001I'd like to call the Stonington Board of Education regular meeting to order. It's June 11th at 6:34 p.m. and I'll ask Miss Fly to lead us in Pledge of Allegiance God. Thank you. Uh we'll go to third item on our agenda, communication recognitions, and I'll turn it over to our superintendent schools. >> Thank you, Chairman Rajab. Um, I'm going to start and with a little memory test. Uh, we had a demonstration here a couple of months ago with the invention convention uh, kids from Dean Mill. So, I have a followup on that. Uh, we had uh, 70 fifth graders who developed their uh, inventions in their STEM class this year. Um, and we had a bunch of folks who uh went to the state level. Uh, the students were uh, Storm Burrow, Sawyer Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger.
002Oh my god. Cheeseboro. Sorry, Sawyer. I'm so sorry. Ginger Davidson, Ellie Fri Frier, uh, Palmer Freeze, Emmy Janisk, and Gavin Simmons. Um, we're proud, especially proud to celebrate uh Sawyer Cheeseboro and Emmy Janisk, who won the prestigious SWE Innovation Award presented by the Society of Women Engineers. This award recognizes outstanding young female inventors who demonstrate extraordinary talent, creativity, and promise in engineering. Their achievement is a testament to the hard work, perseverance, and ingenuity displayed throughout the invention process. And again, a shout out to uh the STEM teacher Claire Conan uh for working with these students and shephering them through that process uh in Hartford at that competition. The next recognition I want to recognize uh Cindy Cassidy and Dan uh Aens at the middle school for the Witness Stones program uh where the culminating event
003and Mr. Kelly was there um at Stoneacres Farms. And again, what the Witness Stone uh program is, I think this is the third year that they've done it in 8th grade at the middle school, is it's a program to use uh local information in local source documents to document the life of an enslaved person here in Stonington and then to create a marker stone commemorating that. uh enslaved person's life here in Stonington and placed that marker at a location that was relevant to their life. So the marker uh the folks at uh Stoneacres Farm were gracious enough uh not only to host the event and it was a lovely evening uh temperature- wise. So they had the tent set up uh and it was just a great display of the kids' work. Uh each group
004created a website uh of their materials. Uh and it was a a terrific uh event for for everybody. Uh going to continue to steal Mr. uh Kelly's thunder and just say want to recognize the boys baseball team. They're playing for the state championship on Saturday afternoon uh in Middletown. Uh so we wish them the best. It's kind of odd for them to compete after high school graduation, the day after high school graduation. Um but they're going to do it. Uh there's been a whole slew of year-end events, uh concerts both at the middle school and the high school level, especially the pops concert is a perennial favorite. Uh, I want to commend Alicia Dah and the staff uh and students at the high school at senior awards night uh Monday. Was that just this Monday?
005It seems like a lifetime ago already. Uh super run well-run uh and wellreceived event uh celebrating our seniors and their accomplishments. Also like to give a shout out to Emmy Sandeu. Um, the day newspaper has been featuring uh feature stories on seniors uh who have received some kind of special ed support throughout their educational career. And our own Emmy was featured in one of these articles. And a shout out to Chris Williston. Uh we had kind of a a work study thing going uh to help with some Chromebook and other tech repairs. Emmy really took a u an aptitude to doing that kind of work and Chris has has kept her busy and then found a way to have her do some coursework uh which she's still working on. So she's going to end up
006uh with uh some tech certifications, job ready tech certifications uh in the next couple of weeks. Uh we also get partial credit. One of the other students featured in these articles technically is graduating from Graasso, but he's a Pogatuck kid. Came through our school system uh K through eight. Uh so we'll take credit for that win, too. And uh I think that's pretty much all I have for the moment. >> Great. Well, we're graduating senior. Any last thoughts? We still have a chance at the end for your report, but like >> nothing to add right now, >> Bridget. Nothing to add, >> Mr. Kelly. >> Light on. >> Um, follow up with the witness stone project. Uh, the presenters were excellent. The websites were very informative. I didn't get a chance to vote because I
007snoozed and I was too late to vote because they uh you rated the projects and then the top projects were um recognized with something. Uh but it was a as always a um very educational um so tool and something different and uh Dan Aens and he does that uh Hamilton thing. Is that what it is Tim? What's he that where they do that little I think it's Ham. Yeah, he he makes it fun for the middle school kids and and they don't realize they're learning sometimes, I think. Um but they are. Uh and Cindy Cassidy in the witness stone project. It was just it's if you haven't had it's not long if you haven't had the chance to go. That's where I was at senior awards night. I was over or the awards educational awards
008night. I was over at the farm. Um, if you get an invite, you will next year. If you got time, go. It's just amazing. Uh, the other shout out would be to, uh, Katrina Gotautle and all the performers at the Unified Talent Show. Again, my first time going and it was just, you know, the kids up there on stage were just phenomenal. I was just like, you know, so maybe in the fall we could if there's some that are still in school, they could come back and show their talents to us. Uh I was at the baseball game yesterday or the day before and I'll be there Saturday. Uh if you don't have a chance to read the day or the Wesley Sun, please do. They cover our youth sports like nobody else and uh
009they they do a great job. And then the kid in the paper today in the Wesley son, Trent, how do you pronounce his last name? Treble Trebacco. Great story about him. when I was doing the hall monitoring up here, he was at home quite often and they had a robot um to attend classes for him and it was just uh just another great article and uh you know it's why we do what we do up here as a board of ed and you know the big bucks we make as in our salary for being a a volunteer on the board of ed. Uh so that's all I got. Thank you. >> Thank you. Megan, >> can you hear me? Okay. >> Um, I just want to not super original, but I'm so excited for all
010the seniors everywhere. Congratulations. It's so exciting. It's so big and so fun, and you're just embarking on a wonderful time in your life. So, best of luck to everyone. >> What she said and nothing else. >> I was absent last month, so I've got a little extra. Um but just um acknowledging a few more emails and conversations um regarding acceptance, inclusion, anti-semitism, gender policies and then um sort of the subsequent reactions from our community members and of course you know how that has come into how we as a board have responded. Um, but I guess tonight it's appropriate knowing we're looking at policies that remind us of what our duty and what our obligation is um, as board members and as a governing body. So, those are always a good read for me. But on
011a lighter note, um, the last two months are crazy busy. I told Kevin and um, Zach, I saw a meme that said, "Wow, May was a long year." And that's how I feel. Um, but they're also some of the best months in schools. We see awards ceremonies and sports events and I keep see, you know, I saw on Facebook, you know, pictures of the seniors visiting the elementary and middle schools. My son came home yesterday and he said it was so cool that the seniors came. Do you think I'm going to get to do that when I'm in 12th grade? Um, so it's just a reminder of these great traditions that we do here and how much they mean to students K to 12. Um, and on that note, I'm very excited to be at
