Tolland Board of Education: September 27, 2023

001you call the uh September 27th meeting to order at 7 is it 7:06 7:08 if we could please rise for thank you um at this time we don't have any acknowledgements for today I believe that's a SC work there too we have to make sure that we swap that out um we are not making any changes for the agenda um I will entertain a motion for the approval of minutes for the September 13th minute motion second um any discussion before we do a roll call vot since we have two members online I believe the minutes still reflect near a shape as the student representative theenda so we would have to just make that change is there a yeah and that's because the agenda still agenda I see it on here too oh okay right now

002so if we could just make that change going forward any other changes okay um we will go ahead and do a roll call vote so we'll start in the room so Jaden by by stain just uh I guess you have the name so okay uh Tony I and I I'm I as well there four um minutes are approved as is with the change of the name so okay at this time um we will open up for public participation we do have a couple of people in the room and also people online so what ends up happening is if you could please either raise your hand or online raise your hand and I will call on you if you can list your name and address for the record and then um you will have two minutes

003um Dr will will put a timer up so you can see your 2 minutes that way everyone is it's equal and fair to everyone um once again like I said we'll go from the room if you want to go in the room and online back and forth to anyone who would like to speak you have I will offer the room first so when you come up the owl will just it follows you and pick up you it's so everyone online can see this through so where do I stand so you can stand over here you can stand over here I will like I said pi and once again you'll have two minutes and if you could please list your name and your address for the record uh yes I'm Katherine henriksson 192 who slain surprised

004to be the first one speaking but I have a few uh words about the transgender and uh gender non-conforming student policy and uh M I guess I have a little bit of misgivings about the emphasis that's in there now about making contact with families putting such a high priority on that I think the priority really has to be on the privacy and the well-being of the student and I'm speaking as the parent of a transgender student who um and my son spoke to friends first he spoke to friends at the GSA so probably the teacher facilitating the GSA was we and then probably it was four months later before he chose to speak to me and it's not out of fear it was just out of the discovery process and how he chose to share

005those things and I don't think it would have been helpful for respectful for the school to kind of mix in there and say we must immediately tell your parents what you're telling us so I I the language that I see here that was crossed out School Personnel should not disclose information that may the students transgender status including to parents or to other school Personnel that really would be I think would be better to the language that seems to be what's now chosen to really make every effort to include the parents or Guardians I mean I agree the parents it's good if they're involved but I think the privacy and well-being of the student should come first so it says to the extent permitted by law and maybe that covers all stes the general tone I

006think is not is not the best and I think the original wording or the maybe it's not the original wording but the wording that's crossed out I think it's really is really better thank you um I will take someone online so we have um Rebecca rley hi good evening Rebecca rizley 103 Mountain Spring Road um I actually have a question regarding Miss Griffin's post on Town social media channels regarding the vote to renew the superintendent's contract for three years and to provide a salary increase U which he was overdue and had forgone in a previous year um both of which she voted against and when asked about this by residents Miss Griffin commented quote feel free to email me at the address above I'm happy to share why I voted the way I did end

007quote however uh when the same vote occurred last year where she also voted against the superintendent during his evaluation and I asked her reasoning the email her direct response to me was quote Miss rizley I have asked to reach out to the board attorney to find out what is allowed to be shared from the executive session I wouldn't want to violate any rules and be reported again to the ethics commission I'm sure you can Foya the info if you'd like to go that route and quote and and so as she's now willing to share her reasoning um with residents and that should be all residents that the board represents I'd respectfully request that she share her reason on the record during points of information this evening thank you okay thank you I will go into

008the room if anyone in the room would like to speak um you can raise your hand hello my name is Matilda Murray 196 Lower Road in 1990 there was a geeky awkward somewhat shy kid attending Middle School the kid decided to get Brave one day and let the fun cool new student teacher know a secret but this wasn't any secret it was at the kids very identity it was one of those secrets that they were afraid to tell their parents for a whole semester they wrote up letters and ripped them up because they weren't quite right it needed to be perfect it wasn't something they could screw up this kid even started riding their bike to the library to learn more about this secret one day after the right amount of research and planning this

009kid went to the cool fun student teacher the kid walked up to the student teacher with a letter in hand with tears in their eyes and said I don't always feel like a boy the student teacher said what the kid looked up and said I don't feel like a boy I think I should have been born as a girl I wish I could say that kid could got some kind words that day some kindness in a Sea full of bullies but that kid student teacher used the opportunity to get some street cred with sixth graders he all told the whole class that began an awful middle school for that kid bullying and harassment for years for that kid for me and despite all of this if my parents knew it would have been so much

010worse please think about kids privacy please think about kids rights to come out on their own terms this will cause problems for the kids thank you okay let's go to uh Bethany hi good evening Bethany letco 26 dear Meadow I just wanted to express my support of the approval of the increase for PA professionals hourly wage I know um I think if I were going to take a gamble I could look around the board and guess how this vote will go but with that being said the work and dedication our Paras give to our students is endless to anyone who has ever stepped in volunteered or known a pair of professional what they do day in and day out cannot be measured by testing and outcomes they are everything that keeps School running they provide

011emotional support a friendly face to kids who didn't even realize they needed it that day ask your child to name their favorite PA I have no doubt there is someone who stands out to every child or no doubt that at tto events kids ran up to pair of professionals because that was their friendly face in 2024 Conneticut minimum wage will rise to 1569 we are asking our paers to wipe noses help with the bathroom support wild lunchtimes and recess assignments basically they are told where to fill in when with who who and for how long it's not an option for $1 more any 16-year-old can walk into any given retail store and expect not asked for expect and be given no questions asked that money I could go on and on but I think if

012I have to Ramble On to why our kids deserve our parents to come to work every day to support them to support our teachers and keep tasks moving and running if I need to give reason to vote Yes they need you to look into your own morals and ethics of why you're on this board and truly who you are perhaps you're fortunate enough not to have to work but how we are paying our peras currently is very is dismal it's unfair and this is your chance to do better thank you thank you I like to offer y hi my name is Becky Mar um I'm here to say that the policy with the um parents when you come in school you they have to contact a parent is not right when I was going through

013that in seventh and eighth grade the last thing I wanted is my parents to find out and my parents are supportive parents never mind some my friends would like do the same thing at that time who were they were unsure of um their parents being supportive or not and it's not morally correct for anyone to be outed to their parents just because they talk to teacher I want a different name I want a different pronoun that could cause problems at home that's it thank you so much for speaking um let's go to uh Rachel hi there my name is Rachel axler 46 Josiah Lane um I wanted to come on here tonight um to tell you that I wholeheartedly support the perah contract the pay increase for the Paras my son has autism he has

014been in the Talon Public Schools since he was 3 years old he came into the schools not speaking without Paris support and the multidisciplinary approach that they use with teachers he would not be where he is today in the ninth grade he's still doing well with onetoone support in classes and he's learning but he has autism so his learning takes longer than his typical peers and without the smart hardworking Paras that have worked with him who are empathetic and caring he would not be where he is today and not only that I have been work I have been um well yeah I've been working in the school system but also I have been a volunteer in the school system for a long time I don't work in the school system now but I volunteered um

015for my son for a long time and I saw how the Paras when they're assigned to someone they not only work with that someone but they're helping other children other typical children who might need help in math reading anything social studies and they're always there working really hard being flexible and the teachers really appreciate them so I just wanted to get on here tonight to tell you how much and how far my son has come to give him an equal education um and I I I appreciate the pairs so much every year I appreciate those pairs so much they do so much work and they deserve this this this contract approved they deserve better pay they are fantastic and please support that contract thank you very much bye thank you very much j h well

016my name is sley Murray I live at aain today I want to talk about the transgender policy I am a trans girl I think I think and strongly stand by that we should not make people in the T public school systems that find out that kids are transgender nonbinary and Etc should not tell parents this is because kids need time to feel out themselves I feel when I came out I would have hated not being able to feel it without myself would have been I would not have been who I was today when the call came home which I didn't really want or was expecting my parents were totally and very luckily accepting but imagine my parents were thank you um let's go to Liz Casta hello Liz Casta 54 Josiah Lane tand I'd like

017to express my support for the Boe to pass the policy 5700 policy for transgender and non-conforming youth and ask that the Talen Board of Education support and follow the law providing a policy like this takes nothing away from all students it just assures that some aren't missed and supported in the policy in addition I'd like to advocate for our PA profession Professionals in this town Beyond supporting our students they support our teachers and the administration by helping out in all classrooms and in situations where there's no teacher due to an absence our own students saw them step in to assist in several of their own classes and help other students it can be perceived as a thankless role but one that deserves to be paid appropriately for working with our students to support their ability

018to learn finally I'd like to thank the me the Board of Education members that supported the superintendent's recent contract extension and raise of 2% and asked those that didn't support specifically why they chose not to support this increase and extension thank you thank you okay um let's move to Colleen good evening everyone I'm Colleen unich speaking as a resident and not as an elected official I'm here in full support of the par professional contract as having a son that's had a onetoone in its entire uh educational in ton high school now in 10th Grade they have been instrumental in his growth learning in support and I know without their support uh he will he has would not have the successes he's had today um so I really hope that this board can come to a

019consensus and vote um unanimously on this uh a par professionals are underpaid compared to other towns and you can see there's even help wanted signs in front of some of us schools so please again um consider greatly on the value of the people that are the most um important people in people with this disabilities and how they also help in regular classrooms as well thank youen um go to Lisa de Lewis de Lewis 63 Talen green um here tonight um this first public participation um as a representative um president of the P flag Talen Mansfield chapter and um I would like to read a statement that was um given to me by a um facilitator of P flag support groups to read um my name is Ace Ricker as a multi-racial transgender man I knew

020I had to speak up about the change in language of the transgender and non-binary um policy being um put forth at the board of ed meeting in tand when my parents discovered my trans identity I found myself not only disowned but homeless this happens to youth in the lgbtq plus Community far too often the Trevor Project's most recent survey tells us that 28% of lgbtq Youth in the US experience homelessness or housing instability not even onethird of transgender youth feel affirmed at home almost half of lgbtq plus youth sever seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year almost 20% did make an attempt these studies conclude that it takes one supportive adult to cut the risk for suicide in half changing the language of the policy to out students could take away that one supportive

021adult if teachers um if teachers are required to out students who use different names or pronouns in school to their parents this will not only be breaking their right to privacy but also potentially put them in danger it's disheartening to disclose how often I hear young kids being physically or verbally abused when they are outed to their parents or caregiver every time I ask new members of my parent and caregiver support group what they wish for their queer child the answer is the Same Love support and safety support uh Lisa the two minutes are up um we're GNA have to move on to Chris chrisy Menace 68 Anthony Road um I am here to express my wholehearted support for the the policy in front of the Board of Education specifically the decision not to require

022parental notification when a student uh asks to be identified by a different name or gender in compliance with Connecticut Law this policy represent a significant step towards creating a safe and inclusive educational environment for all students regardless of their gender identity or expression it is crucial that we uh to recognize the importance of respecting and affirming the gender identity ities of students gender identity is an essential aspect of a personal a person's self-concept and it is a fundamental that we honor each student's understanding of themselves by allowing students to express their gender identity without requirement of Parental notification we are acknowledging their autonomy and creating a supportive atmosphere where they can Thrive academically and emotionally this policy not only aligns with Connecticut law but also with the principles of quality and non-discrimination enshrined in our

