Tolland Board of Education - December 3, 2025

001Good evening. I'd like to call the December 3rd, 2025 board of education meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Professor Willlet, I think we might have some acknowledgements tonight. >> We sure do. Uh, very exciting night. We have the, uh, young men's Holland public school soccer team here, who, as you know, are champions. I think everybody's aware of your status. Not only are they champions this year, they've been champions last year, and they've always been champions in some way. So, I'm just going to read a little introduction and then give it to the board to ask some questions. would also like to recognize um head

002coach Mike Kakamo. He's here probably in the back somewhere there. So, you know, thank you for being here tonight. Coach Bryce Aston is also here. And um volunteer assistant Ryan Soy is here as well somewhere you guys. So, maybe you guys could stand up real quick just so the board can see you. They did a great job this season. Also, Tim McCcluskey, our athletic supervisor, is here. Just uh so stand away. He's almost well, I was going to say tall enough that you can all see more. >> Yeah, just a quick introduction. The 2025 Tallland High School boys soccer team um young men's soccer team completed a truly historic season, capturing back-to-back Class M state championships, marking a program's fourth state title and becoming the first Class M team in Central Connecticut Conference history to

003win the CCC tournament. They also secured the CCC North Division co- championship and made conference history or as the first team to ever win both the league and state championships in the same year, finishing with a record amazing record of 21 and three overall. The Eagles posted the most single season victories in school history, scoring a program best 83 goals, tallied 13 shutouts, and outscored state tournament opponents 26-4. Unanimously ranked number one in classms MS all season, Talin spent the entire year in Connecticut's top 10 for the New England Soccer Journal and ultimately finished number two in the state and number 52 nationally as ranked by Max Preps. The team featured 15 different goal scorers, allowed more more than two goals only once, and earned numerous individual honors, including all conference selections for Andrew Jder,

004Reed, Babcock, and Jack Dorfler, Jackson Sylv, and sorry, and Jonathan Adagio. All state recognition for Chader and Babcock, and senior bowl selections for both standouts. They have done an incredible job this season as a tool and thank you guys. You just are awesome. >> Now, next week at the town council meeting, you'll be getting a proclamation, which is highly honorable. Tonight, we have a choice of either chocolate for you or Tom merchand. So, you'll be able to uh when we're done tonight, choose between Talin merch or chocolate. Um I think there's about 16 or 17 of the Talon merch, but the tariffs are making incredibly expensive. So, you tell us or the chocolate. Okay. So, when we're done, I just like to hand that out to you. Okay. Nice job. Nice job. Um board, you

005guys have anything you wanted to throw out there? >> I'd just like to say congratulations to all of you. Thank you for coming tonight and uh letting us share this with you a little bit. Uh super proud, amazing. Can't even imagine all the hours and hours of your lives that you guys have put into uh to this. So, congratulations. Congratulations coaches. Thank you for everything that you do for our players. Um and congratulations to the parents. I think as parents, we all know that without you guys driving them back and forth to practices and lots of travel with soccer, too, right? tournaments and uh camps etc. So thank you for letting us share in this moment with you. >> U Tim or guys coaches you guys want to throw in that? >> Yeah. >> Um

006sure I guess. Well we have uh our captains are in the front row here and um we brought the plaque to show you here. Nice. >> Very cool. >> Who gets to hold on to this? >> So, this is going to end up going into the trophy case of the high school. We presented Mr. McCcluskey with a couple different items last night that'll be on display with the game ball. Um, we got like a state champion poster. We won. So, the players all um we we gave him one of these. We're going to give you one of these as well. >> Thank you. I know I have last one. >> Well, we kind of told you last year that we'd be here this year. So, >> not that we >> So, we'll see you next

007year. >> What's that? >> So, we'll see you next year. >> And I mean, never say never, right? These guys, to be honest, I mean, they work hard. I know that, you know, >> um, as members of the school and whatnot, the what it takes to be a top-notch, you know, student and whatnot, but, um, every day these guys are >> top of their game. So being here was not because, you know, we were handed this, right? They went out and they earned it. And a lot of the stats, the statistics that um that Mr. Mr. Willlet read um that you can't make that stuff up, right? That that you have to go out there and you got to do it. So um it helps having 16 seniors and and those 16 seniors were champions

008last year. Um but you know, we talk about what the year ahead's going to be. like that's going to be the impact of the guys that are sitting here and how much they provided for those guys that are going to return next year. Um so will we be here next year? Well, we'll do our best to be here next year and and just that we did to be here this year. Um you know, it's a very motivated group. It's a very motivated program. We have a lot of pride in what we do at the high school level. Um you know, these guys work throughout the summer non-stop. Um a lot of guys are here today instead of being at their club practices. We have a lot of guys that are here today because they're at

009their club practices. Um, you know, so they they're very dedicated to what they do. Um, it doesn't happen by accident, that's for sure. So, >> well, there's definitely no accident in and you guys incredible. Yeah. >> When you're like 54, you're going to walk into the building and you're going to have your kids dragging all over you. >> We order rings. We you know we we do we we've been celebrated to the full extent championship brings last year we did them again this year and um >> you know we appreciate these honors for town council meetings you know we have it scheduled ready to go back to the state capital um in February and celebrate that way. So I mean these guys deserve it and obviously you know doing this is not something that just

010comes along because we feel we deserve it right you got to go out and you got to earn it to do it. Well, >> they're they're a great group and I can't say enough about them. So, >> thank you. >> Any of the young athletes, you guys want to say anything? >> Bro, thank you for having us. >> So, can I ask a question? >> So, who who are the who are the captains? Just to clarify here, are you all seniors? >> All seniors. How many of you are freshman? Any freshman in here? >> Two freshmen back there. All right, seniors. Are you guys playing at the next level? You thinking of playing at the next level? >> Anybody decided yet? >> Yeah, I'm going over to England next year. >> Oh, no. >> Okay,

011boy. All right. All right. Good stuff. >> Decided yet? Not excited. >> I'm like 97% sure. >> 97. >> That's awesome. This This is This is And I have to shout out somebody, one of your coaches back there was in my graduating class, Ryan Soy. This guy was a ridiculous soccer player. So, the fact that you guys have him, you know, helping your coaches and coaching you guys, I mean, you are blessed. So, um, good dude, amazing soccer player. So, >> he's got the single season goal scoring record at the high school senior year. >> There you go. Um, he's again volunteer, right? And he's there every day and puts, you know, trains the goalies a lot and it's a lot of work throughout the season. So, >> you guys ever get butterflies before a

012game? Yeah, >> still make it happen. >> We talk about all the time. We talk about like if you didn't have nerves, we'd be concerned, right? We think you didn't care enough about it. You weren't having those. >> Um, but I mean, again, we've been we were in that situation two years in a row. So, I think this year when, you know, police escort happened and we went to Den Stadium, Tren Stadium and did that, I think there was a little less layers because they've kind of walked in that environment before. Yeah. >> Um, you guys have a ritual or something? >> Sure. Superstition. >> What is it? >> Superstitions for some pizza. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You want to share the superstition? >> I wear the same socks. >> A lot of the guys

013put on like certain tape a certain way. So, >> um, us coaches have our own our own little, you know, some position together and right semi battles against Playville 00 like I I knew I forgot something and it was it was our we we I buy the same snack for the game >> just to keep in a bag just to have them make the movie about you guys. >> Serious. >> I should note. >> Yes. So Tori is uh is our manager. >> Thank you. >> Was a huge addition this year for us. >> You know, just a lot of what held us together kind of, >> you know, very uh very motherly to the players like they need stuff, help them out with things, you know, get them this, get them that. Um but

014also very like put them in their place. They're not doing their stuff. Just kind of like an extension of us as coaches, you know. >> Um but that I mean it comes down to having good leaders, right? So even with 16 seniors keeping them entertained every day, keeping them into it with it probably friends and all that stuff and you know there's football games and stuff like that going on on the weekend and we're saying we have a game tomorrow. We should go to bed, eat right, all that stuff. >> So obviously again like that's the stuff they don't that they do when they're not with us is why they're champions because it would have been easy to do, you know, things their buddies are doing and all that stuff, but they're focused, they're driven,

015they're into it mentally. That's that's the key. So >> it's a lot of sacrifice. We're very proud of you. So is Tal. So thank you for helping put on your map. I really appreciate that. You probably real estate values have probably gone up just because you're doing good. >> Guys, the praise from the from the soccer community from the CIA perspective, the praise these guys have gotten. I mean, I know a lot of media publications this year and different stories that that they did on our program. to me. Um, you know, not that that added some pressure, but it added some pressure a little bit. You know, you want to you want to look good, feel good, play good, do all those things. And I mean, these guys handled every bit of the season at

016at a top level. So, definitely, you know, school to itself. >> Is there any sophomores on the team, guys? >> Um, yeah, we have we have a really good mix. Jackson's here now, right? Sophomore. I'm I'm just thinking to start your high school soccer career with two state championships. You're spoiled already. I I see at least one little leager I had as a as a player, Braden, back there. But, you know, looking at looking at this program the last two years, watching you guys win two state championships, it's not only a testament to the players, but as coaches to to build a whole program instead of just a team, you know, that's something that uh that we've talked about with baseball as Jaden and I coach baseball. But, you know, that's a testament to to

017you three as coaches as well as you know, the the other stuff that's happening here in Talon to to bring up uh you know, such quality uh players. Yeah. So, congratulations on that as well. >> In the summertime, we run a camp for Talon Soccer Club. We run our our Eagles soccer camp, you know, with the girls program together. Um and a lot of the guys that are here now, when I first started coaching, they were kids at that camp. So that kind of helps to to get this, you know, going get the train going in the right direction. Yeah. >> So, and obviously when you're going through and having guys like Ryan as a senior and they're the ones halting out of those camps, like it just there's a lot of full circle moments

018that come every season, it just it kind of hammers home more when they're champions, you know, like it kind of sticks out a little more. Um, but we have we have a a great group of middle schoolers and we did we did a lot to help that group this year and um a good group coming in next year. like we're we're definitely I with their freshman year we lost in the semi-finals sophomore year we lost in the quarterfinals those years I would think that we probably were the favorites in our in the class end bracket so this really could have been if it was for you know a bounce or whatever here or there could have been four champion in a row we were definitely a top team in in those brackets their freshman and

019sophomore years >> so I mean I know the word like say a dynasty and all that stuff and we're not professional sports and whatnot but it's because these guys choose to show up and do it every day you But throughout the whole year, right, they choose to kind of do their job. Um, and then summertime comes and they're thousand miles an hour. That makes preseason very easy. So, I just want to say congratulations to all of you. You truly epitomize what a true champion is. You know, I always correlate sports to to your studies in school. You know, everybody can make an A, but can you keep that A? You know, you you made that A last year at the highest level possible, and you got another A this year, so that's that's even better.

020So, congrats all of you. when you said thank you. >> That was the message, right? We walked into the tournament this year. We're walking in, we're in the crown and the champ was not to us. It was to them to take it from us, you know. So, that was definitely the message we gave every game. So, >> um I would be remiss if I didn't say anything. Um I sit with a lot of your moms and dads in the stadium in the stands. Some of you I know well, some of you I don't. I only know because my kids idolize you guys. You guys are really role models on and off the field. So, what you guys did, what I saw last night at the awards, there was academic awards and teammate awards and coaches

021awards. And then several of you guys I see out there volunteering and coaching different things, flag football and what have you. I have an 11-year-old sitting at home that was practicing the corner kick and he's like, "Am I going to be the jack hitter?" And then I'm going to hit it to Misa and he's going to hit it in like Von what they're going to do their senior year. Like literally that's what 10 and 11 year olds are doing at my house because of what you guys do. They talk about you guys at home. You guys are role models. So I appreciate from a mom who comes and watches the sport. But understand what you're doing for kids in Talin, both boys and girls, and even what our girls soccer team are doing, what our

022football team is doing. Um, you know, I'm again sat with your moms and dads like freaking out in the state. You're not my kids, but you're Talon's kids. So thank you for what you did. Really proud and congratulations. Thank you. >> Any other or questions? >> Was coming. Do do you guys do winter programs? A lot of you guys. >> Yeah. Club teams is that so that was the club teams that you were sort of >> Yeah, a lot of these guys play, you know, club soccer, whether it's CFC or FSA or different club soccerers. Um there's a huge contingency of talent direct basketball players here with the high school athlet is is Friday night. >> And I believe there's might be something going on with this group of guys. >> I hope so. >>

023You don't want to fall off the championship pedestal from that performance though. You know that kind of so hope you work on it. Good. >> But yeah, no, I mean again these they're they're driven, dedicated. I mean, you go in the summertime, Monday, Wednesday mornings, like 6:15, these guys are there. We have a trainer that comes and works with them and they're they're going like they're flying. So they spend, you know, six, seven days and five, six days together um training in the summertime. So these guys, they they put in the work like other teams do um but they definitely put in the effort. Grant you guys. Let's see if we can get you in here. I know. >> Wait, should we just >> You guys want to go? Do the backlash guys by the

024flag. Why don't you guys read maybe you guys a little bit guys >> the bo was in the picture last year too >> maybe you guys Good job, guys. Hey, do me a favor on the these bags. Grab that. Grab what you want for the bag. There's Fresh chocolate. >> Oh yeah. Put the camera out. I know. I'll have to ask special permission. >> Sorry. Meet a lot of >> I'll see you there guys. Now the purpose was to recognize you know you are ready for the whole meeting if you'd like She's still put anyway. teamwork that keeps on giving parents like me. not just >> raw material though >> there you You got it. >> Hi, Tim. Thank you. Bye. Okay. >> All right. All right. All right. >> Rolling along. Uh, we have

