001[Music] It is uh 6:34 and I'd like to Call the Stonington Public School Board of Education uh regular meeting to order today, October 16th, the 16th before. Sorry, repeating myself now. Um I'll ask Mr. Donahghue to lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance. One last time >> to the flag of the United States of America to the stands nationy and justice for all. I'll turn it over. Next item on our agenda. I'll turn it over to Mr. Kelly. >> Um, thank you, Chair. Uh, we've lost two members of our community recently, and I would just like to take a minute to to recognize them. One was uh Patricia Campbell, also known as Trish Mets. She was a um resident of Stonington her entire life and she was a graduate of Stonington High School in
0021982. She decided to stay in town and she began her tenure with Sonington public schools as a par educator at West Vine Street in August of 2001. While there, she made special connections with her students and staff. She will be remembered for having a heart as big as her personality and being an asset to our school community and will be forever missed. The second person I'd like to when we have our moment of silence for you to think of is Ann Homestead or as I called her, Mrs. Holmstead. She was a longtime resident of Mystic and a dedicated educator who opened and operated the Hilltop Montasauri Nursery School for 48 years in Mystic. Her love for education reflected in her membership as a member of the Stonington Board of Ed for 12 years and served
003as chair for four. We honor her for her service and dedication to the student, staff, and community of Stonington public schools. And uh she um even though she ran a private school prek out of her house, um she served 12 years on the board of ed. And as you know, we we I don't know if we struggle, but we we do four-year terms and um things happen in life that get us to go in different directions. But she uh she did 12 and then served for as chair. So, if we could uh just take a minute to remember those two and ask for a quick moment of silence, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Um, next item on our agenda is communication recognition. I'll turn it over to Superintendent
004Butler. >> Thank you. First, I'd like to start off with some student recognitions. We've been informed by Stonington High School that they're proud to announce a number of students that have been recognized for their performance um in the national scholarship competition. Finn Meadow Finn Meadows has been named the semi-finalist for the 20126 National Scholarship Program and has the opportunity to continue in the scholarship program as as a semi-finalist. Finn stands out among 16,000 of the highest performing participants and is eligible to continue in the merit national merit scholarship award competition. So congratulations. Um the following students have been listed um as commended in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. Commended students are being recognized for their exceptional promise demonstrated by their outperforming outstanding performance on the PSAT. These students are among 34,000 commended students nationwide
005who have shown outstanding academic academic achievement. They are Norah Fanning, Sophie Ren, and Mika Corin Corin and U. Mikuel Michelle Rodriguez. So, congratulations to all our students. That is a a result of a lot of hard work over the years. The next recognition from our high school are our New London scholars. In 1986, the trustees of Connecticut College, a com uh competitive liberal arts institution, established the New London Scholarships Program in honor of the first significant role in the county for the significant role in the county that has played the life of the co in the college since its founding. Each semester, two outstanding seniors from the 18 area high schools are selected to take one college um Connecticut college course tuition free through this initiative. This year, Maggie Moore and Finn Meadows are participating
006in the opportunity, each enrolled in a course aligned with their future plans of study. Their participation reflects not only their outstanding academic records, but also their maturity in ma in managing demanding high school uh schedules while taking the challenging uh college course uh college level course. Importantly, as participants, they held the same rigorous el are held to the same ri rigorous expectations as all Connecticut college students with no adjustments uh based on their high school status. Maggie and Finn are representing Stonington High School um with excellence and we're extremely proud of their accomplishments. So, thank you for your all of your hard work and thank you Mr. Bouquet and Mrs. Dah for sharing that good news with us. We really appreciate it. I'd also like to recognize the f following community members for participating in
007our first request for repo for proposals for our senior projects. Officer friend from Stonington Police Department. Paul Geese from Stonington Cultural District. Alexis Sanchez from the YW.CA YMCA rather. Jen Roth and Sarah McL M Mclanahan Eden Edund from the Yellow Farmhouse. Sarah Cahill and Kate Riker from Mystic Seapport Museum, Amy Goldenberg from Mystic Aquarium and Research Center, and we'll be looking forward to reviewing those um responses and seeing who moves forward and what partnerships result in senior project second semester. So, thank you to all of our community members for supporting our children. Um next, I'm so excited to announce um uh Alicia, Sweet D, and I spent uh half a day, a little bit more than half a day at our police department on Tuesday. We had four outstanding candidates that um applied to be
008our school resource officer and officer Joe Saunders has accept that job today and we are so excited to have him. So we look forward to welcoming him officially in January. Um we can't get him uh to be part of our team soon enough. So welcome Joe. And then finally, we have a special thank you and goodbye, but hopefully not for too long that we won't be a stranger. Chris, we have a few things because you don't have enough Stonington Public School swag. That's from >> the card. >> We'll miss you and also especially miss all the coffees and conversation that we've had over the years. Thank you for your support. >> That's all I have. >> Mr. O'Keefe, anything? >> Nothing to add. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Donnie. He went last time. Yeah,
009thank you very much for this uh this assortment of stuff here. This hat looks really cool. I'll probably rock it on the way out. Um yeah, I'm going to miss it here. Um you a lot of good times. Um you know, a lot of lot of hard conversations. Um but I've always loved serving the community. I love serving Stonington. Um you know, I'm proud of how far um the HBI program's gone. I'm I'm I'm you know, I'm proud of all the progress we've made. Um, you know, I I uh encourage all the new board members that come on board to, you know, just always think of the students and the taxpayers first and, you know, how we can do everything efficiently and take us into the future at the same time. Um, you know, I'll
010be back in public service somewhere down the line. I have a kid coming in February, which I'm excited about. I'm going to put my focus on that. So, uh, that's it. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, sir, Mr. sitting next to you for four years has been a challenge. Um, no, it's it's been a pleasure. That's what I wrote down. Um, it's not easy. I don't know if people realize I I don't know if the students realize sitting in the back that this is our way of giving back to the community. Chris was uh fortunate to be born and raised and graduated from the Stonington school system and um years later he's back and served for the last four years on the board of ed. uh we do it without compensation which means we don't
011get paid. It costs us money nine times out of 10 to to you know we're now running for office and we're doing all sorts of stuff out there. Um, but it comes down to, you know, for the students in the back, the the teachers at the class you're taking ask you to come here in order to learn what the board of ed does and what their roles are. But it's also important whether you come here or go to a board of finance meeting or board of selectment meeting that they're just all your neighbors and they're just doing it nine times out of 10 for free. and because they love our community and their community either gave something to them that they want to give back or they want to see the community grow and move
012forward. Um so Chris and his young age that he is and starting out I wish you well and I know you'll be back one of these days and if not on the board of ed on on some other uh committee. Um, that being said, some of the communications that we've had over the last couple of months, I couple of weeks, um, I think everyone's gotten uh, emails concerning the funding of the middle school soccer program, and I look forward to the superintendent and anyone else with, uh, information regarding that. Uh we received a email from uh a concerned parah resident of pocket talk concerned about the library media specialist services at the West Vine Street School and the the hopes that um that can be reinstituted and it would be nice to see it included
013in our budget that the superintendent's now working on that will present to us in January or February. Um, and I think that's it. Oh, the food truck. Do we have Maybe you can comment on the food truck or if I missed it in the your weekly letter um when we're rolling out the food truck. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Right. >> Congratulations to Chris and the February happening. My mother was born in February. Good luck. and just thank you for everything you've done and I appreciate how quickly you've outfitted yourself here as if we are at like yeah America's Next Top Model happening. So, thank you. >> You do look very comfortable and I'm very jealous that you have that sweater now. But, um it has we haven't been able to serve
014very long together, but to run for office to serve for four years, it takes a lot. It's a lot of work, a lot of energy. Um to put your your foot forward is a really powerful thing to do. And so, thank you for inspiring me as well as many others to do the same. >> Thanks, man. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Katie. >> Two years and change ago, I reached out to Chris and we went to coffee just before I decided to run or it was around the time I decided to run and we had such a great conversation about the focus and the community and and what brings us all to sit at this table. So, thank you for your time on the board. We'll miss having you, but you better be back. Thanks,
