001I'd like to call the Stonington Board of Education regular meeting to order on September 11th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. And our first uh or second item on the agenda is pledge of allegiance. And I'll ask Miss O'Keefe to lead us in that. Yes. Uh, today is the 24th year anniversary for 911 and I'll ask for a moment of silence. Thank you. >> And along that line too, the Pyiver tournament took place last weekend and this weekend at the high school soccer tournament between Westerly, Stonington, of course, Chero, and I forgot the other school. Huh? Pitch. Oh, sorry. my school. Um, and the finals are this uh Saturday, boys, Stoneington boys against Cheroo and Stonington girls against Cheroo. So, if anyone wants to do that, they're always uh collecting money towards a Josh Pyiver scholarship, who
002of course, if people don't know, was a Stonington grad who was working on 911 in one of the towers and uh perished. >> And he was a Stonington Bear soccer player. goalkeeper for the team. So, very fitting. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Um, next item on our agenda is communication recognition. I'll turn it over to our superintendent school. Thank you, Farooq. Um, we have two new members to welcome on our board of education. Um, first is our newest board of ed member, Zach Buddha. We're thrilled to have you. Um, we now are officially a multigenerational uh team here. And I'm grandma. That's so so thank you for making me feel even older than I am. And Finanella O'Keefe um who is an outstanding student government uh representative. I'm excited to work with Finanella because I've heard
003her um on her feet speaking in various venues and she's just a dynamic um person and I'm going to learn a lot from her. So welcome Vanella. Um we're happy to have you. Um, as far as communications, I have heard from a few folks who um were confused about the magnet school transportation uh decision by the board of ed last um spring. Uh I spoke to a great-g grandandmother, believe it or not. Uh and tried to clear up the confusion about like that we still do pay tuition for all of these the charter schools, the the magnet schools, but by law we're not required to provide transportation to the charter schools. Um, and the other piece of that is, uh, we sent notices out, just so the board knows because I know a a couple
004of you probably got communications that this message didn't go out. We sent the messages out to people who had registered with the school. They have to register every year because we pay tuition to those schools and we have to know again for some of the magnet schools in the past, we did uh provide transportation. So when if they came in late, they were notified late. But again, this was a topic uh publicly discussed and uh I just wanted you to know that we people who I talked to were at least appreciative of the information they got. They might not have liked it, but they were appreciative of the time. Um I do have um another communication and it's a continuing um communication with the Eagles hockey club. um and they're concerned that they want to
005be recognized as a formal cooperative. Um and they're going to be meeting with me again to talk about funding. Um I'll keep you updated, but again, it's a club entity. It is not the same as uh the other co-ops that we have agreements with districts. I know that there have been some changes in the the leadership there. There I think their their point person is no longer in Graten. It's in Planefield. And I know Brian Marone is scheduling a meeting with his counterparts to figure out what that has as implications for the entity. If it indeed has changed into a public school hockey team, then again, we can revisit that during budget season for funding purposes. Uh I have to put in a plug for Miss Dawn and the Stonington Bears. Congratulations Stonington High School
006on being recognized as the 20th out of 208 high schools in the ranking by US News and World Report. I did mention that at convocation. um it's such a really visible um piece of evidence that the K12 system is working, that we're a tiny but mighty school district and we do great things and that's a that's a recognition that is the result of everybody in the district's work. So, I'm very happy about that. I also want to give a shout out to our first select woman who has been going to be recognized by um as a lead for her leadership as a as a female leader. Um she's going to be the recipient of the Athena Award in November and I'm very proud of her and I'm going to miss her. So congratulations Danielle. Um
007and we'd like to thank Stonington Police Department for their um updating our radios and providing professional learning opportunities not only for the um leadership team but all of our faculties and staff. Um and I would like to thank the board of ed who um believe it or not is getting some attention for their leadership in using AI to craft their new vision and mission statement. Um, you know, you say you want to focus on future focused learning, but when you lead by example, that's very powerful. Um, and so we gave you a commercial tonight at the first welcoming schools committee at the high school. Um, you also got some a nod on my my monthly spot on WLBQ. Uh, and it's also getting some attention from other podcasts. So stay tuned on uh where that
008leads us. Hope hopefully somebody will throw us some money for that. And then thank you to Quinland Enterprises for securing new goals for uh the Stony Stingrays as they begin their first season. Uh through their work and generosity, the middle school will be starting their inaugural uh soccer season at the middle school against Isaac on September uh 22nd. The girls will be playing at home and the boys will be uh playing away with a start time of 3:30. So please go out and cheer the Stingrays. And I just want to let the board know that you are entertaining tonight a new gift policy that will have a different procedure for how gifts are approved over different amounts of money. We are currently operating under the current gift policy. Um and so my duty under that
