001e like to call the February 26 2025 Board of Education meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. let's rise for America stands indivisible andice Dr Willet do we have any acknowledgements tonight we do not have do we have any additions to the agenda okay let's move on to the approval of minutes um I will entertain a motion to approve the February 5th 2025 um minutes so moved second any discussion okay ran Bill hi Dana hi reie stain Jaden I and I am an I so that passes I will now entertain a motion for the February 12th 2025 um approval of minutes so second any discussion ran hi Phil hi hi reie I jayen I is this no no Sor thought I knew and then I questioned it so I'm an ni to that f as well
002okay um don't think we have anyone online oh we do um so I'd like to open up public participation the members of the Town Board of Education welcome members of the public to share their thoughts and ideas at this time when appropriate to do so me MERS of the board and the administration May respond to comments during points of information however in consideration of those in attendance and in an effort to proceed in a timely manner follow-up discussion may need to take place outside of the meeting setting so will you ready with that timer I am okay do we have any we do not have anyone in the room tonight uh do we have anyone online uh who would like to participate please raise your hand going once going twice okay I think we can
003close that out let's move on to correspondence Bill we had 13 budget emails come in this different topics on the budget great uh Lisa I see that Dan has joined thank you Dan okay now let's move on to points of information would any member of the board k k Al is also joining okay would any members of the board um like to say anything at this time he we're rolling right along student Representatives report all right so first off NHS is having their annual blood drive it's Monday March 3rd from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to sign up you have to be at least 16 years old and you have a chance of getting a $10 Amazon gift card and then Deca States is on Monday March 3rd it is a 12h hour day it
004is 6 to 6 it's a very very long day but we're really excited a lot of strong competitors and I hope to be at the next meeting with some very good news also the first prom committee meeting was today at 2 p.m it was for juniors only and in room 220 and they picked the theme menu decorations everything having to do with prom and tomorrow on Friday The Innovation is T The Innovation Challenge is taking place at the University of Hartford uh where some Talent students are competing they learn how to create a lean business plan how to pitch ideas and they can win money and prices from it that is also an all day event what time will be up so thank you but uh that is it very brief week uh so if
005there are any questions comments or concerns where is the DECA CH state challeng that is at the Aqua Turf so yeah it's fancy they changed the they changed the out of this year we don't know if it's going to be better we don't know if it's going to be worse but they changed it so can't be that bad exciting very exciting but um yeah it's a really great venue it's a really fun day so I'm excited back luck next [Laughter] Tuesday sometimes bump in unmute Jen no just I thought I did oops sorry um no I just said good luck next Tuesday that's exciting and let me know what that new layout is it's been the same same thing for however many years so good luck have fun enjoy it hopefully there's better food than
006there has been in years past so have fun I think it's gonna stay the same as it had every year but here's the wishful thinking cheers good luck thank you as always um well it looks like oh no she's back okay so let's move on to committee and the aison reports you guys might have to help me with all of these but we can start Brian I know you had Communications today yeah we'll uh provide an update we might be doing some uh community outreach a little more data and I'll make a update the next meeting great Bill we met today with curriculum and uh we met with uh Adam yeah and Jen Webster about the uh onetoone technology very informative about how it's used at at all the levels so it was very good
007meeting right Dana did you have a call meeting yeah this morning and we over the calendar we'll be talking about tonight perfect um Dan FSC yeah thank you we met um to February 19th I want to say it was um monthly financial report actually looks good last year around this time the budget um for the school system was going a freeze for several months by at this point in the school year um it's looking relatively healthy at this point we all understand that it can change at the drop of a hat but we're at about 1.52 1.5% of the budget remaining got about $660,000 in there um so knocking on wood over here um but we're looking decent going into towards the end of the year um I would say uh other things coming up
008at this point we just had a solar uh presentation um on kind of what it would look like for opening up discussions again uh I forget the individual's name but it should be in our minutes um but we had him in to consider it we're going to raise it up to the board on that conversation um talked quickly about the USF fund as well because it was a a longer solar presentation but other than that we're going to have a deep dive as well into EIP and insurance I'm working with Jen right now on getting that scheduled but looks like I want to say it's could be early March to early to mid-march but it's coming up it'll be a special meeting so to be to be coming I'm sure and then for negotiations we