015Katie. >> I mean, they already all said it, but >> pleasure working with you, Chris. >> Thanks. Good luck. >> Yep. >> Uh, I'll also say thank you to Mr. Donahghue for your service. Um, I know your why because I've known you for a very long time. Uh, Chris's why was always the community. It was always Stunnington. He's done a lot uh to serve and work and help this community be better. and I'm I'm I'm privileged to have served with you on the board of education. Congratulations on your retirement from the board of education and we look forward to having you somewhere somehow in the town serving uh the community again. Thank you, Chris. >> Thank you, Farooq. It's been a pleasure. >> Right. Next item on our agenda is board presentation and Mr. Buske
016is here. Right. [Music] Uh good evening. So most of you um I I've met before, but uh my name is uh for the new members, my name is uh Tom Buset, assistant principal of guidance at Stington High School. Um, I wanted to start off just by thanking you all for the time uh this evening to present a little bit about our career pathway program that we've been developing. Um, it's it's something that's super meaningful to us. Um, and it's something that's in the works. Um, so I'm going to try to brief briefly go through that presentation and the main things I'm going to talk about is what are they, why are they doing them, what our actual pathways are, and then what our roll out looks like. Um, so it's something we're, as I mentioned,
017we're really excited about um at Stonington High School. All right. So, the the what are career pathways? Just trying to make sure I can use this first. Um, so they're helping our students explore their careers in their different interest areas. Um, so at Strington High School, for as long as I can ever remember, we've always talked to kids about their four-year plan. What is your four-year plan? And typically what that looks like is what you're doing over your four years. What are your courses? What are your interests? Are you collegebound? Are you headed towards the armed forces? What are you going to do? Um, so we've always had that. We've always had partnerships with these really great organizations, many of which some of them were even acknowledged tonight, and then other things that have been
018developed over the past few years um that I'll talk about in a few minutes. Um so what career pathways does in a short thing is it allows us to bundle some of these programs and allows us our students to kind of showcase um their efforts and and what they're doing. Um so the other thing about career pathways when you think about high school is we have all kinds of levels of courses. Um so what's important about career pathways is we don't want them to be limited to one group of students. Um so there's something that are going to be available to every single kid. um whether they're um regular level, whether if they're headed towards AP classes, ECE classes, the trades, whatever it may be, we want them to have access to career pathways. Um
019so the big thing also with it is this opportunity for realworld experience, experiential learning. Um getting out in the real world and kind of finding out what it's about. Um, I recently read a statistic that um, adults change careers three to seven times in in their in their time of work. That's a lot. So maybe you're sitting up here saying, "Okay, we have these kids picking career pathways. Why? They're only going to change a career anyway." But it's to get them exploring. It's to get them look looking at different careers. Um, and and to kind of find out how that path works. Um, so the other thing is is students need 25 credits to graduate. Um, our friends in the back here, I I'm sorry to admit, but they're not here just for fun. Maybe
020a couple of you guys are. Um, but they're here as a graduation requirement for either citizens in action or our AP government class. So, they have graduation requirements that they have to meet. But if we can tie in graduation requirements that they have to meet with career interest and pathways and passions, it becomes all the more meaningful. Um, and then the other part of this is there's going to be regular reflection. So, as I mentioned the four-year plan, if I'm your kid's school counselor, you come and see me, we're talking about this four-year plan, but we're also talking about pathway. Um, and when I talk about the roll out, I'll talk about what that looks like for each each kid um in general as we do that. Um and then we'll also have advisory activities
021and um things that are incorporated uh through the curriculum with with pathways. So here's the why. Um and some of this I kind of touched upon already, but your passion. What is your passion? There there are students who um may be very interested in a different field. It could be I'm interested in the field of business and I'm taking all these business classes um and I want to explore it more. So you find out, am I passionate about this? Am I passionate about engineering? Am I passionate about nursing? Um all these different fields that you can look into um of showing this concentration. Um and then students being able to make informed decisions about their futures. One of the things that scares me most um as a high school administrator and school counselor is when
022a kid says, "Okay, I haven't done had been able to look at this career at all, but I'm going to go to this outstanding college because I worked really hard throughout my four years of school. The school cost about $75,000 a year. My family's not getting much aid. I'm going to go there." They go there their freshman year and they and they get to the school and they're not interested in the career anymore. So then they're faced with a decision. I need to change majors. I I might need to change schools. Worst case, I I I wasted $75,000 and now I want to do something totally different that maybe doesn't even involve college at this point in time. Um, so we want our kids to be able to make informed, smart decisions about their future.
023Um, one of the things we're seeing kind of anecdotally is we're seeing kids, and this is this is a world trend if you're looking at employment and and careers and what people are doing is it used to be all about going, you know, I'm going to go four years of college and then then it kind of starts from there where people are finding different ways to make money. And I think kids, my friends in the back, need to understand what that looks like and what are the pitfalls of it. What are the what are the pros and what are the cons. Um so I think making this will let them make help them make informed decisions um before they make a big decision that we don't want them to regret. Um so we just want
024it to be a really smart decision. Um kind of going along with that is clarity of career goals. Um we are going to talk a little bit about internship. um HBI, CNA, just since I have you guys as a captive audience in the back and I know we have a lot of juniors and seniors. Any this would be more seniors. Anybody that's in one of those programs that's in internship? I I know of one. Yep. Yep. So, we have internship. Anybody CNA? Okay. Hi, or pipeline. All right. So, these are all kids who are going out in the field already and doing things. Um, a little statistic for you about our internship program. We have 40 students who participate in internship. That's as and the only reason we don't have more is because that's as
025many as we can fit right now based off of class sections and staffing available, but we have 40 uh students, which is about close to 30% of our senior class um population that are doing internship, but that doesn't include our HBI kids, our CNA kids. Um so all these kids are going out and getting these real world experiences, these real life experiences. So career pathways will allow them to bundle it, allow them to showcase the works that they've done. Um the next thing is um increased uh industry connections, networking, and mentorship. Um early on we heard um Mrs. Butler recognize uh our request for proposals with senior projects. So what what that was about is you know I think you guys know this every single senior is required to do a senior project or they
026can do it through the internship program but the request for proposals were community members who are coming forward and presenting us with opportunities for our kids to do. So once again, these real life experiences, but they're also allowing us to make connections, partnerships that the school has with these folks, but maybe that you were a kid that went and dig your senior project with them like, you know, we really liked you now that your senior project's over, you graduated, you, you know, you're going into this specific field that related to what we were doing. Four years passed by or maybe a couple years passed by or maybe a month passes by and all of a sudden that we want to give you some employment. Um, so these partnerships and real world connections are really important.
027Um, and then the last one that's that's really important is helping students understand employment trends and opportunities available. What is it what do jobs look like um in New London County? If I want to live in New London County when I finish up on my job training, what does it look like here? Um, so I'm not going to make you look through them right now, but in the packets that you have in front of you, um, when you get a chance some sometime later on or you can kind of browse them as I talk. Um we have four established um career clusters. Career career clusters. Um these were established based off of two things. Um we took a look at the um national clusters how those that were out there. And then during a professional
028development day, uh our staff got together and they looked at our uh course catalog and courses that they taught as a department. And then we determined which ones actually matched up with the path our our career clusters that ma matched up with courses that we had and we were able to adopt these these four um which which was great. Um so I'll just kind of let you take a look at this slide really quick. So it has it has the four path four clusters 16 pathways. I won't give a quiz at the end on that. Um, and then you'll notice that there's plan your own pathway. So, what is plan your own pathway? And so, that was something that our team, and when I say our team, this is everybody. This is our entire staff,
029um, curriculum team, school administration, even district office, um, you know, kind of helped out with ideas for this. But plan your own pathway is when one of these doesn't match your passion, doesn't match exactly what you want, but maybe it's related to global communication. And then what you would do, and we have to iron this out more as a school and what our our policy will be with this um is what that pathway would look like for global communication. So here's here's the things that I did. Um here's courses I took. Um here's an internship that I did. Here's some community service that I did. Maybe I went and took um a course at at Connecticut College um through the New London Scholar Program. Um could that count towards u my playing your own pathway?
