001we'll do the roll call Mike buer uh Mike Sharon Joe klei Joe kti Hein Kristen erinson Pam farington pamington Mar Carrie ferino Drew gin Drew Goin maror Gabe marks Gabe Marx he Amy romanuk Amy Romanek maror Scott soet Scott soet hand over Heather Summer from he and if we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible andice D can you note that um Mike buer here does he have to say his town I think you have to say your town Mike nicely done okay all right so the record Hein Andover and maror Community engagement and attendance at Boe public meetings is welcome the public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside
002so the Boe may receive public comments procedurally public remarks will be limited to 3 minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the Boe is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda the Boe is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented is there anybody that would like to make public comment anybody online no we're good I think we need to set this to music okay excuse me this is this is kir excuse me this is Kirsten lingon from Andover I've arrived just just prior to making announ thank you Kiren okay and then just the question of any any add does anybody have any um agenda items they would like to add or delete I think we should add do we have to
003add setting the graduation date or is that that's that's it's in the agenda okay it is in the agenda but thanks Joe okay so next up are the student representative reports Ava do you want to go first yeah sure so um we just came back from our February break a week ago so that was great um we had Monday and Tuesday off and the Friday before was a half day um this week seniors will have their senior portfolio presentations um so on Friday that will happen March 1 um at the end of the school day and um the blood drive March 14th will be happening so uh students will be able to donate blood and um so uh tomorrow is basketball game very excited about um parent teacher conferences are coming up um weekend next
004week um this Friday um parallel to the seniors is a junior planning meeting um and this we plan for postsecondary planning um just this Friday March 1st and then um on March 6th the ninth graders psaa great thank you does anybody have any questions actually do you know how does the student the senior project work so um we actually started it like a long like beginning of the year it was like the actual like presentation was due today where we created like a slide for each um it was like you know the columns that we have it was one of those like characteristics it was like Integrity um if there was uh I can only remember Integrity right now [Laughter] was like a bunch of them like eight or so um and then you had
005to provide examples that like showed how you um like displayed those different um aspects of learning into like your high school experience so you would like maybe put an essay and you would say that was like critical thinking or you would say that you like had like a job outside of school and that was an example of um like Integrity maybe and then you would explain like why those things connected to those different characteristics um and then there were like two other sides it was like how high school um is affecting your like affected your like Po post high school plans and um people who inspired you and um basically just how like you transgressed through like throughout your high school journey and you improved and developed as a person great I could help a
006little yeah so the uh the skills basically what a is described the skills and dispositions of a ram graduate yes thank you I'm here for the save no problem so um we're GNA it's a great segue because we're going to talk about it tonight when um when we discuss the Strategic plan that was developed over the past several months um which so this uh the skills and dispositions were developed probably over about a year-long process I think in the 1819 school year um and basically it just identifies exactly that the skills and dispositions that we will that we hope to see in in Ram graduates I I I don't talk about it later but the important thing is to note that we start working on these goals here at Ram at the middle school level
007and we are actually now even coordinating with the elementary schools that feed into RAM um and the administration and staff uh working at those schools is starting to uh work on um starting at the ground level with our elementary IND student so it's really it's a wonderful thing so it truly is a culmination of of a to 12 experience okay thank you anybody else have any questions for them okay so that brings us to the Boe chair report um we had a group of students who graduated midye and celebrated here at the school on February 22nd the graduates were joined by their family friends and RAM staff in the high school library to celebrate the occasion I was not able to attend um but I I did talk to Colin about it all of these
008students do even though they've graduated will get to participate in all of their um senior activities and they will also be able to participate in graduation so real accomplishment to um graduate early like that yeah how many were there four oh wow um The High School cheer team won the CCC division Eastern Conference title at Southington high high school two weekends ago they built on that success this past weekend at the NECA cheerleading competition that was in talin um they have one well I say they have one more because I'm tired of sitting on bleachers one more of the states are this weekend that they will be competing at in New Haven um if they do win States if they rank in the top three they will go on to another competition um and I
009do wish them well but there's been a lot of leur um so uh we just want to remind you that the ram medical career students along with teacher Kathy green are hosting a blood drive at the which you you mentioned at the high school on March 14th from 7:30 to 1 so if you are interested in donating blood you can talk to Colin and he can get you signed up um the Colin has been doing his Road Show with the budget um so he's been meeting with the boards of Selectmen for each of the three towns he presented to marbor last Wednesday night Hein is scheduled for Tuesday March 12th at 700 p.m. at Douglas Library and Andover is on Wednesday March 13th at a virtual meeting starting at 7 if anybody from those towns
010has the availability to go and or dial zoom in to support Colin I think it really helps to have those representatives from the towns there when he's um presenting on a budget and then the last thing is I got a meeting notice I think it was today it went um for next Monday we're we are going to be meeting with our lawyers to go through roles and responsibilities of the board members we are we colen I think is hosting our little dinner cooking cooking all day so we'll have a um a quick meal before just time we can um Network and then Jessica will be doing kind of what are the roles and responsibilities of a board member so that we can make sure that we you know stay in our lanes and not um
011get get out of line on what what we're supposed to be doing so I hope everybody can make it that will be in person only meeting that will not be a link to that right awesome so uh uh super excited about being at the gr uh the midyear graduation last week and was certainly excited to hear about the success of the cheerleaders on the uh topic of uh High School athletics we are entering into tournament season for boys basketball girls basketball um we actually just had some success that I'd like to share with the board and the public uh the ram high school wrestling team uh recently won the Class M Championship board members may recall the end of last year's season it was a bit of a um debacle we ended up having a
012point uh deducted we one of our our team had a point deducted in the last match which ended up costing us the Class M championship last year um so personally I consider the ram wrestling team to be back-to-back state champs um that's just my opinion and I will tell you that I'm I'm a my my son was a wrestling kid and tuned into some wrestling some friends with wrestling coaches and I will tell you that across the landscape of Connecticut and in the world of wrestling I think most people consider us to be back-to-back Class M Champs um the team did have uh three individual state champs coming out of the Class M tournament Ben forer Kyle Courier and Gavin PL uh they competed this past weekend at the state Open Championship along with other
013Ram wrestlers who placed high enough in the class M tournament to qualify um and uh they uh again went and competed this weekend down in New Haven and uh coming out of the the state tournament Ben fornier uh took third place in his weight class in the state open which means so he competes against uh wrestlers from All Size schools Class M Class S Class L class dou uh so certainly an accomplishment for Ben um I also want to uh recognize and congratulate uh we had some Ram middle school students who participated for the first time uh in the Connecticut middle school science bow uh there were five students in seventh and eighth grade who participated in the competition uh Oliver Union um Marcus Parker uh Nicholas Peach Maisy lame Nico Ulan and Adam grazz
014uh the ram competitors were recognized as the best new team to compete and place 19th overall so certainly uh great and we're hopeful that uh they will continue to uh compete in this again it was the first time doing it I hope it won't be the last um our music department h showcased uh the talents of our Ram middle school and high school students on Thursday February 1st uh the middle school jazz band chorus and band all performed as did the high school jazz band I was able to uh attend that performance uh and it was fantastic um jazz is one of my favorite music forms and these kids show amazing talent at a very early age it was great um three Ram High School AR architectural design students uh Angel Lis uh Alex peeling
015and Julia to doio designed and built model homes and brought them to the homebuilders association student Home Design competition which was held earlier this month at the Connecticut Convention Center what students had to do was design and build a three-bedroom model home that could not exceed 2,000 square feet of floor space so some pretty cool stuff that our kids are doing and showing off some some a variety of talents uh finally I just want to mention our seven High School uh students who recently compete uh were accepted into the Connecticut music educators Association All State ensembles we had Olivia K for the French horn Giovanni asunto for clarinet uh Alana Calhoun Alto Maddie Graves trumpet Caitlyn hobin soprano Janina Howard soprano and Alexa OD uh timony and that concludes my reports uh yeah you're you're
016next annual audit so um as the board knows we have an an audit conducted annually uh of our budget and that audit is shared with the board members in February and so we are at that point in the year so I'm going to turn it over to Eva who's going to introduce our Auditors who have a brief presentation for us so our Auditors are pkf Conor D um our audit and yes I'm here okay hello so everyone this is Catherine hello um like Eva said I'm Katherine patot I'm the partner um from pkf Conor Davies and I'm just going to run through um some highlights of the audit and then if there's any questions I can take them at the end um for the reports that you received there's the afer or the annual financial
017report as well as the federal and state single audit the opinion on the financial statements was an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion um Management's discussion and Analysis which is at the beginning of the financial statements is a good executive summary of the fiscal year operations it includes financial highlights on the government-wide and fund financial statements it talks about the general fund including some significant budgetary highlights which we'll get into a little bit later um it talks about each major fund and the operating results which include other than the general fund the capital Improvement fund which fund balance increased by 114,000 and and the capital non-recurring fund which fund balance increased 54,000 it also talks about Capital assets and long-term debt for Capital assets you had additions of 2.2 million about half of which was
018from the parking lot um of a million dollars which was primarily funded by a grant and long-term debt decreased by 1.1 million due to The Debt Service payments your general fund on a gap basis found on Exhibit C and D which includes the assigned fund balance of 2,314 655 as well as the net change in fund balance of an increase of 73699 um the footnotes give you more detail of what's in the financial statements um one to point out is just an adjustment for um gby Number 96 which was implemented this year for intangible right toou subscription assets and the subscription liability um it was a pretty small increase of 66539 the general fund on the budgetary basis is found on rsis 1A and 1B your revenues were under budget by 27,000 um primarily due
019to intergovernmental mostly due to the excess cost Grant um intergovernmental revenues were below budget by 184,000 your other financing sources included an appropriation of fund balance of 72941 This was um an appropriation of the fiscal 22 Surplus um that was transferred into the capital non-recurring fund for expenditures and other financing uses those were under budget by 1.6 million primarily composed of Central Services by 850,000 the operation and maintenance of plant of 242,000 and transportation of 200,000 for the single audits um for both federal and state we had no findings or question costs for federal we tested the Child Nutrition cluster and the special education cluster and for State we tested the adult education and Medicaid programs we also provided communication with those charged with governance which discusses our responsibility which is to form and express