009are still in um negotiations with um secretaries we had our first meeting and our second meeting is upcoming I just a followup with Dan what facility are you uh looking with the solar you don't mind yeah not at all it's um there's considerations for each school um but that being said um it's not a one size fits-all package we can pick and choose kind of what you want what works um based on different models on different schools um different layouts but all of that will be presented to the board um because we didn't want to make any decisions clearly and uh but happy to field questions next time when when it gets up there to the board level than y um moving on next on the agenda is the chairperson's report we do not have
010one of those tonight item K is the superintendent report you have anything for superintendent but you have new business and so would you like to move right along to new business lovely okay all right so new business um every once in a while what I will do is um give you as the board an update on the field trips just to so you can have a sense of the trips the kids are going on and the kinds of things that are going on in the school system for that so this link is available to everyone in the public too if you're able to pull up the um agenda these are all the field trips that are in play right now and the Boston field trip a Foster Family Farm field trip um there's a play
011for depicting the charter o Legend uh there's a Birch Grove field trip that's focused on oceanography what makes the community field trip Benton Museum uh Wadsworth at an a the Connecticut people in places tour Yukon ctpa aim program it's it's for students that are very interested in accounting um the bu's apple orchard trip Yukon opportunity fund School of Business trip kids go young adults go there and get a sense of what the Yukon School of Business has to offer and things like that there's an interview day which is sort of internal Middle School Eastern regions which is music T and Green Day uh these some of these are coming up but this is just everything that has been submitted to me thus far for this year um coling Green Day the kids get into outfits
012from the early 1800s and they're all over the green and it's great many of you know it um that's kind of a field trip that's sort of very local because it's right out there in the green and in our local um museums and so on The Kuman C conference which uh students participate and compete in a Model United Nations conference there's ski and snowboarding trips ocean oceanology trips salt marsh trip Randle Park erosion um there's an ests Adventure Park trip that occurred which was part of team building for the seventh grade at one point um some of these are labeled retroactive came in before the beginning of the school year um so they were before we were doing all the tracking so that's why they say retroactive all stage Village um the cast leadership conference
013THS music Holiday Tour the Junior Achievement Innovation Challenge Deca state competition Puerto Rico science and culture trip this is actually cancelled there wasn't enough interest in it right at this time Washington D DC trip cultural immersion through Spain and Madrid which is an international trip True Colors which is up at Yukon uh and a sweetheart dance which is a unified basketball team sort of event that we take a trip to sit down lunch TTA students there are t transition Academy students go out and go to lunch as a life skill Club enrichment at Yukon botney Club connects up with the Yukon botney program and do some great stuff and then the Eastern region school music festival and that is another Music Festival that kids participate in so this is everything really up to now just
014to give you sort of a complete flyover as quickly as I could narratives might be missing a period or two but I was pulling them all you know out of the computer and everything isn't necessarily away like that bir gr one is an inhouse one sometimes we have field trips that are just leaving the building yeah didn't uh is there one with that uh reptile place something like infield or something or I swear my son went to that last year third grade or fourth uh grade seen the river third what's the name of that place they have Rivers yes Riverside yeah often come here too oh all right oh maybe that was maybe they came here sometimes they'll come yeah and they bring the hissing African cockroach yeah one year I had did a program
015at Barnes & Noble and I I had him come Barnes & Noble flipped out the huge cockroach came out because there's Health codes for them hilarious sorry but anyway yes he's great and help him out yeah I just started the White House tours back up I think it was yest the day before yeah people going to DC get on the list so that's available to everybody there online if they want it or any other questions or comments on field trips okay thank you Dr will any old business see any that brings us to board action which is the 2526 school calendar so uh we had kind of a run through of this policy uh took a good look at it and um this calendar that we've seen is the one that's back up for board