009policy is to inform you of said gift. Any questions? >> Is that too much? Fr. You look like you're taking a back. >> No. So the policy is there for your first read. So it will take you a couple of meetings to make to make that decision. Thank you Marian. Uh next uh welcome to Finella Keith uh student rep. Do you have any uh communication recognition to share? >> Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here and get to know everyone. Um this week, our first two weeks at Sony High School been exciting. We started off with link crew which was really successful. We had a very large group of students this year and they all volunteered their time. Um our both as Mr. Kelly touched on both of our girls and boys
010soccer team are advancing to the finals of the Pyber Cup. And I'd like to talk about our new program uh called Smart Pass that ensures our hallway safety at our school. It's been very efficient and our students are required to fill out a pass before they leave the classroom which allows our hall monitors and teachers to know where every student is and I think it's definitely ensuring our hallway safety and um keeping kids on task and last time I was here we had talked about our junior project which is completed and we hung up our two banners and on the first front two fences of the bleachers and they look really well. They look great and we're really excited. This Friday we have our first home football game. So, the stand should be packed and
011it we're excited to see what it's gonna look like. And we also have the activities fair upcoming where we hold um an event that allows all the freshmen to see our great opportunities at high school and we're just excited for a good year. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Kelly. >> I didn't know the banners were up. I was up there last night for the JV field hockey game, which I didn't quite understand what was going on out there. I've never attended a field hockey game before. So, I just yelled for my niece every once in a while. Um, my nephew was uh one of the link crews, so I got a little inside scoop on what he was doing for that, and he couldn't go to Kansas with me because he had to stay
012back for for Link. Um, this morning, I'd like to uh I had a tour of the middle school and thank Jeff for taking time out of his busy day. And uh it was good to go back there and see the energy of the school and see what changes they've made since uh you know they I didn't make it there last year so to see the changes they've made from last year to this year and then to maybe learn a little bit more about where the portables are going and how that's going to work. Um but definitely uh the portables uh that was like the biggest thing that was discussed from teachers and paras and everybody was when are they coming and you know things are better this year but um they're they're in need. So
013um I'm sure Steve's got that in his report tonight. Um, and uh, it's congratulations to all the administrators and teachers out there that had had the opening days and uh, got off to a great start the last week and a half or so. Um, it's always nice to be able to read the paper, hard copy, whether it's the Wesley Sun or the London Day, and not have to read about our school system being in the paper like some of the other school systems are. Um, it's just, you know, brings your comfort down, you know, or to a level that is is nice that, uh, you know, flip to the sports section, see how the teams are doing and, uh, not have to worry about the controversy that you might see at other schools, whether the
014bathroom doors are on the bathrooms or not and and what have you. So, um, and I actually actually saw a little bit of the, um, yonder pouches at the middle school today. I was like, "What are those?" And it was the demagnetizer, whatever. So, it's always good to get in the schools and see people and see things, you know, see what we do here on our meetings actually in operation. I don't think we do that enough. So, and uh I don't know about Friday night, but I think Saturday night I'll be at the soccer game. Go Bears. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelly Mc. Our newest board member. Welcome to the team. Uh any recognition or comments, sir? Just wanted to thank the entire board of education and the administration for all the support and and
015welcoming that they've offered me and extended me thus far. It's been a fairly seamless journey to to get onto the board and and to be working to make Stony Public Schools the best they can be. So, I'm thrilled to be here and I'm very grateful for everybody that's made the first couple of weeks go smooth so far. I don't know if you heard the superintendent talk about the AI, but I hope you did because we're we'll be counting on you for some more of that. Well, uh, thank you for everybody who makes, uh, the the school system the best, uh, I believe in this in the state and we're going to take it to be the best in the country hopefully together. And, uh, for our, uh, administrators and teachers and parents and students and
016families of the middle school, hang in there. We're working our hardest and our fastest to um, get you those portables. Uh we're sorry this is taking longer than it should. Uh please accept our apology. We tried our best to get it to you in time and hopefully we'll be here in you know January will be here before you know it. So hang in there is my ask. Um and uh that's all I have. Uh next item on our agenda is uh board presentation and I will uh move it over to the one and only Mr. Smith. Always good to have a tech guy. Good evening. It's always my uh pleasure to address the board. Uh this evening uh I'm going to be talking about our district student achievement data. I'm going to present all of
