001uh committee reports and communication SAR KY all right Josh nothing thank you Jess I don't have a committee report but I just want to comment on this incredible facility we and I saw it I don't know when that was our last tour and it was in progress and it's now complete and it's just a phenomenal use of resources and the time and energy spent just Mike and your whole team it is incredible so congratulations Absolutely I'll just Echo what Jessica said but nothing to report on for me yeah I will do the same thank congratulations it's very exciting now I have to do the same it's amazing amazing everyone should come out on Saturday to see the amazing stuff well I'm going to do the same except I'm going to take a little different twist
002because my children were students here back in the 990s and I was p president here and at that time we always thought maybe when we went before you know the school would have an addition within a few years few years for years well fast forward a few superintendant later and Boards later and and and different boards here we are and um I can't wait to send a little video clips to my kids um and show them you know what their old little ladimer lane a great place to grow is all about so this is really sort of heartwarming for me a little nostalgic because I get to I I saw it before and I get to see it again today so it really is a great place to grow so with that also I just
003to let you know that I will be at the Cap Caps convention this this week and um so we will be having 600 of our closest uh Board of colleagues superintendents and administrators there and we will be talking about at least 20 resolutions um coming before us that we're going to be voting on these will be our platform as we go to legislature come early February when they convene so um this is going to be a very interesting interesting conference interesting year and then today we also had a call as you know we had elections last week and um I'll be in Washington in a few months but we had a call today with um with some people in Washington about the postelection was a postelection call about what's going on and um the education
004leadership in the Department of Education um there's a potential of four names that would be named for um Secretary of Education so nothing is being for firm finalized as of yet but um they talked about the education policy the implications um and the federal funding priority shifts and that is one thing that idea is is going to stay that will not be yanor pulled but unsure of other things um you've probably heard a lot about you know the Department of Education going to be um you know going to be gone away but um it's very unlikely according to them because there's just a lot of implications and conceptual facts that are going on um some of the policy Focus prior priorities going on which will be going on in DC um and these are Senate
005priorities because Senate and House are still um in the priority list of who they're going to make as as their chairs of their committees but liter literacy reform AI Education Health youth youth apprenticeship resource so another point that they had mentioned was um our congresswoman Rosa deloro may get a committee leadership and if that happens that will be great for Connecticut we have a great relationship with her um she has been there for a long time and if she does she will be real Ally for education so this is where we stand at the moment um we talked about the federalization of upcoming education issues and um how to address those issues but the bottom line is is that the issues that we're addressing have to start at the local level local governance we don't
006even use local control anymore we use local governance they they stress this that this is so important when we talk to our legislators here in Hartford and in DC um that is where it comes from because it's going to be a whole new show in DC new legislators um that will be there so that is what's going on right now and and you know it isn't always about debate but it's about policy education policy and the key thing is is how can we align and these are these are some of the priorities and things that we talked about via nsba so we are really going to be watching this working very hard very diligently but we have to do this with all all our colleagues back home on the ground so that's it we had
007an amazing full day professional development day uh last Tuesday it started with a keynote from Deacon Art Miller who spoke about the importance of keeping individual peace and hope in the work that we do as Educators and then teachers were able to work on their individualized professional growth plans so that was an incredible part of our new teacher evaluation system they were so thankful for the time to do the work that they're passionate about and that they believe will make difference for our students so great feedback Neil and I also had a professional development evaluation committee also known as pedac committee meeting who oversees the professional development in the district and they shared their thanks for the time and the resources and the keynote so great that sounds great yeah I want to put a
008finer Point Jen mentioned Saturday that there's a continuation of the celebration here at ladimir Lane we had the ribbon cutting tonight but on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. we are going to have uh an open house for the community um and we are advertising that all over town hopefully we'll get people be 10 and 1 when we advertised at first we said tours every 15 minutes but we came up with an even better idea you can tour yourself at any time you're going to get a self-guided map and there will be sixth grade students at each of I think nine stations to tell you about the media center tell you about the gym tell you about the kindergarten rooms so you can come at any time get a tour and a few snacks on a
009Saturday morning and see this wonderful facility Jas nothing this St don't I know you just said don't want to catch you off but anything for communications um yes did you all talk about policy no okay so um I wanted to say we were supposed to have a policy committee meeting tonight I mean earlier today but um we have been um cancelling our policy committee meetings have been canceled over the last couple meetings and the thing that I guess I want to bring forward is that policy is something that's really important for us as a board of education team and we need to meet um and I think that for the community for the district for you know all of the work that we do um policy is one of those tenants that we're being held
010accountable for and so so I would just ask that we um figure this out since we all came together and decided that we were going to try to do this to be accessible to the community and all of us that we figure this out so that we can try to start meeting um that's what I have to say thank you um I I just wanted to two two quick things just wanted to reiterate what I said earlier uh just I can't I can't sit in this building without feeling just immense Gra attitude to the town at large for showing their faith in us again and support uh that we are would be good stewards with their tax dollars and their support for education in this town There's clearly a trust which is not taken for
011granted and they continue to show time and time again the value that they place on education in this town and again we've got now a worldclass facility to meet the best-in-class education system in this town and I just greatly appreciate it on the macro level and again Mike what you did ushering this ushering this through cannot be um it just has to be repeated I just uh commend you your team and everybody that had Jason there were so many people that had a hand in this uh that just I just greatly appreciate um all the hard work and and it is it shows AB you know it just shows um separately just want to quickly say we've met the finance committee has met uh we had a great I guess we've met twice now since
012the since the creation um just starting the to meet just talk about budget working in the budget season um so that process has has uh started just wanted to just to lay that out there great just one quick uh shout out our girls field hockey team is in the quarterfinals of the state tournament right now down at chesher High School playing Guilford so first year coach and uh a team that's done real well this year so good luck to them I just wanted to uh to share that and that event was a lot of fun we don't get too many of those opportunities to come out and really celebrate as an entire community so it was wonderful great do we want to go back to the yes we have our our creative writers have come
013back all right so come on up step forward Su L's going to kind of tee this up for us this evening this wonderful recognition sure and everyone can come and just stand behind the chairs there hello this is great so tonight uh since this is going to be an elementary report we thought it appropo to have some amazing individuals come before you uh we have Frank zulani from toon Hills Lisa Jacobs from totin hills Mel Mian who works in all five elementary schools and Christen Fitch from Central School and two members that aren't a part of this amazing group tonight but have been a part of this work are Beth Scutter from Squadron line and Rebecca waret right here from l mer Lane and why they're being recognized is they all came together on their
014own time and said how do we create some amazing strategies to really ignite The Passion of our student writers and they've been doing some amazing things everything from a creative writing Club to a newspaper to um newscasts and how do we incorporate some creativity our writing and morning meeting and they decided to all pull together and to write a proposal to the National Council of teachers of English and in your folders is the actual cover to the conference and the write up of The Proposal that has been accepted by this National Conference and that they will be presenting at next week in Boston so the work was acknowledged not only throughout all of our elementary communities the way they got kids even more excited about writing but these strategies were also recognized and will pre
015presented to a group of their peers on the national level so we thought that was pretty cool and that they should be here at the board tonight to be recognized absolutely is there anything that anyone would like to share about your work work or about this experience um I'll start by just saying a big thank you to all of you because I've been able to go to the conference for many years and this is the first year that I've gotten to have people from Simsbury come with me and it is a conference that changed my life and I'm excited to have people come with me so thank you very very much for supporting that funding that and making that happen for us um and then another big thank you is to these guys because they