025no Do we have any additions to the agenda? >> Nope. And just a friendly reminder, we're going to move attorney Ritter. >> That's right. Yeah. Do I need to motion for that or can I just do that? So, >> we can jump to that part of the agenda. >> Okay. I will jump to that. Um, should we do that? Should we still go through the these pieces maybe goes wrong. >> Still learning. >> Um, okay. We have no approval of the minutes of public participation. The members of the Talon Board of Education welcome members of the public to share their thoughts and ideas at this time. When appropriate to do so, members of the board and the administration may respond to comments during points of information. However, in consideration of those in attendance and in

026an effort to proceed in a timely manner, follow discussion may need to take place outside of the meeting setting. So, Dr. Willlet, can you get our two minute timer ready, please? >> 2 minute timer. >> Good. >> I just realized I'm not on the Zoom, so if you could let me in. Great. >> And Okay. Do we have anyone in the room who would like to participate at this time? Please give your name and address. Becca, Lisa. Um, I'm a junior at Tolen High School. I've been in the school system or Talon public schools since preK. Um, every year it's gotten worse. The budget has gotten worse. There's less and less teachers every single year. There's just walking through the hallway, the empty rooms that like I know Jaden new graduated a couple years ago

027that had teachers >> and now they're drawing them. >> There was teachers that just got certified to teach Yukon level classes and then they got cut. So there's less opportunities for students. Classes are full and there's just not an opportunity for the highest quality of education. And that's what we all want is the highest quality of education for everyone. And that's not what's happening here. Going to something like the extracurriculars. The rollouts for this new system of extracurriculars this year was a complete and total mess. Nobody knew what was happening. Communication was awful. The knowing whether or not clubs were going to happen was not very timely. It was a mess that is going to have issues with club attendance for a while. The $85 price tag is unacceptable for uh clubs used to be

02840 last year. That is over a 100% increase in cost. And for per for a person that's in more than that's in like I'm personally in five clubs. I'm fortunate or five plus clubs. I'm fortunate enough that most of the clubs I'm in are um no cost clubs because of fundraising cuz they had from fundraising from organizations that had to be set up because of this mess like such as friends with pollen music for drama club and it like it's sad that over the summer there was a frantic rush anyone in any music-based club or drama club to fund raise $500 a student. That's ridiculous that you had to go people had to go texting their relatives, can I have some money for a club? And it makes you feel bad that you have to

029go ask the relatives for money. Nobody wants to do that. But that's the reality that had to be faced. There's a school like there's not enough school nurses. If there's a 504 meeting, there's no nurse to be able to respond to an emergency. That's just unacceptable. The quality of education has gone down significantly and it's just depressing. Thank you. >> Is there anyone online who would like to speak at this time? >> They would have to raise their hand in Zoom. Okay. Anyone in the room popping back online? Please raise your hand online if you'd like to speak one more time. Okay, all set up. Moving on to correspondence. >> Um, we had a couple of emails. one specifically uh one to con give from Mr. Holt, our old chair, wishing us a happy Thanksgiving

030and thanking us for what we're about to embark on the next few years. And then we had another one regarding um the rec center basketball that had that has been addressed with our rec center Dr. Wolf to see what we can't do to help our travel basketball young ladies. >> Thank you. Next points of information if anyone if any board member would like to speak at this time. >> Yes. Um just uh the Frosty Fest is this weekend. It's been moved over to TIS and as of I believe it was either late last night or this morning they're still looking for volunteers. >> So that's usually just for the Birch Grove and TIS students. >> Yep. And I believe those book >> on Facebook website or Facebook. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Anybody else?

031>> Yeah. I had the um um fortunate um I was fortunate enough to attend last night's uh awards at the high school for all our um athletes. So, I know we just acknowledge the uh boys two-time state champs, but uh I also want to take this opportunity to uh say congrats to all of our uh athletes for our school. It's I'd say uh you know it's a tough task to manage school and to be an athlete at the same time. It's not uh something everybody's able to do. So I commend them all for their efforts seeing you know whether they're you know conference um nominees or or academic uh folks whatever the case may be there. They still represent uh the Talen Eagle. So congrats to all of them and and thanks for their coverage

032this past fall. That's it. >> Yep. I think on what Joel said. Uh I too was there. Uh we have uh Jana daughters is a cheerleader this year. So that's been new for us. Um and I was able to attend the sports awards and and they go into separate rooms and um chair was short so we got to catch some the ladies soccer. Um but I want to go back to what Dal was saying before. uh all the different awards and it's something that I mentioned to GP that um when they were calling up those scholars they were calling up the you know when all state and all the different the coaches awards and fear was every student or every student athlete in all the all the sports were the amount of scholar athletes and

033the amount of different names they were calling up there. these folk these kiddos are or these young adults I should say um aren't just they're athletes they're role models they're leaders they're scholar athletes and what they have to do to balance it so not just our athletes but our students in clubs um the the future is strong within public schools with our with our students and there was a really great showing last night I couldn't like the entire young ladies soccer team was up there as scholar athletes and it blew me away there wasn't even enough space department. >> So, just a really great showing overall and Mr. McCcluskey and the athletic department did a great job. >> Moving on to our student representatives port. >> Hi. Um, so a couple weeks ago we had

034our dollar wars week which includes dollar wars our bad men tournament from the week prior and then also a Smith popup event which are things like basketball, mini golf um, and basically events that pop up at once that you can pay to try to win points for your class that contribute to the dollar wars. In total from all those events, we raised $98466, which um some students from Smith went out that weekend to buy the can. And then on Monday, we went on a field trip to Cornerstone to drop it off. So on November 24th, we went to Cornerstone Foundation and we donated a bunch of goods like pasta and canned goods and we also while we were there, we got a tour of how everything works, where they sleep, how the food is processed

035over there. And it really impacted a lot of us and made people feel good about themselves for what they did. And on the trip, they gave away prom dresses and suits during prom season. And that inspired us to plan one for upcoming prom. >> Thank you. Anybody have any questions? >> Just a clarifying question. What so with it with the suits and the what what was that about? >> It's like so if anyone doesn't have like can't can't afford to buy prom dresses or prom suits. They're like giving away some during the prom season so that they don't have to spend money on it. >> That's awesome. And that's through Cornerstone. Yes. That's awesome. >> Thank you. >> That's fantastic. I'm really glad you guys are partnering with >> know if the TIS food drive

036that went to Cornerstone or to the local pantry there. I'm not sure. >> Okay. >> But I know they they do do I think the high school is the cornerstone and they a lot of ours the younger kids to the local. >> Okay. Moving on to the committee and liaison reports. Um, I just thought we could use this time to check in and just see where our chairs are with scheduling our committee meetings. So, Jaden, do you want to start with policy? >> Sure. >> Policy's first meeting I want to say January 26th. 20 28th, 26th. >> What day of the week? >> Oh gosh, I thought that'd be easier. Fourth one. >> There you go. >> Fourth one. >> So, there you go. So, but those those will begin after the new year. >>

037Great. Sounds good. Wait, Brian? >> Uh, I just got a follow up with Jen tomorrow, but I we're hoping to have it on the same time. It might be a little that hour. So, >> that time soon. >> Yes, that. >> Okay. >> It's in the works. >> Okay. Love you, Dana. >> Uh, our first meeting is the 21st of January. Jen just needs to publish the uh the year calendar. >> Do you know what day and time those >> It's the third, sorry, FFC. The third Wednesday typically of the month at 5:30. >> Great. and Joel curriculum. >> Yeah, curriculum. Right now, the uh first the whole schedule's out for the whole year and our first uh meeting is January 28th. That's sorry, not 17:30, 5:30. Sorry, I'm still living military. So 5:30. It

038used to be 6:00, but we're moving it to 5:30 so that we have enough time to come or have Dr. come back and set up. So 5:30 January 2, first one. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks, guys. >> Uh for chairperson support, I don't really have anything prepared. We have a lot to take in tonight with the uh roles and responsibilities and the board goals that will be starting and the superintendent goals. So I look forward to letting our experts lead us through those processes and uh the conversation that will ensue. And so now why don't we jump to uh new business L1 which is the roles and responsibilities training from Jessica Ritter from just from Shipment and Goodwin. >> Hi Jeff. Hi guys. >> Hello. How are you? How are you?

039>> Good. Now, he was the president. All right. So, I don't want to be in the way here. Um, do you want me to just jump in, Dr. Willlet? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, I know most of you. It's nice to see you. Jessica Ritter with Shipman Goodwin. Um, I've been asked here today to give kind of a brief overview and really emphasize what your legal roles and responsibilities are. Many of you are seasoned board members, but for those of you who are new, congratulations, by the way. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions. what I'm going to do and then Jen, you tell me what you're thinking about for time because I do know that you have many other things to attend to. So, you just let me know. Um, what I'm briefly going

040to do is in your packet, I've given just a brief outline that I'm going to touch upon that again will just emphasize some of the things that in our limited amount of time I think are good takeaways. Then in this packet, I've put together numerous scenarios that are all derived from actual concerns or issues that we've had with our clients at Shipman and Goodwin. I obviously have to keep it anonymous for attorney client privilege reasons, but they're all scenarios that many boards will encounter or face. And I always think that it's very helpful to kind of talk it through as a group. And so I certainly encourage participation. Um but if you aren't comfortable doing that, I will just kind of walk us through the answers. Um please feel free to stop me at any

041time and any questions. Um so let me start here with the outline that I've given you. So as a board of education, you are an agent of the state. So what that means is actually within just to give you some of the framework within our Connecticut constitution our legislature has specifically delegated responsibility to our local boards of education to implement what's called the education of interests of the state that's actually codified in title 10. So, if you ever got really bored and you wanted to look at all of the educational statutes that govern law, it's all built in title 10 and it really talks about what your statutory responsibilities are. I will tell you that the number one priority is and it's directly taken from the statute to implement the educational interests of the state

042and then it also talks about to implement the best interests for students within talent. So, I say that because I know that you're all here because you care about your community. It's been wonderful. Your soccer team, I was a soccer player, so that was really exciting for me to get to see. You have wonderful student representatives here, um, involved students. I know that that's why you all decided to run. And so, I just would say, particularly for some of our newer board members, whenever you question, why did I do this? Because it will be daunting at sometimes. You will be here for late nights, particularly those who've been involved in our negotiations. But it always comes back to the students, right? And that is actually codified in the law. Um the other thing that I

043would say for you is you are a policy maker for the district. So when we think about the three branches of government, think back to middle school or to high school, right? We learn about executive, legislative, and judicial functions. You are the legislative function. You make the policy for the school and then you allow other people to implement those policies that you create. You sometimes will serve in a quas judicial capacity which I will circle back to. But that's what you should be thinking about big picture. I implement policy and then I rely on my CEO, my superintendent of schools and his administration to implement and handle the daily operational matters. you are big picture. You are not involved in the day-to-day administrative functions. Um, I want to talk briefly now about your rights as

044board members. So, this will come up a lot and I will cover this in a few scenarios, but you only as board of education members have the authority to act at a meeting. You do not legally have the authority to act unilaterally outside of a meeting. nor does the board of education have the ability to take action outside of the corners of this group. And so that's very important and certainly something I'll circle back to in the scenarios you have a chair. The role of your chairperson obviously is to make sure that the meetings function but also when you do have situations where you do need a voice that would be funneled through your board chair but even your board chair can't act unilaterally if the board hasn't empowered her to do so. So, in

045other words, it would not be appropriate for Jen and congratulations, Adam Chairman Schiff. But it would not be appropriate for Jen to say, "I'm going to make a statement based on a pending personnel matter or a pending student matter without the board giving her the express authority to do that." And the only way you can do that is at a meeting where you'd have to give her the authority to do that. Um, so again, when we're thinking about participation in social media, that's something particularly sometimes newer board members, you still maintain first amendment rights when you go on social media, but you want to be cognizant that you cannot speak for the board on social media. So, in other words, if Bill wanted to say something about whether or not we should put a turfield

046at the high school and you, Bill, don't agree with that, you have every right to go on social media and say that. You maintain your first amendment right to do that. But you would have to um put a disclaimer in that communication to say, "I'm not speaking as Bill Bodie as a board of education member. I'm speaking as a private citizen and a Holland resident." because otherwise those comments are going to be imputed to you and the rest of the board even if you didn't want it to be. So we have to be very thoughtful about that. And then certainly we don't want to reveal anything because there are sometimes confidential discussions that we will have certainly through attorney client communications or some other things that I will mention and we have to be very

047thoughtful that we aren't disclosing any of that on social media or through any other form. Um, I also want for those of you who have students um, in the school district, you certainly don't shed your right to be a parent, right? You certainly can advocate for your kids. So, let's say your child has a 504 plan or an IEP. You absolutely still have the right to attend meetings. You have the right to call teachers, to call the superintendent of schools if need be, to say, "I'm concerned about whether or not my child is progressing appropriately." You are a parent. You have the right to do that. Where it crosses the line and where we want to be thoughtful about is if I use my board status to my advantage. So, you have a code of

048ethics, you have bylaws that talk about this. So, for those of you who are not familiar with your bylaws, you may want to read through the 9,000 series because that will walk you through what your responsibilities are as board of education members. Um, I once had a situation where a high school principal had really not done right by a board member's child. He really hadn't. I'm not I won't get into the specifics, but she was not wrong to go to him and say, "You've treated my child unfairly, and you have shown biases towards my child." she had every right to do that. The problem was she got so angry that in that meeting she said and wait till the board of education hears about this. So he took that as a threat and he filed

049what's called an unfair labor charge against her because he has the right to be free from threats of that nature. Also he doesn't work for that board of education member. He works for the superintendent of schools. Right? That is your one employee. So you have to understand that there is a hierarchy and the only person you evaluate and the only performance that you are discussing is Dr. Willis and that it is his job to oversee those administrative issues. So what should have happened there and what didn't and then it took on a whole life of its own at the labor board and it was pretty costly and embarrassing. Um but what should have happened there was she can certainly have that conversation and say you did not do rape by my child. She can certainly

