001[Music] oh i told you i'll just let you know nothing i went through everything else awesome yeah anything that will remotely i'm there [Music] hi chris i don't hey how's it going yeah so i'm doing great um sorry to interrupt like all this oh no worries so um i emailed you about what's up oh is um [Music] me oh [Music] can you um ask me to test it to say something just so we can test it so we can test the volume hola me amigos [Music] do you want to come on the screen see his name at least [Music] foreign [Music] call the october uh board of education meeting to order um kyle would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance please thank you before we um start with the meeting i need a
002motion to move some things around on the agenda please i'd like to move item 9a up to you right after your board presentations and we need to remove item the executive session item 13. could have a motion please motion made is there a second there's a second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor opposed motion carries first uh item on the agenda board presentations yes i'm uh tonight i'd like to honor our four board members this will be their last regular board meeting we thought we'd start a new tradition and present each of you with a plaque reading the board of education presented to your name jack morehouse in this case for your years of service and contributions towards the continued success of stonington public schools and the students we serve and
003there's the dates of the service we have one of these for jack warhouse frank tedesco lisa morrison and gordon we'd like to uh thank you again i think this is a nice tradition we'll keep this going [Applause] next item on the agenda update on coven mitigation dr riley yes thank you thank you for moving that up i thought we have had some questions in our community about where we are with our covid uh maybe the masking and also the vaccine uh issues so i wanted to let the board know there is an executive order regarding masks we continue to have to wear masks indoors we encourage students teachers to be outdoors taking mass breaks as much as possible but that will go on until february um i'd also like to talk about let me move
004this down so you can hear me better um there's this some questions about the testing and the amount of time students need to be out when they're close contacts and we have been we've been following the dph guidelines on everything we've done the last year and a half and the dph the ledge line they say we need to keep students out ten days if they're in close contact now some districts are moving towards the seven day summer continuing with the ten day and i've been adamant about staying with ledge lights recommendations however i believe if you look at our our rates of infection in our area i've talked with our medical advisor i've talked with ledge line they recommend 10 but they understand seven is okay or could be okay if there's certain testing precautions
005put in place so i want the board to know that we are working on moving the close contact time out from seven to ten i'm sorry from ten to seven days and we'll be working on that next week notifying parents as to what they need to do if they are in close contact because seven days works if there's certain testing done on certain days that will get our students back into school a lot sooner this again is based on keeping our kids in school as much as possible and another thing i just need to thank our community and our parents our rate of infection is really low i think this is a way to recognize that and thank our community to reduce the amount of time students are out of class so our goal would
006be to implement this policy during next week notify parents and have it effective beginning october 25th that's a week from monday and just one other thing a representative greg howard today sent a letter that i fully support to to the state to the commissioner and the public health citing some of the reasons that i've just mentioned that we have a low rate in our area and students are missing missing time in class um the other thing that he mentions and i i think this is very interesting some of our neighboring states like rhode island and massachusetts have some creative ways to keep students in even more days and one of those is a test and say program now legally that's not allowed in connecticut but basically if you're if you're a close contact and you
007do a test and you can stay in school it's in one of those quick tests i've let our health department know and i will send a letter to the state if connecticut is interested in joining massachusetts the rhode islands and some other states with the test and say um all of our nurses all of our administrators and me included agree that that's an important way to go for our kids and that we would volunteer to be a pilot program in the state of connecticut to keep our kids in school longer so that's that's the update um you there's some attachments here about the number of students that are out based on close contacts and now based on testing we have a very low rate of testing in this area and i think moving from the
00810 to 7 days is again a recognition of that in our community and hopefully we can do some other things like the uh test and say to even increase more in the school time for our students that's my report on that thank you uh any questions for dr riley baruch um dr riley i fully support the test and stay as you do as well um just a couple questions on that program if i'm not sure you know we're there but have we considered do we need added staffing for test and stay and where do we get does the state supply or we have to purchase the test kits my understanding is the state has a pool of money for testing that they haven't spent and i believe it was 25 million it's significant and we
009would certainly want to tap into that um again as vaccines become available for our five to 11 year olds that may decrease some of the test and stay anyway but whatever it is we'll figure it out it's important enough whether there's state money or not if we need to hire people to do it we want our kids in school i do too i just want us to please consider uh you know the staffing so we're not putting added pressure on the current staffing so if we have the opportunity and the state approve us as a pilot program is that we consider adding staffing in each school for test institute will do thank you any other questions or comments for dr early gordon anything on your end are you good i'll take that then he's good
010i'm good thank you that's what i thought all right next item on the agenda comments from citizens okay i think this is on um so i just like to start off by saying a lot of um what was just touched on is kind of what i wanted to come here to speak about tonight um i think that there was a very concerning report um last week that came out excuse me just for one second could you just say yes i'm sorry no ashley coutul um there was a report that came out that there's been a rapid increase in children needing behavioral health treatments here in connecticut and it was really surprising to see some of the information that they had to report they are seeing two and a half times the number that they saw