030So that would be another piece of it. So it doesn't pigeon hole a kid to one of these because these are the only courses that we have available. We'll get this clicker right before before the end. Um so roll out and so right now we are in the rollout phase. Um if you were to ask me at the end of this presentation what's the success of this program look like yet? I don't have that answer uh because we are in the rollout phase beginning to implement um phase. So, for the students, um, once again, juniors and seniors in the back, sorry. Um, it's going to start with our freshman class. So, we have time to introduce this, and there's lots of reasons for this because we want them to be able to go through the
031process. Um, so I I promise you not to bore you with reading slide by slide here, but the big things freshman year is an introduction. Um, we started an introduction right at the beginning of the year in our opening meetings just to letting the kids know what they were, knowing that they were freshman and overwhelmed with just walking into the building. We went light on that. Um, knowing that we have lots of time throughout freshman year to introduce the pathways, talk about it more. So then we're going to have an upcoming advisory activity actually takes place next month. And then we changed over our um college and career readiness platform. Actually, we're in the we're really in the process of doing that right now with an onboarding of a program that's called school links. And
032we switched from the Snaviance to school links because school links is more modern, upto-date, and aligned with helping kids search out careers and do surveys and some really neat stuff that's connected to the Department of Labor with job outlook. Um, things like that. So, students can actually look like if I want to be a nurse in I want to live in New London County or I want to live in Anchorage, Alaska, what's the job outlook? um for me moving forward and and ahead and what do those trends look like? Um so so that platform has all those things. So as we launch this platform, they're going to take inventories through it. So they'll take an inventory this year um like just just preferences to kind of find out what they are. Sophomore year is is
033really important because that is when a student actually picks their own picks their pathway. So they'll do a career interest profiler. they're going to hear even more about the pathways and then before course selection they would uh pick their their pathway and then junior year you're actually really engaged in it. Um we have what are called junior planning meetings which are um they're like 45 to an hour minute hourlong meeting where uh school counselor parent and the student all get together and they talk about future plans what those look like if those are career plans as I was saying in the beginning military um college whatever they may be they talk about that and iron it out um the career pathway will be a really important part of that um so they they'll do that
034junior year and then this the the big thing that we want to reimplement it's something that went back um many many years ago is job shadowing um of allowing kids junior year to go out and do two job shadows. They'd be an excuse absence and they do do a job shadow and they do then they do a reflection um about it and that's part of their career pathway and also as they research careers super valuable. Moving along to senior year and you're completing those requirements for your pathway, maybe participating in one of those programs I mentioned earlier. Um, and then you get a recognition on your transcript that you completed the pathway. Completing a pathway, we we're going to expect every single kid to choose a pathway, but completing a pathway, as I think you
035guys already know cuz you haven't heard about it, is not a graduation requirement. It's not something they have to do to graduate. They can also change their pathway as they go. As I said, I'd much rather we change pathways and research things versus going to co a college for $80,000 and then changing your mind. So, it's really more of this career exploration um piece to it. Um so, the the parent piece um at our um parent orientation um Mrs. Da and Mr. McDonald and myself, we went through the career pathways. Mrs. Bosch um was also really instrumental in helping with that um of just introducing of what they are and things to come. Um, and then moving forward, we we're talking about how can we get the word out of getting parents engaged in this.
036As you know, I just mentioned the junior planning meeting, but then also as these things get established, could we create on demand videos, have meetings, different things like that? Um, even information through parent square um about the pathways um and just, you know, kind of showcasing it in any way that we can. Um, this staff page is more of a a little historical um of the process that we've went through. Um it really started in 23 uh 24 when we had some initial initial work as a school um taking a look at our relationships with the seapport and the aquarium um and created a model pathway um just basically looking at we have these great folks that are already partnered with us and how can we put it together with our courses um of something
037that's really unique about Stonington High School. Um, so we kind of started that our first year and then last year was really big with, as I mentioned earlier, the national career clusters and aligning it with our programming. Um, we recreated the opportunities um handbook just to kind of make it more modern. Um, the the um papers that you have in front of you are from the opportunities handbook of this year. Um and then just kind of discussions about partnerships as we we mentioned those RFPs um meeting with different folks in the community um of these mutually beneficial relationships and and kind of how we're going to move forward um next steps um obviously implementation what that looks like um what are the popular pathways what are the less popular pathways um what are creative courses
038that we as a school can offer um you know based off of our um teacher competency and certifications and things like that and interest and having the student interest feed that as well. Um so you know kind of figuring out what are the best pathways. Um and then one of the things we're asking teachers to do and some of them already have these wonderful partnerships in place is bringing experts in in the field. Um, so if it's related to your course and a career pathway where you're bringing them in, it'd be really neat if they can teach, you know, some content that's related to the curriculum and then have a little portion of the lesson that are about careers in that area. So it becomes really engaging and real world um for the students. Um,
039and then and then more to come. This is this is a very, you know, live thing and changing thing and even, you know, at the national and state level, they're they've been changing things around with, you know, career clusters and pathways and even how they name them. Um, so we're just trying to stay on top of it. Um, so this these are, you know, outcomes and opportunities. I try we'll try not to be redundant about some of the points I already made. Um, so I'm going to skip the real world experience. Um, the next one is is connections. Truly, it's connected to everything. It's connected to our four Cs, our vision of the graduate, certainly senior projects. Um, and just making those four years as meaningful as possible to help our kids make those informed
040decisions that I was talking about earlier. Um, and then these community partnerships, having go-to people in various industries. We don't want to reinvent the wheel. Um, as I keep saying, we want partners that it benefits them, benefits us. We have go-to people. if you're interested in a certain career, we can call you up and oh yeah, Stillington High School, we've had students from you before or even if we haven't, we want to have this partnership and here's what we're looking for and and here's what we're going to do moving forward. Um, you know, kind of a quick example of those RFPs. Most of the RFPs that came forward were um folks in the community who were looking for help with uh their social media platforms, knowing that our kids are the experts. They're the best
041of the best. Um, so they were hoping that our kids would would help them with that of how do we mark it out to get people interested in doing things. Um, so so that's really important are those those partnerships. Um, I mentioned the build your own pathway. I think that's great. Um, just because I say we don't want to pigeon hole them into one certain thing. Um, and then student engagement. Um, our students say, and this isn't a bad thing, they're the Y generation. Um, it's not just, you know, I'm going to sit in class and, you know, I'm going to learn this topic. Why am I learning it? What does it mean to me? What am I going to do with it in the future? And those are all great questions to have. Um,
042and then we just kind I think we're going to need to revise our pathways. You know, it's it's an everchanging world. Um, I'm sure everybody in the room's heard the saying um the careers of tomorrow haven't even been we don't even know what they are yet. So, why why are we doing this? Why are we doing career pathways? It's well, there are there are careers in the career pathways that are going to exist forever. Um, and there's other ones that might not, but it's also going through the process and finding out how do I research careers? How do I how do I figure out who I want to be and what I want to be? Um, knowing that you may change a career down the road. Um, it's it's a likely thing. Um, and then
043for for Stonington High School, it's sustainability and evolution. Uh, what do I mean by that? Sustainability. Um, we think Stonington High School is the best high school anywhere. Um, so we want kids to attend there. there's there's reasons and kids have choices to attend alternative high schools, but we feel like with pathways and some of the programs that we've had in place like we want this to be a place that people want to come to, kids want to attend and be successful and learn these things. Um, so we think that's important for for our enrollment and then evolution of us constantly evolving with the times because if we don't change with the times, we're going to get left behind. Um, so that's why I say these these pathways will never be completely solid because they
044should be fluid with with based off of needs, interest, um, and programming that we have. Um, and then this last this last thing, I wish I could say these words came from me, so I'm I'm going to cite it. It's from, um, Connecticut Department of Labor. It's helping guide students towards high-skll, high wage, um, and in demand careers. Um, so that's really important. And one of the emphas emphasis from Department of Labor is training isn't always, as I said earlier on, it's not always just four years of college. There's multiple ways um to get trained. There's multiple ways to make money and and um kind of showcase yourself um for in demand uh careers that um are future focused. Um so we're really excited about career pathways. Uh any questions? >> No, just a comment.