016consideration and approval uh the calendar well I've already kind of given you the one down I'll I'll pause I think the big thing that we talked about in policy this policy was like if we started before Labor Day usually it's 2 to 3 days before Labor Day then go to labor day then start again right now because of professional development onboarding and all those different things it was only the Friday before Labor Day is when we'd start and then have the weekend and then start again so so the earliest we could start is it 29th is the Friday before that would be the earliest is that because of the teachers contract starting date yes the 4 right they cannot start before the 24th and there has to be four days of of professional development such
017so what and some of it is PD and then there's a day for prep and there's poal and then the meet and greets have to occur before the you know there's a whole alignment but those four days um have to happen there so that's why the earliest you can start would be the 29th and the contract says you cannot start before the all right so let's do a quick swing around and let everybody um have comments or questions before because it is an action before we move on so we swing with B want start yeah well swing that I at your Brian would you like to start bill you want to get start sure um well what did policy committee say okay so we'll explain back to it so originally so we talked a lot
018about having multiple days before Labor Day to start like having the Wednesday Thursday Friday then Labor day off and then come back the Tuesday right so the kids have a chance to get acclimated the teachers have a chance to get acclimated the big caveat was the 24th and the fact that they have PD on boarding and different things so our day to start school would be the 29th so it'll be all summer starting Friday take the weekend and then Tuesday so we thought that we would submit to start Tuesday was what the consensus was for policy because having one day to start when people are talking about doing you know vacations theas kind of those kind of things for families and so on and so forth it was kind of silly to have a Friday
019as a school day was the consensus not necessarily the decision maker good but we thought about starting school what is it the second tues that's how this config so with that I have a question y if we started on the 29th would that just Flex the last day of school one day sooner so it's not like we're getting any more or less school days we're not getting any more days in front of teachers instruction by starting on the 29th it would still be the same amount of school days that's also okay what we were thinking when we were talking in policy it would be a big deal if it was the three days like the Wednesday Thursday Friday like that's a big chunk going into June right like the end like we've had a few
020years that went into the 20th so that was the conversation but since we don't have that flexibility to do Wednesday Thursday Friday and those three days what does that one day do that was the conversation though that's my only question question yeah Brian you want to go back to you sure sure no I'll see I hand yet so all right so read um on boarding days these so you have to have these four inservice days can these inservice days not start on the 21st at this on boarding day they can't because the contract doesn't allow them to start before the 21 the onboarding days why could we just start at the uh the 25th oh oh yeah I see what you're saying you just get do you have to provide them for teacher and service
021days to start y it's all part of contract and each day there's designated ways that we have to use that time and you have to have certain prep days before meeting greets can happen so everything has to be in a certain line there's not just the professional development but there's also you know new teachers coming in teachers that have changed rooms teachers that have changed grades schools they need time to go in set up their classrooms all of that is Encompass during that time too oh no I I I understand my my wife's a teacher I'm actually do every year I completely understand like it's not about that I was just more or less the days on the calendar that that's all wasn't about the actual work that they needed to be done um the
022other thing that that I would would would like in this if for an adjustment um is the 20 the day before Thanksgiving I I I just like that to be an early release day not a complete day off um in my realm of things and then the um and I know there was discussion regarding a lot of these um uh professional development days not from the the board just people have just spoken to me in general about that there's seems to be just so many of these early release days and it does put a a burden on some people I know there's you know you giv people enough advanced notice I understand that but it's still a burden on people whe whether it's 6 months away or six years away if you do work full-time
023it does create a burden so I don't know what we do alleviate that but I like to see a little bit less of those and maybe more of a full day combine like three of these into full day maybe is easier so you only inconvenience with one person or one day versus three days I don't know other people feel about that but I that's what I would just like to see some altering in that regard just as a reminder that the full days are contractually negotiated so we can't do a full day in City our days that we don't already have we would have so we would have to take that into consideration when negotiating the next contract have to neg you have contractually have more service days so we can eliminate you know a