023society's values all students deserve the right to an education that is free from discrimination harassment or stigmatization uh by removing barriers to self-identification and expression we Foster an inclusive and affirming environment that benefits all members of the school's Community furthermore this policy can have a positive impact on the mental and emotional well-being of transgender and gender noning students research has shown that students who are supported in their gender identities experienced improved mental health outcomes and higher academic achievement we just simply ask the Board of Education to follow Connecticut Law thank you thank you um okay at this time if anyone else would like to speak please raise your hand everyone in the room has uh spoken so anyone else online please raise your hand at this time and if not um I will close this

024out I'll be closing out the public participation and let's go to correspondence right um just a note before we start this includes some correspondents since the July 26 meeting so there's quite a few emails um we had an email notifying the board of State changes to school lunch programs we had an email asking about the ethics complaint agenda item from back in August an email with an attached letter discussing comments made by the superintendent while discussing ethics complaint August meeting um and another email um referencing the the same comments about eics complaint we had a a response from state representative musio regarding the Board of Ed letter concerning unfunded mandates we had an email asking how to file a complaint against the staff member the author sent two followup emails on that topic a few

025days later we had an email thanking the district for including rental notification in the draft of Poli 5700 he had an email Emil asking if the bus gr can be changed the author's children could be picked up on the side road we had an ask an email asking for the district to have a CO policy an email with information on environmentally friendly buses um we had three emails asking for proper parental notification saf cards in policy 5700 um we had a couple of emails in support of uh policy 5700 as written an email against requiring parental notification in policy 5700 um another two emails in favor of policy 5700 has written an email asking for a record of all complaints made against the superintendent in the past five years um another email in support of

0265700 as written and finally an email in support of the parent contract thank you at this time I will open up to points of information for any board members if you are on line please ra raise your hand if you're in the room um just kind of look at me and let me know and Dr will if you have anything that you would like to say at this time to um Griffin has her hand up let's go to Griffin thank you Ashley um I just wanted to um comment on M rli's question that was directed to me um regarding Dr wet's contract um I'm happy to share my thoughts on that and um just for the record I I don't recall exactly when the email that I sent to her last year was I do

027recall sending said email and it was sometime after that that I did get an email back from Jessica Ritter through Ashley and Sophia that said a board member has the right to share his or her position with respect to Dr Willis's contract it would however be inappropriate for a board member to share the thoughts of others that were discussed in executive session any board member who shares his or her personal thoughts on the matter should be reminded not to discuss any pending litigation matters so that was my eyes that was permission that I was allowed to share so therefore um I would be happy to read the email I did send to someone recently regarding why I voted the way I did on Dr Will's contract um first off I want to say that the

028Evergreen Clause is something that I've never truly agreed with I've never actually understand it extending a contract two years from now in 2025 to 2026 without actually seeing how an employee performs at least during the next two years before you renew the third year never made any sense to me um but uh my reasons include and I'm just going to read this the board chair Vice chair and superintendent changed the evaluation process without board approval for the past three years each board member was given the opportunity to write their own evaluation the board would deliberate and come up with one final draft this year we were only allowed to share our thoughts in a meeting of which I could not attend as I was on vacation so since I did not agree with the final

029evaluation and felt it was not reflective of My Views I was not going to vote Yes on anything that was not involved in second in the June 28th 2023 meeting the superintendent disagreed with a board member's factual comment on Facebook he received a copy of this comment from an anonymous source in his home mailbox rather than discussing this with the board member he instead scanned it instead scanned it and put it on the share screen during the meeting this was unprofessional and downright Petty I can't cannot imagine doing this to any board member without there have without there being some repercussion or at least a discussion on this Behavior nor can I imagine doing this to my boss and still having a job the next day third in the August 8th 2023 meeting the superintendent

030said a very vague comment twice regarding a church service he told people to reach out to him for more information I did and it was revealed that he was refering referring to Blessed Sacrament Parish this vague comment turned into a bashing of St Matthew's Church and the Catholic church in General on social media bless sacrum parish is not only my Parish but is also my employer this was unacceptable and when asked to discuss this further I was ignored also in the August 8th 2023 meeting according to the minutes Dr Willet stated he does not work for board members he works for the town of tand the people of tand and the children of tand not for a politically broken board also unacceptable we have been told since day one that the superintendent is our only

031employee not add admin not teachers and not staff Dr Willet has circumvented this board and makes decisions without us this statement made it clear why he's done this for so many years lastly the back room dealings between the superintendent chair and vice chair which resulted in his near-perfect evaluation and the salary presented that was also voted upon since I had nothing to do with any of these proceedings I couldn't in good conscience vote Yes on something I was not involved in so those are my explanations for why I voted the way that I did thank you um we'll go I don't know if you want to respond now or yeah I mean Miss Griffin was given actually the process was uh explained to miss Griffin and she has ignored the [Music] explanation the reasoning for

032not having the documents provided the way they were in the past is that they are foilable and would be a violation of the executive session which was explained to miss Griffin but she's ignoring that um that was explained on a number of occasions Miss Griffin and all board members were given more than a month and a half and I extended the deadline the board asked me to extend the deadline two or three times which I did so that board members could be accommodated so there was more than two months for Miss Griffin to meet with me and the vice chair and chair to go over any concerns that she had with respect to my evaluation she chose not to do that so it wasn't about one meeting she's right that she did not attend that

033but there many opportunities to provide the chair and vice chair with feedback that she did not do a communication she sent I became aware of I responded to in great detail checking Point by Point each of the things that were stated as they were inaccurate Miss Griffin has stated that I've circumvented the board this an inaccurate statement and that has been shown and I have many documents to show that that is actually not the case um the statements being made here very inaccurate and are being made in public sessions so there's anything that any of you need clarification on I ask the public if you are told something please reach out to me I will provide you extensive documentation to show that these claims are not actually accurate and are a continuation of the harassment

034of your staff member um you know there they're misings they're inaccurate for instance the comment Miss PL made was that it had not been adequated it had not been addressed in the March 8 meeting it actually had been addressed in the March 8 March 8th meeting and there are plenty of documents to show that so that was an inaccurate statement that Miss Griffin is saying is accurate so that clearly please public please anything stated by any of these individuals send me their statement I will send you extensive information to show the inaccuracy of that statement um another thing you know the church service I was EXP L as superintendent mentioned in a church service I merely brought that up as something that I found to be unusual in my 20 plus or 26 years of

035education I have never seen that in any place I have ever worked Miss Griffin brings it up again I actually responded in extremely general terms I did not say who had done it I did not say whether it was a member of the public I did not say whether it was a member of the clergy I simply expressed that I thought it was unusual I have met with the priest and had a good conversation with them I do feel like at this point Miss Griffin's misstatement of the situation is again another misrepresentation please reach out to me I will provide you the communications I have had with all parties on this matter and I will show you miss Griffin statements are once again misleading and inaccurate hi um let's go back online and then we'll

036continue going through everyone has a chance to talk and then we will go back for seconds okay [Music] Tony yeah thank you madam chair uh I just want to get an update if we can on the the transportation specifically the app uh are we still on target to have that I think Dr Willie you said last meeting beginning of October that's right yeah we had um our first meeting for implementation last week we have another implementation this week um it it will likely be that uh parent Guardians be able to sign up for that first or second week in October we seem to be on the timeline for that for the beginning of October um they'll be signing up and uh picking the bus that their child is on so just want to make sure

037that as parents are registering for it they have an opportunity to choose the bus so they just want to make sure they know that bus number because it's not by student the tracking is by bus so so um we did post some videos for that um I'll put out more information as soon as I have it including how to down you know download it how to register for it uh we have to pick um some coding what I'm likely going to pick here is the students student ID number so um at this point uh you know if you're if you're starting to think about you know how using the app just make sure you you are aware of your student student ID number like I did for the esy program and other programs I'll try

038to send a communication that reminds parents of their students student IDs so that then they'll be able to use that you know to get in that's a unique number that you know generally only the parents will know about their child so once you do get in if you have three kids you only need one of the student IDs to register you'll be able to then look at whatever bus you select and select the series of buses you can get back and I'm told even though I haven't seen it directly because I don't have it yet um that it it has a map and it basically looks a lot like the apps that you're used to for um for things like you know the just the car out there Uber things like that you'll be able

039to see that you know the vehicle moving and similar to the Apple products where you see the the vehicle moving through that Cy thank you so first I just want to thank everybody who um participated in public participation but especially our two students who have unfortunately left now but takes a lot of courage to stand up at a young age and they were very well spoken and I want to thank them for participating in the process um I did see um a bit of um the online discussion that was already referenced um regarding the vote on Dr Willet um extension and compensation so just so that everyone understands I'm pretty careful about what I respond to um on social media I feel like it can very easily Teeter on doing business outside of the boardroom

040and because I had not said it publicly I didn't want to answer that in social media first but because it was questioned about the two absent votes first of all I'd like to apologize it was not my intention to miss the last meeting we had an accident at my home that day so I had to cancel that day um I apologize to Dr Willet for not being here throughout his process um I do feel I was very involved in his evaluation process um when we did put together his evaluation um there were five board members present I was one of four board members who actually participated in putting together um his evaluation so I do feel like I was a big part part of that process um in doing so I would like to publicly

041state that I would have voted yes for both Dr Will's compensation package and the extension um to his contract I was just going to add to Tony's point about the buses since it's been a topic of discussion for most of this term it might be a good idea now we have a new contract in place to revisit this at another board meeting um just to kind of get like a status update um to see where we are and see if we made some improvements so I'd like to see that on future agenda sort of to Jacob's point I think our next meeting would be after the proposed I guess deadline I guess you know is there is there a specific date aimed for October for that tooll out or is it sort of October is

042I guess it's more of a question than a comment but Dr will if you have a sort of guest of it if that's early October is it later October I'm I'm gonna have to say within the first two weeks or so so that whenever our first meet whenever our I don't know the meeting schedule heading into October but the meeting after that should be rolled out um appealing that that would make sense to me um I'm just going to add a couple of comments because in terms of Dr wet's review um all board members had ample time to either meet with Dr Willet have conversations you know especially after being attacked multiple times with with the ethics complaint over nothing the time that it takes to to just deal with employer request the time and

043energy exerted with everything you know if you wanted to be involved with the process you could have been it was ample opportunity to be involved in his review those that showed up that wanted to have something to say it was put in I don't think it's once again this um concluded um that wals and I have uh you know something nefarious going on I'm just so done with it and tired and the town has spent more money than anything else that over nothing over absolutely nothing because people don't want to do the work or they you know have other tangents that they want to go on it's just enough is enough I'm just so over all of it it just we are here for our students and our Administration and I thank you Dr will

044for you know answering parents calls in the middle of the night answering emails being sensitive to when we have topics going on within our school system to make sure that our students feel comfortable it's there's so much that goes on I would never want your job not that I would ever look to be a superintendent but there's a level of respect that needs to be provided and I think it's sorely lacking on this board and it's really sad it's really extremely sad that every single time we go around and around and it's the same attacks over and over it's the same things same it just never changes like we can't ever just move forward and just continue on with actually doing board work inside of the chambers here versus going on social media spouting out

045stuff here spouting out stuff here it just doesn't make any sense like it just that's not why we're here that's not why we were voted in for and it just needs to stop it really truly does I'm just I'm so it just the time and energy and the amount of resources that are extended on so many levels when ultimately we have to work together as a board to do positive things if an ounce of energy for all this negativity we just put toward the positivity you know how many changes positive changes we could have done you know how many things that he could have gotten more accomplished instead of answering to ethics complaint that just goes on forever it just that was a year worth of work a year and for what to see that

