001foreign like to call the Stonington Board of Education a regular meeting to order October 13 2022 at 6 30 pm and I'd like to ask the Patel to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please foreign thank you I will go to Communications and recognitions and to our superintendent thank you Farooq first I'd like to formally welcome Dia Patel this is her first board meeting as our Stonington High School student representative and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you throughout the year Dia I want to read a couple Communications that have come through over the last month on September 29th I was notified by Dr Melissa hickey at the Connecticut State Department of Education that our Wonders reading program was approved this was a requirement by the state law that the State Department
002of Education in consultation with the reading leadership implementation Council actually review and approve model reading curriculum programs for use by Boards of education for grades pre-k through grade 3 inclusive that are evidence-based and scientifically evidenced and scientifically based focused on competency in the areas of oral language phonemic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and Rapid automatic name or letter fluency and reading comprehension this has caused quite a flurry of activities across the state as we are one of 12 districts that actually had a program on the approved list so you can imagine the other superintendents are not very happy with me but the state department is working on a waiver project process for those districts because obviously it's a huge financial investment if they have to invest in another program I also received an email from uh
003from a the photographer at our event that took place on uh October 3rd as we hosted the governor and several other dignitaries in celebration of our ten thousand dollar hbi Grant and our first inaugural cohort of the pre-apprenticeship credentialing team at a training program at our high school it was from the the cameraman of champ from Channel 8. good morning Marianne I want to commend you and your high school principal Andrew staff on running a great event Monday everything from having people in the parking lot to telling people where to park to the students standing outside greeting the people as they showed up and all of the wonderful students in the office that greeted us and took us to the room where the press conference was you both should be very proud of the successful
004event I can't say how impressed I was very professional hope you guys have a great rest of the week so that was a good nod to our student government and and all of the other folks involved in that they also have a few shout outs first to two of our students for their um for that I'd like to recognize for their uh their actual um good sports personship I'll say um the first one is Harper Frazier I was at the Stonington Middle School cross country uh meet the other day and I was taken aback at uh it was against Montville and I was so pleased to see one of our students who had finished her her run uh actually go back to to uh cheer on the person who was coming in last during the
005meet and I thought boy that's that's what stonington's all about the other student is Julian Kina a Stonington Bear football player I received a letter from a grandmother of a Waterford football player who was taken by his sportsmanship during the game and and stated that he several times throughout the game he made sure that the opponents that he tackled were okay that he was all about making his opponent team feel welcome even in a competitive environment and I thought that was amazing that a grandma took a time to write a superintendent in the opposing District about what she she recognized as as wonderful care character so I did write to each of these students myself and and tell them that they were recognized for their good work I'd also like to recognize Tina eisenbeiss I
006don't know if she has left the building already she has left uh Stonington Middle School summer school program under the direction of Tina was recognized by the State Department of Education as an Innovative summer school model that offers teachers a chance to Pilot potential Encore offering course offerings that engage students in high interest summer school programming and it was one program with along with 18 other programs Statewide that was delivered and revealed at a reception with our secretary of education Miguel Cardona and so that's really really nice publicity for our our district as well and a shout out to our Stonington Education Foundation and Christina cornick who is the president I just wanted to let you know that every year this Foundation that really really supported by our families and our and our parents provide
007supplemental programming in a variety of ways that uh goes above and beyond and really helps us out and helps the students out over the last couple years the blue Mondays program has given donated over fifteen thousand dollars ten thousand dollars provided music lessons for our students two summers ago when they're coming out of coven and they hadn't had that instructional piece and uh and they also helped provide some keyboards and Tom drums and snare drums for the Stonington middle school music program in addition to that they manage the Apple grants and mini grants again twenty five thousand dollars that they've donated to our teachers who apply for these grants that have supported professional development offerings they furnished the Stonington Middle School Overlook study space DM Ms part of the Outdoor Classroom TV equipment for the