017the data as a district. And assisting me uh in that tonight is uh Alicia Daw from the high school because they have some outlier data in their advanced placement courses that aren't included or posted on the state's uh student performance website. So, uh I'll let her speak for herself uh on those uh advanced placement scores when we get there. So um instead of the typical presentation of all kinds of bar graphs that are hard to read, I provided uh a complete uh narrative and uh data table for the uh board uh to review. And I want to just kind of tell the story uh of our scores uh and the story of our students and our journey as a district. So we can often see data just as that as a series of metrics, bar
018graphs. But I really like to view data as both a mirror and a window. All test data is behind you. Uh it happened last year. It measured our students last year. It's valuable, but it is a look backwards. What our job to do is to use that data, try and make some uh observations and then look out the window forward and have that data help us see where we're going. The data from the 2425 school year paints a compelling picture. It's a testament to the hard work of our educators, our students resilience, and the whole community's unwavering support. I've shared a great deal of information with you in the data report. Uh so tonight I'd just like to explore the data through a lens of our strengths, opportunities, and forward momentum. Our data clearly shows
019a powerful f foundation. For the third consecutive year, our district has seen an increase in ELA proficiency scores across all grades. Our focus on early literacy and phonics instruction is paying off. Our ELA performance index of 75.3 places us second in the region comparing all of the nine schools in our area. Even more impressive, our growth rate of 46.3 is number one amongst those nine schools. showing that more of our students are hitting or exceeding their personal growth targets than any other district. We've seen some nice growth in those ELA numbers at the high school and I want to recognize the English teachers for their effort. Likewise, I really want to recognize Ma Huins and all of the English language arts teachers at the middle school is this is really what's behind the data. A
020few years ago, those teachers were aware of their very slight but consistently downward trend in their student achievement. They dug in and examined both curriculum and instruction. They researched and implemented a supplemental program called Common Lit and worked together to improve student outcomes very seriously. On top of their efforts, last year we added uh a consultant from Eastcon who focused on the curriculum side of things and working with our special educators in the co-eing model. Those efforts will continue this year. And the third thing that happened at the middle school is the yonder pouches and removing the distraction of cell phones from the middle school students. So we have to be honest and say that those increases in scores are a confluence of those three indicators. The strongest however of those three is the work
021done by our Stonington educators. Uh while we saw an increase in scores across the board in the content areas, which may be attributable to the lack of cell phone distraction, we know that the work of the Eastcon consultant really won't have a larger effect size until this year and the year after. It's really that work that the teachers started on their own uh that made the difference uh for those that significant increase. They are the key factor in that. At this point, we'll have Valicia come up and talk about our AP scores. Hi, good evening. Can everybody hear me? >> Sounds very soft. Okay, so we always hear about SAT scores, correct? We know SAT scores, our juniors take SATs, but really what are AP scores and how does that metric set us aside from
022elementary and middle school? So I'm just going to give a brief overview um on what we have done at the high school specifically with our AP scores and what those courses are. So advanced placement courses provide our high school students with opportunities to engage in college level academics while still in a high school setting. These courses are designed to challenge students with rigorous content, foster advanced critical thinking and problem solving skills, and promote strong study habits. So why do our students take them? So why by enrolling in AP classes, students may also earn college credit or advanced standing through successful performance on the AP examination. So currently um our 10th graders can take AP bio but primarily our AP courses are reserved for 11th and 12th graders. Now AP classes are also weighted more. So
023for those folks who are listening at home with a bowl of popcorn, you can turn to page 10 in our opportunities book which is online and you can follow along with me. But an honors class will earn an additional half a point. An AP class earns an additional one point. And to simplify it even more, if Farooq was to take biology at Stonington High School, regular biology, and you earned an A, your numerical grade of a four, you would earn a numerical grade of four. If you took honors biology, you would earn a numerical grade of 4.5. If you took AP biology and earned an A, you would earn five points. So, but in addition to participation in AP coursework, it also demonstrates a student's commitment to academic excellence and a valuable component in the