024lot of these half days full days are contractually negotiated yeah I guess full in service days contractually negotiated the half days we can put wherever we want without it in the contract okay yeah all right uh that's all I'll say for this time okay um Dan you have anything no it it sounded like um all of these days are either or the majority at least are contractually obligated we talked about everything Dana said we talked about this morning I agree that there it might be a different conversation if it were like a half a week Wednesday Thursday Friday prior to um but just having them come in for the Friday it just didn't really make a ton of sense in my opinion I don't want to do anything that's going to impact um attendance or
025anything along those lines so that's where I stand thank you Jaden you're next on the list do you have anything no adjustments my apologies to the policy committee this morning um I completely agree you know it doesn't make much sense for I think all parties involved teachers uh staff of all kinds students families parents Etc um to sort of throw that much of a loop into things and so um I Am pro starting I think does that say the second there um or is we would start the second right yes yeah so um yeah no I fully support it um I I thought there was a discussion last meeting or a couple meetings ago about some some of the frustration in the room with early release days and so now I'm hearing you know get
026rid of a day off and replace it with an early release day and so I'm not I want to get a better understanding of where do we stand on early release days as a group uh that's number two number three um in terms of professional development um you know I I told a story a couple weeks ago and I won't get into it right now but over the last few weeks I've really got gotten a much better understanding again disappointed that I didn't have the understanding beforehand um of how important those days are and so I will not be voting uh for anything that uh adjusts those professional development days unless it means they get more frankly and so um so that's that's sort of where I'm at right now I'm I'm I'm good with
027the schedule as is um I'd be happy to vote in favor of it thank you Jen just to make sure I understand where you said um you wanted to understand where we were was that a question that you were posed or were you more just saying you were interested in hearing the comments that we discussed it I suppose so more of a curiosity question not really a you know I'm calling anybody out type of question it's more so you know I'm I'm I and someone can correct me if I'm wrong and please do but I I I feel like a few weeks ago or a few meetings ago we had discussed um um you know some of these days before holidays and you know should they be you know early release or full days and
028now we're discussing should it be no Day School or early release day and so you know I'm just trying to get a better understanding of where folks stand you know cuz I feel like it's changed since since we last discussed this which is okay I that's opinions change and things change like that um you know I just I want to know before I'm you know submitting a vote as to you know specifically Brian had mentioned I think the day before Thanksgiving um which I'm not seeing off the top of my head I it's down there I think that's the 26 26 um the 26 instead of being an off day that would go to an early release day when again a couple meetings ago we had discussed early release days is being useless kids don't
029get things done all these things all these things and so I guess it is that wasn't my view at all that was my view gotcha okay well in that case that was not my view at all for clarity fair enough fair enough so in that case like the questions irrelevant um but again I just I you know I want to make sure we're being consistent in terms of what we're communicating to family so that they have an understanding of what to expect even if this is not the schedule that we pass you know consistency with families and whatnot as you all are aware I'm the only one here that you know doesn't have children in the schools and you know and whatnot but um you know even though I'd consider I have like a thousand
030of them in there but um that's besides the point so yeah I I approve the schedule as is like Brian just clarified that for me so did Bill so um all of that sort of makes sense and I am good to go thank you uh before we move on can I say one more thing or sure go ahead uh the uh January 2nd um is there a particular reason why we have this day off and not a regular working school day because usually the holiday is the first and the second we usually go back to school in January um because if you do that if you put that back as a working day and you put Thanksgiving I think it's the contract you get the day after the New Year Day or something like that
031usually get New Year's Day yeah the Year's Day is one and then I think it's just the way they round it out um you know just the week it's the way it's been done sort of in the past that people liked so that was kind of how it was lined up here I hear what you're saying because yeah usually go back to second I think that it lies on a Friday right yes so I'd be worried about attendance that was what so I hear you because I don't disagree with you because the holiday is the first so it looks to me like it makes it a full week right when it falls on the when it falls near the Friday it's usually been so it makes it the full week but I also the same