016really have come together for I think we're on our third year right of um almost every single month coming to my house after school and sitting around talking about what we can do to keep writing really exciting and energetic and organically came up with the different ideas so it was just a really organic I don't know what this is going to be and it became something really cool so great awesome to big high five to them bring back all sorts of let us know how it goes yeah we're not really sure find out we're not sure if nine people will show up to [Laughter] our be great take lots of pictures and thank you again thank you for the opportunity to do this and thank you to Mel huge shout out for putting all this
017together um her enthusiasm just goes beyond and that's why we're all a part of this and we get to bring back what we learned with Mel and this group of teachers to our classrooms and dispersing amongst our school as well so it has a broad reach throughout the system and we're we're very proud to be doing this to be representing simsberry um at this and um it just we're really looking forward to this so again thank you well your energy ignites passion and when I look at the experience just here this evening and add certainly Beth and Rebecca to that um it's just great work so thank you so much thank you for representing simsberry beautifully every [Applause] appr okay that's great it's really exciting actually that's awesome I wish can I go the minutes
018no I mean can I go to the I'll talk to Katie I'll talk to Katie about that talk to Katy about that later uh first on the docket is uh as usual the approval of the minutes for the October 22nd meeting they in your packet and I got a motion I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for the October 22nd Board of Education meeting thanks there thank you any discussion all those in favor any post okay thank you next up is the approval of policy revisions so the policy committee did meet in September at which time we took up the um review of the new title 9 policies um both student and student uh interactions and um adult interactions so um the 4,000 series relates to uh employee uh policy and the 5,000 series
019uh relates to student policy so these were um presented as revisions to the August 1 revisions to the National Title 9 law and um brought forward by shman went Goodwin for our review two readings have gone and it is ready for a vote this is the okay uh oh the Motions are in the correct the Motions are in your packet folks I'll move I can I'll move to adopt the revised policy 4 4209 Pro prohibition of sex discrimination including sex-based harassment effective November 12th 2024 great is there second second any discussion all those in favor I any opposed great thank you have another one yep and I move to adopt the revised policy 5145 51 prohibition of sex discrimination including sex-based harassment effective November 12th 2024 your second second right any discussion all those in
020favor I any opposed great thank you and I'll just let you know that per this policy every single employee of the sub public schools has to do an hour of training um also provided to us by Shipman and Goodwin so they um were assigned that a couple of weeks ago and they have until the end of the calendar year to finish that one hour training is it online or do you make it into a PD or what you it's a it's a online okay do we pay as a whole group or do we pay individual we pay it as a district to um you know size of your District you pay for the training that's a state mandate absolutely yeah Federal mandate yeah great so Ann is it annual they'll have to do it they
021have to do it um once every three years okay okay anything else uh Central PTO gift that's over to me so we heard the word gratitude a lot this evening and here's something else to be grateful for we have another generous gift from the central p P the gift is for $3,400 and the donation will help defay the cost of grade six Camp Jewel for our Central School students there's a motion there for your consideration move that the proposed gift of $3,400 to Central School by the Central School parent teacher organization be approved second second second any discussion just want to say again that our pto's never never cease to amaze and just always step up and love you know defraying the cost for Camp Jewel what just just again my mom said I always
022needed to work on synonyms I'm going to say thankful this time and not gr not gross so um just very thankful for for their their help and it's good to see we're still doing that trip yeah absolutely one of my kids got to go a good trip great um all those in favor I any opposed great thank you very much uh I think that's back to me um cancellation of the November's 26th uh meeting since that's butts up against Thanksgiving um we're gonna we're going to cancel that one I I can I can make the motion I can yes you okay go ahead I would like to please move to cancel the Board of Education meeting scheduled on November 26 2024 Second Great any discussion all those in favor I any opposed great great thank
023you so we'll be back as is uh down at the bottom we'll be back on December 10th um okay next up uh sustainability committee report all right I will te that one up hello sir a familiar face to many of us uh Mr Mark Scully who is the chairperson of the sustainability Committee in town uh and one of the Char of that committee is to come and share with us kind of the vision and recommendations uh for potential work that could support um the town both the board of vet and the town side moving forward Mark had an opportunity uh to share uh parts of his presentation with the board of Selectmen wasn't the board of Finance it was the board of Selectmen and we met with Mark uh Neil myself uh a couple weeks
024ago so he's here to share some of that information answer any questions uh that people have but this committee certainly put in uh a bit of work and is very passionate about their cost so welcome great thank you mat and thank you all for the opportunity to speak tonight as you say this is actually um I think one of the handouts that that got distributed with your packet is the rules and regulations for the sustainability committee we actually should be reporting to you on an annual basis so we've been somewhat remiss and not doing that U but we're also here specifically uh because we have drafted this sustainability plan that we would love to for you to uh to be aware of and and um really would like to extend an invitation to work together
025on this um I'd like to start with just a little bit about the committee itself um our primary role is really to advise the town and the schools on issues related to sustainability and we'll come back to that word and what and the and the definition of that um we have four at large members bared faithful teacher from the high school um Jamie Luchi uh myself and Michael schit and then we have ex officio members from planning um Holly bem our recycling committee Joe da we are fortunate to have Lydia from bard of Ed and we have two vacant positions from Economic Development commission and culture parks and Rick um we view the sustainability team more broadly though because if you come to a meeting there's a bunch of people who aren't listed here but
026are quite active so we have a a good team um our liais on to the board of Selectmen is Kevin Beal um and we have staff assistance from Tom Roy at at Public Works we meet monthly first Thursday at 6:30 you're always welcome we are sort of the successor to uh what was once the clean energy task force uh then we formed a sustainability committee I believe Jeff you were on that and Jen you may have been on at one point as well um and that the the narrow focus at first was to get uh certified in the sustainable Connecticut program we've since merged clean energy task force and sustainable ility so we are one um now we are very proud to have held our first sustainability Fair on May 4th of this year at
027the library we've had events that were a part of September Fest or the uh Spooktacular Celebration The Chamber event but this was really our own our first time we've done our own sustainability Fair it was a huge success it was a beautiful day we had over a thousand people we had over 32 different vendors from solar to composting to uh heat pumps um and a food truck and it was just a great day and um this will be a we think an annual event it was a terrific collaboration with the cbury public library because they didn't just say sure you can use our space they really said oh we've always wanted to do this but you guys have the sort of sustainability expertise so um that was just great uh we have a newsletter comes
028out monthly um bared faithful um is our curator is is is our um our editor um I encourage you to subscribe to it you can go to the our web our page on the town on the sustainability committee page on the town website and you can sign up there um it's a terrific uh monthly sort of summary of some key sustainability issues there's that word sustainability so the next slide what do we mean when we talk about sustainability um as the word suggests sustainable means you can keep doing it right without depleting all of the resources without destroying things right um and that's a very broad definition um different ways of looking at that but the way we've sort of Define sustainability is we are in balance with nature what we're doing is Equitable and
029inclusive of the entire Community it minimizes our contribution to climate change and it protects and preserves our resources for future Generations um if you're at all familiar with the sustainable Connecticut program there are 13 categories of sustainability and um we've listed Seven here on this slide and those are sort of the I think I think the main point is sustainability is a very broad term right we're not just talking about energy or waste we're talking about land use the economic inclusiveness culture all of the things uh issues of sustainability having said that your sustainability committee really focuses on energy and waste right I think if you look at each of the other issues definitions of sustainability you will find organizations in the town who are addressing them right if it's natural resources we've got Wetlands