012graduation tomorrow. It's one of It's such a fun, um, uplifting reminder of kind of what we do and why we do it. And to see the 12th graders with so much ahead of them is inspiring. That's it. >> Kevin, just congratulations to the graduating senior and all of you seniors out there. Best of luck uh, going forward. Um, it is a day you will remember forever. So, uh, have fun out there. Congratulations. >> I I don't remember where the like a board meeting and the graduation next day ever aligned this way, but this is like so cool. So fantastic. So, in spirit of graduation tomorrow, I did the Brown uh, you know, I was on on message. Thank you. Um, and we planned this, right? Um, but I and I said it Monday to the
013crowd on at the high school is that I want to give a big shout out not just for the seniors but for the parents uh because it's a uh you know it's a pivotal moment to see your your children graduating high school and going on to being uh independent adults. So uh I said it Monday, I'll repeat it now via YouTube. If you're sitting at home, give yourself a round of applause. You did a great job. Uh we have a a great seniors graduating. We're very proud of every single one of them. Um especially the one to my right. Finley, thank you for your service on the board. We appreciate it. We always appreciate uh the involvement of the student uh government in our business. Um we've had tremendous success with this program. We we
014we appreciate you. And as a uh a a a token of appreciation, we have a small card and a small gift for you to say thank you for everything you did and I'll turn it over to our superintendent school back. So, next on the list of recognitions is again to recognize our 2027 educator of the year, Danielle Yates, who is a seventh grade math teacher uh at the middle school. Uh she's uh she's fantastic. Uh my personal connection is when I took over Pogatuck Middle School, there was a file folder with her name on it and I kept saying, "Who is this Daniel Yates?" and she had worked there before and then left because she started having a family and whatnot, but I had her folded for years and like I threw it out finally
015and then she came back. So, uh we're we're super lucky that that she returned to teaching and super lucky that she returned to teaching here in Stonington. Uh she is awesome. Also, our 2027 PAR educator of the year is Betsy Sylvester at West Vine. She's uh one of our early education paras, a kindergarten parah mostly, although she does other things as well. And uh she's a super dedicated uh team member at West Vine and does awesome stuff with kids every day. >> Thank you, sir. Next, we would like to uh recognize um the many retirees in our community and u I'll turn it over to Kevin. Kevin and I agreed we're going to do this in rotation, right? >> I can go first. So, um we'll start with Carolyn Maynard. So, Carolyn uh uh is
016at West Vine Street School with kitchen manager. Carol uh uh lovingly served the students and staff at Stonington Public School for the past 28 years. Her dedication was exempl exemplified by high kitchen standards in operation, cleanliness, and quality of meals. Congratulations on your retirement. Yeah. And uh we recognize that some of the retirees have not made it tonight, but I made the I made the call to uh read all the names. hopefully just so every person in the community uh knows what they've done and how many years they served the community. Uh and Carolyn was with us for 28 years. So that's a long tenure uh service when we appreciate it. So we're going to read all the names and after we read the names, we're going to recognize you also. We have wonderful cake
017and uh that's your dinner tonight. You're stuck with us here. So, uh, we'll recess the board meeting for a few minutes to enjoy that with the retirees, uh, that are here present and then we'll return to our board, uh, meeting. But I'll turn it over to Kevin for the next person. >> All right. Next up is Carrie Laam. Carrie has been a dedicated custodian at Stonington High School since 2020. And prior to joining the custodial staff, Carrie served as a par profofessional where her commitment to students and the school community earned her the distinction of becoming Stonington Public School's first PAR educator of the year. Throughout her time at SHS, Carrie has consistently demonstrated an exceptional work ethic, professionalism, and a commitment to maintaining high standards. Her positive attitude, attention to detail, and dedication have
018made a lasting impact on both staff and students. Carrie will be greatly missed, and we thank her for her years of outstanding service and contributions to Sonington Public Schools. Next, we have Sheila Adams, uh, Westine Street School teacher. Sheila has been a dedicated employee of Stonington Public School for 22 years. She spent six years at West Broad Street School, nine years at Pocktek Middle School, and her last seven years at West Vine Street School. In addition to teaching over 1,000 students in her career, she her she has directed school plays and participated in the book in the in a day project. She has been a basketball coach and a girls on the run coach. She was a wagon leader for Oregon Trail project and as a lover of poetry, she led poetry madness. Her dedication
019to her craft led her to be a fund for teacher fellow. We were lucky to have Sheila for 22 years. And while we are sad to see her leave, we are excited for her to have the freedom to spend as much time as she wants with her two grandchildren. And on a personal note, uh Mrs. Adams, thank you for teaching my children uh through your tenure. I appreciate you. >> So, I'm going to just do a little kota here. The reason why I was two minutes late to teaching and learning is I was toasting Sheila at her retirement party at the Tin Peddler in North Stonington. Don't tell Jay Dro Delgroso how fast I got here uh from there uh for 5:30. But uh Sheila and all of her uh Sheila was with me at
020Pogatuk Middle uh for those nine years and uh she is currently I think having a better time than we are um at the tin peddler with her her colleagues at Westine Street School. >> All right, next up we have Lisa Defante. Lisa is a bear through and through. She lives in a house next door to the one she grew up in. She is a Stonington graduate and other than a few years in Ledger, she has spent the majority of her career here in Stonington. Her three kids graduated from Stonington, so they are truly a family of Bears. She loves cheering on the basketball team, too. And on a personal note, I liked having Mrs. Defante as a teacher so much I took her twice in high school. Um, I had her for algebra 2 and
021calculus. And I don't think I've ever told you this, but you're actually a major reason why I became a math teacher. >> So, thank you and congratulations. >> And again, I'll add a KOD to that. Uh, education was a second career for me. My entry into education was through the UNH internship program. I started as a special education intern uh at the high school and was often asked to do things to help out including like I it was like my first couple of months there and it was like oh hey this is Lisa Stfanti and by the way you're teaching her math I don't remember what class it was but me teaching high school math. Dang. Uh so that was my introduction to Lisa Defante and we've been uh close friends ever since and she's
022awesome and will be missed. Can I uh jump in on the DeFante band bandwagon? Um she's a childhood friend of my wife, so a little biased going in, but when my son had her for uh what do they call it? The advisor teacher that they have him for four years or something like that. And um at first I'd had um been told about her um by my neighbor who had her for that same group. And then my son had her and uh they just couldn't say how nice she was and how important they she was to them. And it was uh you know the non-classroom setting. So um good job. Enjoy your retirement. You andJ actually just going to keep it piling on here. Are you ready? Actually have a resolution to read as well.