024college admission program. Now, I submitted seven years. You didn't ask for it, but I did it anyways. I submitted seven years of AP data at the from the high school. So, I'm just going to briefly summarize that briefly. Over the past seven years, our advanced placement program has demonstrated both consistent student participation and strong academic outcomes. In spring of 2025, 163 students completed 287 AP exams with 83% earning a score of three or higher, the strongest performance since 2019. While overall, and this is really important, while overall enrollment has gradually decreased from 665 students in 2019 to 544 in 2025. AP participation has not only remained steady, but we're averaging approximately 160 students per year. The percent of exams of a score of three or higher has improved significantly, rising from 69% in 2021 to
02583% in 2025. These results reflect the school's continued commitment to rigorous academic opportunities and highlight meaningful gains in student achievement. Now, if you haven't heard, although somebody likes to steal my thunder sometimes, Stonington High School for the fifth year in a row was ranked and best high school in the nation by US News and World Report. But for the first time in history, Stonington High School was ranked number 20 within the top 20 in the entire state of Connecticut. So, why is that a big deal? And what how do they rank us? What are those factors? There are six factors that go into that. AP scores, SAT scores, NGSS scores, underser underserved student performance gaps such as black, Hispanic, and lowincome household, graduation rate, and college curriculum in regards to how many AP and ECE
026courses we offer and the variety of such. And obviously I as much as I would like to take credit have my just my high school take credit for all of that, it truly is a reflection of our K through 12 staff and students. So any questions before I turn it over to Mr. Smith? Thank you very much. So growth areas. So true progress requires honesty. Our data also reveals areas where we have some significant growth potential. We observe this in the performance of our students in specific content areas. Although our math scores are good, student achievement has stagnated for more than three years. as reflected in our math performance index of 72.1. I believe the issue with our math scores at the high school level is a student engagement issue in a couple of nuanced
027ways. The vehicle, the assessment is the SAT, which at its core is a college aptitude test. We have to test everybody whether their college is on their horizon or not. So, it's a it's not a great assessment for measuring uh what kids know and can do. It's an aptitude test. So, it's a little bit of a mismatch there. And the other part of a student engagement is the incentive for students to engage with it and do their best. And I think that at both ends can be a little wonky for our high achieving students. By the time we do the school day SAT, they probably have already taken the SAT once or twice to get their best combined score. So, their motivation to get their best effort in the school day SAT on a case-bycase
028basis may be a little underwhelming. And again, for students who are non-olbound, their motivation to engage in that and do their best on that assessment, we've proven that with our science assessment. Our science assessments um the next generation science assessment at the high school was kind of flatlined for many, many years. Our science teachers told us, "Hey, we know these kids. We teach these kids. Those re assessment results don't really reflect their learning." as soon as we put an incentive in for them to do their best on that test, scores went up 20% that year. So, that's something that's one of the challenges we're going to have to take a look at is is is this true that we need to find a way to motivate students to give a better faith effort in the
029assessment and do we need to do something different to make sure that they have an opportunity to learn what they're being tested on. There's also room for considerable growth in science at the elementary and middle school levels. And the next growth area is our data kind of across the board shows a persistent achievement gap for our high need students in all content areas. the performance index gap between high need students and again that's the super bucket that the state uses that includes our students with disabilities our special ed students English language learners and students who qualify for free and reduced meals so it's it's a bigger uh bucket of kids not just special education kids so our performance gap on the content to content ranges from 16 to 18 points of performance which is better
030than the state average. It's better than the gap in a lot of uh our comparable districts, but it is the area where if we can do a better job moving those kids along, it will have a greater impact on our overall uh score. So those are our three again to recap our three areas uh for growth. math achievement, science at the elementary and middle levels, and improving uh student achievement for our highnee students across all content areas at all levels. Moving forward, each school will set its own grade and school specific goals to improve achievement in ELA, math, and science. But more than that, forward momentum is all of our commitment to future focused education, which at its core makes school more relevant and engaging for all students. We're not one of those school districts
031that teach to the test. We don't do a ton of test prep. We are a good school district because of what we do and the teachers that we have, the good test scores that we get out of that. uh are a byproduct, not the beall and end all. Any conversation about improving student achievement has to include the interlin issues of chronic absenteeism and student engagement. To be captain obvious here, kids who come to school and participate in meaningful ways learn more. Chronic absenteeism is a complex issue with many causes. It's the result of excused and unexcused absences including family vacations, illness, anxiety, uh disengagement due to academic struggles. Each reason requires a different tailored approach to support the individual students. We need to do a better job at solving this problem on a case-bycase basis.