032thing that we were talking about in policy this morning was starting on the Friday like even if we put it on the 20 whatever for Friday like what's the attendance going to look like so even if we put back the second which I'm in favor for because I think putting back the DI it's not the holiday what would your attendance look like when you have the 24th through the first off and then you have that still that weekend and start back the 5ifth I would question hate to say it that that was the big conversation we had this morning in policy was attendance my my only my reason I'm thinking here because if you go back to this projected last day being the 16th of June if you have them go to school on the
033um the day before Thanksgiving and on the second you end up technically can get out on Friday the 12th of June's going to be snow days mid that week typically done is you typically have eight days in this particular break so like last year you had eight days have eight days that's probably why outside I haven't taken it out yet three four five six that is I'm looking nine days so I'm looking at last year's or this current Year's calendar right now and that is the juggle so this year we had the 23rd off through the 1 whereas here it's the 24th through the 2 so it's the same amount of days it's just pushed off one day because in this year's calendar that the first was on a Wednesday but in next year's calendar
034the first is on a Thursday so it looks like they just swapped it again so that attendance would be there but it stayed an 8 day Halliday you have the same eight days that help you yeah yeah I I understand I don't agree with it but I that well in the same respect I question February break I just say it that way like with February break you have the holiday then you get the day off and then you have PD like what you know so I I understand that way like so you think about saving a day February just yeah the 17th yeah ask that day let him go back to school on the I never knew why we even had this blue or was two weeks ago it's it used to be a full
035full week break and we reduced it down to and it's like April move the April vacation up to the the week of a good Friday so you only so you don't have to lose as many days you can save another day there so just things we can move around if we feel like if we want to lose things around if you don't then up to you all let me ask you a question is the intent of moving things around to have the last day of school sooner yeah I believe so i' rather be out in in June uh and not be going to the end of June plus I mean also when we have these long breaks kids don't do so well like to have all of these breaks like my my kids really struggle
036to get back in the routine and all of a sudden boom we got an earlier release oh we're off three days in February yet we're just off for 10 days like 5 weeks before for for Christmas like it just I just feels like there's always a break always a break always a break and then you go into here you have so you go to February then you have March and you have four early release days then you go to April and you have good Friday off then you have a weekend one full week then boom you have another five days plus both weekend ends nine days and then you come back for one week and then you have another early it's like there's always like something going on and I get I get spoken to
037by many different people in the community about there never seems to be a consistency of kids going for two three four five weeks in a row without some sort of I know there's holidays but I'm just saying between the early release and a vacation or a PD day in the middle of wherever it just from people that have spoken to me personally they really feel it's a struggle to get kids in a rhythm and then boom something's happening to where they're having this break that that's where where what I'm hearing from people so it's not just to the people in the room or the presentation of the calendar it's just it's concerns that I hear so um one thing about the February you're going to do that then to that is a inservice day on
038the 18 it's whole day in service so I guess my question that could drop back to the 17 still be back sooner but we we still you probably wouldn't want to come back you know like the out switch them one day and then you know come back one day and then go out and come back you probably want us to move the inserts well I think point I we talking about is moving whatever to the the PD the Tuesday and start school the Wednesday yes right so make the 17th the professional development day and back to school on the 18th cor I mean listen I'm all for getting out in May so I hear what can we take out to get out in May but I you guys are okay with getting out in mag
039right I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about the ear sorry let's keep going around okay I'm done I'm I'm done thank you for hearing my thoughts and IDE that's where I'm going next to remind you okay so we did Dan we did Jaden Katie I don't really have anything to say I have no horse in this race um I don't think we saw anything from the community from anybody who was willing to actually write in about it to say one way or the other you know people had very disparate thoughts about what to do with this um I understand if other members are hearing stuff from people in the community I would encourage them to encourage those people to go ahead and write to the board so we can all see