011pre-pandemic and at connecticut children's there was over 40 kids a week in the er or sorry a day waiting in the er for placement in 50 to 60 cases a day at yale new haven children's this is a specialty department that is seeing these children come in and they said it's a lot to do with the psychological and emotional toll that cova 19 has had on them these children are here because they are thinking of self-harm and have suicidal thoughts over the summer it was an average of 15 to 16 kids a day school started back up and the spike came again that they had seen in the spring and it's just really concerning to correlate the start of school and the spike that these children are having for their psychological well-being and i just
012want to say to the administration and the board i think it's so important to be looking at not just how the hospitals fix this but what can we do as school districts to mitigate these things for children to mitigate the effect that this is having on them and i've been at numerous board meetings and statements have been made that it's the parents who are making a big deal out of things the kids are fine they're resilient it's the parents who are complaining and i i just can't agree with that because as parents we're having our children come home and confide in us we're having our children complain about something or feel sad about something or trying to watch them work their way emotionally through things and we were helping set up dean's mills outdoor classroom
013and my son looked at the spacing but mom what are the fourth graders gonna do if there's not three feet of space and then they're gonna have to wear their mask outside and then they're not gonna be happy i'm looking at my son and we're supposed to be enjoying this moment and he's worried about how they're gonna feel outside with their masks on and being told that it's not enough space and it's just something i just it hit me with i'm sitting here and you know have a young son i don't even know what some of these middle schoolers and high schoolers who already have so many other things going on psychologically and emotionally are going through with all of this and i think that as parents we need to come and we need to
014open up and we need to let people know what we're hearing at home and it's the restrictions it's the quarantines and you know representative greg howard came out with a great statement today and he's pushing for us and i am really pleased to hear that the administration has seen that and they're in support of that and that you know we're going to take steps towards fixing some of this for our children because that time out from school really hurt them and we don't need more of it we need them back in school we need things normalized for them and we need them to kind of go back to just being kids enjoying and learning and so i appreciate these steps forward and i look forward to hearing more things from the board at what we're
015doing to bring that back for our children thank you anyone else wishing to address the board there we go okay uh hi everyone good evening i'm connie simonic uh six school street in mystic and i just want to briefly again state my concern about the uh critical race theory that is being taught in our country to elementary school children as young as kindergarten all the way up to high school um i know that in the stone engine curriculum there's those three words critical race theory can't be found but words like culturally responsive classroom and diversity equity and inclusion are code words for critical race theory and i just want to implore to the board to be aware of that i don't know if you are i don't know if parents are but the more you
016study about critical race theory and the movement behind that it's a very scary thing so i just really want the board to discuss it uh when they can look at the curriculum and see what books are being used what the purpose of those books are just for one example in the um the family anti-racism circle one of the books is um we are not yet equal what is what is meant by that what are the t what are the teachers trying to say to the students i just want the board to discuss this and look carefully at it and all parents to look carefully at the books that their children are reading and what is meant or trying to be said by using those books thank you very much thank you can i figure out
017the button i did hi i'm meg blanchette i live in pocket i have a young daughter who will be going to west vine next year she's very excited about the big school talks about it constantly and i just want to take a minute to come up and thank the board for the work that they are doing around diversity around ensuring that students of all kinds who come from all backgrounds feel safe in our community and in their school system as a constituent i was concerned when i first moved here that that might not be a focus in this town and as raising a young white daughter i want to make sure that she understands the responsibility that she has and also as a female what she might face and i want people around her to
018support her and you know she's she's four right now we have a lot of books that talk about race and about equity and inclusion and at four she manages to understand what it means to be different and how it's okay to be different and that we need to make sure that we protect people who might have extra balances against them and i think that if a four-year-old can then we need to understand that older kids can as well and give them the opportunity to be good citizens of this world and good citizens to each other and just coming down to kindness and so i really appreciate the work i see the board doing i am i'm filled with a lot of pride about it i talk to my friends about it i'm constantly trying to
019get friends to move to stonington for various reasons and um the work that you all are doing there is a big pull and a big reason that i'm getting people interested so thank you and have a good evening thank you anyone else was wishing to address the board hi i'm bruce burton and sick school street and i just want to also reiterate are adamantly we're adamantly against the critical race theory and i know there's so much controversy about it but i think as far as the school is concerned the schools should be concerned with what to teach and not how to teach i think that's totally in the parents court however they want their children to be taught about history we can't change history and i think it's beyond us to even try it because
020it's it's breaking everybody apart and that's all i have thank you anyone else hello good evening everyone my name is kenyon murphy i live on pequot court in pocketsuck for over six years i've got a fourth grader and a sixth grader at excuse me a fourth grader a first grader at west ham street school so i'd like to take a few moments to discuss our response to the copa 19 pandemic as a community how that affects our children especially our elementary students there's a phrase in latin premium akare first do no harm it's part of the hippocratic oath and it's been the mantra of healthcare providers for centuries as parents were often reminded of the importance to follow with cdc guidance or reminded every day to follow science but when science is it's recognized by
021cdc conflicts with ledge light ciac or other other governing bodies parents start to lose confidence in the system rally pointed um pointed out this earlier but as a parent of a quarantined child i can stay from experience that the amount of disruption that it causes for the family there's a significant amount of school laws she said this last school year was completely absent of full-time learning as we all know quarantines are not limited to missing school so extra curricular sports are cancelled for child and quarantine we should do everything we can to keep our kids active we currently have an epidemic of childhood obesity and childhood obesity is the leading comorbidity that can complicate copit19 so as the parents of elementary schools students in quarantine myself and others our jobs and our ability to put
022food on the table is at risk i was supposed to be at work this week my child should have been at work at school this week based on cdc guidelines for unvaccinated individuals who remain unsymptomatic they may shorten their quarantine to seven days and if they receive a negative covet pcr test no greater than 14 hours per day they can if they can exit quarantine that that is a that pretty much guarantees that someone doesn't have covert 19 but we're asked to follow ledge light which if you've ever gone to their website it's there's a section on instructions on how to isolate for cobit 19. it brings you to a link for los angeles county it's out of date the guide the quarantine guidance comes from the virginia department of health i mean these are
023just pdf files we could have slapped a town of stonington banner on it at least but there's just a lot of inconsistency i think that it's concerning that there doesn't seem to be a reasonable standard protocol in place for something that so greatly influences our children's educational emotional and physical well-being i also think that masks are psychologically damaging and they don't they don't offer enough benefit to continue it my kids report they don't always get mask breaks if there's a fire drill that's their mass break even though they might have not been able to take off their mask so i mean i think we need to at least make sure that happens but i think it's i think it's a terrible thing and i think that the benefits don't outweigh the risks or the harm
024we've already caused um i think if we really believed that mask worked and had a huge benefit then we would issue n95 masks every day to elementary school students there'd be a line item in the budget for it you just do it instead of bringing the same snot rag that kids use for a week into school every day i think that causes more harm than good i think that can create an opportunity for viruses and other bacteria to be transmitted so thank you for listening and thank you anyone else wishing to address the board there we go hi my name is kevin agnello from eight leicester avenue in pocket tuck thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight um first to dr riley uh thank you for your nine years of service to the town
025and to the board um and to the students of course um i just want to make a quick suggestion to the board and to dr riley while you're still willing to dedicate your time i work as a data analyst and educational researcher um a quick summary of the educational research regarding what makes effective superintendents a common research methodology is for superintendents uh school boards um the board chairman uh and sometimes even community members uh researchers have them rank order by importance a list of characteristics on what they believe makes an effective superintendent um once that qualitative data is collected you can compare across groups you can compile a list um that is uh that is catered to that municipality uh to hopefully help you seek out new superintendents um i'd like to make a suggestion
026to the board that again while dr riley is available um that might be a good exercise for the board not to take on again it's it's well documented in the educational leadership research on what makes effective superintendents it's very common most commonly uh or most recently a 2017 study from the journal of educational leadership outlines the sort of methodology and i i find it to be very effective um just a quick suggestion to the board might be a great exercise for you all to take on thank you thank you anyone else okay we'll move on uh there was one item that i passed over my apologies to the board communications and recognitions uh farook i'll start with you do you have anything craig jack oh uh courtney do you have anything on your side i'm
027good thank you okay next item on the agenda consent agenda there are eight items under the consent agenda one set of minutes checks and bills personnel report administrators employment contract uh policy uh 4118 0.51 9000 series minus the ones that are listed below policy 35 16.12 and policy 35 24.2 typically no discussion on the consent agenda unless you uh wish to remove something what's your pleasure i move the consent agenda a through h motion made there's a second all in favor opposed moisture carries next item on the agenda uh is first read approval of the following seven policies the first one uh will be uh 90 40. actually is this on [Music] actually the way that i'd like to approach this is not in consecutive order because the way i organized it is really by
028theme because there's a lot of intersection um of ideas and all of these and so it will make a lot more sense um if i if we just start actually i'm going to start with 9312. you can start with whatever one you want okay um i just this exercise was really very healthy um and because it really shows the expectations of the board and what is expected and um and particularly the careful language that needs to be used to describe all of this so i know now that i'm going to spend a lot more time looking at and applying these bylaws and that's what brings me to the first question which is 9312 and that is it's about amending the bylaws the procedures to do that and it says bylaw bylaw proposals and suggested amendments
029revisions or deletions of existing dialogues shall be submitted by the superintendent to the members of the board in writing prior to a regular meeting of the board of education i would think that the board members would have equal jurisdiction to the superintendent in suggesting amendments deletion and revisions and so i would change the beginning of that by law by saying bylaws and suggested amendments revisions and deletions of existing by bylaws may be submitted by the superintendent and the board members in writing prior to a regular meeting you're making a suggestion that you we add board members to that as well yes and also use the word may not um shall it's a little bit more independent choice that's instructive where's mary anne hey any issues with that i think it makes sense [Music] i just
030want to remind um the board that there are lawyers that craft these and so when you change the language it may have implications um when you do so i suspect that the reason the word shall be is there because um we get updates constantly about changes to policies and and the law so that's probably why the language is so strong their heidi that usually it comes through the superintendent the notices of policy mandates that have to be updated or changes that's probably why i don't think it would prohibit the board from saying you know let's take a look at this bylaw or policy we can add that language but i just want to caution you as you go forward that some of these are i what i wanted to understand is that i did not
031have to go through the superintendent if as i began going through these bylaws a lot more carefully and i will i didn't i there's a lot more that i could have gone through but it was it was trialing so as i go through this and i discovered that that actually is something else that i would like to amend or attend to i i would like the procedure to be that i just put it in writing prior to a regular meeting at the board of ed and then it's discussed i don't know i don't think that's i don't think that's um prohibited right i don't think that's prohibited in other words if to to reference our conversation that we had earlier before the meeting that depending on the structure that the new board wants to use
032going forward some of those conversations might happen in a subcommittee level if there's a policy subcommittee it might be a natural thing that comes out of a conversation at a subcommittee level that you might want to reduce to writing and bring as a proposal to the full board or you might want to craft new language and bring that proposal to the new board out of a subcommittee should the new board decide to have that structure i think there's also again the legal issue um in terms of subject you know the policies should be reviewed by an attorney and changes should be reviewed probably by an attorney to make sure they're not in violation and also i see a logistical issue um you know there's a procedure in terms of the first three and second read
033and all that and approval beanies could if board members can just submit policy suggestions anytime they want it could result in bugging a meeting or meetings down maybe it would be better to have the proposals submitted to the superintendent to then bring forward and just to keep it a more early process and less uh disruptive one um because i can see someone's you know for example could say something the next week i could come back and say well i'd like to i'm suggesting this change and then next week frank says well i want for next month is this change it just seems to introduce a lot of chaos to the process so i think it's like robert's rules of orders i think you need to establish sort of a very orderly way of doing this
034and i'm not saying board members shouldn't have the right to submit but i think you need to put it put into some sort of early structure and again that might be uh it might be a legal issue as well too so we should run even that perhaps best uh journey well heidi maybe i'm misunderstanding i think in your reading of this you wanted to ensure that board members weren't precluded from being able to bring something forward right and i would like the rest of the board to hear what it was that i was saying so it's discussed with all of them maybe whoever the superintendent is looks at it and decides you know i i don't really like that so it doesn't get any further than the superintendent so the superintendent becomes a filter and
035so what i'm saying is that and i hopefully the board members would not be so frivolous is that they would just come up with uh ideas and popping into their head but they had really put it together and actually had i i think that this um is a good idea for a revision and i don't think it was necessarily frivolous and i don't think somebody's going to come up you know next board meeting and say oh no i don't like that i don't like that and we get into silly arguments but if if this should be before the policy meeting then we shouldn't go on here because i'll just continue to mention things and it will be said that we need to be at a we need to be in a smaller group talking about
036policy so i'm a little confused about what it means on the first reading pool of bylaws um i i'm suggesting that we rethink this and there are others that i am suggesting to rethink so maybe i don't understand what this what we should be doing with this so then maybe what should happen is those policies are not discussed here and they're discussed in a workshop setting or in a policy meeting and you hash out the language you know accordingly on those that you you want to discuss like i know there's one that there were questions asked about and information passed back and forth that i think we could move forward on tonight and talk about but the other ones perhaps you know need to be discussed in a smaller group in a workshop setting because
037everybody's going to have a different opinion it's all going to be talk talk through everybody has um okay so i still plan to bring this up add a policy me because i think that there is language here which is confusing and uh and the bylaws are the foundation of us and if it if it's vague or unstable then we as a board will reflect the vagueness and unstableness and i and and i really do think that we should have the the position of coming forward and discussing a bylaw that only happens in the policy meeting then we have to go back to having um small subcommittees that's fine and i agree with you the my lawyers are critically important to how the board operates and we should take time to go through not looking to
038push anything through that people are not ready to approve that's why we separated them up so we know that those haven't been proved yet and they will come up and pause so heidi also i would ask heidi if you have specific questions about each one just email those to me and that might help help me get prepared to have that conversation as well if there's something that i need to run by on one of our attorneys or something or something that i can actually just answer because i have the context for it i'd be happy to do that and i'll take that a step further i would encourage you to include the entire board so the board understands what you know your concerns are what any board members concerns are so everybody's on the same
039page going into the discussion well i i think that um i think the discussion in 90 40 and 9 400 about the board's self-evaluation something that's really interesting because i don't know about a strategy or a tool it's in place for board self-evaluation and i think that was something that really needed to be um discussed and figured out because they're asking for questionnaires and gathering data from the the constituents and doing it equally and honestly and those are words that are just thrown out there and aren't really very thoughtful um and applicable to what it is that they're speaking about so this if this is not the place where i want to hold this for a policy meeting and be able to to speak about each one of these because i think uh i think
040followers are really important that's um that's what drives us that's what organizes absolutely correct and i would ask that you just line out your concerns or your questions so that the whole board has the ability to understand where your concerns are coming from so it can be a constructive discussion at the policy frank yes um if possible i'd like to make a change to 9160 or propose change and we've already discussed it as a board and i don't believe it's a change that would need to go through our attorney is that okay yes sir okay uh 9160 uh talks about many things um but number one on the list is the member it's a student rep to the board of education will be recommended by the high school principal to uh by the high school
041principal to the superintendent of schools i would like that to be um similar to what we've been doing or i'd like to recommend it be the student council president or a member of student council it's important to me that the student rep who represents the students is chosen by the students so i don't know if our student rep has any comment on that but um can i just give some context for that john because through this process as you know these haven't been looked at in quite a few decades um and as part of the process the the policy that you're referring to about the past practice of this this the president of the student council that was a policy passed in 1995 this policy you have in front of you is actually it was
042passed in 2012 by the board the only addition to it as it is approved and is posted on our website right now is is 8d and i just you know that's just just for your context for your conversation that's just before you go yeah yeah so in my tenure here uh the past four years there have been times when um the student rep has made some really good suggestions comments perhaps they were not comments that necessarily the board excuse me the administration would want to hear but i think they were very constructive and i feel like it came from the students and i also feel like if if the student was chosen by the the sony high school principal perhaps they may think twice about coming forward with an issue maybe not maybe they would
043and so it's really important to me and it's been very valuable to have a candid discussion with our student rep and so i you know it doesn't have to be the student council president but it's important to me that the students um and let me one one other quick point um i believe that how the student government is formed is each each grade has an election they pick representatives and then those representatives choose one person to lead them which in this case would be kyle and so it just makes sense that he would be the person sitting here representing the students of stoning high school so that is why i would like to see the change uh yes that is correct that is the process for how i was elected president um another big part
044of this discussion i think is that as president my role as a pretty public one in the school people do know that i'm in this position which i don't think you would see as much with an independent corporate because unfortunately most students are not terribly invested in the board of education and i also have the advantage that i sit in a 40-member meeting once a week of elected students and that they know that i'm here and that they're welcome to bring up any issue to me and i think that's definitely worth considering when you choose how to um pick a thank you kyle appreciate your inquiry any other board members have uh comments on um what jack is asking i i totally agree with it i did you marian did you say that we have
045voted on this that could be recommended by the high school principal in the in the archives heidi as i was going through this process i found what is now through cave anyways a policy that was numbered i don't have the number in front of me but it is an obsolete policy by cave's model um but it was a 1995 policy that is reflective of what the current practice has been however the board whatever whatever the configuration of the board was in 2012 must have been talking about revising some policies because they they use this number which is the current model number the 160. yeah and and this this is the policy again that is posted on our website absent 8d and that's the language that exists that's all i'm telling you it's completely up to
046you what you want to do if you want to revert to the 1995 model that's fine that's your decision i'm just giving you the context i didn't hear you need a motion if you're if we're looking to make a change to the policy we're going to have to make a motion to change it correct i make a motion and um please change the language to you'll go get the sentiment um that the member um will be that the student rep to the board of education uh will be the student council vice president and or someone a student chosen by the student council that's in case the student council president decides to decide they don't want to do it right that's the only change you're seeking there's a motion is there a second i second it
047motion made there's a second any discussion on the motion yes go ahead i fully support what jack is suggesting i just suggest that any changes get run first by one of our lawyers to ensure that the language is appropriate i 100 support what jack is saying i'm just making it the suggestion is that if we're changing a by-law we should consult with our attorney can i have a point of clarification do you want the rest of the language of this version to remain as far as the duties go and just those that wording okay i just want to be clear and i agree with any other discussion can i hear the motion again because i'm just i'm still not i'm not completely clear i'm going to be clued there where i'm voting okay it may
048be different the second time around uh the student rep to the stonington board of education shall be the student council vice president and or someone of the choosing of these students or student council please clean that up too but it's a student student council president right student council or a representative from the student council correct okay did you say chosen by this is a this is a nuance jack okay chosen by the student council or a student council member i would say chosen by the student council so then collectively they can pick the person which ultimately is will represent we have a wrap it's a wrap but the motion has to be withdrawn in amended to include the legal review are you okay with that absolutely okay so the motions modified to ensure that there's
049a legal review of the uh suggested change you second that heidi yes i seconded it again thank you motion made there's a second all in favor [Music] opposed motion cameras all right and then the others we will we will move yeah and it sounds like when we discuss this that we should have a lawyer present if that is your wish yes or you can i'm sorry to talk but rather than having a lawyer present because that bill can rack up very quickly is to create a list of changes that you'd like suggested and submit them submit them to the lawyers and through marianne and that way we kind of like manage also our legal experience and then when does the board get to see it when it's been cleaned up when it comes to the
050committee so i think it goes through committee right committee reviews by laws uh with with committee goes back to mary and says here's what we want change and takes that sends it to our legal counsel ensure those changes are appropriate by law brings them back to the committee committee sees and approves those changes brings them back to the board for first read and second yeah that's good that's what they need to understand okay moving on next item on the agenda is the superintendent announcement um on october 12th uh the board received a letter of uh resignation from dr riley announcing his uh retirement uh from stonington public schools after uh nine years of uh service um i think before you know we have a discussion we need to you know move on accepting the the
051letter um and then you know we can we can discuss as a board uh dr riley anything um you want to share before we move that forward well this is a difficult decision some people say are you happy or sad and the answer is yes it's been a marvelous experience helping this district move forward for the last nine years retirement comes when it comes when you turn 70 years old and you're looking that's what's the next chapter of your life retirement sounds pretty good but i have a lot of other kinds of plans going i did want to just let the board know that i'd like to stay until you have a permanent replacement i think that's important in my experience um having interims is causing some inconsistency and just one other change you don't
052need and we can certainly talk about that in the in the process but that's that's my intent to continue to work hard for this district until you have a new a new superintendent but i'd like to thank you all for everything over these last nine years and your support and looking forward to the search process and moving on thank you i'll entertain a motion to accept dr riley's letter motion there's a second second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries um so uh the timing of the letter just with a pending election it kind of complicates how you you move forward i mean the process is the process uh the board needs to come together and determine what they are looking for in the next superintendent uh
053mr agnello had some suggestions as to uh how to utilize you know benchmarking and data and then it's you engage a consultant uh typically um you have community search committees um and then the board ultimately makes that final decision and it's typically affordable six-month process having been through that when we hired dr riley nine years ago i was on the board along with craig uh and we went through that similar process um certainly want to hear from my colleagues on the board but um my personal opinion on how to move forward is there's an election in three weeks this board coming together with four members that are no longer going to be on it deciding what they want in the next superintendent i don't know that that makes a whole lot of sense to me
054but i'm one of seven and certainly want to hear from my colleagues yeah no i i agree i think uh to be fair to the incoming board um but i do think it might be worth us meeting um to sit down and talk through some of those things so we we give the incoming board um you know a head start on that and not wait three or four weeks um so but i do agree but i think i think it's worth a with a separate meeting can i second what gordon said i think we should meet and discuss this uh i i do agree with you of the respect given to the future board members um however i think the insight and opinion of the departing board members i mean alice's melissa's been on the
055board for many many years and she's very insightful and she adds a lot of you know depth to the conversation so i think her opinion matters your opinion matters jack's opinion matter gordon opinion matter so those those opinions should even if we don't start necessarily or we don't go to that search committee but if we gather that opinion from the forward departing board members um you know it would be valuable for the remaining board members and the future board members and it'll be valuable for the community and the administration i agree okay so that seems to be the consensus of the board craig yes okay so i'll work with on it to set up a special meeting um next item on the agenda report from the superintendent dr reilly i believe the sip is the
056only item now under that yes um each year we bring to the board our cip plan um we do not i want peter and chris will come up and give you a brief summary they each have there's a binder of backup for each of these items and that whole all that detail uh will be shared with the board of finance we can certainly we will have copies of that available here at the district office if any board member is interested but they can give you a summary of where we are and what their requests are this year so the requested budget for the incoming year for technology we have the security systems and cameras um for district office and some of the other buildings we have the phone system um that is for additional handsets
057and licensing the chromebook one-to-one program uh we've got the dean's mill refresh up next the computer systems infrastructure that is for switching fiber optics and wireless upgrades throughout the district staff computers um that is for replacement laptops and beginning to build a fund for a larger refresh coming up in a few years and the audio video systems for the district we've got board of ed meeting room upgrades the commons and the auditorium and that is it for the technology set are there any questions [Music] chris you said the phone system is that like replacement or addition uh we've already upgraded the phone system that is additional handsets added into the district for additional users and spaces requiring phones and chris how often are we refreshing student computers student chromebooks are being refreshed once every four
058years so we're doing each building once a year we've got a self-insurance policy now so typically we did three years for refresh we've been able to extend that out to four years with our self-insurance policy with the district now as well thank you any other questions for chris before he hands on thanks chris so starting off with number seven the pcb air monitoring that's been handled by the town but uh that is should be ending this year um we just had our last test done district office phase two ac and a classroom upgrade is on hold until we uh get um more uh lined up with what's going on with the district office roof ladders and cables are is um i'm sorry hold on a minute roof ladders and cables is an additional amount so
059we've got gone out to bid it's we had we're short on that high school rooftop and rebuild for the gym ac it would be the last rtu unit uh above the gym which would add the ac unit for that area and rebuild that uh kitchen upgrade uh is the for some additional equipment required across the district in the in all the kitchens upgrade to the bms is for the stonington middle school side library flooring and repair is to replace the library at the high school or replacing the library rug at the high school minivans in addition to adding one is a replacement policy to go through all the bands since they're hitting their mileage limit high school generator upgrade is to re repurpose all the panels that we have in the building to accurately use
060the generator that we have on site at the high school gym upgrade is to refinish flooring and over a period of time add replace the curtains and replace the pads in the area as well as the scoreboard sms root project has been completed middle school ac upgrade is uh to to add the ac in the middle school in combination with the art funding and the town's funding replace maintenance trucks and the district is to replace trucks that have hit end of life middle school science room upgrade is to add in and for the overflow of the of the school to change what are existing classrooms in the science room more appropriately four bursters are to replace some of the district cleaning equipment traffic turf replacement is repair for this year and then the savings account
061over the years after to start thinking about our turf replacement we're coming close to the end of life on that high school roof repair is for a large section of the roof that has lost its bond to the deck and also a savings policy to start saving for the roof that's going to be replaced it's heading under like where we're at 16 years and that roof is only a 20-year life interior painting and repairs for general painting around the district classroom furniture is for general classroom furniture around the district replacement and the security upgrade for district office is for all to replace the remaining locks that have not been replaced in this building any questions for peter you peter next item on the agenda monthly reports there were four finance food service facilities enrollment in
062student government report kyle is there anything you want to address in your report with the board my report has been trained so i highlighted the college fair the activities fair and just some great activities we've had going on there feeling closer and closer to normal you know i want to recognize my fellow student government members and the staff for all the work that they've done other than that i am all set thank you thank you kyle any comments on any of the other reports from board members or questions all right moving forward items for future agendas i know uh jack you told me that you had one yeah oh maybe just just when you thought you got ready so i will not be here obviously the next time but i've asked heidi to do a
063follow-up with both of these so these are items that have been in the back of my mind and with covid dr riley's you know been up to his ears with you know trying to deal with that so i haven't really brought these items forward but this is my last meeting and uh so i'm gonna throw all caution with a win here and and these this is something i've spoken to in the about in the past and uh so i'm sure you all saw on the news recently the wall street journal new york times did a report about facebook and instagram and how it's negatively impacting our our kids and uh there was a whistleblower and she testified in front of congress um and this was research that was internal uh within facebook and uh it
064was leaked and so you know their own research uh suggested that teens regardless of gender blame instagram for increased anxiety and feelings of depression about some six percent six out of 100 young women uh traced uh their use of of instagram to suicidal thoughts um facebook knew for years that instagram worsened body image in one in three teen girls and a significant number of them 32 percent said instagram made them feel worse about their bodies there's a teacher right here in connecticut his name is chris doyle he commented in the new york times report and he said that um you know as a teacher of 30 years he has seen a profound shift toward constant self-evaluation that he associates with social media use um kids rack up absences because they feel overwhelmed on a daily
065basis and as a father of three daughters all very much are different in their own right but all have struggled um i hate to say that publicly but all have struggled with their use of you know these platforms so you know i had mentioned at one point um about doing wait till eighth which is this concept where we have parents um collectively uh ask their as a whole uh sign a pack that they will not give their their student their children uh a smartphone until the eighth grade you know it's in today's day and age it's really hard to do um but i do know that anxiety and mental health have been a real issue during my four years the students themselves on their own have been implemented a mental health day where they invited
066mental health professionals to come to the high school and speak and the auditorium was packed and i also noticed as i walked out there was a line of students waiting to speak some of these professionals also we had a i think um allison had a forum here right about mental health and was very well attended so what i would like to ask it's going to end up being marianne uh is you know what can we do as a district now this is an overwhelming problem and you know little stonington high school district of stockton can't solve this problem but there are schools that are doing subtle things to try to help combat this so as an example can we integrate into our health curriculum um some ways to give our students tools to deal with
067uh how they access these apps um uh how they use their time management how to you know and you can use some of these apps uh going forward to your benefit as well but you have to create a good online reputation there are privacy issues what can we do as a district to help these students um understand what they're seeing online isn't necessarily true and how to help deal with some of these these the anxiety around being constantly bombarded with this thing in your pocket the last thing that i thought was pretty interesting that i read about was this teacher as a science teacher i forget the high school but she noticed their kids were constantly distracted by their phones and they were using their phones it was a science class to help you know
068kids could use them to look look things up but the phones are constantly going off so she took a day and she said okay today what we're going to do just one day i've got this whiteboard i'm going to have you every time you get a notification on your phone on instagram or whatever whatever you're on i want you to come up and put a mark on the whiteboard and there was one student there that had 150 marks in an hour and four years class how can you possibly be an effective student when you have that kind of distraction going off in your pocket you know on a regular basis so i think it's a real problem and again i don't expect our school system to solve it and i think a lot of it
069falls on parents but there are maybe subtle things that we can do to help our students and i know that there are other districts that are doing just that so if if you could explore that um and get back to not me but the next board of education i would appreciate that and then the second thing is uh this is near and dear to me i know because i have a high schooler that's in course right now that the numbers are abysmal um and i have a feeling and it's not for me to say but i'd like to ask the administration to look into you know what is causing this and i have a feeling part is going to be the pandemic but there the number like the course numbers are really low band numbers
070are low at the high school and i feel like part of it stems from the middle school and the fact that i know my kids had you know on jazz band and uh chorus in other words they had after school programs for students that wanted to take it to the next level and those kids tended to go into the high school and sign up for drama for its band so can you get back to the next board and let them know what the status is of all that and what things you as an administration could possibly do to help boost the numbers because there are so many nice community events like the pops at the end of the school year and all the drama programs we need kids to be enough kids to be interested
071in in music in order to have those kind of community marching band another example in order to have those events in our town and what a loss would be if we don't have those events so please look into that and thank you for the fun were they allowed to have banned um this year with um the instruments i thought that they you weren't allowed to use any kind of wind instruments or things i'd like to leave it up to them to explain all that at the next meeting because i don't know the answer to them yeah i just know that i'm pretty sure they don't have a select force anymore and i think that may be impacted yeah but we tried hard i mean i think that that's that you really have educated us about
072the idea that we need to have middle school is where it's at that's sort of the elementary school of music and we had that music teacher who was so good so we really have to allocate funds to attract a good person and do it early and i believe they can they can comment i think they've hired somebody you know so hopefully if you can just do a catch-up on that thank you jack any other items from board members i just want to comment on that they they do have the band plays and i went to their concert at the end of the year last year and they did a great job and the music teacher at the high school has done a tremendous job in ensuring that the program continues and i agree with jack
073we need to look into how we increase the numbers but they do have they've got some embers there any other items from board members okay moving on board member comments and concerns any board members jack could you comment on whether the internet's up and going again and all the disruption around whatever issue we had or no i don't know there's there's still the investigation's still underway and they're still making some repairs do the students have access to what's the status of that yes they do there are a few programs that they don't um it's not 100 at all there but we have the typical things that students can use to access yeah [Music] any other board member comments recording i would just like to thank uh dr reilly the administration marianne um for this is
074my last meeting jack's last meeting um this has been a great experience for me um i want to thank you for your leadership in this district i'm very proud to have four children in this district and uh i believe you leave our district uh in a much better place than uh where you got here um and uh i guess i would just say you know we as a community continue to focus on the positive i mean the pandemic has been brutal for for everybody um i think everybody's doing the best they can and i i think we're all trying to do even more but i do think we have to continue to celebrate the positive i think we get weighed down on the on the negative way too much not to say that we ignore
075it but we absolutely have to celebrate the positive so um john thank you dr riley for everything i wish you uh great uh great enjoyment in your in your retirement and uh hopefully we'll still see you around town so thank you thank you i also would like to congratulate dr riley on the retirement thank you for all you've done to our community and our children and since my tenure on the board i've learned a lot from you and from the team and uh you've been in a you know a rock in the last 18 months that we could defend and trust and so we appreciate you and i wish you the best in your retirement and to my fellow board members that are departing i'm going to miss you i'm going to miss your leadership
076and your thoughtfulness all of you and i promise jack that i'll do my best to carry on the music torch and i'll probably i'll be fighting on your behalf and uh but music baton better better wording i always can depend on correcting me english is my second language but um dr riley thank you so much anybody else so um this is my last meeting um i've been on the board for i was on the board for eight years or seven years uh the first time and then came back for a year and four months most of that time i i've been board chair uh it certainly has been an honor to serve this community um i was not born and raised here my wife and i chose to raise our family here uh primarily because
077of the schools that's what attracted us and uh it's been an honor to be able to give back to the community uh dr riley uh you have been the superintendent for most of that time certainly i i think you leave the district in a better place than you found it and i have learned a lot from you over the years we have a very talented administrative team and we have very talented teachers that are very dedicated to the students in the community and the community at large um so thank you for all that you do on a daily basis it's not easy work but it is important work um and to my fellow board members it's been a pleasure to serve with you and those of you that will continue on i wish you the
078best of luck and the new members coming on yeah buckle your seatbelt you have a lot coming at you pretty quick um so best of luck to everyone uh next item on the agenda is adjournment entertain a motion to adjourn [Music] motion made is there a second all in favor opposed motion carries