050then go to Dr. willing and say I have serious concerns about this and I want a 504 team where an IEP team can be absolutely but then it should have been left at that and we need to trust in our CEO that our CEO is going to address that issue with the administrator appropriately and not something that she's bringing to the board of education related to her own child. There have also been ethic claims in other school districts that I have worked with for towns that have codes of ethic, excuse me, codes of ethics where board members have tried to um persuade people to give better grades to their kids, things of that nature. Not saying you would ever do it, but I have lived through those ethics complaints. I have a pending ethics complaint

051right now where the family feels that the board chair was overly biased in a student disciplinary proceeding. Um, I can't get into the specifics, but we just have to be very thoughtful that we're not using our board status to advantage ourselves or our family members. >> Um, can I ask that question? Yeah, of course, >> so on on the the point about and I don't have children in the school, so I don't know why I'm hung up on this, but um not bringing your child's experience to the board. What if you think that's like indicative of like policies that need to be changed or like how do you >> So that's an excellent question. So you certainly you are an elected official. You're gonna have people in the community who come to you and say,

052"Hey, Mackenzie, I had a situation with my child. I'm concerned about it." Or you have a student tonight who talked about her budgetary concerns and she absolutely has a right to do that. And you want to communicate with people. That's absolutely appropriate. What you have to be cognizant of though is you don't have the legal authority or the jurisdiction over student matters. And so you absolutely have the right to say I want to talk about this and if there are policies that we need to look at absolutely and I will bring that to the attention of the superintendent or if it's a broader operational issue I will bring it to the full board but again you McKenzie can't act unilaterally or promise anything to any community member. It isn't to suggest that you cannot have

053those relationships and certainly people should feel that they can come and talk to you. But if it's let's say I don't like the grade that my child got McKenzie and I need you to address this. Yeah. The party line has to be I don't have any purview over students grades. I would recommend that you refer that to the superintendent of schools. If you want I can refer your email to the superintendent of schools and then the superintendent we have to trust that he will handle that appropriately. Um so if it's a larger more systemic matter yeah then certainly but again that would be a discussion for the broader board or for you as the board to say hey Dr. Will it we have hundreds of families in town who are very concerned about certain systemic

054issues, right? But whether or not there's enough funding for clubs, we as a board need to address that. And then you have the board chair who sets the agenda. And if at least three of board of education members want that matter on the agenda, it gets on the agenda. So Jen wouldn't be able to block that. So that's not only in your bylaws, that's codified in statute. So I think there's just a difference between personal and systemic, right? And absolutely systemic that's why you're here. >> Yep. Absolutely. That's a great question. So I just want to talk briefly about when I talked how you are the legislative function but then sometimes you will operate a quasi judicial function. So this is in section three of the outline. There are going to be times where you

055are asked to serve on a student expulsion committee or potentially a transportation or residency hearing committee. It doesn't happen very often. It certainly doesn't happen very often in Thailand, but when it does, um, those are highly confidential. Those are things that prior to the actual proceeding, you cannot have any information. And part of that is because up and until it comes to you, it is a matter that is highly confidential. and you don't legally have any right to know that information unless you were sitting as judge and jury in that expulsion proceeding. So there might be situations where you hear something that let's say there was an assault at a dance but it doesn't actually come to you as an expulsion because either legally we didn't have sufficient evidence to bring forward the expulsion. Two,

056it might have been that that was more of a rumor than actual substantiation. Or three, before a child can be expelled from school, there's something called a manifestation hearing, which means if I have a 504 plan or I get special education services, I cannot be brought forward to an expulsion if it's deemed a manifestation of my disability. >> Yeah. >> So, you might hear very significant things out there. A lot of it will be rumor. And you might call Dr. the willlet and say, "I heard about this assault at the dance, but I why is this kid not being expelled, and let's say for whatever reason it was deemed a manifestation of that child's disability?" Dr. Walt can't tell you that because there are state and federal laws that govern student confidentiality. Burpa is the

057federal law that governs student confidentiality and we have significant exposure as a district from a liability standpoint if we violate FURA. And so Dr. Willlet cannot share that information with you even if you want to have that information and you just have to trust in Dr. Willlet and the administration and if there is an issue like that normally he is corresponding with legal counsel and we are also advising him on what his next steps are. So it doesn't mean he's not doing his job and it doesn't mean he's being difficult in not sharing that information. There are legitimate legal reasons as to why we can't share that information. Now, let's say that actually does come to an expulsion proceeding. We need three affirmative votes to expel a child. You will then get all the information

058that you need in that proceeding, but that is highly confidential. So, if you then leave and talk to a friend with coffee or you see friends on the soccer field or at other community engagements and we reveal anything that happened, that could be very significant liability for the district. So you have to be very thoughtful about that because families would have a cause of action to sue us if we violated those confidentiality laws. So that would be the same thing for a transportation hearing or residency hearing. Let's say for transportation people don't like their bus stop. They have the right to appeal that to the board of ed. If Dr. Will it says we feel comfortable that we have the bus the right bus routes and the right bus stops but then you would sit

059as judge and jury and ultimately you would have the right to make that final decision. Same thing with the residency claim. If Dr. Willlet, we've had a few of these, believes that people are attending school in Taland fraudulently and are not entitled to school accommodations in Taland because they live in Vernon or West Hartford or Avon. He has a legal obligation to bring that forward. that those families have a right to contest that then that would be done before the board of education but prior to that you could not have any of that knowledge. >> Yeah, McKenzie who was the decision maker in a manifestation hearing. So that is the administrative team. So that's your special ed director, your teachers. So that's an excellent question. The board of ed does not have any purview over

060special education. And sometimes you're going to get a question in a student disciplinary proceeding where the family might beg you to say, "Please, can the PPT place my child here or at this school and it's going to pull at your it will it will pull at your at your heart, but you just know that legally under the law, the board doesn't have the right to place a student somewhere. that has to then be given back to the PPT and they make those administrative decisions and they do it with input from the parent and what they believe to be the best interest of the child. It's just not something that a board of education member would ever be a part of. >> Right. So if a parent like appealed that decision that still never stops. >>

061Correct. So what they would do is they wouldn't appeal that. They could file what's called a due process claim with the state. Um, and then that's an excellent question, McKenzie, because then you might say, "Well, I know this mother filed a due process complaint against the school district." And then if you call Dr. Willlet to say, "I want to know chapter verse." He legally could give you chapter and verse unless and until you actually are in litigation. >> So that is an exception. So, let's say a family files a lawsuit because they don't believe that you are properly educating their child with an IEP. If they threaten to sue you and they send you all an email that you're all copy on and say, "We're threatening to sue the board and you call Dr. Willlet

062and want to know chapter and verse." He legally could not tell you because it's only a threat to sue. If they actually file a complaint at the state department of education, there is an exception. We're in executive session. we could meet and talk about that pending claim in litigation because it is a student matter. I still would be very thoughtful about what he's disclosing about the child and the family, but he could certainly tell you what the nature of the claim is and you might be called upon because some of those can be very costly as to what you would agree to with respect to a monetary amount with respect to that litigation. So certainly those are times we could be brought to that conversation. >> Um question. >> Yeah, of course. So if let's

063say hypothetically a parent has a concern with some disciplinary issue that's happened at a school that they feel that their own child may be an additional risk or they want to know hey I heard about this thing um and then apparently nothing was ever done about it so on and so forth right um what would be a process what leeway uh uh I'm trying to think of what the right word would be, but what what options would there be for some degree of uh factf finding, information gathering, um checks and balances, you know, no matter how much I personally might trust Dr. or will it if we as elected members of the board are being brought concerns by parents? I I don't I mean I know there's frustration out there >> around these kinds of

064issues and I don't think it's satisfying for somebody to just to hear well trust me it's a liability issue we can't do anything about it. So where's the give and take there? So I guess what I would say um JP right I guess what I would say is you just don't have purview or jurisdiction over those matters and as difficult as that is to hear as an elected official you have to draw that strong party line and you have to say I can address systemic issues. So if you think that there's a systemic issue with vaping or a systemic issue with drugs in the school, that is something that you hold your CEO accountable over and you can systemically address that. But if they say to you, I don't believe that my son um should

065have been disciplined, that is not something you can get involved in because you don't have any jurisdiction or purview over that. You can say that's an administrative issue. People don't understand the difference between a board of education member and the administration. That is not for the board of education member to intervene systemically. Absolutely. Personal issues. No. Also, if it did rise to the level where it was coming to an expulsion, if you are involved before then, you're going to be you're going to have to recuse yourself from any type of hearing because you can't really sit partially because you are going to have to be guided by your own moral compass when you come to these proceedings to say, can I sit here um and be unbiased or neutral in my approach? So I know

066people don't like that answer but we have to be really clear about what his role is and what your role is. So I would say look I can talk to you systemically about larger broader issues and certainly as a board member if I think vaping is a significant issue we need to address that we need to look at our policies and we need to talk to our CEO about what he's doing about that. But if it's a specific student issue, we have to stay away from that and trust that our administration is handling it. Um, and lots of times there will be significant legal work being done on it as well. And trust that you're getting the sound legal advice. Let's say it's a title N issue or something of that nature. >> Um, yeah,

067go ahead. back on this question. >> Um, so if a parent reached out to us, would it be in our purview to communicate to Dr. Willlet and say, "A parent has communicated to us this concern, whether it be behavioral or unfair or what have you. Can you please look into it and transfer that information to Dr. Willlet?" Um, and then have him do whatever. I mean, they're communicating to us, right? So the way that I've communicated in my my years doing this is is I've communicated to Dr. Will and said Dr. Will can you talk to you know whatever Mr. Swanson or student or Mr. Heater and um said that this is an issue and I will say Dr. Will it hasn't gotten back to me in with details because that's none of my like

068I said my purview but he has communicated some steps that he's taken like I've worked with this team or you know things like that and it's it's being addressed is that okay or he'll or he'll say I've taken care of it. I think if he says, "I I've taken steps as I deemed appropriate." I have no problem. And that's what I was saying to Mackenzie's question that absolutely >> you're an elected official. These people are reaching out to you for a reason. They need support. >> It's just that you can't individually offer that support. Correct. So, it has to be that >> I hear you. This is very concerning. This is an issue for the administration and I'm forwarding your personal concern to the administration versus the systemic broader issues that absolutely board of education

069members should be involved in and should be addressing probably starting through the policy committee. >> The challenge I'm going to be sort of chewing on with that is that when someone does come to me, it's because they are already not satisfied with what they've gotten from the administration, right? they already don't have trust that it's being properly handled by the administration. So, they're trying to find somebody to to escalate it to essentially, >> right? But where would you as an individual escalate something, right? Remember, you have to act as a board. So, you just don't have the power or the authority to do that. And you just have to explain to them that this is something that has to be processed with the administration. Now, if they don't like what the administration has done and

070it isn't something that the board can attack from a systemic standpoint, they have legal recourse. And trust me, people invoke their legal recourse whether there's any merit to it or not. They can file a due process complaint if they believe it's an educational issue. They can file a lawsuit. They can file Title N complaint, non-discrimination complaints. So, that is all happening. There are other avenues for them. It's just that I wouldn't advise a board of education member to encourage a parent to file a lawsuit against the district. Instead, I would refer them to the superintendent who has a legal obligation to say, "If you don't like the way this was handled, you have every right to appeal that, but the appeals don't go to you. The appeals go to outside agencies." And so, just to

071make you feel better, if you forward a communication like that to Dr. Will it he has a legal obligation to tell those parents where they can take their next step? It just isn't in this form. Any other questions about that? Because I know I know that's a tough one because I I get it. I I know why you're here. You all care about your community members and your students. Just know though that these parents have alternative resources. Um, the other thing I just wanted to mention and then I'm just going to quickly talk about Hoya and then I'll just do a few scenarios, but Jen, you just let me know how you are on time. Um, so another thing where you may have to sit as judge and jury and so it's important that you

072don't get overly embedded in personnel matters because all of your employees with the exception of a few central office people like Dr. Will it are part of a collective bargaining union which means that the terms and conditions of their employment are all governed by a union contract. They all have what's called a grievance procedure in their contract. So let's say Dr. Willlet disciplines um a teacher suspends her for a day because she said something inappropriate in a classroom that wasn't related to the curriculum. Let's say that teacher does not agree with that. she would have the right to appeal that to you, the board of ed, and you ultimately could either agree with Dr. Willlet or you could not agree with Dr. Willlet. If you are getting involved before it comes to you, that can

073be highly problematic. It can also be highly prejudicial to the teacher, particularly if you have made it clear that you already agree with Dr. Will it or there's been any evidence that you have been talking to the community members about what's going on because they have the right to a fair and impartial process before the board. So, we want to be really really thoughtful about that that we don't get involved in personnel matters up until we're called upon to do that. Legally, only the board of education can terminate a certified staff member. That is all driven by statute. So, there's an entire process before it would ever come to you and you would make the final decision as to whether or not to terminate a teacher. If you asked Dr. Willlet for information before we

074got there, that would be highly problematic. There is Connecticut case law on this because it's highly prejuditial to that employee because you have to sit as an impartial judge and jury once the process plays itself out. So, we've gotten questions where you've said, "I want to know about what's going on." Let's say a teacher has been put out on leave pending a DCF referral matter. And you say to Dr. Willlet, "This is unacceptable. I don't know anything except what you're telling the rest of the community." He legally can't tell you. And one, it's because of the termination hearing where you ultimately we need to keep you impartial. But two, anything related to a DCF matter is strictly confidential and we cannot disclose that information. So even if we got to a point where we're bringing

075the termination to you, I still couldn't even share the DCF report with you um because it is uh confidential wherever locate it. So even in the midst of a hearing, I could share with you things that were found in the report. I couldn't actually physically give you the report. um that would be illegal. So just again there are actual legitimate reasons why we say these things. We're not just kind of pulling it out of thin air. So just be thoughtful that if it pertains to a individual student or individual teacher, you have to kind of stay out of it and then trust that Dr. Willick is going to give you the information when it's an appropriate time to do so. So going back to my DCF example, most of those cases probably won't come to