046we are un not unethical why why and now we're going to go this with about his review it just to me it just needs to stop I've really had enough so I I just just I would encourage if you are sent anything from a board member in particularly since we're talking about certain board members but anyone if you're given an explanation please reach out to me forward me that explanation and give me the opportunity to provide you the relevant contextual information around it because I think that's important if there's an you know allegation being made please forward me the email reach out to me I'll sit down with you or I will respond in an email and go point for Point anything that was stated because frankly doing this in a board meeting like this

047it's difficult to do that so any please don't hesitate to do that and you will get I promise you a better balance of information please do that that's my second second topic um I do think um in terms of the policy um 5700 the transgender I do I appreciate all the emails that have been sent and read through and people's uh personal opinions I do at the end of the day know that this has to go through uh shipment and goodwi to have their a okay that we follow the contic protocols so to me I believe that our a policy committee did a great job crafting this I think that it was really thoroughly thought out um I'm glad to have something written and then it can always change once if Connecticut changes anything I

048feel like at least we have a a start to having a safe environment for our students um that's just you know what I wanted to say uh Griffin um I just wanted to say um one thing I did not bring up the ethics complaint during public participation there were a couple of people who asked why I voted no one specifically called up my name the reasons I gave were my reasons they were my why and that's all this was I did not have any intention of bringing this up during points of information tonight but in the in to be transparent when somebody asks me a question during a public board meeting I am going to answer it with my truth so I just wanted to reiterate that thank you thank you glad everyone has their

049truths okay um let's move on to what do we have here student Representatives hey guys what's up so first thing on the docket today we did have our open house um last week this week last week and um I couldn't make it I had too much homework CU high school but I heard that it went really well a lot of my friends went to help out around there I heard that it went very smoothly and I know my parents really enjoyed it so yeah the word the the open house meeting went we also voted on our homecoming theme which will be New York City at night we also did some pet rally planning um it's not absolutely confirmed yet but the ones that we know for sure are happening are tug OFW Hungry Hippos um

050the course will sing the national anthem and then a few other games sprinkled in that we haven't exactly decided on yet but they will be deciding on decided on at the meeting next week so that will be Ro also to get more student participation in like our sports games at the high school the captains will go on the morning announcements and promote their games speaking of stuff that we planned we did actually plan the entire Spirit Week in all the days so get this Lisa Monday USA day wear your red white and blue Tuesday is tropical Tuesday wear tropical clothing Wednesday is Neon Day dress like from the 80s that's not true just dressing neon Thursday is class color day and Friday is Barbie and Ken day they St the Smash Hit also we will

051be having Eagle blog this tomorrow tomorrow where ninth graders will be working on mood meters and 9th 10th 11 will be doing NEC student survey College visits have started on October 6 the business path the business Pathways program is taking a trip to Bentley and brandise universities and some schools have started visiting to tand which seniors can sign up for in the counsel's office and the World Language trip is to Costa Rica this year and will be open to 10 12th grade any questions did you see Barbie I barie it was again um so we're actually going to leave now Sarah's work and I have the Survivor prier um but yeah that's it thank you guys Happy i b some SP of the yeah I love it love energy positive energy always welcome in the

052boardroom okay um G start with the um K9 dog search okay so this is just a follow up on the communication previously provided as you're aware um at I believe the end of last year I put out some information on um The District's uh C capability to have dogs come in and do searches in school and specifically that the superintendent has that authority to do so I wanted to put that in front of the board just so you are aware of the int I or my intention to do that um so this year we are going to do it as I said last year you know that was what we were hoping to do this year we will so in cooperation with the Connecticut State Police and the to resident trooper office we'll be doing

053at least one dog search in the public tal public school grounds this year so it's going to you know probably be middle school high school um probably and you can you can know it's going to be high school you know to start at least um and so we're going to do at least one of them and in this case they're not using the um the canine German Shepherds or things you know those dogs I know people sometimes worry about them and they look aggressive these dogs are um you know are search dogs so they they're not the the big Kine um uh German Shepherds people generally have in mind um these are you know I forget the bre but they kind of black lab type looking down me and they come through um they they

054we will have a secure building generally and the state troopers State Police go through with the dogs um and if it turns up any you know anything that shouldn't be there um then we immediately meet with the student and you know call the parents and you know proceed uh to engage the family and try to resolve the issue so um they will be used in the parking lots and they will be used in the school's uh internal Locker areas as well uh so I'm not we don't announce ahead of time when they're going to be for obvious reason reasons but there'll be at least one and I'll I'll be looking to do more than that so and not not so you know not disrupt the school environment we we will be very careful not just

055as an as side they'll generally happen while kids are in class so a secure building means that you can still continue instruction we would do a secure building to keep people out of the hallways um so instruction would continue as normal most students really won't see any disruption whatsoever because we'll be able to go through they'll be able to go through within a typical period any board questions about this pretty straightforward okay thank you for the update um let's do the wfrs okay so in the process of um in the process of the year um and I and I had put this was in a discussion with FFC as well there are um certain situations that arise and they are typically and in this case in special education where we do have to engage um

056or hire additional staff that is outside of um you know what we had talked about explicitly in the budget so I'm sorry this jumped around a little bit that so um in order to make sure that everybody under you know knows what's going on um we brought it up in FFC and then moved it over to board so that uh you could all you know make sure you're well informed so one of the um phans is a job coach that is going to be instead of contractual Services because we couldn't find anyone who is able to do that contractually and that happens in this particular position sometimes it fluctuates and there's no one available uh these coaches work for the talm transition Academy and leap there are kids who are 18 to 22 years old

057and it is one of required things that you need to do with kids that kind of job coaching and so if there isn't any contractual support available you have to fill that one way or another typically then we'll hire an individual contract employee non-union employee most cases to take care of it um 0.12 FDA special education because a grant uh ended so then we transition that portion of that special ed over to offer in budget point two speech pathologist again this is based on um contractual service needs and so when an i requires that a service be provided if we don't have enough people to do that we would then have to um you know either add an FP to someone existing or you know bring in someone else or bring in Consulting in this

058case that point2 is adding a point2 onto an existing speech and language person um and so that be you know that's how we cover that that that constitutes adding point2 FTE and then a 1.0 social worker the good news here is that is not going to be incurred by our operating budget that has to do with the um Mara grant that I wrote it was a competitive Grant so we got that for this year next year and the year after so next two years it's 100% covered um and then the last year it's it's mostly covered up to about 90% of it be covered so um so that's that's the good news on this is while we have a couple positions we had to you know or FTE we had to add in order to

059cover special education needs and it needs student service needs we also are getting a position entirely from Grant it is social worker we need it badly and we won't have an impact on our for at least you know a few years so that's that's what would affect our numbers in the next uh you know a couple of weeks and as any other ones come up I'll try to bring this up through uh to keep everybody informed so the reason I call it the wfpa or what it's basically within fiscal year edition I was trying to think of a way to make sure the board was aware of these as they happened and so this seems like it's effective way of he any board questions than thank you an enrollment report okay so um we have

060an early enrollment report here so this is the earliest one I think I've ever done and normally we don't do these um I don't take a snapshot this early uh because we have a process that um we will follow on it and typically I like to try to wait till we have the projections from NC and I also typically wait until we have um the state snapshot because there a moment in time we take a snapshot that we send to the state so these numbers may not match whatever the state snapshot is because uh obviously it's before that so I wanted to give you some of these um to give you a sense of where it's at for board members and anyone in the public you can go to either of those links and you

061can find this report publicly posted um keep in mind here I'll push on this so you can kind of see what it's got so you'll notice that on the ones that I typically do after we have all the information I'll have more information about um the the um the higher level schools grade six to 12 because that can change a bit um and so you have an overall view of all of the schools from a um oops I can't I can't blow it up much bigger than that but you have an overall view of the schools over the last couple years grabbing four years experience including this you know this year and then you have U and you'll have that you have that all the way through all the grades when I do this updated

062report I'll break it out even more detail um and do kind of overall class sizes for TMS overall class sizes for th and all of that but right now I just have the overall enrollment numbers and the old projections from nezda from the past so um included in it as well is the uh the class sizes for the pre2 group which is bgp and the you know gr street through five group so in all of that you should get a pretty good idea of kind of where things are a couple things to note um the state Connecticut uh through ndaq was projected in last year's projections and it'll probably be the same as this year overall between 2020 and 2030 um schools overall are going down by about 6.5% in their enrollment and so that's

063a a trend in the entire State and that nzda figure is one that you know I'll publish in the final report um but in 20 um last year 2022 that last projection was that enrollment across um the state of Connecticut for Education was going down 6.5% um so we can generally expect to see some uh enrollment decline in this District as as I've noted with you in the past when I've given these reports but we are going to bottom out and start heading back upwards so each of the reports that we've got you know sometimes it fluctuates from year to year on the exact number but we are going to hch down towards that figure of about 2100 or you know 2000 something and then we were Rising back up again and that's because um

064we had big glasses you know moving through a while back and they went up to the high school level those are leaving um and the classes coming in in the prek 2 level and even uh prek five level are getting bigger so the ones coming in are going to be uh a little bit bigger for each year which will add up the ones going out um you know are are um are going to uh you know eventually kind of balance it they're not going to be you know they're going to be around that 170 to 190 and mostly in that one even 60 Zone in the higher place so we'll see that 3ek 5 enrollment will go up and that'll eventually spread out throughout all the grades um and so we'll never it looks like

065we're never really going to get any any lower than about 2,000 and we'll eventually clb back upwards but it's hard to project exactly how high may you know I I'll wait to the nezda projections um before sharing that because I want to rely more on them um than just throwing out a random number but in the past you know um you you're going back up by a couple hundreds a couple hundred again and you'll stabilize after about five to 10 years they a couple hundred higher than where you are now so that's the overall kind of helicopter view that prek-5 zone you're going up in older grades you know the bigger ones are going out so we had a class about 193 for instance go out we had a k class which follows the projection

066pretty closely if about 140 come in um those projections kind of vacillate up and down you you may note that last year uh there was a projection that we were going to have about 183 184 in a class and it was so much higher than the previous year even I doubt you I kind of doubted that number but that number came true um and the projection actually fell right about in that zone so um the projections seem to be pretty accurate with respect to you know the numbers getting higher um so we can expect as you can see even on this that in the next few years you know k um is going to kind of rise up a bit from that 140 to say the 170s um same thing with one you're gonna you

067know you're going to see the younger grades rise and and that does follow what they're saying so where we're at now um kind of represents where we expect it to be I think in 2021 uh nezda actually jeed us a little bit lower than the number we're at right now um so we're you know we're right about in the range where we'd expect to be and if you have a class like 193 going out and 140 coming in that's 53 right there and if you consider that there's you know a negative 6.8 Trend over the state of Connecticut you know our ours is a little lower than that actually for a drop and eventually in the next two to three years you're headed back upwards so that's the general overview um and then looking at

068the class sizes you can kind of see that um you know your your prek 5 group that I think most people that was where most of the questions were coming in at least the questions that I experienced at the time so if you take a look at it um you know prek 2 they they fall about where you'd expect them to fall um kindergarten has to be less than 20 the state of Connecticut requires that um but where we start to edge up is grades three four and five you can see them getting a little bit big and then as you get to grade five we have you know some significant number of classes that are at 25 and that's you know that happens when we have fluctuations the kids moving in at different ages

069levels um you we have a certain number of teachers in each of the schools and grades it also has to do with our certifications and some of the requirements in other areas most teachers are either 612 certified um Qui to five you know those zones so you can't use a certified teacher at the 612 Zone that you know in the prek 5 Zone um so we don't have as much flexibility as you know as we would like to have um but what we'll hope to do in the next uh you know couple Cycles here is try to get those numbers down in fifth grade in particular because that's the great that's most challenged right now um and we have to make some adjustments obviously going forward in there so this is an early snapshot and

070probably in the next month I can give an updated one I'm thinking by the end of October early November I can give you the more extensive report and then generally what I do is I update that rep is De that's been the trend that typically occurs I just had a couple of quick questions because I know at the state of Connecticut they changed the prek for the 2020 explor I think the next year yeah for the kindergarten not kindergarten preschool age how is that going to impact do we have a lot of like babies it's hard to say right now I think it's probably going to increase it a bit um you also have uh when you have the feeder uh free school programs and if we're going to do that with K we probably

071need to be consistent with what the age when the age threshold date is for prek and we do have more kids that are going to get looped into that prek Loop so the prek numbers are going to go up and um that will in turn proba it push more more kids in the pipeline in pay you know and so I expect those to go up and you also have potentially kind of these new things getting thrown in that weren't part of the projections the Santini you know apartments and things like that um nesda wasn't that's not computed taking into account some of the the new U opportunities to live in tall that people will have so you know that's the numbers we have aren't really even taking into account some of those things dyamics in

072the curriculum meeting today we talked about um the overall kind of trending of some of the kids and you where they're going and so on and um you know it's it's it's pretty from what I see right now it's it's a pretty standard you know um predictable number and I'm going to go back even further in history and you know we'll put it on the agenda planning for the board and that can be a special you know board agenda item I think Mr Mari had wanted to move that to the board um overall so we'll be able to kind of report on you know on that that piece of it as well so people can get an idea of where where people are going and what the trend is over the last few years but

073it it is generally falling in you know explainable and predictable patterns and so I think we're going to see more we're going to see more even even more than what we have projected to increase we're going to get even more than that once the apartment's open and once um we need you know we that U change in acceptance date required by the state goes into effect which will be next to okay that go ties into my next kind of question with the homeschooling versus you know how many go to CH Rockville and EO Smith things of that nature um you know I think people are they think once they're out of our district we don't pay for that but you know they need to understand that our tax money still goes to whatever school that

074they are choosing to go to because they think that oh these students are not in our school district anymore like we don't need to get funds for them really in reality it goes ties with the student wherever they end up going so I think that that was a clarification you know Social Media stuff that's out there for transparency purposes of what happens go ahead um so I just wanted to say as I look at this enrollment report so I feel like for the last four years or so there's a narrative that our enrollment is going down and therefore why do we have the budgets that we do so I just want to make sure that everybody who's on tonight we've got a very highly participated meeting tonight please pay attention to the class sizes you've

075got here so I'm going to speak from someone who is a parent to two children one in the Middle School one in the high school and also someone who has spent significant time in classrooms over the years and I'm betting that who other who spend significant time in classrooms will view it the same way as I do these numbers are too high in kindergarden we should be more around 15 in the early grades we're going up to 22 in grade two that's too much we should be somewhere around 18 same with third fourth and fifth there's there's it's too much we've looked at studies in the past here in the boardroom that Dr Willet has shown that show the kinds of numbers that are the most beneficial for our our students and our teachers these

076are higher than those secondly I have a son in the high school he's in a and I just had Parents night last week as the girl said and something that his math teacher intermediate math college prep a class that I believe is partially designed for Bridging the Gap with students who do have trouble between Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 which my son does there's 26 students in that class the teacher tries to get to every student at least once in that class now I don't know if anyone's students have ever struggled with math or you've struggled with math but a lot of times that's not enough thankfully my son has the capability to stay after school several times per week I'm guessing a lot of other parents are working and their children don't have the

077capability to spend several uh days after school per week so you know when we talk about enrollment and people throw out figures and things that are going down and again we see that narrative wherever it may be social media or elsewhere please come back to the class sizes we do not have small class sizes yeah sorry if you missed it but um I don't we look at an enrollment or report when we do the budget in January do you know what the change is from that report to this one particularly for this year yeah the um there was one in I think there was one in October and one in February yeah it's probably February yeah so um off the top of my head I'm not sure you're looking at probably 50 to 60 something

078like that but but again the problem is we're not talking apples to apples here the time that we actually can compare it would probably be from February to February because for instance last year when we started um we gained 20 kids in the span 20 or whatever you know about 20 in the span of the beginning of the year to about the February period we picked up 20 children okay so the problem with doing snapshots at different time respect it's good to talk about it whenever you want to talk about it but we we're not doing Apples to Apples here so we have to be careful I would say our best shot at having the Apples to Apples would be that's the big okay curious um you just to kind of see how things how

079forecast compared to actuals you know particularly for the the school year that just started um okay yeah I guess um you know I'll just say for for my own you know thoughts I think it's good to look at forecasts that go out a few years but like I get very T just thinking you know more than like five years in the future personally just because you know it's kind of like people making predictions about like what the economy is going to look like in six7 like you can't it's just too far out but you know um yes it's it's always to have this information at least for next few years thank you sure and I usually do fiveyear chunks yeah when I do the enrollment report even though I have 10 years I usually will

080put five years of information in there the the hard part about this is this is actually um this projection is is old our new projections will be coming in in a month or two and that's when we can really you know you get a good idea of what what they're saying you have to excuse me I U didn't have my notebook at at work with during our curriculum meeting so I've got when you work in a school you work with your sticky notes and um and so we during our curriculum meeting we actually went over a lot of this topic um and you know sort of discussion about you know why are we seeing I think the number thrown out there was like 87 you know 87 fewer students than the previous year and why

081are we paying for that well and I think Ashley you made a good point it's much it's more expensive to outplay them than it is to to have them here that's number one but um for example homeschool uh requests um the trend line we reviewed today just today a few hours ago shows that trend line of homeschooling is going down the peak of that trend line within the last five years and and I know 2019 a little Walky um within the last five years that that that Peak was at during Co the peak of Co since then it's continued to go back down so last year it was 12 this year it's 10 and so again it's it's it's not as if it's going up every year since Co is going down um students seeking

082alternative schools is also going back down um and I there's also unfinalized numbers within that but um sort of the general average from what we discussed earlier you know you're looking at 70 71 72 students on average that are that are going to different schools Year bye um and that once again Peak during Co at 90 might have been 91 or 92 or what during the height of it was peing right and then every other year it has remained rather consistent it's been 71 91 during Co 72 71 whatever it is and so the numbers we're seeing right now aren't necessarily new this is this has been again a trend line leading to this and so we have to ask ourselves how do we get here I think that's the more important question um and

083so I just wanted to CL clarify that because and and I would also recommend everybody who's on this meeting tonight once that curriculum meeting gets posted um you know wherever you can watch it I do recommend watching because we did Cover a lot of that stuff today um and I think Dr will it clarified a lot of the points that were sort of being you know thrown on darts out there and um you know it it it it'll it helped me and I hopefully it helps you so thank you that's hey anyone else okay let's move on to inan time reports umly curriculum was today my report um so this good segue from good um yeah it was a very productive meeting um we started out talking a little bit about unstructured time initiatives uh

084it sounds like some of the the stuff that the district was working with human services has kind of been put on hold because there's been some some turnover from that department but the district's making some good progress working with um the scouts um and doing some what it can internally to kind of incorporate that for the for the younger grades which I think is good um additionally we had a very good discussion about homeschooling and just kids leaving the district in general and how better to respond to that I think that's definitely warrants the full board discussion I know there's some interest up in it as well as well so I'd love to have that on the agenda um just the high you know the the highlights though for tonight um we talked about creating

085a a potential short exit survey for um students leaving the district that could provide um us perhaps some useful feedback as to why people are leaving see if there's anything that you know um we might be able to implement um as as process improvements or at least give us a little bit more data to to work with um additionally we looked at some just statistics about how many are choosing to homeschool um again the the executive summary there was before Co it was low single digits uh 2021 it would got up to about 40 students and then it's gone down um a little bit higher than pre-co but but significantly lower than what it was um in 2021 um and lower than the last two years too yeah it's more like around [Music] 10 yeah

086um additionally um we had a discussion about curriculum and textbook changes not a whole lot um coming down the pipe um there was kind of a course modification I guess to create kind of an advanced level Pottery course um I assume that the high school so I you ask what school it was I'm assume the high school though uh well actually that talking the B no course is yes um yes so that was that was a course change and then uh 7eventh grade geography textbook got updated um the ones District were currently using were were well out of dates so there just kind of a necessary textbook change that needed to be made but other than that there hasn't been any changes not a whole lot coming down um or immediately coming down the pipe

087there's uh I I think we mentioned this few months ago the state has mandated a number of new course topics that need to be covered but there really has articulated in any detail as to what that encompasses so we're kind of waiting to see what they say so um at the moment there isn't a whole lot of of course changes um and then finally uh we did talk about um student performance and um attendance so uh it looks like the spack scores are coming coming in good um comparatively um we're seeing some improvement year-over-year um and that should all be updated up in the portal um data portal which board members can look at and um I believe residents can look at as well um and additionally uh you know the district is still working

088on uh the attendance issue that we've had with a large number of students un fortunately especially the younger grades um they're not uh they're chronic being chronically absent um so the district's working on putting together so some staffs specifically help deal with that challenge um so yeah it was a it was a quite a packed hour but that's what we we discussed just a quick question yeah a clarifying question is it 10 families that are homeschooling or is it 10 students so it's 10 students but that can be that can mean that if you had three students you're counted as part of the 10 in a family yeah if you took all three kids from let's say my family that would count as three yeah so um well that's why I was wondering if it

089were 10 so that can fluctuate just based on family size and family decision um but yeah it has gone down for each of the last three years and it spiked that as Mr said it spiked during the mid of the pandemic we're returning to to the numbers we we have in the past and we are lower than last year and lower than year before okay any other questions before okay um let's see uh policy have did you meet I don't believe you no we did not uh we were scheduled to meet this week but unfortunately I brought a nice little cold back for my vacation with me and uh we had to cancel but my apologies human Okay um negotiations say teacher negotiations have have wrapped up so you'll see that coming to the board

090at some point once they ratify we do that okay FFC um yes we met last week um we talked about our um budget balance to date which is you know pretty much on target for this time of year we still have a lot we're going to expense and encumber um we talked about the appendix at for the fiscal year 24 budget just to see which line items specifically were decrease due to the final number being approved at referendum and we talked about health insurance and unfortunately those numbers are still trending pretty high um so we haven't looked at that I think since March but there really has not been a significant decrease so we're just going to have to keep an eye on that and then we also talked about the Usef fund and we're

091going to look to have a discussion with the council at some point um to go back to kind of our question where if we save money and we're putting it into the fund what happens when our operating expenses related to energy go over are we allowed to use some of the savings to offset that increase rather than having to find other savings within our operating budget so that is something I believe um Dr Willet was going to talk to you Ashley about um setting something up to get that ball rolling thank youcome any questions on any of those and then um communication y for communications um we actually have a short meeting um this week and Dr will and I discussed some upcoming student interest interviews that we're looking to do um really excited about