008Middle School anti-racism family reading Circle Club materials supplemented the yellow Farmhouse program expanded our safe Futures work at the high school and even bought water bottle stations for the middle school so I just wanted to give them a real nod for all of the things they do for all of us and all of the students that often goes unrecognized and then on a selfish note a thank you to Mrs he too and Mrs sturgeon who I have adopted each of their kindergarten classes and so once a month I go out and co-teach or I'm just an extra set of hands in their classes and I think one of my students is here with the cameraman did she leave already okay one of my my students was here earlier this evening and I think I think
009that's all I have tonight thank you Mr ignell I have something today thank you um so as the Board of Ed liaison on the welcoming schools committee to West Vine I spent a morning a couple days ago with principal Irvine I had a wonderful conversation and of all of the schools in the district Wes Vine was the one that I was least familiar with I didn't get to attend West fine as a student even though I went K-12 through this District so I had very little knowledge of West Vine and I was so excited for my meeting and I even got a little tour I was so impressed Blown Away uh the community garden in the back is just a lovely gorgeous the school sparkling clean and just state of the art I was it
010was so unbelievable but the thing that really stuck out was the dedication of the teachers was on full display so many teachers were there I think I was there about an hour before school even started so many teachers were there excited setting up their classrooms there was a committee or two meeting in a classroom working together but just the the beauty of the school dedication of the teachers the support of the administration um we're on full display and the care for the students was so obvious and I'm just so excited for all the students that currently attend West fine and even more excited and maybe selfishly excited for my two and soon to be three girls to attend there one day um I was just blown away loved the experience and I'm very excited for
011all of you to have similar experiences on your welcoming schools committee meetings with uh with your school so really enjoyed my time and thank you again principal Urban thank you Sarah is the Outdoor Classroom grand opening Sunday this Sunday for Wednesday okay sorry I'm getting that I'm getting all of the good things confused in my brain um thank you Kevin actually you inspired my recognitions um I just recently completed my welcoming schools tour at Stonington middle school and I was there about an hour after school dismissal and it was a hub of activity for at least another hour um I got a wonderful tour from our new principal I got to see the Shrek musical rehearsal uh band practice they were doing the Star Spangled Banner uh basketball was going on I got to see
012the late bus dismissals the four o'clock buses as everybody was leaving it was it was more rambunctious than that um you know it's middle school students but it was just it was so uh inspiring to see our schools being such a hub of activity both before and after we know that that's happening during the school day and I appreciate the warm welcome I've received at Stonington middle school as the the board liaison for for welcoming schools I think it's a great Partnerships that we're doing and I really look forward to keeping the conversation going something honey Chris yeah I just wanted to also recognize how good of a job the student government did and all the teachers and staff at Stonington High School for the hbi presentation it was it just blew us away it
013was amazing and um you know big shout out to um Miss Esser homed class and Dean roach's class for hosting us as well it was fantastic to go visit both both those classrooms and I just want to thank everybody who was involved in getting this going all the teachers administrators and um you know and parents that frankly been bringing it up for a while too it's it's really exciting that Stonington is going to be the first in the state to have a program like this and I look forward to the future Dia do you have anything um I just want to thank everybody that was involved in with the hbi program and I want to recognize the lieutenant governor for her commitment to show up and and bring the governor with her but they both
014uh really showed commitment to Stonington and we're very appreciative of that thank you comments from citizens uh regarding items on our agenda please make sure if you do come up to speak to uh state your name and address for the record there is a paper there as well to list your name and address and please keep the comments to three minutes per topic foreign Whitaker Drive um the only thing and I don't know if it's going to be covered on the agenda because I just don't know what's going to be covered in the update entry and transition plan but going off of one of the things Kevin just talked about I was just hoping to get an update of what the welcoming School committees were doing in each of the schools like what their agenda