076you and you have to trust that Dr. Willlet has the ability to negotiate an agreement with the teachers union on that. Now, how many of you think that Dr. Willlet has the legal authority to negotiate a separation agreement with the teacher without board input or approval? That's a trick question. >> He does. He does have the legal authority to do it. Now, >> I don't have you show any show things. I was looking to queue you off. >> So, what would happen there is he has the right as your CEO to say costbenefit analysis because trust me, a teacher termination hearing could cost you $100,000 for a variety of reasons. it would be easier to get a release agreement so that they can't sue you and let's say we pay them for four months. After

077we have that agreement, then in an executive session, Dr. Willlet can share with you exactly what led to the resignation and what the issues were. And I I've definitely had very serious situations with DCF where you'll have a community outrage that they don't have any information. But you just have to trust that you have to balance the rights of the students who are entitled to confidentiality, but also the right of the employee because I have seen DCF complaints where they were either overturned on appeal or they were deemed to have students who recanted things that they have said and and truly recanted and had made things up. And so you have to be very thoughtful about the employee too even in something that might seem like the most significant and and appalling circumstances. So there

078is a balance there. >> Is the um Dr. Will um mandated or structured to provide that information if he um and uh to let the board know that he has gotten into an agreement to let somebody go or is it just upon if we find something out? Hey, we want to have an executive session and then we would go from there or he mandated to provide that to us. >> So I wouldn't say >> you can say oh somebody says man oh yeah they got four months pay and they just never got never came back. We don't know whether they left voluntarily or because of some sort of >> That's a great question. Mandated I would say no. There's no legal mandate but I would say that best practice would be when we have an

079event like that that then after the fact Dr. Willlet does inform the board of education. And so whether you want to mandate that, you the board can mandate that, but it's not a legal mandate. But I would say to your point, Brian, certainly, particularly in this the example that I gave or maybe the community has a lot of questions. We can't share that information with the community because again, a lot of that's highly confidential. But certainly as the board of education members, you would have the right to know specifically how your CEO handled the matter because again, that's your involvement. Your involvement is not to determine whether or not we made the right decision and how we investigated it or whether or not we share DCF records. That that's not your call. Your call is

080did my CEO do the right thing? Did he handle it appropriately? And do I concur with his judgment on the matter? And then if I don't, when it comes to evaluation time, I have the right to evaluate Dr. will it and I have the right to provide that input and that feedback. Right? So that's really would be the purpose of it for you certainly to understand the information but also then to have a better understanding as to what your CEO is doing behind the scenes. So I think that that's a really good point and again not a mandate but certainly nothing that I would I would certainly recommend that we do that particularly in the situations that really do escalate. Thank you. >> Um, so then just briefly and I'll I'll just do a few

081scenarios. I just want to talk to a little bit about FOI. And so what I've attached here for you on page three and four, I I would encourage you all to read it because it is communications on how you communicate as a board, right? So, particularly for our new board of education members, if there's anything you take away from tonight, one, do not use your personal email for board business. Don't do it. Don't do it. Use your board email. And the reason why I say this is we all know that our are there's a lot of people are very emboldened these days. And I am at the Freedom of Information Commission, which is the agency that oversees public documents and public meetings once a week. And that is not an exaggeration. And 10 years ago,

082I was there five times a year. I live there now because everyone is after elected officials, even at the most local level. In fact, more at the local level than they are at the higher level. And they're going to say just for sport. I want to see every email between McKenzie and Dana for the last two years just because maybe they think they'll find a smoking gun or a gotcha, but it also for some of these people it really has just become sport >> or they think they're going to find something that doesn't exist. So what happens is legally when I get that request or Dr. Willlet gets that request, he has a legal obligation to tell that person, thank you. I will uh look into this matter and I'll get you the documents that

083are responsive. Let's say you guys have emailed 3,000 times in the last 2 years. The IT will have an obligation to extract all those communications. Then we have to look at it to determine what is or is not exempt from disclosure because if let's say my name is on it, it would be exempt from disclosure because it' be an attorney client communication. So, if I'm on the email with Jenna McKenzie, we don't have to disclose that. We still have to review those documents to make sure we don't inadvertently hand over an attorney client communication. We might also have communications in there though that are very unfortunate. And I tell people all the time, don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't want anyone to see. Stand behind what you are putting in writing because everything

084that you put in writing is subject to public uh disclosure. all of it unless it is again you have a student in the district and it is about your child it will be subject to disclosure. I've had many situations where I've explained this to teachers. I've explained this to administrators. I had a situation where there was a due process proceeding. We felt very very strong about our case. The parents were asking for a placement that would cost half a million dollars. And we knew we had done so well for this child and that we could educate the child in school. They asked for all the correspondence between two teachers relating to this child and to this family. We had to extract all of the information. 10,000 emails. I have to review all the emails. Then

085I legally had to disclose the emails where the teachers are going back and forth bashing the family, bashing the child who has disabilities. And all of a sudden my case went from being very strong to we have to settle this case. >> Why does it? >> Yeah. >> Attorney Ritter is sharing her general experience. >> This is not here. >> Not here. >> This is not here. >> The reductions and all that cost >> Oh, right. But what I'm saying is because of what was put in writing, >> I had to settle a case for a very significant amount of money. And that would pertain to board of education members, too. So, you just have to be really, really thoughtful about that. Um, the other thing I would say is I say use your board

086email because when I have to ask you, and it will happen, I need you to be able to say to me, I don't use my personal email for board business. Because if you do, you're going to have a separate legal obligation to search all your personal emails. So, you can't say, "Oh, well, it's on my Gmail account, so I don't have to disclose it." Wrong. If it relates to a board matter, you're going to have a legal obligation to search all your Gmail and hand over to me what is within the scope of that request. Same thing with your phone. If I'm texting Jen about whether or not we should vote for that turfield, I'm going to have to hand that over. I can't say it's on my private cell phone. I don't have to

087disclose it. >> I guess it applies to tech work. >> It does. And the commission has the authority if they don't think you're being truthful to subpoena your phone or your computer records. So I'm saying there's a broad authority that they have and I am at the commission a lot now because we just get these very random broad requests. What you also can't do is if McKenzie started texting, you have nine members. So a quorum for you is five. If McKenzie, Brian, Bill, Jen, and Dana are all texting about whether or not they should vote for the turfield, what's wrong with that meeting. >> It's a meeting cuz you're having an illegal meeting. You are discussing an issue within your purview outside of the context of a meeting because there's a quorum and you haven't

088posted for that meeting. So, not only are those subject to disclosure. So, now I've had to disclose these, now I've given the people who are, you know, uh, looking to have support with this the ability to file a FOYA complaint for an illegal meeting. So, we want to be really thoughtful about that, too. Um, now that doesn't mean that you can't communicate. Jen can't text Dana, say, "How was your day today?" That's certainly not something that would be subject to disclosure because it's not board business. But you just have to be very thoughtful that if I wouldn't want someone to see it, if I can't stand behind it, don't put it in writing. Um, and also that if there's a quorum of you or if there's a subcommittee of you texting about the same thing,

089that also could be deemed an illegal meeting because we have to post all subcommittee meetings, not just full board of education. Yeah. >> Is the exception to that a caucus? >> Yes. So, excellent point. caucus would be and I don't know who's what party. Let's say all the Republicans here said right now after this meeting we're going to go to you know down the hall and we're going to have a discussion. Problem with that? No problem with that whatsoever. You have every right to do that. If the Republicans said I want to invite the Republican town chair to join us, is that a problem? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Why? It's because it only pertains to the entity. So if you invited anyone outside of the entity, it waves the caucus. So if you invited me,

090I've been invited to say, "Jessica, will you come talk to the caucus about this issue that we're having with the other side?" I'm saying legally I can't do that because it would be a caucus. You can't invite Dr. Willlet to your caucus. Now let's say Democrats have a caucus. They share all these materials and then someone says, "I want to FOI the materials that were shared in the caucus. Are they exempt from disclosure because they were shared within the caucus?" >> Yes, >> they are not. >> No. >> So again, caucus, why give paper? Just have the conversation, right? So, you know, and I'm not trying to be cute when I say that. I just mean we don't need to create records unnecessarily. We just want to be thoughtful about it. you're all, you know,

091consumate professionals and in it for the right reasons. But no matter how many times I tell people this, I can't tell you how many terrible things I see in writing that I still have to handle and then I have to have the conversation about I'm really sorry, but I ethically have to do this and but so that's another reason why I also make sure you just use email um because it's much easier for it, the administration and everyone else and then we can say you're an affidavit. We've given you everything. No one here uses their personal cell phone for their personal email. Uh what about like a like a group text like coordinating meetings or >> I'm sorry what >> like what about like a group text like coordinating meetings or >> So that's an

092excellent question Mackenzie. So let's say if Jen emailed all of you just to say hey can you meet Tuesday at 7:30? That's not going to be a problem because that's not you're not discussing an issue that you have purview or jurisdiction over. You're just scheduling something. Jen and Dr. Willlet can also send you unilateral communications to say here are all the board materials that you need for the upcoming meeting. Totally fine. Even if you responded and said thank you, that's fine because that is not you're not acting on a matter. It's when you're talking about something that you potentially have jurisdiction over and could be taking action on. That's the distinction. But that's a great question. >> I offer. >> Yeah. >> Your emails um that also stands for drafts and anything deleted. Drafts also

093stay in the system and anything that is deleted also stays in the system. So it's not like something deleted would not be disclosable. would actually come up when we did search and disclose it. So, just keeping those things in mind. >> Just going to say one more thing. Um, so that the other thing too, like if if Jen or Bill or anybody was to send an email to our us and then we hit reply all now that's considered that we're having a meeting if you will, right? Can and so >> unless it's just about something like >> just about something like that. So that's why like a lot of times people on their subject line or on the signature will have do not reply all. So and if there's something we have to we have

094to respond to it would be in our best interest to respond to the sender >> only and then have that question to clarify or whatever it is. >> Right. >> That was something that was new to me when I first started. So I want to make sure because I'm like what's this what like can I just keep everybody in the loop of what I what I was asking? >> No, it's an excellent point and typically what would happen is Dr. Willlet or Jen would be sending information so all the board of education members have the same information and then you will get that tagline do not reply all and it's just because it's meant to be kind of an information dump for you but not meant to have correspondence back >> occasionally you'll see that

095from me but it's just a friendly reminder it's not >> it's a friendly reminder in all capital >> so do you want me to just go through a few of the scenarios in here Okay. So, why don't we start with number one? So, it's on page two. So, as a citizen volunteer, a board member wants to decide when and how to fulfill his board responsibilities. The district has offered to provide the board member an email account on the district server, i.e. last name, first initial at, let's say, region 12.org. The board member likes his independence and he decides to use his personal email to conduct board business. That way he can decide how long to retain emails and he can clean out his inbox and send items regularly as he does at work. So question

096is that legal? >> Yeah. >> Can do it. >> He can do it. Right. >> That's all >> right. >> So here here's why it's a little tricky because it is board business. you do likely have a policy on transitory emails versus substantive emails and when they can be deleted. So for this board member to go rogue and do it on his own rather than in accordance with the board policy, it could potentially be an issue if we get a request and it looks like he's deleting things as a result of that request. So one, I would say please use your district email, right? Don't use your personal email. And just remember that you have to adhere to all the board policies and you likely have a policy on email prevention because most boards do

097and you you have to comply with that. So if I had to go to the commission and say he didn't comply with his own board policy or potentially there's a litigation and it looks like we're spoiling evidence that could be problematic. But what could have avoided all of that? >> Right. Just use the server and then Dr. Dr. Willlet and his team, they already have that retention system built in. So, friendly reminder. >> I do have a question on that. >> Yeah. >> Um because I've had people email me and inadvertently use my personal email accidentally. Like you go to type in Jung Gallow Chant and >> her personal email comes up first or something. Um, I've in turn responded from my board email to that person or whatever if it was communication like when

098they do, you know how sometimes they do one person by one person instead of do the all board. Well, they put my Gmail in there. >> So, it's come into my regular email. So, I've responded to them from my board email. >> That's perfect. >> So, but because they sent it to my email with that, you know what I mean? That doesn't mean that my email is going to be >> No. Okay. Right. if it's if I'm responding through that. >> What you may want to do though in that situation is reply to the email with your original Gmail still on it, that address, and add your board address and say going forward, please, please just contact me at this address. And then we have a record of you responding and it's all encompassed within

099that email chain. >> Okay. I think more it's been just a typo on that. Yeah. when it comes up because when you have certain miles when you're grow whatever >> I'm not so worried about that I'm worried about the due process issues that I'm talking I'm worried about when people are emailing about confidential board matters or attorney client privilege communications but when you're emailing about um you know employees that's what I'm worried about I'm not I'm not so worried about someone got me wrong in terms of my email >> so if a parent reaches out to us by text or email or whatever in writing. Um, is that foyable also? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Now, I would make the argument, let's say JP, it has to be about board business. But let's say someone,

100let's say it's on your Talent email and it's part of that extraction, those 10,000 emails, and I review it, and I see that a parent reached out to you to say, "My child's been bullied. I'm very concerned." I will take the position that that part of the email I'm not going to disclose and I'm going to redact it and I would make the commission tell me I had to hand that over because I would very sternly protect that family from that but it doesn't mean that the commission wouldn't say no you have to hand it over and so but I would always because most parents don't know that by doing that it becomes public it is different if they email the entire board because then I'm thinking they're not really meaning for this to be

101private. But if they're just emailing you, I would be very protective of that parent and of your relationship with that parent. >> Um, but I can't promise that the commission did some kind of inspection that they wouldn't tell me I had to hand it over, but it would be without a fight. >> Gotcha. So then if someone's texted me uh my personal a personal phone number, some other phone number, >> um how do I go about finding out what our record retention requirements are? >> So that's your own personal cell phone. So I would say the record you have email record retention guidelines, not text phone. >> Okay. I was speaking in terms of like if there's board if there's any board policy or something that I >> not on your phone that I'm aware

102of but that's why I'm just saying if you use the talent email you'll never not be in compliance with the record retention. >> Um yeah I just wanted to mention the flip side of that too and maybe we'll get to it but we also should be careful about not using our board email for personal business. You know, especially as a parent, there have been times like I'll have my personal email open, my board email open, and you're handling board emails and you just go to type in an email to to teacher because their address will come up because it's in our system and you catch yourself, >> right? >> That's a great point and it goes back to my ethics issue that I was talking about earlier because again, even though we know Walt is

103your only employee, most employees think that they work for you. They just do. They don't. They don't understand the legal. Not that they don't understand it, they just don't know, right? Why would they? So, if you send something to your son's 11th grade teacher from your Talonborn email, that can be very intimidating, right? Um, and so even if you don't mean it to be, you have to be very thoughtful about that. So, it's an excellent point. Um, all right. So, I'm going to go to scenario three on page six. I'm just going to highlight some that I think are important. Um, the policy committee has been updating certain policies and deleting others. The policy and public complaints has received a lot of public attention because some members of the public are concerned that the board

104may eliminate the policy and thus deprive them of their form for complaining to the board. Given the public attention, some board members who are not on the policy committee want to attend the meeting of the policy committee at which the public complaint policy will be discussed. So, let me ask you this. How many of you are on the policy committee or have we not set the committees yet? >> Yeah, pretty much. >> Okay, just two. >> Three of us. >> Three. Okay, JP's on it. All right, so you guys are on the policy committee, right? So, you're running the meeting. Who's the chair of the committee? All right, so Jaden, you're running the meeting. So is it a problem if now a quorum just three of you of the full board attends your meeting? Okay.