023Um the board of education of Stonington, Connecticut at its regular meeting on June 11th, 2026 adopted this resolution in respect to Lisa DeFante. Whereas this individual has completed 28 years of faithful uh and conscientious service as an employee in the Stonington public schools and has now retired. And whereas this individual has devoted much effort in her job assignment to the extent that she is held in high admiration for her dedication and personal contributions to the varied needs of Stonington public schools to the extent uh this person is held in the greatest esteem by all. Resolved that the board of education in a regular meeting assembled on this date attests to the valuable service rendered by this individual to the cause of education in the town of Stonington. And be it further resolved that a copy
024of this resolution be spread on the minutes of the board of education and that a copy be presented to this honored individual as a testimonial of the board's sincere appreciation of loyalty, character, and service. How is he going to get a hug? So figured. >> Next we have Mr. Tim Buskeet. Tim has been at Stonington High School for his 28-year career. As a special education teacher, having a love of math and science, Tim developed a specialty in creating hands-on projectbased activities for his students. always with the students individual interest at the forefront. Tim's calm presence and caring nature has helped him in forging close long-term relationships with his students and families. Congratulations on your retirement, Tim. Okay, next is Carolyn McNair. Carolyn has served as an outstanding PAR educator at Dean Mill and more recently
025as a parah in our integrated preschool program. Caroline has been a wonderful support to some of our highest need students including providing one-to-one assistance for students with language deficits. Caroline has supported students with her warm and nurturing demeanor all while demonstrating great patience and flexibility. Caroline has been a valued member of our multid-disciplinary preschool team and we all miss her sense of humor will uh of humor willingness to always put the needs of our students first. Next we have Moren Mason, Stunnington High School psychologist. Moren has worked as a school psychologist for the last for the past 28 years in district, more recently at Stonington High School. Moren will be remembered for her strong advocacy for of students and ability to reach students who may not otherwise open up. Moren's strong clinical skills and her
026focus on helping supporting students transition transition goals along with the responsibilities of adulthood have always been appreciated and she will be missed. Next is John Dennard. uh as a special ed teacher. Uh John Dinard started at Pocktuk Middle School for eight years, Mystic Middle School for one year, went back to Pocket Middle School for one year, at West Broad Street School for three years, back to Pocket Middle School for one year, and then to the high school for 20 years. That's wild. He's truly served the district. Uh John has had an amazing outstanding career as a special education teacher within Stonyington public schools, having worked in multiple schools throughout the school district. Later in his career, John eagerly jumped on board to become a certified Wilson reading instructor and has since been the primary reading
027instructor for students at Stonington High School. John has always taken a practical and sensical approach to supporting students, all while maintaining a wonderfully patient and even killed demeanor. Thank you to John for his unwavering support to our students and his willingness to always put student needs at the forefront. >> Next is Natalie Dinard, Stonington High School teacher, math teacher for 36 years, 29 at Mystic Middle School, seven at Stonington High School. Natalie has been recognized as one of the best math teachers in the district for many years. At Mystic Middle, she founded a new multi-age looping program called Crickets that focused on projectbased learning. Three other programs used her model as a blueprint. Natalie unleashed a an army of crickets, many of whom went on to be top students at Stonington High School and beyond.
028Congratulations. I stood up too early. Um, we also have a resolution uh for you. So let it be resolved that the board of education of Stonington, Connecticut at this regular meeting on June 11th, 2026 adopted this resolution in respect to Natalie Dinard. Whereas this individual has completed 36 years of faithful and conscientious service as an employee in the Stonington public schools and has now retired. And whereas this individual has devoted much effort in her job assignment to the extent that she's held in high admiration for her dedication and personal contribution to the varied needs of the Stonington public schools to the extent this person is held in the greatest esteem by all. result that the board of education in a regular meeting assembled on this date attest to the valuable service rendered by this individual
029to the cause of education in the town of Stonington and be be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread on the minutes of the board of education and that a copy be presented to this honored individual as a testimonial of the board's sincere appreciation of loyal Faculty, Character, and Service. Board of Education, Stonington, Connecticut. On a personal note with Mrs. Dinard um on the rare occasion when I was either a parah or a sub, I'd have to cover her class and it wasn't very often because she was always here and it was always a class that you know as a sub it's a little trepidacious going into the classroom because you don't you know the kids are like it's a sub and even though it's oh it's Mr. Kelly it's still
030a sub. um her class was like always easy peasy because they all knew that she ran a tight ship and and you know if there was any reports left they were in trouble. Um and there was never a report left outside of a positive one. And then um my son had her as well and it was uh honors algebra. My son came home and like dad I think they made a mistake. They put me in honors algebra with all the smart kids. I'm like no I don't think they made a mistake. I think you need to know that you're one of the smart kids as well and that you can do it. And it was great. And then um so thank you so much for 36 years. Enjoy the the retirement and uh good luck
031to you. >> Okay, next we have Laura Ki. Laura Ki began her career in New London public schools and after a brief hiatus to work for DCF supporting families, she joined Stonington Public Schools. Laura has done it all. Laura has been a vital member of our special education team at both West Broad and Stonington Middle School for 10 years. She has been an integral part of self-contained special education instruction, co-eing special education 8th grade transition programming, and the founding of the Stillington Middle School Compass program. She has been a positive problem solver and an advocate for students. Laura always has everyone's best interest in mind and all decisions decisions that she makes. Laura will be greatly missed by the entire staff at Stonington Middle School. Let it be resolved that the board of education of
032of Stonington, Connecticut at its regular meeting on June 11th, 2026 adopted this resolution in respect to Laura Ki. Whereas this individual has completed 10 years faithful of faithful and conscientious service as an employee of the Stonington public school and has now retired. And whereas this individual has devoted much effort in her job assignment to the extent that she is held in high admiration for her dedication and personal contributions to the varied needs of the Stonington public schools to the extent this person is held in the greatest esteem by all. resolved that the board of education in a regular meeting assembled on this date attest to the valuable service rendered by this individual to the cause of education in the town of Stonington and and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be
033spread on the minutes of the board of education and that a copy be be presented to this honored individual as a testimonial of the board's sincere appreciation of loyalty, character, and service. Board of Education, Stonington, Connecticut. Next is uh Kristen Mohouse, district office K through 12 curriculum coordinator. Uh Kristen has done it all. Early childhood education, elementary grades, middle school, general education, and special education. She used that wealth of information and experience to shine in her role as a district K through five curriculum specialist. Congratulations, Mrs. Mhouse. Next is Jim Souza. Since 1982, Jim Souza has been a dedicated member of the Stonington Public Schools team, serving as both a custodian and maintenance professional. Throughout his entire career, Jim has been assigned to the board of education office where he played an essential role in