015items were so I know like what's going on in the school at Dean's Mill but I was just wondering what kind of things had popped out in the other welcoming School committees um just to see what area concerns were and where we were going with that so that was just one thing I was hoping to get an update on and I don't know if it's in there but that's that's all I have nice simple night but that was the only thing so thank you thank you Ashley thank you foreign excited hi my name is Rachel Odell I live at 94 Stillman Avenue in pocatuck um I wanted to I don't know if it's on the agenda because I'm I'm not really sure what it is you're you're going to talk about later but I do
016want to mention that um I um I understand that there's an issue with lgbtq items and and pride flags being taken down and stuff around the district and I understand that it's a it's a sensitive issue I want to talk to you as a parent of three graduates of Stonington Public Schools I want to tell you a story about this beautiful boy who at five years old loved to play My Little Pony on the playground and came home crying his eyes out because because he got bullied for being called and called a because he liked My Little Pony and at six years old couldn't wait to go to dance class wanted to wear shoes everywhere had a heart a hard time telling him that you can't wear those shoes outside because they're not made for
017that they're made for dancing came home begged to quit because everybody picked on foreign Middle School that somebody thought that it was okay to cut his shirt from behind and came home with a big hole in his shirt he was told in sixth grade that he should kill himself by a couple of students in his class because he was different I think I think my my lucky stars every day that he didn't listen to that he went on to high school and found AFA and came he became such this this wonderful confident young man who says why shouldn't I be able to wear makeup I'm so why does it have to be gender specific why can't I wear a dress because I want to he makes his own clothes he goes to the Johnny Cake
018Center and buys Fabric and he goes home and he designs them and sews them and meets them he is an artist and he is just an incredible young man and he is so confident now because he found AFA I I don't know how to I know change is hard changes is extremely difficult but he can't change who he is any more than I can change the fact that I'm tall or an autistic child can change the fact that they're on the Spectrum we are who we are and I think that if history has taught us one thing it's taught us that our differences should be celebrated and not feared I know that um I don't I don't even know what to say beyond that I I just think that we can learn from everything from
019the Holocaust and from Martin Luther King and and all the people that have spoken before us that are our differences I mean the United States is The Melting Pot of the world our differences make our country and that's all differences no matter who we love no matter who we dress what we dress like and no matter what we look like we are all beautiful people and I hope that every parent in every town realizes that they wouldn't want their child in that position where they had to decide whether they wanted to choose life or death thank you Rachel [Music] just kind of making it easy for everybody there's quite a few of them in this paper here because yes yes perfect you got it right thank you okay can you hear me yeah all right
020I would fix Mayflower Avenue I'm a parent of Kentucky Elementary School West Vine um and I'm also a professor of school psychology at teachers talk and I wanted to highlight something that I saw in a newsletter that was community on October left by newsletter um I wanted to highlight that um our district is one of the 2012 districts in the state then we're saying reading curriculum that within this kind of new review that they're doing if you're not an education researcher if you might not be aware if I have to be around a factor agreement but what's been happening since you know for 15 years is there's been a really good science of reading but most curriculum the most published curriculums have ascribed to a different philosophy about how the teachers [Music] and that was
021huge implications for how we you know how successful our students are right if students don't learn to read they can't do those math problems they can't do the science there's a long-standing relationships with reading and um long-term outcomes including rocking out and diverse long-term outcomes so with that this data connected just did a review of all the districts and I just want to really highlight what the principle what's on there's a lot we can and should do in the future but a lot of schools are missing this really really critical fundamental and I thank you foreign if you can please speak into the mic not for our benefit for the benefit of the viewers at home just because they can't hear us on on YouTube channel so please speak in the mic if somebody wants
022to speak come on up foreign my name is William hewins I live on three Shade Drive in pocatuck Connecticut I just wanted to say piggybacking on the last person I know quite a bit about the Wonders program and I think it's pretty incredible that we have uh seen such good things here at Stonington it's really nice to see such positive elements unfortunately I'm going to move to something else um piggybacking off what another person said I don't know how much it's on the agenda honestly I don't really care I've heard that Stonington has decided to make the move to take down the lgbtq flags I really strongly disagree with this decision I'm trying to figure out how it's political I wish somebody could explain it to me I don't see the point we're an inclusive