032large blanket programs to try and improve uh chronic absenteeism haven't really proven to a lot of school districts to be effective. And I believe that's because the causes are so nuanced. Just like absenteeism, engagement is also complex and varied. Like employers, schools are seeing a shift in young people. Students are making more value judgments in a shift from a compliance mindset to a purpose mindset. Today's students are driven by purpose, intrinsic motivation, and agency. Similar to our work around the book, The Anxious Generation, we will begin using the book The Disengaged Teen to look for ways to improve both engagement and attendance. Choose closing the achievement gap for our highne students is a persistent problem. You may have heard the term RGI or response to intervention or the more current term MTSS which stands for
033multi-tered systems of support. It's an educational framework that uses a tiered approach to provide students with varying levels of academic and behavioral support to meet their individual needs to ensure they receive the right help without a delay. Like all districts, we have various assessments and tools and techniques to generate great data. But the issue is now what? for more than a year now. It's another example where our educators have been trying to dig into this pro uh process. They formed a district task force to improve the efficiency in the process for the improving the quality of these outcomes. This group has been meeting for over a year and is focusing on how to translate data into actionable insights to improve the efficiency of those interventions um and student achievement. Considering the significant overlap between achievement
034gaps, absenteeism, and engagement, we will look for ways to leverage this re leverage this relationship to create better outcomes for students in Stonington. Our goal is not just to prepare students for the next grade. It's to inspire all students to develop their self leadership skills for post-secary success. No matter what that is. The data we reviewed today confirms that we're on the right path and it reminds us that our greatest achievements lie not in our past successes but in our shared commitment to the limitless potential of our future. Any questions about the data report or student assessment in general? Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Right. Next item on our agenda are comments from citizens regarding items on the agenda. Please be reminded that we limit uh each individual comment to 3 minutes
035per person and 20 minutes per topic. And please it's limited to the citizens of Stonington or employees of the Stony Public School. just like to pause just in case somebody changes their mind, you know. Um, all right. Next item on our agenda is a report of the superintendent of schools. Turned over back to Marian. >> Thank you again, Peru. Uh, just a brief overview of back to school. Uh, it was wonderful to be at commencement again. that strikes me. It was, I think, the fourth time that we were actually together since the pandemic. And I I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but it always strikes me as how valuable and how much um we really treasure that time together. It's the only time throughout the year that the entire
036faculty and staff get to be together, and it's um it's pretty special. Uh at that time, I reshared your board priorities, uh updated folks on what's going on with the middle school, as I will update you as well. Um, and I wanted to I I at during com commencement, I thanked Chris and his team uh for helping the Stington Police Department upgrade our radio system and get us on the state system, which has been a project that's been going on for years. Uh, a dream of ours to get done. And Steve C uh Steve Carroll and his team for bedazzling our buildings inside and out. It was so noticeable. So many teachers stopped me and said, "The building really looks great this year." and it was because you weren't dealing with the sinking building and
037moving two buildings and you got to do your real job. So, uh thank you for that. Uh just a brief update for those who are um watching and uh are in the galley here. Uh no, negotiations are underway with the Stonington Education Association and we will hopefully have a successful conclusion to that uh bargaining in early October. Um, I did want to show you folks and I gave you an electronic copy of this. This attractive lilac handout is just to give you an idea of coming attractions. It will be dynamic because as we know things change, so you have that electronic copy, but it gives you an idea of what presentations will be coming forward and then related events that happen outside of the board meeting but are going to impact your um your time
038and your energy. So, uh, if you have any questions on that, just let me know. >> I just have a comment on this. >> Uh, >> so just for for the board members who received it, uh, the the November 13th meeting, which is, it is currently on the calendar. It's, you know, we're trying to figure out if we should, uh, have it on that day. You, you, if you are currently on the board, you continue to be available for that meeting. You are still a board member. through no that meeting first meeting in November uh which means any vote for a chair or secretary that would be pushed to the December meeting if we hold it because uh there would be uh no swore in sworn in uh board of education new members until after.
039So just a a a footnote of this beautiful report. Thank you. And just an addition that you're going to see yeartoyear now is I had a meeting with the town planner um Clifton Elier and he uh is going to be presenting to you in December on what's going on with building projects and such uh in the in the town and we had a great meeting and he he uh came up with the idea and I think it's a good one for him to be on the calendar annually before budget season really that the budget gets under your noses um because it does have obviously as we're looking at building committees and things like that it's going to have an impact if there's an enormous shift or even a slight shift can can make a big
040difference in enrollment and and uh our arrangement of how we configure the schools and such. So, uh so look for that. He's going to be a perpetual figure at your meetings in December for a holiday uh bonus on your attractive salmon sheet. I just want to draw your attention to something I'm really excited about. So, I'm going to do it first. Um Oh, no. You know what? Put it away. Never mind. I lied to you. We're going to give the Stonington Middle School updates first. Um, Mr. Kelly was out there today, so I know he wasn't there last year, but there was a rec reconfiguration of classes, uh, classrooms. Um, we also recaptured some space, uh, upstairs because the transition program moved back here that opened up a big nice room upstairs. Uh, it was