020an opinion about whether the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respect specs it also discusses that we are independent of the district and it discusses any adjustments and we had no uncorrected M statements and no material adjustments we also like to communicate any new applicable gasby statements um the only one upcoming is gasby 101 on compensated absences this will be effective for fiscal year 2025 um this one just updates the recognition and measurement guidance for that liability um we haven't evaluated the effect but it only affects the government-wide financial on exhibits A and B and our one recommendation this year was on competitive quotations um to just consider the full scope of the project and request competitive quotes when the full project is expected to be above 10,000 or complete a waiver um
021versus um having it come in peace mail and maybe a payment to a vendor for one project is over the $110,000 threshold so that's all I have for you and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have could you repeat that last the recommendation you just made sure um so our recommendation was to consider the full scope of the project um actually let me pull up the PO so your purchasing policy states that competitive price quotations should be requested for all goods or services that are expected to involve an expenditure of at least $10,000 um during the audit we noticed there was a purchase that was just below the $10,000 threshold and then subsequent invoices on that project that increase the total project amount above the competitive quote threshold so our recommendation is to
022try to consider the full scope of the project and request competitive quotes if the whole project supposed expected to be over 10,000 otherwise um maybe obtaining a waver um from the quotation just complete that and document it so so I could uh I could just speak to the to the recommendation that's being provided which is certainly a good one um I discussed this actually with the finance subcommittee when we had our meeting several weeks ago um what ended up happening is in the wake of the incident that happened last year at the high school we engaged with a um a company that came in and provided Services professional development for staff facilitated a a workshop for parents and community members about diversity equity and inclusion um initially the scope of the work would uh in
023our district was going to be under the $10,000 as she described that's um I had obtained two quotes um and met with three different companies unfortunately I was never given a third quote from that third company I got a quote from two of the three companies that I met with and we ended up going with one of them and then the scope of the work trickled over didn't trickle went above the $10,000 threshold that we're supposed to get those competitive quotes so I will certainly own that misstep uh it was something that we had done in response to that very serious incident that took place here kind remember that um does anybody else have any questions I I do I have a couple terms um I read through this I have a hard time reading
024through it I'm afraid you guys are there with lawyers about readability in the text um I I just a couple terms uh one the summary St statement of net positions talks about deferred inflow of resources what what does that inail deferred inflow is it's essentially like a liability um you know the governmental Accounting Standards Board I think sometimes goes a little crazy with their um changing terminology and everything I personally thought it was much simpler when it was just assets and liabilities um but it it's essentially a liability um so something that is just going to eventually get amortized into um the the income statement okay um my next one was intangible right to use assets um so that I believe that one is that's in the statement of net positions government activity statement of
025net yes um so that would be the I believe the subscription um arrangements so it's just you have um software subscriptions that are for a period of say three years that basically is getting treated like a lease um so that's what that is okay that makes sense I I actually should have understood that as a computer person but um and exhibit e is talk about reconcil reconciliation of the statement revenues Etc of government funds to stat activities this government funds just because we are a governmental organization or is there some external agency we're talking about there it it's um governmental accounting there's two different bases of accounting your exhibits A and B are on the full acral basis and then exhibits C and D are on the modified acrel basis so e is just reconciling
026the full acrel to the modified ACR between exhibits B and D oh boy yes I think I have to look that up a little more but and last one was just an abbreviation OPB OPB um other post-employment benefit other post-employment benefits so it's the health insurance that teachers once they're retired are able to stay on your health insurance even if they're paying the full cost there is a liability that's associated with that okay that's it for me thank you actually Heather I have had of follow-ups to part answer your questions okay yeah absolutely so I'm looking at page 53 of the report and you mentioned the 72941 that was Surplus from the prior year that was put in the nonrecurring CIP and I'm curious about its treatment relative to revenue and expense so it goes
027into the final budget as Revenue but it never appears as actual but it does appear as an actual expense how come it's treated that way it's those the way the budgetary basis is um so because the transfer out is coming from last year's Surplus it's coming out of your fund balance so when we have we show the budget the budget itself needs to balance the revenues and the expenditures but the actual column obviously doesn't have to balance um and the 72,000 appropriation of fund balance isn't a revenue because you already have it in your fund balance if that made sense okay but it was spent it's in the actual expenditures yes so it was you it was unspent in fiscal 22 and then essentially it was spent by transferring it over to the capital non-recurring
028fund that's an interesting treatment okay yeah thank you you're welcome anybody else anybody online have a question comment we good thank you very much thank you oops I think that brings us to um approval of minutes the minutes from the January 22nd 2024 meeting second okay that was Scott soet that um Dawn that mve to proven and Gabe marks second it okay any discussion okay all in favor I opposed the motion passed okay we have the minutes from the January 29th 2024 meeting it's inclosure 9.1b we have a motion to approve the minutes from the special budget workshop I'll make motion second okay so uh John Joe colleti made the motion and Scott soet um seconded any discussion what's in the packet is actually missing the page that came out later so I don't know
029if we have to mention it was actually in the printed packet that was delivered that you but what got scaned and uploaded skipped the page we did end up changing it once you brought it to my attention yeah so just it was a weird thing the computer didn't pick it up when they got scanned thank you and Mike you have your package yes I was mailed to my house was it really yeah address is correct and everything oh um okay yeah I got it I think Saturday oh wow so I had no time to really look through it because it's because it got delivered yeah wow okay well I was gone for the weekend so I came home and I think yeah it was there Saturday Okay um any discussion on on those minutes from
030the 29th okay yeah I have correct address yeah it did um all in favor I anyone opposed the motion passed on a side note I did think that's a lot of information for me to look at in one day that's where it was so well and you don't live that far from me but a little bit weird Okay and then finally we have the minutes from the February 5th 2024 meeting which inclosure 9.1 C uh the recommended motion is to approve the minutes from the oh no SEC special budget Workshop got it um do we have a motion I'll make a motion okay that's Drew Goin I'll second it you can have me Roman Chuck we'll do the second any discussion all in favor I oppose okay the motion passed that brings us to new
031business in the 2024 2020 I'm sorry old business yeah 2024 2025 budget upate so um as Heather alluded to I have started the um to do the presentations I presented to the Marboro Board of Finance last Wednesday and we'll be doing I think the he meeting is a combination of board of Finance Board of Selectmen and I believe Andover is just Board of Finance um at this time we don't have an updated number to gives aboard our current number is still at 2.64% although we have seen very minor adjustments that can be made and will be made to the budget as of this which I'm going to ask EV to talk a little bit about the reason we haven't provided an updated number is because it's really nothing that's going to move the deal right
032it's it's not it's and and those things and and Eva could maybe elaborate or maybe I'm G to steal her Thunder unlike a local uh Board of Education or a local school district who has to go through the process of having the superintendent present the budget and then the town and then the Board of Education usually votes rather soon after presentation is made to adopt a budget because then it has to go to the board of finance and a whole bunch of steps in between we have a longer drawn out process which enables us we see some e and flow and things that we know we're going to have to spend money on that we might not have known about a month ago and then in turn we're going to learn about things where okay
033we don't need to spend money on that next year um right now again Nea can go through it there's been nothing substantive we may realize some of those things over the next few weeks in fact even and I have some meetings set up to talk about some possible things um but right now we're at about a $10,000 difference from where we were which again that's not going to move the needle uh but I probably just stole half of what she was gonna say and I told her I wasn't going to try to do that but I'll I'll turn it over to you all right so since our budget process starts in October and it goes through March we have the ability to review our what our asks have been in many cases um Corporate America
034runs a calendar year so January to December and they propose increases in January so we find out about potential price increases that we didn't know about when the budget was put together so um slowly those trickled to me and people inform me of those so those are potentials for why the budget might be going up um there's also the potential that budgets might be going down or the reduction uh in prices might be going down um we might after some thought have decided that we really don't want that to to go that route we've had more time to think about it we we want to take it out um something else might be tweaked um or as um in our bus contract we finally solidifi the contract so we know what the final number is
035um so as currently right and then in this process I'm also going to be looking through Revenue because now we're in March and so we have more data and so we can see how the numbers are running for this year so we can make better estimates for next year um so as of right now as of today we have a net reduction of $1,262 that will be going to gross operating we're going to see an increase in the capital Improvement Pro uh plan um for $1,358 um one of the items that we're purchasing unfortunately is is being proposed to have an increase we also just received our Wellness report from Anthem um so what that means a wellness where our employees are entitled to Wellness credits that gives them a 1% reduction in their premium
036for their health care costs if they follow um the Milestones or health necessary Health um like your physical your annual physical um so in theory that helps reduce the overall claims so then now the board has to make up the 1% that we're crediting the employees um unfortunately our insurance consortion meeting is not until March 14th so we won't know um the finalized um insurance number until March 14th and our board meeting is on March 18th so you guys are G to be getting the information unfortunate right almost wor it habits so um that's when we're gonna present the any adjustments to everyone at that time the other thing that I'll mention is you know we've talked about this in the past uh is is the vag and agroscience tuition issue um I we budgeted
037for 100% um I think it was very prudent and wise for us to budget at 100% um based off of what I'm hearing um I I I think that was the wise thing to do I do know of some other school districts that budgeted the 58% and uh that might come back to to bite them um so that could be another thing that potentially could could have a an impact that for lack of redit term could move that deal right because that there's a big difference between what we budgeted at 100% and being able to R it by 42% would be a significant thing so um we're going to continue to keep an eye on things I will continue to keep the board appraised in my weekly communication um we we uh have a finance
038subcommittee meeting scheduled I think it would be prudent for us to to move that Finance subcommittee so that we to the to the night of our to the night of our uh Insurance Consortium meeting so that we can have a most up to have it the week before doesn't do a whole lot right so um so that's just going to be something that I put out and propose to people so that we can have the updated information for for everybody um you know the the good thing is again right now we're in a net our net change is $10,000 to the good and I'm hoping that any other changes continue to move us in a in a better direction to come in at a at a lower percentage increase um so we can certainly try