040those things um but you know like I said I really for my perspective as a parent I don't it doesn't make a difference to me I'm good with the way it is thanks B we did have emails come in concerning this yes I know I acknowledge that we have emails coming in I said that I know we had some and that they were desparate in my opinion but I do think like we definitely need to hear from more people in the community I'm not sure how we can kind of do a better job getting people to like reach out maybe it's I don't know we it's not like we name names when people write into us it's always anonimous right so maybe that's something we need to publicize better I'm not sure yeah I think
041from my recollection we we the emails basically focused on the start day not about the break so we did have some opinions on that but not the breaks generally what why it gets arranged the way it does is because of past feedback so like the I don't know you were there when years ago these people wanted that November 26 because they wanted a travel day for for uh Thanksgiving so that was that was why they did it at the time so you know just depends on the that's why they're in there like that usually it's because somebody asked reie do you have anything um yeah I uh agree with Brian on the 26 Wednesday before Thanksgiving going back to having that be a half day as opposed to a day off I'm just I I
042find it interesting that we're we're building the calendar around when the parents wanted go on vacation as opposed to prioritizing the students education and that that really should be the priority versus I mean you got all summer off you got a few breaks you know I I just we're like oh well you know we're concerned about you know attendance on a particular day it's like well if if you choose to keep your kid out of school then that's your decision that you're making around your child's education versus all the other kids like I I I don't know I just I don't love that as our you know leaping off point for deciding when days off will be um I'm not a huge fan of all of these extra half days I think we've talked about
043that a little bit or a lot um that parents have talked about it I think Brian spoke about it well about the the ups and downs there's just really never a kind of solid okay we're going for 3 weeks or whatever there's always something so I'm good with the start date um I'm just not I don't know I feel like we're doing the kids a disservice with all these half days if if if a half day is the same as a full day then the whole calendar would be half days and we lose a lot of educational time for the kids um so I understand there's contractual things and stuff and maybe that's what needs to be looked at or whatever I don't really know but I I don't know I just feel like it
044would be nice to see a string of even really we I don't even think there's barely two weeks in a row that there's not something and that does feel like a hard thing for parents who work and for the kids too just to have some consistency we're going to school this is this is our job here so that's just my feedback okay thank you um one thing that the state of connetic um kind of over the last years has gotten more and more strict on certain things they don't do anything with enforcement actually it's interesting in the distant past they were much more involved with enforcement on things like truy and so on like a family that reached a certain point and get a probation officer somebody might go to court now that doesn't happen
045it's all in the schools but if they have four absences in a month and 10 in a year they're considered chronically absent and then it dings our accountability scores so we're going to have 180 days of school but it does make some sense to try to match it to what the parent Grans are wanting because if we don't they'll they may do what they need to do anyway and then we get higher um we get higher um school um do are just you know chronic absence rates and then that works against us and then our pores go you know down because of that so it's something it's one of those things that you just try to balance everybody's needs as best you can but you're going to get the 180 days because that's the requirement
046um yeah I had a couple things so I guess then just to clarify I mean we're not building this calendar based on when people or we think people want to take vacations or we're not really building this calendar is it's the East con it starts from the East con calendar which is a similar calendar for many districts right that are following I would assume the same kinds of holidays and temp that's supposed to follow that which is where where the why some things fall where they do right um and then the rest of it is really just based on what people have given for feedback over the years so and that does change over time some years people want something some years people want don't and then it comes back around it really does swing
047like a pendulum you know what people want or don't but that part yes we we you you know should be basing it on the region calendar which is E con for those breaks and that was one of the emails somebody sent in saying please make sure you follow the you know whatever they going go so um I will say that I was actually in favor of having the start date be the 3-day week before given how many emails we received on it and it sounded like you know teacher friends I have not necessarily in District but they were for that too but now that that's not not an option I don't think it really makes sense to start on that Friday so I'm back to this being the start date um when it comes to