030we've got Conservation Commission if it's Transportation we've got a bike pedestrian advis so there's other groups so really we're a waste and an energy committee um just given the you know the limited resources that we have um so what we have issued what we've put together is a sustainability plan that really focuses at first on energy and waste we did an energy plan a few years ago and it we made we started to make the rounds of uh really with different stakeholders in town um we got a bit sort of sidelined by covid and um what we've done now is really a plan that contains both energy and waste so each of those I'd like to just talk a little bit about what's contained in there you have the plan I think you should have
031a uh the actual detailed plan so I'm not going to list every single action that we want to do but um just a couple of um couple of key points first of all energy right uh we've done a bunch of analysis energy is a big issue for uh the schools for the town for the for the public um we've done some calculations and Simsbury broadly defined including the schools the town the residents the businesses so we spent over $100 million a year on energy or over $4,000 per person most of that still comes from fossil fuels right we're burning gasoline and diesel in our cars we're heating with natural gas heating oil typically uh propane um and and again back to this definition that's simply not sustainable right so there's so many things that we
032can do um in to reduce our energy usage to be more efficient uh and to save money in the process the four steps that we point out um and they're on the bottom of this page right those four last four bullets are really the way to reduce our energy usage and to save money first of all we can be more efficient right I think the the the new construction here was done to a high standard of building performance right but um when you look across the town and across some of our other schools the first thing we should do is reduce the amount of energy we're using by being more efficient every upgrade we're doing we need to ins you know insulate to a high standard and an air seal so efficiency comes first and
033then um promoting solar in town in schools we'll talk a little bit more about this are a terrific candidate for solar um and then we need to stop burning fossil fuel so we need to Electrify both the heating and cooling and that means heat pumps both for residents and for businesses and for schools and uh transportation that means electric vehicles so it's efficiency it's renewable energy and it's electrification of trans portation and electrification of heating and cooling so you will see in the plan each of those four categories we've gone through and said well what can we do and for each one we've got sort of two breakdowns first of all what can we do as a school system as a town right and there's this term that's used lead by example right we can
034make sure that our school that our buildings are built to the highest standard of efficiency we can set a target of trying to get a lot of our energy from renewable sources right we can directly do things as a school system as a town and then the second part is what can we do in the town among the residents and businesses right we don't have as much sway there we can't do things directly we can inform we can raise awareness so we can do things like raise awareness about solar and battery storage the committee will be starting a a campaign soon to to do just that to raise awareness about so in battery storage we can promote electric vehicles we can raise awareness about how heat pumps work right so there's all kinds of things
035we can do to the town more broadly but I think really what we can focus on is what can we do as a school system right how can we lead by example so that the buildings we're operating the schools are U are are sustainable right and I think just on energy for the school system you can read the plan you can see all the details but I think one of the greatest opportunities we have is solar right we have big you know I think when we have the conversation among the town or among many businesses there aren't as many buildings there aren't as many Town buildings that are great candidates for solar but pretty much every school is a not just a good a great candidate for solar there are good incentives at the state
036level so I know we've had some great collaboration you know with Jason helping to um you to get some proposals for solar on the high school and I think we've got ideas for um as roofs are replaced going forward um solar is not just a great way to do the right thing but it's also a great way to save a lot of money you look at schools across the state and um we've got a study of you know which schools have solar U they're saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by um putting solar by locking in uh prices for for the electricity that um you know free up money for things that we'd rather be spending money on so solar I think is a huge opportunity um so that's energy the other big
037topic and I'm not going to go through all the all all the details but I said the you know efficiency we've got um solar we've got uh electric vehicles there are things we can do with school system there as well and there's electric uh heat pumps waste is another issue that is simply not sustainable right you're probably aware that a huge share of our waste in Connecticut gets shipped out of state we've shut down the um incineration facility in in Hartford there are some other facilities in the state but something like 60 uh it's a majority I'm not sure the exact percent but a majority of was in Connecticut gets shipped to Ohio gets shipped to Pennsylvania um and that simply it doesn't make sense we're living out of out of balance so and there's
038so many things that we can do as a community to reduce waste um the basic steps are first of all reducing waste at its source um second promoting reuse and repair and third maximizing waste diversion so it doesn't all end up in the in in the waist stream and there's a terrific amount that the schools can do here as well um and we we've had some great collaboration with Meg from Squadron line where uh the sustainability committee was able to bring in a consultant and do a review of some of the uh cafeteria practices and um make some recommendations for things that we're seeing some other towns do quite well which is um not just letting all of the waste in the cafeteria end up in the waste stream but diverting as much of it
039as possible and that's an education process right there may be some extra bins required capturing the liquids working with our waste huler um getting as much of it recycled as we can even reused there's there's things called share tables that if there's food that hasn't even been open there's tables so we we've got there's some great examples across the state of what towns are doing um we'd love to see every one of our schools with a program that involves the um the pupils that's actually getting them handson and educating them about what gets recycled what gets what can be reused what goes in the waist stream what happens to it at that point so um lot of funding available for these types of programs so um there's a lot that I think we can do
040as a town and as a school system to reduce our waste and really prevent a lot of it from just going out of state um where we are right now is as Matt said we presented the sustainability plan to the board of selectman I've looked forward to this chance to give you a flavor for what the plan is now we're not asking you to approve every individual action on it yet what we'd like to do is make sure you're aware of it have your blessing that now we really flesh some of the details right this was the the plan was pretty much written by the committee and that's not you know that's that's not going to work right we need we need Buy in we need input so we will now uh we would like
041to work now U with public works with planning with the school system so that we can actually go through that plan and say yeah we can do that one all that we're going to have to put off a little while but let's make sure we're going to commit to doing this one in two years and let's put together a plan that I think um will'll uh what we'd like to do is work work out the details of the plan and then come back to you and then maybe for a more formal approval of that plan um and I think um so we'd love your input take a look at the plan um feel free to ask questions at any time but we'll be back with more details on what we can do together thank you
042have a couple questions thank you good yeah so I'm glad to hear that me um you worked with me but my question as you were talking was have you been able to get into the other schools even from a sto of talking to the students um you know a lot of times we can invoke change through students going home and talking to their parents and so you know have you been able to connect with the principles to maybe come in through you know um you know times that they're talking to the the whole body right at um at this Point we've only really done any kind of conversations with Squadron line but we would love to do that I think we're working on setting up some conversations with the new um is it Food Services
043director or nutrition director um but we' we'd love to do that as you say we working with the kids right um and it's an educational and experience but also they're the ones that are going to have to live with this a lot longer than we will that's thought somebody somebody down here have a question somebody no I I think it's very beneficial I think um I think being able to talk to multiple groups to con make it more concise and make it more feasible would be great and I think um it's good to Great jump off point to talk about to make the conversation start we have some great conversations right it's like any anything else that's huge kind of high level and huge you need to we need to focus on priorities and and
044align those PRI priorities with Focus areas of the board and it's interesting we're in our strategic planning process now as a board with a committee creating new goals and this has worked its way into the conversation and the sustainability goal uh in terms of trying to identify a few things y if you do if you go through the plan um it's a it maybe it gets a little exhausting and you and you realize um it's going to we're not going to be able to do all of that without some kind of more more support right we're all volun on the committee uh we get some support from public works but I think if you look at you know even even if you have a solar installer who's doing a lot of the heavy lifting in