039to take uh any entertain any questions that you all might have but it's kind of where we are right now budget so when we're communicating the budget to the towns are we mentioning the offset we are yeah it's a great question so what um and and we're we're getting ahead into the agenda but it's but it's the conversation so what I'm presenting to what I presented to marbor last week is that uh we had an anticipated revenue of approximately $1.4 million which we're going to be discussing that later on this evening um the auditor that's that's what the auditor's report is um I've reported to I reported to maror that um we have uh that I anticipated uh that the board would make the decision and ultimately vote this evening uh which again is a
040few agenda items from now um to uh accept the audit and then ultimately make the choice to to keep that maximal allowable amount of the gross budget from last year which is 2% and it's approximately $ 69720 not even approximate um thank you um so so the terms that I've been using with the town have been this is what I anticipate happening because it's not really my place to say this is what we're going to definitively do but based off of the finance subcommittee where we received some pretty clear guidance and my anticipated support of the board um we have needs in the district and that that Capital man recurring fund is significantly helping us address those those needs um and then what I've been saying to them is when we when I if the
041board ultimately chooses to keep that 2% then the anticipated Surplus beyond that of $840,000 is going to be money that gets divided up and given back to the towns as a credit offset and I've been able to provide them with uh the I've been able I was able to provide marble with the dollar amount that they should anticipate and they actually provided it I'm giving it to the boards of Finance when we meet already given that information to the town managers because I want them to know well in advance um they've appreciated having that information as early as possible so so yeah that information has been given to them and and you know again until we have a definitive change I'm just sticking with a 2.64% right but it turns out it's almost a complete
042offset today it's it's a pretty significant so it was it was interesting um the the one of the towns Mar when I met with him last week said well what's the percentage and I said well I don't have that I know that you developed a spreadsheet to do that but I what I've said is it's a 2.64% increase like I I don't want to say well for you it's this and for you it's this and for like I think that could cause some confusion okay but what I'm saying to people is you could take that dollar amount that you're going to get for a credit offset apply it to what your increase in your member Town Levy is and then you can come up with what that percentage is or you could just call Drew
043and he has a formula account can calculate it um but but I will tell you that um my interpretation or impression and and and uh Andy was with me at the marber meeting and I know that I had the time wrong I showed up after we were walking out Drew was walking in we said um the I I re my impression of it was uh the town was in no way shape or form surprised that we had an interest in keeping the 2% I think they I my understanding is that has been a little bit of a question mark is do you really need to keep it in the past but it was something that um uh we uh I I said hey this is what I'm anticipating they didn't that an is they they
044understand that that money is helping USS and actually suppressing our capital budget pretty significantly so they understand that um and and and they were receptive and very appreciative of the idea of uh of getting the credit offset that they were going to get um because to your point you know when you have a a 410 I'm making I'm kind of making up numbers but when you have a a $450,000 Levy increase but you're getting back a a credit offset of $300,000 it's a very very small uh increase to the to the member Town Levy and they were very much appreciative about that so um it's been positively received so far from the people that I've heard from thanks May online have any questions good okay so that brings us to discussion and possible action regarding
045the 2024 2027 Regional School District 8 strategic plan which is in closure 10 so the the plan is inclosure 10.2 I did put a hard copy of a presentation that I I put together ER just gonna pull it up super quick just to kind of guide the conversation around this is this the first time this has been publicly unveiled yes okay yes TR no we did not so uh I am pleased to present an overview of the 2427 Regional School District 8 strategic plan uh the plan is a culmination of months of work and included opportunities for involvement and input from all stakeholders in the community um the strategic planning committee included teachers parents students administrators board members um one current board member and one uh previous board member and other elected officials from the
046towns of that Region 8 serves uh having a diverse committee helped ensure a variety of perspectives were included in the development of the plan and I would like to thank each member of the strategic planning committee as well as all of the stakeholders that were involved in the data Gathering process through surveys focus groups Etc I just want to thank them for giving their time to do this important work the planning process facilitated by staff from E con began in the spring of 2023 qualitative data was collected from staff parents and students through surveys and focus groups quantitive data data sources included but were not limited to student enrollment achievement and budget information just to name a few the strategic planning committee met on four occasions last fall with each meeting lasting several hours the
047group reflected on current and future changes in education and identified the district's strengths and needs to meet these changes committee members discussed discussed the district's mission and vision and ultimately decided to revise our mission statement the committee also considered the skills and dispositions which Eva talked a little bit Ava talked a little bit early about uh of a ram graduate uh the creation of the skills and dispositions commenced in the 1819 school year their development was an iterative process that involved teachers and administrators collaboratively working to compile categorize refine and ultimately identify a final list of the skills and dispositions and they have those that that information has had been pre has been previously presented to this board of education the strategic planning process was designed to identify and ensure Ram Learners uh develop these
048skills which are critical thinking communication motivation collaboration and integrity and content knowledge uh needed for Success using that information for areas of focus were identified as uh as meeting goals instruction talent management culture and climate and organizational systems and we'll get into those more later uh goals were written for each of these areas by the strategic planning committee and theories of action were also drafted theories of action are if then statements that provide a rationale for each of the identified goals next school and District administrators work collaboratively with Department coordinators to finalize the theories of action and develop initial action plan these action plans describe steps that the district will take towards achieving the identified goals the action plans will be monitored to review progress and measures of success will be documented in the plan
049the Strategic plan is a dynamic document and as such will be continuously evaluated and update to advance the district's vision and Mission in order to address the needs of students if we go to the next slide and look at it the this slide does contain the revised uh mission statement as well as the vision statement the vision statement was not revised from the previous strategic plan the next slide so uh the this slide contains a higher level of detail about the skills and dispositions that AA talked about earlier and we were mentioning before which is critical thinking communication Mo motivation collaboration and integrity I I really think it's it's timely that that AA talked about what she talked about today where you know they're doing their portfolio presentation it it just shows that it's a
050part of what our teachers and staff focus on on a regular basis um really trying to work towards uh including um work and assignments and projects and curriculum instructional strategies that focus on those uh those uh skills and dispositions uh if we want to move on to the next SL oh great thanks Eric so the this next slide uh provides the goals and theories of action related to instruction um I'm not a person that likes to read slides that are available and people can read themselves so I'll just let people read them on their own and then the next one provides the goal and theories of action related to talent management which was the second area identified by the strategic planning committee the next slide does provide goal the goal and theories of action related
051to climate and culture and the final slide uh related to the goals shows uh the goal and theories of action related to organizational systems um as I said uh the action plans that are associated with each one of these goals um have been developed I didn't include them on the PowerPoint slide but they are in your board packet in the Strategic plan um I I anticipate that th those the identified action plans are a starting point this is what we're saying this is what we know as of right now those might be adjusted as we move forward um that that speaks to the dynamic aspect of this plan it's not something that you create you set on a shelf and you say all right we're not going to really pay attention to it it's going
052to be something that we're going to be constantly reviewing looking at it and updating those action plans um and and as I said we're going to be tracking their progress and documenting the steps that are taken to um to meet the the identified goals um I just again would like to thank members of the Str strategic planning committee and the entire Ram Community for the part that they played in the development of the plan uh it was a lot of work I do recommend that the board adopt this plan and I look forward to working collaboratively with all stakeholders towards achieving these goals over the next three years I can certainly take any questions if anybody has do that now or do we do it after uh that motion I would I would say let's
053take questions now yeah questions me again I think people are getting to know Scott so ran over um I appreciate the hard work and there I think overall is a great document but it is subject to Academy speaking I'm in a corporate world where the corporate culture is you know full of terms that are obscure and not communicative and I think next time it' be really great to have an English teacher helped write the final report um they're just things like I am if we utilize an intentional instructional framework then cohesive practices and structures will exist to support student learning okay and what does that mean it takes a lot of reading to get that and I still don't really know what's meant by an intentional instructional framework um you know is as opposed to
054an accidental one really I it does I mean I read John surl in college but that was a long time ago intention and what's meant by it here doesn't isn't clear I'm not really asking for answers to that right now I'm happy enough with the document except for that um you know we T talk the only place that I had a real question was um we talked about personalized recruitment strategies and does that just mean that you know as we go to recruit this candidate we do things they virly between candidates based on who they are and what they are or does it mean that you know we people we know or person things where you know we you know in a previous District you work with somebody who think would be great and you're
055personally going out recruiting sure no uh it's both if you're asking for an answer if you're like it's both of those things right it's it's anything and everything that we can to um make a connection with individual candidates to have them be interested in coming to this district there is a significant teacher shortage and we are competing with um quite quite simp districts that um are uh have greater financial resources and and and and have higher rates of pay and so um personalized recruiting I can give you a concrete example of that uh we we sent um Dr shusi our Middle School principal and two teachers went last year um one of them a math teacher um we had a math opening we went to the Yukon job fair so we were very specific in
056efforts to recruit a highquality math teacher by sending a another Ram Math instead of sending a superintendent or a principal send a math teacher right that's who we want to recruit and uh it worked we recruited a highly talented uh a math teacher so so it's it's doing things like that so it's a personalized approach depending on the vacancy and what we do know is that the this this field is about making personal Iz connections because when you look at opportunities they exist everywhere and and and I know that there's some teachers on the board as you know and and opportunities exist everywhere so the big it's really important to to make that personal connection with with school districts um and then it also means targeted recruiting targeted recruiting such as if we have a
057vacancy for a social studies teacher I'll I have the ability to create an email well I should say this I know the I know you can do it I personally don't have the ability to do it because I don't how it happens but I know it can be done to create an email that gets sent to every person in the state of Connecticut who holds a social studies teaching certification and they'll get an email from our district so it's it's it's a multitude of things and just just uh there were two English teachers that were there was one English teacher on the strategic planning committee um and there were uh there so there was one on the on the entire Committee involved in the process from from start to finish um and then as I