041nice to actually go back into the library and see library books in the library. Even though part of the space is being used as a language arts classroom, that teacher will move out into the portable classroom space once they're available. Uh it felt more comfortable moving around that building this year. Even though it's still tight, it just felt much more comfortable. Um I want you to know that the contract with the portable vendor is under review by our attorneys. We did not like the payment schedule. It was one of those upfront heavy upfront payment schedules that did not make us happy. uh we are working with them and they seem to be agreeable to listening to our attorney's recommendation on that. So that's we'll let you know as soon as that's buttoned up and underway
042and then we'll probably get a firmer uh delivery date once that's uh signed, sealed, and delivered. Um also our educational spec spec uh internal review starts September 30th with our group that visited all the different schools. Um, and we'll continue uh having the staff at the middle school review those educational specs on October 2nd at the middle school professional development day. And then we hope to have them to you for the new board to consider in December for approval. And then um Fuk's going to tell you a little bit more about uh the process of the K12 building committee and the timeline because it's shifted around a little bit, the application process and such. So take it away for >> Thank you, Marian. So I I shared with you earlier an email uh with the
043application if you choose to be serving on the K through 12 committee. Uh the board of education does have a seat on that committee and historically it was the board discussed and appoints a person to the K through 12 committee. Uh the board of selectmen is trying something different uh which is there out of uh their attempt to be fair and uh give everybody the opportunity to serve on that uh committee. uh they're asking any individual on the board of education who's interested in serving on the committee to submit an application to them and they would they would what they would like to do is an interview uh that they are going to record and have available for you uh to watch and the attempt or the purpose behind that is that if a person
044who's serving currently on the board of education and does not win an election but is interested in serving on the committee, then they become part of that uh public pool that can serve on the K through 12 committee and that means that they can choose them from that public pool, not from the appointed. So, the board of education will continue to appoint that seat. It had nothing to do with that process of them doing that interview. Doing that interview will also allow you as a board to see who's your colleagues that are interested in serving and how did their interview go and the purpose behind why they want to serve on that committee. So they're trying to be um fair to everybody and they're trying to make sure that that that seat is a true
045board of education seat. So if you are intending to serve as a board of education representative and you don't win that election then you're not a board of education representative. Same goes for board of selection. Uh and they intend to uh appoint that committee in their November meeting which is their last meeting. So if you can do it, submit that application, you have the opportunity to go through the interview in October and then get appointed in November when they know who actually is going to be on the board and who is not going to be on the board. Any question for me? Maybe clarity now. Are you saying that we have to apply or are you saying that you can appoint still? >> I still can appoint. Yes. you you don't have uh the board
046seat is the board seat they that we are going to appoint. >> So if you appoint somebody I don't know when you plan on doing it but and that person doesn't get reelected in November that person is no longer the board appointee to that building committee and therefore doesn't serve anymore. Right. And then you somebody new >> that is accurate. That's why we tried to attempt to do the appointment in in December, not now for that uh board seat. Uh to also kind of like align ourselves to what they are attempting to do on the board of selectman uh side. Although you know and I and I try to share my thoughts with the board of selectment is that even if I appoint a board of education appointee now and then they serve for two
047years and then they come off the board then what do they become right so it's during the same same we same concern same issue uh they still want to go through that process they want to go through but yes you are uh correct we have a seat to appoint we will appoint the seat >> as I think can um if I'm speaking out of turn tell me, but uh I think the person to your left was um going to be interested in serving on the building committee only because he's been around for a couple generations. I think your father was on the board on the one of the building committees before and uh you know so I think you you know my one way of me by able to say no is to have someone
048else say yes cuz it is an interesting proposition but you know um you know and I did sign up for reelection for November and that be a four-year commitment but I think this obviously the building committee will take longer than that and I think Kevin will be around longer than that too. So, um, >> it's one of the consideration and I know Kevin, you know, >> Kevin, >> I know I was >> all in favor. >> Well, Kevin Kevin is up for election, right? We're hoping that he wins, but you know, you never know. [Laughter] we will have this, you know, I think we should have more than one option. Uh, just because we don't know who's going to be on sitting around this table in December. That's really the >> So, throw your hat
049in if you want, but >> Exactly. >> the the leading candidate according to >> that's what I have. >> Okay. Otherwise, that's rabbit hole. >> Now, now back now back to my report. Um, just next steps on your vision, mission, and brand statements. Uh, we did start tonight vetting those with uh the high school welcoming schools team, and it was a nice chance to remind that team because it has somewhat changed since the the initiation of the team what the purpose of the team is. Um, and then explain what a mission statement is and what a vision statement is and what a brand statement is. um they did use some uh one of our technology platforms to provide you with some feedback and ratings of each of those statements. So you will get that in