045This is awesome. Uh this is a like a great gift for my last I mean I know it's not about me but for my last uh thing this is this is amazing uh seeing you guys roll this out. It's going to impact so many kids in a positive way. Not kids but students in a positive way. Um I don't know if you guys are thinking about putting entrepreneurship in there as well. I think that would be great. You know teach maybe have someone teach how to raise funding you know from banks and everything like that. Think outside the box a little bit. But that could be a good add-on. I know it's just at the beginning right now, but going forward that that that's a great pathway for a lot of kids as well. Um,
046no, this is tremendous. Um, you guys have done a great job with it, and I I look forward to seeing, you know, um, the partnerships you make with the community, with the, uh, local businesses in the community. So, you know, you can show where the rubber meets the road, you know, cuz I mean, the classroom's great, but when you actually get out in the field, that's where you get the real experience and you gain the confidence and it brings you closer to a purpose that you're going to make into your career in the future. >> Echo Chris and also they have entrepreneurship in here. It's not its own thing. I flipped through I'm sorry. I'm the person flipping through a read because I was very interested. This is amazing. Like, I am just I'm jealous.
047that I didn't have this as a teenager. I think it's awesome just the wide range like when you look through like recommended clubs and organizations drama and set design for the manufacturing production pathway like that combination of people and I think it gets different kids who are interested in different things in the same room too which we need more of. So I'm just so excited about this. This is awesome. So, I as someone who has a kid in the district who's thankfully far away from high school right now, but will be ending up going um you know, she's she's really lucky to be in this district to to related issues um that I know Tom is aware of, but I wanted to give Jen Ba nod who has already mapped out the encore classes at
048the middle school that map onto these pathways so that the students will get a taste of those pathways before they have to kind of narrow their interest a little bit so they hopefully know a little bit more of what they like and what they don't like. The other component and um this is very very new and under development and hasn't even gone to to curriculum subcommittee meeting yet. This is really much in discussion is um we we have a colleague that has done technical writing and embedded it into content area courses. So when we're talking about Chris, your entrepreneurship, I'll talk about the marine studies collaborative, but as we are designing a course for Mystic Aquarium to co-e at the high school, grant writing will application will be embedded in part of that content. And
049we're going to be taking a look at other courses so that you don't have to be like me and go to law school and learn how to write like a lawyer. You can know how to do a legal memo if that's what you're interested in. some of those natural things that would just be a leg up for our students in a variety of areas to find those natural fits. >> No, that's fantastic. And one more thing that I would just add too is make sure you also put an emphasis on like being able to market themselves and sell themselves because you can learn a lot of the technical stuff, but the social skills go a very long way when you're implementing. So, if you can add that into the classroom, too, it's going to go
050it's going to 10x everything. >> On that same note, um this is fantastic. First of all, this is a lot more thorough than what I see on the secondary post-secary level even um at colleges and universities, right? So, we're setting our students up with networking skills, tangible skills that they can put on their resume to be marketable. Um this job market is not easy and we're clearly setting up our students for success this way. It's also going to be something that for those students who do choose to attend a college or university, this is going to be great on a college application, right? right? To be able to say like, "Hey, look, I've already been progressing towards this program that I know you're really good at." Right? So, this is a really effective uh way
051to set up a generation that I think is going to be going through some serious challenges with a rapidly evolving um ever dynamic market. I think it's important to keep this as a dynamic program. That way, we're supporting our students no matter what the market looks like 10, 20 years from now. So, great work. two things. This would have been great about 25 years ago >> because because I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be. Um but all in good will ask Accreditation do do they care about any of this? >> They better. >> Yeah. I mean does that get us bonus points? >> We're definitely going to be presenting that to them. Yeah, >> absolutely. >> That's great. >> It's a great great question. We'll check. I don't know if maybe
052as a board member. >> Uh, real quick. Thank you, Tom. That was a wonderful presentation. Very thorough. I appreciate all the information. Um, you know, it's funny. Maybe this is most appropriate for all the students in the back, but uh maybe you too, Tom, being, you know, one of the leaders of this. So, I know I'm a graduate of Stonington Public Schools. Uh, I attended here at K12. Um, I'm 34 now. And to one of your stats that you started the presentation with, you know, most adults go through what, three to seven professions, right? I'm 34 and I'm on my third. So, I'm well on track for that for that stat. Um, I went to I was an active student at the University of Connecticut for 13 years. Um, and that know that those different
053tracks took me to those three different professions. at this point. Um, my last two job titles, I didn't know those jobs existed until I was it. And I think when you look at something like this with career pathways, I think the reason why people like me, people like the average adult apparently going through three to seven different jobs, there's a lack of knowledge, I think, in high school students, middle school students of what opportunities there are that exist or they might have an idea that they want to do XYZ, but they're not exposed to it until maybe they're too far and then they have to switch it up. um I would have benefited from something like this uh for sure and I'm super excited for all the kids that are going to benefit from this.
054Not that I regret any part of my uh my track so far, but it was that was the track for me. I was I think brought up with the you know everyone goes to college like of course everyone goes to college, right? But I think that's changing a bit and for our district in my opinion to be a bit ahead of the curve here on having legit pathways as alternatives to the everyone goes to college where a student can legitimately graduate high school and immediately enter the workforce is an incredible opportunity. Um so thank you for championing this. Thank you for championing this Chris. You get some credit for that too, buddy. Um wonderful all around. I'm very excited about this and proud of Stonington for delivering on this nice work. >> Tom, I'm not
055letting you go. Uh before a couple of things. Um, and I'm I'm really happy because one of the notes I wrote down is like I'd love to see something in the middle school because we really need to start talking about career pathways well before high school and especially well before that ninth grade because they go get in there and that that's not the year for them to be really uh getting into and thinking about career pathways and I was having a higher ed conversation this morning about that changing of major and the frequency of it. So, we really want to see the students start earlier in in the middle school. So, I'd love to see how we can take that freshman year and duplicate it into an eighth grade, you know, seventh grade conversation. Uh,
056that would be great. Um and there is a you know to Chris's point about emotional intelligence like I think a piece of developing emotional intelligence in this is surely critical to the success of the of the of the future student and um what I would like to also suggest and it's just a suggestion is that there are there are tools and I'm happy to send you samples that we work through in in my uh line of business where we uh show career pathways in terms of like you start here you're making this much, you go to here, you make that much and you go to there and you make X. So there's a career, you know, kind of like a visual of like what each pathway could mean financially because sometimes that is a motivation
057be beyond uh passion and and want and and one comment is I read somewhere that it says a 4year plan. Why do we call it a four-year plan >> over there four years of high school? But I mean to your point it it is more than that. It it really you know starts in middle school and is on up. So >> yeah, I'm not I got stuck on the word four year. So I'm not I'm just saying >> it's usually like just their four years of high school and what they're doing each year. And it could even that even encompasses such things as like community service and >> everything they do, sports, activities, stuff like that. >> Great work. >> If the board is interested, we can actually present to you the map down so
058you can see the encores that feed into that. And then we also want to map experiences that the elementary students have because there are things in place already with our our partnership with EV and and such that again we want to make sure as age appropriate that they have some experiences from K all the way up. Um and I I just want to say thank you to Tom and the team for being so deliberate about making sure that they address college and non-olbound opportunities. So thank you. >> Yeah. And just my my last thing besides thanking you for the your time, um it's just a shout out to to everyone involved. Um it's it's not one or two people. It's it's our entire staff. Um our leadership team, as I mentioned, our curriculum group, um
059and I'd even like to get a student steering committee as we move forward to help help guide us. So, thanks for your time tonight. And to and to Farooq's point about um the idea of it not being four years, the goal is that when the children are going up to 9th grade, the college and career will be arranged according for incoming ninth graders to to have a day where they go up and those college and career opportunities to explore are arranged by pathway so that they can say I I'm familiar with this or I want to know more about this. So we we've had a lot of conversations already about that that ninth grade's too late, ninth grade is too late. >> And in many higher ed institutes would also open their doors for your