048PD days given that we are not increasing from last year's at all I would not want to um decrease that I think we hear plenty from our staff saying that they utilize those days they actually want more um and something that even comes up you know negotiations and like I've mentioned before the ca survey you know that shows 69% of teachers dissatisfied and one of the top reasons was not enough professional development time so I certainly want wouldn't want to take away from what we already have um when it comes to the breaks I I am someone who appreciates the breaks um so I'm I'm personally good with them um but however I do completely understand um Brian's comments on it so I think you know it's one of those things where we could come
049at it from a lot of different angles so we're going to have different opinions on them respectfully um and trying to think you know I do think I personally you know I do not agree with the that we lose so much educational time on half days again with when you take out recess and your condensed lunch times it's really not all that much um and so I am also all for you know having a half day or having a day off but a day that you know a lot of kids aren't going to come to school um again I just for a couple to juggle that for a couple days in June is it it's not a priority for me um I think that's that's all I had bill you said you had another question
050yeah um and it might be already answered but a professional development day you couldn't move that half day that the teachers have professional development onto like say one of the spring break days you mean in the beginning of the year no like uh April 13 you couldn't move April 29th at a professional development day onto April 13th kids would be out teachers work the the non student that would become they have um contractually 180 180 school days I mean you can do whatever you want with April break but usually April break is you know that's not one of their 188 work days gotcha I I will add to that I do think that Brian's question of um could we condense some half days into full days I do think that's valid and I would be
051happy to I won't be I I may not be the negotiations chair when we come up to teachers again but I certainly think that it's a valid thing to discuss um if they're getting the same amount of professional development time but if we're doing it in a condensed manner I think that that is absolutely a fair discussion yeah because the other reason why I say that it's I well Ry is like there was times to where there was a I don't know there was another professional development day I don't know when it was it was it was earlier in a year it could have been a few weeks ago or M don't they all time blanks but it was like I went by bur G to go pick up my son like a lot of
052the the the the people were were gone before like the barely went the school was the regular time of the school was getting out he was in FRC so it's like I don't know how much time they're actually spending um you know two hours an hour and 45 minutes or something in the professional development I think he can condense a whole bunch of these in into a full day off uh just from from experience of seeing the amount of time and who's in the parking lots and stuff they're they're I don't you not like they're staying extended periods of time until 5: p.m. doing the professional develop Dr will is that something that you could know usually P days are if you're doing a full in service day it's 8 to 3 Because all teachers
053have different begin and end times so on those days that they're there for a whole day that's you know in service it's standardized to 8 to three because sometimes you need them all at you know one span of time otherwise you'd have you know people unavailable at certain times if you're trying to get everybody in the same training okay are there any other questions or comments I have a question yeah um Dr so when we moved early release days or PD days to Wednesday what day did they used to be on well they've gone back and forth over the years but Wednesday has been the one that seemed to keep PR was on once there they on Fridays but what we found is people and so why did we move them from Fridays to Wednesdays
054I think there was a general feeling that the enrollment went down significantly on the Fridays that so there was attendance issues yeah again it contributed negatively to Chronic absenteeism things like that so it would be something that we should consider because when we had we had early release days AKA professional development days on Fridays and we've had consistent attendance issues in the past historically so we moved Wednesdays to try not to have the parents have the long weekend it would be something legitimately that we need to discuss as the board that if we had the whole summer off and then a Friday as a start date and then not start on a Tuesday that having that Friday might be an attendance concern would be something that us as a board should consider yeah saying that
055you know that if you even starts full on the Friday what you're saying is that people so based on Trend it's not about us acquiescing to people's requests of having a long vacation or people's vacation time it's traditional it's been fact that we've lost attendance we've had attendance issues when we had early release on Fridays so that's why we moved it to Wednesdays so the fact that talking about that Friday start date or talk about other things the one day would be something that we need to consider for educational purposes because families have decided to do so not because we're deciding around vacation time um and then not to put you on the spot but because Dana brought it up I certainly don't want to leave you out what our student Representatives like to weigh