105Is it a problem? Let's say you're sitting here if they sit with you up here. >> Yes. >> Why? >> It would classify as quorum for an illegal Well, it would be an illegal meeting. >> Well, what it would be is now you're talking about you've taken a policy committee and now you've made it a full board meeting. confusing people and you haven't posted it right >> as a regular meeting, right? And so you you've in essence converted it into an illegal meeting because it wasn't posted. >> Gotcha. >> So really the legal significance is how the furniture is set up and where I sit, >> right? >> So let's say then the three of you are there, Bill, Jen, Dana, Brian all come and they sit in the back. Is that okay? >> Yep.

106Now, what if they start bantering with you though and demanding that you prove certain things? >> What do we do there? Back >> and we have to respectfully ask them to >> Yeah. >> Okay. demanding they're not part of the committee. So, they're not they're not able to affect the business of the committee. So, really they're here as who >> a member just like anyone else can come into your meeting. They're a member um just like any other citizen. So then >> Zoom, >> what about Zoom? >> Same. >> So they can attend by Zoom, but they're still attending as like a citizen. They're not attending as a member of that policy subcommittee. >> So then the question is, is the full board bound by the recommendation of a policy committee concerning the elimination or

107amendment of a public complaint policy? So let's say Jaden, McKenzie, and JP decide we need to make drastic revisions to this public complaint policy. Then you present it to the full board, >> right? And then your policy probably requires at least two readings before you could even change or revise a bylaw or policy that you already have. And so again, policy committee has to be cognizant that they have to follow certain protocols and procedures before they change, adopt or amend policy. Um and then certainly at a board meeting, you all can then say, you know, Brian or Bill can support the measures or not. And then you certainly also have the authority to send it back to the policy committee with the revisions that the full board deemed appropriate. >> So we can go to

108each other's meeting. Well, we can't participate, >> right? But then you're not bound to accept it. So then you'd have to present it to the full board and the full board can say, "You know what, guys? I don't like your revisions. Please revise, you know, paragraphs A through G." And then they could send it back to you. So there's kind of that that back and forth and that checks and balance system. >> Can I clarify? >> Yeah, of course. >> There's something. So in any committee the members of the committee are the only ones that are allowed to participate in that meeting and the discussion. There can be board members or any public watching the meeting as spectators. The only time those people could speak is if there is public participation in the agenda of

109that meeting from the chair. >> Correct. Now typically at subcommittee meetings you never have public comment >> but sometimes we have >> but sometimes you do. Absolutely. And then you certainly if Brian is at that meeting and not part of the policy subcommittee he has every right to speak um at the podium as anyone else would. You at at this meeting tonight's meeting if Dana said I want to speak as a member or citizen of Talin she would have every right to sign up for her two minutes. And in fact, I've had board members do that who are saying, "I can't say it on behalf of the board, but I'm going to say it as an individual and I'm going to sign up because I feel very strongly about this point." But I would just

110recommend that if you're going to do that, the disclaimer is yes, I'm Jen Galachant. I'm on the board, but I'm speaking as Jen Galachant, resident of Taland and as concerned citizen. And then as chair though I am considered a member of every committee to participate in the discussions of any committee meeting that I attend. >> Yes. And you being there if there's only four of you then doesn't make it a poll because you'd be the fourth. >> Now do am I able to vote or just participate? >> So I'd have to look at your bylaws. There is a misconception that chairs can only break a tie. That's not true. You can vote on anything. In terms of your policy meetings, normally I don't recommend that at a policy meeting you vote. It's more a recommendation

111to send back because nothing that you do is binding at the policy level. So tr the word vote is not the correct word. It's you can be part of the consensus to bring it forward, right? But you don't truly vote on something because it's not binding. >> It's more advisory nature. >> What if there's a committee that has four people? that I was wondering that too. Does that mean >> we have one and we had one we had two last term as well. >> Okay. >> Do you go over that? >> Yeah. I haven't had any yet. >> I to help with consens I I do worry. The reason why I worry is because if you have someone who's at the meeting and says, "Wait a second, now there's five people." It could lead to

112the appearance of an illegal meeting. So, I recommend if you are going to go and there's four, you sit back here. >> I would just be concerned that someone's going to make a claim and there might be validity, too. >> So, typically, I would say three people. And if you're going to serve the exeicio capacity, it would just be you're the fourth, not the fifth. Got it. >> Or you can always if Jaden's absent that day, you can fill in for Jaden. I just would be thoughtful about that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So, question. So, related to that topic. So, if there's if there's four people on, let's use policy as example just because I don't know if you know myself, McKenzie, Brian, and Bill are all on policy committee and Bill's

113absent this week, can Jen then attend as a voting or not voting member, but >> absolutely >> as a consensus addict? >> Yes. Yes, she can because she's exeicio. She's part of all of the committees and now you're not having the quorum. Right now, is one of the four negotiations though? No. >> Okay. Because then that doesn't matter. Right? Because negotiations don't have to be posted because they are by definition not a meeting under the law. >> So, that is an exception. Um, and then discipline proceedings you don't have to worry about because that is posted as a meeting of the board. So if that's one of the standing committees, I won't worry about that either. >> Those two examples are not >> Yeah. Right. That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm not worried about

114it. >> Right. >> No, this has to work. >> So if let's say the policy meeting, the policy subcommittee has a meeting and it hashes out a few things and comes up with a couple possible recommendations or suggestions, right? any output of that then only comes back to the full board as like an agenda item for an official meeting. Yeah. >> Or is there some other mechanism for hey this was you know we were we had this issue come up and we were you know hey Jen we were talking about this and we were thinking about this or that. What do you think? I mean, it sounds like if as long if you keep it below a quorum, >> you could we could have that kind of a conversation with Jen as chair anyway, right?

115Oh, >> absolutely. >> But if we were to try to we couldn't necessarily bring in anybody else without risking violating that issue of >> correct. >> Okay. But just be thoughtful though JP that if you start texting Jen, Jaden, and McKenzie about the policy subcommittee revisions because you're all in the policy subcommittee that's an illegal meeting because it wasn't posted, >> right? >> That no because you're a subcommittee. >> So subcommittees have to be doesn't matter about the quorum. A subcommittee is viewed as basically you still have to post for all subcommittee meetings. So if if Jaden, Mackenzie, and JP who are on the policy committee, if you start going back and forth, let's say in the school climate policy and saying, "Here's how I want to revise it," that's going to be deemed an

116illegal meeting because you're not at a posted meeting and you're talking about policy revisions. >> So we can't email about it. We can't text about it. >> You can unilaterally email about it and say, "Here are my thoughts on this." But if you go back and forth, that could be construed as an illegal meeting. That's why it has to be it has to be done in the public arena and that's why you're always >> doing that conversation in the meeting. >> That has to be done at the meeting. It doesn't mean though JP can't call Jen afterwards say, "Hey, Jen, let's talk this through." Or McKenzie can't call Jaden and say, "Let's talk this through." >> But if the four of you got on like total phone, >> that's a problem. >> Let's see. Um,

117so I'm I don't know if I'm answering any of these questions or going to confuse people more, so I apologize. Uh but um what I will say like for instance we just did policy last term. We just did the calendar. So we had a couple of reading. We had a reading in policy. I'm going to make be cognizant of not using the word vote. And we would we would go through the process. We we'd have the conversation. Are we ready to send this to the full board for review? And then now I'm going to use the word consensus at FC, but we have consensus. And then I went, you know, Jaden said yes and dancing yes. I said yes. And then we moved it to the board. Uh we had one reading and then the

118board had two readings. So but also our policy notes by our wonderful secret wonderful dictator dictator. >> You know time by Lisa. >> Strike it all. Lisa, strike it all. Please >> reject that. Um, she takes those notes and those notes are in on our dashboard. >> Yes. Y >> they also when we when Jen has our meeting leads our meetings, she asks us for our our chair reports. At that point in time, Jaden as policy chair can say we discussed this, this, this, and this. And myself whenever I'm on the board, this this and this all just this, this, and this. Right. So that's our opportunity to communicate what we talked about in our respective meetings in our committee meetings to bring them. >> I view that as an unilateral communication. You are memorializing

119your recollection of that meeting and what you discussed, but you're not asking for feedback or input correct >> back from anybody. So that is very different from having a back and forth and an exchange. You're not sending that to solicit an exchange. you're sending that as a record of your recollection of the events. >> So that's that's perfectly fine. >> So I think I may know the answer to this one already, but let me ask it anyway just to check myself here. So I don't actually know everything already myself, especially as a new person. And there might be a situation where we have a conversation on policy and I might be inclined, if left to my own devices, to reach out to somebody else and say, you know, hey, Bill, what do you think? Right?

120Hey, Lane, what do you think? It sounds like maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea. That would be the kind of thing like is that okay to ask question? I mean, >> so here's here's the the thing with that. >> Now, obviously, I can always ask Jen. We've established that, >> of course. So, let's say Jen called you all to say, "Are you going to vote for me for chair? Do I have your support?" Jen could call Dana. Dana could say, "You have my support." She could call you and you could say, "Yep, you have my support." Where it becomes a problem is if Jen calls Bill and says, "Hey, Bill, I call Dana and JP. I have their support. Do I have your support?" Because that in essence is an illegal meeting because

121now other people know how the other people are voting. And Jen is trying to collect votes without just saying, "Will you support me?" So, it's one thing to have a a communication. It's another thing to say, I'm letting you know this because I want you to know these are how the other three people feel. How do you feel? And then she continues in a game of telephone. And now she's been able to secure votes without being in a meeting. >> So there's a legal there's a a little nuance distinction there. >> So like in the context of a policy thing. >> Yeah. >> Right. Would I be okay saying, you know, if I'm not sharing what we already talked about necessarily or trying to I mean, I understand what you're saying in terms of there

122are ways you can easily make it a back channel meeting if you want to, right? But if I were to say, "Hey, we had an interesting thing come up and you know, Bill, what do you think about blah >> Perfectly fine >> and then I could do that with a couple other people as information gathering >> y >> because I'm not >> decision making >> doing meetings are recorded. So it's like everyone's going to know what if they wanted to view and listen to the to the meeting that you just had in policy. Nothing you say to Bill or me or whomever is is is not public information already. >> Well, that's why I've been trying to in terms of my >> your caucus. What's that? >> You can share that information with your caucus.

