to address anti-semitism in schools. So this would be another working group added to the working groups that we already have. Um teacher recruitment retention and there's another act here that requires boards of ed of boards of education to post curriculum online. um definitions of curriculum are varied in broad making and broad making this requirement unworkable. So we'll see where this one goes on in that area. But that's where we are at at the moment in Hartford. Um we've been submitting testimonies and you know appearing at the capital and meeting with everybody there. But um you know the basic thing is just the advocacy. We don't want a lot of the mandates to come without the the funding and this is a very critical and difficult time. We're thankful that we are
008getting that money that uh the governor has allocated in the budget. So that's going to be important on the national front. I don't even have to explain to you what's going on there. It's just a moving target target every day with what is happening. So again, um we are still on the hill in DC doing the same thing that we're doing here in Hart in Connecticut. you know, just about the funding levels, IDA, and a few of the other things um that that we're concerned about and the elimination of the education department um is something that you all been reading about and know about, but but the funding will be coming through for the districts at least through the end of the year, but we'll see where we go with this. So, everything is very
009tumultuous. Um you know, I wish we had better news to say at at where we are right now, but this is the state of the state. Um, I think we just have to really concentrate on what's going on in Hartford and Connecticut, you know, that's going to affect our districts. But, um, but that's where we are. So, it is it is a difficult year. Um, and will not finish until June when they will adopt the budget by June, end of middle of June. So, that is it. Sure. Jed. So last night we had another meeting of the Simsbury High School Trojan Committee, I believe is the official name. And um they're just continue. It was really interesting. There was a guest speaker and uh they're talking about just how to better prepare or allow for
010kids to see more of their options besides just a four-year track. and how do we help our high schoolers navigate all the different paths that are out there for them? And so it's really interesting and more to come. Nothing. Thank you. We had about three dozen students participate in the state DECA business competition at the Aqua Turf about three weeks ago. And from those three dozen students, 16 of them qualified to compete at the international DECA conference in Orlando at the end of April. So led by Mr. Stanwood and other members of the business department, we're excited to see how the students perform and I will update you and let you know the results, but we're really excited that that many students are performing at the international level. It's exciting. Fantastic. Neil, last thing for
011tonight. Thanks Jason. Anything at this time? All good. Nothing for me. Mr. Superintendent, I would just uh want to say that we had an opportunity to present the operating budget to the board of finance on April 4th, 3.91% uh increase over last year's operating cost, which was the board of ed approved number. Um they have moved that number on and that budget on to the public hearing which will take place April 8th in the library at is it 5:45? 6 o'clock. um where you will have an opportunity to present that budget to the public. So um the process continues to move, but I've been pretty appreciative and I know you have been of the of the collaborative effort. Absolutely. All right. Uh first on the agenda is the approval of the February 25th meeting minutes.
012I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. Yel. Yes. And it's that time of year where people who have been thinking about retirement finally uh make some key decisions to let us know. So there are actually four that have come in in the last month. Um three of them from the high school. Uh start with science teacher Roseanne Colandro. Roseanne actually did about half of her time in Simsbury at Henry James before she um transferred to um Simsbury High School where she's been a key player in the uh forensics uh curriculum. Um Dan Deanna is uh 25 years in the English department. This one is full circle for me because Dan was uh pretty much the first teacher I hired on as an assistant
013principal when I started in uh Simsbury High School. So to see him now 25 years later, he's just a young pup moving here from Arizona um uh and uh is going to be able to enjoy retirement and do some traveling after 25 years. Sharer Flowers, 20 years in Simsbury. Um, I met Shar in 1992 when she had the desk next to mine in the teaching office at Farmington High School. So, uh, been a longtime colleague, 20 years in Simsbury. And then Christine Golden who has done administrative work here in Simsbury and then at the end of her career decided to go back to her roots and become a social worker at Tuton Hills where she has been really a right-hand person for Anette Belmonte over the last few years. Um glad to see that she's
014going to get to enjoy her retirement. So um about 83 years of experience on the page there tonight. Um, and the motion they they all are effective June 30th. If someone would like to move that, I will. I move that the board of ed accept the retirements of Roseanne Commandro, Daniel, Diana, Shira Flowers, and Christine Golden effective June 30th, 2025. Second. Any discussion? It's just it's a big it's a big loss. I'm very happy that they get the fire, but they were these are all very very um dedicated to every student that they ever had. It's just been we were very fortunate to have had them for as long as we have. Enjoy your retirement, but we'll miss you. Definitely. All those in favor? I post. Great. Thank you. And then not for your action,
015but just to um follow the bouncing ball after we had a resignation in um around Christmas time this year for special ed teacher at Latimer Lane. Kendra Kokal uh was hired from um the Windsor public schools in sometime in January, tendered her resignation there. The the usually about a month before we can get hold of a teacher in midyear. So she started for us um at Latimer on February 24th. The other special ed teachers in Latimer covered the gap for about six or seven weeks and we're thrilled that Kendra got to get going on February 24th. So fantastic. Uh acceptance of the gift to First Robotics. Yes, we actually have three gifts and a scholarship for your consideration tonight. So in keeping with your policy 2,311, any gifts to the Simsbury public schools that exceed
016$1,500 require board approval. So, the first gift is in the amount of $5,000 from United Therapeutics Corporation, and this donation would be um the recipient would be the SHs Robotics Club to be able to use for supplies and cover expenses. So, there is a motion there for your consideration. I'll move that the proposed gift of $5,000 to the SHS Robotics Club by United Therapeutics Corp be approved. Second. Any discussion? That's fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Uh, all those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. The second gift from your consideration is from the Simsbury Youth Hockey Association, and they would like to donate $2,000 to be used to offset the cost of ice time for rental. And so the gift would uh the gift's recipient would be Simsbury High School athletics and student activities. Move
017that the proposed gift to Simsbury High School Athletics and Student Activities from the Simsbury Youth Hockey Association Incorporated of $2,000 be. Uh any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? The third gift uh would be to the SHS fencing club and the gift is from Matthew and Lynette Whitmer in the amount of $1,500 and the gift would be used to purchase fencing supplies, equipment, and may also be used for transportation purposes. I move that the proposed gift of $1,500 from Matthew and Lynette Whitmer be approved. Second. Any discussion? Thank you. Thank you very much. Amazing gift. All those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. And now on to the scholarship. So each year uh usually a Simsbury High School graduate would be the recipient of the Granberry Sims Granberry Granby Simsberry Chamber of Commerce scholarship.