034maintaining, painting, and renovating spaces through each office move and transition. Known for his kind heart, willingness to help others, and unmatched work ethic, Jim has always gone above and beyond to support his colleagues and the district. It is difficult to put into words how much Jim will be missed, but we are grateful for his many years of service and wish him all the best as he begins his new chapter spending more time with his family. >> That adds up to 44 years. Congratulations. >> Uh next is Lynn Jackson. Uh 14 years uh bus parah. Lynn Jackson has served as a transportation pareducator for the past 14 years. Lynn has helped to support countless students to travel to work safely. This has included students with serious medical needs and students with significant behavioral issues. Lynn always
035demonstrated a great care and compassion for the students that she supported and she's already missed. Congratulations, Mrs. Jackson. All right. Uh, the board will take a recess. We'll be back at 7:15. We'll go eat cake. Thank you, Chairman Rajab. So, by law, we're required to do a climate survey every other year. We have had the past practice of doing it every year. Uh, so we do have this year's results. I'm just going to give a a kind of a high level broad brush uh review. Uh bottom line is one of our challenges with the climate surveys is across all stakeholder groups we get good results and so it's hard to find something to focus in on. But I'll get to that. But before I do, I just want to start um with the recognition of
036some of the the problems this year. We had some uh less than transparent communication for some parents. Um a bit of a blind spot for me. Uh I met with uh a couple of parents who were upset by the process in radically different ways. Uh which was interesting. But one of the where these problems stem from is because we had gotten feedback um especially from staff that they were questioning our in-house survey that we used to do on our own as being truly anonymous. And so we shifted to this professional instrument, the comprehensive school climate inventory for two reasons. Number one, there was an update to the legislation that now had language that said it should be a researchbased product. Uh so we wanted a professional product. Um and the my second reason for going
037with this survey was the anonymity probably because we don't collect the survey information in any way, shape, form or or otherwise. The company has the the links when people interact with that. It doesn't collect any of their email information or any of their other personal identifiable information across any stakeholder group. So that's good. The problem that creates is one of the things that we're very interested in looking at in this data is looking at subgroups of people. And in order to do that, you need demographic information. And so at the end of the survey, there is a self-reporting demographic section and some folks were concerned because you you're asking kids to self-identify as special ed. You're asking kids uh and the the questions in the demographic section do change as the group of kids get
038older. There's different ways of asking questions and different questions that are asked K5 68 and then 912. Uh some uh folks were concerned about the way uh in the upper grades the question about gender identification was asked. Um, one of the things when we adopted this because of some sensibilities about the younger kids self-identifying all of the demographic information such as special ed, um, homelessness, free and reduced lunch. We had the teachers who were proctoring this just basically have them answer what grade they're in and then click through to the end. And so I received uh uh I had a meeting with some parents who were upset that we didn't collect that information at the elementary level. They felt that we're missing a big port portion of information. Uh and I also had folks on
039the other side who were upset about asking any of those those kind of questions at any age. So, one of the the things that we're going to do uh in our leadership retreat uh next week or the week after, I don't know, school just keeps going on forever. Uh we're going to have a conversation uh about this instrument. Do we keep using it? Do we want to take a gap year since we're not legally required to do it every year and regroup? Um we're going to take that conversation to the welcoming schools group as well and get their their take on it. So, I just just want to kind of put that out there uh and uh lead with an apology. Uh a lot of the the confusing and non-transparent communication around some of these
040issues is clearly my fault and we'll we'll fix that going forward regardless of which uh flavor of survey we do in the future. So, let's see. Okay. So the the good news uh also with using this instrument even though uh there are lots of people who say they don't like it our participation rate every year that we've used it continues to go up. uh the data here in the first column I think 2023 was their last homegrown uh survey and then we have three years of the CSCI instrument and as you can see um the family participation has grown every year. Um the I want to give a shout out now that she's not here to Alicia Dah. Uh this year they did an outstanding job of getting the high school kids to respond. Uh
041that's it was a problem the way that they were doing it in the past couple of years. We we we were kind of missing that high school students voice uh because of the numbers. They did a better job of of getting the folks to uh to sign on for that. And then if we look at participation by school, what you see is the typical pattern with everything where participation and everything tends to drop off the older you get. Uh as you move to the high school, uh the family and staff uh responses drop a little bit. The students are uh we should have more students than at the middle school, but again that's a bigger number than they've had the previous year. So, I want to commend them on that. >> That's a great question.
042I don't I don't have that answer. So with the um with the elementary with Deans Mill and West Vine, it's close to 90% because we only do the survey with the upper grades and we proctor it with a teacher who walks them through it. Uh the middle school with the 363 kids, that's about 80 kids, 90 kids short of the total. So again, that's close to uh 80 90%. Same thing with the high school. Uh with that number, it's about 80%. Uh probably about 85% of staff. Um the family percentage is harder to uh calculate because you have some folks uh who have kids in multiple schools um or have multiple kids in one school. They still only count as one family. Um, but in general that's about 25 30% overall. Broad brush ballparks. Don't
043hold me to that number, Mr. Kelly. So, just to review what this survey does is this survey gives us information in five domains or buckets. safety, teaching and learning, interpersonal relationships, institutional environment. And then the last domain, leadership and efficacy is only for the staff. The staff are the only ones that get those questions. And so the leadership part of that is about how district and building leaders operate. And the efficacy is how teachers believe in how well how good a job they do and how good overall their school and their colleagues do uh with kids. Each domain is broken down into a total of 14 different indicators and then within each indicator the survey has anywhere from four to 10 questions that come up with the rating for those um indicators. Again, one of
044the benefits of going with a professional instrument is there are a number of those reversecored items. So, you get a better feel uh for people who just click through uh a survey. You get more accurate uh follow-up questions when something is scored in a reverse way and you compare it to the the way the question is asked in the opposite way and and compare those results. So, it's a great way to kind of verify your data and they do all of that psychometric analysis for us. Uh, when you hire them to do this survey, all the questions are rated on that standard Liyker scale uh where five is strongly agree and one is uh strongly disagreed and again those reverse scored item. So, if a question uh on the student survey is, I get picked
045at picked on at school and the kid answers a five, that's actually a negative response. Uh if the follow-up question is other students intervene and stop uh bad behavior when they see it, if they rate that a five, that's a positive uh indication. So, there's multiple ways to look at the data. The uh kind of broadbrush way is to look at the median score in each indicator. Uh anything above a 4.1 4.2 is considered very positive. Anything in the uh mid3s down to 3.2 is considered kind of neutral. Anything below uh 31 32 is start skewing to the negative side. And as you can see, we really don't have anything that's that particularly low. Um, looking at the uh, one of the patterns that continues to hold true every year that we've used this is
046that the the adult ratings tend to be very similar. The parents and the adults, uh, the parents and the teachers, their ratings, if you look at them side by side, they're they're pretty much in lock step. the students continue to have the lowest ratings on every indicator of the three stakeholder groups, which kind of makes sense. Uh the interesting thing to me is that they're not that much lower. Um comparing this to the last couple of years, our ratings have been remarkably stable. uh the indicators have gone either up one decimal place or down one decimal place from a 41 to a 42 or from a 45 to a 44. Um it's been remarkably consistent. This is the same chart comparing across schools. And again, my color coding is I just greenlighted anything that was
047uh 42 or 43 above. And uh pink indicated anything that was uh less than a 38. Uh so again it looks red doesn't necessarily mean it's bad but it is below uh most of our other indicators being so uh firmly entrenched in those mid four groups. One of the things that I want to give our administrators credit for is that at the high school we had the uh swatting incident or the the lockdown incident uh in the fall and it was interesting to see that the indicators around physical security uh and stuff stayed very positive. Uh and that's a testament to the way that Alicia Dah uh specifically and her staff more generally handled that uh incident. And also on the West Vine side of things, the the indicators around the physical surroundings and safety
048and security with all of the problems we had with the HVAC and whatnot. to see those numbers still hold steady in such a positive realm uh is a testament to the resilience of the teachers staff and the administrators there. Um, so like I alluded to at the beginning, our next steps is we're going to look at the detail a little more uh the data in a little more detail in our leadership meetings this summer and come up with a plan of action on how to share that information with the welcoming school groups and develop action steps uh based on that with those welcoming school groups. I'm I'm curious if you can go back to the liyker scale slide. >> The center option is agree a little. >> Yes. >> That's a little unusual from a
049research method standpoint and it feels as though it would skew in favor of agreement. >> Yeah. >> Is that consistent with the actual survey or is that >> versus versus neutral? >> Yeah. Yeah. Usually you would have neutral or you wouldn't have a middle option at all. >> Yeah. >> So that's I'm curious about that. Do you know why that is? >> So again, this is their instrument, Zach. Um, and it's used nationwide and that's their scale that >> you're right. It is different than a than a standard liker. >> Can you go to the second to last page, please? >> Absolutely. This one. >> Um, no, one more. >> This one? >> Yes, that one. >> Okay. Uh there was just uh I noticed the pink on sense of social emotional security and online
050safety that you know that whole group there uh I assume that's got to be like cell phone related or data you know social media related or what have you. >> Some of it is yes. So, um, one of the interesting things I'm glad actually glad you asked that question, Mr. Kelly, because one of the, uh, only indicators where students rate higher than parents and staff is that one. >> And they thought it's not an issue. >> Well, >> parents and staff think it's an issue and they don't. >> Well, not necessarily. Um, one of the uh indicators is about whether or not the school does a good job educating around these issues and so the students gave us uh higher marks than the teachers and the parents did on that indicator which kind of uh
051carried the way. Uh trying to find so the uh online safety questions for the students are are I feel safe when I use social media. There are rules at my school against misusing social media. If I'm mean to someone online, I could get to in trouble at school. My teachers use the internet to help us learn. My school helps me understand how to be safe on social media. if I'm bullied online, I know an adult at school who can help me. So, those are the questions that the students are are responding to in that section. Um, the questions around uh social emotional security, Mr. Kelly, are this uh I get teased at my school. I have seen other students made fun of at my school. Students at my school are kind to each other. Students
052at my school will try to stop students from making fun of others. Adults in my school stop students if they see them making fun of others. And the last question is other students often make fun of me. So those those are the individual questions that make up that rating in that indicator. And the other thing on that one uh page there was uh one of the lowest scores and I guess it's to be expected and hopefully it'll be rectified is physical surroundings. I assume that's at the middle school. I assume >> correct if you if you look at that it's the middle school is the lowest not a shock. Their their their physical surroundings are are uh a barrier uh in a in a daily struggle. Uh, and I'm sure uh teachers teaching on a
053cart and and roving around that building probably skewed their answers a little more negatively and rightly so. And uh, Westfine a little bit lower than the other two schools as well as I alluded to. >> Makes sense. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? Hearing none, we'll move to the next item on our agenda, which is comments from citizens regarding items on the agend agenda. Individual comments will be limited to three minutes per person and 20 minutes per topic. Please, when you go up to the podium, u say your name and your address for the record. Um Ashley Tulle, 113 Whitaker Drive. Um first I just wanted to start by continuing the congratulations to Danielle and Betsy and all those retirees. It was definitely great to hear the dedication of all of them
054and I'm definitely sure there'll be great losses to the school system. I mean to hear how long some of them have been here that you've become like a staple of those buildings. So congratulations to them stinks for us. Um I would also like to congratulate the graduating fifth graders, eighth graders, and the seniors. I mean these are just all monumental points in these kids' lives. You know leaving the elementary school, heading into high school and then you know heading off beyond the school years. Um definitely an exciting time and a busy time of year. Um in regards to some things on the agenda, the hiring process, I mean, we had a ton of hires, so that looks great. I mean, the number of hires seems like we're really we really got um ahead on some
055of that. So, that's awesome to see. Um and I also liked that we're getting ahead on some of the AI policy. It's just such a crazy world we're entering. Um, I just ask that there continues to be transparency with parents as this comes into the schools and if programs, AI programs are going to be used in classrooms, um, especially at the younger ages. And I know that the schools are already doing a great job in communicating the proper ways to use AI. I know my son in middle school like they're going over it like, you know, they have them put something into AI and then they're seeing like how it's not all factual. What you get back is not 100% true all the time. So they're teaching them that and already like letting them dip
056their toes in so that it's not something that they just dive head first into without any knowledge. So I think that the school's already doing a great job and I think getting ahead on policy is such an important thing. Um so I like to see that. I wanted to look at the grade five social studies curriculum. Um I would just like it's up for first read I believe, right? Yeah. Yeah. So just like the teaching and learning committee to kind of dive a little bit deeper into that. Um it's directing students to explore multiple perspectives which is great. Um it's the end of unit one and then the students are asked to debate both sides of Columbus Day and Indigenous People Day. How can we even credibly tell our our children that their view on
057celebrating Columbus Day would be respected or even accepted in our school system? this very board has failed to do just that. Um, definitely dive a little bit deeper into the curriculum because the way it reads is very biased in its approach. The unit culminates with students reading Encounter by Jan Yolan to analyze contrasting European and indigenous perspectives on exploration and how beliefs about land, trade, and authority shape decisions. This is followed by a structured debate about the naming of Columbus Day versus Indigenous People Day. Finally, students conduct independent research on historical explore and demonstrate their understanding through a choice-based presentation format. That sounds great except you if you look into encounter, it is literally written as a counternarrative to traditional Columbus Day. There's no book that says to be used about Columbus Day, just one
058that is a counternarrative to it. So, I just think that as I've said before, when we have curriculums and we have books, we should be having something from both sides of the aisle. When you telling students to debate something, but you're only providing them with one point of view, kind of becomes difficult for that student who might not feel the same way. Um, and then on the next page, it says anticipated student misconceptions. And it basically lists that it's a misconception. um believing exploration was entirely positive or beneficial for all groups. Assuming indigenous societies were simple or undeveloped, thinking European perspectives represent the full historical truth. Confusing trade, bartering and money-based economies, assuming all explorers had the same motivations and experiences, believing migration only occurred after European arrival. Just the way that some of it's
059written, it's all factual based. Like, yes, you need to look at all sides of it. 100% agree with that. I just ask that we do it from a neutral standpoint that we don't swing so far one way because we fear we're too far another way. I was in middle school too many years ago and I know I wasn't sold a one-sided story of it. I know that we were we were shown how, you know, Columbus came, how it affected the indigenous people. I just don't know where we're getting to this point where we are now swinging so far one way. And I just think that we really need to make sure that we're providing curriculums that stay within the guidelines and include the new things that we have to include but don't just push one
060narrative. And it's just one of those situations where I wonder this I think it's going to new to our curriculum. Um so I just hope that we're directing our students in a way that is the most engaging, insightful and appropriate manner um to teach these things. And then I just I just want to also clarify when we have something that says alphabetizing and new number assignments for the um policy subcommittee that's not changing any language in anything. That's just changing numbers and titles. Correct. Like we're not changing anything within the policies themselves. So, I just when it reads that way, I just want to make sure that that, you know, I'm not diving into those because I'm like, it's stuff that's already there and I'm just, you know, they're just reumbering it, making it look
061prettier, you know, reorganizing it. I love the alphabetizing. I love the things in numerical order. That's great. But I just want to make sure that that's exactly what's happening. Um, instead of like actual policy changes. Thank you, >> Mr. Kelly. Just to confirm that's just to add the correct Yeah. Thank you. >> It's it's not technically the language can change and it has changed. It can move around a little bit. Generally for the reumbering only a handful have any changes and the vast majority I would say 99.9% are just statemandated changes. Uh so when we get the language into the policy committee we come together we look at all the policies we look at the language. If we make changes, we make changes. But generally, um the I I would affirm that yes, there is
062not um major substantive changes. But I do want to clarify just for the sake of full honest transparency that there is there there are language changes that happen just as state statutes change and uh the legal recommendations that we receive from our lawyers. Um the language does move around a little bit. Most of the time it's not substantive. I think. >> Thank you. Next item on our agenda, we'll go to back to our super acting superintendent school. >> Thank you, Chairman Rajab. Uh just a couple of things to report. Um as was just alluded to, uh we're in great shape with the hiring process as we sat here and read the list of of dozens of retirees. Uh plus we had uh a couple of new positions that we wanted to supplement. Uh the building
063administrators have been super busy. Uh I'm very excited uh with all of the candidates that we've been able to hire. Uh I think we've got a good crop of and it's a mix of new new teachers, somewhat new teachers, and some some veteran teachers from other districts. Uh we do have uh the benefit of being seen as a highquality school district and people want to come to work here. Uh and uh we take advantage of that when we can and uh we're in we're in good shape uh with that. Uh, next item, just as an FYI to keep everybody in the loop, we're trying to wrap up our research project uh with our friends at Yukon and cell phones uh with the final uh round of surveys for stakeholders. Uh we're just trying to solve
064the last logistics of those and then uh we'll share the final report when we get it from Yukon. Uh and again our cell phone uh research project with Yukon is we were the the the two intervention group. We did the yonder pouches to physically remove the devices and we also uh used the common sense media curriculum to educate uh and provide more uh information for students about cell phones and social media use. Um, so they'll have a final report for us on that. And the last item is just a kind of a preview of some coming attractions. There's been a lot of stuff in uh the media and some action by other states all around concerning the amount of time of screen time for students and classes. Um my concern on this is typically in
065education we have these wild pendulum swings where it goes all one way and then it gets reactive and swings all the way to the other direction. Um I firmly believe that like every district we have some work to do to really take a look at what we're putting in front of kids, how much time they are spending on devices. I think we need to stay sensitive to the fact that almost across any occupation there is a expectation that employable adults will have facility with a commu computer mediated environment. How those computers and what those programs are changes on the daily. We all know that. But uh to have our students uh you know revert back to 100% paper and pencil probably not where we want to be. We want to do some of that. Uh
066we also want to take uh my my goal this year uh for the upcoming school year is we've already identified uh a wide variety of tools that we're going to stop using just because the number of tools had proliferated through during COVID. And so my goal is to kind of reduce the field and then reinvest with high quality training for the ones that we keep to make sure that we're using them effectively and that we have the analytics to look at uh at a very granular level as the tech guys say. Um student usage, what are they using it for? What benefit are we getting in student achievement product by product so we can make more data-driven tech purchasing and subs application subscription purchases in the future and also a big part of that is
067um looking at AI in a balanced approach and we have the policies that we're going to start with uh in the policy committee uh not to jump ahead to the policy committee report. But one of the things that we're going to do is convene a stakeholder group that will include a couple of parents, teachers, administrators, uh whatever stakeholders we want to include to develop the uh ARS to guide schools. How are we going to do this? We need uh to have everybody's voice heard in that in that process. And again, our intent is to keep AI use at the secondary level, not at the elementary level. Some school districts have done that. Uh we have to uh the term they use for AI is it's an arrival technology. It just shows up at the school
068because it's out there in the wild versus smartboards were, you know, a technology that we put out. No, no kid went out and bought themselves a smartboard that I know of. Uh but we have to do some AI education at the younger grades because it's out there and they could have access to it and we we want to start that early and often. But as far as actual use of AI, we don't have any plans to really do that uh at the elementary level. And that's my report for tonight. >> Any questions for Mr. Smith? just to comment that um at the end of the school year here that the transition from our prior superintendent to our present superintendent has been very smooth and um I think everyone recognizes that and uh I hope I
069don't know if we need to make a resolution but I think Tim needs to make sure he takes a couple days off this summer. Um but uh he would it's welld deserved and uh thank you so much for uh making it so much easier for us by doing the best that you do. Well, thank you, Mr. Kelly. And I' I've got a couple of dates on the calendar if Alicia will approve them. >> Next item on our agenda is consent agenda and I'm asking for a motion to approve consent agenda items A through F. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? There's a second. Any discussion or question on consent agenda items A through F? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving consent agenda items A
070through F, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Um, next item on our agenda is uh acceptance of donation. I just like to bring to your attention that this is a part of our policy. Uh there is a donation of uh the amount of $3,214 that is going it was donated to the uh Stonington um boys uh soccer team. So I'd like uh to ask for a motion to approve that acceptance of that donation. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? Uh any any question or comments on that motion? always going to say thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Agreed. Um all those in favor of accepting the donation, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous
071for the record. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is subcommittee reports. And we'll >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. >> You're absolutely right. Uh there's the same amount for the girls soccer team, page one. I was on page two. My apologies. I'd like to ask for a motion to accept uh the same amount of 3,214 for the Stonington girls soccer team. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> There's a second. All right. Any questions or uh comments on that motion? Hearing none. All those of approving that donation, please indicate by saying I. I and I second Zach said thank you for the second donation right um somebody's paying attention tonight uh another chair all right we'll move to the chair of the uh subcommittee on teaching and learning Mr. any report.
072>> Uh yeah. Okay. Um so we have a um sorry flost spot. Um I was uh let's see. Got it. Um so we have a handful of curricula up for first read. Um items A through I there. They should be up for uh second read next month. And there are a handful of curricula up for um vote tonight as a second read approval. Um items uh let's see 9 A2 um A through G. >> Ask for a motion to approve uh second curriculum uh items A through G. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second to that? There's a second. Any questions or comments on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving such motion, please indicate by saying I. Hi. Any abstension or against? Okay, that was unanimous.
073Thank you. Uh, next we'll move to our chair of finance and facilities subcommittee and report. >> Um, well, I'm actually hoping that Mr. Carol will give us an update on the portables because he wasn't at our last subcommittee meeting. >> Yes. Yes, I was. Um the um the uh latest on the portables is we do have a stamp sealed stamp seal on the foundation drawings. We have the building drawings with the stamp and seal. Both have been submitted to the town for a permit. They're on their second or third day with the zoning. Second day maybe. I don't want to put them in any bad light. They've been really great. uh they're just going through their zoning and once it gets through zoning we have ledge light just to approve that uh building once they're
074approved then it goes to building committee I actually stopped in there today to make sure if they needed any more information or any way I could help you know improve the process but they were very helpful and they are moving on it so hopefully everything's back soon and we can get digging so timeline. I know. >> So there was a so basically the foundation people and the electrician kind of were in schedule a work. There was a a review of the foundation. They came back with a a discrepancy on the type of foundation versus the type of building. Um that did delay a little bit, not a lot, but there was that review of the foundation. So that moved everybody out. So, I had let I had the contractors booked for that point, but I
075had to let them go. So, I've not I don't want to rebook them until I actually know I get the the foundation, I mean the drawings back with approval from the um the building department. The early, this was way early, but it was about 8 weeks out from once I get the drawings approved from the building department. It was about 8 weeks out to have the building on site. So I I'm I it's all there. It's just got to we got to get that approval pro, you know, done and get us moving. So soon as I see a excavator on site, I'll be happy and I'll be a lot more smiley about this project, you know. >> All right. Thank you. That was the big update. >> Anything else? All right. Uh we'll go next
076to our uh policy subcommittee chair if any updates. >> Go Steve, go. I'm I got faith in you. >> We can do it. Um the policy subcommittee met and have before you um policies that we waved the first reading and uh having a vote for the second reading which is uh the AI policies. I am not my not my lane AI. Okay. and they're thankful that Megan and Zach are on the committee and thankful that our superintendent is all over it. Um it's just, you know, they they start reading this and Zach brings up all of his the stuff that's going on at Yukon and Megan with her job and everything else and I'm just like, I don't know what y'all are talking about. Um so I appreciate you and uh the community should appreciate
077you for all the knowledge and um professionalism you're bringing to the table with that. And then our superintendent just was there. I mean, he just delivered. So, um, he mentioned earlier about it that there's a I don't know if you're we're calling it a task force, a committee, a working group or what have you that that that's going to be generated and volunteers are needed. So, if you're out there in uh Sonin and you're listening to this or you know someone that might be great at serving on the AI committee, please uh step forward. uh it's as you know it's going to be uh very very important. So I will move the policy P5335 and P6045 for approval. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> There's a
078second. Any question or discussion on that motion? >> Uh the only the only comment I'll make is that I really want to stress that this is not the end of where the AI policy is. You know, we mentioned earlier ARs. >> Um, we're the plan is to continue to develop as time moves on. This is rapidly developing. Um, when OpenAI launched Chat GPT back in 2023, um, it could do so much less than what it can do now. And it, um, it's going to be very important that this committee and that this this board stays on top of AI. So, this is not the end of it. This is the beginning of it. Um, I think I read through the policy earlier and both of them made a lot of sense to me. I do
079think that if there's a way we can communicate with parents that we've whatever we decide tonight because I think that while I'm sure some people are watching the board of ed meeting, it might be better to send a larger bl email blast or something out about it. It's that's a great point and I am planning on a communication to parents about tech in general, how we're going to shift our focus and include the AI in that after I take a day off. >> You haven't voted yet. >> As long as on your day off you're not doing AI related stuff. Tim, >> excellent. Any other comments or questions on that vote on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving said motion, please indicate saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous for
080the record. >> Next item. >> The second read is uh the bylaws for repeal that are um outdated or have already been incorporated into new policies. And those are listed on the agenda. They were talked about last month. They're listed on the agenda for last month and available online as hyperlinks on the board of ed um Sonatin public school system website and those are uh policies listed on the agenda A through T. I so move. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> There's a second. Any discussion or comments on that motion? Hearing none. All those uh of favor of uh repealing items A through T2, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Next item >> is alphabetizing in new number assignments.
081These um are just um I don't recall that any changes were made. I think these are just all and Anna Anna rather can uh verify that there was no changes to these policies. It's just um in order to put them in the proper order and the proper categories um that makes it easier for the person using it uh is why this is being done. So, we've been doing it with all the policies and everything um every month and and Anna was the one that was like wrangling all these policies to make sense and and what have you. So, I uh will move that these are bylaws um A through V as in Victor to be approved after this is the second read for tonight. I so move >> there's a motion on the floor. Is
082there a second? >> There's a second. Any discussion or comments on that motion? >> Yeah, I need some clarification actually. Um, >> repeat me. >> Sorry. Uh, yeah. So, uh, Ashley, you made a good point and then I looked into it a bit and I have questions. Uh, so there's a bunch of items under that uh, under section three there. The top three have in parentheses adoption andor revision. That to me implies that we're either adopting that as a new policy or there are revisions to that policy as it already existed. The rest underneath those top three don't have that which to me implies that we're just renumbering them. However, when you open up any of those, there is no adopted date on them, which again to me implies that they weren't actually adopted. Uh
083so I'm curious if these policies already exist, why isn't there an adopted date on them? And if they're not actually policies yet that are approved, why aren't we voting to approve them? And I think we used to do these differently on the agenda, and I went back to an April 2024 agenda. Uh, and on that agenda, we have a section for policies for repeal and then there's a section for policies for approval and then there's a se a separate section where there's policies for the alphabetizing and new number assignments. So, we separated out the approvals from new number assignments. And this is a very common thing that we would do. So, it's not that rare that we see it. But this time, I'm confused on what we're actually voting for on that section three and
084if we're adopting these as new policies and reing them or if we're just reumbering them because some of them don't have dates. And if you go up to any of the policies that are under the repeal section, all of those do have dates. So I'm unsure if the policies that we're voting for under section 3 have actually been adopted. >> Now the adoption and or revision is part of the title. It doesn't part our existing on our website. Yeah. >> So, one, >> for example, >> yeah, >> one one that I found on example that I can't track back to when it was approved was 9190. That one doesn't track back to what I can find to a current policy. That's just a like a a change of the number, but I can't find when
085that one was actually approved. And I think that can be said for a couple other ones, too. That's just the one that was most obvious. Like those weren't actually under any sections on previous agendas as votes for approval. I have to go on the document. >> So anyways, just to finalize that, I'd like to kindly request to the policy committee that can we when we have approvals and alphabetizing and new number assignments, can we separate out the votes >> i.e. new cont? >> Yeah. Yeah, cuz if we voted on section three here as just what it says, alphabetizing a new number assignments, >> there is new content. >> There might be new content here and might be new policies that aren't clear if they were ever formally approved. >> So, for example, 9040 on the
086agenda up for vote tonight ties back to former policy 9271. And while it looks different in format, there is some different content. It's Yeah. And that could have just been I I don't know if that means two because sometimes I think policies have been combined, but it's hard to know what's >> Well, these are all bylaws that are different than policies, but I totally understand what you're saying, >> right? >> I don't know how bylaw is different from uh the policies. I know he didn't have this issue with the policies that they were all previously adopted. Well, and it seems like the bylaws have been under major cleanup, >> Right. >> These are just pertaining to the board of education. >> But if it's not acknowledging a revision when content has changed, I guess that's
087a little confusing. Is that what you were trying to get at, Kevin, too? >> Yeah, basically. and we might be alphabetizing and giving new number assignments to policies that haven't been app or bylaws that haven't been approved. >> So maybe breaking those out or can we >> you can fail the motion. >> Okay. I'll note that um on the agenda for the May those meetings minutes for the May 7th policy meeting uh the motion is the 9,000 series bylaws for approval reumbering and alphabetizing >> approval comma alphabetizing comma. >> Okay. That's not what this what it says on the agenda now. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So, it's your pleasure. or would you like us to send it back to committee to >> yeah just break out what's changed maybe you know if it's
088just a reing or alphabetiz >> it's nothing that's got to be done tonight it's nothing that has to be done yesterday it's right you know we can take it back to the policy committee in >> September and uh >> feel so far >> clarify it wouldn't >> that would be great >> I don't think it would be possible would it be possible to have we couldn't have like track changes on them because the the policy language that were provided is fundamentally different correct Yes. And it's we're we're shifting away from using the CAB model on these policies to the shipman model. And so there's at times there isn't a onetoone correspondence. CAB may have a policy or they may have two policies and shipment has one that subsumes both of those and it's named different
089and it's numbered different. Um, >> but did the committee have the chance to review these and vote on them in a committee? >> Yes. >> I mean, we can send it back to committee and we can just verify that in fact that there was, you know, obviously no changes and we can find out if there was uh approval and adoption dates previously. But with the information that we have, I can see where there's some, >> you know, no prior adoption that was been made. So, >> well, if it's a change of model also from Cape to shipment, there will be no adoption date. >> Well, if it's in our books, it should have adoption date. >> There was for these there was an there was an amendment in the policy committee to the language. So
090there are changes but I as I recall those changes were made to keep our policy constant. So for instance the current policy for 9040 is it 9040 >> for censure is 2/3 >> bylaws you in the bylaws the in the bylaw recommendation that was provided to us it changed it to 50%. And so we made the changes to keep it constant at 30 at 2/3. >> And we did that for one or two of them. I don't know there was a couple other ones. Again, it was it was done specifically so that the language doesn't reflect a substantive change in practices. >> Yeah. I don't have the minutes from that meeting. >> So is the board feels that these policies should go back to the committee for review >> bylaws? bylaws. Sorry. >> Send it
091back to committee. >> Yep. >> That's >> it may be not, you know, negligible, but it's hard to know. >> No, I understand. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Not an issue. I withdraw my motion. >> I don't know that you ever actually made it. >> No, there was a motion. So, there is a withdrawal on motion. Is there a withdraw for a second? Yeah, I think >> I'll withdraw. >> All right. This to go back to committee and for further review, please. Um, welcome school leison on report. Any reports? >> Uh, Deans Mill met May 12th. Um, but I was not here um to report on that. But, um, really the topic was how welcoming schools can support their new community agreement roll out which is happening in the fall. >> Great. Any other welcoming
092school lison on reports? >> All right. Uh, next is learn board lison report. >> I'm back. >> Back to you. >> Yep. Um, that was actually this morning. Um, and it was a lot of kind of end of the year culmination. They showed um a um drone video from a new school that they are constructing in Waterford. Um but really towards the end there was a lot of kind we we always kind of tend to wrap up talking technology, cell phone, what's going on. Um and one of the takeaways that one of the other board members, I can't remember where he was from, he was sort of asking if there's going to be a way for superintendents and board members to do a little bit more interaction and kind of get some best practices. So
093maybe we can pull away something that we're doing um just a little bit more shared resources with amongst learn. Um but another thing where we can pat ourselves on the back policy committee about AI, we are ahead of many in that in that department. So kudos to whoever spearheaded that. >> For that you get a day off. Take two. >> Two of them. >> Excellent. >> There was another committee that met, sir. It's not on the agenda, but the athletic committee met on the 21st of May at the high school. Members present was Kevin and myself. And our focus of concentration was um thanks to Alicia Stripplin, the uh food truck and trying to get our food truck moving and rolling and involved more at the school. And so she was uh uh communicating with
094the athletic director trying to find well first they tried for the spring and didn't have any success. Um but in the upcoming year trying to coordinate with the athletic director and um trying to get that food truck used for events as well as for other events around the school that it could be used for such as um what were you saying Tim? Convention convocation days or or >> yeah convocation PD days >> other special days throughout the year. So that was the main focus and then we also uh talked about the name facilities policy and um how it reads and where that to go uh for the board to use in the future. So that was it. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Next item on our agenda are monthly reports. Any questions on the monthly reports,
095including questions to our student government representatives? any comments from you? >> Um, we touched upon some. We've had a lot of awards nights. It's been busy. Our a lot of our spring sports did really well. So, it's been an exciting end of the year. I mean, I know I'm excited for tomorrow. Um, then with student government, we had our induction, I think, last week. um you know, inducted the new members, the new executive board, and they're excited and they're ready to, you know, take on the challenge. So, I also just want to say thank you to all of you. I've had a great time. I've learned a lot, and I've just I'm grateful for everything. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Next item on our agenda are board comments and items for future
096agendas. I'll take this moment to remind the community that for the past couple of years, the board had made a concentrated effort to not schedule board meetings for July and and August to give the staff a break from us. So, uh there will be no board of education meeting for July and August. The next our board meeting is in September. I believe it's the 10th and I'm going to confirm just to be Yeah, September 10th is our next board meeting. Uh, next item on our agenda goes to Zach. >> I'll move to adjurnn. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. Um, >> meeting ajourn.