056in I didn't mean to jump in sorry okay um yeah sure so I I do love the little three-day long weekend move on obviously that can't happen this year if it can happen in future years that's what I personally prefer I love a little you know you s you let it you digest it you say back at school and then you just go and punching um so I think the stting the first state is fine um I think that the professional and service days I feel like at this point there's honestly not a lot whether you're happy about it or not happy about it that we can do about it based on contracts the number of professional days that they need so I feel like you know we T it's the majority of the conversation
057every time we have these calendar meeting at calendar meetings I feel like right now when it's in action it's kind of beating the dead horse a little bit you know I go home and I dream about it ever present but you know I like this schedule I like the outdate June 16th that's pretty nice that's our graduation date this year I think that's good um I personally don't mind having kind of sporadic days where we're out or only in a half day because I know that for me and for a lot of people that I know burnout especially in like the januaries and the mays it's a really really big problem um and you know like for me this year I work every day I work Monday through Friday so I'm leaving my house at
0586:40 I don't get home until 5:30 so like my day is like long and when I don't have like little half days or you know a break or two it can feel very you know the roof is weighing and so I it's not an issue this year but I'm nervous If It Moves In a trend where we only have two longer breaks or three longer breaks every year I'm nervous about the level of burnout that we might see near the end of the year but that's not an issue this year that's just an observation for future years if something like that happens I completely agreed sometimes it feels like you're having a catch-up game and having that half day is just so nice because you can catch up on work maybe get earlye on work
059and especially during like final season when you're trying to balance teachers getting in everything for you to learn and then also studying for that final so yeah January that season is always very very busy and I agree I feel like the start date is pretty unanimous um it seems very reasonable the whole calendar seems very reasonal to me I feel like I don't really have many comments Thank you very much I didn't think any of us really considered the burnout piece which is definitely something I've heard in the past and didn't even think to bring up in this discussion so thank you very much for bringing up those points okay board so this is where someone puts a motion on the table because it is already in board action i' like to make a motion
060okay I oh that he has written a proposed one but I think I listen to saying and you can make the motion and or take away whatever you like to make a motion to accept the town Public School 2025 2026 calendar presented in the February 26 202 meeting with the F modifications change the November 26 Sugg yeah yeah no I understand I'm going with change of the November 26th Day from a full day to a half day okay off to half day yeah to to to be in school for half day change the February 17th 2026 becomes a professional development day February 18th 2026 as a school day and January 2nd 2026 as a school day okay any seconds I'll second that okay discussion all right let's vote Brian would you like to start with
061you I bill no Dana no have grey at the top I and Dan hi and Jaden no and Katie I am a n that motion fails would anyone else like to propose a motion motion to accept the Talen Public School 2025 to 2026 calendar as presented in today's 20 Jesus February meeting seconds second um any discussion okay Brian I'll start with you again n Bill May Dana hi um there's Jaden hi reie nay Dan nay Katie I I'm an I that is a TI vote so that doesn't pass right let me give it a shot okay motion to accept the Talon Public School 2025 2076 calendar presented in the February 26 2025 meeting with the following modifications change November 26 from a full day off to a half day February 17th becomes a professional day
062February 18th 2026 as a school day second okay so January 2nd is off the table yes I didn't have that in the motion so that by one day and so it stays off basically he took the first three option okay all right and he just discussion oh I'm sorry yeah we have a second any discussion all right Brian come back to me thank you I'm sorry so it's the first three things not the January 2 correct let me highlight he he did it with B thank you I think right yes okay Bill hi Dana hi um Dan hi Jaden nay reie hi Katie hi Brian hi I am a nay that V that passes than for compromise [Music] you're next so looks like next we're back up to public participation the comments are limited to
063two minutes Dr will you have the time already Yes do we have any online comments at this time please raise your hand once twice three times okay we'll close that uh dret pointed information I have n okay any members of the board points of information I just like to thank ladies for their continuous contribution I really appreciate your perspective anybody else okay future business uh looks like Dr you just want to mention multitud assistance support instructional rounds I'm going please come it'll be great Monday to have you yeah okay I will take a motion to aurn some second hi Bill hi Dan hi jayen did it pick me up sorry Dan hi Katie hi hi meeting adjourned at 808 thank you