023school or an inclusive community at least I hope we are and doing this just sets us back um it's really disappointing I really don't understand how a few people can push the agenda I get it's legal I'm not blaming anyone here I just think that we could be the change and we can kind of stand up against you know I think the minority that are saying things very loudly um this is happening all across the country and I just think it's something where other people need to speak up and speak out um secondly I also heard through the grapevine and through my school that there was a political candidate who was passing out t-shirts through his son at a particular school I heard the administration move very swiftly on the process and I commend them
024for all of that I just think it's very wrong for a political candidate to think he can use children as ways to promote a campaign and it's really discouraging to me really frustrating to be honest with you I expect a lot more from that person thank you William [Music] somebody else would like to speak come on up [Music] did you get his name rather great yeah so our Stonington Middle School principal is excited to come out and give the board her presentation and book in a day hello can you hear me it's working excellent so we have a special guest before we give our book in a Day presentation he's made a couple of appearances at Stonington Middle School this is his first large venue event and so I would like you to meet our
025our new mascot we finally have an actual mascot he's yet to be named but the Stonington Middle School Stingray and this this very blue guy um was a part of our first Friday event and our sixth annual book in the day yes right yes um and he did some of the reading himself as well um so we're here to present our book of the Day celebration and we have done it six years in a row it was started by sixth grade teacher Noreen Elliott and unfortunately she cannot be here tonight however we have a stand-in in her stead is Jocelyn keppel on her sixth grade colleague sixth grade teaching colleague and two of our eighth grade student council members who also played a big role in that particular day so I'm going to hand this
026off to them because they were part of the planning and really took the show on the road at Stonington Middle School um how are we advancing still finding his uh land legs here Stingray down [Laughter] he was much more coordinated back in the day um so as Mrs bacoli said um we did started our school year off with book in a day or as our sixth grade team likes to say book in a day um and we have been it has been happening in the district for the past six years um all four years at the Consolidated Stonington middle school and every year is organized by Noreen Elliott who was very sad and very nervous that she was leaving this to me today foreign and what it is is really a celebration of literacy so
027we spend the entire day reading a book the entire School reads the same book and it allows for us to do a ton of different things and one of the benefits of doing it at the beginning of the year is it also kind of lets us kick off the school year together it's a community building event so extra special this year because we got to have assemblies which we haven't had in a couple of years so we started the day with an assembly which the girls will go into a little bit more detail in a moment and it allows for a promotion of school spirit so really kind of getting the kids involved and something that's a little bit different than their normal everyday Middle School lives it allows for the teachers to all have
028the same shared experience no matter what subject you teach you are reading a book much to the Chagrin of our math teacher on our team she's always like I have to read out loud I don't know how to do that um but it it's a great day um that really just gets them excited to read a lot of them have you know kind of this block about reading a book in a day it seems impossible to them and it's fun to see at the end of the day how excited they are to have finished the book uh some some goals for a book in the day um starts with this shared experience and fostering the school spirit we start off kind of promoting book in the day with some bulletin boards around the school and
029there's some announcements on morning announcements getting the kids a little bit excited this year we read booked by Kwame Alexander it's written all in poetry which is kind of fun because a lot of our students don't have as much experience with poetry they're reading graphic novels or chapter books so for them to read an entire book written in verse is very cool it also allows us to promote these discussions and kind of this book in particular the main character dealt with some changes in life his parents going through a divorce so we were able to really have students connect on a social emotional level they the book is kind of divided into sections according to how many blocks we have for that day and once the students are done reading that part of the book
030they have activities and discussion questions that go along with that section so it really allows for them to you know have an authentic discussion about what's happening happening in their lives if they want to add that it also allows at the beginning of the year for them to get to know each other in a different way that's not just icebreakers and it's a little bit fun so it really allows for us to kind of Kick the year off on a positive note we ended up starting the day by gathering for a full school assembly and I believe it was a lot more special and fun because we haven't been able to do in two years because of covid um the students and were able to walk into the gym to see the high school soccer
031team kicking and passing the ball around which I thought was very cool just to have them like see that and then next one of the band students played the national anthem for the school on his electric guitar and that really boasted like the crowd's energy and just everything so then soon after we watched a short video the author introducing the book and reading an excerpt and finally our Stingray mascot led the whole school in a book in the day cheer students dressed in their grade level spirit colors you ask the gym excited to start reading every student feels a real sense of accomplishment that we can read an entire book in just one day many students didn't think that they liked poetry before they read the book but now they do this book this during
032the day students have the opportunity to both read and write poetry Kwame Alexander infuses Rich vocabulary throughout the story and gave a shout out to about 26 other Middle School books our Librarians spotlighted these books and other book and other books by Kwame Alexander and our literacy coach Marika Marika hewins plastered the vocabulary words around the school besides reading the books besides reading the book students enjoyed the engaging activities that followed the reading in each class there were many opportunities for us to share our own voices interests feelings beliefs through poetry in the end we used a book as a model to write a poem that meant for two verses ran an acrostic poem a concrete poem and a free verse one of my favorite activities is when we went outside to work as a
033team to complete in a series of soccer reloads at the end we got to write a book that um we really liked and that was probably my favorite food my favorite part of book in the day as a language arts teacher is just that we're spending the entire day reading um we also the sixth grade team challenged the our sixth graders to try and read 40 books throughout the year so it's a really great way to kind of already add a book to their reading log at the very beginning of the year so foreign thank you so much and uh report from superintendent schools thank you I'm going to try and get through this without choking but it's not looking too promising right now the first the first component that I wanted to just kind
034of review with folks is uh faruch has graciously agreed to host monthly Zoom meetings with me and with certain cabinet members as a mechanism for us to be more available to the the parents and families who have questions or concerns or want more information about particular topics of interest to them oh our first uh our first one was better attended than our second we still are trying to find a sweet spot on a time that will be beneficial or convenient for more and more families so um we will be looking to have another one at the end of the month I think the feedback that we got this time around was that that there were several families looking for around a nine o'clock in the morning slot that they could get the children off to
035school have a cup of coffee and be available to um to do that so look for a date forthcoming on that it will probably be I have to check with the big guy over here but it will most likely be the last Friday in uh in October at nine o'clock in the morning so it's just a great way again to communicate with families I also want to reach out there was one public comment slash question that came out of the sequence of comments it came in after our last Zoom meeting and I'm reminded of it because I see Brendan Murphy out in the in the audience and it was a it wasn't from him but it was from another parent who was interested in expanding Middle School sports offerings um and so I can I
036can put out the response now that we've met with a couple parents that were interested in exploring that um opportunity we're looking at having volleyball a volleyball club at the middle school this winter and also having a field and track team uh in the in the spring so uh we'll we'll our goal is to even expand more next year but we have to get through the budget season and things like that but I just wanted that parent to know we hear you and we um we have responded it's the first year remember again that Stonington middle school is going to get through a full Academic Year Without a pandemic Interruption so it's not that these things weren't on our radar it's just that we didn't have an opportunity to to do what we wanted to
037do so so that's that the second piece that I have for you tonight and the board has not seen this is the update to my transition plan I think I did this right hold on to this way we might need a couple exercises those of you who work with me know I like to color code things that's an executive functioning uh I guess accommodation that I give myself if you want to turn to page 11 I'm just going to give you some of the highlights and for the the public and the families that are watching this will be posted tomorrow so you can also see kind of what's happened over the first hundred plus days since I've taken over superintendent on page 11 we just start off with family engagement and I'll give Ashley a
038little nod here on welcoming schools we had our first welcoming schools a round of meetings and so Mr Smith and I were attended all of the meetings from the high school down to the elementary schools they all had the same agenda they all showed the same video clip to give background information to families and participants on what we mean about welcoming schools what the definition of links to learning are and really kind of had some foundational conversation the agendas will then now from now on be driven by those families and other families in the schools but we wanted everybody to have an idea of what the expectation was um and and have everybody getting started off on the same foot uh fruch and I are kind of replacing these meet and greets in person with
039the zoom meetings it seems like we were able to capture a lot larger audience that way and we'll continue to do that until nobody shows up at the party okay um let's see oh and I just wanted to mention how um how how privileged I felt when the a bar the anti-bias and racist committee asked me to um to be the the spokesperson for National Hispanic Heritage Month um giving a nod to my uh my Spanish side of the family and I was uh able to do a read aloud for uh over over recording for the the elementary schools and that went out through their newsletters and also was posted on our Dei website so lots of things going on with family engagement uh our newly our leadership team has taken over a new model
040of um kind of rotating personnel as as topics in us are appropriate so that we don't have all of the administrators out of the building at all of all uh every week at the same time it seems to be working really well Mr Smith has come up with a really neat uh model for that um and it's key is making us a better behaved participants and keeping us true to our Norms at these meetings um we will be beginning our eastcon student engagement visits uh probably in a week or two we've all been calibrated on that instrument so that we know what we're doing and we'll be going out in teams to to uh do that and I look forward to uh welcoming Bethany Wagner at the end of October on Halloween as our HR
041manager to the newest member of the leadership team and cabinet members cabinet meetings also occur on a monthly basis um building uh building staff updates drop-in meetings are scheduled at each School informally during lunch time so that if staff want to come and ask me a question or have a concern um can or just want to say hello we'll we'll have some availability to do that I had initially wanted to do that in the last spring and Mr Freeman told me nobody wanted to see me last spring wait they just wanted to end the school year and get to their summer vacation so we rescheduled that we also have started our district future focused School teamwork the very small team of Administrators and teachers that are looking at being Innovative and preparing our class of
04220 35 for the future which is a little alarming when you hear that year we've had some one meeting with our teammates in Griswold one meeting internally and we're going to be starting to have some informal conversations with those teachers that are interested in talking about future Focus practices and strategies informally again in nov November whoever wants to come to the table and then we're going to start from there the voluntary voluntary setting excuse me the students I had a wonderful opportunity to informally interact with the student government at the high school as we hosted the governor and other dignitaries to celebrate our grant I mentioned already in my recognitions our two kindergarten teachers that have bravely let me into their classrooms on a regular basis it's always the highlight of the week as far
043as accountability and assessment we've heard already where we stand last month Mr Smith and Mrs dog let you know where we are with our assessment data we're in pretty good shape and I'd like to also give another acknowledgment if we're using one of the approved programs in the state there's no there's no coincidence that our students are doing as well as they have have been doing we're looking at another screener as by state law we have to provide a social emotional screen to our students we're looking at using the the instrument that we used last year the saber instrument and probably be implemented in in December we want the teachers to be able to really get to know the students before they kind of provide information on that and a lighter will go out we
044have a video already online to explain what the instrument is is all about and parents will also have an opportunity to opt their student out of that it's nothing the child takes it's an instrument that the teacher reports on certain behaviors that they see in the classroom so we want the teachers to have enough time to really know their children before they do that Tim and I will be going around to schools and looking at school Improvement plans and setting goals with their administrators as part of their their evaluation plans and I feel like I've been everywhere all over this town and every committee every Gala every ribbon-cutting ceremony I won't bore you with that the board has seen pictures of me in fire trucks at the Y you name it but it's been great
045fun have regular meetings with the town departments thank you thanks to Danielle and regular meetings with the police chief and the first select woman I have to tell you though that the most fun I had was at the Men's breakfast club on Friday we had a really good showing there and it was so much fun to co-present with Andy Feinstein and engaged with um with community members that don't have students in the school and and answer some of their questions about that that was a really a great fun for me hopefully they'll have me back um I also want to give a nod out to Tim O'Brien and Lynn young who have had given us a lot of time already along with Alicia stifling to kind of re-establish that relationship with the board of finance
046and I think we we have a very respectful tone now and I'm very proud of that work although it's in its beginning stages I don't want to you know curse us but a lot of a lot of good conversation going on there and also just as far as communication goes the board gets my weekly letters with updates on what's going on in the district I think that's a great way to communicate what's happening and I also want to to let everyone know that Alicia sweet Donna and I will be representing the district at the National Harbor the ascd conference at the actually next week it's here already we're going to be talking a little bit about rgei work about our student voice program at the high school and our student engagement work with the eastcon
047I've also because the irex found out I'm down there the international research and exchange for has invited me into have a luncheon meeting with them to do some think think tank work around what kinds of opportunities the full program might provide administrators in the future and then I'll be at the Finnish Embassy that later that afternoon so there's a lot going on about getting the good news out about Stonington Public Schools locally across the state and intergalactically I'll be happy to entertain any questions there's much more detail in the packet but I think it's been a jam-packed first 100 plus days on the job and getting a lot getting a lot done and having a lot of fun thank you any questions you can take your time and always email me questions right and one
048of the reasons we moved the report from the superintendent up on our agenda is in in recognition of uh you know improving our communication with the with the public and be able to have as many people here to get the update from the superintendent because I know we bore you with our consent agenda which is the next item on our on our agenda so uh may I ask for a motion to approve consent agenda items a through C unless you'd like to see any of them removed so removed is there a second second any discussion on the consent agenda hearing none all those in favor of approving consent agenda please indicate by saying aye aye that was unanimous um subcommittee report I'll move it over to the chairman of our teaching and learning subcommittee thank
049you Mr chair a quick update today uh we on the teaching and learning subcommittee have temporarily caught up with all curricula needing approval uh so at our meeting today we got uh presentations from Tina eisenbeiss on the uh quote-unquote new more like updated math curriculum Eureka squared which we are hearing that parents teachers administrators and students alike are really enjoying the update and we also got a a quick rundown of the Sabers social emotional academic and behavioral screener that superintendent Butler just mentioned that will be going out I believe you said in December more information will be coming on that um and today we have due for a vote for curricula that we screened two months ago first read was last month second read is today and so uh for up for approval today is
050marketing one Pottery two U.S history the Gilded Age and U.S history the emergence of the modern United a vote is required on these for approval so do I have a motion to approve the four curriculums that I just mentioned motion to approve the fourth curve claims second great all in favor please indicate by saying aye aye aye I believe that was unanimous that's all I have thank you thank you Kevin uh Mr Donahue okay so uh as far as maintenance goes we got uh the boilerplate fixed at and repaired at the middle school while we wait uh we're waiting on other parts of the boiler to come in but this is a safe repair for now so that will uh keep everything running smoothly there as far as the Esser funds we're in the same
051spot as we were last month we're just monitoring stuff closely and getting ready for you know years to come or in the few years or a couple years from now when that money runs out so we're pre-planning for that um also the grant for the HVAC system uh that is going on throughout the state is um pretty hard for anybody to qualify for we've been looking into it and some of the stuff that they're asking to um us to accomplish by the dates um is kind of unreasonable for us uh like we'd have to have an approval by the town for um exact for for what the money at least 80 percent of the money by December 1st which is it might be tough for us to get so we got to discuss whether we
052want to go forward with trying to get this grant or not thank you Chris I'll be subbing for Mr Kelly who is vacationing having a great time sending me pictures all the time but the uh the policy subcommittee met again and we have a few policies for a first read no vote required at this time um but currently we have about 11 policies in front of you and uh one of them is uh Ashley thank you for pointing it out we brought it back and we were able to remove in 1970 Clause there um so those are policies for your review and hopefully uh in our next board meeting uh we'll we'll bring them back for a vote and that's a report from our uh policy subcommittee um item nine on our agenda is we
053have the regular meeting agenda for your approval uh this agenda is our 2023 regular meeting agenda um I believe you all have it in front of you and uh I'd like to ask for first for a motion to approve the proposed agenda so moved is there a second second is there any discussion on the proposed agenda please hearing none all those in favor of of approving the regular Board of Education meeting agenda for the year 2023 please indicate by saying aye hi any opposed any abstention uh motion passes thank you for approving your your regular meeting uh calendar for um item 10 on our agenda is uh monthly reports uh are there any questions uh on our monthly reports all right uh hearing none will move to item 11 on our agenda board comments and
054items for future agenda any board comments foreign yes all right um first one is in regards to the dress code violation incident that one of our public speakers also brought up earlier I'd love to get some follow-up on how that was particular specifically addressed with the students within the school with parents and what our future steps our preventative actions will be moving forward to make sure that we don't have to address an incident like this again so that's number one so I don't know if you want to respond in time or follow up via email I want to clarify are you talking about the campaign yes the political candidate t-shirts at the middle school I think that's more appropriate to handle offline fair enough um second agenda item is again in response to two of
055our speakers today and I want to preface what I'm going to say by saying first that I fully support the decisions that our administrators make at all levels from district office to our schools so this is more of a call to action to my colleagues on the board um our one of our speakers challenged us to speak up and speak out and the importance of having a pride flag in our schools uh sorry to get a little nerdy but the professor who studies workplace dignity as it relates to our gender our sex and our sexuality and our everyday lives I'm always struck by a quote from one of my favorite theorists who says that the everyday pleasantries are not trivial um and so having a pride flag in our schools can be a very small
056but impactful way that we can signal support for all of our students I do not see this as pushing a particular agenda other than an agenda to support all of our students and so I asked my fellow board members to consider taking this up for discussion and exploring the possibility of bringing the pride Flags back into our schools and take this seriously I know people that are no longer with us because of who they are both in gender identity and sexual identity and The Bullying that they experience out here I'm not I grew up in Southeastern Virginia to be very clear but in that school system um seeing the hurt and the pain that that those students went through and knowing that I have colleagues from from when I was at school that are are
057no longer with us because of what they experience this is this is real as an educator I see students every day struggle with their gender identity and their sexual identity and growing into who they are and being able to express that openly and authentically without any consequences or repercussions from their peers and um what our speakers said today just very much resonated with me that I think this might be something that our our board should consider how we can support all of our students in this school system and supporting all of our students means Pride Flags it means recognizing lgbtqia plus month even though that is a very long acronym it's an acronym that needs to be supported and respected because it is something that affects all of our students here we have a board
058goal that we all approve that is under diversity equity and inclusion that we will continue to develop students that have the social and emotional competencies needed to be successful citizens in a diverse Equitable and inclusive society and for all of our students being able to see something as simple yet as important and impactful as a pride flag is how they can develop those social and emotional competencies both in the very moment that they're in but in the people that they grow into and I just felt remiss if I did not address this as it has been an issue that has been brought up tonight and that's all I have thank you Sarah any other board comments okay hearing none I'd like to ask for a motion to invite the board as well as our Director
059of Finance Alicia Stripling and Tim Smith and superintendent schools to an executive session to discuss the strategy in respect to the collective bargaining with the sea did we include Marianne in that night yeah yeah I did move it then there's a motion is there a second second all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye all right that was unanimous so we'll go into an executive session please foreign now oh thank you all right no no you don't need motion no motion not an executive session I don't know how you know it's okay to do it but you don't yeah all right item uh sorry 13 on our agenda is I ask for a motion to approve the agreement between the Stonington Board of Education and Stonington Education Association uh dated July 1st 2023
060uh to through June 30th 2026. so motion to approve there's a motion on the floor is there a second second and discussion on the motion all this in favor please indicate by saying aye aye anyone against extension I know it was unanimous but yeah so uh the agreement is approved by unanimous word of the Board of Education on October 13th thank you next item on our agenda is in a German is there a motion to adjourn the meeting please motion to adjourn second all in favor all right