123>> Yeah. I'm just thinking more in the context of something less formal like if I'm trying to make a decision about something and I'm trying to gather information, >> my impulse is to reach out to other people and have conversations sometimes, right? >> And I just want to make sure I'm not overstepping if I'm doing that. >> Yeah. So I think the clarification is I think that discussions are okay as maybe saying hey Bill um I see this you know professional development on the calendar do you know what that is is a okay question to ask Phil I think when it comes to decision- making like Jess used in the example like if I am it's something that we're going to vote on in the boardroom and you're already talking about what votes will be

124or trying to um push someone >> trying to manifest you're trying to secure the votes It's about it's not about the you know needing you know someone's opinion or guidance or experience with dealing with it before. It's about the decision making. >> Yeah. Okay. >> That's a decision making always has to be done in a public forum. >> Right. >> Gotcha. So is that sort of a good highle rule of thumb that information gathering >> absolutely >> and solicitation of feedback kind of stuff is okay but the decision making is where we're really trying to make sure we >> just be thoughtful JP that you're not having a subcommittee or a quorum on the on the uh call all together on yeah but if you wanted to have separate conversations absolutely >> so in this

125scenario >> we just had a policy JP could call me and say Okay, Jaden, we talked about this. What do you think about if you know blah blah blah blah blah is that allowed versus he can't call McKenzie and me now and say, "Okay, we just met. >> That's the committee because he can't call you on like can't phone you together, right?" But he can call you separately and say, "Hey, Mackenzie, let's just kind of flush this out a little bit more." Right. Absolutely. So, okay, >> JP only talked to one person. It's all public information. >> Okay, how about one more? >> Yeah, one more. Okay. What do you want to do on it? >> What do you >> I think this board could go all night, but they're they're going to be upset

126once we're on uh the calendar. Social media. >> Yeah, it's I don't have one in here, but we can talk. Well, maybe I do have one in here. Number two, >> is number two social media? >> Yeah, something about posting on Facebook about the bunch. >> All right, let's do it. Okay. So, Brian and Mackenzie, >> I we live this last year. >> Okay. >> Three members of the board of ed post a letter on Facebook addressed to the Nutmeg public schools community. In the post, the board members talk about the upcoming budget and they urge people to vote in support of the budget. The three board members identify themselves as members of the Nutmeg board of ed. other board members see the post and are mad that the three board members did not let

127them know about the post in advance. So, did the three board members do anything wrong? Should the three board members have conferred with the other board members before joining in the post? And when can the board chair post such a letter on behalf of the board? All right, so let me just say for social media purposes, do you guys have a social media policy for board members? because we do have one if you wanted to look at it. >> I think we've treaded like >> we've we've looked at it in the past as it's gone through, but I'd be happy for the review again. >> I'm I'm happy to send it to you and and the policy subcommittee can certainly take a take a look at it. Like I said, you do not shed your

128right to participate in social media. You want to be on Twitter. You want to be on Instagram. You do what you need to do. you're an elected official and a lot of time in order to um you know gain grassroots supports level we do it on social media that is perfectly appropriate. You cannot though go on social media and take action on behalf of the rest of the board or other board members. And so what's problematic here is when the three members go and talk about the upcoming budget and they vote people to support the budget, they say they're members of the Nutmeg board of education. There's only three of them. So, you're now saying that I'm speaking on behalf of the full board, but you're not. And that's why the other board members are

129upset. If three of you want to post something on social media in support of the budget, fine. Go for it. Obviously, be diplomatic in what you write. We don't want anything inflammatory or that is considered hateful towards our colleagues. But I would say, so let's say it's JP, Dana, and Jen who do that. We are writing as three board of education members in unison on this issue, but we are not writing as we're not doing this on behalf of the full board. Okay. So, I want to make that disclaimer. So, we have to represent >> ourselves. Yeah. >> Put the disclaimer. >> You need the disclaimer. >> And not Yeah. You can't report that you're representing the whole board. >> Exactly. So, let's say these three members are their own caucus. It's perfectly appropriate for

130the Republican or the Democratic caucus to issue a statement. >> Yeah. >> Without talking to the other caucus. Now, lines of communication we we hope are collaborative. And so, if the Republican caucus were going to do that and the uh chair is a Democrat, I would just have the the caucus maybe reach out to the Democratic chair or or vice versa. We would just want some level of collegiality there. But you can say we are the Republican caucus or we are the Democratic caucus of the board of ed. We are not speaking on behalf of the full board. Have at it. The problem is when the communication appears to be from the full board and it isn't. >> Okay. Now, what about Jen? We talked about this earlier being able to send a communication on

131behalf of the board. Can she just unilaterally do that? >> Right. The only way to do that is we would have to vote at a meeting to authorize her to make a statement. >> Yeah. >> So, question. So, are you saying that they're authorized to encourage people to vote or encourage people to vote a certain way? >> So, you absolutely have the right to say, >> yeah, you have the right to do it. It's just that you can't >> make it seem like you are speaking on behalf of the whole board, but you absolutely have the right to do that. So every time we post on like social media like comment on social media >> say it's like a schools related issue >> we would have to disclose I'm a member of the board of

132education but I am writing this representing my own personal thoughts. So what I would say it's it's not a legal requirement, okay, but it to me that is best practice and that is a way to maintain appropriate boundaries between you McKenzie as a resident of Taland and you McKenzie as a board of education member because the public will be confused, right, and think that you're speaking on behalf of the board and you might be the only person on the board that has those feelings, right? And so we just have to be thoughtful about that. Um, and the social media policy also really, I think, does a good job of reminding people what appropriate speech, what is first amendment protected speech and what isn't and where we draw the line and what the boundaries are between

133not first amendment protected and first amendment protected. So that's why I think it's it might be worth you guys just taking a look at. >> Absolutely. >> Do you have you mentioned you have like a model Yeah, we have a lot of policy for board members specifically. Yeah. >> But it but that's >> because this comes up a lot. >> It has come up. >> Does chair of the policy committee Dr. Willlet can pass that to you? >> That's >> okay. So, do you want me to send that to Dr. Willlet because I can perfect. I'll do that. >> We're good. >> All right. Well, in your spare time, you can certainly go through there. >> Is there any other scenario you think is important to highlight before we go? Um, you guys have so

134much to do, so we can we can always meet again. But >> yeah, and if anyone has any specific questions, um, email them to me and I can pass them on to Dr. Willlet to to pass on to Jess. >> Okay, great. Well, thank you guys. It was really nice to see you all and nice to meet our new members. >> Thank you. >> You know, thank you. >> Did you wasn't that? >> No, you guys can keep that >> fun reading. Thanks. >> And our all of our communications with Jessica passed through Jen to Dr. Willlet Jess. >> Yeah. That's Oh, wait. So, >> Mackenzie, excellent question. You asked really good questions. >> So, what I would say is legally our thought will only authorize, this is part of our engagement letter. We only

135authorize a board chair or superintendent to incur legal expenses. So, Jaden called me and said, "Jess, I really need to talk to you about something." I would do this for anyone. I'd have to say, "Okay, Jaden, I I first need permission from Jen." >> Yeah. >> To talk to you. and Jen either will or will not give me permission. If she says you can call Jaden, I can call Jaden. Same thing like if an administrator tried to reach out to me for legal advice, I'd have to say, "Do you have permission from Dr. Willlet to reach out to me?" So that's part of the engagement letter and our ethical responsibilities because otherwise anyone could incur legal fees and we want to manage that, you know, free. So, >> right, I got two kids sent a

136college. >> That's fair. >> All right. And thank you guys very much. Take care. >> Okay, so why don't we pop back up to the superintendent report? Sure. >> K1 is to begin board of education goal setting. >> Okay, so um do you guys want to stretch one? >> Want to take a couple minute? >> We'll take a two-minute strategy. >> Okay, why don't we do that? We go mute online for a minute. >> And the purpose of it is a short recess. Okay. So, we're going to see about a 5m minute recess. It's 8:58. So, that puts us back at 9:03. >> Here, write it down. So, we're going to be able back. We are back from recess. >> So, Dr. Willlet, can you please start us with page one? Begin the board of

137education goal setting. >> Sure. So um so what we're looking to do here and you may have noticed this senior or rather veteran members of the board on the BOE dashboard there is the goal setting link that brings you to our goal setting process and those of you who have been on the board know that you know we've gone through this process in the past. Typically the board of ed will choose goals about every two years because the shortest term for board members is two years. of the two and the four but there is a turnover of every two years and that's usually when the board will review its folds again and then look forward to the next two years. So, um, veteran board members have been through this, new board members who just going

138through it for the first time, but the portal is the same portal. It's the same one we've used last time. It's available on the dashboard. Um, and so this is the one, two, three, four, and five steps of the process that we'll follow. So, I'm going to tonight's purpose is just to bring you back to looking at this. Okay. Um, and ideally, you know, I've met with some of the new board members. uh older board members know that it's there. But ideally, we would have looked at this before the meeting, but it's not the worst case scenario in the world if you haven't. It's just step one is, and each of these is linked, so when you go through it, you can click on these and it'll pull up that part of the goal subprocess.

139Step one is simply looking at what the board goals have been, the current goals until you replace them. This is the current goals until you replace them. So, this document is merely a reference document for you. And I won't go through all of these. Um, but what this gives you is this gives you the board goals as they are at this moment until you replace them. The mission, vision, and portrait of a graduate of our school system, the district goals that are more traditional school improvement goals that an administrator might make that you know are more granular. And you'll see how it goes from sort of as attorney Ritter was saying your broad policy thing down to what the granular level of what the admin are doing and down for teachers. And then the continuous

140learning plan. The state of Connecticut requires that we have now what they call a continuous learning plan. It used to be called a teacher evaluation plan. The state of Connecticut's new language is continuous learning plan. you have a link to that so you can see what we are required to do for evaluations with teachers and administrators and so that gives you an idea of how your goals you know filter down to an admin's goal filter down to say how the teachers in a business okay so the the continuous learning plan has changed some of the nature of goal setting for teachers and so that's a whole another thing that we could do maybe a two-hour thing on maybe curriculum would want to pick that up at some don't probably want that tonight, but that document's

141there for your perusal should you decide to look at that. So, just to jump to board goals, these are the current board of education goals. >> Um, and so they're engaged in a transparent, robust, and responsible budget process that maximizes innovation and efficiency, supports student growth, and is well communicated to the community. Then foster a datadriven positive learning environment focused on strong academics, professional development and a meaningful social and emotional support for students and staff. Next is nurture and support a just, equitable and inclusive school community where all stakeholders are acknowledged and respected. And the fourth is ensure that your school properties provide strong security uh safety, security, structure and wellness conditions for all students and staff. U we typically will have about four to five goals. So that's what the current ones are until

142you replace them. The process that um you'll be going through between now and December 17th is you're going to have an opportunity to submit any goals you think would be worthwhile goals. So start thinking about that. Um, and the more that you submit prior to that meeting, the less time you might be in the meeting because you'll have, you know, things to talk about already. Um, not that you should worry about it because if you come to the meeting and have some incredible epiphany, no problem. We'll add it there. But the point is between now and the 17th, you know, please look at that goal doc, get a sense of what they were, you know, kind of what a board goal is like, and then you can send in some of the goals here. So,

143you'll notice there's a potential draft goals process form. This form will record your email so you don't have to. Sometimes people look at it and go, "How do you know who I am?" Well, your email is actually recorded, especially if you're using the board email, right? If you try to use your personal email, it won't let you in. Um, so sometimes people who have multiple Gmail accounts, you know, have all kinds of things going on. They might click on something and it'll say you do not have access before you go, damn this. It might be because you are coming in accidentally through a personal one. This won't let you in if you're coming from a personal one. >> So you have to go in through the forward one, but it'll record who you are when

144you do that and then you can submit the goal. So share your idea. Just type it out. If you want to put all of the gold ideas in one submission, feel free to do that. Just please separate them by some kind of space or carriage return. So that um carriage return means, you know, down the next line. Um so just make sure you're putting them in there that way. Now, one thing, you know, talent has only three phases. There are power outages, things like that. So just uh I wouldn't spend a whole hour with the form open because if the power goes out or something and your form goes away, you know, and you didn't submit it, you know, it's gone into the ether. So, you know, I would say maybe think about it, type

145them out ahead of time and then you can just copy paste them. That's another way to do it unless you, you know, I'm just advising because we are in winter time now, power goes out, things like that. I don't want anyone to get, you know, frustrated with something like that. So, that link is there and between now and the 17th, please drop in as many goals as you can think of. Um, once you read the goal document, have a sense of that. Then what we're going to do, um, once you get into that meeting is we'll start discussing it, gathering more, and then between that point and step three, uh, you're going to be ranking them. Now, at that point, uh, your names come off them. Once you've gotten to a certain point, there'll be

146a whole bunch of goals and you'll have thought amazing things. Now, there's so many amazing things you can do. You just can't do all of the amazing things. So, you'll have to pick a couple of amazing things. And how do you do that? Well, you're blindly going to rank them. When I say blindly, you won't see a name next to it. So, you're not going to be, you know, looking at Walt school and going, "Get rid of that one." It's going to be just the merit of the goal itself. So, you'll see them. you'll get to give it kind of a one to five and what happens at the end of that process is I bring you back the rank the rankings um the data on the sheets and I'll give you the mode the

147median you know um the average but also the mode things like that and you'll get to see which ones ranked at the highest and which ones were you know you know really good but not ranked as highly and at that point once we we're done with that um that's where you're starting to really refine and choose them. So, in step four, you've got the rankings, you've got all the information, now you're really choosing your goals. Um, so we'll do that part once we reach step four. All of this is going to happen between December and January. And then the last step is January 28th. That's your victory lap. I'll bring more Hershey's. You can already have it. Um this part of it is where you take the goal and each of these uh blue areas

148will be uh every one of your goals and we go through the following steps with each goal and have a conversation about it. So whatever the most wonderful goal is here for number one we'll say what are our greatest hopes in the district for this area you have a conversation about it we report it um what are you willing to do to support this um goal and to ensure that these expectations can be met. It could be things you direct me to do. It could be money you want put into it. You know, there's all kinds of things like that. System accountability. Um what kinds of things do you want me to do at the end of the year to say, you know what, we want superintendent to do one, two, and three in order

149to execute this goal. And then that's that's my marching orders type thing. Um and then public support. Each goal generally needs to be supported by the public for them to be supportive of you and the system and so on. So what are the things you're going to do to interact with the community to make sure that goal is supported? And so we do that for each goal. >> Do we talk about how we measure success of the goals? >> Yep. That's part on the system ability. Okay. >> Like you know what what does success look like? Okay. Because that's actually very important for me. I want to make sure you all agree on what success looks like for something especially if you want them to be doing things. Um, and sometimes people don't agree on

150what that looks like. We have a conversation about it. But usually in that meeting we can bang those down and then what happens is I will give you an update on these things in uh the summer usually June and August somewhere in the point that is a check-in where we talk about those things. Um, and typically when we're getting into um the end of the year somewhere in the zone of the end of the year we'll be talking about. Now in this case we're trying to do it as fast as we can. we have a November election that first year it's a little truncated it's short because you're making your decisions it's already February so we have February March April May and that's it there's four months you know so the amount of movement we

151can make on certain things you know once you get into the second year of that term you know there's more movement that can be made on such things so that's part of what we keep in mind like shortterm long term on these um >> yeah just real quick I apologize if you said it earlier is this the email link for the submission of the ZNA updates >> dashboard. It's actually if you are on the dashboard there is a board goal icon you can it'll bring you right to here and then just go to step one >> but I also just put it on the updates too >> and as soon as we're done here I'll blast that out as well. >> So that link is there. It's on a special portal for the new people.