060students to come and and you know add there that at the age appropriate eighth grade, nth grade. If we get them there, they will open their doors for them to come and be exposed and spend a day in one of those clusters. >> Love that idea. Uh thank you uh superintendent for making sure this is being done and uh Tom for and his team for doing all the work. Um I guess part of our responsibility as uh board members is the financial implications of this on the on the budget. out. Is that something that is additional that you've going to be in the budget for next year or is it just people doing different parts of their job working on this or you could touch on that? >> Multi multi- facets to that answer is
061some of this work has been happening because of grant money. Some of it is in repurposing um people that are already doing things. In other words, like that the these courses are already in place. So, it's it's not really an addition. It's just organi organizing and then yes, we're probably going to be having some conversations with you about do you really want to be f future focused um because it's going to it's going to take some financial commitment as well. Uh what is really amazing with our nonprofits is more and more conversations are about how can we give something to you and how can you give something to us. And so in my opinion, and this is just the Maryanne Butler opinion, it's not, you know, uh, carved in stone or anything, but um, the
062landscape of public education is changing and we have an opportunity to get ahead of it before a new model is given to us. And I think that means more and more opportunities like the Stonington Stingrays when we have these cold taught classes with museum educators and district educators, half of the time out of an institution, half of the time in district. There needs to be more and more open-mindedness about uh the education looking different, not just the buildings looking different. And you're going to hear more about that in a little bit. >> Is there a regional trend or national trend in this direction or is it just like are we going to like be the >> I think we're ahead of the game. I was up at Gillette Stadium produ um presenting yesterday and it
063was amazing to me how for a tiny district again whether you're talking about AI or models of instruction that are different and programs like our credentiing programs we're ahead we're ahead >> we have miles to go but >> right well so >> and because I think Kevin touched on it was like everyone goes to college attitude needs to change um you know I think I've mentioned before and I'll repeat myself if you don't mind. Um, you know, well, my son, I sent he I sent he went to URI, had a good year, not so much academically as he did other other aspects. Um, but you know, now he's in a different college and doing great and he found his pathway that way. Another and he was a class of 22. Um, another one went to
064Roger Williams. Didn't do so well. So, he left there and went to a tech school up in Windsor to become an electrician. Now he's going to be a an apprentice for being an electrician. Um, another one went to Coastal Carolina and that didn't work out so well for him. Um, so he joined the Marines and he's doing great. He loves it. Um, another one I just met him in Charleston uh last week. He's been in the Marines for three years since he's graduated from uh high school in 22 and he's do he's doing great. And it's just like, you know, not everyone needs to go to college. Not everyone needs to pay the 75 or whatever it costs to go to college and get themselves in debt or their parents in debt. That there's, you
065know, there's enlistment into the armed services, which is a great career path. And then there's also uh you know employment and whatever we can do to help that um along process along it's better for our students. is better for our community. And um I think it's, you know, it's exciting and uh Chris with his HBI uh push four years ago um straight out of the gate uh helped push us along and and just the you know the kids that did the food truck presentation as their senior project. Whoever started the senior projects and went, I don't know. Um but that was a great idea and the internships that internships that were already established and and what have you. So, you know, that's why we come back to serve, I guess, is to see all these
066exciting things. So, thanks, Tom, and thanks, Marian. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Well, Mr. Smith, I know you're up, but um how about we take uh the crowd in the back first just because they're all signed. Anybody needs their paper signed just because we usually I left. You can't leave yet. You still have five minutes on the clock, ladies and gentlemen in the back. Um, but we'll move over to Mr. Smith. Thank you, Chairman Mab. So, somewhere on your uh table, you have a old-fashioned hard copy. um just as a visual aid as we walk through this. So my goal tonight is to remind you what you did, tell you what we did, and then you folks can decide on what you do next. So, uh, at your retreat sometime this summer, you worked
067with a facilitator to do a much needed update on Stonington Public Schools vision statement, mission statement, and then the exciting thing, the banner statement or catchphrase. Uh, that is the memorable way to create a hook for these ideas. So, on the first uh page of the handout in front of you, and it is linked in the agenda for folks following at home, as Mr. Kelly likes to say, um is just here's what you produced. The board uh with this facilitator generated three different versions uh creatively labeled A, B, and C of three vision statements. You also created two different versions of a mission statement and then the three banner statements. So what Superintendent Butler and I did with your work on vision, mission, and the banner statements to support that is we went out to
068the welcoming school committees at all four schools live and in person with in-person groups and we presented the mission and vision varieties and we did two activities. We had table discussions where the participants in small groups uh in the middle school we had a kind of a whole group uh discussion where people just kind of reacted to all of the versions of mission vision and banner and talked about what they liked, what they found inspiring, anything they thought was unclear or confusing. Uh the process was a little fraught because people just wanted to go right to editing uh and they got out their red pens uh revenge of the English teacher and they started uh editing uh which is always one of the uh the big issues with this work is it's very difficult work
069because you can get bogged down in word smithing and word choice. uh and it's important words matter um but it is difficult work after the roundt discussions I used uh a digital platform called called thought exchange to help me capture and then coate all of the information from all four groups. So in this platform what happens is people log into it and they share an idea of what their prompt was what what would you say to make any one of these better or improve them in general and then they were able to interact with every they could see everybody's ideas and interact with them and rate them kind of like Yelp and then the platform in real time what they saw is that the ideas that got the highest rating started floating voting to the
070top of the screen. Um the folks were super engaged in this process and then the platform also asked them to rate the uh various statements as they are as far as which ones they liked. So on page two, that's what you see with the statement rankings. And this again is an aggregate of all the groups. Uh we also did this with a a couple of small groups of um staff members and the staff member results were virtually identical to the parent results. So what you can see is that as far as the three versions of the vision statement, uh letter C was far and away the one that people uh resonated uh with the most for mission statements is a little closer. Uh but uh version B was uh uh the favorite of those two.
071And for the banner statements, the uh banner statement C was again far and away the clearest favorite amongst all of the groups. The rest of the stuff in this package is a lot of uh a summarization of all of this stuff, which was super difficult to do because everybody had a different take uh on the the attempts of crafting a mission and vision statement. But I I wanted to share their work with the the board for no other reason perhaps than to show how engaged everybody was uh at kind of at the molecular level uh with this. And the other thing that this platform does is as they were submitting their ideas and thoughts, it aggregated the words in a tag cloud or a word cloud. and I shared a few of those with you
072where the more frequent a word appeared in their uh responses, it's larger and darker in color. Um, so I shared a few of those uh word cloud visualizations of some of the work uh that those folks did just to kind of give you a flavor. So the the next step in this process is again completely up to the board. Uh we just wanted to provide you with this level of feedback from uh those two stakeholder groups. No, I was just curious if you needed a motion to put them all three together or if you're going to do one at a time or is a motion necessary or I know said that was >> a motion is necessary if we want to vote on the approval of vision mission and uh banner statement. Um but we
073can put them all together if your favor is if you have a favorite or if you would like to have a discussion first. >> I'm content with most of A lot of work went into it and uh you know I like uh the percentage wise the vision statement C, mission statement B and banner statement C >> agreeing with the community vote, right? >> Yes. My motion would be to pass those three. >> Excellent. So we have a motion. Is there a second to that motion? >> Second. >> Any discussion >> on the discussion aspect? just a personal uh point of privilege, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> Um I ran for homecoming king 40 years ago at the at the University of Connecticut and my campaign speech or my campaign banner was think big, act big,
074vote the big Dan. >> So close. So that was much like banner C. So I don't know. I didn't come up with that one. I probably could. I mean, so actually back in the day we did act big, think big, vote big Dan. acted before we thought about it by then voted for me. So just a personal aside >> quite of a discussion noted. >> Sorry. >> Any other >> doesn't have to go in the movies. >> Hey, who says we can't have >> I'm all in. >> Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the motion, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. >> I'd like to just Excuse me, General Job. I'd just like to thank the board for their work. I know I' I've engaged in
075this work a couple of iterations and it it's you're not wrong, Mr. Kelly. It is hard work. A lot of effort went into it. Uh and I for one uh just wanted to express my appreciation to every board member uh for that. And I'm also very happy to move forward with with a modernized new uh mission and vision. The high school will use that to update their vision of the graduate. So it it it it's got some gravitas and and I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. And we want to thank the community for their involvement and their support and their vote >> and you you you as a board get a lot of attention yesterday for using AI to start as part of this process. So uh once again Stonington leads. >> Excellent.