092that talked about doing some things with our students um various things depending on the um school and obviously the age but um POS just positivity and showing off our best assets which are our students and bringing them into the mix so as we um figure out the logistics and how best to do that and we support our students and teachers while we do that we uh we let you know we can get this I can give a PT upd yeah I I would say I don't know if it was uh your the school office posted um about the half day release the day before I think that was a very nice step in the right directions of notifying and not being hidden in a um digital [Music] backpack so keep up the good work go

093ahead uh so for tto they have revised the excuse pads and they have new magnets that feature the school calendar there for sale a mileage club is returning to both of the schools which is really exciting uh The Cider Mill Road Race is this weekend and there is school staff representation from bgpt and TMS uh the lme and Pie and Castle fundraiser are currently running October staff appreciation um for Birch Grove is October 6th and TI staff appreciation is October 24th so please look for um a signup sheet to contribute to both of those uh the Book Fairs are upcoming as well the T one is the first week of November it aligns with conferences the Birch Gro one is the first week of December which is in alignment with the frosty vest so stay

094tuned for signups for those as well they are doing a new community event called trail of treats it is going to be Saturday October 21st with a rain date of Sunday October 21st at grandon Park uh TMS they are there is growing participation for the PTO which is very great there they're bringing back book fair to TMS they're planning a staff appreciation for December they are looking to assist with beautification around the school in alignment with the principal's ideas and they're looking into new fundraising ideas booster club had a very successful eagil scramble this past weekend in spite of the rain lots of community support through sponsorships Raffles and golfers many were Talent high school graduates Through The Years approximately eight current high school students volunteered throughout the day with two playing in the tournament

095there were also several TPS staff members that played in the tournament as well those proceeds are split between THS boosters and Project Graduation speaking of Project Graduation they will have their first planning meeting in October and are always looking for volunteers and then on October 29th the boosters is collaborating with the Talen friends of music to put on a rocktober festival at the spot there will be five bands two of which are student with THS members and it's going to be $10 admission for adults and $5 for students a lot going on there is lot it's beginning of the year I do have to think that I think you said the for the trail trail of treats the trail of treats I think you said the rain date was October 21st but it's Sunday the

096October oh you're right I'm sorry I did I said the same dat okay so it's October 21st rain date the 22nd then a quick question um in at the middle school they have a beautification club is this something that has been is there like a club that they could form with the kids or something to get I don't know I don't know I think that's a great suggestion you I know a lot of the beautification spots around schools are sponsored you know sometimes it's local companies sometimes the PTO has them um I haven't really walked the TMS grounds often to see if those are sponsored but even the ones that are sponsored they they need a little love and care sometimes so but yeah great idea okay um any further questions on any of this

097I think I got everybody so okay um just go right into the board action for L1 um par contract okay I mean I don't know if we would like to start us off since I like when Walt uh Dr starts with the numbers the screen cooperate I do apologize again I wasn't at the last meeting due to an accident at my home that day but um I did uh watch the video so I did watch your explanation and short discussion around the first read all right I'm G to try to get this to scroll sorry if not I have another way of getting to it I think you have it it's just I scroll and it doesn't move so I'm just trying to get it to all right so so um as you know this

098is the second read of the par professional contract um it was done the committee did a great job with it um who's done in good faith PA professionals um the PA professionals are still for talent if you look at um basically where they fall um they're modestly compensated compared to the districts around us you know they're in the kind of the 50th percent off or lower so they um you know it tent to be competitive needed to do something to kind of get the pairs into a competitive or what we pay pairs into a competitive place to make sure that you know we don't have attrition and that the pars feel valued for the work that they do so um this this agreement does do some of that you know it's not it's not um

099at all a you know a an unreasonable thing for talent it puts the pair of professionals more solidly in the halfway point um of the Durk it uh doesn't put them super high in the Durk so it's it's not unreasonable and they're not going way up to the top but they're also not going to be um you at the bottom either so it's it's a competitive wage and um and it is uh you know it's arrived on in a very uh you very comprehensive manner so you know these have been gone we went over these mostly at the last meeting but if you want to go down to wages uh it's approximately 4% that first year steps 4 through 12 and then it's a 2% for all steps in the next two years after that

100it's a three-year contract um and you know again they they've done a couple stien ads too to to help the people that are doing work in specific areas to you know be recognized for that work you know appropriately with the stifen that they receive and so because this this uh this is a contract that brings us to more the center of the group and because it you know it does a good job of recognizing um you know the the Paras with respect to the stiens they do special jobs they do um and it was arrived on in good faith uh this is a very good deal for coland overall and um you know in order to be competitive we really do need this contract to go through um as you can tell right now in

101the state of Connecticut um it's very hard for school districts to be to keep staff in general and um you know not having a competitive wage for Paras really hurts that so it's not a you know it's important to recognize the hard work they do um provide them a competitive wage they feel to feel valued um and it'll have an overall benefit of our district to our district of helping us uh keep keep the pars we've got and to retain the new pairs as they come in um and hire you know more people so we can get um get back full staff situation and this will help us do that okay so before we do questions uh so thank you Dr Willet for going over the numbers I think in questions we can um do

102some more specific if the board um like to question some of these items but I would like to provide a dialogue as I do to ensure that we understand um at least somewhat of the roles that we're voting on tonight so it would take me probably an hour to discuss all the roles and responsibilities that our various pairs provide our students and I'm not sure that even um that even that would cover it but I'm going to highlight some of what their roles are so general education Paras assist students in mainstream classrooms they work with individuals and small groups to help reinforce a teacher's lesson they Implement and monitor behavior modification systems and techniques they learn computer skills and assistant technology as need they supervise small groups in taking tests and doing makeup work they

103administer curriculum based checklists provide limited supervision of a class supervise some of our busiest chaotic times of the school day such as lunch recess and assist with field trip supervision they help maintain homeschool communication for example they ensure student is filling out an agenda and bringing item bringing items home to their parents attention they help the teacher prep materials they assist with life skills implementation we have literacy paers who are responsible for lesson plans assigning an assessing homework being up to dat on training and femic instruction assessing reading abilities writing planning and facilitating guided reading groups administering remedial lessons under a teacher's guidance tracking student progress and Reporting it to teachers we have special ed pairs who are doing everything I just mentioned above as well as collecting data towards Behavior plans implementing teacher modifications

104for class activities or conducting alternate activities in accordance to a student's IEP we have preschool pair professionals that are assisting students to buses and vans reinforcing instruction prepping materials charting a child's progress as it applies to their IEP assisting with the physical needs of disabled children preparing snacks is assisting with cleanliness and disinfecting of classrooms in the playground supervising children during conferences and placement meetings we have one-on-one parents who do every single thing I've said above and more as they work one-on-one with our most vulnerable population we have pairs who assist with hygiene who are helping with diaper and pull-up changing even in the older grades menstrual cycle needs children toilet and toilet training feeding or supporting feeding programs or devices so having said all that and again I barely scratched the surface let's mention

105some of the most important things our parents do for our students every day parents Paras are the hearts of our schools they truly support the emotional and social well-being of our students every single day they facilitate social interactions for our students many of whom struggle to do so themselves they help students resolve conflicts they can act as a liaison between students and teachers make making sure that teachers are aware of all critical information they can be a liaison with parents in directing their concerns to teachers so I can't discuss the specifics of what happens inside negotiation meetings but what I can say is this and I take this from my own experience in the schools watching pars interact with both special needs and general education students and as a parent of a student who has

106utilized Paras in both General and special education and as chair of our negotiations committee our paers are fiercely passionate about their job and their job as our students they perform their responsibilities with their whole Hearts they are the first people in every single situation to go above and beyond their duties to help a child in need our students love them and trust them and need them our parents are due to Due a great deal of respect and they are due a fair and Equitable income at our starting wage before negotiations our parents were making less than what students they support make working at Big Y I can say this because my son works at Big Y and I can guarantee you that the skills are pairs possessed and the responsibilities they undertake are light years

107beyond what my son is expected to do in his part-time job as a high school student I asked my son what working with our Paris has met to him and he gave me his permission to share his first sentence was I couldn't have done any of this without the help Paris more specifically his own words are they are always kind they are a second trusted figure in the classroom they are sometimes more approachable than the teacher if they are busy or working with other students they are always available to help with help you or point you in the right direction for help they know you they know when you need extra support or an extra check-in to help you succeed in every class every day and lastly I just want to point out that if

108this vote doesn't pass tonight this will likely go straight to arbitration and we will be paying more legal fees instead of putting those funds towards a fair and Equitable wage for our sta um couple yeah go ahead so coule of the details so I know it says there a couple added holidays up with the schedule I was just kind of wondering how that works Dr or Jin because I know number of the paas are part-time so just kind of curious and this maybe just more of a broader question how holidays are like parttime staff is that so you specifically want to know part-time pairs how they're receiving their holiday well like is it just um is it just for fulltime or is it like the part-time people I'm just curious how that work yeah so

109the day after Thanksgiving you know I'd have to check but it probably in some you know form for something based on their FP um the they adding the day after Thanksgiving is a holiday just means that um they get compensated for that yeah no I'm not so it be proportion to that's what my understanding was when okay what other contracts were I'll check on it though that's yeah big question I'll check on but that's thinking portion I thought it was but that Wasing water um that I mean I noticed that the uh the stip in M was more than double um but you're going to like this gen I think that makes a lot of sense um because I do do some very uh difficult job so I think that that's fair um like and

110the reality of that just it's hard to get it's hard to get people to do some of those positions so that again was about making us more competitive to get good help in to help with those specific needs yeah um so you know that it all all makes good sense or we yeah we still do have a number of vacancies for Paris I yeah um yeah other than that I don't I don't have any other questions it seems pretty straightforward yeah I know I was ask questions but I just have to whenever I vote on something so of course yeah good okay any further questions because then if not then I will um entertain the motion that is written below um any other further questions I just have a couple things um first of all

111Jen thanks for the thorough um synopsis of what you can share because I understand that it's um being on the negotiations Committee in the past it's not um an easy task by any stretch and then it's not an easy task to communicate to the board you know how we got to where we got to how where your the team got to I should say um I definitely think that you know it's tough because minimum wage in Connecticut is is is a pretty decent wage you know comparative when minimum wage was you know when I was working minimum wage I think it was like $5 now um and our parent Educators like like you said are next to Big Y wages or McDonald's wages or Tac ball wages and things like that and everything they're bringing

112to the table so I was really excited to see the stien amounts for the hygiene Services AB Training Services that that increased I think it's really important the PMT training uh stien was fantastic ad um the the class coverage $8 um for that I think that's fantastic as well I think we really kind of tried on all points to make this a more um uh the the whole benefits package if you will it's not necessarily just the hourly wage it's it's the medical the dental division the the stiens the other perks so I definitely think that uh the team really looked at all avenues of that to try to make it a more Equitable position you know in in competitive based on other districts uh do know that there was a lot of late nights

113very late nights um so I'm appreciative of the team and doing the work and working with the par group to to find a common ground to ensure that we can continue to maintain and retain um a lot of our strong paers in school I can tell you that um you know just listening to what you said from your son it's it's pretty amazing the impact that not only your Educators but our career Educators in our administrative staff have on our students I think we have to really look we talk about families homeschooling or wi kids families leaving or different things like that and it and it kind of encompasses on are we are we bringing in the right um are we supporting our staff getting the strong staff in there getting our staff the right

114PD that they need um you know being competitive with that aspect along with many other aspects you know why our classes are so large and all those kind of things so uh in order for us to continue to have GPS Thrive we really need to make sure that we're not only supporting our students but we're supporting our staff and administrative staff and educational staff so I think that you did that here I think you somebody you know um I'm sorry I'm next stop Ashley but I think you did a great job the team did a great job and I'm really supported this so thank you okay um any further questions sure um just a little story time um just today one of my students got to me after school and inic c and he's very

115very upset like I don't know what's going on you know you get to me and then you know I'm supposed to know no I don't and you know a lady walks through the door about 30 seconds after and she's explaining to me that you know I'm with Caleb all day this and that whatever um I thought this whole time this is his teacher this is a social worker this is a principal this is somebody in that room or in that building or you know one of those top figures in the building and sure enough it was a parah it was a parah in that building who had tracked him down didn't know whether he was getting on the bus going our after school program didn't know whether he was getting picked up she tracked him

116down just to come report to me what happened in his day and so I I found it very you know coincidental that on all days when we're voting on this that I experienced this I think sort of for the first time in this adult you know you know fashion um that pars are going above and beyond you know granted we we we work for folks of tand and staff of tand and students of tand um and I think this needs to be a national discussion but the work Jen and the committee did um by just seeing you know sort of the Bas value of it I know we've got a little more detail to review but um it really is a job one and you're representing some really awesome people so thank you for doing

117that excellent okay anyone online have anything to say prior to going to a vote no okay um let's go ahead I will entertain the motion on here if somebody would like to make it on motion to accept the bargaining unit agreement between the Board of Education and the tary education Union CCA SEIU Local 2001 extending from july23 through June 3026 second okay any discussion any further discussions okay seeing none we will do roll I'll start with you I I I I um let's go to Griffin I Tony I that was a n i yes I thumbs up okay um and then for I I'm I as well therefore um this passes unanimously I just wanted to say to the pars you know thank you for being the valuable members of our school system um going

118to do it without you hopefully we can some in other towns won't feel scooping them off so quickly it's a step in the right direction C back you know and I think I think the reality is is that the the par educator job has has grown and changed so much over years you know and they um I think people often thought AAR was just there you know as to assist and to make copies but they have a true role and and you know if you if you read some of the things we're doing here they're asking for more training you know they they they want to be the best at their jobs for our students and that is what you want your stath so um I I do I like a lot of the um

119a lot of the smaller items that aren't necessarily wage items that are a part of the new contract I agree I think it was a a good negotiations okay um let's move on to the capital budget so this is um this is pretty much what you saw last time the the dishwasher basement was submitted in the final ining there the last last kind of hours of last week so I can't remember but I think I put out updated one like that one in it um so there's nothing really different for this item from last week other than that that was just a late ad and so you have um you any of these items that you don't want to move forward now would be the time to ask for these to come off I did

120get an update um at late afternoon um of the town's Capital descriptions but I didn't have time to scan them so there's uh there's nothing that I think is different than what you already know but I didn't have a chance to review what I receiv received from the town this afternoon um but again that that may or may not have anything to do with this it just looked like um The Narrative descriptions of what we had already requested in the past so what might happen here is that these Capital requests are not going to change because these are your requests but how the bonding is done and where some of these things are funded on our timeline might change based on the information that came to me this afternoon but you know we had the

121curriculum meeting and a few other things and had a community Forum so I I couldn't actually look at that but I assume that what would change in it if anything would be the DAT you know the years where some of these things are covered not that any of them are you know coming off or anything that's is being added that you don't know about so so for a point of clarification nothing that's on here um is uh you know any anything on here is basically what you were shown last week it is what the board's request would be and nothing on here has really changed um except maybe the dishwasher but the dates the years some of the ones that are in progress those may change based on whatever I received today and I'll update

122that accordingly and I'll post it to the board ofed head who is that a quick question um when you have listing of the grants that you know possible security Grant reimbursement at you know 49. 64% when about would you know when that Grant would be coming through uh well you have to apply for it and then almost we've had very good luck with getting that because it's usually an expectation you know on some projects that you're going to get um so we have generally gotten um that reimbursement on most of the project uh what happens though is the town can't count on it so when it's financed my understanding is they finance the full amount just in case but generally we get those reimbursement prices so when the grant comes and the money goes back

123to the capital yeah and sometime it's all timing it all has to do with timing sometimes it it works out um whatever Lisa does for financing may be able to take that into account if the timing is right um or she may just you know she may reduce the amount of their bonding or whatever that's why there's always adjustment you know there tends to be adjustments over time with some of these things and it changes a little but what will not change is what you're requesting for this coming cycle unless you want it to so those items on there are what you're requesting for this coming cycle unless you want me to take something off um what's in the spreadsheet that piece could change based on where um you know where the town is financing

124is at okay so let's ask um any board members have any questions or comments about this we had a good conversation about an FFC so I'm good you're good everyone else good okay same then um okay well then we don't have a motion written on here will um first second read and then it's just a motion to accept a motion yeah we still have a motion to accept the capital budget items at the September 27th meeting um I'll make we take a mar I'll move to uh accept the capital budget changes up the September 20 27th meeting in to town second okay so any further questions okay um we'll go ahead and do a vot do you have any questions do you no okay because we're going to go ahead and go to the vote

125I I Griffin I Tony hi FL hi thank you Tony for the two thumbs up that's good um I as well therefore um this pass is if you could submit this to the town by actual that that would be greatly appreciated okay the buling so this uh these items now are L's meaning they action this is your second read um you kind of I won't restate everything that we said in the first read but basically it's an update of the bullying power policy we're updating it to the standard boiler plate of shipin and Goodwin um because there are very nuanced word changes in here sometimes parsing through every word change is difficult we just took the entire template the entire recommended model and just used it um one example of that would be that you

126know bullying instead of being defined as repeated ends up being defined as persistent pervasive and so you know these are some small word changes but they are throughout the document and so it's difficult sometimes to find them all so that's why we did it this way but this should update it to the latest model that should has okay any board members have any questions on this um not so much a question I just wanted to commend the policy committee on um updating this I think I I'd written to Tony um a while back and he had told me that it was on the list um so thank you um you know something as simple as as the word change that I was actually going to bring up but Dr will already did is is just

127so important um in bullying nowadays um that it doesn't need to be a repeative action necessarily for it to be um considered bullying pervasive is just a is a strong word for a um H I should have looked it up before I started speaking but but anyway I I'm happy that it it is uh we are now compliant and um great work thank you any other comments before I um entertain the motion which is around here the bottom any other comments no I will entertain the motion that's on here jar mooved to approve the changes and updated policy 5081 bullying prevention and intervention second okay any further questions no okay we'll do the roll call vote hi I I I Griffin I Tony I FL I I'm an i as well um so once again

128thank you very much for making these changes with the shipment a good one and this passes as is thank you all for that work retention of electric records so uh basically this this policy just takes us to um gives an update to the modern language of how electronic records are processed these days uh we have done a lot of work in this District to create more of an electronic record keeping working with the state um you know on uh on how to do that getting approval to be able to do you know do electronic records rather than a lot of paper records so a lot of progress has been made and it's all in accordance with what's allowed now and new language of the model policy so if you just take a look at it

129you know again it's one of those policies that it's more or less better just to take as a as a a whole copy over because there's so many little nuanced changes and how they talk about backups and digital images and things like that it's just better to take the whole thing so we did that um and uh you know we're making a lot of progress at the district saving know a lot of paper a lot of time for our people and this was in accordance with making those changes and moving the district forward technologically for record we have um any board members have any questions in regards to Ren electronic I just I appreciate the conversations that we had because they were very thorough and we answered a lot of our questions through the whole

130process start and I I think um we really and Tony thank you for leading the strong conversations I appreciate it because they're important coms I'll just add to that the um the frequently asked questions portion there's a link here um extremely helpful as well and so Dr will will obviously during our meeting answer the questions but it um all the resources that were provided for board members to sort of scour this uh were very helpful so again credit to the policy committee the job well done okay and I will um entertain the motion that's right here uh Jakari moved to appr the changes and updated policy 4142 retention of electronic records and information second okay any further discussion on this Cas none we'll vote go ahead Jaden uh start us hi hi hi Griffin hi

131Tony I FL I I'm I as well therefore this passes unanimously as well [Music] thank you very much let's go to the suspected abuse all right so in a similar similarly the 4100 policy update is uh in this case we were able to give you know some some highlights of the language changes because they're not quite as extensive um but again it's just really updating the language to what shipin and Goodwin now uses um I think for instance there's references here as I've described before to agencies that didn't exist you know or had changed names so a lot of these changes are updating to the current social agencies that handle these matters um and also when they make references to certain exceptionalities there's language updates with how now currently those exceptionalities are referred to so

132that's really what's going on with this update is um you know it's just taking shipment and good ones model again and updating it to the the current language of what's used for the agencies the exceptionalities um mandated reporter terminology and how you know timelines all of that so um it's pretty straightforward and it's definitely important for us to do okay any members have any questions and regard to this Poli a question about the wording of it um specifies the age range 18 to 60 I get 18 because it's for adults but why does it stop at I 16 I just took the language as is it's a good question I'll run the bases on it I don't know why it's I didn't know if that division with the autism spectrum like that's yeah yeah could

133it be related to you know um children with autism over 18 they usually have to um enter they they have a guardianship right for the rest rest of their lives it's not yeah like I get like over 18 because for adult but like I just don't understand like the cut off at 60 yeah you know it's funny because we're a school system and we don't have any students that are 60 I think that question ever came came off but it's a good question yeah and my only guess is that there is a different process for maybe someone there's a probably a different process for someone considered yeah so that that would probably be what's going on there but frankly that's spoiler PL I'll ask that's good question we've never we've never had any students over

13460s I thought it was more in like the way I read it was for like an adult who might be employed with the district with fedal needs you know but yeah I mean there you know I'm I'm fine with it I imagine if there is something that should be changed it wouldn't be that complicated to fix but I was just just curious like that well even our some some places do have within the spectrum of their districts students who are that age is you can have an adult student for instance I used to work for an adult ed program and certain towns have adult programs where you might have student with 60 you know or that might have a a disability we don't but we need a policy on it anyway just to have um

135we just don't have any students who follow that category so I I don't it's but it's an excellent question um I'll run I'll run the basis on that okay that okay any other other questions I see none um we can go ahead I will motion list motion to approve the changes in policy 4 100 report suspected AB used and of adults for an intellectual disability second once again any further discussion on this okay seeing none U we'll start off with Jen hi hi hi hi Griffin hi I FL I I'm I as well therefore this pass and the last one for the transgender policy okay um just okay so policy 5700 um and again chairperson H may want to make some comments on it too um as you recall this was put up as a

136first read in the last meeting uh some com you know some adjustments were suggested and uh those adjustments mostly were made with um a some some modification because we reached out to the attorney so for instance um you miss Griffin had offered some you know suggestions that were Incorporated but um when we ran it by the attorney the attorney felt that we needed to have in that statement that to the extent permitted by law so the district shall to the extent permitted by law include the parent our Guardians in the process so that is uh that is directly the result of um you know our attorney from ship and and goodwi you know reviewing it and saying okay well these are the proposed changes you make sure you have that in there um and so

137that's why that's there so you know there were thought shared I think and I think everything that was shared was incorporated ran by the attorney and then modified accordingly and that's how we got to be where we are right now um and the scri also suggested that we have the policy name in there which is a good suggestion we put that in um so there's there's a couple of places here where I think it's all been made more clear um and I think it's a at this point reflects with the board and the policy committee had put forward Faith um I don't know if Mr want to comment yeah I I absolutely do and thank you Dr Willet Madam chair you know I could say personally speaking that working on this policy has been an