152that's been on the board um dashboard, you know, for you guys, but I will send out a specific thing that is right up at the top. >> You know, I just wanted to clarify where it was. All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. No, no problem at all. >> Can I see something? Go ahead, please. Um as a as a new board, I think it's important for us to understand point of order for a meeting. And I just want I and I think that this conversation with Dr. Will, it's very important. I think the conversation with this reader was very important. But I also want us to make sure that we're following Robert's rules as a team. And I know several of us are newer to what it is. And took me a bit of time

153to get to know what Robert's rules are. Um, but Dr. Willard is currently presenting to us the board goals process. But I think what we need to do to make sure that everybody has due time to ask their respective questions and have a good fluid conversation that we need to raise our hand and be called on by our chair, whoever's running the meeting. So Jen's our chair. driving game call on us so then we can go ahead and and continue that conversation. >> Yeah, thanks J. I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm just getting my sea legs too. So, we'll just uh So, I understand there's going to be a lot of times where we want to have a free conversation, but it is my my biggest concern, I guess, is not realizing someone wanted to speak

154and letting other people continually speak without recognizing them. So um yeah, so just as a general rule, we should let um in this particular case, Dr. Willlet finish his presentation and then I'll open up for questions and then you would be recognized by the chair by hand. But not a big deal. >> Whatever the board wants is what I'll do. But >> I have read my law at this point. >> It wasn't you. It's the group is Yeah. We're all trying to figure this out. >> No, it just so happened to be right after you spoke, so it wasn't at all. Yeah, >> Bill. >> Thank you. >> If if Jen's not looking at you and I'm looking around or Dana is looking around, just get one of our eyes and we'll we'll let Jen

155know that you're waiting. So, it's it's not that you have to wait for for Jen to to see you, you know, just flash your hand at at Dana's eye and, you know, we'll we'll let Jen know. >> Yeah. Again, we're all just getting our sea legs here trying to figure it all out. So, we'll >> try have to throw anything. Yes, >> Dr. Willlet, you're out of order. >> Just the beginning. >> Go ahead, Dr. Will. >> So, I think I think I've covered most of what you, you know, need to know. I don't want to belabor it and be, you know, be divorced here. So, I think you you have this. These are the steps. You have contact with me. You can send me a text or give me a call if you have

156any questions about how to do this or if you're running into any errors or anything happening. electronically. Um I'm, you know, happy and want to help you through it. So, it's here. It's gonna it's on the dashboard. It's in the um you know, it's in the um the onboarding thing for the new people and I will also uh be sending out this in an email directly as a link as well. So, you'll have it in all these places. Um so, just between now and the 17th, please just think of stuff and throw them in there and we'll start talking about it. And um any other Chair, do you want to entertain any other questions? Anybody else have any questions for Dr. Willlet? Go ahead, Joe. >> Um, is there any like specific number you would

157like to see from us for these goals or I mean just whenever we can get at it, get at it. And >> no, I think as Dr. Willlet said, like anything that that you want to put in put in, the more that we have, the more we have to look at a lot of times, you know, in the past there's been things that were similar, but maybe, you know, someone just highlighted one nuance and we've combined things. So it's never >> honestly the the the most important part of this is coming in with all of us giving some level of feedback. >> Um but the more feedback that we have is always the better. >> We are in the brainstorming stage at this point. So there that's you're really dump it all in. >> Okay.

158That's, you know, and if you want to see prior goals, there's a link here for looking at the past goals and you can see going back years what the awards goals were. So that might give you some ideas, too. >> Dr. Does Cape um have any resources, you know, on thinking of goals or I'm trying to think of a way you could Google it without googling it if you just wanted to see like, you know, some broader ideas of what >> one great thing to do is just Google board of education goals >> and you will see other districts. Yeah, >> certainly has resources, but you you have so many ways to look at this. But >> I would say um but in public school, >> you know, pertain to what you're looking at, but

159>> but it is especially as a new member, it is hard to just come out of nowhere with it. So yeah, people stuff and and ask questions. >> Um I just wanted to to clarify. So this is something that we do as an entire board, not something that goes through one of the committees, >> right? So once we like we said once we do the brainstorm process then we come in and we review the goals and then if you do it like we did last year Dr. Well, you you then condensed everything and we didn't do it at that time. We were able to then edit a Google form do it on our own and then when we come back into the meeting we we see the percentages of where everybody like in a pie

160chart, >> right? Of where everybody right >> we'll do all the compiling work for you and show you the basics. >> We do we we do it all together the whole time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Except when you're Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um >> anybody else? >> Okay. >> So then after that happens um generally what will happen is I try to formulate my superintendent goals although I have many many things. Um some goals I do uh for the board I do have to also do things for the state. So I serve a few masters. The state wants me to do certain things. I have to do them more the board make whether the board makes them a priority or not I have to do things that the state requires and you want me to because you

161want us to be out of comments. Um so there are things that I would have to do and as and in pertaining to the continuous learning plan all of those things. So there are many things that I would be doing that I have to do um goal or not. Um but what I tried to do with this is um I will try to center the goals that I have. I'll show you example of the previous well current goals but how um the superintendent goals rolled in to the current board goals. So once you've got your goals, um I take those goals and there are many many different things that a superintendent can be doing. So this is an example of what I did in the prior goal process. I took a series of superintendent goals.

162I put them in front of you. I take the board goal area that they fall within and I also take the TPS continuous learning plan domain that they fall in. So you can see okay here's a goal for instance integrating um greater than or equal to five vetted artificial intelligence programs to facilitate and enhance the educational practices of the district for instance right um that fell in under uh board goal three fostering datadriven positive learning environment etc etc it also fell in under TPS continuous learning goal building and strengthening learning and working environment etc right so what I'll do is I put these goals in front of you guys. I align them with whatever the board's goals ultimately come up with are and I align them with the TPS continuous learning plan because that's also

163part of a big responsibility that I have to do with the state of Connecticut. Um, and I'll give you a lot of them. So, you'll notice that I gave the previous board quite a few and then you do a very similar thing. You will then look at that. We have a conversation about it and then you rank the ones that you feel are most important and we do a kind of ranking the way that we did a ranking with um the boards and when the one the rank the ones that come to the top of that ranking are typically um the ones that I would then adopt as what you what my marching orders are from you under your board goals now my important tenant goals. So, um you'll notice the ones that are highlighted,

164these were the ones that um got the most attention in the past. Uh these were the ones the previous board um wanted me to focus on. Uh and sometimes budgets will limit what we can do. Um not all of the ones in yellow made it. Um actually only four of the ones in yellow made it but I highlighted the ones that got um some of the highest ones last time and then they became four major goals that I pursued under the the board's you know overall umbrella. Um, now the continuous learning plan, there's also five things the state of Connecticut requires me to do with the administrators for school improvement plans and that's just a whole another layer of things and that that I have to do regardless which is a good thing but I

165but it is part of it and you know from time to time I will bring it to you and say hey this is part of the you know continuous learning plan of our state of Connecticut plan and you can read about those and you'll see what those five areas are and things we have to do for that too. Um, but so that's how that's how this happens. We do board goals, then I take your goals and I take the continuous learning plan. I put out a bunch of things I think you might be interested in. You tell me which ones rank the highest and that becomes my goal to do for you. And then you at the end of the year um during evaluation process that comes up to you know how to do on

166that. Now some of this as we said there are four months between sort of where we settle this and even February is about when we'll have yours. you probably won't settle mine until say March. So they'll be March, April, and May. So the first year it's kind of just like it's you know started some stuff, but then by the next year those things are even more poignant for the end of the year. So um so this is just a fly over how we do that and um and then you know you'll rank them and by about the end of February we should be done with all of the goal setting. Um, so any is that clear? Did anybody have any questions? >> Any questions? Bill, >> uh, are we is this the same schedule that

167we ran on last year? Cuz I'm concerned about pushing into budget season if we push it out as far as the end of January. >> Well, this unless you want to add board meetings. >> I didn't say that. >> That's right. This is probably as fast as you will go unless and you know I work for you so whether you had board meetings or not I'm okay with it but but um >> and pulled it up and I think she said we finish the board goals on the on the >> No no no the you had asked about budget the superintendent's budget was presented to us on January 14th and that's that's the >> we'll get my budget >> before we're done with the board of ed goals >> but but um your timeline is

168about as tight as it gets unless you want to add specific meetings for this purpose. You can add special meetings which you know I'm doing the same work for you either way but um it's up to you. It's really up to you. Typically boards have you your the past boards have done this in twoe iterations because they've needed a little time themselves to chew on it. >> Right. >> This January February is going to be pretty heavy with budget >> indeed. Just sort of to that point, the first presentation of the budget, that's all it is, right? It's just the presentation of it more so than it is us going back and forth, right? So I think that buys us another two weeks or something like that. So hopefully that makes it better. I just

169thought I'd mention that because that first what 14% or whatever, >> right? Once you >> I'll give you a very very fast flyby of that. your the superintendent's proposed budget is given to you the first um the second Wednesday in January of followers. >> It has to be um given to you then and so I give you my budget. You review my budget and you spend basically a month chewing on it deciding what you want to keep, what you want to get rid of, what you want the target percentage to be and then you decide what the board of ed adopted budget is. We ultimately vote on a board of ed adopted budget that becomes the budget I bring to the town manager. The town manager then looks at it decides whether it gets you

170know whether they can support a certain percentage or not and then the town manager makes a recommendation to the town council. Town council then reviews all that and sets a budget and we make adjustments based on whatever their percentage hits. Then it goes to referendum. If it passes once, all set. If it doesn't, comes back and we have to make adjustments based on whatever the So that's the >> So that was a lot of information. So if you're unfamiliar with the budget process, we do have a document that's called the uh budget calendar. Is that what it is? >> Y. >> So um which is on the board of education uh website. >> When will and that will lay out everything Dr. Willlet just said in a much more digestible fashion. When when is that

171calendar prepared? >> Pretty good. >> Well, it was a long a night of a lot of data. When do we have when do you prepare that budget calendar by? Because that's when we'll be able >> It's actually there. There's a budget calendar on the budget page um of the website. Um we I didn't put a special one out because it's on your it's on the website. Um so that would be right here. Oh, yeah. This Oh, so the one I was looking at was this year. So, I thought I was looking at last year. >> Oh, so um I I will put it right up there on your >> You haven't adjusted the date. >> The reason why this one is Well, because it's this is on your main site. >> Okay. >> Fiscal year

17227. This is your budget schedule. And it actually gives you everything for for this year. >> But it says January 2025 on the left. >> Am I Well, I don't have my glasses on top. It's okay. >> This the reason I think you you might be looking at one that was posted a while back. >> Yes, 20. >> This one is the one that is on the website. >> I'm looking at that one and I'm I'm seeing week of 15 2025. >> You've >> So, we should just >> Okay. So, that that particular >> one little date >> that little cell there that's a typo. >> That just happened to be the cell that I looked at. >> Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. that that that cell should say >> but then the rest of them are

173you know so yes >> thank you >> well we'll get that one that one turned over but um but this this is that calendar and it is the less short version what I just said but it's got more detail >> okay any other questions when do we vote on the budget Which time? >> Yeah, >> I'm sorry. >> No, that's fine. Before it goes. Yeah. Our adopted budget. So that is >> this went right here on February 11th. >> Yeah. >> You will vote on it on February 11. >> Now by charter, >> it has to be given by me to the town manager by the 14th. >> Okay. But uh you have to in this case because your meeting is on the 11th that's the closest range that you know >> right >> so

174you'll have um you'll be basically making your board adopted budget that time you'll be voting it in your long >> okay anything else any other questions about superintendent goals we're going to have lots of time to talk about budget yes sorry no that's okay so that brings us to >> I'm sorry oh god Did did we did we decide to leave the goal schedule as is or did we want to accelerate the schedule? >> I don't think we I mean now thinking about the when you think about January 28th meetings from there. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um Okay. So that brings us to M old business of which there is none and board action that is the school calendar and this is the second read. >> Want to take us through that Dr. What briefly

175backers that folder apologize but I'll start blabbing about it while I'm mixing this up. So as you recall board of ed um you had the calendar as a burst read um you're at the point in the process where tonight you could pass the calendar in which case it goes into action um as the calendar for next year. Generally the public does appreciate getting the calendar as soon as you can pass it because they start making their plans for their stuff too. So um this this mostly was covered last time. Nothing really has changed. We did make one adjustment to the calendar um which was um somebody wanted to have a label put on the February date that just made it more clear that that was an inservice, but that's the only other thing. So there's

176nothing nothing really new about it um for you guys. That's just a um something to make that day more obvious to people. So um let's see here is There's so and as you you recall the item is the same as last time. So there's nothing there's nothing new about that here. Uh, same general stats. >> Can you I thought you were Were you trying to pull up something specific? >> No, no, you're set. >> This is it. Yeah, it's in the uh packet, too. >> I'm sorry. I thought >> Yeah, same thing as last year. I'm trying not to say too much here because >> No, don't want to suck up all the oxygen in the room. >> Yeah. It is. It is the second read. So, >> okay. Go ahead, Jamie. >> I was

177just going to Can you repeat what you said about what the small clarification change? >> Yeah, I'll show you right here. Um, >> what I thought you were correct. >> See this in um February how that 17th >> Yep. >> that is a inservice day. >> Okay. So, it's being added >> but that it is orange in which case if you look down at what orange means, it means inservice day. But there was a comment um you know say in this area in service day the 17th. So they just voted you know colored the correct thing and that matches the legend at the bottom but someone said >> kids are not bad. >> The legend on the right is incorrect though. >> So well it's not so much incorrect as someone felt right here just