050a compil compilation after we go through all of the schools and again gather some student feedback and give the staff an opportunity to do the same. So that's pretty exciting. Um and we'll hope to have that back to you. Uh probably I'd love to get it to this board in November, but we'll see how long that takes. And uh we'll also consult with you on what format you would like to engage that that dis future discussion and landing that plane um on on those particular items. Uh the next is kind of my heart. Uh the maritime studies collaborative and related requests for proposals. Now you can look at your salmon color. Um we're really doing a great um we had an exciting meeting yesterday with Alicia Dah's administrative team and Tim myself and the two
051educational gurus from both the seapport and the aquarium and it's pretty high energy group that wants to do some really high lever practices that I do believe will be a model um for other nonprofits but also for other school districts. So this salmon colored sheet is really a form for businesses for the nonprofits to fill out to send back to us to ask our students for their senior projects to engage in something that they need done in their business. This was inspired really by the food truck because when when I saw what four children could do for their senior project, I thought every s every child should have the opportunity to do when they they graduate, they have something really meaningful to point at that they left this for the community or the school um
052that they can be proud of. And so we're opening up this as a new way of collaborating with our nonprofits, especially the two lead dogs being the seapport and the aquarium. And every time I tell the the folks like we want to help you and give you something that is of value to you, not just take from you, they kind of go, "What?" Um, so it's a really neat way of working and I think it's going to lead uh to some really exciting not only senior projects this year for their children that they'll get to select from if they're interested in it. Um, that it will also lead to some opening of opportunities for internships if they find something that they really really land on. And I have a feeling that those businesses and nonprofits
053will be happy to open up their doors to have internship opportunities. So if you know anybody out there who is interested, it's so funny. Everybody I talk to, I was talking to Katie Quinland today and she's like, I think I might be interested in um doing something like that. So let us know. Tom Buske is the keeper of this document. Uh and but I wanted you to have eyes on it because they'll be rolling in. we will be internally vetting the the proposals of our children before they go out to the businesses so that we make sure that our best foot is being put forward. So that is one of the components that is the kind of softball that we are using to launch this maritime um partnership. We are hoping that one of the
054proposals will be coming in. I planted the seed yesterday for the nonprofits to actually ask for a video um a videographer to highlight some of their want ads and their openings at their various organizations to bring alive to our students what opportunities exist currently uh for kids who are not going to h onto college and kids who are going on to college. So they know what the qualifications and requisites are. that can be a rolling project to keep it alive for those organizations and they can house those on their website as well. So that's another win that they love that idea. We are launching another reciprocal professional development opportunity for those educators to participate in. We're also going to offer it to our stone to police officers should they want to participate um in a
055November 4th professional learning opportunity around the book that Mr. Smith mentioned, the disengaged teen. Again, it's really meant for parents and so I want to have our leadership team and our educators in the community have a discussion and some professional learning around that book. We as a leadership team will be reading it, but I also want um to roll that out to parents. I'm looking at Katie because you're you're a new middle school mom now. So, um I think we'll it will have an opportunity to do that and I think it will be really embraced for parents. I Mr. Smith said everybody who's already has their children who are out of their teens read and go, "Oh, oh, I missed that. Oh, I did that wrong." So um it'll be an interesting discussion. Um uh
056we are also going to be hosting uh a professor from the University of Florida who is going to probably is hoping hoping to contribute to this maritime studies collaborative by finding us a partner to do some of this co-development of uh new courses and exchange programs with uh counterpart in Wales who has a maritime uh pre-engineering program. Uh that's it. Other than that, we're doing nothing. Any questions? >> Okay. Hearing none, we'll move to the next item on our agenda is consent agenda. And I'll uh make a motion to approve consent agenda items uh B through C. Is there a second? >> There's a second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving consent agenda items A through C, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous
057for the record. Next item on our agenda is subcommittee reports. And we'll start with teaching and learning. Mr. Ignola. >> Uh I don't have anything to report actually because uh we can teaching and learning today because it was uh back to school night at WestVine which I attended. So we canceled teaching and learning um for today. So our next meeting will be before the regular board of ed meeting next month. Uh, next item on our agenda is finance and facilities subcommittee. Um, we cancel that because I'm one of two people on that committee that I can't meet with myself. Uh, next item on our agenda is the most active committee and we >> Oh, I don't know about that. We uh it looks like it only because it takes up two pages of the agenda,
058but um I guess Marian help me out if I need it. um is we have some new policies. All the new policies on section one here, A through H, um are all mandated policies by the state of Connecticut that we have to have and they're all um updated ones. Um so they're all from our >> and some have been missing, >> right? Some Well, that was before we got to look at it, right? Um that we didn't realize they weren't there. So, um continuing project of uh getting these policies in our manual online and and passed and approved and our uh law firm that's providing us with the the great legal ease for it um helps cuz on section two afterwards you'll um policies for repeal which will be a lot of policies in there