076Uh next item on our agenda is comments from citizens regarding item on the agenda. register would like to remind you that 3 minutes is what is allotted per uh per person and 20 minutes per topic. Please uh go up to the podium, indicate your name and your address for the record. Thank you. >> Ashley Tulle, 113 Whitaker Drive. Um first I'd like to say congrats to Chris. Um welcome to parenthood. It doesn't get any better. uh pretty soon you'll be sitting there as a parent, you know, wanting input on all of this and, you know, being concerned for your child's education in Stonington. So, I hope that the four years here on the board has helped prepare you for that path forward. Um, on the vision statement stuff, I want to thank Tim for taking
077this to the welcoming schools committee. Um, he left out how great the middle school team did. Say that. Um, we were very thorough in the process. Um, but it was it was nice to have families included in this because this is what our children's focus is going to be. This is how the the Stone Public Schools is going to be gearing everything they do. So, I like that we had, you know, saying this and, you know, get to look at the process that you guys went through. I think that, um, these mission and vision statements are going along greatly with what the district is working on. I think that goes a lot to what Tom just explained in kind of these these paths that we're leading forward with. Um the partnerships with the community um
078you know we have great local employers and we're we're using that and it's included in our vision statement. Um the Stony High School pathways is helping students decide. I know one of the debates and I was talking to another parent about it today is you know the idea of lifelong careers and you know how that used to be the way it was and kind of my generation where we strayed away from that you know it is the career changes and all of these things and you know how do we go back to that how do we go back to that commitment and I think it is the reason we just went to those you have to go to four years of college and we didn't try to figure out what our interests were so you're
079bouncing around when the money's big trying to make these decisions and figure out where we want to go and I feel like this is going to help bring generations back to making those commitments. We have some great employers in the area that you can make these lifelong commitments with and you know hospitality and all these different areas. So I think that it's an absolutely wonderful idea and I think it's definitely to the benefit of the children in Stonington public schools. Um and congratulations to those students already getting to take advantage of it because it's such an awesome feature. Um, and hopefully it'll help open up my son's mind that he will not be a professional athlete. He's getting there. But still, seventh grade, I'm like, "Okay, buddy. Let's go. We're past that." Um, and then,
080uh, the only other thing on the agenda was just I wanted to comment on how much better the personnel reports looking. Even the, um, open positions we have like seem like they're getting filled. It looks a lot better than it did a year ago. Um, so just, you know, kudos to everybody for working on that and, you know, really pushing and I think part of the reason is just how good Stonington is as a school system where, you know, our families are engaged and our administration's engaged and our board's engaged. So, it makes it, I think, a better place to be part of. So, thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next item on our agenda is report from superintendent schools. We'll move it to Mrs. Butler. >> Thank you. Um, so after that dynamic
081presentation from Mr. Bus, I get to talk about a compliance issue from the state department of education. How fun. So, there's a new uh regulation that um on an annual basis and it will probably be at the very beginning of the school year from now on that you receive information on the attrition for the of all all personnel for the previous school year and along with that the workforce pipeline pipeline data um with some specific um information on each. So, you have those linked to your agenda. Um, I don't know if you have any questions about that. We certainly um Ashley did a nice job of saying the personnel report looks quite well uh right now. Um, and when you look at the attrition report, it looks like people are running away out of the
082district, but uh you know, you have those represent retirements and changes of careers and all sorts of uh different moves uh that happen in in people's lives. So you have that um as is required by the law by name, by building, by position, and then we just made a summary sheet for you so you could see where most of the motion was happening there. So I don't know if you have any questions about that. I am I imagine and I I don't I don't know the rationale, but I would imagine that part of this um push to do this to have you look at this information is related to what some districts are seeing and having difficulty filling um teaching positions especially in specific shortage areas. Daniel, I I almost cut you off. >> That's
083all right. No. Um is the ration or the reason for the people uh leaving is that obviously the state's not demanding that and does that obviously you guys know the answer but >> we we get it only we we collect it only if they want to take um up the option of an exit interview >> which some do and some don't. Any questions on that? Okay. The other um pieces of information are related to our our community work both for the special education students um in our various programs but also in some of our general education programs. In other words, what kinds of programs do we have like HBI and other partnerships? So, you have two different spreadsheets that are related to that. Allison is well versed in most of those placements. If you have
084any specific questions, she can answer any. Again, I suspect this is related to the Department of Labor and their interest in seeing where jobs are available, jobs are filled, and jobs are difficult to be able to be filled. Um, and what we're doing about that. I still wait I keep waiting for the legislators to give us some money for our our good work and credentiing, but we will we will persist again this year to see if we can get a little bit of recognition for that. Any any questions? Okay, that's checked off the box. Um the next piece of information I just wanted to give you an update on the portable classroom and the contract status um as it relates to Stonington Middle School. We're working with attorney Steve Lab from Shipman on the purchase
085contract and it's taken much longer. He was quite displeased with the condition of the initial proposal from the vendor. Um Steve has been working ridiculously hard to get this on track. Um the attorney thinks he'll be able to get that shaped up and and ready for review and hopefully um acceptance within 3 weeks or so. So, we're looking at early November before that contract is ready, which is obviously going to delay things a little bit. Steve is um taking the project for permit review on October 21st to planning and zoning for their approval. And then once the contract is signed by mobile modular um the design drawings will be take about three weeks and then be submitted for a building permit which will take another two weeks. After that site ex excavation can be begin
086and then after the permit b building permit approval the building will be constructed and delivered and that's going to take about another 8 weeks from the last construction to delivery time. So we're looking at a minimum now of 16 weeks. So, um, if our ground isn't frozen and if the gods are friendly and smile upon us, maybe early February, um, I can't say as I'm surprised because, you know, it's it's like anything else. You you hope for the best, but when delays happen, I'd rather have the contract buttoned up to protect the district and do it right and um, protect everyone involved. Um the EDS specs have been reviewed by all four welcoming schools committee uh committee members and on November 4th the the entire faculty at Stonington Middle School will take um some time
087to take a look at them and make some additions there. Um so that's that's that. Any any questions? Steve's here if you have any specific portable questions. It's one of his favorite things to talk about even though he's not a structural engineer or a general contractor. Okay. Um, uh, the district improvement plan is posted on the website. I know that at my goal setting meeting, we went through a lot of the same highlights there, but I wanted the public to know about what really is highlighted in the improvement plan. It won't be a dramatic reading of the plan, but just some of the highlights. Um, and many of them are on your agenda, as they should be. They all relate to your priority areas. Um, we continue with our curriculum revision and uh, development cycles.