178put the words inservice day and the 17th so that people will understand. to February 17th for students. >> February 17th is correctly labeled for parents, >> right? >> But teachers may not realize the 17th is an inservice day if we don't put the words >> in service. The color >> the color is there and it's the correct color and it is labeled at the bottom as inservice day. It was just that people felt it would be helpful if it actually said >> change. Just on on that just on that the only change then is the words are going up in the top portion. That's it. >> Yeah. I'm it's almost not something it's more clarity than it is making a policy decision about whether you have a day or not. Like you might say I

179don't want this many hours or whatever. That would be a change fundamental change. This is just making it more clear. So like if once you've decided on things, I can't change the number of VR days, for instance. But I could if somebody said, "Oh my gosh, there's that six looks like an eight. I can go in and fix something like that." So that's the the reason I'm there sharing it. That's really all that I've been that was it in in the two weeks. That's whatever. That's what came up was. Hey, can we make that save service today? Sure. >> You want to start Jaden? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. I wasn't here for the first read. Everybody knows I love the calendar. Yeah, I think we were prepped for this. >> It was

180my birthday, so I was not here. Um, the only thing I'd say that I believe that the start of the school year looks good um getting before Labor Day um as a lot of parents uh multiple parents have written in over the year uh regarding that. One thing I would say, um, I would push to have the, um, Thanksgiving the 25th, even if we have a full day, but an early release day for that. Um, so we don't have the last day of school potentially being on a Monday. Um, as I know there was even some concern this past what last year with the days that it was like how many do we realistically feel that we're going to have attendance on a Monday after a weekend, but the last day of school seems um

181like quite a few people most likely will not attend that day. So I would they may consider moving that one day on the 25th to an early release day. then we can knock that out and have the last day of the 11th of June. Um, and the other day that I know that we did this year coming up is not is I believe having school on the on the 16th because we just had two weeks off for the holiday that we're already having another 3-day weekend like five weeks later in February um to get kids still continuing back in school because there's so many early release days especially even more having the 17th operating to have another 5day say 5 days off seems a bit much when we just had two weeks off the month

182prior. So that'll be my input and take on the calendar that's been presented to us. >> Okay. >> And um I just want to clarify one thing first only because you that the point that you brought up about the day before Thanksgiving. I believe what was explained was that that concern was balanced um at policy with with the opposing concern of the the you know the lack of academic time for kids and if it's a half day then or learning loss you know that that particular argument that always comes up the half day would then be something that didn't need to be made up rather than having a full having a full day because a half day counts as a full day. So they were weighing that balance between you know, extending this the school

183year a day or um having that, you know, loss of learning by having a half day before a holiday and not really getting a lot of academic time done. >> Well, how about zero academic time on the on the last day being a Monday that most people most likely learn from those counties? >> Yeah. No, I understand. I don't know if you >> we even had that this year. I just wanted to give you the argument that was pretty >> referring to my policy. >> No, here's fine. >> Um, yeah. So, we were talking about we went over that specifically with that one is attendance o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

184o o o o o o o o o o opp opportunities or losses on that day before Thanksgiving because of family travel. We also are weighing the push in having the half day versus the full day and like you said the actual academic activity that's happening on that half day. Um I believe we also correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Wullet we in October we get we lessened a half day and did a full day and a half right instead of doing two full day two half days and a full day. >> Yeah, you did modify that. lessened that. So therefore, we added the day off in November. So this last calendar, this current calendar year, this October, there was two half days and a full day off. This next calendar year, we proposed one

185half day and one full day off. So that gave us the opportunity in November to also have that full day. So that in theory did not even didn't really impact the last day of school. >> They kind of moved it around to modify that. >> Thank you. I'm gonna go to Angela. >> Um I just wanted to reiterate about the 25th and I set this up for last meeting, but obviously right here. Um, from my perspective, given the fact that that Wednesday this year was a half day, there was I noticed from the student perspective significantly less attendance because a lot of people thought that it didn't matter. And I'm not going to say it didn't matter, but I am going to say that multiple classes I did watch movies. Educational, but I did watch

186movies. Um, so and I mean I know for the high school Monday, uh, for the rest of school, I'd have to be there. I have to take exams. So I think based on what I know, you would see higher attendance on that Monday than you would on the Wednesday the 25th. >> That was an excellent point that I didn't even think of. That's the difference. When you're at the high school, there's actually exams scheduled that day. So you have to be there. >> You ask for four grades and the other eight don't though, right? >> Yes. Yeah, that's a question. >> Also a good point. Go ahead, Bill. >> Dr. Willlet, if we have a snow day in this schedule, where do does making up that date go to the end? >> It does, unless

187the board decides to take it out of April. >> So, when was the last time that the board approved a calendar with the last day on a specific date that it it didn't get changed? >> Never. I would say is pretty safe it but I would say northeast you're gonna have some kind >> we're gonna have a double snow day. So the likelihood of of that last day being that Monday is slim to none, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Unless we decide to take spring break away, which would be a very popular decision. >> Public participation >> on that. >> Jaden, did you ever hear that? >> Bill just made the exact point. >> I wanted spring break taken away. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I was as a as a employee who works in the

188education. No, no, no, no, no. those breaks are are helpful. But I was just going to say in 12 years of being in, you know, K through2 education and four years working in a school and and four years being on this board, I don't think we've ever ended on the projected day, final day of school. And so that's why that's where the comfort grew in our conversations for me because I understand that point, Brian, of the why would you come in? Why would you >> I I will not be here in South Carolina. >> Right. And so it's it's but but again the rarity that it is impossibility almost I'm going to call it because again out of all those years of of this happening I've never ended on that projected final day. It's always

189been pushed because of you know maybe we lost power because of wind, not even snow, not even ice but wind, you know. So there's there's all sorts of little factors that many make them make a muckle. Eventually they were going to add up to something. And so, um, so that's just sort of where I grew a little more comfortable because it it again I I I understand the point, but um, I just don't see it being likely we end on the >> and to that point, if we back it off to Friday and we get a snow day, we're back at Monday. >> Back at Monday. So, >> I I totally understand the point. I didn't think it all the way through until we had the conversations. Jaden, are you all set? >> Yeah. Thanks.

190I do. >> Um the other point to take into consideration, you talk about the snow days. Um we do live in New England. I've not done what I don't want to say it. We haven't had harsh >> I don't want to say it, but you guys get my point. But okay, I'm not going to say but there was a time when I was on the board when we were in the 20s of June >> ending school and we did have to have the conversation, are we going to do April break? Are we going to do February break? So granted, this is a great baseline for our families, specifically Stargate, that's always huge, right? Uh April vacation, um Thanksgiving break, uh the holiday vacation, and then um you know, February break have been hot topics that

191I've encountered. Um albeit, yes, I don't disagree. If Monday is the last day of school, it's a tough pill to swallow, right? you want to go on your vacation, but anybody does. I get that. But the reality of living where we are, we can't be set and finite with that ever because there's a multitude of reasons that we may have to take. I mean, like you said with Birch Grove, before we before it came down, there was a wind day because of the awning and it's like it was a wind day and then the high school last year had a heater day, right? So the so the high school actually extended one day last last year. this >> discussion. Yeah. >> Yeah. Because I remember there was there was a you know it's not fair.

192They don't have to go to school. Why do I? They don't have. So the high school had one extra day than the other three schools. So we always have to kind of obviously we want to have the best blueprint we can for our families and our students and our staff, but we have to obviously try to make concessions and the b best decisions and balance. Um because you know nothing's going to be perfect. >> Anybody else? >> No. Okay. Uh did would anyone like to propose a motion at this time? >> Is there a motion available? >> Motion to accept the Talent Public School 2026 2027 calendar. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> No. All right. Let's do a roll call vote. Jaden, >> I >> Brian, >> no. >> Bill, >> hi. >> Dana,

193>> hi. >> JP, >> hi. >> Elaine, >> hi. >> Joel, >> hi. >> And I am an I. So, that passes. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we are back to public participation. Uh, we have a twominut limit. Dr. Willlet, can you get the timer ready? All right. Would anyone in the room like to speak at this time? >> Go ahead. Becca Neman 8, Lisa. Um, going back to that calendar thing, this year was the first year I could ever remember having the 25th or not necessarily the 25th, but that Wednesday have school. There was very low attendance numbers among my peers that day and it was wildly unpopular among the students and staff cuz it was almost a point of pride that Talin did not have to go in on that day and

194a lot of the other districts do have to go in and pe like a lot of people are were happy historically that we had a day off before Thanksgiving to go travel and it was like a disruption this year and we didn't do anything. We watched documentaries, we played games, we didn't like it was unproductive because um there wasn't a point to start anything that day cuz everyone would forget it over that long meeting. So having a Monday, which would be an exam day, would be more productive cuz for a high school, if you don't do a final exam, your grade is lowered by 10%. I mean, that's tough luck if you don't go, but like I know I personally like that Monday. I also like sitting here today, I was happy to see that

195this board works together well. And from the other boards I've been on, I've seen more or not been on but attended. I saw some more interfighting and that worries me. But sitting here, I saw like a willingness to work together and that makes me hopeful that this year might be a good year for the Tom public school system. Thank you. >> Uh we don't have anyone online. So would anyone else in the room like to speak? No. >> Okay, that brings us to we can close out public participation. Thank you, Dr. U. That brings us to points of information. Would any board members like to speak at this time? >> Okay. >> Um so, um first we just want to express appreciation for particularly the the police that Jessica gave, Attorney Ritter gave. Um it's

196probably known here. Yep, it is. And generally just the the overall effort put into some board onboarding. um you you don't know what you don't know, right, until you come on here and I feel like all of the the past members and Dr. Willlet and um obviously attorney RER have gone out of their way to help um with some very complex topics and provide a lot of information. um particularly the way the goals are set up is just um uh really really easy to follow and and I really appreciated the the dashboards. Um I wish we had infinite time to go over what attorney Ritter was walking through. Um, so my only recommendation is, um, and I'm sure that, um, as an attorney, uh, she may not want to put everything the answers in writing,

197um, but, um, having some of the, um, answers, uh, to some of these questions, uh, might be helpful, uh, not only, um, for the ones we don't get to, but, as a reference point, um, some of the ones that we do get an opportunity to talk to. So family suggestion, >> right? Maybe that's brief request because if you look at the presentation, it says like is it legal? I mean that's something we could there's obviously nuances but it would still make some yes or nos there because I mean I would have the same I really saw this board so engaged with what attorney Ritter was showing us and uh I like I personally love that McKenzie and maybe others want to keep looking at the packet. So maybe we could ask Jessica if that would

198be okay. Something very quick. >> Yeah. I mean, um, >> don't spend any more money on >> But, you know, a lot of the questions that have been asked have been asked before, so I think answers. Yeah, there's a lot of them that I can answer. >> Would that be so e either way, right? It's a great resource to have and >> um like you know, like I said, you don't know what you don't know. So, situations that I wouldn't have imagined that we may encounter, right? um just some general guidance about um our role and and expectations especially when the question is is this legal or not um would be helpful. I would kind of suggest also and I like what McKenzie said but taking that out of this forum and I know that's

199another meeting we're going to have to attend but I you know I'm used to these for 30 years rights responsibilities and military every year right but taking out this environment where we're you know I don't know if this has to be filled or not you know why we're you know on Zoom >> you mean like an executive session >> yeah just just a session where you know we got free range and we have her right in front of us and we can ask the questions and you know and and get more involved with the scenarios like you just said. I think it's helpful at least for the new people. >> Yeah. The only thing is um executive sessions reserve for specific purposes contractual purposes or um like for personnel legal proceedings. So um it's a

200great idea, but you would have to do that in session in public session. >> Thank you for that. >> Anybody else? Dan, >> um on the board of ed dashboard, you posted the instructional rounds. >> Yes. >> Um it says January 22nd, 2025 and April 8th, 2025. And I just want to know if you were compiling last like >> that should say. >> No, I noticed it. I think probably a title because that's what happens in January, February. >> So I just want to confirm. So it's January 22nd, 26th, >> 2026. So these are the upcoming this calendar school calendar. >> Yes, they are. And what happens next is I send out a sign up form. >> Okay. >> That has some more info on that. But yeah, that was I was trying to get

201that out before the board meeting. >> And they're phenomenal. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. I just want to say and I will say it quickly so that we don't have to take a motion for 10 o'clock. But you know, >> given honestly what what Becket said and what McKenzie said, um just makes me want to make this point more. I really appreciate everyone's patience while like I said, I get my sea legs. you know, the point that Dana brought up, um, you know, speaking out of turn or not being recognized by the chair, it is such a fine line for me because I so much want everyone to feel heard and I don't want anyone to ever feel like I am trying to control what gets said in this room or your opportunities to to

202speak. And by the way, it is really kind of strange to do the process that we do, right? Human nature is to have a discourse of back and forth, right? So, um I understand that that just may happen anyway and there were times where I felt, you know, I didn't get to express what I wanted to and I never want that for you. At the same time, I understand that that may happen. But, um, you know, so I I am I am treading that lightly, but to Dana's point, obviously to have a wellrun meeting, we need to make sure that we follow the rules in front of us. So, but again, I hope no one takes any offense by that because it truly is so natural to have the discussions that we're all having the

203way that we're having them. And I want you all to feel valued and respected. So, my biggest concern with that would just be that someone felt ignored and then I'm not respecting them on the flip side. So, again, just thank you for your patience and um I will continue to try to get better at this whole leading a meeting thing. >> Can we get you a gabble so you can bang it? just said >> funny you say that because another chair did get a gavl. >> Okay, >> if that Oh, what did I learn from town council Lauren? >> Are there are there any objections to adjournment? >> Nothing. >> Seeing none, we can adjourn at 9:53. Thank you.