018And typically the chamber has their own committee, but they would like to turn that process over to our internal process at the high school. So, this would require formal approval of this scholarship uh on behalf of the board. The scholarship is in the amount of $750. Uh it's an increase from what your um exhibit shows right here, but I have confirmed that uh Lydia has been a great conduit to make sure that this happens. And there is a motion there for your consideration this evening. I move that the board of ed approve the Graanby Sinsbury Chamber of Commerce scholarship to be dispersed in 2025. Is there a second? I would just like to put in a little Oh, second. I'll second. Okay. Second. And um and a little caveat on this. Normally, as you had
019mentioned, we have done this in house our ourselves. I'm a member of the chamber, but um we um decided that it this would be, you know, a better process to have the high school do that. We are also donating the same amount $750 to a senior at Graby High School. So, this incorporates both both um high schools of both communities that are part of the chamber. So, two lucky students will be will be getting that uh that that award and um so that is it. Please Oh, I just noticed Thank you, Sharon. My phone number is a number of digits on here. So, just avoid that. Delete that. One, two, three, four, five. All approved and seconded. Yeah. All those in favor I opposed. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Suit Nill's
020roof. Mr. Casey. Yes. So, we're on track for our Tooten Hills partial roof replacement coming up this summer. Along to do that, we have to uh have these three motions made for our state reimbursement. The first two motions uh is your acceptance of the plans and drawings. These have already been accepted by the town building department, fire marshall and health official. So, uh after approving that, there's one additional motion uh where the superintendent and uh BOE chair uh requests a review by the state. So, those are the three motions before you tonight. Great. Anybody want to kick it off? Thank you. Thanks. Uh move to approve the final plans and project manual dated March 6, 2025 prepared by JH Architects LLC for the Tuton Hill School re-roofing and related work project. Second. Great. Any discussion?
021All those in favor? Any opposed? Thanks. Move to approve the Totin Hills Schools re-roofing project budget cost estimate date March 6, 2025 prepared by JH Architects LLC in the amount of $921,437. Second. Second. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Move to approve the Superintendent Matthew T. Curtis and board chair Jeff Tindle to sign the Department of Administrative Services from SCG042 to request a review of the final plans and project manual prepared by JH Architects LLC for the Two Inhill Schools re-roofing and related work project. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I Any post? Uh next is the cancellation of the April 8th regular meeting. Do you want because I mean as Matt said it's the public hearing date we will be meeting anyway. Yes we will and hopefully those people from the right
022the area to cancel the board of education scheduled on April 8th 2025 second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any thank you. All right. uh information and reports. First up is the library media program report. Yes. And I would just say now that we're through the not through the budget in its entirety, but through the bulk of it, we line up our um program reviews and uh bring out staff to have an opportunity to go through uh some of the exciting work and talk about some of the challenges uh that are faced with really be informative to the board. So, we've invited some folks out this evening that Sue is going to introduce. It's good to see everybody. Thank you for coming out. Terrific. So, I have some pretty incredible members on my teaching and
023learning team and that includes Dave Prinstein as our director of instructional technology. Dave wears many hats and one of them is to oversee our library media centers which are true hubs of teaching and learning in each one of our seven schools. So tonight, Dave is joined by our library media specialist, Kelly Callahan, former elementary school teacher, turned library media specialist, and comes over to Henry James this year, which we're so excited about. And our incredible library media specialist at Squadron Line School. Not only is he a fashion icon, but also a wealth of information, Mr. Jeannie SA. And tonight they're going to share celebrations around what happens each and every day at the library media center. Talk about some of the leadership and program priorities that they've been focused on this year. What's up and
024coming? What's in the future for uh library media and what are some potential financial implications as well as some continued support that they are hoping to receive. So Dave, I turn it over to you and your team. Thanks, Sue. Um, and like Sue mentioned, um, in this capacity, I lead the library media team. We are a team of eight, um, seven media library media specialists, one in each building. Um, and me, we meet weekly just to make sure that we're on the same page. What we're hoping to do tonight, and thank you so much for making time for us, is to paint a picture, um, of a library media team and a program here in Simsbury that is really, um, at the middle of a lot of the work that we're doing here in Simsbury.
025um leading the way for our schools, our students, our teachers toward all of these 21st century skills that we talk so much about and that we believe so much in. Um and along with those 21st century skills, um the vision of the graduate also those two things are sort of inexurably tied. Um the story that we're going to tell you tonight about sort of our day-to-day and our our month-to-month and our year-over-year work um hopefully will unear three themes. Number one, technology support and leadership through our library media centers and our library media specialists. um support of the vision of a graduate from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. And then last but certainly not least, the the traditional role of the library program, which is, you know, for lack of a better term,
026just fostering that love of reading um in all of our students. So those um three themes we're going to try to paint you a picture of. So right now, the current state of our library media centers, and if you um throughout the presentation, um a a big part of the story is actually the physical space itself. We have we'll have a picture of all seven of our libraries um at different points in the in the presentation, but we were talking this morning and we were really um excited to be able to share that because they're so different. So, we tried to capture different sort of views and characters of these physical spaces um which in school buildings are really characters, you know. Um one of the things that we want to make sure at each
027of our seven buildings is that the library really is a hub that you know flow located in the center of the building. um a lot of the activi activity curricularly, socially is is flowing out of that center. Um we also want to make sure that we are um supporting the curriculum at each building. Um working with teachers um infusing literature and resources to make sure that they have everything that they need and that students have everything they need when they visit our libraries. Also, um, one of the most important things that you hear you'll hear about tonight are the infusion of these critical thinking skills, these problem solving skills coming right from our vision of a graduate. Um, from the earliest ages in our elementary schools, we prioritize um, being a place where we're teaching
028kids how to evaluate sources, how to how to site those sources at a at a later age. And really by the time they get to high school, they're off and running with those inquiry skills. Um, and then last but not least, as as part of a modern library media program, we really want to be also that hub where technology is getting integrated into teaching and learning, where our librarians are are sort of leading the way with staff development and early adoption and really being those technology evangelists that are out in front of a lot of this work that we're doing. So, that's the the picture that we're going to paint you and and again, we're we're thrilled to be here. Great. So, I'm going to um go over some of the program highlights and celebrations
029that we have within what we do in our departments. Um first of all, we have the vision of graduate video series. You can go on our website and see that. Um the library media specialist team has been working together um in planning and um creating these vision of graduate videos and they feature themes across our schools that illustrate the different vision of graduate competencies that are in action and so we've been focused on you know different schools different age groups and so please you know definitely take the time to go and see them. Um, another thing that um that we're doing at Henry James, um, I started actually a news network this year. I was very I did a dab a little bit of this at squad in line with the student um, student collision,