058said we had uh the the the the drafted action plans were reviewed by a committee of teachers as well um and and listen I understand it I I I use educational jargon and and when I realize I am doing that I kind of smack myself in the face and try not to um it's an unfortunate aspect of of the work that we do is that it gets kind of put in there but I do understand what you're saying I appreciate the input yeah I mean some it's beautifully right I mean ram will create an equitable environment where all members of our school community are welcome safe challenged and engaged socially emotionally intell that's great that's readable everyone understands that but some of it really is hard to read that's that's that's all I want to
059you know we're not gonna do this again next year you know this is this Gonna Last for some years I assume yes but next time perhaps you could think about that a little as we the final yeah well to the extent that that some of these documents are public and people going to read them who aren't as well versed in educational uh speak if you will it's helpful I mean it is a somewhat dense document and every corporate one that was like it was just as bad that I ever saw so I mean it's the nature of the institutions we belong to that you know sort of create things that are harder for some of us to read than others but I mean it is it is I'll likeo you're there's a few lines in
060here that were a little hard to get through but you know that is nature of these documents at least from my experience but the the question I had was on the action steps there's there's no even high level when are we going to address them so for example in talent management provide the necessary resources to support sta needs how often are we going to look at that I mean are we going to pull the teaching staff every three months every six months every Academic Year right so there is no sort of timing on how we get this stuff so how's that supposed to work yeah so so it's interesting when when we first started going through the process of developing the action steps um an attempt was made to try to say this is going
061to happen in year one this is going to happen in year two and this is going to happen in year three what ended up happening by having that be the expectation that was levied upon Department coordinat teachers administrators they really struggled because there are some things that are going to be ongoing what you just described as an ongoing thing and I'm going to be perfectly honest with each and every one of you on this board when I come to you in future years and say hey this is the budget I'm presenting to you and and I and and and I I'm gonna point to that line right there that says no no we said that we're going to provide the necessary resources and support for our teachers and staff so that they could be successful
062and this is what we need to be successful um it it's it's because that's something that it's it's there's a lot of the work that's in here that is going to definitely be work done by Administration and teaching staff and I I understand that but there's it's going to be getting the support of the board getting the support of the community because there were also as I said there were Boards of Select I'm sorry there were uh members of boards of Selectmen from two of the three towns one of the towns unfortunately chose not to have representative participate but uh what our Eric was the board member from Andover who said well I can represent Andover but unfortunately Andover didn't choose to send a a board of Selectmen to rep be representative on this but
063um it's it's really so so going back to what I was saying with the struggles with you know trying to say year one year two year three we we ultimately made the decision of of Hey listen let's not pin it down to it's going to happen in year one because there was a lot of uncertainty well I'm not sure if this is going to be year one or year two I'm not going to be sure if if I don't get to this in year one or if I don't get make the progress then I might and so that people really struggled with that and once we kind of lifted the idea of Hey listen it doesn't have to be identifying this is happening in year one this is happening in year two this is happening
064in year three um I will tell you I think people felt liberated with coming up with okay these are the things we need to do I think that some of these things are going to be naturally prioritized I think that some and that's why I also talked about documenting measures of success like this particularly those pages of of where it has action plans there's going to be modifications to those and there's also going to be additional headings down there that say measures of success this was completed here this has been something that we've done and it will be ongoing um so so those types of things are going to are going to happen as we go through the next Years hopefully that helps so yeah no that's fine fine it makes sense my I guess
065my followup would be as opposed to just having us learn about material needs at budget time should we think about having our agenda have you talk to us on some interval about the status of the Strategic plan right and so you could come to us and say you know whatever we decide as a board if everybody's interested that we have you tell us where you are on some of these things right certainly something we could do yeah absolutely because it's nice to because this is all I mean this is ambitious right and it's it's got a ton of value for our organization but we need to sort of understand how it's going absolutely absolutely yeah um I have to say that um this was this was a huge under really very impressive um I absolutely
066love the skills and disposition I love it I um I love the even we put for on the spot um I love the fact that that U the students are beginning to think in these terms and you know that we're bringing it down to the you know middle school and the elementary schools um these are great um and um and I I absolutely love the goals that we set I think they're really um really some important um things to be looking at you know K mentioned um teacher shortage and you know we have power shortages probably more so than teachers you guys are seeing that or not we are yeah so there's all kinds of of um ways should be recruiting and bringing in that kind of talent what I guess the the only question
067I have and honestly you may not be able to answer it is so what are our thoughts on measuring these because that's clearly not easy to do you know I'm not sure how we measure um certainly how we measure the skills that we are teaching you know the students and that we want them I love the fact that this is part of their senior um portfolio um I think it's probably going to be more beneficial to them than any portfolios um that have been presented probably these are real all real life skills for them um any any thoughts that the committee come up at all with how some of these things will be measured and I don't and I don't know that that they could be really specific yeah that came it was definitely something
068that was dis and I think it's going to vary on the goal that was identified right so if you have a goal that says um um I I'll use the one that um and I'll actually answer Scott's question by answering your question so uh an instructional framework is an intentional instructional framework are is incorporating certain uh instructional skills within the context of your classroom but instead of it being Collins's classroom or Heather's classroom or Scott's classroom and everybody's kind of doing their own thing okayy this is kind of how I this is how I approach teaching the idea of having an instructional framework that's utilized by a school or by a district means there's common through lines that are being utilized no matter whose classroom in you know you're doing Hands-On learning you're doing personalized
069learning you're doing um uh inquiry based learning right so so there's it's it's having have the intentional part is I have these structures and systems that I'm putting into place and I'm utilizing those with my kids but I know that the person next to me is using similar ones I know that the person on either you know so that's that's the idea of an instructional framework instead of it being um practices that are just kind of vary from classroom to you're going to have individ individuality of instructional practices in some way shape or form but you do want to see a level of consistency and and something that came out through this planning process was that consistency doesn't exist it it does probably more so within departments so I don't want to say it doesn't
070exist but I'd say within departments it exists but what we're looking to do is try to establish a greater level of consistency across schools across the entire school and then across the entire district and so um to answer your question how would we measure that would be well eventually I'm going to be able to come back to the board and say Here's what our instructional framework is you know here here's the here are those things that we've identified as a collective group that are important and we're going to try to make sure that these practices are being um these instructional practices are being utilized within the context of classrooms on a consistent basis across the district so because so some of these really could be very easy to um you know just you know maybe
071reporting back to the board you know programs that members are engaging uh that you know staff is engaging with you know in theun you know some of these are really easy absolutely um and I know some are a little bit more obscure but I guess but and I I really you know I really um I admire this document and I really it's it's excellent honestly um I guess just in just in to keep it going is you know you know how do we you know how do we report on this how do we make it known that that we are looking at these things and we are continuing to work on them like you said this is too this is too important to get put on a shelf and unfortunately in education sometimes those things
072happen you know but I really think this is a really important plan and uh for the students as well as as the you know the ram Community absolutely um maybe like you had said just coming back and Reporting on it it's simple thing you know what what development you know profession development to teach you what community activities were brought in and so for I was just wondering too under like the talent management did the teachers fill out like climate survey okay that information could be used to help to see what they need yeah we do that we're we're getting ready to administer that this spring and then Michael in my correct it's every two years yeah so mind might be little um I think this is a like a very very plan I I don't
073understand all the logistics of it but the only thing that I can speak of as like a ram student is that like say looking at critical thinking a ram graduate will possess the ability to think critically in order to approach a variety of problems inquiry analysis and Order think I think a lot of these students uh I include myself you know especially fres sophomore under class we know that we should care about these things um but I don't think we need do understand that um why uh like skills ands are super important as to grow his people and I think if um I don't know maybe it's just maybe a little bit too much on not not students and um what their thoughts or what they think of and why they should even be considering
074this back in Mind through all four years might be just something to consider and talk about absolutely you know it's it's one of those things that um even they started the process where where really at the beginning stages even though the the skills and dispositions were developed several years ago they've been slowly been trying to get placed kind of into the vacular of what's discussed in classrooms um over the course of the past few years um but to your point Oliver I completely agree with you is that something that teachers need to have on the Forefront when they're doing things like developing curriculum right when when we develop curriculum to say all right this particular curriculum really lends itself to these particular skills and dispositions right and and making sure that you know teachers are
075really re enforcing that with students so that they have an understanding about why why we're doing things in this particular way what one of the things that that was interesting um and and as I said we had three students that were involved in this committee um and I'm sure you remember and they were fantastic very outspoken um in a very good way um and one of the students um at some point I'm paraphrasing you know said you know when I come into class and I don't see the connection of why I have to learn what is that I'm learning he's like I basically tune out complete like you know and it was you know it's it's kind of like what kind of what you're saying which is you know what I need to know why
076this stuff is important to me in order to you know tune in pay attention and and really you know be actively involved in the learning and that's something that um we can always strive to be better in and I would I would say for our elementary teachers that's something that you know we do from a k to six Spectrum um is helping students understand the importance of what it is that's being covered as far as content and materials uh you know in the classroom setting I mean I just think I think like you said more that more everyone was using this terminology over and over over again and just showing basic examples throughout their day um I think it becomes something that becomes engra so so you know and and just looking at the students
077quickly I'm assuming Emma did not come in and say if I don't know this from her father of principal listen if I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing ol thanks for contributing over um to add on to um Oliver's point I feel like yeah it would be super great to like uh know the like specific definitions of each of these characteristics and also maybe I know that when I was completing my my particular senior portfolio um I definitely had to go into the like actual rubric and read through what each skill of disposition really meant because like I know you know in broader terms like critical thinking and integrity like what those mean but um when I actually read the rubric I was like able to connect way more things to those each
078uh each of those characteristics like for example I didn't know that Integrity could include like in in that honesty I didn't know that Integrity could include like having like like clear conversations like for example tutoring like being clear with one another um so I feel like um maybe if students were introduced to those specific um characteristics earlier they could like maybe um assign like different um things that they do in high school to those specific fers be like oh like this essay really demonstrates my critical thinking or wow like this really shows like my completion of this course really shows my motivation and um I think that maybe could be helpful even in senior year being like wow like look at all this that I did like I completed each one of those characteristics and
079I feel really accomplished and I feel like I'm able to move on um past high school and feel like I'm able to um pursue my future confidently because of that um although I will say when I did go through and I put those assignments with those characteristics I was like wow like I didn't realize how much I was doing in high school I really you know I was like that that uh really shows that High School actually maybe did teach me something so um yeah self- evaluation process I we do it when we update our resume you know it's very fulfilling is there anybody online that has any comments okay okay so then uh do we have a motion to adopt the 2024 to 2027 Regional School District 8 strategic plan as presented I'll make
080okay that's Joe kti made the motion Don second by Scott so man over okay any further discussion on this good um all in favor I post okay thank you okay next up second read of policies um we have policy 4125 athletic coaches evaluations and termination it's inclosure 10.3 a in your packet I move to approve okay that's um Scott soy Don do we have a second second okay that's Drew gin any discussion okay um all in favor opposed okay that passes policy 4160 4260 non-discrimination Personnel it's enclosure 10.3 B in your packet we have a motion to adopt policy 4160 4260 non-discrimination personnel as presented I'll make for motion Joe colleti second I'll second SC hand over thank you any discussion all in favor I I opposed okay that passes next up um do we
081have a motion to adopt policy 4161 4261 prohibition of sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace as presented move drein second am Amy okay any discussion all in favor opposed okay motion passes all right um do we have a motion to adopt policy 5143 drug and alcohol use by students as presented on make motion Scott say second Dave marks I need to discussion okay all in favor I oppos okay motion passes oops that will bring us to uh recommend a motion to adopt policy 5310 immunizations as presented do we have a motion it's pamington a second second J letter any discussion yeah I do um first of all the the very last word on page one is the just out place it's just it's linking sections one and two so it's just an orc
082just that doesn't belong with SE five with one be just a silly typo okay um could I could I speak to that I'm not 100% sure because I did see that when you sent me the email it says or a school nurse or so it's it's B and then it goes into oh no actually I apologize it's to so you're right we can we can we that can be something that we sete without any problems we're just slid it over they're saying or between one and two and three and four and five but that that or just belongs ship to the left so you can see what you're belong that's that's a trivial thing yeah but I have two more serious uh things in here um first of all we have a four and five
083on page two say in the case of imp PL influenza boy I can't speak um pass the child's fifth birthday or in the case of pass the child's sixth birthday that's some legal language from something that's unrelated to us we don't need those in our policy unless we're going to start bringing in you know five five and six year old middle school you know who knows I mean really be K you or no but um so I I just feel like that's doesn't belong there yeah what I could say to that is I understand your perspective I um it would be something that I would just feel more comfortable going to our our attorney who I collaborate with with regards to our policy and said would this be an issue with us being a secondary
084school district without having their input I just would would hate to do it so if if there's an appetite for the board to say if our attorney that says that it's okay to delete it I could certainly make that delete I don't know how we can do that from a motion perspective I don't think you'd want to spend the money talking to them about such right it's it's not harmful to be in there it's just yeah it's not harmful no reason to get the billable hours over I'm 100% with you well no but then we have to take pay for those hours that's what I mean we have to pay for those hour Y and I I didn't really understand the the next bit from the I could speak to that okay yeah so so
085there was a um there was a period of time I don't know how long that period of time was maybe a twoyear window of time where um religious exemptions were allowed for IM for certain immunizations IM immunizations were were required from at least going back as far as I can remember from the time I came to Connecticut to work in 2005 and then there was a period of time and I it was probably a two to threee window where legislative changes were put into place and religious exemptions were permissible for some for for for for students um legislative changes were made again and the ability for religious exemptions for immunizations then went away so what this is and that you noted this is this is grandfathering certain people so it it I will say it's
086really important that we obviously maintain this I've run in situations where I've had to I've had people come and say well I don't have my immunizations but I have a religious exemption there's a very specific process that we have to follow as a school district to ensure that the uh religious exemptions were actually given because I've had to be honest with you I've had people misrepresent the truth and say oh no I had a religious exemption and when we asked them for the documentation they can't provide it to us so um so it's a grandfather and for certain students who so I didn't get that in the reading of this somewhat int document that that the April 28th date which you're referring to the grandfather in 2021 it's not really clear or at least it
087didn't come off to me this Poli if I was reading if I was a parent reading it you know on the website or something that they no longer can get a religious exemption I didn't pick that up anywhere and in particular it seems like it appears twice because it comes up in 1 B and then it comes up again in 2 C it's all throughout two yeah so it's a little bit strange that it's mentioned twice and and so this this is a this is kind of a a weird I imagine Accord from your legislation that because a child can enroll school any without yeah that makes sense to me but I mean yeah it's just not clear in this document yeah I mean it's just talking about that very very I think it was
088two year yeah that's kind of what I guess from this but it was not at all clear in our policy and that bothers me yeah yeah I didn't get it either I wasn't there for the the first reading of this I wasn't on the policy committee when this came up right I'm planning on abstaining because I just I haven't had the time to do that for the research but I am bothered by the language when I can't when I can't understand a policy if I read it I'm I'm hant to accept it no matter how good the lawyers are yeah I didn't quite understand the April 28 2021 it wasn't it's not very clear not a it's not a great policy Colin answered it but yeah that that is difficult to follow through in the
089policy any other discussion on that so I believe it's it's we know we're anion we have to do a roll call which is fine so we'll just go through um and you'll just vote on it um Michael bolio y Mike Sharon's not here Joe kti yes Kristen erinson come back to her Pam farington yes I don't think Carrie ferino made it on uh Drew gin okay uh Gabe marks yes Amy romanchek yes Scott soain okay and Heather summer is yes I didn't hear what she said can you vote again Kristen sure said yes yes yes okay great thank you okay okay so that motion passes all right um in the line of policy we're looking at tonight that brings us Health assessments to health assessments and screenings um do we have a motion to adopt
090policy 51 I'm sorry 5315 Health assessments and screenings as presented Pam farington made the motion we have a second I'll second Mike jier made the second um any discussion on that so so again I I wasn't around for the either so um it this non-emergency invasive physical exam what page you I'm well there's no page section seven so from time to time the school district might want to do something like this but parents can opt their kids out and of course if you're 18y older you can opt yourself out so I'm not sure what's the point of is what is this section four just curious what what would we do you know and and you have to tell the parent ahead of time you're going to do it anyway but what is this for just
091reading it well I can tell you that we don't this is coming directly from the legislation because it's permissible to do it which is why it's in the policy I can tell you that we as a practice don't emergency invasive in uh non-invasive exams um or invasive physical exams um there are times where um we will have we will coordinate with a medical provider to get um Health screenings or health assessments done for students but it's not something that we we're not having our nurses do um you know it this talks about any act during such examination that concludes um incision insertion or injection into the body we're not doing that yeah I that's why I just I was wondering what this what this was for because it's because it's part of part of the
092law okay and there are schools that there there certainly could be yeah there there certainly lead to for what reason correct you know some of this I'm just reading it briefly I'm thinking that if that does happen and I don't know because it does really it's not very clear here here um but this would be an emergency situation and probably emergency Personnel would probably be brought in it's my thoughts don't know that for sure but there are um there are plenty of schools in connetic that might fall into an area where something like this has to be done so that it's not us yeah I'm glad it's not us but yeah any other discussion from folks online hi um all in favor I I opposed Iain okay hold on you have to do part of
093the board conduct update okay that we're getting to that we're just getting out yeah absolutely all we'll do a roll call for that um Mike buer I Mike Sharon's not here Joe kety yes Kirsten lingon yes thank you Pam farington yes Carrie Pino's not on Drew G Gabe marks yes Amy Ro romanch yes Scott so yet and Heather summer is yes okay this next one Scott all right so so the the last one we're looking to revise and it's part of the three from from September that I know Drew and and Scott were not a part of the sub commmittee before um I will tell you that this is a policy that is really directed towards Elementary grade students right because it's about not being able to take away physical activity for student discipline where
094is that typically going to happen or well it doesn't happen anymore because of this I'll see if this Lo um our elementary teachers might have an opinion on this um but but basically it's it's really intended for at the elementary level uh they have uh recess uh you know before after lunch they have recess opportunities and essentially what this this legislation was created to do was to uh prevent teachers or School staff from saying you didn't do your homework so you can't go out to recess or you've been misbehaving in class so you can't go out to recess um if you were if we were in a situ and and so that law does apply to us and and so if we have a student who is misbehaving not doing their homework we don't have
095as much we don't have recess at the elementary at the middle school we certainly don't have at the high school we do have we do have physical education classes and we wouldn't be able to say hey you're misbehaving so you can't participate in fiz Ed classes the result go sit on the bench the entire time now that doesn't mean if a student is being unsafe in physical education class that they couldn't say we're going to refer you to the office as we would in any class we're going to send you to the office have the administration deal with the misbehavior uh but that's essentially what that what this is for but because of the fact that there are opportunities for physical activity within the context of the school day it was important for us to
096update this policy to make sure that it was in um compliance with legislative changes that had been take that have taken place so so we were to vote this say down say that's nonsense because I grew up in a in a getting recess taken a uh a child and it was a motivating factor so I'm just asking like quickly if we were say n we're not doing that because legislatively legislative it's still outdated or not up to-date policy is is does not get um it's legislation it overrides it what I assume and and and the other thing really is shame on the legislature really wasting their time on such nonsense is that if we don't adopt this and staff does not know does not understand the ramifications again not here in the high school but
097so if if a school did not adopt is then their staff did not understand that they Cann keep then I I was actually surprised that it wasn't more specific than this because um it's an actual specific amount of time and that if you do do that you you really your job imagine a kid saying that to a teacher yeah I legally or or an administrator you know needs like and Mike I don't believe that you ever got away no I was it was like I said it was a very motivating factor you it is it was you know no more yes okay so do we have a motion to adopt policy 5555 physical activity and student discipline as presented I won't make the motion I'm gonna abstain I'm gonna say n I'm gonna have to
098do I won't abstain I'll say say n I'll make I'll make the motion okay so uh Drew gin made the motion do we have a second I'll second it but I'm gonna still say call oh thank you um okay any other discussion on that all right and we'll do the roll call mik oh you can say I I don't want all in favor Mike bullier nay Sharon joti yes K earing symbolic yes Pam Fairington yes you know Drew gin yes Gabe marks uh yes Amy romansa yes Scott soy OB Heather summer yes just a brief explanation I'm the policy committee I feel like I have to really read these carefully if I'm gonna vote on something and just having at time I I usually look at the legislation and I I actually read the policy
099but I didn't get to the legislation so I think it was close to midnight last night I'm finishing up everything I think you emailed me around 11 yeah okay that brings us to policy 5133 for deletion social events it's enclosure 10.3 in your package do we have a motion to delete policy 5133 social events I'll make the motion Joey Joe KY a second I'll second Mike jier any discussion just to clarify this is the one about where fits if the kids just decide to throw a party in the middle of the school day then you have we have to clar or no we're we're not requiring that the Administration has to approve that because we believe it to be common practice right correct so it's it it it's it's understood that the principal would have
100to approve any type of social activity that would be taken with school right we just deleted it from the as like not really our policy it's more of it's more of a student handbook policy based upon our first thre but I I actually don't think that's a a good enough reason to delete a policy that we have think um this is something that actually is policy material it's just very short little simple policy material um and now lawyers recommended deleting it and I assume they have their reasons but the fact that it's in the handbook doesn't make it doesn't mean that the board is saying oh yeah we don't we don't care about that anymore I feel like deleting a policy says something like this is saying that it's it's no longer our policy we'll
101leave it to the administration make the decision I I feel so this is actually something that that we do want policy on I think I'm alone on that and that's fine so I thought this it's because this was somewhere else student handbook and it's part of the ad like the school policy correct taking from the board so anytime A Student Activity is going to take place let's say a school dance a fundraiser that might involve student participating in activity there's a system of um basically that person whoever is organizing it has to get permission from first the building administrator if it's related in any way shape or form to an athletic event because sometimes that happens it has to get the approval of the athletic director and ultimately it I receive the uh permission SLI
102form and sign off it on sign off it on sign off on it as well so there is a series of um permissions that are that anybody has to go through in order to have uh something so it's really a jurisdictional question right so as you point out it's not necessarily a board PSE but it's a school PSE ler it's a lowercase p right so well right now it's upper case the next question would be do does the board take a look at some point at the school policies to make sure that we're okay with them this is the school policies that is the administrative regulations are a little different the superintendent and the create you know administrative regulations and they create the student handbooks and other possibly other handbooks for teachers I don't think
103so but could be or for other staff but those are not what the board is saying we have to do right so so that's what I'm saying it becomes it becomes the purview of the administration yes right so my which fonding me in terms of this I mean I I don't see why an Administration can't take responsibility for social events my question is of all the things that the administration does are there is there a point where the board has a role in looking at that in case so so we're gonna you follow this policy sure so so so the the if there is a well there's not really a there's not really a process for the board looking at the lowercase PS to make sure that they are in in compliance with the uppercase
104P's right right the boards if I find out like the process is this the school board has policies which we're discussing right now my job as a superintendent is to make sure that those policies are being adhered to if I discover that a policy is not being adhered to then it's my responsibility to address it with the appropriate person to say hey there's a Schoolboard policy that says this is what you're supposed to be doing and you're not in compliance with that Schoolboard policy and we make sure that we address it in that manner um but the board's purview and this kind of is getting into the realm of of of next week's Workshop is is you set the uppercase piece which is the policies of and and and I understand your point you're point
105is this should be an uppercase p and if that's the will of the board then that's the will of the board um what what our recommend the recommendation from our attorney is there's no legislative requirements for this particular policy and because of that it could be in a handbook it could be a process that's identified and therefore my recommendation to you is it doesn't have to be an Upp case P it doesn't have to be a Schoolboard policy doesn't mean that everything that is written in here is not being done it just it doesn't necessarily require the board to have a policy related to it but you're not saying that the only uppercase piece should be the legislative ones right there are others that sometimes Noe okay to be our lawyers idea yes yeah well
106I do think that I do think that some policies have just made by Administration that's probably what saying about next you know there's a role of a board and there's a role of school administrators and you know I think probably the lawyers are trying to keep things in those L I would assume um because some things some things just don't really involve the board yeah but by by my recommendation to eliminate this policy is not a recommendation that ah let's just let kids and people do whatever nobody that no no I don't it's it's have a provision we have a process in place it's being adhered to we got our eyes and cross our teas to it and I I think you know it's a it to your point it's a one sentence policy or
107two- sentence policy but it's unnecessary we have we have things in place to make sure that we are not just letting things run them up throughout the building in the district and you know one of the things that we're trying to do with our policy handbook is make it a little bit less cumbersome right and and so if if we don't need to have certain things in the board policy handbook or the board policies then then the recommendation could be just let's just eliminate it because this is something that we could do at a build a base level and that's my recommendation so and a loyers don't have to look at this nonsense but you know years subsquently down and say oh yeah okay every every time they read a page it's ch exactly is
108that why they write such long policies themselves they didn't make enough money on this one they said you can get rid of it any other discussion from online Okay [Music] um all right all in favor I'm G do I knew that Mike Buller yay uh Mike Sharon joey yes Kirsten erinson P farington yes uh Drew gin yes Gabe marks uh no Amy romanch yes bat soya no and Heather summer is yes uh Kristen erlingsson oh she left the meeting okay all right so that motion passed right it did pass okay you mind if I just speak to this next one so I'll just just remind so School enumeration 5117 so this is something that um ironically is something that is in legislation that we are required to do on an annual basis and essentially what
109our attorney said is because it is in legislation we're running this report we're providing this information to the state on a regular basis we know we have to do it we do it it doesn't need to be withc policy so their recommendation and my recommendation is to eliminate it from the policies I'll move to accept so I have a question or sure do we need to do something first so we can take take the motion to um to approve to approve it and that's um Scott soya do we have a second I'll a second Jo okay and we now can do discussion so it seems like we've had the conversation about so many of these things that are in our policies are in legislation and we have to have them in our policy and now
110we have in front of something within legislation and we don't have that policy so I'm not sure I understand or we're running the report because it's leg legislative so by law we have to do it so this we don't need a policy because right is that the yeah so correct correct I I if I'm understanding your correct your question is why are in some cases are we saying we're updating it due to legislative changes and in other cases we're saying hey we can get rid of it because so the answer to that question is there are certain things that can be problematic without having clear School Board policy providing direction for how a school district handles things student discipline sexual harassment discrimination those are things that we will deal with at the school level I
111will tell you that there's not going to be any families that are coming to us and saying hey are you providing School enumeration to the state I'm being somewhere to live but that's that's the honest truth of it so so it's it's this is this is not Ju this is not salacious this is not something that but I will tell you and and and Dr shusi does it Dr brell does it the administration does it on a regular basis we deal with issues with parents and we turn to Schoolboard policy and we say this is the Schoolboard policy that dictates how we manage these things we do it on a almost daily basis at some times right we do it with staff at a certain times we do with students at certain times we do
112with families at certain times and so it's beneficial for us to to have the most updated Things based off of legislative changes for those types of things I'll use a great example of of one of them termination of athletic coaches right that's one that we're going to discuss I don't if we've discussed that one or that's later on maybe that's maybe that's a first read for us but that's something that could come up so we want to make sure that the language related to termination and evaluation of athletic coaches is up to date we want to make sure that student use of of of districtwide technology is up to date because we're going to have kids who misuse District issue technology and so it's important for us to be able to point to the to
113the board policy related to those matters to say you violated this policy in in a case like this yeah it's I don't want to say it's insignificant but it's insignificant yeah nobody's gonna okay so that's the reason sounded funny I get it any other discussion on that do I need to do a roll call okay all in favor I opposed and the motion pass that will bring us to policy 1422 for deletion student contests it's enclosure 10.3 J in your packet we have a motion to delete policy 1422 student contests I'll make the motion Joe K Joe KY made the motion a second second Gabe marks um any discussion on this okay all in favor I opposed okay that motion passes that brings us to new business we're not that far we're good we're all
114right so uh discussion and possible action regarding accepting the 2023 20 I'm sorry 2022 2023 audit um do we have a motion that the Region 8 Board of Education accept the 2022 23 budget audit with a surplus fund balance of 1, 32 so moved Gabe marks second second is Mike Buller discussion yeah I I don't have an 11.1 there's not a document to go along oh okay okay good it's just so it's based off of a presentation that the Auditors did right okay and two very long documents yeah I got that those I just yeah okay I was looking like what am I missing nope okay question any other discussion okay um all in favor oppose okay that passes discussion and possible action regarding the allocation of 2022 23 surplus funds to Capital non- requiring
115projects it's enclosure 11.2 in your packet do we have a motion to allocate the um fiscal year 2022 23 audited Surplus amount allowable as per state statute of 2% of the total budget totaling 69,7 120 to the capital non-recurring unallocated for projects to be determined at a later date so a second I'll second Mike buer any discussion can I just speak to Something Real I think it's important well I'm doing it for Mike Shar he's not here today so so that's right one of the things I know I had I open what um so this this uh is this is a I appreciate the board doing this um it as I mentioned earlier on um this Capital non- recurring fund that we've been building over years has been helping us address issues related to the
116athletic field we're really at the precipice for starting a project to address drainage issues in our comp field to address some just issues overall with our uh our 316 North and South practice fields um and one of the things that uh we did from when going through the capital planning project the capital budget planning project uh process this year um was we had different tiers um and tier one included all the projects that the board ultimately voted to have as a part of our Capital plan there was a project uh of approximately $225,000 that was was basically our entire tier two and that was to address um access issues handicap access issues at the Middle School baseball field um and essentially during the facility subcommittee meeting it was discussed of Hey listen this this is
117something that we need to do so um several years ago we actually had an audit um conducted by the State Office of civil rights that led to the district having to make so expend a pretty significant amount of money and make some uh changes in order to make sure that handicap access uh was was available at places like the comp field at the soft at the high school softball field it was a high school specific audit so it didn't address anything related to access issues with the Middle School Fields however they kind of said well that is going to have to be fixed because the baseball field has access sh so it's we have this issue that we need to address and essentially the the desire of the facility subcommittee and we don't have to
118do anything about it tonight but I just wanted to let everybody here know the idea coming out in the suggestion of facility subcommittee was let's take some of this 605 or 609 that we just put into Capital non-recurring unallocated and let's fix this issue while we have the money while we have and and it falls right into what we're trying to do which is to address our athletic field issues so again nothing that we need to do this evening it's just that I know that Mike would want to talk about it um because it was Mike Shar would want to talk about it because it was something that was discussed at our our facilities I could certainly try to answer any questions that people might have is there a limit to the size of the
119capital budget uh account so you can only take two% in but it is not so if we did that for several years in a row we could theoretically Build It Up substantially for a big project correct so okay yep okay any other discussion online right now for Capital number when we get to that I'm gonna be talking about it you know a couple of coming up when I do the financials I can give you what the balance is without this 609 in it okay um all in favor hi hi hi opposed okay that motion passes that brings us to setting the ram High School 2024 graduation dates and closure 11.3 um what's the date uh it's the over here sorry June 14 do we have a motion um to accept the graduation date of June
12014th so move G marks gay marks second no Second Joe KY Joe ketti any discussion on that so what happens if there's a snow day or you have to move that it's it's a it's a great question and it's uh it's the unfortunate aspect of of H we have to set the graduation date we have to be able to inform families of of graduates we also have to start working towards making sure that we reserve all of the equipment the staging the chairs that are utilized because we rent that equipment um and we have to make sure that we we basically reserve it so that it's available when we have our graduation date the unfortunate part of that is if we get an additional snow day in between now and the end of the school
121year or two additional snow days in between now and the end of the school year that's what end up happening we have graduation on the date that was just established but the the last day of school will be two days later or what is that the reason we wait till now to do we push it off as long as we okay yeah try to figure out okay all in favor of the graduation date of June 14 2024 I I opposed okay passes okay first read of the policy so let me just so the first policy just uh I'll just quickly highlight these these These are policies that have gone to and you have Redline versions in your board packet first one is 9314 it is uh internal board operations it is meeting conduct um this
122is a policy that has not been updated for several years um and there have been substantive changes with regards to how meetings have been conducted um this actually came to by attention last board meeting when uh when we we have a policy that says board meeting board members cannot participate in certain aspects of board meetings electronically and so so this is going to basically update our policy um to talk about how um how board members can participate in uh meetings virtually should they choose to do so it gets into posting of meetings the good thing is is that we're in compliance with the rules around this again it's one of those things where legislation has changed we have been up to date with legislative changes we just now are trying to catch our policy up
123with the legislative changes um but I could certainly try to answer any questions that people may have there someone here that you said we need to roll call for this an extension correct I read this but I I didn't really reread it this this this thing to so if you go to section or number four and a four it says any vote taken at a meeting during which a board member participates by means of electronic equipment shall be taken by roll call unless the vote is I War Heather about that but it's not our policy yet be on the balls Okay so I I'll I'll just also mention just not to get too far ahead one of the things uh should we when this is adopted as a second reading there is a current policy
124which we will be able to delete which is later in our packet um that uh specifically is board member electronic electronic meeting participation at at board meetings so when we adopt an update this one uh next month will be able to eliminate one that's in the agenda tonight for consideration for deletion uh again there's no action that needs to be done if there's questions um I also always say to people if uh if you want to uh you know reach out to me in between now in the next meeting if you have questions or concerns about this one I can certainly try to address them um I'll just keep moving onless there's any questions right now about that one uh the next one is uh 1331 prohibition against smoking again this is just uh aligning
125our um policy with legislative changes to include things about electronic uh nicotine delivery system uh cannabis electronic cannabis delivery system all which are prohibited um and and so we're we would just be updating this and making sure that it fits with legislation um in a similar vein to the last policy that we discussed where adopting and revising this policy will enable us to delete other ones there's C currently a policy specifically for personnel for staff use of of tobacco products and smoking on campus or on school grounds and there's also a separate policy for students smoking on school grounds if we adopt the community one the way that it's written we can delete the one that is for personnel and for students because the community one would Encompass all students staff visitors anybody and everybody
126um but I could certainly take any questions if people uh well right now they they're similar to one another but basically the recommendation is Hey listen just just have it under community and get rid of Mak sense that way that it's less time to well it says Personnel so does it have a community uh well the community one is the one that I think I just talked about right love and so later on there's one that is specific to Personnel so 1331 am I looking at the 331 is community and then later on in the package yeah I'm sorry I was on it's okay yep so the next one is 4154 and 4254 um this this is a p so um this is a policy for the reporting of suspected abuse or neglect for for
127adults with an intellect ual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder we have this policy it currently exists within the context of our policy book again it's being uh update to uh reflect legislative changes um and I would recommend that the board adopt it as uh you know again after a second reading next month I could certainly take questions um you know we do interact with adults with uh intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder we do run um transitional programs for students from 18 to 22 years old as we are required to do by law um so there is unfortunately the chance that we might encounter suspected abuse or neglect of uhual disabled adults this this is just based on changes correct correct it's it's really it's there they're very non-substantive the only one is in the
128second page where it talks about if an initial attempt is made record on the week like that's really the the gist of it everything else is just kind of semantics I really think so yeah just yep so the next one is 4180 and 4280 which is Personnel uh it was historically called plan for minority staff recruitment it is now being changed to increasing Ed educator diversity again um you know we we're were talking a little bit about recruitment earlier on in the meeting this is something that there were some legislative changes related to this so it's it's um I think that uh using the term minority is is is falling out of favor and and people are getting into uh the use of uh you know diverse candidates um and and I think that's a
129move in a good direction really the only subsid of change with regards to um this particular policy beyond the name is um with number two uh the state of Connecticut developed a video uh training module related to implicit bias and anti-bias in the hiring practice it is something that is available to school districts and what we have to do is make sure that any uh employee that is involved in the hiring process uh watch this video um and make sure that that is something so if a teacher is going to be involved in a higher and a teacher hiring committee um we have to make sure that we're watching this because um you know we don't want any anybody's implicit or explicit biases affecting their hiring decisions so so that is something that we are
130uh going to make sure that we're in compliance with as we go into this higher it's look like this old policy just from the formatting um and when we do adopt it we might want to just reformat for like the others 4,000 The Middle on yeah we can play with it yep all right I will move on to the next one which is 55 45 use of private technology devices by stud uh use of private technology devices by students um you know again there's there's not really an substantive changes here there's there's mention in here about the use of of of AI um again these relate to legislative changes that have been made um I can certainly try to entertain any questions that people might have uh AI is going to be a fun ride
131for administration yeah you know I mean I don't want to travel down a rabbit hole but it's one of those things we're gonna have to learn to live with and figure out how to make it work because and and so what we're you know we talked a lot about in the beginning of the school year and conversations continue to happen it's it's teaching kids how to use it responsibly and not you know as opposed to my our library media specialist behind Scott nodding it's about teaching kids how to use it responsibly that that's that's what we're going to have to do because to say you can't use it it's going to be like saying to a teenager hey you can't use cell phones like that's just a it's an exercise and futility unfortunately so um
132it's just about using your responsibility and making sure that you're not claiming that work z uh real quick these ones the next ones are consideration for deletion as I said uh 9405 uh speaks to the board member electronic meeting participation of board meetings we can delete that with the board conduct policy being uh adopted and then there are Personnel prohibition against smoking and students prohibition against smoking that we can eliminate as well once we revise the community and I think I am done talking for I'm pretty excited about that okay that was a lot of of first read for policies does anybody want to go back um yeah just have one please um for policy 1331 the prohibition against smoking do we have anything that prohibits like chewing tobacco or pouches or anything like that
133come up policy sub committee yeah now I don't know if that's something I mean it's not smoking per se but might as well throw it in there somewhere I can look into that because I know kids and they'll try to get around anything they yeah what are those things that they use zins Z yeah know that a pouch it has a nicotine to stick it it's like chew and a pouch then they have to spit I don't think so I think it's good all right all right any other discussion on that before we move on anybody online right brings us to the financial okay 11.5 a and Mr McMan almost um so after reviewing the statement of net position for the month ending January 31st 2024 there is a projected net favorable position of $762,500
134record accounting due is and the payroll person due is review salary and health insurance accounts to see where we can um identify uh amounts that are not being utilized and would not be utilized till the end of the school year and we transferred them up into the unallocated Personnel line that is why there's a huge um increase there the excess cost grant for revenues the EX cost plant for the current years is being reevaluated by the um Connecticut State Department of Education early projections indicate that the funding percent percentage rate appears to be slightly less than last year so that means last year we were received close to 80% this year we're slated to receive 70% so we um we should be getting the money this week um so at the next board meeting I
135can um report what we' see um so Capital Improvement fund the central office uh rooftop unit project is underway the unit itself has been ordered but there is a 12we Le time to receive the unit the facilities the condition assessment kickoff meeting was held and the assessment will begin on April 1st not in April cool joke yes it will start on April 1 um Capital non-recurring fund um there currently is a there currently is balance of of which $544,900 has been um allocated to the field project but the field project is just slowly getting underway because we had some pickups along the way so that leaves an available balance of $ 63,65 and when we add the $609 720 that the board just voted on today we'll have an available balance of 67 3 387
136of which somebody's trying to um allocate some of those funds does that answer your question all right are there any additional questions on the financial that I have presented now can you say again because it went kind of fast the the movement of money to yes salary yeah so normally I what I don't do is normally I don't go through any object codes that are one one tws right because we have lots of movement in those accounts but we've had some dollar amounts that look pretty steady there so I asked the payroll ladies to um look at it and make sure that anything that wasn't encumbered through the normal encumbrance process um if it was look like it was going to be free any free let's moving on up to the which is the um
137object code that ends at 100 oh so it's not it's defitely I can see this but it's a a new but yes so if you look on the report on page one of the big report uhuh um there's an object code that's called unallocated Personnel so um I must not be looking at the right thing yep you're almost I'm walk the same okay oh there's two page ones yeah yes okay all right I'm sorry all different page ones my bad my bad report that I combine together I cannot erase yeah yeah oh there it is okay all right there we go thank you all right and then the um other section of that was was the um health insurance funds that either people have chosen to go other places or again we've had turnover and
138or B um and we don't need that much money till the end of June so M it on any additional questions all right so hearing n we're at 11.5b and so this is the Food Service monthly sales and expenditure report and again it's as of the end of January so January 31st and we're currently reflecting a loss of $65,900 and there are some districts that are carrying 50 to $60,000 worth of unpaid or uncollected meal charges um we are not we're not we are not um so I'm really hoping that when the legislation get to talking about Universal um feeding everyone for free um because I think this is a waste of taxpayers time about chasing um students and for um meal charges I think it's it makes sense um especially in this day and
139age but um having stated that um wion and I are doing a a better job of communicating so that we have a better handle to see where we might end up at the end of the year so that we don't have any surprises but we do have a positive fund balance still so this is just a loss that we're running this year and hopefully they'll stay in this year or Rectify itself slowly are there any questions that anyone might have at this time so are you saying that most of this money comes from students who aren't paying for their lunch no it's coming from everybody so um there on the back you'll see the revenue on top yeah so sales meals in alak cart that's where we get the who pays for their meals who
140pays for alicart staff so like I decided to go eat my money would go in there um catering so if our cafeteria eat service department chooses to um help you know um let's see the graduation if they did the take for graduation those kind of things go there um we get supply chain grant that goes there the state reimbursement so the um at the end of the month I have to claim the meals and we get reimbursement that goes in here um so that's it makes up all of them I don't think that answered your question so is are we not getting enough from the state is that what question is are we not charging I'd like to say yes but I think we have to look at the charging and see what so we're
141not allowed to set the price for next year until the federal government creates a paid lunch Equity tool and to date um they're a little behind the aall on that one so it's not ready yet so uh with them is reaching out to the state on our behalf to see if they can use last year's tool with a slight calcul to come up with a dollar amount because normally in April I come to the board and I say hey based on the price lunch Equity tool these are where our lunch prices should be I'm not sure we're going to get there this year so so we're not charging enough in the lunchroom like if I showed up to you Lun well unfortunately because of the inflationary cost right so back in October it was almost
1429% inflationary cost I had to looked at it recently to see how much more it's gone up but yeah our paper goods Our Food Supplies everything everything is through unfortunately nebor any additional questions on that hearing none I'm G to move on so uh 11.5c is the student activity report um again this is just a report for the board to be able to review um the board has fiary responsibilities to oversee the Student Activity accounts but no um you can't tell the students how to spend their money because it has to um benefit the students directly so student councils um the clubs they get to they fund the the accounts themselves and get to spend the accounts themselves um so again everything balances with the Webster bank account are there any questions that the board
143may have at this time has a comment how much fun it is to read the whole list of what what the what the kids are doing there's a lot in there yeah yeah they do do a lot of fun stuff any additional questions all right hearing none 11.5d is the short-term investment fund account um to date there um as okay so as of January 31st sorry that as of January 31st 2024 the dividend and reinvested uh for January was $1,633 63 I also include the um monthly historical rates for the month of January and as you can see we pretty much held steady for the month of January are there any questions that the board have i' just like to go back to the the first one the uh the expenditure Revenue um you guys
144responded to a couple questions I had and sent an email today but I haven't really absorbed it but the relation with balance incer that that that'll I'll figure out what was in there um the other two were more like this is how it's always been done but doesn't S okay so yeah in my opinion not that I asked anybody but in my opinion what's your opinion now you ask I have I have lots of opinions um so if if you compare the spreadsheet that I do to the report that comes out of the system revenue is always your correct notated with parentheses which makes it look like a negative dollar amount but it's not it's a credit amount when this was created it was created I believe for the lay person to be able to
145read it so that this it flows nicer how people understand it and then the last column is just that's the difference between what we've received and what is expected to be received okay right yeah I I can get that one it's it was more the other one at the year to date and uh so I run the report you phasically answered your own question so to speak when you were asking your question I run the report from July 1st to the month end that I'm reporting on so that's why the current and the year to date will match if I ran the report from July 1st to say June 30th then your current and year to date would not be the same or if I ran the report just January 1st to January 31st the
146current would reflect only what happened in January and your year to date would that's that's what I would expect that last one and I don't know if the others in the board would feel that way but current would be you know since the last report kind of right you know and year to date would be year to dat from fiscal year calendar year I just it doesn't there's no reason to have both numbers on there but the same every time I don't know if others on the board would prefer that no I would have a current value that is actually the current value year to date that is done the fiscal year but I wouldn't change it Midstream anyways I wouldn't change it but I would like to think about that for you know next
147next count next school year or whatever and the full board has to tell me yeah what my my recommendation for something like that Scott is have a Drew is the chair of the finance subcommittee I would have a offline conversation with Drew giving him a level of detail as far as what you're hoping to see for a report it could be something that's discussed at finance subcommittee and then come to the board I think that's the process to use okay so if there any no if there are no other questions on financials I am done everybody good all right that brings to our committee you know you still don't have to talk as long as col try to rush because I'm watching the clock unfortunately we're that uh the committee reports facilities safety Transportation Joe
148you want to take that correct okay so the next one is scheduled for March 26 uh Finance audit compliance and insurance through are we gonna move that meeting yeah I haven't had a chance even I were just talking about it today so but we did have a meeting where we discussed the audit which was the Surplus and the so basically everything that we've already covered yes what we discussed over last week okay negotiations Amy or Mike is hear from me see that we're gonna set up hopefully nurses shortly okay policy um Gabe or Scott or Drew is there anything more we could say about policy I think we said plenty T yeah I just have a question about the scheduling um that is the same date as the Hein Board of Finance presentation I I
149think in terms of timing it shouldn't conflict um we might have and so we I'll have to look at the the schedule because we did have to make some adjustments to policy because when the original policy subcommittee schedule was set it was uh I I think we've actually I was going to communicate with policy sub commmittee members about it but I think we're g to try to move it to the fifth so that we have time to get it so get it or maybe maybe this do we'll make it work we'll make it work one or the other so that's fine okay program and Communications Scott Amy or Pam anyen okay the next meeting is March 21st and then um C was Carri so there's no report on that and we're still missing a facilitator
150for E right yeah okay all right so that brings us back to public comment Hebron Andover and Marbel Community engagement and attendance at Boe public meetings is welcom the public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside so the be may receive public comments procedurally public remarks will be limited to 3 minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the Boe is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda the Boe is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented is there anybody who would like to make public comment anybody online no good okay so that brings us to calendar of events so uh there's two enclosures so there's the Middle School calendar of events and the high school calendar of events so
151it's 141a and 141b um just just some things I did get a question from um one of the board members asking if they could attend the World Language Honor Society inductions my response was absolutely um those types of Ceremonies and events are really they're not widely attended by members of the public but if there's really any event that's taking place uh within the context of you know Awards recognition ceremony or an induction ceremony I I you know um I would welcome to and board members are absolutely welcome to come to that um to come to those types of events so so please do no time on there patient yeah so we so if you're interested and there's not enough information it's usually in our on our district calendar is is on our website but if
152you don't have specific information or you say hey Colin I'm interested in attending this just shoot me information and I'll make sure you know the time and the place and location and all that stuff um there are some things that I would just uh like to highlight um for board members that are coming up if again kind of we do have a spring concert coming up um for for Middle School um I'm sorry for high school on March 21st uh we also do have on March 27th we have our um Middle School uh music and Coffee House night um and then later I don't think it's until May is the evening of the Arts um if you've never had a chance to attend any one of those events I would highly recommend evening in the
153Arts is pretty much phenomenal I mean it's like a it's just it's great um we showcase uh we have displays where Elementary grade student artwork is displayed all the way up from all three towns uh Middle School student artwork high school student artwork we have students who perform acoustically it's it's phenomenal kids do just basically hey I want to sign up and perform I mean it's really really great and then it's the the culminating part is a a concert in the auditorium uh which is just great it's high school band um and chus it's it's it was one of my first things that I came to when I came on board um prior to taking uh the position it was during the Spring leading up to me coming on and it's just phenomenal so um
154the coffee house is great music of the Arts is great um and our music productions are great we also have some a play coming up Percy Jack Jackson and the Lightning Thief so just all sorts of good stuff going on um backg uh that is the high school career I don't have specific information but I certainly got it yeah [Music] um so that is the events and then also so in the the next thing is just uh discipline for middle school and high school suspensions in school and out School suspensions those are inclosures 142a and 142b may IDE any um last minute discussion on anything do I have a motion to adjourn second seconded by um Drew Goin look at that H hey he