059that are one or two sentences that what does that mean type of policy or um ones that we've uh just need to clarify and therefore we have section one where has all the all the new ones. Um, so the reason why there's a a list of uh 10 or whatever, like the first one on 2A is gifts, grants, and bequests. The 1B is gift g gift gifts, grants, requests, and fundraising that our superintendent spoke about earlier that we're going to have a new policy that's more definitive, more legally more restrictive as far as the amount of the gift and at at what amount do you need to superintendent's approval, what amount do you need the board's approval, what amounts do you need both approval. Um, so those are all uh things that have to be
060done and we don't want to be caught with our uh with you know not doing it the right way. So um you know we don't want to be like a local area town literally problem of uh not having enough oversight. So, um again, our job as board of ed is one is our only employee um being the superintendent in the management and how she does what she does, but also two is established policy for the district. And um so we have to make sure our policies are in place that we give her so that um all of our bases are covered. And then um uh she does the ARS and what have you after that. So, and then section three, the page and a half of those are just to put our policies in order
061so that Maryanne, whoever administratively, um, our Anna here that has to look up things and have things in order to keep her like sane and finding things and trying to make things easy for her as well as it's all going to It's all online at one point or another that any um student, parent or citizen can look it up online and and you know type in school transportation accommodations in the policy will pop up or you know sunscreen application and you know my son came home with a sun sunburn today. How come he didn't have sunscreen on? Well, this is the policy and you know, you know about it ahead of time that you know, the student has to do it and the teacher can't up to a certain age and grade and you know,
062so you know, it's looks like a lot. It is a lot, but um between our our legal firm, our superintendent, and our policy committee, I think we're moving forward. and then the um new policy committee starting in mid November, December will uh have to carry on because there's plenty more to do. If there are any questions, if anyone's at home or in the audience looking at this and um all you're seeing are the titles like the pledge of allegiance. It's very, you know, it's like it's a policy we've had, but now it's properly worded that, you know, we're giving the the student the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance. It's not a mandated pledge of allegiance, but in the morning, every school, every classroom will have time for the pledge of allegiance, but we're
063not it's not mandated. So, um, all you have to do is if you find the agenda on our website, it's a hyperlink. It pulls it up. You can read it. We're doing first readings on the new policies. We're doing a first reading on the policies for repeal and then we're doing a uh just a um first reading on the ones that need a new alphabetizing and reumbering. So, um >> Dan, we were going to ask for you to wave the first reading so we could get those on just Yeah, on the alphabetizing and reing. >> All right. So yeah, that's that's not a verbiage change. It's just a number change on the on the um policy numbers so we can put them in the proper chapter. Uh so but if anyone So the first reading,
064the next reading will be at the next month's meeting. >> Correct. >> So if you're at home, you have any questions, feel free to reach out to one of the policy uh members or the superintendent or uh you know, click on it, look it up. I don't know if we can tell how many hits that we these policies get, but that'd be interesting. um because we are doing our due diligence and trying to to make it better. So um and we accept any and all feedback. We even uh our meetings are open to our policy committee meetings are open to the public that they're should be posted on the website. Uh we had a member of the public aka um elementary school principal attend the other day and it was I think it was educational
065for him and for us to have him there. Um, so any administrators that haven't the time on their hands and want to come, we keep it to an hour. Um, unlike what I'm rambling on now. So Kevin, if you could be so kind, you are our mover. >> Dan, real quick, all the things you listed are not you're not listing under number three. No content change. >> No content change. >> Make it so it's easier. I call it the fall cleanup. >> Do you want to make the motion, Kevin? >> Uh, sure. >> Okay. Um, motion to wave first read on the uh alphabetizing and renumbering of each policy listed uh under item three of item C of item 8. I second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Any comments? All those in favor
066of uh waving the first read and approving the reing and alpha realphabetizing is that I don't know if that is proper English uh of of those policy policies. Please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Thank you for the policy committee for their hard work and of course our administrators for making it this far on the uh update of these policies. Uh we'll move over to welcoming school layers on report. Any report from the welcoming schools layers? >> Okay, no reports. Uh how about learn board leison on report? We had our first um regular school year learn meeting this morning. I could only stay for an hour. They actually were at um the marine science magnet school. They did the they met there. So
067the tech was not great. It was like a you know how they don't normally have it there. Um but they too learned schools are working on their vision and mission statements. They previewed. So, I did I gave no no secret sauce info away, but but good to know kind of we're all kind of on that same um wavelength. >> Well, thank you for your commitment, Katie. And Katie left that meeting just because she had another board of education meeting to attend. Um, next item on our agenda is uh monthly reports. Uh any questions on the global or the uh student or enrollment uh reports student government? Does our student rep know that she needs to provide us with the brown and white when it gets published? That's >> is that the name of it? Brown
068and white. So it's one thing we look forward to is a hard copy of the brown and white, not the digital. So, Mr. Fe was always good to provide that for us. So, >> you have what? >> Oh, is it time >> almost over? They can hang out for two minutes. >> Uh, we'll we'll take a we'll take another minute. We'll we'll go through it and then we'll sign them. Um, any board comments or items for future agenda? All right, Zach. Um, we turn it over to you. [Laughter] I move to ajourn. >> Is there a second? >> All those in favor please indicate by saying I. >> I. Uh students we can sign those papers for you if you want to bring them forward here.