088Um, as you know and you see every every uh agenda, we're doing significant policy work as well. Um, you've heard a wonderful presentation on our new career pathways uh which will be will be um continuing to evolve and you're going to hear a little bit more about that as um how much attention they're getting already. As far as the academics um goals, Mr. Smith and Miss Dah last last month gave you some highlighted information and especially some good news on our outstanding AP scores and some amazing growth in our ELA scores uh specifically at the middle school. We have a lot of work to do, however, in mathematics. So, we're going to be taking a look at ways that we can audit that curriculum and give it some attention that we gave the ELA last
089year and see if we can move the needle on that. It continues to not only be flat but really um starting to fall as it is not only across the state but across the country that on let's see can't even turn pages tonight. Um you just passed your mission vision and parent branding statement. I'm so happy. my favorite branding statement passed. It was like it gave me goosebumps the first time I read it and I want to thank Betty Oscar for that for encouraging us to use AI and I think it's the best branding statement ever. Um so thank you for that. Um another nod that's new and I want to give special attention is this idea of these reverse requests for proposals. I think it's a fascinating model and I'm excited that the the
090high school's excited about it um and helping them develop more robust uh offerings and we're going to take a look as Dan's worried about the budget. We're going to be taking a look at how we can expand those 40 internship opportunities to to service more children. I have some exciting updates on the Marine Maritime uh collaborative. Um we may be going internationally. More on that in a minute. Um we will be going back to the town to um pursue this solar project. It didn't get by the business officer office at the town. The first time was being um conservative and with all good motivation, but we will um work with a new select person very early in his uh office and get get that ball rolling to be ready for the February application process. And
091I want to also um thank Steve for working with the conservation uh club at the high school to make sure they understand what the environmental footprint, the carbon imprint is on um putting up those structures and how um what they need to do to reforest to compensate for that. So that's exciting. We continue to have a strong presence both locally and nationally pres presenting all the good work um that is being done in our our our district. um the the we're the first district as far as I know with the the statewide or that they're moving to the statewide radio system. Um and so those are some of the highlights that are outlined in the improvement plan. Um and if anybody has any questions about that or anybody from the public has any questions about
092anything you see in that improvement plan, you're welcome to email me. I'm happy to uh happy to meet, happy to discuss or um email you a response. I do have two exciting upcoming save the dates. This is a commercial for Allison, a special uh parents as partners event that we have um going on and is going to be offered at West Vine Street School and by our related service folks. All of our school psyches are are behavioral um specialists and they're offering four workshops in one night where you can choose as families two of the four. They're um outstanding outstanding practical strategies on how parents can help partner with us dealing with specific behavioral issues that we're seeing in schools. So, one is supporting your SC your your child's school attendance. We know that sometimes
093we have protective natures as parents and we want to keep our kids from discomfort, but when students have fears about coming to school and we keep them home, we just make the problem worse. And so there's one session that gives parents strategies on how to deal with that to recognize the fear, the anxiety, but then also how to um not make it a worse situation than it needs to be. Another session is on positive behavior strategies and and um stressing the importance of setting realistic expectations and establishing consistent routines to promote stability and positive behaviors. The third choice is um it's called I love this title from chaos to controlling uh control enhancing your students executive functioning skills. So giving your skills some your children some of those um you know organizational tips and coping
094skills self-regulation skills that are so important when they're um in our schools in order for them to be successful. And the last one which I suspect is going to be the most popular one is on anxiety and recognizing anxiety in our children but really giving some practical strategies against for parents on how they can be part of the solution and um and partner with us in making um the situation better. So registration is required. Um there was a parent square message that already went out. So Allison says you can register through that. If you didn't receive the notification, you can call special services at our general number extension 4 and they can help you register you by phone. There's going to be child care um available for children over five and a pizza. So really
095we're bribing people with everything we've got. So thank you Allison for putting that together. The second um opportunity is going to be a um forecasting the future of Stonington Middle School for the class of 2038 and beyond. This will be on December 17th at 6:00. We're going to offer it at the high school. Uh the details are still under development. We're looking at child care and food bribes as well for this event. It will have some of the content of the disengaged teen, but the focus really is to complement the work that the educational specifications folks are doing and the K12 B building committee will be doing looking at the structure of the school. This is a conversation. It's going to be very very active, very very um uh a lot of movement, a lot
096of conversation, and it's going to be about close your eyes and what does the programming look like for our class of 2038. The structure is going to look different. We know that, but we've already given you some hints today with the pathways and the maritime collaboratives. What's the learning going to look like? Who are the teachers? Who are the co-creators of teaching and learning um that are going to be working with our children? And how are our children going to be co-creators of that learning? Um not only at the middle school, but then eventually at the high school. So, I think it's going to be a super engaging night. I invite all the board members. We're going to send it out to the community. It will be an intergalactic invitation and I think it will
097not disappoint. Then finally, I'm going to pick up my glasses if I can find them. Oh, hold on. My favorite topic is this maritime studies collaborative that we're um working with the educators from the seapport and the aquarium as well as the high school administrators um Jen Bos, our curriculum team, Mr. Mr. Smith and myself. Um, we've been having by bi-weekly meetings and we're really coming up with some very concrete um, steps in addition to our RFPs. Um, we've pretty much zeroed in on a course that we are going to redesign to be co-taught by um, players to be named at the aquarium, but also um, centered around environmental maritime studies and specifically maritime science and probably um, conservation with a conservation emphasis. So, we're going to be looking at building on that Stingray model
098of Sorry, there's back there's there's some reverb. Yeah. Sorry. Is everybody's on I think everybody's pretty well trained on this. Uh [Music] Can you hear me? >> Uh oh. >> Is it I'm I'm good now. Okay, I'm back. I'm back. >> Back on. >> Thank you. Um we're in the process of identifying uh teachers at the high school. It may be an inter interdisciplinary model of of folks that will be involved in in this particular course. We'll design it next semester. It will launch next year. Very excited about that. Um the folks at the aquarium are identifying research scientists that will be available on the 26th of January to provide professional learning opportunities for our teachers. Um so more on that to follow. And the seapport is actually um already inviting some of our history
099teachers to participate in um professional development, the Danish rescue um compassion and act action uh related to the rescue of um of the Jewish Jewish citizens and during World War II. So the teachers of history who are teaching that content area will be able to take advantage of that um learning from from specialists. We also have had an exciting conversation with two professors from Bangor University in Wales, not Banganger University in in Maine as we all immediately think. Um they are very very interested in our career pathways. They're um they're they have relationships with the college university system which is a little bit different than our structures over here. So the conversation really revolved around uh students who are between like 16 to 19 years old which relates to our upper classmen. They're very interested
100in the possibility of becoming part of our design team looking at exchanges for administrators and eventually students whether that is a culminating experience of one of these courses that we end up designing over the course of several years or whether or not or not it is just an independent exchange program. So, we're going to have a lot of policy work to do, Dan. Um, to make some changes to do that. Um, we also have this liaison that we're working with, professor from down south who is a lecturer over in Wales. He's been the liaison for us finding these matches. Um, and he is also the person that we're going to abuse with this technical writing piece because he does that um in his day job. And it's just fascinating that we can use this person
101to do a lot of different things. So, you're going to hear more about this. We're going to have a half-day workshop, a working workshop with a group, our our group, our design group, and we hope to use AI to come out with a three to five year plan that will be up for your review in the new year. Other than that, I'm not excited at all. Any questions? I think anything's possible. I think these things must you know, you know, the thing that there's two things. Yeah. The two things that impressed me with these professors, there were two things that really struck me. The first thing they said is, um, if we send our students over there, will you take good care of them? And I thought, wow, that's not something, no offense, Zach, that
102you and and Kevin, that you norally hear from higher ed folks, is that they really have that social emotional um lens, which I thought was fascinating. And then when I I talked about our career pathways, they said, "These are both professor professors in the ocean studies college, if you will, and they said they were so stunned by the pathway studies on page 30 in your pathways, the marine studies, that their their students think they come to them that they know they want to do something that's connected with the ocean, but they don't have that content and background, that frame of reference." I'm thinking there's going to be some interesting um developments. So stay tuned. Any other questions to Marian besides do you all want to go with her? >> I think that should be based
103on seniority on the board, not age. >> Great. I guess I'm going thinking about that. >> I think I beat everybody. >> Excellent. Any other questions? All right. I would like to uh put a motion on the floor to amend the uh regular uh meeting agenda and striking item D on our consent agenda. Renumbering items on the agenda one through through the end uh of this long agenda of uh 12 12 and making him 1 through 13 and inserting item uh to move down uh the consent agenda and inserting item before that which is uh will be numbered item numbers eight and which will be uh an um executive session uh to discuss confidential documents. There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is it correct? >> Did you get
104that on? >> It's on YouTube somewhere, but I'm happy to write it. I wrote it all down here. Any discussion on the agenda item on the motion? So we're we're moving >> part A letter D to >> we're removing a striking and removing item D on the consent agenda completely. That's part of the motion. The second part of the motion is renumbering the items on the agenda to insert an item which is labeled uh executive session to discuss confidential documents. And there was a motion and a second by Mr. Donah here. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor of the amendment to the agenda, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> All right. Motion motion passes. Thank you. That was unanimous for the record. All right. Next item on our agenda is
105item eight, which is uh to go into an executive session to discuss confidential document. I'd like to move into a motion to enter into an executive uh session for the board and to invite Miam Butler, superintendent of uh schools to join. Please u is there a second to that motion? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. We'll go into an executive session. >> Do we have a time estimate? >> Not long. >> I was just No, not long. So, for those of you that are here, we might >> uh time estimate is 10 to 15 minutes max. Okay. Thank you all. Uh thank you for your patience to our audience and for sticking with us. Um but I'd like to
106make a motion to exit uh executive session. Uh there is a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. Thank you all. Um, so I would like to make a motion to ratify the agreement between the Stonington Board of Education and the Stonington Education Association uh for the contract period of 2026 to 20 through 20 to to 2029, not through 2029. I can't speak today. Um, there's a motion. Is there a second to that motion? >> Second. >> All right. >> Any discussion on that motion? Comments? The value of our teachers cannot be strictly uh monetized in the contract. Uh our schools in Stonington at every level, elementary, middle, and high school. Um the teachers are the crown jewel
107of uh of our system and and they're don't always get the recognition that they deserve, but I hope they know and Bruce can pass it along to them that they are appreciated every day um by parents, by students, and sometimes they don't always see it or feel it, but um in the long game, I guess that's why teachers do 30 years, most of them before they can get out. But >> oh, sorry. I need to get my up to snuff. But um but you know, so they are appreciated and and I think this contract is a good contract for them. >> I lied. I do have a discussion based on that. Yes, they are valued so much more beyond the monetary value. But to live in this world, we do need mon money even teachers.