045terms of interconnection and filing and design work you can probably vouch it's still a lot of work for somebody on staff right to be managing the contracts and managing the projects so I think there's a lot more we could do if the town we're We'll be asking again in the next budget round for some form of support whether it's a sustainability coordinator energy manager uh part-time or full-time but I think other towns have seen that those types of people um more than pay their own uh costs by the savings from solar that grants are able to attract the efficiency savings whatnot good thank you very much thank you all very much thank you great next up is the the elementary curriculum report yes I will have Sue kind of introduce this but I see the
046whole team came out they did uh to support Betsy and Lisa tonight but it's one thing we talked about in our planning prior to the year is uh we've been receiving um over the course of the last few years individual updates at the elementary level from the different schools and we thought it would be good to come back together in terms of a curriculum overview uh with some of the initiatives and priorities we do have going on this year and that is the work of Betsy Gonzales so terrific so joining Betsy this evening is Lisa Smith Lisa Smith is a math coach at Central School she's presented to the board before relative to our think math curriculum so she joins Betsy but truly behind her uh doing this work are the principal's director of pupil
047Services Katie Cula and we are going with the theme of collaboration and team effort this evening whether it be this renovation project or that wonderful recognition so Betsy is going to outline similarly to how principal Sidell did with the High School Mr Baker did with the middle school what the data is looking like from an elementary lens she will then talk about the leadership priorities specifically in math and in reading so we have presented before around some of the legislative changes specifically relative to the science of reading K3 so Betsy will give you an update on how that's going share a little bit about our social emotional learning expectations with everyday speech share a little bit more about the collaboration that happens between general education and special education and then discuss some of the challenges
048ahead because when you are moving work to do better for kids every day there's challenges that come along with that so she'll highlight some of those so Betsy and Lisa over did the both of you thanks Sue thanks Lisa for joining me tonight and while my colleagues are sitting behind me we truly do this work side by side and so all of the work that I'm sharing out today is certainly done alongside of our very amazing and supportive and talented principles um and then their school-based teams um that consists of their language arts consultants and their math coaches in their building so it's a true team approach to all that were doing and all that we're going to share tonight so as you know smarter balanced is one of our public markers um it's a
049summit of assessment for us that tells us how our students are doing relative to grade level standards we do a lot of information when that information becomes live to us there might be a few of us in this room who check morning noon and all hours of the night to see when that data is available so we can get a sneak peek to see where we are and to do the celebrations alongside of our teachers who work tirelessly to teach their students and give them what they need to succeed um and so we want to celebrate that student growth we want to celebrate cohort growth of kids um and we also want to look at where we are doing well and where are our strengths related to ELA English language arts and Mathematics and in
050science um and where we may have some room to grow and so that assessment provides us with some detail that we use to set our plans for the year um from a curricular level from the way that we look at assessment um and the way that we talk with teachers about data and some instructional priorities so we do a lot of this information starting in early to miday when we have that sneak peek um but once teachers come back we really pull out this data to look at students and look at where kids are what do they need how might we differentiate instruction whether it's enriching some curriculum for students or giving students some SC that they need to be successful um but there's a lot of information that we gather from this um that
051we put into practice so as we look at the ELA data which um encompasses listening it encompasses reading and writing research and inquiry there's a lot that's assessed there um we've made some really nice incremental gains over the years and if you look at the performance from 2023 to 2024 we grew 2% which is pretty significant again when we're looking at this Collective data and how our students are responding to instruction we had some really nice growth with individual grade levels from year to year from one year to the next we also had some nice cohort growth so when you look on the diagonal and you look at students from third to fourth grade they're making some really nice improvements um and we're also making sure that we are closing any achievement Gap that we
052might see so that's why we monitor that cohort data so we're really proud of that but I'm really really proud of the work that happened in third grade this year um we put together a good old fashioned action plan and paid really close attention to what was going on where why were we getting these results that when we fall fell less than 70% it wasn't a place that any of us wanted to be including our teachers um and we wanted to make sure that we knew exactly what we needed to focus on so we dug into what this assessment calls some targets and it gives us the details related to the grade level standards of what's expected of students and what we found in third grade is that we had some work to do with
053information reading there were enough Targets in that category where students fell a little bit short collectively across the five schools so with that information we kept digging and we thought what would be most helpful for teachers because there's a so much for them to get their heads around related to these standards um and so one of the things that we created um for teachers and with teachers um was something that we call the work of the great so it's a one-pager and we loved it so much that we didn't stop at third grade we kept going and made one for grade four for grade five and for grade six so teachers had a tool that they could just glance at to see the work that they need to reinforce and come back to over time
054because there's lots of instructional minutes related to literacy in their schedules and that work is in one and and you move on so there are opportunities in their instructional blocks and in their time um to really teach into some of these skills and they certainly did just that we also took a look at our assessments to make sure our assessments were aligned to um the instruction and what students needed to know and be able to do and we incorporated a little bit more test prep into the third grade curriculum um it's woven in in a very natural ways into the Core Curriculum that teachers teach students don't know they're engaged test prep but we wanted to make sure we aligned some practices because it's different it looks different there's some different things that kids are
055asked to do related to multiple choice some Nuance nuances of how questions are asked um how to answer those questions and so teachers teach into that and when students are eight there's a lot for them to show in terms of their understanding and they're asked to do a lot and so we wanted to be really explicit with that instruction and so we did um and we really see the result results of that and so we will continue to monitor that we have lots of other measures that we use throughout the course of the year to give us a sense of where students are and how they're responding to the day-to-day instruction and teachers look at that information all the time so we will keep our eye on third grade and we hope to sit here
056next year um with even stronger third grade data and data across the board ma ma okay so we um are really proud of having 2% growth each of the last three years in math 2 and when we were talking about what can we really attribute that to something that we're really proud of is our implementation of something called Spiral Review in grades 3 through six in math so unlike Betsy just talked about this but unlike Ela math is very um you teach a standard within a particular unit you assess it and then it will be assessed on SBA in the spring but you don't necessarily come back to it so you learn multiplication and division of decimals in November of fifth grade and you don't necessarily see that again until April when you're on the
057SBA test and we realized that that was really hard for kids like they need to keep practicing those skills to keep them fresh um and so we were able to create almost this separate scope and sequence to come back to those skills in grades 3 through six um and we also heard that teachers concern of when am I going to do this um unlike Ela we only have math only has 50 to 60 Minutes of instructional time Ela has more so we were able to create at an extra 15 minutes in everyone's schedule in grades 3 through six for something we called supplemental math which is where this thorough review came in so we've seen a lot a lot of success with kids getting to that test and you're like oh yeah like I I
058do remember this because we've been working on it every day since we learned it in class um we have really we had really strong performance in our think math pilot classrooms from last year the data is not shown here but we did monitor how those classrooms did versus the classrooms that were not fake math classrooms and the performance was really strong especially in grade five um we're also finding that the curriculum has a really solid alignment and stays closer to grade level standards so that feels great for kids and teachers like the work that they're doing every day is matching what's assessed on that test at the end of the year there's really great steady um cohort gains the one exception to that is grade four to five um fun fact in case you don't
059know in all of K through six math grade five is by far the hardest math it is the rigor is insane the number of standards that they are uh assessed on is is insane so it's not surprising but it's just a really academically rigorous grade level so we're not surprised by that and we're you know continually working on seeing how we can get that four to five to not have that dip um grade six was an amazing up six up 11% from last year um so students are really able to maintain those skills from 5 through six although the fifth grade grade curriculum you know is so challenging they keep they hold on to it in sixth grade and in Spring of 2022 our um team of math coaches looked at the scope and sequence
060of the grade six units and found some areas where there were high priority standards that were not necessarily being taught before SBA so we realigned that scope and sequence so that kids got all of the learning that they really needed to of those most important math standards before the test um and then this is my favorite one maintaining a 2% gap between Ela and math because I'm a former third grade uh teacher at Central before I became a math coach and Ela just always always outperform math and we are always chasing them and we're finally beginning to catch up so that's really really exciting game totally not competitive right right no all right um in the area of science I know when Scott Baker talked to you about the Henry James report and the ngss
061assessment that students take um in grades 58 and then we're at the high school it's a challenging test and it's an assessment that where our results have been a little inconsistent over time um and so we're taking a look at that we've Incorporated a test prep unit it is very specific to how to take the science test because it's very different students are engaged in online experiments where they have to do some inquiry work work um and they're going through this really the scientific process as they're working through some questions that they have to use some knowledge that they have related to some text and some images um and then they're they're collecting some data and there's a lot that they have to do so it isn't a straightforward assessment it's quite challenging it's quite
062rigorous and it has a very different platform and it's the first time they take it is in is in grade five so we are working to calibrate our our instruction we have some inconsistent performances um across schools so we're doing some work with teachers and building some more background and some more knowledge um so teachers have more Comfort um and understanding what that platform is like and to be able to provide some more opportunities for students to practice that because it's really a matter of just practicing on this platform we have a very strong and aligned Core Curriculum um but it's the nuances of the technology that um is is different for students for sure all right so we have four core priorities at the elementary level and while they may look like they're only
063four they're big um and so you're going to hear a little bit more about where we are with the implementation of think mathematics we have a program that's called developing roots and that's our kindergarten program um and then we have our program that we're utilizing in grades two through five b math and Lisa is going to talk about that um and we are hard at work um in exploring some of the state approved resources around the state Mandate of the science of reading um in ensuring that we have identified the right resource for our teachers and for our students that will need to be implemented next year um we have a great collaboration with our special ed team um and our classroom teachers we talk a little bit about some of that exciting work and
064our elementary teachers are implementing their new seal curriculum this year called everyday speech in our grades K through six okay um so we came together as a team math coaches in the spring to set some priorities for year one of this full implementation so that coaches across all schools are coaching with the similar message all teachers are working on the same thing and our priorities are clear for teachers because we have the best teachers who want to be amazing at everything from day one um and so we felt like we needed to identify like okay what like what are our goals and successes just for this is year one just for right now so the first one is that ensuring that the lesson structure within this program is evident in all classrooms when I say
065lesson structure I mean the predictable way that the parts of a lesson go every day so a math lesson in K is a little bit different but one through five it doesn't matter if you're in a first grade classroom or if you're in a fifth grade classroom the lesson is going the same way in all the classrooms just the content is different so we wanted to make sure that that we had a solid lesson structure with tight math routines because it's crucial to the success of the program um so I'm going to brag a little bit because it was two of my teachers who created a first grade teacher and third grade teacher what we called a launch unit um that we built in the spring and we actually rolled it out to teachers last
066spring so they could kind of dip their toes in it and get a little prepped before the fall um and it really helped the transition for teachers and for kids and it helped them build these routines and structures and systems in their math classroom before they were teaching any content um teachers were super appreciative of it it like worked so well and they actually have been making a ton of connections between and math the program is built on um a ton of collaboration and discussion um and so teachers have been saying I've heard teachers say like oh my gosh we end up talking about seal in math even more than I expected so it's great like cross-curricular connections um if you to walk into any think math classroom now like the students are collaborating they're
067talking and you hear such a buzz in math classrooms the engagement is really high despite how sometimes a hard math can be um the other another priority was for coaches to plan and Coach consistently with grade level teams including special education teachers so we wanted to make sure that um teachers are meeting regularly with each other and with coaches during plc's to plan a unit before they even teach it as opposed to just looking at it dayto day they're really diving into the strategies behind the math um and we're able to help them plan to push students thinking past just basic computation and understanding of skills to really higher level thinking and application of like really complex problem solving which is much more similar and align to what they see on SBA in the spring
068um we are refining our assessment practices teachers analyze and study assessments before as the first step in beginning to planning unit so they know where they're ending up before they start um the assessments really mirror the work of the day-to-day teaching which promotes higher level thinking and complex problem solving and we're also pushing teachers and teachers are pushing themselves to think about other ways to formatively assess students so not just waiting until the test at the end of the unit to see do my students get it or not but identifying a body of evidence math journals independent work just teacher anecdotal observation notes to determine Mastery so it's not just w for one test at the end um we are able to communicate and partner with families parents receive the assessments at home that show
069their child's progress after any given test so nothing is a you know surprise when report cards and parent teer conferences come around and another really awesome part of this program is they have um what they call home link letters that kind of they give examples of there's all these like like Instagram reals like of like I don't know how my kid does Common Core math because it doesn't look anything like how I did math so the program has examples for parents so that they know like this is how the teacher is teaching the students and they have um games and stuff that you can do at home without anything except maybe like a deck of playing cards so parents can really support kids at home and then finally nothing new but of course one of
070our priorities is always to monitor student achievement so we have our regular student centered plc's and data teams um and something that coaches have done is helped to realign our intervention plans in math so that they go along with the new curriculum so that like our most atrisk kids are seeing the same things in the classroom and an intervention to kind of streamline that you know for them great thanks Lee yeah so was part of the state expectations around the science of reading there are two things that we are responsible for this year all districts needed to implement the state approved assessments and for us it's an assessment that is called the Dibbles 8 and it's a assessment Suite of uh literacy assessments that get us some foundational skills for literacy um that's not a
071new assessment for us it's something we've given for many years and we give it to all students as part of a universal screen what is new is the platform that we're using because there's a a program that's called mclass we have some training more training tomorrow to learn about how to access some of these reports and features because it creates some very helpful data displays to help teachers and interventionists Target instruction for students who might need some more practice um or need to have their skills monitored a little bit more closely um so that's the first thing and that is well underway and then the second thing is starting next year we are responsible for identifying one of the state approved reading programs and there are eight of them um to date we have vetted
072all eight um started this work last spring with the language arts consultants and Janette banti is uh co- facilitating this committee that we have that includes teachers and interventionists and special ed teachers and administrators um as we're looking at these more deeply we've had vendors come in from these programs to give us an overview of what they're all about um and we're also measuring these programs up to what we're calling our guiding beliefs because not only do we expect that these programs are aligned to the science of reading and the skills that students need to be successful in grades K through three we also want to make sure that we're selecting a resource that's going to help us with differentiation so that we never lose sight of what individual students need or small groups of
073students need so it's not just one program for all or one response to instruction for all we want to make sure our students have choice we want to make sure that they have opportunities to read independently because they're different it's a different approach to teaching literacy as we think about how we address this knowledge block that we have to to um identify and Implement some instruction around that was the one thing in our waiver that the state said you need to address that as part of this waiver process so that's some we've done a lot of learning and understanding about what it is what it looks like and what is going to be the best resource for our students we're also looking at these programs and we have to align it with standards and make
074sure that the rigor is there as we think about those expectations of the smarter balance so we want to have both horizontal and vertical um we want to make sure it's a program that both horizontally and vertically addresses the needs of our kids um so we don't see a cliff where the expectations look different for our students as they transition from grade to grade so we have a district team that started to meet this year we brought in um teachers to take a look at what we've done to date we put three programs out in front of our our s so advisory team um reviewed that with them last week we had one of the vendors come back to give another overview and starting in December our transition team members of this um science of
075reading committee will be trying a unit from this program in their classroom so classroom teachers will look work closely with their language arts consultants in the building and together they will plan and Implement one of these units to see how it goes to see how it feels to see how kids respond we're going to try some of the assessments we're going to try try the lessons with Fidelity um and to get some really solid feedback um and from the experience that our teachers and our students have so we're excited about that and stay tuned and we'll be there'll be more to come for sure as part of our seal curriculum our teachers in grades um K through five are teaching a program called everyday speech um our teachers had professional development in August where this
076was kicked off and it was launched with some some training uh we have a scope and sequence that is located on our website as part of the equity and access page so it's very transparent for all um and then teachers certainly have access to additional lessons and activities that they might need some teachers are collaborating with different support staff in their buildings and talking about students and thinking about what would be helpful um and I want to just give our teachers a shout out I had two teachers stop me last week to talk about how this seal curriculum is so helpful in the math classroom please that you said it um but it's something that we continue to hear around perseverance problem solving grit determination and really learning skills to overcome hard things so it's
077nice to see that that transition and for students to be able to apply it um in their academic settings as well so it's part of our work it it's part of our collaboration with Katie Cula and her amazing team of speci specialed teachers and Department supervisors we've worked together to come up with some ways that we can be a little bit more systematic about how we look at data for all of our students um we collaborate around um when we have our data that we have from our assessments we look at body of evidence and we talk about what students need our coaches our math coaches and our language arts Consultants are sitting at the table with classroom teachers specialed teachers looking at those results and engag in some collaborative planning to Think Through what
078does a student in front of us in front of you need and how do we go about teaching that student and so we have the experts at the table uh who have the content expertise and we have everybody brings something to that conversation and as a result we have some pretty great plans in place and lots of great supportive collaborative um things going on to support our students um we also have our reading interventionists often working with with students who require some specialized reading and teams are sitting down looking at schedules looking at needs of students and thinking about where that best place for instruction might be um and it's a true collaborative effort as we're thinking through uh what that teach is all about and how that student is going to best succeed so
079with um curriculum is always the job of managing the pace of change and in these two years with a new math curriculum and a new literacy curriculum for grades K through 3 next year we really have to pay careful attention to what that feels like for a classro teacher um what's that like for a student who is learning some new things alongside of their teacher um and for families and making sure our families understand what it is that is different what we're asking of students in terms of expectations um but when we go back to kind of that management piece it's a lot about time it's a lot about making sure teachers have time and the people resources who can coach and guide uh and support along the way um and it's making sure that
080they have time to step away to just think about what it is that they need to know around some different approaches to pedagogy and their instruction um so that is something that Sue and I will work very closely on obviously with the support of our principles and are very talented coaches um to make sure that we are very much aware of that and how we allocate time and really set our priorities especially around professional development and professional learning communities um so the teachers feel supported in this transition we know that there will be a budgetary impact with a new reading program we're in the process of gathering some quotes now to see what that looks like um we do have some um grant funding through State grant that we will be utilizing towards the purchase
081of a program but we certainly will have some costs that will be reoccurring from year to year as after this selection and after the first year of implementation and I have to give a huge shout out to a group that's not on this list there are teachers because they work tirelessly doing all the things we talked about tonight they make themselves available they are willing to partner they're willing to give their time they want to grow they want to meet the needs of their students they want to be part of this Collective work we don't sit in an office and crank this out we very much want to engage and do engage our classroom teachers and listen to their voices for feedback um but I have to give them a huge shout out because they
082are the ones that make it happen in their classrooms every day um but we couldn't do this without all of the folks on this list including you who um always support the work that we're doing and ask great questions and um really just support financially and just uh helping us succeed in the work that we do to support our students so thank you thanks any questions I have a question hold on Jos yeah I had a few thank you for the presentation uh just a few comments uh number one the home link sheets are amazing so I'm glad you called him out I wish I had I mentioned that to people just on my own that like before I like asked she's in fifth grade before I asked her like why see fth grade yeah
083why are you drawing quadrants when you just have to add numbers but like it could like this is what they're supposed to do um maybe we'll put a sample in an update for you on a Friday the are really really good um couple other comments on the science of reading and things like that just in general right obviously you were talking about kind of it's like almost like in fact finding and different things like that especially with the reading is there any kind of voice a customer or reaching out to parents or PTR any element of like what are they seeing at home with the reading cuz that one feels like the most where if you're looking at how the reading program is doing like that's the one at home with parents right like think
084math right like just guide them the way the teachers are teaching them a lot of times with the reading you're kind of like seeing or hearing things right in that regard so I'm just curious on that when it comes to any kind of curriculum reviews with things like that do the parents have any input in the data you're collecting in any way and if not is there some way to kind of in the future take that into consideration yeah that's a great question thanks for asking um there are a couple of things so one of the things that we actually did this year was we updated the slides that teachers use as part of their back to school evenings with their um their families and so we wanted to make sure there were some things
085in there that would start educating families about some things that might look different um some of the teachers will say that you know we had a parent who had a student go through first grade three years ago and it's different and we've got different books that are going home that have are more to quotable patterns um Jill bini was here last year last year with me and was talking a little bit about some of those changes so we're trying to do that we definitely updated our curriculum handbook with all of the those changes and we had a meeting today and we're actually talking about some parent nights to begin um some different educational classes for parents just so they understand the work that's happening and the ways that we still want families to support literacy
086at home excellent yeah thank you and then just the last one you'd mentioned on uh one of the things in the thing about as far implications coming up and there was think math and grade six and keeping an eye on that and I'm just curious with think math kind of coming through to grade six and then how that interacts with Henry James for placement for grade seven is there anything new unique or something to keep an eye on there for how that'll translate as they go into middle school with this yeah so last year we had um a sixth grade teacher on the committee so when we were looking at this program we wanted to make sure that we had sixth grade teacher eyes on what students were learning in fifth grade and any implications
087for sixth grade and there weren't any which was great um and our fifth grade teachers are actually spending time with our sixth grade teachers right now or I should say the sixth grade teachers are spending time with the fifth grade teachers wanting to watch what kids are doing see what the experiences are like and they're making some adjustments to their instruction as well just based on the structures of the think math lesson um there is a middle school program that's being developed and it's something that's too early to tell it's not out yet for us to even take a look at um but we certainly are paying very careful attention to that that coordination Cross grade levels thank you sure yeah so um great update uh but two things I have is one um you're
088sharing the data from year to year how are you like if you were to look to next year where do you want your numbers how do you know you're being successful you know what planning are you putting in place so you can measure um you know because I see it here but you'll come back to us next year and we'll say well how did you know were you successful what are you using to measure yourself so we use a lot of these markers um when I write my goals for for Sue and Matt um my goals are ambitious and they're always higher and um so I think about where I want to be and where I think I can push based on cohorts of students and how they're performing and what seems like a realistic
089growth measure and we also use a lot of other markers this is just one piece of information and one piece of the body of evidence and we have to remember that um but we also have other measures like star and District assessment ments and lots of other tools that teachers are using to determine Student Success but um I we look at patterns we look at bands of students one of the things that we can see is kids falling in different levels of success and performance on this on this assessment looking at students that we think we can push and and we want to push all kids up at least one level right so that is part of our conversation when we meet at the beginning of the year with all of the coaches and with
090the principles we talk about all this we talk about where we think we can grow and and where we think we can get and it's not just about a number by any means it's ensuring that students have Mastery of grade level standards that's what's important and this is just a marker for us to say are we on track do we have other evidence and sometimes we do sometimes it doesn't match exactly what we're seeing in the classroom but we we'll see it the next year so the other question that I have is um so I know we fol on math and Ela but the science numbers so what are we doing in that space yep so we are doing some professional development with teachers not only in grade five but with in grade four as
091well um because this is um it's multiple years of content that could appear on this assessment so we have to make sure that when we identify the different types of Sciences and the units that student students are learning it aligns with the framework and it certainly is aligned with some of these expectations so we um are using a program that's called Mystery Science and that resource has grown in the last year so it has some new features um we've made our science units a little bit more formal and aligned to standards it's got some different assessment measures built in it's got some vocabulary woven in so we've formalized the curriculum that the teachers are using um and it also includes some of these um ngss like types of questions that kids are going to be
092asked to do when they take the assess assessment for the first time in fifth grade so I think what's different with science is that you're only formally assessed on this in grade five so when Betsy says multiple years right so you have this these lessons developed over time um science and social stud content wise don't get as much time as your Ela and math right that's just part of the reality of the elementary day so there's a lot that goes into it what we do know is that when they are reaching Middle School where they are having science instruction every day and then through high school they are they continue to be one and two in our dur um in science so what we start maybe off slow in grade five we certainly meet and
093exceed those bars in middle school and high school thank you for the presentation as always on the science of reading program that you're evaluating I think you said there were eight and you're down to like one that you're going to quasi pilot um for the one that seems most promising have you or will you be reaching out to other schools who've implemented the program and talked to them about what they're doing not just the on that the content creator is advising you to talk to yeah yes we've been talking to a lot of people okay um Su has a network that she's talks to quite frequently I have my network they're usually the same people um in different roles and it's been very very helpful they've been very helpful and because they're in different places
094with their implementation um whether it's been a more formal pilot or um something that they started to implement this year so it's been very helpful for us to get a sense of what people are using why they've made these decisions um and when you look at what's what districts are using throughout the state they're different they're using a lot of different things so it's not trending where most districts are using this so um we've talked to a lot of people because we want to know why you've chosen a b c d like why like what made you choose that um as we think about what's going to be the right resource for us great thank you for that work I just wanted to to jump on one comment was kind of on the heels of
095Sharon's question about the data and the predictability of things you know and I appreciate and we've worked together for a long time the managing pace of change right we've talked about that in our district for a long time uh we want to do a lot of things we want to do them well um and some of this change we plan thoughtfully some of this change was kind of pushed on to us so it will be interesting even from a honestly from a data in a achievement standpoint how this volume of change does impact standardized measures right I we've talked in the past about Pro programmatic change sometimes in a year or two leads to implementation dip our pilot didn't look that way but it's going to be interesting with everything that we're juggling and talking
096about at the elementary level kind of once again in this cycle so I appreciate you put that out there I know we're working hard you know when I meet with principles what's the pulse how we feeling because we know if the teachers are feeling it the kids will feel it y um and it's just really important for us to consider so I want to I think a lot of these things are tied together uh in the end on that but our desire to do well can't get in the way of the pace of the day for the kids and for the the professional staff so I appreciate that comment absolutely I just wanted to say can we go back to the first two slides that you guys had the I just want to make sure
097I'm reading this right reading first yeah if you look at this year's fourth graders so last year's third graders whether it was on Ela or math you guys knocked it out of the park I mean in ela up 12% at grade level and in math I think it was seven yeah really nice gr I mean whatever you guys and whatever all you are doing with that group is is really working it's great just want to say appreciate it thanks and side note even more impressive is that that is the co kindergarten year grou so it just so happens that my well how do you know that Chen the pencils are like big wi I'll keep watching thank you thank you princip for coming thank you okay uh sorry uh Capital Improvement yes so um you
098had referenced Jeff the uh Finance subcommittee meeting the other day we took some time and went through a conversation about the first year Capital plan uh so I've invited Jason here this evening um I think um one of the things as a board we need to think about in consider moving into this budget year where we know we're coming off of I mean there have been a lot of conversations right the reval significant tax increase for residents uh a significant tax increase last year we've had um you know we've been supported with some budgets where we've really allocated quite a bit of resources towards uh special education and some other things um that it would behoove Us in my kind of strategy conversations with with Mark Nelson if you are able to adjust Capital dollars
099out a year that can help with operating relief uh on the other side so we talked about that a little bit in the uh the finance meeting so we went into this year's initial planning with that spirit in mind so I'm asking Jason to um review what was on the year one capital and what our kind of recommendations are moving forward so the biggest dollar amount item on that was the Henry James roof project which was a $2.5 million phase one project uh the Henry James roof is over 50,000 Square ft it's about 25 years old uh we do feel comfortable pushing that particular project the year forward one of the reasons for that is most of the um most of the other schools that this time have had their new roof projects so our
100operating budget line item for roof repairs is healthy uh looking to catch anything that happens on that roof in that time frame um the second item was originally planned was the high school field renovation so the grass fields to the north of the high school um we had some numbers from previous quotes uh but we did pay for a design study come out do land surveys and and uh actually do an architectural drawing for that for that project uh unfortunately when the numbers came back they took some things into previous quotes had not taken into account uh such as the Ada access for paths to these fields also the level of wetland work that would need to be done in terms of Permitting and and uh work in those areas so the numbers that came
101back were were significantly higher almost double so at this time we're looking at other field choices so it's not to say that we're we're we know that we're pushing that out for of time it's just we need to reevaluate the entire uh needs of that space yeah I I would just share on that front and I shared with the the subcommittee Our intention there and our goal with that large area of fields was to kind of maximize good solid practice space uh to kind of get us back in the routine of practice after school get home eat get your homework done we have so many people sharing the turf field right now that it really chops up the time you know a one .8 million investment for practice fields with a lot of it being
102as Jason said flood plane issues sidewalks ADA compliance kind of takes away this the spirit of what we were actually trying to do and it and it actually puts the dollar figure in alignment with what it would act you know cost to put it potentially a second turf field in or have that Community conversation down the road which would really change the overall feel of the high school facility so reating a little bit of what Jason said with some more detail I think it needs to be moved out um obviously the way that the capital projects the last few years have flowed it's a little bit of that one year what can we get done we push to the next year in our strategic planning conversations in the committee and at various levels of our