030but I recruited um, Nick Holden to help me. And we have these students, they are naturals. I mean, you are will see them on the news someday. I'm so nervous. They get right up and they get it done. They write their own scripts. They uh they're reporters, they're anchors, they they're behind the camera, they're editing, they they're sending formal emails to teachers, community leaders, and they keep coming to me and saying, "Can I do the spotlight? Can I do the spotlight?" And I said, "You just go for it." So, it's been a lot of fun. You have to see them in action. Um another thing that we like to celebrate is our STEM labs and our maker spaces. A few of our schools have these spaces and it's great because they're newly designed and they
031feature um um STEM and making opportunities. This helps the students with um engineering, robots, robotics, which I'm thinking of what going on at high school level. We're getting them ready for that. Um also collaboration with each other and those again those critical problem solving skills. Um Mike McKenna, our library specialist at the high school, has done a great job of reworking the Simsbury um high school space by making it again a 21st century space. no longer where the kids just go in and it's you know they're doing their work. He has created a space for for um different zones where there's quiet study space but then he has a space for collaboration. He also has a p a space for social or seal and um him and his team are modernizing the library and resetting
032the expectations for the high school students to utilize this incredible space that that that is in that school. And the last thing I'm going to highlight on this is we are so blessed to have the McGowan grants. So many school, you know, so many people have benefited from this. I used it at Squadron in my 12 years there. Um but two of the things that happened in uh the library media centers um at Tutin Hills. Susan Landreo used it to update all her shelving signage. Now you think that's just like well what you know how is that really helpful? But now when children go into that library they can find exactly what they need. It's it's very kid-friendly. It's clear. They're able to find things instantly. And then Marty Hickney created this very inviting um
033student seating area. So, there's a some of the things we're celebrating. And that's actually a little space right there that you can see in the slideshow. Awesome. Thanks, Kelly. [Music] So, I get to talk a little bit about the dayto-day. All right. We've broken things down into current priorities just to kind of keep it clean for you. Um, basically you can see we've highlighted three different things. The curriculum review, some student inquiry, and the vision of the graduate. And I'd like to take each in turn and then give you an example about kind of about how all of those things can work together. Um, the first thing in the curriculum review is of course the age-old question of public education. What do we teach the kids? Right? That's been the struggle since the beginning of
034time. Well, in the library, we teach them a range of things. Starts with library skills, right? We want all of our kids to be able to walk into any library and to become independent library users. We talk about location, access, and making good choices. And by making good choices, if you hear me in the library, I'm going to tell kids, I want you to go home happy, right? Because when kids come into the library, we want them to walk away with the bit of information that they came in for, the answer that they wanted, or a good book. And I'm here to report that it's working. I had kindergarten classes this morning and kids were finding the things that they're interested in. Even if it was the battle of the reptiles and who would win,
035kids were bouncing out of the room because that's exactly what they came for and that's what they wanted. We also teach tech skills routinely as well. Um, of course, every student in our district is lucky enough to have their own device. So, what we try to do is to teach high leverage tech skills at the point of need. And that's important. They're not taught in isolation. They're taught at the point of need so kids can use technology to be able to forward their learning. It's not technology for technologies sake, but in service of their learning. Um, and something that I'd like to also point out is that even though I'm talking about curriculum, and it sounds like I'm talking about library curriculum, right? Our curriculum is actually laid right over the top of the district
036curriculum. It works hand in hand. We collaborate with teachers every day to provide kids learning opportunities that work into the curricular areas that they're learning about anyway, right? So, we model processes and skills in the library, right? In collaboration with teachers that are relevant and integrated to that um curricular unit, whatever it might be, whether it's science or whether it's social studies or something else. This is not something in isolation that they don't see. Again, it works within the curriculum. And that's I think an important point to remember when we do this. One of the ways we do this is my second point through the student inquiry process. We spend some time on inquiry to allow kids to make their own meaning out of the world. Right? I mean we believe it's important for kids
037to evaluate um information and think critically about the world. And so by doing inquiry projects with kids, we allow them to take some control over that um as they work. Um the inquiry process is also multi-step. It's nonlinear. I know that people like to talk about things like grit and resilience and this this is a natural I see people smiling, right? We talked about this, right? This is a natural way to get kids to do this, right? You give them an information problem to solve and they have to bring all these resources to bear. So it's a great experience in doing this. Some of our discussions now are like where do we put these things, right? To make the maximum impact. We're always trying to think about that when it comes to time. Um along
038with that is my last point in the vision of the graduate. Right? We talk about the vision of the graduate. One of the things that you'll notice right if you know anything about problem solving models is how much the vision of the graduate looks like something like that. And so these are natural places to work with kids when we talk about vision of the graduate. Right? We start them young and it ends with the capstone of course, right, in high school. But we work all the way along to scaffold things so that kids can understand the process and be more fluid in doing these things as they move through their grade levels. Um, in any single inquiry project, if you were to highlight the things that we approached in one of these projects, you will
039see that the vision of the graduate would light up. We're doing this with kids as young as kindergarten. Um, and if you'll indulge me, I'm just going to take a moment to tell you about a conversation I had with a second grade teacher yesterday. She emailed me and said, 'You know, I'd like to juzj up my second grade insect unit. Can we talk? And it was a couple of days before we could, right? Because everybody's so busy. So, I was able to, right, take a look at her planning time, stop down when it was convenient for her. And we talked about what she wanted this to look like. She said, "You know, I really I remember some of those research things that you were doing before. Can we incorporate some of that?" And I said,
040"Yeah, sure. Let's do that." So, we talked about allowing kids again to use the resources that we pay for in our libraries. We have a virtual library to be able to collect information after they brainstorm questions about what do I want to know, right? We offer them choice on what they want to learn about, which by the way, very motivating, right, for little kids especially. They're going to locate information. They're going to do some note-taking. they're going to synthesize things. And then she said to me, you know, while we're at this, the reading department has also discovered that it might be nice if we could work on reading fluency with these kids. Is there a way to record their voices so that when they're reading, right, they can listen back, right, and work on their
041fluency? I said, "All right, let's think about this." So, not only are we doing the research piece, we're also going to do a product or a project at the end. And they're seveny olds, so right, we have to consider that it has to be something simple that they can do. But here is where we also are again impacted by technology. We're going to have them do a Google slide, right? There's a Google slide. How nice. A picture, maybe a caption, but the added value to this is that they're also I found a quick and easy way so that they can make that slide into a video. They're going to be able to read some of the things they learned about whatever this is that they're studying into that. They can practice it. They can do
042it multiple times till they pick one that's good for them, right? So, working on their fluency, listening back. It even gives them a little thumbnail to themselves in the video. They're gonna love this, right? And so they're going to be able to do that to work on fluency, too. So, look what we've done. One project in one grade level, right? Probably four lessons with me, right? But this is going to be a rich, powerful, efficient way to meet so many goals in our curriculum, not just inquiry, VOG, curricular goals. Um, and the kids love it. It's fun. It's engaging. This is the kind of stuff that we like to do routinely in the library. Um, and that's why we come to you for this support so that you know that this is what we're doing
043to help us to forward this work. Speaking of forwarding the work, we're going to talk about some challenges and opportunities. I think with Kelly So, so engaging um student readers, I mean, we're definitely living in a different time for reading. Let's face it, we're battling against phones, kids, year round sports. um children have, you know, different interests and time. So, we're constantly, you know, um focusing on res resource promotion and building that love of reading and that also that stamina because let's face it, kids are just so used to scrolling and having to click whatever just building up that those reading muscles. Um so all types of reading that students might encounter whether it's fiction, non-fiction, again our ver through our virtual library using those databases using primary sources to to um use towards your
044inquiry. Um another thing is balancing that print and and digital media. So we're in we're in the times where people are saying do we really even need physical books anymore? Do we need that print anymore? Well, I I'm sure some of you here prefer that book in your hand. Um, I know I have family members that will never touch a handle because they want that that that book in their hands. But then we also ask ourselves, can we just get our kids away from those screens? Do they have to be on, you know, do we get away from that digital? Well, we want to say yes to both of them. So, this is why we're constantly trying to find best practices towards defining this balance. And we do that by providing both types of resources
045in our libraries. And especially, you know, we're looking at our our students and thinking about what they need. Um, so that brings me to our representation for our school community. We're constantly looking at I call them my clientele and like my my customers that come in, I want we want to make sure that when every single student or teacher comes into the library that they find themselves on the shelves. They can find something that they can relate to. Um we're constantly having different people moving into town and we just want to make sure that when they walk into the library they can see themselves representing the different displays um also from different needs that they need whether it is um something that they need need more audio books or maybe they need to um have
046uh bigger prints. We've have we have situations where we have students that need bigger print. Um little sidebar, I made my print. This is 24. So, but our collections reflect those communities and our students and um and so we're proud that we're constantly working on that and especially in our PLC's we get together to make sure that we are looking over looking over our collections pulling that data data from um our from our libraries and and analyzing it and working together to figure out what we need. We also borrow from each other a lot so we're constantly emailing each other like I need this, do you have this or how can I get this or that? So, it's helpful. Can I All right. I want to make sure that this is that does not become
047the star of the show. These are the financial considerations. I I don't need to tell this board that costs of everything are skyrocketing. Um as a as a team during the budget process starting in the fall and sort of culminating now, we're we're constantly having conversations a lot around the um what Kelly just shared, which is balancing the needs of students and and what we want them doing. We want to make sure as a library media team that when we're budgeting for the the upcoming year, we're really thinking about what we want kids to be doing actively. What skills do we want them to be developing and do our budget priorities line up with what we want from students and for students? So, there is that balance. We have to just like every other department
048um not only within our school but sort of in this country at this point we have to make some hard decisions about um where we're going to put our money just to make sure that it aligns with what we're prioritizing for kids and at that point hopefully you've you've heard through our presentation that very much right now these are those critical problem solving skills that are in line with the vision of the graduate. So, we're year-over-year trying to put together a budget um that aligns with those K12 skills and really puts our students in first grade, in seventh grade, in 11th grade, in 12th grade, um really in a position to be competitive when they when they leave high school with that battery of of skills. Um again, I don't want to make that be
049the star of the show, but just just know like everybody else, these are hard considerations that we have to make. um an engaging collection um is sometimes new with the with the like the the most recent titles. That's what's going to, as Jamie said, um have kids walking out and going home happy. Um but the reality of that is we can't have brand new books. Um we have to be smart about how we're maintaining those collections. Um understanding uh the the financial realities of of where we are right now. Jamie. Wow, that was fast. Um, before I I attack the last slide, um, I would just like to extend an invitation to any or all of you. If you'd like to come visit us in the library, the library is for everybody. And if you'd
050like to stop by and chat with us about what we're doing, we are always thrilled to see you. I will tell you, I am working from notes tonight because, as some of you in this room might know, I do tend to go on and so I'm trying to stick to my notes. Um, but I do have a lot to say on the subject of libraries. And so if you'd ever like to stop by and chat a little bit, glad to do it. Um, that's one. Yes. Let me I'm sorry. Let me just pause you for one second. I I want to make sure that that you guys do understand when we had this conversation preparing for this meeting. It was unanimous across all seven librarians. If you ever want to get into any of the
051spaces, they're all so unique. They all fit the school building. If you're curious, you know, we have a new a brand new library at Latimer. Um, the high school library has been redesigned. we have these these new physical spaces coming in all the time that we're really thinking about and that we're really proud of. Um, if you're ever interested, please just let me know. I appreciate that. And I think what you'll find, even though there is an alignment of what all library medias are trying to do, centers are trying to do, you'll also find distinct personalities just like you do in the schools. So hopefully you saw a little bit of that through the pictures, but you certainly feel that with the visit. So thank you for the extended invitation. I would be remiss. Oh,
052sorry. Is that something we can just Jeff like flag for if we go back to on-site meetings like maybe working that in like if we show up? Great idea. Great idea. Great idea. That's what we that's what we started doing as a department is going to our different libraries. That'd be cool. Great. So, I guess I'll try to finish this up. Um, but before I do, I' I would be remiss in saying that one of our board members did stop by the library and actually bring me candy today. So, not for nothing, but that's a great way to stop by the library. So, yeah, there's that. So, let's talk a little bit about the last couple of things on the list, right? The vision of the graduate and of course spaces and resources. Um, we
053want to start by telling you that we do so support or we do so appreciate your support of the vision of the graduate work, right? because that enables us to work with students on so many authentic skills throughout their school experience in Simsbury and that's important to us and we appreciate the support of that. Um your support of our library program as Dave pointed out is also key to providing the structure for this important work. As you can see we have a kind of different view of how things work in the schools right we're fortunate to have that and to be able to bring different resources to bear. So, um, as I mentioned, library media specialists have a unique impact on the integration of these skills across the district as well. Um, I'd also like
054to point out an added efficiency, um, in the library, and that is that we do collaboration pretty well, right? Um, this is often overlooked, but because we collaborate with teachers who are in the room with us as we instruct students, we're also routinely providing professional development for teachers on myriad topics in areas of like information literacy, inquiry, technology, right? They say what if you teach your your children, you're teaching your grandchildren. It's the same idea, right? The expectation of that second grade activity that I was talking about is not that I'm going to go live in second grade now, but now that teacher has the knowledge and skills to extend that in the classroom with the rest of the work and bring some of those resources to bear on other things she wants to do.
055So, it's like seed corn, right? This is what we're trying to provide as we do these kinds of um bits with our teachers in our building. Um spaces and resources, right? You heard Dave say it. People say it all the time. Library media centers are called the hub of the school. And I think for good reason. And by the way, it's purposeful. We try to create warm, welcoming spaces to accommodate our work in supporting all learners. And by that I mean not just the kids, but also teachers and staff. If you take a look at our libraries, you're going to see everybody in there at some time or another working on things. And and and that's purposeful to make it a place where people want to come and work. Our library team works every day
056to make our spaces the heart of learning in the building, right? And take that any way you want, but we mean it in all those ways. Like, we really do want to be the center of the building when it comes to learning. And we're positioned, by the way, with your support to continue this role no matter what the future of teaching and learning looks like. For instance, this morning we were having an um a conversation in our PLC about the implications of AI and education, right? I mean, you think about that thing I'm doing with second grade. Maybe that's all out the window and I just have to ask somebody, hey, uh, why are ladybugs did they have black spots on them or, right? Like, why do I need to do all this work? I
057mean, these are things that we really need to consider as a district, right? Because there are huge implications not just on education, but also on the wider world. And our task is to prepare students for that, right? It's kind of trit now, but it reminds you that we are actually preparing students for a world that doesn't yet exist. Right? There's one thing I do know, and I'll say this in closing. By supporting our existing resources and investing in future possibilities with us, you'll continue to empower us to effectively guide Simsbury students toward success. And for that, we thank you. Um we appreciate your time this this evening and uh we're glad to answer any questions that you might have. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Yeah, please come. I it's great. I also think um I
058mean I love the collaboration piece. I think that that's really critical and I think that that's critical for future learning in every aspect of it because I think that all the pieces but you also have an amazing um parental support and PTO's and you've got a lot of parents that come through your through your CL through your libraries and I think we always got to make sure we thank them for showing up and supporting you guys as well. You know, I say half the job is PR, but I have to tell you one of the I've learned so much from the parents and not only some of the parents in the Sims are kind of juiced, man. I'm just saying, right? Some of the things people do, I've I've never never ever heard of. And
059it's fascinating to meet people in the library. It's such a great Yeah. If you want to come in and read to some kids, we could set you guys up. It's a great high impact volunteer opportunity. And the kids, they love this stuff. So, to your point, yes, we're very fortunate. We're very fortunate. James a Civil War Shark Tank where they get up and they They they we need sharks. So basically come and do sharking. They have to pitch their civil war technology to you. So always need sharks. So come come do it. It's really fun. It was awesome. I think we're thankful for all of you. I had one question. The um the my only question was in the new schedule in elementary, does it have do do all kids K through six come to
060you for a set period or or time or is it as needed? Well, let me say this. The American Library Association recommends that libraries in schools work on a flexible schedule which is not as um a fixed schedule where they come at the same time over and over but to again approach some of these things at need. So if they're working in a curricular area that's when we work with the kids. We do have schedules in our building that ensure that every student comes up every week for books. We do book exchanges and things and we work with teachers to schedule classes in or sometimes grade levels in to do specific work. Now, some places that works better than others. In some schools, they have had to make a more rigid schedule just because there's
061only one media specialist in the room. And so, for the idea of um predictability, right, to make sure that there's someone there, they will schedule certain things. Although that's again each has a a benefit and each has right a drawback when you look at the schedule. But that's how Yeah. So to Sue's point, they are slightly different sometimes. But kindergarters and first graders have weekly meetings with you, right? We Yes, we do. We have we have story hours for the younger kids at Squadron. We start in second grade to transition the kids. And it's funny because I talked to a parent last week who said, "Oh, I can't come read to my second grader." I said, "Oh, I'm sorry about that. I bet we can set something up if you really want to." But I
062said, "But you know, in second grade, right, these seven-year-olds, they come up as independent library users." I said, "They come up, they use the computer, they can find things." And let me just point out, too, that gives us an opportunity to work with kids one-on-one as well, right? To learn some of their interest, to help to guide them to things, to do readers advisory with them, just to cultivate relationships with people in the building, which to me, all right, that's priceless right there. Right, working with kids on small groups like that. So, that's great. I had a couple questions. First of all, I completely agree with the hub aspect. I will say like the one thing with like the librarians like my right like Mrs. Hegy at Term amazing like the kids will see her
063at the ice skating rink and go up to her and just talk to her, right? Like so like they do they grow with them, right? They don't rot. That's someone they can count on go to like we'll say at home like I need I'm working on this report like go. Um so I think that's great and extremely valuable. Um so kudos to you guys and to her. Um, two questions I did have on the digital verse kind of print media if you will. Are you able to kind of track the usage there and kind of because I am curious on that like I'm guessing the tracking will gravitate more towards the digital I would guess and then like how do you I don't want to say incentivize but how do you promote the print copy
064when so much is moving digital? That's kind of question one. Well, as you think of that, question two, and I know this may be to you Dave, so chance to think was question one. You mentioned the budget and are there any recent over the past couple years with like budget considerations where you have felt like a pinch on that? I would be curious to kind of think if there's anything that you did feel the pinch. And I know you kind of said it very politely like balancing 21st century budget cost, but I do think it's always helpful to know like what the pinch points are so that we can consider those when we're going through that process. So figured I'd lay that out. I'll start with the second one. Yes. Um a school system is
065like a major corporation, right? There's a lot there's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of considerations when you get to budget season. Um, I think the only I I wouldn't say there's a there's a pain point. I would say where where we want to live and what we want the the board to be appreciative of is when when there's an opportunity to fund us, just know that we will always take advantage of it. Um, and that we always have needs. Um, so it it really is when when we sit down to have these conversations and to make these decisions b and I'm going to tee you guys up now. really balancing where we want to put our money, understanding that there really is an allout assault on the printed word and we
066want to make sure that kids are not losing the the connection to that, but also these 21st century technology skills. We want to make sure that they're competitive in that arena also. So I I I don't think I would point to a pinch point. I would say looking forward um we always want to make sure that we're a part of the conversation just because we do touch so many different curricular and social areas if that's fair. So thinking about sort of and I'll I'll start this I think there's an um as kids start to get older the the digital access starts to get more and more pervasive. So I think in early elementary school there's a there's a and that's when kids are learning how to read. So it's, you know, it's it's not surprising,
067but what we want to make sure is that when kids get to middle school and when kids get to high school, it's not just a digital focus in terms of literacy, but we are still marketing those opportunities for kids to read. Um, incentives, contests, initiatives, things to make it fun and engaging is where I would go and I'll I'll leave it for you guys. I mean, book promotion is a huge thing through our displays, also through book docks, um, getting ELA classes in and and just this is what's in our library. These are the eggs. Thank you to the PTO that funded Henry James this year on that. Um the other thing that we have because author visits are so expensive, we now subscribe to something called Book Break. Uh we had it at Squadron
068and that was when I was the fourth grade teacher. That was our special time that um what it is, it's a subscription basically. It's a platform where they pick about I think it's like 12 authors per year and all different genres, all different authors, um, new ones, older ones. Uh, and what they do is they you sign up for a slot and you and they there's there's each month there's a different slot and so say for instance I think Loris Lowry was one of them and so I mean Loris Lowry I think she's in the 90s now but she's so what you can do is you can go in real time and present um questions to her or if you cannot make it during that time slot during scheduling complex what you can do is
069then you can watch the recorded piece but They touch on everything like characterization, um, inferencing, uh, as far as their their whole craft. And so this is something that once a student sees something in a book break, an author or a certain genre, then that then, you know, triggers an interest in their other books, etc., etc. So, uh, we're very lucky that this year we're actually for the next school year, um, Henry James is going to take that on and we're we're going to work I'm working very closely with the LA department to to to to do to do this. So, um, again, it's all about selling. I mean, it's just, you know, it's all about selling. I mean, we're salesmen in a way to say, but just it's but it's it's fun to get
070them sparked about it. And, you know, do you have those those children come in? The biggest question I always ask kids, what are you watching on Disney Plus? What are you watching on Netflix? What are you watching on Amazon Prime? And then you go from there and then you can find them their books that they are interested in. And um so it's a lot of promotion, but I would say it also depends on level as both of these guys just pointed out, right? Because at the elementary level, I have no problem getting books into kids' hands. Like it's still for a 500-year-old technology man, kids are all about the book. and it's maybe going to be the right book, but we have no problem with that at all. And our digital books, I would suggest
071to you that that ebooks, because kids don't have access at those young ages to devices, right, that they would maybe want in middle school for an ebook, they're going to use a physical book and they're going to love the physical book. So, we can always spend more money on physical books. They are going to go, kids are going to engage with them. So I think as kids get older to your points both of them that's when we kind of see that disconnect because you know bright shiny it's it's the nature of homework changes. Absolutely. When you're in elementary school, you go home and you read for pleasure. You take your books home and we maybe squaltch that a little bit when we get to secondary level. Right? Homeworks for a different kids are busy. But
072then they get into certain genres, like for instance, historical fiction, and then they're like, "Wait a minute, historical fiction is really great." And they come in, they said, "Do you have any historical fiction books?" And um my library, our library is Jonifi, which they can go right to the historical fiction section. And I'm just like, "Have it. So it's so it does it does spark. So I have one question. Josh answered one of mine about the data but the other is across the elementary schools. There are certain books I'm thinking that most have but do you use the other libraries like you know we may not carry it but I know I can get it from the other. Absolutely. We're constantly emailing each other. I need a copy or even if my copies are out,
073they're backlogged, I'll just say, you know, because, you know, I have all different ranger readers in our library and so I will I'll reach out to the elementary and just say, you know, do you have this book and I borrow it and we that good old inner office mail and we can see it. We can see it through Destiny. If we don't have one in a certain library, you can look it up and see if anybody else has it. But it also gives you breath in being able to order more. Absolutely. Have different, you know, some similar and some difference. Absolutely. Yeah. I was just going to say the little thing about I you know you can see little kids walking around sometimes and candy or book and I mean they can make a big
074thing about a book right and I remember when the Harry Potter stuff came out I was like you all are reading those thick books like that you know so books are really first grade all they wanted to do is go to the section the Harry Potter section and walk out a bunch of books and scolios but they're like I'm going to read this yes I'm going to read it Right. Right. Great job. Thank you guys so much. That was a lot of your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. So, next up is the strategic plan review. Yes. So, um we have a quick kind of PowerPoint stack to take you through. We're going to do a series of two meetings on this. Um, and as I know you're all aware, one of our kind
075of heavy lifts as a group this year uh and administrative team as well was to create uh our next iteration of the five-year strategic plan. So, we're at a point where we want to start uh sharing pieces of that with the board overall. And tonight is really uh to tea up more about the process uh and share a little information. And then on the 22nd, uh, it'll have a little bit more of, I guess I'll call it like a workshop feel, a little more give and take, uh, a little more feedback and discussion around, uh, some of the key elements of the plan. But, uh, we're very excited about where we've landed on this. It's been a, you know, we've taken this really serious. It's a district that, I said before, is grounded in the
076continuous improvement process. Um, and this work is very representative of that. Uh I was talking to Sue today. We This is the time of the year when we meet individual uh individually for a couple hours with each of our building administrators and we talk about their strategic planning for the year and what they see as that next level of work. And I just feel really good about the coherence of where we're going and what we've identified and what's already moving uh boots on the ground um with our administrators. So really an exciting time as I feel like we're we've finally gotten enough of that distance away from CO that we're talking about instructional improvements, curriculum, and really making nice traction in those areas again. So um so I have a couple slides just to tee
077it up and I'm going to hand it out, hand it off to Sue, but really three outcomes tonight. Uh really talk about the process. As I said, we're going to share our draft of the mission statement that the group uh came together on and get a little input from you and then really set the stage for what we want to do uh April 22nd. So, we're going to assign a little bit of uh homework for I know you'll appreciate that. U but to get it started and get get people in the thinking process and connected to some of the past conversations we've had, uh we're we're titling this a warm welcome. So, what we want you to do is uh, you know, think into the future when this plan is in place and what is
078something you hope to see and just kind of take a minute, jot that down. Sue's going to come back to that as we close, but as you think, you know, board members often have interest areas, different experiences, durations on the board. We've engaged you in a process around our goals. What is something that is important to you that you want to see in that final product? And just take a minute and jot that down. Jeopardy. All right. Um, thank you. We'll come back to that as I said. So, just to go through a quick timeline of where this started and where we've been. Um, this conversation actually started last May. Uh, May of 24. We met over at the firehouse. That was kind of our first meeting as a board. It was a workshop environment
079where we discussed different priorities that board of ed members had that they wanted us, the administration to start thinking about, come back with a report and most importantly, as we've said, it's important for board members uh to communicate those priorities to administration and administration to incorporate those into the strategic plan from a leverage and coherent standpoint. So that's where that work started. Um in September we had another opportunity to bring the board together. We've had meetings with parents the parent group that Jen was very helpful in uh helping me revitalize this year uh with the PTO's uh along with Jen and Sue. We led a parent group through an exercise to get some input and feedback around our goals. Um, our teacher groups and then our administrators, you know, representation, significant representation obviously from the
080administrative group on multiple cycles uh the development of this process. And then in October uh we brought together our district strategic planning uh meeting group that Sue is going to talk about a little bit. Uh and we've met month, we met monthly from October to February. Different iterations, different tasks every time, different assignments in between uh to put before what you have tonight as a takeaway is a real solid draft of where we are on this plan. So, we're proud of where we are, open to adjustments certainly as we move forward, but know that we're uh aligned with the with the values and the the feedback you've given us so far. So before we even came together as a district strategic planning committee, we took all of the information from those focus groups from when
081we met with you, with parents, with teachers, with administrators, and we pulled them all into themes based upon our goals. So goal one around student growth and success. You'll see some of the themes there around AI, around engagement, around special education practices and procedures. Uh goal two, caring and compassionate and connected school culture. This concept and this theme of belonging for all, of benchmarking some of our safety procedures for really getting a handle around what are the behaviors we're seeing in schools and what is our discipline approach. Goal three around our premier workforce. Uh themes of diversifying our staff, providing feedback to any and all members of our staff around their performance around professional learning communities. How do we differentiate support for our workforce based upon different roles and experiences? And then finally, goal four
082around sustainable and strategic investments. Uh themes around capital improvements. How do we balance lead with fiscal responsibility and how do we get better around communicating relative to our budget development approval and then next steps. So again more detail than um probably we want to delve into here tonight. What I do want to share with you that what we did after this strategic plan development draft, we went back to these initial themes and I did a crosswalk of every single theme to make sure that what these focus groups said again even before we met as a committee was reflected in this document. And I could do that onetoone correspondence. And if you want to see how I nerded out through that process, I'm happy to show you the results, but they're there. Okay. So, our goals
083for this district committee were twofold. We wanted the committee, and I'll get into makeup in a second, to provide us feedback on what's our next level of work here in Simsbury around these goal areas and to work together as a working group to develop a draft by February. So, check and check for the goals of the committee. Uh there were multiple people on this committee, 22 in number. Again we met mostly monthly. We had nine administrators uh two role uh people from operations, four of you as BOE members and seven teachers. So some department supervisors, some general education teachers, special education intervention. So that was exciting to see the different roles and looks at our strategic work through this committee. And here were our topics month by month. started off in October around what is
084the purpose of our committee, what were the goals. We also looked at a draft of a data dashboard which you'll see reflected in the draft of the strategic plan. In November, we really grounded oursel in mission. I'll talk about that in a moment and really started teasing out in these goal areas, what is the work ahead of us? What are the actions that we want to make sure are reflected in this plan? Um in December we reviewed the draft of those action items and in January we started looking around a design template and getting feedback on the layout of this itself. So it's taken a couple of different iterations and we're excited to present a draft to you this evening. But we looked at this template through clarity, consistency, how does it appeal to the
085visual senses and is it readable? because this is going to be a public-f facing document that really should give the blueprint of what we want to get after to level up to that next level of excellence in the next five years. And then in February, we did a final draft review and we broke a little bread and shared our good work and celebrated. Uh I do want to go a little bit deeper into the mission. So we as a district committee really talked about this in the month of November. Uh the mission is really our guiding statement to frame out what we believe and value as a school system. It gives us inspiration when we need it, when the work gets tough, but it also gives us some brand identity. So after a couple of
086different iterations, here's our newly drafted mission statement. I will read it this for for everyone. The Simsbury public schools cultivate dynamic learning communities that foster academic excellence, character development, and a lifelong love of learning, preparing students to thrive in a complex and everchanging world. So certainly you will see themes there around our vision of a graduate and those competencies, but we wanted to lift that and really make it about where we want to go as as public school district. So, as far as the last plan and this plan, I thought it would be helpful to share what's the same and what's different. So what is the same first and foremost is the goal language. Those four goals that I reviewed, we felt in all of those groups and in this district committee, that's the right
087work around student performance, around our compassionate and caring school, around our people, our premier workforce, and how do we use our resources to make sustainable investments. Um, we absolutely see that this plan will continue to be aligned with our building based action plans. So, this drives the work. And each school, if you think about it as a a little visual here, here's the guide, and it is aligned with all seven schools and their school-based plans. And it really speaks to the uniquenesses of where those individual school communities want to engage in the next level of work in those four goal areas. And as Matt shared, we are a district of continuous improvement. So, hopefully you will that as you review this draft uh see that process alive and well that there's certainly a cycle of
088when we review data and look at how we're doing and how do we use that information to inform our next level of work. What's going to be a little bit different? You'll see a some data and a dashboard which we would see um being updated at least twice a year associated with each one of the goal areas. So please take a look at that. Some of our discussions that we had in our small groups here helped inform that data dashboard. So that looks different. And I think what you'll also see is that the actions are really more in uh grounded deliverables. you'll be able to see specific products takes some of the previous actions out of theory and brings them into product and deliverables that we believe will level up what we do here in
089Sims. Okay, so that's the same and different. Uh before I go into the adoption timeline, are there any questions about that process? Okay, Sue, one question as we're so kind the timeline. I I appreciate the layout. How often is this going to be revisited? I'm just trying to think. So, this is five years laid out and then May 13th we adopt it right for approval and then what like you see what I'm just kind of absolutely so we kind of pick up where our continuous improvement cycle picks up. So we will be having different um data markers of student performance, right? We will have some standardized data markers as is always the process. The first thing that we do over the summer is we collect that data and flush it out. What did it tell
090us? Where have we made improvements academically? We will also have survey data coming in around climate and culture. So you'll remember that usually in the spring we send out a climate and culture survey to parents to students to staff. We'll be collating all of that data as well. So the first thing is a data dive and then how does that data help inform some of the priorities because you can't make everything a priority in the first year but what does that data inform us is the most prioritized work that we have to do in each one of these goal areas. So, our central office team, our teaching and learning team will prioritize some of the first action items. I have an idea about what some of those are already based upon on some of our