138honor um I believe that this is something that is important is something critical and I don't if you've noticed the trend in the policies that we've talked about today but the the committee's focus has always been but particularly this term in ensuring a safe and comfortable environment for all of our students to to learn to grow and to become themselves when we decided Dr Willet and I to bring this to the committee and start discussing that that you know we sat down we talked to the the various groups the the lgbtqia plus Community the the paral rights Community the the students the the parents we we tried to listen to everybody and put together a policy that primarily protected our students gave them the opportunity to identify themselves and to grow and to learn but

139also looked at the the needs and the requests of everybody you know the other groups the the stakeholders that were included I think what came out uh through some absolutely amazing conversations in those committee meetings Sophia Dana Dr Willet thank you uh to all the parents that that communicated that that sent emails I know Jacob you mentioned a couple of them in the correspondence report I know personally I've received probably 30 or 40 you know that that came just to me thank you all for the input I think what you see in front of you is the absolute best amalgamation of all of those I think it it fulfills the need it articulates what talent is trying to be for all of our kids but also pays attention to you know the important distinctions uh

140and the roles that that parents play so uh I fully stand behind this and thank you all no thank you very much for your work on this um I do think it was crafted in such a way that it does include a lot of information but it's it's stuff that we have a foundation now you know to go through and and build on this because it's an Ever fluid situation of how and what happens at the state level in terms of what goes on so I think by having something I I like that so thank you very much for the work on that um Griffin thank you um I just had a couple questions so since the new kind of verbiage came out the other day um I've read it and reread it and honestly

141I think I'm a little more confused than I was before so we've had a lot of people email us talking about the law so I'm gonna ask you two questions Tony and then maybe you can do it that way um so my first question is is is there actually a law about parent notification because that definitely seems to be the biggest um concern that I'm hearing is between all the emails we've gotten is the parent notification and my second question is is our intent to say with this part of the privacy in this privacy section is it our intent to say that parents will be notified of their if their child tells a staff member that they want to change their gender identity because I think that's where I'm confused because I thought that's what

142we were saying but then it sounds like people did not think that was the case so I'm trying to I guess figure out what is our intent when it comes to parent notification and if our intent is to say that parents will be notified why are we not just stating that so those are my kind of my two questions and where I'm confused and just kind of trying to wrap my head around all of this thank you so let me let me touch on that then as always Dr Willet please jump in uh because we really you know we really looked at that that part of the the policy very clearly and you know going all the way back to when attorney Ritter came and gave her presentation to the board um we we went

143back and asked a couple of questions because the state Guidance the the state the laws that are in effect are are ambiguous there there's nothing at least from my perspective that came out that said do notify the parents or do not notify the parents uh if you recall as dror or not dror sorry as attorney Ritter had mentioned obviously in in the perfect world the intent is to include the family in as many of these conversations as absolutely possible uh what we're trying to do here is articulate what the intent is from The District's perspective that there are occasions when the school you know by the the Mand mandated reporter is required to notify authorities if they believe there is a risk to that child so there there are legal points where the school cannot

144just call the parent the school has to go through some of these these other avenues what we're trying to say here is is articulate what needed to happen that the district is going to do everything it legally can to communicate with the parent but if it runs into one of those cases I.E there's a a belief that there's harm risk of harm to the child then these are the things that the law requires them to do that that's why it comes across a little bit ambiguous in there is we're trying to say there are occasions when we can't and the law specifies those otherwise the district will do everything it can to include the parents in those conversations Dr will did you you want to add anything to that well it sounds like m g

145has a followup question okay okay so I guess my my question would be then can we say exactly what you just said can we say that parents will be notified if their child tells a staff member however there are situations where if there's a reasonable cause to believe that a child is at risk of harm etc etc I I feel like there's there's too much ambigu ambiguous wording in here and I don't and just based on what people were writing into us saying that they believe they interpreted this as I would just like it to be as clear as possible so there's not so many different views of what the policy is saying I guess that's kind of where I'm coming from I just would like it to be more clear and I guess I

146I mean I read recognize what you're saying uh but if we look at that area that's highlighted in what is that like a teal color the the bluish color there uh I think that does say exactly what you're saying there you know that the district sh again there's the to the extent permitted by law that Dr Willet mentioned earlier include the parents and Guardians in the process uh and then in situations jumping down in situations where there is a reasonable cause so there's the Clause that says when we won't but a think we do exactly what you're asking right there in that that color then I guess my next question would be can we elaborate what is this process you're referring to what is the process so if we're not specifically going to say that

147we're going to inform or notify [Music] parents if their child wants to identify as a different gender is the process where we're basically saying that's where we're going to notify people or that that do you know what I'm saying so the process is articulated in the guidelines that are required by the state of Connecticut um that we've covered in a series of meetings um but it is uh understandably uh hard sometimes to you know to to pull all these things together you know 5700 is a comprehensive document well done by the board to try to cover the bases um a policy can speak to things generally and then you have you know the implementation piece of it um we the guidelines for the staff that as I've said many times before are basically um you

148know restating of the state of Connecticut's requirements for us talk about some of the process and for us Title 9 coordinators are major major um you know players in that because they you know we're a smaller district and um you know they uh their role is to work with the family and to work with the child and make sure that the best outcome occurs so that the family is supported in the process and the child is supported in the process now the language we're given here is the language we were given by the attorney if we change this language we're going against the advisement of the attorney at this point so I realize you know some of it can be a little hard to parse but in that in those guidelines is how we reach

149out the families and it's generally through our title n people and it has to take into account all the circumstances around the situation including um if there's any reasonable cause to believe that a child would be hurt etc etc um so a policy also is uh written in a way that you know in the attorney suggests language that will cover you um no matter what happens in the state of Connecticut so in the state they are talking about providing new uh guidelines and requirements that will be the 2023 version of the 2017 documentation and so by saying that the district will to the extent permitted by law um you know adhere to those things that that gives this document some life and flexibility when and if the state releases new guidelines to specify something differently

150than the way they've done it now so I'm pretty sure that's why the attorneys put that in there was to make sure our district is protected um you know from a liability standpoint if not anything else you know that it's following the laws and following the requirements and when they do talk about law attorneys do get you know it does get a little interesting the um shipment and Goodman presentation that was given to the board I think on July 26th talked about how they also look to um you know case law like what's happening um and then they advise the district based on you know what the cases you know the resolution of those cases were because the office of civil rights will base some of its actions and decisions on uh you know some

151of the cases and what's happening so the attorney will advise the district based on uh you know what's what's been precedent setting or what is happening right now in civil rights um challenges and so I think that's also what's going on here too is just to make sure that it protects the board in that you're not saying that you know you're going to shall do something you know that isn't um something that the state of Connecticut or federal government permits well and just to something to add in there you know that my my confidence in not not saying anything against the the hardworking people that are working in the state level but my confidence that the 2023 guidelines are going to be released anytime in 2023 is low um so what we're trying to do

152here is at least within the ambiguity that that's that exists in the to Dr Will's Point cases that are working their way through various state legisl or state judicial branches uh on both sides to try to set a position that that again protects the student uh protects the family protects the district and creates that that welcoming uh compassionate environment that we're trying to do no I I totally understand that and I think as you said that's the the bottom line that's what we're trying to do I'm just still torn on this policy because I feel like and honestly it was just in the last two days when we got all those emails because I could I could see that everybody interpreted this completely different so that's kind of the problem that I'm having it's not

153that I agree or I disagree it's that the interpretation of this just based on what the eight emails we got I feel like do parents really understand what the notification will be so I'll shut up now let somebody else speak but that's just kind of where I'm coming from you know I I don't I like the policy I'm just having a hard time that it's obviously not clear or we wouldn't have had so many people coming with different thoughts about about it after they read it and just to just to add in there I I'm thrilled that we got as many emails as we did and like I said earlier I think I received 30 to 40 emails uh that came just to me and not through the board uh on both sides and not

154just on this specific section but on on all of them and to the point I think it was Madame chair made you know this is this is a foundation um I believe it is a really good step forward it's a really good first uh policy to have out there uh but as we're seeing even in this section that we have here we're referencing other policies you know that this while this policy is specific to the the transgender conversation it reaches out to the bullying policy it reaches out to the you know 6030 which is the existing uh parent teacher communication policy there's a discrimination policies that that already exist that this one reaches out and draws that web uh to all the policies are going so as we get it out there and as we

155get the regulation that'll be developed from this and then the state guidance and we see what the state starts to do you know personally speaking and I I I think I speak for for most of the policy committee we're we're not done with it we we'll go back we'll we'll revise it we'll adjust it if it didn't quite have the effect that we believe it should then we relook at it this is a work in progress as are all of the policies let's go to Jen and then Jaden um so I'm sorry I'm sorry to believer this I know that we talked F about this um but given that you know this is our second if not third meeting that we've had students speak I definitely want to make sure I clarify some things um

156and I think I think I understand U the question Christine is asking as well I think um because the law is kind of gray I think that's why people are interpreting it different and you know I'm a parent first and we're hearing from parents who understandably want to know what's going on with their children and we're also hearing from parents who want to respect their children um and the timeliness and the time and manner that they want to go about things so this is it's actually really hard for me um but maybe we could talk about just um if we can how how some things would look in real life so you know as some of the students expressed tonight they had the intention of bringing their parents in they just weren't ready to do

157that maybe on day one or day two or week one or week two you know I'm afraid that their interpretation is that if they tell a you know trusted adult in school that they would like to change you know their Identity or their pronoun or name from Jennifer to John so that's an immediate call home I'm hoping that what you can tell me is that as you bring in Title Nine and I would assume guidance and whatnot that and then you would talk that the students would be this would be discussed with the students first and perhaps there was a way that we could steer them towards you know having the discussion support them having the discussion in a manner in which they were prepared to have that discussion with their parents so that's that's

158my first question the reason why this is a hard thing to par for for us is because there is no such thing as one definable situation that is exactly you know a you know a prototype example so it really has to do with an interaction with the student in which if the student makes very clear that they want their records change they want this done ubiquitously throughout the school system they wanted in every period um and that you know and in you know um and and how the school is going to refer to them in every meeting that we have this the school system is required to do that and in order to fulfill that the school system will have to do Communications to other parties to execute it so for instance you know um

159that title 9 coordinator becomes activated and would then have to reach out to the team of teachers and say um this young individual now you know is identifying in this way and you'll need to be doing that in all of your classes we need to be you know we need to be doing that um when they're filling out you know their assignments you know that's what they'll be filling out their assignments in that name um and when you refer to them in class you were to refer to them by that name a conversation a loving conversation with that title 9 coordinator with that student would you know would have to have some part of listen because this is happening across all the classes and this is what you've wanted um you know that that is

160going to ultimately you know be something that your parent and guardian will will be aware of and you know in order to execute that and due diligence there'll be an Outreach to that parent and guardian um to do that so that's that's probably the best answer I can give you to that if somebody in a class says you know um you know I I has a request that does not have to do with an extensive change and is just sharing something with a you know with someone but doesn't intend on having this be implemented and isn't really sure themselves and you know it's unclear what the student is saying um that's that's not something that you know gets systemized like that because there's a spectrum of what a student shares so if a student shares

161you know hey I'm playing around like Wendy I like well you know I don't really know what I want right now um the teacher might say well what are you saying to me are you saying you would like to be referred to as Wendy you know are you are you saying you know I just need to be clear on what you're saying well I'm not sure you know it's just something I I'm kind of feeling out you know this is a nickname for me you know that's not a clear indication that the child is wants to be referred to by a gender identity different than what they're perceived physically to be so you know it really comes down to what his communicative to the school system if it's going to be a ubiquitous change expected

162to be applied across the board um you know that is the that is the responsibility of the school district to do so if it's an anecdotal statement that's unclear and we really don't know what the child is really you know saying overall then that isn't a systemic change that necessarily would have to be reported across the board because it's unclear what the student saying so you know this is one of those things that because of the way that that you know the state of Connecticut has provided its guidance and provided its requirements um and because every one of these situations you know has some variance to it it's impossible to answer that question without answering it you know this way because it would have to be you know what are they saying you know that

163doesn't necessarily mean they're saying they want to be referred to the different gender identity you know what is that student saying that's why we engage the title n people because they're they're trained they know how to have conversations you know and anyone who's uneasy with that you know teachers don't have to um you know basically what the teachers are required to do is report that up to the title 9 coordinator if there's a desire to have a change like that and that's where the title 9 coordinator gets involved and then you know there is Outreach Dr Willet said that I'm sorry Jen just one quick Dr Willet said that magic word there that that training you know and that along with the guidance that the state's passing down and the the various statutes and stuff

164that they're putting together there is copious amounts of training that that's going to come I know Dr Willet uh was working on getting some of that professional development put in place there's there's training for boards that will come down and how to deal with situations that are going to arise and how to to dance that that knife's edge uh between between the the rights and the protection of the children and protecting the the family's ability to to to guide their children so yeah thank you thank you Tony and thank you Dr will that was extremely helpful um I one more and it's similar in nature so sorry about that um so then in a situation where um you know a child expresses that they will be in harm and and I know we we have

165gone over this before but I just think it's important that we we clarify it again when they make a statement when when a when a child makes a statement my parents are going to kill me they're not necessarily meaning that their parents you know in in those situations they're going to kill them um you know involving DCF in a lot of situations is it's a big step you know and DCF being involved in this situation is a big step again I'm assuming that when a child makes a statement like this there are discussions or counseling around what does that child really mean by that is it an off-hand comment my mom's going to kill me or is it that they truly feel that they will be in physical or emotional harm before we make that

166reach out to DCI so in other words a flippant statement would would that necessarily be a catalyst to immediately involve DCF or are we going to be doing a little bit more due diligence there to make sure that the child actually feels that they're in harm Jen you bring up a a perfect you know because we we talked this specifically in in the last policy meeting and the the wording that was placed into this policy was chosen to mimic exactly what the administration the teachers everybody that that works in that school already has to do because they're they're mandated reporters we're we're saying here that regardless if it if it had nothing to do with gender identification if it was about that somebody preferred the color blue and they walked in and told their teacher

167my parent my dad's going to kill me because I like the color blue you know the teachers are trained the administration is trained to know when that is a I use the word legitimate when that is a real risk or when it is just a poor choice of words so what we wanted to do here was fall right in line with that and say you know what your training we're relying on your training we're relying on everything you already do to protect that student and saying that applies here as well yeah and the language used here is the language used in DCFS old terminology and it goes back to reasonable cost right so you know as an educator I'm M I'm a mandated reporter you know and it's it's beholden upon me to to kind

168of uh to make sure that there's any reasonable cause that that child could you know be her um that I report it and let DCF decide so you know if somebody's saying you know oh my gosh uh you know I didn't do my homework my dad's going to kill me you know that's different than someone breaking down crying saying I can't go home because I feel like I'm going to be killed by my father right now in one hand it seems like an offand comment about homework that we would all make you know you know my my my enter relative here will kill me if I get home late tonight you know things like that so we obviously understand you know in in language people do this in these conventions of language and we if

169we made a report on every Convention of language that you know anyone said my wife's going to kill me when I get home from this PPT you know we don't report those to the police as real feelings that this person's going to be killed right so it's it's common sense but if we have a reasonable cause to believe you know that that if there is a genuine painful expression that this child will be harmed we we have to do that and we don't we don't we're not really given the option of discretion on that we let DCF decide that that is what we're instructed to do to let them make that determination but offhand comments that you know are part of our vernacular that you know as you stated you know my D will kill

170me if I don't do my homework no no one would make a DCF for wrong something you not like that or at least that would not be what I would consider reasonable fost again thank you both for the clarification let's go to Jaden and then Jacob um very quickly I think Dr will you mentioned it and Tony I think you mentioned it as well I just wanted to Circle back to the presentation from um attorney RIT and her partner crime that night I apologize I forgot her name um but they did mention something about I'm sorry attorney B attorney B thank you um they did mention something about and again I think Tony mentioned this as well how it was expected that they would recircle cirle back around this topic in the state legislature I

171think in October something along those lines and so granted and Tony again I think you mentioned it I don't know if our expectations are that it'll stay in October um but the point here is that a lot of this seems to be just not final granted from our end but from the state end and so I feel like it's hard to make things so I guess concrete um um in in a couple different terms um but I I feel like this represents exactly what the state is expecting school districts to do as of September 27 2023 and so when that changes and when things are updated I assume Tony and the policy committee will go back and and take a look and and scour through it and see okay that word that means a little

172something different so we have to update the policy according am I accurate you're absolutely right Jaden that you know the the state is going to keep thinking about this and iterating it and trying to make it better for for years to come uh as attorney Ritter said right now it's ambiguous in October Lord willing November when the the guidance comes out if they've made it clear great if they haven't then then we just waited you know our our intent with the policy here was to put our best foot forward get the best we could right now get it on paper let the district start working with it and to the point you made incredibly clearly if the state comes out with changes we'll pull it right back into the committee and we'll we'll look at

173those changes and how it applies but but rather than run the risk of going on without something we we felt the time to pull the trigger was now perfect thank you um so first thanks Dr will uh for clarifying you know the training portion of it I was going to ask about that because this is significant you know policy particularly the Privacy part you know from my understanding most of the other sections here are spelled out in state or federal law or regulations but the Privacy part like like has been said is there's been some ambiguity there so I think it's very important to get um how that's going to be handled correctly very clearly put down so I'm happy to see that um as far as the actual wording goes you know I I

174definitely share um Christine's concern you know I don't if I were to write it I don't think I would write it exactly like this but that being said you know I think there's been a lot of consideration with what the attorney has said I think that there's been a lot of thought um I don't think that you know talking about this for another three months is going to make it better um so I I'm I'm fine support it as is okay any other further comments from anyone I just done um you know I want to reiterate the the portion in the blue it says the district shall to the extent permitted by law include the parents and our Guardians in the process to protect the welfare rights of our the transgender or gender non-conforming student

175in accordance TPS policy parent teacher communication so right there it says they'll be included based on the parent teacher communication I don't think we can add I mean it refers to that other policy what the guidelines is and what the actual path of communic will be um I don't think we want to add that into here because that just muddies up the policy and makes it about another policy uh I think referring to that policy definitely gives us clear direction or gives a clear guidance of what the process is uh J I appreciate your your questions because I think putting it in in layman's terms of an actual scenario of a situation is an eye opener for all of our folks because again seeing it from all sides of all aspects of it we have

176families you concerned about not being involved with decisions that their children are making and we have uh other folks you know we want to make sure that the the students young adults children feel comfortable to make bring the their concerns to somebody's attention to handle it accordingly so we have to make sure that we're making everybody comfortable in a respective situation um this is a very sensitive topic across the board as many of our policies we've discussed this evening have been um I definitely without taking the emotion out of it right these are the same steps we would take in any given situation when a student comes to the administration with something whatever it may be were the the the the administration is going to follow the appropriate steps and if the man as a

177mandatory reporter something needs to be pulled in we'll do that regardless of the topic at hand so I I don't think adding other other things um is going to make it more clear I think we're referencing existing policies we're referencing law we're referencing safety we're referencing security um we're referencing um the entire parties involved so um you know it's our job to make sure that we have that available for the public we get did get a lot of emails on all aspects and the emails seem to me as concerned um wanting to be more informed so I'm hoping that our thorough discussion this evening um and even responses to emails or conversations with Dr W or conversations with Tony regarding um what was discussed in the policy committee um and conversations with our attorney that

178gave us the proper guidance to ensure that we're not only committed but we are compliant um to ensure that we're handling all parties involved appropriately and giving everybody that support parents students staff so on so forth um so um I I I think that as Tony said or has everybody said that there are there is going to be more guidance do I feel strongly that it's going to happen in October probably not you know reiterate what you said um but we do need to give some sort of foundation um to to the folks at Tom public schools into the families into the administration of Tom public schools and I think that this document just does that again I I I thank everybody for for sending in their emails and I'm hoping that this clarified concerns

179because the goal is to always include as many folks as possible that are around this student students um and do the right thing for the safety security uh and for positive moving forward positively for our student and our staff so um again I just hope that this clarified some some questions because it it the emails did seem they were concerning and it's and misinformation can be um making people concern for different situations so I'm hoping that we clarify some Mis information if there was mis information given out there or understanding of how this read I think we dissected it quite thoroughly this evening and from very different points of view and so I'm appreciative of the conversation and I uh I I feel strongly that we can move forward with this in a positive and

180productive way and um do what's right for the int public school system okay um I would say that if there are no further um questions or comments on this then I will entertain the motion that's on below motion to approve policy 5700 transgender and gender non-conforming unit second okay any further conversation okay seeing none we will do a roll call vote so we'll start with i i I I Griffin I Tony I for I I'm the I as well therefore this passes um unanimously and once again I I do firmly believe that this is a great uh foundation for whatever changes may occur because I obviously we know that October is uh not going to really happen um thank you very much everyone um at this time let's move to the uh public participation um

181once again please list your name and address for the record and you'll be given uh two minutes on the clock and the comments just need to be related to the items on the agenda for tonight [Music] okay are you good okay uh Lisa hello Lisa de leis again 63 tall and green um I just wanted to come on again and speak a little bit about my experience as a parent in town and uh talk a little bit about how P flag tall in Mansfield was formed um my son came out when we were living in Mansfield about three years ago as transgender things didn't really change for us much when he came out um he did come out to his friends before he came out to me and I was happy that he he had

182his own timeline and he wasn't um you know nobody else told me about um his realizations and we were able to work through um everything that we needed to do but for me um when I needed answers when I needed support when I needed resources I went to P flag Hartford um when I moved to tand and I realized that um it was a very different environment and there weren't as many resources through human services and the schools um myself and two other parents um started this chapter this chapter is for the parents and families of talin and Mansfield we have a virtual meeting starting tomorrow online any parents are allowed to attend I run the meeting you can come ask questions people need to understand what it's like for these queer transgender non-binary gay

183and lesbian kids please come to the meeting you can register it's a safe space ask questions um we can talk about this policy you can talk about anything you want um and you know use the resources available to you in the town because I dedicate so much of my time to this effort and it's all volunteer work and I really want people to understand what these kids needs um thank you very much thank you Lisa um if there any further online viewers who would like to speak at this time please raise your hand okay seeing none um we'll close out the public participation and we can move on to points of information do any board members have anything that they would like to say at this time okay see no hands and no one in

184the room I will entertain a motion or adjournment motion second all in favor there we go Tony there's your thumbs up okay so we got Tony we got Griffin and we got for okay everyone have a great night um we're during at 9:45