103administrative Council and even the board when we met we need to take a hard relook at the capital planning work we have already done uh with tech on the athletic piece of it and I think rep prioritize that work so we come back with a a refreshed look of this um you you know start those conversations obviously with that sixth grade conversation the board desires to have this year uh with tekon and move that into a plan for consideration uh next year so I think it just makes a lot of sense I don't think that dollar figure you know the feedback from the subcommittee I mean you come in a million dollars over what the what the placeholder was it's not a reasonable conversation at this point um and it's kind of a different scope
104than we thought about so can I comment sure um so I am not part of the subcommittee so I will I'm just speaking for my own self here but I do think that it is unfortunate that that piece is being put off and Lord knows how many years it really will be put off because I do think that from a student point of view when you have that many kids kids like the percentage is unbelievable of kids who participate in sports and having that um irregular schedule about around when they're going to practice and when they have to get back and when they're going to be able to eat dinner and stuff does impact their overall health and mental health and so I think it is unfortunate but we have to do and it's a
105relook as I said not it's let's reevaluate B the numbers that did come um the remaining three items are the banial every other year uh types of projects so uh security is one of the things that we're looking at traditionally this is uh PID for things like BS and glass fill and um security cameras and again in in this go round the focus would be on uh enhancements to the cameras and the access Control Systems the uh door areas um that's a $250,000 the next two things relate to Paving and this is a a first time around for this particular every other year budget item we're finding that's been a good strategy for getting things onto the budget that have traditionally been uh needs that are big ticket items that are just hard to shoot
106when we have other uh competing projects so we're trying to put Paving into that same kind of every other year piece uh if you go to I'd say just about any of the schools especially Central quickly find need for things like sidewalks and parking lots curbs that need uh need some some work so we're looking at a uh combining the dollars for the paving do for things like uh line striping and the paved painting playground areas so that those two types of projects obviously happen at the same time feel like when we do those kind of pavment projects we then need use painting projects that go uh instead of trying to keep those as two separate chunks we're looking at combining them into a single $600,000 it so we're not limited if one is a
107little higher one is a little ler go with the projects in that way and Jason I I would add to that and I think we learned last year as we kind of got the you know those other categories of flooring and and painting approved with the small allocation of CNR dollars that we get until we can really get that shifted appropriately on an annual budget basis we've got to figure out a way to get some of these things done we can't can't have it both ways right I mean I think we really set ourselves back if we can't move move forward with some of these smaller dollar ones so that would be my opinion on that I mean I think you know if we can free up some capacity um under what was originally you
108know a much larger number but understand that to make some level of progress on these things so it doesn't become a Monumental cost later on we got to we need to continue with these smaller smaller items along the way so I have a question around the security so I mean are we up to date across all of the schools as far as I think when I came on the board we were starting to change some of the so basic changes have been implemented across all the schools yes yes U all of the schools for instance have glass film on Windows all of them have the ballards all of them have a single access entry system of key files all of them have security cameras perimeter inside okay um at this point it's really enhancements improvements
109uh look looking for ways to to further the types of Security Options that we have and then the same on the on the paving and striping you know so like we did the high school I think a couple of years ago right yeah well we've done some pieces here and there okay cuz I remember being out there and seeing the guy with drawing the l oh striping we're we're in tough shape with the concrete and Paving okay so that's not very tough shape and that's a hard it's expensive dollars right that's why I'm that's why I was asking EXA anything else on that one no we'll bring this back at the next board meeting for further discussion yeah okay um also in your packet is everybody's favorite time of year budget season yeah and just
110one I mean this isn't a vote on but uh informational item and and kind of a recommendation on process that we talked about in the subcommittee as well um and that is um where we locate the budget Workshop in terms of the piece of the process so historically what we've done is we hold the workshop and then the superintendant presents the budget and there's different ways to do this and we kind of batted it around from a process standpoint it felt like um we've had feedback from this board of wanting to see some of the bigger picture requests that come in allow the administration to prioritize that so we would first do the superintendent budget after a couple of the you know we'll still do special education we'll still do Personnel I will then present
111the superintendent budget we will take that to the workshop and work informationally off of that so that if there are requests formally to make moves on reallocations or on reductions the Board of Ed will see that number come down based on what their requests are and then the board of edge approved budget will be varied from the superintendent's budget we've kind of all packaged it together and I think sometimes the messaging can get lost in that although it's very collaborative on our end I think this will be clearer to other boards of hey what was the board of education's role in feedback to the superintendent on the budget development process so a subtle change but I think it's worth you know giving it a shot and seeing how we do absolutely all right any questions
112on the on the calendar great all right comes to our second public audience I will remind the audience that they have three minutes please state your name and your address my name is Lor Boo and at this point you all know exactly where I live I decided to speak at the end tonight to not disrupt the very important business the board needed to conduct but I wanted to go on record addressing the comment made by the chair at the last meeting that this board thrives on and welcomes public audience we Excel with the involvement engagement of the parent Community we welcome and appreciate the public audience we receive each and every meeting I don't know where or when this engagement or appreciation of the parent Community is occurring but it certainly isn't at board or
113committee meetings for years I've consistently voiced to this board my concerns as a parent for the inappropriate content in the curriculum in 2022 on February 8th I expressed concern with issues being discussed across the curriculum at Simsbury High School on February 23rd I questioned the social and emotional curriculum on April 22nd I expressed concern with some of the sexual content of course assignments as not appropriate for teachers to teach our children on May 10th I cited Board of Ed policy that the display or possession of pornography is prohibited and questioned why the same policy does not apply to the reading material in the school and mentioned there was no discussion in board meetings regarding curriculum issues several other parents voiced similar concerns for pornographic content in the schools as well as consequences for sexual harassment
114at the same meeting over two years ago board member willerup stated that continuous Improvement is the board's philosophy on May 24th I shared my concern again that controversial issues raised at Board of Ed meetings are not discussed publicly in June I raised concerns about sexually explicit and scientific unfounded materials used in class then in 2023 on May 9th I pointed out that it is the role of the board to determine if controversial materials are suitable to and approve them on June 13th to a meeting packed with parents with similar concerns I made it clear that the board was enacting policies around sex and gender that were inappropriate for children and the these policies were infringing on the rights of students without body dismorphic disorders on September 26th I detailed unwelcome sexual discussions that were alienating
115to some students taking place in certain classes on November 28th 2023 I understandably expressed frustration with the lack of response regarding books in our schools I reminded the board that it is your job to approve curriculum materials at the last board meeting on in October as you all know I made it very clear that the graphic sexual and violent content of the assigned reading is entirely inappropriate for team the entire High School experience for the last four years has been ripe with an unwelcoming infusion of sexual content required assignments the library and frankly throughout the halls in displays and conversations yet whatever any board member viewpoints may be agreeing or disagreeing the board has openly and continuously exhibited deliberate indifference so while you all may not want to hear what I have to say this
116board has an affirmative responsibility to me and the entire Simsbury Community to address these concerns thoroughly and openly thank you thank you anybody else with that our next board meeting like I said will be on the 10th of December uh coincidentally that's also the first meeting of the charter revision Committee just so you all know uh but anyways we'll be back in on our home turf at the board of ed u conference room again appreciate the hospitality of our friends here at L mer Lane it's been it's a beautiful building I encourage everybody again to come out this week or Saturday for the tours and with that we stand adjourned make a motion toour sorry thank you I'll second that thank you all in favor thank you thank you everybody