091discussions and even what the principles have talked about in their action plans this year and some of the unfinished work or that next level of work. Okay. So, we're excited about that. So, over the summer, Josh, we will um take that information. we will develop our district priorities and then the schools will create their individual school improvement plans and at the beginning of the year that's what they start to report on right so that's when we have Maggie and her team come and share okay here's where we were here are some successes here's the next level of work and you get to start seeing that continuous improvement cycle that's aligned with this plan so I would just jump in for a second so we talk about that kind of high level thought of coherence I
092see us now with this new iteration of the plan and being in alignment. Our you hit on a little bit. Our presentations coming to you are much more in alignment with these priorities. Right. So, we'll just take the something we just talked about in the finance subcommittee a little bit like taking the time to go back reestablish those next priorities on the capital improvement front. We will come out now and do a write a a report on what that looks like. And really when we talk about that improvement process when it's wired well kind of feeds itself that way. No, I appreciate that. It's good that right there's list there's plans and then there's actionable items. So appreciate it. No problem. So as far as the adoption timeline in your folders you have a draft
093copy and this absolutely still is a draft. What we would like you to do is between now and our next board of ed meeting on April 22nd is to read through the plan and that little warm welcome and the little quick jot that you did whatever that was that you hope to see look for it in that plan. Um and then on April 22nd we're going to have as Matt shared more about workshop format discussion and we're going to ask you three questions. What are you most excited about that you read? What are you wondering about? And do you believe that we missed anything as we plan for the next five years? So we'll have that discussion on the 22nd and then after April 22nd we will make any adjustments uh based upon feedback that
094you've given uh based upon anything you'd asked us to look at and we would make those revisions and then bring the finalized plan to the full board on May 13 for your potential approval. One more. Gotta give some homework. Excellent. But it looks like it looks like you guys have done a lot of work. I'm really loving it. I'm happy. We're really excited. This looks great. I think it looks great. Sue, maybe just a shout out to I don't know the person who did it, the graphic designer. Thank you. So, in one of those district committees, we had a draft and it was suggested, can we have someone maybe with some design experience? Not that this is fantastic, but yes, absolutely. Yeah. So, it doesn't look like this. 100%. So, you will see teacher Megan
095Lavoy. She's an art teacher at the high school. She teaches design and she's been partnering with us along the way. We've been giving her drafts, feedback, changes, and she's been so absolutely responsive, but um we should have done a little before and after because this actor is pretty incredible. Pretty impressive. Great. Yes. Thank you for bringing up Megan Megan Lore. She's fantastic. Great. All right. Right. Thank you. All right. Next up is the uh audit report. All right. Um We've completed our audit for fiscal year 24. I'm happy to report that we had a clean audit. Um, Captain Larson Allen, our auditors, um, came in and audited our financial statements, our federal single audit, and our state single audit. And these are all related to our federal and state grant. Um, we were issued the
096best opinion possible. We had an unmodified opinion and no findings reported on our internal controls. If you go down to um about the middle of the exhibit, you'll see um it says final budget, it says actuals, it says variance. Um that $3.7 million number under the revenues. Um we came in in excess of budget um by about $3.7 million. Uh 2.1 was related to our investment income. Um 744,000 due to un unanticipated state grants. We had some municipal revenue sharing money and some pilot money increases from the state. Um, as you might be aware, we have our tax collection rate 98 and a half% but our actual collections are 99%. So about $531,000 surplus there. And then about $120,000 surplus on our conveyance tax receipts. Those are all the town related items. um the board
097of education related items. We had a surplus of $86,000 for our um tuition paying students. We had about a $60,000 surplus from the rental income related to the use of our school school buildings. And then we had a slight bump in fiscal year 24 of our ECS money for about um just shy of $57,000. Any questions on the revenues? Okay. on to um the expenditures. Right below it, you'll see that our final budget um equals our actual budget of about 123 million. Um we did not come in within budget. We um came in under budget in total. It was about $2.1 million under budget. Um the actuals are tred up the I'm excuse sorry the final budget is ted up to the actuals as part of the audit report, but we did not have a
098net zero. So, our 2.1 um variance under budget, the majority of our savings was related to um salaries and benefits. We had some vacancies of about 1.2 million. Um we had some pension savings 185,000 and then um smaller savings on some utilities, a debt service um payment util um debt service payment um from our bonding that came in lower than budgeted on our interest rate. And then um we utilized all of those savings and moved it out into our capital reserve fund and we contributed about $3.9 million into our capital reserve fund which we've talked about during the budget process. Any questions on those expenditures? I don't think any of us we weren't able to follow because we don't we don't have the fact I just have the breakdown of what it is. I can
099give it to you. It's just writing the audit report. Oh, so you're just Okay. All right. That would be good to just add this. Yeah. Always nice coming in under budget though. [Music] Yeah. Um and then right below that you'll see the um access of revenues over expenditures on the gap basis of that 7 million and then you take that from your net transfers to other funds of 5 million. So that's about 1.8 million that we contributed to our fund balance. Um the reason that we do this on the GAP basis is because that's what the rating agencies look like when look at when they're looking at our fund balance. That's the number that they they pull the num that they um pull our reports from. So our general fund fund balance as of July
100123 was that 19 million851 and then you take that difference between the 7 million and the 5 million above that $1.8 million contribution. This gets you to your final balance um for your general fund as of June 30th of that 21 million668. And this is about 16% of expenditures um which is within the board of finances policy of coming in between 15 to 17% of expenditures. And then that last line just below it um that 1 million um these are parts of our fund balance that are assigned or already have a purpose related to them. So the spendable purpose over to the left, that 159804, those are for any um prepaids that we had during the year that we have to pay out in the next fiscal year. The committed balance of the 860,000, that's
101your non-lapsing balance. And then there's a small assigned balance of about $25,000 um related to some incumbrances that'll be paid out in fiscal year 25. And that gives you your $1,45,000 total. Amy, general fund balance 21 million. What's in the capital reserve? I know you mentioned that. Total like six, five, unassigned, I think there's six total. There's a lot more. All right. These are townwide numbers. Yes. Um and then on the second page, the um the fund balance fund for the capital um for the CNR fund. So you can see the starting balance about 2.2 million as of June 30th 2023 and then we ended with a fund balance of June 30th 2024 of about another 2.2. So no real change from the prior year. What went in is what basically was spent. So it's
102a good position to be in. And then the last management comment that we have from the auditors um as a recommendation is our accounting procedures manual. So, this is something that we've been chipping away at in between projects, um, busy season. So, hopefully that'll be finished up this year. Any questions on that? [Music] Thank you. Great. Comes to our second public audience. Anybody? Uh as we talked about the next our next meeting is the 22nd but um you all know that the 8th is the public hearing. I please encourage everybody to to join me. I will be there what's with that the library. It's at the public library at 600 library and the chair. Can I get a motion to move? All in favor? I. Thanks. We are adjourned. For over 40 years, SEM has
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