108So remember that during budget season. I >> keep hearing drum rolls in my head. I don't know. Um but um you know to to to to to those points that were made, we appreciate you all and I just want to thank um the Stonington Education Association uh negotiating team and and uh Mr. Yarnell, Bruce, thank you for leading that uh on on that end. and to my uh fellow board members Kevin and uh and Katie, thank you for sitting through those uh those nights and and I appreciate you all along with the of course our attorney and the executive team and and and the district. So, thank you all for all your efforts. So, and thank you for ratifying this. So, uh there's a motion, there's a second any further discussion hearing none. All those
109in favor of ratifying this agreement, please indicate by indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Motion passes. All right. Next item on our agenda. Next item on our agenda is consent agenda items A through C. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> There's a second. And discussion on uh our consent agenda item A through C. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving uh consent agenda items A through C, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Next item on our agenda, item nine uh is approval of the 2026 monthly regular board meeting calendar. Um Chris, would you like to make a motion to approve that move? >> Motion. >> There's a motion. Is
110there a second? >> Second. >> There's a second. Any discussion on that motion or that uh that calendar? hearing none. Uh I'll take all those in favor of approving the uh the regular board meeting the 2026 regular board meeting of education schedule please indicate by saying I >> I >> that was unanimous uh for the record. So all of you running out there running for board of education add those dates on your calendars. Next item on our agenda is uh subcommittee reports and I will start us with teaching and learning. >> Thank you. Uh okay, teaching and learning committee. So there's um eight curricula for or on listed on your agenda right now. When the teaching and learning committee reviewed those and approved them as a committee, it was back at our June meeting. Um
111we didn't have meetings in July or August because there was no board meeting. I think we had to cancel our September meeting for reasons that I forget at this moment. Um because of that and to keep things moving because we have a long list of um of curricula up for approval coming soon. Um I'd like to make a motion to wave first read for the curriculum listed under item X1 um and vote as a board to approve um those curricula tonight. My apologies there's a motion on the floor. Is there a second to that? And I'm repeating just because my mic goes off. >> There was a second to that motion. Any discussion on that >> hearing? None. All those in favor of approving the motion, please indicate by saying I >> I that was
112unanimous for the record. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. And then our next meeting in November, there will be I think uh eight or nine more curriculum up for approval. Um but it'll just be first read. We won't be voting um in our October meeting. So um or sorry November meetings. Those uh will be approved in we won't have our November meeting. We at our December meeting. Holy cow, time is flying. Um so yeah uh look out for the um first read of the curriculum that we we reviewed tonight. Uh that is all. Thanks. >> Thanks Kevin. Uh finance and facility subcommittee report please. >> Yeah. So uh we already talked about the portables. Um and then uh the next thing that we were speaking about was the radio systems which um Marian already
113discussed as well. Um the other thing was the slab here. Uh Steve, if you could speak to that a little bit. I forgot the time frame that you were telling us. >> I should have the bid drawings and the the bid specs and the drawings by the end of the week. It's getting close to the end of the week, but maybe by early next week. Um put that together. We're about four week it'll take about 4 weeks 5 weeks to uh go out to babe. Once that's done then we're looking for about another 5 weeks for mobilization impairment. And so we're about again 10 12 weeks out on the the slab project. But it is moving along. So and we're hoping to try and get it started over Christmas vacation when the kids are gone.
114So most of the noise is done in that time period. Whether that will happen or not, >> six week project, right? >> Yeah, it's about a six week total, but most of the demolition would be the the main noise I think when it >> you know, after the floors poured, it's going to be finishes. It goes underneath lockers. It will actually goes underneath some of the the the classroom walls. It's it's kind of where it goes through. It would surprise me how far it went under the classroom walls. So, it's not going to be an easy replacement. Um but they have a good plan for it. >> Thanks, Steve. Uh and the last thing is so we're owed a a quarterly report. Um Alicia was not here. She is out right now on medical leave,
115I believe. Um so next meeting uh we'll get a quarterly report from uh Alicia and the superintendent. >> Thank you, Chris. Any questions for Chris on his report? Hearing none, we'll move next to policy subcommittee, the very busy committee. >> Well, yes. And no, the very busy superintendent who then um presents the the her desires of uh cleaning up and I think she gets a little push from her secretary here, administrative assistant to clean these things up. So um XC1 policies for first readin are um equitable identification of gifted and talented credit for online courses and idea alternative assessments. These are um policies that are uh mandated by the state and will either be replacing other policies or new policies. Uh again, if anyone watching from the comforts of their home or anyone else that
116looks at this uh meeting afterwards wants to click on the agenda and they can click on the hyperlink to read these policies and if they have any questions, they can always reach out to, you know, the superintendent's office or to myself for uh questions on the policies. So, we'll have the second reading in December. policies for repeal a first reading and I will be uh entertaining a motion to um wave the first reading um and go right to the second reading. So that uh all these policies are antiquated, outdated um superseded by other policies. Um, you know, you can see the dates on some of them go back to 2011, a lot of them go back to 2016. So, I'll make the motion to wave the first read and uh repeat policies A through VV.
117Is there a second to that motion? >> There's a second. Is there a discussion on that? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the motion, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. >> Now, that was to wave the first read. Do we have to vote on it or is that just >> We vote we voted to wave the first read and to move to remove these policies and repeal them. >> Gotcha. And uh subsection 3, the policies 6,000 series in need of alphabetizing and reumbering. Um, again, it's just a administrative uh business that needs to take place here so Anna can do her thing with the alphabetizing and reumbering so that if one is to go online and look at the policies, they're able to look at them
118easier and make sense of trying to find them and what series they belong in and and what have you. So, um I will entertain a motion to wave the first read on um >> I'll make the motion to wave the first read and uh uh realphabetize and reumber uh policy 6000 serious. Is there a second to that motion? >> All right, Zach got it. Uh second that. Um any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying I. >> I. Motion passed unanimously for the record. >> And just a a public service announcement that uh our superintendent is um doing a heck of a job with our policies with the again with the help of our assistant to get our policies in order and and just when
119you think you're getting close to the end of going through the book, it starts all over again. So, it's a never- ending polic uh policy uh procedure and uh you know, it's what we do. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Kelly policy committee? Thank you for all your hard work. I know it's all honor, but it's okay. Um welcoming schools on report. I'll say real quick just to reiterate uh thank you to the administration for coming to the West Vine welcoming schools uh last month um to go through the mission statement, vision statement. Um that was a really great activity. Uh really good collaboration. I I think everyone enjoyed that. Um there was a welcoming schools committee between that one and today. Meg, were you able to attend that? >> No, due to the law
120of the space-time continuum, I had to stop. >> We had a board I think we had a board. Okay, I got you. I know there was there was was a board meeting that night um for something else. So I had to miss the last one. But anyways, thank you to the administration for um you know including the welcoming schools committee in that in that process. That was a good activity >> and what he said about Deans Mill too. So it was good to have um Tim and Maryanne come to Deans Mill. >> Hey. Uh next item on the agenda is the learn board. >> Should have just left my mic on. Um, so the learn meeting last Thursday, good portion of the time was spent reviewing plans for a new state-of-the-art prek to2 magnet school
121that's going to be built in Waterford. So they went over some awesome. I mean, I was like so jealous. Um, but so they're but at the very early stages, I think they just purchased the property. Um, but they just kind of went over all the things that they thought of. I mean, they thought of everything. Um, so they went over that. Um, and also there was just some possible discussions on the horizon about cell phone use in schools. And it seems like a lot of other districts are putting plans into place, but none seem to be as firm or concrete or robust as we have at the middle school with the yonder pouches. That's it. Excellent. Any questions for the learn board? Hearing none. Next item on our agenda are monthly reports. Any questions on
122the monthly reports? Next item on our agenda is the board comments for or any items for future um agendas assembly. Yes. So public announcement is that the board have decided to cancel the November uh board meeting. It's just the way it aligns with elections. We failed to recognize that last year. So it's just it's better that we cancel it and we move it to December. >> Hearing none. Um >> move to adjurnn. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. >> All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous.